Chinook people

“ At the Dalles is the upper village of the Chinooks. At the Shutes, five miles above, is the lower village of the Wallawallas. One of the missionaries, Mr. Lee, learns the Chinook language, and the other, Mr. Perkins, the Wallawalla; and their custom is to repair on Sabbath days each to his own people, and teach them the Christian religion. The Chinooks flatten their heads more, and are more stupid than any other tribe on the Columbia. ”

“ Chinook, a language or jargon, the existence of which few people living east of the Rocky Mountains know of, is the sole medium of communication between the whites and Indians upon the northwest coast of America, from the Columbia River to Alaska, including the tribes scattered over Washington Territory and Oregon. ”

“ The Chinook jargon is employed by the white people in their intercourse with the natives, as well as by the natives among themselves. It is spoken throughout Oregon, Washington Territory, on Vancouver Island, and extends inland into Idaho and some parts of Montana. It is more than probable that, like other languages de convenance, it formed itself gradually, first among the natives themselves, and that in the course of time, in order to facilitate their intercourse with the aborigines, trappers and traders adopted and improved it, until it was finally brought into its present state. ”

“ While often you'll find a great many villages that speak the same language, and while you'll find in most of the villages a number of people that can talk Chinook, it's nevertheless the fact that stowed away in bays and inlets all along this coast are little tribes that speak a language that is not understood by any other tribe. ”

“ The combination of these few lingering old people and the wizardry of the modern anthropologist in probing their astonishing memories, has resulted in much literature that was considered irretrievably lost.
Dr. Franz Boas, for instance, was able to collect his Chinook Texts from one Indian. In the summers of 1890 and 1891, while working in Oregon and Washington, he says he "learned that the dialects of the lower Chinook were on the verge of disappearing, and that only a few individuals survived who remembered the languages of the once powerful tribes of the Clatsop and Chinook." ”

“ But now Speelyei secretly suggested to the Chinook grandfather that he should wait about throwing the oil on the ground until the ice had all been used up. By means of this change of practice, the Walla Walla brothers fell speedily before the young Chinook. One after another was thrown and beheaded until only the youngest was left. His courage failing, he surrendered without a struggle. Speelyei then pronounced sentence upon him, telling him that he must live, but could henceforth only blow lightly, and never have power to freeze people to death. ”

“ And what was a little queer, but not new, the Governor was not fully RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INDIAN AGENT. 249 informed as to the cause of the boisterous merriment until an after-hint from his friends and an after-thought by him- self. Of course he saw that he essayed an impossibility. His Indian auditors were not poets and the Chinook is not a flux for poetical expression. Primitive people are more given to pantomime than those more advanced, for the reason that it is necessary to supply the defects in their spoken language. The same necessity exists with children. ”

“ They are keen traders and sharp at bargaining, and no white man outwits these natives. Conversation was carried on with them in the Chinook jargon, the language compounded by Hudson Bay Company traders from French, English, Russian, and the dialect of the Chinook tribe once living at the mouth of the Columbia River. The Indians from California to the Arctic Ocean understand more or less of this jargon, and in Oregon and Washington Territory Chinook is a most necessary accomplishment. ”

“ Chinooks 'in language ... resemble the Clatsops, Cathlamahs, and indeed all the people near the mouth of the Columbia.' Id., p. 426. 'The Chinooks, Clatsops, Wahkiacums and Cathlamahs ... resembled each other in person, dress, language.' Irving's Astoria, pp. 85, 336. Chinooks, Clatsops, Cathlamux, Wakicums, Wacalamus, Cattleputles, Clatscanias, Killimux, Moltnomas, Chickelis, ... resemble one another in language. Ross' Adven., pp. 87-88. 'The Chinook language is spoken by all the nations from the mouth of the Columbia to the falls.' Franchère's Nar., p. ”

“ The Chinook winds were blowing coolly, coming from the Kuro Siwo, or placid ocean-river from Japan; odoriferous, as though spice-laden from the flowery isles of the Yellow Sea. Warm in winter, cool in summer, like the Gulf winds of Floridian shores, the good angel of the Puget Sea territories is the Chinook wind from far Asia, a mysterious country, of which the old chief and his family knew no more than of the blessed isles.
"It is a day of the Great Manitou," said the old chief. "He lights the sun, and lifts his wings for a shadow, and breathes on the earth. He fills our hearts with peace. ”

“ The principal contribution of the Chinooks to modern life has been the “Chinook jargon” which has become the trade language of the coast. It is a curious medley of words, and has been recently made the subject of an interesting study by Mr. Horatio Hale. [123]
The Sahaptins or Nez Percés, with their affiliated tribes, occupied the middle and upper valley of the Columbia and its affluents, and also the passes of the mountains. They were in contiguity with the Shoshonees and the Algonkin Blackfeet, thus holding an important position, intermediate between the eastern and the Pacific tribes. ”

“ With the exception of Franchere, whose short vocabulary was published by Mr. Gallatin, and Mr. Hale, all the writers mentioned by Ludwig who have given specimens of the Chinook language, have presented it in its Jargon form, more or less mixed with the neighboring ones, and with corruptions of French and English words. Mr. Swan, among others, has been led into this error. The place of his residence, Shoalwater Bay, is common ground of the Chinook and Chihalis Indians, and the degraded remnants of the two tribes are closely intermarried, and use both languages almost indifferently. ”

“ They become discontented, and long for the freedom of their life on the sea-coast and rivers. The Indian, too, likes to associate with the white man, from whom, it must be confessed, he learns many of the vices, and but few of the virtues, of civilization. It is not probable that Chinook will fall into disuse for many years to come. Though it is difficult to determine whether or not the native population of this part of our country is materially decreasing at present, the race will, no doubt, in time become reduced to small proportions, and the raison d'étre of Chinook will gradually cease. ”

“ Physical Appearance.—"The personal appearances of the Chinook differs so much from that of the aboriginal tribes of the United States, that it was difficult at first to recognise the affinity. Taking them collectively, they are even inferior in stature to the tribes of Interior Oregon; the general form is shorter and more squat, and the face is rounder and broader when viewed in front. Instances occurred of a fairness of complexion, which I have not seen in other parts of aboriginal America; and in young children, the colour was often not strikingly deeper than among Europeans. ”

“ This difference was well shown in the case of The Assiniboine and his wife, of whom excellent portraits are given in the Frontispiece.
19 Chinook is a jargon which was invented by the Hudson’s Bay Company for the purpose of facilitating communication with the different Indian tribes. These were so numerous, and their languages so various, that the traders found it impossible to learn them all, and adopted the device of a judicious mixture of English, French, Russian, and several Indian tongues, which has a very limited vocabulary ”

“ As they had met with quite a few Indians during their sojourn at Circle and had since run into several Indian villages, the boys had acquired a fair vocabulary of the Chinook jargon; which is a simple universal language formed of a lot of heterogeneous words which every Indian and white man understands and by which they are able to hold intelligible though limited conversation. ”

“ When we read the dying expression of Stonewall Jackson—"Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees"—we realize what a beautiful language English is, when kept beautiful in its simplicity. So when Chief Qualchien in a quarter of an hour's time faced dark extinction, he cried out in Chinook jargon a plea that reverberated in the recollection of an American soldier all his life as having the profoundest pathos of any sounds he ever heard. ”

“ There was a beautiful superstition or tradition among the Indians that the Chinook always came in the night time and the white man with all his learning has never yet proved that it does not. The stolid Indian waked in the morning, went to the door of his wigwam and found it fanning his cheeks. The white man came, and he too when he waked himself at morning would find the Chinook a-blowing. So it is to-day. Though the white man has had a half century to discover the secrets of this pleasant wind, they have never yet been told. ”

“ In the nouns derived from the French, the definite article le, la, has almost in every instance been incorporated into the word, and the same has in one or two instances been prefixed to nouns not of French origin. Besides the words created by direct onomatopoeia, there are quite a number which are really Indian, but have their origin in the similarity of sound to sense.
Dr. Scouler's analogy between the Nootkan and "Columbian," or Chinook, was founded on the following words:
English. Tlaoquatch and Nutka. Columbian. plenty, *aya, *haya. no, *wik, *wake. water, tchaak, chuck. ”

“ Do you understand, or you do understand, is kum-tux; anything to eat is muck-a-muck; a strong person or animal is skookum; a friend, tillacum, and so on.
With a vocabulary of a couple of dozen words of Chinook the boys were able to get along fairly well with any of the Indian tribes they happened to meet. In all of the Indian villages they came to everything was quiet and peaceful excepting the fiendish howling and barking of the half-starved dogs. There was nothing to indicate the cruelty and ferociousness that marked the Yeehats and the Indians who lived in these parts before them. ”

“ It’s too quiet to be real,’ comments Chinook Bill, still ominous.
“‘Terrible oppressive,’ I agrees.
“Then we stops at the edge o’ town an’ shakes hands solemn like. Chinook Bill gets poetic an’ weeps copious.
“‘Maybe it will be the last chance,’ says he in a small voice, ‘an’ we will be eat up by cruel Injuns. We cyaint let the opportunity pass,’ says he. Then he recites some poetry es says opportunity never knocks but oncet. ‘An’ it ’ud be a shame not to do it.’
“‘A arful shame,’ concedes I, then we shakes hands again. ”

“ The Chinooks, like all other Indians, believe in existence after death; but their views of the conditions of that existence, I could not learn. The conjurors teach them, that they themselves shall be able to visit their tribe after the body shall have decayed; and when approaching the end of their days, inform the people in what shape they will manifest themselves. Some choose a horse, others a deer, others an elk, &c., and when they die, the image of their transmigrated state is erected over their remains. ”

“ From what has been said, it will be seen that while Chinook does not rise to the dignity of a language, it is an important factor in every-day life as it exists on the northern Pacific coast. The Indians of that region are peculiar. They get their food easily by fishing, hunting, and gathering the wild roots and berries of the woods. Nomadic bodies hang about the towns and settlements, earning money from the whites in various ways. In a word, they procure their living too readily to develop habits of industry and thrift. ”

“ The Chinooks reside chiefly along the banks of a river of the same name, running parallel to the sea-coast, through a low country studded with stagnant pools, and emptying itself into Baker’s Bay, a few miles from Cape Disappointment. This was the tribe over which Comcomly, the one-eyed chieftain, held sway; it boasted two hundred and fourteen fighting men. Their chief subsistence was on fish, with an occasional regale of the flesh of elk and deer, and of wild-fowl from the neighboring ponds. ”

“ In the morning my way is made through the waking city with a painful limp, that gives rise to much unsympathetic giggling among the crowd at my heels. Perhaps they think all Pankwaes thus hobble along; their giggling, however, is doubtless evidence of the well-known pitiless disposition of the Chinese. The sentiments of pity and consideration for the sufferings of others, are a well-nigh invisible quality of John Chinaman's character, and as I limp slowly along, I mentally picture myself with a broken leg or serious illness, alone among these people. A Fankwae with his leg broken! ”

“ Chincha Islands, islands off the coast of Peru that had beds of guano, often 100 ft. thick, due to the droppings of penguins and other sea birds, now all but, if not quite, exhausted.
Chinchilla, a rodent of S. America, hunted for its fur, which is soft and of a grey colour; found chiefly in the mountainous districts of Peru and Chile.
Chinese Gordon, General Gordon, killed at Khartoum; so called for having, in 1851, suppressed a rebellion in China which had lasted 15 years.
Chinook, a tribe of Indians in Washington Territory, noted for flattening their skulls. ”