28 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VOL. IV. 



founded on language and geographical distribution, are not recognized 

 by the Carriers themselves, who know of no other than the above 

 enumerated minor subdivisions. 



The Tsi|Koh'tin and Carriers have a well organized society composed 

 of the hereditary " noblemen " who own the land, and the common 

 people who hunt with and for them. They formerly had no local head- 

 chiefs. Moreover, irrespective of the ethnographic divisions based on 

 language and habitat, they are divided into several gentes the members 

 of which believe themselves bound by ties of the strictest relationship. 

 They were originally exogamous, and throughout the entire Carrier tribe 

 matriarchate or mother-right is the law governing succession to titles 

 and property. 



Among the Tse-keh-ne, or "People-on-the-Rocks" a simpler and more 

 primitive social organization obtains. That tribe, through necessity as 

 much as from natural inclination, is entirely nomadic. As salmon is 

 unknown throughout their territory, these aborigines have to be almost 

 constantly on fhc move after the moose, cariboo and other large animals 

 on whose flesh they mainly subsist. Father-right is their national 

 fundamental law, and the whole tribe is composed of bands slightly 

 differing in language, and with no regular chiefs. In fact, their society, 

 such as it is, might almost be termed a perfect anarchy, were it not that 

 the advice of the oldest or most influential of each band is generally 

 followed as far at least as regards hunting, travelling and camping. 



Though each band has traditional hunting grounds, the limits of these 

 are but vaguely defined, which is not the case with those of the Carriers. 

 Furthermore, several members of one band will not unfrequently be 

 found hunting unmolested on the land of another. Therefore no very 

 strict boundaries can be assigned to the following tribal subdivisions 

 which comprise all the Tse'kehne population within the political borders 

 of British Columbia : — 



1. The Yit-tsii-fqenne, or "people down over there" {i.e., in the 

 direction of an expanse of water) are the band which from time 

 immemorial bartered out to the Carriers the axes and other primitive 

 implements of which due mention shall be made further on. They are 

 so called by the rest of the tribe by allusion to their commercial relations 

 with the Carriers of Stuart's Lake. Their hunting grounds lie from 

 Salmon River* to MacLeod's Lake and thence to the Fraser, by 53° 30'. 



2. The Tse-keh-ne-as, or " little-people-on-the-rocks" roam over the 



* There are so many Salmon rivers in the north of British Cohimbia that it may be necessary 

 to explain that the one here mentioned empties itself into the Fraser a little above P'ort George. 



