"Michael Walsh" conversation

[hzenk at PDX.EDU]

Well, I was part of that conversation, as I believe also was Maria Pascua. 
Here's some history:

I had in my notes from visiting the late Dellmore Croy at Grand Ronde around
1980-81:  "Michael Walsh," a missionary well known up around Hoquiam (& I had
the impression, up in western Washington generally), who also went by the name
"Nick Sivenen" (don't have those notes with me now to check spelling; but my
notes were just me interpreting what Dellmore was telling me).  Dellmore knew
and used to correspond with this missionary, and had a letter written by him
(the missionary) in Chinuk Wawa (which, however, he couldn't find; note: 
Dellmore Croy was raised by the parents of the Hudson sisters, and spoke CW).

Then, at our Chinuk Lu7lu in Neah Bay (what year was that?  2001?), I learned
from Maria Pascua that there was a missionary thereabouts that they used to
call "Maika Wash," because he was always singing a hymn with those words (or,
that's what I though Maria was telling us; correction, Maria?).  I immediately
connected the dots:  Ah, THAT's what Dellmore must have been saying to me; THAT
explains why the guy had two names.  The other name, by the way, looks Finnish,
and matches to Nick Sivonen, who helped J.P. Harrington during the latter's
travels in western Washington in 1942.

At some point (don't remember the sequence now) Melissa Parkhurst, a U Wisconsin
ethnomusicology student, send me some ms typescript hymns in Chinuk Wawa: 
untranslated; and unattributed except for a note saying these were sung in a
church where the minister was a Finnish man married to an Indian woman from
Lower Elwah (Maria, did I get that about right?; I'm just doing this from
memory).  One of the hymns has the line:  "Maika wash kopa Jesus pilpil"
(frequently repeated).  I did a transliteration and translation of the hymns,
which I sent to Maria, who did some further work to give us the transcript and
cd available from her at our last Lu7lu.

There's dots here that beg for connection.  At least part of the conversation
was me asking questions to see if anyone there could help me do that.  I still
haven't been able to learn anything about Rev. Nick Sivonen.  Dellmore I'm sure
would have had information, but Dellmore has passed on with the other elders of
that generation.  Henry


Quoting David Robertson <ddr11 at COLUMBIA.EDU>:

> A letter to the editor from a Mike Walsh in our local weekly reminds me of
> another question I've meant to post.
>
> Did anybody take notes on that conversation about "Michael Walsh" and other
> Chinuk Wawa (nick-)names at the recent Chinuk-Wawa Lu'lu?  It was
> interesting stuff but my attention was dominated by the registration desk.
>
> (For those who couldn't attend, "Michael Walsh" was the name a certain
> itinerant preacher in the Pacific NW was known by.  This developed by
> association with the well-known Chinuk Wawa hymn "Maika Wash kopa Jesus
> Pilpil?" ("Are you washed in Jesus' blood?")
>
> Thanks to anyone who can help me reconstruct the roundtable discussion on
> these names.
>
> --Dave
>
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>

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