Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2014
This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association in London, June 4, 1953. The material was collected during the summer of 1952, when the writer was employed as a social anthropologist for the Department of Natural Resources of Saskatchewan.
1 Unless otherwise indicated, all figures in this paper are taken from a special report compiled by Mr. R. Young, Administrative Assistant, Department of Natural Resources of Saskatchewan.
2 Estimated by C. S. Brown in his 1951 Report of the Buffalo Region for the Department of Natural Resources of Saskatchewan. Large families are desired because of family allowance moneys. They are the main source of income at Portage la Loche where it is a very common practice for a man, whose wife is able to have many children, to give a child for adoption to a brother whose wife is unable to have any or only a few.
3 According to the mission records at Portage La Loche, out of 30 births for 8 months of 1952, 7 were illegitimate, that is, 23.3 per cent.