TRIDES OF WESTERN WASHINGTON AND NORTHWESTERN 



OREGON. 



By Geoi!Ge Giiiiis, M. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



In the western district of Washington Territory, — that is to say, between 

 the Cascade Mountains and the Pacific, — there is found, compared witli the 

 extent of country occupied, an extraordinary diversity in the aboriginal 

 tongues. Mr. Hale, the ethnologist, who accompanied Captain Wilkes's 

 expedition, recognized among them eight languages belonging to five dis- 

 tinct families, and to these ai-e now to be added six other languages which 

 escaped his observation. In addition, there are dialects of several but par- 

 tially intelligible, even to those speaking the same general language. 



As might be inferred, the tribes inhabiting this district are divided into 

 bands havhig far less connection with each other than is the case with the 

 Indians of the prairie, where a more wandering life bringing them continu- 

 ally into contact serves to keep up an identity in the common tongue. 

 With all this diversity of speech, there is notwithstanding a general resem- 

 blance in character, manners, and habits throughout the district, but modi- 

 fied by geographical position and by other causes operating on both the 

 physical and moral condition of the race. 



Among nations whose life is almost altogether sensual, the character is 

 affected to a more perceptible degree by exterior circumstances than among 

 the cultivated. Scarcity or abundance of food, its natiu-e, the modes of 

 obtaining it, the occupations and amusements of life, climate, dress, all, to a 

 marked extent, operate not only upon individuals, but upon the tribe. 

 Except ujDon the strongest evidence, it could hardly be believed that the 



