OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. 231 



equally impossible, without irrigation, from its dryness. The Athapascans depend 

 for subsistence upon fish and game ; the Apaches partly upon game, but chiefly 

 upon the fruits of marauding enterprises upon their neighbors. A small portion, 

 however, are now cultivators to some extent. 



Athapasco-Apache Nations. 



I. Athapascan Nations. 



1. Slave Lake Indians ( A-cha'-o-tin-ne ). 2. Red Knives (Tcil-sote'-e-na). 3. Ma- 

 kenzie River Indians (Ta-na'-tin-ne, possibly identical with the Hares). 4. Kutchin 

 or Louchieux. 5. Takuthe. (6. Chepewyans. 7. Dog Rib. 8. Beaver Indians). 

 9. Noh -nannies. 10. Sheep Indians. 11. Sussees. 12, Tacullies not in the Table). 



These nations occupy a broad and continuous area, extending from the Churchill 

 River and near the north branch of the Siskatchewan, on the south, to the country 

 of the Eskimo on the borders of the Arctic Sea on the north ; and from the Barren 

 Lands and Hudson's Bay on the east, to the Rocky Mountains on the west. They 

 are also spread irregularly over a large area west of the mountains in British 

 Columbia, ranging northward to the Yukon and down this river into the Russian 

 Possessions, and westward nearly to the Pacific Ocean. Southward of these areas 

 traces of their language have been discovered on the Umpkwa and Rogue Rivers in 

 Oregon, and as low down as the Trinity River in the northern part of California. 

 They are probably more numerous at the present time than at any former period, 

 although thinly spread over these immense regions. In 1856 the officers of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company estimated the number of " Thickwood Indians," east of the 

 Rocky Mountains, at thirty-five thousand. 1 This would include all of the Athapas- 

 cans, as well as the Crees around Hudson's Bay, and that portion of the Blackfeet 

 without the United States. What portion of the eighty thousand Indians west of 

 the mountains are Athapascans I am unable to state. 



There are several distinct dialects of the northern branch of the Athapasco- 

 Apache language ; but, up to the present time they have not been sufficiently 

 explored and systematized to determine their number. It is evident, from the 

 ordinary vocabularies, that these dialects affiliate very closely ; they are nearer to 

 each other than the Algonkin, between the extremes of which there is a wide in- 

 terval, and very much nearer than the Dakotan, the extremes of which are with- 

 out any affinity in their vocables. If a conjecture might be indulged, founded 



1 Classification of Indians in the Hudson's Bay Territory. 



" Thickwood Indians, east side of Rocky Mountains .... 35,000 



The Plain Tribes, Blackfeet, &c " 25,000 



The Eskimo 4,000 



Indians settled in Canada' - 3,000 



Indians in British Oregon, and on the northwest coast .... 80,000 



147,000 

 Whites and Half-breeds in Hudson's Bay Territory . . . . 11,000 



158,000" 



" Report from Select Committee on the Hudson's Bay Company" made to the British Parliament 

 in 1857. Report App. No. 2, p. 367. 



