What was the range of Chinook Jargon?

At 08:29 PM 7/24/98 -0300, Randy McDonald wrote:
>At 07:01 PM 7/23/98 -0700, Mike Cleven wrote:
>>[deletia]
>>I'm
>>not sure whether it lasted longer as a "common tongue" on the US side =
or
>>the British/Canadian side; there was much more non-native influx into =
the
>>American Northwest at an earlier date than there was in BC, but on the
>>other hand most of the Jargon publications and continuing activity and
>>awareness of the Jargon seems to be on the US side.
>[deletia]
>>... it survived in the hinterland a lot longer than it did in the city,
>>where the newcomers viewed it with disdain (one reason why the old-time
>>families spoke it at home).  Earlier on, it was a given that residents =
of
>>Gastown or any of the other small communities of the colony/province, =
or of
>>either of the capitals (Victoria or New West) would speak Jargon to =
each
>>other, even though they might both have the same native tongue (Gastown=
 and
>>other lumber and mining camps were notoriously polyglot).
>
>It's unfortunate that the Chinook Jargon didn't manage to successfully
>"creolize", that is, to become a high-prestige language, composed -- as
>Chinook Jargon was -- of elements from numerous different, often widely
>variant languages. Doubtless, there were few attempts to establish
>Chinook Jargon as anythign more than an ephemeral proto-creole(?) on
>either side of the border.

I think you underestimate the role of the Jargon and the extent to which =
it
was used; it certainly was something more than an "ephemeral =
proto-creole"
and passed muster as a daily language for generations of natives and
settlers alike (especially the former).  It didn't get any of the
class-distinction that New Orleans creole did, but it was indeed a =
hallmark
of long-time settler families as alluded to in my previous item.  I think
it would have flourished as a regional creole if it weren't for the
attitudes embodied by the anti-native laws of the 1920s, which were
accompanied by a rejection of white-native contacts and relationships; by
the time attitudes began to swing back the other way two generations =
later,
most of the whites who had spoken the Jargon regularly had forgotten it
through disuse, and by then natives associated it with their own people =
and
did not try to use it with even whites of their own (older) generation. =
The
native renewal movement in the decades since has focussed on the =
pre-Jargon
tribal languages, with the Jargon being given (IMHO) short-shrift by
nativel linguists and activists.  I _hope_ this is changing - but in my
phone calls to various band offices in the region I've more often drawn a
blank concerning the Jargon than gotten any kind of response; although =
all
the linguistics and cultural officers I've spoken to have been very
interested and helpful.

>>The only surviving _group_ that we are aware of who continue to use =
Jargon
>>are indeed natives, i.e. the Grande Ronde community in Washington, and
>>there are only a few scattered speakers of it remaining in other =
regions.
>
>Is the Grande Ronge community home to a stable Chinook Jargon speech
>community, a community where Chinook Jargon is the everyday language, or
>is Chinook Jargon in retreat everywhere in its former range?

According to Tony (who may be preoccupied with reservation business, as I
don't recall seeing any items from him for the last week or two), the
Jargon is used in Grande Ronde on a daily basis, and in its form there is
much more enriched in vocabulary and syntax than the more pidgin-style
usage of historic Jargon sources and other regions.  It has especial
relevance there because the Grande Ronde Reservation is not a mono-tribal
community, but is composed of people from several different
linguistic-cultural heritages; the Grande Ronde Wawa has provided a focus
and unity for them......

I _hope_ what we're all doing means that the Jargon is on the advance,
rather than continuing to retreat.......

Mike C.