36 
marten, beaver, and wolves. There are also such smaller animals as the 
ermine, muskrat, hares, rabbits, squirrels of several varieties, and mice. 
Among the birds are owls, hawks, grouse, ptarmigan, sandpipers, and 
gulls. Great quantities of ducks and geese appear seasonally and loons 
are common. 
HISTORY AND SOURCES OF MATERIAL 
Sources of information concerning the northeastern Athapaskans are 
limited to the comparatively few written records of the early explorers 
and fur traders and to later accounts of missionaries and sportsmen. 
Hearne, travelling from Prince of Wales Fort in 1769 to the mouth of 
Coppermine river, was one of the earliest to enter the country. In his 
account he gives some information about the customs of the Copper 
Indians, better known as Yellowknives. Mackenzie in 1789 ventured to 
the mouth of the river which bears his name and in writing of his experi- 
ences makes some interesting comments on the life of the natives, but they 
were for the most part results of casual observation. About 1800 the 
first fur trade post was established on Great Bear lake and from this place 
George Keith, writing letters in answer to the questions of Roderick 
Mackenzie, gathered what is probably the most valuable information on 
the culture of the surrounding natives. At the same time, W. F. Wentzel 
was also writing letters from the Beaver (Slave) country. These, too, 
form an excellent source of material. Sir John Franklin, in his expedition 
to the Arctic coast in 1819 and to Great Bear lake in 1825, also gives some 
description of the natives, and Richardson, on the Arctic Searching Ex- 
pedition in 1849, does even better, but none of these men was particularly 
interested in the customs of the natives or familiar with the problems 
involved in a scientific description. Later, in the second quarter of the 
century, we have the accounts of such explorers as Back, King, Simpson, 
McClean, and Hooper, but here again little but a repetition of the most 
obvious aspects of culture is found. Thus passed the first seventy-five 
years of white contact, the fur trade already undermining the material 
culture with the tools and implements of the civilized world. 
By 1860 the first Christian missions were established on the lower 
Mackenzie river and the conversion of the Indians of this region was 
undertaken with the religious zeal and daring that still characterize the 
activities of the Oblats de Marie Immacul6 ( See Duchaussois, 1923, pages 
196, 214, 226, 254, 267). The Reverend Father Petitot travelled and 
mapped the country of the northeastern Athapaskans during the last 
part of the century. His researches in primitive linguistics followed by 
the publication of his grammar and comparative dictionary were of in- 
estimable value. His books of travel contain many intimate glimpses 
of native life, but much of his ethnography is of questionable value 
because of the influence of dominating theories and personal prejudices. 
After a hundred and fifty years of strong external influences it is not 
strange that the difficulties of gaining authentic information make the 
ethnologist feel at times that he is usurping the field of the archaeologist. 
