It’s All in the Name: Pisew Falls, Grass River, and Nearby Lakes
Manitoba is blessed with a super-abundance of lakes – about 110,000 in total. So many that it’s not a big surprise that we haven’t got around to naming them all. But the 10,000 that do have names have amazing stories to tell.
Here in the north, a lake that has a name will often have more than one. Most lakes have a traditional Cree or Dene name. These names are grounded in stories that carry memories and descriptions of geographical features. Indigenous names told travellers exactly what they needed to know.
Some lakes have a European name – usually English or French. European names often memorialize individual people; sometimes they are simply translations of an indigenous name.
Whatever the language, northern lakes are often named for their appearance and/or notable features; sometimes their name describes their shape or their association with people, animals, birds, fish or plants. Other times names relate to local events or activities.
Tell Us How You Really Feel!
Lakes like nearby Bah and Soab are simply unflattering but honest expressions of how the people that named these lakes felt about them.
There are at least two stories about the origins Soab’s name. The first from Bill McGill, a geologist stationed in the Wabowden area who was working along Soab Creek in 1948. McGill reported, “The creek was winding, filled with willow growth and deadfall, a bit of a nightmare. We drilled it and followed it and drilled it and followed it…Probably the flies were so bad at the time. “Son-Of-A-Bitch Creek” – we named it that.”
Canadian Permanent Committee on Geographical Names 1968 records indicate Soab’s salty name originated with Professor G. H. Herriot and his survey crew when they swamped their canoe and lost valuable mining instruments and supplies at the bottom of the insect-ridden, swampy creek. Like Airhole River north of Gillam, Soab’s name has been gentrified, softening the colourful language of the survey crew that named it.
Bah Lake’s origin is less clear; it may be that fishing was poor or that the lake was unsuitable for some other intended purpose.
Further down the Grass River. An especially foul-smelling lake merited three versions of the same name – Witchai (Cree), La Puant (French) and Stink or Stinking (English)! A personal favourite is Wechesawan, a Cree word meaning “old people used to smoke fish that went rotten and started to smell bad”).
The Easy Way Out
With so many northern lakes needing names, officials apparently grew weary. They concocted a simple plan, turning to the alphabet to name three lakes north of Lynn Lake – Ex, Wye, and Zed.
Fourteen other lakes near the headwaters of the Grass River are numbered, beginning with Payak, the Cree word meaning “one”.
Shaped by the Land
Some northern lakes are named for their distinctive shape – Anvil; Hatchet; Sickle; Footprint; Insole; Teardrop; Wawayahao (round). And then there’s Pistol, which resembles a cocked duelling pistol; and Scotty, pictured below, which namers thought looks like a Scottish Terrier or Scotty dog.
Some names describe the lakes themselves – Clearwater, Swampy, and Missi Sakahigan (Big Lake), the old Cree name for Southern Indian Lake. And boaters beware…Pakwa, west of Setting Lake on the Grass River, means “shallow”!
The People’s Lakes
Descriptive lake names share the map with the names of people. Many names are associated with the fur trade era – indigenous trappers, traders, explorers and mapmakers, and dog team drivers.
In the twentieth century the names of surveyors, bush pilots, rail line engineers, prospectors and miners began to appear. Here are a few of the people immortalized on maps of the Setting Lake area.
August Lake, between Five Mile and Bah lakes, is not simply a celebration of summer; it was named for local trapper, August Nelson.
Brostrom Lake, just below Sasagui Rapids (once known as Setting Rapids) was named for a trapper, lost or injured, who froze to death near his cabin.
Scatch Lake between Setting Lake and Sipiwisk, takes its name from Cross Lake trapper, Jacob Scatch. The lake was located on his trapline. The lake was also known by its local Cree name Muskwa (bear).
Paxon Lake, south of the old Manibridge mine site was named after H. R. Paxon, head chainman for the 1913 Seventeenth Base Line survey.
Gormley Lake, just past the Manibridge site, was named after George Gormley, a lineman on the same survey who drowned there in 1913.
Until the early twentieth century Bowden Lake was one of two obscure little lakes south of Setting Lake. For reasons lost in the mist, both were called Goose Lake, unremarkable and commonplace on a long list of Goose Lakes in Manitoba. When the Hudson Bay Rail Line reached Mile 137, the northern lake was re-named Bowden for the Department of Railways and Canals Chief Engineer and the southern lake was re-named Rock Island Lake.
Another goose was plucked from the map in 1933 with the renaming of a waterway that drains into the Grass River above Setting Lake . Goose Creek, sometimes known as Goose River was changed to Ferguson Creek, named for forest ranger, George Ferguson, who patrolled the area.
In the 1970s, Burr Lake between Setting Lake and Thompson was named after a nickel exploration crew chief.
More recently, fourteen previously unnamed lakes near Setting Lake were named for fallen Manitoba servicemen under the province’s Commemorative Naming Program.
Flora and Fauna
Humans share the map of northern Manitoba with creatures that inhabit the boreal forest, its waterways, and skies. Lynx, wolf, wolverine, fox, bear, moose, caribou, beaver, muskrat, and squirrel have all lent their Cree and English names to the lakes.
East of Setting Lake, Opananaykaywuk owes its name to local Cree who observed “caribou pawing through deep snow” looking for food.
Most Setting Lakers know that Pisew Falls takes its name from the Cree word “lynx”. But what do we know of our other “pisew”, the one that flows into the Grass River just west of Setting Lake – the Missipisew River?
The word “Missi” means “big or great.” Attach it to “pisew” and you get Missipisew – the great Water Lynx, a mythological creature associated with safe water travel and good fishing. Missipisew lives in lakes, waterfalls and rapids where it’s known to throw canoe-tossing temper tantrums. Depending on the quality of paddlers’ offerings, Missipisew may protect or endanger them by thrashing its long, spiked tail to create turbulence and turmoil.
Along with lynx and other boreal mammals, First Nations’ and English names of birds and fish are well-represented on northern maps.
Nearby Tulibee Lake, north of Bah and Brostrom, is named for a type of whitefish also known as the northern cisco. French fur traders called them “toulibi”. The explorer, Sir John Franklin wrote that the Cree called the fish “ottonneebees”.
Jackfish or pike are represented in three languages – Oolduywas Lake (Chipewyan), Kinosaskaw and Gunisao (Cree), and Lac Brochet (French).
A flock of Ojibwa, Cree, and English bird names fill spaces on the map – Wapinyayo Lake (ptarmigan), Wapisew (swan), Wawao (snow geese) and many more lakes named for bald eagles, snowy owls, cormorants, loons, mergansers, ducks, whiskey jacks, and terns.
Setting Lakers don’t have to travel far to find rivers and lakes named for local plants. In 1774 Samuel Hearne called it Wee-kus-qua Lake. In 1915 Joseph Tyrrell called it Wikisko Sakahigan. Today we call it Wekusko. a Cree name meaning sweetgrass or herb. The Grass River is a direct translation of the Cree name Muskuskow Sipi.
Lake Life
Lake names often reflect activities or mark events. If we were naming a favorite lake today, we might be tempted to call it “Boating”, “Tubing”, “Fishing”, “Swimming”, “Sledding”, or even “Sitting on the Dock Watching the Sunset” Lake.
Two lakes on the Grass River mark events or activities from earlier times when lake life wasn’t so relaxing. The first, Wintering Lake, is where fur traders are believed to have wintered and/or where local Cree may have moved in winter to be close to amenities at Chatham House trading post. The second, Natawahunan, takes its name from a Cree word meaning “egg gathering place”.
Setting Lakers wonder, “What does our own name mean? Were local fishermen setting their nets? Were early travellers ‘setting and waiting’ for days for the weather to clear to cross the big lake? Were local people simply setting back at the end of the day, taking in the show?
Or is it all about the sun itself, setting brilliantly in the west?” All are possibilities.
Next: Setting Lake: What’s in a Name?
The author, Donna Henry, is a former Parks Canada Superintendent of York Factory and Fort Prince of Wales National Historic Parks, a founding Director of the Grass River Corridor Tourism Association and a research associate with Sinora International.
Historic content editor, Vicki Fleming was one of the founding directors of the Wabowden Historical Museum. She served on the museum’s board from 1990 to 1997, overseeing construction of the new log building. As curator, she acquired, organized and catalogued the museum’s growing collection of artifacts and documents.
Vicki directed the Setting Lake Chimney Site archaeology project from 1986 to 1991, securing and managing funding, working closely with the project archaeologist, and acting as liaison with the provincial Historic Resources Branch. In the 1990s Vicki was involved in two other archaeological investigations along the Grass River, one at Chatham House trading post on Wintering Lake, the other near Cranberry Portage.
Vicki was a founding director of the Grass River Corridor Tourism Association and served as Treasurer. She worked with business leaders and elected officials of towns, First Nations, and Northern Affairs communities along the Grass River Corridor. She worked in partnership with other curators to benefit museums in Thompson, Snow Lake, The Pas, Flin Flon and Cranberry Portage.
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The author, Donna Henry, is the former Parks Canada Superintendent of York Factory and Fort Prince of Wales National Historic Parks, a founding Director of the Grass River Corridor Tourism Association and a research associate with Sinora International.
Historic content editor, Vicki Fleming, was one of the founding directors of the Wabowden Historical Museum. She served on the museum’s board from 1990 to 1997, overseeing construction of the new log building. As curator, she acquired, organized and catalogued the museum’s growing collection of artifacts and documents.
Vicki directed the Setting Lake Chimney Site archaeology project from 1986 to 1991, securing and managing funding, working closely with the project archaeologist, and acting as liaison with the provincial Historic Resources Branch. In the 1990s Vicki was involved in two other archaeological investigations along the Grass River, one at Chatham House trading post on Wintering Lake, the other near Cranberry Portage.
Vicki was a founding director of the Grass River Corridor Tourism Association and served as Treasurer. She worked with business leaders and elected officials of towns, First Nations, and Northern Affairs communities along the Grass River Corridor. She worked in partnership with other curators to benefit museums in Thompson, Snow Lake, The Pas, Flin Flon and Cranberry Portage.
References:
Fraser, Hugh S. The Great Thompson Nickel Discovery. INCO Limited. (1985)
Holm, Gerald F. Geographical Names of Manitoba. Manitoba Conservation (2000)
Note:
Gerald Holm was the Provincial Toponymist and Manitoba Member to the Geographical Names Board of Canada. The information is consistent with information on file with the Manitoba Geographical Names Program at the time of publication.
The author included a brief glossary of indigenous words used as geographical names, noting that these languages were not written until recently, and therefore a given word may be spelled in a variety of ways. Geographic Names of Manitoba spelling variations do not necessarily represent “official” spellings.
Shirritt-Beaumont, Raymond. Wabowden: Mile 137. Frontier School Division. (2004)
Smith, Brian. Archaeological Investigations: The Setting Lake Chimney Site Chimney Site GgLp-1. Setting Lake, Manitoba. Manuscript on file with Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Culture, Heritage and Recreation, Winnipeg. 1988.
Smith, Brian. Personal communication on site during several years of field work along the Grass River.
Explore Northem Manitoba’s Grass River Corridor, 2002·2003 Visitor’s Guide. Flin Flon: Grass River Corridor Tourism Association, 2002
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