the countries they inhabit.—their appearance and dress.—their love of finery.—condition of the women.—strange customs.—character.—feuds with the esquimaux.—their suspicious and timorous lives.—pounds for catching reindeer.—their lodges.
on the banks of the lower mackenzie, to the west of great bear lake, in the territories drained by the peel river and by the upper yukon, dwell the loucheux, or kutchin indians, whose language is totally different from that of the other north american tribes, and whose customs and manners also vary considerably from those of all their neighbors, both red-skins and esquimaux.
they are an athletic and fine-looking people, with regular features and a complexion of a lighter copper color than that of the other red indians, so that many of their women would be reckoned handsome in any country. the females tattoo their chins and use a black pigment when they paint their faces, while the men employ both red and black on all occasions of ceremony, and always to be ready, each carries a small bag with red clay and black lead suspended to his neck. most commonly the eyes are encircled with black, a stripe of the same runs down the middle of the nose, and a blotch is daubed on the upper part of each cheek. the forehead is crossed by many narrow red stripes, and the skin is streaked alternately with red and black.
the outer shirt of the kutchin is made of the skins of fawn reindeer, dressed with the hair on after the manner of the hare, dog-rib, and other chepewyan tribes, but resembles in form the analogous garment of the esquimaux, being furnished with peaked skirts, though of smaller size. the men wear these skirts before and behind; the women have larger back skirts, but none in front. in winter shirts of hare-skin are worn, and the pantaloons of deer-skin have the fur next the skin.
none of the neighboring nations pay so much attention to personal cleanliness, or are so studious in adorning their persons. a broad band of beads is worn across the shoulders and breast of the shirt, and the hinder part of the dress is fringed with tassels wound round with dyed porcupine quills and strung with the silvery fruit of the oleaster (elæagnus argentea); a stripe of beads, strung in alternate red and white squares, ornament the seams of the trowsers, and bands of beads encircle the ankles. the poorer sort, or the less fortunate hunters, who are unable to procure these costly trinkets in the same enviable abundance as the rich, strive to wear at least a string of beads, and look down with contemptuous pity upon the still more needy class, which is reduced to adorn itself with porcupine quills only.
in consequence of this passionate fondness for beads, these ornaments serve332 as a medium of exchange among the kutchin, and sir john richardson remarks that no such near approach to money has been invented by the nations to the eastward of the rocky mountains. the standard bead, and one of the most value, is a large one of white enamel, manufactured in italy only, and is with difficulty procured in sufficient quantity to satisfy the demand, as beads are more prized than english cloth and blankets.
another article very much in request among the kutchin is the large ribbed dentalium shell which is collected in the archipelago between oregon and cape fairweather, and passes by trade from tribe to tribe until it finds its way at length to the yukon. with this shell they adorn their mittens, and even attach it to their guns, which have been lately introduced, and are in great demand. all men carry powder and ball, whether they own a gun or not, and obtain for it a share of the game.
the tribes on the yukon tie their hair behind in a cue, or “chignon,” and daub it with grease, and the down of geese and ducks, until, by the repetition of the process continued from infancy, it swells to an enormous thickness, so that the weight of the accumulated load of hair, dirt, and ornaments causes the wearer to stoop forward habitually. the tail-feathers of the eagle and fishing-hawk are stuck into the hair on the back of the head, and are removed only when the owner retires to sleep, or when he wishes to wave them to and fro in a dance.
the principal men have two or three wives each, while the bad hunters are obliged to remain bachelors. a good wrestler, however, even though poor, can always obtain a wife.
the women do all the drudgery in winter except cooking, and do not eat till the husband is satisfied. in summer they labor little, except in drying meat or fish for its preservation. the men alone paddle while the women sit as passengers, and husbands even carry their wives to the shore on their arms, that they may not wet their feet—an instance of gallantry almost unparalleled in savage life. the esquimaux women row their own “oomiaks,” and the chepewyan women assist the men in paddling their canoes. on the whole, the social condition of the kutchin women is far superior to that of the tinné women, but scarcely equal to that of the esquimaux dames.
they do not carry their children in their hoods or boots like the esquimaux, nor do they stuff them into a bag with moss like the tinné and crees, but they place them in a seat of birch-bark, with a back and sides like those of an armchair, and a pommel in front resembling the peak of a spanish saddle, by which they hang it from their back. the child’s feet are bandaged to prevent them growing, small feet being thought handsome, and consequently short unshapely feet are characteristic of the people of both sexes. a more ridiculous or insane custom can hardly be imagined among a nation of hunters.
the kutchin are a lively, cheerful people, fond of dancing and singing, in which they excel all other indians; leaping, wrestling, and other athletic exercises are likewise favorite amusements. they are inveterate talkers. every new-comer arriving at a trading-post makes a long speech, which must not be interrupted. the belief in shamanism is still in full vigor among them.
333 though a treacherous people, they have never yet imbrued their hands in european blood, but there are frequent feuds among their various tribes, by which one-half of the population of the banks of the yukon has been cut off within the last twenty years. from a constant dread of ambuscade, they do not travel except in large parties; and thus a perpetual feeling of insecurity embitters their lives, which are already rendered sufficiently hard by the severity of an arctic climate. the agents of the hudson’s bay company have endeavored by good advice, and the distribution of large presents, to establish peace, but have only met with partial success.
like the tinné, the kutchin are in a state of perpetual warfare with the esquimaux; and though they always charge the latter with treachery, yet there can be no doubt that the accusation might, with full justice, be retorted upon themselves. one of the hostile encounters, mentioned by sir j. richardson, deserves notice, on account of its resemblance in some particulars to the meeting of joab and abner, recorded in the second book of samuel. a party of each of the two nations having met on the banks of a river, the young men of both parties rose up as if for a friendly dance. the stream glides peacefully along, the setting sun gilds the pine forest and sparkles in the waters; all nature breathes peace. but the esquimaux having, according to their custom, concealed their long knives in the sleeves of their deer-skin shirts, suddenly draw them in one of the evolutions of the dance and plunge them into their opponents. a general conflict ensues, in which the kutchin, thanks to their guns, ultimately prove victorious. “another incident,” says sir john richardson, “which occurred on the banks of the yukon in 1845, gives us a farther insight into the suspicious and timorous lives of these people. one night four strangers from the lower part of the river arrived at the tent of an old man who was sick, and who had with him only two sons, one of them a mere boy. the newcomers entered in a friendly manner, and when the hour of repose came, lay down; but as they did not sleep, the sons, suspecting from their conduct that they meditated evil, feigned a desire of visiting their moose-deer snares. they intimated their purpose aloud to their father and went out, taking with them their bows and arrows. instead, however, of continuing their way into the wood, they stole back quietly to the tent, and listening on the outside, discovered, as they fancied, from the conversation of the strangers, that their father’s life was in danger. knowing the exact position of the inmates, they thereupon shot their arrows through the skin covering of the tent and killed two of the strange indians; and the other two, in endeavoring to make their escape by the door, shared the fate of their companions. this is spoken of in the tribe as an exceedingly brave action.”
during the summer the yukon kutchin dry, for their winter use, the white-fish (coregonus albus), which they catch by planting stakes across the smaller rivers and narrow parts of the lakes and closing the openings with wicker-baskets. they take the moose-deer in snares, and towards spring mostly resort to the mountains to hunt reindeer and lay in a stock of dried venison. on the open pasture-grounds frequented by this animal they construct large pounds. two rows of posts firmly planted in the ground, and united by the addition of334 strong horizontal bars into a regular fence, extend their arms for nearly the length of a mile in the form of a roman v. the extremity of the avenue is closed by stakes with sharp points sloping towards the entrance, on which the reindeer, driven together and hotly pursued by the indians, may impale themselves in their desperate flight. the structure is erected with great labor, as the timber has to be transported into the open country from a considerable distance. some of these may be a century old, and they are the hereditary possession of the families or tribes by whom they were originally constructed.
but in spite of all their contrivances and the use of fire-arms, the kutchin, whose numbers on the banks of the yukon are estimated at about a thousand men and boys able to hunt, are frequently reduced to great distress. hence the old and infirm are mercilessly left to their fate when game is scarce, and famine makes itself felt. attempts have been vainly made to better the condition of the northern indians by inducing them to tame the reindeer. their superstition is one of the obstacles against this useful innovation, for they fear that were they to make some of the reindeer their captives, the remainder would immediately leave the country. “and why,” they add, “should we follow like slaves a herd of tame animals, when the forest and the barren ground provide us with the elk, the wild reindeer, and the musk-ox, and our rivers and lakes are filled with fishes that cost us nothing but the trouble of catching them?”
each family possesses a deer-skin tent or lodge, which in summer, when in quest of game, is rarely erected. the winter encampment is usually in a grove of spruce-firs; the ground being cleared of snow, the skins, which are prepared with the hair, are extended over flexible willow poles which take a semicircular form. this hemispherical shape of lodges is not altogether unknown among the chepewyans and crees, being that generally adapted for their vapor baths, framed of willow poles, but their dwelling-places are conical, as stiff poles are used for their construction.
when the tent is erected the snow is packed on outside to half its height, and it is lined equally high within with the young spray of the spruce-fir, that the bodies of the inmates may not rest against the cold wall. the doorway is filled up by a double fold of skin, and the apartment has the closeness and warmth but not the elegance of the esquimaux snow hut, which it resembles in shape. though only a very small fire is kept in the centre of the lodge, yet the warmth is as great as in a log-house. the provisions are stored on the outside under fir branches and snow, and further protected from the dogs by sledges being placed on top.
