Section II, 1888. [ 47 ] Teans. Roy. Soc. Canada. 



V. — 77(6 Indians of British Columhia. 

 By Franz Boas, Ph. D. 



(Presented by Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, May 30, 188S.) 



For a long time the remarkable culture of the Indians of Northwest America has 

 attracted the attention of ethnologists ; but, so far, no progress has been made in solving 

 the difficult problem of the origin of this culture. Attention has been called to the favor- 

 able circumstances under w^hich these people live, the abundance of food, and the mildness 

 of climate which favor a steady progress of civilization ; but anthropogeographical consid- 

 erations cannot be considered a sufficient basis for these studies, as their influence is 

 only secondary in determining, to a certain extent, the direction in which the culture 

 develops. A study of the origin of any culture must begin with that of the people, with 

 the study of its ethnological and physical character. 



The fact which impresses itself most strongly upon our minds is the great diversity 

 of peoples inhabiting the north-west coast of our continent. Their general distribution is 

 admirably shown on the Ethnological Map of British Columbia by Drs. Tolmie and 

 Dawson. We notice the following divisions on the latter : the Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, 

 Bilqula, Kwakiutl,' Nutka, Cowitchin, Niskwalli, Salish, tSahaptiu, and Tinné. Among 

 these the Bilqula, Cowitchin, Niskwalli, and Salish belong to one linguistic stock — the 

 Salish. The Nutka are probably an independent stock, while the Tlingit and Haida are 

 related to one anotlier. 



Among these stocks the Salish are by far the most important, occupying as they do 

 an enormous territory. The observer of the tribes of this race will be struck by the 

 diversity of dialects of their language. These dialects, according to their affinities, may 

 be grouped as follows. First, there are the dialects of the interior, of which the Salish 

 proper may serve as a specimen. In British Columbia two dialects of this group are 

 spoken : the Okanagan and the Ntlakyapamuq or Sui'shwapmuq. The second group is 

 that of the Coast Salish, which is spoken on the coasts of Puget Sound and the Strait of 

 Georgia. I studied the division of the latter into dialects in the winter of 1886-8Y, 

 and found that, in British Columbia alone, not le.s.s than six or seven dialects exist, each 

 spoken by a few tribes. The southern of these dialects have almost throughout the same 

 radicals ; but the meaning of each word undergoes material changes in the various 

 dialects. Besides this, words occurring in one language in a very simple form, are in the 

 others reduplicated or even triplicated ; transpositions of consonants, elimination of 

 vowels, and transformations of consonants making it sometimes hardly recognizable. 



1 [The same word is written by Dr. G. M. Dawson Kwahiool, Trans. Roy. Soo. Can., V. ii. 6, and by Kev. Alfred 

 Hall Kimgiutl, Trans. Roy. Soc Can. VI. ii. 6.— Ed. Note.] 



