Within our country, we had established an organized way to deal with hunting areas for our extended Families. Our relationship to the land was tied to who we were as groups of people, Families. (Families with a capital "F" refers to extended Family groups.)

Each Family had the use of a certain area within our boundaries. Members of each Family was responsible for maintaining the health of resources in their region. Each Family respected the others' area and did not hunt or gather food in another area.

The boundaries were not rigid, however, but allowed for neighbours to share food if resources in an area were low. We do not know the exact boundaries, but they were probably based on the lay of the land. A boundary probably followed a creek or ridge.

To understand how the boundaries within our borders worked, you need to review how we Tahltans were organized. We had two clans: Wolf and Crow. Each individual belonged to one or the other of these clans. We had six Family Groups. Three were Wolf, and three were Crow. [See Family - Clans for a complete explanation.]