A deer drive with Spokane Indians

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I found a reminiscence of 1882 Camp Spokane (later Fort Spokane) that has local Indians talking Chinuk Wawa with soldiers.

Big Chicamin, BC, and how to translate Led Zeppelin

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Big man, big metal…

Whoa Haw, God Dam: How they talked Chinook in Idaho

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Those of you who are saying “That’s no surprise” are duly noted, but let’s read on…

The Human Side of the Indian

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Indians are people too! This had to be pointed out in 1906!

Whiskey Dick! How’d that name happen?

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Part of our Pacific Northwest language heritage is the names of places here.

Clah’s Chinook revisited

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With the help of some friends, I’d like to hark back to a reported Chinuk Wawa conversation.

The Indian History of the Modoc War

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Subtitled, thoughtfully, “And the Causes That Led to It”. 

I’m afraid this won’t be a very tame post…

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…because it’s happily snarled up.

Frontier Yarns

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I’m curious what my readers will think about the Chinook Jargon quoted here…

“Ancotty” as a loanword into regional English

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It can’t be a coincidence that post-frontier Pacific Northwest settler society, preoccupied with building up the mythic greatness of its earliest arrivals, borrowed Chinuk Wawa’s word for “old times” into English…