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straits of hunger, the people will not eat them. It is believed that the 
relationship between the Indians and the Dog-people is very close and 
some myths tell of unions with dogs from which the present bands of 
Indians are descended. Killing of dogs is one of the strictest of taboos 
and it is believed that to do so would render the weapon used worthless 
thereafter (See Petitot, 1893, page 405). There is also a special reference 
paid to the bear and to the musk-ox which custom probably developed 
out of the belief that both have unusual power, thus making them excep- 
tionally common medicine animals. King says (1836, vol. 2, page 168) 
that among the Dogribs, the bear is always propitiated by speeches and 
ceremonies when killed and that a woman will not touch the skin nor 
step over it. The w r olf, bear, and musk-ox are likewise considered the 
most courageous of animals. 
Petitot (1876, page 65) attributes a belief in Pleaven and Hell, and 
in a trinity composed of a father, mother, and son, to the Hares. Paradise 
is placed, he says, at the south pole but toward the west at the junction 
of the firmament and the earth; hell is placed at the north pole. As 
he says in another place, in truth, almost all the northern Indians are 
Christian and Catholic. 
Franklin, however (1828, page 294), quotes an Indian (Dogrib?) as 
saying, 
“We believe that there is a Great Spirit, who created everything, both us and the 
world for our use. We suppose that he dwells in the land from whence the white people 
come, that he is kind to the inhabitants of those lands, and that there are people there who 
never die; the winds that blow from that quarter (south) are always warm.” 
Wentzel says (1890, I, page 88) the Beaver (Slave) also “allow the 
existence of a Supreme Being whose invisible jurisprudence over them 
they positively deny”. Keith says (1890, II, page 113), “they do not 
comprehend, much less acknowledge anything of a Supreme Power”, 
yet even in his denial, he seems uncertain. Almost all later writers mention 
a belief in a supreme being, though with varying comments on its antiquity; 
by analogies with the Alaska- Yukon Athapaskan area, the writer believes 
it can be shown to be of pre-European origin. 
At the present, the ancient beliefs that have not been guarded for 
posterity by connexion with some material manifestation, have slipped 
from the memories of the people. The nominal duties of the church are 
carried out, but there is an underlying mixture of beliefs and superstitions 
which leaves an impenetrable maze of animism and Christianity. 
Medicine Beliefs. Medicine beliefs are in a primitive stage among 
the Satudene. It seems evident that formerly every man stood in special 
relationship to some animal. This connexion in some cases was acquired 
during youth by a period of fasting and communion with the spirits. One 
informant said that the relationship to a particular animal was inherited 
from father to son and that communications from the animal were gained 
through dreams. An association once made, the medicine animal was 
a source of power and protection and it was taboo for the individual to 
kill or eat it. The dissolution of this idea has reached the point where 
a particular animal is said to be “like” a certain man, but does not enter 
into the former relationship. It is now sometimes possible to kill the 
medicine animal. An informant dreamed that he killed a beaver which 
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