43 
Berries are eaten during the summer months, but do not form an 
extremely important object of diet. The most important are the cran- 
berry, raspberry, and crowberry. Richardson (1852, page 135) says of 
the Hares that the “Hedysarum boreale furnishes long flexible roots, 
which taste sweet like liquorice, and are much eaten in the spring by the 
natives, but become woody and lose their juiciness and crispness as the 
season advances”. This information was verified by informants at 
Good Hope where the root is called ‘Wa 0 . Franklin (1828, page 19) 
mentions another food eaten in the area of Great Bear lake. 
“The banks likewise contain layers of a kind of unctuous mud, similar, perhaps, to 
that found on the borders of the Orinoco, which the Indians, in this neighbourhood, use 
occasionally as food during seasons of famine, and even, at other times, chew as an amuse- 
ment. It has a milky taste, and the flavour is not disagreeable. We used it for whiten- 
ing the walls of our dwellings; for which purpose it is well adapted." 
This type of food was not seen on Great Bear lake but the natives 
are fond of chewing spruce gum. 
DRESS 
Summer. The natives say that the original summer dress consisted 
of only a breech-clout and moccasins, probably referring to the minimum 
or basic costume. Moccasins are the one article of dress which have 
continued in use and have not been changed greatly by intrusive culture. 
They are made of tanned moose skin and trimmed with white caribou 
skin. Moccasins made entirely of caribou skin are considered a mark of 
great poverty. The body of the moccasin is made of one piece of skin 
sewn together along the middle of the foot and across and down the heel. 
An upper flap about 5 inches long, which wraps around the ankle, is sewn 
on to the body of the moccasin, and over the arch of the foot is an oval 
insert generally re-covered with white caribou skin and decorated with 
porcupine quills and moose hair. Around the heel there is always a narrow 
band of skin which is scalloped at the lower edge and often decorated. 
The moccasin is fastened on with long strings of tanned skin which are 
wound around the ankle. The women’s moccasins are the same as the 
men’s but have less decoration. 
The use of leggings of tanned skins goes back to an early date. They 
extended from the ankles to above the knees and were fastened to a belt 
at the waist. Although now entirely disappeared, as late as 1894 pairs were 
collected and described by Russell (1898, page 171) from McPherson 
and Good Hope. 
Leggings, the writer believes, are correlated chronologically with the 
use of moccasins, both following, if not developing directly from, the 
earlier one-piece lower garment with footwear attached which is a charac- 
teristic of the Alaska-Yukon Athapaskan area. Keith (1890, II, page 121), 
early in 1800, says of the Big Arrow people (a Hare band) that their summer 
dress consisted of “an old caribou dressed shirt, a pair of leggins of the 
same material, and generally an old thread-bare caribou robe for a blanket”, 
and since he does not mention moccasins, the writer is inclined to think 
that these leggings had the footwear attached. This belief seems borne 
out in another place (Keith, 1890, II, page 109) where he states, speaking 
of the Great Bear Lake Indians: “Their dress in make is simple, much 
