The Native Races (Complete 5 Part Edition). Hubert Howe Bancroft

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СКАЧАТЬ in exciting admiration or astonishment, their invention runs on without check. From the manner of the speaker, rather than by his words, is his truth or falsehood inferred, and often a very long interrogation is necessary to elicit the real fact. The comfort, and not unfrequently even the lives of parties of the timid Hare Indians are sacrificed by this miserable propensity. The Hare and Dog-rib women are certainly at the bottom of the scale of humanity in North America. Ross thinks that they are "tolerably honest; not bloodthirsty, nor cruel;" "confirmed liars, far from being chaste."

      According to Harmon, one of the earliest and most observing travelers among them, the Tacullies "are a quiet, inoffensive people," and "perhaps the most honest on the face of the earth." They "are unusually talkative," and "take great delight in singing or humming or whistling a dull air." "Murder is not considered as a crime of great magnitude." He considers the Sicannis the bravest of the Tacully tribes.

      But the Kutchins bear off the palm for honesty. Says Whymper: "Finding the loads too great for our dogs, we raised an erection of poles, and deposited some bags thereon. I may here say, once for all, that our men often left goods, consisting of tea, flour, molasses, bacon, and all kinds of miscellaneous articles, scattered in this way over the country, and that they remained untouched by the Indians, who frequently traveled past them." Simpson testifies of the Loucheux that "a bloody intent with them lurks not under a smile." Murray reports the Kutchins treacherous; Richardson did not find them so. Jones declares that "they differ entirely from the Tinneh tribes of the Mackenzie, being generous, honest, hospitable, proud, high-spirited, and quick to revenge an injury."

      TRIBAL BOUNDARIES.

      Accurately to draw partition lines between primitive nations is impossible. Migrating with the seasons, constantly at war, driving and being driven far past the limits of hereditary boundaries, extirpating and being extirpated, overwhelming, intermingling; like a human sea, swelling and surging in its wild struggle with the winds of fate, they come and go, here to-day, yonder to-morrow. A traveler passing over the country finds it inhabited by certain tribes; another coming after finds all changed. One writer gives certain names to certain nations; another changes the name, or gives to the nation a totally different locality. An approximation, however, can be made sufficiently correct for practical purposes; and to arrive at this, I will give at the end of each chapter all the authorities at my command; that from the statements of all, whether conflicting or otherwise, the truth may be very nearly arrived at. All nations, north of the fifty-fifth parallel, as before mentioned, I call Hyperboreans.

      To the Eskimos, I give the Arctic sea-board from the Coppermine River to Kotzebue Sound. Late travelers make a distinction between the Malemutes and Kaveaks of Norton Sound and the Eskimos. Whymper calls the former 'a race of tall and stout people, but in other respect, much resembling the Esquimaux.' Alaska, p. 159. Sir John Richardson, in his Journal, vol. i., p. 341, places them on the 'western coast, by Cook's Sound and Tchugatz Bay, nearly to Mount St. Elias;' but in his Polar Regions, p. 299, he terminates them at Kotzebue Sound. Early writers give them the widest scope. 'Die südlichsten sind in Amerika, auf der Küste Labrador, wo nach Charlevoix dieser Völkerstamm den Namen Esquimaux bey den in der Nähe wohnenden Abenaki führte, und auch an der benachbarten Ostseite von Neu-Fundland, ferner westlich noch unter der Halbinsel Alaska.' Vater, Mithridates, vol. iii., pt. iii., p. 425. Dr. Latham, in his Varieties of Man, treats the inhabitants of the Aleutian Islands as Eskimos, and in Native Races of the Russian Empire, p. 289, he gives them 'the whole of the coast of the Arctic Ocean, and the coast from Behring Strait to Cook Inlet.' Prichard, Researches, vol. v., p. 371, requires more complete evidence before he can conclude that the Aleuts are not Eskimos. Being entirely unacquainted with the great Kutchin family in the Yukon Valley, he makes the Carriers of New Caledonia conterminous with the Eskimos. The boundary lines between the Eskimos and the interior Indian tribes 'are generally formed by the summit of the watershed between the small rivers which empty into the sea and those which fall into the Yukon.' Dall's Alaska, p. 144. Malte-Brun, Précis de la Géographie, vol. v., p. 317, goes to the other extreme. 'Les Esquimaux,' he declares, 'habitent depuis le golfe Welcome jusqu'au fleuve Mackenzie, et probablement jusqu'au détroit de Bering; ils s'étendent au sud jusqu'au lac de l'Esclave.' Ludewig, Aboriginal Languages, p. 69, divides them into 'Eskimo proper, on the shores of Labrador, and the Western Eskimos.' Gallatin sweepingly asserts that 'they are the sole native inhabitants of the shores of all the seas, bays, inlets, and islands of America, north of the sixtieth degree of north latitude.' Am. Antiq. Soc. Transact., vol. ii., p. 9. The Western Eskimos, says Beechey, 'inhabit the north-west coast of America, from 60° 34´ N. to 71° 24´ N.' Voy., vol. ii., p. 299. 'Along the entire coast of America.' Armstrong's Nar., p. 191.

      ESKIMOS AND KONIAGAS.

      The tribal subdivisions of the Eskimos are as follows:—At Coppermine River they are known by the name of Naggeuktoomutes, 'deer-horns.' At the eastern outlet of the Mackenzie they are called Kittear. Between the Mackenzie River and Barter Reef they call themselves Kangmali-Innuin. The tribal name at Point Barrow is Nuwangmeun. 'The Nuna-tangmë-un inhabit the country traversed by the Nunatok, a river which falls into Kotzebue Sound.' Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 300. From Cape Lisburn to Icy Cape the tribal appellation is Kitegues. 'Deutsche Karten zeigen uns noch im Nord-west-Ende des russischen Nordamerika's, in dieser so anders gewandten Küstenlinie, nördlich vom Kotzebue-Sund: im westlichen Theile des Küstenlandes, dass sie West-Georgien nennen, vom Cap Lisburn bis über das Eiscap; hinlaufend das Volk der Kiteguen.' Buschmann, Spuren der Aztek. Sprache, p. 713. 'The tribes appear to be separated from each other by a neutral ground, across which small parties venture in the summer for barter.' The Tuski, Tschuktschi, or Tchutski, of the easternmost point of Asia, have also been referred to the opposite coast of America for their habitation. The Tschuktchi 'occupy the north-western coast of Russian Asia, and the opposite shores of north-western America.' Ludewig, Ab. Lang., p. 191.

      The Koniagan nation occupies the shores of Bering Sea, from Kotzebue Sound to the Island of Kadiak, including a part of the Alaskan Peninsula, and the Koniagan and Chugatschen Islands. The Koniagas proper inhabit Kadiak, and the contiguous islands. Buschmann, Spuren der Aztek. Sprache, p. 676. 'The Konægi are inhabitants of the Isle of Kodiak.' Prichard's Researches, vol. v., p. 371. 'Die eigentlichen Konjagen oder Bewohner der Insel Kadjak.' Holmberg, Ethn. Skiz., p. 4. 'Zu den letztern rechnet man die Aleuten von Kadjack, deren Sprache von allen Küstenbewohnern von der Tschugatschen-Bay, bis an die Berings-Strasse und selbst weiter noch die herrschende ist.' Baer, Stat. u. Ethn., p. 58. 'From Iliamna Lake to the 159th degree of west longitude.' Dall's Alaska, p. 401. 'La côte qui s'étend depuis le golfe Kamischezkaja jusqu'au Nouveau-Cornouaille, est habitée par cinq peuplades qui forment autant de grandes divisions territoriales dans les colonies de la Russie Américaine. Leurs noms sont: Koniagi, Kenayzi, Tschugatschi, Ugalachmiuti et Koliugi.' Humboldt, Pol., tom. i., p. 347.

      The Chugatsches inhabit the islands and shores of Prince William Sound. 'Die Tchugatschen bewohnen die grössten Inseln der Bai Tschugatsk, wie Zukli, Chtagaluk u. a. und ziehen sich an der Südküste der Halbinsel Kenai nach Westen bis zur Einfahrt in den Kenaischen Meerbusen.' Holmberg, Ethn. Skiz., p. 4. 'Die Tschugatschen sind Ankömmlinge von der Insel Kadjack, die während innerer Zwistigkeiten von dort vertrieben, sich zu ihren jetzigen Wohnsitzen an den Ufern von Prince William's Sound und gegen Westen bis zum Eingange von Cook's Inlet hingewendet haben.' Baer, Stat. u. Ethn., p. 116. 'Les Tschugatschi occupent le pays qui s'étend depuis l'extrémité septentrionale de l'entrée de Cook jusqu'à l'est de la baie du prince Guillaume (golfe Tschugatskaja.)' Humboldt, Pol., tom. i., p. 348. According to Latham, Native Races, p. 290, they are the most southern members of the family. The Tschugazzi 'live between the Ugalyachmutzi and the Kenaizi.' Prichard's Researches, vol. v., p. 371. 'Occupy the shores and islands of Chugach Gulf, and the southwest coasts of the peninsula of Kenai.' Dall's Alaska, p. 401. Tschugatschi, 'Prince William Sound, СКАЧАТЬ