Gilmore, "This Isle of Guemes"

[David Robertson]

Gilmore, Helen Troy [really!].  1973.  This Isle of Guemes.  Caldwell, ID: 
Caxton.  

Page 55 reprints an early Anacortes, WA newspaper article dated October 20, 
1883.  The headline is INDIAN INJURED.  "A very aged Indian was brought 
from Guemes Island to Anacortes Friday with a fearful wound through his 
hand, caused by the discharge of a gun.  No one here could understand from 
his Chinook explanations how the accident happened."

Does this imply the man spoke Chinook poorly?  Could that be because he'd 
been too old to [want to] pick it up when it started being used in northern 
Puget Sound?  Could it have been because he was injured and upset?  

Or is "Chinook" being used the way "Siwash" sometimes was, to mean "Indian 
language" (maybe Samish or Lushootseed)?  

Page 58 begins a discussion of the local newspaper, "The Tilikum," 
published by Chas. Gant starting in April 1912.

--Dave R.

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