792 REPORT— 1897. 



4. The Kootenays and their Salishan Neighbours. 

 By Dr. A. F. Chamberlain, Clark University, Worcester, Mass. 



The chief results of the investigations carried ou amongst the Kootenays of 

 South-eastern British Columbia by the writer in 1891 have appeared in the 

 Eeport of the British Association for 1892, but the material then obtained is still 

 being studied, especially the linguistic data. An ethnological sketch of the 

 Shushwaps, neighbours of the Kootenays on the v?est, who belong to the Salishan 

 linguistic stoclr, was published by Dr. G. M. Dawson, in the ' Transactions ' of the 

 Royal Society of Canada for 1891, and another brief account of them, by Dr. 

 Pranz Boas, appeared in the Report of the British Association for 1890. It is- 

 upon these that the comparisons here made are based. In respect of languages 

 these adjacent peoples show marked differences : the Kootenay makes very little 

 use of reduplication (none, seemingly, for grammatical purposes), possesses incor- 

 poration in a manner similar to the Nahuatl of Mexico, and verbal composition 

 like the Sionan and the Athapascan languages. The Shushwap employs reduplica- 

 tion extensively and has ' substantivals ' like the Algonkian tongues. The general 

 linguistic affinities of the Kootenay seem to lie, perhaps with the Shoshonian 

 stock, though nothing definite has yet been made out, and it still remains an 

 independent family of speech. The general affinities of the Shushwap are more 

 with the Kwakiutl-Nootka. Of borrowings between Kootenay and the Salishan 

 languages there have been few. Statlsm, ' a dug-out,' hdEtltsin, ' a dog,' kdiltsa, 

 ' lour,' finding cognates in Salishan dialects ; also, perhaps, the words for ' four,' 

 and 'eight.' In certain arts, implements, &c., sweat-houses, fire-baking of roots, 

 pine-bark fuel, root-foods games, the likeness between the two peoples, even in 

 detail, is very close, the affinity lying, however, sometimes with peoples north of 

 them, sometimes with those to the south, the Kootenays favouring the latter, the 

 Shushwap the former. A peculiar pipe figured by Dawson, and ' differing in shape 

 from any hitherto seen by me in British Columbia,' closely resembles one found 

 among the Kootenays, who also possess the pestle-shaped hammer of the Shush- 

 waps and coast tribes. By far the most noteworthy coincidence, however, is the 

 possession by the Kootenays and the Shushwaps of the peculiar double (down- 

 wards) pointed bark-canoe, of the kind which Professor 0. T. Mason calls the 

 Amoor type, since it is found also on that Asiatic river. The Kootenay name 

 ydktsdmitl differs entirely from the Salishan names, and its use with them is 

 much more common than with the Shushwaps. Hence one might reasonably 

 argue that the borrowing here has been from the Kootenays on the part of the 

 Shushwaps, and not vice versa. The fish-traps and fish-weirs of the two peoples 

 are practically identical. In their social organisation the two peoples resemble 

 each other in their lack of gentes and complicated secret societies. More evidences 

 of sun-worship are found with the Kootenays than with the Shushwaps. In 

 mythological fond there are striking resemblances especially in the animal tales, 

 where the coyote (indicative of southern affinities) performs a chief role, though 

 with the Kootenays he is not the hero as with the Shushwaps. 



5. Kootenay Indian Drawings. 

 By Dr. A. F. Chamberlain, Clark University, Worcester, Mass. 



The author exhibited some 300 drawings of natural objects, animals, imple- 

 ments, human beings, &c., which he obtained in the summer of 1891 from certain 

 members of the Kootenay tribe of South-eastern British Columbia, to whom he 

 had given, for the purpose, paper and pencils. None of the Indians whose genius 

 the drawings represent had ever, so far as known, received any instruction in the 

 art from the whites, and the skill displayed is even more noteworthy, when we 

 consider the fact that no rock carvings or picture-writings are on record from the 

 region in question. 



In the delineations of celestial and terrestrial phenomena the most remarkable 

 points are the depicting of the clouds as musses dependent from the arch of the 



