CHAPTER XXII 



THE CHIPEWYANS, THEIR SPEECH AND WRITING 



Sweeping generalisations are always misleading, there- 

 fore I offer some now, and later will correct them by 

 specific instances. 



These Chipewyans are dirty, shiftless, improvident, 

 and absolutely honest. Of the last we saw daily in- 

 stances in crossing the country. Valuables hung in 

 trees, protected only from weather, birds, and beasts, 

 but never a suggestion that they needed protection 

 from mankind. They are kind and hospitable among 

 themselves, but grasping in their dealings with white 

 men, as already set forth. While they are shiftless 

 and lazy, they also undertake the frightful toil of hunt- 

 ing and portaging. Although improvident, they have 

 learned to dry a stock of meat and put up a scaffold 

 of white fish for winter use. As a tribe they are mild 

 and inoffensive, although they are the original stock 

 from which the Apaches broke away some hundreds 

 of years ago before settUng in the south. 



They have suffered greatly from diseases imported 

 by white men, but not from whiskey. The Hudson's 

 Bay Company has always refused to supply liquor to 

 the natives. What little of the evil traffic there has 

 been was the work of free-traders. But the Royal 

 Mounted Police have most rigorously and effectually 



147 



