Skokum Hiyo and Kloshe Nanitch

[Mike Cleven]

Another tidbit of late; we stopped in at the Siska Band's museum during
Lisa's trip up here (with very nice soapstone carvings in an original
local style that just came back from exhibit in Ottawa, by the way).
One of the locals who was in the store said his uncle had been fluent in
the Jargon, and called it "skokum hiyo"; accents on both first syllables
and aspirated (?) k's.  "Strong many" is a pretty interesting phrase,
although there are maybe other ways to read the name.  Interesting to
find that it wasn't called the Wawa, or even the Jargon, but this
variant phrase, wake nah?  Any other guesses on its origins?

During the drive through the upcountry I could help but wonder at the
motto of the Kamloops-based Rocky Mountain Rangers, which was "Kloshe
Nanitch"; effectively "on guard" and "watch well" and highly suitable
for a military unit. Yet the country between Cache Creek and the
Kamloops region and all that lies around is truly also "beautiful to
behold", which struck me as seeming another meaning of the motto - "good
to look at", perhaps an intended one by residents who loved the beauty
of the country that was their regiment's home.  Wit and punning seem
almost like part of the syntax of the Jargon, if I may be so
un-technical, as if the fluent use of it included clever conjurings of
phrase and meaning, whether casually or in coming up with mottos and
speechifying as in the selection of a motto or slogan.  Obviously I'm
not good at that in English, but I promise to try when using the Jargon
;-)



MC