THE ALKATCHO CARRIER OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 339

RELATIONS BETWEEN THE ALKATCHO CARRIER AND THE
BELLA COOLA

At what period in their history the Alkatcho Carrier established
contact with the Bella Coola we do not know. Alkatcho informants
claim that in the “old days” they used to winter at Bella Coola,
for two main reasons—first, because they frequently ran short of
food during the winter months, and second, because the Bella
Coola furnished a market for their furs. They would, therefore,
take their pelts to the coast in exchange for dried salmon, olachen
grease, implements of White manufacture, and dentalia shells.
The Bella Coola welcomed the Carrier, although despising them,
because the fur trade was profitable and because it pleased them
to have strangers present at their winter ceremonies as awe-stricken
guests. ‘his information is verified by the Bella Coola:

In summer they [the Carrier] came down to the river valley to fish or
trade for salmon, and in the winter they were forced by cold and starva-
tion to visit Bella Coola, Bella Bella, or Rivers Inlet. They intermarried
a great deal with the upper valley inhabitants and so were able to spend
the cold months with relatives. The Bella Coola considered them utterly
foreign in habits and beliefs. To call a man a “Carrier” is still a great
insult. They regarded them with scorn and contempt. The presence of
a few .. . Carrier was, however, almost necessary to the correct per-
formance of the winter dances since they were uinitiated spectators whom
it was necessary to impress and delude.®

It is impossible to date the period of initial contact between
the Alkatcho Carrier and the Bella Coola; but regardless of when
first contact occurred there is some evidence to suggest that the
potlatch-rank complex was not adopted before the beginning or
the middle of the nineteenth century. In the first place, Alkatcho
Carrier tradition puts the beginnings of potlatching back no more
than four or five generations. At that time, they say, they were too
poor to potlatch. It is at about this time, too, that the character-
istic Plateau semi-underground house gave way, among the Carrier
to the rather crude counterpart of the Coast plank house. All pot-
latches are described in a plank house setting, suggesting that the
two formed a linked complex. The phratric system in its particu-

8T. F. Mcllwraith, The Bella Coola (manuscripts).