154 



The Ottawa Naturalist 



[Vol. XXXII 



on Lake Manitoba during certain storms a peculiar 

 roar, was heard, caused by the unusual conformation 

 of the shores upon which the waves beat. Though 

 the Indian's hearing was phenomenally acute, he 

 had no knowledge of the principles of sound, and 

 so in his customary way decided that this uncommon 

 noise was due to the presence of a spirit. 



As regards the first part of this name it is worthy 

 of remark that the Indian's conception of a spirit 

 was much wider, or perhaps I should say deeper 

 than ours, for it ran all the way from "Kilchi 

 Manitou" the Almighty, the Great Spirit, down to 

 "Manitous" the little spirits, which was the name 

 that he applied to the insects that fluttered and 

 hummed and buzzed around him on a warm summer 

 day. 



Saslj-aichewan. Kissiskahahchewun, "There arc 

 rapids". This is the name given to the great river 

 of the country wherein they lived by the western 

 Crees. They called themselves Kissiskahchewun- 

 ethinuk. 



That there should be considerable difference be- 

 tween the dialect spoken by them and that spoken 

 by their cousins on the Ottawa is but natural. The 

 difference in their surroundings and mode of life 

 would account for it. 



The plain Crees were men of the open spaces. 

 They were free to travel in any direction desired, 

 either by land or water. The buffalo was their 

 great staple. On its flesh they fed ; of its skin they 

 made their clothing and their ledges, and under its 

 robes they slept. 



On the other hand the Ojibwa and eastern Crees, 

 while their living was more varied, had to work 

 harder for it. Fish formed a large part of it. The 

 canoe was indispensable to them as the only roads 

 they had were the trails over the portages. Hedged 

 in by interminable forests and impenetrable swamps 

 they were forced to keep close to the streams and 

 lakes. 



In one word they summed all this up Nopiming 

 "In the woods". For Nopiming when resolved 

 into its root-words denotes "back from the shore". 

 And so it was, for when off the waters they were 

 of necessity in the woods. 



Ottawa. This name is generally connected with 

 that of the Ottawa Indians. There is a connection 

 but it is only an indirect one. There is no reliable 

 evidence that the Ottawa Indians ever lived on the 

 Ottawa river. In fact such evidence as can be 

 found is to the contrary, even though the largest 

 county on its banks is named after Pontiac, then 

 great war chief. 



Their country was on the north of the Georgian 

 Bay and Lake Huron. Their name meant "The 

 Traders", "adowe" being a root-word denoting 

 trade, and was occasioned by the fact that it was 



by and through them that a system of barter was 

 carried on between the natives north and west of 

 Lake Huron and those east of it. They were a 

 numerous people and their trade a very desirable 

 one. It is true they claimed sovereign rights over 

 the Ottawa river, but it seems to have been only an 

 empty boast. 



There are some maps of old date, upon which 

 this river is named the Ottawa, but it was not then 

 so called by the Indians or whites who lived upon 

 its shores or frequented its waters. By the former 

 it was spoken of, as it is yet in its upper reaches, 

 as Kitchi sibi, and by the latter as the Grand river, 

 a literal translation of the Indian name. 



In the days of the voyageurs, owing to dread of 

 the Iroqucis who were masters of the upper St. 

 Lawrence, the great trading route between Montreal 

 and the lakes was by way of what we now call the 

 Ottawa and the French rivers, and it is probable 

 that the former, from being originally spoken of as 

 the river of the Ottawas, at last came to be known 

 as the Ottawa river. 



Cluyon. I have been informed on reliable author- 

 ity that this river took its name from a game which 

 the squaws were accustomed to play on the flats 

 at its mouth. 



This game was of the nature of lacrosse. It was 

 played with pointed poles by aid of which the 

 players threw from one to another two round 

 pebbles sewn up in a loose deerskin pouch. The 

 Indians looked upon it with contempt, as only fit 

 for women, and in derision called it Okweawnwi. 

 In time the French voyageurs replaced this with a 

 word of their own of a somewhat similar sound and 

 meaning, but in doing so lost the flavour of Rabel- 

 aisian humour which the original word contained. 



Mississippi. This name as applied to the river 

 running into the Ottawa four miles below Arnprior 

 is evidently a mistake. The Indians called the 

 Ottawa Kitchi sibi. Now Mississippi and Kitchi sibi 

 are only different forms of the same word, meaning 

 the big river, and it is manifest that no one would 

 name a comparatively small river and a much greater 

 one into which it ran both "the Big river". 



My sister, when searching the Archives in Ottawa 

 for something having no bearing whatever on this 

 question, came across an early Government return 

 in which this river was referred to as the Mississquoi. 



From this it appears as if its original name was 

 Mississquoi, "the river of the big woman", and 

 that white men in time changed it into the, to them, 

 better known name Mississippi. 



Of course there is always the possibility that it 

 may have been called Mississippi by the natives on 

 its upper waters, but the names by which v/e 

 know the great majority of Canadian rivers have 

 been derived from some peculiarity of condition 



