Alaskan Skookum (was Re: "Speak Alaskan" website, including some Chinook Jargon

[Mike Cleven]

David Robertson of Chinook wrote:
>
> Klahowya,
>
> Here is a link to "Speak Alaskan":
> <http://www.akseaplanes.com/speak/speak_c/htm>.  You will find some items
> from and relating to Chinook Jargon in this vocabulary!

Slight correction of that link:
<http://www.akseaplanes.com/speak/speak_c.htm> or you'll get a "file not
found" (final slash replaced by dot)

gleaned from the above listing: a new definition of skookum I haven't
seen before; plus a cultural comment that's more than appropriate:

Skookum-Pretty darned smart. The word comes from Chinook, the jargon
spoken along the coast in the 1800's by Natives and
    traders who did not speak the same language and did not care to
learn each other's.