brief miscellany of "Columbia" magazine

[David Robertson]

Lhush pulakli!  Qhata mayka?

At our excellent Northwest Room, in the main branch of the Spokane Public
Library, I spent yesterday afternoon enjoying back issues of "Columbia", a
magazine of Pacific Northwest history.  There is much to interest members
of our list there, including several accounts of Spanish exploration,
mixed-bloods on the Cowlitz, Klondike history, treaty-making, and so on.
I have selected three small samples to pass on to you, in hopes that
you'll be interested in looking at this good magazine in your local
libraries.

--In the Winter 1996-97 issue is an article on indigenous trade networks,
and on page 7 is a nice map of these networks before contact with
non-Indians.  This helps to understand the patterns of intertribal
contacts that shaped the cultural history of the area, playing a great
role in the growth of the Chinook Jargon.  The map seems especially
interesting to me because it names the ethnic groups involved, rather than
paths of trading of particular goods, as other maps have done.  Thus we
can see that the Chinook villages traded overland with (the Salish of)
Hood Canal and Puget Sound, as well as with the Makah and Nootkans.

--The Summer 1995 issue has Robert E. Steiner's article "Shipwreck and
Promises" starting on page 41, which discusses the first Quileute contact
with non-Indians, apparently about 1854 (!).  To quote, "none of the
passengers or crew" of the ship which wrecked near present-day La Push
"understood the native language, and the Quileutes spoke no English.
Communication could have become a major problem but for the fact that one
of the Indians, a man called Hauwiyal, and a few of the survivors were
able to converse in the Chinook trade jargon."  Note that this may be the
same man "Howeattle" who wrote a letter in Chinook Jargon which is
discussed in Barbara Harris' intriguing paper "Klahowiam Mr Smis".

--Page 40 of the Fall 1991 issue has the article "Treaty or Non-Treaty
Status" by Daniel L. Boxberger and Herber C. Taylor, Jr., dealing with the
population dynamics of lower Columbia, Cowlitz, and Shoalwater Bay tribes
in the decades just before and after contact with non-Indians.  Do you
know the important historical term "cole sick - waum sick"?  Did you know
that the Clatsop around Seaside, Oregon, were apparently mostly
French-speaking by 1851?

Best wishes,
Dave



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