374 ACCULTURATION IN SEVEN AMERICAN INDIAN TRIBES

practices. The Church has attempted to institute a political sys-
tem, and a native formal court. But the Church had few means
for enforcing its precepts, beyond the fact that some of the Car-
rier, especially the women, took the confessional seriously. The
Catholic Church was, however, effective in preventing Alkatcho
children from attending the only accessible schools in Bella
Coola.

The Indian agent responsible for the Alkatcho Carrier lives
at Bella Coola, and though he visits Alkatcho infrequently his
authority appears to be well respected. When the Carrier visit
the Bella Coola during the summer they bring their problems,
complaints, disputes etc., to the agent. The present system of
trap-line ownership is regulated by the Indian agent. One of the
Indians remarked that his people had more respect for a jail
than for the hell of the missionary. The Canadian government
attempted to outlaw the potlatch; but again, because of the iso-
lated position of the village, its enforcement depended primarily
upon the willingness of the Indians to forsake these forms.

The life of the neighboring White settlers, farmers and ranch-
ers differs little in outward respects from that of the Indians. Pov-
erty has reduced the entire country to much the same level of
material comforts. The Alkatcho Indians have little contact with
them. Very few of the Alkatcho women have been known to en-
ter into sex relations with the Whites. It is the boast of the
Alkatcho Carrier—but difficult to check—that there are no half-
breeds in the village.

NON-CULTURAL RESULTS OF CONTACT

At the time of early missionary contact the population of
Alkatcho was 135. Today it is little over 100. One informant,
however, claimed that before the coming of the Whites there
were fewer people than today. Whatever the quantitative changes
in Carrier population, the coming of the Whites did not decimate
it. The Alkatcho Carrier have no record of epidemics, although
about seventy years ago a smallpox epidemic swept through most
of the Carrier villages. The use of the horse, however, and new
economic opportunities offered by work on White ranches, to-