Nesmith, J.W. on a sermon at Willamette Falls, Oregon

[David Robertson]

Leanne, this is interesting.  'Tobacco' would be expected to be
approximately <ky-nootl> or <ky-noose>.  That's pretty similar to 'Cayuse'
but we do have to wonder if there's an error of translation, of typesetting
or of memory here.

There's also the issue of the pronoun <yaka>, which if accurately recorded
is an interesting use of 'he/she' with a plural meaning.  Not unknown,
especially from mother-tongue Salish speakers of Chinook Jargon or English
(since 3rd person singular and plural usually are not differentiated in
Salish).  A more accurate translation then might be '...if you will give
plenty of...to my people, they will pray...'

Off-list I've also received astute feedback about this preacher's apparent
bait-and-switch manipulative intention.  That is exactly the view of
(especially the Protestant?) missionaries that's expressed in John C.
Jackson's "Children of the Fur Trade: Forgotten Metis of the Pacific
Northwest" published in 1995 by Mountain Press of Missoula.  (Thank you
John Ross for the recommendation.)  It's almost as if missionaries in
Melanesia before WW2 had had some inkling that cargo cults were about to
spring up, and hijacked them to increase the number of converts to their
own denominations.

I'm wandering away from the current topic, so as justification I'll refer
to Robert Chaudenson's work on 'creolization of culture' before I add that
it's amusing to see mainline Christians' profound ignorance of syncretistic
religions in the Northwest (Shakers, Washat, dreamers) and their profound
disapproval thereof upon being told these have existed.  What doesn't often
receive consideration is just what social conditions motivated the
emergence of these religions; I can imagine that the passage I quoted about
the preacher is a cameo of that setting.

--  Dave R.

On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 01:30:16 -0800, Leanne Riding <riding at TIMETEMPLE.COM>
wrote:

>It's interesting that he translates cayuse <=> 'tobacco'. Would
>that be accurate?
>
>>
>> "'Nowitka, six; mica potlatch passissie, sakallux, sapalell,
>> ittillwilla,
>> cayuse, hyu close itca copa konniway nica tillicum. Yaka koniway
>> kwaniisum
>> wawa copa sohala tyee.' Which translated to English was
>> substantially: "Yes, my friend; if you will give us plenty of blankets,
>> pantaloons, flour and meat and tobacco, and lots of other good
>> things, we
>> will pray to God all the time and always.'

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