ON THE NORTH-WESTEKN TRIBES OF CANADA. 253 



8. The adjective follows the uoun, the same as in the Sioux. 



9. In the foregoing 260 words and sentences I do not recognise one 

 word as similar to any word in any other Indian language with which I 

 am familiar. But I have never before examined any of the ' Tinneh ' 

 or Athabascan stock. I might, perhaps, except ninna, ni . . . , the second 

 person of the pronoun, which is analogous to niye, ni . . . of the Siouan 

 dialects. 



10. The sign of the past tense may be ie, and of the future ita (see 

 snioJce in vocab.), but of this I cannot be sure. 



11. The Sarcees seem to keep their lips parted while speaking, and 

 the accent is generally on the last syllable of the word. The language 

 has rather a clicking, ' slishing ' sound. 



12. In inflecting some of the verbs I have introduced the personal 

 pronouns, but I imagine their presence is not necessary except fo? 

 emphasis. 



Notes by Mr. H. Hale on the foregoing Rejjort. 



Mr. Wilson's report on the Sarcees is specially valuable as being the 

 only detailed account we possess of this interesting branch of the great 

 Tinneh or Athabascan family. Some information concerning the tribe 

 has been given incidentally by various writers, including Sir Alexander 

 Mackenzie, Umfreville, and Petitot, but no particular description of the 

 people has been heretofore published. It has been known merely that 

 they spoke a dialect of the Tinneh language, and that they lived in close 

 alhance with the Blackfoot tribes. 



The Tinneh family, or stock, has attracted much attention from 

 ethnologists, partly from the peculiar character of its members and 

 partly from its wide diffusion, in which respect, as Mr. H. H. Bancroft 

 has observed, it may be compared with the Aryan and Semitic families 

 of the Old World. It occupies the whole northern portion of the American 

 continent, from Hudson Bay to the Rocky Mountains, except the coasts, 

 which belong to the Eskimo. Tinneh tribes also possess the interior of 

 Alaska and British Columbia. Other scattered bands — Umpquas, 

 Tlatskanais, and Kwalhioquas — are found in Oregon. The Hoopas and 

 some smaller tribes live in Northern California. Thence, spreading east- 

 ward, Tinneh tribes, under various designations — Navahoes (or Navajos), 

 Apaches, Lipanes, Pelones, Tontos, and others — are widely diffused over 

 Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and the northern provinces of the Mexican 

 Republic. 



The best account of the Northern Tinneh, east of the Rocky Mountains, 

 is found in the introductory portion of the ' Dictionnaire de la langae 

 Dene-Dindjie ' of the eminent missionary-philologist, the Abbe Petitot, 

 who resided many years among them, and studied their languages, 

 customs, and traditions with much care. In his list of the tribes belonging 

 to this portion of the stock he makes a division styled mountaineers 

 (Montagnards), possessing the country on both sides of the Rocky 

 Mountains. The southernmost tribe of this division, on the east side of 

 the mountains, is the Tsa-ttinne, a name which he renders ' dwellers among 

 the beavers.' The name is derived from tsa, beaver (which has various 

 other dialectical forms, tso, sa, za, and so), and tinne (otherwise ienne, tena, 

 atena, tunneh, dene, danneh, dindjie, &c.), the word for 'man' in the 

 different dialects. M. Petitot describes the Tsa-ttinne, or 'Beaver 

 Indians,' as comprising two septs — a northern tribe, who hunt along the 



