22 
THE ANCIENT EDUCATION OF A CARRIER INDIAN 
By D. Jenness 
British Columbia west of the Rockies has been for countless centuries 
a melting pot where tribes of varying origins, coming from north, east, 
and south, have jostled against each other, mingled, and changed, evolving 
as a result a peculiar culture that was similar in its broader outlines over 
the whole area and slowly overflowed eastward into the interior of the 
country. The present paper makes no attempt to trace the distance to 
which this west coast culture has penetrated, or is penetrating, for the 
process was still going on a few years ago. Instead, it selects a single 
tribe, and stresses mainly one aspect in the life of that tribe, in order to 
illustrate the manner in which the culture spread and its revolutionary 
effect on the peoples who came into contact with it. 
If we exclude the Arctic coastline, then Canada north of about the 56th 
parallel, that is to say nearly a half of the total area of the country, was 
inhabited almost exclusively by the so-called Athabaskan tribes who spoke 
varying dialects of a common tongue. One of the southernmost of these 
tribes is the Carrier, which many centuries ago crossed the Rockies (prob- 
ably by way of Peace river) and settled in northern British Columbia 
around the valleys of the Fraser, Nechako, and Skeena rivers. At the present 
time the Carriers extend over an area roughly 250 miles from east to west 
and 180 miles from north to south, on both sides of the Canadian National 
railway between Prince George and Hazelton. Around Hazelton they have 
mingled largely with the Gitksan, a typical west coast people of the Tsim- 
shian group; and for many generations they have had both peaceful and 
hostile relations with the Kitimat Indians of Douglas channel and the 
Bella Coola Indians around the mouth of Bella Coola river. These three 
tribes have so profoundly affected the Carriers, especially the westernmost 
or Babines, that, apart from their language, and the relative importance 
attached to hunting as contrasted with fishing, very little remains of their 
original mode of life. 
Early Culture of Carriers 
It is reasonable to suppose that before this change in their culture 
took place the Carriers were hardly to be distinguished from neighbouring 
Athabaskan tribes; for even today the easternmost Carriers resemble 
the Sekani tribes to the northward as much as they do their kinsmen 
around Hazelton, Moricetown, and Babine lake who have been most 
exposed to west coast influence. If we may assume, then, their original 
resemblance to the Sekani and other neighbouring Athabaskan tribes, 
the Carriers were formerly divided into a number of loosely organized 
groups each with its special hunting territory, a territory that was not sub- 
divided again among the different families, but remained the possession 
of the entire group. Fixed dwellings were unknown; the groups simply 
wandered from one hunting or fishing ground to another, setting up tents 
of skin or rude shelters of brush and bark. Inheritance and descent were 
in the paternal line, there were no caste distinctions, no regular chiefs. 
