112 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



2nd. The Carriers or Ta;(elh,^ numbering 1,600 and whose territory- 

 borders on that of the Chilh;(Otins in the south, and extends as far up 

 as 56° north latitude, leaving to a band of Sekanais part of the forest 

 land intervening between said latitude and about 57° north where 

 we find 



3rd. The Nahanes,- who may number 700 and hunt over a terri- 

 tory, the northern limits of which (about 65°) are the southern fi-on- 

 tiers of the Loucheux'^ hunting grounds in the extreme North-west 

 Territories. Lastly we have in our district a number of 



4th. Tsekenne*, more commonly called Sekanais who roam over the 

 Rocky Mountains on either slope and the adjacent forests and plains 

 from about 54° to 60°, north latitude. At present there ai-e not more 

 than 250 of them in British Columbia. 



To these might be added the Beaver or Tsatens who trade at Hud- 

 son's Hope and Fort St. John's, Hudson's Bay Company's posts on 

 Peace River, which, politically speaking, belong to our Province 

 thouo-h east of the Rockies. But as (save a few individuals of that 

 tribe) I have seen very little of the tribe, and to adhere to my resolution 

 to sj)eak onlv of what I have knowledge derived from personal inter- 

 course, I shall refrain from alluding to them. Nevertheless, most of 

 what shall be said of the Sekanais in the course of this monograph, 

 may also be understood as largely applicable to that tribe. 



All these tribes, especially the Chilhp(otins and Carriers, were 

 originally quite numerous. In fact, if we are to credit the old men 

 among them, and even the Hudson's Bay Co.'s employees who were 

 early in tliis country, it would be necessary to almost decuple the ex- 

 istino- numbei's in order to obtain an idea of the population as it stood 

 at the time of the discovery of the country by Sir Alexander Mac- 

 kenzie in 1793. Repeated domestic and foreign wars and contagious 

 diseases, which have several times in this century played havoc among 

 them, have greatly reiuced their numbei-s. 



'This word Taxelh is exotic to the Carriers' language, and, although very often used bj' them, 

 they contend it was unknown among them before the advent of the traders. It is untrans- 

 latable. 



»" People of the Setting Sun or West," as named by the Eastern Denes. The Carriers and 

 S6kanais call them Tselone— " People of the end of the Rocks," because the band which is best 

 known to them inhabits a plain north of a spur of the Rocky Mountains, which our Indians be- 

 lieve to be the extremity of the whole range. 



8The so-called " Tukudh " or " Kut-chins." 



4" Inhabitants of the Rocks." 



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