Cree Vocabulary in the Works of James Oliver Curwood

WILLIAM COWAN Carleton University

James Oliver Curwood was an American novelist who was born in Owosso, Michigan1 in 1878, and who died there in 1927, at the relatively young age of 49. Between 1908 and 1927, he published 26 popular novels, most of them set in the Canadian north, in addition to two volumes of short stories and a book on the Great Lakes. Posthumously there were published three more novels, a collection of short stories, and two different versions of an autobiography, making a total of 34 published books. In a number of these novels and short stories, he used Cree words and expressions to give a literary flavour to the narrative and to the dialogue. It is the purpose of this communication to examine these Cree examples in an attempt to determine how well Curwood knew the language, and what sources, if any, he used for his examples. Curwood's novels and stories are in the popular mode. In almost all of them, the hero is a lone adventurer who meets, generally under stressfull circumstances and frequently out in the middle of the great forest, a gloriously beautiful heroine who is on a mysterious mission of some sort. These heroines generally have, as their crowning beauty, great masses of golden hair, flowing, when loosened, in rippling folds down to their hips, and displayed in full glory when in flighto r fighting for their virtue, which is one of their most frequent activities.2 Accompanying this hero and heroine, there is almost always a villain, who is generally a huge, barrel-shaped, heavily bearded monster whose only goal in life is to rape the heroine.

1 Owosso is also the birthplace of Thomas E. Dewey, later governor of New York and twice unsuccessful Republican candidate for the presidency of the United States. It is also the birthplace of Frederick Frieseke, who became one of the best-known and admired Impressionist painters in France in the 1890s. 2 Usually the hero, before he declares his love for the heroine, manages to brush his lips at least once against this hair, unbeknownst to the heroine.

63 64 WILLIAM COWAN

Needless to say, he never succeeds in this attempt, and frequently meets death in the process or shortly thereafter. During his lifetime, Curwood was an immensely popular novelist. His novels sold in the hundreds of thousands, and many were made into movies, both during his lifetime and afterwards. He also wrote a large number of independent movie scripts. Two of his novels that have been made into movies which are possibly familiar to modern audiences are God's Country and the Woman and The Grizzly King. The first was made into a movie in 1916, and then later in 1937 and again in 1946. The 1916 version followed the novel quite closely; the 1937 version, starring and Bev­ erly Roberts, was similar only in title, since the plot and characters were completely different from those of the novel. I have been unable to find out anything about the 1946 version, only that it starred Buster Keaton and was probably a farce of some sort and nothing like the novel. The Grizzly King was the novel upon which a recent movie entitled "The Bear" was based. In it, an orphaned bear cub attaches himself to a mature male grizzly bear and in due course of time wins his acceptance. The movie was characterized by the remarkable acting ability of the two bears in question. They not only acted their bear parts extremely well, they also acted like human beings on occasion. Another novel, Nomads of the North, also featuring animals — this time a dog and a bear cub — was also made into a movie in 1962, with reportedly remarkable acting on the parts of the animal stars involved. After an adventurous boyhood, Curwood spent two years at the Uni­ versity of Michigan, and then entered the fieldo f journalism, working for number of years as reporter and editor of the Detroit News-Tribune. Always an ardent camper and hunter, he spent much time in the Canadian north on hunting and camping trips. For a period of two years he was also employed by the Canadian govenment as a writer extolling the virtues of the Canadian north woods. In 1908 he published his firstnovel , and thereafter earned his living by writing.3 The majority of his novels deal with life in the Canadian north — outlining the exploits and tribulations of hunters, trappers, Moun- ties, mining engineers, missionaries, Hudsons Bay Company employees and other denizens of this world. He was to the Canadian north what his great contemporary was to the American west — a chronicler and ex- toller. His novels are full of paeans to the woods and mountains and rivers of this area of North America, and full of detail on the way people lived in this environment. He continued to travel extensively in the Canadian north, and built or had built various residences there, where he spent much of his time.

Biographical details on Curwood can be found in the Dictionary of American Biography (1930 (4):622-623) and the references therein. THE WORKS OF JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD 65

In northern Saskatchewan and the Northwest territories, he must have come into contact with many speakers of Cree, and he not only incorporated many Cree speakers into his novels as characters, he also used Cree vocab­ ulary to embellish his narrative, calling many items by their Cree names, sometimes with translation into English, sometimes without. As an exam­ ple, consider this sentence from The Grizzly King of 1916: ". . . for Langdon was keskwao now. Something had gone wrong in his head." It is not too difficult for the reader who knows no Cree to guess that the word keskwao is a Cree word meaning 'insane', actually an intransitive verb meaning 'he is insane'. Another example from Back to God's Country, a collection of short stories published in 1920, is not so obvious: "What, you cheap kimootisks, will you let this pair of malamutes go for seven mink . . ." The word kimoo- tisk is not, as might be imagined, the word for 'miser' or 'cheapskate', but rather the word for 'thief, an appropriate enough word in the context of an auction of dogs at a trading post in the North. Curwood also used a good deal of French in his stories and novels in the dialogue of native speakers of French, mostly Metis but occasionally a French Canadian, who figure as characters in the novels. Of the 34 books by Curwood that have been published, I have read 28. Of these 28, I have found 13 that contain Cree words and phrases, ranging from only 1 in The River's End of 1922, to 63 in Nomads of the North of 1919.4 As mentioned above, Curwood has two ways of using Cree: either as bits of dialogue, or as part of the narrative. He handles the narrative use much as Longfellow did with Ojibwa in Hiawatha. An object or animal is introduced with its Cree name, with a quasi-parenthetical translation into English immediately following, as in the following example from The Grizzly King of 1916: ". . . Oohomisew, the big snow owl . . ." Compare this with the following line from Hiawatha: "The Keneu, the great war-eagle". The dialogue ranges from a single word, as kimootisk 'thief, quoted above, or this from The Valley of Silent Men of 1920: "I've questioned every scow cheman at the landing", cheman being the Cree word for 'canoe', to whole sentences, as this from The Courage of Marge O'Doone of 1918: "Meyoo iss e chikao," he cried. "Remember?" The Cree phrase means 'he acts well, he does good'. And a number of the Cree words or expressions surface as personal names, such as Nepeese 'willow branch', used as a woman's name in Baree, Son of Kazan of 1917, and also, spelled Nepise, as a woman's name in A Gentleman of Courage, of 1924. Perhaps the novel that has the most effective use of Cree, although not the most items, is God's Country — And the Woman, published in

4This is list frequency, not text frequency. Here and elsewhere, I only count the words and expressions as individual items the first time they occur, not noting repetitions of the same item. 66 WILLIAM COWAN

1915. This is a tempestuous tale of seduction, deception, open warfare, and bare-knuckle fighting, in which the lustful villain, along with three other villains equally loathsome, is in the end torn to pieces by a pack of semi-wild dogs owned by the heroine. It also has a number of obligatory elements, like the heroine's hair, golden and down to her hips, love at first sight on the part of the hero, and a mysterious trip cross-country in which the heroine steadfastly refuses to reveal to the hero the purpose of the trip.5 The following list contains the Cree items that occur in the novel. There is more dialogue in Cree in this than in any other novel by Curwood that I have examined. And much of the Cree remains untranslated. In a number of places, the reader can guess what the Cree means, but in a number of others there is no indication of what is meant, but the story goes on in any event. The Cree examples in this novel also illustrate some of the problems in this analysis. A number of the Cree items reveal misprints of some sort or another, and a number of others cannot be found in the standard reference works, and may represent either misprints, mistakes on Curwood's part, or vocabulary that has not been recorded in these standard works. As to misprints, Curwood was at the mercy of his typesetters in this matter. No doubt he read proof, but there is no assurance that his corrections were taken seriously by the print shop. In addition, some of the copies I have examined are reprints, where Curwood probably had no proof to read, and where errors could be multiplied randomly and at length. In addition, a number of his novels were firstserialize d in magazines, then published as a book, and it may well have been the case that what was correct in Curwood's manuscript was incorrect by the time it went through the magazine publication and the book publication, not to mention the reprint of the book. It also may be that, since Curwood was using Cree for literary effect, not as a linguistic or philological exercise, he may well have not cared too much for absolute correctness. The reader would get the idea even if some of the forms were wrong. In a similar vein, he sets the story of The Grizzly King in the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia, where no Cree is spoken, but gives Cree names to all the animals and to other elements in the story. He is writing fiction, not ethnography, and is more interested in establishing a background than in satisfying linguists. In the following list, I give the page in God's Country — And the Woman where the word or phrase in Cree occurs, followed by the Cree

'The purpose was that he was to pose as her husband, ostensibly to fool her parents into thinking that the baby she was passing off as her own was legitimate. In actual fact, the baby, who later dies of fever, was her mother's, not hers, the result of a seduction and birth that had taken place in Montreal in her father's absence. THE WORKS OF JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD 67 item itself, then the translation, if known, followed by the context in which it is used. I then give the word or phrase preceded by W as it occurs in Rev. E.A. Watkins's 1865 A Dictionary of the Cree Language (Watkins 1865), which is the most probable source of Curwood's Cree. If I cannot find the item in Watkins, I will quote it, preceded by F, from the revised version of Watkins's dictionary, edited by Richard Fairies and published in 1938 (Fairies 1938). I then make what commentary seems appropriate.

1) 51: gwan-auch-ewin. 'it is beautiful'. "She is — what you call it — gwan-auck-ewin — so splendid!" I cannot find this word in the standard Cree sources, but a cognate form does occur as an Ojibwa word in Baraga (1966): Gwanatchiwan 'it is handsome, beautiful . . .' Curwood was not above using Ojibwa and passing it off as Cree, as we will see later. 2) 67: mooswa. 'a moose'. "Mooswa," spoke Jean out of the gloom close to them. "Yes, a moose," she said. W mooswa. 3) 86: moakwa. ioon'. He knew why the Indians called it moakwa — "the mad thing." W moakwa. 4) 113: Tan'se a itumuche hooyun? 'how do you feel? [how are you?, as a greeting]'. "Tan'se a itumuche hooyun?" he asked in Cree. W tanse a itumu 'chehooy un. 5) 158: Iowaka. A woman's name. Meaning unknown. 6) 179: Muchemunito Nek. 'the Devil's Nest'. "Thirty-five miles to the north and west of us there is what the Indians call 'Muchemunito Nek' — the Devil's Nest. It's a Free Trader's house." W muchemunito 'Satan'. The second part of the term, nek is obscure, although the final -ek may be the locative suffix, meaning 'at the place of. 7) 195: Metoosin. A man's name. Meaning unknown. 8) 202: Mikawe. 'mother'. "You do look splendid, Mikawe," said Josephine, slipping an arm about her mother's waist. . . . "Isn't my mother won­ derful, Philip? I call her Mikawe because that means a little more than Mother in Cree — something that is almost undying and spiritlike." W mikawe. mikawe is a generalized form, meaning 'somebody's mother'. 'my mother' would be nikawe, and the vocative would be naka. 9) 222: tanike. Meaning unknown. "Here's a drop of whisky, Jean. It will stir up your blood." aMon Dieu, it has been stirred up enough this night, tanike," smiled Jean feebly ... It may be a word meaning 'thank you', possibly borrowed from English. 10) 225: nummawapew. 'he is blind [he does not see]'. "Not to keep one's word, to play a hopeless part in the dark, to leap when the numma wapew is over the eyes and you are blind — that takes a man." W numma wapew. The Cree is a negative verb phrase, used in the narra­ tive as a noun, meaning something like 'blindfold'. 68 WILLIAM COWAN

11) 226: Kisamunito 'the Great Spirit*. "And in our Cree there is a saying that the God of all things, Kisamunito, the Great Spirit, often sits on high and laughs at the tricks which he plays on men." W kisamunito. 12) 234: Wapikunoo 'the White Owl'. "Metoosin once called Josephine 'Wapikunoo' — the White Owl, and the name has stuck ever since." W wapikunoo. 13) 251: Nipa tu mo-wao. 'he kills it for him'. ". . . And each time he says: 'Nipa tu mo-wao,', which means that some day he hopes to be able to kill for her. ..." I cannot find the form in Watkins, but Fairies has nipu"tumowao. 14) 286: Ookimow'chief [term of address]'. "Only the note, Ookimow" W ookimow. 15) 291: Paitoo ta! Wawep isewin. 'come here! hurry!' "Metoosin! Paitoo ta! Wawep isewin!" W paito'otao 'he comes'; wawepisewin 'hurry'. The firstfor m is an imperative; I cannot find it in Watkins, but in Fairies it is given as paito'ta 'come here (imper.)'. 16) 291: una kah. Meaning unknown. "Build a great fire in the una kah house," commanded Adare. The una kah house is a guest house of some sort. 17) 291: Numma tao, ookimow. 'he is not there, chief. "And send Jean to me! Where is he?" "Numma tao, ookimow." "Gone!" exclaimed Adare. I cannot findth e form in Watkins, but Fairies has nummutao 'he is is not there, he does not exist'. It is a negative verb phrase. 18) 292: Neah. 'go!'. "Neah, Metoosin! Make them comfortable. . ." I cannot findth e form in Watkins, but Fairies has neah 'go thou'. 19) 293: wewimow 'his wife'. "I breeng word for heem of Jan Breuil an' wewimow. . ." I cannot find the term in Watkins, but Fairies has wewimaw 'a wife'. 20) 293: Kichi Utooskayakun. 'an angel'. "I breeng word for heem of Jan Breuil an' wewimow over on Jac' fish ma Kichi Utooskayakun," he said in a low voice. The word kichi means 'big'; the word utooskayakun means 'servant'. The two together make an idiomatic phrase used to mean 'an angel'. It should be noticed that the word before the Cree expression is the feminine form of the French possessive pronoun ma 'my'. 'My angel' is the epithet used by the local inhabitants to refer to the heroine, who performs seemingly miraculous cures for them and their families. 21) 293: Papak-oo-moo? 'is he vomiting repeatedly?'. "Listen! Papak- oo-moo?" "Aha." "It is a sickness the children have each winter," she explained, looking questioningly into Philip's eyes again. This is a reduplicated intransitive verb meaning repetitive action. The unredu- plicated form is pakomoo 'he vomits'. M papakoomoo. THE WORKS OF JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD 69

22) 293: Aha. 'yes'. I cannot find the form in Watkins, but Fairies has aha 'yeah'. 23) 294: watekan. 'cave'. "We be in forest near dog watekan, where Pierre mak his firean ' tepee." W watekan. 24) 304: Netootam. 'my friend'. "Listen to me, Netootam! I feared this." The form in Fairies is netotam. 25) 308: Kah Sakehewawin. 'lovers'. "In every tepee in these forests they speak of them as Kah Sakehewawin, 'the lovers."' I cannot findthi s form in Watkins, but the word for 'lover' in Fairies is sakehakun. The first part of the form, kah is a preverb used as a relativizer followed by a verb meaning 'they love'; the whole phrase means 'they who love', i.e., 'lovers'. 26) 311: Manitoo. 'great spirit'. "They love Josephine next to their Mani- too." W munito. 27) 314: Kaskisoon. Man's name. Meaning unknown. 28) 323: Iskootawapoo. 'fire-water, whiskey' ... as Kaskisoon turned his face to the east and then the west, north and then south, calling upon Iskootawapoo to come from out of the Valley of Silent Men and lead them to triumph. W iskootawapoo. Curwood got the wrong word here. He obviously meant to say something like Iskoota-munitoo 'fire-god'. 29) 329: Pa. 'come!'. "Pa, Kaskisoon!" cried Jean then. This is a shortened form of the imperative in item 14. 30) 329: kistayatak. 'excellent'. "Pa! We have done. Quick — kistayetak!" I cannot find the term in Watkins, but Fairies has kistdye'tak. 31) 343: Nipa Hao. 'he kills him'. "Kill! Kill! Kill!" she cried. "Hero — Kill! Nipa Hao, boys! Beaver — Wolf— Hero — Captain — Kill — kill — kill!" W nipa'hao. Here the heroine is exhorting her dogs to kill the villain. The form appears to be a third person singular indicative, but it is used as a plural imperative. As can be seen from the above list, where there is a form in Watkins, the form used by Curwood generally agrees in the spelling transcription used. The word divisions are not the same, as in item 4, but this is a relatively minor matter. In some cases, the word division is obviously a reflex of a typesetter's lack of knowledge of Cree, as in this item from of 1921: Kicheoo Kimow 'king [great chief]', which should be Kiche Ookimow. I have examined the Curwood archive housed in Curwood's Castle in Owosso, a small, mock 17th-century French chateau that Curwood built as a studio and which is now a museum dedicated to the author, and have failed to find any indication of source books, either grammars or dictionaries, of Cree. There is also an archival filea t the University of Michigan library containing a respectable amount of Curwood material, but • WILLIAM COWAN it too contains no Cree source material.6 However, due to the similarities of transcription system, and to the fact that Watkins's dictionary was just about the only one that would have been available to Curwood when he was writing these novels, it is a good bet that he was at least to some extent influenced by it, in transcription system if nothing else. As to the dialect of Cree that Curwood uses, the best bet is that it is Swampy Cree. In this dialect, the reflex of Proto-Algonquian *1 is n. In the adjacent Plains Cree dialect, the reflex is y. In Baree, Son of Kazan,, the name of the wood partridge is Napanao. In Plains Cree, the same vocabu­ lary item is napdyao. Similarly, in The Valley of Silent Men, the word for 'liar' has the form kin-as-kisew; in Plains Cree this is kiydskiskew. However, the word used in one of the short stories in Back to God's Country of 1920 is maya-tisew 'bad with the badness of a devil'. The same item in Plains Cree is maydtisew. If this comes from Proto-Algonquian *mya:la:tesiwa 'he is ugly', then in this item Curwood uses the Plains Cree form. Most of his stories are set in northern Saskatchewan or the Northwest Territories, an area where Plains Cree predominates, but Curwood himself may have been more exposed to Swampy Cree than to Plains. As to how well Curwood knew Cree, the conclusion is not proven. He gets most nouns right, and generally does have the correct form of verbs, even if a verb form is inappropriate. However, from time to time he makes mistakes, like using the word for 'firewater' for 'fire-god', and the generalized form for 'mother' rather than the more appropriate vocative or first person form. Nevertheless, his vocabulary seems to have been fairly extensive, even if gotten from dictionaries. I judge that he had a rough, but in some way workable, knowledge of Cree, and used it to good effect in giving the desired literary flavourt o his writings. The next two items are something completely different. These are two hymns sung purportedly in Cree by a Cree-speaking character in The Courage of Marge O'Doone of 1918. The first is the hymn "Nearer My God to Thee": Pa sho ke non ze koon, Ta ba nin ga, Ah no go suh nuh guk Na quash kuh mon;

The second is the hymn "From Greenland's Icy Mountains": Ke wa de noong a yah jig, Kuh ya 'gewh wah bun oong, E gewh an duh nuh ke jig, E we de ke zhah tag,

I am indebted to Steve Dworkin for this bit of information. THE WORKS OF JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD 71

They turn out to be not in Cree at all, but in Ojibwa, and were taken from The Ojibway Church Hymn Book, edited by the Rev. F. Frost and published in London in 1905 (Frost 1905).7 It is a pretty good bet that, however much Cree he knew, Curwood did not also know Ojibwa, so it is not surprising that, rather than relying on his memory or his own transcription, he puts it down exactly as it is in the source, dividing the text into single syllables and keeping the transcription, which includes such letter combinations as "zh" and "wh". As to why he would have used an Ojibwa text rather than a Cree text — and there is a well-known translation of "Nearer, my God, to Thee", two lines of which are quoted in Edgerton R. Young's celebrated By Canoe and Dog Train among the Cree and Salteaux Indians of 1890 (Young 1890:179):

Ke-se-wog-ne-man-toom Ke-nah-te-tin, n the only explanation is that he apparently did not have the Cree text to hand, and did the Ojibwa. And who was to know the difference, anyway?

71 am indebted to my colleague John Nichols for this information. 72 WILLIAM COWAN

Appendix I The following is the official list of the published books of James Oliver Curwood, as arranged by Ivan Conger of Owasso, indicating year of publication. I indicate whether or not I have read the book, and how many list items of Cree I have found in each.

1) 1908 The Courage of Captain Plum (Not read) 2) 1908 The Wolf Hunters Nil 3) 1909 The Great Lakes (Not read) 4) 1909 The Gold Hunters Nil 5) 1910 The Danger Trail Nil 6) 1911 The Honor of the Big Snows Nil 7) 1911 Steele of the Royal Mounted Nil 8) 1912 The Flower of the North Nil 9) 1913 /so bel Nil 10) 1914 Kazan Nil 11) 1915 God's Country and the Woman 31 12) 1916 The Hunted lVoman Nil 13) 1916 The Grizzly King 15 14) 1917 Baree, Son of K azan 50 15) 1918 The Courage of Marge O'Doone 24 16) 1919 Nomads of the North 63 17) 1919 The River's End 1 18) 1920 Back to God's Country 16 19) 1920 The Valley of Silent Men 5 20) 1921 God's Country- The Trail to Happiness (Not read) 21) 1921 The Golden Snare 1 22) 1921 The Flaming Forest 2 23) 1922 The Country Beyond 6 24) 1923 The Alaskan Nil 25) 1924 A Gentleman of Courage 2 26) 1925 The Ancient Highway Nil 27) 1926 Swift Lightening 22 28) 1926 The Black Hunter Nil 29) 1928 The Plains of Abraham Nil 30) 1929 The Crippled Lady of Peribonka Nil 31) 1930 Green Timber (Not read) 32) 1930 Son of the Forests Nil 33) 1931 Faulkner of the Inland Seas (Not read) t,. 34) 1983 The Glory of Living (Not read) I ! THE WORKS OF JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD 73

Appendix II The following are lists of all the Cree items I have found in the books that I have read, with meanings when known, either those given by Curwood himself (between quotation marks) or items I have found in a dictionary, or both. The numbers before each item indicate the page on which the word or phrasefirst occurs. The letters W or F indicate the form the word or phrase has in either Fairies's or Watkins's dictionary, with their glosses in single quotes when appropriate.

1) 1915 God's Country and the Woman (see text of article)

2) 1916 The Grizzly King 1) viii: Muskwa. Bear's name. W muskwa. 2) viii: Pipoonaskoos. Bearcub's name "the yearling". W pipoonaskoos. 3) 41: kinnikinic. ? "a ground plant two inches high which bore red berries as big as a small pea". 4) 41: uvaursi. ? "an astringent tonic" contained in the berries of the kinnikinic. 5) 46: sapoos oowin. Bowel movement. W sapoosoowin. 6) 49: Iskwao. The bear's mate. W iskwao 'a woman, a wife'. 7) 60: Metoosin. Indian man's name. W metoos 'a poplar'. 8) 60: munookow. "he was very soft". W munookow. 9) 61: wenipaw. "or 'lying down', smell of hoofed game". W weyipow. 10) 61: nechisoo. "grazing smell [of hoofed game]". W mechisoo. 11) 124: puskowepesim. "the moulting moon [July]". W puskoowepsim. 12) 129: kuppatipisk pimootao "all night hike ... as a Cree tracker would have called it". W kuppa-tipisk 'all night long'; pimootao 'he walks'. 13) 134: kuyas wapusk. "the bear so old he is about to die". W kuyas 'old'; wapusk 'bear'. 14) 137: mooshed. ? "he mooshed along". 15) 219: keskwao. "something had gone wrong in his head". W keskwao 'he is insane'.

3) 1917 Baree, Son of Kazan 1 vii: Nepeese. Indian woman's name, 'the willow'. W nepise. 2 vii: Wakayo. "the bear". W wakayoos. 3 8: Tusoo. Indian man's name. W tusoo 'he straightens himself. 4 8: mohekuns. wolves. W muhekun. 5 9: wapoos. "the rabbit". W wapoos. 6 10: kusketa mohekun. "the black wolf. W kusketa- 'black'. 7 12: Oohomisew. "the big snow owl".W oohoomisew. 8 13: Papayuchisew. Young owl. W papayuchisew 'a small species of owl'. 9 18: Nekik. "the otter". W nechik. 10 18: Nepanekik. "his [the otter's] wife". 11 30: Sekoosew. "the ermine". W sekoosew. 12 31: napanao. "the wood partridge". W napanao. 13 34: Wyola. Indian woman's name. 14 35: Nootawe. My father. W notawe. 15 36: uchi moosis. Puppy. W uchimoosis. 16 37: uchimoo! Call to puppy. 17 38: Koomo. Indian man's name. 18 38: Ayetun. [It is so.] W ayetun 'it is firm'. 74 WILLIAM COWAN

19) 41: kipichi-mao. "the wolf is kipichi-mao, as the Indians say". W kipichimao 'he silences him'. 20) 47: pupamootao. Wanderer. W pupamootao 'he walks about'. 21) 53: umisk. "the beaver". W umisk. 22) 60: mana. There he is. W mana. 23) 61: Baree. "the wild dog". ? 24) 64: Sakahet. Sweetheart. 25) 69: Upi. Sit! [said to dog]. F upiw 'he sits'. 26) 81: uskahis. Young. F oskatis 'a young person'. 27) 85: nepakasew. "the he-fox". W napakasew. 28) 87: Napao Wetikoo. "the man-devil". W napao'man'; wekitoo'cannibal, devil'. 29) 93: Puskowepesim. "the moulting month" [=July]. F puskowepesim. 30) 104: ka sakahet. Sweetheart. 31) 112: oopi-nao. "you are heavy". W oopinao 'he lifts him'. 32) 113: owases. "you wild beast". W owases. 33) 113: mekewap. Wigwam. W mekewap. 34) 116: pechipoo. Blood poisoning. W pechipoo 'he is poisoned'. 35) 121: wuskwi. Birch tree. W wuskwi. 36) 134: mey-oo. That is good. W meyoo. 37) 134: ka. Meaning unclear. "Ka, he will come back, yes?" 38) 135: Mee-koo. "the call of the blood". W mikoo 'blood'. 39) 136: Cheamao. "you must come back". Meaning unclear. 40) 140: maheegun. "the young female wolf". F muhekun. 41) 147: napamoos. "the young bull [caribou]". W napamoostoos. 42) 159: Netootam. My friend. F neetotam. 43) 187: akoosewin. "the sign of the sick dog". W 'akoosewin 'sickness'. 44) 191: bakneesh. ? Name of a plant. 45) 199: Idstisew kestin. "a great storm". W kistisew 'it is great'; kestin 'a storm'. 46) 200: wuttoo. "film of blood over the eye of dog or wolf". W wuttoo 'coagulated blood'. 47) 235: Unekepesim. "the mating moon" [April or May]. W unekepesim 'the frog moon'. 48) 239: Tuboa. Indian man's name. 49) 240: Ookimow. Term of address to a man. W ookimow 'a chief. 50) 240: Iskwao. Wife. W iskwao.

4) 1918 The Courage of Marge O'Doone 1) 25: niskuk. "a grey goose". F niskuk'geese'. 2) 88: ka sakhet. Term of address to a woman, 'sweetheart'. 3) 92: Meyoo iss e chikao. He does good. F meyo-issechikao. 4) 120: Nipoo-win Ooyoo. He howls for death. F nipoowin 'death'; oyoo 'he howls'. 5) 123: Muche Munito. "little devil". F muchemunito 'Satan'. 6) 132: mitoo aye chikoon. "the Little Brother of God". F mito- [prefix for terms for relatives]. 7) 139: Meyoo. Good. F meyo. 8) 149: [Hymn in Ojibwa.] 9) 150: [Hymn in Ojibwa.] 10) 156: Metoosin. Indian man's name. THE WORKS OF JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD 75

11) 156 Iaowa. Indian woman's name. 12) 167 Upso-Gee. Indian man's name: "The Snow-fox" [Sarcee]. 13) 169 Swastao. Thaw. F swastao 'the snow thaws'. 14) 176- Towaskook. Indian man's name. 15) 179- Kio. Indian man's name. 16) 179 Kwak-wa-pisew. Indian woman's name: "The Butterfly". FkF kwakwapeses' . 17) 199: Niskoos. My aunt. F nisikoos. 18) 208: issenakoosewin. A dummy. F issenakosewin 'likeness, resemblance'. 19) 214: Neah! Go! F neah. 20) 214: Pao. He comes. F pa- 21) 215: Sakewawin. Term of address to a woman. 22) 254: keyakun. Meaning unknown. 23) 271: Napo. Man. F napao. 24) 308: Napao. "my husband". F napao.

5) 1919 Nomads of the North 1) 1: Neewa. Baby bear's name. 2) 2: Noosah. Mother bear's name. F noosa 'female'. 3) 6: Upisk. Eagle. F upisk. 4) 10: Soominitik. Father bear's name. 5) 10: Chegawasse. Beetle. 6) 13: Mistu-puyew. "stomach-ache". F mistutapuyew'his abdomen swells'. 7) 19: Makoos. Old male bear's name. 8) 19: Uchan. Bear's name. F uchan 'cannibal'. 9) 31: Mike, "the drum". Dog's name. 10) 72: Ahmoo. Wasp. F amoo. 11) 82: Wahboo. Baby rabbit. F wapoos. 12) 85: Kawook. Porcupine. F kakwu(k) ' porcupines'. 13) 86: Iskwasis. Female porcupine. F iskwasis 'girl'. 14) 92: muhnedoo. "a spot in the forest blasted of all life by the presence of devils". 15) 94: Oohoomisew. Owl. F ohoomisew. 16) 101: Hela. Dog's name. 17) 101: Numa. Dog's name. 18) 102: Ahtik. Caribou. F utik. 19) 104: Maheegun. She-wolf. F muhekun. 20) 106: Makoki. Indian man's name. 21) 106: Iskoo Wapoo. "the Good Spirit". 22) 107: Neswa-pawuk. "two little brothers". F neswapawuk 'they are two brothers'. 23) 109: Tebah-Gone-Gawin. "the One Great Law". 24) 113: Mispoon. Male snowy owl. F mispoon 'it snows'. 25) 113: Newish. Female snowy owl. 26) 122: Kakakew. Crow. F kakake'w. 27) 127: Oochak. Fisher-cat. F ochak. 28) 136: Mukoo-sawin. A feast. F mukosawin. 29) 143: Petoot-a-wapis-kum. Kicked. F petotawapiskum 'he kicks it into a boat or canoe'. 30) 149: Kwaska-Hao. Change. F kwaskehao 'he changes him'. 76 WILLIAM COWAN

31) 153: pipoo kestin. "thefirst storm of winter". F pipoon 'winter'; kestin 'storm'. 32) 154: uske-pow-a-mew. "the dream land of the bears". F uske land ; powamew 'he dreams'. 33) 161: Kusketa Pippoon. "the Black Year". F kusketa- 'black'; pipoon 'winter'. 34) 167: Muchet-ta-aao. "the One with an Evil Heart". F muchetahao 'he has a bad heart'. 35) 167: Kekeks. Trap-shelters. K kekek 'in your dwelling (tent or house)'. 36) 174: iskoo. Fire. F iskootao. 37) 178: Kuskayetum. "the hand of the mating-god". F kuskayetum 'he thinks longingly'. 38) 182: keskwa. "stark mad". F keskwao 'he is mad, insane'. 39) 196: Netah. Dog's name: "the Killer". 40) 197: Poos. Cat. F poos. 41) 201: Wapoos. Rabbit. F wapoos. 42) 203: Minoo. Female dog's name. 43) 218: Tanta Penashe. Indian woman's name: "the Little Bird". Ojibwa beneshi 'little bird'. 44) 227: oochun. "that wolf devil". 45) 231: soketaao. A brave person. F soketahao 'he is brave'. 46) 232: wahgun. A trap. F wunehikun. 47) 237: Ooske Pipoon. "New Year's Eve". F oske 'new'; pipoon 'winter'. 48) 246: Taao. Dog's name. 49) 254: Mutuai. "the belly-god". F mutf 'belly'. 50) 274: Ao-oo tap-wa-mukun. It is true. F tapwamukun. 51) 284: Tiki-Swao. "the Big Thaw". F tiki-swao 'it thaws'. 52) 288: Meshaba. Indian man's name. 53) 290: Kata y ati sisew. He is getting old. F katayatisisew. 54) 291: Wakayoo. Name for bear. F wakayoos 'black bear'. 55) 292: ohne moosh. Meaning unknown. 56) 300: bebe nak un geda. "the summer of drought and fire". 57) 301: kiskewahoon. A signal. F kiskewahoon. 58) 302: Iskootao. "the Fire Devil". F iskotao 'fire'. 59) 311: usayow. Ridge. F osayaw. 60) 313: Sakehewawin. "the love-couple". F sakehewawin 'love, affection'. 61) 314: napao. "a he-bear". F napao 'man'. 62) 314: Iskwao. Indian woman's name. F iskawao 'woman'. 63) 314: Mootag. Indian man's name.

6) 1919 The River's End 1) 21: kwaske-hoo. Change. F kwaskehoo 'he changes'.

7) 1920 Back to God's Country 1) 9: cha-sukeed. "a very devil in the collecting of gold". 2) 11: maya-tisew. Bad. F mayatisew 'he is ugly, he is evil'. 3) 13: uta-wawe-yinew. Trader. F utawaweyinew. 4) 16: kiskanuk. Bitch. F kiskanuk. 5) 54: wakao. "the dog sale". 6) 67: kimootisks. Thieves. F kimotisk 'a thief. THE WORKS OF JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD 77

7) 68: nesi-tu-now-unisk. Twenty beaver [skins]. F nesitunow 'twenty'; umisk 'beaver'. 8) 68: Meewe. Indian man's name. 9) 69: nesi-tu-now nesoo-sap umisk. Twenty-two beaver [skins]. F nesitunow- nesoosap. 10) 71: sakeakun. Beloved. F sakehakun. 11) 74: iskwao. Woman. F iskwao. 12) 78: Mukooki. Indian man's name. 13) 86: kitoochikun. Fiddle. F kitochikun. 14) 87: Pastamo. Indian man's name. F pastamoo 'he blasphemes'. 15) 117: noot' akutawin keskwawin. "the cold and hungry madness". F notakutawin 'hunger'; keskwawin 'madness'. 16) 119: wetikoo. Devil. F wetiko.

8) 1920 The Valley of Silent Men 1) 1: Iskwatem. Door. F iskwatam. 2) 15: Minisake. Rock. W minisak. 3) 42: cheman. Canoe. F cheman. 4) 90: kin-as-kisew. Liar. F kiyaskiskew 'he is a bar'. 5) 180: Niska. Goose. F nisko.

9) 1921 The Golden Snare 1) keskwao. Insane. F keskwao 'he is insane'.

10) 1921 The Flaming Forest 1) 63: kicheoo Kimow. King. F kiche-okimaw 'chief. 2) 115: Michiwan. Term of address to a man. F michiwam 'male parallel cousin'.

11) 1922 The Country Beyond 1) 152: Oo-mee. Pigeon. F omemew. 2) 155: Neekewa. Term of address to a man. F neechiwa 'my brother'. 3) 218: shingoos. Ferret. Ojibwa shingoos. 4) 281: Oosimisk. Indian woman's name: "the Leaf-Bud". F osimisk. 5) 281: Mistoos. Indian man's name. 6) 295: Newa. My wife. F newu.

12) 1924 A Gentleman of Courage 1) 150: Nepise. Indian woman's name: "the Willow Bud". F nepise. 2) 150: suskuwao. Indian woman's name: "the Torch Bearer". F siiskuwao 'he setsfire t o it'.

13) 1926 Swift Lightening 1) 4: Weya mekow susku-wao. "he is swift as lightening". F mekowi 'swift'. 2) 7: Wapusk. White bear. F wapusk. 3) 13: Kakea iskootao. "a hell-driver among beasts". 4) 13: Baloo. Personal name. 5) 16: Muhekun. She-wolf. F muhekun. 6) 26: Kesik Munitoowi. "the Sky-Goddess [aurora boreahs]". F kesik'sky'; munitoowi 'spirit'. 7) 36: Mistik. Name of wolf. F mistik 'tree'. 78 WILLIAM COWAN

8 56: Mistapoos. Arctic hare. F mistapoos. 9 73: Wapinoo. Owl. F wapikunoo 'white owl'. 10 74: Nizpah. Name of owl. 11 79: Yapao. Musk-ox. 12 90: Oohoo. Name of wolf: "the Howler". F oyoo 'he howls'. 13 119: Ussisoi. Ice-chisel. F ussiol. 138: Neswa ku che wuk. "the two are frozen together". 14 F neswaskuchewuk. 15 149 misti-koos. "stunted timber". F mistikoos 'small tree'. 16 150 Mooswa. Moose. F mooswa. 17 150 wapoos oo skow. "the big year of the rabbits". F wapoos 'rabbit'; uske 'year'. 18 154 kwahoo. A logjam in a river. 19 157 Pisew. Lynx. F pisew. 20 172 iskwao. Female wolf. F iskwao 'woman'. 21 175 Kak. Porcupine. F kak. 22 206) Yootin Wetikoo. "devil wind". F yootin 'wind'; wetikoo 'cannibal'.

REFERENCES Baraga, Frederic 1966 A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language. Minneapolis: Ross and Haines. [1878.] Dictionary of American Biography 1930 Dictionary of American Biography, volume 4. Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Fairies, Richard, ed. 1938 A Dictionary of the Cree Language. Toronto: Church of England in Canada. Watkins, E.A. 1865 A Dictionary of the Cree Language. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Young, Edgerton R. 1890 By Canoe and Dog Train Among the Cree and Salteaux Indians. London: Robert Culley.