Another, and quite little-known, frontier-era Oblate missionary in BC who used Chinook: Father Denis (‘Dionysius’) Lamure OMI.

I continue researching “that other pidgin” of our region (West Coast-style Chinese Pidgin English), and this find was kind of colorful…

Reader challenge: There’s a frontier-era Chinuk Wawa vocabulary that I’ve never laid eyes on, nor heard about till recently…

In the early post-frontier period, Chinuk Wawa continued as an important tool for contact between the Indigenous people of the Victoria area and the increasing population of Settlers.

Chinuk Wawa was indeed current in southwest Oregon and northwest California in early frontier times; here’s more evidence.

John Keast Lord was a talented, fun-loving English naturalist & veterinarian on the US-British Boundary Commission that set limits between my greedy American ancestors and my defenceless Canadian ancestors 🙂

Lovely fragments of good Chinuk Wawa from Vancouver Island Salish people:

A 1914 publicity stunt by Seattle civic boosters was “the Star-Smith-Tilikum wedding”…