Eskimo culture are to be found west of the Mackenzie River.
6. Mackenzie Area. Skirting the Eskimo area from east to west is a great interior belt of semi-arctic lands, including the greater part of the interior of Canada. Hudson Bay almost cuts it into two parts, the western or larger part occupied by the Déné tribes, the eastern by Algonkins, the Saulteaux, Cree, Montagnais, and Naskapi. The fauna, flora, and climate are quite uniform for corresponding latitudes and are reflected to some extent in material culture, so that we should be justified in considering it one great area, if the less material traits did not show definite distinctions. As noted in our first chapter, the chief cultural bond through the region is the use of the caribou. The caribou ranged from Maine to Alaska and throughout all this area furnished the greater part of the clothing and tents and a considerable portion of the food. They could not be taken easily in summer, but in winter were killed in drives, on the ice, or after a thaw, in the water. They were also snared. All of these methods were known from Alaska to Newfoundland. Between the Mackenzie and Hudson Bay ranged the barren ground variety, whose habits were somewhat like those of the buffalo on the plains, and the tribes in reach of their range lived upon them almost as completely as did the Indians of the Plains upon the buffalo.[1] Along with these widely distributed caribou traits go the great use of spruce and birchbark for canoes and vessels, babiche and bark fiber, toboggans and skin or bark covered tents, and the use of snares and nets. Notwithstanding these similarities, the other aspects of culture for eastern Canada appear intermediate to the Eastern Woodland area (7) of the United States. Hence, the great Dene country of the Canadian Northwest is usually considered as a distinct culture area, taking its name from its largest river.
Our knowledge of the Déné is rather fragmentary, for scarcely a single tribe has been seriously studied. Aside from the work of Father Morice[2] we have only the random observations of explorers and fur-traders. It is believed that the Dene tribes fall into three culture groups. The eastern group:
