To proceed—three vocabularies in Baer's Beiträge are in the same category with the Kenay, viz.—

1. The Atna.—This is our old friend t-n again, the form Tnai and others occurring. It deserves notice, because, unless noticed, it may create confusion. As more populations than one may call themselves man, a word like Atna may appear and re-appear as often as there is a dialect which so renders the Latin word homo. Hence, there may not only be more Atnas than one, but there actually are more than one. This is a point to which we shall again revert. At present it is enough that the Atnas under notice are occupants of the mouth of the Copper River, Indians of Russian America and Athabaskan.

2. The Koltshani.—As t-n = man, so does k-ltsh = stranger, guest, enemy, friend; and mûtatis mutandis, the criticism that applied to Atna applies to words like Koltshan, Golzan, and Kolush. There may be more than one population so called.

3. The Ugalents or Ugalyackh-mutsi.—This is the name of few families near Mount St. Elias. Now—

The Atna at the mouth of the Copper River, the Koltshani higher up the stream, and the Ugalents, are all held by the present writer to be Athabaskan—not, indeed, so decidedly as the Beaver Indians, the Dog-ribs, or the Proper Chepewyans, but still Athabaskan. They are not Eskimo, though they have Eskimo affinities. They are not Kolush, though they have Kolush affinities. They are by no means isolated, and as little are they to be made into a class by themselves. At the same time, it should be added that by including these we raise the value of the class.

For all the languages hitherto mentioned we have specimens. For some, however, of the populations whose names appear in the maps, within the Athabaskan area, we have yet to satisfy ourselves with the testimony of writers, or to rely on inference. In some cases, too, we have the same population under different names. This is the case when we have a native designation as well as a French or English one—e. g. Loucheux, Squinters, Kutshin. This, too, is the case when we have, besides the native name (or instead of it), the name by which a tribe is called by its neighbours. Without giving any minute criticism, I will briefly state that all the Indians of the Athabaskan area whose names end in-dinni are Athabaskan; viz.—

  1. The See-issaw-dinni = Rising-sun-men.
  2. The Tau-tsawot-dinni = Birch-rind-men.
  3. The Thlingeha-dinni = Dog-rib-men.
  4. The Etsh-tawút-dinni = Thickwood-men.
  5. The Ambah tawút-dinni = Mountain-sheep-men.
  6. The Tsillaw-awdút-dinni = Bushwood-men.

Lastly—Carries, Slave-Indians, Yellow-knives, Copper-Indians, and Strong-bows are synonyms for some of the tribes already mentioned. The Hare-Indians are called Kancho. The Nehanni and some other populations of less importance are also, to almost a certainty, Athabaskan. With the tongues in its neighbourhood, we shall find that it is broadly and definitely separated from them in proportion as we move from west to east. In Russian America, the Eskimo, Sitkan, and Athabaskan tongues graduate into each other. In the same parts the Athabaskan forms of speech differ most from each other. On the other hand, to the east of the Rocky Mountains, the Dog-ribs, the Hares, and the Chepewyans are cut off by lines equally trenchant from the Eskimos to the north, and from the Algonkins to the south. I infer from this that the diffusion of the language over those parts is comparatively recent; in other words, that the Athabaskan family has moved from west to east rather than from east to west.

Of the proper Athabaskan, i. e. of the Athabaskan in the original sense of the word, the southern boundary, beginning at Fort Churchill, on Hudson's Bay, follows (there or thereabouts) the course of the Missinippi; to the north of which lie the Chepewyans who are Athabaskan, to the south of which lie the Crees, or Knistenaux, who are Algonkin. Westward come the Blackfeet (Algonkin) and the Sussees (Athabaskan), the former to the north, the latter to the south, until the Rocky Mountains are reached. The Takulli succeed—occupants of New Caledonia; to the south of whom lie Kutani and Atnas. The Takulli area nowhere touches the ocean, from which its western frontier is separated to the south of 55° north latitude by some unplaced languages; to the north of 55°, by the Sitkeen—but only as far as the Rocky Mountains; unless, indeed, some faint Algonkin characteristics lead future inquirers to extend the Algonkin area westwards, which is not improbable. The value of the class, however, if this be done, will have to be raised.

The most southern of the Athabaskans are the Sussees, in north latitude 51°—there or thereabouts. But the Sussees, far south as they lie, are only the most southern Athabaskans en masse. There are outliers of the stock as far south as the southern parts of Oregon. More than this, there are Athabaskans in California, New Mexico, and Sonora.