[ THE INDIANS.]
The Indian inhabitants of this region may be divided into three groups, differing but slightly in speech, and even less in habits.
(1) The Mountaineers, “Montagnais” of the early Jesuit missionaries, roam over the areas south of the Hamilton inlet and as far as the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Their western limits are imperfectly known. They trade at all the stations along the accessible coast. Many of them barter at Rigolet and Northwest river.
In customs they differ little from the Indians to the north of them. Their means of subsistence are the flesh of reindeer, porcupines, and various birds, such as geese, ducks, ptarmigan, and grouse.
The habits of the reindeer in this portion of the country are very erratic. They are often absent from large tracts for several years, and appearing in abundance when little expected. The scarcity of the reindeer renders the food supply quite precarious; hence, the Indians rely much upon the flesh of the porcupine, hare and birds for their principal food.
Their clothing is of the tanned skin of the deer when they are able to procure it. As nearly all the skins of the reindeer are used for garments, few are prepared for other purposes; hence the northern stations (Fort Chimo) furnish great numbers of these skins in the parchment condition to be purchased by the Mountaineers, who cut them into fine lines for snowshoe netting and other purposes.
They procure the furs of marten, mink, fur beaver, muskrats, lynxes, wolverines, wolves, and foxes. A considerable number of black bears are also obtained by these Indians. By the barter of these furs they procure the articles made necessary by the advent of the white people among them. They are quiet and peaceable. Many of them profess a regard for the teachings of the Roman missionaries, who have visited them more or less frequently for over a hundred and fifty years. I was unable to obtain the term by which they distinguish themselves from their neighbors. That they are later comers in the region than the Innuit is attested by the bloody warfare formerly carried on between them, of which many proofs yet exist. The Mountaineers applied to the more northern Indians the term of reproach, “Naskopie.” This word denotes the contempt the Mountaineers felt for the Naskopies when the latter failed to fulfill their promise to assist in driving the Innuit from the country.
It was impossible to obtain a satisfactory estimate of the numbers of the Mountaineers. My stay in their vicinity was too short to learn as much about them as was desired.
(2) The Indians dwelling to the southwest of the Ungava district differ rather more than the Mountaineers, in their speech, from the Indians of the Ungava district. They average, for both sexes, slightly taller than the Naskopies. The men are spare, and have small limbs and extremities. The cheek bones are also more prominent, although this is partly due to the thin visage. The women are disposed to be stout, and in the older women there is a decided tendency to corpulence. The complexion, too, is considerably darker. The men wear long hair, usually cut so as to fall just upon the shoulders. The hair of the women is quite heavy, and is worn either in braids or done up in folds upon the side of the head.
In their personal habits they are much more tidy than their eastern relations. Their dress differs but little from that of their neighbors. The women dress in cloth made of material procured from the traders, and some of these appear respectable enough when so dressed. They have been so long in contact with the white people at Moose Factory, some of whom had brought their wives from home with them, that the women have imitated the dress of the latter. Certain of these women are skillful in working fancy articles. The men occupy their time in hunting and fishing. The reindeer have in recent years become so scarce in the vicinity of Fort George that many of the Indians have left that locality and journeyed to the eastward, dwelling in proximity to the Naskopies, or even with them.