Mammal and Bird Names in the Indian Languages of the Lake Athabasca Region

Abstract

... The lists given below are, of course, not complete in the sense that a native name is given for every species for which some one, Cree, Chipewyan or metis in the Lake Athabasca area knows such a name. ... However, as the lists were collected by one with a special interest in birds and mammals (and this does not generally apply to the compilers of dictionaries), they do, in fact, contain more native names of species or species groups (generic names in the linguistic, not the zoological sense) than the dictionaries of the languages in question known to me. ... My informants for Cree names were Mr. Henry Powder, a long-time resident of Camsell Portage, Saskatchewan, originally from Lac la Biche, Alberta; Mr. Solomon Cardinal of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, and Mrs. A. Anderson of Edmonton, originally from the nearby Calahoo Indian reserve, who has edited a Plains-Cree-English dictionary. The Chipewyan names were obtained in 1972 from Fr. F. Marcel, chief of the Chipewyan band at Fort Chipewyan. I have also drawn on a list I prepared in 1949 with the help of Mr. George Norm, an elderly Chipewyan or metis who lived at the mouth of the Little Buffalo River on Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories. ...