ChInuk Lu7lu 2000: Chinook Gathering at Grand Ronde August 25-27

[TuktiWawa at NETSCAPE.NET]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE    FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
KILL DATE: 8/31/2000       JIM HOLTON
         510-483-3556 (Night)
        OR DAVE ROBERTSON
         509-835-5764



GROUP SAVING NORTHWEST LANGUAGE FROM EXTINCTION HOLDS THE THIRD ANNUAL
CHINOOK JARGON WORKSHOP

(GRAND RONDE, OR - July 29, 2000)  The Third Annual Chinuk Wawa Lu'lu
(Chinook Jargon Workshop) will be held at Grand Ronde, Oregon from
August 25 to 27.     Chinook Jargon, or Chinuk Wawa as it speakers refer
to it, was commonly spoken in the Pacific Northwest from northern
California to southern Alaska.  As a Native American lingua franca, it
was used among the various ethnic groups during the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries.  The Workshop consists of language classes,
discussion groups and presentations in hopes of reviving Chinook Jargon
usage in the Pacific Northwest. The goal of the group is to increase
people's knowledge of Chinook Jargon.
For Tony Johnson preserving Chinuk Wawa is more than just a job.
Johnson, the Language Specialist for the Confederated Tribes of Grand
Ronde, Oregon, and a Chinook tribal member, is teaching his son, Sam, to
speak the old language.  Johnson and his wife work to use Chinuk Wawa
whenever possible.  “Sam goes to sleep with lullabies and wakes up with
greetings all in Chinuk Wawa,” says Johnson.   Johnson, coming from a
family of educators, continues, "Besides, our family, I also teach
Chinuk Wawa classes to a group of adults at night (for University of
Oregon credit), preschool and Before and After School program students
during the day and we are compiling a dictionary in between."  He does
this in addition to his other duties at the tribal office.  Johnson will
be one of the instructors at the workshop.
Johnson will share teaching duties with Henry Zenk, an anthropologist
who has been studying Chinook Jargon for the last 20 years.  Zenk, a
world's leading authority on the language, wrote his doctoral thesis on
how Chinook Jargon was used at Grand Ronde during the period 1856 - 1907
and has since published a number of articles on the language.  Zenk and
Johnson are working together on a dictionary.
Chinook Jargon is based on the speech of the Chinook people whose
homeland is along the lower Columbia River.  It has elements of English
and French, as well as, other Native American languages.  During the
1800s, the Northwest was an area where over 100 different languages were
spoken.  The various groups, Native Americans, fur traders and settlers
needed to communicate with each other so they adopted the Chinook
Jargon.  The language expanded during the early 1800s and became the
primary language of some communities during the later half of that
century.  Today people still use Chinook Jargon when they refer to many
places in the Northwest, but most people don't know they are using it.
Alki Beach, Skookumchuck River, Tumwater, PilChuck River and Olallie
Park, all owe their names to Chinook Jargon.  The expression high
muckamuck or big muckamuck, when referring to a "big shot," cheechako,
the Alaskan expression for a "newcomer," and the name of the Hi-yu
Festival, held each year in Seattle, are also derived from the language.

 Jeffrey Kopp, descendant of people who arrived in Oregon in the 1860s,
maintains a Web site on Chinook Jargon.  Kopp became aware of Chinook
Jargon, not in his native Portland, but during a stay in Seattle.  Kopp
says, "Many of my Seattle friends used Chinook Jargon words, such as
klahani for 'outside' and kluchmen for 'wife,' as slang."  Kopp's
website is at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/6460/jargintr.htm.
Workshop details are available on the Web
(www.adisoft-inc.com/chinook.html) or by contacting Jim Holton
(510-483-3556) or Dave Robertson (509-835-5764).

###

Note to Editor: Interviews available from Tony Johnson (503-879-2084,
Day/503-843-4356, Night) and Henry Zenk (503-235-5320). E-mail: Jim
Holton (jim at adisoft-inc.com)




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