80 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [Vo.. VI. 
name of his particular sept though this would be unusual—he would — 
rather give you the name of the locality, lake or river shore he inhabits. 
In no case will he go any further, unless his intercourse with the whites 
has taught him their mode of thinking and the name outsiders give to 
his tribe. This is so true that no Déné dialect, to my knowledge, has 
any synonymous term for tribe as distinct from clan. Even that large 
tribe in the midst of which I live, a tribe territorially so important that 
its members are found all the way within four degrees of latitude, may 
be said to have no personal name. TaKejne is a term of extraneous 
origin which is intrinsically meaningless, though usage has conferred 
upon it the signification of “Indians.” In that sense it is applied by the 
Carriers to any body of aborigines by contradistinction from the terms 
white man, Chinese or negro. 
The second reason of the absence of any tribal name among the Déné 
is that vanity innate in the heart of the Indian which prompts him to 
ignore other tribes or nations. In his opinion, fellow-tribesmen are 
“the people,” “the men,’ Déxé This foible is not proper to the Déné ; 
many other American tribes know it. For, as remarks Major Powell,* 
“the name by which the tribes distinguish themselves from other tribes 
indicates the further conviction that,as the Indian is above all other created 
beings, so in like manner each particular tribe is exalted above all others. 
“Men of men” is the literal translation of one name, “the only men” 
of another, and so on through the whole category.” Even the various: 
tribes of Esquimaux are no exception to this rule; their collective name 
Innuit means also “men.” Nay more, according to Klaproth quoted 
by Prof. Campbell himself, “the Tungus have no common or national 
name ; yet most who dwell in Siberia call themselves Boye, Boya or 
Bye, that is ‘men’” +—another trait of resemblance with our Déné 
which may well console our essayist for the absence of any truly Déné 
tribal name. 
“ 
Commenting further on my list of Northern Dénés, Mr. Campbell 
says that “the Yellow-Knives or Copper Indians are the Ahtena.” This 
statement is erroneous. I have already asserted that the Ahtena or 
Atna are not Déné. Prof. Campbell here follows Major Powell, who has 
been misled by Mr. Dall, who in his turn misunderstood Hearne. The 
latter discovered in 1769 to the eas¢ of the great northern lakes a river 
called Satson-Die (metal river) by the Dog-Ribs, and Coppermine by its 
white discoverer. Now W. Dall, confounding this river with the Copper 
River which flows into the Pacific Ocean, placed on its banks the habitat 
* Indian Linguistic Families, p. 36. 
t The Dénés of America identified with the Tungus of Asia, Trans. C.I., Vo!. v, p. 167. 
