ox THE NORTH-WESTEKN TRIBES OF CANADA, GG7 



V. Summary of the JVork of the Committee in British Columbia. 



By Franz Boas. 



At the time when the Committee instituted their investigations, the 

 inhabitants of the Pacific coast of Canada were less known than those of 

 any other part of the North American Continent, with the exception, 

 perhaps, of the tribes of California. What little we knew was based on 

 the brief descriptions of early travellers, or on indirect information obtained 

 from investigators who had been working in the regions to the north and 

 to the south. The only noteworthy work done in recent times was that 

 by Dr. G. M. Dawson during his frequent geological expeditions to British 

 Columbia. But three important problems remained to be solved ; the 

 numerous languages of the coast were still unclassified, and the number 

 of their dialects was not definitely known ; the physical characteristics of 

 the tribes had never been investigated ; it was not known if they repre- 

 sented one homogeneous type, or if several types were found in the 

 Province. Finally, the study of the customs of the various tribes ofiered 

 a number of diflicult problems in regard to the origin and significance 

 of several phenomena. 



Material advance has been made by the efforts of the Committee in 

 all these directions. The number of languages and dialects is now known, 

 and it does not seem likely that additional ones will be discovered. The 

 following languages are spoken in British Columbia : — Athapaskan or 

 Tinneh in eight dialects ; Tsimshian in thi'ee dialects ; Haida in two 

 dialects ; Wakashan in two divisions, the Kwakiutl with three dialects, 

 and the Nootka with two dialects ; the Salish in four main divisions with 

 eleven dialects, and the Kootenay. In this enumeration, dialects which 

 may be classed as well developed and pronounced provincialisms have not 

 been counted, but only such dialects as show distinct differences in voca- 

 bulary and grammar, so that intercommunication between the tribes 

 speaking them is, even in the case of the most closely affiliated dialects, 

 not easy. We count, therefore, in all, thirty dialects, which have 

 been here classed, according to their affinities, under six linguistic stocks. 

 Grammatical sketches of all these dialects have been obtained ; but a few 

 only are known tolerably well. These are the Kwakiutl and the Tsimshian. 

 All the others require much fuller investigation than they have heretofore 

 received. 



While the present state of our knowledge of these languages does not 

 permit us to assume that the number of stocks to which they belong is 

 smaller than the number given above, we may call attention at this place 

 to the morphological relations of some of these languages, which suggest 

 the desirability of further inquiries into their early history. 



Haida and Tlirgit — which latter is spoken in southern Alaska — have 

 a number of morphological traits in common. While all the other 

 languages of the North Pacific coast use reduplication for grammatical 

 purposes, no trace of reduplication is found in these two languages. There 

 is no gender, and no well-defined form for a plural or distributive. Com- 

 pound nouns are very numerous, the composition being effected by juxta- 

 position. Words of two, three, and more components, which do not 

 modify each other, occur. Local adverbs, which always retain their 

 independent forms, frequently enter into compound words of this kind. 

 In both languages there are four forms of the personal pronoun. In the 



