ANTHROPOMETRY OF THE BEAVER, SEKANI, AND
CARRIER INDIANS

INTRODUCTION

This is the third report on the physical anthropometry of the Indians
of Canada the author has made for the Division of Anthropology, National
Museum of Canada. The first report (Bulletin No. 59) dealt with the
Cree and Saulteaux Indians in northeastern Manitoba; the second
(Bulletin No. 64) with the Chipewyan and Cree Indians in the region of
lake Athabaska; and this, the third, the work for which was undertaken
during the summer of 1929, deals especially’ with the Beaver Indians.
But, incorporated in this third report is the information that D. Jenness,
Division of Anthropology, National Museum of Canada, collected in the
year 1923 on the Sekani, Eastern Carrier, and Western Carrier Indians.
His notes on these three tribes he has very kindly entrusted to the author’s
care. It is not inappropriate that these three tribes, together with the
Beaver Indians, should be dealt with in one report, for not only do they
inhabit adjacent territories but all four belong to the Déné or northern
Athabaskan stock.

The main purpose of the field work undertaken in 1929 was to obtain
information on the physical characters and physical proportions of the
Beaver Indians with the object of extending our knowledge of the Déné
stock. To this stock, the Chipewyan Indians dealt with in the second
report also belong. The Beaver Indians frequent the banks of Peace river.

Since within recent years it has become known that beyond the high
banks of Peace river there extends a wide and fertile prairie, the region
about this great river has gradually been turned into a vast field of wheat.
The railway track is penetrating this region and stations are being estab-
lished every few miles. Around these stations villages are springing up,
and from these as centres farming is enabled to spread to progressively
wider circles. The Indians, in consequence of this invasion, are disposing
of their reserve lands—which the homesteads of white people thus threaten
to surround—and are taking up fresh reserves farther afield.

The three bands of Beaver Indians visited have, or had until recently,
reserves near Hudson Hope, Fort St. John, and Dunvegan, all of which
are situated close to the banks of Peace river. The two other bands of
Indians visited were living somewhat to the south of the river. Of these,
one, the Grande Prairie band, is composed of Beaver Indians and of various
mixed breed Indians (this band had assembled at lake Saskatoon); the
other, composed largely of Cree Indians and Cree breeds, has its reserve at
Sturgeon lake, where it was visited.

In all, measurements were taken of one hundred and eighty-five
Indians. When these are sorted out according to age, sex, and stock
they are seen, as the accompanying Table No. I shows, to fall into a
considerable variety of groups, of which only the Beavers are represented

1In addition to these one hundred and eighty-five Indians, four Indians were examined for blood grouping only.