THE LOUCHEUX, OR KUTCHIN INDIANS. 



333 



Though a treacherous people, they have never yet imbrued their hands in 

 European blood, but there are frequent feuds among their various tribes, by 

 which one-half of the population of the banks of the Yukon has been cut off 

 within the last twenty years. From a constant dread of ambuscade, they do 

 not travel except in large parties ; and thus a perpetual feeling of insecurity 

 embitters their lives, which are already rendered sufficiently hard by the sever- 

 ity of an Arctic climate. The agents of the Hudson's Bay Company have en- 

 deavored by good advice, and the distribution of large presents, to establish 

 peace, but have only met with partial success. 



Like the Tinne, the Kutchin are in a state of perpetual warfare with the Es- 

 quimaux ; and though they always charge the latter with treachery, yet there 

 can be no doubt that the accusation might, with full justice, be retorted upon 

 themselves. One of the hostile encounters, mentioned by Sir J. Richardson, de- 

 serves notice, on account of its resemblance in some particulars to the meeting 

 of Joab and Abner, recorded in the Second Book of Samuel. A party of each, of 

 the two nations having met on the banks of a river, the young men of both 

 parties rose up as if for a friendly dance. The stream glides peacefully along, 

 the setting sun gilds the pine forest and sparkles in the waters ; all nature 

 breathes peace. But the Esquimaux having, according to their custom, con- 

 cealed their long knives in the sleeves of their deer-skin shirts, suddenly draw 

 them in one of the evolutions of the dance and plunge them into their oppo- 

 nents. A general conflict ensues, in which the Kutchin, thanks to their guns, 

 ultimately prove victorious. "Another incident," says Sir John Richardson, 

 " which occurred on the banks of the Yukon in 1845, gives us a farther insight 

 into the suspicious and timorous lives of these people. One night four stran- 

 gers from the lower part of the river arrived at the tent of an old man who was 

 sick, and who had with him only two sons, one of them a mere boy. The new- 

 comers entered in a friendly manner, and when the hour of repose came, lay 

 down; but as they did not sleep, the sons, suspecting from their conduct that 

 they meditated evil, feigned a desire of visiting their moose-deer snares. They 

 intimated their purpose aloud to their father and went out, taking with them 

 their bows and arrows. Instead, however, of continuing their way into the 

 wood, they stole back quietly to the tent, and listening on the outside, discover- 

 ed, as they fancied, from the conversation of the strangers, that their father's 

 life was in danger. Knowing the exact position of the inmates, they thereupon 

 shot their arrows through the skin covering of the tent and killed two of the 

 strange Indians ; and the other two, in endeavoring to make their escape by the 

 door, shared the fate of their companions. This is spoken of in the tribe as an 

 exceedingly brave action." 



During the summer the Yukon Kutchin dry, for their winter use, the white- 

 fish {Coregonus albus), which they catch by planting stakes across the smaller 

 rivers and narrow parts of the lakes and closing the openings with wicker-bas- 

 kets. They take the moose-deer in snares, and towards sj^ring mostly resort to 

 the mountains to hunt reindeer and lay in a stock of dried venison. On the 

 open pasture-grounds frequented by this animal they construct large pounds. 

 Two rows of posts firmly planted in the ground, and united by the addition of 



