Chinook Days

[James Crippen]

On Sun, Apr 6, 2008 at 8:26 AM, Rein Stamm <stamm at telus.net> wrote:
>  Something similar surfaces in "The Salish People" (1978,
>  Vancouver, B.C), Hill-Tout, c. 1900.  While discussing Totemism,
>  Hill-Tout uses what he calls "the convenient term of Eskimo
>  philosophy", the "yua" to describe the spirit, the essence or the
>  mystery that surrounds and fills sacred places and objects.  I
>  googled "yua" and "Eskimo" and I find this word/concept, so similar
>  to "Yo", exists in the Yukit Eskimo language.  The Yukit language
>  reaches to Alaska's south-west.  I suspect the Yukit traded with
>  their southern neighbours.

There's no such language called "Yukit" in Alaska. Did you mean
"Yupik"? If that is the case, then I can say that the Yupik had very
little historical contact with Northwest Coast groups, if any at all.
The Sugpiaq/Alutiiq/Chugachmiut (among other names) are an Eskimo
group who live in Prince William Sound, which is the northernmost
outpost of the Pacific Northwest rainforest. They were bitter enemies
with the Eyak and Tlingit, although they did trade together somewhat.
Culturally they had almost no influence on the Eyak or Tlingit except
for providing toggle head harpoon technology and skin covered frame
boats, the latter being used only occasionally among the Yakutat
Tlingit and somewhat more among the Eyak. The Chugachmiut had
essentially no cultural influence any further south.

As far as linguistic influence, I can say for certain that Tlingit
lacks the word in question and it would be unfamiliar to any Tlingit
speaker. Eyak may have had such a borrowing, but I doubt it very
strongly. The Tlingit terms for spiritual topics are covered in Sergei
Kan's "Symbolic Immortality" and "Memory Eternal", if you want to have
a look at them, however they seem to be completely unrelated to the
ones you present. Off the top of my head, the term for "spirit" is
"yéik" (/jé:k/) in Tlingit, and the term for "guardian spirit" is
"kinaayéik" (/khIna:jé:k/). The latter is a compound of the
directional "kéenaa" meaning "up above" and the aforementioned "yéik".

The "spirit" concept is probably quite widespread on the coast, since
most if not all groups shared fairly similar traditional belief
systems if they did not essentially share beliefs and myths.

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