RACIAL GROUPS — HOUGH. 617 



seem to be examples of how a broken shore line and many islands 

 with abundance of splendid timber tends to produce a hardy race of 

 seafarers and a particular phase of material culture. Here was great 

 development in shipbuilding, navigation, and in the primitive arts. 

 The Alaskans possess a characteristic culture not to be confounded 

 with any other in North America. On the other hand, the interior 

 tribes in a region of lakes and rivers are less advanced, having been 

 held back by natural circumstances. House building, navigation, 

 and travel in general are more simple than among the coast tribes. 

 The food supply is also more limited and the climate more severe 

 than on the west coast. These tribes, however, have the necessary 

 means to live in the home where they have settled. They demon- 

 strate in many ways the usefulness of birch bark, which is a strong 

 and attractive substitute for the skins of animals. They tanned 

 deerskins for clothing and decorated their garments with porcupine 

 quills and brilliant paints. They had no agriculture and consumed 

 very little vegetal food. 



FAMILY GROUP OF CHILKAT INDIANS. 



The Chilkat live on Lynn Canal in southeastern Alaska, and be- 

 long, with the Tlinkits, to the Koluschan family. They are in 

 commercial contact with the Athapascan tribes across the mountains 

 to the east, from whom they obtain horns and wool in barter, the 

 latter being used in making the famous Chilkat blankets, which 

 are woven, not in a loom, but the warp is suspended from a bar 

 of wood. The designs are symbolical animal forms and are worked 

 into the texture independently of one another, as in gobelin tapestry. 

 The pattern, painted on wood, is suspended over the loom. The men 

 are expert hunters and fishers, and carve utensils and ceremonial 

 objects from wood and horn. In this group are to be seen the 

 blanket weaver at work; a man carving a wooden mask; a woman 

 engaged in making a basket, her babe lying in its cradle by her side; 

 and a young woman offering food in a carved wooden dish to a 

 man who wears one of the famous Chilkat blankets. Costumes of 

 the Chilkat are more frequently made of deer skins, since they 

 live on the mainland, and are in touch with the Athapascan tribes 

 of the interior. Numerous articles pertaining to the household are 

 scattered among the group. (See pi. 7.) 



DWELLING GROUP OF THE HAIDA INDIANS. 



The Haida Indians inhabit the Queen Charlotte Islands, lying in 

 the Pacific Ocean, 75 miles north of Vancouver Island. They are a 

 separate linguistic family. Their houses face the beach and are in 

 the form of a regular parallelogram, averaging 50 feet in front 

 and 35 feet in depth. Posts are planted in the ground, joined by 

 means of timbers, and these were anciently covered on the roof and 



