558 REPORT — 1895. 



of their reach. He said that his gun was wide-bore, and that he had only- 

 cut off' the barrel in order to make it handier. He pretended to take 

 off"ence at the deprecatory remarks of the Ts'Ets'a'ut and shot him. At 

 this signal his companions shot the other men. They took the bodies and 

 the women and children in their canoe, and threw the former into the sea. 

 When the Ts'Ets'a'ut heard of what had happened, they went to Nass River 

 in order to attack the Sa'nak-oan when they should come to buy olachen 

 grease. But they did not dare to come for several years. From that 

 time the Ts'Ets'a'ut made Portland Inlet their headquarters. These 

 events happened before Levi was born, i.e., about sixty years ago. But 

 the attacks of the Sa'nak-oan continued afterwards. Whenever one of 

 their chiefs died, they tried to kill some of the Ts'Ets'a'ut, and to obtain 

 slaves from among their number. 



At one time an uncle of Levi had run away with a girl whose 

 parents refused to give her to him in marriage. At Halibut Bay 

 he met a Nisk'a', whom he requested to take him across the inlet. 

 The Nisk-a', who wanted to buy marmot skins, proposed to go back to 

 Nass River to fetch powder and lead, and was going to return in order 

 to take the couple across the inlet. In return the Ts'Ets'a'ut was 

 to catch for him a certain number of marmots. While he was away a 

 canoe carrying three Nisk-a' men (Gyitqo'n, a Laqski'yek ; Nesqba'k-t, a 

 GyispawaduwE'da ; and Sinatlo'dt, a K-anha'da) landed. The Ts'Ets'a'ut 

 owed some marmot skins to the first of these men, who demanded imme- 

 diate payment. The Ts'Ets'a'ut explained that he had no skins, because 

 he had run away with a girl, but Gyitqo'n did not listen. He got angry, 

 and killed the Ts'Ets'a'ut with his axe. The woman ran away, but 

 Nesqba'k-t shot and killed her. Then they buried them at the foot of a 

 tree. After a while the first Nisk-a' returned, but did not find the couple. 

 When he saw their dog running about, he thought that the three men 

 whom he had met might have killed them. He went to Tombstone Bay, 

 where many Ts'Ets'a'ut were encamped, in order to catch salmon. He took 

 the dog along, and told them what had happened. Then all those who 

 were encamped at the Bay, about fifty in number, struck camp because 

 they became afraid of the Nisk-a'. They were more willing to brave the 

 attacks of the Sa'nak-oan than those of the more numerous Nisk-a'. 



One of the Sa'nak-oan had a Ts'Ets'a'ut woman for his wife. They fell in 

 with him, and he took them to the large island K'a'tik' (Tlingit name; pro- 

 bably Revilla Gigedo Island). After some time the K'u'tlk-oan learned of 

 their whereabouts and searched for them. When they had found them 

 they wanted to remove them to the mainland. The Ts'Ets'a'ut agreed to 

 go, but during the night, while all were asleep, the K'u'tlk-oan produced 

 their guns which they had hidden, and shot all the men and women. One 

 of the Ts'Ets'a'ut, who had a gun, was killed while he was aiming at one 

 of their aggressors. They put the children into their canoe as slaves, but 

 as there were too many of them they threw eight of their number into 

 the sea. Thirty were enslaved. 



Another quarrel took place about forty-five years ago. One winter, 

 about the month of February, Levi's father and several other men went 

 from Portland Inlet to Qa'itl, which is a river near Tcii'naq. They 

 pitched their camp near the mouth of the river. After some time one 

 man and his wife saw a canoe coming. When the canoe landed they saw 

 that several Sa'nak-oan were in it. The latter gave them tobacco, powder, 

 and balls, and inquired for their camp. After they had learned where it 



