ART. IV.-THE TWAxNA INDIANS OF THE SKOKOMISH RESER- 

 VATION IN WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 



By Eev. M. Eells, 

 Missionary among these Indians. 



Plates 23-25. 

 IXTKODUCTION. 



The following account has been written in answer to questions asked* 

 by the Indian Bureau, for the Centennial Exhibition and the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. If it is of any value, it is not altogether because 

 it describes the Indians under their old native habits and customs, but 

 because it gives an account of them in a state of transition from their na- 

 tive wildness to civilization. For the past sixteen years, a United States 

 Indian agent and Government employes have been on the reservation. 

 Previously to that, there were American settlers in this region for ten 

 or twelve years, and previously to that, the Hudson's Bay Company 

 were trading in the country for thirty years or thereabouts. They have 

 therefore had contact with civilization for a long time, during which 

 they have been adopting civilized customs more or less rapidly, and may 

 be called about half-civilized. Hence, transition is marked in every de- 

 partment of their lives — in food, dwellings, clothes, implements of use, 

 manners, customs, government, and religion ; therefore it is very diffi- 

 cult to describe their primitive customs, especially in regard to their 

 ancient ornamental dress, war and hunting customs, stone- work, adorn- 

 ment, secret societies, and tamanamus. There are very few, even of the 

 old men, who know all these customs thoroughly. 



The families have not all made equal advancement in civilization, 

 and hence what applies to some will not apply to others, even at the 

 present time; the younger, as a general rule, being further advanced 

 than the older ones. On this account, it has also been difficult to 

 describe all truthfully. On looking over the list of individuals, which 

 number about sixty-five, forty-two of them are at least half-civilized 

 in regard to eating-customs and houses, while of the remaining twenty- 



[*In the publication entitled " Ethuoloijical Directions relative to the Indian Tribes of 

 the United States. — Prepared under direction of the Indian Bureau, by Otis T. Mason. — 

 Washington : Government Printing Office, 1875." — 8vo, pp. .32. The article is in the 

 form of an.swers to the questions there asked, following the printed heads of subjects 

 of inquiry very closely. — Ed.] 



