1857, Olympia, WA: Kultiss Skookum!
From the earliest days of journalism in muddy Washington Territory, folks were slinging Chinook Jargon at each other.
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$ “Pʰey” and “peyei” in British Columbia $
In Northern-dialect Chinook Jargon, you can find 2 nearly identical words meaning ‘pay (for)’…
Culture lessons: Things Chinuk Wawa doesn’t do (Part 10: Synonyms)
There are very few synonyms in Chinook Jargon.
1889, Wash. Terr.: On the naming of the new state
Among the many ideas for what to name Washington Territory when it became a state later in 1889 was a facetious suggestion of “Siwash”!
More evidence of Métis French in BC? “Ember Days”
Readers of the old Chinook Jargon newspaper, “Kamloops Wawa” often saw the word likatrta in the calendar section.
Boas 1892: Many discoveries in a short article (Part 18: ‘robin’ redbreast)
This common bird was a new discovery in 1892!
1875, “Tacoma Reservation”, WA: Letter from an Indian boy
Literacy was still new and rare among Native people of this area in 1875…
Proof that “sit down” is pidginized in Northern Chinook Jargon
An extremely frequent word in the Northern Dialect of Chinook Jargon is from English “sit down”…
Ikta Dale McCreery yaka t’ɬap (Part 8: I’m not dead yeeeeeeeeeeeeeet)
Our BC friend Dale McCreery has shared quite a few of his personal encounters with Chinuk Wawa in the last several years.
1835: Kanakas, too, called Americans “Boston”
I’ve previously shown you that Americans were called Boston by Indigenous people of the Northwest Coast, and by French-Canadians.