The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-08-11
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Cherokee youngster is able to acquire
| fuencyin reading books written in this
/ syllabary within two months and a
half. In 1927 the American board of
foreign missions betrayed the cost of
casting font of type OF the charac-
| ters- The literature composed with
them is now very extensive, numerous
books and some of the newspapers of
the Cherokees being published in the
syllabary.
| Later, in 1910, an improved syllabary
was devised by Rev. James Evans. a
missionary among the Crees- 1t was
phonetic, and the chasacters were sim
pier, being composed OF squares and
parts of squares and circles and parts
of circles. The Jealous clergyman cut
his type out of wood and made cast
ings from the original blocks with lead
from tea chests. which he begged from
officers of the Hudson Bay company.
He manufactured ink out of SCOT and
on hand press of his own construc-
ton printed many little tracts and
leaflets for the benefit of the Indians.
With some notifications his characters
have come into general use. not only
among the Crees, br also among many
tribes of the northwest, which speak
, languages in no wise akin to that Of
the Crees, and scores of books have
been printed in them.
The queerest periodical in existence
is weekly now published by a French
priest at Kanloops, British Columbia.
II is called the Kamloops Wa-wa,
which means writing" and is in the
Chinook jargon. This jargon is a sort
of international speech, composed Of
half Il dozen different Indian tongues,
mixed with fragments OF English,
French and German. 1t is the language
of trade intercourse among all the peo-
pie of the 81 arsely settled northwest
as far as Alaska.
The mission field of the holy father
who publishes this periodical extend.
over about five hundred square miles.
Much of his time is spent in making
long journeys between distant settle
ments. and during his pauses for rest
on the way he amuses himself with
editorial work The weekly is written
in three columnS-the first column in
jargon, the second in shorthand char
acters and the third in English. The
matter is current news of the mission,
sermons, prayers, etc. 1t is multiplied
by the mimeograph and distributed
among the priests widely scattered
parishioners. The paper on which the
printing is done is blue, green, pink or
- ha ct Of 10
people who give it to the good father.
The periodical is delivered free OF
charge, Mr.. Pilling being, in all prob
ability, the only paying subscriber.
The jargon was started by the early
white explorers who visited the Pacific
coast. Lewis and Clark, the first adj
venturers in that direction, were fol-
lowed by the people of the American
Fur Co, sent out by John Jacob Astor.
The passing of these commercial trav-
elers among the tribes Of indians re-
suited in a composite voca bulary, which
is now used by people who speak TWEEN
ny different language, not one of them
like unto another. Yet they under
stand this common business tongue,
which in manner corresponds to the
Asiatic ''pidgin English" Every WASH
tnc,on and Oregon man talks Lhinoois.
In the Chinook jargon white men are
divided into two kinds-''wo-hars" and
''god-dams" The former is a term for
teamsters and the like, the derivation
being obvious. while the latter is the
designation for gentlemen, who. as
every body knows. used TO swear terri
bly, in the old days \ name for the
white man in general is Boston"
This is believed to be derived from an
historical incident-nameiy, the cap
ture by the Nootka Indians at NOotka
sound of Il vessel called the Boston,
from the town of Boston, Mass, in 1903.
Every soul on board of her was put to
death save only two-a Sailmaker and
a sailor man named Jewett. The for
mer died, while the latter was rescued
by an American ship two and a half
years later.
For fifteen years Mr.. Pilling has
been engaged in the preparation of bib
liographs of the native languages OF
the United States and Canada, and so
far ten OF these, each relating to one Of
the more important families, have been
pu blished by the bureau of ethnology,
the eleventh being now ready for theI
press. He is now beginning one on the
Nshvatk language of Mexico, in which
the earliest American printing was
done and in which more material has
been published than in any other of
the North American tongues. except,
perhaps, the Algonquian-