Ehagay Nakoda

Ehagay Nakoda
Ehagay Nakoda from the Bow River, 18 June 2011
Highest point
Elevation	2,685 m (8,809 ft)[1]
Prominence	396 m (1,299 ft)
Coordinates	51°03′11.0″N115°23′31.0″W / 51.053056°N 115.391944°W / 51.053056; -115.391944
Geography
Ehagay Nakoda Location in Alberta
Interactive map of Ehagay Nakoda
Location	Alberta, Canada
Parent range	Canadian Rockies
Topo map	NTS82O3Canmore

Ehagay Nakoda (/eɪˈhɑːɡeɪnəˈkoʊdə/ay-HAH-gay nə-KOH-də; Stoney Nakoda variants include Ehage Nakoda and Îhage Nakoda[eˈhage,ĩˈhagenaˈkoda]^[a]) is a part of a multi-peaked massif located immediately south of the town of Canmore just east of the Spray Lakes road in Alberta's Canadian Rockies. The massif sports four subsidiary peaks. Ha Ling Peak is the northernmost. Miners Peak is south of that. South of Miners Peak is Mount Lawrence Grassi, tallest of the peaks. Southeast of that is Ship's Prow. The massif is separated from Mount Rundle by Whiteman's Gap to the northwest, and from The Three Sisters by Three Sisters Pass to the south.

Name change

Ehagay Nakoda was formerly named Mount Lawrence Grassi and Ha Ling Peak was named Chinaman's Peak. They were both renamed in 1998. Ehagay Nakoda comes from a Stoney Nakoda legend and means "The Last Nakoda," or the last human being. This traditional story tells of a Nakoda who was transformed into a mountain by Iktomni^[b] (the Trickster, or the Old Man) so that they would remain on Earth long after human beings cease to inhabit it. The story was submitted by a local Stoney Nakoda Elder, Peter Lazarus Wesley, when Chinaman's Peak was to be renamed. But the decision was made to apply the Nakoda name to entire massif and rename Chinaman's Peak to Ha Ling Peak. To respect the memory of Lawrence Grassi and the former name of the mountain, the tallest peak was named Mount Lawrence Grassi.^[4][5][6][7]

Named peaks

Ha Ling Peak

This northernmost peak is named in honour of Ha Ling, a Chinese cook working for a mining camp. He bet coworkers fifty dollars that he could climb the mountain and return in less than ten hours. When he returned in five and a half hours, people doubted him so he led them up the mountain to where he had planted a small flag. He then left an even larger flag that could be seen from the nearby town of town of Canmore, Alberta. He is the first person known to have climbed to the summit of the peak.^[8]

Miners Peak

Miners Peak is the first peak south of Ha Ling Peak. It was named in honour of the mining community that once mine coal from the mountain.^[9] Though the name of the peak is often spelled as a possessive noun (Miner's Peak), this is incorrect.^[10]

Mount Lawrence Grassi

The peak is next south from Miners Peak. It is named for Lawrence Grassi (1890–1980), an Italian miner who emigrated to Canada in 1912. After working with the Canadian Pacific Railway for several years he worked in the Canmore coal mines, Grassi also became a well-respected climbing guide as well as building many trails in the area, including one to the Grassi Lakes which also bear his name.^[1][11]

Ship's Prow

Ship's Prow is the southern-most peak of Ehagay Nakoda and is southeast of Mount Lawrence Grassi. It is named for its prominent, ship's prow-like appearance on the end of Ehagay Nakoda as seen from the nearby town of Canmore, Alberta.^[12]

Notes

1. There are several variants for the word for 'last' in Stoney Nakoda, including ehage and îhage. The English transcription ehagay seems to represent the ehage variant, but is somewhat ambiguous and therefore allows for both pronunciations.^[2]
2. Stoney: Îktomnî[ĩ'ktomnĩ]^[3]

References

1. "Mount Lawrence Grassi". cdnrockiesdatabases.ca. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
2. Stoney Nakoda Dictionary Online. "entry for îhage/ehage (last)". dictionary.stoneynakoda.org. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
3. Stoney Nakoda Dictionary Online. "entry for Îktomnî (Trickster)". dictionary.stoneynakoda.org. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
4. Ward, Meghan J. (Winter 2012). "What's in a Name? A Reminder of Things Past". Highline Magazine. 4 (1): 27–29. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
5. Daffern, Gillean (2011). Popular Day Hikes 1: Kananaskis Country. Rocky Mountain Books Ltd. ISBN 9781897522714.
6. Kelland, Ron (6 November 2019). "Stories from the Land: Indigenous Place Names in Canada". RETROactive. Historic Resources Management Branch of Alberta, Culture, Multiculturalism and Status of Women. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
7. "News In Brief". Alberta Sweetgrass. Vol. 5, no. 11. Aboriginal Multi-Media Society. 1998. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
8. Meuse, Matt (18 August 2018). "What's in a name? The (mostly) true story of Ha Ling Peak". CBC News. CBC News. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
9. Hobbs, Matthew. "Miner's Peak". On-Top.ca.
10. "Geospatial Data Extraction". Federal Geospatial Platform. Government of Canada. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
11. "Lawrence Grassi". cdnrockiesdatabases.ca. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
12. Nick (7 February 2019). "Ship's Prow Peak". Steep Sheep. Retrieved 4 July 2020.