1913] The Chipewyan Indians. 41 



THE CHIPEWYAN INDIANS. 



By the Right Rev. Bishop of Keewatin. 



The Chipewyans, or Chips, as they are generally called, are the 

 most northerly of any of the Indian tribes, and abut on the Barren 

 Lands of the North. In bygone days there were constant feuds between 

 them and the Eskimos, but for many years they have lived peaceably 

 together, though they never hunt on the same grounds, and they 

 never intermarry. 



They are looked upon by most Europeans who have come in con- 

 tact with them, as the most dirty and degraded of any of the Indian 

 tribes, and they certainly give this impression. They have without 

 doubt at some past time been greatly oppressed, for they remind one 

 very much of a beaten cur, with his tail between his legs; and yet when 

 one lives among them in their hunting grounds there is far more nobility 

 and push in them than one dreams of, and they are very hospitable 

 and generous, though they seem almost without any sense of gratitude. 

 "Thank you " is not to be found in their language, and on receiving any 

 gift they never show the slightest pleasure, yet they are not ungrateful. 



The following from "Butler's Wild North- West" gives a very good 

 account of these Indians: 



"The Chipewyans are found at Churchill on Hudson's Bay, and at 

 Fort Simpson on the rugged coast of New Caledonia, but stranger still, 

 far down in Arizona and Mexico, even as far south as Nicaragua, the 

 gutteral language of the Chipewyan race is still heard, and the wild 

 Navajo and fierce Apache horsemen of the Mexican plains are kindred 

 races with the distant fur hunters of the North. Of the many ramifica- 

 tions of the Indian race this is perhaps the most extraordinary. 



To the east of the Rocky Mountains these races call themselves 

 'Tinne' (at Churchill, 'Dinna'), a name which signifies 'people', 

 with that sublimity of ignorance which makes most savage people 

 imagine themselves the sole proprietors of the earth. 



Many subdivisions exist among them: these are Copper Indians, 

 and the Dog Ribs of the Barren Grounds, the Louchew, or Kutchins, a 

 fierce tribe of the upper Yukon, the Yellow Knives, Hares, Nehanies, 



