B6 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 29, 2005 va A. iy _ SKEENA ANGLER _ ROB BROWN * “Chinook 101 Ei blue sky in the west followed by clouds ' ’ spinning off the Rockies foretell the ar- _ tival-of dry, the dry, warm winds that : whip’ off the winding sheets of winter and loosen " the icy grip of winter: the Chinook arch beto- - -kens a Chinook sky and Chinook winds that melt lake ice at a rate of ‘an inch an hour, turning a bit- terly cold February morning. into June by. noon. “Perfect hurricanes,” Alexander MacKenzie * dubbed them, when he felt their respite for the first time. _. . There. are chinook on the other side of the Rock-. ies too. - . They are ‘the: first salmon ‘of the year to come . home, notso startling an event as the meteorological _ phenomenon on the other side of the mountains, to’ _ be sure, but one imbued with mystery and charged with a. moving, slow-moving drama. 8 It’s only appropriate the, chinook should be. the first to return since er name ‘is rooted in tsinuk, - which meant ‘ ‘village” o “ home” in the language - _ of the First Nations people who lived on the shores of the lower Columbia River and were known to: themselves and others as the Chinook people. “The Chinook, who practised a religion whose central sacrament was the return of salmon from the sea, traded far.and wide, eventually returning ' home with gdods and gifts, much like eponymous sea and are ‘gifts to the environment and the crea- tures therein in and of themselves. . The peregrinations of Chinook traders, like those of the chinook salmon, took them out to sea ’ then thousands of miles along the west coast and many river miles inland. Bearing fish, their main trading commodity, as well as slaves, canoes and shells, the intrepid Chi- . nook bartered with hundreds of First Nations. Over time the Chinook developed a trading lan- . guage with their partners. As the trade routes grew, so did the language, of Chinook, Nootka, French and English that was used as the lingua franca by an estimated 50,000 people spread over an area extending from the coast of Alaska to the coast of southern California. . Quite understandably, . the Chinook . people proved to be extraordinary explorers. ».. The first coastal First Nation documented by . Lewis and Clarke, the Chinook had invaluable ex-. _pertise that greatly benefitted the first explorers and those who followed, but ultimately proved a great . disadvantage to themselves. The great ‘mercantile nation of the Chinook suf- fered the fate that all First Nations do post contact: “their lands were stolen, they were imprisoned on power and robbed of the ability to trade, they died, .- existing now only in the minds and increasingly di- minishing speech of their trading partners, and in the vestiges of their trading language. _ The-Chinook are history, but traces of their lan- guage persist in ours. . , Chinook is still with us. Skookum, for example, is a word often used to describe everything from a robust piece of machinery to a strong wind. Skookum, it turns out, entered the vocabulary of the Chinook traders from the language of the Cha- halis, whose word skukum meant powerful,. brave orlarge. Did you ever go fishing i in the Chuk or Saltchuk? - - Well, if the seas were heavy enough to pitch your craft about like a pitiful piece of flotsam, you know what it is to be asea in the skookumchuk, or heavy “seas, since.chuk is Chinookan for water. | And what of those high muckamucks, those fac- “ totums who try to impress us all. Muckamuck to a Chinook meant food. In the era ' of the potlatch, having lots of food enabled you to . be a big time distributor — food was power. A high muckamuck was a food baron, an ab-- original Ray Kroc with serious, to-be-reckoned- with pop. Similarly, a skookum-house was a , euphemism .. for a jail, and the generous and caring were said to have a skookum tum-tum or big heart. Chinook is replete with sensible sounds: besides tum-tum for heart, there was tik-tik to signify tele- ‘graph and chik-chik meant wagon wheel. Tyee meant ‘big boss’ to a Chinook, thus Tyee Papa was Chinook for God, as in-Tyee papa, mah- sie Klashe muckamuck which twists French, Salish, Chinook and Nootka into a braid that means, “thank you, God, for the food we’re about to eat. Many of you tilicums, or friends, out there, will know that Tyee is also Western Canadian parlance for really big spring or.chinook salmon — skookum chinooks, the subject of my column next week. Until then, Klahowya Tillicums. until it had evolved into an onomatopoeic amalgam . reservations, the essential features of their culture _ were outlawed until, dispossessed and bereft of TERRACE STANDARD oe 4 H i . ED ANSEMS runs down a street i in the Uplands area as part of the 45 miles he treks each week. At the end of June, Ansems expects to have _ amilestone. 50,000 miles, about.83;000 km, in. _ paying much attention. salmon, who’ ‘return home with nutrients: ‘from the: oo i run 50,000 miles, about 83,000 km, while exercising and training for marathons and half marathons. SHARON ANSEMS PHOTO Runner races record distance A LOCAL runner is close to reaching ‘The 50,000 milestone t that is. Ed Ansems, '57, will have run. Terrace at the end of this month. ' And it happened without him “J never intended to run that many miles,” he says, adding the distance just kept accumulating. He believes no other Terracite has © ever run that much, a distance equal » to about twice around the equator. - He averages about.45 miles, or 75 km, each week along the roads i in Uplands, even in winter. ' Running means freedom. “T like team sports but I like to be able to get out and exercise any time that’s easy for me,” he says. . ‘Racing is more fun than training. his time. bots te Prato rive had clini ue: Sh DORM net oe ky “If I could race: every weekend | I'd be happy,” he says. .. He’s, competed in Seattle, Van- couver, Victoria, Edmonton and in: * the Interior and Lower Mainland. In May, he completed the Cana- dian Half Marathon Championships in Edmonton, finishing third in his _age group, but wasn’t pleased with The elevation affected his run- ning; he clocked a time of 1 hour 31 marathon time of 1:10.30. - He -had.a similar experience toa previous race in Calgary, the only race he didn’t complete. “What’s wrong with me?” and he couldn’t run anymore that day. _Cont'd Page | Bis > fight for medals in Vancouver spots in the Can-Am North-West-American International Championships in Vancouver over the June 18 weekend. Patrick Moore, 10, won a gold medal in point fighting and a silver medal in continuous fighting. Moore, an intermediate competitor who trains at the Ter- @ race Shogun Dojo studio, won and lost some matches until PATRICK MOORE, left, of the Terrace Shogun Dojo and Tareq Abu Khadra, Smithers, won medals:at the Can-Am North-West- - tr | American International Karate Championships in Vancouver. animals i in Rupert By MARGARET SPEIRS | TERRACE WHISKEYJACK: © archers travelled to Bog Hollow, about a half-hour drive east of Prince Rupert, to take on the. animals over the June 4 weekend. . Despite some challenging shoots, the club topped the standings at the end of the two- day event. In men’s recurve, Allan Correira Won, . followed by Ricardo Correia in second. In. men’s traditional, John Sandhals shot. his way to second and Frank Ridler took third. _ In women’s traditional, Cynthia Ridler won second-and Lorna Sandhals took third. In the cubs traditional, Alexander Correia scored second. In the masters traditional, Ed Mckenzie took third. _ “It was a great shoot. The weather was really nice,” said club member Lorna Sand- hals, adding about 45 archers competed, some from as far away as Quesnel. _ The 3-D outdoor shoot of three rounds of 30 targets each was similar to the shoot the club hosted here in May. The Prince Rupert club debuted their new grizzly bear and set up some really challeng- ing shots, Sandhals said. ' “They have quite a few of the small tar-. gets so it’s very hard,” she said, adding that smaller animals placed closer to the archers doesn’t mean they’re easy to hit. “Some of us who were scoring high in Terrace thought ‘wow this is difficult.” A black panther and a bear served as long distance targets in the tree shoot, which chal- lenged archers to climb up about 20 steps into a tree stand and shoot down at animals located about 20 to 30 yards away. The bear, standing on its hind legs, proved difficult for Sandhals who missed it all three times because its stance and distance made it . a narrow target. The panther, standing on all fours staring at the archers with its green eyes, proved to . be another tough shot. -“You’re high up and when shooting down it’s difficult to get your orientation,” Sand- hals said. Next up, the club travels to the provincial ‘shoot this weekend in Vanderhoof. recently when he started improving as a result of his growing experience in combat, said Renshi Marwan Abu Khadra. -Khadra said he promised Moore’s parents that com-- peting in eastern Canada would improve his skills. They were delighted with their son’s performance. ~ Tareq Abu Khadra, 7, took a silver medal in point fighting for the seven- and eight-year-old intermediate age group. Khadra said his son. fought excellently and had a great time. About 350 to 400 competitors took part in .the - event. eo Sports Menu July! . Sarah Zimmerman at 638- 7283. ‘MJuly 2 BiJuly 3 Adventure Challenge kicks. off with the Ruins Board Shop’s Open Water Swim at 8 a.m. at the Kins- men Kid’s Kamp on Lakelse Lake followed by the Hothouse King of the Mountain Footrace at 2 p.m. at the Terrace Arena. For more details or to register, call Day two of Adventure Challenge continues with Azad Adventures’ Outdoor Rock Climbing Competi- tion starting at 9 a.m. at the Chist Creek forest rec- reation site followed by the debut of the All Seasons Source For Sports Psycho Cycle riding from the Ter- race Arena at 4 p.m. Adventure Challenge concludes with McBike’s Eight Hours of Onion Lake riding on the Onion Lake cross-country ski trails at 10 a.m. A wrap- up barbecue and awards ceremony will follow: July 1 to3 The Skeena Valley Men’s Open tees off at the Skeena Valley Golf and Country Club starting at 730 a.m. each day. For further info, call the pro shop at 635-2542 or John Ross at 638-7928. ‘minutes, : a far cry from his best half At the 10 km mark he thoug ht, . 638-7283,