Having fun netsurfing for Chinook Jargon information

[Dave Robertson]

Klahowyam, shiks,

Ahnkuttie shmahnkuttie, here's some Internet stuff!  :-)

- I searched the ADS-L (list of the American Dialect Society) archives on
the Linguistlist website, and found a good posting on "Canuck" by our own
list member Barbara Harris, relevant to the Jargon.

- The US Federal Government has a new unified portal to all of its websites
(something like 20,000 of them!) at www.firstgov.gov, and it's searchable.
I found Melville Jacobs' Chinook Jargon texts in scanned form, as well as an
Indian agent's report from a Mr. Priestley at Yakima Agency, Washington
Territory, circa 1886.  If I had figured out yet how to clip stuff off
websites to send to you as an attachment, I would, as there are a couple of
interesting quotes.  One has to do with the language situation at the
reservation (most people knew English, "all" knew Chinook Jargon, Priestley
says); the other with local Indians referring to the Agency's medicines,
many of which had been in stock there for twenty or so years, as "wake
skookum".

Cheers,
Dave