Etheneldeli ('caribou-eaters'). An
Athapascan tribe living east of Lake Caribou and Lake Athabasca, in the barren grounds which extend to Hudson bay
(Petitot,
Diet. Dene-Dindjié, xx, 1876). Franklin
(Journ. Polar Seas, 11, 241, 1824)
placed them between Athabasca and Great Slave lakes and Churchill river, whence
they resorted to Ft Chipewyan. Ross (MS., B. A. E.) makes them apart of the
eastern Tinne, their habitat being to the north and east of the head of Lake Athabasca,
extending to the end of Great Slave lake. Rocky river separates them from the Tatsanottine.
In the east are the barren grounds to which they resort every year
to hunt the caribou, which supplies practically all their needs. They were a
part of the migrating Chipewyan who
descended from the Rocky mountains and advanced
eastward from Peace river to dispute the Hudson bay region with the Maskegonand
Cree. One of their women who was held in captivity by the Maskegon was
astonished at the weapons, utensils; and clothing of European manufacture that
she saw among her captors, who told her that they made these articles
themselves. Finding at last that they got them in barter for furs at Ft Prince
of Wales, she made her escape to the English and told them of her own people on
Peace river who held the choicest furs cheap. The British traders, eager to extend
their trade, sent her with a safe conduct to her people, whom she persuaded to
migrate to the barren grounds near Hudson bay, where caribou were abundant. They
settled around Reindeer, Big, and North Indian lakes, and were called the
Northern Indians by the English and the Mangeurs de Cariboux by the Canadian
French, while the neighboring tribes called them by the same name that they had
given to the English, Men of the Stone House. Hearne saw them in 1769 and
Petitot found them there still a century later, numbering 900. About 300 traded
at Ft Fond du Lac at the head of Lake Athabasca. There were 248 enumerated
at Fond du Lac in 1902 and 368 in 1904
