CHAPTER X. 





Flathead nation, to 

 which nearly all the Puget 

 Sound Indians belong, may 

 almost be termed amphibians; 

 for though they can, and do 

 in some cases, live inland ex- 

 clusively, they are never happy 

 when away from the water. They are 

 canoeists by birth and education. A coast 

 Indian is as helpless and miserable with- 

 out a canoe as a plains Indian without a horse, and 

 the Si wash (Chinook for coast Indian) is as expert in 

 the use of the canoe as the Sioux, Crow, or Arapahoe 

 in the use and control of his cayuse. Almost the sole 

 means of travel, of intercommunication among these 

 people, and between themselves and the whites, is 

 the canoe. 



There are very few horses owned in any of the 

 coast tribes, and these are rarely ridden. When a 

 Si wash attempts to ride a horse he climbs onto it 

 kicking and grunting with the effort, much as an 

 Alabama negro mounts his mule, and sits him about 

 as gracefully. But let the Si wash step into his 

 canoe, and he fears no rapid, whirlpool, nor stormy 

 billow. He faces the most perilous water and sends 



(89) 



