254 APPENDIX III. 



which is only preparing the way for ultimate danger and down- 

 fall. All Southern political stars must set, though many times 

 they rise again with diminished splendour. But those which 

 illuminate the pole remain for ever shining, for ever increasing 

 in splendour. 



No. III. 



THE INDIANS ON THE YOUCON, BY THE 

 REV. W. W. KIRKBY.* 



On my arrival at the Youcon there were about 500 Indians 

 present, all of whom were astonished, but agreeably glad, to see 

 a missionary among them. They are naturally a fierce, turbu- 

 lent, and cruel race ; approximating more nearly to the Plain 

 tribes than to the quiet Chipewyans of the Mackenzie valley. 

 They commence somewhere about the 65° of N. L., and stretch 

 westward from the Mackenzie to Behring's Straits. They were 

 formerly very numerous, but wars, both among themselves and 

 with the Esquimaux, have sadly diminished them. They are, 

 however, still a strong and powerful people. They are divided 

 into many petty tribes, each having its own chief, as the Ta- 

 tlit-Kutchin (Peel's Eiver Indians), Ta-Klith-Kutchin (La- 

 piene's House Indians), Kutch a Kutchin (Youcon Indians), 

 Touchon-tay Kutchin (Wooded-country Indians), and many 

 others. But the general appearance, dress, customs, and habits 

 of all are pretty much the same, and all go under the general 

 names of Kutchin (the people) and Loucheux (squinters). 

 The former is their own appellation, while the latter was given 

 to them by the whites. There is, however, another division 

 among them, of a more interesting and important character 

 than that of the tribes just mentioned. Irrespective of tribe 



* From a Paper communicated to the Institute of Rupert's Laud, Red 

 River Settlement, 1862. 



