DCHP-1 Online

nacaishe [< Algonk.] Obs.

• n. a small edible fish, Hiodon alosoides, native to the Lake Winnipeg region, but now found over a wider range in the Northwest. Also spelled mac(c)aysh.

  See also: goldeye  

  • 1793, 1933  The [Assiniboine] River is stocked with the following fish viz--Sturgeons . and Nacaishe. The men call these latter Lacaiche. . . .
  • 1872  Stopped on shore at the Passe . . . when we got a few "gold-eyes" (a kind of fresh herring about a foot long, with bright iris, large and yellow--Indian name Nacaish).
  • 1897  The lacaishe is the moon-eyed toothed herring . . . it occurs elsewhere in the quasi-French form la quesche; but all these are corruptions of the Indian nacaysh.