7

The Kutchin of Yukon River Basin, however, used a cabin in
summer only; in winter they made a beehive framework of
sticks, covered it with caribou skins (leaving a smoke-hole in
the roof), banked snow around the outside wall, and strewed
the floor with fir boughs.

Pirate IV

Winter underground house of the Thompson River Indians.

FURNITURE AND TOOLS

The furniture and tools of the northern Cordillera Indians
resembled those of Mackenzie River Basin. Their beds were
skins stretched out on the ground, their cooking vessels were
baskets of spruce roots or birch bark, their platters made of
either bark or wood, and their spoons of wood or horn. A few
skin bags served for storage or transport. Stone-bladed knives
and adzes, and bone or antler skinning knives, scrapers, and
awls were the principal tools.

The southern Indians added other articles. They wove

splendid baskets and trays of various shapes and sizes, made
mats from rushes and silverberry bark, and bags from hemp