BULL. .30] 



VUNTAKUTCHIN 



883 



the river for about two months, when 

 they make snowshoes, toboggans, and 

 other articles for winter use. Wolfish 

 dogs, their only domestic animals, are 

 employed in winter for drawing tobog- 

 gans and sleds, and in summer for haul- 

 ing boats up the river banks. For inland 

 travel, when there is no snow, the dogs 

 are used as pack-animals.- Each man 

 owns a team of about five dogs. 



The habitations formerly consisted of 

 tents of caribou skin, supported by poles 

 which were left behind when the occu- 

 pants moved. Most of the people now 

 live in rude, ill-ventilated cabins of a 

 single room, built of logs chinked with 

 moss, and with roofs of saplings covered 

 with turf. 



The native costume consisted of a 

 parka of caribou skin — a hooded coat 

 reaching to the knees, put on over the 

 head. Sometimes sealskin parkas were 

 obtained in trade from the natives of the 

 lower river. Trousers, or a combination 

 of trousers and stockings, of dressed moose- 

 skin were also worn, as likewise were 

 mittens and moccasins of the same 

 material, cut in generous size in order 

 that they could be lined with grass 

 during cold weather. The coat of a 

 chief was ornamented with quillwork, 

 front and back, and had a special ( ollar 

 of moose-skin, fringed and quilled, which 

 was significant of his office. A special 

 hunting belt of caribou skin, quill- 

 worked, was provided; from it hung an 

 ornamented moose-skin knife-sheath. 

 Most of the native clothing has been 

 supplanted by the cast-off clothing of 

 the whites, or by cheap fabrics intro- 

 duced by traders. Garments were deco- 

 rated with porcupine quills dyed red by 

 boiling in cranberry iuice, or blue by 

 boiling in huckleberry juice; pure white 

 quills were not dyed; various colored 

 flowers were also boiled and their color- 

 ing matter used for dyeing quills. Small 

 geometrical figures were made by sewing 

 the flattened-out quills to a backing of 

 skin, and long stripes were made by 

 rolling the quills into narrow spirals and 

 sewing them side by side. The hair was 

 formerly allowed to grow long, tied in a 

 bunch behind, with a small knot over 

 each temple. Swan feathers were 

 chopped fine and applied with grease to 

 the rear bunch daily until it became a 

 large mass. Rings of small bird bones 

 were worn in the nasal septum, especiall)' 

 on gala occasions. The older people still 

 have their noses pierced. 



Skin-dressing is the work of women. 

 The hide is soaked in water to soften it, 

 and the hair is scraped off with the end 

 of a sharp bone spatula. All sewing is 

 still done with bone awls. The women 

 also make beadwork for sale to whites. 



Moose-skin mittens are likewise made for 

 the white trade. 



Formerly a healthy people, the Vun- 

 takutchin, like the other Kutchin tribes, 

 have suffered greatly by the inroads of 

 disease since their contact with whites 

 and the adoption of some of the habits 

 and devices of frontier civilization, and 

 especially the change in their dwellings. 

 Tuberculosis is the most deadly enemy 

 with which they have to cope, very few 

 of them being free from it. Tonsilitis, 

 respiratory diseases and digestive dis- 

 eases, and myalgia are ever present. 

 Diphtheria carries off many in occasional 

 epidemics. 



The diet of the Vuntakutchin consists 

 chiefly of fish, game, and berries. Their 

 principal game animals are caribou, 

 moose, bear, and mountain sheep. The 

 fish is chiefly salmon. Various berries 

 and a large tuber form their chief vegetal 

 food. Ravens, hawks, eagles, dogs, and 

 wolves are not eaten. They seldom eat 

 wolverene, though lynx and one kind of 

 owl are consumed. Salmon (they pre- 

 fer the dog salmon) are caught in hand- 

 nets, but fish-wheels are gradually re- 

 placing the primitive method. White- 

 fish and grayling are regarded as lux- 

 uries. Fish are dressed by the women, 

 and dried on racks until ready for cach- 

 ing. Caribou are run between two long 

 rail fences converging into a corral, 

 snares are placed at intervals, and the 

 caribou that try to escape are shot with 

 arrows. Moose are stalked and shot with 

 arrows; sometimes, in spring, they are 

 snared in creeks, into which they are 

 driven with the aid of dogs and are then 

 dispatched with pikes. Bears are de- 

 ceived by the natives who imitate the 

 cry of a raven when it has discovered a 

 dead moose; the Indian, armed with a 

 spear, then kills the bear at close range. 

 Birds and other small game are killed 

 with blunt-pointed arrows. 



Baskets for cooking are made of spruce 

 roots; these are watertight when soaked, 

 and water is boiled in them by means of 

 hot stones. Birchbark utensils are also 

 made, but chiefly for use on the hunt. 

 Fire was made with flint and iron pyrites, 

 a fungus furnishing the tinder; the fire- 

 drill was also used. Stone hammers 

 fastened to wooden handles with strips 

 of caribou skin are still employed for 

 breaking bones. Stone hatchets were used 

 until recent years. Hunting knives are of 

 bone, ground flat and sharpened on both 

 edges, and sometimes copper knives are 

 obtained in trade from White r. The 

 spear was made by binding a hunting 

 knife of caribou-horn to the end of a polr- 

 6 ft long. Bows and arrowshafts, as wel. 

 as fish-net, snowshoe, toboggan, and canoe 

 frames, are made of birch; their wooden 



