The following material is a "mock-up" of a tentative OED entry for the word "Saulteaux". The published entry may differ in many respects from the one presented here.
 
  Drafted by Alan H. Hartley

Saulteaux /so:to:/, n. & a. Forms (Those in -x are so cited because, though the form is usually clearly plural, it is not clear whether the corresponding singular forms had -x): 17-18 Sauteur, Sauteau(x, 17 Sautor, Seauteux, 18 Sauteux, Soteaux, Soataux, Sa(u)lteur, Sotoo, 18-19 Saulteaux, 18 Soutie, Salteau(x. Pl.: forms in -x unchanged; forms in final vowel have -s or -x; forms in -r unchanged or with -s. [ < Canad. Fr. Sau(l)teur (pl. Sau(l)teux) ‘person of the rapids’ < sault ‘rapids’ and/or < Old Ojibwa pa.wittikwiriniwak ‘people of the rapids’ < pa.wittikw- ‘rapids’ + iriniwak ‘people’. The Fr. pl. form in -x has come to be used also as a sg. form in Eng.]

a. At first European contact, (a member of) a band of Ojibwa residing principally at Sault Ste. Marie at the outlet of Lake Superior; later, a division of the Ojibwa occupying western Ontario and eastern Manitoba. b. The westernmost dialect of the modern Ojibwa language. Also attrib. or as adj.

[1640 in Jesuit Relations (1896-1901) XVIII. 228 À Baouichtigoian, c’est à dire, à la nation des gens du Sault, porce qu’en effect il y a un Sault qui se jette en cet endroit dans la mer douce. c1660 P. E. RADISSON Voyages (1853) 154 we weare but 5 small fine days from those..that lived in the sault of the coming in of the said upper lake..which hereafter we will call the nation of the salt. Ibid. Wee..came back wth a company of people of ye nation of ye Sault. c1668 in Jesuit Relations LI. 60 Mission des Outchibouec...Les François les appellent les sauteurs. 1698 L. HENNEPIN New Discovery 86 There is another Habitation of Savages near the Fall of St. Mary. The French call them Leapers, because they live near that great Fall, which they call a Leap.] 1742 J. LA FRANCE New Map of Part of North America, Sauteurs Indians. 1779 in E.E. Rich ed. Cumberland House Jrnls. & Inland Jrnls. 1775-82, 2d ser. 1779-82 (Hudson’s Bay Record Soc. Publ. XV, 1952) 296 This Goes to Inform you of Five Indians..Three Natives of the Land & Two Bungees or Sauteaus. [1781 J. CARVER Travels 97 This was a chief, called by the French the Grand Sautor, or the Great Chipéway Chief, for they denominate the Chipéways Sautors.] Ibid. 98 Not long after the Grand Sautor also arrived. 1791 J. LONGVoyages 43 We proceeded to the Falls of St. Mary...The nation of the Sauteurs formerly were settled at the foot of the falls. 1799 A. MACKENZIE Jrnls. (1970) 480 As soon as the Seauteux recovered from their pannic they pursued the Enemy and in ten days returned with three Scalps. 1800 D. HARMON Jrnl. (1957) 18 There are a few Americans, Scotch & Canadians, who carry on a small traffic with the Natives, who are Sauteux. Ibid. She likewise speaks the Cree and Sauteux tongues. 1805 Z. M. PIKE Jrnls. (1966) I. 20 Dined with him and were informed that the Sioux and Sauteaux are now as warmly engaged as ever. 1805 (Clark) Jrnls. Lewis & Clark Exped. III. (1987) 442 Souteurs [list]. 1807 in Minnesota History Bull. V. (1923-24) 35 Beaver formerly abounded here, but is now very scarce, and dangerous to hunt; being in the neighborhood of the Sioux, the implacable enemy of the Sauteux. 1820 in Saskatchewan Jrnls. (Edmonton House & Chesterfield House) (Hudson’s Bay Record Soc. Publ. XXVI, 1967) 6 Bungees or Soteaux. c1820 A. ROSS Fur Traders (1956) 208 I smiled..at the confusion of languages in our camp [at Flathead House] in which were two Americans, seventeen Canadians, five half-breeds from the east side of the mountains, twelve Iroquois, two Abanakee Indians from Lower Canada, two natives from Lake Nepissing, one Saultman from Lake Huron, two Crees from Athabasca, one Chinook, two Spokanes, two Kouttannois, three Flatheads, two Callispellums, one Palooche, and one Snake slave! 1821 Jrnl. George Simpson (Hudson’s Bay Record Soc. Publ. I, 1938) 387 The Natives of Peace River are Beaver Indians, there are also a few emigrant Soataux from the plains. 1823 J. FRANKLIN Journey Polar Sea 62 The name Saulteurs, applied to a principal band that frequented the Sault St. Marie, has been by degrees extended to the whole Tribe. It is frequently pronounced and written Sotoos. 1825 in Washington Hist. Quarterly V. (1914) 107 We started & then lost nearly an hour crossing (a freeman, the Soteaux & his baggage.) Ibid. 174 One of the..Soteaux..set off in the evening to the Flat Heads with several of the Spokane Indians. 1849 J. MCLEAN. Twenty-five Years' Service (1932) 127 We pitched our tents near a camp of Sauteux, from whom the men purchased a small quantity of sturgeon. Ibid. 184 There are..only four radically distinct languages from the shores of Labrador to the Pacific: Sauteux, Chippewayan, Atna and Chinook. 1851 J.RICHARDSON Arctic Searching Exped. I. 71 note, They are the Sauteurs or Saulteaux of the Canadians, and Sotoos of the fur traders. Ibid. II. 51 The well-fed Sauteurs of the River Winipeg, who are independent of the traders, repel the missionaries. 1852 H.R. SCHOOLCRAFT Indian Tribes II. 36 It [sc. the term Algonquin] is applied to the Salteurs of St. Mary [et al.] 1860 E. DOMENECH Deserts N. Amer. I. 444 Souties [in a list]. 1872 W. F. BUTLER Great Lone Land 387 Name of Tribe...Salteaux...Language...Salteaux. 1891 J. W. POWELL Indian Linguistic Families (1966) 125 Cree: With Salteau in Manitoba..3,066? Ibid. 126 Ojibwa:..."Salteaux" of treaty Nos. 3 and 4..Manitoba. 1937 in A. I. HALLOWELL Contrib. Anthropol. (1976) 317 Two statements by early nineteenth-century observers..apparently referred to the practice of cross-cousin marriage by some of the Saulteaux-Ojibwa bands between Lake Nipigon and Lake Winnipeg. 1978 Papers Ninth Algonquian Conf. 122 Before the change took place there was only one n-dialect in the region..the Saulteaux dialect of Ojibwa. 1981 Hdbk. N. Amer. Indians VI. 250 Residence after marriage among Lake Winnipeg Saulteaux is basically patrilocal. Ibid. There is no evidence that a residential condition was associated with any of the Saulteaux clans upon migration into the region. 1996 Hdbk. N. Amer. Indians XVII. 289 Saulteaux birchbark scrolls used by a Mide priest for training.


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Last modified March 7, 1998.