What, however, if this syllable-skum be other than true Blackfoot; i. e. what if the numerals were taken from the mouth of a Hailtsa Indian? The possibility of this must be borne in mind. With this remark upon the similarity of ending between one specimen of Blackfoot numerals and the Hailtsa dialect of Fitzhugh Sound, we may take leave of the Algonkin class of tongues and pass on to—

IV. The Athabaskan Group.—The vast size of the area over which the Athabaskan tongues have spread themselves, has commanded less attention than it deserves. It should command attention if it were only for the fact of its touching both the Oceans—the Atlantic on the one side, the Pacific on the other. But this is not all. With the exception of the Eskimo, the Athabaskan forms of speech are the most northern of the New World; nay, as the Eskimos are, by no means, universally recognized as American, the Athabaskan area is, in the eyes of many, absolutely and actually the most northern portion of America—the most northern portion of America considered ethnologically or philologically, the Eskimo country being considered Asiatic. To say that the Athabaskan area extends from ocean to ocean, is to say that, as a matter of course, it extends to both sides of the Rocky Mountains. It is also to say that the Athabaskan family is common to both British and Russian America.

For the northern Athabaskans, the main body of the family, the philological details were, until lately, eminently scanty and insufficient. There was, indeed, an imperfect substitute for them in the statements of several highly trustworthy authors as to certain tribes who spoke a language allied to the Chepewyan, and as to others who did not;—statements which, on the whole, have been shown to be correct; statements, however, which required the confirmation of vocabularies. These have now been procured; if not to the full extent of all the details of the family, to an extent quite sufficient for the purposes of the philologue. They show that the most western branch of the stock, the Chepewyan proper, or the language of what Dobbs called the Northern Indians, is closely akin to that of the Dog-ribs, the Hare (or Slave) and the Beaver Indians, and that the Dahodinni, called from their warlike habits the Mauvais Monde, are but slightly separated from them. Farther west a change takes place, but not one of much importance. Interpreters are understood with greater difficulty, but still understood.

The Sikani and Sussi tongues are known by specimens of considerable length and value, and these languages, lying as far south as the drainage of the Saskatshewan, and as far west as the Rocky Mountains, are, and have been for some years, known as Athabaskan.

Then came the Takulli of New Caledonia, of whose language there was an old sample procured by Harmon. This was the Nagail, or Chin Indian of Mackenzie, or nearly so. Now, Nagail I hold to be the same word as Takull-i, whilst Chin is Tshin = Dinne = Tnai = Atna = Knai = Man. The Takulli division falls into no less than eleven (?) minor sections; all of which but one end in this root, viz.-tin.

  1. The Tau-tin, or Talko-tin.
  2. (?) The Tsilko-tin or Chilko-tin, perhaps the same word in a different dialect.
  3. The Nasko-tin.
  4. The Thetlio-tin.
  5. The Tsatsno-tin.
  6. The Nulaau-tin.
  7. The Ntaauo-tin.
  8. The Natliau-tin.
  9. The Nikozliau-tin.
  10. The Tatshiau-tin, and
  11. The Babin Indians.

Sir John Richardson, from vocabularies procured by him during his last expedition, the value of which is greatly enhanced by his ethnological chapter on the characteristics of the populations which supplied them, has shown, what was before but suspected, that the Loucheux Indians of Mackenzie River are Athabaskan; a most important addition to our knowledge. Now, the Loucheux are a tribe known under many names; under that of the Quarrellers, under that of the Squinters, under that of the Thycothe and Digothi. Sir John Richardson calls them Kutshin, a name which we shall find in several compounds, just as we found the root-tin in the several sections of the Takulli, and as we shall find its modified form dinni among the eastern Athabascans. The particular tribes of the Kutshin division, occupants of either the eastern frontier of Russian America, or the north-western parts of the Hudson's Bay Territory, are (according to the same authority) as follows:

  1. The Artez-kutshi = Hard people.
  2. The Tshu-kutshi = Water people.
  3. The Tatzei-kutshi = Rampart people; falling into four bands.
  4. The Teystse-kutshi = People of the shelter.
  5. The Vanta-kutshi = People of the lakes.
  6. The Neyetse-kutshi = People of the open country.
  7. The Tlagga-silla = Little dogs.

This brings us to the Kenay. Word for word Kenay is Knai = Tnai, a modified form of the now familiar root t-n = man, a root which has yet to appear and reappear under various new, and sometimes unfamiliar and unexpected, forms. A Kenay vocabulary has long been known. It appears in Lisiansky tabulated with the Kadiak, Sitkan, and Unalaskan of the Aleutian Islands. It was supplied by the occupants of Cook's Inlet. Were these Athabaskan? The present writer owes to Mr. Isbister the suggestion that they were Loucheux, and to the same authority he was indebted for the use of a very short Loucheux vocabulary. Having compared this with Lisiansky's, he placed both languages in the same category—rightly in respect to the main point, wrongly in respect to a subordinate. He determined the place of the Loucheux (Kutshin as he would now call them) by that of the Kenay, and made both Kolush. He would now reverse the process and make both Athabaskan, as Sir John Richardson has also suggested.