THE TINNfi INDIANS. 



327 



CHAPTER XXX. 



THE TINNE INDIANS. 



The various Tribes of the Turns Indians.— The Dog-ribs.— Clothinc:. — TIih Hare Indians.— Degraded 

 State of the Women. — Practical Socialists. — Character. — Cruelty to the Aged and Infirm. 



rinHE Tinne Indians, whose various tribes range from the Lower Mackenzie 

 JL to the Upper Saskatchewan, and from 'New Caledonia to the liead of Clies- 

 terfield Inlet, occuj)y a considerable part of the territories of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company. To their race belong the Strongbows of the Rocky Mountains ; the 

 Beaver Indians, between Peace River and the west branch of the Macken- 

 zie ; the Red-knives, thus named from the copper knives of which their native 

 ores furnish the materials, and who roam between the Great Fish River and the 

 Coppermine ; the Hare Indians, who inhabit the thickly wooded district of the 

 Mackenzie from Slave Lake downward; the Dog-ribs, who occupy the inland 

 country on the east from Martin Lake to the Coppermine ; the Athabascans, 

 who frequent the Elk and Slave Rivers, and many other tribes of inferior note. 



The Tinne, in general, have more regular features than the Esquimaux, and, 

 taken on the whole, exhibit all the characteristics of the red races dwelling 

 farther south ; but their utter disregard of cleanliness and their abject be- 

 havior (for when in the company of white people they exhibit the whine and 

 air of inveterate mendicants) give them a wretched appearance. Mackenzie, 

 the first European who became acquainted with the Dog-ribs, describes them 

 as an ugly emaciated tribe, covered with dirt and besmeared with grease from 

 head to foot. More than sixty years have passed since Mackenzie's journey, 

 but his account of them is true to the present day. The women are even 

 uglier and more filthy than the men, for the latter at least paint their unwashed 

 faces and wear trinkets on festive occasions, while the females leave even their 

 hair without any other dressing than wiping their greasy hands on the matted 

 locks, when they have been rubbing their bodies with marrow. The clothing 

 of the men in summer consists of reindeer leather dressed like shammy, which, 

 when newly made, is beautifully white and soft. " A shirt of this material," 

 says Sir John Richardson, to whom we are indebted for the best account of the 

 various nations inhabiting the Hudson's Bay territory, " cut evenly below, 

 reaches to the middle ; the ends of a piece of cloth secured to a waist-band 

 hang down before and behind; the hose, or Indian stockings, descend from the 

 top of the thigh to the ankle, and a pair of moccasins or shoes of the same soft 

 leather with tops which fold round the ankle, complete the costume. When 

 the hunter is equipped for the chase he wears, in addition, a stripe of white 

 hare-skin, or of the belly part of a deer-skin, in a bandana round the head, with 

 his lank, black elf-locks streaming from beneath; a shot-pouch suspended by 

 an embroidered belt, a fire-bag or tobacco-pouch tucked into the girdle, and a 



