Tsilhqot’in Homeland by James Teit, 1909The Chilcotin (“the people of the Chilco River”) form the extreme southern extension of the territorially connected tribes composing the main body of the Déné or Athapascan family.... Their habitat is in the central interior of British Columbia, from latitude 51º to 52º30' north, and between the Fraser River on the east and the Cascade Mountains on the west. The western parts of this region towards the coast, and the southern district along Upper Bridge River, are exceedingly mountainous and rugged. There are several passes, however, leading through the Coast Range to inlets of the Pacific. Immediately east of the Coast Range, and around the head waters of the Chilcotin River, north towards the Blackwater River, the country is mostly a forested plateau of considerable altitude. Farther east and south, near the Lower Chilcotin River and towards Fraser River, the plateau, although still about four thousand feet in height, becomes in most places open and grassy, and the climate is much drier. The valley of the Chilcotin River itself is much lower than the plateaus on either side. The snowfall and rainfall, however, are not very great in any part of the Chilcotin country, excepting on the high mountains. Source: James Teit, "Habitat [Tsilhqot'in Homeland]" in The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, Franz Boas (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1909), 759-760.
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