70 G. M. DAWSON ON THE KWAKIOOL 



Eeferring to the place of origin of the K'"is'-kT-mo, Ow-ît related that their first country 

 was at Kr>-sé (named Kao-sa-a by the "Nawitti," the dialect of these people differing 

 somewhat) in a small bay three and a-half miles west of Cape Commerell, on the north 

 coast of the island. This place is also that of the fabled origin of the Kr;s-kT-mo, as given 

 on a subsequent page. Leaving Kô-sê a long time ago, they came round to Quatsino 

 Sound, and attacked and slaughtered, to the last man, a tribe named Ho-ya, which inhabited 

 the tipper part of the Sound, and spoke the same (Kwakiool) language. It is handed 

 down that the Ho-ya people were those who first practiced the peculiar deformation of the 

 heads of the female children, and that they carried the practice to greater excess than the 

 other tribes who subsequently adopted it. On asking for what reason it was so adopted, 

 no very satisfactory explanation could be obtained, but there semed to be an idea that it, 

 in some way, secured the new comers in the possession of the country. 



From the statements given in connection with the four tribes just described, it would 

 appear that the most remote tradition of the natives places the Klfis'-kaino, on the Sound 

 of the same name and on the coast between Cape Cook and the south entrance point of 

 Quatsino Sound ; the Ho-ya, on the upper part of the Sound ; the Kifiw-pino, on Forward 

 Inlet, and probably also on Koprino Harbour of the chart (to which access was easy by 

 way of the lagoon above "Winter Harbour); the Kwa'-tsi-no, at San Josef Bay and Sea Otter 

 Cove; and the Kôs-kT-mo, at Kô-sê. It is probable that the two last-named tribes made 

 a combined descent on the inhabitants of Quatsino Sound, for the Kos'-kT-mo must have 

 passed the original Kwâ'-tsï-no strongholds on the way south, leaving their homes 

 unguarded behind them, and this they would scarcely have dared to do except by 

 agreement with the Kwâ'-tsî-no. The date of these events can only be conjectured. 



(11) Tirttll-sl-kivila and iVe-A-Mw'-A;e-/7s-/a (Nawitti).— I do not certainly know whether 

 these two tribes formerly inhabited separate places, but it is highly probable that they did 

 so, as they are said formerly to have been very numerous. Dr. J. W. Powell, of Victoria, 

 states, in the Indian Eeport for 1879, that the Ne-kum'-ke-lTs-la formerly inhabited Cox 

 Island, off Cape Scott. Their principal village was, however, not many years ago, at Cape 

 Commerell, or Na-wI-tT, whence the name by which they are known to the whites. 

 Both tribes lived together at Cape Commerell (according to Mr. Blenkinsop) as they now do 

 at Mel'-oopa, on the south-east shore of Hope Island. Mel'-oopa is commonly known on the 

 coast as the " Nawitti Village." The village at Cape Commerell stood on a small rocky 

 peninsula on the east side of the Cape, to the soitth of which is a little bay with a fine 

 sandy beach. Posts and other lemuants of the old houses are still to be seen (1885.) It 

 is mentioned as an Indian village in the Vancouver Pilot (1864) and, it is to be presumed, 

 was still inhabited at the date of survey of this coast in 1860. These people say that 

 when the number of those living as far west as Cape Scott became much reduced, they 

 finally drew together for mutual protection. They still have rude huts at several places 

 on the north shore of Vancouver Island, and to the south of Cape Scott, to which they 

 resort for halibut-fishing. They also frequent Cox, Lanz and other islands lying off Cape 

 Scott, and the islands east of Hope Island to Miles Cone, which, from its form, they call 

 Kcl-skll-tira or " high head" (as of the Kns'-kT-mo women). The original residence of the 

 Kôs'-kT-mo (Kn-sr) is now included in the " Nawitti " territory. 



One of the old fortified villages of this people was situated on the east entrance point 

 of Port Alexander, Galiano Island, and another, according to my Indian canoe-men, on 



