Thlingchadinne ('dog-flank people'). An
Athapascan tribe or
group of tribes. Their habitat, according to Dobbs (1744), was on
Seal river, in the muskox country. They did not trade with the
French because they were afraid to go through the territory of the
hostile Maskegon. La Potherie in 1753 located them at the sources of
Churchill river. Jefferys in 1761 placed them near Hudson bay north
of their foes, the Maskegon. Franklin in 1824 found them between the
Tatsanottine country and Mackenzie river. Back (1835) said that they
were in the barren lands about Great Slave lake. Dunn (1844) gave
their habitat as Mackenzie river and Great Bear lake. According to
Richardson (1851) they occupied the inland country, east of the
Kawchodinne, from Lake La Martre to Coppermine river. Hind in 1863
located them about the north and north east parts of Great Slave
lake, resorting to Ft Rae and Ft Simpson. Petitot gave their habitat
as being between Great Slave and Great Bear lakes, east of Mackenzie
river, extending as far as Coppermine river. Expelled from their
pristine home by their Cree
enemies, they have migrated continuously northward during two
centuries. Franklin, Dease, and Simpson found them north and north
east of Great Bear lake between 1819 and 1836. Since then they have
returned to some of the southern districts. Petitot found Great
Slave lake their extreme southern limit.
According to a fable told by the
Chipewyan,
Tatsanottine, and
Kawchodinne, as well as by
the Thlingchadinne themselves, the tribe originated from the union
of a supernatural dog-man with a Tinne woman. After the discovery of
copper by a Tatsanottine woman another woman of the same tribe was
dwelling with her two brothers north of Great Slave lake. One day a
strong and handsome stranger arrived, who, on the proposal of the
brothers, took her for his wife. Waking in the middle of the wedding
night she found her husband gone and heard an animal crunching bones
at the fireplace. (There were no dogs then among the Tatsanottine;
Franklin found them without these animals in 1820.) The same thing
happened the next night. The bride and her brothers lighted torches,
but found no animal. On the third night one of the brothers hurled a
stone ax into the corner whence the noise of gnawing proceeded. A
cry of agony was heard, and when a torch was lighted a great black
dog was seen twitching in the death throes. As the human husband did
not reappear, the brothers chased forth their sister because she had
married a dog-man, a sorcerer, a Tlingit. She wandered into the
treeless desert of Coppermine river, where in the course of time she
brought forth a litter of puppies, which she kept hidden in a bag of
reindeer skin. When they could run alone she was astonished to find
on her return from hunting, prints of infants' feet in the ashes.
Hiding one day, she saw the little dogs leap from the bag, becoming
handsome children as soon as they reached the light. She ran and
pulled the string of the bag, but not before three succeeded in
jumping back into the dark hole. Two boys and two girls were kept
forcibly in the daylight, and these became the progenitors of the
Thlingchadinne (Petitot, Autour du Lac des Esclaves,
296, 1891).
Ross states that adjoining the Tatsanottine are the
Dog-ribs, whose lands extend from Coppermine river to the south east
side of Great Bear lake and to about midway between Lake La Martre
and Mackenzie river. In the latter tract they are much intermingled
with the Etehareottine, from whom they can scarcely be distinguished
except by their larger stature and their thick, stuttering, and
disagreeable manner of enunciation. Petitot describes them as tall
and well built, of a bronze or terra-cotta color, nervous of
temperament, their hands and feet small and well modeled, the chest
wide and deep, with black hair and eyes, heavy eyelids, a sad and
reserved look, large mouths, full lips, furnished with slender
moustaches on the men, sometimes accompanied by thin beards, their
countenances having a peculiar Egyptian cast. The same author
(Bull. Soc. G6og. Paris, chart, 1875) divides
them into Takfwelottine, Lintchanre, Tseottine, and Tsantieottine.
The Thlingchadinne subsist chiefly on the reindeer. They are said to
treat their women and dogs with more kindness and consideration than
do the Chipewyan tribes. The father loses his name on the birth of a
child and is thereafter known as the father of so-and-so, the child.
Other tribes of this group have the same custom, but these people
change the name after the birth of every child, while an unmarried
man is called the father of his favorite dog. Ross in 1858 gave
their population as 926, of whom 533 were men and 393 were women; of
this number 23 were found at Ft Resolution on Great Slave lake, 150
at Ft Simpson, and 133 at Ft Norman. Father Morice in. 1906 gave the
total number of Dog-ribs as 1,150.
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