Tag Archives: Indigenous

Chetang Ridge

Alberta. Ridge
E of Adolphus Lake
53.1725 N 119.0694 W — Map 083E03 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1956
Official in Canada

A number of Indian dictionary words have been applied to mountain peaks by modern travellers. The Indian practice, however, is more to describe a physical feature by a sentence than by a word. Such artificial names include the following: Chetang (hawk)…

— Douglas 1919

“Chetang Ridge” is listed at the Indigenous Geographical Names dataset as a word of undetermined language.

References:

  • Douglas, R. “Notes on Mountain Nomenclature.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 10 (1919):31-35

Wapiti Pass

Alberta-BC boundary. Pass: Smoky River drainage
Between Framstead Creek and Wapiti River
54.4331 N 120.8178 W — Map 93I/7 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1965
Official in BCCanada

Wapiti is named after the Cree word for elk (waapiti).

On the south-west side, Wapiti Pass is at the headwaters of Framstead Creek, which flows via Herrick Creek and the McGregor River to the Fraser River. On the north-east side, Wapiti Pass is at the headwaters of the Wapiti River which flows into the Smoky River and thence to the Peace River.

Mary Lenore Jobe Akeley [1878–1966] visited the area with Donald “Curly” Phillips [1884–1938] and party in 1915:

From Mt. Alexander Mackenzie, we travelled north to Jarvis Pass, and crossed pass to the Wapiti. This was our “farthest north.” Returning via Jarvis Pass, the Porcupine, Providence Valley and Sheep-Creek, we crossed to the Muddy, which we followed to its mouth, rafted the Big Smoky below the mouth of the Sulphur and followed the old Indian trail to Grand Cache. From this point we travelled up the Sulphur, crossed Hardscrabble Pass to Rockslide Creek, and again struck the Big Smoky near the mouth of Short River (“Glacier Creek,” Collie and Mumm), and thence returned to Robson Station the 1st of September.

In October 1917 she returned with Phillips:

The early winter of 1917 my desire to make a winter trip through the northern Canadian Rockies was realized. I was I fortunate In being able to combine my trip with Mr. Donald Phillips’ business of taking in supplies for a scientific expedition to the Wapiti River, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution….

Once across the Wapiti Pass we found ourselves in a veritable den of wolves. Their tracks were everywhere. They came near our camps and howled so dismally in the night-time, that we did not hesitate to burn fuel lavishly; in broad daylight the morning we were breaking our ten days’ camp on the Wapiti, they became so inquisitive and so vocal that they almost stampeded our outfit; and once, as we were moving our pack train at twilight along the Wapiti River, two black monsters crossed in front of us and stood in the timber a few yards away yelping and whining like hungry curs. They are vicious beasts and are afraid of nothing smaller than grizzly.
.

“Wapiti” is listed at the Indigenous Geographical Names dataset as a word of Cree language.

References:

  • Jobe Akeley, Mary Lenore [1878–1966]. “Mt. Alexander Mackenzie.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 7 (1916):62–73
  • Jobe Akeley, Mary Lenore [1878–1966]. “A winter journey to Mt. Sir Alexander and the Wapiti.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 9 (1918):58-65

Athabasca River

Alberta. River: Athabasca River drainage
Flows 1290 kilometres from Columbia Icefield to Lake Athabasca
58.6667 N 110.8333 W — Map 74L10 — GoogleGeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1800 (David Thompson)
Name officially adopted in 1948
Official in Canada

“Athabasca” is from the Cree language and is said to mean “an area of grass or reeds.” The name likely refers to the muddy delta of the river where it flows into Lake Athabasca.

In 1790, the name of the river was recorded as “Great Arabuska.” In 1801 it was labelled “Athapasco.” The Arrowsmith map of 1802 shows a slight variation as “Arthapescow.” In the late eighteenth century, the Dunne-za people who lived along its banks called it the “Elk River,” and it appears as “Elk River” on the 1801 map by Alexander Mackenzie [1764–1820] .

David Thompson [1770–1857] and Peter Fidler [1769–1822], who explored the middle section of the river in 1799–1800, both referred to it in their journals as the “Athabasca.”

In 1820, George Simpson [1792–1860], the governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, referred to it as the “Athabasca or Elk River.” Today, local residents also refer to the feature as “Big River,” the Cree version of which was in use in 1880 when George Mercer Dawson labelled it as “Athabasca River or Mus-ta-hi-sî-pî.”

“Athabasca River / Rivière Athabasca” is among the 75 “Pan-Canadian names,” large and well-known Canadian features and areas designated in Treasury Board Circular 1983-58 to require presentation in both official languages of Canada on federal maps.

References:

  • Thompson, David [1770–1857]. David Thompson’s Narrative of his explorations in western America, 1784-1812. Joseph Burr Tyrrell, editor. Toronto: Champlain Society, 1916. University of British Columbia
  • Simpson, George [1792–1860]. Fur trade and empire. George Simpson’s journal entitled Remarks connected with fur trade in consequence of a voyage from York Factory to Fort George and back to York Factory 1824-25. Frederick Merk, editor. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1931. University of British Columbia Library
  • Aubrey, Merrily K. Place Names of Alberta. Volume IV: Northern Alberta. University of Calgary Press, 1996
  • Aubrey, Merrily K. Concise Place Names of Alberta. University of Calgary Press, 2006
  • Wikipedia. Athabasca River

Athabasca, Lake

Alberta. Lake: Athabasca River drainage
NW corner of Saskatchewan and NE corner of Alberta between 58° and 60° N.
59.0833 N 110.1667 W — Map 74 M/1 — GoogleGeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1784 (Cook)
Name officially adopted in 1983
Official in Canada
Detail of map of the world in Cook’s “Third Voyage,” 1784. By Henry Roberts, Lieutenant in His Majesty’s Navy

Detail of map of the world in Cook’s “Third Voyage,” 1784. By Henry Roberts, Lieutenant in His Majesty’s Navy
UBC Library Digital Collections

The lake appears as “Arathapescow Lake” on the chart accompanying James Cook’s A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, published in 1784. The chart displays the voyages of Captain Cook; the details about the interior of North America came from fur trade sources.

Alexander Mackenzie [1764–1820], starting his voyage from Fort Chepewyan on Lake Athabasca to the Pacific Ocean in October 1792, wrote:

We entered the Peace River at seven in the morning of the 12th, taking a Westerly course. It is evident, that all the land between it and the Lake of the Hills, as far as the Elk River, is formed by the quantity of earth and mud, which is carried down by the streams of those two great rivers. In this space there are several lakes. The lake, Clear Water, which is the deepest, Lake Vassieu, and the Athabasca Lake, which is the largest of the three, and whose denomination in the Knistineaux language, implies, a flat low, swampy country, subject to inundations.

On the Mackenzie’s 1803 map, the lake appears as “Lake of the Hills.” On Aaron Arrowsmith’s 1795 map the lake is called “Athapescow Lake.”

The word Athabaskan is an anglicized version of a Cree language name for Lake Athabasca (Cree: Āðapāskāw “[where] there are reeds one after another”). Cree is one of the Algonquian languages and therefore not itself an Athabaskan language.

In the 18th century the territory around the lake was occupied by indigenous Dane-zaa (historically referred to as the Beaver tribe by Europeans) and Chipewyan people. Both are of the Athabaskan language family.

In Albert Lacombe’s Dictionnaire de la langue des Cris (1874), the lake and river are called “Athabaskaw” in the accompanying map, but there is not an entry for that specific word. Lacombe does cite as an unspecified place name “Ayabaskaw” or “Arabaskaw,” meaning “il y a des joncs ou du foin ça et là” [There are rushes and hay here and there] (p. 705).

In 1790, it was referred to as “Lake of the Hills,” and the river, the Great Arabuska. Lake of the Hills may have been a more genteel translation of the name for the lake at the time. Peter Fidler recorded the Cree name as Too-toos Sack-a-ha-gan, and the Chipewyan name as Thew Too-ak. The literal translation of the Cree name is “breast” lake, referring to the north-west shore, which according to Philip Turnor in 1791, came “from their appearing high and rounded at a distance.”

However, the most commonly accepted version of the origin of the name is from the Cree, where it is said to mean “where there are reeds,” referring to the muddy delta of the river where it falls into Lake Athabasca. Of this portion of it, Turner wrote “low swampy ground on the South side with a few willows growing upon it, from which the Lake in general takes its name Athapison in the Southern [Cree] tongue [which] signifies open country such as lakes with willows and grass growing about them.” In 1820, George Simpson of the Hudson’s Bay Company referred to it as the “Athabasca or Elk River.”

“Athabasca, Lake / Lac Athabasca” is among the 75 “Pan-Canadian names,” large and well-known Canadian features and areas designated in Treasury Board Circular 1983-58 to require presentation in both official languages of Canada on federal maps.

References:

  • Roberts, Henry. London: A General Chart exhibiting the Discoveries made by Capn. James Cook in this and his two preceeding Voyages; with the Tracks of the Ships under his Command (1784). Princeton Library
  • Hearne, Samuel, and Turnor, Phillip. Journals of Samuel Hearne and Philip Turnor between the years 1774 and 1792. Champlain Society, 1934. Internet Archive
  • Arrowsmith, Aaron [1750–1823]. A Map Exhibiting All the New Discoveries in the Interior Parts of North America. Engraved by Lowry. Cadell and Davies, 1795. Historical Atlas of Canada
  • Mackenzie, Alexander [1764–1820]. A map of America, between latitudes 40 and 70 North, and longitudes 45 and 180 West, exhibiting Mackenzie’s Track from Montreal to Fort Chipewyan and from thence to the North Sea in 1789 & to the West Pacific Ocean in 1793. London: T. Cadell, Jun., and W. Davies, 1803. Internet Archive
  • Mackenzie, Alexander [1764–1820]. Voyages from Montreal on the River St. Lawrence through the Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in the years 1789 and 1793. London: T. Cadell, Jun., and W. Davies, 1803. Internet Archive
  • Simpson, George [1792–1860]. Fur trade and empire. George Simpson’s journal entitled Remarks connected with fur trade in consequence of a voyage from York Factory to Fort George and back to York Factory 1824-25. Frederick Merk, editor. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1931. University of British Columbia Library
  • Lacombe, Albert [1827–1916]. Dictionnaire de la langue des Cris. Montréal: C. O. Beauchemin & Valois, 1874. Internet Archive
  • Aubrey, Merrily K. Place Names of Alberta. Volume IV: Northern Alberta. University of Calgary Press, 1996
  • Aubrey, Merrily K. Concise Place Names of Alberta. University of Calgary Press, 2006
  • Wikipedia. Lake Athabasca

Kitchi Mountain

British Columbia. Mountain: Peace River drainage
N of Mount Sir Alexander in Kakwa Provincial Park
53.9667 N 120.4 W — Map 93H/16 — GoogleGeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1914
Name officially adopted in 1965
Official in BCCanada

Mary Lenore Jobe Akeley [1878–1966] submitted the name “Kitchi” to the Geographic Board of Canada in April 1915, to apply to the very high mountain just south of this location. In her article in the 1914 Canadian Alpine Journal, she wrote that “Kitchi in the Cree Indian language means ‘Great,’ ‘Mighty.’”

The Geographic Board adopted the name “Kitchi Mountain” for the very high mountain in September 1915, and Mary Jobe’s article: ”Mt. Kitchi, A New Peak in the Canadian Rockies” was published in the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, Vol XLVII, No. 7, 1915, pp 481-497. The following September, the Board was persuaded by climber Samuel Prescott Fay [1884–1971], associated with New York’s Museum of Natural History, to reverse their decision and adopt his recommendation — “Mount Sir Mackenzie,” which was changed in 1917 to “Mount Sir Alexander.”

To perpetuate the name “Kitchi, ” Alan John Campbell [1882–1967], British Columbia Land Surveyor, placed it on this mountain to the north, as shown on his 1929 survey plan 10T264, McGregor River area.

Kitchi Mountain is listed at Indigenous Geographical Names dataset.

Language: ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐍᐏᐣ (Nēhiyawēwin)
Dialect: Plains Cree
Meaning: Mighty, or great
Year Adopted: ‪1965‬

References:

  • Fay, Samuel Prescott [1884–1971]. The Forgotten Explorer: Samuel Prescott Fay’s 1914 Expedition to the Northern Rockies. Edited by Charles Helm and Mike Murtha. Victoria, B.C.: Rocky Mountain Books, 2009
  • Jobe Akeley, Mary Lenore [1878–1966]. “The expedition to ‘Mt. Kitchi:’ A new peak in the Canadian Rockies.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 6 (1914–1915):135-143
  • Jobe Akeley, Mary Lenore [1878–1966]. “Mt. Kitchi: A New Peak in the Canadian Rockies.” Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, Volume 47, No. 7 (1915):481-497. JSTOR
  • British Columbia Geographical Names. Kitchi Mountain

Kakwa River

British Columbia and Alberta. River: Smoky River drainage
Flows NE across BC-Alberta boundary into Smoky River, E of Jarvis Lakes
54.0997 N 120.0011 W — Map 93I/1 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1925
Official in BCCanada

Name appears on BC-Alberta Boundary Atlas sheet #39, 1924. The river was labeled “Porcupine River” on 1912 map of BC Northern Interior (publisher not cited), and on BC Lands 1913 Preliminary Forest Map, and on BC Lands 1917 map of the Forest Stand Types in British Columbia.

Mountaineer Samuel Prescott Fay [1884–1971], who spent the summers of 1912-14 tracking big game in this area, suggested the name “Porcupine” be changed [or revert (?)] to “Kakwa”, the Cree word for porcupine.

“Kakwa” is listed at the Indigenous Geographical Names dataset as a word of Cree language.

References:

  • Fay, Samuel Prescott [1884–1971]. “Mount Alexander.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 6 (1914–1915):121
  • Fay, Samuel Prescott [1884–1971]. “Note on Mount Alexander Mackenzie and Mount Ida.” Alpine Journal, Vol. 36 (1924):421, p.55
  • Andrews, Gerald Smedley [1903–2005]. Métis outpost. Memoirs of the first schoolmaster at the Métis settlement of Kelly Lake, B.C. 1923-1925. Victoria: G.S. Andrews, 1985
  • British Columbia Geographical Names. Kakwa River

Shuswap River

British Columbia. river: Fraser River drainage
Former name for Raush River
53.2 N 120 W GoogleGeoHack
Not currently an official name.
This river appears on:
Collie’s map Yellowhead Pass 1912
A Native camp, Tête Jaune Cache area, 1910s.

A Native camp, Tête Jaune Cache area, 1910s.
Valemount & Area Museum

The river appears as “Big Shuswap R.” on Collie’s 1912 map.

The Raush River was originally known as the Shuswap River, after the natives living in the area at first white contact. There was a Shuswap settlement at Tête Jaune Cache. The Robson Valley marked their northern limits.

These Shuswap Indians of the Texqakallt band of the upper North Thompson River were the earliest known inhabitants of the upper reaches of the Fraser River. They were almost completely nomadic. They dressed only in marmot skins and slept on the open snow with their feet toward a central fire. At times, they constructed bark teepees. Lodges and fish drying racks were constructed in prime salmon fishing territory at the confluence of the McLennan and Fraser Rivers in the vicinity of what is now Tete Jaune Cache. As well as salmon from the Fraser, trout were reportedly taken from Yellowhead Lake. They hunted bighorn sheep, mountain goats, moose, marmots, and other small mammals and birds. They also relied on edible plants in the area, especially berries.

References:

  • Munday, Walter Alfred Don [1890–1950]. “In the Cariboo Range – Mt. David Thompson.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 15 (1925):130-136
  • Waugh, Jeff. The Mountain of the Spiral Road.
  • Wikipedia. Secwepemc (Shuswap)

Little Shuswap Creek

British Columbia. creek: Fraser River drainage
Former name for Kiwa Creek
53.0217 N 119.5636 W GoogleGeoHack
Not currently an official name.

In his “Notes on the Cariboo Range” of 1925, Munday wrote, “The local name of the Big Shuswap conflicts with the Shuswap River further south and appears on recent government maps as Raushwap or Rausch River (from Riviere au Shuswap). Kiwa Creek is known locally as Little Shuswap.”

References:

  • Munday, Walter Alfred Don [1890–1950]. “In the Cariboo Range – Mt. David Thompson.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 15 (1925):130-136
Also see:

Cariboo Mountains

British Columbia. Mountains
Between Rocky Mountain Trench and E side of Bowron Lake
52.9167 N 120.25 W — Map 93A/16 — GoogleGeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1861 (James Douglas)
Name officially adopted in 1918
Official in BCCanada
Cariboo Mountains

Cariboo Mountains

The name “Cariboo” is derived from an Algonquian word xalibu, meaning “pawer” or “scratcher,” referring to the North American reindeer. The name was first applied to the goldfield area around Quesnel and Barkerville, where caribou were once abundant. The name goes back to at least 1861, near the beginning of the gold rush, when governor James Douglas [1803–1877] of the colony of British Columbia used the name “Cariboo” to describe the area in dispatches to Britain.

Raymond T. Zillmer made a number of explorations in the Cariboo Mountains in the 1930s and 40s and wrote articles about area in the Canadian Alpine Journal and the American Alpine Journal.

The Cariboo Range is important in the development of Canada. When the Canadian Pacific Railway considered the matter of its route across the continental divide, it tentatively selected Yellowhead Pass, for it offered the easiest crossing. But that decision was frustrated by the Cariboo Mountains. A practical railroad route led from Yellowhead Pass to the Fraser River and down the Fraser until the Cariboo Range was reached, about 50 miles west of the pass. Here, from an elevation of 2400 ft., at Tête Jaune Cache, the Cariboo Range rises in a very short distance to as high as 11,750 ft., the height of Mt. Sir Wilfred Laurier, the highest peak of the entire Interior Ranges of British Columbia. If a route could not be found across the range, a long detour to the northwest or to the south was necessary—the routes now followed by the Canadian National Railway. So from 1871 to 1874 four well- equipped expeditions sought a route across the Cariboo Mountains. But they found that only high glacial passes were available. So the route across Yellowhead Pass was abandoned in favor of the more southerly route now used by the Canadian Pacific Railway.

— Zillmer 1939

The name “Cariboo Mountains” was officially adopted in 1918, not “Cariboo Range” as labelled on Bowman’s 1887 map of the Cariboo Mining District.

References:

  • Holway, Edward Willet Dorland [1853–1923]. “The Cariboo Mountains.” Canadian Alpine Journal, 8 (1917):36-39. Alpine Club of Canada
  • Trutch, Joseph William [1826–1904]. Map of British Columbia to the 56th Parallel North Latitude. Victoria, B.C.: Lands and Works Office, 1871. University of Victoria
  • Bowman, Amos B. [1839–1894]. Maps of the principal auriferous creeks in the Cariboo mining district, British Columbia. Ottawa: Geological Survey of Canada, 1895. Hathi Trust
  • Bowman, Amos B. [1839–1894]. Map of the Cariboo Mining District, British Columbia, to illustrate the report of Amos Bowman. 1895. Cariboo Gold Rush
  • Zillmer, Raymond T. [1887–1960]. “Explorations in the Southern Cariboos.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 27 (1939):48-61. Alpine Club of Canada
  • Zillmer, Raymond T. [1887–1960]. “The exploration of the Cariboo Range from the east.” American Alpine Journal, 5:2 (1944):261-274. American Alpine Club
  • Thorington, James Monroe [1895–1989]. “Canada, Cariboo Range.” American Alpine Journal, Vol. 7, No. 2 (1949). American Alpine Club
  • Akrigg, Helen B., and Akrigg, George Philip Vernon [1913–2001]. British Columbia Place Names. Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997. Internet Archive
  • British Columbia Geographical Names. Cariboo Mountains