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THE ALKATCHO CARRIER OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
by Irving Goldman

The Alkatcho Carrier, an Athabascan speaking people, inhabit
a small village on Lake Gatcho on the eastern slope of the Coast
Range Mountains in central British Columbia. Situated in moun-
tainous, heavily pine-forested country remote from the usual lanes
of travel and commerce, this branch of the Carrier, comprising lit-
tle over a hundred individuals, has escaped the direct and often
disastrous impact of White civilization. Not that Carrier culture
has remained untouched; but in circumstances where they have
met the White trader and missionary under better than equal con-
ditions, the Carrier have been able to adapt their social forms
slowly and consciously in response to the new problems posed by
Western civilization. From their comprehension of the achieve-
ments of the Whites—particularly in technology—most of the
Carrier welcome with eagerness the new opportunities offered
them in their contact with the representatives of Western society.

But only about 150 years ago, a century before direct contact
with the Whites, Carrier culture had undergone profound change
from another source. Approximately at this period the Carrier
adopted the social forms of their West Coast neighbors, the Bella
Coola. Prior to that time we assume the Alkatcho Carrier had a
culture similar to that of the Northeastern Athabascan.

Thus, we can view two phases of Carrier acculturation; and
because the time span has been relatively short, it is possible to
lay bare in broad outline the dynamic processes of culture change
and of cultural integration. Some of the specific aspects of the
earlier phase of Northwest Coast acculturation have already been
treated elsewhere,‘ and so only a résumé of these problems will be

1J. Goldman, The Alkatcho Carrier: Historical Background of Crest Pre-
rogatives, Doctoral dissertation in manuscript.

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