Ma-iskEm ukuk,pus ma-nanich "Las-kEmtEks kanawi-Ikta"Las-buk! -Reply

[Tony Johnson]

Kanawi-Laksta,

>>> Henry Kammler  <henry.kammler at STADT-FRANKFURT.DE> 02/09/99 08:57am
>>>
> George Fuller wrote "A history of the Northwest (with special emphasis
on
> the Inland Empire".  It was published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York,
1966.

> >From page 40:  "The [Old Chinook] language was utterly impossible to
the
> whites, and by 1850 the young Chinooks were discarding it for Chehalis
and
> the jargon."  Assuming this were true, how would the shift to a couple
of
> lowere-status languages have been motivated?

1) I can't imagine Chehalis being easier to learn (especially when
you're a
Chinook) than Chinook proper. Easier for who, after all? Probably at
that time
there were a lot of bilingual homes and the offspring may indeed have
shifted
to other languages (where the Chehalis more populous at that time than
the
Chinook proper?) - by being socialized in one of the other languages
however
and not by "discarding" Chinook at a certain point in their lifespan.


My families history is Chinook, however, we are part upper Chehalis
(Satsop) also.  Therefore, perhaps I can shed a little light on this
subject.  We are taught that no surrounding peoples ever learned to
speak Chinook.  They like the non-Indians after them believed it was to
difficult.  This is backed up by statements from non-Chinookan people up
and down the Columbia river.  I have heard it from neighboring Salish in
my country and from Sahaptian speakers who border Wasco and Wishxam.
Because of this many Chinook were multilingual in the languages that
surrounded us.  This also is a good cause for the development of
Chinuk-wawa.

Anyway my father's great-grandmother was a native 'Kathlamet' speaker
who also spoke Chehalis (Her mother was Satop) and Chinuk-wawa.  She was
raised on the Columbia river and later moved with her daughter to
Willapa bay.  Her daughter was a semi-fluent Kathlamet speaker who spoke
Lower Chehalis and Chinuk-wawa.  Her children including my grandfather
spoke Chinuk-wawa and were able to understand Lower Chehalis.  They had
varying proficiency in these two languages.  However, their knowledge of
Lower Chinook/Kathlamet was virtually forgotten.  Despite this our
family considers itself Chinook.

This shift occured because when pressures from non-Indians increased on
the Lower Columbia river our people moved north to Willapa bay .  Many
of us were related to the Willapa band of Chinook there and in fact my
family often wintered there.  When we moved to the bay, more or less
permanently, it had been heavily depopulated by disease.  Becasue of
this, the Chehalis who had never been permanent residents of Willapa bay
moved South into this territory also.  By the time that linguists began
serious work in the area they mapped Chehalis as being the Native
language of the Upper section of Willapa Bay.  In fact this is
incorrect.  Lower Chehalis speakers acknowledged that the language was
new to Willapa bay.  Because of our two groups living together, and the
acknowledged dfficulty of Chinookan languages,  both Chehalis and
Chinuk-wawa became the common languages, and the speakers of old Chinook
simply quit using it.  Despite this, as I stated above these people
still consider(ed) themselves to be ethnically Chinook.  Forgive this
convoluted paragraph I'm writing quickly.

Charles Cultee informant of Franz Boas was a Chinookan speaker, but used
Chehalis in the home with his wife.  I believe that everyone he spoke
Chinook with in later years including my great-great-grandmother (Mrs.
Wilson in Boas' Kathlamet Texts) also had some proficiency in Chehalis.

I should also note that a Lower Chehalis and Chinuk-wawa mix was
commonly spoken by some of the families on Willapa bay as the "Indian"
language.


2) Is there any evidence of persons acquiring CJ as their first language
at
that time, as the above remark implies? Regarding lower status: at least
CJ
served as a means to acquire prestige goods, either from whites or from
other
First Nations.

Henry

Chinuk-wawa was the first language of many individuals at this time
around the communities of Fort Vancouver and French Prairie.  I'm sure
that many communities on the lower Columbia and Willapa bay with a
similar ethnic makeup also had speakers of it as at least a co-first
language.  I believe my family falls into that category.  My
great-great-grandmothers step father was a Hudson's bay Indian and
surely her parents "common"  language was Chinuk-wawa.  Despite this she
was fluent in Kathlamet Chinook also.

I should stop, this is getting more and more confusing.

I'm ignoring the lower status concept.

LaXayEm--Tony

Did I manage to muddy the waters?