01/07/2009 09:58PM
I wrote this stuff for a Boy Scout program in the BWCA, it includes information on the Quetico too. Read on if you must.
As Lewis and Clark traveled the
Upper Missouri, they named
inflowing streams and lakes after
their relatives, party members, or
girlfriends. When they ran out of
girlfriends, they named rivers after
politicians (President Jefferson and
other supporters). The streams
had native names, of course, but
they were recording the land for the
first time for their culture; identifying
the landmarks was essential.
However, few of the names survive
on subsequent maps due to
the long delay in printing their journals.
French-Canadian explorers
like La Verendre faced a similar
problem when traveling through the
Quetico-Superior and used a similar
solution. Lakes were given descriptive
names (Rainy Lake for the
mist at its waterfall outlet), named
for their shapes, to honor sponsors,
and for girlfriends. On a 1975 canoe
trip on Lake of the Woods, my
troop had a similar problem. Most
of the islands had no names at least
on the map, so (lacking girlfriends)
we named the islands after ourselves.
Filling the blank spots on
the maps was important to all
kinds of people. During written
history, several cultures have come
and gone in the Quetico-Superior
canoe country. The first natives
recorded were the Dakota (called
Sioux by their enemies) who
yielded the unproductive but picturesque
land to the Cree and
Ojibway in the 18th century who
had moved in from the east. There
were a number of skirmishes in the
area, but the Dakota seemed to give
up the area much more quickly than
other areas such as central Minnesota.
The Ojibway were armed
with fur trade rifles, but to some
that explanation is insufficient.
Forest ecologists Clifford and Isabel
Ahlgren speculate that the hunting culture
Dakota were dependant on
large prey such as caribou, moose
and deer. The forest shifted to large
pines that were less suitable to
those deer; the Ojibway culture
was better adapted to the new landscape.
The Ojibway were more
mobile hunter-gatherers and preferred
birch bark covered wigwams
to Dakota hide covered teepees.
Since native tribes did not have a
written language, their maps were
mainly mental, names were passed
on by oral tradition As a result,
their lake names were often long
and descriptive. Batchewaung is
Ojibway for “a current going
through narrows.” Kahshahpiwi
translates to “the lakes flows
through continuously,” another
translation says “long, narrow lake
with high cliffs.” Even Ojibway
language experts have trouble translating
current names as the sounds
to European ears and the spellings
are not always accurate. Voyageur
names still dot the map and define
the fur trade routes. Deux Riveres
(two rivers), and Maligne (bad) are
some examples. Many place names
are English versions of earlier
names including Knife Lake (after
the hard, fine grained rock that was
quarried by the natives for cutting
tools), Curtain Falls was “rideau”
in French. As different cultures
moved through, the map names
changed. One of the next groups to
leave their mark was the loggers.
Many of the small lakes away from
the main canoeing routes needed
names so everyone involved could
communicate. It’s possible that
some of the female lake names
(Alice, Bernice, Fran and others)
came from the wives and girlfriends
of these isolated men. The Quetico
Park also honored World War I soldiers
by naming (off the beaten
path) lakes after them. Examples
include Devine, Fluker, Montgomery,
Belaire, Tubman, Tario, and
Wilbur. Bush pilots are represented
by Curtis, Ptolemy, Reid, and
Swartman. The Quetico also has a
tradition of naming lakes after park
personnel. Art, Atkins, Halliday,
Payne, Lemay, Hurn, Buckingham,
Dettbarn, Quinn, Rawn, and Valley
were all Quetico rangers. Naturalist
Shan Walshe received this
honor after his 1991 death. A
Friends of the Quetico booklet
states “This previously unnamed
lake, remote, surrounded by stands
of old pine at the end of difficult
portages was the kind of place that
Shan loved.” Of course, naming
lakes after plants, animals, and geologic
features was also common.
Local lore varies on how certain
lakes were named. Bill Magie was
an Ely canoe guide, surveyor, and
logger. In the book Wonderful Country
(edited by Charlie Guide David
Olesen) Magie states: “One time,
my boss told me, ‘Name some of
those places!’ So, we did. Hurn
Lake, that’s named after Walter
Hurn, the ranger at Kings Point.
Jeff Lake is named after a ranger at
Ottawa Island. MacKenzie and
Ferguson were surveyors that were
working’ on the park survey.
Delahey Lake-I was the guy started
naming’ it Delahey. Delahey was
the head Quetico ranger then. I
wrote him one day, I says, ‘Why
don’t you name some of those
lakes? There’s three or four right
in the center of the park that haven’t
got a name.’ Veron was his first
name. He named ‘em after himself!”
Well, he probably didn’t have
a girlfriend. Note: other sources
say that Delahey’s first name was
George. Depending on the map
scale, there may not be room to
print the names of all the map features.
As a result, officially named
lakes get additional names from
paddlers including Charlie Guides.
Lakes with double or even triple
names from various sources include
Darky/Spirit, Fishhook/Earl,
Donna/Irene, Argo/Trout, Tuck/
Caribou, Brent/Infinity, Pine/Island/
Nym, and Sanctuary/Lemay/Jenny.
There are probably a few wives and
girlfriends in these mixtures. When
Charlie Guides first started traveling
in Manitoba, many of the lakes
were unnamed, at least on the map.
So Lunch Lake became the name
for the resting spot in the middle of
the Obukowin chain of portages,
Scout Lake is our float plane cache,
Hot Dog is a long, skinny lake, and
even though we don’t know the
translation, Wapeskapek just
seems like an endless lake. The
Manitoba program started in large
part due to Real Berard’s canoe
route maps. In the Boundary Waters,
we can travel on Lakes One,
Two, and Three. From his first
maps on, Berard has predominantly
used place names from the native
Cree, Sasaginnigak Canoe Country
or Katunigan Route. “And doesn’t
that sound better than a number for
a lake?” he asks.
Some Lake Name meanings and origins
Amik - Ojibway for Beaver
Bitchu - Cree for Lynx
Blackstone - Leader of the last permanent
residents of the
Quetico, at the mouth of the
Wawiag River. He died in 1919
trying to get help when the
Ojibway group suffered an influenza
epidemic. In the spring,
the few survivors were moved
to the Lac La Croix reservation.
Cutty and Sark - a fast sailing clipper
or maybe after the whiskey
named for the ship.
Kawnipi - Ojibway for where there
are cranberries.
Keewatin - Ojibway for where the
north wind blows from.
Chatterton, Keats, Shelley - 18th-
19th century English poets.
Pooh Bah, Ko Ko (Falls), Yum Yum
- Characters in the Gilbert and
Sullivan opera The Mikado.
Nym - a character in Shakespeare’s
Merry Wives of Windsor.
Lac La Croix - translates from
French to lake of the cross, explorer
Sieur de la Croix drowned
there in 1688.
Tanner - after John Tanner, stolen
as a young boy in Kentucky to
take the place of a Shawnee
mother’s dead son, he became
famous by his Indian name
“White Falcon.” He was shot
and left for dead on “his” lake,
but was rescued by passing
Voyageurs.
Last, but not least Quetico - A
name of uncertain origin, which
one is correct? I don’t know.
A. version of a Cree word for benevolent
spirit
B. French for searching for route
to Pacific “Quete de la cote”
C. Ojibway for “bad, dangerous”
D. short for Quebec Timber
Company.
References used: Lob Trees in
the Wilderness by Clifford & Isabel
Ahlgren, A Wonderful Country by
Bill Magee, Lake Names of the
Quetico Provincial Park published
by The Friends of the Quetico Park,
The Map Maker by Carole Bhakar
and Judy Lord in Manitoba Nature
magazine.
Chuck Rose
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