The chief tribe of the Dog-Rib nation, termed Horn Mountain Indians, inhabit the country betwixt Great Bear Lake and the west end of Great Slave Lake.  They muster about two hundred men and boys capable of pursuing the chase.  Small detachments of the nation frequent Marten Lake and hunt during the summer in the neighbourhood of Fort Enterprise.  Indeed this part of the country was formerly exclusively theirs, and most of the lakes and remarkable hills bear the names which they imposed upon them.  As the Copper Indians generally pillage them of their women and furs when they meet they endeavour to avoid them and visit their ancient quarters on the barren grounds only by stealth.

Immediately to the northward of the Dog-Ribs, on the north side of Bear Lake River, are the Kawchodinneh or Hare Indians who also speak a dialect of the Chipewyan language and have much of the same manners with the Dog-Ribs, but are considered both by them and by the Copper Indians to be great conjurors.  These people report that in their hunting excursions to the northward of Great Bear Lake they meet small parties of Esquimaux.

Immediately to the northward of the Hare Indians on both banks of Mackenzie’s River are the Tykotheedinneh, Loucheux, Squint-Eyes, or Quarrellers.  They speak a language distinct from the Chipewyan.  They war often with the Esquimaux at the mouth of Mackenzie’s River but have occasionally some peaceable intercourse with them, and it would appear that they find no difficulty in understanding each other, there being considerable similarity in their languages.  Their dress also resembles the Esquimaux and differs from that of the other inhabitants of Mackenzie’s River.  The Tykotheedinneh trade with Fort Good-Hope, situated a considerable distance below the confluence of Bear Lake River with Mackenzie’s River and, as the traders suppose, within three days’ march of the Arctic Sea.  It is the most northern establishment of the North-West Company, and some small pieces of Russian copper coin once made their way thither across the continent from the westward.  Blue or white beads are almost the only articles of European manufacture coveted by the Loucheux.  They perforate the septum of the nose and insert in the opening three small shells which they procure at a high price from the Esquimaux.

On the west bank of Mackenzie’s River there are several tribes who speak dialects of the Chipewyan language that have not hitherto been mentioned.  The first met with on tracing the river to the southward from Fort Good-Hope are the Ambawtawhootdinneh, or Sheep Indians.  They inhabit the Rocky Mountains near the sources of the Dawhootdinneh River which flows into Mackenzie’s and are but little known to the traders.  Some of them have visited Fort Good-Hope.  A report of their being cannibals may have originated in an imperfect knowledge of them.