[Footnote 3:  Of which they made very serviceable chisels.]

* * * * *

The AMERINDIANS of the Canadian Dominion (when the country first became known to Europeans) belonged to the following groups and tribes.  The order of enumeration begins in the east and proceeds westwards.  I have already mentioned the peculiar Beothiks of Newfoundland.[4] In Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and the Gaspe Peninsula there were the Mikmak Indians belonging to the widespread ALGONKIN family or stock.  West and south of the Mikmaks, in New Brunswick and along the borders of New England, were other tribes of the Algonkin group:  the Etchemins, Abenakis, Tarratines, Penobscots, Mohikans, and Adirondacks.  North of these, in the eastern part of the Quebec province, on either side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, were the Montagnais.  This name, though it looks like a French word meaning “mountaineers”, was also spellt Montagnet, and in various other ways, showing that it was originally a native name, pronounced Montanye.  The Montagnais in various clans extended northwards across Labrador until they touched the Eskimo, with whom they constantly fought.  The interior of Labrador was inhabited by another Algonkin tribe, the Naskwapi, living in a state of rude savagery.  The Algonkins proper, whose tribe gave their name to the whole stock because the French first became acquainted with them as a type, dwelt in the vicinity of Montreal, Lake Ontario, and the valley of the St. Lawrence.  In upper Canada, about the great lakes and the St. Lawrence valley, were the Chippeways, or Ojibwes, and the Ottawas.  West and north of Lake Michigan were the Miamis, the Potawatomis, and the Fox Indians (the Saks or Sawkis).  Between Lake Winnipeg and Lake Superior were the Cheyennes (Shians); between North and South Saskatchewan, the Blackfeet or Siksika Indians (sections of which were also called Bloods, Paigans, Piegans, &c).  North of Lake Winnipeg, as far as Lake Athabaska, and almost from the Rocky Mountains to the shores of Hudson’s Bay, were the widespread tribe of the Kris, or Knistino.[5] The Gros Ventres or Big Bellies—­properly called Atsina—­inhabited the southern part of the middle west, between the Saskatchewan and the Missouri basins; and the Monsoni or Maskegon were found in eastern Rupert Land.

[Footnote 4:  See also pp. 156, 164, 186, and 199.  In this list I have put in italics the names of the tribes more important in history, and in capitals the principal group names.]

[Footnote 5:  Kinistino, Kiristineaux, Kilistino; called “Crees” or “Kris” for short.]