PREFATORY NOTE. 



THE philological family, to which the Makahs belong, is that known on old maps 

 as the &quot; Wakash Nation,&quot; a name given by Captain Cook from the word of greet 

 ing used by the Indians of King George s, or Nootka Sound, where he first met 

 them. For the purpose of classification it may be convenient to preserve the name 

 of Nootka, which has been usually recognized, as that of the language in general, 

 although it originally sprung from an equally trivial source. It is to be observed 

 that there are no nations in our sense of the word among these Indians, but those 

 speaking even the same dialect of a common language are often broken up into 

 separate bands under different chiefs, and their various appellations belong only to 

 localities. Occasionally a chief, more powerful and sagacious than the rest, will 

 bring several of these under his control, but his power is after all limited, and dies 

 with him. 



The territory occupied by this NOOTKA family is not as yet clearly defined on the 

 north. Generally speaking, it embraces, besides that of the Makahs, on the south side 

 of the Strait of Fuca, described by Mr. Swan in the following paper, Vancouver 

 Island, with the exception of a small part of its northeastern border, occupied by 

 intrusive bands of the Ilailtsa, and the southwestern portion extending from Sooke 

 Harbor to above Komooks in the Gulf of Georgia, which is held by tribes of the 

 Shehwapmukh or Selish family. It also covers part of the adjacent continent on 

 the Gulf of Georgia and Johnston s Straits, being thus enclosed by Selish tribes 

 on the south and cast and by those of the Ilailtsa on the north. The Kvvilleyutes 

 on the coast of Washington Territory, south of the Makahs, arc a remote branch 

 of the Selish, and the Clallams .lying cast along the southern shore of Fuca Strait 

 arc another tribe of that family, closely connected with the Sooke and Songhus 

 Indians of the southeastern end of Vancouver Island. 



GEORGE GIBBS. 



WASHINGTON, January, 1870. 



(v) 



