29 
CONCLUSIONS . 
In concluding, it may be pointed out that the primary object of the 
report is to present the data collected from the different Indian reserves in 
the region of lake Athabaska during the summer of 1928. This is done in 
the appendices on page 47 et seq. 
In all, 213 Indians were examined; of these, 160 were over twenty 
years of age. For the most part they are Chipewyan, but some are Cree 
and others are breeds (page 55). Their descriptive characters, their 
teeth, their blood grouping, and their physical proportions were among 
the features investigated. The report is too brief to call for a summary, 
but it may be re-stated that the Chipewyan Indians at Fond-du-lac, might 
from the location of their reserve, be expected to be less mixed with white 
blood (or more pure) than those at Chipewyan and at Fitzgerald and 
Fort Smith. The coarse quality of the hair of the head (table I, page 8), 
the relative absence of hair on the upper lip, chin, and cheek (table II), 
and the large percentage of dark-coloured eyes (Figure 3, page 12) are 
among the descriptive characters which support this. The very high 
percentage of persons with sound teeth, and the small numbers of decayed 
teeth among those whose teeth were not quite sound, seemed to lend this 
further support (page 58). The distribution of their blood groupings, 
however, supplies evidence that points in the contrary direction (page 
15). The high cephalo-facial index of 98-4, especially when considered in 
connexion with the absolute width of the head and face, of which measure- 
ments it is a product, loudly proclaims the Fond-du-lac band to be much 
more nearly pure than are the other two. 
These Indians have been dealt with first by bands; secondly, those 
“assumed to be pure” Chipewyan have been contrasted with those who are 
Chipewyan-white breeds. In this second method of grouping the opinions 
of the interpreters, which were based on a personal knowledge of the people, 
were allowed to guide us in making the selection. It becomes evident 
from a consideration of their general characteristics, teeth, blood, and 
physical proportions, that those “assumed to be pure” are actually slightly 
more mixed than the Fond-du-lac band as a whole. As no band of Indians 
can very well nowadays be totally denied all freedom from white admixture 
* — for in the nature of things some white or partly white persons must be 
presumed to have married into every band — it follows that the testimony 
even of informed and well meaning interpreters is not to be accepted without 
reservation. 
A larger percentage of convex noses, a larger percentage of dark eyes, 
and a larger percentage of persons with sound teeth were seen this year in 
the northern part of Alberta than last year in the northern part of Mani- 
toba. 
The accompanying table of Means and Probable Errors of Means 
contains the very essence of that part of the report which deals with the 
physical proportions. 
134 — 3 1 
