white man. Now as always the Indians in
these northern regions are held back by the long, benumbing winters.
They cannot practice agriculture, for no crops will grow. They cannot
depend to any great extent upon natural vegetation, for aside from
blueberries, a few lichens, and one or two other equally insignificant
products, the forests furnish no food except animals. These lowly people
seem to have been so occupied with the severe struggle with the elements
that they could not even advance out of savagery into barbarism. They
were homeless nomads whose movements were determined largely by the food
supply.

Among the Athapascans who occupied all the western part of the northern
pine forests, clothing was made of deerskins with the hair left on. The
lodges were likewise of deer or caribou skins, although farther
south these were sometimes replaced by bark. The food of these tribes
consisted of caribou, deer, moose, and musk-ox together with smaller
animals such as the beaver and hare. They also ate various kinds of
birds and the fish found in the numerous lakes and rivers. They killed
deer by driving them into an angle formed by two converging rows
of stakes, where they were shot by hunters lying in wait. Among the
Kawchodinne tribe near Great Bear Lake hares were the chief source of
both food and clothing. When an unusually severe winter or some other
disaster diminished the supply, the Indians believed that the animals
had mounted to the sky by means of the trees and would return by the
same way. In 1841 owing to scarcity of hares many of this tribe died of
starvation, and numerous acts of cannibalism are said to have occurred.
Small wonder that civilization was low and that infanticide, especially
of female children, was common. Among such people women were naturally
treated with a minimum of respect. Since they were not skilled as
hunters, there was relatively little which they could contribute toward
the sustenance of the family. Hence they were held in low esteem, for
among most primitive people woman is valued largely in proportion to her
economic contribution. Her low position is illustrated by the peculiar
funeral custom of the Takulli, an Athapascan tribe on the Upper Frazer
River. A widow was obliged to remain upon the funeral pyre of her
husband till the flames reached her own body. When the fire had died
down she collected the ashes of her dead and placed them in a basket,
which she was obliged to carry wit