Transcriptions of Wishram texts
Culture:
Language: English | Chinook, Upper | Wasco-Wishram
Date: circa 1905-1909
Contributor: McGuff, Peter
Subject: Anthropology | Ethnography | Folklore | Linguistics | Penutian languages | Oregon--History | Fieldwork
Type: Text
Genre: Stories | Transcriptions
Extent: 27 pages
Description: This item consists of handwritten texts on historic and mythic topics written in Wasco-Wishram with English translation on lined loose-leaf paper. The stories were apparently gathered by Peter McGuff; there are also a few personal notes and ethnographic observations sprinkled throughout. The seven stories are designated by teller and by subject as follows: "This story told by an old lady how they went short of provisions some seventy years ago, at the Cascades" (2 pages); "This is parts of the sk!uliyE story that Louie [Simpson] missed, Given by Yaryarone (Wicxam [Wishram])...." (5 pages); "From Sophia Klickitate (age 64) What happened at Cascades before any white person known of in that part of the country...." (2 pages); "From Jane Meachum Age 80 years (Wicxam [Wishram])" (2 pages); "Raccoon, Pheasant, Coyote, and Crow" (7 pages); "Racoon Continued" (3 pages--at the bottom of the third page is a personal note from Pete to Ed asking for feedback on the quality of the work and noting that he can't make a living from it unless Ed makes a guarantee of steady work); and "from anEwikus age 65" (6 pages). Louis "Louie" Simpson and Peter "Pete" McGuff were both Wishram language consultants who worked with Edward Sapir; Sapir described them in Sapir (1909), and Michael Silverstein discussed them both in Natural Histories of Discourse (1996), a volume co-edited by Silverstein and Greg Urban.
Collection: Transcriptions of Wishram texts Mss.497.3.M17t