428 
(Richardson; Op. cit., volume i, page 180). In this book T use the 
term to cover the tribes living roughly between latitudes 59 degrees 
north and 64 degrees north, and from 126 degrees west to the 
height of land or a little beyond it into the headwaters of the Felly, 
Macmillan, and Stewart rivers. It thus excludes the clearly defined 
Tahltan tribe, an exclusion that may be justified on both linguistic 
and cultural grounds. 
The Keele River band mentioned above was either a branch 
of the Goat Indians ( Esbataottine) of the Beaver and South Nahanni 
rivers, or very closely allied to it. Mackenzie, who calls them Moun- 
tain Indians, says that they went down to the Mackenzie river to fish, 
and were acquainted also with another large river (the Felly) on 
the other side of the mountains (Mackenzie: Op. cit., pages 83, 85). 
Mr. Charles Camsell informs me that in the nineteenth century there 
was a route overland from the South Nahanni river to the Keele 
b}^ which the Goat Indians of the former river carried their furs to 
Norman. 
Our ignorance of this area is so great that it is permissible to 
quote the remarks of Keele, who explored the Felly, Ross, and Keele 
rivers in 1907 and 1908. 
“A small band of Indians, numbering about 110, inclufling men, 
women, and children, inhabit the country in the vicinity of the Ross 
and Felly rivers. These people trade their furs with Messrs. Lewis 
and Field, who established a small trading post at the mouth of the 
Ross river about lf)00. Frevious to this they traded at the rlistant 
Hudson’s Bay Company’s upper post on Liard river. These Indians 
have always been careful during their hunting expeditions not to 
ap]:)roach too closely the headwaters of the Ross or Felly rivers on 
account of evil spirits, in the shape of gigantic Indians, who were 
supposed to inhabit the mountains about the divide. 
About 100 Indians hunt and trap on the Gravel (now called 
Keele) river and its branches, trading fur and dried meat at the Hud- 
son’s Bay Company’s post at Fort Norman. They are called the 
Alountain men in distinction to the Indians who hunt on the plains 
around Great Bear lake and trade at the same post, and are a superior 
class of men to these or the Felly Indians. The Mountain men and 
their families generally leave Fort Norman in September, walking 
over a direct trail to the Gravel River valley, up which they cross the 
