20 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VOL. IV. 



diffusion of their language. They hold in a state of semi-vassalage most 

 of the tribes around them, exacting from them annual tribute in the 

 shape of shell-money ; and they compel all their tributaries to speak 

 Hupa in communication with them. Although most of these tribu- 

 taries had their own tongues originally, so vigorously were they put to 

 school in the language of their masters, that most of their vocabularies 

 were sapped and reduced to bald categories of names."* 



The Northern Den^s, who are eminently gentle in disposition, have 

 generally shown a remarkable receptiveness. And this explains how it 

 is that, with few exceptions, they are all to-day practical Christians, and 

 conform to the customs of the whites as much as their social status will 

 permit. In opposition to this, we find that the Navajos and the Apaches 

 still hold to their superstitious beliefs and ceremonies, and keep them- 

 selves aloof of any civilizing influence. This is so true that when, some 

 years ago, an effort was made by the U. S. Commissioner of Indian 

 Affairs to secure a tract of land close by the Cherokees' territory for the 

 location of the Navajos, the former who, as is well known, have made 

 great strides towards civilization, refused to entertain the proposition, 

 "asserting that the Navajos were not civilized Indians."f I have never 

 noticed any mention of real improvement in their midst since that time. 



As for the Hupas, their agent stated ten years ago that they " are not 

 to-day any more enlightened, advanced, progressive, industrious or belter 

 off in any way than they were when the Reservation was established, 

 about twenty years ago.":|: That time has brought no change in their 

 dispositions is made clear by the following words of their agent in his 

 latest Report (1891) : "They all cling to their own customs and laws as 

 being far better than any others, and seem to look upon many of them 

 as sacred. . . . Many of the Indians seem to look upon the attend- 

 ance of their children [at school] as a favour to the teacher or the agent, 

 and expect some reward for it."§ In strong contrast to the indifference for 

 intellectual attainments manifested by the Hupas, let me refer the reader 

 to what I said in a former essay 1| of the craving for knowledge evidenced 

 by our Carriers, and the remarkable results it has produced even under 

 the most untoward circumstances. 



* Contributions to North American Ethnology, vol. iii., p. 72. 



+ The Cherokee Nation of Indians, by Ch. C. Royce, Fifth Annual Report, Bureau of Ethno- 

 logy, Washington, 1883-84. 



i Indian Affairs Report, 1881, 6; apudO. E. Mason's The Ray Collection, p. 207. 



§ Sixtieth Annual Report Commissioner Indian Affairs, 1891, vol. I, p. 220. 



II The Western Denes ; Proc. Can. Inst., vol. vii., p. 165. 



