"The Whitman Massacre of 1847"

[Lisa M Peppan]

On Wed, 17 Nov 1999 Mike Cleven <ironmtn at BIGFOOT.COM> writes:

>Especially since it was the main trading language in the British end of
the
>territory long before the Island Colony was founded in 1846.

Hmmm...

In "The Fort Langley Journals: 1827-30" by Morag MacLachlan, there is a
section entitled "The Ethnographic Significance of the Fort Langley
Journals" written by Wayne Suttles.  The 4th paragraph in says, and I
quote:

"Communication with the Natives must have been limited.  The Native
languages are all very difficult for Europeans to learn, and it is
unlikely that in the early years, if ever, any of the company people
became fluent in anything but a simplified version of them.  They must
have communicated with the Natives mainly if not wholly in Chinook
Jargon, the simple "trade laguage" that had developed on the lower
Columbia.  The journal does not mention the jargon and only once records
a jargon word (17 June 1830), but the jargon was no doubt known to most
or all of the party that arrived to establish Fort Langley in 1827.  The
party included several Native women from the Columbia DIstrict, who must
have communicated with their husbands and others in Chinook Jargon, and
two Native traders who had visited Fort George, where they must have used
it.  It was probably not known on the Fraser at the time but would have
soon spread among the Natives who regularly visited the fort.  There is
no evidence that any jargon based on a local language developed at Fort
Langley, as it surely would have without Chinook Jargon."

For what it's worth.

*clink**clink*

Lisa
IBSSG
Edmonds, WA
lisapeppan at juno.com                                         ICQ # 4894690
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