154 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. vUi. 



Indians. — The Chipewyan race, who for convenience sake 

 are now classed as the "Dinnee" or " Tinneh" tribes, occupy as 

 will be seen a very extensive tract. They have evidently been 

 great wanderers ; for to them the isolated sept of the Sarcees of 

 the Saskatchewan owes its origin ; and a similar offset, the 

 Klatskanai (now extinct), not very long ago inhabited the high- 

 lands beyond the mouth of the Columbia River, while traces of 

 the language appear even farther south. Dinnee means literally 

 a man, but is sometimes applied in the plural sense, as Ahahto- 

 dinnee, the Mountain men, &c. ; and Sir A Mackenzie's inter- 

 preters, who were from Peace River, so applied it, calling A T ascnd- 

 dinnee those whom we now know as the Nasc-otin, i. e. People 

 of the Nas-accoh (Mackenzie's " West-road River.") Generally, 

 however, the term is pluralized by changing it, eastward of the 

 Rocky Mountains, into hanie, westward into otin. as Sih-hanie 

 (or rather Tsack-hdnie) People of the stones or rocks, &c JVasc- 

 otin (as above) : Chilo-otin, People of the Chil-accoh (River), 

 &c. In the Alaska section this affix is changed into Koochin, 

 having the same obvious signification. The Tah-Cully-(otin) 

 Branch, i. e. " People of the deep" (waters being probably un- 

 derstood) inhabit the upper waters of the Eraser, bounded 

 southward by the JShewhapmuch (ch guttural) or Sacliss con- 

 nexion (Atnah or "chin" of Mackenzie). Eastward of the 

 Rocky Mountains the Chipewyans are bounded on the east by 

 the Crees, who pass round the south end of Lake Winnipeg, and 

 continue round the circuit of Hudson's Bay and through Labra 

 dor, to Hudson's Strait, Adjoining the Crees, and following 

 along the upper Lakes and down the Ottawa River, &c, are the 

 Algouquins or Sauteux, called also Ojibways or Chippeways. 

 These are merely a branch of the Crees, aud talk a dialect of the 

 same language. The Assineboines are a branch of the Nadowa- 

 sis or Sioux, and bound the Crees on the south along the course 

 of the upper north Saskatchewan ; succeeded on the west by the 

 Sarcees, the small isolated tribe already noticed. A few fami- 

 lies of Assineboines, abandoning the Prairie habit of the rest, 

 frequent the heads of the Athabasca, among the " strong woods" 

 (whence their distinctive appellation) and are now intercepted 

 by the neighbouring tribes from the remainder of their race. 

 The Black-feet, divided into several septs, as Gros Ventres, 

 Blood Indians, &c, inhabit the prairie tract along the heads of 

 the Saskatchewan and Missouri towards the border of the Sioux. 



