File:Smuk - To smoke tobacco (6ea6f344-bc52-4a39-a1bc-91ccb39e8570).jpg

Photo of a man wearing 1840s style clothing smoking a long-stemmed white clay tobacco pipe, accompanied by the word "smuk" and its translation.

“Smuk” is the Chinuk Wawa word for “smoke” or “to smoke tobacco.” It is pronounced with a long “u” sound, like “smook.” People of the 19th century had did not have our modern understanding of the harmful side effects of smoking. Perhaps because of this, smoking at Fort Vancouver in the 1800s was very popular. Hudson’s Bay Company employees could purchase tobacco and imported clay pipes at the fort’s Sale Shop, and received two smoking breaks during their work day. Modern National Park Service archaeologists find evidence of historic “break areas,” or places where socialization and smoking happened, when they find many fragments of clay pipes buried together underground. For example, a concentration of pipe fragments was found in the outdoor area at the southeast corner of the Chief Factor’s House, suggesting that this was one place where employees would gather, smoke, and socialize. Learn more at https://www.nps.gov/articles/pipesmokingatfortvancouver.htm