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SECTION ITI, 1888. | [ AT | Trans. Roy. Soc. CANADA.

V.—The Indians of British Columbia.

By Franz Boas, Pu. D.

(Presented by Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, May 30, 1888.)

For a long time the remarkable culture of the Indians of Northwest America has
attracted the attention of ethnologists ; but, so far, no progress has been made in solving
the difficult problem of the origin of this culture. Attention has been called to the favor-
able circumstances under which these people live, the abundance of food, and the mildness
of climate which favor a steady progress of civilization ; but anthropogeographical consid-
erations cannot be considered a sufficient basis for these studies, as their influence 1s
only secondary in determining, to a certain extent, the direction in which the culture
develops. A study of the origin of any culture must begin with that of the people, with
the study of its ethnological and physical character.

The fact which impresses itself most strongly upon our minds is the great diversity
of peoples inhabiting the north-west coast of our continent. Their general distribution is
admirably shown on the Ethnological Map of British Columbia by Drs. Tolmie and
Dawson. We notice the following divisions on the latter: the Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian,
Bilqula, Kwakiutl,’ Nutka, Cowitchin, Niskwalli, Salish, Sahaptin, and Tinné. Among
these the Bilqula, Cowitchin, Niskwalli, and Salish belong to one linguistic stock—the
Salish. The Nutka are probably an independent stock, while the Tlingit and Haida are
related to one another. |

- Among these stocks the Salish are by far the most important, occupying as they do
an enormous territory. The observer of the tribes of this race will be struck by the
diversity of dialects of their language. These dialects, according to their affinities, may
be grouped as follows. First, there are the dialects of the interior, of which the Salish
proper may serve as a specimen. In British Columbia two dialects of this group are
spoken : the Okanagan and the Ntlakyapamugq or Suéshwapmuq. The second group is
that of the Coast Salish, which is spoken on the coasts of Puget Sound and the Strait of
Georgia. I studied the division of the latter into dialects in the winter of 1886-87,
and found that, in British Columbia alone, not less than six or seven dialects exist, each
spoken by a few tribes. The southern of these dialects have almost throughout the same

radicals; but the meaning of each word undergoes material changes in the various

dialects. Besides this, words occurring in one language in a very simple form, are in the
others reduplicated or even triplicated; transpositions of consonants, elimination of
vowels, and transformations of consonants making it sometimes hardly recognizable.

1 [The same word is written by Dr. G. M. Dawson Kwakiool, Trans. Roy. Soe. Can., V. ii. 6, and by Rey. Alfred
Hall Kwagiutl, Trans. Roy. Soc. Can. VI. ii. 6.—Ep. Norn. ]