[Fwd: P. Bakker re 3 factors tending against pidgins in N. America]

[Jeffrey Kopp]

On Fri, 18 Jun 1999 16:46:18 -0700, you wrote:

>Quite a bit, I'm afraid - at least on my side of the border (British
>Columbia).  I don't know enough about the social history of the Oregon
>Territory to know to what degree there was intermarriage between natives
>and whites there.  

Oh, I'm sure there was plenty, but certainly done quietly and in the
more isolated areas.  But for all Oregon's vaunted and carefully
framed image of tolerance for individuality, it is extended to
different races mostly by a kind of lip service, and modern Oregon
remains ethnically white-centered.  We do have a little ring of
multiracial diversity here in the urban center, but a kind of low,
easy-to-step-over fence remains, and for the most part Portlanders
wave cheerfully to their neighbors but refrain from fraternizing too
much across cultural lines.