One byproduct of the Fraser River gold rush of 1858 was that Oregon gained even greater prominence in the minds of Californians, who found its inhabitants oddballs.

True to form, post-frontier Settler Chinook Jargon that fits into the genre of CJ invitations and challenges.

William “Willie” McCluskey (1862-1939) was a Swinomish Reservation (La Conner, Washington) man who wrote a number of fine Chinook Jargon letters in the post-frontier era.

From one of the great Canadian magazines, an impressively well reported account of the colonialist prohibition on potlatching.

Jargon as written German-style, in the Fraktur alphabet even!

A sub-type of the “invitations in Chinook genre”: challenges to sporting matches.

Our bulging file of Chinook Jargon invitations to pioneer-themed social events gets fatter today…

In a previous post, I reported that US President Teddy Roosevelt spoke Chinook.

Another Chinook Jargon artifact from Kittitas County that I’d like to find…

A British commander travels much of the Pacific Northwest coast in the interest of fur trading…