NOWITCAH

THIS all happened a long time ago, and very few of the many Indians in the neighborhood spoke English. Everyone learned Chinook, the jargon which the Indians had learned from early traders. We small Tates spoke it fluently — I rather suspect better than we did English. Now, Mother had an uncle, John Lee, who was superintendent of the Indian school at Chemawa. He came to visit us, and of u)urse, we were expected to make a good impression. Uncle John took me on his lap and asked me some question. I wriggled with delight at being noticed by so great a person, and answered him in Chinook, "Nowitcah," I said, which means "yes." Poor mother was so humiliated to think that her "offspring" would not answer a plain question in English She gave me a lecture that I remembered. And that mistake was not repeated.