Reginald Dangeli (Tsimshian/Tsetsaut) on Franz Boas' visit

[Dave Robertson]

This is from his "Tsetsaut History:  The Forgotten Tribe of Southern Southeast Alaska", which was published in the 'expanded edition' of _Alaska Quarterly Review_ 17:3-4 (pages 48-54).  That issue is titled "Alaska Native Writers, Storytellers, and Orators".  Dangeli tells:

"'Chief Quiyah', Levi Dangeli, was the last chief of the Tsetsauts...

"In 1894, while Levi was in [Portland] Canal, hunting, ... a whiteman, an anthropologist by the name of Franz Boas, was drawn to the Kincolith [B.C.] mission, when he heard of an Indian tribe living there, originally from Portland Canal.  No one had heard of these people, except the coast tribes of the area.  Boas waited several days for the Chief Levi, who he learned of, who could tell him many stories of the history of the Tsetsaut Tribe.

"My Grandfather Timothy Dangeli remembers this meeting, and I remember Timothy telling me.  Timothy was in his teens then.  He thinks Levi was over sixty years old at that time.

"According to Boas, in his journals and letters home, the meeting was very difficult, due to four different language translations:  Tsetsaut translated to Nishga, then to Chinook jargon, then to English, as Boas' Nass interpreter was not good in Chinook jargon.  This Nass interpreter was a Christian and half the Chinook jargon was swear words.  So they went back to just Tsetsaut and Nishga.  Boas' Nass interpreter was also limited in English, but somehow they managed to complete some sentences in Tsetsaut.  Levi knew the Nass dialect, but translating to English was the hard part.

"Franz Boas did an excellent job under these conditions.  [Note that Boas' native language was not English, either -- Dave]...

"He asked Levi, 'How do you say in Tsetsaut "If you don't come, the bear will run away?"'  Levi's answer:  'The Nishga could be asked a thing like this; we Tsetsaut are always there when a bear is to be killed.'"

--
"Asking a linguist how many languages she knows is like asking a doctor how many diseases he has!" -- anonymous



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