Rev. Elkanah Walker's diary, 9/24/1838 among the "Ponderays"

[David Robertson]

LhaXayEm,

The vault in the Northwest Room of the main branch of Spokane Public
Libraries contains a tyed transcription of the Rev. Elkanah Walker's
diaries, and those of his wife Mary.  They worked mostly among the
Spokanes, part of the time with members of the Eells family, and the
following from typescript page 140 comes in the entry for September 24th,
1838 written by the Rev.:

	"Having all things ready, I gave the word hieleap (?) telling Big
Head to lead the way, and we followed driving the mules."

Elsewhere in entries for preceding days, Walker mentions single words of
Salish that he understood:  hist /Xist/ for "good", onar /7une'xw/ for
"yes/true", and expresses optimism about the ease with which he hopes to
learn the language.  But in following times, even at Colvile with a
friendly and patient "halfbreed" tutor, he voices enduring despair at
becoming able to use Salish without putting all his energy into it.  These
and the fact that he worked with "Brother Eells" who of all the indigenous
languages learned only ChInuk Wawa make me think it sensible to see
"hieleap" above as the CJ word /ilEp/ "front; forward; before".

The narrative above is set at the "Flat Head River" among the Pend
d'Oreille ("Ponderay") Indians, very close relatives of the Spokanes.

Ikta mEsayka tEmtEm?
Dave


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