There were a few patriarchal families into which all the others seemed to dovetail in some shape or form.

The Nooskeyah family was one of these, also the Gladu, the Cowitoreille, [A corruption, no doubt, of "Courtoreille."] and the Calahaisen.

The collateral branches of these families constituted the main portion of the native population, and yet inbreeding did not seem to have deteriorated the stock, for a healthier-looking lot of young men, women and children it would be hard to find, or one more free from scrofula.

There were instances, too, among these people, of extreme old age; one in particular which from confirmatory evidence, particularly the declarations of descendants, seemed quite authentic.

This was a woman called Catherine Bisson--the daughter of Baptiste Bisson and an Indian woman called Iskwao--who was born on New Year's Day, 1793, at Lesser Slave Lake, and had spent all her life there since.