ON THE NOETH-WESTERN TRIBES OF CANADA. 243 



gathered most of my information. I found, however, tliat the Sarcees 

 •were not so ready to converse, or to tell either about their language or 

 their history, as were the Blackfeet, whom I visited last summer. Tea 

 and tobacco seemed to be with them the chief desiderata, and except 

 with gifts of this kind it seemed almost impossible to gain anything from 

 them. And after all, even when plied with these commodities, the infor- 

 mation they gave was very meagre, and often far from satisfactoiy. 

 From what little I saw of these people I should be inclined to say that 

 they are of a lower order and inferior in mental capacity to the Blackfeet; 

 I judge this chiefly by the style in which they told their stories and 

 traditions, such as they were, and by their having no elaborated theories 

 as to certain phenomena in nature, about which many other of the Indian 

 tribes have always so much to say. 



Chief • Bull's Head,' in reply to my questions as to their early history, 

 made a great show of oratory, both by voice and gesture, but much of 

 what he said was very childish and confused, and seemed to be scarcely 

 worth the trouble of putting down. 



These people call the Blackfeet ' Katce,' the Crees ' Nishinna,' the 

 Sioux ' Kaispa,' and themselves ' Sotenna.' The Indians of tbeir own 

 stock, as I understand, they call ' Tinnatte.' These two last names seem 

 certainly to connect them with the great ' Tinneh ' or Athabascan nation. 

 Sarcee (or rather Sarxi) is the name by which they are called by the 

 Blackfeet. 



Whence these People Came. 



' Formerly,' said ' Bull's Head,' ' the Sarcee territory extended from 

 the Rocky Mountains to the Big River (either the Saskatchewan or the 

 Peace River). Our delight was to make corrals for the buffaloes, and to 

 drive them over the cut bank and let them fall. Those were glorious 

 days, when we could mount our swift-footed horses, and ride like the 

 wind after the flying herd ; but now the buffalo is gone we hang our 

 heads, we are poor. And then, too, we used to fight those liars, the 

 Crees : we engaged in many a bloody battle, and their bullets pierced our 

 teepees. Thirty battles have I seen. When I was a child the Sarcees 

 were in number like the grass ; the Blackfeet and Bloods and Peigans 

 were as nothing in comparison. Battles with the Crees and disease 

 brought in among us by the white man have reduced us to our present 

 pitiable state.' 



Another Indian told us how the Sarcees were at one time one people 

 with the Chipewyans, and gave us the myth which accounts for their 

 separation. ' Formerly,' he said, ' we lived in the north country. We 

 were many thousands in number. We were travelling south. It was 

 winter, and we had to cross a big lake on the ice. There was an elk's 

 horn sticking out of the ice. A squaw went and struck the horn with an 

 axe. The elk raised himself from the ice and shook his head. The 

 people were all frightened and ran away. Those that ran toward the 

 north became the Chipewyans, and we who ran toward the south are the 

 " Sotenna " or " Sarcees." ' 



' The Chipewyans,' said ' Bull's Head,' 'speak our language. It is twenty 

 years since I saw a Chipewyan. We call them " Tcohtin." They live up 

 north, beyond the Big River' (probably the Peace River). 



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