BULL. 30] 



SNOQUAMISH SN UTLELATL 



607 



Snoqualimick. — Ibid., 174. Snoqualmie. — Stevens 

 in H. R. Ex. Doc. 37, 34th Cong., 3d srss., 33, 1857. 

 Sno-qual-mie.— Fay in Ind. Art". Kep., 23S, 1858. 

 Snoqualmoo,— U. S". Ind. Treaties, 378, 1873. Sno- 

 qual-mook.— Gibbs in Pac. R. R. Rep., I, 436,1855. 

 Snoquamish. A Salish division about 

 Pt Orchard, Kitsap co., w. Wash.; pop. 

 about 500 in 1850. 



Shoquamish.— Lane in Ind. Afl. Rep., 162, 1850. 

 Sno-qua-mish.— Starling in ibid., 170, 1852. 



Snowshoes. Devices worn on the feet 

 to enable the Eskimo and the Indian to 

 walk over snow and very soft ground in 

 hunting, pulling sleds, driving dog teams, 

 and gathering food. The parts of a 

 snowshoe are the wooden rim, toe and 

 heel crossbar of wood or rawhide, extra 

 strengthening bars, foot netting in large 

 meshes with a stout thong for the foot to 

 rest upon, toe and heel netting closely 

 meshed with babiche or twisted sinew, 

 which, however, is not always present, 

 and foot lines for attaching the shoe. 

 The size of the mesh varies, a coarser 

 mesh being used for wet, soft snow. 

 Snowshoes differ in materials, form, fine- 

 ness,' and decoration from place to place 

 and from tribe to tribe. Wooden skees, 

 such as were used in the Eastern conti- 

 nent, were absent, though Turner found 

 the Indians of Whale r., Labrador, wear- 

 ing shoes of thin spruce board, and the 

 toboggan of Canada is a double skee for 

 freight or passenger. Snowshoes vary 

 greatly in shape, being round, elliptical, 

 pointed oval, pointed at both ends, or 

 irregular. The toe may be fiat or up- 

 turned; the heel rounded, pointed, or 

 widened into a trailer. The best exam- 

 ples are made in rights and lefts. The 

 separate forms so differ locally that they 

 almost equal in number the tribes wear- 

 ing them. This can be shown best by 

 figures (see Dall, Dixon, Mason, Mur- 

 doch, Nelson, and Turner). Especial 



attention is 

 paid to the 

 footing and 

 foot lines. 

 The netting 

 under the 

 foot is ar- 

 ranged with 

 a view to 

 the greatest 

 comfort, the 

 ball of the 

 foot being 

 firmly sup- 

 ported and 

 the toes 

 having free play. In putting on the 

 shoe the hands are not used, the foot 

 being thrust into the ankle loop fas- 

 tened at a right angle to the frame, 

 after which, by a dexterous twist, the 

 toe is thrust under its loop. The snow- 

 shoer walks with a long, swinging stride, 

 lifting the toe and letting the tail or 

 heel drag. Among the eastern Eskimo, 



COLUMBIA River 

 (mason) 



ESKIMO, Alaska 

 (mason) 



who live outside of the tree zone, the 

 snowshoe is very crude; the frames are 

 small, made sometimes of bone, and the 

 webbing is very coarse, but in the W. 

 there is greater variety between the 

 coarse and the finer types. The rim 

 consists of two willow stems, thickest in 

 the middle, elliptical in section, the long 

 axis being vertical, and keeled on the 

 inner face, except between the toe and 

 heel bars. These* stems are joined in 

 front by a long 

 lapspliceheld to- 

 gether by stitch- 

 ing with thongs. 

 At the heel the 

 ends are pro- 

 longed into a 



Klamath ( mason) 



slight tail and the ends sewed together. 

 The method of putting on the netting is 

 elaborate. The Athapascan tribes adjoin- 

 ing the western Eskimo inland use fine- 

 meshed shoes with ui)turned toes. The 

 Kutchin on Mackenzie r. wear a round 

 upturned snowshoe of 3 sizes, the largest 

 for moose hunting, one of half size, and 

 the traveling shoe. South of them for an 

 indefinite distance, even into n. United 

 States, was found the pointed elliptical 

 type. Farther e. were used flat shoes 

 with square fronts, having trailers; and 

 in Labrador flatshoes of immense sizes and 

 widths, with round beaver-tail and swal- 

 low-tail heels (Turner). In the Pacific 

 states the simplest forms prevailed as far 

 s. as N. California. The rim was round 

 or slightly oval, flat, and not always reg- 

 ular; toe and heel bars were replaced with 

 stout rawhide rope, and netting was of the 

 simjalest kind. These approximate most 

 closely to the eastern Asiatic forms. The 

 foot lacing in some binds closely down 

 both toe and heel. With the snowshoe 

 in Alaska goes a staff, having a spike and 

 a little snowshoe at the lower end. 



Consult Dixon in Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. 

 Hist., XVII, 162, 1905; Mason in Nat. 

 Mus. Rep. 1894, 381-410, 1896; Murdoch in 

 9th Rep. B. A. E., 344-352, 1892; Nelson 

 in 18th Rep. B. A. E., 1899; Stites, Eco- 

 nomics of the Iroquois, 1905; Turner in 

 11th Rep. B. A. E., 1889. (o. t. m.) 



Snutele {Snii^t'Ele). A Bellacoola vil- 

 lage on Bellacoola r., Brit. Col., above 

 Tsomootl. — Boas in Mem. Am. Mus. Nat. 

 Hist., II, 49, 1898. 



Snutlelatl {Snii^ l' eIul) . A Bellacoola 

 village on Bellacoola r., Brit. Col., above 

 Stuik. 



Snii'L'ElaL.— Boas in Mem. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 

 II, 49, 1S98. Snu'tl'Elatl.— Boas in 7th Rep. N. W. 

 Tribes Can., 3, 1891. 



