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presents, can really never be completely atoned for except by blood; hence private, family, and tribal feuds continue from generation to generation. Women are not immodest, but the men have no shame. Stealing is recognized as a fault, and the practice as between members of the same tribe is rare, but skillful pilfering from strangers, if not officially sanctioned, is extensively carried on and much admired; still any property confided in trust to a Nootka is said to be faithfully returned. To his wife he is kind and just; to his children affectionate. Efforts for their conversion to foreign religions have been in the highest degree unsuccessful.
318
THE SOUND INDIANS. The Sound Indians, by which term I find it convenient to designate the nations about Puget Sound, constitute the third family of the Columbian group. In this division I include all the natives of that part of Washington which lies to the west of the Cascade Range, except a strip from twenty-five to forty miles wide along the north bank of the Columbia. The north-eastern section of this territory, including the San Juan group, Whidbey Island, and the region tributary to Bellingham Bay, is the home of the Nooksak, Lummi, Samish and Skagit nations, whose neighbors and constant harassers on the north are the fierce Kwantlums and Cowichins of the Nootka family about the mouth of the Fraser. The central section, comprising the shores and islands of Admiralty Inlet, Hood Canal, and Puget Sound proper, is occupied by numerous tribes with variously spelled names, mostly terminating in mish, which names, with all their orthographic diversity, have been given generally to the streams on whose banks the different nations dwelt. All these tribes may be termed the Nisqually nation, taking the name from the most numerous and best-known of the tribes located about the head of the sound. The Clallams inhabit the eastern portion of the peninsula between the sound and the Pacific. The western extremity of the same peninsula, terminating at Cape Flattery, is occupied by the Classets or Makahs; while the Chehalis and Cowlitz nations are found on the Chehalis River, Gray Harbor, and the upper Cowlitz. Excepting a few bands on the headwaters of streams that rise in the vicinity of Mount Baker, the Sound family belongs to the coast fish-eating tribes rather than to the hunters of the interior. Indeed, this family has so few marked peculiarities, possessing apparently no trait or custom not found as well among the Nootkas or Chinooks, that it may be described in comparatively few words. When first known to Europeans they seem to have been far less numerous than might have been expected from the extraordinary fertility and climatic advantages of their country; and since they have been in contact with the whites, their numbers have been reduced, – chiefly through the agency of small-pox and ague, – even more rapidly than the nations farther to the north-west.319
These natives of Washington are short and thick-set, with strong limbs, but bow-legged; they have broad faces, eyes fine but wide apart; noses prominent, both of Roman and aquiline type; color, a light copper, perhaps a shade darker than that of the Nootkas, but capable of transmitting a flush; the hair usually black and almost universally worn long.320
All the tribes flatten the head more or less, but none carry the practice to such an extent as their neighbors on the south, unless it be the Cowlitz nation, which might indeed as correctly be classed with the Chinooks. By most of the Sound natives tattooing is not practiced, and they seem somewhat less addicted to a constant use of paint than the Nootkas; yet on festive occasions a plentiful and hideous application is made of charcoal or colored earth pulverized in grease, and the women appreciate the charms imparted to the face by the use of vermilion clay. The nose, particularly at Cape Flattery, is the grand centre of facial ornamentation. Perforating is extravagantly practiced, and pendant trinkets of every form and substance are worn, those of bone or shell preferred, and, if we may credit Wilkes, by some of the women these ornaments are actually kept clean.
SOUND DRESS AND DWELLINGS. The native garment, when the weather makes nakedness uncomfortable, is a blanket of dog's hair, sometimes mixed with birds' down and bark-fibre, thrown about the shoulders. Some few fasten this about the neck with a wooden pin. The women are more careful in covering the person with the blanket than are the men, and generally wear under it a bark apron hanging from the waist in front. A cone-shaped, water-proof hat, woven from colored grasses, is sometimes worn on the head.321
Temporary hunting-huts in summer are merely cross-sticks covered with coarse mats made by laying bulrushes side by side, and knotting them at intervals with cord or grass. The poorer individuals or tribes dwell permanently in similar huts, improved by the addition of a few slabs; while the rich and powerful build substantial houses, of planks split from trees by means of bone wedges, much like the Nootka dwellings in plan, and nearly as large. These houses sometimes measure over one hundred feet in length, and are divided into rooms or pens, each house accommodating many families. There are several fire-places in each dwelling; raised benches extend round the sides, and the walls are often lined with matting.322
FOOD OF THE SOUND INDIANS. In spring time they abandon their regular dwellings and resort in small companies to the various sources of food-supply. Fish is their chief dependence, though game is taken in much larger quantities than by the Nootkas; some of the more inland Sound tribes subsisting almost entirely by the chase and by root-digging. Nearly all the varieties of fish which support the northern tribes are also abundant here, and are taken substantially by the same methods, namely, by the net, hook, spear, and rake; but fisheries seem to be carried on somewhat less systematically, and I find no account of the extensive and complicated embankments and traps mentioned by travelers in British Columbia. To the salmon, sturgeon, herring, rock-cod, and candle-fish, abundant in the inlets of the sound, the Classets, by venturing out to sea, add a supply of whale-blubber and otter-meat, obtained with spears, lines, and floats. At certain points on the shore tall poles are erected, across which nets are spread; and against these nets large numbers of wild fowl, dazzled by torch-lights at night, dash themselves and fall stunned to the ground, where the natives stand ready to gather in the feathery harvest. Vancouver noticed many of these poles in different localities, but could not divine their use. Deer and elk in the forests are also hunted by night, and brought within arrow-shot by the spell of torches. For preservation, fish are dried in the sun or dried and smoked by the domestic hearth, and sometimes pounded fine, as are roots of various kinds; clams are dried on strings and hung up in the houses, or occasionally worn round the neck, ministering to the native love of ornament until the stronger instinct of hunger impairs the beauty of the necklace. In the better class of houses, supplies are neatly stored in baskets at the sides. The people are extremely improvident, and, notwithstanding their abundant natural supplies in ocean, stream, and forest, are often in great want. Boiling in wooden vessels by means of hot stones is the ordinary method of cooking. A visitor to the Nooksaks thus describes their method of steaming elk-meat: "They first dig a hole in the ground, then build a wood fire, placing stones on the top of it. As it burns, the stones become hot and fall down. Moss and leaves are then placed on the top of the hot stones, the meat on these, and another layer of moss and leaves laid over it. Water is poured on, which is speedily converted into steam. This is retained by mats carefully placed over the heap. When left in this way for a night, the meat is found tender and well cooked in the morning." Fowls were cooked in the same manner by the Queniults.323
I find no mention of other weapons, offensive or defensive, than spears, and bows and arrows. The arrows and spears were usually pointed with bone; the bows were of yew, and though short, were of great power. Vancouver describes a superior bow used at Puget Sound. It was from two and a half to three feet long, made from a naturally curved piece of yew, whose concave side became the convex of the bow, and to the whole length of this side a strip of elastic hide or serpent-skin was attached so firmly by a kind of cement as to become almost a part of the wood. This lining added greatly to the strength of the bow, and was not affected by moisture. The bow-string was made of sinew.324 The tribes were continually at war with each other, and with northern nations, generally losing many of their people in battle. Sticking the heads of the slain enemy on poles in front of their dwellings, is a common way of demonstrating
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<p>318</p>
'As light-fingered as any of the Sandwich Islanders. Of a quiet, phlegmatic, and inactive disposition.' 'A docile, courteous, good-natured people … but quick in resenting what they look upon as an injury; and, like most other passionate people, as soon forgetting it.' Not curious; indolent; generally fair in trade, and would steal only such articles as they wanted for some purpose. Cook's Voy. to Pac., vol. ii., pp. 272, 308-12, etc. 'Exceedingly hospitable in their own homes, … lack neither courage nor intelligence.' Pemberton's Vanc. Isl., p. 131. The Kla-iz-zarts 'appear to be more civilized than any of the others.' The Cayuquets are thought to be deficient in courage; and the Kla-os-quates 'are a fierce, bold, and enterprizing people.' Jewitt's Nar., pp. 75-7. 'Civil and inoffensive' at Horse Sound. Vancouver's Voy., vol. i., p. 307. 'Their moral deformities are as great as their physical ones.' Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., p. 88. The Nittinahts given to aggressive war, and consequently 'bear a bad reputation.' Whymper's Alaska, p. 74. Not brave, and a slight repulse daunts them. 'Sincere in his friendship, kind to his wife and children, and devotedly loyal to his own tribe,' p. 51. 'In sickness and approaching death, the savage always becomes melancholy,' p. 162. Sproat's Scenes, pp. 30, 36, 52, 91, 119-24, 150-66, 187, 216. 'Comux and Yucletah fellows very savage and uncivilized dogs,' and the Nootkas not to be trusted. 'Cruel, bloodthirsty, treacherous and cowardly.' Grant, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxvii., pp. 294, 296, 298, 305, 307. Mayne's B. C., p. 246; Macfie's Vanc. Isl., pp. 190, 460-1, 472, 477, 484; Poole's Q. Char. Isl., pp. 294-6. The Spaniards gave the Nootkas a much better character than voyagers of other nations. Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, pp. 25, 31-2, 57-9, 63, 99, 107, 133, 149-51, 154-6; Forbes' Vanc. Isl., p. 25; Rattray's Vanc. Isl., pp. 172-3. The Ucultas 'are a band of lawless pirates and robbers, levying black-mail on all the surrounding tribes.' Barrett-Lennard's Trav., p. 43. 'Bold and ferocious, sly and reserved, not easily provoked, but revengeful.' Spark's Life of Ledyard, p. 72. The Teets have 'all the vices of the coast tribes' with 'none of the redeeming qualities of the interior nations.' Anderson, in Hist. Mag., vol. vii., p. 78.
<p>319</p>
'Those who came within our notice so nearly resembled the people of Nootka, that the best delineation I can offer is a reference to the description of those people' (by Cook), p. 252. At Cape Flattery they closely resembled those of Nootka and spoke the same language, p. 218. At Gray Harbor they seemed to vary in little or no respect 'from those on the sound, and understood the Nootka tongue', p. 83. 'The character and appearance of their several tribes here did not seem to differ in any material respect from each other,' p. 288. Evidence that the country was once much more thickly peopled, p. 254. Vancouver's Voy., vol. i., pp. 218, 252, 254, 288; vol. ii., p. 83. The Chehalis come down as far as Shoal-water Bay. A band of Klikatats (Sahaptins) is spoken of near the head of the Cowlitz. 'The Makahs resemble the northwestern Indians far more than their neighbors.' The Lummi are a branch of the Clallams. Rept. Ind. Aff., 1854, pp. 240-4. The Lummi 'traditions lead them to believe that they are descendants of a better race than common savages.' The Semianmas 'are intermarried with the north band of the Lummis, and Cowegans, and Quantlums.' The Neuk-wers and Siamanas are called Stick Indians, and in 1852 had never seen a white. 'The Neuk-sacks (Mountain Men) trace from the salt water Indians,' and 'are entirely different from the others.' 'The Loomis appear to be more of a wandering class than the others about Bellingham Bay.' Id., 1857, pp. 327-9. 'They can be divided into two classes – the salt-water and the Stick Indians.' Id., 1857, p. 224. Of the Nisquallies 'some live in the plains, and others on the banks of the Sound.' The Classets have been less affected than the Chinooks by fever and ague. Dunn's Oregon, pp. 231-5. The Clallams speak a kindred language to that of the Ahts. Sproat's Scenes, p. 270. 'El gobierno de estos naturales de la entrada y canales de Fuca, la disposicion interior de las habitaciones las manufacturas y vestidos que usan son muy parecidos á los de los habitantes de Nutka.' Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, p. 111. The Sound Indians live in great dread of the Northern tribes. Wilkes' Nar., in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. iv., p. 513. The Makahs deem themselves much superior to the tribes of the interior, because they go out on the ocean. Scammon, in Overland Monthly, vol. vii., pp. 277-8. The Nooksaks are entirely distinct from the Lummi, and some suppose them to have come from the Clallam country. Coleman, in Harper's Mag., vol. xxxix., p. 799. Stevens, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. i., p. 428.
<p>320</p>
At Port Discovery they 'seemed capable of enduring great fatigue.' 'Their cheek-bones were high.' 'The oblique eye of the Chinese was not uncommon.' 'Their countenances wore an expression of wildness, and they had, in the opinion of some of us, a melancholy cast of features.' Some of women would with difficulty be distinguished in colour from those of European race. The Classet women 'were much better looking than those of other tribes.' Portrait of a Tatouche chief. Wilkes' Nar., in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. iv., pp. 317-8, 320, 517-8. 'All are bow-legged.' 'All of a sad-colored, Caravaggio brown.' 'All have coarse, black hair, and are beardless.' Winthrop's Canoe and Saddle, p. 32. 'Tall and stout.' Maurelle's Jour., p. 28. Sproat mentions a Clallam slave who 'could see in the dark like a racoon.' Scenes, p. 52. The Classet 'cast of countenance is very different from that of the Nootkians … their complexion in also much fairer and their stature shorter.' Jewitt's Nar., p. 75. The Nisqually Indians 'are of very large stature; indeed, the largest I have met with on the continent. The women are particularly large and stout.' Kane's Wand., pp. 207, 228, 234. The Nisquallies are by no means a large race, being from five feet five inches to five feet nine inches in height, and weighing from one hundred and thirty to one hundred and eighty pounds. Anderson, in Lord's Nat., vol. ii., p. 227. 'De rostro hermoso y da gallarda figura.' Navarrete, in Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, p. xciv. The Queniults, 'the finest-looking Indians I had ever seen.' Swan's N. W. Coast, pp. 78-9. Neuksacks stronger and more athletic than other tribes. Many of the Lummi 'very fair and have light hair.' Rept. Ind. Aff., 1857, p. 328; Pickering's Races, in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. ix., p. 23; Morton's Crania, p. 215, with plate of Cowlitz skull; Cornwallis' New El Dorado, p. 97; Vancouver's Voy., vol. i., p. 252; Murphy and Harned, Puget Sound Directory, pp. 64-71; Clark's Lights and Shadows, pp. 214-15, 224-6.
<p>321</p>
'Less bedaubed with paint and less filthy' than the Nootkas. At Port Discovery 'they wore ornaments, though none were observed in their noses.' At Cape Flattery the nose ornament was straight, instead of crescent-shaped, as among the Nootkas. Vancouver supposed their garments to be composed of dog's hair mixed with the wool of some wild animal, which he did not see. Vancouver's Voy., vol. i., pp. 218, 230, 266. At Port Discovery some had small brass bells hung in the rim of the ears, p. 318. Some of the Skagits were tattooed with lines on the arms and face, and fond of brass rings, pp. 511-12. The Classets 'wore small pieces of an iridescent mussel-shell, attached to the cartilage of their nose, which was in some, of the size of a ten cents piece, and triangular in shape. It is generally kept in motion by their breathing,' p. 517. Wilkes' Nar., in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. iv., pp. 317-20, 334, 404, 444, 511-2, 517-8. The conical hats and stout bodies 'brought to mind representations of Siberian tribes.' Pickering's Races, in Idem., vol. ix., p. 23. The Clallams 'wear no clothing in summer.' Faces daubed with red and white mud. Illustration of head-flattening. Kane's Wand., pp. 180, 207, 210-11, 224. Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. i., pp. 108-9; Rossi, Souvenirs, p. 299; Dunn's Oregon, pp. 232-3; San Francisco Bulletin, May 24, 1859; Ind. Aff. Rept., 1854, p. 243; Id., 1857, p. 329; Stevens, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. i., p. 430. Above Gray Harbor they were dressed with red deer skins. Navarrete, in Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, p. xciv: Cornwallis' New El Dorado, p. 97; Winthrop's Canoe and Saddle, p. 32-3; Murphy and Harned, in Puget Sd. Direct., pp. 64-71.
<p>322</p>
The Skagit tribe being exposed to attacks from the north, combine dwellings and fort, and build themselves 'enclosures, four hundred feet long, and capable of containing many families, which are constructed of pickets made of thick planks, about thirty feet high. The pickets are firmly fixed into the ground, the spaces between them being only sufficient to point a musket through… The interior of the enclosure is divided into lodges,' p. 511. At Port Discovery the lodges were 'no more than a few rudely-cut slabs, covered in part by coarse mats,' p. 319. Wilkes' Nar., in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. iv., pp. 319-20, 511, 517. The Clallams also have a fort of pickets one hundred and fifty feet square, roofed over and divided into compartments for families. 'There were about two hundred of the tribe in the fort at the time of my arrival.' 'The lodges are built of cedar like the Chinook lodges, but much larger, some of them being sixty or seventy feet long.' Kane's Wand., pp. 210, 219, 227-9. 'Their houses are of considerable size, often fifty to one hundred feet in length, and strongly built.' Rept. Ind. Aff., 1854, pp. 242-3. 'The planks forming the roof run the whole length of the building, being guttered to carry off the water, and sloping slightly to one end.' Stevens, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. i., pp. 429-30. Well built lodges of timber and plank on Whidbey Island. Thornton's Ogn. and Cal., vol. i., p. 300. At New Dungeness, 'composed of nothing more than a few mats thrown over cross sticks;' and on Puget Sound 'constructed something after the fashion of a soldier's tent, by two cross sticks about five feet high, connected at each end by a ridge-pole from one to the other, over some of which was thrown a coarse kind of mat; over others a few loose branches of trees, shrubs or grass.' Vancouver's Voy., vol. i., pp. 225, 262. The Queniults sometimes, but not always, whitewash the interior of their lodges with pipe-clay, and then paint figures of fishes and animals in red and black on the white surface. See description and cuts of exterior and interior of Indian lodge in Swan's N. W. Coast, pp. 266-7, 330, 338; Crane's Top. Mem., p. 65; Cornwallis' New El Dorado, p. 98; Clark's Lights and Shadows, p. 225.
<p>323</p>
The Nootsaks, 'like all inland tribes, they subsist principally by the chase.' Coleman, in Harper's Mag., vol. xxxix., pp. 795, 799, 815; Ind. Aff. Rept., 1857, p. 328. Sturgeon abound weighing 400 to 600 pounds, and are taken by the Clallams by means of a spear with a handle seventy to eighty feet long, while lying on the bottom of the river in spawning time. Fish-hooks are made of cedar root with bone barbs. Their only vegetables are the camas, wappatoo, and fern roots. Kane's Wand., pp. 213-14, 230-4, 289. At Puget Sound, 'men, women and children were busily engaged like swine, rooting up this beautiful verdant meadow in quest of a species of wild onion, and two other roots, which in appearance and taste greatly resembled the saranne.' Vancouver's Voy., vol. i., pp. 225, 234, 262. In fishing for salmon at Port Discovery 'they have two nets, the drawing and casting net, made of a silky grass,' 'or of the fibres of the roots of trees, or of the inner bark of the white cedar.' Nicolay's Ogn. Ter., p. 147. 'The line is made either of kelp or the fibre of the cypress, and to it is attached an inflated bladder.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. i., p. 109. At Port Townsend, 'leurs provisions, consistaient en poisson séché au soleil ou boucané; … tout rempli de sable.' Rossi, Souvenirs, pp. 182-3, 299. The Clallams 'live by fishing and hunting around their homes, and never pursue the whale and seal as do the sea-coast tribes.' Scammon, in Overland Monthly, vol. vii., p. 278. The Uthlecan or candle-fish is used on Fuca Strait for food as well as candles. Domenech's Deserts, vol. ii., p. 241. Lamprey eels are dried for food and light by the Nisquallies and Chehalis. 'Cammass root, … stored in baskets. It is a kind of sweet squills, and about the size of a small onion. It is extremely abundant on the open prairies, and particularly on those which are overflowed by the small streams.' Cut of salmon fishery, p. 335. 'Hooks are made in an ingenious manner of the yew tree.' 'They are chiefly employed in trailing for fish.' Cut of hooks, pp. 444-5. The Classets make a cut in the nose when a whale is taken. Each seal-skin float has a different pattern painted on it, p. 517. Wilkes' Nar., in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. iv., pp. 318-19, 335, 444-5, 517-18. The Chehalis live chiefly on salmon. Id., vol. v., p. 140. According to Swan the Puget Sound Indians sometimes wander as far as Shoalwater Bay in Chinook territory, in the spring. The Queniult Indians are fond of large barnacles, not eaten by the Chinooks of Shoalwater Bay. Cut of a sea-otter hunt. The Indians never catch salmon with a baited hook, but always use the hook as a gaff. N. W. Coast, pp. 59, 87, 92, 163, 264, 271; Thornton's Ogn. and Cal., vol. i., pp. 293-4, 301, 388-9; Ind. Aff. Rept., 1854, p. 241; Dunn's Oregon, pp. 732-5; Stevens, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. i., p. 429. 'They all depend upon fish, berries, and roots for a subsistence, and get their living with great ease.' Starling, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., pp. 600-2. The Makahs live 'by catching cod and halibut on the banks north and east of Cape Flattery.' Ind. Aff. Rept., 1858, p. 231. 'When in a state of semi-starvation the beast shows very plainly in them (Stick Indians): they are generally foul feeders, but at such a time they eat anything, and are disgusting in the extreme.' Id., 1858, p. 225; Id., 1860, p. 195; Cornwallis' New El Dorado, p. 97; Lord's Nat., vol. i., pp. 102-5; Hittell, in Hesperian, vol. iii., p. 408; Winthrop's Canoe and Saddle, pp. 33-7; Maurelle's Jour., p. 28.
<p>324</p>
Vancouver's Voy., vol. i., p. 253. At Gray Harbor the bows were somewhat more circular than elsewhere. Id., vol. ii., p. 84; Wilkes' Nar., in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. iv., p. 319; Kane's Wand., pp. 209-10.
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