Henry's followup: Early linguists using CJ w/nativepeople?(fwd)

[Henry Zenk]

Hi Jim and all,

Those are two very interesting sources on the early CJ-using Catholic
missionaries you came up with.  I shouldn't let the first pass without a
small correction, however.  The sister may have sincerely thought that
Demers and Blanchet were Jesuits, but they weren't.  They were diocesan
priests, i.e., not identified with any order.  As I understand it, their
home diocese would have been the place they were ordained--Quebec or
Montreal, I don't know (they left from Montreal to come here, but I don't
know where they originally started).  They came out to Oregon as
missionaries.  Demers was the more involved in Indian missionary work,
and travelled a good deal around the north contacting new prospects (Lisa
had a note awhile back on his early arrival on the lower Fraser).  He was
consecrated bishop of Vancouver Island (which at that time included all of
BC and beyond to the Arctic Ocean) in 1846, but didn't take up
permanent residence in Victoria until 1852.

My main source and contact for what (little) I know about the early
Catholic missionaries is Father Wilfred Schoenberg, a Jesuit and formerly
chief archivist at Gonzaga.  He now lives in retirement in the Jesuit
House in Portland.  Henry

>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2000 10:53:11 -0800
> From: Jim Holton <jim at adisoft-inc.com>
> To: David Robertson <drobert at TINCAN.TINCAN.ORG>
> Subject: Re: Henry's followup:  Early linguists using CJ w/nativepeople?(fwd)
>
> >
> > > Was Pe're Blanchet part of that diocese, not one of the Oblates?  Don't
> > > know the history so exactly.  I'd tried contacting the Oblates about any
> > > Jargon-era records and whatnot a couple of times; the one response I got
> > > was from a fairly friendly and somewhat interested priest in Alaska who
> > > referred me to the Mother House back East; no answer.
> >
> >  Nor do I know the history so exactly, just that Blanchet and Demers
> > arrived together at Ft. Vancouver in 1839 as missionaries, and both ended
> > up as bishops--Blanchet in Portland, Demers in Victoria.  Demers was known
> > for his CJ fluency, and of the two was more involved with
> > Indians.......
>
> According to a book, _Willamette Interlude_ by Sister Mary Dominica, 1959, Demers and Blanchet
> were Jesuits.  This book is an "unofficial" Catholic history of the Oregon mission through the
> eyes of a nun.  It looks like Demers got right into his work the moment he landed.  Demers was
> the son of a middle-class French family of St. Nicholas, Quebec and was ordained (munk laplEt)
> in Quebec 14 months prior to his arrival in Oregon.   After his ordination he first went to the
> Red River Diocese and then went out to Oregon with Blanchet.  He was 29 at the time. Blanchet
> was likewise from Quebec and was somewhat famous for time he spent with the Micmic and work he
> did during a cholera epidemic in 1832.  The book chronicles the nuns experiance.  The nuns at
> the mission were Belgian from a group called the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.  Anyhow, prior
> to their departure to the Oregon mission, they were each given a little book already written
> (printed) by Demers on Chinook Jargon (1842).  During their voyage to Portland they had lessons
> in both Chinook Jargon and English.  Here's one quote:
>
> "On the deck that Christmas Eve,  she recalled her first amazement at the sight of the words in
> the little Chinook handbook that Father DeSmet had sent each volunteer.  And here she was,
> months later, still trying to master those dreadful words.  How slowly everything was moving!"
>
> Jumping ahead, I also have an article written by Rena V. Grant called "Alphonse Pinart and the
> Chinook Jargon (California Folklore Quarterly, 1951) which contains a wordlist  which Grant
> attributes, at least in part, to Demers' earlier work.  Pinart calls this piece _Dictionnaire
> du Jargon Tchinouk - 1849_.  Since Pinart wasn't born himself until a couple of years later,
> the 1849 probably (my opinion) refers to the date of the work he used as his basis.  Grant
> remarks in her article that the Pinart's spellings are somewhat different than Blanchet's 1853
> rendition of Demers and St. Onge's 1871 rendition.  She actually classifies the later two as
> being English orthography while saying that the Pinart one has the French orthography.  I
> mention this because I've heard in several places that Demers/St. Onge is French orthography
> (definitely looks like at least a French influence on my copy).
>
> Anyhow, I thought this "early Demers" stuff might be interesting.
>
> LaXayEm, Jim
>
>
> > .
>