Has anyone...

[Theresa Kishkan]

...read The Seal Wife, a novel by Kathryn Harrison, published by Random House in 2002? I'm reading it now and am interested in how Chinook enters the narrative at various points. It's set in 1915 in Anchorage and the main character is a young meteorologist who is sent to Alaska to set up a weather observatory. He becomes obsessed with an Aleut woman. He's been told by friends in Seattle that Chinook is the lingua franca of the area so he arrives with a pocket dictionary and isn't sure if the Chugach men doing some work for him are ignoring him when he tries to speak jargon to them or if they simply don't understand him.  Similarly, the Aleut woman... So, I can't remember: was the Jargon in much use that far north? (I know, I know, I haven't been paying attention...)

Best to you all,

Theresa Kishkan on the Sechelt Peninsula where it's 14 Celsius today and where I've just seen my first bumblebee of the season!
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