Chinook

“ THE CHINOOKS. Inhabiting the lower parts of the Columbia, are a small tribe, and correctly come under the name of Flat Heads, as they are almost the only people who strictly adhere to the custom of squeezing and flattening the head. Plate 209, is the portrait of a Chinook boy, of fifteen or eighteen years of age, on whose head that frightful operation has never been performed. And in plate 210, will be seen the portrait of a Chinook woman, with her child in her arms, her own head flattened, and the infant undergoing the process of flattening ”

“ 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. ”

“ Ford set down the frying-pan and went to the door and looked out. A chinook had blown up in the night, and although the wind was chill, the snow had disappeared, save where drifts clung to the hollows, shrinking and turning black beneath the sweeping gusts; sodden masses which gave to the prairie a dreary aspect of bleak discomfort. But Ford was well pleased at the sight of the brown, beaten grasses. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Then came the chinook, the warm south wind, which eats away the accumulated snow of months in as many days; and the great white banks first grew porous, and then slowly sank away, while the water ran in streams along the streets, or lingered in still pools far under the unbroken crust, waiting to drench the unwary passerby who should venture to set foot upon their treacherous covering.
It was the afternoon before Easter, and Louise Everett was just preparing to start for the chapel, to help try the vestments on the boys of the new choir. ”

“ 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. ”

“ She had lingered in the doorway for a moment to watch her brothers, who had gone on before her, laughing and shouting as they floundered along, now walking a few steps on top of the snow, now suddenly sinking down, up to the waist, as they chanced to find a spot where the chinook had done more rapid work. As she looked after them, she saw, crossing the road, one of the stray cows that wandered about the town. ”

“ You must shoot a badger, Spoof, which we will formally christen a chinook, and send it to your Governor in time for Christmas."
"I think it's just wicked to do that," said Jean, whose sympathies were always with the under dog. "No doubt Mr.—Mr. Spoof, senior, is a delightful old gentleman, and it isn't fair. Fancy some one from America visiting him and Mr. Spoof goes showing off the chinook which his son shot on the banks of the Saskatchewan. 'Chinook nothing!' says the visitor. ”

“ To kindle a fire the Chinook twirls rapidly between the palms a cedar stick, the point of which is pressed into a small hollow in a flat piece of the same material, the sparks falling on finely-frayed bark. Sticks are commonly carried for the purpose, improving with use. Besides woven baskets, matting is the chief article of Chinook manufacture. ”

“ The word is neither Chinook nor Chihalis. Dr. Scouler gives nannanitch as Nootka and Columbian. It is possibly tbe former.
~Nau'-its~, adv. Chihalis, NOITSH. Mr. Hale gives this for off shore; on the stream. It means, according to Mr. Anderson, the sea-beach, and is not properly a Jargon word.
~Na-wit'-ka~, adv. Chinook, idem; Klikatat and Yakama, N'WITKA. Yes; certainly; yes indeed; to be sure. Nawitka wake nika kumtuks, indeed I don't know. In answer to a negative question, many Indians use it as affirming the negative. Ex. Wake mika nanitsh? did you not see [it] ? ”

“ Of these 221 were Chinook, 18 At or Nootka, 94 French, 67 English, and 21 were credited to various branches of the Salish or Flathead family of Indians.
In early years a trading knowledge of Chinook was necessary in order to do business, as is a like knowledge of French on the borders of the Province of Quebec. It is now rapidly falling into disuse, the result of the training in English which some of the later generations have received in the school. At the best it is but a wretched means of communication, poor in expression and almost destitute of grammatical forms. ”

“ 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 ”

“ It's a real chinook wind, Yogi thought. The foreman did right to let the men go. It wouldn't be safe keeping them in a day like this. Anything might happen. The owner of the factory knew a thing or two. When the chinook blew, the thing to do was to get the men out of the factory. Then, if any of them were injured, it was not on him. He didn't get caught under the Employer's Liability Act. They knew a thing or two, these big pump-manufacturers. They were smart, all right. ”

“ They left the pool-table, placed their cues in the rack on the wall, paid at the counter, and went out into the night.
Along the dark streets men were sneaking home. The frost had come and frozen everything stiff and cold. The chinook had not been a real chinook, after all. Spring had not yet come, and the men who had commenced their orgies were halted by the chill in the air that told them the chinook wind had been a fake. That foreman, Yogi thought, he'll catch hell to-morrow. Perhaps it had all been engineered by the pump-manufacturers to get the foreman out of his job. ”

“ 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. ”

“ As time passed and the white men began to learn something of the Chinook nature, it was discovered that these people, their immediate neighbors, had been telling the more distant Indians that the white men were enemies, just as they had been telling the white people that these distant tribes were enemies. The result of this was that the Chinooks were purchasing furs from the distant tribes and selling them to the traders at a handsome profit. ”

“ Through three mountain-passes the Chinook drifts in, tempering everything it touches and making it possible for Indians and pack-train men to winter their horses here without any trouble on the naturally-cured grasses. ”

“ Injun said nothing, but his face showed that he knew all about the Chinook wind.
"Well," continued Bill, addressing Whitey, "it's a warm wind thet's liable to come any time durin' the winter months; but it usually comes along 'bout February er March. The snow all melts an' the sun shines an' the grass begins to sprout an' the stock commences to feed an' wander away from the home corrals. Now this here Mister Chinook Wind'd be a wonderful thing if he was on the level—which he ain't. Not by no means! He's a shore-enough villain, an' could play the villain's part in any story an' live up to it! ”

“ Simmons has been justly termed the Daniel Boone of Washington Territory. Shaw was said to be the only man who could make or translate a speech in Chinook jargon offhand, as fast as a man could talk in his own vernacular. The Chinook jargon was a mongrel lingo, made up for trading purposes by the fur-traders from English, French, and Indian words, and had become the common speech between whites and Indians, and between Indians of different tribes and tongues. He greatly distinguished himself afterwards in the Indian war as lieutenant-colonel of volunteers. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In any event, he greeted Sundown next morning as the latter came to the water-hole to drink. "You can't lose your way," he said, pointing across the mesa. "Just keep to the road. The first ranch on the right is the Concho. Good luck!" And he led Chinook through the gateway. In an hour he had topped the hill. He reined Chinook round. He saw a tiny figure far to the south. Half in joke he waved his sombrero. Sundown, who had glanced back from time to time, saw the salute and answered it with a sweeping gesture of his lean arm. ”

“ In the absence of special knowledge upon the subject, we may infer that Indian languages do not differ much as to copiousness, and that the Chinook people were fully up with other tribes in that respect. Commercial inter- course did for them what it does for all people, increased their knowledge and added to their stock of words. They came in contact with civilized men, saw and purchased many things which they did not make and for which, consequently, they had no names, and it was but natural that they should adopt the names in use among the vendors. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Scarcely anything can be imagined in nature more picturesque and dramatic than this Chinook wind. The thermometer may be down nearly to zero, a foot of snow may rest like a pall on the earth, or a deadly fog may wrap the earth, when suddenly, as if by the breath of inspiration, the fog parts, the peaks of the mountains may be seen half stripped of snow, and then, roaring and whistling, the warm south wind comes like an army. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”