The northern tribes are known as Wood Indians, in contradistinction to
the inhabitants of the open country, the Prairie Indians, who differ
greatly from the former in their habits and customs. All the tribes of
the Athabascas, as well as those to the south of them, known as the
Algonquins, are Wood Indians. They are nearly always engaged in hunting
the wild animals of the region they inhabit, for the sake of their furs,
which they dispose of to the agents of the Hudson Bay Company and other
traders, in exchange for blankets, firearms, hatchets, and numerous
other articles, as well as too often for the pernicious fire-water, to
obtain even small quantities of which they will frequently dispose of
the skins which it has cost them many weeks to obtain with much hardship
and danger. These Wood Indians are peaceably-disposed, and can always
escape the attacks of their enemies of the prairies by retreating among
their forest or lake fastnesses. They obtain their game by various
devices, sometimes using traps of ingenious construction, or shooting
the creatures with bows and arrows, and of later years with firearms.
They spear the fish which abound in their waters, or catch them with
scoop and other nets. Although their ordinary wigwams are of the shape
already described, some are considerably larger, somewhat of a bee-hive
form, covered thickly with birch-bark, and have a raised dais in the
interior capable of holding a considerable number of people. The
best-known of these Forest Indians are the Chippeways, who range from
the banks of Lake Huron almost to the Rocky Mountains, throughout the
British territory.