384 ACCULTURATION IN SEVEN AMERICAN INDIAN TRIBES

basic interest in puberty rites for boys and girls was the pro-
motion of habits of industriousness. There is simply no place
for a lazy person in Carrier society.

Generosity is also admired, but more so formerly than today.
People grumble at the ungenerous person who is wealthy, and
in the next breath admit how smart he is.

Apart from an insistence upon the above two characteristics
the Carrier have a rather catholic approach to personality. All
people are supposed to be “smart.” But smartness is not a gen-
eral factor. The ability to do anything well makes one smart.
The Chilcotins were smart because they rode well; the writer
was smart because he could flip flapjacks. However, none who
was lazy could possibly be smart, although a miser could. On the
other hand, the Carrier regarded a young boy, a microcephalic
with the definite stigmata of feeblemindedness, as “smart” in
contrast to many of the other boys of his age group, who accord-
ing to Western standards would have been regarded as smart.
The microcephalic is up early and works until dark, bringing
firewood, water, setting snares for small game, and in general
doing many chores about the house. The other boys, who are
more proficient in hunting but take time off either to lounge
around or to play, are not so smart. As a result of the continued
emphasis upon practical activity the play of children centers
about some form of work. Children play at drawing water from
the lake, at picking berries in the woods, at bringing firewood,
etc.

Smartness also means proficiency in making money, as it did
in the past. Thus, one of the big chiefs at Alkatcho had an
honorific title that meant, “proficiency in accumulating wealth.”
One man at Alkatcho within relatively recent years made a lot
of money by swindling the White traders. He was also smart.
The miser who got rich was hated but acknowledged as being
smart. It was smart for a woman to be prostitute for the Whites
so long as she was well paid. One Indian, for example, boasted
to me about the smartness of his wife. He used to pimp for her
at Bella Coola, and she made a lot of money. However, very few
women are reputed to have worked as prostitutes.