Chapter IV: THE ATHABASKAN GROUP.--The vast size of the area over which the

Athabaskan tongues have spread themselves, has commanded less attention than it deserves. It should command attention if it were only for the fact of its touching both the Oceans--the Atlantic on the one side, the Pacific on the other. But this is not all. With the exception of the Eskimo, the Athabaskan forms of speech are the most northern of the New World; nay, as the Eskimos are, by no means, universally recognized as American, the Athabaskan area is, in the eyes of many, absolutely and actually the most northern portion of America--the most northern portion of America considered ethnologically or philologically, the Eskimo country being considered Asiatic. To say that the Athabaskan area extends from ocean to ocean, is to say that, as a matter of course, it extends to both sides of the Rocky Mountains. It is also to say that the Athabaskan family is common to both British and Russian America.

For the northern Athabaskans, the main body of the family, the philological details were, until lately, eminently scanty and insufficient. There was, indeed, an imperfect substitute for them in the statements of several highly trustworthy authors as to certain tribes who spoke a language allied to the Chepewyan, and as to others who did not;--statements which, on the whole, have been shown to be correct; statements, however, which required the confirmation of vocabularies. These have now been procured; if not to the full extent of all the details of the family, to an extent quite sufficient for the purposes of the philologue. They show that the most western branch of the stock, the Chepewyan proper, or the language of what Dobbs called the Northern Indians, is closely akin to that of the Dog-ribs, the Hare (or Slave) and the Beaver Indians, and that the Dahodinni, called from their warlike habits the Mauvais Monde, are but slightly separated from them. Farther west a change takes place, but not one of much importance. Interpreters are understood with greater difficulty, but still understood.

The Sikani and Sussi tongues are known by specimens of considerable length and value, and these languages, lying as far south as the drainage of the Saskatshewan, and as far west as the Rocky Mountains, are, and have been for some years, known as Athabaskan.

Then came the Takulli of New Caledonia, of whose language there was an old sample procured by Harmon. This was the Nagail, or Chin Indian of Mackenzie, or nearly so. Now, _Nagail_ I hold to be the same word as _Takull-i_, whilst _Chin_ is _Tshin_ = _Dinne_ = _Tnai_ = _Atna_ = _Knai_ = _Man_. The Takulli division falls into no less than eleven (?) minor sections; all of which but one end in this root, viz.-_tin_.

1. The Tau-_tin_, or Talko-_tin_.
(?) 2. The Tsilko-_tin_ or Chilko-_tin_, perhaps the same word
in a different dialect.
3. The Nasko-_tin_.
4. The Thetlio-_tin_.
5. The Tsatsno-_tin_.
6. The Nulaau-_tin_.
7. The Ntaauo-_tin_.
8. The Natliau-_tin_.
9. The Nikozliau-_tin_.
10. The Tatshiau-_tin_, and
11. The Babin Indians.

Sir John Richardson, from vocabularies procured by him during his last expedition, the value of which is greatly enhanced by his ethnological chapter on the characteristics of the populations which supplied them, has shown, what was before but suspected, that the Loucheux Indians of Mackenzie River are Athabaskan; a most important addition to our knowledge. Now, the Loucheux are a tribe known under many names; under that of the Quarrellers, under that of the Squinters, under that of the Thycothe and Digothi. Sir John Richardson calls them Kutshin, a name which we shall find in several compounds, just as we found the root-_tin_ in the several sections of the Takulli, and as we shall find its modified form _dinni_ among the eastern Athabascans. The particular tribes of the Kutshin division, occupants of either the eastern frontier of Russian America, or the north-western parts of the Hudson's Bay Territory, are (according to the same authority) as follows:

1. The Artez-_kutshi_ = Hard people.

2. The Tshu-_kutshi_ = Water people.

3. The Tatzei-_kutshi_ = Rampart people; falling into four bands.

4. The Teystse-_kutshi_ = People of the shelter.

5. The Vanta-_kutshi_ = People of the lakes.

6. The Neyetse-_kutshi_ = People of the open country.

7. The Tlagga-silla = Little dogs.

This brings us to the _Kenay_. Word for word _Kenay_ is _Knai_ = _Tnai_, a modified form of the now familiar root _t-n_ = _man_, a root which has yet to appear and reappear under various new, and sometimes unfamiliar and unexpected, forms. A Kenay vocabulary has long been known. It appears in Lisiansky tabulated with the Kadiak, Sitkan, and Unalaskan of the Aleutian Islands. It was supplied by the occupants of Cook's Inlet. Were these Athabaskan? The present writer owes to Mr. Isbister the suggestion that they were Loucheux, and to the same authority he was indebted for the use of a very short Loucheux vocabulary. Having compared this with Lisiansky's, he placed both languages in the same category--rightly in respect to the main point, wrongly in respect to a subordinate. He determined the place of the _Loucheux_ (_Kutshin_ as he would now call them) by that of the Kenay, and made both Kolush. He would now reverse the process and make both Athabaskan, as Sir John Richardson has also suggested.

To proceed--three vocabularies in Baer's _Beiträge_ are in the same category with the Kenay, viz.--

1. The _Atna_.--This is our old friend _t-n_ again, the form _Tnai_ and others occurring. It deserves notice, because, unless noticed, it may create confusion. As more populations than one may call themselves _man_, a word like _Atna_ may appear and re-appear as often as there is a dialect which so renders the Latin word _homo_. Hence, there may not only be more _Atnas_ than one, but there actually are more than one. This is a point to which we shall again revert. At present it is enough that the Atnas under notice are occupants of the mouth of the Copper River, Indians of Russian America and Athabaskan.

2. The _Koltshani_.--As _t-n_ = _man_, so does _k-ltsh_ = _stranger_, _guest_, _enemy_, _friend_; and _mûtatis mutandis_, the criticism that applied to _Atna_ applies to words like _Koltshan_, _Golzan_, and _Kolush_. There may be more than one population so called.

3. The _Ugalents_ or _Ugalyackh-mutsi_.--This is the name of few families near Mount St. Elias. Now--

The _Atna_ at the mouth of the Copper River, the _Koltshani_ higher up the stream, and the _Ugalents_, are all held by the present writer to be Athabaskan--not, indeed, so decidedly as the Beaver Indians, the Dog-ribs, or the Proper Chepewyans, but still Athabaskan. They are not Eskimo, though they have Eskimo affinities. They are not Kolush, though they have Kolush affinities. They are by no means isolated, and as little are they to be made into a class by themselves. At the same time, it should be added that by including these _we raise the value of the class_.

For all the languages hitherto mentioned we have specimens. For some, however, of the populations whose names appear in the maps, within the Athabaskan area, we have yet to satisfy ourselves with the testimony of writers, or to rely on inference. In some cases, too, we have the same population under different names. This is the case when we have a native designation as well as a French or English one--_e. g._ Loucheux, Squinters, Kutshin. This, too, is the case when we have, besides the native name (or instead of it), the name by which a tribe is called by its neighbours. Without giving any minute criticism, I will briefly state that all the Indians of the Athabaskan area whose names end in-_dinni_ are Athabaskan; viz.--

1. The See-issaw-_dinni_ = Rising-sun-_men_.

2. The Tau-tsawot-_dinni_ = Birch-rind-_men_.

3. The Thlingeha-_dinni_ = Dog-rib-_men_.

4. The Etsh-tawút-_dinni_ = Thickwood-_men_.

5. The Ambah tawút-_dinni_ = Mountain-sheep-_men_.

6. The Tsillaw-awdút-_dinni_ = Bushwood-_men_.

Lastly--Carries, Slave-Indians, Yellow-knives, Copper-Indians, and Strong-bows are synonyms for some of the tribes already mentioned. The _Hare_-Indians are called _Kancho_. The Nehanni and some other populations of less importance are also, to almost a certainty, Athabaskan. With the tongues in its neighbourhood, we shall find that it is broadly and definitely separated from them in proportion as we move from west to east. In Russian America, the Eskimo, Sitkan, and Athabaskan tongues graduate into each other. In the same parts the Athabaskan forms of speech differ most from each other. On the other hand, to the east of the Rocky Mountains, the Dog-ribs, the Hares, and the Chepewyans are cut off by lines equally trenchant from the Eskimos to the north, and from the Algonkins to the south. I infer from this that the diffusion of the language over those parts is comparatively recent; in other words, that the Athabaskan family has moved from west to east rather than from east to west.

Of the proper Athabaskan, _i. e._ of the Athabaskan in the original sense of the word, the southern boundary, beginning at Fort Churchill, on Hudson's Bay, follows (there or thereabouts) the course of the Missinippi; to the north of which lie the Chepewyans who are Athabaskan, to the south of which lie the Crees, or Knistenaux, who are Algonkin. Westward come the Blackfeet (Algonkin) and the Sussees (Athabaskan), the former to the north, the latter to the south, until the Rocky Mountains are reached. The Takulli succeed--occupants of New Caledonia; to the south of whom lie Kutani and Atnas. The Takulli area nowhere touches the ocean, from which its western frontier is separated to the south of 55° north latitude by some unplaced languages; to the north of 55°, by the Sitkeen--but only as far as the Rocky Mountains; unless, indeed, some faint Algonkin characteristics lead future inquirers to extend the Algonkin area westwards, which is not improbable. The value of the class, however, if this be done, will have to be raised.

The most southern of the Athabaskans are the Sussees, in north latitude 51°--there or thereabouts. But the Sussees, far south as they lie, are only the most southern Athabaskans _en masse_. There are outliers of the stock as far south as the southern parts of Oregon. More than this, there are Athabaskans in California, New Mexico, and Sonora.

Few discoveries respecting the distribution of languages are more interesting than one made by Mr. Hale, to the effect that the Umkwa, Kwaliokwa, and Tlatskanai dialects of a district so far south as the River Columbia, and the upper portion of the Umkwa river (further south still) were outlying members of the Athabaskan stock, a stock preeminently northern--not to say Arctic--in its main area.

Yet the dialects just named were shown by a subsequent discovery of Professor Turner's, to be only penultimate ramifications of their stock; inasmuch as further south and further south still, in California, New Mexico, Sonora, and even Chihuhua, as far south as 30° north latitude, Athabaskan forms of speech were to be found; the Navaho of Uta and New Mexico, the Jecorilla of New Mexico, and the Apatch of New Mexico, California, and Sonora, being Athabaskan. The Hoopah of California is also Athabaskan.

The first of the populations to the south of the Athabaskan area, who, lying on, or to the west of, the Rocky Mountains, are other than Algonkin, are--