These people are the dancing-masters of the
country. The Copper Indians have neither dance nor music but what they
borrow from them. On our first interview with Akaitcho at Fort Providence
he treated us as has already been mentioned with a representation of the
Dog-Rib Dance; and Mr. Back during his winter journey had an opportunity
of observing it performed by the Dog-Ribs themselves.
The chief tribe of the Dog-Rib nation, termed Horn Mountain Indians,
inhabit the country betwixt Great Bear Lake and the west end of Great
Slave Lake. They muster about two hundred men and boys capable of
pursuing the chase. Small detachments of the nation frequent Marten Lake
and hunt during the summer in the neighbourhood of Fort Enterprise.
Indeed this part of the country was formerly exclusively theirs, and most
of the lakes and remarkable hills bear the names which they imposed upon
them. As the Copper Indians generally pillage them of their women and
furs when they meet they endeavour to avoid them and visit their ancient
quarters on the barren grounds only by stealth.
Immediately to the northward of the Dog-Ribs, on the north side of Bear
Lake River, are the Kawchodinneh or Hare Indians who also speak a dialect
of the Chipewyan language and have much of the same manners with the
Dog-Ribs, but are considered both by them and by the Copper Indians to be
great conjurors.
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