24 
observed by explorers and traders at the mouth of the Columbia, about 
1808;^ and two others were purchased from the Haidas in 1833, at Port 
Simpson, and given their freedom.^ 
An influence which may not be without significance in some respects 
is that of the Kanakas® on the North West Coast. Little has so far been 
said about it. Yet some traces of its presence have come to our attention, 
such as small wooden carvings or statuettes in some of our museums that 
are undoubtedly of South Sea technique, some costumes, and possibly 
also some manual processes. We may wonder whether the insertion of 
abalone pearl segments as decoration for wood carvings — and this is a 
notable feature of many of the finest Haida, Tsimsyan, and Tlingit carvings 
— is not to be traced to this source, since the large, deep sea, shells them- 
selves, from which they are cut, were imported, so we understand, from 
the south sea in the course of transoceanic trade. 
To sum up. Varied cultural influences from several quarters began 
to alter the life and the crafts of the North West Coast at an early date, 
even before our noted “discoverers,” from Cook onwards, first explored 
the country and penned their valuable information for posterity. The 
plastic and pictorial arts of the coast villagers as a result soon began to 
develop in new directions. The introduction of metal tools rendered the 
carvers’ work easier and more effective. The rising ambitions and growing 
wealth through the benefits of foreign trade in pelts and goods, stimulated 
pride in family heraldry and the display of personal achievements. To 
these elements may be ascribed the growth of the art to the astounding 
proportions it attained in the nineteenth century, particularly under the 
form of totem poles, argillite carvings, canoe and box making among the 
Haidas, and the carving of beautiful rattles and headdresses among the 
Nass River Indians. Many of these articles — the argillite carvings, the 
canoes and boxes, the rattles, and the headdresses — were in part meant for 
intertribal or foreign trade, after the fastness of pre-Columbian frontiers 
had broken down under stress. 
A moot point still remains to be considered. Precisely where did 
the totem poles or mortuary columns first appear and at exactly what 
moment? The presumptions boil down to two. These heraldic monu- 
ments first became the fashion either on Nass river or among the Haidas 
of Queen Charlotte islands. Our evidence, as stated above, eliminates 
the Gitksan or the Tsimsyan proper from among the possibilities. Like- 
wise, the tribes farther south cannot be considered. The Bellabellas 
were painters rather than carvers. The Kwakiutl and the Nootka plastic 
art always remained very crude compared with that of the northern nations; 
and besides it revelled in grotesque forms by preference. It seldom was 
at the service of heraldry as in the north, heraldry being of minor import 
on the coast south of the Skeena. Totem poles among the Kwakiutl and 
the Nootka are all very recent; not many of them, as they are currently 
>W. D. Lyman, The Columbia River, quoted above. 
’See a lengthy list of Japanese junks found adrift or stranded on the coast of North .America or on the Hawaian 
or adjacent islands. By Charles Wolcott Brooks, in Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, vol. VI (1875) . 
’The Kanakas were slaves or serfs from the Sandwich Islands who were used in fair numbers by the ancient 
traders. There was an enclosure for them near Fort Victoria, on Vancouver island, in the early days. A group of 
them served as carriers or packers for the Astor expedition up the Columbia, about 1808. {See Boss Cox, Adven- 
tures on the Columbia River, pp. 189-79). And Vancouver incidentally speaks of one of them when he said: "Whilst 
heremained at Clayoquot, Wicananish, the chief of that district, bad concerted a plan to capture his ship, by brib- 
ing a native of Owhyhee, whom Mr. Gray had with him, to wet the priming of all the firearms on board, which were 
constantly kept loaded.” 
