Recent Web-site emails of interest

[Jeffrey Kopp]

A couple more emails which came to me via the Web site which may be
of interest to the group:

One asked for translation of "cultus" and "chickamin," so I asked him
how or when those terms had some up.

>I am a 4th year Anthropology major at Okanagan University College. My
>research is for a Native history paper about the first strike by fishers
>agaqinst canneries on the Fraser River in 1893. The Chinook terms came up
>in a speech given by the Indian superintendent to a group of Natives, telling
>them that the strikers could not prevent them from fishing and that if they
>fished, they would not be sent to the 'skookum house' (which I assume is
>jail). Supt. Vowell said those who were intimidating the Native fishers
>were 'cultus' and trying to do the Indians out of their 'chickamin' - hence my
>question.

I explained the various shades of "cultus" (which makes it one of the
more interesting words in the Jargon), and pointed him to the
dictionaries on the site to find "chickamin" for himself.  I thought
the subject for his paper might make good fodder for a discussion
thread on the list, so I got his permission to repeat his inquiry
here.  (Email me if you'd like to email him.)

Another needed help capturing the audio of Duane singing from the Web
site, as she wanted to play it for her college class--in Germany!

>I am a student at the university in Kiel/Germany (majoring in English, 
>minoring in linguistics). I am scheduled to give a talk about the Chinook 
>Jargon for one of my classes on Feb. 8, and I found your website while I was 
>looking for information on the internet.

[technical details about the problem with the audio omitted.]

>In short, I just thought it would be nice for my classmates to be able to 
>hear some words for themselves instead of just hearing me talk about the 
>language. It would make my whole presentation much more interesting.
>
>I hope I am not inconveniencing you too much with my questions. I'd 
>appreciate any help you can give me.
>
>Many thanks in advance,
>
>Charlotte
>
>PS: I really like your website. Not only did I get much helpful information 
>for my talk from it, but it also made me want to look closer at the Chinook 
>Jargon after I finish this class.....

She had found the Chickamin Charlie song ("Kloshe Klootzman") in
Moola John #11.  I explained to her how to right-click on the
"download" link to save the audio files, and told her about the
"Little Cloud" story text and sound file (excerpted from Duane's
"Klahowya") which appear on the "Bookstore" page.

I also added MP3 versions of the two sound files I now have up, as
more people may be familiar with or have the software these days for
it than RealAudio.  (One of the reasons I moved the Web site was that
Geocities made some changes that made it clumsier to hear the
RealAudio files.)

I forwarded this one to Duane and got a cheery reply.  Maybe he will
get out his tape recorder and send me some more songs.  

It will be interesting to see how students in Germany (where I
understand TV Westerns have long had almost a cult following) will
relate to the Jargon.  I certainly hope it expands their
understanding of our history.

I now ask email inquirers to tell me their grade level in school so I
can phrase my reply appropriately.  I used to guess; many (terse,
vague little emails) appeared to come from grade-schoolers. (The hit
count triples during every October now, so I believe the URL is going
up on chalkboards in some middle-school Social Studies classes.)
Also, under the new US Internet child-protection law, I am
technically supposed to segregate emails from children and purge them
on a schedule.

Well, enough for now.  Glad to see the activity on the list picking
up.  (Still need to wade through the past three days' worth.)

Regards,

Jeff