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 DENES

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DENES

sion, may perhaps be considered as the most impor- tant native family on the American Continent. They are divided into three groups: the Southern, com- posed of the Apaches and the Navahoes, to whom, in The Catholic Encyclopedia, special articles are de- voted which describe their habitat; the Pacific Denes, composed mainly of remnants of tribes in Washington, Oregon, and Northern California; and the Northern D6n6s, by far the most important division, which covers the territory extending from Churchill River and the northern branch of the Saskatchewan to the confines of the Eskimo fishing-grounds. In British Columbia they range from 51° 30' N. lat., and are like- wise to be found over the whole of Alaska with the ex- ception of its coasts. The southern branch of the family is to-day in a thriving condition and relatively numerous; but the uncertainty of life in the dreary wastes or dense forests which have long been the home of the Northerners precludes the possibility of a population even distantly commensurate with the enormous area claimed by them. The latest and most reliable statistics give the following figures for the numbers of the three divisions: Southern D^n^s, 27,365; Pacific D^n^s, 846; Northern D^n^s, 19,390. It is but fair to add that whole tribes or septs were almost wiped out of existence by epidemics and dis- orders consequent on the advent of the whites among them. The principal Northern tribes are: the Lou- cheux, neighbours of the Eskimos in Alaska and the lower Mackenzie, contiguous to which are, from north to south: the Hares, the Dog-Ribs, the Slaves, the Yellow-Knives, and the Chippewayans. Ignoring several intermediate or Rocky Mountain tribes, we find in Northern British Cohmibia the Nahanais, the Sekanais, the Babines, the Carriers, and the Chilco- tins. The Yellow-Knives receive their name from the tools of native copper which were common among them in prehistoric times; the Babines are so called from their custom of wearing labrets, wood or stone ornaments inserted in the lip, and the Carriers owe their name to a custom of the women of carrying on their backs the charred remains of their husbands.

Though the Navahoes have at last adopted pastoral life, all the T>6n6 tribes were originally made up of hunters and have remained so in the north. Yet in British Columbia the abundance of fish, especially of salmon, has made fishing of at least as great economic importance to the Den^s stationed there as hunting. Most of the hard work was done by the women, who generally occupied a very low place in the social scale. They were united to men by ties which were never con- sidered indissoluble, and polygamy was everywhere prevalent. As to society itself, it was of the crudest description. The original form of govenmient among the entire stock was a sort of anarchy tempered by patriarchal proclivities. The septs were led by the more influential fathers of families, whose children succeeded in the male line of their rank, such as it was, and inherited their earthly belongings. But con- tact with aliens made the Western tribes adopt, in course of time, matriarchy, or mother-right, and its consequent institutions: the clans with their petty chiefs, the totems, and more or less elaborate social observances. These totems, or emblems, were of at least two kinds, gentile and personal. The former represented the clan, and though probably evolved from the latter, they came to be regarded as more social than religious in import. The nature of the personal totems is better understood by a reference to the theogonistic and cosmogonic notions of the In- dians. In common with most American aborigines they believed in a twofold world: the one visible and purely material now inhabited by man; the other in- visible, though in some way coextensive with the first, which is the home of spirits. f these there are two kinds, good and Iiad, all more or less imder the control of a Supreme Being whose personality and attributes

are not well defined. By some he was known as "he (or it) whereby the earth exists", or simply "the powerful"; others, like the Hares, designated him as " he that sees in front and behind", while the prehis- toric Carriers knew him as "that which is on high", apparently confounding him with the dynamic forces of natiu'e and the cause of rain, snow, wind, and the other celestial phenomena. As to the spirits, the noxious ones are constantly lurking among men and cause disease and all evils. The good ones are closely connected with the various elements of the created world, and are ever ready to adopt and protect indi- viduals in return for some sort of respect and implied veneration of the animal, tree, plant, celestial body, or terrestrial entity which is their normal seat or repre- sentative. These are the personal totems or tutelary genii, of which every Den6 has at least one, com- munion with which was supposed to be established through the agency of dreams, apparitions, etc.

It sometimes happened that the totem suddenly prostrated the native while awake and rendered him unconscioas. The individual thus affected was be- lieved to commune with some powerful spirit, and on being restored to consciousness by means of loud chanting and the rhythmical beating of drums, was considered as endowed with supernatural powers over the evil spirits and their works. Hence his services were called into requisition to cast out the evil spirits from those whoTvere afflicted with illness, or to obtain some particular end in the order of nature, such as calm in tempestuoxis weather, a plentiful Tun of salmon, a successful hunt, and the like. These ideas were so firmly rooted among all the tribes that they long re- mained proof against the influence of civilization. The first encounter of the D^n^s with this was in the south, as is shown in the articles on the Apaches and the Navahoes. In the north, the fiU' of the animals on whose flesh they mostly subsisted and whose skins were utilized as garments was the principal cause of the intrusion of the white races on their desolate wil- derness. As early as 1670 was established the cele- brated Hudson Bay Company, whose agents were gradually drawn into close intercourse with the east- ernmost tribes. One of these agents, Samuel Hearne, was the first to penetrate to any considerable inland distance. In the years 1769-72 he discovered Lake Athabasca, and went as far north as the mouth of the Coppermine with a horde of Eastern D^n& who proved to be as unruly, brutal, and lustful as the ex- plorer was himself timid and gentlemanly. On the other hand, the latter extols the virtue and meekness of their women. Then came the Northwest Fur Trading Company, a member of which, Laurent Le- roux, was the first to visit Great Slave Lake (1784). This energetic corporation soon dotted the country with trading establishments, whereupon the Hudson Bay Company began a keen competition, which was the source of many disorders among the natives, in- toxicants being used by each party to win them over to its own side. Then came the explorations of Macken- zie in 1789 and 1792-93; Franklin's in 1820-22; Back's in 1833-35; and a number of other journeys in the course of which the D^n^s proved valuable, if somewhat fickle helpers. They were strictly honest, anxious to please the whites and to adopt their ways as far as compatible with their own condition.

The Den^s had already learned something of the Catholic religion through the French Canadian traders and voyagers. From the very beginning they showed themselves ready converts, which is not to be won- dered at when we consider that the D^n6, when of pure stock, is by nature eminently religious. The first mis- sionaries were Catholic priests. In 1842 the Rev. J. B. Thibault, one of the pioneers of the Red River Set- tlement (now Manitoba) reached the Rocky Moim- tains in his apostolic wanderings, and must have evan- gelized some of the border tribes. Three years later