186 



borLood with undissputed swiiy, and on occasion of the hite council "put in 

 her oar" with considerable effect against a removal. After the talks, time is 

 generally taken by the assembly to consider the matter in hand before a 

 final action is decided. The feasts at which their principal consultations 

 generally take place will be mentioned hereafter. They are given by some 

 leading chief or rich man, who takes the office upon himself with a view of 

 bringing himself conspicuously before the public. 



Property. — As far as I can gather the views of the Sound tribes, they 

 recognize no individual right to land except actual occupancy. This seems 

 to be respected to this extent, that if a man has cleared a s])ot of land for 

 cultivation, he can hold it on the return of the season for planting from year 

 to year, as long as he sees fit. 80 in their villages, the site of a house \)Qv- 

 tains to the individual as long as he leaves any vestige or evidence of a 

 building on it. Among the Tsinuk and Lower Tsihalis, the right may 

 have been carried somewhat further, but unsettled lands away from their 

 nsiial haunts are but little regarded. Tribes are, ho^^'ever, somewhat tena- 

 cious of territorial right, and well understand their respective limits; but this 

 seems to be merely as regards their title, and they never, it is believed, 

 exclude from them other friendly tribes. It would appear also that these 

 lands are considered to survive to the last remnant of a tribe, after its exist- 

 ence as such has in fact ceased. There seems to be, in some instances, a 

 vague claim by chiefs to territorial sovereignty, as for example among the 

 ]\Iakah, where any wrecked property floats ashore the proprietor claims 

 from the finder a portion of it, and it is said payment is exacted for the use 

 of particular pieces of ground. Cases have been mentioned of a claim by a 

 chief to the ownership of the whole country occupied by his tribe; but these 

 do not seem to have any foundation in acknowledged right, or to be actually 

 maintained. Sneetlum, the former chief of the Skagit, is said to have made 

 such pretensions. As regards the fisheries, they are held in common, and 

 no tribe pretends to claim from another, or from indi^•iduals, seigniorage for 

 the right of taking. In fact, such a claim would be inconvenient to all par- 

 ties, as the Indians move about, on the sound particularly, from one to 

 another locality, according to the season. Nor do they have disputes as to 



