THE INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. 385 



Many resemblances of the Haida to widely remote stocks have been 

 l^ointed out by writers, but to illustrate how futile such clues are in 

 tracing the origin and relationship of the tribes of the world, a paral- 

 lel is here briefly drawn between the Maori of New Zealand and the 

 Haida. In point of physical resemblance both are of the Mongoloid 

 type and both live on groups of islands whose climates are remarkably 

 similar. Poole says of the climate of the Queen Charlotte Islands that 

 the most graphic comparison he could draw was with that of the north- 

 ern island of New Zealand.* Their ijolitical organization of the tribe, 

 their ownership of land, and their laws of blood-revenge are similar. 

 The men tattoo with designs intended to identify them with their sub-tribe 

 or household, and they ornament their canoes, paddles, house fronts, 

 etc., in somewhat the same manner as on the northwest coast. In 

 Chapter iv, p. 267, under the head of "Rain Cloaks," Dixon (1787) is 

 quoted as saying that the cloaks of .the Haida and Tlingit were the same 

 as those worn by the New Zealanders. In Chapter vi, p. 303, is also 

 quoted from Dixon a statement that a Haida fortified house on an isl- 

 and of the Queen Charlotte group was " built exactly on the plan of 

 the hippah of the savages of New Zealand ; " and in Chapter v, p. 279, 

 that the adzes of the Tlingit and Haida, made of jasper, were "the 

 same as those used by the New Zealanders." The cloaks of shredded 

 inner bark in the National Museum from New Zealand and the Queen 

 Charlotte Islands are so much alike, that it takes a close inspection to 

 distinguish them. In Plate xxxii, Fig. 1G7, a New Zealand paddle is 

 reproduced, with a few from the northwest coast. The resemblance 

 is marked and interesting. In Plate LV, Fig. 295, a Maori tiki is illus- 

 trated along with several Haida carv^ed wooden columns. The carved 

 wooden mortuary columns erected in front of the Maori houses are also 

 suggestive, but it is safe to say that while all this is not in one sense 

 accidental, yet the resemblances and similarities are as likely to have 

 arisen from the like tendencies of the human mind under the same ex- 

 ternal conditions, or environment to develop along parallel lines as 

 through contact of these tribes or through a common origin. 



The Kaigani. — The Kaigani are a branch of the Haida of Queen Char- 

 lotte Islands, having for some cause or other split off from their breth- 

 ren and settled across Dixon Entrance on the southern end of Prince 

 of Wales Island and adjacent archipelago. As near as cau be figured 

 from the Indian accounts, this mast have happened at the least one- 

 hundred and fifty years ago. Their three principal villages now are 

 Ilowkan, Kliuquan and Kasaan. Howkan is a thriving village, with 

 a winter population of about three hundred. Under the ministration 

 of the Eev. J. L. Gould, of the Presbyterian Board of Missions, it is 

 fast losing its native characteristics. A saw-mill is run in connection 

 with the mission, and the Indians are gradually building an American 

 village in rear of the old time lodges. Many of the totemic columns 

 hav^e been cut down, and the native characteristics are fast disap- 



*Poolo, Queen Charlotte Islands, p. 237, 



M- Mis. 142, pt. 2- 25 



