Tukkuthkutchin Indians (‘squint-eyed people’) A Kutchin tribe at the head of Porcupine River, occupying the territory between the headwaters of Porcupine river and Ft. McPherson, in the northern Yukon Territory, Canada. Their eyes are frequently small and oblique, hence their name. Although barbarous they are more intelligent than other tribes. They are a commercial people, living by barter. Though good hunters, rarely lacking food, they do not hunt furs, but exchange their beads, which form the circulating medium for the peltry of the neighboring tribes. They are fond of oratorical display, and in their harangues the voice of the speaker gradually rises, becoming a screech at the climax. They subsist at all seasons almost exclusively on caribou, which they hunt on the mountains. Formerly they were numerous, but by 1866 they had become reduced to 15 hunters or 40 men. Dawson 1 gave the number of inhabitants of Pee river and La Pierres House, the Tatlitkutchin and Tukkuthkutchin together, as 337, consisting of 165 makes and 152 females. Morice estimated their number at 150 in 1906.
Citations:
- Rep.Geol. Surv. Can.1888, 206, 1889[↩]