The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1895-01-31
INDIANS o. THE NORTHWEST.
Doms Of tbs Tribes That Arc located II
4t 3t8S British Coluu,bin. X w. E~. sr.a,

Some Of ths Tribes That Arc Located 4.
ssS British Columbus. x g,i$ TIA rrei5a
Z Siwash Is name which has been
made generally applicable to all Of tho
west-coast Indians from Puget sound
to Alaska These Indians are divided
into . great number of tribes, differing
In language, manners, and modern
traditions, though in their older tradi-
tions there is such striking similarity
as to indicate beyond doubt that they
have sprung from a common source. If
one were to attempt to trace the origin
of these tribes, says the Toronto
Globe, he would find that apparently
the country now occupied by them had
in other days been peopled by an older
and in all probability an inferior race,
with whom the ancestors of the pres
ent generation had mingled: but at a
point on the Queen Charlotte islands
there is line beyond which the older
tribes had evidently come into contact
with later and superior infusion.
Among the Hidas on the Queen Char
lotte islands is found fine race of
men. in their physical makeup they
are large and powerfully built; they are
somewhat lighter in color than their
southern neighbors, and more intelli-
gent; their mythology is more compli-
Gated, but more carefully wrought
out, and they excel in their arts
of woodworking and carving. Com
ing south from the Queen Charlotte
group, it is found that the influence
of the older and inferior race is more
and more strongly impressed upon the
tribes, and gradual deterioration con-
tinues, with a few Interruptions, right
down to Vancouver island, where
very ordinary type of aborigine is
found. From all that can be traced in
their mythology, in their peculiar
methods of thought, and in some in
stances, in their tribal traditions, it is
reasonable to suppose that the ances-
tors of the IIidas drifted across the Pa
ciic ocean. most probably from Japan,
and found Judgment on the islands
now occupied by their descendants.
These involuntary invaders had found
an inferior class OF natives, with whom
they had commingled until the distinc-
ton between them had been obliterated
and new tribe had been formed. That
this supposition is probably the correct
one is shown by the fact that within
comparatively recent times Japanese
vessels have been blown out of their
course and drifted upon the North
American coast.
That the Queen Charlotte group has
not been the only harbor of refuge for
these storm-tossed mariners of old is
probable, for among some of the tribes
farther south, even down as far as the
powerful Bella Coolas, there are found
evidences of superiority which can only
be attributed to commingling of the
Japanese, though with intermediate
weaknesses between these points and
points north and south, showing that
they had received fresh infusion from
without at particular places. In the
seventies Il Japanese junk in distress
was picked up as far south as the clover
end OF Vancouver island and lowed
into Victoria harbor. Words similar in
pronunciation and meaning are found
in the Japanese and tribal languages,
and there is a striking similarity in the
general physical outline of the two
peoples.