Chinook Wawa

In a “stick illahee” (forest) one could easily find both "mitwhit stick" (a standing tree) and “whim stick” (a fallen tree), as well as the occasional “koko stick” (wood-pecker)....

Historically, “klootchman” only referred to a First Nations adult woman, unless combined with another word, such as “Kingchauch klootchman” (Englishwoman) “Boston klootchman” (American woman), or some other descriptor, such as “tenas klootchman” (girl; young woman)....

The potlatch was the ceremonial distribution of property and gifts practiced among the First Nations of Cascadia along the Pacific coast, particularly the Kwakiutl, and were an institutional foundation of coastal society and economics....

MAHSIE [MAH-sie] — verb. Meaning: Thanks, thank you, thankful. Origin: French, merci  thank you. Sometimes rendered as ‘masi’, ‘mausie’ and even as “masiem”, the world was adopted from French as a way of saying ‘thanks’ or ‘thank you”, or to show that one is ‘thankful’, “wawa mahsie” ( to give…...

Our word of the Day this week is Skookum! One of the most versatile words in Chinook Jargon....