Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1876-07-22
Notes ON Indian Topics.
'sALGoNQUN."

Indian subjects-iz his speech the other day
on the transfer of the Indian bureau TO the
War department., said incidentally;
''This Capitol stands where the Algonquins for
merry had their homes These were the most pow
the banks Of the Po,omae and ChesspesRe to ,r th
far distant shores Of Massachusetts and Maine.
they have passed away; their name barely remsm,
bered, for / remember q short time ago when a new
This name in place Of Pembina-which is not an
Indian name, but corruption OF two French
PLANTATION Of the Algonquin name. As matter Of
Indian history. viii state that the Deiawares and
mere remnant, partly civilized, and now living on
the borders of my state, south of Kansas
The Senator intended, no doubt, to be I'M
derstood that algonquin was the name, not
of one tribe, but of a General Race of Tribes,
speaking related or cOgnate languages. This
Is true. Not less than forty prominent tribes
TO belong TO the Algonquin Race, and names
of their language are impressed on nearly
every prominent geographical feature of the
earlier division of This con tInent,-halving 1t
by line drawn from East Florida northwest
TO intersect the British possessions at the
northeast corner OF Dakota territory ,andthen
widening 10 cover all British America that
lies east OF the Rocky Mountains. Tue Shaw
nees left their names on the Savanna, in
Florida, and on the Savannah, in Georgia.
Pamlico and the Chowan, in North Carolina,
are AlgOnqutD; all the names of East VIr-
ginia. below the falls of the rivers are OF this
Race Language; and every Indian designa-
tion of Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey
and of Pennsylvania, are, with a few Six
Nation exceptions, near the New York line;
all the Indian geographical names of New
England, without any exception; those OF
New York city and vicinity; all those OF
Ohio, save few of Iroquois and Wyandotte
origin; some OF those in Kentucky, aud all
of those In West Virginia; all In Indiana aud
Illinois; many OF the names In Iowa; the
most OF those of Wisconsin,; nearly entirely
those Of Michigan, and In part those OF Min
nesota, in its earlier and northern division.
In Canada, clear up to the line OF the arctic
seas, and TO the Espuimaux, and west ward
to the Rocky Mountains, the same Algon-
quin race has stamped its language on the
rivers, mountains, plains, and waterfalls OF
the land. Mississippi and Massa chusetts,
and Wisconsin, and Illinois. and Kentucky,
owe to this language their respective state
titles; the Alleganies belong to It; and it can
sippi, the Ohio, the Allegheny, the Wabash,
the SusQuehanua, the Kenayha, the Poto,
mac, the Savannah, the Roanoke, the Rap
pahannock, with Connecticut, Merrimack,
kennebec, and Penobscot, aud the bays Of
Chesapeake and Nara gansett.
Yet, with all this wide wealth of cognate
the Race Name itself-AIgou-
quin.is not known, certainly to have been
and therefore Is the letter fitted for the fam
lily name OF a wide circle of Tribes, differing
strongly marked linguistic features of a
common origin OF q common root OF speech.
The name Algonquin first occurs I'm his
tory in Champlain's narrative OF about 1914,
when he undertook his Quixotic expedition
into the Iroquois country, along with a
small army OF Indians of various tribes, In
whose behalf be undertook to ensure victory
by letting the Iroquois feel, for the first
time, the effect OF fire arms, which he &C.
complished at the cost OF serious wound to
himself, aud the undying hatred OF the Five
Nation Confederacy of New York to the
French colony OF Canada, continued for
more than q century.
Amongst the Indian allies enumerated in
this little army are the "AlgommeQuins;"
to "Algoquins," and this became the
French Jesuit designation for all the Tribes
which spoke a language radically different
nom the Iroquois and the HurOns, which
last two spoke cOgnate dialects totally dis
similar to all Canadian tribes. The name,
as we said before, was not probably used by
Champlaln to underrate individuals Of any
particular tribe, meaning, as IL does, men Of
the other side Of the 'CdteT, but was descrip-
lively applied to Indians speaking cognate
dialects, who were from beyond the st. Law
renee, and IL may be from the great lakes.
The name came TO be, in a generation or two
after Champaign, extended TO include par
tlcularly the Upper Lake Indians, as the OF
tawwas, the Csppeways. and the Nepissings;
and in the course of long time became the
especial name OF a mixed colony of mission
Indians, OF whom the y epissings constituted
the principal portion, and hence, in the mar
row sense, these have been called "Algon-
qujns" par eIcsUents.
There is but one tribe that any Indians
give name to which at all resembles the
"AlgomOnequin," originally written by
Champlain. 1t is that which is to this day
bestowed by the Chippewas upon the Foxes,
an Algonquin tribe, now long united with
the Senks: which is, Otagommee or Otah-
gaumee, "Other- side the water people" TIE
tradition OF the Foxes is that they cams
from the region OF Montreal and the 81
Lawrence; but ii must have been at a peri ID
considerably anterior to Champlain's al
VET t; for the French found them located in
Wisconsin as early as 1853; though they may
have left remnant behind them; wnica
may have been the small tribe of which the
French histories speak, called the "Atli-
gamequez," who lived on Lake st. Thomas,
on the head waters of the main str cam OF tue
three known as "Trois RIVERS, which empty
into the st. Lawrence near Montreal.
Be this as IL may, the name Algonquin has
become firmly fixed upon history as the
Race Name of the greatest body OF Tribes
speaking radically the same language that
has existed, and now largely exists upon the
Ameri can continent, and there could be no
more fitting designation for new territory
Congress OF the United States to adopt that
of Algonquin. as proposed by Senator Bogy
The proposition Is, we unders tand, to make
q new territory out of the northern half OF
Dakota territory, by line drawn east and
west about intermediate betwee6 its north
ern and southern boundaries.
IL this is done, and Algonquin is bestowed
on the northern half there will be peculiar
fitness manifested, ethnographically and
The Chippeways and Crees,
the most numerous Of the existing Algon-
quin tribes, have long been in that region
the antagonists of the Sioux tribes, whose
generic race title Is Dakota. Thus we will
have two territories, and two eventual
states, perpetuating the two greatest Indian
races OF the continent, lying alongside of each
other geographically, and in all time to
come emulating each other in civil and in
dustrial progress, quite as eagerly as ever
these two great races through saw
age warfare to annihllate each other.
AND besides, the designation Pembina,
which is the name Senator Bogy deprecated
being applied to a future state OF the Union,
is trivial, If the view Of its being of Indian
origin is correct, deriving IL from the name
OF the high bush cranberry; and sacriIegIoas
If the compound French origin OF the word
alluded TO by the Senator is admitted.
The Congress of the nation ought to be
careful In the naming of states. Ia this re,
spect IL has already committed one gross
blunder. This was In calling land of mouu-
tain spurs and ranges in the far west Wyo-
mins-a name of interior Pennsylvania, sig
ing In the Algonquin Indian tongue Big
Flats, and this, too, when the euphonious
aboriginal names OF the tribes who own the
Land or roam over IL, were at hand to have
made more fitting selection; for certainly
in Shoshonee, Arapaho, Tetowa, or Absa-
roka (of which last named tribe our friendly
"Crows," 1t Is especially the home)-a name