Has anyone else here experienced issues with lowkey or not so lowkey racism in Chinook Jargon spaces? I will not specify any specific individuals or groups here for personal reasons, but this popped up in quite an explosive way in a group I used to associate with a while ago. It shocked me. It seems counterintuitive to me to come to a partially indigenous language with such an attitude.

I did bring up the issue to the organizer of the group, and no consequences ever seemed to come about. In fact, that individual was later elevated in that space. It was disappointing as there were some high-profile people in that group. Ultimately, I left that community because I could not stand behind a group or person who not only enabled such behavior but "promoted" that person in spite of their views.

IMO, "not being racist" is not enough, especially in contexts like these. Actively being anti-racist and checking problematic statements and views is, for me, a necessity when working with anything indigenous or indigenous-adjacent. I am not even talking about "little" things or honest mistakes. I am talking about egregious behavior, like claiming that indigenous people have a victim mentality or talking crap on different dialects.

Seeing this in my limited experience with CJ groups makes me wonder what else goes unchecked in circles that learn and practice the language.

See the English and French here - https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/813486771220381716/1537156726946668646/pensionnat-kamloops-residential-school-plaque-1.png?ex=6a7ffe82&is=6a7ead02&hm=477d7d8a89e79ed18d2cf5bf6a3574ec56aa877992b94fbf02653d0a5b11eb5f&=&format=webp&quality=lossless

You are invited! Save the date and join us for another Chinook gathering October 16-17 at the PoCo Heritage Museum and Archives in Port Coquitlam BC, Canada.

For those who have never attended one, essentially this is a chance for people interested in this language to come together, speak, sing, write, share their projects/research, and to teach and learn. These have been happening for more than 25 years now.

If you’re interested in presenting or running a session on something let us know!

New keyboard for northern dialect Chinook Jargon (chn) in Latin orthography live on the Keyman site today.

https://keyman.com/en/keyboards/northern_chinook_jargon

After 9 months (or maybe longer!), I finally finished my intro to Chinook yt video!

Please go check it out!

chinook wawa

Hello, I am a new (but big!) fan of linguistics, i speak English and French and I’m learning Occitan. I recently began researching Chinook Wawa and have been fascinated by it. It’s a really cool language with a wonderful history. I would like to take the next step and learn it, but given i am white (french/english) from England without any connection to the PNW is it ok for me to learn? I don’t want to be disrespectful to anyone from the region. Thank you!