Winter presents a more personal narrative of Cornelius Osgood’s fieldwork in the Great Bear Lake region. Forgoing many of the detailed ethnographic observations from other text, Osgood writes this book like a reflexive story that emphasizes his own perceptions and relationships.

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Osgood remembered by Yale:

Cornelius Osgood (b. 1905, d. 1985) was Curator of Anthropology at the Yale Peabody Museum from 1934 to 1973. He brought significant collections to the Museum from his research expeditions to the Arctic, China and Korea. Osgood may be best known for his research among the Athapaskan speaking people of interior Alaska, much of it published through the Yale University Publications in Anthropology series, and was also active in Connecticut archaeology.

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Osgood, Cornelius. Winter. New York: W.W. Nortan & Company, 1953.

ISBN: 978-0-80328-623-8

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This text provides a variety of ethnographic details on Athapaskan Indigenous groups in northwestern Canada and Alaska (primarily focused on classification, naming, and subdivisions), as well as some geographic description of the regions in which they live. It is included in a larger volume about population change, diversity, practices, and economy across North American Indigenous peoples.

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ISBN: 9781258804411.

Osgood, Cornelius. “The Distribution of the Northern Athapaskan Indians.” Yale University Publications in Anthropology, no. 7. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1936.

Osgood drafted this text as a monograph based on 14 months of fieldwork from 1928 to 1929, for the National Museum of Canada. This detailed text includes notes on the history, ways of life, materials, arts, social organization, and faith of peoples around Great Bear Lake (including, in his terms, the Sahtudenes, the Dogribs, Hares, Slaves, Yellowknifes, and Mountain Nations). It also contains some pertinent details about health, waves of influenza, and the relationships between visitors and Indigenous peoples.

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The Distribution of the Northern Athapaskan Indians

Winter

An Ethnographical Map of Great Bear Lake

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Osgood, Cornelius. “The Ethnography of the Great Bear Lake Indians.” In Annual report for 1931: National Museum of Canada Bulletin 70 (1932): 31-97.

Émile-Fortuné Petitot was a French oblate missionary, who worked to record place names, stories, and histories during his travels in the Athabasca-Mackenzie area of what is now the Northwest Territories during 1862-1883. This text is specifically about the Great Bear Lake region.

Petitot was avidly interested in indigenous languages and stories, and his skills as a linguist and ethnographic researcher make his work invaluable in understanding the history and meaning of indigenous cultural and ecological landscapes. Petitot recounts stories about places, provides descriptions of the sites he visited, and details travel routes, fisheries, and hunting trips.

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Petitot, Emile. Exploration de la région du Grand Lac des Ours (fin de quinze ans sous le cercle polaire). Paris: Téqui, 1893.

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Émile-Fortuné Petitot was a French oblate missionary, who worked to record place names, stories, and histories during his travels in the Athabasca-Mackenzie area of what is now the Northwest Territories during 1862-1883.

Petitot was avidly interested in indigenous languages and stories, and his skills as a linguist and ethnographic researcher make his work invaluable in understanding the history and meaning of indigenous cultural and ecological landscapes. Petitot recounts stories about places, provides descriptions of the sites he visited, and details travel routes, fisheries, and hunting trips.

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Petitot, Emile. Traditions Indiennes du Canada nord-ouest (textes originaux et traduction littérale). Alençon, France: E. Renaut de Broise, 1888.

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