ON THE NORTH WESTERN TRIBES OF CANADA. 559 



was, they promised to call there on the following day. The Sa'nak'oan 

 camped in the entrance of a small bay. On the following morning they 

 went to the camp of the Ts'Ets'a'ut, and after having eaten they began to 

 trade, the Sa'nak'oan buying skins for tobacco, powder, lead, and shirts. 

 On the following morning two Sa'nak-oan brothers, K-atse'el and Yaqte'it, 

 remai-ked that there were many crows on the beach, and took up their 

 guns in order to shoot them. After a short while they re-entered the hut, 

 one of them holding his gun under his blanket. He aimed at one of the 

 Ts'Ets'a'ut, hiding his gun under his blanket all the time, and shot him. 

 At this signal his brother shot another man, and a third of the Sa'nak'oan, 

 whose names wei-e K'ahote' and Nag'atse' (Fox), shot a third man. The 

 others drew their daggers, and killed all the Ts'Ets'a'ut men. They en- 

 slaved the women and children, and took them to Revilla Gigedo Island, 

 where they stayed the rest of the winter. In the spring of the year 

 Levi's mother made good her escape, taking her two children along. She 

 made a bark canoe, crossed Behm Channel, and after two months of hard- 

 ships they reached Tombstone Bay, on Portland Inlet, where they met the 

 Ts'Ets'a'ut who had stayed on the inlet. ' Eve,' who is old now, was sold 

 at that time to the Sketk'oa'n, from whom she escaped. 



At another time, while Levi was a boy, the Ts'Ets'a'ut had a war with 

 the Laq'uyi'p. At that time his sister had just married a man named 

 NEgusts'ikatsa'. They were hunting north of the upper reaches of Nass 

 River. When they returned to Portland Inlet a party of Laq'uyi'p came 

 there accompanying a Ts'Ets'a'ut hunter. The Ts'Ets'a'ut had one gun 

 among them, and were about to shoot at the Laq'uyi'p when their country 

 man asked them to desist, as the Lag'uyi'p had come to make peace and 

 to pay for those who had been killed in previous wars. The Ts'Ets'a'ut 

 allowed them to approach and gave them to eat. When they were about 

 to go to bed they showed the Laq'uyi'p their gun. One of the latter kept 

 it, and in the ensuing quarrel he shot two of the Ts'Ets'a'ut. Levi added 

 here that in olden times his countrymen were ' as stupid as ghosts.' 



These historical data define their territory fairly well.' 



' Mr. J. AV. McKay on hearing indirectly of my researches at Portland Inlet 

 published in a journal which commands some authority in Canada {The. Province, 

 Victoria, B.C., December 29, 1894) a correction before any of my observations were 

 made public. He says that these Indians ' belong to the Kunana, a tribe which in- 

 habits the lower Stikine Valley, and whose headquarters are at Tahltan, on the tirst 

 north forlc of the Stilcine River. About fortj' years ago three or four families of these 

 Indians were hunting in the neighbourhood of the head waters of the Skoot (Iskoot), 

 a large tributary of the Stikine. Game was scarce, the prospect of a hard winter 

 stared them in tlie face: they accordicgly decided to make for Chunah, on the sea- 

 coast, at the head of Behm Inlet. They took a wrong direction and struck the coast 

 on the west shore of Portland Channel. They were then discovered by one of the 

 headmen of the Naas tribe, who arranged with them to protect them from molestation 

 provided that they sold all the product of their fur hunts to him at liis price. Having 

 no alternative but to accept his proposition, or be sold into slavery, they agreed to 

 be his vassals, and have remained as such to his heirs and assigns to this day. They 

 are not the remnants of a tribe ; they belong to a tribe which still maintains its 

 normal strength in the vallev of the Stikine.' 



In a letter addressed to Dr. G. M. Dawson and dated Victoria, B.C., Januaiy 19, 

 189.0, Mr. McKay makes the following additional statement : — 



' I have your letter of the tith instant touching Dr. Boas's discovery of a remnant 

 of a tribe of Indians on Portland Canal. The facts of the case are substantially as 

 stated in The Province, and were made known to me incidentally during my sojourn 

 in Cassiar. 



' I was one day encamped near the Tahltan River when some Naas Indians came 



