80 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. VI. |

name of his particular sept though this would be unusual—he would
rather give you the name of the locality, lake or river shore he inhabits.
In no case will he go any further, unless his intercourse with the whites
has taught him their mode of thinking and the name outsiders give to
his tribe. This is so true that no Déné dialect, to my knowledge, has 1
any synonymous term for tribe as distinct from clan. Even that large ©
tribe in the midst of which I[ live, a tribe territorially so important that
its members are found all the way within four degrees of latitude, may
be said to have no personal name. TaKejne is aterm of extraneous
origin which is intrinsically meaningless, though usage has conferred
upon it the signification of “Indians.” In that sense it is applied by the
Carriers to any body of aborigines by contradistinction from the terms
white man, Chinese or negro. | - |

“
Beatie Se ve

The second reason of the absence of any tribal name among the Déné
is that vanity innate in the heart of the Indian which prompts him to.
ignore other tribes or nations. In his opinion, fellow-tribesmen are
“the people,” “the men,” Dézé This foible is not proper te the Déné ;
many other American tribes know it. For, as remarks Major Powell,* a.
“the name by which the tribes distinguish themselves from other tribes
indicates the further conviction that,as the Indian is above all other created
beings, so in like manner each particular tribe is exalted above all others.
“Men of men” is the literal translation of one name, “the only men”
of another, and so on through the whole category.” Even the various
tribes of Esquimaux are no exception to this rule; their collective name
Innuit means also “men.” Nay more, according to Klaproth quoted
by Prof. Campbell himself, “the Tungus have no common or national
name ; yet most who dwell in Siberia call themselves Boye, Boya or
Bye, that is ‘men’” +—-another trait of resemblance with our Déné
which may well console our essayist for the absence of any truly Déné
tribal name.

Commenting further on my list of Northern Dénés, Mr. Campbell
says that “the Yellow-Knives or Copper Indians are the Ahtena.” This
statement is erroneous. I have already asserted that the Ahtena or
Atna are not Déné. Prof. Campbell here follows Major Powell, who has
been misled by Mr. Dall, who in his turn misunderstood Hearne. The
latter discovered in 1769 to the eas¢ of the great northern lakes a river
called Satson-Die (metal river) by the Dog-Ribs, and Coppermine by its
white discoverer. Now W. Dall, confounding this river with the Copper
River which flows into the Pacific Ocean, placed on its banks the habitat

I * Indian Linguistic Families, p. 36.
yi + The Dénés of America identified with the Tungus of Asia, Trans. C.I., Vol. v, p. 167.