Tag Archive: pidgin english

“Fish house” in Heiltsuk tells us how they talked about canneries in Chinook

In the Practical Heiltsuk-English Dictionary by John Rath, there’s this word: bisaús for a cannery.  There have certainly been canneries in that area (Bella Bella, BC). But I have some acquaintance with the… Continue reading

Caroline Leighton, Life at Puget Sound

“Life at Puget Sound: With Sketches of Travel in Washington Territory, British Columbia, Oregon, and California, 1865-1881″ Boston: Lee and Shepard / New York: Charles T. Dillingham, 1884 The title and subtitle tell you… Continue reading

Opening the remaining half of the Colville Reservation to settlement, 1906

The context of the book I’m blogging about today is that in 1906 there was a plan to throw open the remaining, southern, half of the Colville Indian Reservation in north-central Washington state… Continue reading

A history of central Washington that relies on, but ignores, a Salish chief

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

Shit’s Chinook, chittim ain’t

I keep noticing odd-smelling claims around the Internet that “chittim” is a word from Chinook Jargon.  I haven’t found proof.  I think it ain’t. Chittim (or chittem or chittam) is said to be… Continue reading

Cruisings in the Cascades

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

From Copenhagen to Okanogan, part 4

[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

Alfred Downing, “I Signal an Indian from Opposite Shore”

The superbly readable naturalist-historian Jack Nisbet of Spokane has a column “Boundaries” in the free North Columbia Monthly, out of Colville.  Thanks to Jack for this find… His current (April 2012) column is… Continue reading