Kutchin

Tukkuthkutchin Tribe

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 … Read more

Tatlitkutchin Tribe

Tatlitkutchin Indians (‘Peel river people’). A Kutchin tribe, closely allied to the Tukkuthkutchin, living on the east band of Peel river, British Columbia, between lat. 66º and 67º.  For a part of the season they hunt on the mountains, uniting sometimes with parties of the Tukkuthkutchin.  They confine their hunting to the caribou, as they no longer have moose hunters among them.  In 1866 they numbered 30 hunters and 60 men.

Nakotchokutchin Tribe

Nakotchokutchin Indians, Nakotchokutchin People, Nakotchokutchin First Nation. A Kutchin tribe dwelling on the lower Mackenzie river, north of the Kawchodinneh, in lat. 68° north, lon. 133° west Their hunting grounds are east of the Mackenzie as far as Anderson River, and their chief game is the caribou. In former days they waged intermittent warfare against the Eskimo of Mackenzie river, with whom, however, they have always traded. Their men numbered 50 in 1866.

Kutchin Tribe

Kutchin Indians, Kutchin People, Kutchin First Nation (Kutchin = ‘people’). A group of Athapascan tribes in Alaska and British North America, inhabiting the region on the Yukon and its tributaries above Nuklukayet, the Peel river basin, and the lower Mackenzie valley. They have decreased to half their former numbers owing to wars between the tribes and the killing of female children. Chiefs and medicine-men and those who possess rank acquired by property have two or more wives. They usually live in large parties, each headed by a chief and having one or more medicine-men, the latter acquiring an authority to … Read more