20 
MUSEUM BULLETIN NO. 6. 
handling stone ware, and here they were probably always far 
second in activity to the Puiblirmiut. 
Of the still existing tribes the Akuliakattagmiut have 
about the fewest natural resources — in fact, wood only, and 
in the sale of it they have to compete not alone with the Hanefag- 
miut and Puiblirmiut who come to gather wood at their very 
door, but also with all the tribes members of which habitually 
or occasionally visit Bear lake. They no doubt were once an 
important link in the commercial chain along the coast from 
the Gulf to Cape Parry. This traffic and the intercourse with 
the western (just where located ?) Eskimo, whom they call 
Ualinermuit, is remembered by them as well as by the Noahonif- 
mlOt, Uallifyumiut, and Pallifmiut. The westerners are dis- 
liked and feared by all, next to the Indians. There are living 
at Cape Bexley and elsewhere persons whose parents had their 
homes west along the coeist well towards Cape Lyon — none of 
these belonged to that part of the westerners who are disliked, 
but we, coming from farther west, were considered to do so, 
and when we were found to be comparatively harmless we were 
said to be an improvement on our ancestors (I was by the 
Akuliakattagmiut considered of the same race as my com- 
panions). 
What west-going traffic there was through the hands of the 
Akuliakattagmiut must have consisted almost exclusively of 
stoneware, as the copper needed for the district beyond Parry 
would come logically from Nelson head. Of course the popu- 
lation between Capes Parry and Bexley may have received 
through the Akuliakattagmiut, copper, the ultimate source of 
which was either Prince Albert sound or the Coppermine river 
and Dismal lake. This trade may have been of some volume, 
for the remains indicate a considerable population along the 
entire coastline. What they received from the west must 
have been confined pretty strictly to Alaskan goods, for the 
country between the Colville river and Cape Bexley does not, 
so far as we know, produce anything which formerly or now is 
not as abundantly to be had east of Cape Bexley, unless it were 
fishnets, and of their ever having been known to the people 
(except by hearsay) we have found no trace. 
