48 
pieces laid on those to make a narrow rack for the support of personal 
objects. Outside the lodge, snow was heaped around the edges of the 
skins to give protection from the wind. 
The summer lodge was the same, except that skins with the hair 
removed were used. The rack, however, was dispensed with, since the 
need for it was diminished and its erection made difficult by the lack of 
snow. 
The winter lodge served also as a travelling camp when hunting 
musk-oxen on the barren ground. The poles of the lodge were carried, as 
well as firewood, and served the latter purpose on the return journey, thus 
gradually decreasing the size and stability of the lodge. Caribou skin 
tipis are now practically obsolete in Great Bear Lake region. 
The camps were ordinarily erected at suitable locations by the women, 
although in some instances the men assisted. 
Hooper describes a conjuring tent which, if he saw it on Great Bear 
lake, and apparently he did, is interesting. He says (Hooper, 1853, page 
319) the “tent is constructed of poles, inclining to each other at the top, 
which are encircled by hoops at different heights, and the whole is then 
covered with leather, when it presents a shape like the frustrum of a sugar- 
loaf. The top is open and to the upper hoop is stitched a blanket, which 
falls down as a funnel”. No information concerning conjuring lodges was 
gained from informants, although it was stated that some shamans, now 
living in modern tents, erected old fashioned tipis for the purpose of prac- 
tising medicine. On the other hand, certain individuals among them were 
known to conjure without constructing a special shelter. 
Log Houses and Tents. Shelters constructed of logs appear to post- 
date the coming of the whites. A large number of families now own cabins, 
however, either at the forts or on Bear lake. They are only used while the 
families are in residence and sometimes left vacant after death has taken 
place in them. 
The Mountain Indians (shi-ta-dene), ‘People-among-the-mountains’ 
who inhabit the country between Norman and the headwaters of Gravel 
river in the Rocky mountains, have used a so-called ‘cabin-lodge’, made in 
the form of a cabin with the logs ‘squaw-notched’. The sides sloped 
slightly inwards and the roof was constructed of poles with a covering of 
sod. A square hole was left in the top for smoke. This type of lodge was 
used in the mountains and at fish lakes in the autumn when transportation 
forbade movement of heavy loads (the ordinary lodge is heavy). It is not 
found among the Great Bear Lake Indians, but Good Hope Indians (Hares) 
are known in a few cases to have made them within the last quarter of a 
century. These statements are borne out by references from Keith’s and 
Wentzel ’3 letters (Wentzel, 1890, I, page 90). The latter says, referring 
to the Mackenzie River Beaver (probably Slave Indians) : 
“The habitations of these people are built in oblong figure, of pieces of wood placed 
upon one another, the roof of which is thatched with sapin and the sides cemented or 
rather calked with moss; an aperture is left at each end to take in large trees for fuel, 
and another at the top to let out the smoke/' 
