Note 76 — {210} CHAPTER XIII

Lake Cœur d’Alêne (Pointed Heart) is at the head of Spokane River, about twenty-five miles south-east of Spokane Falls. It is a small lake fed by the Cœur d’Alêne and St. Joseph rivers, flowing from the Bitter Root Mountains. There are two theories regarding the origin of the name—one, that the Indians living there were so sharp at bargaining that the fur traders named them Cœur d’Alênes, “Awl-Hearts,” or “Pointed Hearts;” the other, that among the first traders was a Canadian of so close and niggardly a disposition that the Indians applied an epithet to him which the interpreter translated “Cœur d’Alêne,” and the name became fixed upon the Indians.—Ed.