BULL. 30] 



SKWAlUS SLAVERY 



597 



Skwaius {Sk'waVus). ASquawmish vil- 

 lage community on Burrard inlet, Brit. 

 Col.— Hill-Tout in Rep. Brit. A. A. S., 

 475, 1900. 



Skwala {SJi'nu''la). A former village 

 or camp of the Tilalt, a Cowichan tribe 

 on lower Chilli wack r., Brit. Col.; so 

 named from a slough on which it was 

 situated. — Hill-Tout, Ethnol. Surv. Can., 

 48, 1902. 



Skwauyik (Skwa^uyix). A Ntlakyapa- 

 muk village on the w. side of Fraser r., 

 Brit. Col.—Teit in Mem. Am. Mus. Nat. 

 Hist., II, 169, 1900. 



Skwawalooks. A Cowichan tribe on 

 lower Fraser r., below Hope, Brit. Col.; 

 pop. 16 in 1909. 



Shawahlook.— Can. Ind. Aff. 1904, sec. ii, 75, 1905. 

 Skawah-looks.— Ibid., 1894, 277, ls95. Skowall.— 

 Ibid,, 79, 1878, Skwawahlooks.— Ibid,, pt. 2, 160, 

 1901. 



Skway. A Chilliwack village on Skway 

 r., which empties into the lower Fraser, 

 Brit. Col. ; pop. 27 in 1909. 



Skway.— Can. Ind. Aff., pt. 2, 160, 1901, Sqai.— 

 Hill-Tout in Kep, Ethnol. Surv. Can., 4, 1902. 

 Squay.— Ibid,, 276, 1894, Squay-ya.— Brit. Col. 

 map, Ind. Atf,, Victoria, 1872, Syuay.— Can. Ind. 

 Aff., 188, 1884. 



Skweahm. A Nicomen winter village on 

 Nicomen slough, near lower Fraser r., 

 Brit. Col. ; pop. 27 in 1909. 

 Skuya'm.— Boas in Rep. Brit. A. A. S., 4.54, 1894. 

 Skweahm.— Can. Ind. AfE., 160, 1901. Squeam.— 

 Ibid., 313, 1S88. 



Skwealets [SkwEd'lets, ' coming in of the 

 water'). An abandoned Chilliwack vil- 

 lage on upper Chilliwack r., Brit. Col. — 

 Hill-Tout in Ethnol. Surv. Can., 4, 1902. 



Skwiteague. See Squeteague. 



Slaaktl lySWaxL). A Bellacoola village 

 on Bellacoola r., Brit. Col., above Snut- 

 lelatl. 



Sla'aqtl.--Boas in 7th Rep. N. W. Tribes Can., 3, 

 1891. Sla'axL. — Boas in Mem. Am. Mus. Nat. 

 Hist., II, 49, 1898. 



Slahaltkam ('upper country'). A 

 Shuswap village at the foot of Little Shus- 

 wap lake, interior of British Columbia. 

 It gives its name to a band which in- 

 cludes the people of this village and those 

 of Kwikooi. Pop. 88 in 1906, 96 in 1909. 

 Haltham,— Can, Ind. Aff., pt. 2, 166, 1901, Hal- 

 thum.— Ibid., 363, 1897, Haltkam.— Ibid,. 312, 1892. 

 Halt-kum.— Ibid., 1885, 196, 1SS6, Little lake Shus- 

 wap.— Ibid,, pt. II, 68, 1902. Sahhahltkum.— Ibid., 

 47, suppl, , 1902, Sla-halt-kam, — Dawson in Trans. 

 Roy. See. Can., sec. n, 44, 1891. 



Slana. An Ahtena village at the con- 

 fluence of Slana and Copper rs., Alaska. 



Slank. A word said to be of Indian 

 origin, but of doubtful etymologv, defined 

 by Nelson (Inds. of N. J., 129, 1894) as "a 

 name applied in the neighborhood of Pat- 

 erson to a small body of water setting back 

 like a bay along the shores of a river." 



Slate. This material, which is widely 

 diversified in character, was in very 

 general use by the tribes n. of Mexico 

 for the manufacture of utensils, imple- 

 ments, ornaments, and carvings in gen- 

 eral. The typical slates are characterized 



by their laminated structure, and these 

 were used to some extent, especially for 

 implements; but the more massive varie- 

 ties, such as the greenish striped slates 

 of the Eastern states, the argillite (q. v.) 

 of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the 

 states to the s., and the black slate of 

 the N. \V. coast, were usually preferred. 

 Argillite was much used by the tribes of 

 the Delaware and Susquehanna valleys, 

 and an ancient quarry of this material, 

 located at Point Pleasant, Pa., has been 

 described by Mercer (see Quarries). 

 Material from this and corresponding 

 quarries was used mainly for flaked imple- 

 ments, including leaf-shaped blades, 

 knives, and arrow heads and spear heads, 

 and these are widely distributed over the 

 middle Atlantic states. The fine-grained 

 greenish and striped slates of the Eastern 

 and Middle states and Canada were ex- 

 tensively employed in the manufacture 

 of several varieties of objects of somewhat 

 problematic use, including banner stones, 

 bird-shaped stones, and perforated and 

 sculptured tablets. It is probable that, 

 like the green agates and ja<ieites of Mex- 

 ico, some varieties of this sti me had special 

 significance with the native tribes. The 

 tribes of the N. W. coast employ a fine- 

 grained black slate in their very artistic 

 carvings, which the Haida obtain chiefly 

 from deposits on Slate cr.. Queen Char- 

 lotte ids. This slate has the desirable 

 quality of being soft and easily carved 

 when freshly quarried, and of growing 

 harder with time. It is black and takes 

 an excellent polish^ See Sculpture, Totem- 

 poles. 



References to the use of slate occur in 

 many works relating to ethnology and 

 archeology, but are not sufliciently im- 

 portant to be given in full. Worthy of 

 special mention are INIercer in Pub. Univ. 

 Penn., VI, 1897; Niblack in Nat. Mus. Rep. 

 1888, 1890; Squier and Davis, Ancient 

 Monuments, 1848. (w. h. h.) 



Slavery. It may be doubted whether 

 slavery, though so widespread as to have 

 been almost universal, existed anywhere 

 among very primitive peoples, since 

 society must reach a certain state of or- 

 ganization before it can find lodgment 

 (see Social organization). It appears, 

 however, among peoples whose status is 

 far below that of civilization. 



Among the Eskimo, slavery appears to 

 have been wholly unknown, although in 

 the part of Alaska immediately n. of 

 the Tlingit, where the Eskimo borrowed 

 much of Indian culture and arts, it is 

 possible that it existed in some form, as 

 Bancroft aflirms. Dall discovered no 

 traces of slavery in Alaska, and doubts 

 if it ever existed there. If the institu- 

 tion ever gained a foothold among the 

 Eskimo it was foreign to their own cul- 



