Just to bring alive for you one of the uses we talk about the Jargon having–a “token of pioneer identity”, a “badge of Northwesternness”–I give you the following correspondence, nine letters that were… Continue reading
From the Steilacoom (Washington Territory) Puget Sound Herald, Friday, October 14, 1859, front page I reckon. This one’s what was in early 1960s pop music called an “answer song” 🙂 (If you don’t… Continue reading
This blog post is fondly dedicated to the memory of M. Dale Kinkade. Hull, Lindley M. 1929. A history of central Washington: Including the famous Wenatchee, Entiat, Chelan and the Columbia Valleys/ With… Continue reading
Newspapers have a custom of printing stories from sources far away. In the 21st century, that’s because they get so much from online sources. In the 20th, it was wire services like AP… Continue reading
The Jargon was being reminisced about already in 1904! The Morning Oregonian (Portland, Or.), Thursday, June 21, 1904, page 12, columns 3-4 has this report of a typical pioneers’ get-together of the time, at… Continue reading
Looking through an antiquarian bookseller’s website, I spied a neat-sounding book that was new to me. They wanted a shocking price, but Google Books had it as a free ebook 🙂 Turns out… Continue reading
To paraphrase Daniel Johnston, have you been to Metaline? If you had visited that mining camp on the BC border in Washington’s first year of statehood, you might have found Chinook Jargon useful.… Continue reading
Reader Sharon Seal has contributed more great Chinook Jargon material to share with you all. These are newspaper articles from Kittitas County, WA. (Non-Washingtonians: it’s pronounced KITT-ih-tass.) 1) “Big John Kitsap, Kittitas Indian,… Continue reading
[Final installment. See previous episodes for more info on this fascinating pioneer memoir…life in the Okanogan Highlands of Washington State, 1880s-1930s. Most of what I’ve excerpted in this blog happened in the last… Continue reading
