The ethnology of the parts between the Pacific, the Rocky Mountains, the Northern Athabaskan, and the Paduca area, is very nearly the ethnology of Oregon. Here we find two great families; and by their sides four or five isolated, or nearly isolated, languages, a phenomenon for which we are now prepared.
The first of the great divisions is one that is conveniently called—
THE TSIHAILI.
Synonym.—Tsihaili-Selish. Hales.
Area.—Discontinuous. Chiefly the lower part of Fraser's River, and the parts between that and the Columbia.
Divisions.—1. Tribes to the north of the Columbia, continuous. 2. Tribes to the south of the Columbia, either wholly or nearly isolated.
Sub-divisions.—Value of the classification unascertained. a. Continuous Tsihaili. 1. Shushwap. 2. Salish. 3. Skitsuish. 4. Piskwaus. 5. Kawitchen. 6. Skwali. 7. Checheeli. 8. Kowelits. 9. Noosdalum.
b. Isolated, or nearly isolated, Tsihaili.—The Nsietshawus, or Killamucks(?).
Conterminous, with the a. Hailtsa, b. Nass, c. Athabaskan Taculli and Tsikunni on the north; d. Kitunaha, on the east; e. Sahaptin; f. Tshinúk on the south. The isolated Tsihaili surrounded by Tshinúks, Tlatskanai (discontinous Athabaskans) and Jakons.
The Shushwap, or Atnahs, are the northernmost of the Tsihaili, and are conterminous with the Taculli. Their number, according to Mr. Hales, is about 1200, increased from 400.