448 



EYAK EYEISH 



[b. a. e. 



ada it remained the basis of value first 

 between French and Indians, and after- 

 ward between Enghsh and Indians. Up 

 to the present time everything is valued 

 in "skins," meaning beaver skins, but 

 the term has come to have a fixed value 

 of 50 cents in Canadian money. 



In former days, before the arrival of 

 the Russians, the unit of value among the 

 Eskimo of the lower Yukon was a full 

 grown land-otter skin, to which was 

 equivalent the skin of the large hair seal. 

 This has now given place to the beaver; 

 and all other skins, furs, and articles of 

 trade are sold as "a skin" and multiples 

 and fractions of "a skin." "In addi- 

 tion to this," says Nelson, "certain small, 

 im tanned skins, used for making fur coats 

 or blouses, are tied in lots sufficient to 

 make a coat, and are sold in this way. 

 It requires 4 skins of reindeer fawns, or 

 40 skins of Parry's marmot or of the 

 muskrat for a coat, and these sets are 

 known by terms designating these 

 bunches." The pelt of a wolf or wolver- 

 ene is worth several "skins" in trade, 

 while a number of pelts of muskrats or 

 Parry's marmot are required to make the 

 value of "a skin." 



Among the northern tribes in the n. 

 Pacific coastarea, where dentalia w-ere not 

 so much valued, elk and moose skins seem 

 formerly to have constituted one of the 

 standards of value, although the skins of 

 other animals were no doubt used to 

 some extent as well. In later times all 

 these were replaced by blankets intro- 

 duced by the Hudson's Bay Company, 

 which were distinguished by points or 

 marks on the edge, woven into their tex- 

 ture, the best being 4-point, the smallest 

 and poorest 1-point. The acknowledged 

 unit of value, at least among the Haida, 

 was a single 2j-point blanket, worth in 

 1880 a little more than l?1.50, but on the 

 coast farther s. it is now rated at about 50 

 cents. Everything was referred to this 

 unit, according to Dawson, even a large 

 4-point blanket being said to be worth so 

 many "blankets." 



Another standard universal in this re- 

 gion was slaves, and perhaps the remark- 

 able copper plates should also be men- 

 tioned, though strictly speaking they 

 were legal tender of varying value which 

 had to be fixed l)y means of some other 

 standard, such as blankets or slaves. 

 Pieces of cedar bark prepared for roofing 

 sometimes appear as units of value also. 



By the interior Salish of British Colum- 

 bia Indian hemp bark was put up in bun- 

 dles about 2 ft long and 2 in. in diame- 

 ter, and tied at both ends, and 6 of these 

 bundles constituted a "package," while 

 dried salmon was generally sold by the 

 "stick," each stick numbering 100 fish 

 (Teit). 



In addition to their dentalia the Hupa 

 and the peoples of Klamath r., in n. Cali- 

 fornia, use scalps of woodpeckers. They 

 employ those of both the pileated and 

 smaller woodpecker for this purpose, the 

 present exchange values of which are now 

 $1 and 10 cents, respectively (Goddard). 

 According to Bourke, eagle feathers were 

 an article of commerce with a determi- 

 nate value among the Pueblo Indians. 

 The Mandan standards were skin corn 

 measures of different dimensions which 

 were kept in the council lodge; and the 

 Arikara measure was a stone mortar. In 

 later years an important unit of value on 

 the great plains was the horse. 



The standards among the Hopi and 

 Iirobal)ly other Pueblo tribes were a kind 

 of basket tray, a fixed variety of blue 

 blanket, and turquoise and shell beads. 



On the Pacific coast canoes were val- 

 ued according to the length in fathoms, 

 but among the Huisa, where the length 

 is constant, by their height and breadth, 

 the natives providing themselves with 

 marks on their legs for this particular pur- 

 pose. Many other long articles seem to 

 have been appraised in the same manner. 



Although including the more prominent 

 standards, the foregoing list by no means 

 exhausts their number, for where articles 

 of various kinds were continually bar- 

 tered, numerous standards of a more or 

 less evanescent nature arose. For a list 

 of comparative valuations in one tribe 

 see Teit, cited below, p. 260. See Bead- 

 work, Commerce, Fur-trade, Horses, Meas- 

 urements, Shellwork, Wampum. 



Consult Bourke, Snake Dance of the 

 Moquis, 1885; Chittenden, Am. Fur Trade, 

 1902; Dawson, Report on Queen Char- 

 lotte Ids., Geol. Surv. of Can., 1880; 

 Dixon in Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 

 XVII, pt. 3, 1905; Gibbs in Cont. N. A. 

 EthnoL, I, 1877; Goddard in Univ. Cal. 

 Publ., Am. Archa?ol. and EthnoL, 1903; 

 Hardesty in Sinithson. Rep. 1866, 1872; 

 Holm, Descr. New Sweden, 1834; Holmes 

 in 2d Rep. B. A. E., 1883; Hunter, Cap- 

 tivity, 1823; Jewitt, Narrative, 1815; 

 Jones in Smithson. Rep. 1866, 1872; 

 Loskiel, Missions, 1791; Nelson in 18th 

 Rep. B. A. E., 1899; Powers in Cont. 

 N. A. EthnoL, in, 1877; Teit, Thompson 

 Indians, Mem. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., ii, 

 1900. (.1. R. s.) 



Eyak. An Ugalakmiut Eskimo village 

 at the entrance of Prince AVilliam sd., 

 Alaska; pop. 94 in 1890, 222 in 1900. 

 Near by is a cannery called Odiak, where 

 273 people live. 



Eyak.— Baker, Geog. Diet. Alaska, 1901. Hyacks.— 

 Hallock in Rep. Sec. of War. i, pt. 1, 1869 (probably 

 identical). Ikhiak.— Petroff, 10th Census, Alaska, 

 29, 1S84. Odiak,— Moser (1899), quoted by Baker, 

 op.cit. 



Eyeish. A tribe of the Caddo confed- 

 eracy which spoke a dialect, now practi- 



