Natural feature
Waterfowl Lakes
Glacier-fed twin lakes strung along the Icefields Parkway, carrying the Cree word for grizzly bear.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Waterfowl Lakes in Banff National Park follows the Mistaya River that feeds them back to its Cree name, mistahaya, meaning grizzly bear. It traces a belief shared by hunting peoples across the northern hemisphere, from Germanic tribes to Slavic hunters to the Naskapi, that speaking a bear's true name aloud was widely considered dangerous, and how that fear reshaped ordinary words like bear itself. Listen for what still moves through the trees along this shoreline.
This audio guide was created using AI.