212 ETHNOGRAPHY. 



are (or rather were in 1840) for the Skwale, 600, the Tsihailish, 2000, 

 the Kawelitsk, 300, and the Nsietshawus, 700. Among the Tsihai- 

 lish are included the Kwaiantl and the Kwenaiwitl (corrupted by 

 the whites to Queen Hythe), who live near the coast, thirty or forty 

 miles south of Cape Flattery, and who have each a peculiar dialect. 



4. S A II A P T I N. 

 M. SAHAPTIN OR NEZ-PERCES. 



The Sahaptin* possess the country on each side of Lewis or Snake 

 River, from the Peloose to the Wapticacoes, about a hundred miles, 

 together with the tributary streams, extending, on the east, to the 

 foot of the Rocky Mountains. They are supposed, by the mission- 

 aries, to number about two thousand souls. In character and appear- 

 ance, they resemble more the Indians of the Missouri than their 

 neighbors the Salish. They have many horses, and are good 

 hunters, being accustomed to make long excursions, in summer, to 

 the Rocky Mountains, for the purpose of killing buffalo. They 

 formerly had bloody wars with the Shoshonees, Crows, Blackfoot 

 Indians, and other tribes, whose hunting-grounds were in the same 

 region ; but of late these quarrels have become less frequent. 



The Sahaptin are the tribe who, several years ago, despatched a 

 deputation to the United States, to request that teachers might be 

 sent to instruct them in the arts and religion of the whites. Their 

 good dispositions have been much eulogized by travellers, and there 

 seems to be no reason to doubt that they are superior to the other 

 tribes of this territory, in intellect and in moral qualities. There are, 

 however, certain traits in their character, that have hitherto neutral- 

 ized, in a great measure, the zealous and well-directed efforts which 

 have been made for their improvement. The first of these is a feeling 

 of personal independence, amounting to lawlessness, which springs 

 naturally from their habits of life, and which renders it almost impos- 

 sible to reconcile them to any regular discipline or system of labor, 

 even though they are perfectly convinced that it would be for their 

 advantage. Another trait of a similar kind, originating probably 

 in the same cause, is a certain fickleness of temper, which makes 



* There is some doubt concerning the proper orthography, as well as the meaning, of 

 this term, which was received from an interpreter. The missionaries always spoke of 

 the tribe by the common name of Nez-perces. 



