John Minto IV (1822-1915), English-born Oregon immigrant of 1844 who went on to an illustrious political career, claimed only a rusty grasp of “the Chinook wa-wa” — and that’s why he’s a reliable… Continue reading
From the eponymous “Wazzu” yearbook.
“Classic Chinook” being one of settler society’s stock jokes, equating the Jargon with the respect that the broader culture accorded to ancient languages like Latin and Greek…
Research on other Pacific Northwest languages quite often yields Chinuk Wawa treasure.
The name Stó:lō for the lower Fraser River Salish people of British Columbia is quite possibly a Chinook Jargon word.
Chinuk Wawa has prepositions — why?
Louis Slumach (Slum.ook, Slumah, Sumah) of Katzie First Nation, a Sto:lo band in British Columbia, is at the centre of another Chinuk Wawa-related urban legend.
Here’s an early reservation-era document of a diplomatic visit by Warm Springs and/or Umatilla Indians to Oregon’s governor, showing how they parried each other with this language.
I’m not going to reproduce this entire gruesome article, just the Chinuk Wawa-related sections.
The above drawing by Heywood Walter Seton-Karr (1859-1938) as a member of the New York Times Alaska Expedition is the only substantial piece of Chinuk Wawa in his memoir…
