15 
sented in the plateau regions of British Columbia. Five languages, 
Tlinkit, Haida, Tsimshian, Salishan, and Wakashan (Kwakiutl- 
Nootka), contended for possession of the British Columbia coast- 
line, and an Athapaskan dialect, Tsetsaut, touched the sea at the 
head of Portland canal, so that this single physiographic and cultural 
area nurtured a remarkable diversity of speech. Two other languages 
appear on the map, Kootenay and Siouan. These mark the invasion, 
shortly before the historical period, of some small bands from the 
United States, where the majority of their kinsmen still survive. 
This invasion of alien tribes into what is now Canada reminds 
us that the political boundaries of the Dominion had no existence 
before the nineteenth century, and bear little or no relation to any 
boundaries based on either physiographic or ethnological considera- 
tions. The 141st meridian and the 49th parallel of latitude were 
purely arbitrary lines that cut through cultural, linguistic, and even 
tribal areas, placing half the Blackfoot Indians, for example, under 
the flag of the United States and the other half imder the British. 
We cannot logically separate the Eskimo of our Arctic coast-line from 
the Eskimo of Greenland and Alaska; or the Iroquoian tri}>es of 
Ontario from their kinsmen in the state of New York. From a broad 
viewpoint, therefore, all the cultural areas outlined above, with the 
exception of the Alackenzie River region, extend beyond the frontiers 
of the Dominion. Canada’s present political boundaries are equally 
useless for linguistic ])urposes, since even tlie Athapaskan dialects 
of the IMackenzie basin have sister dialects in Alaska and in 
the western and southwestern parts of the United States. It is not 
possible, therefore, to study our aborigines thoroughly without study- 
ing also tlie tribes on tlie remainder of the continent. Nevertheless, 
we can describe their principal traits without great difficulty, merely 
glancing now and then at neighbouring regions to fill in small gai>s in 
our picture. 
It might seem natural, after this preliminary survey of the field, 
to proceed with a detailed description of each cidture area and of 
the various tribes that inhabited it. Yet such a course would involve 
us in endless difficulties. We need, first of all, a clear vision of the 
economic background whicli formed the basis of tribal life, a 
knowledge of the resources the Indians possessed and of those they 
lacked. So many thousands of years have elapsed since agriculture 
