Encyclopedia of British Columbia

[Peter Cawley]

Today I got my Encyclopedia of British Columbia, Harbour Publishing, 2000.
The print version is 806 pages and claims it contains more than 4,000
articles in print. The interactive CD-ROM is not set up properly yet (I
suspect that the difficulty lies with my computer rather than the CD).

Naturally, I first turned to CHINOOK JARGON and found an unsigned article:
             CHINOOK JARGON (  ) is a pidgin language
             that was used on the west coast of N
             America, roughly from California to Alaska, to
             facilitate communication between FIRST
             NATIONS groups, and between First Nations and
             non-aboriginals. Sometimes incorrectly
             referred to as simply "Chinook," this lingua
             franca consists of words and phrases
             borrowed from different aboriginal languages,
             including NUU-CHAH-NULTH (Nootka), Lower
             Chehalis  and the Chinook language spoken
             by the people who formerly occupied the
             mouth of the COLUMBIA R. It also contains
             French and English words. During the 1880s,
             the OBLATE missionary Jean-Marie Le Jeune
             used a French shorthand system as an
             orthography, and later instituted the Jargon's
             "golden age" with a short-lived publication
             called the KAMLOOPS WAWA . The language,
             which has a small vocabulary of about 700
             words, was spoken by 250,000 people at its
             peak but by 2000 was known by only a few.
             Familiar words include tyee ("chief"), skookum
             ("strong"), tillikums ("friends"), klahowyah
             ("greetings"), cheechako ("newcomer"),
             saltchuck ("ocean"), and POTLATCH, an
             adaptation of the Nuu-chah-nulth word for
             "giving." See also FIRST NATIONS LANGUAGES.
             Reading: Charles Lillard and Terry Glavin, A
             Voice Great Within Us, 1998.

The CD version has an Internet Link for "Chinook Jargon history,
translations, pronunciation, grammar and more" which leads to Mike Cleven's
site:
http://members.home.net/skookum/

There is a slightly longer article on the KAMLOOPS WAWA, signed by by
Howard White (publisher of the Encyclopedia):
                KAMLOOPS WAWA was a monthly NEWSPAPER
                published for BC FIRST NATIONS from 1891 to
                1917 by the OBLATE missionary Jean Marie Le
                Jeune. Called "the Queerest Newspaper in the
                World" by its contemporary rivals, but later
                collected by the Smithsonian Institution and
                the British Museum, the Wawa had many
                unusual qualities, the strangest of which was
                the language in which it was written. After
                Father Le Jeune despaired of teaching his
                parishoners how to read and write English, he
                hit on the idea of creating a simplified written
                language using CHINOOK JARGON words written
                in a script adapted from Duployan shorthand.
                Soon hundreds of aboriginal people were using
                Le Jeune's shorthand Chinook throughout the
                CARIBOO, the lower FRASER R and on the coast,
                and he decided to publish the Wawa to serve
                them. (Wawa is Chinook jargon for "talk.") The
                paper typically had 16 mimeographed pages
                and sold on subscription for a dollar a year to
                whites and 25 cents to aboriginals. Contents
                included "news from the surrounding villages
                and teepees, notices of births, marriages and
                deaths, plus news from the outside world."
                Native readers contributed letters to the
                editor and Le Jeune added lengthy sermons
                proffering moral instruction and denouncing
                infidels. The Wawa was avidly read with
                printings running to 3,000 copies at its peak,
                but it declined when RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS
                improved Native literacy in English, and after
                1904 it appeared only in occasional special
                editions. Surviving copies have become some
                of the most highly prized BC memorabilia.
                by Howard White

Chinook Jargon is also given a ten line description within the FIRST
NATIONS LANGUAGES article signed by Jay Powell, and is referenced in items
on placenames derived from the language.

Am looking forward to giving the EBC a heavy browse this holiday (Canadian
Thanksgiving) weekend.

Peter Cawley
pcawley at island.net