s
_ours_, not _theirs_; and that those who, by looking to facts rather
than words, have criticised it, have arrived at the conclusion that the
creed of the Indians of the St. Lawrence and Mississippi is neither
better nor worse than the creed of the Indians of the Columbia. Both are
alike, Shamanistic. And so is the Eskimo.
The names in detail of the Indians of British Oregon, over and above
those of the Athabaskan family already enumerated, are as follows; Dr.
Scouler still being the authority, and, along with him, Mr. Tolmie and
Mr. Hale.
1. The _Chimsheyan_, or _Chimmesyan_, on the sea-coast and islands about
55 deg. North lat. Their tribes are the _Naaskok_, the _Chimsheyan Proper_,
the _Kitshatlah_, and the _Kethumish_.
2. The _Billichula_, on the mouth of the Salmon River.
3. The _Hailtsa_, on the sea-coast, from Hawkesbury Island to
Broughton's Archipelago, and (perhaps) the northern part of Quadra's and
Vancouver's Island. Their tribes are the _Hyshalla_, the _Hyhysh_, the
_Esleytuk_, the _Weekenoch_, the _Nalatsenoch_, the _Quagheuil_, the
_Ttatla-shequilla_, and the _Lequeeltoch_. The numerals from Fitz-Hugh
Sound will be noticed in the sequel.
4. _The Nutka Sound Indians_ occupy the greater part of Quadra's and
Vancouver's Island, speak the _Wakash_ language, and fall into the
following tribes--
_a._ _The Naspatl._
_b._ _The Nutkans Proper._
_c._ _The Tlaoquatsh._
_d._ _The Nittenat._
5. _The Shushwah_, or _Atna_, are bounded on the north by the Takulli,
belong to the interior rather than the coast, are members of a large
family, called the _Tsihaili-Selish_, extending far into the United
States. According to Mr. Hale, they present the remarkable phenomenon
of an aboriginal stock having increased from about four hundred to
twelve hundred, instead of diminishing.
6. _The Kitunaha_, _Cutanies_, or _Flat-bows_, hardy, brave and shrewd
hunters on the Kitunaha, or Flat-bow River, and conterminous with the
Blackfoots, are the Oregon Indians whose habits most closely approach
those of the Indians to the east of the Rocky Mountains.
* * * * *
To some of these I now return, since three points of Algonkin ethnology
require special notice.
_a._ _The Nascopi_ or _Skoffi_.--This is a frontier tribe. Much as we
connect the ideas of cold and cheerless sterility with the inclement
climate and naked moorlands of Labrador, and much as we connect the
Eskimo as a p
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