An Ethnographic Survey of Southern Yukon Territory, by Catherine

MY OLD PEOPLE SAY.AN ETHNO- has to say is based upon direct, personal and GRAPHICSURVEY OF SOUTHERN fust-hand information: the observations of YUKON TERRITORY. BY CATHARINE MC- early travellers, her own observations, and CLELLAN.Ottawa: National Museums of the comments,explanations, and stories of Canada (Publications in Ethnology, no. 6 her informahts, recorded in the words dgi- (I) and (2) -two volumes) 1975. 9% x 6% nally used. It is this actuality which is so dif- inches, 637 pages including notes, bibliogra- ficult to achieve,and yet is so important. phy, glossary and index of native terms, and McClellan has mastered throughher own index; illustrated. Soft cover, no price indi- “shorthand”and speed the ability to write cated. down the Indians’words as spoken. This exact record, even if not thoroughly under- This impressive publication represents the stood at the time, preserves expressions and results of ethnographic research carried out statements which later becomeclear. With- in 1949-51 among three linguistically distinct out it, there wouldbe no reliable guide to groups in the southernYukon Territory, from that “inner world” of the native Yukoner. east to west: (1) theInland Tlingit in the Each chapter openswith anappropriate area of Lakes Atlin and Teslin and the Nisut- and often moving quotation, such as “People lin River; (2) the Tagish, centred at Tagish were starving ahead of me,” and “HOWcan I and Carcross, who once spokean Athabascan stop crying? The wholeworld turnedover dialect but adoptedTlingit in the last century; with the death of my son!” (both Inland Tlin- and (3) the Southern Tutchone,who speak git). The opening and closing of each chap- anotherAthabascan dialect, andare repre- ter are alsograced by the black-and-white sented by six “bands” spread from the upper illustrations of nativedesigns, prepared by Alsek River and Whitehorse on the south, to the author’s niece,Catherine S. Kernan. Most Lakes Kluane, Aishihik and Laberge in the interesting and valuable, to this reviewer at north, where they adjointhe linguistically dis- least, are the comparative data which serve tinct Northern Tutchone of the Lewes River to place southern Yukoncustoms in their and other Yukontributaries. The Northern cultural context, and the exciting theoretical and Southern Tutchone represent, therefore, questions which the author raises. a splitting of Osgood‘s “Tutchone tribe.” The Inthe Introduction we learn how and Indian groups of southern Yukon have been, where this pioneer work wascarried out, and untilnow, neglected ethnologically, and so we marvel at how much information was ob- this work, in preparation for over ten years, taineddespite relatively short fieldseasons is doubly welcome. While it contains a little and the difficulties of dealing with three dif- data from the author’s later extended field- ferent languages, for only one of which (Tlin- work among the Southern Tutchone (1962- git)was any published guide available. Yet 63,1965, 1966, 1968), further detailed we are given maps with place names in all informationabout the oral literature, the three languages, and native names and words ceremonial and religious life of these people are included throughout the text. The writer and their neighbours has been reserved for modestly admits herlack of professional skill future publication. as a linguist, and her transcriptions have evi- This is a handsome, scholarly and infor- dently sufferedsometimes at the printer’s mative book, which should appeal to anyone hands; but despite errors which linguists may interested in the North, whether white or In- discover, shehas given themmaterial of dian, layman or anthropologist. The author inestimable value, because it can no longer writes with verve, modesty and real concern be obtained, and has exhibited the scholar’s for her subjects; and it is clear that many of respect for the data themselves. After con- the accounts are based on personal experi- sultingNaish and Story1 and Kraussz for ence - experience that demanded courage, Tlingitand Southern Tutchone phonemes, enduranceand scientificdevotion. For ex- the author decided that “rather than tidy up ample, theinformation about the trapline my earlier phonetic rendering in accordance and the habits of wolves has obviously been with these or other schemes[which might written by someonewho has accompanied have introduced new errors], it has seemed a hunter and been chased by wolves. When- only honest to leave them as they stand with everpossible, the Indiansare allowed to all their probable inaccuracies and inconsis- speak for themselves, so that the rich deMs tencies, [hoping that] they myserve as pre- of their lives are illuminated by these insights liminary guides to dialectical variations of into their own thoughts and feelings. This is Tlingit and Tutchone, andsuggest the nature madepossible by the methodology adopted of remnant Tagish,” by the author. In everyinstance, what she In Chapter I, Southern Yukon and Its Peo- 240 REVIEWS ples: The Ethnographer’s View, theauthor are cumulative. Most valuable here isthe dis- straightens out the confusions created by mis- cussion of the moral dilemna in which the leading tribal designationsgiven by earlier Indians find themselves, because to live they writers, through ameticulous processof iden- must kill animal beings which they consider tifying places, social groups and their rem- have souls like their own. Is it to relieve this nants, movements, and mixtures. No one who guilt that the Southern Tutchone tell of the readsthese discussions canremain content mythicaltime when animals killed and ate with static ethnographies presented in terms men? of fixed “tribes, bands, and boundaries.” In Chapter 111, TheYearly Round, the The rest of the book presents the ethno- three groups are presentedseparately, al- graphic information asmuch as possible from though differences between them are not as the “inside.“ It is substantive,meaty and pronounced as those caused by environmen- founded on solidconcrete evidence; and while tal peculiarities. The long personal accounts, theoretical problems that arise from the data here as elsewhere, are employed most effec- are discussed, the author is not playing with tively for vivid detail and emotional tone. “model-building.” Rather, she has repeatedly In Chapter IV, A Yukon Bestiary, Chapter to face the problem of whether to organize V, Fish and Fishing, Chapter VI, Some Use- the materials primarily by major topic or by ful Plants, ChapterVII, A YukonCook “tribal”group, the choice often depending Book, and Chapter VIII, A Yukon Medicine upon whether there is enough ethnographic Chest, are presented careful biological identi- detail to distinguish cultural differencesbe- fications of theanimal and plant species, tween groups. In such cases she moves regu- their ranges, and habits, etc., and, more im- larly from Southern Tutchone, to Tagish, to portant,the common attitudes of all three Inland Tlingit - an order which is not only groupstoward these natural sources of na- geographical,but proceeds fromthe less tive subsistence, and how they are obtained structured sociocultural world of the South- and used.But to the Indian, allthese, and ern Tutchone to the more highly organized animalsin particular, mustbe treated with hierarchicalone of theInland Tlingit, be- scrupulous ritual, many being considered to tweenwhich stand the Tagish.While all have powers greater than man’s, or to be un- three groups are founded on matrilineal moi- der the protection of powerfulbeings. The eties, Wolf and Crow (Raven), with similar author is careful to avoid imposing the West- reciprocalrelationships, only thesouthern- ern dichotomybetween naturaland super- most“band” of theSouthern Tutchone, in natural upon the native world, which instead contact with theChilkat Tlingit,have distinguishes between ordinary human power adopted sibs and house names from the lat- andpowers which are superhuman.En- ter. The Inland Tlingit, however, have fully counters with animals, birds, and even insects developed“houses” (lineages), sibs, and sib are often more important to the Indian than traditions, like their coastal relatives, as well meeting other humans, for they may be the asclearly defined chiefs, in contrast to the supreme occasions on which he secures the individualism and unfocused authority char- help of animal spirits, when man and animal acteristic of the Southern Tutchone. become close, as they were “in the beginning It is impossible to give an adequateidea of of time, when the gap between the two kinds the wide scope of this survey or of the rich- of beings wasnot as great as it is today.” Ah ness of theethnographic detail within the of interest is the emphasis on fresh meat as limits of a review, although somesamples the essential part of the diet, the social im- may be indicated. In Chapter II, The Uni- portance of food (feasts, gifts, sharing), and verse and Zts Inhabitants: The Native View, the severe food taboos imposed during life the author attempts thealmost impossible task crises. Why should there be such restrictions of presenting the whole cultural Lebenswelt amongpeoples who face real scarcity and of the natives,including notions of power, starvation? ideas of timeand space, weather control, InChapter IX, SettlementPatterns and and the occupants of the human world and Housing, Chapter X, Southern Yukon Tech- the other-than-human worlds. If this chapter nology, andChapter XI, A YukonStyle seems less successful than later ones, because Book, the author

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