Languages at Fort Vancouver

This artistic rendering of the Fort Vancouver Village shows it as it would have appeared in the 1840s.

NPS Photo

Imagine the year is 1845. As you stroll along the earthen avenues of Fort Vancouver's employee Village, you hear a wide variety of languages spoken. As you meet the men, women, and children who live here, you are just as likely to hear "bonjour" (French), "tanisi" (Cree), or "aloha" (Hawaiian), as you are "hello." But perhaps the most common greeting is in Chinuk Wawa: "ɬaxayam."

The Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Vancouver and its nearby Village were home to a multicultural community. The residents of this place spoke many languages, and many people were polyglots - speakers of multiple languages.

When he visited the fort in the mid-1840s, American ethnologist Horatio Hale identified the most commonly spoken languages as English, French, Chinook, Cree, and Hawaiian, but also noted the presence of speakers of Chehalis, Walla Walla, Kalapuya, and Nisqually. As an important crossroads for trade routes and a hub of Euro-Canadian fur trade efforts in the region, Fort Vancouver was home to people from many tribes who brought their languages with them when they came to work or conduct business there.

Indigenous women who came to the site as the wives of Hudson's Bay Company employees were also known for speaking multiple languages - the language of their community of origin, the language of their husband's community, and languages or dialects of other tribes in the region.

Among the diversity of languages spoken at Fort Vancouver and the Village, the pidgin language Chinook Jargon, or Chinuk Wawa, emerged as the primary language for everyday communication. At Fort Vancouver, the language evolved and expanded, influenced by the diversity of its speakers.

As Americans migrated to the Northwest, Indigenous languages came under threat. Even before westward migration began in earnest, Euro-Canadian and American teachers and missionaries at Fort Vancouver attempted to discourage the use of Native languages, and replace them with English or French. When the American military began removing Native peoples to reservations, and after the establishment of boarding schools for Native children designed to suppress their culture, Native languages suffered.

Though some of these languages are no longer spoken fluently, today many tribes and cultural groups across North America and Hawai'i have begun language revitalization projects to encourage new speakers and preserve these Native languages, many of which have been spoken in the Northwest since time immemorial.

Learn more about the diverse community at Fort Vancouver here.

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The list below provides a glimpse at the languages that could have been heard at Fort Vancouver in the 19th century. The cultural groups listed here have a documented presence at the fort and Village. Spellings are taken from historical sources and from the present-day tribes or cultural groups. Resources are provided to learn more about these languages and language revitalization efforts.

Anishinaabemowin

Residents of Fort Vancouver from Great Lakes-area tribes, and Euro-Canadian fur traders who had worked in the region, would have spoken Anishinaabemowin languages, including the Ojibwe language.

The Ojibwe People's Dictionary

Anishinaabemowin resources from the Nipissing First Nation

Anishinaabemowin resources from the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians

Carrier

The Carrier language is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken by the Dakelh (Carrier) residents of Fort Vancouver. One Dakelh resident of Fort Vancouver in the 1840s was Lisette, the wife of a Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) HBC employee and the mother of a son named Charles.

Chehalis

Upper Chehalis and Lower Chehalis are Coast Salish languages spoken by Chehalis residents of Fort Vancouver.

Chinookan dialects

Chinookan dialects were spoken by Indigenous peoples living along the Columbia River, including the Cascades, Chinook, Clatsop, Kathlamet, Multnomah, and Skillute. Many residents of the Fort Vancouver Village came from these tribes, including many women who were married to HBC employees.

Chinuk Wawa (Chinook Jargon)

For broader communication, between fort employees and members of area tribes, between tribes from different areas, and within the households of the Village, Chinook Jargon or "Chinuk Wawa" was the primary language of everyday use. Chinuk Wawa emerged as a trade language sythesized from several languages around the context of trade and other cross-cultural encounters, a linguistic development with precedents elsewhere in North American frontier trading centers. Drawing heavily from the lexicon of lower Chinook, but also incorporating various words from Nuu-Chah-Nulth (Nootkan), Salish, and other Native languages, Chinuk Wawa acquired numerous English and French elements during hte period of HBC operations in the region, within a grammar that was flexible and allowed for the general transmission of meaning within a multicultural environment. This pidgin language, probably rooted in precontact trade languages used along the lower Columbia, continued to evolve at Fort Vancouver in directions that reflected the diversity of the fort community.

Today, instruction in Chinuk Wawa can be found on a smart phone app developed by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde:
Chinuk Wawa for Apple
Chinook Wawa for Google Play

Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon, has a Chinuk Wawa language program presented in partnership with the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde. Learn more here.

Cowlitz

The Cowlitz language is a Coast Salish language similar to the Lower Chehalis language. At Fort Vancouver, it was spoken by members of the Cowlitz tribe.

Cree dialects

Cree Hudson's Bay Company employees spoke Cree dialects. Some Hudson's Bay Company officers at Fort Vancouver had Cree wives, who they had met at fur trade posts in eastern Canada. Amelia Douglas, the wife of the fort's Chief Trader James Douglas, spoke Swampy Cree. Cree dialects are Algonquian languages, and are spoken by Cree people across Canada.

Learn more about Cree employees at Fort Vancouver here.

English

The Hudson's Bay Company was headquartered in London, England, and many HBC officers, as well as English employees, spoke English.

French

Fort Vancouver's French Canadian employees, as well as Catholic missionaries from eastern Canada, spoke French.

Gaelic

Fort Vancouver's Scottish employees spoke Scottish Gaelic. On a visit to the fort, HBC Governor George Simpson remarked that he encountered a "North Briton, who understood only the Gaelic of his native hills."

Hawaiian

In the 1840s, Fort Vancouver had the largest population of Native Hawaiians outside of Hawai'i. Hawaiian was spoken by these Hawaiians, mostly men, who came to Fort Vancouver to work here. Learn more about Hawaiians at Fort Vancouver here.

Haudenosaunee languages

The Hudson's Bay Company encouraged Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) employees to work at the Company's posts throughout North America, including Fort Vancouver. The languages spoken by these employees may have been Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Tuscarora, and Wyandot. Learn more about Haudenosaunee employees at Fort Vancouver here.
Information on Haudenosaunee languages from the Haudenosaunee Confederacy

Hul'qumi'num

Hul'qumi'num was spoken by people of the Cowichan Tribes at Hudson's Bay Company posts like Fort Vancouver.

Kalapuya

Northern Kalapuya, Central Kalapuya, and Yoncalla (Southern Kalapuya) were spoken by the Kalapuyan residents of the fort.

Kiksht

Kiksht is an Upper Chinookan language spoken by the fort's Wasco-Wishram residents. Today, the language is taught at Central Oregon Community College's Kiksht Program.

Klallam/S'Klallam

The Klallam language was spoken by Klallam residents of Fort Vancouver.
Klallam language resources from the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe
Klallam Language Word of the Day on Twitter

Lushootseed dialects

Lushootseed is a Coast Salish language with many subdialects spoken by Nisqually and Snohomish residents of Fort Vancouver. Lushootseed dialects were also spoken by other tribes in the Northwest, including the Puyallup and Tulalip, who have begun language revitalization efforts for Lushootseed.
Nisqually resources from the Nisqually Indian Tribe
Lushootseed resources from the Puyallup Tribe of Indians
Lushootseed resources from the Tulalip Tribes of Washington

Molala

The Molala language was spoken by the Molala residents of Fort Vancouver.

Niimiipuu

The Niimiipuu language was spoken by Nez Perce visitors and residents of Fort Vancouver.
Niimiipuu resources from the Nez Perce Tribe

Nsәlxcin

Nsәlxcin, or Colville-Okanagan Salish, was spoken by the Colville and Sylix (Okanagan) residents of Fort Vancouver.
Nsәlxcin resources from the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
Salish School of Spokane
En'owkin Centre

Nuu-chah-nulth

Nuu-chah-nulth, also known as Nootkan, is a Wakashan language that would have been spoken by the Nuu-chah-nulth residents of and visitors to Fort Vancouver. Nuu-chah-nulth was also a language that influenced Chinuk Wawa, or Chinook Jargon.

Pit River languages

Pit River residents of Fort Vancouver would have spoken the Achumawi or Atsugewi languages.

Quinault

The Coast Salish Quinault language was spoken by Quinault residents or visitors to Fort Vancouver.

Sahaptin dialects

A Sahaptin dialect was spoken by the Klickitat residents of Fort Vancouver.

Salish

The Salish language was spoken by Kalispel (Pend d'Oreille) residents of Fort Vancouver.
Salish resources from the Kalispel Tribe of Indians
Salish School of Spokane

Shasta

Shasta residents of Fort Vancouver spoke the Shasta language, or one of its dialects.
Shasta resources from the Shasta Indian Nation

Spokane

Spokane is an Interior Salish dialect spoken by Fort Vancouver's Spokane residents.
Spokane resources from Spokane Tribe Language and Culture

Tillamook

Tillamook is a Salishan language spoken by the fort's Tillamook residents.

Tlingit

The Tlingit language would have been spoken by Stikene visitors and residents of Fort Vancouver.

Umatilla

The Umatilla language is the southern dialect of the Sahaptin language, which would have been spoken by the fort's Umatilla residents. Today, the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla are part of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
Umatilla resources from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation

Walla Walla

The Walla Walla language is a northeast dialect of the Sahaptin language, which would have been spoken by the fort's Walla Walla residents, like Marie, the Walla Walla wife of a Haudenosaunee employee who lived in the Village in the 1840s. Today, the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla are part of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
Walla Walla resources from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation

Today, two Village houses have been reconstructed at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.

NPS Photo

The 2019 Chinuk Wawa Word of the Week

The United Nations declared 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages. In honor of the Indigenous language that was most commonly spoken at the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort Vancouver, we spent the year sharing words in Chinuk Wawa on our Facebook page.

The words shared in the photo gallery below, their pronunciations and definitions come from “Chinuk Wawa: As our elders teach us to speak it,” a publication of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde. Learn more about this book here.