Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/561

 Record of American Folk- Lore. 2 1 3

RECORD OF AMERICAN FOLK-LORE.

NORTH AMERICA.

Algonkian. General. Under the title, " The Northern Nations," Mr. Joseph Eclkins, of Shanghai, China, endeavors, in the " Amer- ican Antiquarian " (vol. xxii. pp. 254-257) for July-August, 1900, to prove some connections between the northern languages of Asia and America. He compares certain Cree and Ojibwa words with words in the Mongol language, Chinese and Japanese. His treatment of Algonkian roots is only on a par with his treatment of Mongol roots. Such attempts are exercises in philological atavism, hardly aught else. — In the "Transactions of the Canadian Institute " (vol. vi. pp. 285-312), Mr. J. C. Hamilton writes of "Famous Algonquins : Algic Legends." Among other noted Indians of Algonkian lineage, the following are discussed at more or less length, many interesting facts about them being recorded : Shinguakongse ("Little Pine," a half-breed Chippewa, famous in the war of 18 12), who is remembered in Chinguacousy, the name of a township in the county of Peel, Ontario ; Pegwis (a Cree chief, who signed a treaty with the Earl of Selkirk in 1817); Iandwahwah (" Thunderbolt," a Cree chief, who looked remarkably like the late Sir John A. Macdonald, the Canadian premier) ; Crowfoot (the famous Blackfoot chieftain, who died in 1890, and over whose grave Canada has erected a modest monu- ment) ; Poundmaker (the Cree chief, a really great man) ; Mikasto (' Red Crow," a Blood chief of considerable repute as a native states- man) ; Gitchi Naigou (better known by the French translation of his name, Le Grand Sable, a Chippewa chief, who figured at the taking of Mackinac in 1763 ; Waubojeeg ("White Fisher," son of a Chippewa chief who was with Montcalm at the taking of Quebec, but afterwards went over to the British side; of his granddaughters, — their mother was the wife of Mr. Johnston, an Irish gentleman, — one married Rev. Mr. McMurray, an Anglican clergyman, another Schoolcraft, the ethnologist). Pages 299-303 of Mr. Hamilton's paper are taken up with an account of the "Blackbirds," an Ottawa family which has produced some notable characters, from the Assi- kinack or Assignac, who, as a boy, was at Mackinac in 1763, down to F. Assikinack (died 1863), who, after distinguishing himself at Upper Canada College, spent several years in the government ser- vice, in the Indian Department. The concluding pages of the essay are devoted to a general discussion of Algonkian legends — " Algic legends and Hiawatha myths." Mr. Hamilton is one of the few Canadians who are enthusiastic enough over the Indian to make permanent record of valuable and interesting historical data concern-

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