108 BRITISH COLUMBIA.

Under the rigid matrilinear system of the Haida and Tsimshian an individual
fitted automatically into the title of nobility to which he had a right by birth.
The Kwakiutl, on the other hand, were dominated by a compromise between two
incompatible social systems, due to their retention of certain customs they brought
from the south when they settled on the Coast. In this duplicate organization,
secular and religious, the former was in force during the summer, when Nobility
precedence was regulated according to the individual’s lineage; the other during
the winter, when it was taboo to refer to a man by his secular name. During
this religious season members of the tribe were grouped according to the status of
the spirits by whom they had been initiated into the various Secret Societies. A
man ranked according to the prestige of the name he acquired as a member of
the Secret Society to which he belonged. Desirous always of raising his standing,
however, an important feature in the dowry of a promised bride was the secular
or religious titles he, as bridegroom, could receive from his father-in-law.

The Salish tribes gave scant consideration to titles, whether inherited or
acquired. A man’s importance depended on his skill as fisher or hunter or on his
luck in gambling. Every man had the same opportunities; and most personal
possessions, far from being accumulated, were destroyed on the death of the
owner.
CoMMONERS.

The origin of Commoners is rather indefinite; younger sons on the Coast
were without status, merely “ scorned commoners.” It has been suggested that
commoners descended from the younger sons of nobles and, gradually losing the
hall-marks of their origin, fell ever lower in the social scale. The possibility of
raising their rank by the accumulation of wealth and assuming a higher name at
a potlatch was open to them in some cases. But the majority of commoners
remained such until contact with Europeans led to the decadence of tribal laws,
with the result that commoners and even ex-slaves assumed titles and privileges
previously confined to the nobility.

SLAVES.

Slavery has been described as “one of the main pillars of the social and
political life” of the early occupants of this Province. It existed in its most
cruel form throughout the whole area. A man found at a distance from his own
people might be seized as a slave; women and children captured in raids were
carried off for this purpose; and less than a century ago a few white men thus
degraded were found among the Haida, survivors from the deliberate wreckage
of their ships by means of decoys set for the purpose. Wealth consisted largely ~
in the possession of slaves. In 1841, Simpson estimated that one-third of the
population on the Coast were slaves, abject and helpless. Some were prisoners
of war and their descendants, others were kidnapped; but the main supply were
obtained by trade in which the Tsimshian acted as middlemen, selling them for
furs to the Tlingit and to the Athapaskan tribes of the Interior. Slaves were
not allowed to hold property; did all the drudgery; and when old and worthless
were killed. On certain occasions they might obtain freedom, but the custom of
killing them at ceremonies and for reparation in quarrels was quite common
among the northern tribes. (Plate XVIIL., Fig. 41.) Nevertheless exceptions
existed; for a reference to the slate carvings practised by the Haida at Skidegate
mentions that “the best pieces of work seen were those of Chief Charles Eden-
shaw and his faithful Tlingit slave, who spent much of their time in this friendly
rivalry”; and in some tales slaves evidently occupied confidential positions.