DCHP-1 Online

Keewatin [< Algonk. (Cree)]

• 1 n. the North Wind.

  • 1910  A wind blew in their faces now; it chilled as though beyond lay snow. "We're gettin' there," Red called back to Slack. "I'm gettin' ol' Keewatin's breath."
  • 1934  For Keewatin, the dreaded north wind, plays no favorites but treats one and all alike, often searing the face as though with a hot iron.

• 2a n. Hist. a large territory of the Northwest (def. la), lying west and south of Hudson Bay.

  See also: Northwest (def. 1a)  

  • 1880  The District of Kee-wa-tin, "the land of the north wind," was also established, comprising the eastern and northern portions of the Territories, and placed under the control of the Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba, and an Executive and Legislative Council.
  • 1908  The dispute came as a heritage to modern days when Quebec and Ontario wrangled out their boundaries, and Ontario and Manitoba competed for Keewatin.
  • 1963  These [North-West Territories] now consisted of three, Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, organized in 1882, as well as the unorganized territory which was to become the districts of Athabasca, Franklin, Mackenzie, Ungava, and Yukon in 1895, Keewatin remaining under the Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba until 1912.

• 2b n. Hist. since 1912 (modified in 1920), the most easterly of the three Northwest Territories. See 1958 quote.

  • 1913  [Keewatin is] a District of the North-west Territories, part of which lying south of the 60th parallel, was, in 1912, divided and added to the Provinces of Manitoba and Ontario.
  • 1958  Thus Keewatin District . . . embraces all of Hudson and James bays as well as the mainland N. of 60° N. and E. of 102° W. except Boothia and Melville peninsulas.
  • 1963  . . . the world wherein we move--even this far-off Keewatin--is still tied to it by the questing of the mind's eye

• 3 n. Hist. a proposed name for the province of Manitoba.

  • 1886  In Kee-wa-tin, the name at present applied to an incipient province west of Manitoba, the authorities cannot be said to have been very happy. The word is very deficient in dignity.