Quantitative analysis of Subarctic Athabascans’ war folklore

Abstract

Very few war conflicts in Western Subarctic are mentioned in colonial era sources in comparison with other areas of North America. However, there is a number of war legends found in Subarctic Athabaskan narrative folklore. The author suggests a method of quantitative analysis of folklore systems to specify the percent of war tales. Based on this analysis, the author concludes that war storylines are found in the Athabaskan folklore as often as in folklore of other ethnic groups whose history and culture have been heavily influenced by warfare. This indicates that wars in the Athabaskan history took place more often than it is reflected in the historical sources. Therefore, folklore is the most suitable basis for the reconstruction of military history of the Western Subarctic in the precolonial and early colonial era.