Question

[Mike Cleven]

"Grant E. Goodwin" wrote:
>
> Hi,
> I haven't been able to make your website function very well for me.
> Probably my fault.  I have an old metal souvenir paddle from a 1913
> Seattle Potlatch that says the following: "Klahowya, Kloshe Tilikum Kopa
> Tyee".  Can you tell me what this means?   Thank you so much for the
> info.

Your paddle says: "Greetings, Good People to the Chief"; could be "from
the Chief" perhaps, depends on the tradition it was given in.  Was it
given to a chief or by a chief, do you know?  If there was a series of
these paddles, i.e. there's more than one, it might be prize paddles or
gift-paddles for having one; if it's unique it suggests it was given to
the chief.  The syntax seems to mean the greeting is direct at the
kloshe tilikum (good people); I'm not sure in the Seattle area but up
our way tilikum, or tillicum as we're using to seeing it, was sometimes
used for friend; so "good friend" could be the meaning here, suggesting
the paddle was given _by_ the chief to a good friend, which does fit the
syntax; potlatch gifts were usually plural, though, so to me the plural
of tillikum is suggested here.  Chinook isn't obvious sometimes when
it's written; it was spoken way more often than it was ever written on
anything.  "Kopa", the reason for my guessing around here, can mean
"by", "with", "for", "from", "to", "at", and "on", so really you just
have to know what's going on in the conversation, or in the case of your
paddle, what the context is.

Perhaps if you tried the Seattle Times or other historical archives you
might find some photos and an article or two on the potlatch in
question; you might even find a picture of the paddle.  Please let me
know what you find out, if anything.

My website may have bad links; it doesn't work well in IE, I think; I
wrote it in Netscape's WYSIWYG editor and haven't updated it in ages;
sorry for any problems.

Seasons regards

Mike Cleven