St. Mark's Kloosh Yiem kopa nesika Saviour Jesus Christ 1912

Chinook Wawa

Chinook Wawa, also called Chinuk Wawa or Chinook Jargon, or Chinook PIdgin. It was a lingua franca and trade language used between Native Americans and English and French speaking traders, especially those employed by the Hudson Bay Company, and so includes elements from many languages. It was used widely along the Pacific coast of North American from Alaska, in British Columbia and as far south as Oregon. It was written in Shorthand Phonetics and also in Roman script.

Rev. C. M. Tate

Charles Montgomery Tate was born in Northumberland, England in 1852. He came to North America aged 18, sailing first to New York, travelling west to San Francisco and to British Columbia in Canada. He arrived in Victoria, on Vancouver Island, intending to go to the Cariboo gold fields.

Instead in 1870 he enrolled as a Wesleyan Methodist lay missionary. He went to Nanaimo and taught English to the Native Indians of the area. In 1874 he was transferred to Chilliwack. In 1879 he was ordained at the first Methodist Conference in Victoria.

In 1880 Rev and Mrs Tate organised the first Indian School at Squihala in the Chilliwack Valley with twelve resident pupil. From 1886 this became the Coqualeetza Residential School.

He had a lover of the native culture and language and learnt the Chinook Wawa language. Tate became fluent in the Chinook Wawa language. In 1889 he published "Chinook as spoken by the Indians of Washington territory, British Columbia and Alaska for the use of traders, tourists and others who have business intercourse with with the Indians". He also translated the Gospel of Mark into Chinook Wawa.

Tate retired in Victoria in 1910, and he died in Vancouver on 28th February 1933.

Gospel of Mark

Tate's Gospel of Mark was the first book of the Bible in Chinook Wawa. It was published as "St. Mark's Kloosh Yiem kopa nesika Saviour Jesus Christ" by the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS), and printed by Billing and Sons Ltd, of Guildford, England in 1912. 

Digital Edition

The Chinook Wawa Gospel of Mark in Roman script, was digitised for the Canadian Bible Society with the help of MissionAssist in 2020.