> Chepeyans, Prichard, Phys. Hist. Mankind, V, 375, 1847 (same as
Athapascas above).
> Tahkali-Umkwa, Hale in U.S. Expl. Exp., VI, 198, 201, 569, 1846
(“a branch of the great Chippewyan, or Athapascan, stock;” includes
Carriers, Qualioguas, Tlatskanies, Umguas). Gallatin, after Hale in
Trans. Am. Eth. Soc., II, pt. 1, 9, 1848.
> Digothi, Berghaus (1845), Physik. Atlas, map 17, 1848. Digothi,
Loucheux, ibid. 1852.
> Lipans, Latham, Nat. Hist. Man, 349, 1850 (Lipans (Sipans) between
Rio Arkansas and Rio Grande).
> Tototune, Latham, Nat. Hist. Man, 325, 1850 (seacoast south of the
Saintskla).
> Ugaljachmutzi, Gallatin in Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, III, 402, 1853
(“perhaps Athapascas”).
> Umkwa, Latham in Proc. Philolog. Soc. Lond., VI, 72, 1854 (a single
tribe). Latham, Opuscula, 300, 1860.
> Tahlewah. Gibbs in Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, III, 422, 1853
(a single tribe). Latham in Trans. Philolog. Soc. Lond., 76, 1856
(a single tribe). Latham. Opuscula, 342, 1860.
> Tolewa, Gatschet in Mag. Am. Hist., 163, 1877 (vocab. from Smith
River, Oregon; affirmed to be distinct from any neighboring tongue).
Gatschet in Beach, Ind. Miscellany, 438, 1877.
> Hoo-pah, Gibbs in Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, III, 422, 1853 (tribe on
Lower Trinity, California).
> Hoopa, Powers in Overland Monthly, 135, August, 1872.
> Hú-pâ, Powers in Cont. N.A. Eth., III, 72, 1877 (affirmed to be
Athapascan).
= Tinneh, Dall in Proc. Am. Ass. A. S., XVIII, 269, 1869 (chiefly
Alaskan tribes). Dall, Alaska and its Resources, 428, 1870. Dall in
Cont. N.A. Eth., I, 24, 1877. Bancroft, Native Races, III, 562, 583,
603, 1882.
= Tinné, Gatschet in Mag. Am, Hist., 165, 1877 (special mention of
Hoopa, Rogue River, Umpqua.) Gatschet in Beach, Ind. Misc., 440, 1877.
Gatschet in Geog. Surv. W. 100th M., VII, 406, 1879. Tolmie and
Dawson, Comp. Vocabs., 62, 1884. Berghaus, Physik. Atlas, map 72,
1887.
= Tinney, Keane, App. to Stanford’s Comp. (Cent. and So. Am.), 460,
463, 1878.
X Klamath, Keane, App. to Stanford’s Comp. (Cent. and So. Am.), 475,
1878; or Lutuami, (Lototens and Tolewahs of his list belong here.)
Derivation: From the lake of the same name; signifying, according to
Lacombe, “place of hay and reeds.”
As defined by Gallatin, the area occupied by this great family is
included in a line drawn from the mouth of the Churchill or Missinippi
River to its source; thence along the ridge which separates the north
branch of the Saskatchewan from those of the Athapascas to the Rocky
Mountains; and thence northwardly till within a hundred miles of the
Pacific Ocean, in latitude 52° 30'.
The only tribe within the above area excepted by Gallatin as of probably
a different stock was the Quarrelers or Loucheux, living at the mouth of
Mackenzie River. This tribe, however, has since been ascertained to be
Athapascan.
The Athapascan family thus occupied almost the whole of British Columbia
and of Alaska, and was, with the exception of the Eskimo, by whom they
were cut off on nearly all sides from the ocean, the most northern
family in North America.
Since Gallatin’s time the history of this family has been further
elucidated by the discovery on the part of Hale and Turner that isolated
branches of the stock have become established in Oregon, California, and
along the southern border of the United States.
The boundaries of the Athapascan family, as now understood, are best
given under three primary groups--Northern, Pacific, and Southern.
_Northern group_.--This includes all the Athapascan tribes of British
North America and Alaska. In the former region the Athapascans occupy
most of the western interior, being bounded on the north by the Arctic
Eskimo, who inhabit a narrow strip of coast; on the east by the Eskimo
of Hudson’s Bay as far south as Churchill River, south of which river
the country is occupied by Algonquian tribes. On the south the
Athapascan tribes extended to the main ridge between the Athapasca and
Saskatchewan Rivers, where they met Algonquian tribes; west of this area
they were bounded on the south by Salishan tribes, the limits of whose
territory on Fraser River and its tributaries appear on Tolmie and
Dawson’s map of 1884. On the west, in British Columbia, the Athapascan
tribes nowhere reach the coast, being cut off by the Wakashan, Salishan,
and Chimmesyan families.
The interior of Alaska is chiefly occupied by tribes of this family.
Eskimo tribes have encroached somewhat upon the interior along the
Yukon, Kuskokwim, Kowak, and Noatak Rivers, reaching on the Yukon to
somewhat below Shageluk Island,[7] and on the Kuskokwim nearly or quite
to Kolmakoff Redoubt.[8] Upon the two latter they reach quite to their
heads.[9] A few Kutchin tribes are (or have been) north of the Porcupine
and Yukon Rivers, but until recently it has not been known that they
extended north beyond the Yukon and Romanzoff Mountains. Explorations of
Lieutenant Stoney, in 1885, establish the fact that the region to the
north of those mountains is occupied by Athapascan tribes, and the map
is colored accordingly. Only in two places in Alaska do the Athapascan
tribes reach the coast--the K’naia-khotana, on Cook’s Inlet, and the
Ahtena, of Copper River.
[Footnote 7: Dall, Map Alaska, 1877.]
[Footnote 8: Fide Nelson in Dall’s address, Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci.,
1885, p. 13.]
[Footnote 9: Cruise of the _Corwin_, 1887.]
_Pacific group_.--Unlike the tribes of the Northern group, most of those
of the Pacific group have removed from their priscan habitats since the
advent of the white race. The Pacific group embraces the following:
Kwalhioqua, formerly on Willopah River, Washington, near the Lower
Chinook;[10] Owilapsh, formerly between Shoalwater Bay and the heads of
the Chehalis River, Washington, the territory of these two tribes being
practically continuous; Tlatscanai, formerly on a small stream on the
northwest side of Wapatoo Island.[11] Gibbs was informed by an old
Indian that this tribe “formerly owned the prairies on the Tsihalis at
the mouth of the Skukumchuck, but, on the failure of game, left the
country, crossed the Columbia River, and occupied the mountains to the
south”--a statement of too uncertain character to be depended upon; the
Athapascan tribes now on the Grande Ronde and Siletz Reservations,
Oregon,[12] whose villages on and near the coast extended from Coquille
River southward to the California line, including, among others, the
Upper Coquille, Sixes, Euchre, Creek, Joshua, Tutu tûnnĕ, and other
“Rogue River” or “Tou-touten bands,” Chasta Costa, Galice Creek,
Naltunne tûnnĕ and Chetco villages;[13] the Athapascan villages formerly
on Smith River and tributaries, California;[14] those villages extending
southward from Smith River along the California coast to the mouth of
Klamath River;[15] the Hupâ villages or “clans” formerly on Lower
Trinity River, California;[16] the Kenesti or Wailakki (2), located as
follows: “They live along the western slope of the Shasta Mountains,
from North Eel River, above Round Valley, to Hay Fork; along Eel and Mad
Rivers, extending down the latter about to Low Gap; also on Dobbins and
Larrabie Creeks;”[17] and Saiaz, who “formerly occupied the tongue of
land jutting down between Eel River and Van Dusen’s Fork.”[18]
[Footnote 10: Gibbs in Pac. R. R. Rep. I, 1855, p. 428.]
[Footnote 11: Lewis and Clarke, Exp., 1814, vol. 2, p. 382.]
[Footnote 12: Gatschet and Dorsey, MS., 1883-’84.]
[Footnote 13: Dorsey, MS., map, 1884, B.E.]
[Footnote 14: Hamilton, MS., Haynarger Vocab., B.E.; Powers,
Contr. N.A. Ethn., 1877, vol. 3, p. 65.]
[Footnote 15: Dorsey, MS., map, 1884, B.E.]
[Footnote 16: Powers, Contr. N.A. Ethn., 1877, vol. 3, pp. 72, 73.]
[Footnote 17: Powers, Contr. N.A. Ethn., 1877, vol. 3, p. 114.]
[Footnote 18: Powers, Contr. N.A. Ethn., 1877, vol. 3, p. 122.]
_Southern group_.--Includes the Navajo, Apache, and Lipan. Engineer José
Cortez, one of the earliest authorities on these tribes, writing in
1799, defines the boundaries of the Lipan and Apache as extending north
and south from 29° N. to 36° N., and east and west from 99° W. to 114°
W.; in other words from central Texas nearly to the Colorado River in
Arizona, where they met tribes of the Yuman stock. The Lipan occupied
the eastern part of the above territory, extending in Texas from the
Comanche country (about Red River) south to the Rio Grande.[19] More
recently both Lipan and Apache have gradually moved southward into
Mexico where they extend as far as Durango.[20]
[Footnote 19: Cortez in Pac. R. R. Rep., 1856, vol. 3, pt. 3,
pp. 118, 119.]
[Footnote 20: Bartlett, Pers. Narr., 1854; Orozco y Berra, Geog.,
1864.]
The Navajo, since first known to history, have occupied the country on
and south of the San Juan River in northern New Mexico and Arizona and
extending into Colorado and Utah. They were surrounded on all sides by
the cognate Apache except upon the north, where they meet Shoshonean
tribes.