Vocabulary of Indian words / Nootka Sound

[Scott Tyler]

Hi all,
Probably  Kilcoolly Tyee is refering to   tlookwalli  which is the main 
winter ceremonial of the Nootka/Makah.
This is the Wolf Dance ceremonial.  Sounds like some is saying shoot a gun 
(mamook pooh) to create noise which was sometimes
done to scare away the  'Lincod which was eating the moon (lunar eclipse) or 
to scare away the Wolves who were caring away young initiates
into the klookwalli ceremonials (bull roarers were also used) , or perhaps 
to scare away the cause of the earthquake 'the great chief above'
or 'the great light above'.
I suppose if they meant evil spirit they would have said  'mesatchie tyee' 
or mesatchie tamanowas' but I do not know if they believed in the dichotomy 
of the 'God of evil'
and the 'God of good' we are accustomed to since contact with others.
scott/ooshtaqi

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Robertson" <ddr11 at COLUMBIA.EDU>
To: <CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2006 5:20 PM
Subject: Vocabulary of Indian words / Nootka Sound


> This is an unattributed handwritten document in photocopied form, also in
> the BC Provincial Museum archives.  Seems pretty early, for various
> reasons.  (For example, the writer uses the old-fashioned tall, straight s
> as the first in a sequence of two S's.)
>
> The only obvious loanword in the five pages of vocabulary (pages 17-21)
> is "soap".
>
> Pages 23-24 are journal entries dated Aug. 25th and Aug. 27th.  What year?
>
> The one from Aug. 25 tells of an earthquake that day.  "Our Indians"
> shouted and made noise, asking "us" to "'Mamook pooh konaway,' in other
> words blaze away right and left to frighten the 'Kilcoolly Tyhee'
> or 'Spirit of Evil'..."
>
> I'm curious to know who wrote this, and when.
>
> It could be one of the earliest definite occurrences of CJ on Vancouver
> Island.  (Because it contains both Nuuchahnulth & Chinookan words.)  One
> thing I'm bound to be curious about is when CJ proper started being used 
> up
> here.  There are skidillions of word lists (you think I exaggerate?)
> of "Nootka" from the decades around 1800.  But where should we look for 
> the
> first actual CJ on this island?
>
> I'd guess it would be 1805 or later, since the earliest CJ we know of is
> from that year, in Lewis & Clarke's journals, in Clatsop country.  More
> specifically, I'd expect it to be say 1825 or later.  My rough impression
> is that it took about that long for CJ to crystallize around its own
> autonomous norms.  George Lang presented a fascinating manuscript wordlist
> of CJ circa 1826 at this year's conference of the SPCL (Society for Pidgin
> & Creole Linguistics), making the point that this is among the earliest
> such that doesn't just approximate Lower Chinookan-language words (let
> alone Nuuchahnulth words).
>
> Some of you who better acquainted with the historical record of this place
> than I am might be able to suggest when and how CJ migrated up the coast
> from Oregon in the early 1800s.  Remember, Victoria (Fort Camosun) was
> founded in 1843, by which time CJ had had mother-tongue speakers (!) in
> Oregon for at least 15 years.  What other Native-Newcomer contact was
> occurring on Vancouver Island between 1805 and then?
>
> --Dave R
>
> To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond privately 
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> 

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