Section II, ISSI. [ ©3 ] Trans. Eoy. Soc. Canada. 



VI. — Notes and Observations on the Kwakiool People of the Northern Part of Vancouver 

 Island and Adjacent Coasts, made during the Summer of 1885; with a 

 Yocahulanj of about seven hundred words. By George M. Dawson. 



(Presented May 25, 1887.) 



Duriug the Summer of 1885, the writer was engaged in the geological examination of 

 the northern part of Vancouver Island and its vicinity, the territory of the Kwakiool people. 

 In connection with the prosecution of his work, he was in constant and intimate 

 association with this people, and enjoyed many excellent opportunities of obtaining facts 

 respecting them, of hearing their traditions and stories, and of becoming familiar with 

 their mode of life and habits of thought. The notes, made at the time, are here presented 

 in a systematised form. As thus set down in order, they are intended to be merely a record 

 of facts and observations, and are offered as a contribution toward our knowledge of the 

 Indians of the west coast. No attempt is made to theorise on the observations, nor has the 

 time at my disposal been sulKcient to enable me to institute the comparisons which 

 suggest themselves readily enough between these and other tribes of the region. These 

 tribes, together with their ideas and their lore, such as they are, are passing away before 

 our eyes, or where they still show evidence of continued vitality, they are losing their old 

 beliefs and ways. This being the case, it is perhaps needless to apologise for the 

 necessarily incomplete character of this paper in some respects. 



A map has not been prepared to accompany this paper, but that published in the 

 Annual Report of the Geological Survey for 1886 embodies a large number of native 

 names of places, including those of all the villages here referred to. 



I. — Territory and Boundaries of the Kwakiool People. 



The people speaking dialects of the Kwakiool language, and constituting together 

 one of the largest groups of the coast of British Columbia, have, so far as I know, no 

 general name of their own. Dialectic differences of minor importance, from a linguistic 

 point of view, are regarded by them as clearly separating tribe from tribe. The name 

 " Kwakiool " has, however, by common consent, come to be employed to designate the 

 whole, though strictly applicable to but two important tribes now inhabiting, with 

 others, the vicinity of Fort Rupert. To the north, their territory comprises the coast of the 

 mainland and a number of adjacent islands, bordering on the territory of the Tshimsian and 

 interlocking with it. They enclose the peculiar and isolated Bilhoola people, who inhabit 

 Dean Inlet and the North and South Bentinck Arms, on the north and south, and on the 

 seaward side. Thence, southw^ard, they claim the mainland coast to the entrance of 

 Bute Inlet. Their territory includes, also, most of the islands by which the Strait of 

 Georgia is closed to the north, and the north-east coast of Vancouver Island to some 



