FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156  
157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   >>   >|  
. There was a great want of provision this season, and both the Companies had much difficulty to provide a bare sufficiency, for their different brigades of canoes. Mr. Smith assured me that after the canoes had been despatched he had only five hundred pounds of meat remaining for the use of the men who might travel from the post during the summer, and that five years preceding, there had been thirty thousand pounds in store under similar circumstances. He ascribed this amazing difference more to the indolent habits which the Indians had acquired since the commercial struggle commenced, than to their recent sickness, mentioning in confirmation of his opinion that they could now, by the produce of little exertion, obtain whatever they demanded from either establishment. At the opening of the water in spring, the Indians resort to the establishments to settle their accounts with the traders, and to procure the necessaries they require for the summer. This meeting is generally a scene of much riot and confusion, as the hunters receive such quantities of spirits as to keep them in a state of intoxication for several days. This spring, however, owing to the great deficiency of spirits, we had the gratification of seeing them generally sober. They belong to the great family of the Chipewyan, or Northern, Indians; dialects of their language being spoken in the Peace, and Mackenzie's Rivers, and by the populous tribes in New Caledonia, as ascertained by Sir Alexander Mackenzie in his journey to the Pacific. They style themselves generally _Dinneh_ men, or Indians, but each tribe, or horde, adds some distinctive epithet taken from the name of the river, or lake, on which they hunt, or the district from which they last migrated. Those who come to Fort Chipewyan term themselves Saw-eessaw-dinneh, (Indians from the rising sun, or Eastern Indians,) their original hunting grounds being between the Athabasca, and Great Slave Lakes, and Churchill River. This district, more particularly termed the Chipewyan lands, or _barren country_, is frequented by numerous herds of rein-deer, which furnish easy subsistence, and clothing to the Indians; but the traders endeavour to keep them in the parts to the westward where the beavers resort. There are about one hundred and sixty hunters who carry their furs to the Great Slave Lake, forty to Hay River, and two hundred and forty to Fort Chipewyan. A few Northern Indians also resort to the posts at
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156  
157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Indians
 

Chipewyan

 

hundred

 
resort
 
generally
 
district
 

spring

 

traders

 

Mackenzie

 

Northern


spirits
 
hunters
 

summer

 

pounds

 

canoes

 

Dinneh

 

dialects

 

distinctive

 

epithet

 

Pacific


populous
 

tribes

 

Rivers

 
spoken
 

Caledonia

 
journey
 
language
 

Alexander

 

ascertained

 

termed


barren

 

country

 
Churchill
 
beavers
 

frequented

 
numerous
 

subsistence

 

clothing

 

endeavour

 

westward


furnish

 

eessaw

 
migrated
 

dinneh

 
rising
 
grounds
 

Athabasca

 

hunting

 
original
 

Eastern