But although nowadays so much associated with the far north and north-west of America, the Athabaskan group evidently came from a region much farther south, and has been cut in half by other tribal movements, wars, and migrations; for the Athapaskan family also includes the Apaches and the Navaho of the south-western portions of the United States and the adjoining territories of Mexico.

The northern and southern divisions of the Athapaskan group are separated by something like twelve hundred miles.

The following are the principal tribes into which the Northern ATHAPASKAN group was divided at the time of the first explorations of the north-west.

There were the _Chippewayan_ Indians[8] round about Lake Athapaska, and the Caribou Eaters or Ethen-eldeli between Lake Athapaska and Reindeer Lake.

The "_Slaves_", or Slave Indians of the Great Slave Lake and the upper Mackenzie River; the Beaver and Sarsi Indians (known also as the Tsekehn), about the Peace River and the northern part of Alberta province; and the _Yellow Knives_, or Totsan-ottine (so called from their being found with light-coloured copper knives when first discovered by Europeans), north-east of the Great Slave Lake and along the Coppermine River: the _Dogribs_ between the Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake, perhaps (except in Alaska) the most northern extension of the Amerindian type towards the Arctic regions.