"Siwash" in Ninilchik (Alaska) Russian!

[David D Robertson]

"siwash: a very derogatory Alaskan word for a person with Native blood, 
     especially if they were more than half Native.  This word illustrates 
     the prejudice which people, including Russian creoles (people of Russian 
     and Native blood) of lighter skin, held toward those of Native origin.  
     Sometimes angry young men in Ninilchik would call each other siwashes.  
     Alaskan census records list some members of Athabaskan Indian families 
     in the Copper River area as having the last name of Siwash, and it 
     appears that some even listed their tribal affiliation as "Siwash".  So 
     it may be that the word "siwash" was actually at one time a respectable 
     word of Athabaskan origin, but was abused to such an extent that it came 
     to become a derogatory term for any Alaskan Native person."

from http://www.geocities.com/agrafenas_children/words.htm

--Dave R

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