Boas} INTRODUCTION 135 
The Casca also did not make it, nor the people of Nicola valley, 
the Tahltan, Carrier, or Sekani who were mentioned before. The 
Chilcotin may have acquired the art from the Shuswap. 
The interior Salish were not the only people, however, who vro- 
duced coiled work in the early days. They state that the Snake, 
Nez Percé, and some Kootenai knew the technique, but not the 
Blackfeet, who formerly bought their baskets from the Flathead 
and Tuna‘xe. Most of the more eastern Salish tribes ceased to 
make coiled baskets about the time when buffalo hunting expeditions 
enjoyed so much popularity. 
Very little investigation has been conducted among the Lower 
Kootenai, although it is known that they made baskets. 
The neighboring Lake tribes and the Kalispel believe that the 
Kootenai learned the art from them, but they are not sure of this. 
Since the Upper Kootenai did not make baskets as far as is known, 
the claim seems quite probable. It is said that Lower Kootenai 
baskets were inferior and few in number. 
Sapwood or flat coils are mostly used by the Lillooet and adjoin- 
ing coast tribes, among whom the round coil seems to have been 
little employed, if at all. Mr. Teit has not noticed any specimens 
so constructed. Where Thompson influence counts for anything, as 
on the Lower Fraser, the flat coil is very unpopular except for con- 
structing the bottoms of baby carriers. Elsewhere, except in the 
tribes mentioned, it is not used at all. 
Square shapes seem to prevail in regions where the sapwood or 
flat coils are popular. Water-tight receptacles can not be manu- 
factured in these materials and presumably for this reason Lillooet 
kettles and water baskets were always made of round coils. Since 
this consideration would be of little importance to the coast tribes 
who employed wooden boxes for those purposes, and the basket 
with them was of use only for transporting loads, this would account 
not only for their nonacquaintance with the round coil but also for 
the comparatively few basket forms which they manufactured, 
which were all of angular shape. 
It is worthy of note that the Chilcotin use only one shape of 
basket, namely, the typical burden form. This is much more 
rounded in outline, constructed of round coils, and water-tight, 
and so quite well adapted for almost any purpose, including the 
boiling of food. This use of a single shape may indicate that it was 
originally borrowed from tribes who were more practiced artisans, 
particularly as the Chilcotin have never become masters of some 
technical difficulties, among which the most conspicuous are those 
of producing even coils and straight, smooth walls. 
Information on coiling among the Sahaptin and Upper Chinook is 
somewhat meager, but some data regarding them were procured from 
53666°—28——10 
