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To the north of the Kiitchin were the Eskimo, with whom they 
alternately foujiiht and traderl; to the south the highly organized 
Tlinkit Indians of the gulf of Alaska, who were accessible by passes 
through the mountains. Both these neighbours influenced the 
culture of the Kutchin, although at basis it followed much the 
same pattern as the culture of the tribes in the basin of the Mackenzie. 
The Canadian Kutchin devoted most of the summer to fishing, 
anrl the winter to hunting carilmu, moose, hare, and other game. 
Tliey used snares just as extensively as other tribes in northern 
Canada, and constructed the same kind of caribou-pound. Their 
fishing-gear included a rather peculiar hook, a s]>ear (double-gaff) 
modelled on an Eskimo weapon, and a long dip-net and a fish 
basket of willow that they probably copied from Pacific Coast types. 
Seines of willow bark were made by some of the Alaskan Kutchin, 
but not by the C’anadian, apparently, except by those who freciuented 
the lower Mackenzie. The bow was almost identical with the 
Eskimo bow, being made of three pieces of wood jointed together 
and backed with a strong lashing of twisted sinew. One tribe, 
the Jian, that lived where the towns of Dawson and Eagle now 
stand, attached a wooden hand-guard to the “grip” of the bow, 
but none of the others seems to have favoured this contrivance, 
although it was used by Indians frequenting Great Bear lake. All 
the Kutchin adopted the Eskimo sled instead of the usual Indian 
toboggan, ami built their birch-bark canoes with flat bottoms and 
almost straight sides like the Eskimo umiak. They made wooden 
food-trays of Eskimo type, with bottoms inset as in a ca.sk, although 
they also used birch-bark trays; and they cooked their food in 
woven baskets of spruce or tamarack roots, as did other Indians of 
northern Canada. 
The dress of the Kutchin, too, reflected Eskimo influence. The 
caribou-skin shirt was short waisted and had long tails before and 
behind like the shirt of the Eskimo. The women sometimes enlarged 
it behind so that they could carry their babies against their naked 
backs after the manner of Eskimo women; but more often they 
used a peculiar birch-bark cradle shaped something like a Mexican 
and sheep and goats still exist in numbers on the mountain ranges; 
but the most important game animal was the caribou, which the 
Kaska, like their kinsmen to the east, south, and west, drove into 
