Why the southern boundary of Chinuk Wawa use?

[David Lewis]

T


Hi Leanne,
Your Southern Boundary question is a good one. It seems to have been 
assumed that the Columbia River is a southern boundary. But I have 
records in the SWORP collections from Grand Ronde, Siletz and further 
south that indicate the Chinook Jargon was well know and used as far 
south as Northern California. This discussion needs to occur within 
concurrent discussions of the Fur Trade, Missionaries, The Shaker 
Church, etc. Because all of these historic themes served to help spread 
Chinook Jargon. If you look into resources on the Indian Shaker Church 
you will find that Chinook Jargon was the main language that was used in 
the Church and that it became the medium for spreading the "gospel" to 
Grand Ronde, Siletz, Klamath, Smith River, and Hupa.

But this is a situation that occurred from 1880's to 1930's. There are 
previous significant historic movements that also helped spread Chinook 
Jargon, Catholic Missionaries, Fur trade etc.

What I would like to focus on is the time before contact with Europeans. 
I have not seem any good research on the spread of Chinook Jargon before 
contact. there are many assumptions, based on Linguistic or History 
theories of the spread of native languages and the assumed amount of 
contact between native peoples. many of these theories are based on the 
premise that Native people did not travel too far from their homelands, 
an assumption which is odd as there are also many romantic theories that 
native peoples were wandering throughout the landscape... But we have 
accounts of Natives being traders bettween different tribes across vaste 
regions. Native people traded goods far afield of their homelands. In 
fact they know how to get places far away and communicate with other 
people which is one reason Natives were hired as scouts to lead 
voyageurs and Lewis and Clark westward.

So taking these understandings to heart, there is no reason to assume 
that Chinook Jargon might not have been spread by Native peoples in a 
time previous to European contact. yes sign language would be a factor 
and yes that may have been impediments to some travel in some areas, but 
by-and-large native people spread their own trade languages over vaste 
areas. Of course, after contact, the Fur Trade helped spread it futher 
and changed the vocabulary significantly.

This may be why, the Karuk of the Klamath River and the Tolowa of the 
coast knew and traded for Dentalium, which they called Aliqua, in 
Northern California, the trade route was an inland route that came down 
the east side of the Cascades and through the Klamath Tribes and down 
the Klamath river. They had at least words of Chinook Jargon in their 
regular knowledge. And George Gibbs, after learning Chinook Jargon at 
Astoria, was hired by Redick McKee in 1850? to be the Interpreter for 
the trip from Sutter's fort to the Oregon Border, and helped negotiate 
and sign treaties with the Indian Tribes along the way...

This is a subject that deserves more research, with open eyes and with a 
good understanding of Native culture.

Not that people would not do this nowadays, but it seems to me that many 
researchers become invested in a polemic position and stick to it at the 
expense of history.

David Lewis

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