THE ALKATCHO CARRIER OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 335

trap-line, each individual setting his traps under the direction of
the detsa, the headman. The sadeku never became a very large
group because genealogies were never traced beyond three genera-
tions, and because individual families could split from the group
and settle elsewhere.

The present kinship structure is not particularly revealing as
to aboriginal cultural affiliations, because it resembles the Bella
Coola and general Salishan form as much as the Northeastern
Athabascan in that all sadeku members of the same generation are
classified as older and younger sibling. Marriage was, and still is,
prohibited within the sadeku range. The sororate and levirate are
still practised. Residence was optional with some stress upon
patrilocality. Bride-service, considering its distribution among
Northern Athabascan, was probably an aboriginal practice.

Religious theory and practice still follow the Mackenzie Basin
and Plateau forms. Ceremonialism was strikingly undeveloped.
Menstruants were regarded as dangerous to the food supply and
practised the usual avoidance of contact with hunters, their equip-
ment, the paths hunters followed, etc. Boys and girls underwent
a series of puberty rites calculated to develop motor skills, health,
and industriousness; and to win a guardian spirit. Shamans ac-
quired power through visions and cured by removing some for-
eign object or “animal” by the laying on of the palm. Death was
attributed to the departure of the “soul” through the top of the
head. Mourning practices were particularly severe for the widow,
who at the time of cremation was required to slash her face and
to fling herself at the burning corpse or to be pushed into the fire
and beaten by his sadeku relatives. The mourning period lasted
two years, the widow during that period keeping her hair cut and
face blackened.

Among the Northeastern Athabascans* we find substantially
the same cultural picture. The basis of social organization was
the band consisting of several “families,” each band with a recog-
nized leader, usually an elderly man. Social cohesiveness was ex-
tremely weak, though each band occupied joint winter quarters,
living in caribou-skin-covered lodges. Marriage appears to have
been perfectly unrestricted within or without group, band, or

3 J. Alden Mason, The Northeastern Athabascan (manuscripts).