Why the southern boundary of Chinuk Wawa use?

[Keith Thor Carlson]

Hi Dave,

Excellent question.  A key factor, I would suggest, were the economic 
and then ecclesiastic districts that were established in the region.  
The original maritime fur trade of the late eighteenth century occurred 
principally in the region bordered by the Columbia on the south and the 
Alask Panhandle on the north.  Chinook wawa was brought to these places 
and proved useful to people of various Aboriginal communities engaged 
in sea otter hunting/trading.  Then later, the HBC (centred at Ft. 
Vancouver on the Columbia) grafted itself onto chinook wawa.  Its 
activities did reach south but were principally interested in the 
columbia plateau and coast north of the columbia.  When the HBC moved 
its headquarters north to Victoria it retained its operations in Puget 
Sound (agricultural co.) for some time thereby keeping an economic 
network together for the region that utilized wawa as a means of 
communication.  Missionaries (principally Catholic) arrived and 
established diocese and operational districts that mirrored the HBC 
Columbia district to a great extent, and so they too created/reinforced 
operational zones of wawa talk.

Just some thoughts
Keith




On Sep 5, 2005, at 1:49 AM, David Robertson wrote:

> To the best of my knowledge, Chinuk Wawa wasn't much used South of the
> Oregon-California border.
>
> Why?
>
> Were intertribal relations of a different character from those farther
> North?
>
> Was the economic situation different?
>
> Was there a different language of intercultural contact, e.g. was 
> Chileno
> (pidgin Spanish) widespread in northern California?
>
> Were Indian-newcomer relations different enough from those in Oregon,
> Washington & BC to keep people from wanting an interethnic language?  
> Was
> the anti-Indian violence or genocide that erupted very early in
> California's history as a US state a factor, for example?
>
> Your thoughts are solicited.
>
> --Dave R
>
> To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond 
> privately to the sender of a message, click 'REPLY'.  Hayu masi!
>
Keith Thor Carlson, Ph.D.
History Department
University of Saskatchewan
9 Campus Drive
Saskatoon, Canada
S7N 5A5
306-966-5902
http://www.usask.ca/history/

To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond privately to the sender of a message, click 'REPLY'.  Hayu masi!