IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) V y. s i ■€fn w- Q, C/jL (/. 1.0 I.I 1.25 IIIM 11112.5 IK ill 2.2 IIIM 1.4 M I™ 1.6 m. VI /y M ^//, ^ A m ■rf Photographic Sciences Corporation s. ^ ^ V '^<\ ^. K^tli^ i''^97) The easiest way to obtain accurate infonnation concern- ing the term Ottawa, Outaouais, Ontaoua, is by perusing the different works of the i jtli Century mentioned below, and leave aside all other books for the moment, until you have digested the texts of those authors, for they actually saw what they write about. Whoever dealt with the matter subse- quently could not be in a position to make a clear case of it. Take the following i uthors as the only base of informa- tion Champlain, Sagard, Marie de Plncarnation, Dollier, Perrot, La Potherie, tlie Jesuit papers, and the records of the Conseil vSoiiverain of Quebec. Champlain met the people in question (1615) and called them Standing Hair, because of the fashion thev had to dress their hair tiprigiit. This was in Lake Huron. The Hurons, who spoke a language totally different from the Standing Hairs, and who lived in open fields, designated them as the Men of the Woods, to indicate that they were roaming in the forests (county of Bruce and IManitoulin Ls- land.) In Huron-Iroquois language this was Oudataoua. The French translated it into Gensdes Bois quite correctly. There is no indication of the name by which the Outaouas designated their own nation. Champlain : Cheveux Relevds : Standing Hair. No other name. Sagard^ 162 j : Chevetix Releves and Gens des Bois are like one nation he says, Jesuit Relations, 16^4-^6 : Ondataouaouat, Outaouak ; 1669, Outaoua^. Journal des Jesuits, 16:^4 : OndataSaSak (7//^?^ StaSak, 8ta8at. (8 is the softest sound of w.) Conseil Souverain de Quebec^ r^^>3> /^/o .• 8ta8au, 8ta8ak. Marie de PInearnatio?i^ r6C)o : Outaouak, Dollier de Casson, /66j: Outaoiia. XicJlas Perrot /660-//IJ : Ontaoua. La Potherie lyoo : Outaouak. That writers who came after 1700, and who never had any intercourse with the nation before its dispersion, took npon tlieniselves to modify tlie spellincr and pronunciation of the name b\" making- it "Ottawa" and " Outaonais," has uo effect on the above authorities ; but it puzzles everybody and makes us believe that there is yet a problem to be solved in that direction. There is no doubt that Ottawa and Ontaouais are both wrouf*-. The French made " Outaoua " out of " Oudatahoua." No other explanation can stand the test of the authors of the 17th Century. The plural took k. The final sound is a broad and o})en note : oua, ouat, ouak, ouac, Sack. In P'reuch (Normandy) letter a is broad, like aw in Knr^lish. When you meet with ouak and ouac, rest as- sured that this is written to satisfy the pronunciation of some Frenchmen who use the flat a, such as in Gignac, Frontenac, I^alzac (south west of F^rance.) Ondata, if corrupted into r)uta as I believe, is less easy to explain. One would conceive that it was Ondata, but all the printed works and all the manuscripts of the 17th Century have On instead of On. The figure 8 placed in the centre of the word is there to represent a soft w : Sanakong for Wanakong, KaminiskSe for Kaminiskwe. Kight is " huit " in French and must be .sound- ed with that particularly soft tone the letter u has in the north and west of France. It is not on nor w ; to pronounce it you must round your lips and try to whistle softly. It is not generally found practicable to any other people but tho.se who have used it from the* cradle. That sole letter in the mouth of a man suffices to detect how far his origiu is French. For instance, ask an Englishman to pronounce fiitron — and hear the word from the tongue of a Frenchman, you will understand that the French u is not at all like the English one. Now that we have said that Outaoua comes from Onda- taoua, let us see the opinion of moderu authors who have given a different etymolog-y without consulting the true .sources in this matter. Some suppo.se that the expression, Orandes Oreilles ap- plied to the Outaouas is a translation of the latter name. We have already shown that Ondataoua means the Men of the Woods. The French .said Orandes (Oreilles : Large Ears, for the same reason they qualified them also Cheveux Releves, ' ^ific »y 'Xi nirTT-f-i7-i>.rt7',3>'rti.W°i -Jf •*'. '".IT<"»A'W«.»IW'-'W'X1.'-,' tliosc wliose liair is tied up on the to]) of the head, those wlio expos.' their ears, by eoiitrast with other races wearing long floating hair covering the neck, the ears and part of the cheeks. The final sonnd ouais : Outaouais, is the resnlt of pnre ignorance, and is not more than eighty years old. Tile form Ottawa did not exist dnring the French regime ; it was created by the English evidently from Ontaona. As to the history of those people we have so often seen modern maps and books which place them in onr valley that it .seems impo.ssible to remove that belief from the minds of of reader.s. They were principally located in Manitonlin Island when Champlain met .some of them at the month of French River in 1 615. Afterwards they took refnge in Wiscon.sin for fear of the Iroqnois. In 1654 they opened a trade with Montreal by the ronte of Lake Nipis.sing and the Grand River, then a perfect wilderness withont anv Indians on its .sliores. Grad- nally the (xrand River became known as the pa.ssage of the Outaonas, the Ontaona. This application of the name of a far away nation to a Canadian River can be followed in the mami.scripts covering the period of 1 670-1 700. In the localities where the Ontaonas emigrated two hnn- dred years ago there are now ten or twelve towns, villages, railway stations and connties called "Ottawa." This is only right, althongh somewhat overdone. The books and maps pnblished in onr ccntnry cansed the Canadians to consider the " valley of the Ottawa " as the ancient residence of the Ontaonas, and that name was imposed in good faith npon yonng Bytown. It is the consecration of an error. The Capital of Canada stands before us under a foreign name.