44 THROUGH THE ]\£ACKENZIE BASIN 



Hudson Bay. I know there is strong adverse opinion as to 

 the starting-point of this migration, and I only offer my own 

 as a suggestion based upon the facts stated, and as, therefore, 

 worthy of consideration. Sir Alexander Mackenzie speaks of 

 the Blackf eet " travelling north-westward," and that the Crees 

 were " invaders of the Saskatchewan from the eastward." 

 Indeed, he says the latter were called by the Hudson's Bay 

 Company's officers at York Factory " their home-guards." 

 One thing seems certain, viz., that the Crees got their fire- 

 arms from the English at Hudson Bay in the I7th century. 

 Thence that great tribe, called by themselves the Naheowuk, 

 but by the Ojibway Saulteaux the Kinistineaux, and by the 

 voyageurs Christineaux, or, more commonly, the Crees — a 

 word derived, some think, from the first syllable of the 

 latter name, or perhaps from the French crier, to shout — 

 descended upon the Blackfeet, who probably at that time 

 occupied this region, and undoubtedly the Saskatchewan, and 

 drove them south along a line stretching to the Kocky Moun- 

 tains. 



The tradition of this expulsion is still extant, as also of 

 the great raids made by the Blackfeet and their kindred in 

 times past into their ancient domain. I remember visiting, 

 with my old friend Attakacoop — Star-Blanket — ^the deceased 

 Cree chief, twenty years ago, the triumphal pile of red deer 

 horns raised by the Blackfeet north of .Shell River, a tribu- 

 tary of the North Saskatchewan. It is called by the Creea 

 Ooskunaka Assustakee, and the chief described its great 

 size in former days, and the tradition of its origin as told 

 to him in his boyhood. Be all this as it may, and this is 

 not the place to pursue the inquiry, the stream in question 

 is, to the Crees who live upon it, not the River of the Slaves, 

 but the " River of the Blackfeet." How it came by its white 

 name is another question. Possibly some captured Indians 

 of the tribe called the Slaves to this day, reduced to servi- 

 tude by the Crees, were seen by the early voyageurs, and 

 gave rise to the French name, of which ours is a translation. 



