The name of the Carrier (or Carriers), translated into English from the dialect of a neighboring tribe and pronounced as spelled, refers to a custom in which a widow had to carry the charred bones of her dead husband in a basket for three years. The French name for Carrier is Porteur, with the same meaning. The Carrier preferred to use their various band names or, starting in the 20th century, the shared name Dakelh or Takulli, meaning “people who go upon the water.”
The Carrier ancestral homeland is located in the southwestern corner of the cultural region known as the Subarctic Culture Area. Their territory included the headwaters of the Fraser River as well as the territory around Babine, Stuart, and Franpois Lakes. This rugged terrain lies between the Coast Mountains and the Rocky Mountains in present-day British Columbia in western
Canada. Other ATHAPASCANS living near them in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains with similar ways of life were the Chilcotin, Nahane, Sekani, Tahltan, Tset-saut, and Tutchone (Mountain).
The Carrier, like other SUBARCTIC INDIANS, were hunter-gatherers who did not farm at all. They hunted the caribou and other game in the forests; they fished the lakes and rivers; they foraged for roots and berries. They wore leather clothing—robe, leggings, and moccasins, with a cap and mittens for cold weather.
The Carrier are an interesting cultural mix because they had lifeways in common with NORTHWEST COAST INDIANS west of them along the Pacific Coast as well as lifeways in common with PLATEAU INDIANS south of them along the Columbia River. For example, like Northwest Coast peoples, the Carrier lived in villages of plank houses much of the year; they had social classes of nobles, commoners, and slaves; tribal members could improve their social position through the potlatch, the custom of giving possessions away for prestige; warriors wore armor made from slats of wood; and they prized Chilkat blankets that they received in trade from coastal peoples, such as the TLINGIT. Like the Plateau Indians, the Carrier depended on fish as their primary food staple, pursuing salmon during the summer runs up the rivers. They also built pithouses like the Columbia Plateau peoples’ for winter use. Nor were their summer houses the conical skin tents typical of Subarctic peoples, but rather open shelters with spruce-bark roofs and no walls. Another way the Carrier differed from other Subarctic Indians: They did not use snowshoes or toboggans.
The Carrier, being an inland western people, avoided early contacts with non-Indians. Alexander Mackenzie, the Scots explorer and fur trader who worked for the North West Company out of Montreal, visited the Carrier in 1793 during his journey across North America. Simon Fraser, another Canadian explorer for the North West Company, established trading posts in Carrier territory in 1805—06. And in 1843, a Catholic missionary, Father Demers, began work among them. Many miners came to Carrier country, starting in the late 1850s. The building of the Canadian Pacific transcontinental railroad, completed
Carrier moccasins (modern)
In 1885, brought more outsiders to the Carrier homeland. Contacts with non-Indians brought epidemics to the Carrier and eroded their traditional way of life.
The Carrier have gradually rebuilt their lives. They work in a variety of fields, including farming and railroad work. Some tribal members earn a living through hunting and trapping as their ancestors did. The various Carrier bands hold about 100 small reserves in British Columbia. The Carrier Sekani Tribal Council (CSTC), formed in 1979, is a council made up of eight First Nations. It is dedicated to preserving and promoting Carrier and Sekani culture and protecting and obtaining ancestral lands.
World History
