TATTOO MARKS OF THE HAIDA INDIANS OF QUEEN 

 CHARLOTTE ISLANDS, B. C, AND THE PRINCE OF 

 WALES ARCHIPELAGO, ALASKA. 



By James G. Swax. 



H. H. Bancroft, iu his "Native Races, Pacific States," Vol. I. p. 155. 

 includes in the Haida family the nations occupying the coast and 

 islands from the southern extremity of Prince of Wales Archipelago to 

 tin' Bentiuck Arms in about 52° N. 



Their territory is bounded on the uorth and east by the Tblinkeet 

 and Carrier nations of the Hyperboreans, and on the south by the 

 Nootka family of the Columbians. 



Its chief nations, or, more correctly speaking, bands, whose bound- 

 aries, however, can rarely be fixed with precision, are the Massets, Skidde- 

 gates, Cumshawas, Laskeets, and the Skringwai, of Queen Charlotte 

 Islands: the Kaigani, Howkau, Klemakoau, and Kazan, of Prince of 

 Wales Archipelago; the Chimsyaus, about Fort Simpson and on Chat- 

 ham Sound; the Nass and the Skenas, on the rivers of the same name; 

 the Sebasses, on Pitt Archipelago and the shores of Gardiner Channel, 

 and the Millbank Sound Indians, including the Hailtzas, Bella Bella, 

 Bella Coola, etc. 



Among all the tribes or bauds belonging to the Haida family, the 

 practice of tattooing the person in some manner is common; but the 

 most marked are the llaidas proper, or those living on Queen Charlotte 

 Islands, and the Kaigauis, of Prince of Wales Archipelago, Alaska. 

 Of the Haida tribe, II. H. Bancroft says (Works 1882, Vol. 1, p. 159), 

 •■ Besides the regular lip piece, ornaments various in shape and material, 

 of shell, bone, wood, or metal, are worn, stuck iu the lips, nose, and 

 ears, apparently according to the caprice or taste of the wearer, the skin 

 being sometimes, though more rarely, tattooed to correspond " The 

 authors quoted by Bancroft for this information are Mayne's British Co- 

 lumbia, p, 282; Barrett-Lennard's Travels, pp. 45, 46 ; Poole's Queen 

 Charlotte Islands, pp. 75-311 ; Dunn's Oregon, pp. 279, 285, and Keed, 

 who says, "The men habitually go naked, but when they go off on a 

 journey they wear a blanket." 



How this latter writer, presuming he speaks from personal experience, 

 could have seen naked Haida men without noticing tattoo marks, I 

 cannot understand. On page 182 of the same volume of Bancroft, foot- 

 note, is the following: " 'The habit of tattooing the legs and arms is 

 common to all the women of Vancouver's Island; the men do not 

 adopt it.' Grant, in Loud. Geog. Soc. Jour., Vol. XXVII, p. 307. 'No 



66 



