The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-01-03
BRITISH COLUMBIA INDIANS.
Some Curious SDeCIlltiOlS Regarding Their
Origin.

You will find that seven in ten among the
more intelligent British COlumbi con-
Guide these Indians TO be Of Japanese origin.
The Japanese current is neighborly to the
province, and il has drifted Japanese junks
TO these shores. When the first traders Wis
tied the neighborho0d of the mouth of the
Columbia they found beeswax in the sand
near the yestiges of wreck, and it is said
that one wreck of junk was met with. and
1900 pounds of this lax was found on her.
W halers are said TO have frequently encoun-
tered wrecked and drifting junks in the
Eastern Pacific, and a local legend has ii
that in 1884 remnants of junk with three
japanese and cargo of pottery were found
on the coast south Of Cape Flattery. NDth-
ing less than all this should excuse even a
rudderlesS ethnologist for so cruel reflec-
ton upon the Japanese. for these Indians
are so far from pretty that all who see them
agree with Captain Butler, the traveller,
WHO wrote that III they are OF the Mongo-
liam type, the sooner the MoDgollans change
their type the better"
The coast Indians are splendid sailors, and
their dng0uts do not always come Off second
best 10 racing with the boats of white men.
With primitive yet ingeniOusly made tool.
like an adZe. In the construction OF which
blade is tied fast 10 bent handle Of bone,
these natives labOriously pick out the heart
of a great cedar log and shape its outer si0es
into the form OF boat When the log Is
properly followed they fill it with water
and then drop in stones which they have
heated in fire. Thus them steam the
boat so that they may spread the sides and
fit III the cr0SSbaTS which keep Ii strong and
preserve its shape. These dug0uts are
sometimes sixty feet long and are used
for whaling and long voyages in rough
seas. They are capable of carrying
tons OF the salmon or Uolachan or herring.
of which these people, who live as their
fathers did. catch sufficient in a few days
for their maintenance throughout whole
year. One gets an idea OF the swarms OF
fish that infest those waters by the knOwl-
edge that before nets were used the herring
and the oolachan, or candle-fsb, were swept
into these boats by an implement formed
by studding ten-fOOt pole with spikes or
nails. This was swept among the fish in the
water, and the boats were speedily filled
with the creatures that were impaied upon
the spikes. Salmon, Sea-Otter, otter, beaver.
marten, bear and deer Tor caribou or moOse)
were and still are the chief resources of
most of the Indians Once they sold the
fish and the peltry to the Hudson Bay Com
pany, and ate what parts or surplus they
did not sell. Now they work IN the
canneTies or fish for them in summer,
and hunt trap. or loaf the rest OF
the time. However, while they still fish
and sell furs, andl while asome are yet
as their fathers were, nearly all the coast
Indians are semi-ciyiliZed. They have at
least the white mans clothes and hymns and
vices They have churches; they live in
houses; they work in canneries. What lit
tie there was that was picturesque about
them has vanished only few degrees faster
than their own extinction as q pure race,
and they are now a lot OF l0ngsnoremen.
What Mr.. Duncan did for them in Metla-
kahtla-espeelally in housing the families
separately-haS not been arrived at even
in the reservation at Victoria, where one
may still see one of the huge low shed-like
houses they prefer, 0rnameDted with totem
roles, and arranged for eight families, and
consequently for laxity of morals for
which no one can hold the white man re-
sponsible.
They are traetable people and take as
kindly to the rudiments OF civilization, TO
work and to cooperation with the whites as
the plains Indian does to tea, tobacco and
whisky. They are physically but not men,
tally inferior TO the plainsman. They carve
bowls ana spoons of stone and bone, and
tleir heraidlc totem poles are cleveriy
shapen. however grotesque they may be.
They stil make them. but they Oftener
carve little ones fer white people, just as
they make more silver bracelets fer sale
than for wear. They are clever OF weaving
rushes ana cedar bark into mats, baskets,
fi0er-clotns and cargo covers. In a word
they are more prone to work at the outset
than most Indians, so that the present long
shore career of most of them is not to be
wondered at.-From "Canada's Ell Dorado"
by Julian Ralph, in Harper's Magazine for
January.