The Déné tribe, called Montagnais by the Canadians and Chippewayan by the English, was known by the other tribes of the same family under the name of Caribou-eaters (Edshenn eldcli). Originally the Chippewayan tribe occupied the territory to the north of Lake Athabaska and Cree Lake; around Lac Caribou and Lac La Hache as far as the territories of the Yellowknives of the Coppermine, and of the Eskimo of Hudson Bay. To the east their territory extended all the way to Hudson Bay around the mouth of the Churchill River. On the south their tribal land marched with that of the Maskegon or eastern Cree along the Churchill River and with that of the northern or Woodland Cree on Lake Cree.

Since about three hundred years ago they have extended their territory considerably toward the south and west by their victory over the northern or Woodland Cree whom they have almost completely exterminated and of whom the survivors are found mixed with the new possessors in the conquered territory. Thus it has come about that the Chippewayan who have in great part emigrated from the territory north of Lac Caribou may now be said to have Cree Lake as the central point of their territory. They extend to the south all around Lac Ile à la Crosse, Lac Clair, Lac du Boeuf, Lac des Iles and Lac la Loche; to the west around Lake Athabaska, and along the river of the same name as far as Fort McMuray. To the southwest some of their colonies have even gotten as far as the territory of the Prairie Cree at Cold Lake and at Lac de Coeur near Lac la Biche.

So far as I can make out from the numerous accounts given me by the old people of the tribe, their social and political condition has always been one of pure "anarchy." What I gather from the various accounts about the past and from that which still survived in their usages and customs when I first came in contact with them forty years ago, is that their constitution was the following.

The tribe occupied the above-mentioned territory. Agriculture was completely unknown among them. They made use of their territory for hunting and fishing which was their only means of subsistence.

It seems that the only sign of property recognized by them was the opening of a trap line (Eltissouze tronloue) in the middle of the forest. These trap lines are considered private property. One of their bitterest complaints against the white hunters who entered their territory is that they did not respect these trap lines. The opening up of such a trap line gave to the owner the exclusive right to set his traps and snares there for the capture of furbearing animals. If any one else set traps there the proprietor of the trap line had the right to break them and to appropriate whatever game he might chance to find caught in them. In case of dispute in a matter of this kind, it seems that force was the supreme argument, for I have never been able to find trace of any recognized tribunal to pass judgement in such cases.

There was a special regulation for beaver. The right to hunt them belonged to the man who was the first to discover a lodge, and to place thereon his mark, by planting a pole on it. This meant that the lodge had been discovered and a newcomer had no right to touch it. This custom is still observed among them, notwithstanding the disturbances brought about in this matter by the invasions of the white trappers who have no respect for the property marks of the Chippewayan.

However, if these beaver lodges were found in a hunting territory (nalzhé nehnenkke) recognized as belonging to a particular hunter, a stranger had not the right to appropriate them for himself.

These hunting territories (nalzhé nehnenkke) were determined by the limits of the trap line (eltssouze tronloue) in a country where there was game, ordinarily a small river encircled by lakes more or less large and more or less numerous. The extent of these territories which had no very precise limit was determined chiefly by the radius of wanderings of the proprietor, who took his station at the extreme tip of the trap line in his annual excursions. In all this territory the hunting of furbearing animals as well as of big game (moose and caribou) was the exclusive right of the owner of the territory. However, if a stranger started following a trail outside of the territory he had the right to continue to follow it until he caught up to the animal, and the animal belonged to him, even if he killed it in the territory of another man.

Among the Chippewayan there was no chief properly speaking. Each one hunted as he thought proper, provided he cut himself a trap line and built up his own hunting territory without intruding on the hunting territory of any one else. This custom gave rise to some disputes. These were ordinarily settled in an amicable manner; if not, it was force which settled the dispute.

However, it ordinarily happened that when some one proved that he was a good hunter, others made requests of him to join him and to hunt with him in his territory. Thus small bands were formed, and the owner of the territory obtained the position of chief, indicating to each one where he was to hunt. The furs taken by trap or rifle or arrow, as well as the pelts of moose and caribou, belonged to the one who had taken or killed the animal. The meat, however, belonged to the whole band and the chief made distribution of it, without asking the consent of the man who had killed the animal.

If the cheif was not satisfied with any of those who had thus joined him, he had the right to send them away and to prohibit them from following him. Likewise, any one who had joined was always free to separate himself from the band he had joined and either to put himself under the leadership of another chief or else to hunt on his own account.

At the death of the owner of a hunting territory or of a trap line, ordinarily one of his sons took over possession of it. This was not always the oldest son, but ordinarily the one who was regarded as the most capable of the sons or else the one to whom the father while yet living had given the territory. But if the deceased hunter had left only young orphans, their rights were regarded as nil and the first comer took possession of the trap line and territory without troubling himself to provide for the needs of these orphans. When these later grew up, the only means they had to enter into possession of their father's territory was to resort to force and this they ordinarily did.

In case of war, it is certain that the chiefs had more absolute and more definite authority than in time of peace. But I have never been able to discover how they were chosen or what precisely was their authority. The Chippewayan themselves seem to be completely ignorant in the matter. It is such a long time since they have made war on anybody! They are in fact just naturally peaceful and, except as regards women and orphans, they have an innate sentiment of justice,-- so much so that theft was unknown among them before the white man came and by his example taught them thievery.

Moreover, if they have made deadly warfare on the Woodland Cree, the Maskegon, the Eskimo and the Yellow Knives, it appears that this was soley in self-defence or else in revenge for incursions of which the Chippewayan themselves had been the victims.

This is why, when the fortunes of war had made them masters of the territory of the Woodland Cree, they did not try to exterminate the unhappy remnants of this tribe, but permitted them to live peacefully in their midst. On the other hand, in order to avoid conflicts with the Maskegon, the Chippewayan abandoned almost completely the lower Churchill River; they also withdrew from the territory of the Eskimo on the east and from that of the Yellow Knives on the north. Thus they ended by forgetting so completely the art of war that they no longer recall even how they organized to go into battle. Notwithstanding, I have never heard of them ever having had a disarmament conference!

They were not at all inhospitable to strangers, and if a stranger wished to settle peacefully among them they granted him permission to hunt and fish, provided he observed the Chippewayan usages and customs. Of all the aborigines of America, the Chippewayan are those amoung whom the white man has established himself most easily and most peacefully.

(Note--This short paper by Father Pénard, who has lived many years among the Chippewyan and who knows their culture and language thoroughly, gives us for the first time detailed information upon the little known land-owning customs of the Chippewyan and Caribou-eaters. Father Morice, a confrère of Father Pénard, has published such data on Carrier land-owning, and meager references to the subject occur in the works of Harmon (Cree or Chippewyan?), Simpson (Chippewyan), Goddard (Beaver), Emmons (Tahltan), as well as in a short communication by Father Lejacq (Carrier, Babine, Sikani) published in Missions de la Congrégation des Missionaires Oblats de Marie Immaculée, 1874, xii. 348. This is about all of value that we have had to date upon land-owning among the eastern and western Déné, and, apart from Father Morice's sccounts, it is extremely meager and unsatisfactory.

Furthermore, Father Pénard's account seems to show pretty clearly that a system of family land ownership, identical in its main outlines with the family hunting territories made familiar by the studies of Speck, Low, Davidson, and others among the Algonkian-speaking peoples of New England, Quebec, and Labrador, prevails among the Chippewyan and Caribou-eaters. Simpson's somewhat vague account of a century ago intimated family ownership of land among the Chippewyan. Father Pénard's detailed account seems to clinch the matter, for both Chippewyan and Caribou-eater culture. Moreover, taken in conjunction with the evidence from Morice, Lejacq, Simpson, Harmon, Goddard, and Emmons, and with the evidence from Richrdson and from the sources cited by Speck (Publ. Amer. sociol. soc., 1917, xii. 99), for family hunting territories or their equivalent among the Athapascans of the Mackenzie, of the upper Fraser, and Babine Lake, and of Alaska, and among some of the Eskimo and Northwest Coast Indians, this newer infromation from Father Pénard suggests strongly the probability that further investigation will show the family hunting territory to be more or less prevalent over most of the northern Canadian area. The writer has within the last three years found the system continuously prevalent from western Quebec, to the James Bay region, up the Albany to Lake St. Joseph, and around the Rainy River and Lake of the Woods districts. Waugh (MS. Notes) had earlier found it around Lac Seul. Inasmuch as it is almost certain that the sytem extends among the Ojibwa and Cree east and northeast of Lake Winnepeg (the writer hopes to determine this point the coming summer), Father Pénard's data extend our continuous distribution of the system about a thousand miles farther to the northwest than had been previously determined, and practically enables us to conclude to a total continuous distribution of the family hunting territory of about two thousand two hundred miles from Maine and Labrador to Great Slave Lake.

Any information in French or English on this question of land ownership from the Oblate and Jesuit missionaries of the Mackenzie, the sub-Arctic, and the Alaska areas, would be a valuable scientific contribution on an important and little known ethnological subject, and would be cordially welcomed for publication by the Catholic Anthropological Conference.--Editor.