John Roger James' reminiscences in "Told by the Pioneers": An 1850 pioneer, on CJ's currency (from volume 2)

[David Robertson]

Lhush chxi pulakli, khanawi lhaksta!

p. 87-88:  "The Chinook Jargon is entitled to space in the reminiscences
of 'Ye Olden Times'.

	"John Welch, the son of Dr. Welch, of Clackamas, Oregon, where
Father rented the farm, gave us our first lessons in Chinook the winter of
1851-52.  Brother Tom and I had lost our ponies, the ponies we got while
crossing the plains.  One a roan and one of bright bay.  I used to think
so much of the bay pony.  I claimed it as mine.  His back was so warm and
soft to my tired legs when I had been trudging along after the wagons,
trying to keep the lame ox or wandering cow from straying too far off the
trail.  I became quite attached to the ponies.  When they strayed off
while we were camped and living in Milwaukie [Oregon], I learned to
inquire of every Indian I would meet, 'Mica [n]anich cewtant?'  (Did you
see my horse?)  From one phrase to another, we had been in the country
hardly over a year before we could converse quite freely with the Indians
of any of the tribes of the Coast.  It has always been a great advantage
to be able to talk in the Chinook language, as it would have been quite a
difficult matter to have acquired the original Indian language.  The
languages of the Indians changed within a short distance, so that it would
have been difficult for one who might have learned to speak the dialect of
the Chehalis Indians to understand inhabitants of Hood's Canal at all.  As
it was, with the intermediary language, the Chinook, with a vocabulary of
two or three hundred words, we could converse, trade and traffic with the
Indians from California to British Columbia and Alaska, without any
inconvenience.  There was no racking of the brains to acquire proper
grammatical expressions; at the same time, a proficient would pride
himself on knowing when to use 'Claxto' (who), instead of 'Icta' (what or
that).

	"It has always seemed to me that a simple language of a few words
like the Chinook, would be a great benefit to people of all countries in
these present times of such great facilities for travel and intercourse
and mingling of the peoples of all nations on the face of the earth.
Supposing my soldier boy, Bert, when returning from the Philippines, when
taking an outing in a jinrickshaw with a comrade in Yokohama, wanted the
man to take them to a drug store to get some medicine, could have said to
the 'rickshaw man, 'lemochine,' and at the same time placed his fingers to
his mouth and along down his throat and strained his neck like one
swallowing pills, the 'rickshaw man would have understood at once.  As it
was, he ran them into eating places and other resorts, until they met a
foreign resident who inquired what was wanted and directed the 'rickshaw
man to a drug store.  'Cumtux,' (understand), 'tickey mucka muck', (I want
something to eat).  'Ca mika clatawa?' (Where are you going)? 'Icta mika
tickey' (What do you want?) 'Clahoua, six?' (How do you do, sir.)  These
were as common phrases used among the old settlers as between the settlers
and the Indians.  We just picked up the language without very much effort,
like a boy learning to eat peanuts.  I used to be called upon to explain
and interpret the Sunday School lessons to the Indians.  While staying in
Victoria the winter of 1870-71, the Indians said "I mika clauck nesika
calon," (You opened our ears.)  So it was possible to do much good with
the poor little language."

Dave


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