In character and in morals,[422] as well as in physique, the inland native is almost unanimously pronounced superior to the dweller on the coast. The excitement of the chase, of war, and of athletic sports ennobles the mind as it develops the body; and although probably not by nature less indolent than their western neighbors, yet are these natives of the interior driven by circumstances to habits of industry, and have much less leisure time for the cultivation of the lower forms of vice. As a race, and compared with the average American aborigines, they are honest, intelligent, and pure in morals. Travelers are liable to form their estimate of national character from a view, perhaps unfair and prejudiced, of the actions of a few individuals encountered; consequently qualities the best and the worst have been given by some to each of the nations now under consideration. For the best reputation the Nez Percés, Flatheads and Kootenais have always been rivals; their good qualities have been praised by all, priest, trader and tourist. Honest, just, and often charitable; ordinarily cold and reserved, but on occasions social and almost gay; quick-tempered and revengeful under what they consider injustice, but readily appeased by kind treatment; cruel only to captive enemies, stoical in the endurance of torture; devotedly attached to home and family; these natives probably come as near as it is permitted to flesh-and-blood savages to the traditional noble red man of the forest, sometimes met in romance. It is the pride and boast of the Flathead that his tribe has never shed the blood of a white man. Yet none, whatever their tribe, could altogether resist the temptation to steal horses from their neighbors of a different tribe, or in former times, to pilfer small articles, wonderful to the savage eye, introduced by Europeans. Many have been nominally converted by the zealous labors of the Jesuit fathers, or Protestant missionaries; and several nations have greatly improved, in material condition as well as in character, under their change of faith. As Mr Alexander Ross remarks, "there is less crime in an Indian camp of five hundred souls than there is in a civilized village of but half that number. Let the lawyer or moralist point out the cause."
TRIBAL BOUNDARIES.
The Columbian Group comprises the tribes inhabiting the territory immediately south of that of the Hyperboreans, extending from the fifty-fifth to the forty-third parallel of north latitude.
THE HAIDAH FAMILY.
In the Haidah Family, I include all the coast and island nations of British Columbia, from 55° to 52°, and extending inland about one hundred miles to the borders of the Chilcoten Plain, the Haidah nation proper having their home on the Queen Charlotte Islands. 'The Haidah tribes of the Northern Family inhabit Queen Charlotte's Island.' 'The Massettes, Skittegás, Cumshawás, and other (Haidah) tribes inhabiting the eastern shores of Queen Charlotte's Island.' Scouler, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xi., p. 219. 'The principal tribes upon it (Q. Char. Isl.) are the Sketigets, Massets, and Comshewars.' Dunn's Oregon, p. 292. 'Tribal names of the principal tribes inhabiting the islands:—Klue, Skiddan, Ninstence or Cape St. James, Skidagate, Skidagatees, Gold-Harbour, Cumshewas, and four others.... Hydah is the generic name for the whole.' Poole's Q. Char. Isl., p. 309. 'The Cumshewar, Massit, Skittageets, Keesarn, and Kigarnee, are mentioned as living on the island.' Ludewig, Ab. Lang., p. 157. The following bands, viz.: Lulanna, (or Sulanna), Nightan, Massetta, (or Mosette), Necoon, Aseguang, (or Asequang), Skittdegates, Cumshawas, Skeedans, Queeah, Cloo, Kishawin, Kowwelth, (or Kawwelth), and Too, compose the Queen Charlotte Island Indians, 'beginning at N. island, north end, and passing round by the eastward.' Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 489; and Kane's Wand., end of vol. 'The Hydah nation which is divided into numerous tribes inhabiting the island and the mainland opposite.' Reed's Nar. 'Queen Charlotte's Island and Prince of Wales Archipelago are the country of the Haidahs; ... including the Kygany, Massett, Skittegetts, Hanega, Cumshewas, and other septs.' Anderson, in Hist. Mag., vol. vii., p. 74. 'Les Indiens Koumchaouas, Haïdas, Massettes, et Skidegats, de l'île de la Reine Charlotte.' Mofras, Explor., tom. ii., p. 337. My Haidah Family is called by Warre and Vavasour Quacott, who with the Newette and twenty-seven other tribes live, 'from Lat. 54° to Lat. 50°, including Queen Charlotte's Island; North end of Vancouver's Island, Millbank Sound and Island, and the Main shore.' Martin's Hudson's Bay, p. 80.
The Massets and thirteen other tribes besides the Quacott tribes occupy Queen Charlotte Islands. Warre and Vavasour, in Martin's Hud. Bay, p. 80.
The Ninstence tribe inhabits 'the southernmost portions of Moresby Island.' Poole's Q. Char. Isl., pp. 122, 314-15.
The Crosswer Indians live on Skiddegate Channel. Downie, in B. Col. Papers, vol. iii., p. 72.
The Kaiganies inhabit the southern part of the Prince of Wales Archipelago, and the northern part of Queen Charlotte Island. The Kygargeys or Kygarneys are divided by Schoolcraft and Kane into the Youahnoe, Clictass (or Clictars), Quiahanles, Houaguan, (or Wonagan), Shouagan, (or Showgan), Chatcheenie, (or Chalchuni). Archives, vol. v., p. 489; Wanderings, end of vol. The Kygáni 'have their head-quarters on Queen Charlotte's Archipelago, but there are a few villages on the extreme southern part of Prince of Wales Archipelago.' Dall's Alaska, p. 411. A colony of the Hydahs 'have settled at the southern extremity of Prince of Wales's Archipelago, and in the Northern Island.' Scouler, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xi., p. 219. 'Die Kaigàni (Kigarnies, Kigarnee, Kygànies der Engländer) bewohnen den südlichen Theil der Inseln (Archipels) des Prinzen von Wales.' Radloff, Sprache der Kaiganen, in Mélanges Russes, tom. iii., livrais. v., p. 569. 'The Kegarnie tribe, also in the Russian territory, live on an immense island, called North Island.' Dunn's Oregon, p. 287. The Hydahs of the south-eastern Alexander Archipelago include 'the Kassaaus, the Chatcheenees, and the Kaiganees.' Bendel's Alex. Arch., p. 28. 'Called Kaiganies and Kliavakans; the former being near Kaigan Harbor, and the latter near the Gulf of Kliavakan scattered along the shore from Cordova to Tonvel's Bay.' Halleck and Scott, in Ind. Aff. Rept., 1869, p. 562-4. 'A branch of this tribe, the Kyganies (Kigarnies) live in the southern part of the Archipel of the Prince of Wales.' Ludewig, Ab. Lang., p. 80.
'To the west and south of Prince of Wales Island is an off-shoot of the Hydah,' Indians, called Anega or Hennegas. Mahony, in Ind. Aff. Rept., 1869, p. 575.