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--
V. THE KITUNAHA.--The Kitunaha, Cutani, Cootanie or Flatbow area is
long rather than broad, and it follows the line of the Rocky Mountains
between 52° and 48° north latitude. How definitely it is divided by
the main ridge from that of the Blackfoots I am unable to say, but as
a general rule, the Kutani lie west, the Blackfoots east; the former
being Indians of New Caledonia and Oregon, the latter of the Hudson's
Bay Territory and the United States. On the west the Kutani country is
bounded by that of the Shushwap and Selish Atnas, on the north by the
Sussee, Sikanni, and Nagail Athabaskans, on the south (I think) by some
of the Upsaroka or Crow tribes. All these relations are remarkable, and
so is the geographical position of the area. It is in a mountain-range;
and, as such, in a district likely to be an ancient occupancy. The
languages with which the Kutani lies in contact are referable to four
different families--the Athabaskan, the Atna, the Algonkin, and the
Sioux; the last two of which, the Blackfoot (Algonkin) and the Crow
(Sioux), are both extreme forms, _i. e._ forms sufficiently unlike
the other members of these respective groups to have had their true
position long overlooked; forms, too, sufficiently peculiar to justify
the philologue in raising them to the rank of separate divisions. It
suffices, however, for the present to say, that the Kutani language is
bounded by four tongues differing in respect to the class to which they
belong and from each other, and different from the Kutani itself.
The Kutani, then, differs notably from the tongues with which it is in
geographical contact; though, like all the languages of America, it
has numerous miscellaneous affinities. In respect to its phonesis it
agrees with the North Oregon languages. The similarity in name to the
Loucheux, whom Richardson calls _Kutshin_, deserves notice. Upon the
whole, few languages deserve attention more than the one under notice.
VI. THE ATNA GROUP.--West of the Kutanis and south of the Takulli
Athabaskans lie the northernmost members of a great family which
extends as far south as the Sahaptin frontier, the Sahaptin being a
family of Southern, or American, Oregon. Such being the case, the great
group now under notice came under the cognizance of the two American
philologues, whose important labours have already been noticed, by whom
it has been denominated Tsihaili-Selish. It contains the Shushwap,
Selish, Skitsnish (or Cœur d'Alene) Piskwans, Nusdalum, Kawitchen,
Skwali, Chechili, Kowelits, and Nsietshawus forms of speech.
In regard to the Atna I have a statement of my own to correct, or at
any rate to modify. In a paper, read before the Ethnological Society,
on the Languages of the Oregon Territory (Dec. 11, 1844), I pronounced
that an Atna vocabulary found in Mackenzie's Travels, though different
from the Atna of the Copper River, belonged to the same group. The
_group_, however, to which the Atna of the Copper River belongs is the
Athabaskan.
The Tsihaili-Selish languages reach the sea in the parts to the south
of the mouth of Frazer's River, _i. e._ the parts opposite Vancouver's
Island; perhaps they touch it further to the north also; perhaps, too,
some of the Takulli forms of the speech further north still reach
the sea. The current statements, however, are to the effect, that to
the south of the parts opposite Sitka, and to the north of the parts
opposite Vancouver's Island, the two families in question are separated
from the Pacific by a narrow strip of separate languages--separate and
but imperfectly known. These are, beginning from the north--
VII. THE HAIDAH GROUP OF LANGUAGES.--Spoken by the Skittegats,
Massetts, Kumshahas, and Kyganie of Queen Charlotte's Islands and the
Prince of Wales Archipelago. Its area lies immediately to that of the
south of the so-called Kolush languages.
VIII. THE CHEMMESYAN.--Spoken along the sea-coast and islands of north
latitude 55°.
IX. THE BILLECHULA.--Spoken at the mouth of Salmon River; a language
to which I have shown, elsewhere, that a vocabulary from Mackenzie's
Travels of the dialect spoken at Friendly Village was referable.
X. THE HAILTSA.--The Hailtsa contains the dialects of the sea-coast
between Hawkesbury Island and Broughton's Archipelago, also those of
the northern part of Vancouver's Island.
In Gallatin, the Chemmesyan, Billechula, and Hailtsa are all thrown
in a group called _Naas_. The Billechula numerals are, certainly, the
same as the Hailtsa; the remainder of the vocabulary being unlike,
though not altogether destitute of coincidences. The Chemmesyan is
more outlying still. I do not, however, in thus separating these
three languages, absolutely deny the validity of the _Naas_ family.
I only imagine that if it really contain languages so different as
the Chemmesyan and Hailtsa, it may also contain the Haidah and other
groups, _e. g._ the one that comes next, or--