520 Transactions of the Canadian Institute. |Vol. VII. 



as to state that the " Nahanies of the mountains (who correspond to a 

 subdivision of the Kaskas), are quite a different race from the Nahanies 

 of the Stickeen (Tahl-tan)"^ Now the Thalhthan Indians I questioned 

 on the subject unanimously declared that those pretended foreigners 

 spoke exactly the same language as themselves, with, of course, some 

 local peculiarities. From a Kaska boy, with whom I travelled for a 

 number of days, I ascertained that even such non-Dene words as 'k^ik, 

 paper, k/iukh, box, 'hints, potatoes, which I thought proper to the 

 Thalhthan Indians, who borrowed them from the coast, were the only 

 ones current among his people to designate those objects. 



The physique of the Kaska is somewhat different from that of the 

 Thalhthan aborigines, inasmuch as I recognized in the former the thin 

 lips and small, deeply sunk eyes of the Tse'kehne, while the latter 

 resemble more the Carriers of the Coast Tlhinket, with whom from time 

 immemorial they have more or less intermarried. 



The sociology of the two divisions of the Nah'ane is as widely 

 different, and their respective mode of life aud social organization 

 confirm my previous assertion in former papers that, to all practical 

 purposes, the western Nah'ane are Carriers, while their eastern brethren 

 are Tsekehne. 



Another circumstance which has contributed not a little to the 

 estrangement of the two tribal divisions, is the long-standing feuds 

 arising out of difficulties concerning the hunting grounds, the making of 

 slaves, and other causes. Even to this day the Kaska resent the 

 Thalhthan's assumed or real superiority, and will not be confounded 

 with them as co-members of the same tribe. Hence their declarations 

 to the whites and the travellers' and traders' printed statements. 



According to Dr. Dawson, the so-called Kaskas are sub-divided into 

 the " Saze-oo-ti-na" and the " Ti-tsho-ti-na" and their habitat is in the 

 neighbourhood of the Dease, Upper Liard and Black Rivers. His 

 " Saz-oo-ti-na " may be Sas-otine or " Bear-People," while his Ti-tsho-ti- 

 na's real name is no doubt Tihtco'tinne, or Grouse-People, an appellation 

 which would seem to leave it open to discussion whether we have not in 

 them rather the names of two different phratries or gentes than those of 

 two genuine ethnical subdivisions of a tribe. 



" Eastward they claim the country down the Liard to the site of old 

 Fort Halkett, and northward roam to the head of a long river (probably 



I Notes, etc., p. lo. 



