Why the southern boundary of Chinuk Wawa use?

[Erik Perrohe]

Not sure if this is helpful....

But, I think a distinction needs to be made between the written literature,
which was of necessity/majority from the whites (moving northward); and the
commerce which is little documented but was frequently practiced by the
First Peoples.

Of course without documentation, it's kind of a dead end pursuit...

What I can tell you is a story that was told to me by a Chinook elder.  It
was a description of a trading journey which went far to the south.  From
the description of the items being traded, this elder believes that the
Chinooks were going as far south as Mexico and that this occurred fairly
regularly in pre-contact times.

As to what language they were speaking, one can only speculate...  However,
from what I've read, the jargon is 80% derived from Chinook proper.

My own Chinook ancestor was in Dutch Harbor Unalaska when he met a Russian
woman.  So this was a highly mobile tribe.

-- Erik


----- Original Message -----
From: "David Robertson" <ddr11 at COLUMBIA.EDU>
To: <CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
Sent: Monday, September 05, 2005 12:49 AM
Subject: Why the southern boundary of Chinuk Wawa use?


> 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!
>

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