26 R. Ruccies Gares anp Gxo. E. Darsy.—Blood Groups and

5000 to 6000. Salish or Squamish is the name applied to the natives of the mainland opposite-
the lower part of Vancouver Island. The eight tested were all O, but one of them had “ yellow ”

hair. According to Jenness, the coast Salish probably numbered over 15,000 when Captain

Cook visited them in 1778. To-day they-number not more than 4000 and, like the other

tribes, are limited to reservations.

The Nootka linguistic stock, as will be obvious from their photographs (Pl. V, Figs.
1-7), are of much purer Indian blood than the Kwakiutl. They occupy the western coast of
Vancouver Island in many villages, the present population being nearly 1500 (Jenness, 1932,.
p. 347), whereas at the end of the eighteenth century it was perhaps 6000. The 31 tested were
allO, They came from the villages Nootka, Hesquiat, Kyuquot, Ahousat, Chicklesit, Clayoquot, .
Ucluelet and Muchalot. Those tested were nearly all women, as the men were away fishing.

All the tribes and smaller groups are isolated in their villages to a large extent during the.
greater part of the year, but each summer they resort en masse to the salmon canneries. This.
has happened for many years, and is accompanied by laxity of sexual relationships. Up to-
thirty years ago large numbers of Indian women (Haidas and others) resorted to Victoria in a
similar way, and it is not surprising that the present Indian population contains a large amount -
of white blood. Wars broke out between the Haida in their large canoes and the Kwakiutl.
tribes along the coast. Smallpox carried off hundreds and many groups were rapidly decimated.

Some idea of the great change in conditions in the last generation, and of the increase
in the amount of white blood in the recent population, may be obtained by comparing Hill-Tout’s.
(1907) account of the British Columbia Indians with the present photographs and descriptions. .
They have adopted the white man’s type of clothes and his method of building wooden houses..

It is not necessary to discuss here the relatively high type of Indian culture which was.
reached by these coastal, salmon-fishing Indians before the advent of the white man. Their
customs and culture are well summarized in such works as Goddard (1924) and Jenness (1932).
No doubt the relatively favourable conditions made it possible for these Indians to obtain a
degree of comfort and culture which could not be reached by the inland tribes to the east and
north, who lived as hunters in the forests or on the plains under much more rigorous climatic
conditions. Suffice it to say that the coastal peoples built large war canoes (especially the:
Haida) and houses, often large enough to hold many people, constructed from roughly hewn
planks placed on edge, with wooden chests and huge totem poles, as well as elaborate fish
weirs. They bred a special kind of dog, which was sheared and its wool woven into blankets.
They kept slaves whom they sometimes killed and ate, they held potlatches with complicated
ceremonials and were organized into phratries and secret societies. The Haida hunted seals.
and the Nootka even whales in the open sea. Some of the Haida totem poles and other wood
carvings strongly suggest Aztec or Maya sculpture, but are less developed in style.

The early navigators and fur traders, such as Dixon (1789) and Meares (1790) gave:
picturesque accounts of the Indian manners and customs, but were frequently inaccurate or
unsatisfactory in their descriptions of the physical characteristics of the people. Dixon
estimated the population of the Queen Charlotte Islands, which he was the first to visit, at
no less than 10,000. The women wore huge labrets in their lower lip, inlaid with mother of