24 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTK. [VoL. IV. 



the Shushwap. On the authority of that narrative, the would-be invaders 

 were pushed back by superior numbers into the Semilkameen valley 

 where, by their prowess, they compelled their pursuers to come to terms 

 and make a treaty of peace from which intermarriages soon resulted. 

 " These strangers, who are said to have come from the Chilcotin country, 

 are thus the earliest inhabitants of the Semilkameen valley of whom any 

 account has been obtained." * Seven, out of thirteen words given by 

 Mr. Mackay, as remnants of the original language of the invaders, are 

 undoubtedly TsifKoh'tin, and make it certain that the Semilkameen 

 Shushwap are partly of Dene parentage. 



Immediately north of the Tsi[Koh'tin we find the Carriers or Takliejne, 

 the most important in numbers, most widespread and progressive of all 

 the north-western Dene tribes. They extend as far north as the 56° of 

 latitude and are coterminous with the coast tribes on the west and the 

 Crees and Tse'kehne on the east. The Coast Range on the one side and 

 the Rocky Mountains as far as 53" lat. on the other, separate them 

 from their heterogeneous neighbours. North of the 53°, they are in 

 immediate contact with the Tse'kehne. 



The Carriers are semi-sedentary Indians. They have fixed homes in 

 regularly organized villages from which they periodically scatter away in 

 search of the fish and fur-bearing animals on which they subsist. From 

 south to north, their tribal subdivisions are : — 



1. The qthau'tenne (a contraction of qtha-koh-'tenne, people of the 

 Fraser River). They now have but one village, Stella (the Cape) 

 contiguous to the old Fort Alexander, formerly one of the most important 

 of the H. B. Co's. posts in British Columbia, now abandoned. They were 

 originally several hundreds : they are now almost extinct as a sept. 

 Whiskey and loose morals owing to the vicinity of the whites are 

 responsible for this result. They are co-terminous with the Shushwap 

 in the south and the Tsi^Koh'tin in the immediate west. I do not think 

 that fifteen individuals of that sept now remain. 



2. The Nazkii tenne (people of the river Naz). They are likewise 

 greatly reduced in numbers, there not being actually more than 90 

 members of that sub-tribe, though they still inhabit two villages Quesnel 

 and Black-Water.f The same causes, especially the former, as played 

 havoc among the qthau'tenne, are slowly but surely working out the 



* Ibid. p. 25. 



t The Black- Water or West River followed up by Sir. A. Mackenzie to reach the Pacific 

 Coast. 



