35 
A branch of this people is referred to sometimes by early writers as 
Beaver Indians. Whether the Slave originally formed one people with 
the Beaver until driven northward by the Crees or Chipewyans into the 
country which they have occupied since first known by the whites, or what 
their actual relationship with the Beaver of Peace river was is not deter- 
mined. 
Satudene or Great Bear Lake Indians. This people (sa tu go t’i ne — 
literally translated Bear Lake Indians), inhabit all the country around 
Great Bear lake between the Dogribs and the Hares, except a compara- 
tively small area south of Hare Indian river. The Satudene occupying 
the country between Great Bear lake and the Mackenzie do not go north 
of an approximately straight line drawn from the end of Smith bay to the 
Mackenzie at 65 degrees 30 minutes. The intervening country is said to 
have been unknown to the Indians of both tribes until one, more daring 
than the rest, navigated to the headwaters of Hare Indian river in 1917. 
The boundary of the Satudene on the northeast is Copper mountains, 
between Dease bay and Coronation gulf. The Satudene trade into 
Norman. 
These tribal boundaries represent the extreme ranges of the respec- 
tive bands, who at no time occupy and hunt over more than a very small 
section of them. The specific location of the people is very apt to change 
somewhat from year to year according to the hunting. There is practically 
no overlapping of areas, but there are a few places where tribes sometimes 
meet each other such as among the little lakes between lac des Bois and 
Great Bear lake, where the Satudene come upon the Hare. 
GEOGRAPHY 
The lake from which the Satudene take their name is one of the largest 
in the world, and fourth in size in America. The edges are timbered, but 
except at the western end the timber soon gives way to tundra. There 
are several ranges of low mountains, and from the south shore of McTavish 
bay the rocks rise precipitously for several hundred feet and are cut into 
by numerous fiord-like bays. The timber is for the most part spruce, 
which becomes smaller and stunted as it approaches the northern timber 
limits. Poplar is also common and tamarack frequent; birch is much 
more rare. Willows are found around the smaller lakes and rivers. 
The range of temperature is very great, from more than 60 degrees 
below zero Fahrenheit in winter to above 80 in the summer. Snow falls 
in September to stay for the winter and disappears in May, except for 
patches. The big lake freezes generally during November and is frozen 
over, except for the edges, until July. Franklin mountains, lying between 
Great Bear lake and Mackenzie valley proper, make a thermal line, the 
climate being distinctly milder in the valley proper. 
The fauna of the Bear Lake country includes the woodland and 
barren ground caribou, muskox (not seen for a number of years and con- 
sidered extinct in this region), moose, the black bear and Richardson bear, 
foxes of various types, mink, otter, fisher, wolverine, Canada lynx, 
51326 — 3 * 
