3 
Language and Tribe. The Indians at Fond-du-lac, Fitzgerald, and 
Fort Smith, and one of the two bands at Chipewyan are Chipewyan Ind- 
ians; they belong to the Dene, or northern Athapascan stock. The Indians 
of the other band at Chipewyan are Cree; they belong to the Algonquian 
stock. 
The length of lake Athabaska separates the reserve of the Indians at 
Fond-du-lac from the great waterway (Athabaska, Slave, and Mackenzie 
rivers) which connects the north with the south; and, in consequence, the 
Indians on this reserve might be expected to have had less intercourse with 
Europeans than had the other bands whose reserves are on the banks of 
this waterway. These Fond-du-lac Indians are, however, said to be very 
closely related to the Chipewyan Indians whose reserve is at Churchill, 
which is situated about 450 miles eastwards on Churchill river near where 
it debouches into Hudson bay. On or near this latter site the Hudson’s 
Bay Company has had a trading post since the year 1672. The original 
post was replaced in 1733 by a fortress, Fort Prince of Wales, now probably 
the largest ruin in North America; for despite its thick walls and forty odd 
cannon, it mysteriously capitulated in 1782 to Admiral La Perouse, who 
dismantled it. But at one site or another the Hudson’s Bay Company 
has been in almost uninterrupted occupation of the mouth of Churchill 
river since the year 1672. To this trading post the Chipewyan Indians 
used, in early days, to bring their furs. Even after the great waterway 
had been opened up, and Chipewyan established, by McKenzie on behalf 
of the Northwest Company in 1789, many Indians still preferred making the 
long, tedious journey to the mouth of Churchill river, there to barter their 
furs, to disposing of them at Chipewyan. Churchill has ever remained an 
isolated outpost. Churchill river has never yet been a thoroughfare and 
therein it differs from the great waterway. It is probably not important 
to draw attention to the fact that one or two fur traders are known to have 
visited, and various coureurs de bois to have traded with, the Indians in 
the Athabaska region before McKenzie’s time, because it is likely that 
most of the intermarriage between Indians and Europeans has taken place 
in more recent days. 
At Chipewyan there are two contiguous reserves; one for Chipewyans, 
the other for Crees. And, from what has been said concerning the location 
of these two reserves one would expect the Indians on them to be less pure 
than those at Fond-du-lac. Local opinion, however, would have it that 
these Crees are relatively pure; that they have much less mixed blood than 
the neighbouring Chipewyans and less even than the Chipewyans at Fond- 
du-lac. This on account of the fact that they have been very particular 
in the past in avoiding the posts of the white traders. 
Many of the Chipewyan Indians at Fitzgerald and Fort Smith and a 
large proportion of the Indians at McMurray are quite obviously of mixed 
origin, the exotic blood being probably more largely French than British; 
a few are blended with Cree. 
The pure Chipewyan Indians speak Chipewyan and Chipewyan 
only; few of them understand any English, French, or Cree. The Cree 
Indians speak no Chipewyan. In fact, Cree and Chipewyan Indians 
trading at Chipewyan cannot understand each other, on account of which 
the stores employ two interpreters. 
