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CHAP. XXX. 



INDIAN POPULATION OF BRITISH AMERICA. 



Origin of Indian Races. — Kindred and Relationship. — Iroquois Customs. — 

 Iroquois Institutions. — Iroquois League. — Indian Population of Rupert's 

 Land. — Probably over-estimated. — Number of Indians frequenting par- 

 ticular Posts. — Prairie Indians. — Colonel Lefroy's Estimate. — The Sioux 

 or Dakotah Indians. — Principal Bands. — Conjurors. — Months. — Language. 

 — The Blackfeet. — Country occupied by the Blackfeet. — Blackfeet Tribes. 

 —Indians near the Boundary Line. — Indians of British America. — Indians 

 of the United States. — Early History of the Indians. — Mutability of Indian 

 Nations. — The Hurons and Iroquois. — The Prairie Tribes. — The Remnant. 



The origin of the aborigines on this continent still 

 remains enveloped in thick darkness. Many of their 

 manners, superstitions, and customs correspond to those 

 of Orientals, and it is not improbable that modern ethno- 

 logists may be on the right track in their efforts to solve 

 this deeply interesting question. 



The ties of kindred and relationship are of a very 

 complex character among the Ojibways ; in more than 

 one instance a singular exemplification of cross-relation- 

 ship occurred during our voyage in 1858 on Lakes Win- 

 nipeg and Manitobah, which may serve to show the 

 permanency of ancient customs and traditions among 

 families now dwelling nearly a thousand miles west of the 

 hunting-grounds of their ancestors. 



Near the mouth of the Little Saskatchewan, we met an 

 Indian family journeying in a small canoe towards the 



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