Upper Chinook language facts for kids

Upper Chinook, also known as Kiksht (its own name for itself), was a language spoken by Native American people in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It was also called Columbia Chinook or Wasco-Wishram. Sadly, this language became extinct on July 11, 2012, when its last fluent speaker passed away.

In 1990, there were 69 people who spoke Upper Chinook. Seven of these people spoke only this language. By 2001, only five speakers of the Wasco dialect remained.

What Happened to the Upper Chinook Language?

The very last person who could speak Kiksht fluently was a woman named Gladys Thompson. She died in July 2012. Gladys was honored in 2007 by the Oregon government for her important work with the language.

Even though the language is now extinct, people are working to keep its memory alive. In 2006, two new speakers were teaching Kiksht at the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. The University of Oregon also teamed up with the Warm Springs schools to teach Kiksht and another language called Numu.

You can find audio and video recordings of Kiksht at the Endangered Languages Archive. These recordings help us remember and learn about the language.

The last fluent speaker of the Wasco-Wishram dialect was Madeline Brunoe McInturff. She passed away on July 11, 2006, when she was 91 years old.

Different Ways of Speaking Upper Chinook

The Upper Chinook language had several different versions, called dialects. Each dialect was spoken in a specific area by different groups of people. Here are some of them:

• Multnomah: This dialect was once spoken near Sauvie Island and the Portland area in Oregon.
• Kiksht: This was the main name for the language, but it also had its own sub-dialects:
  • Watlala or Watlalla: Also known as Cascades, this dialect is now extinct. It was spoken by two groups, one on each side of the Columbia River.
  • Hood River: This dialect is also extinct. It was spoken by the Hood River Band of the Hood River Wasco in Oregon.
  • White Salmon: This extinct dialect was spoken by the White Salmon River Band of Wishram in Washington.
  • Wasco-Wishram: The Wishram people lived north of the Columbia River in Washington, and their relatives, the Wasco people, lived south of the river in Oregon.
  • Clackamas: This dialect, now extinct, was spoken in northwestern Oregon along the Clackamas and Sandy rivers.

Another language, Kathlamet, was sometimes thought to be a dialect of Upper Chinook. However, people who spoke Upper Chinook and Kathlamet could not easily understand each other. This means they were likely separate languages.

br:Waskoeg-wichrameg nl:Wasco (volk)