Voices of the Pacific Northwest
Language and Life along the Columbia and throughout Cascadia
from the 18th Century to the Present
A Curriculum of Historical and Linguistic Inquiry
Part 2 - Kanaka Town and the Overland Fur Trade
Fort Vancouver's Kanaka Town—Chinook, Cree, Voyageurs, King George’s Men, Bostons, and Owhyhees
Hawaiians at Fort Vancouver
Hawaiian Language and Syllabic Structure
Exercise 2.1—Linguistics Problem Set: Reduplication in Hawaiian
Language Contact and Hawaiian Creole English
Exercise 2.2—Linguistics Problem Set: Negation in Pidgin (Hawaiian Creole English)
Wawa
Horatio Hale and the US Exploring Expedition
The Development of Chinuk Wawa
Chinuk Wawa as a Lingua Franca
Activity 3.1—Interview with Tony Johnson
Activity 3.2—Use of Chinuk Wawa on Pacific Northwest fruit crates (c. 1930s)
Exercise 3.1—Reduplication in Chinuk Wawa
Exercise 3.2—Negation and Agreement in English and Chinuk Wawa

In the 1850s, American visitors to this area of Fort Vancouver referred to the Village as “Kanaka Town.” At the time, Hawaiians were known as Kanakas, meaning “human being,” and this name for the community is evidence of their significant presence at Fort Vancouver. “Fort Vancouver and the Village from the West,” July 1851. Drawn by George Gibbs. Smithsonian Institution National Anthropological Archives, Neg. No. 2854-F-14.
Was Fort Vancouver a hothouse or a harmonious multicultural village created intentionally by the Hudson’s Bay Company?
What is the impact on language of increased trade and interactions between civilizations and cultures?
Chinook group inside a cedar plank lodge, Oregon. From an engraving by A.T. Agate in the report of the Wilkes Expedition – 1841.University of Washington, Special Collections, Negative number NA 3994
