A newcomer or inexperienced person, especially someone newly arrived in Alaska or the Yukon during the gold rush era.
From Chinook Jargon 'chechako,' meaning 'newcomer' or 'tenderfoot.' Chinook Jargon was a pidgin used in Pacific Northwest trade, blending English, French, and Native American languages. The term became especially common during the Alaskan gold rush (1890s).
Chechako is a beautiful word from Chinook Jargon—a trade language that let English trappers, French fur traders, and Native peoples communicate. It captured the exact social experience of the gold rush: being a green newcomer in a harsh landscape. Most Chinook Jargon words are forgotten, but chechako survived.
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