Phystognomy of British Columbia Coastal Indians. 25

Kitamaat, is the only other village with the same dialect. They are called the Kaitlope tribe,
and live at a place called Keemano, not more than 40 in number.

The Haidas, on the Queen Charlotte Islands, and the Tsimshians on the mainland opposite
have the reputation of being more progressive than the Indians further south. The 22 Haida
tested were all children or youths from Massett or Skidegate! who were pupils at Coqulaleetza
Residential Industrial School at Sardis, B.C., near Vancouver. The Haida are said to have
lighter skin colour than other tribes, and it is generally recognized that few of them are now of
pure blood. Nevertheless, all but one of the 22 tested were O. Blood groups were also taken
‘of six old people from Hartley Bay, a purely Tsimshian village of about 100, at the mouth of
Douglas Channel. The village of Klemtu, some 40 miles north of Bella Bella, contains about
100 people, both Bella Bellas (Kwakiutl) and Tsimshians. Of this number, 41 were tested and
‘proved to be much the most mixed as regards blood groups, containing 63-4 per cent. O, 34:2
~per cent. A, 2-4 per cent. B.

The Kwakiutl extend at intervals down the coast, which is deeply indented with inlets
and estuaries. They also occupy the mainland opposite the northern third of Vancouver
Asland and the north-eastern portion of the island itself, numbering perhaps 1000 people in
all, the mass of the Kwakiutl or Kwawkewlth nation occurring around Alert Bay on Cormorant
Island. This large coastal area, several hundred miles in length, is divided more or less
medianly by the Kwakiutl (Bella Bella?) occupying the coastal islands. The inlet where
Mackenzie in 1793 (see Wade, 1927) was first to cross the continent to the Pacific Ocean, is
occupied by the Bella Coola or Bilqula (Boas, 1887). Bella Bella has now a population of
about 380 and Bella Coola of about 250. The Bella Coola Salish are peculiarly isolated from
the rest of the Salish. While so near Bella Bella, their language is so different that they have
to use English or the Chinook jargon in talking to one another. Of the 94 people tested in
Bella Bella, 7-4 per cent. were A, none B. Of the 10 Interior Indians from up the Bella Coola
valley, eight bearing the surname Cahoose were all O and came from Uleacho. The two A’s bore
different names and came respectively from Anahaitu Lake and Chilacooten. According to
Jenness (1932, p. 339), the Bella Coola people formerly occupied some forty villages on the
Dean and Bella Coola rivers and their fiords. Each village contained from two to thirty plank
houses facing the water-front in a row, and each house sheltered from two to ten families.
They probably numbered 2000 or 3000 at the time of Mackenzie’s visit, but are now reduced
to a single village.

Owikano is a Kwakiutl village of about 75 people on Rivers Inlet some 50 miles south
-of Bella Bella. South of this is the village Tacush on Smith’s Inlet, a sub-tribe of 50 or 60 known
as Kwasila. The Owikano dialect is very much the same as that of Bella Bella, but the Tacush
people speak Kwakwala, which is the Kwakiutl language. Jenness (1932, p. 345) states that
in 1924 the Kwakiutl population was slightly under 2000. He estimates that in 1750 it was

1 Jenness (1932, p. 335) states that these are now the only inhabited villages in the islands, having a total
population of barely 650. In 1800 the number of Haida was carefully estimated at 8400. By 1905, according to
‘Swanton, it had decreased to about 900, mostly of mixed blood, 300 of whom were settled in Alaskan towns.

2 Called Hylchuck by the Indians to the north.

a2