KutenaiKutenayn.adj.
/ˈkuːtəneɪ//ˈkuːtənni/ A. n.
a. An Indian people of the Rocky Mountains; also, a member of this people.
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the world > people > ethnicities > North American peoples > peoples of Great Basin and Plateau > [noun]
snake1791
Kutenai1801
Pierced Nose1805
Shoshone1805
Tillamook1806
Wallawalla1806
Nez Perce1811
Ute1826
Paiute1827
Spokane1831
Sahaptin1836
flat-head1837
Shuswap1838
Twana1838
Salish1843
Molale1844
Washoe1846
Yakima1852
Skokomish1854
Klamath1890
1801 A. Mackenzie Voy. from Montreal (map following Pref.) Cattanhowes.
1809 D. Thompson Jrnl. 9 Sept. in Washington Hist. Q. (1920) XI. 99 They all smoked, say 54 Flat Heads, 23 Pointed Hearts & 4 Kootenaes, in all about 80 men.
1831 R. Cox Adventures Columbia River II. vii. 152 The Cootonais are the remnants of a once brave and powerful tribe.
1838 S. Parker Jrnl. Tour beyond Rocky Mtns. xxiii. 304 The Cootanies inhabit a section of the country to the north of the Ponderas along M'Gillivary's River... They speak a language distinct from all tribes about them, open and sonorous, and free from gutturals.
1846 H. Hale U.S. Exploring Exped.: Ethnogr. & Philol. 204 (heading) Kitunaha, or Coutanies, or Flat Bows.
1893 Rep. Brit. Assoc. Advancem. Sci. 575 The Kootenays believe that they came from the East, and one of their myths ascribes to them an origin from a hole in the ground east of the Rocky Mountains.
1929 Amer. Speech 5 116 Indian tribal names..were usually transcribed by persons whose ears were unaccustomed to any but European languages... We inherited..corruptions..Kutenai from Kutonaqua.
1955 P. E. Baker Forgotten Kutenai i. 8 The word Kutenai is spelled..Kootenai, Kootenay, Kootenae, Cootanie, and Cootenai as well as Kutenai.
1959 E. Tunis Indians viii. 112/2 One tribe, the Kutenai, made bark canoes with exaggerated back-slanting bows, like the ram bows of 1898 battleships.
1969 O. W. Johnson Flathead & Kootenay 16 The Kutenais sowed and harvested sacred plants for ceremonial smoking before they ever heard of White men.
b. Their language.
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the mind > language > languages of the world > Amerindian > [noun] > northern Amerindian > Kutenai
Kutenai1894
1894 Amer. Anthropologist 7 69 The tomtit, the owl, the robin, and a few other birds are believed [by the Kootenays] to speak Kootenay.
1932 D. Jenness Indians of Canada ii. 20 Kootenayan, Siouan, Iroquoian, and Algonkian, are spoken also in the United States.
1965 Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics 10 78 Kutenai (Powell's ‘Kitunahan’), spoken in the eastern Plateau area bordering on the north~western Plains, stands in lonely isolation among a variety of languages of sure affiliation.
B. adj.
Of or pertaining to this people or their language.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > ethnicities > North American peoples > peoples of Great Basin and Plateau > [adjective]
Shoshone1805
Nez Perce1811
Ute1826
Spokane1838
Sahaptin1841
Skokomish1844
Paiute1845
Salish1849
Yakima1855
Kutenai1877
Salishana1886
Shuswap1904
Wallawalla1957
1877 A. S. Gatschet in Mag. Amer. Hist. 1 iii. 170 The Kootenai, Kitunaha, or Flatbow language.
1891 7th Ann. Rep. Bureau Amer. Ethnol. 1885–6 85 (heading) Kitunahan Koluschan Families.
1932 D. Jenness Indians of Canada xxii. 360 In the firm conviction that the dead would one day return to life at lake Pend-d'Oreille, all the Kootenay bands assembled at that lake in certain winters to hold a religious festival.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1976; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
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n.adj.1801