1890s, BC: kíkwəli-háws takes on new life

1890s, BC: kíkwəli-háws takes on new life

In 1896, BC Indigenous people and others still remembered traditional underground “pithouses”, which in Chinook Jargon were known as kíkwəli-háws. That’s literally a ‘below-house’ or ‘low-house’. Image credit: Williams Lake Tribune The CJ phrase was widely used in the Northern Dialect, especially in southern interior British Columbia. There, it entered local English too, taking forms as varied as “giggly” or “kekuli house” and “quiggly hole” a…