194 



KEPOKT — 1887. 



Intellectual Capacitt. 



As no cliildren of this tribe have, as yet, been induced to remain even 

 for a few consecutive weeks at school, it is impossible to report at present 

 on this head. I have, however, succeeded in inducing two boys to return 

 with me to our Shingwauk Home (1,600 miles distant fi-om their reserve), 

 and it will be very interesting to see in the course of a year what progress 

 they make, in comparison with boys from other tribes. The Blackfeet 

 have all the appearance of being an intelligent people ; and I saw two 

 boys at the mission who were evidently beginning to understand intelli- 

 gently the use of the letters of the alphabet, for they had several times sug- 

 gested to Mr. Tims alterations in his mode of spelling Blackfoot words ; 

 one of them, I found, had in his possession a list of Blackfoot and English 

 words, evidently trying to teach himself the English language. Like all 

 other Indian tribes, they learn very quickly to write a good hand, and 

 many of the children show a taste for drawing. 



The Language. 



I entirely endorse Mr. Hale's view that the Blackfeet language is a 

 branch of the Algonhin stocJc, having a near affinity to that spoken by the 

 Ojibways and Crees ; the grammatical construction is almost precisely the 

 same, and a good many of the words are similar. The Sioux language, 

 spoken by some 2,000 Indians in the North- West Territory, is an entirely 

 distinct language, both in structure and vocabulary, but the other lan- 

 guages south of the Saskatchewan Valley, viz. Cree, Blackfoot, Saulteaux, 

 and Ojibway, are clearly all of one common stock. Following are a few 

 words in the three principal tongues which bear some resemblance to one 

 another : — 



But it is in the grammatical construction of the three languages that the 

 resemblance is the most marked. I shall notice eleven points in order : — 



1. The distmction between animate and inanimate plurals. 



In Ojibway animate nouns make their plurals in g, ig, og ; inanimate in an, un. 



In Cree „ „ oh, ah „ a 



In Blackfoot „ „ ax, ix, ox ; „ in esto, isto. 



In all three languages an animate noun must be followed by an animate 

 verb, and vice versa. 



2. In all three languages a distinction is observed between the ^rs< 

 person plural exclusive and the first person plural inclusive. Thus : — 



Ojibway Cree Blackfoot 



Our house (excl.) niwigiwiiminan niwaskdhiganinau nokoanan 



,, (incl.) kiwigiw&minan kiwaskahiganinau kokoanan 



