351 
(UiAPTEH XXII 
TRIBES OF THE CORDILLERA 
INTERIOR SALISH 
The largest nation in the interior of British Columbia was the 
Interior Salish, who differed in customs, dialects, and even physical 
appearance from the Salishan-sjieaking Indians of the coast. They 
were divided into five tribes that were often hostile to one another. 
(1) Lilloet (“ Wild Onion ”) Indians, of the Lillooet River valley. 
(2) Thompson Indians, in the Fraser River valley from about 
Yale to Lillooet, and on the Thompson river as far up as 
Ashcroft. 
(3) Okanagan’ Indians, of the Okanagan lake and river. 
(4) Lake Indians, of the Arrow’ lakes and upper Columbia river. 
(5) Shusw’ap’ Indians, controlling the Fraser River valley from 
Lillooet to Alexandria, and all the country eastw^ard to the 
summits of the Rocky mountains. 
At the end of the eighteenth century there was a small Atha- 
paskan-speaking tribe, wedged in among these five Salishan tribes, 
wdiich occu])ied the valley of the Nicola river and part of the valley of 
the Similkameen. Early in the nineteenth century the Thompson 
River Indians absorbed it so completely that only a few legends, and 
a small vocabulary of names, bear wutness to its former existence. 
The Lilloet w’ere the w’esternmost of the five Interior Salish 
tribes, and the chief intermediaries in the trade with the coast people; 
they bartered the berries, hemp bark, skins, and goat w'ool of the 
interior for shells, slaves, and, occasionally, dug-out canoes. Trading 
relations subjected them to other influences, and the Lilloet adopted 
the exogamous clan system of the Coast Salish (though wuthout the 
division into castes), impersonated the hypothetical clan ancestors 
in masked dances, and imitated some of the rites of the secret society. 
Similarly the w-esternmost bands of the Shusw^ap, who lived in close 
contact with the Chilcotin and Carrier, borrow’ed from those tribes 
a division of the population into nobles, commoners, and slaves,^ 
1 The meaning.s of these words are unknown. 
~ Slaves were few in number, lio'.vever, and probablj’ half tlie population ranked as nobles. 
