Mammal and Bird Names in the Indian Languages of the Lake Athabasca

SHORTPAPERS AND NOTES 163 belugawere around 400 cm. in length, their Mammal and Bird Names weight is calculated to be about 935 kilograms4; the grey-coloured sub-adult measured 275 cm. in the Indian Languages and had a computed weight of 350 kilograms. of the Lake Athabasca Area There appears no reason to doubt that the hunter reporting this event had, as hebelieved, discovered the beluga shortly after they were When Lake Athabasca first became known to caught in March, nor that the tracks of the white men in the eighteenth century, the area medium-sized female bear near the carcassesat to the south andwest of the lakewas inhabited that time were those of the predator. According by Beaver Indians, part of the north shore and to thedescription given, such a bear would the Slave Riverarea belonged to theSlave weigh in the range of 130 to 180 kilograms, or Indiandomain, whereasChipewyans lived about one-fifththe probable weight of each about the eastern extremity of the lake. These adult beluga ithad successfullykilled and three tribes belongto the larger Athapaskanor removed from thewater. Den6 group of people which, in the aggregate, Theonly other reports on bearskilling occupied all of what is now western Canada beluga I canfind in the literature appear from the land of the Eskimos south to that contradictory. One asserts that, in the Baffin which was then controlled by the Crees and Bay region, at small openings in the ice where related Algonkian tribes suchas theBlackfoot, whales aresometimes trapped in winter, “a Blood and Piegans (1 :378). small flock of bears will congregate and kill a The Beaver Indians were driven out of the small whale, which they will then drag up on LakeAthabasca area before 1760 by Cree to the ice and eat”5. The other commentary, bandswho had obtained firearms from fur relating to the Eurasian arctic, suggests that traders on Hudson Bay. The eastern Beaver, attackson beluga by singlebears are quite after making peace with the Cree, traded at frequent, and that when a bear discoversa pod Fort Chipewyan for a short period, but gave of trapped whales it remainsnearby and upthe Athabascaportion of theirformer successively kills them (up to 13 are reliably range when fur trading posts were established reportedz). on the Peace River (1 :383). The Cree invasion This present reportof a multiple killingby a which expelled the Beaver Indians from part of solitary bear, substantiatedby direct inspection their earlier range, also drove out the closely shortly after the event, establishesthat there is related Slaves (this was not what they called no differencebetween Eurasianand North themselves) of the Lake Athabasca area. About American polar bears in regard to this pred- 1725, the Cree areain this region had extended atory behaviour. northward along the Athabasca River valley only to a point somewhat southof McMurray. Milton M. R.Freeman War with the Beavers, Slaves and Chipewyans Department of Sociology and Anthropology carried a number of Cree bands northas far as McMaster University Lake Athabasca and beyond down the Slave Hamilton, Ontario River valley to the south shore of Great Slave Lake. In 1760, theCrees and Chipewyans REFERENCES madepeace and became thesole native in- habitants of the region. Crees naturally pre- IFreeman, M. M. R. 1968. Winter observations dominate in thewestern and Chipewyans in the on beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) in Jones eastern part of the area. Sound, N.W.T. Canadian Field-Naturalist, Our word “Chipewyan”derives fromthe 82 ~276-86. Cree name “witshipeean” for their Athapaskan Weinenberg, S. E., A. V. Yablokov, B.M. neighbours; it means“pointed skins”, re- Bel’kovich and M. N. Tarasevich. 1964. ferring either to the form in which they dried Beluga (Delphinapterus leucas): Investigation their beaver skins,or the shapeof their original of the species. Israel Program for Scientific skin shirt tails which were pointed, like those Translations Ltd.p. 292. of the Eskimo, before and behind(1 :385). The 3Field notes, 1965-66. Unpublished. word “Chipewyan” must not be confused,as is sometimesdone in newspapers,with “Chip- 4Sergeant, D. E. and P. F. Brodie. 1969. Body pewa” (Chippewan as anadjective), a synonym size of white whales, Delphinapterus leucas. of “Ojibwa”, both names for the eastern and Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of equally Algonkian,closely related neighboursof Canada, 26:2561-80. the Crees. The Chipewyans, like theAtha- 5DegerbZ1,M. and P. Freuchen. 1935. Mam- paskans generally andthe Eskimos,simply mals. Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition, called themselves the people: “den?’ in their 2 (4-5):109. own language. 164 SHORTPAPERS AND NOTES The word “Cree” is an Anglicization of the groups (generic names in the linguistic, not the French “Cri”, itself a contraction of “Kristi- zoological sense) than the dictionaries of the neaux”, the French form of a name of unknown languages in question known to me. These are, meaning by which a portion of the tribe called for Chipewyan: Petitot2; for Cree: LaCombe,3 itself. Watkins4 and Anderson.5 Neither tribe can be said to have been a My informants for Cree names wereMr. political unit at any time for the only features Henry Powder, a long-time resident of Camsell which linked the members of each were a Portage, Saskatchewan, originally from Lac la common language and customs, both reflecting Biche, Alberta; Mr. Solomon Cardinal of a common ancestry. Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, and Mrs. A. Ander- In connection with the material presented son of Edmonton, originally from the nearby below, it is worth pointing out that the Chip- Calahoo Indian Reserve, who has edited a ewyans led little more than a marginal existence Plains-Cree-English dictionary.5 as hunters, fishers and gatherers, in an environ- The Chipewyan names were obtained in 1972 ment which, as a whole,was poor in game from Mr. F. Marcel, chief of the Chipewyan though better supplied with fish, andin a band at FortChipewyan. I have also drawn on climate which is very hostile to natural human a list I prepared in 1949 with the help of Mr. existence for eight months a year. Under these George Norm, an elderly Chipewyan or metis conditions, their life was inevitably crude and who lived at the mouth of the Little Buffalo their culture primitive. There would be little River on Great Slave Lake, Northwest Ter- leisure to discuss small birds andto evolve ritories. It is of interest as reflecting the relative names for species which even a trained white degree of development of the Chipewyan and person can only distinguish with the help of Cree languages to note that Mr. Marcel, who binoculars and a field guide, or the collecting speaks fluent English, told me that although gun. Edible animals large enough to be worth himself a Chipewyan, he speaks Cree equally killing for food, on the other hand, played an readily and much preferred, when making a important part in the life of these people and speech, to use Cree. had distinctive names, as did the dog, their The literal meanings (in a few cases obvious, one domestic animal. since the same roots occur inthe names of The Crees belong to a radically different different animals which share some common racial and linguistic family - that of the feature) were obtained from the same in- Algonkians which originally occupied Canada formants. I have no doubt that a linguist, who from the Maritimes and Quebec to the Rocky knows either of the two languages thoroughly, Mountains. The Crees, who invaded the area could deduce more about the etymology of a under consideration, were both Wood and number of the names given. However, many of Plains Crees. the names, e.g. those of animals as basic to Even before the evolution of the horse- aboriginal life as dog, bear, grouse, almost buffalo culture, the Cree way of life was more certainly were evolved to designate solely the advanced than that of the Chipewyans, prob- animal in question and were not made up, as ably in reflection of a somewhat less hostile very many English animal names are, from environment. Particularly relevant tothe other words or parts of words. There are, of evolution of language, the life of the Crees was course, also many English animal names which one of greater leisure. It was less primitive, as are basic in this sense. shown, for example, in the treatment of widows The column headed comments which follows and orphans and the social position of women. the native names gives the literal meaning of Cree is not only more euphonious than any the name, if available, in some cases followed of the Athapaskan languages with their fre- by other relevant remarks. A few more general quent guttural, harsh sounds, it is also more comments which could not be fitted into the complex and these features are evident in the space available in these columns follow the animal names listed below. tables. The lists given beloware, of course, not com- The simple method used here to represent plete in the sense that a native name is given the sounds of the native words in our alphabet for everyspecies for which some one, Cree, for English-speaking readers must be explained. Chipewyan or mktis in the Lake Athabasca area Theconsonants are to be pronounced asin knows such a name. This would have required English, with the exception of ch; this is not, interviews with just about all of these people. as in general English usage, to be pronounced However, as the lists werecollected by one like tsh, but as a harsh, guttural sound as in with a special interest in birds and mam- the Scottish Loch (or German Dach, Jlach, etc.).

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