1 TRIBES. 5 



and rather by isolated families who resort thither 

 for a year or two to hunt the rein-deer than by 

 parties associated in such numbers as to deserve 

 the name of a tribe. Part of these wandering, 

 solitary people resort at intervals of two or three 

 years to Churchill for supplies, and part to Fort 

 Chepewyan, where, from the direction in which 

 they came, they are named Sa-i-sa- dtinne (Eastern 

 or Rising Sun folks). The Athabasca 'Tinne, named 

 also Chepewyan s, frequent the Elk and Slave 

 Rivers, and the country westward to Hay River, 

 which falls into Great Slave Lake. There is some 

 difference between their dialect and that of the 

 tribes on the Mackenzie, but not so much as to 

 occasion any difficulty to an interpreter, versed in 

 either tongue. The name Chipewyan has no re- 

 lation to the word Ojibbeway or Chippeivay, which 

 designates an Eythinyuwuk people frequenting the 

 coasts of Lake Superior, but has rather, I believe, 

 its origin in the contempt felt* by the warlike 

 Crees for the less manly 'Tinne, whom they op- 

 pressed by their inroads, before commerce intro- 

 duced peace between them. Chipai-uk-tim (you 

 dead dog) is a most opprobrious epithet. The 

 appellation of " slave," given to the Dog-ribs by 

 the same people, whose war-parties penetrated even 

 to the banks of the Mackenzie, has a similar origin ; 

 and it has been stated in a preceding page, that 



B 3 



