[Grovenet] ear mark this!

[David Morelli]

On Feb 13, 2008, at 2:51 PM, Walt Wentz wrote:

> Hey, if we're gonna be nativist, let's make the truly ORIGINAL  
> language of this state our official language:
> Nah, tillicums! Mahlie King Chautch wawa, mamook Chinook kopet ikt  
> wawa.  Nika hyas ticky! Okoke illahe yaka hyas kloshe! Siwash wawa  
> hyas skookum! Mahsh wawa konaway tillicum wawa Siwash!
>

I appreciate the intent, but the official language of the Tualatin  
basin is Kalapooya not Chinook.  We share that with the region  
drained by the Willamette River.  The Chinook language was spoken  
along the main course of the Columbia River and in trade with the  
Chinook.  The coast and eastern people had other languages as well.

I am not being overly picky on this.  The people who lived in this  
region at the time of Lewis and Clark were divided by their language  
and cultures.  They did not widely share information about the coming  
trappers, missionaries or settlers.  There was no common language to  
carry the experiences of the Atlantic people to the plains people and  
to the Pacific Northwest people.  That did not help them.  Each  
separate people was divided, so they were less able to resist the  
external forces that pushed them from their homes.

The Columbia basin had a trade language, Chinook Wa Wa, but it was  
neither official, nor especially conducive to transferring non-trade  
information, since many in the region only knew the most rudimentary  
words or none at all.  When it came time to negotiate the withdrawal  
from traditional lands to reservations, each group was kept separated  
by the settlers and by their language and culture, there was no  
possibility for collective bargaining in the face of the unified  
settlers/army.

A common language has the potential to unite us.  The lack of a  
common language has the potential to divide us.  Given the stresses  
of society, I would prefer that we take the opportunity offered by a  
common language.

David