The Franz Boas Papers, Volume 2: Franz Boas, James Teit, and Early Twentieth-Century Salish Ethnography (Franz Boas Papers Documentary Edition) 1496235711, 9781496235718

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[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

THE FRANZ BOAS PAPERS, VOLUME 2

T H E F RA NZ BOA S PA PERS DO CUM E NTARY E D I T I ON

The Franz Boas Papers, VOLUME 2 Franz Boas, James Teit, and Early Twentieth-Century Salish Ethnography, 1894–1922 Franz Boas

Edited by Andrea Laforet, Angie Bain, John Haugen, Sarah Moritz, and Andie Diane Palmer REGNA DARNELL, GENERAL EDITOR

Co-published by the University of Nebraska Press and the American Philosophical Society

© 2024 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America

The University of Nebraska Press is part of a land-grant institution with campuses and programs on the past, present, and future homelands of the Pawnee, Ponca, Otoe-Missouria, Omaha, Dakota, Lakota, Kaw, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Peoples, as well as those of the relocated Ho-Chunk, Sac and Fox, and Iowa Peoples. ♾ Publication of this volume is assisted by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Franz Boas papers / Regna Darnell, general editor. volumes cm.—(Franz Boas papers documentary edition) Contents: volume 1. Franz Boas as public intellectual: theory, ethnography, activism / edited by Regna Darnell, Michelle Hamilton, Robert L. A. Hancock, and Joshua Smith Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8032-6984-2 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8032-7199-9 (pdf) 1. Boas, Franz, 1858–1942—Influence. 2. Boas, Franz, 1858–1942—Correspondence. 3. Ethnology. I. Darnell, Regna, editor of compilation. GN21.B56F75 2015 301.092—dc23 2015011301 All volumes in the series can be found by searching under the first volume’s information. Set in Charis by Scribe Inc. Frontispiece: Franz Boas portrait by Carl Gunther, 1912, courtesy Franz Boas Papers (Mss.B.b61), series 2, U5.1.25, c.1. James Teit portrait courtesy Canadian Museum of History, 18463, CD95-821-004/.

Contents

List of Illustrations General Editor’s Preface

vii ix

REGNA DARNELL

Acknowledgments

xi

Editorial Method

xiii

Introduction by

1

ANDREA LAFORET

1894–1895

61

1896

108

1897

119

1898

140

1899

167

1900

209

1901

233

1902

244

1903

253

1904

270

1905

290

1906

300

1907

323

1908

351

1909

390

1910

435

1911

480

1912

509

1913

552

1914

627

1915

664

1916

725

1917

757

1918

810

1919

863

1920

924

1921

935

1922

963

Postscript

968

Bibliography

977

Index

997

Illustrations

FIGURES Frontispiece. Franz Boas and James Teit

ii

1. Stone blades

196

2. Lodge at the entrance to the spirit land (side view)

200

3. Lodge at the entrance to the spirit land (end view)

200

4. Tattoo marks Tcuiêska

212

5. Arrow, snake, and sweat house tattoo marks

213

6. Sketches of moccasin designs

213

7. Lillooet butterfly pattern (upper)

248

8. Lillooet butterfly pattern (lower)

248

9. Nlaka’pamux woven mat

338

10. Basketry design motifs

389

11. Postcard showing “Chilkat Chiefs in Dancing Costume”

398

12. “Ashcroft Indians,” photograph by George N. Bailey

434

13. Woven Salish blanket by the McKay sisters (no. 2)

653

14. Woven Salish blanket by the McKay sisters (no. 4)

653

15. Teit’s diagram of a nose in profile

742

16. Teit’s drawing of a hand

836

17. (a) Skeena River twined baskets and (b) Newcombe’s note to Teit

869

18. Upper Nlaka’pamux baskets

874

19. Sketch of basketry tray made at Lytton

909

MAPS 1. Geographic scope of Teit’s research

3

2. Research sites in British Columbia

62

3. Research locales, 1908 and 1909

366

4. Research locales, 1910

453 vii

TABLES 1. Teit’s death records 1895 to 1899 of NLaka’pamux people

194

2. Teit’s birth records 1895 to 1899 of NLaka’pamux people

195

3. Inanimate, animate, and personal forms

358

4. Organization of Tahltan Manuscript

915

viii | Illustrations

General Editor’s Preface REGNA DARNELL

The Franz Boas Papers series received $2.5 million (Can) as a Partnership Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (No. 895-2012-001) between 2012 and 2020. The first volume, based on a planning conference in 2010, appeared in 2015. The mandate tied archival research to community-based collaborative research in Indigenous communities and trained both community personnel and students (overlapping categories). Governance by an Indigenous Advisory Council prioritized digitizing the Franz Boas Papers (FBP) at the American Philosophical Society (APS), a partner in the project, rather than print publication. This was a massive undertaking. Much of the material is now available online; APS developed a research center for Native American and Indigenous Research that drew models from the FBP but also developed its own trajectory. Spinoffs have mushroomed with interim reports in the Critical Studies in the History of Anthropology (CSHOA) and Histories of Anthropology Annual (HOAA) series and elsewhere. COVID-19 induced delays to field work and field-based consultations. Current environmental crises of floods and fires have also intervened. The present volume lies at the core of the series mandate, and its importance as a template for forthcoming volumes cannot be overstated. The interdisciplinary scope of the FBP project allows a synthesis that will stand across time as a model for archival scholarship and community collaboration. The open-ended nature of the process ensures its usefulness to the primary intended audience in Indigenous communities because published sources are rendered generic and gloss over the information of most use to them. The commentaries and footnotes simultaneously address multiple audiences ranging from the academy to the general reader. There is some urgency to reassessing the role of Franz Boas both in anthropology and beyond. The organization is a model of clarity. The introduction provides a roadmap of what is to come, and how to navigate it, and facilitates the highlighting of crossovers across time as successive actors and institutions replay similar trajectories with different details. The trajectories stretch into the present and beyond. The references are exhaustive and their relation to the text

ix

encourages readers to follow up. The whole manuscript must be considered in addition to existing work on parts of the whole. This synthesis has been possible because the editorial team is complex and seamlessly integrated, with all members equally valued for their unique roles within the larger organism. Andrea Laforet is an effective organizer and team leader in addition to her career-long and ongoing experience as administrator, fieldworker, and consultant to Indigenous communities; her long-term personal relationships with each member of editorial team underlie this synthesis and integrate the team. With an archivist’s eye, Angie Bain (Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs) has sourced and managed documentary materials as a trained researcher and community member. In his own work John Haugen, also a community member, merges traditional and scholarly knowledge, and in his work for this volume he has used these to link aspects of Teit’s work, particularly in photography and basketry, with the current community knowledge base. Sarah Moritz is assistant professor of anthropology at Thompson Rivers University (Department of Environment, Culture and Sociology) and director of SEAL (Storytelling, Ethnography & Action Lab) and is a long-term collaborative fieldworker in the British Columbia communities and translator of German materials on Boas. Andie Palmer is an interim director, Kule Folklore Centre, and associate professor of anthropology at the University of Alberta with ongoing empathy, concern for the ethics of engagement, and long-term community engagement. Team members share an ethos of research and practice the standards they profess at both individual and team levels. Indigenous and non-Indigenous members contribute in relation to their interests and skill sets. It has been my pleasure and privilege to sit with this group at many of their meetings and to offer some insights through a network of overlapping crossties through the Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA); berose International Encyclopaedia of the Histories of Anthropology; and the American Anthropological Association, especially the history of the anthropology group within the General Anthropology Division and the Association of Senior Anthropologists. The volume will have a major impact as Franz Boas continues to serve as a lightning rod connecting generations and subject areas in an open-ended and continuing process of transportable knowledge. It is quite simply a tour de force with a dynamic greater than the sum of its parts.

x | General Editor’s Preface

Acknowledgments

Franz Boas, James Teit, and Early Twentieth-Century Salish Ethnography is a work that has depended on the preservation of knowledge in archives. As the Covid-19 pandemic gripped the world in 2020, archives were transformed in a way never contemplated, as archivists throughout North America found themselves working from home, their institutions closed to both visitors and staff, and the collections of original documents out of reach. This volume would have been impossible to produce without the knowledge, flexibility, and kindness of Brian Carpenter and Paul Sutherland at the American Philosophical Society Library; Laurel Kendall, Peter Whiteley, Kristen Mable, and Barry Landua at the American Museum of Natural History; and Benoît Thériault, Erin Wilson, Kelly Cameron, Shannon Mooney, and Nadja Roby at the Canadian Museum of History. Jamie Lewis at the Field Museum, Genevieve Weber at the British Columbia Archives, and Melanie Kjorlien at the Glenbow Museum also provided timely assistance. In addition, in the course of preparing the volume the co-editors drew on the resources of the Nicola Valley Archives, Lillooet Tribal Council Archives, Nlaka’pamux Nation Tribal Council Archives, Vancouver City Archives, Kommunalarchiv Minden (Minden Municipal Archives), and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. The co-editors wish to express their gratitude to the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs for their kindness in hosting both in-person meetings in Vancouver and teleconferences over several years. We are grateful, as well, to Wendy Wickwire, Mandy Na’zinek Jimmie, and Steven M. Egesdal, who shared information and expertise. In the early days Joshua Smith of the Franz Boas Papers: Documentary Edition provided critical information as to how our commentary on the letters might take shape. Eric Leinberger of the Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, prepared the maps. In understanding the context in which Teit conducted his initial field work and the implications of his findings, the co-editors have drawn on knowledge acquired from Nlaka’pamux, St’át’imc, and Secwepemc elders over many years. These include Grand Chief Robert Pasco, the late Clara Clare, the late Nathan Spinks, the late Annie York, and the late Louis Phillips, among many Nlaka’pamux people; Secwepemc elder the late Dorothy Johnson and St’át’imc elders Qwa7yán’ak Carl Alexander of Xwísten (Bridge River), the ̓ late Desmond Peters Sr. of Tsalálh (Seton Lake/Shalalth) and Ts’k’wáylacw xi

̓ (Seton Lake/Shalalth); (Pavilion), Aggie Patrick and Pete Alexander of Tsalálh Art Adolph of Xaxlíp (Fountain); Gerald Michel of Xwísten; Tiiya7 (William ̓ ̓ Alexander of Tsalálh), Morris Prosser (Tsalálh), Qwalqwalten (Garry John ̓ ̓ of Tsalálh), Willie Terry Sr. (Tsalálh), hereditary Kukwpi7 Randy James, Kukwpi7 Ida Mary Peter, former chief and councilor Larry Casper, Rodney Louie, and many more St’át’imc individuals. Others who have provided support along the way include Serena Hunsbedt, Jeanie Charlie, Pauline Douglas, Elin Sigurdson, Darren Friesen, Deirdre Lott, Gregory Conchelos, and Georgia Gale-Kidd. Without the Western University transcribers, and particularly Mitchell Horkoff, who typed the majority of Teit’s handwritten letters and found a creative way to notate digitally the many Salishan terms Teit included in his own orthography, the volume would have been difficult to prepare. In the early years of the project, Sam Cronk supplied technical support and assistance with decoding the mysteries of internet caches. Early feedback from Matthew Bokovoy and Heather Stauffer paved the way for the development of the manuscript within the required format. Mary Conchelos provided early editorial support. Over the past several months Nathan Dawthorne has worked tirelessly to format the constantly updated manuscript and prepare the index. The Franz Boas Papers: Documentary Edition, directed by Regna Darnell, has been funded and supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council through SSHRC Partnership Grant No. 895-2012-1001. Throughout the preparation of this volume we have benefited greatly from Regna Darnell’s guidance, support, and matchless knowledge of Boas and his work.

xii | Acknowledgments

Editorial Method

The development of this volume brought together five co-editors, Andrea Laforet, Angie Bain, John Haugen, Sarah Moritz, and Andie Diane Palmer, all with prior knowledge of Teit’s publications, and all with direct knowledge of Indigenous communities in Canada in which he worked. Angie Bain also served on the Indigenous Advisory Council for the Franz Boas Papers: Documentary Edition. Some of the co-editors had met at breakfast meetings organized by Regna Darnell during annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association. All five first met as a working group for this volume in Vancouver in June 2016 at a meeting hosted by the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC). Subsequently the group met through teleconferences every few months to discuss progress, issues, and the scope of commentary, and met in person, again, at a meeting in Vancouver hosted by UBCIC in July 2019. Many of the letters from the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) had been acquired by Andrea Laforet in the course of earlier research. In 2017 Regna Darnell, Angie Bain, Sarah Moritz, and Sam Cronk traveled to the AMNH in New York and acquired additional material. In 2021 Kristen Mable of the AMNH was extremely helpful in reviewing lists and providing additional letters from 1904. The American Philosophical Society Library provided digitized copies of the original letters between Boas and Teit in the Franz Boas Papers. The AMNH letters were transcribed by Andrea Laforet and Angie Bain; the APS letters were transcribed by staff hired by the Franz Boas Papers Project, the transcripts drawn down by the co-editors from an Omeka open-source internet file; and the CMH letters were transcribed by Angie Bain. Letters in German between Boas and Herman Haeberlin and Boas and Adolph Bastian were translated by Sarah Moritz. The group collaborated on bringing source material together in an internet cache established with the help of Sam Cronk. The University of Nebraska Press editorial requirements, circulated to the editors at the outset of the larger project, prescribed a format for finished volumes. In order to ensure that the editorial group fully understood what was expected, Andrea Laforet inaugurated the formal editorial process by organizing the typed letters from the American Museum of Natural History with a set of initial footnote commentaries in the format anticipated by UNP xiii

and circulated it to the group. Through Regna Darnell, staff provided helpful feedback. As the typescript APS letters became available they were added, along with preliminary commentary. In 2019 it was decided that the story of the Teit–Boas collaboration could not be complete without the addition of letters between Teit and Sapir and the letters between Sapir and Boas relating to Teit’s work. As each draft has been completed it has been circulated to the editorial group. The letters from all three institutions came together in early 2020, just as the Covid-19 pandemic began. Four of the co-editors were living in Canada; one was living in Austria. The border between Canada and the United States closed and did not reopen until late 2021. Both international and domestic travel were severely restricted. Canada and Austria experienced economic shutdowns, with social gatherings either forbidden or limited, restaurants restricted to takeout, and shopping limited to necessities. Archives, museums, and university libraries closed, with staff required to work from home and with access to non-digitized collections unavailable or severely limited. The final draft of this volume came together with some, but not all, of these conditions easing as the pandemic continued and new variants of the virus appeared. The co-contributors are very grateful to the archivists in New York, Philadelphia, Gatineau, and Victoria who provided needed assistance with speed and assurance, even as they worked under straitened conditions. In 2021 the editorial group confronted climate change in a sudden, direct, and personal way. A heat dome over southern British Columbia in the last days of June raised the daytime temperature of Lytton, home to many Nlaka’pamux people, including John Haugen, to nearly 50 degrees C, far above the highest recorded temperature. On June 30 a forest fire destroyed the entire town and associated Lytton First Nation reserves, including John Haugen’s home. For weeks during the summer, areas of the British Columbia interior were devastated by the Lytton Creek fire and other forest fires. In November 2021 a series of atmospheric rivers brought torrential rain to southern British Columbia, flooding the town of Merritt and the Fraser Valley and bringing ruinous damage to several highways connecting Vancouver with the rest of Canada. Highways throughout Nlaka’pamux traditional territory were broken beyond the possibility of quick repair, leaving Lytton, Merritt, and other communities isolated, and destroying the highway through the Nicola Valley, home to Angie Bain’s family.

The Letters

In preparing this volume the goal has been to present the content and tone of the letters accurately, without attempting to mimic facsimile reproductions. xiv | Editorial Method

Teit’s original letters to Boas, particularly, contain many indications that Boas saw the letters as a kind of living archives. In fact, he retained the letters even as he discarded or returned to Teit draft manuscripts following their publication. Many passages in Teit’s letters are outlined in pencil or colored pencil. That Boas may have adopted this as an editorial device to highlight information that was to be included in the developing manuscripts is suggested by notations placed in the margin beside the outlined passages, providing one- or two-word labels for the topic (e.g., basketry designs). Toward the end of the preparation of Teit’s posthumous publications, Boas also engaged a student to go through Teit’s letters in search of material that had not yet been published (see Postscript, at the end of vol. 2, book 2). In addition to bracketing and labeling portions of some letters, the student also separated parts of others, so that these letters are no longer whole. In some cases fragments or copied fragments, labeled with Teit’s name, the date of the original letter, and the notation “Copied. LK Jan. 1931” have been located among the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) files relating to Teit’s notes and have been reunited to the extent possible with the original letter. As there is no instance where a marginal label of a bracketed section is demonstrably in Boas’s hand, and as all of the labels are obvious notations of the topic of the bracketed portion with no additional interpretive value, we have eliminated both the bracketing and the marginal labels. Teit dated all his letters, and these dates have been reproduced in full. However, not reproduced are dates added to the top of letters by someone other than Teit, administrative directions such as “File,” and numbers placed at the top of certain letters, the purpose of which is unclear. Teit’s spelling of societal names has been retained (e.g., Pend d’oreille), as has his use of British or Canadian spelling, as in “neighbouring.” Both Teit and Sapir wrote “Boas’” as opposed to “Boas’s,” and this has not been changed. Words crossed out have not been included unless they show uncertainty on Teit’s part. In that case they have been included and marked as having been crossed out. Teit often added postscripts to his letters, usually at the end, but occasionally in the top margin of the first page of a letter. This practice generally reflected an economical use of paper. Postscripts appearing at the beginning of the original letters have been repositioned at the end. Teit and his correspondents often ended their letters with expressions of cordial good wishes. Most of these have been eliminated, although a certain proportion have been retained to confirm the character of the correspondence. Final salutations, such as “Yours truly,” and signatures have not been included. Teit wrote clearly, but without academic polish, and his prose is marked by certain eccentricities. He often omitted periods at the end of sentences and very seldom used question marks. Where the absence of periods or question Editorial Method | xv

marks interferes with ready understanding, these have been introduced in square brackets for clarity. He also seldom used apostrophes in abbreviations such as “won’t” or “can’t.” Apart from an occasional [sic] to confirm that this was Teit’s usage, these have not been changed or marked. Bracketed words or letters indicate words missing or misspelled, and a few bracketed question marks indicate points of uncertain meaning. From time to time Teit underlined words or phrases, indicating that he was giving them special emphasis. These have been rendered here in italics. Words and phrases that are illegible, or obscured by ink blots or tears in the original letter, are marked as [illeg]. Teit inaugurated each letter with a paragraph indentation but seldom marked paragraphs in the body of a letter. This practice has been respected. Where there are variant spellings of terms such as “Utamkt”/ “Utamqt,” the variations have been marked once by [sic] but not thereafter. Some changes have been universal. Teit used “&” and “&c” throughout his letters. In all cases “&” has been changed to “and” and “&c” to “etc.” Similarly, Teit’s abbreviation “do,” has been replaced by [ditto] in most uses. His abbreviation “f.i.,” meaning “for instance,” has been retained. Superscripts in dates (e.g., “March 1st”) have been changed to “March 1st.” Teit occasionally presented linguistic or other data in a casual tabular form, somewhere between prose and a formal table. In these instances the information has been organized into a formal table in order to present the information clearly. In each case a title has been added. The monographs, anthologies, and essays that emerged from the collaboration between Boas and Teit were published under the names then in common use by non-Indigenous people for these tribal groups: Thompson, Lillooet, Shuswap, Okanagon, Flathead, Coeur d’Alene, Colville, Middle Columbia Salish, and Lakes. In the following pages these societies are also identified by various current names, such as Nlaka’pamux (nɬeʔképmx, Thompson), St’at’imc (Stl’atl’imx, šƛ̕̕áƛ̕̕imx), and Lilwat (Lílwat, Lilloet—there is no common name). Others include Secwepemc (sexwépemx, Shuswap), Syilx (Okanagan in Canada, Okanagon in the United States), the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation, or seliš (Flathead), the Schi ̱tsu’umsh (sčicuʔumš, Coeur d’Alene), and the .skowa’xtsEnEx or .tskowa’xtsEnux (Sinkiuse-Columbia). The original names of the Colville and Lakes, both members of the Colville Confederated Tribes, are sx̣wəyiʔɬp and snʕayckstx, respectively. The Colville use the term Colville, and the Lakes are identified as both Lakes and Sinixt. Each of the co-editors of the present volume came to this work with a particular focus and expertise, and as the book took shape we found new relevance for the letters and Teit’s associated notes and drawings in our own ongoing work—in the history of the Nicola Valley; in the history of the xvi | Editorial Method

Sinixt; in the revitalization of language, law, and land via the St’at’imc Papt du Gwenis (winter fish) community project; and through Teit’s list of photographs, in the connection between the current Nlaka’pamux community and the individuals and families he knew.

Teit’s Orthography

In many of his letters to Franz Boas, James Teit included terms from Salishan languages as well as from an Athapascan language spoken in the Nicola Valley. Teit was writing in longhand and thus was free to develop his own symbols for sounds not used in English. Many of these symbols appear in the standard Microsoft Word Symbols menu. Symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet are from either the Word Symbols menu or the character set developed by Laurence and M. Terry Thompson for nɬeʔkepmxcín and other Salish languages. Symbols used in the modern orthographies of certain First Nations can be found in the First Voices (https://www.firstvoices .com) for the particular language.

Editorial Method | xvii

THE FRANZ BOAS PAPERS, VOLUME 2

Introduction ANDREA LAFORET

The letters between James Teit (1864–1922) and Franz Boas (1858–1942) chronicle Teit’s career as an ethnographer from shortly after his initial meeting with Boas in 1894 to the posthumous publication of the manuscripts that remained at his death.1 In the course of this correspondence, Boas, who was thirty-six years old when he met Teit and seventy-nine when the last manuscript was published, also moves through several major stages of his career, although his developing interests and scope of work at any one point are much less on view. This introduction tracks the impact of the differing career trajectories of Teit and Boas on the primary product of their collaboration, the initial development of the ethnography of societies speaking Interior Salish languages. In a literature that is now voluminous Boas’s legacy has been explored, contested, assessed, and reassessed since his death in 1942.2 More recently Han Vermeulen (Before Boas, 2015) has explored the substantial legacy of the European empirical tradition that influenced Boas’s approach to ethnography and Rosemary Zumwalt has published a two-volume biography, Franz Boas: The Emergence of the Anthropologist (2019), and Franz Boas: Shaping Anthropology and Fostering Social Justice (2022). Scholars continuing to consider Boas’s work through the University of Nebraska Press Histories of Anthropology Annual series include Darnell (“Franz Boas as Theorist,” 2017), Michael Harkin (“‘We Are Also One,’” “What Would Franz Boas Have Thought?” 2017a, 2017b), David Dinwoodie (“Boas and the Young Intellectuals,” 2017), Sharon Lindenburger (“Ich Bin Ju̎discher Abstammung,” 2019), Ira Jacknis (“No Object Without Its Story,” 2019), and Saul Schwartz (“The Boas Plan,” 2019). Michael Silverstein has considered his approach to linguistics in a new “Introduction” to the Introduction to Handbook of American Indian Languages/Indian Linguistic Families of America North of Mexico (2017); Rafael Ocasio (Race and Nation, 2020) has examined Boas’s 1915 field work in Puerto Rico; and Isaiah Wilner, “Friends in This World: The Relationship of George Hunt and Franz Boas” (2015), and Rainer Hatoum, “‘I Wrote All My Notes in Shorthand’: A First Glance into the Treasure Chest of Franz Boas’s Shorthand Field Notes” (2016), have considered Boas’s work with George Hunt. Indigenous 1

Visions: Rediscovering the World of Franz Boas, edited by Ned Blackhawk and Isaiah Lorado Wilner (2018) is an anthology of essays focused on the Indigenous thinkers on whom Boas relied, and the Bard Graduate Center in New York is host to a major digital project by Aaron Glass, Judith Berman, and co-workers on Boas’s ethnography, “The Distributed Text: An Annotated Digital Edition of Franz Boas’s Pioneering Ethnography.”3 The most comprehensive consideration of Teit’s work, in both ethnography and political advocacy, is Wickwire’s 2019 At the Bridge: James Teit and the Anthropology of Belonging. Teit’s contribution was first systematically examined in an unpublished 1970 master’s thesis in which Judith Banks compared his work with that of his contemporary, Charles Hill-Tout. Published consideration of Teit’s work began in the 1980s, with a presentation of Teit’s photography in the Interior of British Columbia,4 discussion of his contribution to ethnomusicology,5 his advocacy of the resolution of Indigenous land claims in British Columbia,6 his collections of Nlaka’pamux clothing,7 aspects of his work as an ethnographer,8 and a brief biography.9 Judith Dean Thompson (Recording Their Story, 2007) has explored Teit’s work among the Tahltan of northwestern British Columbia, and Andrea Laforet (“The Ethnographic Legacy of Franz Boas and James Teit,” 2015) has examined issues in the approach to ethnography represented in the initial monograph produced through the collaboration of Teit and Boas. Wendy Wickwire reviewed the inaugural volume in the present series, Franz Boas as Public Intellectual—Theory, Ethnography, Activism.10 Teit’s initial work was among the Nlaka’pamux near his home in British Columbia, but the scope of his work with Boas eventually included all of the societies speaking Interior Salish languages, as well as the Sto:lo, among whom he worked briefly, and coastal groups in Washington state, among whom he worked in 1910. The collaboration between Teit and Boas produced a paper on Nlaka’pamux rock art, ethnographic monographs, The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, The Lillooet Indians, The Shuswap, three anthologies of narratives retold in English, two additional papers on narratives, and fifteen unpublished maps with associated notes. All were authored by Teit and the publications were edited by Boas. Teit’s posthumous publications, prepared under Boas’s supervision, include an extensive contribution to a co-authored paper on Salish coil basketry; a set of ethnographic essays, “The Okanagon,” “The Flathead Group,” “The Coeur d’Alêne,” and “The Middle Columbia Salish”; a paper on Nlaka’pamux tattooing and face and body painting; a monograph on Nlaka’pamux ethnobotany; and a final paper on narratives. Boas also facilitated the publication of anthologies of Kaska (Kaska Dena or Denek’éh) and Tahltan narratives generated through Teit’s work for Edward Sapir at the Geological Survey of Canada. As well, Teit published 2 | Introduction

Chizikut (Chezacut) Atlin Cassiar

Telegraph Creek

BRITISH COLUMBIA Port Essington

CO

Fraser's Lake (Fraser Lake)

ALBERTA R

AS

T

For detail, see page xx

O

C

K

Anahim Bella Coola Tatla Lake

N

S I N TA

Kootenay District

U

iver

Pacific Ocean

For detail, see page xx

O

N

er R

U

S

Vancouver Island

Columbia River

O

IN

Revelstoke

M

Fras

M

TA

Y

CANADA USA

MONTANA WASHINGTON Co

IDAHO

lu m

b ia River For detail, see page xx

OREGON 200 km

Map 1. Geographic scope of Teit’s research. Cartography by Eric Leinberger, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia.

independently a brief paper on the Tahltan,11 a paper on Shetland folklore,12 and a popular publication with a Canadian publisher.13 Teit’s paper on Nlaka’pamux rock art was published in 1896; the last posthumous paper was published in 1937. In addition, Teit assembled substantial collections of material culture, now lodged in the American Museum of Natural Introduction | 3

History, the Smithsonian Institution, the Peabody Museum at Harvard, the British Columbia Provincial Museum, and the Canadian Museum of History. Teit’s photographs and song recordings made during his time with the Geological Survey of Canada, as well as a manuscript he wrote to accompany his recordings of Nlaka’pamux song, are preserved in the Canadian Museum of History,14 while unpublished notes assembled during his work for Boas are preserved in both the American Museum of Natural History and the American Philosophical Society Library. In addition to collaborating with Boas in the development of Interior Salish ethnography, Teit actively worked between 1909 and 1922 to support Indigenous groups in British Columbia who were seeking recognition of Aboriginal title and resolution of their outstanding claims to land. While this work was separate from his ethnographic research and sometimes in competition with it, his land claims work was supported by the extensive network that Teit developed across tribal borders, which in turn was facilitated by the geographic breadth of his work with Boas. The Teit-Boas collaboration falls into four periods: (a) 1894–1911, the period of most active collaboration, in which the principal field expeditions took place, the major collections of material culture were assembled, and the three major Canadian ethnographies and the first narrative anthology were published. During this period Teit’s political advocacy also took shape and acquired momentum. (b) 1912–1916, the initial years of Teit’s employment by the Geological Survey of Canada, during which he conducted field work among the Tahltan and Kaska; worked to finish projects begun earlier for Boas, including writing up his notes from field work conducted between 1908 and 1910; and responded to new initiatives concerning Nlaka’pamux basketry. He also widened the scope of his political work. (c) 1917–1922, six years, ending with Teit’s death, that saw his work with the Geological Survey come to an end, his political advocacy move to the national stage in Canada, and his direct reliance on Boas as the sole source of ethnographic work re-established. During this time Teit also finalized maps and notes on earlier territorial boundaries of Plateau tribes as well as his manuscripts on the Coeur d’Alene, Flathead, Okanagon, and Middle Columbia Salish, and developed the extensive body of notes on Nlaka’pamux ethnobotany that he had assembled throughout his career. Inspired by his 1912 work among the Tahltan, which included the recording of songs, Teit made a major collection of songs from the Nlaka’pamux and some neighboring societies between 1913 and 1921. He also made a 4 | Introduction

substantial photographic record of Nlaka’pamux people in communities near his home. (d) 1923–1937: Following Teit’s death on October 30, 1922, Boas recruited current and former Columbia University students to assist with the preparation for publication of Teit’s remaining manuscripts through the Bureau of American Ethnology and the University of Washington, a project that unfolded over a period of more than ten years.

The Collaboration

Following his first meeting with Teit in September 1894 at a Nlaka’pamux village in the hills just west of Spences Bridge, British Columbia, Boas, impressed with Teit’s knowledge of and fluency in Nlaka’pamuxcin, requested that Teit write a paper on the Nlaka’pamux. This project anticipated Boas’s approach to ethnography formalized during the Jesup Expedition, but it predated Boas’s appointment as assistant curator of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History in 1896 and the formal inauguration of the Jesup Expedition, which Boas developed within his first two years there. However, as Teit’s work proceeded and grew beyond an initial draft paper on the Nlaka’pamux living in the vicinity of Teit’s home to encompass a retrospective view of Nlaka’pamux society as a whole, the Nlaka’pamux ethnography was drawn into the Jesup Expedition both in fact and in ethos, and it became a focus of the first Jesup Expedition field work in 1897. During that process the Nlaka’pamux ethnography came to follow to a degree the vision of ethnography Boas expressed in defining Jochelson’s work in Siberia for the Jesup North Pacific Expedition in 1898 and 1900,15 with study of the ethnology of the society at the core of the work, buttressed by archaeology, physical anthropology, material culture collections, photography, and recordings of song, with a focus on language running through the whole. Teit initially concentrated on ethnographic description, the compilation of narratives, and collections of material culture supported by detailed descriptions. In documenting his first collection for the American Museum of Natural History in 1895, he included Nlaka’pamux terms for the objects and identified the Nlaka’pamux makers and vendors of the objects, at the same time identifying members of the local community with whom he had rapport. Harlan Smith, who joined Boas, Teit, and Boas’s Columbia University colleague Livingston Farrand at Teit’s home in Spences Bridge in 1897, took photographs of Nlaka’pamux people near Teit’s home, and conducted archaeological research at Nlaka’pamux sites near Lytton and at Kamloops in Secwepemc (Shuswap) territory.16 During the 1897 field work Boas made casts of the faces of local people, continuing work he had been doing during Introduction | 5

his visit to the region in 1894. During this visit Boas and Teit also recorded songs by Nlaka’pamux men and women living in the vicinity of Spences Bridge, with Boas cataloguing the wax cylinders and Teit recording the names of the singers. After 1897 the conduct of Nlaka’pamux ethnographic research was largely left to Teit. Formal work on Nlaka’pamux archaeology stopped after Harlan Smith’s publication of The Archaeology of Lytton, British Columbia.17 In Teit’s subsequent ethnographic work among other societies he worked independently of other specialists, such as Roland Dixon, who conducted archaeology among the Lillooet. Teit began research among the St’at’imc and Lilwat even before the publication of The Thompson Indians of British Columbia in 1900, following the template established for the Nlaka’pamux. He followed this with field work among the Canadian Okanagan (Syilx), and Secwepemc. In 1907 Boas suggested that Teit expand his ethnographic work to include the societies in the United States speaking Salishan languages. In 1908 and 1909 he conducted work in eastern Washington and Idaho; his work in 1909 included a brief sojourn among the Sinixt of southeastern British Columbia. In 1910 Teit worked among Coast Salish groups in Washington state. In the period between 1894 and 1911, which encompassed Teit’s major field expeditions, the collaboration involved a specific division of labor. Boas set the original topic and, apparently, the template that guided the structure of the eventual manuscript. In this regard Teit, at least initially, had less latitude than Jochelson and his colleagues, Bogoras and Shternberg, had in Siberia. Prior to the start of Jochelson’s expedition Boas provided detailed lists of the kinds of illustrative collections the expedition should make but left the specific approach to the ethnography undefined.18 Boas anticipated that the ethnologists working in Siberia would develop their own publications of the results, although under the aegis of the American Museum of Natural History. Where Teit’s work was concerned, Boas also assumed control of the publication process, and although Teit always reviewed galleys, this meant in practice that the final shape of each volume was set in New York. In a way that may have proved significant years later; it also meant that Teit was spared both the pressure and experience of developing his manuscripts into final, publishable form. Where the primary ethnographic research was concerned, Teit worked largely on his own, with the correspondence providing connection and occasional feedback. During this period Boas’s interventions were largely in the form of requests for information concerning specific issues. The only other intervention in the research itself was a request in 1908 from Teit’s hunting client and financial sponsor, Homer Sargent, that Teit develop, under Boas’s supervision but with Sargent’s financial support, a publication 6 | Introduction

on coiled basketry. Although this began as an expression of personal interest on Sargent’s part, it had a long-range impact on the shape of Teit’s work. The pattern of collaboration between Boas and Teit changed significantly in 1912, when Teit joined the Geological Survey of Canada and the research shared with Boas was redefined as a set of projects to be finished. It changed again in 1916, when Boas drew Teit’s ongoing research on Nlaka’pamux basketry into the production of a broader monograph on Salish basketry, to be guided by Boas and authored by Teit and Boas’s newly graduated student, Herman Haeberlin. Up to this point Teit had conducted research on basketry as an extension of his Nlaka’pamux ethnography, although he had also responded to particular questions posed by Boas. In the reformulated project, Boas placed emphasis on theoretical questions he felt Haeberlin was better positioned than Teit to answer and asked Teit to supply data from the field in support. The relationship between Teit and Boas was cordial but professional. In his letters to Boas, Teit was forthcoming about his current research; less so about personal events. He wrote only rarely about his work advocating for the recognition of Aboriginal title. Boas’s letters to Teit were largely about administrative matters pertaining to the research; for example, the progress of manuscripts, the proofing of galleys, and issues concerning finances. He included little, if any, information about his personal life or his other work, such as his Kwakiutl19 research with George Hunt. Both Teit and Boas were dedicated family men. When they met, Boas already had a growing family. Teit and his Nlaka’pamux first wife, Antko, had no children. Following Antko’s death, Teit and his second wife, Leonie Josephine Morens, the daughter of settlers in the Thompson River valley, had six children, including one lost in childbirth, all born during the years of his correspondence with Boas. On only one occasion, however, does Teit mention the birth of a child to Boas, and Boas mentions only one of his children, a grown daughter assisting him in his research on tree sugar.

Career Trajectories

In the course of their decades-long collaboration, Boas and Teit developed profoundly different career trajectories.20 Teit came to ethnography with a sound basic education in Scotland,21 an ability to write concisely and lucidly, an interest in socialism, and experience in working at different things, including hunting and guiding, fishing with Nlaka’pamux in-laws, cattle raising, and working for local ranchers. When his collaboration with Boas began, he had an established interest in Nlaka’pamux population and culture that went beyond household life. His archived notes contain lists of residents Introduction | 7

of communities near Spences Bridge and farther up the Thompson River, dated in a way that suggests he was recording observations before he met Boas. One list, entitled “List of Cooks Ferry Band of Indians—or Whistemnitsa’s Band”—is dated “Jan. 1893.” A second handwritten document lists the members of “Shoomaheltsa’s House,” farther up the Thompson River, while a third, entitled “Some Statistics of Whistemnitsa’s Band of Indians, Thompson River Tribe of Indians or N-kla-kapin-ooghs,” is also dated 1893, although it includes a notation concerning the number of people who had died “since the spring of 1894.”22 In constructing his livelihood Teit functioned, at least to a degree, as a bricoleur,23 constructing the whole from sometimes disparate elements that were available in his environment but not necessarily found together in a single structure. Hunting, and working as a professional guide for clients who came to hunt big game in the Interior of British Columbia, to which Teit devoted a period of several weeks each fall, had considerable influence on both the methodology and scope of his ethnographic research. Hunting brought him into close contact with the terrain, natural history, and people of regions stretching from his home in Spences Bridge in south-central British Columbia to the northern regions of the province. During the first Jesup Expedition field trip in 1897 Teit’s experience in preparing for and leading hunting expeditions allowed him to guide Livingston Farrand to his field work site among the Chilcotin and guide Boas to meet George Hunt in Bella Coola. Teit continued to work as a hunting guide at least through 1910, in spite of the substantial growth of his ethnographic work and work supporting the political advocacy of the Nlaka’pamux and other Indigenous societies. Between 1899 and 1905 he relied on the knowledge of the terrain and Indigenous societies of BC’s interior that he had acquired through hunting in conducting the ethnographic research for The Lillooet Indians, The Shuswap, and “The Okanagon,” and he relied on it again in 1912 during his initial field research among the Tahltan, among whom he was already well known as a hunting guide. In that year he appears to have arranged a hunting expedition for a client,24 although it is unlikely that he actually served as a guide. Boas’s short-term field work contracts with the British Association for the Advancement of Science, which occupied several summers between 1888 and 1897, his position as editor of Science (1887–1889), his academic post at Clark University (1889–1892), and his work with Frederick Putnam at the World’s Columbian Exhibition (1892–1893) served as relatively short-term resting points in a search for an institutional position.25 Following Boas’s appointment to the American Museum of Natural History in 1896, with a cross-appointment to Columbia University beginning later in 1896, the American Museum of

8 | Introduction

Natural History became the principal institution within which he generated and conducted his work, including his direction of Teit’s work. At Columbia he trained students with the assistance of the museum’s collections. After his resignation from the American Museum of Natural History in 1905, Columbia University provided the operational base for Boas’s work, including the administration of Teit’s research and Sargent’s sponsorship, and the preparation of Teit’s posthumous publications. Both Boas and Teit developed extensive professional contacts, but they overlapped only to a limited degree. Boas was in touch with a wide array of academics and museum personnel in the United States and Europe, including Russia, and with a more limited but still significant number of Native American and Canadian Indigenous people in the regions in which he conducted research. Teit’s contacts encompassed a wide array of Indigenous people in Canada and Native American people in the northwestern United States, scholars at the American Museum of Natural History whom he met through Boas and with whom he continued to correspond from time to time, professional botanists in Ottawa whom he began to contact early in his Nlaka’pamux research, non-Indigenous political activists working to establish recognition of Aboriginal title, hunting clients in Europe and the United States, and British Columbia and Canadian government officials. They also included colleagues such as Charles Newcombe, an amateur ethnologist and professional collector based in Victoria, British Columbia, who contacted Teit following the publication of The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, and John Davidson, the British Columbia provincial botanist, whom Teit consulted concerning the identification of plants and to whom he provided guidance when Davidson was conducting botanical field work in Nlaka’pamux territory. The years between 1895 and 1905 were crowded for both Teit and Boas, but while they solidified their collaboration during this time, they also took their careers in different directions. During those ten years Teit wrote The Thompson Indians of British Columbia and grew sufficiently comfortable with the work and the template for the work that he moved relatively seamlessly into the research for The Lillooet Indians and, later, The Shuswap. While these were directly mandated by Boas, the paper on rock art (1896), based on the knowledge of his Nlaka’pamux neighbor, Waxtko, and Traditions of the Thompson River Indians (1898) appear to have been initiated by Teit, although their publication was certainly facilitated by Boas. In 1904 Teit began research among the Okanagan living north of the international border. In 1904, as well, he went hunting for the first time with Homer Sargent, an independently wealthy client then based in Chicago, and in 1905 he began a long and extensive correspondence with Bryan Williams, a

Introduction | 9

newly appointed BC game warden. Although Teit continued to collect during the years he worked with Sapir, most of the collections of Nlaka’pamux, Lillooet, and Shuswap material culture were assembled and documented during the early years of his work with Boas. At the time of his first meeting with Teit in 1894 Boas was already conducting in-depth research among the Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw, which culminated in the publication of The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians in 1897. The publication of The Thompson Indians of British Columbia in 1900 coincided with the trial of George Hunt in British Columbia for participating in a Hamatsa ceremony during a potlatch, which temporarily threatened both Hunt’s and Boas’s prospects for continuing research.26 Boas sent a copy of The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians, in which George Hunt’s name and contribution appeared on the title page, to Charles Newcombe, asking his help in submitting it to the court to demonstrate that Hunt had attended the potlatch as a scientific observer.27 This was successful and was followed by Boas’s field work in Alert Bay in the summer of that year. For Boas the years between 1896 and 1902 were dominated by the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, funded, following Boas’s advocacy, by Morris K. Jesup, the president of the American Museum of Natural History. The research in 1897 by Boas, Teit, and Harlan Smith in Spences Bridge, Boas and George Hunt in Bella Coola and Rivers Inlet, and Livingston Farrand among the Chilcotin was conducted as part of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, although it was also partly funded by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and the scope of the Jesup Expedition grew to include research by other scholars on the coast of British Columbia and in Siberia.28 Following his permanent appointment to Columbia University in 1899, Boas began to train a group of graduate students at the PhD level. Boas’s Clark University student Alexander Chamberlain had completed the first American PhD in anthropology in 1892. In 1901 the first Columbia PhD in anthropology was awarded to Boas’s student Alfred Kroeber. In that year, as well, Boas inaugurated the development of the Handbook of American Indian Languages, recruiting scholars in linguistics from Europe and the United States, including his students at Columbia, over the next several years, and calling for an approach to the analysis of language that departed from the approach championed by John Wesley Powell (1834–1902) of the Bureau of Ethnology.29 In 1905, following conflict with a newly appointed director of the American Museum of Natural History concerning the role of research in exhibitions, Boas resigned from the museum and moved permanently to Columbia University.30

10 | Introduction

The years between 1906 and 1911 saw the completion of Teit’s major field research for Boas. The Lillooet Indians and The Shuswap were published during this time, and the second anthology of Nlaka’pamux narratives, Mythology of the Thompson Indians, was prepared, although not published until 1912. In 1906 Teit contributed a paper on the Tahltan to the Festschrift presented to Boas on the 25th anniversary of his PhD, the substance of the paper derived from research conducted while hunting in Tahltan territory. The field work Teit began at Boas’s request in the United States in 1908 not only expanded his expertise and range of contacts; it also highlighted for him the meager character of Indian reserves in Canada in comparison with land allocations to the Native Americans he met in the United States. Following his 1909 field work, Teit worked with Nlaka’pamux chiefs to send a petition to the Canadian superintendent of Indian Affairs concerning issues regarding reserves and land claims. In 1910 he conducted field work in western Washington state, began his involvement with the Indian Rights Association in British Columbia, and, on behalf of British Columbia chiefs, scribed a petition to Canadian Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier. The petition was presented to Laurier at Kamloops, British Columbia, in August 1910, while Teit was hunting with Homer Sargent. Homer Sargent made his first financial contribution to Teit’s work in 1907, following a visit to New York and correspondence with Boas. Sargent largely funded the research Teit undertook for Boas between 1908 and 1922 as well as the posthumous preparation of his manuscripts. Although the funds came in single installments provided in response to current need, they eventually amounted to a very substantial sum. During the years between 1906 and 1911 Boas’s career also branched out, as he combined his Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw research and teaching at Columbia with new initiatives. In 1906 he made a convocation speech to graduates at Atlanta University, describing the achievements of African societies,31 something not commonly done at that time at American university convocations. In 1908 Boas began research sponsored by the Dillingham Commission on immigrant children in New York. In 1909 he published The Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island and began working to establish a School of Ethnology and Archaeology in Mexico. Boas’s Columbia student Robert Lowie received his PhD in 1908, followed by Edward Sapir in 1909. In 1910, on Boas’s recommendation, Edward Sapir was hired by the Geological Survey of Canada to head a new Division of Anthropology and design a program of ethnographic research. With Kroeber at the University of California, Lowie at the American Museum of Natural History, Sapir at the Geological Survey of Canada, and Chamberlain at Clark

Introduction | 11

University, Boas’s students were now deployed at four institutions and in two countries, with new opportunities on the horizon for then-current students to conduct research in Mexico. In Boas’s career 1911 was a signal year. The publication of “Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants,” the result of his work for the Dillingham Commission in New York, had huge implications for current theories about race and solidified a significant dimension to Boas’s expertise, while the publication of the first volume of the Handbook of American Indian Languages definitively changed the character of linguistic analysis and placed the study of language at the forefront of his research. Finally, publication of “The Mind of Primitive Man,” established Boas as a public intellectual, particularly where issues concerning race were involved.32 The proposed School of Ethnology and Archaeology in Mexico was set to open, and he was planning to spend a period of time there. In 1911 Teit’s political work was involving him in negotiations with the provincial government of British Columbia, with the prospect of taking the negotiations to Ottawa. Boas, particularly, saw this as a good moment to place Teit’s work on a more secure financial footing. Until this point Boas had been supporting Teit’s work on an ad hoc basis with monies derived from Columbia University and Homer Sargent. Although neither source provided a secure stream of revenue, Boas wrote to Teit, suggesting that he move to an annual salary, with an arrangement for regular periods of work and vacation. Always concerned to reserve time for activities apart from research and opportunities for other work that might arise, Teit expressed reluctance. Boas’s alternative was to suggest that Teit join Sapir’s new Anthropology Division in the Geological Survey of Canada. From Boas’s perspective, a transfer to the Geological Survey of Canada under Sapir allowed Teit to continue his ethnographic work while having a secure income, with new work mandated and directed by Sapir and Teit finishing up a few remaining projects from his time with Boas. This plan was not flawless. Boas saw the institutional solidity of the Geological Survey of Canada as likely to provide a financially secure platform for Teit’s work, but his equally strong single-mindedness led him to disregard the disjunction between Teit’s clearly stated preference for pursuing multiple kinds of work and the Canadian bureaucratic system that expected employees of the Geological Survey of Canada to work full-time. Teit was not the only person who gave voice to the problem. Homer Sargent wrote a letter to Sapir indicating that Teit would need substantial time off for hunting—not something routinely provided to employees of the Canadian civil service, then or now. However, the prospect of full-time employment was also a factor in Teit’s decision, and with the provision that his status would be that of 12 | Introduction

an “outside man,” allowing him to remain in British Columbia and not move to Ottawa, he accepted Sapir’s offer. In this apparently felicitous compromise there were several hidden dangers. Unlike an appointment to a research position based in the Geological Survey of Canada’s offices in Ottawa, appointment to the outside service was not, technically, permanent. It was a contractual arrangement that was expected to be renewed without interruption as long as the resources were available and the contractual obligations were met, but it was also vulnerable to termination in a way that research appointments of employees based in Ottawa were not. Sapir did explain the difference, but with a newly funded research division and World War I still two years away, that potential vulnerability did not appear significant. Mythology of the Thompson Indians, and “Traditions of the Lillouet” were published soon after Teit joined the Geological Survey (GSC). In a sign of his increasing public recognition, Teit also published “Indian Tribes of the Interior” in volume 21 of the series Canada and Its Provinces in 1914. Teit’s work for the GSC began in 1912 with field work among the Tahltan. An agreement among Boas, Teit, and Sapir stipulated that Teit would not begin work for Sapir until after Boas’s remaining Salishan projects had been completed, but to Sapir’s mildly expressed chagrin, Teit overlooked it. Teit’s difficulty in finding sufficient time in 1912 to fulfill his commitments to Boas was exacerbated in 1913 by the unanticipated need to rebuild his house in Spences Bridge to accommodate the new Canadian Northern Pacific Railway right-of-way, and in 1914 by a debilitating bout of typhoid fever. Beyond this, his political advocacy grew in scope, and he also continued to fold other non-GSC work into his schedule, such as meetings with collector and amateur ethnologist C. F. Newcombe, and field work with botanist John Davidson. As a result, between 1912 and 1917 Teit never worked a full contractual year for the Geological Survey of Canada. World War I, which began in September 1914, had greater implications for Canada, which entered the war immediately, than for the United States, but it also affected Boas. The school in Mexico was closed. Boas took the opportunity to do field work among the Ktunaxa in eastern British Columbia in 1914, following up on his own earlier work and the work of Alexander Chamberlain, who had died in 1914.33 In 1915 Boas had facial surgery to remove a cancerous growth and spent some time doing research in Puerto Rico.34 Teit was able to complete his delayed second season of Athapaskan field work for the GSC in 1915, and the following year he completed a manuscript on Tahltan and Kaska mythology. His “European Tales from the Upper Thompson Indians” was also published in the Journal of American Folklore. At the same time he was under increasing pressure from the Geological Survey of Introduction | 13

Canada to write up a comprehensive report on the ethnography of the Tahltan. The completion and submission of this report had been stipulated in his first year’s contract and had been carried forward in subsequent contracts. While the anthology of Tahltan and Kaska narratives was welcome, the GSC did not consider it a substitute for a full ethnographic report on the results of his field work. In addition, the year 1916 also saw Boas’s realignment of Teit’s basketry work to accommodate the larger basketry project with Herman Haeberlin, and Haeberlin’s field work in western Washington state on basketry and linguistics. The developing momentum of the pursuit of resolution to land claims and recognition of Aboriginal title by Indigenous organizations in British Columbia placed additional pressure on Teit’s time. In 1916 the Indian Rights Association and the Interior Tribes came together to form the Allied Tribes of British Columbia, with Teit heavily involved. By 1916 demands of the war had forced the GSC to tighten its operating budget. Teit’s salary was preserved, but money for field work was no longer available. To accommodate the GSC’s lack of funds for publication, Boas arranged to publish Teit’s Tahltan and Kaska tales in the Journal of American Folklore. During this period there seems to have been uneven communication, and perhaps miscommunication, among Teit, Boas, and Sargent concerning the GSC’s ability to support Teit. Although Sapir continued to make full provision for Teit’s salary in his yearly contract, Sargent, particularly, was under the impression that Teit was “practically laid off,” with the implication that he was in need of additional work if Boas could provide it. At the beginning of 1917 Teit’s commitment to complete the Salishan projects for Boas still remained unfulfilled. Haeberlin’s 1916 field work in western Washington had been interrupted by a diagnosis of diabetes, a fatal illness prior to the discovery of insulin. Haeberlin and Teit did meet, briefly but cordially, at Spences Bridge in 1917 while Haeberlin was in a period of remission, but Teit’s subsequent work was complicated by the urgency to complete the work on basketry before Haeberlin’s impending death. A combination of factors, including the amount of time Teit was able to allocate to GSC projects, which never equaled the full year foreseen in his contract, his tendency to be casual about fiscal year deadlines in the handling of financial accounts, although never the accounts themselves, and his failure to produce the finished ethnography foreseen in his original contract and each successive contract, led to Teit’s loss of status with GSC administrators other than Sapir. These factors, ultimately combined with the limitations on the GSC budget imposed by the war, led to the curtailment of his contract in 1918 and his loss of employment in 1919. In the last years of his life Teit returned to his earlier sources of work, including prospecting, but divided the balance of his time between work for 14 | Introduction

Boas and work with the Allied Tribes, including a review with representatives of the governments of Canada and British Columbia of the report of the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs for the Province of British Columbia. Between 1916 and 1922 Teit completed the essays on the Coeur d’Alene, Okanagan, Flathead, and Middle Columbia Salish and his contribution to “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region,” co-authored with Herman Haeberlin and Helen Roberts, and compiled his research on Nlaka’pamux ethnobotany. Apart from “Tatooing and Face and Body Painting,” which had been completed earlier, additional material on Nlaka’pamux ethnography was integrated with the “Notes on Songs of the Indians of British Columbia,”35 which Teit sent to Sapir in 1921. Although Teit expressed bitterness over his loss of GSC employment in his subsequent letters to Sapir, his relationship with Sapir remained cordial. Sapir arranged to pay Teit for materials not included in earlier submissions. The principal outstanding obligation was the report on Tahltan ethnography, for which Sapir had been asking since 1913. While Teit submitted a brief report on his Tahltan field work for the GSC annual report, which Sapir found useful but more detailed than necessary, he hesitated when it came to longer reports. When he submitted his manuscript on Tahltan and Kaska narratives he invited Sapir to rearrange it as he wished. He was hesitant, as well, about the report on Tahltan field work, suggesting that The Thompson Indians of British Columbia might be a model. He did not complete the Tahltan manuscript, although Sapir offered to help with advice. In the absence of the hands-on editorial work for which Boas had always assumed responsibility, Teit appears to have been at something of a loss. Although Sapir and the GSC took for granted Teit’s ability to produce a fully publishable manuscript based on his research, Teit had never actually been through the process. Later, in anticipation of receiving Teit’s remaining manuscripts, Boas mentioned to Sargent that Teit’s material always had to be rewritten but subsequently expressed surprise that the manuscripts he received on the American Plateau were well presented. The sections of Teit’s unpublished notes that are clearly related to his published monographs read well, as do his published monographs. There is no real doubt of his ability to write an ethnographic report on the Tahltan. Different authors favor different genres. Teit’s most natural genre may well have been the letter. His letters are clear, straightforward and coherent, and contain a considerable amount of ethnographic information. Penciled brackets and marginal labels indicate that Boas mined them for contributions to the developing manuscripts. A close second might have been the essay on a single topic. In his discussion of approaches to and consequences of Christian conversion among the Nlaka’pamux incorporated into his letter to Boas Introduction | 15

on November 9, 1895, he presented a kind of analysis largely absent from the declarative statements characteristic of his ethnographies. In terms of longer publications Teit was apparently most comfortable with the narrative anthology. He worked on these at intervals throughout his career, often when deadlines loomed for other material. In the years between 1917 and Teit’s death the letters between Teit and Boas follow a long-established pattern, although those that are most detailed are those in which he reports the results of field work, generally in relation to basketry. Haeberlin died early in 1918. Although Teit’s relationship with Helen Roberts, the former Columbia University graduate student whom Boas recruited to edit the manuscript, was sometimes strained, he appears to have enjoyed the work on the basketry itself. In Boas’s letters to Teit during this period there is no hint about other events in Boas’s life—for example, his profound aversion to the war, which the United States joined in 1917, his response to reports that anthropologists working in Mexico had been recruited as spies by the United States government, or his censure in 1919 by the American Anthropological Association.36 After Teit’s death in 1922 Boas supervised the preparation of the remaining manuscripts for publication. In support of this work, three people undertook field work, including Boas himself, who conducted field work in Washington state in 1927.37 Gladys Reichard (1893–1955) conducted field research on language and myth among the Coeur d’Alene in 1927 and 1929,38 and Elizabeth Dijour (1910–1991) spent three months in 1931 doing field research among the Nlaka’pamux to resolve certain issues in Nlaka’pamuxcin and to edit Teit’s Nlaka’pamux texts. Boas edited the essays published in “The Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateaus” (1930), including “Tatooing and Face and Body Painting” (1930), and the separately published, relatively short essay “The Middle Columbia Salish” (1928). Elsie Viault Steedman (1892–1972), a student who later taught at Hunter College, edited the ethnobotany manuscript. Lucy Kramer (Lucy Kramer Cohen, 1907–2007), then a student at Columbia, reviewed Teit’s letters with a view to incorporating any material that had been previously overlooked and edited the final compilation of narratives. Publication of the paper on Salish coiled basketry continued to require time, effort, diplomacy, and money well into 1928, when it was finally issued in the Forty-first Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. In this matter Boas and Sargent worked as a tag team, with Sargent negotiating with both the Field Museum and the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE). As the intention of the Bureau of American Ethnology to publish the manuscript appeared to falter, in 1923 Sargent arranged with the Field Museum to publish the work and sent a letter to BAE Director Walter Fewkes, asking him to 16 | Introduction

return the manuscript to Boas.39 However, the BAE refused, on the grounds that according to an arcane system whereby the Bureau funded clerical work on manuscripts through payment to authors, funds had been expended by the Bureau to obtain it.40 Pessimistic about his relationship with the BAE, Boas wrote to Sargent, “I heard, indirectly, from information received from a member of the Bureau, that Dr. Fewkes proposes to lock the paper up in the vaults,” and suggested that the best option would be for Sargent to persuade Fewkes to publish the paper in 1924.41 By late May 1924 the Bureau had agreed to print it, but the preparation and negotiations continued for a further four years, with Boas arranging or doing the work of proof reading, documenting illustrations from which the Bureau had removed identifying information, and providing additional color plates. Sargent contributed additional funds, as required. In 1928, as “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region” was about to be published, the Bureau of American Ethnology offered to publish “The Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateaus.” In 1930 Boas wrote to Sargent, “I still have here one big drawer full of notes collected by Mr. Teit. I want to get somebody to go over all this material and to compare it with his published notes and to throw away whatever had been published and to pick out any new material, of which there must be quite a little.” Judging from the initials “L.K.” and the date, “Jan. 1931” written on the copied fragments of letters in the APS files, this work appears to have been undertaken by Lucy Kramer. Sargent contributed funds for this work as well. On February 25, 1931, Boas wrote to Sargent, “The revision of Teit’s notes is going on. We found quite a little that is worth preserving,” but in his last extant letter to Sargent he had revised his assessment, writing: “We have also worked out quite a few of the notes of Mr. Teit, although I am afraid they will not yield as much as it seemed in the beginning.” A review of the passages earmarked by Lucy Kramer indicates that by 1931 much of it was already in print. By the end of 1932 (Haeberlin et al.) “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region,” (Steedman) “Ethnobotany of the Thompson Indians,” (Teit) “The Middle Columbia Salish,” and (Teit and Boas) “The Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateaus” were all in print. In his last known letter to Sargent, Boas also reported on additional work in progress: “I have now a report from Miss Dijour on the Thompson language based largely upon Teit’s notes and upon the results of her study in and around Spences Bridge during the summer of 1931.” However, this work remained unfinished. Dijour, whom Boas had met in Paris when she was a student of Paul Rivet interested in South American languages, had arrived at Columbia in September 1930 just as Boas was departing to work with Bogoras’s student, Julia Averkieva, in Fort Rupert and Alert Bay. In his absence Dijour worked Introduction | 17

with Gladys Reichard, and studied the Interior Salish literature as well as Teit’s collections in the American Museum of Natural History. During the 1930–31 academic year she also finished her master’s thesis, “Preliminary Study of Runasimi (Q’eswa) of the Cuzqueno and Bolivian Groups.” Dijour’s correspondence with Boas during her field work in the summer of 1931 indicates that that her progress with the language was uncertain. Toward the end of her field season she wrote to Boas, “Now I can understand why you like Salish. It is so terribly complicated that it is interesting.”42 In October of 1931, the field work completed, she returned to France. The twenty-two letters written by Dijour and Boas between November 1931 and September 1933 document a kind of paper chase, with Boas trying, ultimately in vain, to secure a publishable report on the Nlaka’pamux language, and Dijour trying, again without long-term success, to establish herself as a linguist specializing in South American languages. At the outset Boas was optimistic and listed Dijour’s anticipated publication on Thompson grammar and texts in a brief publication, “Recent Work in American Indian Languages.”43 While he never flagged in his queries about the progress of the work, by September 1933 he appeared less optimistic that Dijour would finish it, and in 1933 their correspondence stopped. Dijour’s field notes have not been preserved in the APS, and while she lodged a small collection of Nlaka’pamux objects and a catalog in a museum in Paris, her field notes do not appear to be there.44 In Canada two scholars worked a generation or so apart to bring Teit’s Tahltan and Kaska notes to publication. Diamond Jenness, appointed to a permanent position in the National Museum of Canada in 1920, read Teit’s field notes while doing field work among the Carrier and Sekani in 1923 and 1924, and decided to edit them for publication following his return to Ottawa. Although his time was subsequently constrained by his appointment as Sapir’s successor as chief of the Anthropology Division following Sapir’s resignation in September 1925, he did review the notes and “type up, organize and edit approximately 180 entries related to Tahltan social organization and religion, with a view to incorporating these into Teit’s draft manuscript.”45 In 1956 June Helm MacNeish edited and published Teit’s Tahltan manuscript as “Field Notes on the Tahltan and Kaska Indians: 1912–1915.”46

Interior Salish Ethnography

The initiative for the ethnography developed by Teit and Boas emerged from Boas’s work with the Committee on North-Western Tribes of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS). Following his first, privately financed, field work in British Columbia in 1886, Boas conducted

18 | Introduction

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

field research for the BAAS in 1888, 1889, 1890, 1894, and 1897, primarily on the west coast of British Columbia, but also in the interior among the Ktunaxa and Secwepemc, including a brief visit to the Nlaka’pamux in 1888. In his Second General Report on the Indians of British Columbia he included a brief essay entitled “The Salish Languages of British Columbia,” which included vocabulary and relationship terms in “Stlā’tlumH” [Stl’atl’imx], “Okanā’kēn,” and “Shuswap.”47 In 1890 he conducted research in the northwestern United States with funds from the Bureau of American Ethnology. In the years in which he did not conduct field work, he published in the committee’s annual report various reports based on his prior research. For his 1897 field work he combined funds from the British Association and the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, and filed his last report with the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1898. The pillars of Boas’s research as it developed during these early years were physical anthropology, linguistics, mythology, and a rather broadly focused ethnographic description collated under functional headings, for example “Houses and Boats” and “Customs Referring to Birth, Marriage and Death.” This preliminary approach to ethnography was encouraged by the BAAS committee’s insistence on general survey over in-depth inquiry. He moved to separate brief descriptions of particular societies in his Second General Report on the Indians of British Columbia (1890). In his first days in Victoria in 1886 he reported that he was able to reestablish rapport with the two Bella Coola [Nuxalkmc] men he had met in Europe by speaking to them in their language,48 but for general conversation at a time when relatively few Indigenous people in British Columbia were fluent in English, he relied on Chinook jargon49 as a lingua franca. Chinook jargon was a trade jargon, not to be confused with the Chinook language.50 In the preface to Chinook Texts, published in 1894, Boas wrote about his experience in working with Charles Cultee, who spoke the Chinook language: “My work of translating and explaining the texts was greatly facilitated by Cultee’s remarkable intelligence. After he had once grasped what I wanted, he explained to me the grammatical structure of the sentences by means of examples, and elucidated the sense of difficult periods. This work was the more difficult as we conversed only by means of Chinook jargon.”51 Chinook jargon, itself, was not uniform across the northwest. Working on the Siletz Reservation in Oregon in 1890, Boas found that the Chinook jargon used in that locality was different from the Chinook jargon used in BC “and therefore I experience difficulty in talking with them.”52 Even in much later field work Boas continued to use Chinook jargon. Working in Bella Bella in December 1923, he wrote to his wife, “I speak Chinook [Jargon] with all the

Introduction | 19

people except my main language [?]. I speak the Chinook [Jargon] quite well, although there are always . . . words that pop up. I take it down in shorthand,53 everything they tell me.”54 However, from the beginning, inquiry into the actual language of the people he met was a primary focus of his research. Reflecting on his initial work in Victoria, he wrote, “I began to ask about the languages. In the beginning it is always hard work. But I soon found the pronouns and a few verbs. That is usually sufficient to break the ice.” At Comox, later that fall, he wrote, “I now have about four hundred words in both the Comox [and Pentlatch] languages. I still have no texts but hope to get some soon. It is always quite difficult to get started in a language, but I shall be very happy if I can get one thousand words and a few texts in both.”55 During his visit to Lytton in July 1888, he wrote in his diary, “I am still here and am not sorry, because I must know something of the language to get ahead.” With the help of the resident missionary, who invited Nlaka’pamux residents of the village to meet Boas at the church and tell him stories, he was able to collect some narratives and a small vocabulary.56 Boas expected that his own expertise in a new language would quickly progress to the point of enabling him to record texts, and his facility with language was apparently sufficient to accomplish this. During his first visit to Alert Bay he recorded family histories, learned about the cannibal figure prominent in Kwakwaka’wakw mythology, and about “a rattle belonging to a long story,”57 a phrase revealing that he understood a primary point about the relationship between narrative and object in Northwest Coast societies. Although he recorded texts from two men in Rivers Inlet in 1897, and worked with Willy Gladstone on texts in Bella Bella in 1923,58 his long association with George Hunt and Fort Rupert ensured that his greatest familiarity with a Wakashan language was with Kwaḱwala. Remembering Boas in the early 1950s, Kwakwaka’wakw people at Alert Bay recalled that he spoke Kwaḱwala, though slowly.59 In his 1886 field work he was intent on developing a general understanding of the region in which he was working, commenting at one point, “I then will have covered all tribes of the seashore between Vancouver Island and the continent,”60 but more broadly, he saw language and mythology as indicators of the connections among Indigenous societies, saying, “This mass of stories is gradually beginning to bear fruit because I can now discover certain traits characteristic of different groups of people. I think I am on the right track in considering mythology a useful tool for differentiating and judging the relationship of tribes.” In November 1888 Boas wrote to J. W. Powell of the Bureau of American Ethnology, summarizing his methodology. “I endeavor to obtain vocabularies 20 | Introduction

and grammatical notes and at once proceed to obtain texts principally on ethnological subjects, which I make the basis of further ethnological and linguistic researches. I attempt to study the customs and traditions of each tribe in the greatest detail and later on proceed to make a card catalog of all characteristic peculiarities of a tribe, which are finally tabulated. Then it appears, that certain phenomena are always coexistent. These must have originally belonged together while newly developed or introduced phenomena appear in various combinations or [are] isolated.”61 His initial survey on the coast completed, Boas wanted to do in-depth work, and particularly to follow up on his short Ktunaxa field work from 1886. In this he was at odds with Horatio Hale,62 who administered his work for the BAAS Committee on the North-Western Tribes at that time. The scope of work outlined by Hale for two or three months’ field work in the summer of 1888 involved a survey of “eleven or twelve” linguistic stocks with an outline of the grammar, accompanying vocabulary, a description of the physical traits of the people, and ethnographic data concerning tribal and social organization, customs, and arts, all supported with an ethnographic map.63 Having secured two months’ leave (not three, to Hale’s concern) from his job with Science, Boas left for British Columbia in May 1888, intending to concentrate on the Ktunaxa and satisfy the committee’s survey requirements with information on the distribution of tribes as well as a visit to the Interior Salish. Hale won. Between June 1 and July 26, 1888, Boas conducted research in physical anthropology, linguistics, and ethnography the length of the coast, privileging coastal societies not visited in 1886, but with a little time for the Ktunaxa. Boas’s physical anthropology had four components: the measurement of living people, the making of casts of faces of living people, the measurement of skeletal material, and portrait photography of living people from several angles—front, side and three-quarter views—intended to represent physical types.64 The original goal was to define the physical character of particular human populations through recording and tabulation of data on as many individual representatives as possible. The method involved the reduction of a defined array of individual characteristics to statistics, correlated to determine broad characteristics defining a population “type,” and, eventually, to define relationships among populations in a given geographic setting. Boas had learned the techniques of measurement from Virchow prior to his field work on Baffin Island.65 In 1888 his physical anthropology was limited to anthropometry research at the jail in Victoria and the measurement of eighty-eight skeletons. His report, published in 1889, presented tables of measurements of some individuals and drawings of skulls. He also conducted research on the Tsimshian, Tlingit, Haida, and Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootkan) languages and ethnographic research among the Introduction | 21

Squamish, Tsimshian, Haida, Nootka, and Ktunaxa. The two days spent in Lytton afforded his first meeting with Nlaka’pamux.66 The ethnographic survey Boas carried out for the British Association for the Advancement of Science provided him with field work experience and an early publication record touching several areas of the Northwest Coast and the Interior of British Columbia. By 1889 he had published twelve papers on the basis of his field work between 1886 and 1888. Several of these papers were published in German, in Petermann’s Mittheilungen, Globus, and the Verhandlungun der Beliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie; those in English were published in Canada in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, at that time the only learned journal in Canada publishing anthropology, and in the United States in the Journal of American Folklore, the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, and the American Anthropologist. By 1894 Boas had presented ethnographic information on the Bilqula (Nuxalkmc), along with the results of his research in physical anthropology in “Physical Characteristics of the Tribes of the North Pacific Coast,”67 and a report on “The Indian Tribes of the Lower Fraser River.”68 In every year between 1888 and 1898 except 1891 Boas published a report of his previous year’s work in the annual reports of the BAAS Committee on North-Western Tribes. The 1891 report presented a brief ethnography of the Ktunaxa authored by Boas’s Clark University PhD student Alexander Chamberlain.69 Between 1888 and 1894 Boas had stayed, somewhat impatiently, within the limits of the BAAS preference for broad survey work, but at this point he was clearly ready to move on to in-depth research. The Committee on NorthWestern Tribes planned to terminate its work with the 1894 field season, with a final report in 1895. By the end of 1894 Boas had published Chinook Texts and was preparing “Indianische Sagen”70 for publication in Europe. He had taken his Kwakwaka’wakw research to the point where he had trained George Hunt to carry on with tasks in his absence, and his serendipitous meeting with Teit, who was knowledgeable, articulate, and fluent in Nlaka’pamuxcin, had sparked the inception of Nlaka’pamux ethnography. Boas’s 1895 BAAS report served to document his own late 1894 work among the Nlaka’pamux, anthropology research entitled “Physical Characteristics of the Tribes of the North Pacific Coast,” which included results of the Nlaka’pamux measurements facilitated for him by Teit, while a paper on “The Tinneh Tribes of Nicola Valley” presented the results of Teit’s research in the spring of 1895 among people descended from the Stuwixamux. At this point Boas and Teit were not alone in their interest in Indigenous societies in the Interior of British Columbia. Although Boas’s relationship with Horatio Hale was limited to administrative matters, he had a stronger 22 | Introduction

professional relationship with the geologist George Dawson (1849–1901), with whom he corresponded between 1886 and 1898. Dawson was nine years older than Boas, and had spent considerable time in British Columbia during the 1870s and 1880s, combining his work for the Geological Survey of Canada with an informal, but keen, interest in ethnography. In their early correspondence Dawson offered Boas advice on various matters, including preparations for field work among the Kwakwaka’wakw, and, in turn, solicited advice from Boas on the topography of Baffin Island and the publication of maps in Science. Dawson, who was also on the Committee for North-Western Tribes and had brought its work to Boas’s attention, replaced Horatio Hale on the committee in 1891 and effectively became the administrator for Boas’s work with the BAAS between that time and its conclusion in 1898. Dawson eventually became director of the Geological Survey of Canada and remained better known as a geologist than as an anthropologist, but his 1891 paper presented to the Royal Society of Canada (at that time the principal learned society in Canada) titled “Notes on the Shuswap People of British Columbia,”71 predated The Shuswap by seventeen years and in 1895 was one of a very few published contributions to Interior Salish ethnography. Joseph McKay (1829–1900), who had served many years with the Hudson’s Bay Company, also knew the interior of British Columbia well. He served as commissioner for the 1881 Canada census of British Columbia, and by the late 1880s was the Canadian Department of Indian Affairs agent for the Kamloops Agency, with jurisdiction over some Nlaka’pamux and Secwepemc Indian bands. Boas cited McKay in his introduction to “The Tinneh Tribe of Nicola Valley,” noting: “Some notes on the history of this tribe were given by Dr. Dawson according to information obtained from Mr. J. W. McKay, formerly Indian Agent at Kamloops, who has an extensive knowledge of the Indians of the interior.” Boas’s 1895 introduction of Teit as a person “thoroughly familiar with the NtlakyāˊpamuQ,” whom he had delegated to carry out research on the Nicola Athapascan people,72 did not go unremarked. Citing his own previous Nicola Valley field work in general terms, Dawson objected to the extent of Stuwix territory outlined by Teit. Dawson and Boas continued to correspond until 1898, and although Dawson took issue with minor points in certain of Boas’s BAAS reports and independently assumed a surprising degree of editorial control over one or two reports, eliminating some material without prior consultation, their correspondence did not touch on Interior Salish or Stuwixamux ethnography again. McKay and Teit also corresponded, although Teit did not always agree with McKay’s interpretation of the history of the region. By 1901 both Dawson and McKay had died. Charles Hill-Tout (1858–1944),73 who was born in Devon, England, and had early theological training in England, had settled in British Columbia Introduction | 23

permanently in 1891, raising his growing family in Vancouver, where he taught at one private school and was the proprietor of another for a time, and in the Fraser Valley, where he had a sawmill. In the 1890s he conducted archaeological investigations in the lower Fraser Valley and, following a meeting with Michel, an Nlaka’pamux chief at Lytton, began conducting ethnographic research among Interior Salish societies. While keenly interested in Indigenous history, he had no relevant training. During Boas’s time with the BAAS Dawson arranged for Boas to analyze a skull excavated by Hill-Tout, and in 1895 Hill-Tout’s analysis appeared in print,74 followed by Boas’s analysis, which countered Hill-Tout’s conclusions.75 Hill-Tout’s ethnographic research in British Columbia paralleled Teit’s to a degree. Hill-Tout’s essay on the Nlaka’pamux preceded The Thompson Indians of British Columbia by a year, and he published “Report on the Ethnology of the Stlatlumh [Lillooet] of British Columbia” in 1905 ( just preceding Teit’s The Lillooet Indians), and “Report on the Ethnology of the Okanák’en of British Columbia, an Interior Division of the Salish Stock,” in 1911. Hill-Tout was peripherally involved in the first Jesup Expedition in 1897, when he assisted Harlan Smith in the archaeological excavations at Lytton. Hill-Tout’s ethnographies are shorter and less comprehensive than Teit’s, and Boas’s summary of Teit’s critical notes on Hill-Tout’s interpretation of St’at’imc and Lilwat ethnography are appended to The Lillooet Indians. Although Boas later included some vocabularies compiled by Hill-Tout in his manuscript on the distribution of Salish languages, Hill-Tout did not have a positive or enduring connection with either Boas or Teit.

Approaches to Ethnography

As the intellectual heir to a tradition of ethnological research derived from a long tradition of scholarship in Europe and developed specifically by scholars of the German Enlightenment, Boas was committed to empiricism. As Vermeulen has noted, in the German tradition “ethnography was set up as an empirical, systematic, and intimately comparative research program of peoples and nations.” Ethnography involved “comprehensive descriptions of all aspects of all peoples,” descriptions made in order to “enable worldwide comparison.” The index attribute was not customs but language.76 In moving to in-depth ethnographies of the Kwakiutl and the Nlaka’pamux, Boas continued to incorporate an emphasis on language and a comparative perspective into an empiricist approach. He had first expressed his central position, which was antithetical to the evolutionary theory prevailing among better established anthropologists in the United States when he arrived in North America, in exchanges with Otis Mason, then director of the U.S. 24 | Introduction

National Museum, in the pages of Science in 1887.77 In his address, published as “Human Faculty as Determined by Race,” at the conclusion of his term as president of the American Association of the Advancement of Science in 1894, Boas affirmed that rather than following a fixed evolutionary scheme, societies developed through their own interaction with their environment and influences exerted through their interaction with neighboring groups. As Stocking has noted, “Human Faculty as Determined by Race” laid the foundation of his long-term endeavor to establish historical events rather than race as the primary factor in the shaping of human societies.78 In the preface to The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians, published in 1897, Boas emphasized the importance of history and context in studying Northwest Coast Aboriginal societies, writing: “While a hasty glance at these people and a comparison with other tribes emphasize the uniformity of their culture, a closer investigation reveals many peculiarities of individual tribes which prove that their culture has developed slowly and from a number of distinct centers, each people adding something to the culture which we observe at the present day,”79 and in an early report on the Jesup Expedition, he affirmed: “Anthropology has reached the point of development where the careful investigation of facts shakes our firm belief in the far-reaching theories that have been built up.”80 In the development of ethnography, Boas’s primary interest was in what he termed the ‘mental life’ of the people studied, and their understanding of their own cultural phenomena. The primary method for arriving at this understanding was the collection of data through field work. Boas had a broad view of both ethnography and its scientific necessity, and from the beginning he envisioned a program of work larger than any one person could accomplish. During his first field work in the Arctic Boas assumed full responsibility for both the conception and execution of the work, and he continued to do so during the years he worked with the British Association for the Advancement of Science. However, during the BAAS years he began to develop his practice of delegating work beyond what he himself could do. Chamberlain’s field research among the Ktunaxa, a project Boas had once hoped to pursue himself, is an early example. Later he arranged for Chamberlain to edit a grammar of the Haida language produced by the former missionary, Charles Harrison.81 Still later, he arranged for Livingston Farrand to edit Teit’s manuscript for the Mythology of the Thompson Indians. Judith Berman has identified three types of individuals able to produce the ethnographic data that Boas sought. In addition to the “professional anthropologist,” epitomized by Boas himself, there were the “native fieldworker,” such as George Hunt, and the “resident outsider,” ideally a person “who had lived for a long time in proximity to the culture, spoke the language, and Introduction | 25

[was] on terms of intimate friendship with the natives.”82 James Teit met the criteria for a “resident outsider.” Boas also had particular views regarding the data forming the basis of an ethnography. Berman, citing Boas’s introduction to the Handbook of American Indian Languages, has noted his distinction between “raw, unprocessed ethnographic materials,” directly created by members of a society—for example, texts in the native language, material culture and song—and “secondhand accounts,” which, however carefully researched and composed by an observer raised in another society, were inevitably filtered through other cultural perspectives and expectations. While primary utterances, material or non-material, originating within the society and secondary expositions penned by a non-Native observer became elements, to one degree or another, in the ethnographic projects begun by both Boas and Teit in the mid-1890s, as well in as the ethnographies generated through the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Boas used two quite different approaches to shape the ethnography that emerged from his own work among the Kwakwaka’wakw and the ethnography that emerged from Teit’s work among the Interior Salish. Boas’s Kwakwaka’wakw methodology emerges most clearly in his description of his field work practice in letters written from the field during the summer of 1900.83 At that time he was studying Kwaḱwala with a tutor, so as to be able to understand better and revise the more than seven hundred pages of texts he had previously recorded in the language. He spent weeks on this during the 1900 field season, and only afterwards turned to ‘customs.’ In his 1889 BAAS report, First General Report on the Indians of British Columbia,84 Boas had provided significant information about various aspects of Kwakwaka’wakw belief and practice. A stand-alone report the following year introduced the component Kwakwaka’wakw tribes, situated them geographically, and presented ethnographic data organized under headings such as Social Organization; Customs re Birth, Marriage and Death; Religion, Shamanism and Witchcraft; and Secret Societies. The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians, published in 1897 but planned since 1894, also situated the Kwakwaka’wakw tribes geographically, outlined certain aspects of their economy and daily practice, and provided a detailed account of the winter ceremonial, a central institution. In later years he considered his truly reliable work to have begun with this publication.85 By 1900 Boas seems to have been approaching the elucidation of Kwakwaka’wakw mental life from the inside out, with the texts, considered to be primary utterances unfiltered by other cultural perceptions, as a key. He subsequently turned his attention to other aspects of Kwakwaka’wakw cultural practice and understanding—food preparation, material culture and technology, geographic names—but in his own approach to Kwakwaka’wakw 26 | Introduction

culture he appears to have worked with a kind of ideal “whole” in mind. He published sections of his work as they became ready but with relatively little in the way of additional overview. Even The Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island, the title of which suggests a comprehensive exposition, is a compendium of information on technology and material culture, which seems to begin more or less in medias res. In contrast, the approach Boas suggested for Teit moved from the outside in. At first glance, this seems counterintuitive. Teit was a fluent speaker of Nlaka’pamuxcin, and in 1894 he was also a member of a Nlaka’pamux family. He might have been seen to be ideally positioned to work from the inside out. As Wickwire has pointed out, Teit had recorded narratives and historical information about the Nlaka’pamux, particularly in the area near his home, prior to his meeting with Boas, and as noted earlier, lists of members of Nlaka’pamux communities near Spences Bridge, recorded in 1893, are preserved among Teit’s notes.86 Teit thus approached his first ethnography with prior knowledge. However, he had no training in anthropology and no experience in the construction of ethnography, and it appears that Boas provided guidance. In Teit’s letter to Boas of October 29, 1894, he refers to an October 7 letter from Boas. Teit writes, “I have commenced writing the report on this tribe of Indians as you desired and will include all the points which you enumerated in your last letter to me,” and he goes on to list the chapters he has covered: “Introduction,” “Names of the tribe,” “Ethnological sketch of the people with their chief Characteristics,” “Extent, physical features, and climatical condition of their country,” “Recognized divisions, and boundaries, dialects, villages,” “Numbers of tribe past and present, principal cause of their decrease,” and “Migrations and mixture with other tribes and races,” noting that the more difficult chapters were yet to come and would require more time. All of these topics are represented in the chapter headings of the eventual publication; for example, Historical and Geographical Setting, Clothing and Ornaments, Subsistence; Travel, Transportation and Trade; Social Organization and Festivals; Birth and Childhood, Puberty, Marriage and Death; and Religion. As in Boas’s first published ethnography, The Central Eskimo, the associated information is presented in straightforward, declarative exposition. When Teit was writing The Thompson Indians of British Columbia he was thus channeling both established and newly acquired knowledge through and against a relatively rigid predetermined template. Once established, the Nlaka’pamux template was transferred with modest adjustments to the The Lillooet Indians and The Shuswap, and he carried at least a version of it with him into his field work in the United States. Both Boas and Teit employed an approach to ethnography that has come to be known as the “ethnographic present.” Although monographs written Introduction | 27

in the ethnographic present often included information current at the time of writing, the overall descriptive approach was retrospective, intended to create an image of a society at a time before contact. This approach to the work was designed to fit, and even exemplify, Boas’s historicist approach. Darnell has noted that Boas “insisted that there must be an ethnographic baseline before grand generalization could proceed.”87 The first three monographs, particularly, followed a relatively standard format, implicitly organizing the content for comparison, although neither Boas nor Teit wrote an encompassing comparative work. In the course of critiquing Boas’s work on the central Northwest Coast, Michael Harkin has considered the role of the ethnographic present in Boas’s ethnography, finding that as a device, the ethnographic present provided “[s]ocial, temporal, emotional, and geographic distance” that were “essential to Boas’ view of anthropology as a science,” and in limiting the focus to what was local and cultural, supported its claim to be a science.88 As other scholars have noted,89 the use of the ethnographic present to describe cultural practice in a putative past time ignored the profound challenges and upheavals that the societies studied by Teit, Boas, and others of that era were facing. Teit was not only aware of the impact of the major societal changes that affected the people about whom he wrote, but was also actively advocating remediation through political channels. However, even during his most active and demanding time as a political advocate he continued to write ethnography using the ethnographic present. On February 16, 1911, immediately following news that he was planning to accompany Interior chiefs to Victoria, he commented to Boas, “I am glad to see lately the Canadian gov. have appointed a Dominion Ethnologist in the person of Sapir. This may help things along on the Canadian side.” This suggests that he saw ethnography not only as a hedge against the loss of cultural knowledge but also as a scientific support in the struggle for recognition. By highlighting past cultural practice and drawing unchanged cultural practice into an image of the past, the ‘ethnographic present’ also, perhaps inadvertently, defined information about past cultural practice as a cornerstone of ethnography. Eventually this led to a sense on the part of some ethnographers that ethnography itself depended on the availability and foregrounding of information about the past. In his introduction to The Flathead Indians of Montana in 1937, fifteen years after Teit’s death, Harry Holbert Turney-High observed, “I cannot presume to say that this work is complete. A complete Flathead ethnography will never be written. The elderly informants are dying rapidly, and the younger people are thoroughly acculturized.”90 Implicit in Turney-High’s statement is a sense that a significant part of Flathead identity was placed out of reach on this account. In crystallizing the identity of 28 | Introduction

societies in past time, the ethnographic present created a complicated legacy for people struggling for recognition of their political, social, and cultural identity in the time in which they actually live.91 As his work with George Hunt suggests, texts had a central place in Boas’s concept of ethnography. J. R. Swanton’s Jesup Expedition research among the Haida in 1900–1901, conducted under Boas’s long-distance supervision, focused on religious ideas, social organization, and language,92 and foregrounded the recording and analysis of texts. In 1905 Boas wrote to W. H. Holmes of the Bureau of American Ethnology to make the case that the Bureau should publish the entire set, saying: “I do not think any one would advocate the study of antique civilizations, or, let me say, of the Turks or the Russians, without a thorough knowledge of their language and of the literary documents of these languages, and contributions not based on such material would not be considered as adequate. In regard to our American Indians we are in the position that practically no such literary material is available for study, and it appears to me as one of the essential things that we have to do, to make such material accessible.”93 Boas was anxious that Teit record texts in Nlaka’pamuxcin, both for their value as theoretically unfiltered cultural expressions and to provide assistance in analyzing the language itself. Encouraging Teit to do so became a theme of his letters from 1898 on, and Boas promised funds to support this work. Teit expressed willingness but it was not until December 1904 that, according to Teit’s own report, the first short texts were recorded. The work proceeded at intervals. Much of Teit’s work on aspects of Nlaka’pamux grammar was done in anticipation of facilitating the analysis of texts. Between 1904 and 1910 he sent Boas at least eighty-five and possibly over one hundred handwritten pages of texts and translations. Boas intended to publish them. In 1916, following Teit’s assembly of vocabularies in all of the Interior Salish languages, he wrote: “My present plan is to publish most of the material, including the vocabularies, in one volume, to be entitled ‘Contributions to the Ethnology of the Salish Tribes.’ Your Thompson texts will go in there too, so that the bulk of the material that I still have will appear in this form.” This volume was never published. While texts are represented in Teit’s unpublished notes, it is possible that others remained in the possession of Elizabeth Dijour after her correspondence with Boas stopped in 1933. Other “unfiltered” elements of culture—that is, material culture and song—were significant in Teit’s work. Teit assembled substantial collections of material culture, particularly from the Nlaka’pamux, St’at’imc, and Secwepemc. Like The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians, Teit’s ethnographies emphasize the material and visual and, particularly in the first three monographs, support the exposition with line drawings Introduction | 29

illustrating objects collected for museums. In this museographic approach to ethnography, the objects served as both illustrations and exponents of culture. As in his ethnographic description, Teit took a retrospective approach to assembling collections of material culture, although he followed Boas in finding it proper to commission objects that harkened to an earlier time but were no longer in use. He sent his first collections to the American Museum of Natural History in 1895 and 1897. As Ira Jacknis has pointed out,94 Boas included the study of music in virtually all of his ethnographic research, beginning with The Central Eskimo, and continuing with the Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw. Several essays on Northwest Coast societies in the BAAS reports include drawings of house posts and masks that indicate that Boas understood fundamental components of the system of representation, and two of the reports include musical transcription. Teit and Boas collaborated in the recording of Nlaka’pamux songs during the first Jesup Expedition in 1897. Teit first acquired his own wax cylinder recorder in 1912 and incorporated the recording of song into his own work during his Tahltan field work that year. Identifying prospective Nlaka’pamux singers living in the vicinity of Spences Bridge, he recorded a substantial body of Nlaka’pamux song for the Geological Survey of Canada between 1913 and 1921. The accompanying manuscript, “Notes on Songs of the Indians of British Columbia,”95 contains a substantial body of texts, information on Nlaka’pamux song repertoire, the intergenerational acquisition of songs, and the place of song in daily life, as well as information about other aspects of Nlaka’pamux belief and life. In his article “No Object Without Its Story: Franz Boas, George Hunt, and the Creation of a Native Material Anthropology,” Ira Jacknis points out that, as a photographer, George Hunt often documented artifact contexts.96 Teit’s approach was different. After he acquired a camera in 1912, he photographed Nlaka’pamux people near his home. Although he took some retrospective documentary photographs, including people in traditional dress and a series showing traditional hair styles worn in different contexts, he also took photographic portraits of people he knew, individuals or couples, wearing the clothing they wore every day, and he identified them, so that they are known today by their descendants. Teit made some collections and took photographs among the Syilx (Okanagan) and collected birch bark baskets and stone implements among the Sinixt, but his major collections of material culture were made in support of his first three ethnographies. While Boas was able to send $500 to underwrite the costs of his research among Salish-speaking groups in the United States in 1908, he was not able to send funds for collecting.97 Teit did make some collections in the course of his American field work, as suggested by his letter 30 | Introduction

to Sapir of October 7, 1914, but on at least one occasion experienced difficulty in transporting objects across the international border. Boas maintained and developed his interest in physical anthropology through the Jesup Expedition years and beyond. Although this never became a primary interest for Teit, he facilitated Boas’s measurement of Nlaka’pamux people within his own acquaintance, and the making of casts in 1897, and he collected some skeletal material during the early years of their collaboration. He also facilitated measurement, casts, and photography of the Indigenous delegates who accompanied him to Ottawa in 1912 and 1916. During his correspondence with Francis Knowles, the physical anthropologist at the Geological Survey of Canada, he became interested in specific aspects of measurement, and referred to the measurements of Nlaka’pamux people Boas had made in 1894 and 1897 and the photographs taken for the Jesup North Pacific Expedition in 1897.

The Ethnographic Footprint

The initial ethnographic footprint created by Teit and Boas for the Interior Salish is primarily defined by The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, The Lillooet Indians, and The Shuswap as well as Teit’s essays “The Okanagon,” “The Coeur d’Alene,” and “The Flathead Group,” published in “The Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateaus.” Each one addresses particular topics within a sequence defined by a version of the template that guided The Thompson Indians of British Columbia. In contrast to Boas’s approach to his Kwakwaka’wakw ethnography, in which each publication either focused on a different aspect of Kwakwaka’wakw or, like the volumes of Kwakiutl Texts, extended the reach of an earlier discussion, Teit’s Interior Salish ethnography was encapsulated in finished monographs devoted to different societies. The volumes and essays are not entirely uniform in coverage of the topics set out in the template, but each one—with the possible exceptions of “The Flathead Group” and “The Middle Columbia Salish,” to which he was able to devote less time—is intended to be a relatively comprehensive survey of the identity, geographic position, and cultural practice of the society concerned. While the template was constricting, a succession of volumes with the same general format allowed for some expression of Teit’s developing knowledge. For example, information about the demographic characteristics of the population of the Similkameen valley, first presented in The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, is continued and expanded in “The Okanagon.” “The Okanagon” includes extensive chiefly genealogies, which he recorded for this group but not, apparently, for others. He began field work among the Okanagon in 1904, but the final essay includes information on the Sinixt Introduction | 31

(Lakes), which he recorded in 1909. “The Okanagon” and “The Flathead Group” incorporate discussion of historical changes in territorial boundaries in a way that the others do not. Teit began field work among the St’at’imc and Lilwat (Lillooet) in 1898, well before the publication of The Thompson Indians of British Columbia. In the summer and fall of 1900 he began formal research among the Secwepemc, building on the knowledge he had acquired in guiding trips in 1887, 1888, 1892, and 1897 while conducting Farrand and Boas to the Tsilhqot’in (Chilcotin) and Nuxalkmc (Bella Coola), respectively. He visited the Canim Lake and North Thompson River regions of Secwepemc country in the summer of 1903, and Spallumcheen in 1904.98 In May 1904 Boas provided Teit with funds “to be used for the continuation of your work among the Salish tribes” and indicated that he would prefer to see future collections of material culture from “among the Okanagon, Calispelm, Spokane, or such tribes of the northern Washington division as are likely to yield the best results in specimens.”99 During this summer Teit conducted work among the Syilx, beginning with communities along the Similkameen River and traveling with a pack train to Penticton, Vernon, and Spallumcheen. Teit decided during this trip not to cross the border, partly to avoid the complication of going through customs with a pack train, and partly to avoid the danger of having his excellent outfit vulnerable to thieves. Citing Teit’s journal in the possession of Sigurd Teit, Wendy Wickwire writes, “Teit began his Okanagan trip with a stop in Nicola Valley to interview people. He then headed south and set up a camp at Ashnola in the Similkameen Valley, where he undertook a month of interviews before circling home via Vernon, Kamloops, and the Nicola River. Having been forewarned of rampant horse theft along the Okanagan River near the border, he was relieved to return without losing any of his eight horses. He was also relieved to return with extensive field notes.”100 By the end of 1905 Teit’s Secwepemc manuscript was complete, pending resolution of minor questions. However, he did not prepare an ethnography based on his Okanagan research, possibly because he had not yet been able to conduct research on Okanagon communities in the United States. By 1907 Boas was firmly established at Columbia University and was encouraging Teit to focus on the Nlaka’pamux language. During that year planning began for Teit’s further work in the United States, which he conducted in 1908, 1909, and 1910. In his notes and publications Teit described his field methods sparingly, if at all; he provided the most extensive insight in the preface to The Shuswap: During the season of 1900 I collected the bulk of my information from several old men in the vicinity of Canoe Creek and Dog Creek, and especially 32 | Introduction

from a very intelligent old man called Sixwiˊlexken, who was born near Big Bar, and in early days had travelled all over the country inhabited by the tribe. He was particularly well posted on the history, traditions, and customs of his people, and took great interest in relating everything he knew. [In 1903,] I gathered most of my information from George Sisiuˊlâx, and other old men of the North Thompson band.101 In his approach to field work in the United States it is evident that Teit placed a high value on knowledge of the geography of the region he was to visit. Prior to leaving for the field in 1908 he wrote to Boas, citing his knowledge of the Interior of British Columbia and his prior acquaintance with people who lived there and knowledge of their social norms as foundational to his ability to move smoothly into the ethnographic research he had previously conducted.102 In working in British Columbia he had the advantage of conducting research in regions he had visited previously. He also spent significant amounts of time in each society, returning to the St’at’imc and Lilwat in August 1898 after an initial visit of approximately a month, and visiting the different regions of Secwepemc territory over several years. Although he began his Nlaka’pamux work with substantial accumulated knowledge, he acknowledged after several years that his understanding had increased, and he never really stopped working on Nlaka’pamux ethnography. In writing of his work in the United States Teit did not name the people from whom he gathered information during this time, with the exception of Michel Revais, a man of dual Pend d’Oreille and European heritage who had settled among the Flathead, and Louison, to whom he refers in a letter to Robert Lowie on March 7, 1915. However, in “The Coeur d’Alêne” Teit wrote that the woman who was captured and injured by the attackers in a conflict between the Pend d’Oreille and Coeur d’Alêne “was the greatgrandmother of the narrator of this story, Nicodemus Qwaroˊtus, my chief informant among the Coeur d’Alêne.”103 He did provide a list of the people with whom he worked in the expense accounts he submitted to Boas for 1909 and 1910. In later years he generally identified the Nlaka’pamux people whom he photographed, and he identified each of the thirty-one singers recorded in “Notes on Songs of the Indians of British Columbia.”104 At least fifty Nlaka’pamux people can be seen to have contributed to his work, but he tends to mention them in passing, apart from Waxtko, who provided the information for his first paper; Tsilighesket, who provided information on the Nlaka’pamux occupation of the Nicola Valley; and Tcuiếska, who, along with Tîmskôlaxan and Aā’pk în, provided information on the Stuwixamux; and others with whom he worked on specific topics, such as Babtiste Ululamellst, Roipellst, and James Paul Xixneʔ. This was not unusual in the Introduction | 33

ethnography of the time. Ethnographers working among Plains societies in the early 1900s often identified their interpreters but not necessarily the people who provided the information. After he arrived in De Smet, Idaho, in 1908, Teit took time to learn the country and the means of communication with the various reserves. He also took pains to ensure his ability to communicate with the people he met and to assure them of his credibility. He had been prepared to take a person affiliated with both the Nlaka’pamux and Syilx who could explain his work in Canada, “breaking the ice,” and who, once the work was started, could point out differences in the dialects they encountered. When this person proved unavailable, he engaged an English-speaking interpreter in Idaho. Before leaving Canada he also requested a letter of introduction to be given to Indian agents or others who might find his purposes suspect. He wanted his purpose to be clearly understood by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. In correspondence with Boas, Teit noted that he worked through the headman of each principal band, explaining the object of his visit and of his work in general, but he was also willing to use the authority of officials to facilitate his work. He developed a particularly strong relationship with the American government official Thomas McCrossan, which began in Idaho and continued in western Washington. With the exception of church festivals and events, which he saw as interruptions to his work, Teit also attended at least some local gatherings and mentions several planned by people gathered on the Flathead Reservation in 1909. For preference, Teit worked with “old men,” finding them the most knowledgeable and interested, but he also sought out large groups and was willing to talk with many people in pursuit of his goals. In searching for the homeland of a southern group he understood might be an offshoot of the Nlaka’pamux, he spoke with three different Columbia men. While in the field he followed up on opportunities. During his first weeks in the field in 1908 he traveled to Hood River, where he understood people who might help him locate the offshoot group were temporarily located. While in western Washington in 1910, he went to visit a Willapa woman, even though the Willapa spoke an Athapascan language and were thus not directly related to his primary purpose. While recording vocabularies in western Washington he took care to work with the different groups speaking Chehalis and, to ensure verifiability, was willing to work with more than one person. In regard to Satsop,105 for example, he wrote, “To be sure I was getting proper Satsop I took down a full vocabulary from one man and a partial one from another,” and, a little later, “I have interviewed some ten or twelve persons belonging to different parts of Chehalis River and Grey’s [sic] Harbor (and others belonging to 34 | Introduction

the nearest tribes) re. the different dialects within the tribe.” He appears to have given priority to the recording of vocabularies, moving then into the recording of information about cultural practice, and then into the recording of mythologies. The development of information on older boundaries, which he considered to be an important component of this work, seems to have been embedded in the latter two. He also carried with him a checklist based on a synopsis of the standard template. In notes apparently made at the beginning of his 1909 research, positioned immediately after his initial Sinixt notes and before the statement of Alexander Christian, Teit wrote out the points of interest he was pursuing under the heading, “Salish Survey USA (Questions).”106 While these points echo the ethnographic template of the Canadian ethnographies, they are less comprehensive and emphasize material culture: Vocabulary of 600–800 words Some questions re pronounce & demonstration to see if any gender in these Distribution of tribes, languages & dialects with boundaries & head quarters of each Migration traditions & former shifting and [illeg] of tribes. Flood traditions on Coast & origin traditions Names of tribes. Types of tribes with which had wars & results of same Types of basketry woven & bark & old & modern shape of baskets & nature of ornamentation. Materials used in basket making & in ornamentation. This chiefly to find out the distribution of coiled & bark basketry & the distribution & eastern boundary of imbrication & the northern boundary line of the common so called Klickitat shape Fraser River shapes. Kinds of woven blankets. Particularly those of goats wool & rabbit skins. Chiefly to find out distribution of the goat wool & rabbit blanket. Types of bags chiefly woven bags with materials used in manufacture & ornamentation. Particularly to ascertain distribution &c of the so called Nez Perce wallet Womans Caps particularly woven caps with materials used in manufacture & ornamentation. Chiefly to ascertain distribution of so called Nez Perce grass cap. Vessels used for boiling in Types of bows to find out distribution of flat bow & other types Types of canoes to find out distribution of bark canoes &c Types of houses & lodges summer & winter chiefly to ascertain distribution of the kekule house & Conical lodge or tipi & long lodge. Introduction | 35

Dances & [illeg] lodges &c young men’s & young women’s lodges. Women’s lodges, temporary lodges, hunting & fishing lodges, sweat houses, Forts & bark lodge Types of carriers or cradles to find distribution of types Navel pouches to find out distribution Head flattening to find out distribution Methods of burial Distribution of horse Shape of moccasins to learn former distribution of certain types Types of mats Woven bark clothing to learn distribution Woman’s kilt or bodice Ditto Ditto Quill work ditto ditto Distribution of game (particularly Buffalo & antelope) Fish spear heads Types of war clubs He used questions to elicit information about cultural practice, writing to Boas, “I questioned them on all the most important matters,” and he mentioned to Sapir in 1912 that he had used a checklist: “I asked questions about 20 points among the tribes of Eastern & Western Washington that I had no time to study. This I did at each place where I collected a vocabulary.”107 He also considered more creative methods. To facilitate the determination of boundary lines while working with men who were hampered by lack of knowledge of current place names, he suggested he would sketch natural features of the country in certain places. He also wrote that he collected “stories of localities” and planned to collect mythology, and his field notes contain notations about Coyote narratives. His time in the field was limited, and the geographic scope of his research was broad. The work required travel from place to place by stage or train. Apart from the vocabularies, he worked at speed to get a general picture, with details remaining to be worked out. The emphasis on distribution, particularly of material culture elements, indicates that he saw this research as an ethnographic survey. During this research Teit was aware of emerging ethnographic research among neighboring and related tribes, and in 1909 was carrying Spinden’s 1908 monograph on the Nez Perce, and Lowie’s 1909 monograph on the Northern Shoshone, and he was also aware of Mythology of the Blackfoot Indians from 1908 by Wissler and Duvall. A series of soft-cover notebooks in the ACLS files108 preserve at least some of Teit’s field notes from this time. His notes are undated and handwritten in his usual tiny script. They are also synoptic, summarizing what he had 36 | Introduction

heard. There appear to be no verbatim notes, although specific entries may track particular conversations, moving from topic to topic within a relatively small compass. Individual topics, such as “boundaries,” or “trade,” are indicated in marginal headings. While Teit did note the names of chiefs and former chiefs among the various groups with whom he worked, he does not indicate clearly the name of the person from whom he gathered particular information, although the name of the Kalispel chief, Marcellin, appears in both his notebooks and his expense accounts. Teit provided the most direct statement concerning his sources for information relating to older territorial boundaries in a footnote to one of the maps he made as a result of this field work. While he identified Michel Revais and Thomas McCrossan as sources for three maps, he identified others who contributed information only by their general tribal affiliation, writing, for example, “my principal informants were two Kalispels, two Coeur d’Alenes and one Nez Perce.”109 Most of the entries in the notebooks are crossed off, as if to indicate that the information has been incorporated into a later format. These notes are not significantly different in character from unpublished notes relating to the Nlaka’pamux preserved in the ACLS files. With the exception of the texts he recorded, these often take the form of lists—for example, lists of plants or lists of kinship terms—with very little if any verbatim conversation recorded or even point form notes attributed to a particular person. Teit approached his field research among the St’at’imc and Lilwat with the Nlaka’pamux as the model, and all of the successor ethnographies are, to a greater or lesser extent, influenced by this comparison. Swanton addressed some of the implications of this in his 1907 review of The Lillooet Indians, affirming that The Lillooet Indians “repeats the excellent qualities” of The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, “but is not so extensive, partly on account of the smaller size of the tribe with which it deals, and partly because it presupposes much of the information contained in that work, the two tribes being neighbors and sharing many of the same usages and customs.”110 Boas also remarked on this issue in his preface to “The Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateaus,” noting that Teit had been “thoroughly conversant with the Thompson Indians, among whom he lived for a great many years,” and that this knowledge had “facilitated his investigations considerably.” However, he cautioned, “On account of Mr. Teit’s intimate knowledge of the Thompson tribe, it is natural that his inquiries were guided by what he knew about the customs of that tribe. It is not unlikely that this may have colored, to a certain extent, the descriptions. I doubt particularly whether the negative statements contained in this report can always be taken as conclusive, because the question whether a certain custom is in vogue may be misunderstood and similar customs may have existed.”111 Introduction | 37

Teit’s research between 1908 and 1910 differed in shape from his work in Canada. In the course of this work Teit’s goals and Boas’s goals diverged. The research in the United States was originally conceived as an extension of Teit’s work among the Interior Salish in Canada, but both Boas and Teit had developed specific interests since their initial meeting fourteen years before, and these interests helped shape the work. Boas defined the approach to the project through a series of letters in 1907 and 1908, with Teit drawing on his own experience in response. In 1907 Boas wrote, “I think it would be very desirable to illustrate the general distribution of dialects in northern Washington and Idaho, and the exact old boundary-lines between the Salish and Sahaptin, and the relation of these two tribes. Of course, this ought to be connected with general ethnological work, collection of mythology, etc.”112 Just before Teit left for the field in 1908, Boas provided somewhat more specific direction, writing that the work he had “at heart” was “principally an investigation on the old lines of the Salish tribes on the American side with a view of determining the relationship of their culture and of their language to the tribe with which we are so familiar.” He went on to note that “the distribution of dialects and the relationship of the dialects on the American side is still quite obscure, particularly in the western part of the State of Washington between Spokane and the Cascade Range.” He suggested that Teit “collect a number of brief vocabularies in order to determine the relationships of dialects.”113 In an earlier message, as well, Boas had emphasized the making of “full collections of traditions from the region farther to the south,” adding, “we also ought to be clear on the distribution of dialects in the region between Idaho and the Cascade Range.” Teit had replied that it would take time to “find out with absolute certainty the exact former boundaries to the south of the Interior Salish tribes. There appears to have been quite a mix-up there in tribal boundaries at various periods. However I hope to make more certain of many points next summer, and also try to find out the old eastern boundaries of the Flathead & Coeur d’Alene as well. The Cayuse is a puzzling element.”114 Within these directions and responses was scope for a dual approach to the assignment. Boas’s reference to “the tribe with which we are so familiar” is clearly a reference to the Nlaka’pamux, and “an investigation on the old lines” implies the approach taken in Teit’s Canadian ethnographic research; that is, a retrospective portrait of a society prior to Euro-American settlement, in a period not precisely defined but circa 1850 at the latest, that allowed for comparison of one society to another. Boas did not state a specific time frame, but Teit’s reply that he would “investigate their culture and customs, and record their mythology etc in the same way I have done for the people of the B.C. area”115 indicates that he understood the task to be similar to the 38 | Introduction

work he had done in Canada. However, Boas’s use of the term “old boundarylines” also opened the door to an inquiry of particular interest to Teit, namely the determination of boundaries that existed in previous centuries. Both Boas and Teit had a strong interest in maps. Boas came to North America hoping to establish himself as a geographer, and he never abandoned his early interest in geography. Maps constituted a part of his ethnographic work in British Columbia from the beginning, and he published maps in Petermann’s Mitteilungen while conducting research for the BAAS. In a signal indication of the degree to which he was impressed with Teit’s knowledge during their first meeting, Boas sent him a blank map in the early weeks of their acquaintance, on which Teit drew in the distribution of Indigenous tribes in British Columbia.116 At that moment this map had more to do with Boas’s ongoing BAAS work than Teit’s projected work, but with his reply to Boas’s request Teit sent a sketch of northeastern Nlaka’pamux territory117 and portions of Secwepemc and St’at’imc territory, with indications of population distribution. Geography became a continuing theme of their collaboration. Both were interested in maps and boundaries, but Teit’s interest in pursuing much earlier tribal configurations was clear by the end of the 1908 field season, and this became a dominant theme of his work between 1908 and 1917. In exploring this topic he was not alone. Historic migrations of Plains tribes were of interest to ethnographers during this period, and oral traditions of migration were a primary source of information. However, there were methods of providing both external context and assessment. Lowie, writing about the Northern Shoshone,118 discussed this issue with substantial reference to published historical sources and noted in his introduction to The Assiniboine that an account of the separation of the Assiniboine from the Dakota should be treated with caution, writing that the “unhistorical character of this tale is the occurrence of identical traditions among neighbouring tribes.”119 In 1914 Clark Wissler brought a significant range of historic sources to bear on exploring both the timing of the introduction of the horse and its impact on the pre-existing culture of Plains societies.120 There is no evidence that Boas objected to Teit’s work on old boundaries, but by the end of the project it had become apparent that their goals had diverged to some extent. Teit continued to pursue the issue of past boundaries during his 1909 and 1910 research, and by the time he concluded his notes and maps in 1917 it was clear that this topic was of primary interest to him. In contrast, the work Boas conducted on the vocabularies, leading to his 1927 publication (with Haeberlin), “Sound Shifts in Salishan Dialects,” indicates that language remained his primary focus, particularly the degree to which lexical differences could shed light on the distribution of Salishan languages. Both approaches required the delineation of the geographic Introduction | 39

relationship of tribal territories, but by 1917 it had become evident that the two approaches were not fully compatible, and it is uncertain that the incompatibility was ever fully resolved. A draft map Boas sent to Teit in 1917 betrayed an inclination to set the time frame circa 1850, but the map eventually published in 1927 illustrated territorial relationships in a time frame fifty to one hundred years earlier, allowing the incorporation of some of Teit’s data on earlier configurations. The difficulty with this compromise is that, given Teit’s methodology for determining older boundaries, Teit’s maps showing older tribal configurations were based on data much less verifiable than the vocabularies he recorded for Boas or the maps he produced representing the distribution of languages circa 1850. During his 1908–10 field seasons Teit was recording three kinds of data, each with a different degree of verifiability. The vocabularies Boas requested and Teit provided were, at that time, a verifiable key to understanding the distribution of Salishan dialects just prior to Euro-American settlement. In the approach taken by Boas, Teit, and indeed later scholars, language and territory were considered to coincide, and territorial differences were implicit in the differences that distinguished one language from another. In developing vocabularies Teit was recording information from those who had direct knowledge of the language at that time. In developing ethnographic information and information about territorial boundaries circa 1850 and later, Teit was inquiring about matters within the lived experience of the older people with whom he worked or their parents. However, in developing information concerning territorial relationships existing in the eighteenth century or even as early as 1650, as one of his maps indicates, Teit sought information about migrations, invasions, and population movements that had occurred in previous generations, and the temporal markers that came with the narratives were sometimes fairly specific but at other times much more general. As already noted, he did not generally record the names or background of the people who provided the information, and in some cases relied on flood and other narratives originating in a time frame for which there were few, if any, external temporal markers. While he listed in his accounts the people whom he compensated for work, the lists in the 1909 accounts are presented under the heading, “Bill showing payments to Indians (Information, Vocabularies, Boundaries, basketry &c & other work),” and in 1910, “Paid Indian wages &c giving vocabularies, boundaries, information, Interpreting &c.” Neither list indicates what each person had done. The substantial number of vocabularies Teit sent to Boas following each field season and in later years became primary data for “Sound Shifts in Salishan Dialects.” Teit wrote up the ethnographic data from his research in the United States between 1915 and 1917. Of the maps he developed between 40 | Introduction

1908 and 1917, some represent the distribution of tribes in various areas of Washington, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia circa 1850, and others represent his interpretation of earlier boundaries in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The manuscript “Notes on Maps,” developed at the same time, provides annotation for some, though not all, of these maps. Although he declared the project finished with the final four maps he sent to Boas in 1917, the maps and notes were never readied for publication. The APS file contains two maps with the assigned number (1), two maps with the assigned number (2), two maps with the assigned number (3), two with the assigned number (4), and three maps with no number. There are also two maps with numbers that appear to have been changed. One of these maps, labeled “Map (6) (7),” has no associated notes, but notes that might apply to it are labeled “Notes to Map (1).” However, both maps labeled Map (1) appear to represent data unrelated to these notes. It is difficult to make a linear connection between the entries in the surviving field notebooks relating to Teit’s work in the United States and the “Notes on Maps.” In Teit’s notebooks there is no clear separation of the information concerning older boundaries from other information. In some instances information concerning older boundaries is limited to single sentences. The “Notes on Maps” appear to be a synopsis representing a broad understanding of the territorial shifts in time past, as distilled from conversations he had with the people with whom he worked in various localities. Teit was aware of the nuanced character of territorial access in Interior Salish societies in Canada, and the political and social dynamics of maintaining exclusive occupation in the context of day-to-day relationships with neighboring societies, but concepts of boundary are not mentioned in the “Notes on Maps.” In preparing the maps he concentrated on black line boundaries, creating a reductionist view of territorial relationships in earlier centuries supported only by very general statements from sources that may have been impeccable but remain unverifiable. While Teit was preparing the maps and notes, Boas was concentrating on linguistics. By 1910 Boas had begun to analyze Teit’s vocabulary material,121 and the letters suggest he was prepared to move forward with the publication of the linguistic data at least from 1911 on. The ACLS records include an unfinished draft paper, accessioned in 1920, on “the determination of the distribution of Salishan dialects, and the general characteristics of their mutual relationship,” based on material collected by Boas between 1886 and 1897, and by Teit between 1902 and “the present time,” and including material supplied by Haeberlin and Frachtenberg, “who happened to be engaged in investigations on the tribes of Oregon at the time when special information on the tribes of southern Washington was needed.” Although listed as coauthored Introduction | 41

by Franz Boas, Herman K. Haeberlin, and James A. Teit, the twelve-page draft appears to have been written by Boas. The bulk of the paper is a summary of past movements and distribution of the tribes in particular regions, largely based on Teit’s material, but also citing Mooney and at least one other unidentified author of Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico edited by Frederick W. Hodge in 1907. Boas presents this summary as a narrative, citing and taking issue with the original sources only in one instance: “According to the Salish tribes living just north of Columbia River, the Chinook had their original home somewhere between Multnomah Falls and the mouth of the Willamette, on the north side of the river. I do not believe that this statement can be taken as of historical value, because it seems to be simply connected with a Flood legend of that particular region.”122 In contrast, the text of “Sound Shifts in Salishan Dialects,” co-authored only by Boas and Haeberlin in 1927, is entirely devoted to linguistic analysis. The associated map is not based solely on Teit’s maps but, according to Boas’s introductory notes, combined information from research conducted by Teit, Frachtenberg, and Boas himself, showing “the distribution of tribes as obtained from the earliest reliable information collected among old Indians, and it represents, on the whole, the period of the second half of the eighteenth century.” Boas added that “the boundary lines are not absolutely definite, although they probably represent very nearly the actual distribution of the tribes.”123 While a brief summary of past shifts in geographic relations is included, with the note that the information on the map concerning Plains tribes came only from people in British Columbia and should therefore be accepted with caution, the longer summary of changes in configuration that occupied most of the 1920 draft paper is not repeated. Teit and Boas pursued the goals of the research Teit conducted between 1908 and 1910 with different emphases. For Boas, the principal goal was the recording of vocabularies in order to determine linguistic relationships among Salishan-speaking tribes. Although Teit invariably noted the recording of vocabularies as a first task in each field locality, and recorded the vocabularies punctiliously, his principal interests were the ethnography of the Interior Salish tribes and the elucidation of their past geographic relationships, and in regard to his work among the societies subsumed under the rubric “Flathead,” the latter took precedence. In the “Flathead Group,” Teit wrote, “As I spent only about a week among the Flathead, and visited the Lower Kalispel and other tribes merely to obtain vocabularies and information about tribal boundaries, my notes on the material culture of all the tribes are very meager.”124 For Boas, the representation of the geographic distribution of Salish languages supported and illustrated the results of the linguistic analysis. For Teit, the charting of older territorial configurations took on a life of its own. 42 | Introduction

By 1917 his maps, considered as a whole, encompassed all of the regions in which he had worked in Canada and the United States, and he had extended the range of one of his final maps even beyond that. In the introduction to the 1927 paper Boas wrote, “According to the original plan of the investigation the dialects were to be investigated more fully at a later time after their general distribution had been determined.”125 For his own part, Teit never saw the ethnological work in the United States as finished and reminded Boas several times of the need to do more. In his correspondence with Homer Sargent, Boas refers to a bulky manuscript of one thousand pages representing his work on Salishan dialects. He withdrew it from the Bureau of American Ethnology and it does not appear to have been preserved. Other components of the research have been preserved, including comparative Salishan vocabularies developed by Boas, the draft paper accessioned in 1920, and 1,628 strips of paper accessioned in 1925. Teit’s “Notes on Maps” and the maps he created are a complementary component of the archives of the project. Teit’s fluency in Nlaka’pamuxcin and familiarity with other Interior Salish languages was enormously helpful both in conducting ethnographic field research and in recording vocabularies. However, neither the dictionary nor the grammar of Nlaka’pamuxcin, which Teit started in the early 1900s, came to fruition. In the preface to “Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateaus” Boas indicated that he found Teit’s phonology wanting, noting: “Mr. Teit’s spelling of native words is not quite certain; particularly the distinction between k and q; hw, x and x̣̣, tl and ɫ is uncertain.”126 Boas did not provide examples to support this conclusion. However, that Teit did not always hear what modern linguists hear in Nlaka’pamuxcin is suggested by his regular transcription of “utamqt” for “downriver” or the people of the Fraser Canyon from the perspective of Nlaka’pamux living upriver. The modern transcription is “wtémtk” or “utémtk”; the final consonant cluster is reversed.127 A possible explanation for this is suggested by Boas’s 1889 paper, “On Alternating Sounds,” in which he suggests that those who learn a second language are predisposed to favor the phonology of their first language, and he provides examples from his own transcription of Inuktitut.128 If Teit did misperceive certain consonants—Boas did not have the same concern about vowels—it did not affect his ability to speak Nlaka’pamuxcin or to understand it. Teit never saw a language lab, and he did not have the opportunity to take advantage of the rapid development of standards in linguistic training facilitated at least in part by Boas himself in the course of training students at Columbia. In the early 1900s, and thus relatively early in their collaboration, Boas began the planning of the Handbook of American Indian Languages, moving away from the Bureau of Ethnology’s reliance on linguistic contributions Introduction | 43

by sojourners fluent in Indigenous languages to requiring structural analysis from linguists and anthropologists trained in linguistics. This universitybased training remained unavailable to Teit. The increasing professionalization of American anthropology affected Teit in other ways. A primary example emerging from the letters is the redefinition of his work on basketry and his role in the eventual publication following Boas’s assignment of Herman Haeberlin, a young man with little experience but with an interest in theoretical issues and a recently completed PhD, as the principal investigator in 1916. With Haeberlin’s newly defined role in basketry research, a part of Boas’s expanding scholarly nexus was grafted onto Teit’s operation with limited success. Their expertise represented two areas of thought, two perspectives on basketry, and two approaches to scholarly work that were insufficiently bridged or coordinated. Boas’s deployments generally involved single people sent to carry out particular work, with rarely much need for or attention to co-ordination. The professional connection between Haeberlin and Teit was assisted by the goodwill of both parties but critically hampered by Haeberlin’s illness. Nonetheless, the fundamental problem with their joint project was insufficient rapprochement between the two scholarly approaches. Teit functioned independently from Boas in his relationships with Charles Newcombe, John Davidson, and Harlan Smith and in his correspondence with botanists in Ottawa and ethnologists remaining at the American Museum of Natural History following Boas’s departure, but in refraining from independent participation in meetings of scholarly organizations and contribution to journals, he differed even from contemporaries in British Columbia such as Charles Hill-Tout and Father Morice. Teit was a much better field worker than Hill-Tout, and a far more productive all-round ethnologist, but Hill-Tout wrote approximately thirty-nine papers and published them in the Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, reports of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, the British journal Folklore, the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, and the American Journal of Archaeology, as well as publishing in books, journals of local historical societies, and newspapers.129 Father Morice, with whom Teit corresponded, lacked Teit’s gift for connecting with people of profoundly different perspectives but also wrote independently and published comprehensive works on Dene history and language. As Swanton’s review of The Lillooet Indians suggests, Teit’s monographs provided him with solid recognition in his own day, although it was shared to a degree with Boas. However, the fact that he gave little attention to membership in professional organizations or to independent contributions to professional journals may have diminished the degree to which, in the 44 | Introduction

decades following his death, he was recognized by professional ethnologists as an independent scholar. For example, Lowie and Ray130 attributed what they both judged to be the excellence of Teit’s ethnographies in large part to Boas’s intervention, and saw Teit, however gifted, as a resident outsider, although both used more pejorative terms. Had Teit lived ten or twenty years longer, professional honors might have come unbidden. In the end, however, neither his refraining from independent participation in professional organizations and journals, nor the faint praise of Lowie and Ray has had any effect on the durability of his contribution or the place of his works in the regional canon today. Boas’s Kwakwaka’wakw ethnography and Teit’s Interior Salish ethnography had somewhat parallel trajectories. Boas, who was six years older than Teit, and lived for twenty years following Teit’s death, began earlier and finished later. The scope and volume of his publications were far greater than Teit’s, and his interests went well beyond Kwakwaka’wakw ethnography and the Northwest Coast. However, both ethnographic projects began in the late 1800s, enjoyed a productive period in the early 1900s, and were given additional attention over a number of years, beginning in the early 1920s. Both also left substantial compendia of valuable unpublished material.131 In spite of Boas’s focus on presenting Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw ethnography from the inside, which may well have inhibited him from presenting the kind of summative overview that would have confirmed a finished ethnography, the concepts of survey and map remained significant components of his broader work. The concept of survey is implicit in the Handbook of American Indian Languages. Both survey and map are foundational concepts in Boas and Haeberlin’s “Sound Shifts in Salishan Dialects.” Of the two approaches, the landscape or survey approach built into the template used by Teit held more sway in the ethnography conducted during and immediately following his time. Swanton’s reference to The Thompson Indians of British Columbia as “one of the very best monographs on any single American tribe”132 suggests that this approach to ethnography was well received in its day. In 1912 Sapir considered the ethnographic approach used in the Interior Salish monographs generally appropriate for the Athapaskan work Teit undertook for the Geological Survey, with topics modified to align with Tahltan and Kaska realities. Verne Ray used a version of the template in his ethnography of the Sanpoil and Nespelem, published in 1932, and benefited from the standardized approach in compiling Cultural Relations in the Plateau of Northwestern America in 1939. The implicit comparative stance of the ethnographies also provided a platform for the development of work on culture trait distribution in the 1930s. The encapsulated monograph was not the only approach, however. Even as Teit was finishing the essays later Introduction | 45

published in “The Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateaus,” several ethnographers of Plains societies had come together in a project inaugurated in 1907 by Boas’s successor at the American Museum of Natural History, Clark Wissler. Societies of the Plains Indians published in 1916 brought their expertise to bear in an anthology of essays on the character and role of organized societies within various Plains cultures, building on ethnographic descriptions of elements of single societies to generate broader understandings.133 The theoretical concerns that Boas brought to the inauguration of systematic Interior Salish ethnography are now part of the history of anthropology. Teit’s publications continue to be read and cited, although their perspective and framing are also viewed historically, and his work has long been supplemented by more recent scholarship. Teit’s unpublished material, his field notes, photographs, material culture collections, and their associated documentation often hold more promise for integration into contemporary community life and interpretations of community history than the published ethnographies. The life and flow of the letters exchanged between Boas and Teit in the course of their long collaboration belie the just-so story often implied by long-finished work, and illuminate some of that work’s challenges and complexities.

Notes 1. See Moritz, “Cúz̓lhkan Sqwe̓qwel (‘I Am Going to Tell a Story’).” See also Siragusa et al., “Shared Breath.” 2. Smith et al., “The Franz Boas Papers Documentary Edition,” 97. 3. Bard Graduate Center, “The Distributed Text: An Annotated Digital Edition of Franz Boas’s Pioneering Ethnography,” Research Forum, https://www.bgc.bard.edu/ research-forum/projects/4/the-distributed-text-an-annotated, accessed December 9, 2021. 4. Tepper, The Interior Salish Tribes of British Columbia. 5. Wickwire, “James A. Teit: His Contribution to Canadian Ethnomusicology.” 6. Campbell, “‘Not as a White Man, Not as a Sojourner,’” 37–57; Wickwire, “They Wanted Me to Help Them,” 297–320. 7. Tepper, Earth Line and Morning Star. 8. Wickwire, “To See Ourselves as the Other’s Other,” 1–20; Wickwire, “Beyond Boas?” 123–33. 9. Wickwire, “James A. Teit.” 10. Wickwire, “The Quest for the ‘Real’ Franz Boas,” 173–93. 11. Teit, “Notes on the Tahltan Indians of British Columbia,” 337–49. 12. Teit, “Water-Beings in Shetland Folk-Lore,” 180–201. 13. Teit, “Indian Tribes of the Interior,” 283–312. 14. A copy of the manuscript on song is also preserved in the American Philosophical Society Library. 15. Vakhtin, “Franz Boas and the Shaping of the Jesup Expedition,” 71–88. 46 | Introduction

16. For a review of Harlan I. Smith’s work during the Jesup North Pacific Expedition see Thom, “Harlan I. Smith’s Jesup Expedition Fieldwork,” 139–49. 17. Smith, “The Archaeology of Lytton, British Columbia.” 18. Vakhtin, “Franz Boas and the Shaping of the Jesup Expedition Siberian Research.” 19. Boas’s term “Kwakiutl” was technically an anglicization of Kwāˊ g·uɬ, the name of the particular society in the northwestern part of Vancouver Island with whom he worked. In “Kwakiutl: Traditional Culture” Codere wrote: “Boas used the term Kwakiutl on four levels of classification, in order of diminishing inclusiveness: the Kwakiutl group, those speaking what he referred to as the Kwakiutl language (Boas 1897: 320, 328); the grouping of the speakers of the Kwakiutl subdialect, which excluded those on the north and northwest of Vancouver Island; and the Kwakiutl tribe (Boas 1897: 329–30). . . . To avoid using the name of one tribe for the whole people, the Kwakiutl terms kwákwəw̓ ákw ‘Kwakiutl-speaking people’ ̓ and kwákwala ‘Kwakiutl language’ have been adopted in local English and by some scholars; the common spellings of these are Kwakwaka’wakw and Kwakwala” (Codere, “Kwakiutl: Traditional Culture,” 376). In this volume the term Kwakwaka’wakw refers to the broader society and Kwaḱwala to the language. See “Kwaḱwala Home Page,” First Voices, https://www.firstvoices.com/explore/ FV/sections/Data/Kwak’wala/Kwak%CC%93wala/Kwak%CC%93wala, accessed December 12, 2021. 20. See Darnell, And Along Came Boas, for an examination of the major aspects of Boas’s career and his place in the history of American anthropology. 21. For a discussion of Teit’s early life and family, see Wickwire, At the Bridge, 70–85. 22. Teit, “Some Statistics of Whistemnitsa’s Band of Indians Thompson River Tribe of Indians, 1893,” APS, ACLS Collection, “Salish ethnographic materials,” Item S.7. 23. Mambrol, “Claude Levi Strauss’ Concept of Bricolage.” 24. Hyland to Bryan Williams, August 31, 1912, BCA, Hyland and Belfry Correspondence. 25. Zumwalt, Franz Boas: The Emergence of the Anthropologist, 251. 26. Associated ceremonies were central to the institutional structure of many coastal societies, but hosting and attending potlatches were illegal in Canada between 1885 and 1951. 27. Freed, Anthropology Unmasked, 298. For a discussion of George Hunt’s contribution to Boas’s research at this time, Hunt’s vulnerability to prosecution under the law prohibiting the potlatch, and strategies employed by Boas to protect him, see Rainer Hatoum, “I Wrote All My Notes in Shorthand,” 230–33. 28. Kendall and Krupnik, Constructing Cultures Then and Now. 29. Silverstein, “Introduction,” v–xviii. 30. Zumwalt, Franz Boas: The Emergence of the Anthropologist, 294. 31. King, Gods of the Upper Air, 105, 204. 32. King, Gods of the Upper Air, 98–99. 33. Boas and Chamberlain, Kutenai Tales. 34. See Ocasio, Race and Nation in Puerto Rican Folklore. 35. Teit, “Notes on Songs of the Indians of British Columbia” (1921), CMH, Ethnology Documents (VI-Z-3M), B121, f6. Introduction | 47

36. Darnell, And Along Came Boas, 262–63.

37. Boas to Sargent, September 23, 1927, APS, Boas Papers, text 107404. The results of this field work may be reflected in “Chehalis field notes” 1927, APS, ACLS Collec-

tion, S2c.1, Oakville, Washington, cited in Voegelin and Harris, “Index to the Franz Boas Collection of Materials,” 13.

38. In addition to the grammar of Coeur d’Alene published in Handbook of American Indian Languages, Gladys Reichard published “An Analysis of Coeur d’Alene Indian Myths.”

39. Sargent to Boas, February 2, 1923, APS, Boas Papers, text 107313.

40. J. Walter Fewkes to Homer Sargent, February 14, 1923 (enclosed with Homer Sargent to Franz Boas, February 24, 1923), APS, Boas Papers.

41. Boas to Sargent, March 21, 1923, APS, Boas Papers, text 107445.

42. Dijour to Boas, August 26, 1931, APS, Boas Papers.

43. Boas, “Recent Work in American Indian Languages,” 489–91.

44. Bulletin du Musée d’ethnographie du Trocadéro 2 (1931): 59, 61–63; 3 (1932): 28, 120–21, cited in Mauzé, “When the Northwest Coast Haunts,” 82.

45. Thompson, Recording Their Story, 173. Citing “Report on Tahltan field work among

the Tahltan, Kaska and Bear Lake Indians,” 1915, compiled and edited by Diamond

Jenness, ca. 1930, CMH, Ethnology Documents (VI-O-8M), B121, f3.

46. Teit, “Field Notes on the Tahltan and Kaska Indians: 1912–1915,” edited by June Helm MacNeish, 1956.

47. Boas, “The Salish Languages of British Columbia,” 127–37.

48. Rohner, The Ethnography of Franz Boas, 20. After Boas met the Nuxalkmc travel-

ers to Germany again in Victoria in September 1886, he wrote to his parents, “It

amused me to see the astonishment of the women when they heard me talk their language. Unfortunately, I had forgotten almost everything in these months.”

He was also aware of the difference between their language and Kwaḱwala (30). Knowledge of Chinook jargon may also have been a help, however. Hatoum, “I

Wrote All My Notes in Shorthand,” 243, has also remarked: “It is interesting to note that Boas’s first attempts to learn Chinook Jargon can be traced back to the visit of a Bella Coola group touring Germany in 1885.”

49. See Hale, An International Idiom.

50. A language belonging to the Penutian group of languages spoken by peoples with homelands along the Columbia River in Washington state and Oregon (Chinook Indian Nation, http://www.chinooknation.org, accessed December 1, 2021).

51. Boas, Chinook Texts, 6.

52. Zumwalt, Franz Boas: The Emergence of the Anthropologist, 198.

53. In “I Wrote All My Notes in Shorthand,” Hatoum has opened a window on Boas’s

use of shorthand and the relationship between certain of his shorthand notes and the subsequent publications based on those notes.

54. Franz Boas to his wife, Bella Bella, December 3, 1923, in Rohner, The Ethnography of Franz Boas, 284.

55. Zumwalt, Franz Boas: The Emergence of the Anthropologist, 167.

56. In Rohner, The Ethnography of Franz Boas, 100, the missionary’s name is indicated as “Smith.” The Anglican missionary at Lytton in 1888 was Richard Small. The

48 | Introduction

apparent error may be attributable to an editorial issue, as Boas’s handwriting is often hard to read. 57. Zumwalt, Franz Boas: The Emergence of the Anthropologist, 166. 58. Boas, Bella Bella Texts, ix. 59. Boas, Kwakiutl Ethnography, xxiv. 60. Zumwalt, Franz Boas: The Emergence of the Anthropologist, 167. 61. Boas to Powell, draft, November 1888. APS, Boas Papers, text 98531. 62. Horatio Hale (1817–1896), who was born in New Hampshire but spent much of his life in Canada, had become Secretary of the BAAS Committee on the North-Western Tribes in 1884 and was the BAAS Committee’s research director for a significant period of his professional relationship with Boas. A precocious student, Hale had recorded and published a vocabulary of a Maine Algonkian group during his freshman year at Harvard. In his early twenties he served as philologist on the United States Exploring Expedition to the Pacific led by Captain Wilkes. He later became a lawyer, and following his marriage in 1856 moved to Clinton, Ontario, where he launched a career primarily devoted to conveyancing and development of the local community. In the late 1860s, however, he met people from Six Nations communities in Ontario and resumed his linguistic work both in Ontario and New York, concentrating on Iroquoian languages, and developing a collegial relationship with Lewis Henry Morgan. In 1883 he published The Iroquois Book of Rites. In 1886, when Boas was launching his field research in British Columbia, Hale had been elected vice-president of Section H of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He became a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1889, and president of the American Folk-Lore Society in 1893 (Fenton, “Hale, Horatio Emmons”). 63. Zumwalt, Franz Boas: The Emergence of the Anthropologist, 175. 64. Mathé and Miller, “Kwazi’nek’s Eyes: Vision and Symbol in Boasian Representation,” 107–35. 65. Bunzl and Penny, “Introduction: Rethinking German Anthropology, Colonialism, and Race,” 24. 66. Rohner, The Ethnography of Franz Boas, 99–100. 67. Boas, Third General Report, 2–43. 68. Boas, “The Indian Tribes of the Lower Fraser River,” 454–63. 69. Chamberlain, “Report on the Kootenay Indians,” 5–71. 70. Boas, “Indianische Sagen von der Nord—Pacifischen Küste Amerikas,” 22–27. 71. Dawson, Notes on the Shuswap People of British Columbia, 3–42. 72. Boas, “The Tinneh Tribe of Nicola Valley,” 31–34. 73. Banks, “Comparative Biographies of Two British Columbia Anthropologists.” 74. Hill-Tout, “Later Prehistoric Man in British Columbia,” 103–22. 75. Boas, “Remarks on a Skull from British Columbia,” 122. 76. Vermeulen, Before Boas, 456. 77. Boas, “The Occurrence of Similar Inventions,” 485–86; Boas, “Museums of Ethnology and Their Classification,” 587–89, 614. 78. Stocking, “Franz Boas and the Culture Concept in Historical Perspective,” 867–82. 79. Boas, The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians, 317. Introduction | 49

80. Boas, “The Jesup North Pacific Expedition,” 108. 81. APS, Boas Papers, George Mercer Dawson to Franz Boas, April 7, 1894. 82. Berman, “‘The Culture as It Appears to the Indian Himself,’” 221. 83. Rohner, The Ethnography of Franz Boas, 245–66. 84. Boas, First General Report on the Indians of British Columbia, 5–97, plus plates. 85. Codere, “Introduction,” xiv. 86. Wickwire, At the Bridge, 101. 87. Darnell and Valentine, “Theorizing Americanist Tradition,” 49. 88. Harkin, “(Dis)pleasures of the Text,” 95–98. 89. Darnell, “The Boasian Text Tradition and the History of Anthropology,” 41; Berman, “‘The Culture as It Appears to the Indian Himself,’” 217; Harkin, “(Dis)pleasures of the Text,” 94. 90. Turney-High, The Flathead Indians of Montana, 6. 91. See Laforet, “The Ethnographic Legacy of Franz Boas and James Teit,” 205. 92. Swanton, “Contributions to the Ethnology of the Haida,” 9. 93. BAE Archives, Franz Boas to W. H. Holmes, July 24, 1905, cited in Stocking, A Franz Boas Reader, 122–23. 94. Jacknis, “Franz Boas and the Music of the Northwest Coast Indians,” 105. 95. James Alexander Teit, “Notes on Songs of the Indians of British Columbia, also Lists of Phonograph records.” [1921.] Canadian Museum of History, Archives, Ethnology Documents, VI-Z-35M, box 121, f.6. 96. Jacknis, “No Object Without Its Story,” 241. 97. Boas to Teit, April 23, 1908. 98. Teit, The Shuswap, 447. 99. Boas to Teit, May 18, 1904. 100. Wickwire, At the Bridge, 131. 101. Swanton, “The Lillooet Indians. By James Teit,” 744–45. 102. APS, Boas Papers, Teit to Boas, April 10, 1908, text 121434. 103. Teit, “The Coeur d’Alene,” 1930, 121–22. 104. CMH, Ethnology Documents, VI-Z-35M, Teit, “Notes on Songs of the Indians of British Columbia.” 105. Now members of the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation. “The Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation,” https://Chehalistribe.org, accessed December 1, 2021. 106. APS, ACLS Collection, Teit, “Field Notes on Thompson and Neighboring Salish Languages. Notebook 10,” 1904, S1b.7. The 1904 date on the ACLS record is deceptive, as several of Teit’s notebooks reflect research between 1908 and 1910. 107. Teit to Sapir, December 4, 1912. 108. APS, ACLS Collection, Teit, “Field Notes on Thompson and Neighboring Salish Languages,” 1904, S1b.7,18 notebooks. See particularly notebooks 10, 11, 14. 109. APS, ACLS Collection, Teit, “Notes accompanying annotated maps of the Pacific Northwest,” 1910–1913, Item 59, referring to Map 2. The names of Kalispel and Coeur d’Alene residents are included in his expense accounts, but there is no reference to compensation for anyone from the Nez Perce. 110. Swanton, “The Lillooet Indians. By James Teit,” 744–45. 50 | Introduction

111. Teit and Boas, “The Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateaus,” 25–26.

112. Boas to Teit, April 30, 1907. 113. Boas to Teit, April 4, 1908.

114. Teit to Boas, January 1, 1908. 115. Teit to Boas, April 10, 1908.

116. AMNH, Anthropology Collection, 6-10-1894, accession 1895–32.

117. AMNH, Anthropology Collection, map 1, “Rough sketch of part of Interior of B.C. showing habitat of and nearest villages of neighbouring tribes,” accession 1900–48.

118. Lowie, The Northern Shoshone, 172.

119. Lowie, The Assiniboine, 7.

120. Wissler, “The Influence of the Horse.”

121. APS, ACLS Collection, Boas, “Suffixes in Thompson, with variants in other Salish languages,” S1b.12.

122. APS, ACLS Collection, Boas, Haeberlin and Teit, “Salishan Dialects” 1920 (30S.10).

123. Boas and Haeberlin, “Sound Shifts in Salishan Dialects,” 117.

124. Teit and Boas, “The Salishan Tribes of Western Plateaus,” 326. 125. Boas and Haeberlin, “Sound Shifts in Salishan Dialects,” 117.

126. Teit and Boas, “The Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateaus,” 26. 127. Thompson and Thompson, Thompson River Salish Dictionary, 384.

128. Boas, “On Alternating Sounds,” 51–52.

129. Banks, Comparative Biographies of Two British Columbia Anthropologists, 222–25.

130. Lowie, History of Ethnological Theory, 132; Ray, “Review of Franz Boas,” 138–40.

131. For a discussion of Boas’s unpublished material, see Berman, “Unpublished Materials of Franz Boas and George Hunt,” 92–104.

132. Swanton, “The Lillooet Indians. By James Teit,” 744.

133. Ray, “Review of Franz Boas,” 138–40. Bibliography

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Reichard, Gladys. An Analysis of Coeur d’Alene Indian Myths. Memoirs of the American Folklore Society 41. Philadelphia: American Folklore Society, 1947. ———. “Coeur d’Alene.” In Handbook of American Indian Languages 3, edited by Franz Boas, 517–707. New York: J. J. Augustin, 1938. Rohner, Ronald P. The Ethnography of Franz Boas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969. Schwartz, Saul. “The Boas Plan: A View from the Margins.” In Disruptive Voices and the Singularity of Histories, edited by Regna Darnell and Frederic W. Gleach, Histories of Anthropology Annual, vol. 13, 281–318. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2019. Silverstein, Michael. “Introduction.” In Franz Boas and J. W. Powell. Introduction to Handbook of American Indian Languages/Indian Linguistic Families of America North of Mexico, v–xviii. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1966; repr. 2017. Siragusa, Laura, Clinton Westman, and Sarah Moritz. “Shared Breath: Human and Nonhuman Copresence through Ritualized Words and Beyond.” Current Anthropology 61, no. 4 (2020): 471–94. Smith, Harlan I. The Archaeology of Lytton, British Columbia. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History 2, pt. 3. Publications of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. New York: Knickerbocker, 1899. Smith, Joshua, Regna Darnell, Robert L. A. Hancock, and Sarah Moritz. “The Franz Boas Papers Documentary Edition.” Journal of Northwest Anthropology 48, no. 1 (2014): 93–106. Spinden, Herbert J. “Myths of the Nez Percé Indians 1.” Journal of American Folklore 21, no. 80 (January–March 1908): 13–23. Stocking, George W. Jr. “Franz Boas and the Culture Concept in Historical Perspective.” American Anthropologist 68 (1966): 867–82. ———. A Franz Boas Reader: The Shaping of American Anthropology, 1883–1911. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974. Swanton, John R. Contributions to the Ethnology of the Haida. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. 8, pt. 1. Publications of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, vol. 5, pt. 1 (1905). ———. “The Lillooet Indians. By James Teit. Publications of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Vol. 2, Part 5. Leiden and New York, 1906. 4th, 300 pages.” American Anthropologist 9 (1907): 744–45. Teit, James A. “The Coeur D’Alȇne.” In “The Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateaus,” by James A. Teit, edited by Franz Boas, Forty-fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1927–1928, edited by Stanley Searles, 37–197. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1930. ———. “European Tales from the Upper Thompson Indians.” Journal of American Folklore 29, no. 113 (1916): 301–29. ———. “Indian Tribes of the Interior.” In Canada and Its Provinces 21, edited by Adam Shortt and Arthur G. Doughty, 283–312. Toronto: Glasgow, Brook, 1914. ———. “Field Notes on the Tahltan and Kaska Indians: 1912–1915.” Edited by June Helm MacNeish. Anthropologica no. 3, 39–171. Ottawa: Research Center for Amerindian Anthropology, 1956. Introduction | 57

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

———. “Indian Tribes of the Interior.” In Canada and Its Provinces 21, edited by Adam Shortt and Arthur G. Doughty, 283–312. Toronto: Glasgow, Brook, 1914. ———. The Lillooet Indians. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History 4, pt. 5, 193–300. Publications of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition 1, pt. 4. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1906. ———. Mythology of the Thompson Indians. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History 12, pt. 2, 203–416. Publications of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition 8, pt. 2. Leiden: E. J. Brill and New York: G. E. Stechert, 1912. ———. “Notes on the Tahltan Indians of British Columbia.” In Boas Anniversary Volume: Anthropological Papers Written in Honor of Franz Boas, edited by Berthold Laufer, 337–49. Presented to him on the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of His Doctorate, August, 9, 1906. New York: G. E. Stechert, 1906. ———. “The Okanagon,” pp. 198–294, in “The Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateaus.” In Forty-fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1927–1928, edited by Stanley Searles, 23–396. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1930. ———. The Shuswap. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History 4, pt. 7, 443–813. Publications of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition 2, part 7. New York: G. E. Stechert, 1909. ———. “Tatooing and Face and Body Painting of the Thompson Indians of British Columbia.” In Forty-fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1927–1928, edited by Stanley Searles, 397–440. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1930. ———. The Thompson Indians of British Columbia. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History 2, pt. 4, edited by Franz Boas, 163–392. Publications of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition 1, pt. 4. New York: Knickerbocker, 1900. ———. “Traditions of the Lillooet.” Journal of American Folklore 25, no. 98 (October–December 1912): 287–371. ———. “Water-Beings in Shetland Folk-Lore, as Remembered by Shetlanders in British Columbia.” Journal of American Folklore 31 (1918), 180–201. Teit, James A., and Franz Boas. “The Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateaus.” In Fortyfifth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1927–1928, edited by Stanley Searles, 23–396. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1930. Tepper, Leslie. Earth Line and Morning Star: NLaka’pamux̣ Clothing Traditions. Gatineau, Quebec: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1994. Tepper, Leslie, ed. The Interior Salish Tribes of British Columbia: A Photographic Collection. Mercury Series, Canadian Ethnology Service, Paper 111. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1987. Thom, Brian. “Harlan I. Smith’s Jesup Expedition Fieldwork on the Northwest Coast.” In Gateways: Ex̣ploring the Legacy of the Jesup North Pacific Ex̣pedition 1897–1902, edited by Igor Krupnik and William W. Fitzhugh, 139–49. Washington DC: Arctic Studies Center, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 2001. Thompson, Judith D. Recording Their Story: James Teit and the Tahltan. Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, 2007. 58 | Introduction

Thompson, Laurence C., and M. Terry Thompson. Thompson River Salish Dictionary nłe?kepmx̣cín. University of Montana Occasional Papers in Linguistics 12. Missoula: University of Montana, 1996. Turney-High, Harry Holbert. The Flathead Indians of Montana. Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association 48. Menasha WI: American Anthropological Association, 1937. Vakhtin, Nicolai. “Franz Boas and the Shaping of the Jesup Expedition Siberian Research, 1895–1900.” In Gateways: Ex̣ploring the Legacy of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition 1897–1902, edited by Igor Krupnik and William W. Fitzhugh, 71–88. Washington DC: Arctic Studies Center, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 2001. Vermeulen, Han F. Before Boas: The Genesis of Ethnology and Ethnography in the German Enlightenment. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015. Voegelin, C. F., and Z. S. Harris. “Index to the Franz Boas Collection of Materials for American Linguistics.” Language 21, no. 3 (1945): 5–43. Walker, Deward E. Jr., ed. Plateau. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 12. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1998. Wickwire, Wendy. At the Bridge: James Teit and the Anthropology of Belonging. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2019. ———. “Beyond Boas? Re-assessing the Contribution of ‘Informant’ and ‘Research Assistant,’ James A. Teit.” In Constructing Cultures Then and Now: Celebrating Franz Boas and the North Pacific Ex̣pedition, edited by Laurel Kendall and Igor Krupnik, 123–33. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2003. ———. “James A. Teit: His Contribution to Canadian Ethnomusicology.” Canadian Journal of Native Studies 8, no. 2 (1988): 183–204. ———. “The Quest for the ‘Real’ Franz Boas: A Review Essay.” B.C. Studies 194 (Summer 2017): 173–93. ———. “To See Ourselves as the Other’s Other: Nlaka’pamux Contact Narratives.” Canadian Historical Review 75, no. 1 (1994): 1–20. ———. “Teit, James Alexander (Tait).” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 15. Toronto: University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003. ———. “‘They Wanted Me to Help Them’: James A. Teit and the Challenge of Ethnography in the Boasian Era.” In Good Intentions: Eurocanadians Working for Justice in Aboriginal Contexts, edited by Celia Haig-Brown and David Nock, 297–320. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2005. Wilner, Isaiah. “Friends in This World: The Relationship of George Hunt and Franz Boas.” In The Franz Boas Papers, Vol. 1: Franz Boas as Public Intellectual—Theory, Ethnography, Activism, ed. Regna Darnell, Michelle Hamilton, Robert L. A. Hancock, and Joshua Smith, 163–89. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015. Wissler, Clark. “The Influence of the Horse in the Development of Plains Culture.” American Anthropologist 16, no. 1 (January–March 1914): 1–25. Wissler, Clark, and D. C. Duval. Mythology of the Blackfoot Indians. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. 2, pt. 1. New York: Trustees of the American Museum of Natural History, 1908; repr.: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008. Introduction | 59

Wissler, Clark, ed., Contributors: Robert H. Lowie, Pliny Earl Goddard, Alanson Skinner, and James R. Murie. Societies of the Plains Indians. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. 11, pts. 1–13. New York: Trustees of the American Museum of Natural History, 1916. Zumwalt, Rosemary Lévy. Franz Boas: The Emergence of the Anthropologist. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2019. ———. Franz Boas: Shaping Anthropology and Fostering Social Justice. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2022.

60 | Introduction

1894–1895

Teit to Boas. October 6, 1894. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32.1 Dear Sir, I received your very courteous letter of Sept 28th yesterday and was very glad to hear from you and to get the map for which much thanks.2 I will be on hand at Spuzzum as you direct at any time you may arrange and will accompany you throughout as you desire.3 I will commence to write out a paper on the customs and legends of the tribe as soon as I have time at my disposal probably about the beginning of next month and I think can have it easily finished by the 1st of Jany.4 I will make it as full as possible the only thing I am afraid of being that I may make it too extensive. Of course it being the first venture of the kind, you will have to excuse any faults you may find in the style of writing. I will try to have it written out by the time you come here so that you can look over and revise it if necessary before I write it out finally. I will see shortly what I can do in the way of geting 1. From October through December 1894 Teit was writing from his home in Spences Bridge BC, to Boas, who was in Victoria, awaiting the arrival of the steamer Barbara Boscowitz. Between October 3, 1894, and December 8, 1894, when he returned to Victoria, Boas traveled to the Nass River and worked on the Nisg̠a’a language and attempted to work on the Tsetsaut language. On the return journey he left the boat at Fort Rupert and conducted field work there until December 3, when he returned to Victoria (Rohner, Ethnography of Franz Boas, 148–91). On December 14, 1894, he was again with Teit and wrote to his parents that “we went around all day long up the hills and down the hills, from house to house to make measurements” (Rohner, Ethnography of Franz Boas, 195). Teit to Sapir, September 3, 1920, CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: James A. Teit (1911–1912), box 635, file 17. 2. Boas’s letter to Teit of September 28, 1894, is not in the AMNH accession file. 3. Spuzzum is the name of both the southernmost Nlaka’pamux village, located on the Fraser River, and the small settler community located approximately a mile upriver. In 1894 Canadian Pacific Railroad passenger trains stopped at the settler community of Spuzzum as well as at Spences Bridge, near Teit’s home. 4. In a letter to his wife, dated October 21, 1894, Boas wrote, “Mr. Teit, from Spences Bridge, about whom I wrote you before, promised in his letter to send me a description of the tribes along the Thompson River. You probably remember that I found him very well versed and had asked him to write such a report for me which I want to incorporate in my own report, as much as feasible. He also wrote that he would help me with the measurements” (Rohner, Ethnography of Franz Boas, 162). This suggests that Teit’s Nlaka’pamux ethnography and subsequent work grew from what was, at the beginning, a relatively modest project.

61

BI A

M

Soda Creek

O

I TA

R

UN

IO

BRITISH COLUMBIA

NS

Alexis Creek

M

R

Puntzee Lake (Puntzi Lake)

Alexandria/ Fort Alexandria

LU

TE

CO

r Fraser Rive

IN

Risky Creek (Riske Creek) Hanceville (Chilcotin)

AT EA U

Canoe Creek Big Bar

Little Fort

High Bar

C

Clinton Fountain (La Fontaine) Bridge River Lillooet Pemberton Cayuse Creek Meadows/ Fosters Bar Pemberton Stein

O A S T

N

M

Hat Creek Bonaparte ‘Savonas’ (Savona) Ashcroft Kamloops Cornwalls Spences Bridge Spallumcheen Potato Gardens Vernon Lytton Nicola Valley River i c Siska ola Merritt North Bend Coldwater Reserve Boston Bar Okanagon Lake Spuzzum Thomps on R

Churn Creek

North Thom

PL

Dog Creek

pson R

Alkali Lake

O U TA IN S

Fraser River

N Douglas

Yale ‘Musquiam’ Vancouver Chehalis (Musqueam) New Nanaimo Westminster Agassiz Steveston Port Guichon CANADA Vancouver USA Island

Similkameen Valley Keremeous (Keremeos)

Okanagon Falls

‘Saanitch’ (Saanich) WASHINGTON Victoria

40 km

Map 2. Research sites in British Columbia. Cartography by Eric Leinberger, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia.

[sic] some costumes, weapons etc. made as you desire but as the Indians are even more scattered now than what they were when you were here, it will be difficult for me to make arrangements for some little time.5 If you want to make any casts of faces I have no doubt we will be able to persuade someone or another to undergo the operation, but the persuasion will have to be backed with a liberal sum. As regards the other matters I think there will be little difficulty, and some articles at least wont [sic] cost very much. Regarding the skulls etc. I will not promise anything at present but will see what I can do sometime in the future. I have got to be careful of my reputation and go slow in this matter as these Indians have a great horror of the man that handles human bones. You understand what I mean. I send you with this mail your blank map with the immediate Interior tribes filled in according to the best of my ability. I have enclosed with same a note referring to those tribes and the authorities for boundaries etc. The boundaries I give from my own knowledge or by me through the information of reliable Indians are I am sure you will find absolutely correct but those I quote from outside parties I cannot vouch for, although I think on the whole they are fairly correct. I do not exactly know whether you want the tribal territories (by language) as they are occupied at the present day or as they formerly were by the traditions of the Indians. What makes me doubtful is the fact that you have included Cape Mudge in the Comox territory and under their color. You have the Kitikshians or Skitigans of the Upper Skeena in one with the Nasga [sic] and you likely are correct although I formerly understood that they were nearer to the Tsimshian proper.6 I enclude [sic] the above sub tribe in the map, and have put down their boundaries and authorities for same. I will now close hoping this will find you well and wishing you a safe return to the Interior.

5. A reference to hunting and gathering in upland areas of Nlaka’pamux territory. In the longestablished pre-settler era Nlaka’pamux economy, winter villages and salmon fishing stations were arranged along the Fraser, Thompson, and Nicola Rivers, while hunting and gathering of food and utilitarian plants were pursued in the substantial, cognitively mapped upland regions. While the Nlaka’pamux had added agriculture and stock-raising to their economy by the mid-1890s, fishing, hunting, and gathering remained vital. 6. These notes on the territories and affiliations of coastal tribes suggest that Teit began his work for Boas with an interest in, and knowledge of, British Columbia First Nations beyond the Nlaka’pamux. Wickwire notes that in the autumn of 1887 and again in 1888 Teit spent time trapping in the region of Stuart Lake, seven hundred miles north of Spences Bridge, worked in the coal mine in Nanaimo for periods of time in 1890 and 1891, and in the spring of 1892 moved north again to the Nechako valley to trade furs (Wickwire, At the Bridge, 53–54). In a letter to Boas on February 20, 1897, he refers to “my friends the Carriers.”

1894–1895 | 63

PS I herewith enclose a rough sketch of the habitat of the Upper N-kla-kap-mugh which will give you an idea of the opportunities for work up here. Some of the Nicola and Fraser River villages may not be in their exact position but near enough to give you an idea.7

Teit to Boas. October 29, 1894. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Sir, Your letter dated on board the Boscowitz Oct 7th duly to hand. I was in no great hurry answering it as I knew you would not be back in Victoria for some time. I sent some time ago to your address in Victoria a letter and the desired map of the Interior tribes, but I suppose you would have left before they arrived at their destination. We will have a talk over the boundaries of the different tribes when you come up here again. I have commenced writing the report on this tribe of Indians as you desired and will include all the points which you enumerated in your last letter to me. I have finished the following chapters. 1. Introduction 2. Names given to the tribe 3. Ethnological sketch of the people with their chief Characteristics 4. Extent, physical features, and climatical condition of their country 5. Recognized divisions, and boundaries, dialects, villages 6. Numbers of tribe past and present, principal cause of their decrease 7. Migrations and mixture with other tribes and races. Of course I have got the most difficult chapters yet to write which will take the most time and cover the most ground yet I think I will be able to finish the paper in time. Owing to the fact of the Indians being so much scattered I have not yet been able to do any thing [sic] towards the desired collection but hope too [sic] very soon. Specimens

7. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, “Rough sketch of part of Interior of BC showing habitat of Upper N-kla-kapmugh and nearest villages of neighbouring tribes,” acc. 1900–48. Although this map is filed with a 1900 accession, it appears to be the map to which Teit refers in his letter to Boas of October 6, 1894. The spelling of “N-kla-kapmugh” with the suffix “mugh,” supports this. Teit used this spelling in the early period of his work, but within a few months had replaced “mugh” with “mux̳.” See Teit to Boas, February 22, 1895.

64 | 1894–1895

of basketry will have to be obtained from the Lower Thompsons.8 It would really require 12 months to make a complete collection as certain things needed for the complete manufacture of some articles can only be obtained in their respective seasons. Wishing you much success in your trip along the North Coast.

Teit to Boas. December 6, 1894. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Sir. I duly received your letter dated from Port Essington and was glad to hear from you, and also to learn that you had been successful in establishing the fact that the Tinné family really extended to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. I hope you will also be as successful in your work at Fort Rupert. It is really hardly worth while writing to you as you will probably be here very soon. I have also very little encouraging to tell you. I have written over 50 pages of my paper on the N-kla-kapmugh but I have a great deal more to write before it is finished. I expected almost to have finished it by this time but I have had less time at my disposal than I expected, having often been away from home for several days or a week at a time gathering up cattle.9 I have also made the paper much fuller than I intended to at first. Regarding the collection I have found it much more difficult to obtain Indians to work than I anticipated. Winter started here on the 24th of November with a fall of snow the most of which still lies. We have had no cold weather yet more than a few degrees of frost. The snow drove the Indians down from the mountains where they were hunting and root digging so that at the present time the great majority of them are at home, but as they are engaged at present with several [page 2] minor potlatches I have so far been unable to get their minds centred on commencing any work, although having obtained many

8. “Thompson” was at that time an established settler term for the Nlaka’pamux. By “Lower Thompsons,” Teit was referring to the Nlaka’pamux living along the Fraser River, from Siska, a few miles below Lytton, to a few miles downriver from Spuzzum. 9. In 1891 Teit and Antko established a seventy-acre ranch in the Twaal Valley, adjacent to the village of Antko’s family, and over the following months put in fences for horses and cattle, built a log cabin, and established a garden and orchard (Wickwire, At the Bridge, 54). However, the cattle Teit was rounding up in December 1894 were not necessarily his own. Reserves assigned to the Nlaka’pamux were very small, and cattle were generally pastured on unfenced “Crown” land.

1894–1895 | 65

promises from them to do so.10 The fact is, time, especially your time is no object to the average Indian, as they will only do the work in their own time and season, it is no use to try and rush them. Another difficulty in the way is the procuring of buck skin of which so many of the articles formerly worn by or used by the tribe were made. Most Indians here have one or two skins but will not sell them. I went up the river to a village where the people used to dress a large number of skins for sale, but was told by them that they did not now dress many skins as there was no sale for them.11 Therefore each family only dressed enough skins for moccasins and gloves but no more. I have since written to Spallumcheen for some but although promised, they have not yet arrived.12 I suppose there is nothing for it but to be patient. I will now close. Hoping this will find you well and that you have obtained the best success in your work.

Teit to Boas. December 20, 1894. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Sir and Friend, I arrived home yesterday and now drop you these few lines enclosing receipt for the cheque which you gave me at Spuzzum.13 Of course I have no news to tell you of any importance. When we settled up at Spuzzum I forgot to remind you of the $1.50 which I borrowed from you at Stai-n but I have given you credit for same in the Collection a/c.14 I think I will be able to forward part of the Collection at an earlier date than the first of April. You will have to let me know before that date how to send it by express or otherwise and what kind of 10. The potlatch was not as central an institution among the nineteenth-century Nlaka’pamux as it was among the peoples of the coast, but Teit’s comment indicates that it was not only practiced at this time by the Nlaka’pamux, but had also continued to be practiced in the nine years since the government of Canada had declared it to be illegal. Teit provided both cultural information and comment on government policy in a letter sent in response to a request from Sapir on February 18, 1915. 11. This is a commentary on the degree to which the Nlaka’pamux had adopted clothing made from imported textiles, a subject Teit treated in some detail in The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, 163–392. Prior to the advent of Europeans, tanned deer skin had been essential to the manufacture of clothing, particularly in the dry plateau region around Spences Bridge. 12. A Secwepemc (Shuswap) community to the east. 13. The southernmost Nlaka’pamux village, located in the Fraser Canyon. 14. The Nlaka’pamux community of Stein (19th century, “Stryne”), located on the west bank of the Fraser River, a few miles upriver from its junction with the Thompson River. Boas provided a brief account of his meeting with Teit and visit to Lytton and villages in the vicinity in his letter to his parents of December 14, 1894, dated at Lytton (Rohner, Ethnography of Franz Boas, 195).

66 | 1894–1895

parcels it would be best to put it up into also the address. I suppose it would perhaps be best to send it to you first as you might be anxious to see the articles. Specimens of mats for tenting purposes etc. will be bulky but most other things will be of little bulk and weight. I hope you have been successful in your business at the Columbia etc. and that you have had a safe and pleasant trip home.

Teit to Boas. February 1, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32.15 Dear Sir and Friend, I drop you this note thinking you might by this time be expecting my paper. I finished it yesterday, so I have only to copy it over on clean paper for printing. You may therefore expect it at a very early date. It grew into larger proportions than I anticipated there being about 216 pages. I hope however that that is no fault. I am sorry that I could not manage to finish it sooner but there were so many things which I had to touch on, that I found it very difficult to put it in less compass. As it stands there is hardly any subject included within the scope of the paper but which I could deal with in far greater detail if I wished too [sic]. As soon as I finish copying, and mail the paper to you, I will at once start for Nicola. I suppose you will be very busy at present, so therefore I will not trouble you by making my letter too long. We are having a very fine winter here. Since you left we have had no snow, and only two showers of rain. Therefore the river valley has been bare, almost all winter.16 We have had very little wind and no cold further than a few degrees of frost. Horses and other stock living out on the hills are accordingly in very fair condition.

Teit to Boas. February 22, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32.17 Dear Sir and Friend I mail to your address today, my paper description of the NLakyápamux ,͇ which I hope in due time will reach you safely. I hope that it will please you. Not being accustomed to writing, and moreover 15. Teit is writing to Boas in New York. 16. Teit is referring to the Thompson River Valley. 17. This letter and Teit’s letter to Boas of April 3, and April 16, 1895, are addressed to Boas at the Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington DC.

1894–1895 | 67

not possessing too good an English education, I have no doubt you will find in it some mistakes of grammar or composition, also of punctuation, as I am very poor at the latter. Nevertheless I did my best, taking much time and pains to write it as correctly as possible, and I hope that some of the information it contains may be of use to you. Of course I do not pretend to call it a complete paper, giving details of everything concerning the Indians, and all their customs etc. for these would fill a book if taken up in all their details. As I said in my last letter to you there is no subject which I have taken up in the paper, but what I could have treated more fully if I had wanted to, especially is this the case with beliefs and customs, many of which I have never made mention of at all in the paper. I might have written a rather interesting chapter on suicides alone, but did not think of doing so until I had almost finished the paper, when I thought it would be rather out of place to put it at the end. I got a young man to help me for a couple of days to copy, so that I should get through as quickly as possible. If you find any thing in the introduction which is unsuitable then please take the liberty to stroke it out because I wrote some things there while partly in ignorance. If there is anything in the paper which may suggest to you any queries I will be very glad to answer them if I can. I will also be very [page 2] glad if you can furnish me with the promised number of copies when printed. I am staying at Spences Bridge tonight and on the morrow will start up Nicola. I expect to be there about a week, so that sometime early in March I will acquaint you with the results of my trip. I will also be able sometime in March to send the first part of the collection. I received your letter of Oct 7th a few days ago, and was glad to hear of your safe arrival home. I was glad to hear that you had been able to arrange everything satisfactorily regarding the collection etc., and that you had been able to obtain funds for your proposed trip through the interior of BC. You will find descriptions of a great many articles etc. in use here in the paper I have written. Perhaps it might be well for you to single out what you consider the most important of these, so as to expend the money at your disposal on them first, and let me know, leaving the others to some future time when you are able to get some additional money. If I manage to get some skulls as I will try to do perhaps about April or May, I would like you to send me directions concerning the best way to preserve them and ship them. I obtained the stone axe which you saw at my house, for the sum of $3.00. Some Indians tell me there was a very fine specimen of a “spîk” (made of the same kind of stone as the axe in reference and which had a wrought out handle made in the shape of a bird) buried near here 68 | 1894–1895

with an Indian about fifty years ago.18 Of course as I told you when here I will be very much pleased and indebted to you, if you can manage to send me any spare papers you may have, description of any of the American tribes, their characteristics, customs, beliefs, legends, etc. I will now conclude this hasty scrawl. Hoping that it will find you well.

F. W. Putnam to John H. Winser, Secretary, American Museum Natural History, NYC. March 5, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Mr. Winser I forgot to ask you about making special arrangement for the shipping of the collection we are to receive from the Thompson River Indians. The collection will be shipped by Mr. James Teit from Spence’s Bridge, BC, Canada. You will remember that you said that we could have secured reduced rates on the lot of things from Dr. Boas if arrangements had been made. I therefore do not wish to have this collection started forward without securing reduced rates if possible. Please let me know about this as I must write to Mr. Teit in regard to it. I have requested him to hold all the material until the collection is completed, and have promised to send him word as to how it is to be shipped. It will probably be ready for shipment in about a month. I have written to Dr. Boas about sending the balance of the money to Mr. Teit. It will probably be in two drafts, one for $60, and one for $71 to follow a little later. I will write you about this as soon as I receive a reply from Dr. Boas. Did I give you Dr. Boas’s address for sending the $89 to him? [page 2] It is simply, National Museum, Washing. I arrived at home just before midnight all right; and have already written several letters relating to the American Museum. 18. A war club. In the editing process for The Thompson Indians of British Columbia Boas removed many of the Nlaka’pamux terms Teit had included with his original manuscripts, and consequently it is not possible to identify the spîk to which he is referring in this letter. However, Teit did identify as spîk two clubs collected for the American Museum of Natural History, catalogue numbers 16–1067 and 16–1070, and in his collection notes provided information about their manufacture and use. In the notes to 16–1070 he wrote, “These clubs were carved generally with figures representing the dreams of the owner. In fighting if a man wanted to strike a fatal blow he struck with the edge of the club. If he only intended to stun with the flat side. Most spîk were made of elk’s horn and there were several different shapes of them” (AMNH, Anthropology Collection; see also Smith, Archaeology of Lytton, figs. 82, 150). The reference to elk horn is a reference to Nlaka’pamux practice in an earlier day, as elk had largely disappeared from Nlaka’pamux territory by the 1890s, and were reintroduced only later in the twentieth century.

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JULY 18, 1895

Two (2) boxes received from Mr. Teit.

Winser to F.W. Putnam. March 7, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Professor Putnam,— I have yours to-day in reference to the collection to be received from the Thompson River Indians, BC[.] In order to secure courtesies of this nature I have to appear as the representative of the President. When Mr. Jesup returns to the City I will learn from him as to whom I shall see in reference to this matter. I have written to Bandelier that if he will provide us with samples of the paper which he requires, we will send him a supply as soon as possible.

Putnam, Curator, Department of Anthropology, to Teit. March 11, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Sir;— Dr. Boas has informed me of the arrangements he made with you to make an ethnological collection relating to the Thompson River Indians, and also to write a full account of the same. Relying entirely upon the statement of Dr. Boas that this collection and account would be of special ethnological importance, I have secured on appropriation of $220 from the museum to refund you your expense and pay for the manuscript.19 This manuscript I will publish in the bulletin of the museum very soon after the collection is received and arranged, and from what Dr. Boas says I have no doubt it will prove to be a very instructive paper. From the money appropriated I have refunded Dr. Boas the $89 he paid you, taking your receipts to him for my vouchers. $60 will be 19. This arrangement attests to the strength of Boas’s connection with Putnam and Putnam’s faith in Boas’s judgment. In March 1895 Boas was not yet on the staff of the American Museum of Natural History, although Putnam was supporting an appointment and was working behind the scenes to develop a suitable offer. Before accepting Putnam’s eventual offer in December 1895, Boas considered an offer from Powell to work at the Bureau of Ethnology and he had inquired about employment at Stanford University (Zumwalt, Franz Boas, 254–60). On Putnam’s part this was an expression of faith in Boas’s professional ability and possibly a means of encouraging both the museum officials and Boas to come to agreement.

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forwarded to you at once, and the balance, $71, will soon be sent to you in another draft. I understand that by this time you may have shipped part of the collection. Please carefully box the remainder of the collection and hold it ready for shipment; but do not forward it [page 2] until I inform you the route by which it is to come. I will do this as soon as you inform me about what time the collection will be ready for shipment. Trusting that we shall receive much of interest from you, and hoping you will be able to do something more for the museum in the future.

Putnam to Winser. March 11, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Mr. Winser:— I enclose copy of a letter I have just sent to Mr. Teit, after correspondence with Dr. Boas. Will you please have the draft for $60 sent to Mr. James Teit, Spence’s Bridge BC, Canada, as soon as possible.

Teit to Boas. March 12, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Sir and Friend I got back from my trip to Nicola a couple of days ago.20 I was there about a week. I did not get nearly so much information as I expected. I saw the three old men who are said to know the Stûwíxamux ͇ language and found that they only remembered a few words of what had been told them by their fathers.21 One of them could only tell me five or six 20. The Nicola Valley. The Nicola River flows out of Nicola Lake, through the Nicola Valley, and joins the Thompson River at Spences Bridge. ́ 21. “Stûwíxamux̳ ” (various spellings) is one of the terms Teit recorded for the Athapaskanspeaking people whose traditional territory included the Similkameen Valley and the upper Nicola Valley. By the 1890s the Stuwixamux population, never very large, had been reduced, probably by smallpox, and the remaining Stuwixamux were intermarried with the Nlaka’pamux and the neighboring Okanagan. Teit’s brief inquiry, undertaken for Boas in March 1895, was the first systematic inquiry into the Stuwixamux language, although George Dawson had spoken with a descendant of the Stuwixamux, Joeyaska, during his work for the Geological Survey of Canada, and had published the information he learned as well as information provided by Joseph McKay, the Indian agent for the Kamloops Agency of the Department of Indian Affairs. (Dawson, Notes on the Shuswap People of British Columbia, 3–42). In March 1895 Teit also spoke ́ kîn, concerning Stuwixamux language and with three men, Joeyaska, Tîmskôlax’an, and Aāp territory. Teit followed this research trip with another in August 1895, and Boas published the resulting report in “The Tinneh Tribe of Nicola Valley.”

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words, another one twelve, and another one twenty. As many of these words were the same I only obtained twenty distinct words and three phrases. I also got two place names used by them, and which I think are without doubt Tinné. The sounds and accent of the words which I obtained (in my opinion) resemble much more closely the Carrier than the Chilcotin. I got the exact ancient boundaries of the tribe, and a good deal of general information regarding their ancestors; enough I think to confute Mr. McKay’s theory of their Chilcotin origin, or at least if that theory is maintained, the date of their occupation of the Nicola region must be shifted a good deal further back than one hundred and twenty years.22 A few of the words I got are not in the lists of Mr. McKay and Dr. Dawson. One Indian who also knows somewhat of the ancient language is living at present in Similkameen. Therefore I was unable to see him. It is a pity that the work of collecting the remains of the language was not undertaken a few years’ sooner. An old woman who was half Stawíxamux died in Nicola, only five years ago. She was the last person who could talk that language properly. The three Indians who I interviewed are only quarter Stawíxamux blood, each [page 2] of them is old and white headed, and I should judge over seventy years of age. One of them said that when he was a boy, he remembered his grandfather (who was a very old man, and hardly able to walk) pointing out to him the spot in upper Nicola where he (the old man) was born, and also telling him that his people had always inhabited that region. (This old man must thus have been born in Nicola at least 120 years ago and he had seemingly no knowledge of the origin of his tribe). Another of them when a lad was taken by his father, who rode him around the marches or boundaries of the tribal territory, impressing upon him the different landmarks, which constituted at that time their tribal boundaries. One of the old men named his ancestors for four generations back, saying that at that time the whole tribe consisted of

22. A generation older than Teit, Joseph McKay (1829–1900) had been born into a ScottishCree fur trading family in Quebec and had worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company from young adulthood until 1879. He had been commissioner of the 1881 census in British Columbia. McKay had worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company in the Thompson River region and had extensive experience throughout British Columbia, both on the coast and in the interior. He had served as the Department of Indian Affairs agent for the Kamloops Agency, which included the eastern portion of Nlaka’pamux territory as well as portions of neighboring territories, and in 1893 he was appointed assistant to A.W. Vowell, the superintendent of Indian Affairs for British Columbia. While Teit was willing to seek advice from others, such as Father Morice, who had experience and knowledge that could shed light on his work, he resisted accepting McKay’s conclusions (Mackie, “McKay, Joseph William”).

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three camps or kekuli houses, and not very many people in each (probably forty to fifty souls) and that they all wintered along the Nicola River below the Lake and in close proximity to one another.23 They also had two fortified houses in which they took refuge when threatened by war parties of other tribes. This man made mention of war parties of Okanagan, Coteau, and Shuswhap respectively, attacking their fortifications but unsuccessfully.24 These things happened three and four generations before his time. Three generations ago, the tribe had some admixture of Okanagon and Coteau amongst them. Some of them having wives from these tribes, and the latter having wives from amongst them. They claim that their tribe never made war with or went on war expeditions into the territories of other tribes, and they are proud to say that their country is the only one in this region wherein the white man’s blood has never been shed. They had a tradition that at one time their tribe was numerous, and that their southern boundary extended [page 3] to Keremeous, on the Lower Similkameen River. They have no tradition regarding where they came from, and were quite indignant when I mentioned to them Mr. McKay’s theory of their being descended from a war party of Chilcotins. They said that when young they had heard the old people of the tribe telling mythological stories, but these were just the same as those current amongst the Okanagon and Coteau. I got them to tell some of their stories which had been told to them by their grandfathers, and at once recognized them as being identical with those I had heard at Spences Bridge, and which are current under slightly different versions amongst all the Interior Salish. I questioned them a good deal regarding the customs of their ancestors, and I found that these were exactly similar to those of the Coteau, their weapons were also exactly the same. Their personal names as far back as they trace are also Coteau. The oldest personal name they could give me was that of a man of note amongst them called Tsûxkokwas. ͇ This is the only name which may possibly be Tinné, all the other old names I

23. “Keekwilee, keekwillie, C. [kikwili], low, below, under, down . . .” (Hale, An International Idiom, 44). “Kekule” or “Keekwillie” house is a term in the Chinook trade jargon for the semi-subterranean winter dwelling used widely in pre-settler times throughout the plateau. The Nlaka’pamux term is sʔístkn, from sʔistk, meaning “winter” (Thompson and Thompson, Thompson River Salish Dictionary nłe?kepmx̣cín, 10). 24. “Coteau” is a variant of “Couteau,” a fur traders’ term for Nlaka’pamux. While it appears to be the term for “knife” in French, a language spoken by many of the early traders at Kamloops, it may, alternatively, be an abbreviation of “Coutamine,” a term that appears on early maps such as Arrowsmith and Company’s 1824 map; the term “Coutamine” was used by traders at Kamloops to designate the Nlaka’pamux of the Thompson River area (HBC Post Records: Kamloops, 1822–1823, B97/a/1).

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recognized as being distinctively Coteau.25 They said that the old people (pure Stûwíx’amux )͇ who they remember having seen, were of about the same height as the Coteau and Okanagon but generally heavier in build. They were also of the same complexion. In features they were slightly different, but they could not explain wherein the differences consisted. They told me three names by which the tribe was known amongst themselves, and also by the neighbouring tribes. Perhaps some of these may be Tinné, but they have at least the Salish suffix “mux .” ͇ These names are Sᴇílᴇxamux ͇ (said to mean people of the high country) Smîlếkamux ͇ and Stûwíx’amux .͇ The latter is the name by which they are principally known to the Coteau. The latter have from time immemorial called the Upper Nicola country [page 4] Stûwíx’. The Indians here say that this is probably just one of the many forms of their word meaning Creek or small river such as Cawáux ͇, Tcuwáx, Tcûẃaux ,͇ Stcẃaux. Sᴇílᴇxamux is decidedly a NLakyápamux ͇ word. Smîlếkamux ͇ is probably derived from the name of a place called Smîlêkamín or Smîlêkamínûx ͇ (Similkameen is no doubt a corruption of this word)[.] I am unable to tell the derivation or meaning of the word, or say whether it is Coteau or not. (If these people only arrived from Chilcotin 120 years ago, it seem [sic] strange that the grandfathers of these old men should have NLakyápamux ͇ personal names; no tradition of their origin; and no customs and mythological stories different from the Coteau). These people say that about sixty years ago, the winter habitation of the Coteau only extended up the Nicola River some seventeen miles. Beyond was recognized as the country of the Stuwíxamux͇. The Coteau called their people who lived along the Lower Nicola River Tcawáxamux ͇ ,͇ but the Stûwíxamux ͇ called them Nkamtcínᴇmux ,͇ and looked upon them as being one with the latter.26 The Tcawáx amux ͇ ͇ or Cawáxamux ͇ ͇ used in former days to go into the Stuwíx’ country in the summer and fall of the year to hunt[.] (The reason that the Cawáxamux ͇ ͇ at that time inhabited principally the Lower part of the Nicola River, was no doubt on account of the superior fishing facilities there. After the horses of the Cawáx amux ͇ ͇ and the Nkamcínᴇmux ͇ got numerous, many of these people shifted up to the Stûwíx’ country on account of its fine grazing, and settled there about fifteen years or more before the advent of the white miners in 1858. After the part settlement of the country by the whites more Cawáx ͇amux ͇ and Nkamtcínᴇmux 25. Tinne or Tinné; that is, Athapaskan. 26. Nkamtcinᴇmux; that is, “people (“mux”) of “Nkamtcin,” a place name designating the mouth of the Nicola River or the junction of the Nicola and Thompson Rivers.

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[sic], many Utámk̠t27 and some [page 5] Nlakyapamuxṓē28 and Okanagons settled in the Stûwíx’ country being attracted thither by its farming facilities.29 Shortly before the coming of the whites the Okanagons commenced to make permanent settlements in the neighbourhood of Douglas Lake, being attracted there by the good grazing afforded for their horses.30 The Nicola Tinné who were already mixed with these tribes never offered any opposition to the strangers[’] settlement there. At the coming of the whites (1858) the recognized chief of the Nicola country was Nᴇwisîskîn, a Cawax amux ͇ ͇ born within 31 seven miles of Spences Bridge. The NLakyápamux ͇ soon became the prevailing language in that district. It seems that at least for several generations back, the Stûwíx’amux ͇ simply acted on the defensive. The Coteau and Okanagon made what use of the Stûwix’ country they liked, hunting in it and passing through it when they desired. The Okanagons always went by that route when going to trade with the Nkamtcínᴇmux .͇ Parties of Shuswhap, Okanagon, and Coteau on war expeditions against one another passed through the Stûwíx’ country without being interfered with by the latter). One of the old men I interviewed named Tcuiếska or Sếsûluskîn,32 is the first person of the Coteau that I have seen tattooed on the body.33 He is quarter Stûwíxamux ,͇ quarter Okanagon, and half Nkamtcinᴇmux .͇ He said that the old people of the Stûwíxamux ͇ were occasionally tatooed on the body, as were also some of the old Nkamtcínᴇmux .͇ I will make a map and send to you bye and bye showing the exact boundaries of the Stûwíx’. I enclose the list of 27. “Utamkt” designates the Nlaka’pamux people of the Fraser Canyon, between the villages of Siska and Spuzzum. 28. NLakyapamuxoe; that is, nɬeʔkepmxʔuy, “real Nlaka’pamux,” designating the Nlaka’pamux living in the vicinity of Lytton at the junction of the Thompson and Fraser Rivers. 29. The Nicola Valley is relatively open and, in contrast particularly to the Fraser Canyon, offers stretches of relatively open land for cultivation. As colonization proceeded, the Nlaka’pamux were encouraged by both missionaries and government officials to cultivate plots of land. 30. To the east of Nicola Lake. 31. Nᴇwisîskîn (Naweeshistken) met James Douglas, governor of the colony of British Columbia, in the Nicola Valley in 1860. Between 1868 and 1871, with the help of Anglican missionary John Booth Good, he protested as inaccurate and inadequate the reserve allocated to his community by Stipendiary Magistrate Peter O’Reilly. The protest was rebuffed by the colonial government officials, and its resolution was delayed until it was lost in the confusion concerning reserve allocations that attended British Columbia’s entry into confederation in July 1871. (See British Columbia Legislative Assembly, Papers Connected with the Indian Land Question, 86–87). 32. Tcuieska is also “Joeyaska.” Joeyaska was enumerated with his three wives and their five sons and seven daughters as Household 221 in the 1881 Census of the Yale District (see Dominion Bureau of Statistics). His name is preserved on reserves in the Nicola Valley. 33. See figures 22–26.

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words which I obtained. I will make another trip to Nicola when you forward some more money for the collection, as I think I can obtain some old Indian implements and dress there. I may then be able to see the other man who lives in Similkameen and who [page 6] is also said to know some of the Stûwix’ language. There are three kekuli houses standing entire in Nicola. I visited two of them but had no chance to take measurements. I hope that you have reviewed by this time my paper on the Indians, and that it has proved satisfactory and of some use to you. The articles which I have collected and paid for are at present as follows: 1 Large Tent Mat 1 set of Beaver Teeth Dice 1 set of gambling sticks a number of stone knives Spear and arrowheads called by the Indians Raven arrowheads and which they claim were never made by them. 1 Bone Awl 1 pr Men’s Leggings 1 pr Womans Leggings 1 SLếnuîn34 1 Womans skirt 1 stone axe 3 pr moccasins each a different kind and shape I will now come to a close. Hoping to hear from you soon PS I would like you to let me know what is the highest figure you would deem it advisable for me to pay for Dentalium shells either in the form of necklaces or loose. I ask this so that the Indians may not be able to take advantage of me. Were 34. This likely refers to the woman’s skirt made of unsmoked buckskin by Kaxpitsa, a Nlaka’pamux woman living in the vicinity of Spences Bridge; the skirt is listed by Teit as having been acquired for the American Museum of Natural History on February 15, 1895. Kaxpitsa made several items of clothing for the collection. In his collection notes Teit identified this garment (AMNH, Anthropology Collection, 16–991) as “sLenuin.” He commented further, “This is a low-bodied one. Many of them were high-bodied reaching up to the breasts, while most of them had a good deal longer fringe than this specimen. SLenuin were often made of sage-brush bark by the upper portion of the tribe, and of cedar bark by the lower Nlakyapamux.” Kaxpitsa’s photograph appears in plate 8 (lower photo) of the American Museum of Natural History’s Ethnographical Album of the North Pacific Coasts of America and Asia.

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Dentalium shells found on the coast of BC[?] I understand so, but many people claim that they are only found on the coast of California.35

Winser to Putnam. March 12, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Prof. Putnam,— I have your letter of yesterday, and the copy of the letter sent to you by James Teit, Spence’s Bridge BC. I will prepare a bill and a payment for Mr. Teit as soon as Mr. Jesup returns during the next few days. I can then learn from him as to whom to apply for reduced rates or free transportation over the Canadian Pacific.

Teit to Putnam. March 20, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32.36 Dear Sir, Your favour of the 11th duly received yesterday. The statements made to you by Dr. Boas are entirely correct. I have already some time ago forwarded the manuscript to Dr. Boas. I have not forwarded any articles of the collection yet, as Dr. Boas told me not to do so until I heard from you. I therefore hold part of the collection ready for shipment, and will await your orders regarding the route and manner of shipment. Only one article I have got so far is bulky, the rest I can put in a rather small sized box. Awaiting further orders from you.

35. The shells of dentalium (Dentalium neohexagonum), a small tubular mollusk, were traded extensively in western North American as a prestige item. This particular variety of dentalium is found along the Pacific Coast of North America and was harvested by Nuu-chah-nulth people from undersea beds off the west coast of Vancouver Island. (See Drucker, The Northern and Central Nootkan Tribes, 111–13.) 36. Addressed to Putnam at the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A. Frederic Ward Putnam (1839–1915) served as both director of the Peabody Museum at Harvard University from 1875 to 1899 and curator of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History from 1894 to 1901. (See Darnell, And Along Came Boas, 140–42.)

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Teit to Boas. April 3, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Sir, I received your welcome letter of March 24th yesterday, and was glad to hear that you were pleased with my paper on the Indians, and also with the results of my trip to Nicola although to tell you the truth I was not very well pleased with the latter myself, because when I started, I expected to obtain more information regarding their language than I did. I am busy just now clearing land, fencing etc. as I intend to put in a little crop. When I get through I will go to Nicola again for a few days after more information etc. although I do not expect to get very much additional to what I have already got. The names of the three men I obtained the words from are (1) Tcuiếska alias Sếsûluskîn[,] ́ kîn. No 3 was very uncommunicative (2) Tîmskôlax’an and (3) Aāp and I had to do a considerable amount of talking to get the desired information from him. He would not say anything at all until he had gathered all his friends together so that they should hear what he said. He then endulged [sic] in a great deal of speech making (necessarily causing me to do the same) before he gave me any words or other information. No 1 acted quite differently giving me all the information I desired in a quiet, straightforward manner, without any fuss and being particularly careful to impress on me all that he said with the fullest explanation. No 2 is also a nice old man but of a quieter disposition than Nos 1 and 3. I got the largest number of words from him, amongst them those words which were not obtained by Dawson or McKay. Tcuiếska said that he was the man who gave Dawson his information, while [page 2] McKay obtained most of his information ́ kîn. I received a letter from Prof. Putnam regarding the from Aāp collection etc. He stated that he had secured an appropriation from the museum of $220.00. Of that amount he had refunded you the $89.00 which you paid me. I therefore suppose that the Nicola trip is included in the above, as you paid me $59.00 towards the collection, and $30.00 for the trip to Nicola = $89.00. Prof. Putnam said that he would forward some more money at once, and also send me directions about forwarding the part of the collection I have on hand. I therefore expect to have another letter from him almost any day now. As I promised, I enclose a map of the Stûwíx’ country. I took the liberty of forwarding to Father Morice a list of the words collected by me in Nicola, at the same time stating to him that I had collected these words for you expressly, being commissioned by you to proceed to Nicola for 78 | 1894–1895

that purpose alone, that they were therefore your property entirely (and it would be highly improper of him to make any public use of them).37 I asked him to state (privately) to me his opinion regarding them and which of the three Northern (BC) Tinné languages he thought they most resembled (because I think they are more like the Carrier in sound etc. than the Chilcotin). The additional articles I have acquired for the collection since I wrote to you last are 1 stone hammer, 1 fire drill 1 plain sage brush bark Tsaalkstîn I send herewith to you the first part of the collection of native plants etc. used by the Indians for different purposes.38 I hope you will be able to get them recognized by some reliable person. It will be to your advantage as well as mine to obtain the proper names of these plants. I would like to get their proper or usual English names as well as their Botanical names. I will be able I think to send you quite a number of these for recognition [page 3] during the coming summer. The names of these I send herewith are—No. 1 Nkukaxîmús–Locally known here amongst the

37. Adrien-Gabriel Morice, OMi (1859–1938) was stationed at Fort St. James as missionary to the Carrier from 1885 to 1903. His monograph, “Notes Archaeological, Industrial and Sociological on the Western Dénés with an Ethnographical Sketch of Same,” had been published in 1892–1893. (See also Mulhall, “Morice, Adrien-Gabriel”). Preserved among Teit’s notes in the APS (ACLS Collection, Item 61, “Salish Ethnographic Materials”) are a letter from Morice to Teit and a draft letter from Teit to Morice. These suggest that Teit and Morice first corresponded toward the end of 1893. Morice’s letter to Teit, dated November 23, 1893, answers a letter sent by Teit the previous month regarding an article by Morice that Teit had seen in a New Westminster periodical. Morice takes issue with Teit’s suggestion, based on an account he had heard from the 1840s, that cremation was still practiced by the Déné people in the vicinity of Stuart Lake, but the tone of his letter is cordial. He goes on to offer other copies of his publications, discuss differences he perceived between the Nlaka’pamux and the Déné, and to inquire if Teit belongs to any scientific or literary society. Teit’s undated draft, which appears to be a reply to Morice, includes an account he had recorded from Pa.ah, aged about 75 in 1893, and Tsill-heskit, aged about 90, of an extended visit one winter to the Nlaka’pamux in the region of Spences Bridge of Carriers (Déné), led by a chief named William. During that time one of the visitors had died, and his body had been cremated. Teit comments on the syllabary developed by Morice and notes that he is learning the shorthand recently developed by Father Lejeune, the Oblate priest stationed at Kamloops. The draft provides insight, not only into Teit’s enthusiasm for learning about Indigenous history and culture a year prior to his meeting with Boas but also about the limitations of his knowledge at that time. He notes that he has read Bancroft’s History of British Columbia (1887), but says, “I do not know what Dr. Boaz [sic] wrote regarding the mythology and sociology of the Salish tribes because I have never had the opportunity of seeing his writings.” Inquiring about tribes mentioned by Bancroft with which he is not familiar, Teit asks, “What race do the Kootenai[,] Nez Perce, Palouse, Walla Walla, Klickitat, Pend d’oreille or Colville belong to [or] are they connected with.” 38. Tsaalkstîn (i.e., a woman’s shirt), AMNh catalog number, 16–992 b. In his collection notes Teit wrote, “A woman’s ‘Tsa alkstin’ made of sagebrush bark. Some of them were a little longer and of neater make than this one, but the Indians aver that this one is a fair sample. Made by Kaxpitsa, Feb. 15, 1895.”

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Whites as Buttercup.39 The flower of this plant was frequently used by the Indians as a poison on their arrow heads. They claim it was very deadly. A person struck by an arrow poisoned with this flower seldom lived and in every case swelled up and suffered great pain.–No 2 xaláux ûza͇ The root of this plant is used as a food by the Indians. It is their earliest fresh vegetable being dug by them early in March. It is sometimes in flower here in the end of February. No 1 is also a spring plant, being in flower in favourable seasons as early as the middle of February.–No 3 Nx ax ͇ áäp ͇ comes into bloom in March. It is a favourite medicine amongst the Indians. The whole plant and roots being boiled. It is a good medicine for the kidneys and is sometimes used by them as a remedy for gonorrhoea. All these plants are confined to the lower levels and mountains being seldom found higher than 2000 feet above sea level, and at that altitude only in favourable spots. I see by the papers a Mr. Hill-Tout an Englishman who is a resident of Vancouver delivered some lectures there lately on the Indians of BC.40 He has been studying the Indians for the province for several years, and making researches in the shell heaps of the coast. Are you acquainted with him[?] I enclose a slip from a newspaper “The Vancouver World” containing something regarding a custom peculiar to the Coast Indians 39. This marks the inception of Teit’s work on the ethnobotany of the Nlaka’pamux. In the absence of Boas’s letters to Teit in this period, it is not clear if the collection of plants was undertaken in response to a query from Boas or on Teit’s own initiative. If the latter, it speaks to a perception on Teit’s part of a profound relationship of all aspects of pre-settler era Nlaka’pamux culture to their understanding of the land and its resources. Teit would not have been familiar with the term “cultural ecology,” at this time, but this is a concept that appears to have underlain his ethnographic approach. He continued his interest in ethnobotany throughout his collaboration with Boas, and was working on a manuscript at the time of his death. (See Steedman, “Ethnobotany of the Thompson Indians,” 441–522.) Between 1913 and 1920 Teit first assisted and later consulted John Davidson, a Scottish-trained botanist who established botany as a discipline at the University of British Columbia. (See UBC, John Davidson Fonds: “Journal of John Davidson, Botanist, 1917–1920”.) 40. Charles Hill-Tout (1858–1944), was born in England and studied theology before emigrating to Canada. He conducted field work and published monographs on several Salish societies, including the Nlaka’pamux. He provided assistance to Harlan I. Smith during Smith’s 1897 archaeological work in Lytton. Among the Nlaka’pamux Hill-Tout worked with Michel, who had been born in the Fraser Canyon but settled as an adult in Lytton and eventually became chief there. Hill-Tout also benefited from the help of Mali McInnes, the daughter of Chief James Paul Xixneʔ of Spuzzum and his wife, Susan Paul. For a discussion of Hill-Tout’s work and a compendium of his principal ethnographic publications see Maud, The Salish People. Jennifer Iredale has explored the work of Mali McInnes in “Mali Quelqueltalko,” 83–109. Teit and HillTout never became colleagues, and Teit was generally critical of Hill-Tout’s work. Teit provided Boas with detailed commentary on Hill-Tout’s publication on the Lillooet, which Boas summarized and appended to Teit’s “The Lillooet Indians.” Boas was also unenthusiastic about Hill-Tout’s work and general approach, but in correspondence toward the end of Teit’s life he mentioned that he was incorporating certain of Hill-Tout’s lexical information into compendia of vocabularies (see also Banks, Comparative Biographies of Two British Columbia Anthropologists).

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and which you no doubt know something about. An Indian belonging to Lower Nicola who has been somewhat of a “traveller” being one of those few NLakyápamux ͇ who have been to the coast, told me that such custom was frequent and had been so from olden times. He said that [page 4] the Satcînko (Indians of the Fraser River from Yale to the Coast) had a ceremony attached to this custom, whereby a boy was supposed to become a woman for the rest of his life or girl to become a man.41 There is one woman at Yale now who dresses as a man and has always acted as a man since she reached the age of puberty, when she went through the ceremony changing her to a man, owing to some dreams she had. I cant [sic] find any trace of this custom amongst the Interior tribes. I will now close hoping to hear from you soon. PS No 4 xla áza—called by the Whites here “Wild Currant”. This bush generally comes into leaf about the end of February. The fruit is also ripe early and is eaten a good deal by the Upper NLakyápamux .͇ It only grows in the hottest and driest parts of the country. The berry when ripe is a pale red. 8TH APL

Your Bilxula Texts received for which very much thanks.

Putnam to Winser. April 5, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Mr. Winser [Could?] you please send the following checks on act of Dept of anthropology. A check (Bank of Brit. cN. A.) for $20 for (Rev.) W.H. Collison, Kincolith, Post Office, Nass River, BC, Canada—for copper image from Nass River Valley. Draft April 11 and one for $71—(seventy-one dollars) to James Teit, Spence’s Bridge, BC Canada—for collection from Thompson River Indians. Draft April 11. BBNA. (This is balance (3rd payment) made to Teit. = Check to [?] Boas $89, check to Teit $60, check to Teit $71= $220.

41. Term used by the Nlaka’pamux to designate the Tait and Sto:lo people living downriver from Nlaka’pamux territory.

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Teit to Boas. April 16, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Sir and Friend, Yours of the 6th inst duly to hand and I was glad to hear from you and to get some important points to be made subjects of future inquiry. I will endeavour to make particular enquiry concerning them at an early date or as I have the opportunity. East and West certainly form a rather important part in the beliefs and customs of this people. The other points of the compass, centre etc. do not seem to be so important, but I will make enquiry on the subject. One man was stationed to the east and one to the west of the circle during the religious dance or “praying” dance as they call it. I could not say until I make enquiry whether men were stationed at different points in the war-dance or other dances. I never heard them say so. Warriors in dancing used often to point their weapons at the sun. These people used to regard the day break as the most important period of the day. I think I can get mostly all the prayers in the original language as opportunity offers. I have been told many of them but did not write them down word for word. Many of them differ more or less according to the recital of different persons. The number 7 occurs occasionally in their mythological stories. I have one instance of it occurring in direct connection with 4 as for example “the young man was told that if he could reach the house in 7 steps, it would become his possession. He tried to reach it three times but failed, on trying it the 4th time he reached the house in 7 steps” (the house was a long distance [page 2] off) I have written down lately what I consider some very important myth stories. One of them proves without doubt that the “Coyote” is expected by the Indian to come back at some future time and that he will bring back the Indians[’] dead.42 They seem to expect messengers to come some time before he is to arrive. The story says that the Coyote at present is not in the “spirit world” but is in a house made of ice, where there is a log of wood burning eternally to keep him warm until the time arrives. It is not known the place where he is whether North South[,] east west, above or below, but it is expected that when he does come he will arrive with the sun from the East. Two stories I got make mention of God, under the name of the “Chief” or “Chief of the ancient world.” They claim that he is the same God as that of the “whites” only they say their God (as made mention of 42. Coyote is a major figure in the oral literature of the Nlaka’pamux and other Interior Salish peoples. Teit first published Coyote narratives in Traditions of the Thompson River Indians in 1898.

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in the stories) is always an old man and is represented as being the only person gifted with greater magic than the Coyote. He is to come back at the same time as the Coyote, and to appear on a cloud of Tobacco smoke. They say that it was to him that they prayed at their “praying” dance. In other dances they prayed to the sun himself, and to the daybreak and to nature as a whole, etc. I looked over the mythological stories which I have written down and I find in them the figure 4 occurs 28 times, the figure 7 six times, and the figure 5 three times. The figures two and three also occur a few times. Number 6 does not occur, nor no other numbers whatever. I was very glad to learn that you had been so kind as to secure some books for me from the Bureau of Ethnology. I thank you very much for the favour. I received a letter advising me of them yesterday, so I expect I will get them in a few days. I will now close this somewhat hurried letter. PS I have had no further word from Prof. Putnam.

Teit to Winser. May 7, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Sir, Directions for shipment of the collection and balance of money due for same were duly received by me as you will see by the enclosed receipt. To day I ship to your address the first part of the collection consisting of 16 articles and hope they will arrive safely at their destination. I enclose herewith a short description of each article according to number. In a months time or thereabouts I hope to be able to ship to you the second part of the collection and will keep sending the articles lot by lot at intervals, as I am able to obtain them until the money is expended. I explained [page 2] very fully to Dr. Boas, when he was here, the difficulty of making the collection all at once and also the advantages of taking plenty of time. As this portion of the collection is of considerable less value than $100.00 there is no need for a consular certificate. I enclose bill of lading of the Railway and send an invoice with the goods stating their value. Hoping you will find everything satisfactory and that the goods will arrive in good shape.

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Teit to Boas. May 20, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Sir and Friend, I mail you today for identification a number of additional Botanical Specimens hoping you will be able to get them identified. I received all the money for the collection, the first part of which I forwarded to the Museum a short time ago. I will send the balance of the collection part by part as I am able to procure the articles, until the money is expended. I have not been able to go to Nicola on another trip yet, and don’t know exactly the date on which I may manage to go, as I have been busier than I anticipated. I would like to have plenty of time to spare when I go because a man who is in too much of a hurry cannot do much amongst the Indians. I received the books from the Smithsonian Institute [sic] (for which again I profer [sic] to you my best thanks) and find them very interesting reading. Of the Botanical specimens which I send No 5 is called Mak̠á and is known amongst the Indians as a poison. ́ has xalá (scales of the raven’s foot) and the No 6 is named Spûkxîns flower is used as a paint. No 7 is called Sôlôpsếlza (Mountain sheep grass). No 8 is the flower and leaves of the stcûkîmṓē, probably the principal food berry of the Upper NLakyápamux .͇ No 9 is the kôkwêla from which the creation hero Tsuntia was the offspring, and which Dr. Dawson was unable to identify. The root is used a good deal by the Indians as a food. No 10 is called stcûktcếtsk (little red)[.] The flower of this plant is used as a charm. No 11 is named Tsáuzᴇtîn and is noted as ͇ ́za (sweet berry) and recognized a forage plant etc. No 16 is called Slîx iö́ as a variety of the Spîkpîḱ generally called service-berry by the whites. No 17 is sû́xîm called sunflower by the whites. The root is very largely used by the Indians as a food. It is named snílkîn. This is the root about which the Indians have so many observances and restrictions while digging and cooking it. The wood of No 8 is largely used by the Indians for different purposes owing to its hardness and durability when seasoned. No 18 is called Pûskaếlp (Humming Bird plant). It is used as a flavouring to different kinds of roots. It is also largely used as a medicine[.] No 19 is the wild strawberry. No. 20 is used by the girls when arriving at the age of puberty as a wash for their hair. I visited one of the picture rocks of the Indians near here a short time ago. I counted on it 30 pictures mostly small size. If you bring your camera here when you come again I think you will be able to get a number of Indian photos in this neighbourhood, as I have been sounding them (the Indians) regarding that. 84 | 1894–1895

Teit to Boas. June 8, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32.43 Dear Sir and Friend Your very welcome letter dated Berlin the 15th of May duly received by me the day before yesterday and I must say I was very glad to hear from you, and thank you for your kind expressions regarding the pleasure which it will give you to travel through the Northern Interior in my company next year. I am sure that your pleasure will be exceeded by my own and I look forward very much to the proposed trip and will be much disappointed if you cannot make arrangements for carrying it out. I must thank you very much for the books which you have sent me and am glad to hear that you had managed to send me one of your reports. I will expect it in a few days. Letters generally come first. I send you herewith some more Botanical specimens hoping you will be able to get them recognized. They are mostly all used by the Indians as food or medicine. The local white names of Nos 24, 25, 26, 28, 36, and 39 are respectively Wild celery, shumach, choke cherry, wild rose, Wild Potatoe and Soap Berry. I enclose what I think is two varieties of cherry under No. 26. They are however known amongst the Indians by the single name of Zôlkú or zôlkuếlp. No 28 skapiếlp may be termed one of the sacred woods of the Indians. The bark of the kwṓes or kóyis No. 29 is largely used for making thread and twine etc. No 31 Tciwaksö́́nêlp is used as a medicine for the cure of bleeding at the nose etc. The leaves of no 32 and the root of No 34 are occasionally used as a tea or beverage, also the flower or seeds of No. 24. The stalk of the latter is largely eaten fresh. No. 39 is the sxûzîm berry of which the Indians use for making froth. The root of the Tatúîn No. 36 is gathered in large quantities for food purposes. It grows in the higher mountains. I wrote today a polite letter to Mr. McKay, explaining things somewhat to him and asking him to direct me to the parties from whom he received his information regarding the Chilcotins being cut off in the Nicola country, so that I should be able to make full inquiries on this important subject. I took this course of appealing to him direct as it seemed the only possible way of finding out what he meant. The Indians both Nlakyápamux̳ and Stuwixamux̳ seem to have no tradition of it. I sent away the first part of the collection a considerable time ago, and in about a weeks time will be able to send lot 2. The two lots being comprised of over thirty articles of ethnological value. Some articles 43. Addressed to Boas at Berlin, Germany.

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I find easy enough to procure while others are very difficult. I find the women are far more obliging than the men in making or selling articles probably owing to the fact that the majority of the men are busy ranching at present and do not have much time, while others are naturally lazy and unwilling to take the trouble for the price offered. It therefor [sic] takes time to get around them. I will now close. Hoping this will find you well and wishing continued prosperity in your labours. PS I enclose a map of part of the U.S. and will be very glad if you could paint or number on it the different families and tribes inhabiting that region and return to me. If you do not have time then it does not matter, but I thought that it would not give you much trouble as you have most of them at command in your mind.

Teit to Winser. June 11, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Sir, I ship to the address of your museum to day the 17 articles numbered on enclosed papers. I also enclose a bill of lading of the goods and hope that they may arrive at their destination safe and in good order. I hope the former shipment came through all right. Notice over [page 2] 12th June 1895 Owing to having by accident broken one of the horn rings on specimen No. 29, I will not ship it to day but will get it repaired and send it with the next lot.

Teit to Boas. August 12, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Sir and Friend I take the liberty of again writing to you. I send by this mail a parcel containing 43 botanical specimens which I hope you will receive in good order. Most of them represent plants used as food or medicine by the Indians whilst the balance are used for other various purposes. Some of these are highly esteemed and very serviceable to the Indian. I will not attempt an enumeration as it will take up too much space. I have been very busy and away in the mountains for six weeks. I am busy now making up Lot 3 of the collection and will be able to send it away at an early date. The Indians are so much engaged at present harvesting 86 | 1894–1895

and the other ones fishing salmon which have now commenced to run, that I can hardly persuade them to do anything. Large numbers of them are also at present away in the mountains hunting. It is several years since I [page 2] remember the Indians hunting in such large numbers and so steadily as this year. Notwithstanding this drawback I think I will be able to have mostly all the collection at its destination by October. I received your report (the sixth one on the North West Tribes of Canada) which you were so very kind as to send me.44 I would like so very much to get all the reports from the beginning but I suppose it is impossible therefore I will have to remain content. I thank you very much for the copy you sent and have looked over it with much pleasure and profit. You have made a few slight mistakes in your vocabulary of the NLakyapamux .͇ I will send you a list sometime of these when I have more time and also the words and compound forms which you seem to have been unable to obtain. I will also send you a list of terms of relationship as used by this tribe for the sake of comparison with its neighbours. Your grammatical notes on the different languages are very interesting and instructive and I value them very highly. I would have liked if you had exposed the NLakyapamux ͇ as nicely as you had done the Shuswhap, Lillooet, etc. [page 3] The same would have been very acceptable to me who am so ignorant of grammar that it takes me a great deal of time and is most difficult for me to find out the rules which govern the language. You say that the NLakyapamux ͇ resembles the Lillooet in structure. I think you are probably correct, but it certainly does not do so on its words, which far more nearly approach the Shuswhap than any other tongue. Even your own lists of words corroborate this. Two things which I might mention are, that irregular plurals are frequent enough in the NLakyapamux ͇ and the difference which you take notice of in the Okanagon as being found between the verbs with definite and indefinite object is found in the NLakyapamux ͇ also. One thing which I did not mention in my m.s. on this tribe, was the mortuary customs pertaining to the Utamk̠t which were formerly different from the Upper divisions of the tribe. I was not perfectly sure at the time when I wrote the m.s. therefore my reason for not alluding to it in the paper. I have now got all the information required concerning their custom. Before the arrival of the Whites all the Utamkt put their [page 4] dead in boxes. Some bodies were put in a sitting posture in separate boxes, but not invariably, because some of them disposed of their dead by putting 44. Boas, Second General Report, 10–163.

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them in large boxes capable of holding the bodies of several generations of relations. As each relative died his body was rolled up and placed in the large box amongst the bones of his kindred of course these boxes were placed altogether above ground. These customs were in vogue amongst the Cowichans in the neighbourhood of Yale and further down the Fraser and extended amongst the NLakyapamux ͇ up the Fraser river to the very confines of the NLakyapamuxōē. A place called Cisco or Síska 7 or 8 miles below Lytton being the furthest that it penetrated into the Interior. Some of these burial boxes are to be seen yet in the neighbourhood of North Bend and Spuzzum. This is the reason that Dr Wall when at the latter places was able to obtain skulls so easily. A person wanting these has only to repair to these old burial boxes after dark, remove the lid and help himself to as many as he wants. Before my paper is printed in October there is two little mistakes which I would like you to [page 5] correct. I discovered them on looking over my m.s. a short time ago. One of them is in the chapter on costumes. Speaking of the Ntûktakwena moccasin I should say “they had a seam which extended along one side until very near the point of the toes” instead of saying “extended along each side etc.” Substitute “one” for “each”. The other mistake which please correct is in the chapter on early intertribal trade. After hearing the word repeatedly pronounced by several different individuals I have come to the conclusion that the name applied to the Okanagons and which I have written “kwînᴇk̠áin” should be written “Ôkanᴇkain”. Substitute latter for former. I might here mention that the Kootenai were known to the NLakyapamux ͇ under the name of sk̠esuLkᴇmux ,͇ the same name by which they were known to the Shuswhap. I believe the meaning of the name is “bad people”. I wrote a polite letter to Mr. McKay asking him concerning the sources from which he obtained his information regarding the Stuwixamux being of Chilcotin origin [page 6] He was courteous enough to give me the information which you will find in the enclosed post card which is his answer to my letter. I would willingly go to Okanagon and Similkameen and see the parties of which he makes mention but I have so little time at my disposal and moreover it would cost me too much to go to Okanagon. I will try if possible and go to see the chief on the Similkameen trail. He lives a little north of Keremeous. I could go there from Upper Nicola in two days or make the round trip in five days. If possible I will try and go the first opportunity. I think I have now written enough and will draw to a close.

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Teit to Boas. August 24, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32.45 Dear Sir and Friend I came back from another trip to Nicola a few days ago. I was there six days and found the Indians very busy harvesting. I was able to do little or nothing. While there I met the brother of the Chief (at the 20 mile Creek Similkameen trail) whom Mr. McKay makes mention of. He was unable to give me any light on the origin of the Stuwíxamux ͇ and also told me that his brother was at that time not at home being further down the Similkameen River. Two of the old men whom I saw on my first trip up Nicola I failed to see this time. One of them being away and the other I was unable to catch at home. Tîmskôlaxán I was anxious to see especially as he promised to give me any words which he happened to remember additional to the list he gave me the first time although he said at the time that that was all that he could think on or all that he knew. The Indian who is partly of Tinné descent and remembers some of the language and who I mentioned as being absent in Similkameen during my first visit to Nicola I was lucky enough to see. I visited him three or four times but although quite friendly I could make nothing out of him. I tried different kinds of tactics getting him to make a bow and arrow for me and paying him double what it was worth but to no purpose.46 His wife also advised him to tell what he knew but no avail he would not give me any words of the language which he says he knows [page 2] better than Tcuiếska, Tîmskôlaxan [sic] or any other living Indian. He talked quite freely however of what he knew of the past history, customs etc. of the Stuwíxamux.͇ He said that his father was a pure Stuwíxamux ͇ and was born on the Similkameen River. When a child he (his father) contracted small-pox like many more of his tribe that stayed on the Similkameen at the time. The band of Indians amongst whom he stayed all died including his parents. A band of Okanagons came along and picked up the child the only living being left, and raised him amongst themselves. He stayed with them until a lad when he went back and stayed with the remnants of his people on the Similkameen and Nicola. He bore the marks of the smallpox on his face. This happened a very long time ago when the smallpox was raging amongst the Indians of the States. The first smallpox known to the Indians. His father when young married 45. Addressed to Boas at Department of Ethnology, Washington Dc. 46. Tekwóxuxkîn’s arrows and bow are cataloged in the American Museum of Natural History Anthropology Collection as 16–1036 a, b and 16–1037, respectively.

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an Okanagon wife and afterwards when old married a woman of the NLakyapamugh from Spences Bridge neighbourhood.47 The latter was the mother of the narrator who appears to be a man of about 60 and has several grown up children. His name is Tᴇkwóxux ͇kîn. He says his father was the oldest man of the Stuwíxamux ͇ when he died. He never heard him mention that his ancestors ever came from any other place except Nicola and Similkameen. He claimed that that had always been their country. The words of the old language which he remembers were told him by his father. He said the Stuwíx people used the same kind of bow and arrows as the Okanagons and held the bow perpendicularly when firing an arrow (Like the Okanagons and Nicola NLakyapamux ). ͇ He said they formerly often buried their dead by taking the bodies to the foot of a rock slide in the face of some rocky hill or mountain, depositing them there and pulling down the rocks. The weather has been very fine here this month a cloudless sky with bright sunshine and a calm atmosphere every day but it will be commencing to get a little cold next month. I will now draw to a close.

Teit to Winser. August 31, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Sir, I have now another lot of specimens almost ready, and will forward same to you at an early date.

Teit to Winser. September 10, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Sir I ship to the address of the museum to-day lot 3 of the Collection and hope the articles will get through to their destination in good order. You did not acknowledge receipt of the two former lots which I sent so I do not know whether they reached their destination or not but I presume they did, else you would have advised me of it. I enclose Bill of Lading and a written description of the articles according to their numbers. I will try and forward the balance of the articles at as early a 47. In his earliest transcription of terms in the Nlaka’pamux language, Teit wrote “gh” for the final consonant in the suffix meaning “people.” By 1896 he was consistently writing this suffix as “mux̳.” Current transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet present this consonant as “x.”

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date as possible (as soon as I obtain them) but it is rather slow work as sometimes I do not have much time to go around, and the Indians here are never in a hurry about either making articles or exposing them for sale, so I have got to do lots of running around amongst them, and it takes time.

Teit to Winser. September 28, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Sir I send to the address of the Museum today Lot 4 of the Collection consisting of five articles. I enclose a written description of these, and also a bill of lading. I will forward the next lot as soon as possible. Hoping the articles will arrive safely.

Teit to Boas. October 22, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32.48 Dear Sir and Friend I received your very welcome letter dated Berlin 18th Sept and the day before yesterday your report on your work of last winter came to hand for which favour please accept my best thanks. I have perused it with much interest and pleasure although some of your scientific terms are rather obscure to me. I consider it very surprising that you should find four, I might say five, such remarkably different types of Indian in the rather small area of BC. If you investigate the Lillooet next summer you will I am sure find that they are different from the NLakyapamux ṓē ͇ and Nkamtcinᴇmux ͇ perhaps resembling the Harrison Lake type or perhaps somewhat different. You will also find if you go into that field that the average Carrier and the average Chilcotin are not alike at least in countenance or features and in stature. The only mistakes which I notice in looking over your sheets of measurements are on sheet 10. No 17649 ought to be F. NLakyapamux ṓē ͇ M. Nkamtcínᴇmux ͇ and No 200 ought to be F. SLaxaíux ͇ instead of Nkamtcínᴇmux ͇ as you have got it.50 I do not know whether I failed to give you these particulars or did you fail to mark them down, but 48. Addressed to Boas in Washington Dc. 49. This passage refers to the regional affiliation within the Nlaka’pamux of the individuals whom Boas measured during his initial visit to Spences Bridge in 1894. 50. Teit’s term for Nlaka’pamux of the Fraser River upriver from Lytton.

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I was aware of the facts at the time of measurement and think I must have told you correctly. Besides these as I mentioned and explained to you in my last letter a few other mistakes were made amongst the Nkamtcinᴇmux ͇ although it was no fault of ours. These affect as I stated to you in the letter No 172, 173, 180, 182, [page 2] 184, 199 and consequent on 184 no 188 as the latter is 184’s daughter. I thought perhaps that there had also been a mistake made in regard to Nos 155 and 156 on sheet 9 but I see you have got them correctly. I expected by this time to have forwarded the last of the Collection but the Indians are very slow. I have two or three articles on hand but am waiting on other things so as to get everything or nearly everything to the value of the money still in my hands to make a final shipment. I took copies lately of all the pictures on three rocks in this neighbourhood and will send you a copy of these perhaps next week. I hardly expected you to pay me for my last trip to Nicola, as I went of my own free will and besides the results were very meagre. Although I was away almost a week and had a horse with me yet as I stayed part of the time with Indians it did not cost me very much. If it please you I will be quite satisfied with $10.00 to $15.00. That will amply repay my outlay and give me small wages besides. Regarding the cost of going to Okanagon I can only give you an approximate. The R.R. fare and return would be in the neighbourhood of $20.00 to Vernon from here. There would be the hire of a boat from the East to the West shore of Okanagon Lake and living expenses of a man for say six days at about $1.50 per day. Going to Similkameen it would take about 10 days to go and return easily and perhaps two weeks if there were much snow on the ground. A person would have to camp at halfway houses and hotels where the average charge would be about 1.50 per day for himself and the same for his horse = abt 3.00 per day expences [sic] for from ten days to two weeks according to circumstances. If it were in the summer a person could do the two [page 3] trips in one on horseback and it would cost a little less. I consider it was very imprudent to say the least of Mr. McKay to write the letter in the “Province” which you say he did and before you had made public any of your observations.51 Probably he does not like any people having any contrary opinions to himself on the subject of Indians but it cant be helped. I think he is too dogmatic when he writes or speaks on such subjects. Bye the bye when you write 51. A Vancouver newspaper. In 1895 The Province was a broadsheet. It became a daily newspaper in 1898 and continued in circulation in 2018 as a tabloid (Vancouver Sun, “About Us,” June 23, 2019).

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please mention the name of the man on the west side of Okanagon Lake which Mr. McKay places as one of his authorities for the Chilcotin descent of the Stuwixamux̳[;] I took a note of the name when I sent you his post card but have misplaced it and perhaps may not easily find it again. I cannot send you any more Botanical specimens this year as the leaves are now commencing to fall [page 4] The weather has been very fine here this month a cloudless sky with bright sunshine and a calm atmosphere every day, but it will be commencing to get a little cold next month. I will now draw to a close.

Teit to Winser. October 29, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Sir, I send to the address of the Museum to day Lot 4 of the collection consisting of five articles. I enclose a written description of these, and also a bill of lading. I will forward the next lot as soon as possible. Hoping the articles arrive safely.

Teit to Winser. November 4, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Sir I send you today a small box containing specimens for the collection, and enclose here with notes on same, and also a railway bill of lading. I hope these articles may arrive in good order at their destination. I had expected by this time to have been able to send you the last of the collection, but the Indians are so slow, and I do not always have time to go around amongst them. I explained these circumstances to Dr. Boas in my last letter to him.

Teit to Boas. November 9, 1895. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1895–32. Dear Sir and Friend Your communication of 2nd inst duly received by me yesterday, and as you say that you are already engaged preparing my M.S. I make haste to reply to your questions etc. I will enclose a list of the names of the plants, with their principal uses, in my next letter or if I have time I will 1894–1895 | 93

enclose it in this. I sent you a week or so ago a copy of some Indian rock paintings. Can you inform me to what type of pictography they belong. Shoshonean, Tinne, Californian or otherwise. I believe Mr. Garrick Mallery divides North American picture writing into types as the Shoshonean, Algonquin etc. You are perfectly welcome to make what changes and additions you may deem advisable in my paper as I am perfectly sure that such (coming as they do from you) will make the paper more readable, and also enhance its value. Embroidery was certainly done in olden times with porcupine quills, often dyed different colors and in later days (but before the arrival of the whites) with horse hair which was also often dyed. Beads were also very largely used prior to the advent of the whites (viz that of the white miners etc. in 1858, which may be placed as the date when civilization commenced to change the life of the tribe). Patterns in beads would therefore be as you say the same as those formerly done in porcupine quills etc. As embroidery in beads rapidly went into disuse after the year 1858 and was superceded [sic] by embroidery done in silk thread which at the present day is almost universal I am inclined to think that patterns wrought in beads altogether belong to the old style. Very little beadwork has been done by the tribe for the last 20 or 25 years. Although some of the patterns wrought at the present day with silk may be old ones, yet I know from observation that a large percentage of them are copies of (White mans) patterns. In this connection I might mention that painting sometimes took the [page 2] place of embroidery. I think I mentioned that Buffalo skins used both for robes and tents were often highly painted in geometrical and animal designs (sometimes according to the dreams of the owner). Buffalo skins were almost altogether confined to the Cawaxamux and Nkamtcinᴇmux ͇. Many of these skins (especially those for clothes or robes) were already painted (probably by Okanagon and Sahaptin tribes) before coming into the possession of the tribe, while the unpainted ones were often painted by the latter themselves. I think however that I failed to mention that thoroughly tanned buckskin of their own manufacture was similarly treated by them (especially robes and leggings). The leggings thus treated were short ones made simply of a square piece of heavy buckskin which was simply wrapped a couple of times around the leg and held in place immediately under the knee by a garter (generally of twisted otter skin) and left open and loose at the ankle. Some of these short leggings of this description are still used here occasionally by old or middle aged men. The buckskin robes painted were generally those worn like a poncho. The designs were chiefly animal viz figures of deer, 94 | 1894–1895

bears, otters, coyotes, etc. etc. while inanimate objects were also painted as arrows, canoes, sticks etc. etc. Some of these were also geometric as circles, squares, etc. etc. If I get more funds I will try and get buckskin leggings and poncho made and painted in the fashion of old. The paints used on buckskin were generally “tîktîkaza” root and vermillion [sic] earth and the figures were drawn with a naked forefinger or a small piece of stick. The “tîktîkaza” root being shaped like a thin carrot was used as it was the small end being rubbed along the article. Regarding your questions concerning the kekuli houses.52 The excavation was dug in the usual manner of digging graves etc. of course none except easy soil to dig was chosen for the sides of kekuli houses, grave yards etc. Another thing to be remembered all through is that in making a kekuli house mostly all the neighbours lent a hand, principally the women digging and the men doing the other work. The owners of a new house with the help of their relatives furnished the grub for all during the time the work was going on. Sometimes as high as twenty, thirty or even more people worked together [page 3] to help people who were well liked or who had plenty of grub. So that kekuli houses have been known to be started in the morning and all finished by nightfall excepting the ladder. The tools used were the common root diggers for digging and breaking the soil, straight sticks with a wide, flat, and rather thin point for scraping etc. [A]ll stones found were simply thrown out, and all dirt or earth was put into large baskets, chiefly with the help of the hands and small baskets. The large baskets were then carried or lifted out and their contents dumped in close proximity to the outside of the circle to be handy for use on the roof. When covering the roof the dirt was loaded in baskets again and these emptied on the roof in the required places. The whole being leveled off with the help of the stick scrapers and the hands and feet. According to my information the circle was often measured in the following way. A long bark rope was taken and knotted at say 20, 30 or 40 feet from one of its ends or whatever length was intended to be the diameter of the hut. Another rope was taken and knotted at exactly the same length as the first. The ends of these ropes was then taken by four men and held in the position of sketch 1. Immediately over the place selected for the site of the hut. These men tried to stand as much as possible at right angles and equidistant from each other. Sometimes 52. Boas incorporated the detailed exposition originally presented in this letter into Teit, The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, 192–94, illustrated with figures 135 and 136, but did not include the Nlaka’pamux terms for the components of the structure.

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these two ropes were previously folded up with the two ends together, the bight consequently being the centre of the rope was knotted. When stretched out where the two knots came together was the centre of the circle or if without knots in the middle of the ropes, where the two ropes crossed one another was the centre and accordingly marked with a stone or a small stake. Where each of the men stood was also marked likewise as A in sketch 2 and the butt ends of the four beams were placed at those places. Between these 4 marks a man scratched the surface of the ground with a stick in the form of a quarter circle as B sketch 2. If after the hole was dug it was seen that it was not perfectly circular every place in its circumference, the diggers remedied this by digging a little more out [page 4] here and there as they thought it required to make the circumference as uniform as possible. I think these somewhat hasty and not very concise remarks will be made clear by the enclosed rough sketches 1 and 2.53 Regarding the logs etc. they were all measured with bark ropes knotted at the required length. The tᴇkúmᴇtîn were thus measured and cut the length which experience had taught them would be about right for a hole of a certain diameter. Sometimes however it happened that they were cut a little too short (taking into account the required elevation) for the size of the excavation. In such case the roof would when finished be rather flat and low, or if the beams happened to be cut a little too long the roof consequently was towards the opposite extreme, a little too steep and high but they generally managed to get it about what they thought was the proper elevation. All the sticks used both great and small were peeled, excepting in the case sometimes of the thin poles if dry or dead when cut were not peeled as the bark had dried on and they would not rot, and moreover was hard to peel. These long thin poles etc. were done up in bundles and carried on the backs of men and women (with the ordinary packing lines) to the site of the building. Green timber was generally used for the other logs, especially yellow pine if obtainable within convenient distance was used for the Tᴇkúmᴇtîn [sic] and sk̠átsamîn as it was soft wood to cut. These large logs after being peeled were simply drawn over the ground to the building site by no other means than a stout bark rope and plenty of men. The tᴇkúmᴇtîn all those I have seen in kekuli houses have been round, in their natural shape without being squared. The Indians admit this was the common way but they say that sometimes also the tᴇkúmᴇtîn were squared or more frequently squared only on the outside and sides (3 sides). These 53. The sketches have not been found with the letter.

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[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

timbers were cut or chopped in the usual way by means of horn and stone “wanáu” struck with hammers (túlkist) generally of stone but sometimes of wood the peeling and squaring (if any) and all notching and sometimes the chopping of the poles was done with stone adzes having a short crooked handle. The sk̠átsamîn was the first stick put in, the butt end of [w]hich was sunk some 15 inches in the ground, and tamped with sticks and the feet so that it stood in position perfectly solid [page 5] as seen in A sketch 3. The upper extremity of the sk̠átsamîn was notched as B sketch 3. The tᴇkúmᴇtîn was next placed in position as in sketch 4 with its butt end sunk in the ground some 2 feet and a little above its centre resting in the Notch B of A in sketch 3. They were at their junction securely fastened with withes of willow similar to B sketch 4. The other skatsamin [sic] and Tᴇkumᴇtin [sic] were then placed in their respective positions in like manner to the above description. The “tsamáni” or “tsamánis” braces of the “tᴇkumᴇtîn” were usually simply lashed on somewhat like sketch 5 A. Those I have seen were thus fixed, but I have also heard they were sometimes notched probably in the manner of B sketch 5. In every case however they were securely fastened with willows at their junction with the beam, and their butt ends slightly sunk in the ground. The n-tlúkamanktîn [sic] or horizontal poles were put on generally about 1 ft apart from one another although sometimes they were put as much as 2 ft or over apart and sometimes as close to one another as 8 or 10 inches. An idea of how they were put on will be got from sketch 6. Their ends were lashed to the beams with willows in every case. From those marked (3) in the sketch the remaining ntlukamanktîn [sic] (or those from 3 upwards) were generally (although not always) laid in exactly the same manner as in your sketch of the Shuswhap one, that is the ends were laid one on the top of the other and resting on the beams. They were also generally lashed. In at least two kekuli houses which I have seen the kitctcíntᴇn were not locked with one another nor yet notched. The others I have seen I don’t remember how they were fixed. The Indians say that some times they were notched but as a rule they were not, being simply fixed as sketch 7 and very strongly lashed to one another and to the end of the beams. The sticks used for them were generally a good deal thicker than the Ntlukamankten [sic] sticks, and were invariably peeled and sometimes squared.54 In cases where they were locked or notched I do not know the exact manner in which they were fixed, and those who have seen them so fixed are not 54. Teit used various spellings for the term for horizontal poles.

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at hand tonight for me to ask. My wife says she thinks [page 6] there were two or three different ways in vogue of fixing the kitctcintᴇn but she says after looking at sketch 7 that that was the way she had generally seen them placed. The T’skaélx ͇ or outside poles were placed on in the manner of sketch 8. The tops may be more plainly seen as in B sketch 7. The whole was thickly covered with dry pine needles or dry grass. The Tskaélx ͇ were not fastened in any way only simply laid on. The ladder was not slanting like Father Morice[’s] sketch but was like that in your sketch—almost perpendicular and sometimes stuck out of the hole some 5 or six feet. It rested in one corner of the entrance as sketch 9 and was sometimes lashed there with a rope or willows. In many if not most cases (but not in all cases) the lower end was slightly sunk in the ground. In the back of this log or ladder a groove was made to run its entire length for a handhold. The groove was 2 or 3 inches in depth and about the width of an adze blade with which tool [it] was usually made. Sometimes but rarely the groove was made in the side. You will see by the above information which I have given you as minutely as possible that the kitctcintᴇn took only a secondary place in holding the tᴇkumᴇtîn in position the main stay being realy [sic] the skatsamin. I think you will now thoroughly understand the construction of the average Nkamtinᴇmux [sic] kekuli house. I know the Cawaxamux ones were the same and according to what the Indians say the other parts of the tribe, the Eastern and southern Shushwhaps and Okanagons built exactly the same way. I am not sure of the Utamkt but I think theirs were almost if not exactly the same also. Regarding the attitude of the Indians towards the missionaries and the latter[’]s influence on the Indians it is really a very large field to enter on and one which I purposely avoided in my paper on account of the extensiveness, its need of more study and consideration on my part, and also the fact that if I made certain statements which I could not help doing if I treated the subject anyways fully that these would probably be received in some quarters with offense.55 With this subject might be linked that of the effects of civilization generally on the Indian mind and life. The policy of the Indian department etc. etc. etc. [page 7] When I speak of the attitude of Indians towards the missionaries I mean principally the 55. In the brief essay that follows, Teit combines the straightforward, declarative reporting that generally characterized his ethnographic writing with a level of analysis that he approached in later correspondence only in his description of the issues facing the Interior Salish in regard to their claims to their lands. The focus here is not retrospective, but contemporary, and, to a degree that proved over time to be unusual in his general approach to ethnography, he is writing about a complex aspect of Nlaka’pamux society and thought in his own day.

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Nkamtcinᴇmux whom I know the best and have the best opportunities of studying. In this connection I may state that I have special facilities for studying the whole matter If [sic] I wish as I continually hear the Indians discussing these matters amongst themselves and hear their different opinions on these subjects. The attitude of the Indians on the whole may be said to be favourable towards the missionaries and has been so from the first, They say that the missionaries are good because they teach only good and no evil. The average Indian or what we may call No. 1 type says he sees no contradiction between the stories of his forefathers and those of the missionary. They both may be true. His forefathers told him nothing in their stories of future punishment but the missionaries do. If they are right then he can escape it by being baptized, attend the church, use the prayers taught to him, and live a life without doing evil as far as possible, then if it turns out that the missionaries are right when he comes to die, he will be all right, and if they are wrong he will be no worse off than the other Indians. He believes it is best to lead a good life anyway as long as he is allowed by others to do so. This same man who is a very common type of the old or middle aged Indian goes to church as regularly as possible, says his prayers, lives on the whole a very good life, does not often hunt game or look up his horses on Sundays, and says grace or crosses himself before meals and is not ashamed to do so before any person. But this same man instead of telling his children or others Bible stories at nights, or anything he has heard from the missionaries, will tell them instead the old mythological stories of his ancestors, and the traditions and old customs of the tribe. He will say that the Indians were far more religious, and more moral before the coming of the missionaries.” Denounce the laws of the priests in regard to marriage. saying [t]hat the priests have stopped the increase of the tribe because they won’t let the Indian have more than [page 8] one wife. (They cite for instance that if a man is married to a woman and she bears him no children he is not allowed to take a second or third wife with whom he might have children. Therefore he remains unable to increase the numbers of the tribe by reason of his having no children.) He believes like every other Indian in the power of the medicine man and when sick he will call him to his aid as quickly as any other Indian (although this is against the advice and rules of the missionaries). He says the missionaries do not treat him right in trying to do away with the medicine-men without placing as their substitute a White Doctor. (This class of Indian and some of the younger ones are disposed to look with favour on a White Doctor and would certainly in very many instances take advantage of 1894–1895 | 99

one if they could get him at their doors and without paying him money. Many of them have very little money but would willingly give rifles, blankets, guns or horses to a considerable value for his services. At the same time they don’t disbelieve in the Indian Doctor but are inclined to think that each is best at curing their own special class of diseases. For instance they think some of them, that the White Doctor can cure best especially such diseases as they have got by contact with the Whites as epidemics like measles, smallpox, blood spitting, syphilis etc. etc. while the Indian doctor is best at curing diseases of the soul, diseases caused by witch craft etc. etc. etc.) This type of Indian also adheres almost as much as any other to old customs and observances and when he comes to die, on questioning him it will be found that he does not anticipate the joys of heaven as pictured by the Whites but that of the Indian heaven of his ancestors to which he believes he is hastening and of which he has no fear of entering. (Although having repeatedly seen Indians dying or shortly before death, I never happened to see one yet who seemed to be in distress or had much fear of death, and in life they talk to one another of death with the utmost composure and do not seem to dread it in the slightest neither do they try to avoid talking of it). Another type of Indian commonly to be met with [page 9] and who may be classed as type 2, who although not as numerous as type 1 yet resembles him in being generally middle aged or old (I might say that these types have got numerous shades according to the natural disposition or make up of the individual). Type 2 is disposed to keep aloof from the missionaries and considers them and their rites and ceremonies as decidedly bad “medicine.” He also looks with suspicion and distrust on almost all the inovations [sic] of the white man. He deplores the decrease of his tribe and puts it down to the bad “medicine” of the whites in general, and the missionaries in particular. He also blames the white man’s food and is generally prejudiced again[st] some particular article, some wont [sic] use yeast powder in bread, some wont eat bacon, some wont use salt etc. etc. He ridicules the marriage laws of the whites and missionaries and pronounces them so far as they affect the Indian as a miserable failure, and even he goes further and claims that they increase immorality. He cites for example the former state of the Indians when a man took a wife she stayed with him as a rule for life. There were comparatively few instances of separation or divorcement amongst them, in strange contrast to the present day. Now he says a man often marries so that he may have a wife who cannot very well leave him, therefore he is regardless of his moral conduct and the same with women. While others again pay no 100 | 1894–1895

attention to the marriage laws but separate from their lawful husbands and wives and live with others at their pleasure and the law and the priests can only talk. As might be expected type 2 adheres very strongly to the old customs and traditions although not much more so than type one. Like the latter he prays although as a rule not so much and not exactly in the same style, but then both he and type 1 prayed before ever they saw the missionaries, and just as sincerely as now. The forms of prayer are now generally changed and often the words but they both expect very nearly the same results. Type 2 also lives [page 10] almost as moral and as good a life as type 1. He does not care much about having his children educated, or if he does he wants it done under his own eye. Writing is one of the “mysteries” of the whites and may therefore be “bad medicine” for the Indian. He does not care about giving his real name to a White man, and he hates to be counted by the Indian agent, or in the census. Type 3 is different. He is generally a young man. He has a desire to talk English, to have his children educated, and to know more about the manners, customs and works of the whites, and is inclined to copy the latter in many things especially their vices. He is very often a member of the church but is indifferent regarding both the teachings of the missionaries and also the religion of his forefathers. He seldom prays and will hunt or work on Sundays without thinking much about it. In fact he may be put down as having very little religion of any kind. He is not so sincere nor does he lead nearly so moral a life as types 1 and 2. The fourth and last type is very small in numbers. (I am glad to say.) He also is generally a young man but sometimes elderly men belong to this class too. He is a member of the missions and takes great pains to show the missionaries and other whites that he is well up in religion, and a little better than his neighbours. He can say prayers and sing better than the majority when he is at services or in contact with people who he thinks like that kind of thing. When in other kinds of company he suits himself to that, whatever it is. He is changeable and hypocritical, often very immoral (especially in a quiet way) and is generally fond of whisky and altogether a rather dangerous character. His civilization and his religion is only skin deep. Type 4 is very rare here but 1, 2 and 3 especially the first and last are very common. Out of the above hasty and disconnected remarks you will perhaps be able to get the answer to your question. You can fix it up yourself the way you think best to get the proper sense. The missionaries influence type one to some extent, but types 2 and 3 hardly any. Type one is probably the most numerous here. Type 3 next, Type 2 third. [page 11] Type 3 may be said to have neither the old 1894–1895 | 101

or new religion. He has lost hold of the old and does not grasp the new. There are some very good men in Type 1 and 2, sincere, good living, etc. There are also a few such in Type 3. [sic] I will not say any more on the subject at present but will give you the religions of 2 bands of NkamtcinEmux as taken by myself some 5 years ago or less[.] As I am personally acquainted with most of the people in both bands and have corrected the list with the help of some Indians I think it must be almost correct. By pagans I mean those who are not members of any mission and mostly belong to type 2. Children have been put in under their respective parents religions [.] There have been a few changes since by death and otherwise. Chief Whistamnitsa’s Band56 ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

ENGLISH CHURCH

PAGAN

2

73

33

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

ENGLISH CHURCH

PAGAN

2

57

44

=108

Chief Cumax̣altsa’s Band

=101

The percentage of pagans is probably higher amongst the Nkamtcinᴇmux ͇ than any other part of the tribe although there is also quite a number amongst the NLakyapamuxṓē and Cawaxamux and probably least amongst the Utamk̠t. The largest percentage of Roman Catholics is amongst the Utamk̠t and next largest probably amongst the Cawaxamux. Probably the most of the NLakyapmuxṓē and SLax̠aiux ͇ are Eng. Ch.57 56. Whistamnitsa was chief at Nkamcin and surrounding villages in the vicinity of Spences Bridge. Cumaxaltsa was chief of a series of communities around Pukaist, on the east bank of the Thompson River upriver from Spences Bridge. Whistamnitsa later participated in the meetings of the Interior Tribes concerning land claims; Cumaxaltsa passed away in the early 1900s. 57. Eng. Ch. is the abbreviation for “English Church” or the Church of England. The Roman Catholic Oblates of Mary Immaculate established a mission at St. Mary’s Mission in the Fraser Valley in 1860, with itinerant priests visiting Nlaka’pamux villages, particularly between Spuzzum and Lytton, beginning in the early 1860s. Nlaka’pamux people living on the Thompson and Nicola Rivers came somewhat later within the ambit of Roman Catholic missions established in Shuswap and Okanagan communities. By the 1890s the Roman Catholic mission with influence in Nlaka’pamux communities was administered from Kamloops. The Church of England established a mission on the Fraser River at Yale, just outside Nlaka’pamux territory, in the early 1860s, which drew Nlaka’pamux converts from Fraser Canyon villages downriver from North Bend. The Church of England missionary, John Booth Good, established an Anglican

102 | 1894–1895

One thing happened to come to my mind which I may mention viz that brush lodges and occasionally regular hunting lodges were often made in the conical style by the Nkamtcinᴇmux ͇ although the square form was probably the commonest. Dry grass was often used for the floors and beds of lodges as well as fir twigs. I had intended to treat my paper in the light of a preliminary one, and hoped that if I had plenty of leisure at some future time and had some little encouragement I would take up all the subjects which I touched on in my paper and besides many others and treat them as fully as I know how, thereby making public [page 12] the entire knowledge which I have of these people. Even if I answer as fully as possible all the questions which you may put to me and you add all these to my paper still it would not be a full treatise in every particular on these people. Regarding the funds I enclose an account showing the money received and how expended also balance on hand. I think that with $100.00 more I would be able to procure the majority of the most interesting and valuable things pertaining to the tribe yet remaining uncollected. I wrote to you about 10 days ago or so regarding the probable expenses of going to Okanagon and Similkameen. I will now draw to a close this hasty and yet rather lengthy letter. Notes encircled in boxes by the signature: a strong believe [sic] in the medicine man is held by every individual of the tribe. And: Some of the tribes living east of the rocky mountains were known to the Upper NLakyapamux. They are said to live far to the S.E. where there were plenty of Buffalo which was their principal food. I have a note of their Indian names someplace. And: The very worst class of Indian here is not as criminal as even the best of the criminal class of whites. PS Any other information which you may deem of great importance to make my paper more connected etc. I will be glad to furnish to the best of my ability and with as much despatch as possible, so as not to delay you in the preparation of the paper. Regarding some of my remarks above, I might further state the tribe on the whole at the present day is not so immoral and so criminal as very many Indian tribes, although some of the tribal divisions have nothing very much to boast of in some respects. There are slight differences in this respect amongst the tribal divisions, which might at some time be interesting to study. mission at Lytton in 1867, and established a program of conversion and ministry extending throughout Nlaka’pamux territory. It remained active in the 1890s and was the predecessor of the Anglican church at Lytton today.

1894–1895 | 103

The different divisions also have somewhat different natural dispositions and tendencies but I have not studied these much. During the last 8 years I think there has been an improvement in the moral tone of the tribe. I might further state regarding hunting grounds, that the divisions of the Upper NLakyapamux, objected to strangers from a different division building deer fences or trapping deer within their respective recognized hunting grounds. As I said in my paper this was not so regarding general hunting (that is where deer fences or snares were not the method of capture.)

“Copy of Collection a/c.” AMNH, acc. 1895–32.58 J. A. Teit, Dr To American Museum of Natural History 1894

Dec “

12. To Cash received from Dr. Franz Boas 18. “ Cash received from Dr. Franz Boas

$50.00 $9.00

1895

May 1. To cash received (draft on Bank of BNA) from Am. Museum of Natural History ________Cr. ______

By paper written descriptive of the NLakyapamux [sic] People “

Amount as promised for making collection and writing notes on the articles

$130.65 _____________ $189.65 $40.00 30.00

1894

Dec. 23 By cash paid to Harvey and Bailey for buckskins “

“ cost of P.O.O. for same

9.25 .10

58. This collection of letters does not normally include museum collection lists and contains only a few of Teit’s statements of account. This has been included because it is the accounting list of the first collection Teit sent to the AMNH and provides the names of the Nlaka’pamux individuals from whom Teit acquired the items.

104 | 1894–1895

26. “ cash paid Antko for “Lînélt” mat (No. 11) and bone awl (No. 14)

$2.00

28. “ paid Wánîmkîn for stone axe (No. 10)59

3.00

Jan. 10. “ J.A. Teit for (Raven) arrow heads (No. 18)

00.00

1895

“ Feb “

15 “ paid Antko for set of Beaver teeth dice (No. 8)

1. “ paid Kôlomastcút for making 1 set gambling sticks (No. 9) 15. “ paid Wáxtko for one doe skin “

“

Mch

“ paid Antko for two buckskin sacks for gambling sticks (sacks of No. 9 and 18).

“ paid Kaxpítsa for making 1 pr long leggngs (No. 4), 1 pr short leggings (No. 5), 1 woman’s shirt (No. 7), 1 sLenuin (No. 6), 3 prs moccasins (Nos. 1.2.3.) and for sinew thread = 15. “ paid for two root diggers (No. 12 and 13)

2.50 1.00 1.00 .65 17.00

.72

59. Teit provided the American Museum of Natural History with two kinds of collection lists: the shorter kind was a schematic list like the one presented here, with one-line identifications of each object collected, detailing the date collected, the name of the Nlaka’pamux vendor and the purchase price, and the longer kind a catalog with a much more extensive description of each item, often with the Nlaka’pamux term for the object, and comments on its manufacture and use. In providing the names of the Nlaka’pamux men and women who made and/or sold the items, Teit’s lists give some insight into the Nlaka’pamux community in which Teit moved. A year or so after Wáxtko sold him the doeskin listed here, she interpreted the pictographs that became the subject of his first publication. He later recorded a narrative from Kôlomastcút, Antko’s uncle, who was a witness at their wedding in 1892 (Wickwire, At the Bridge, 54). Teit later purchased objects from Whistamnitsa, the chief at Spences Bridge; Aluskîn, from whom he later recorded a narrative; Swasiteltko, KulatEn, Simalitsa, Pulpilkautkîn, and Oipêlst [ʕʷypélst], whose songs he later recorded for Sapir; and Waxaminek, Kwonkwonamtko, Yixaxaus, Wazinek, and Cumaxatko, whom Harlan Smith photographed during his visit in1897. Some names, including Antko and Naúkawílîx appear on both lists. With few exceptions Teit identified the people with whom he worked by their Nlaka’pamux names. This was unusual for sojourners and settlers of this period, who often knew Nlaka’pamux individuals only by English nicknames. For example, Dawson’s Nlaka’pamux cook, appears as “Johnny” in his journals. Nlaka’pamux names were often reserved by the Nlaka’pamux themselves for use within the community, and within families kinship terms were often used as forms of address and reference. While the 1881 census, conducted by the Anglican missionary John Good, who was fluent in Nlaka’pamuxcin, identifies Nlaka’pamux almost exclusively by Nlaka’pamux names, the 1891 census, conducted by a different enumerator, identifies the Nlaka’pamux residents by English given names.

1894–1895 | 105

Apr

20 “ paid Xlûxpaúz for stone hammer (No 16) fire drill (No. 15) .50

and 1 horn “wanau” (No. 26) .25

2.00, 2.50 .25 _______________ 110.00

[page 2] 1895

May 10. By Amount brought forward “

“ “

“

“

“

“. “ Paid Kweltko for “xlauxani” (No.22) bag and Dentalium Necklace (No. 27) = “. “ Paid for finishing end of bag 15. “ Paid Waxanínîk for cä´îp (No 23) mat 17. “ Paid Tsö́́kîn for bark string “äikstîn”

20. “ Paid Haiséska for buffalo “äikstîn” (No. 19)

25. “ Paid for 1 skatst (No. 25) with handle

June 2. “ Paid Wazínîk for “Lînelt cä´îp (No. 24) “

“ “ “

“ “ “

“

Aug “

“

“. “ Paid Tsala for fawn skin bag (No. 20)

“. “ Paid Kôlốp for sage bush bark sLénuîn (No. 17) 7. “ Paid Waxanínûk for sage bark cloak (No 28)

$110.00 3.00 0.50 3.00 1.50 5.50 1.00 2.00 .50 .75 2.50

“. “ Paid Naúkawílîx, Waxanínîk and Kweltko for 1 dip net (No. 29), 1 Table mat (No 31) and 1 pr sage socks (No. 30)

5.25

13. “ Paid Whalínîk for Birch bark carrier (No. 33)

2.50

“. “ Paid for sewing etc.

25. “ Paid for Buckskins at Ashcroft

30. “ Paid Nikaníksama for cedar root (No. 34) “äikstîn” 17. “ Paid for Doeskins at Nicola

“. “ Paid Tᴇkwốxux kîn ͇ for making bow (No. 39), 2 arrows (No. 38), and Fawn skin quiver (No. 36) = “. “ Paid Helsátko for Board carrier (No. 43)

106 | 1894–1895

.50

3.25 1.50 2.50

6.00 2.50

“ “ “

“

26. “ Paid for Buffalo skin and making of Buff. Quiver (No. 37)

“. “ Paid for deer bone (No. 40) and horse bone (No. 41) scrapers

“. “ Paid making of man’s buckskin jacket (No. 54) and two women’s caps (No. 48, 49) =

30. “ Paid Antko for Buckskin

Sept 8. “ Paid for 4 cedar root baskets and for bringing them up from Spuzzum (Nos 44, 45, 46, 47) “

9. “ Paid for refixing etc. and placing buckskin on Nicola baby carrier (No. 43)

1.50 0.75

2.50 1.00

7.00 0.75 _____________ 167.75

Expenses 1895

Sept 9. By amount brought forward “

“

“ Oct

“

“. “ Paid for 1 Birch bark basket (No. 35)

“. “ Paid for 1 Pair round-tail snowshoes (No. 42)

“. “ Paid Nau´kawílîx for two fish spears (No. 50, 51) 1. “ Paid for 1 stone pipe (No 52)

10. “ Paid from 1 Utamkt baby Carrier (No. 53) and fixing of same =

To whole amount of money received By amount expended as above Balance on hand Nov 9 By Paid for 4 fish hooks and lines (No. 32)

$167.75 1.00 1.50 2.50 1.25 2.50 ___________ $176.50 $189.65 176.50 ___________ $13.15 0.50 ____________ $12.65

1894–1895 | 107

1896

Teit to Boas. January 14, 1896. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1896–3. Dear Sir and Friend, I have not received from you any answer to my letter of recent date, which I wrote to you some time ago (probably in the beginning of December) but I know you will be very busy. I wrote you a long though rather hurried letter giving you as full particulars as possible in answer to your questions regarding kekule houses etc. I also enclosed a list of the names of plants with mention of the principal uses to which they are applied by the Indians, the said list being numbered identically with the specimens I sent to you throughout last summer. I also sent to you at the same time an account of the money as spent by me in the procuring of articles for the Museum. I would like to know whether the Museum is satisfied with the way in which the money was expended. Of course you will understand things better than they, because you are acquainted with this country. You know things cannot be bought so cheaply amongst people like those here who have given over the manufacture of most native articles and have learned to some extent to know the value of time and money, it is not like amongst a people who are yet primitive and isolated where most things of their own manufacture can be bought for trinkets. Another thing I find is that things already made, if in plenty can always be bought far cheaper (often below their real value) than things which have to be made. Also some things have a recognized value and price (such as baskets etc.) and cannot be bought under the regular price except under special [page 2] circumstances. Another thing wages are higher here than in the eastern and southern parts of America and the Indians here who are very independent will not work for a smaller days wage than a white man[.] I also told you about the difficulty I experienced in procuring weapons owing to a strong superstition prevailing that by giving their ancient weapons into the possession of the whites, the latter obtain power over them which they may use to the Indian’s harm. It seems in olden times that a man[’]s weapons of war or the chase were sacred to himself and if an 108

enemy gained possession of these, he also obtained power over the original owner and if he wished could take his luck away, or otherwise hurt him even unto death. If however the person who was loser of the weapons was stronger in magic than the person who took them the effect was the opposite way and the latter often turned sick or died. I sent you also sometime previous to my last letter a copy of some rock paintings in this neighbourhood. I received today from you three additional copies of the tenth report of the British Association for which I thank you very much. Since I wrote you last I have been a good deal away from home working with cattle (cowboying and getting out wood in the mountains etc. which is all required to keep the pot boiling.) We have had a very nice winter so far. We got our first snow here on the 19th December but it went off again shortly afterwards with a Chinook wind. Since then we have not had an inch of snowfall altogether. I would like to know for sure sometime not later if possible than March whether you intend to make your proposed trip amongst the tribes of the Northern and Central Interior. I could then depend on you if you were coming and make arrangements accordingly, and if you could not come then I would know and be open for other work or engagements. I would be glad if you could manage to drop me a few lines sometimes and if I can do you any favour at any time I will be glad. Hoping this will find you well.

Teit to Boas. May 30, 1896. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1896–3. Dear Sir and Friend, I was very glad to receive from you a couple of days ago copies of two papers written by you. One dealing with the Indians of Southern California and one with the growth of Indian Mythologies. I thank you very much for same. It might be interesting to you to know the myths of the Ntlakyapamux. They occupy an intermediate position and consequently you may find that their myths are derived from various sources. If you wish I will if I have time next winter write out [page 2] say 40 or 50 of their principal myths and send them to you.1 I have some articles on hand which I will forward shortly to the Museum. I have been rather troubled that you have not written to me for such a long

1. This is likely the inception of Traditions of the Thompson River Indians of British Columbia, published in 1898.

1896 | 109

time. I thought perhaps you might have got offended at something which I may have said or done but I was not aware myself of having given any cause for offence. If I have it has been done by me quite unintentionally and I hope you will forgive me. At one time I thought something must have happened [to?] you or that you were dead, and consequently I was glad when I saw your hand writing on the papers you sent me. [page 3] I hope you have been geting [sic] along well and have been in good health during the winter and spring. Did you manage to get my paper printed yet. I took down some picture writings from a rock here yesterday and will send you a copy shortly. I have been very busy this spring for besides having to look after my own place I have also had to manage a large fruit ranch here at S.B. the owner of which died in Mch. and left me as one of his executors.2 My wife has also been very sick all spring and is not well yet. I hope this letter will find you well and prospering and that you will have time to drop me a short note.

Teit to Boas. June 2, 1896. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1896–3. Dear Sir and Friend, I was indeed very glad to receive to-day your letter of the 27th ult. and to learn all your news. I am sorry that I will not have the pleasure of seeing you west here this summer but hope you may be able to come next year. It is a pity that the man having the management of those ethnological societies cannot see that it is in the interests of science to push matters ahead. Every year lessons [sic] the chance of gaining knowledge of one kind or another. Much has been lost in the past by delay. I am glad that you [page 2] managed to procure additional money to help complete the collection. I will be glad to do the best I can but the articles will have to be forwarded in small lots at a time like the last, as it is impossible to procure everything at once. I will make inquiries (as I have the opportunity) regarding the ornamentation of

2. This may be a reference to Teit’s uncle, John Murray, who passed away in 1896, leaving his store and an adjacent piece of land to Teit (Wickwire, At the Bridge, 126). Murray also owned an orchard, in which tenant farmers, John and Jessie Smith, worked when they arrived in Spences Bridge in the mid-1880s. Although they moved up the Nicola River to the Voght Valley after a relatively short time, the Smiths returned to Spences Bridge following John Smith’s death and purchased his land, subsequently developing the orchard into a substantial business (Smith as told to Campbell and Ward, Widow Smith of Spences Bridge).

110 | 1896

the baskets and the meaning of the designs and the names of any.3 I am not however in the best situation for doing so as most of the basket work is made at or below Lytton. I will when I have time write down as many of the NLakyapamux myths as I can obtain. I will state the source from which I obtained each, that is to say the tribal subdivision [page 3] and the names of the principal parties who related them if you think it necessary. I will write them as near to the way they tell them as possible and may put down two or three as they relate them in their own language (with translations). The trouble is in doing the latter that when they talk slowly they do not seem to be able to relate the story properly and if they do not talk slowly I cannot write it properly word for word. I will try and procure the different kinds of bows and arrows. I would like to have time after the money comes to go up to Nicola to see a medicine-man called Nkamtcinếlx who invited me up to see him.4 [page 4] I had a long talk with him last winter and he said if I would come to his house and write down his speech and send it to the white men chiefs he would sell me some of the old clothes and paraphernalia which belonged to his father. It is a pity you could not have procured the collection ready last winter as in the winter season the Indians generally have more time to make things and stay more at home than during the any other season. I have no doubt you felt like having a change from New York by this time and leaving the city a while for the mountains or plains. I wrote you a few days ago and with this letter I enclose a sketch of a picture rock which I took the other day.

Teit to Boas. July 4, 1896. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1896–3. Dear Friend, I ship to-day addressed to the museum a box containing (11) eleven specimens and hope they may arrive safely. I enclose here with the paper descriptive of the articles and which I hope will be satisfactory, 3. The inception of Teit’s work on basketry, ultimately published posthumously as Haeberlin et al., “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region, 119–484. 4. In Mythology of the Thompson Indians Teit identified Nkamtcinêɬx as a resident of Shulus, a community in the Nicola Valley, and the narrator of “The creation of the Earth by the Old One.” Teit noted that at the time of the recording Nkamtcinêɬx was probably over seventy years old (Teit, Mythology of the Thompson Indians, 322). As the letters between Teit and Boas indicate that the manuscript for Mythology of the Thompson Indians was with Livingston Farrand for editing by 1907, Nkamtcinêɬx was likely born in the 1830s at the latest. Teit later recorded a speech by Nkamtcinêɬx (see Teit to Boas, July 30, 1906, this volume).

1896 | 111

and of interest to you. I’ve not had time yet to make a start on the myths. I think it would be advisable for you to remit me a few more dollars very shortly as I may have time to make a trip to Nicola and I have got an old man [page 2] started to make bows. It is best to have a few dollars ahead anyway as a person never knows when an opportunity may occur of buying objects of interest and value. PS How did you come out with the botanical specimens I sent you[?]

Teit to Boas. July 21, 1896. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1896–3. Dear Sir and Friend Your letter of the 15th inst duly to hand to-day, and I was glad to hear that you had received my letter of the 4th inst OK. I enclosed in it a list of the articles I sent to the Museum. I sent them over to the depot on the same date I wrote to you, but they were not forwarded from here until about a week ago. The agent objecting to forwarding them until he found out the rate on them. I hope you have received them safely by this time. Regarding the $30.00 cheque I received it all right and wrote to you a letter acknowledging receipt of same. I addressed it to your private residence instead of c/o the Museum and it may have gone astray. Some of the articles I sent lately were paid for out of the old money (last years) and others were [page 2] purchased with the money you sent to me recently (viz. the $30.00). Since I sent away the last lot I have purchased 8 or 9 more articles (all tools and weapons) with the money you sent me so I have only two or three dollars of it remaining, and as I have got an Indian making some other things I will be in his debt before long. I am commencing to win over the Indians (in this neighbourhood) from their aversion (superstition) of selling their own ancient weapons to the White man, and they are now commencing to get interested, and more willing to part with things which I want, or to make other things. One Indian here has got a very fine knife (made out of a file) by himself and another Indian about 35 years ago. It is a regular weapon; double edged, and about 10 inches of blade-length. He offered to sell it to me. It has been in his possession since it was made. He says there is no use now for such a weapon and it [page 3] is unhandy as a hunting knife. I told him I would not purchase it until I asked you (I think there are some carvings on the handle). I was glad to hear that you had been able to get most of the plants determined. If you 112 | 1896

send me the numbers of the ones which were much withered and could not be determined I will try to obtain fresh specimens and send them in better condition. The meaning of the rock pictures I sent to you last have mostly all been explained to me by some old women. If you send me back the last picture I sent you I will number the figures of pictures and write out numbered explanations which I will return to you along with picture [sic]. I think that will be the best way. I will also send to you a copy of a drum painting with explanations of all the figures. It may interest you to know that formerly the young men here during the period of training (puberty) used to make round holes in rocks or [page 4] in boulders. This was done with hard green stone chisels and axes which they held in their hand. It used to be done at night; the same man pounding away night after night at the same hole until it was two or three inches in depth and of a round shape. When making these holes the Indian used to pray “May I have strength of arm; may my arm never get tired—from thee oh stone—.” This was believed to make the arm tireless and the hand dexterous in making stone implements of any kind. Does this throw any light on the cup holes or sculptures so much talked of, some of them may have originated in a similar manner, at least the American ones. Re rock painting two old Indians here told me that the chief object of young men and women making rock paintings was to ensure them long life. Hoping that your vacation has done you good and that you are well

Teit to Boas. August 14, 1896. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1896–3. Dear Sir Your letter of Aug 7 enclosing cheques for $50.00 duly received. I will await the letter which you promise before replying at greater length. Be sure and send back the last rock painting I sent you so that I can number it and translate. I will send on what stuff I have on hand perhaps next week. Hoping you are well and have enjoyed your vacation.

1896 | 113

Teit to Boas. September 2, 1896. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1896–3. Dear Sir and Friend I sent off another lot of Ethnological specimens about 3 days ago addressed to the museum. You will find particulars of all the articles in the enclosed list. I hope to be able to send off another lot before long. I hope you are quite well and have escaped the great heat which was reported to be in New York lately. We had it 104 deg in the shade here one day, and the ther. (max) for 30 days averaged 93.5. But weather like that we have here every summer. Of course the air is a great deal dryer [sic] here which renders the heat less oppressive. I would write you a longer letter, but I am rather pressed for time at present so will come [page 2] to a close.

Teit to Boas. September 20, 1896. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1896–3. Dear Friend, Your very welcome letter of Sept. 10th duly to hand; and I thank you much for your kind offer regarding the drawings. I herewith enclose the tracing of rock painting[s], numbered and grouped and also enclose you a copy of drum painting, and have given you full explanations of both. I hope that these explanations will prove both usefull [sic] and interesting to you. There are a great many rock paintings, and some petroglyphs scattered throughout the NLakyapamux͇ territory, but I do not have time to go and see them as most of them are in rather out of the way places, therefore I suppose you must be satisfied with the few I have sent you in the meantime. [page 2] I am buying or getting articles made for the collection almost every week, but it will take another month before I get enough together to make a shipment again. [H]owever I expect to get perhaps most of the articles forwarded to you by Christmas. I am glad to learn that the part of the collection you have got set up looks so well. You did not answer my query regarding the knife I asked about, whether you think it worth purchasing as a sample of old Indian handicraft. There are many things I would like to talk to you about, but some of them slip my memory just at present, and I do not care to trouble you too much as I know you are busy. Hoping you are well and wishing you success in your work.

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Teit to Boas. October 13, 1896. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1896–3. Dear Friend Your letter duly received and I am very glad to learn by it that you are pleased with the collection, and that the translations of the rock and drum paintings have proved interesting and valuable. I did not care about purchasing the drum from which I copied the painting, as it is not the exact style formerly used by the Indians and moreover is made out of white man’s wood and has got many (wire and brass) nails, and other innovations about it. Some of the regular old drums are in use here yet (unpainted as a rule) and I intended if possible either to purchase one of them or get a new one made. It seems to take a long time for the lots of specimens to reach you, if you have [page 2] only got the lot containing the Coyote poncho recently. I expect perhaps to send forward another lot next week, as I have got a lot of things on hand. I have also ordered many more things to be made. I think it would be well to send me some more money as soon as possible as I have now only about $7.00 on hand. I used a few dollars of the last for my own purposes. I have commenced to write out some of the mythological stories. I have finished three of them viz. the story of the “Skunk and his brothers” (two versions). The story of the “Ant people and the brothers” and the “Story of Āˑ́́k”̠ . I have purchased the knife I asked you about, and it is a very fine specimen of war-knife. I will now close hoping you will forward some more money (as soon as possible) as I would like to hasten the collecting as much as possible. Hoping you are well.

Teit to Boas. November 7, 1896. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1896–3. Dear Friend, Both your letters duly to hand,—the one with check for $20.00 and the one making enquiry about the drum painting. I will soon have the former expended, and am geting [sic] along a good deal faster than formerly with the collection. I have just finished boxing up to-day 2 boxes containing 29 articles for the Museum, all of which I hope will prove of interest and value. I have not finished writing a description of them therefore will not send them forward for a few days yet (or until I get back from hunting). An Indian here reported having seen in the 1896 | 115

mountains some years ago, a stone cut roughly to the [page 2] shape of a man, or a man’s face, and hollowed out in the center evidently intended as a receptacle for something. I told him to be sure to go for it before the snow falls, so I hope he will bring it along before very long. I was glad to hear that you intended journeying this way in the Spring, and I look forward with pleasure to seeing you. Re. the drum painting, I think I told you that it was made by two young men. I made inquiry at one of them about it and he said that they made the drum in a hurry so as to be ready for a “potlatch” which was coming off. After marking it one of them proposed that they should picture it, and the other one said all right. So they mixed some vermillion earth with grease and commenced operations. He said to his friend what pictures shall be put on it and the other answered something in connection with the potlatch so they drew a man, then a women [sic] [page 3] dancing. Then they drew a horse because that is the commonest kind of gift at a potlatch, and is generally given away after a woman or man has danced. Then they proposed, and agreed to paint the other things which are on the drum and which really have no connection with the potlatch. Therefore there is no connection between the different figures. They do not belong to one another, except perhaps the man, woman and horse. The others have simply been drawn at random, and if the notion had taken the painters they might have painted something else. They commenced to picture things in connection with a potlatch, but quit that, and commenced to draw what they thought were the most imposing pictures. I hope you will excuse this hasty scrawl. I will be writing to you again when I send forward the specimens. Hoping you are well

Teit to Boas. November 20, 1896. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1896–3. Dear Friend, I despatched two boxes for the Museum on the 10th inst as you will see by the enclosed bill of lading. I now send you enclosed herewith a list and description of the articles therein contained, all of which I hope will prove of interest and value. The Indian brought me the stone that I mentioned to you and I will forward it very soon as I have got it already boxed up. I had to pay the Indian $4.00 for going for it besides the price of the stone. He had to go 20 miles for it on horseback. I am glad to hear that you think you will be able to get the paper printed this winter. 116 | 1896

The money you sent me last will soon [page 2] be expended, likely before the next comes. I think you better send me some more on receipt of this letter, so as to save delay in procuring articles. Hoping you will excuse this hasty letter, and that this will find you well.

Teit to Boas. December 18, 1896. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1896–3. Dear Friend, Your papers on “Kwakiutl Songs” and “Totemic carvings” duly received and I thank you very much for same. The copies of “my rock painting” also to hand, and I thank you much for the trouble you have gone to on my behalf in the way of editing and printing same.5 I have been trying to obtain translations of the other “pictures” I sent you, but so far without much success. I did not send the carved stone yet, although it is all ready [sic] boxed up, I thought it would be best to keep it, until the next consignment of articles is ready. I have now [page 2] about 20 more articles on hand (some of them not paid for) and I have an old man making some more, which will likely be ready in about a week. I wrote to you nearly two weeks ago, asking for more money, and am now expecting it almost any day. I hope you received the last consignment of articles all right; those I now have on hand are equally interesting and valuable. Some people who have seen some of the articles here, before I sent them to you, accuse the Canadian and British Columbian Governments of negligence and apathy in not making representative collections of similar articles from all the BC tribes. They bemoan the fact of so many rare and valuable specimens going to the museums of a foreign country. I am writing up the mythological stories as I have leisure and have now written about ten or more. You mentioned in one of your [page 3] last letters that you would likely be here next spring. What will be your program if you come, do you think you will be able to proceed with your proposed trip to the North. I think I may be able to procure some skulls for you, the first mild weather. During a recent Chinook a slip occurred near an ancient burial ground on the river bank and exposed part of several skeletons. I want to procure them without being noticed and will endeavour to go there some moonlit night. 5. Teit, “A Rock Painting of the Thompson River Indians, British Columbia,” 227–30. As noted in the Introduction, the painting was interpreted for Teit by Waxtco, who lived in the vicinity of Spences Bridge.

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Teit to Boas. December 26, 1896. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1896–3. Dear Friend, I send to the address of the Museum to-day 2 boxes—one of them containing the nkaúäist or carved stone and the other 2 skulls which I got the other day from the burial ground I mentioned to you in my last letter. The Indians removed almost all the bones in sight, but another small slip occurring exposed part of two skeletons—to which these skulls belong. The bones themselves were somewhat scattered and seemed not to be all there. Each had evidently been dug up at one time and reburied in a heap, rolled up in skins and matting part of which still remain although very rotten. A flint lock musket had been buried with one [page 2] body, the wood work of which had become very rotten. The only other things I could find were a few arrowstone chippings, part of a very large beaver tooth, and a copper ornament of some kind—I think a nose ring. The latter is very much worn and corroded. The skulls of course are for yourself although I addressed them to the Museum. I enclose bill of lading I wrote you about a week ago, and also about three weeks ago asking for more money. I have now about $40.00 worth of articles on hand almost all unpaid for as yet, and which I will forward as soon as the money comes. I am getting two old Indians to make samples of the armour formerly in use.

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1897

Teit to Boas. January 11, 1897. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1897–2. Dear Friend I just take time to drop you a note, letting you know that I am in receipt of your welcome letter with enclosed cheque for $50.00 towards collection. I already owe almost that sum to the Indians for things I have now got on hand. I will forward these and also write you in a few days. I sent forward the “stone” and also 2 skulls which I procured a short time ago. I would like to know your opinion regarding the latter, as they seem to be a good deal different from one another. I am sorry to hear that the shipments are so long in arriving but I suppose it cannot be helped. I have now finished writing out 12 mythological stories [page 2] some of them a good length, and will soon have some more finished. Those I have finished are The Skunk and his young Brothers (Nkam. Version) [Ditto] [Ditto] (NLakyapamuxoe [sic] vers The Skunk and the Badger Story of Ā’k̠ The Ant people and the Two Brothers The Martin and the Fisher NLisisintem (the Coyote’s eldest son) Story of the Raven The Old-man and the Coyote The Old-man and the Lad The Hare and the Grizzly Bears The Grizzly Bears and the Hunters I have taken a copy of another Rock painting which I will forward before long.

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Teit to Boas. January 18, 1897. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1897–2. Dear Friend I forward to the address of the Museum to-day two boxes containing 46 articles of the collection all of which I trust will prove of interest and value. I enclose herewith a list of these—giving particulars of each. These articles finish the amount of money voted for the Collection viz $170.00 for the procuring of articles and $30.00 for myself. I will send you an account of the money as expended in a few days. Please forward the $50.00 still due as soon as possible as I owe about half of that sum to the Indians for articles procured—the other half being for myself. I wrote to you a few days ago acknowledging receipt of the last $50.00. I enclose Bill of Lading, and will write to you again very shortly. I am glad to hear that no time will be lost in geting [sic] my mythological paper printed. Hoping to hear from you very soon.

Teit to Boas. February 1, 1897. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1897–2. Dear Friend I suppose by this time that you have received the letter I wrote to you a couple of weeks ago or more,—at the time I dispatched the last lot of the collection. It is a pity that there is no more money to procure other articles of importance, as the Indians are just commencing to take an interest in the matter, and are now anxious to make or to sell anything that I wish to get, and this notwithstanding that some of the chiefs and others in council, talked strongly against the people selling any of their former articles. Several Indians have brought to me lately some things of particular interest and of splendid workmanship. Of course I informed them that the money was now all expended [page 2] but I promised to them that I would write to you to see if you could not procure some additional funds in the near future to purchase their articles with. They left the goods with me in the meantime until I heard word from you. These articles are as follows 4 Feather Headdresses, each of them of a different kind, and 2 of them being war bonnets 1 Drum painted and ornamented with native paints (Red and white)

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1 Woman’s Cap (embroidered with bead patterns around the sides and having a fringed crown—different from those I sent 1 stone chisel (of round form and of only about 1 inch in diameter. It is made of green stone—polished) 2 horse-skin carrying sacks with lacings—and painted in Red, blue and yellow designs—very well done the paint being made fast with cactus juice [page 3] 1 very well made woman’s unsmoked buckskin shirt of a different kind from the one I sent you before. It is highly ornamented with paint fringes and tassels 1 pr of mens leggings of a different kind from those I sent you before. They are ornament [sic] with fringes paint and beads and are made of unsmoked buckskin 1 small shot pouch neatly made of grass and worked in black patterns 1 powder horn hollowed out of a piece of wood, with sinew stopper and ornamented with paint, skin fringes and feathers. It is very well made. 1 rather large sack beautifully made out of the fibrous stems of the “kônelp” (I sent you this plant for identification) and worked in red, black, blue patterns all over both sides. It is the best of the kind I have seen. 1 Necklace about 4 fathoms long made out of seeds of a bush called “kwois” 1 small necklace made of blue glass beads and Indian elk horn beads [page 4] 1 sinew backed Bow All these articles have been or are still in use, and would probably not cost over $45.00 to $50.00. I have not had time to make out the a/c of expenditures yet, but will do so very soon. I have just finished writing 3 more myths viz (1) The Story of the Otter (2) [Ditto] of the Chipmunk and the Grizzly Bear (3) [Ditto] of the Bush-Tailed Rat and also two moon myths which I have written in the Indian language with translations both literal and free. I have not had time to copy over the last rock painting I got but hope to do so very soon. The Stone and the Skulls ought to have reached you by this time. I expect to have a letter from you very shortly in answer to my last one. Hoping you are quite well.

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Teit to Boas. February 9, 1897. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1897–2. Dear Friend I just take time to drop you a short note. I enclose an a/c of the moneys received and expended by me which I hope you will find satisfactory. I am expecting a letter from you with the balance of the money, and the Indians are anxious to know whether you intend to buy the articles I gave you a list of. I will write again very shortly.

Teit to Boas. February 20, 1897. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1897–2. Dear Friend Your very welcome letter of 11th inst duly to hand the day before yesterday. I was glad to hear that the money would be remitted soon, as some of the Indians are anxiously waiting whilst others I have paid off with my own money. It is a pity that you cannot prevail on them to furnish some more money for the collection now when the Indians are “on the string”. A very few more years and most things will be very hard to obtain, as many of these old fashioned articles at present possessed by the old people will be buried with them thus many valuable things—always the best because they were used formerly by the people that own them—are lost every year, whilst the young people are incapable (by themselves) of making most of the old articles correctly as they have never seen them made. What things I have on hand I will give back to the Indians and advise them to keep them carefully laid past until such time as I can obtain money to buy them with—which I will tell them may be very shortly.1 Regarding the castes [sic] [page 2] of faces which you want to get, since I received your letter I have approached several Indians on the subject, explaining to them the process, and I think that you will have no trouble in getting the castes of say about ten or twelve of the men[’]s faces, if you are willing to pay them fairly well for sitting. It may be more difficult to get castes of women and children. I have now finished writing 28 mythological stories and hope to be able to send you the paper about the end of next month. I hope you may manage to get the other paper printed this spring and I hope all the collection has arrived by this time in good order. You did not say anything about the skulls I sent. 1. Underlined in original. It is not entirely clear whether the underlining in this letter was done by Teit or Boas.

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I am glad to hear that you will be able to carry out part at least of the plans you proposed re the Interior tribes. I will be glad to accompany you on your proposed trip and I think we will have no difficulty in reaching Bella Coola overland. The old trail used to run from Bella Coola across the Chilcotin Plains to Fort Alexandria on the Fraser, and although not much used this trail can yet be travelled over. The trails most used at the present time are those that start respectively from the Fraser at Soda Creek (this one is a wagon road), near Alkali Lake [,] Dog Creek and Canoe Creek. They all converge into one near the upper part of the main Chilcotin River. There is a rough wagon road as far as Tatla Lake. We may find the end of the trail next Bella Coola a little rough, as it is not now much used. Very few Chilcotins now go to Bella Coola and very few whites pass that way. For this reason and also for making faster time all along, it would be to your advantage to hire an Indian (here) to help me. I think I could easily procure a good one for say $30.00 to $35.00 per month. I think that it would take [page 3] almost one month to go from here to Bella Coola—which of course would enclude all the stoppages amongst the Indians on the way. If you went via Soda Creek or Alexandria it would take a few days longer than via the other points but you would be able to see more Indians (also there is always a day or two’s delay in travelling on account of rain or bad weather.) After leaving you at Bella Coola I think the Indian and I could come back here in abt two weeks. Taking everything into consideration (including wages of myself and Indian etc. etc. I do not think that the expenses of the trip would amount to over $185.00 to $200.00[.] Of course the longer you are on the trip the more it will cost and vice versa, but the matter of a week longer or shorter would not make much difference. I suppose you will not have time to extend your investigations amongst my friends the Carriers. When you come out, there are two or three things I would like you to [page 4] bring for me, and which there is no doubt you will be able to obtain in New York. Viz a pedometer (for telling the distance travelled) I believe there are some that tell how far a person travels whether on horseback or on foot (2) an aneroid for telling the altitude of a place. These you would likely be able to procure in New York much cheaper than I could purchase them here. I would also like to get cards of the same shades that you used for getting the colour of the Indians skins. I sometimes take a notion to paint pictures of Indians and find it very hard to get the exact tint of the skin. PS I enclose copy of another rock painting with translations by the same old woman as last. I may give you some tattoo marks at some future time. 1897 | 123

PPS I have been preparing the Indians here for your taking their pictures. If you bring a camera I think you will have no trouble getting a lot of both men and women. PS I may here make mention of the fact that the bow No 72 of collection which I called skomkimuxínek is only a variety of that shape of bow and not the skomkimuxínek proper. In writing up the notes on the collection it will be right to make mention of this fact.

Teit to Boas. March 16, 1897. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1897–2. Dear Friend Your letter of 4th inst duly to hand. I also received the cheque the same day, and have acknowledged receipt of same. I shall be very glad to see you when you come, and shall do the best I can for you. I am also glad to hear that the collecting will be continued, and that you will purchase what I have on hand upon your arrival. There will be no difficulty about the money. If you desire to pay me beforehand and the Indian after the conclusion of the trip it can easily be arranged and will be quite satisfactory. Re prehistoric burial grounds I think it will be all right. The Indians however guard with very jealous (and religious) care any burial grounds in which they know for certain that [page 2] their ancestors are buried in, but others that are so ancient as to be without their ken, can be explored without the Indians taking much notice of the matter. Probably some of them could be hired to work in such. Any graves however that are anyways recent or modern ought not to be disturbed as nothing incenses the Indians here so much, as to disturb the graves of their known relatives. It might also be best before starting to obtain a permit from the Canadian government, because there exists a strict law (with heavy fines attached) prohibiting the disturbing of Indian burial grounds, and I suppose there is nothing in the law which makes a distinction between prehistoric graves and others. The one at Lytton I think would be worth digging all over, and I am inclined to think that the area of it is larger than most people think. The one near Lillooet which Dr. Dawson mentions would also be worth exploring. There is also one about three miles from here, of which I do not know [page 3] the extent but think that the area is rather small. There is also about ten miles from here the burials (in rock slides) of Okanagons or rather Similkameens. These the Indians would not likely object to 124 | 1897

having disturbed because they are graves of a different tribe.2 I am 2. Physical anthropology, pursued through anthropometry, the taking of casts, and the measurement of human remains, had been a strong component of Boas’s research for the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He had measured human remains in the course of this work and published the results. With Dawson’s help he had also analyzed skulls from the graveyard at Lytton that Dawson had excavated in the 1870s. However, he was aware of a clash between scientific goals and Indigenous societies’ concern to protect the graves of the dead. He had encountered opposition from Inuit regarding removal of skeletons and skulls from graves (Baehre, “Early Anthropological Discourse on the Inuit,” 25); Indigenous people on Vancouver Island raised substantial objection to the collecting practices of the intermediaries from whom Boas purchased skeletal material in 1888 (Cole, Captured Heritage, 119–21), and the opinion Boas later expressed (Cole, Captured Heritage, 175–76) that he had managed to collect skeletal material without upsetting local people was unfounded. Like the measurement of living people, the taking of casts, and the comparative portrait photography, the measurement of human remains was embedded in the developing European concepts—and culture—of science and was conducted as part of an analytical pursuit of a typology of the human form and identification of physical characteristics of particular human populations. However, like all matters connected with the privacy, integrity, and control of the human body, the activities central to nineteenth-century physical anthropology were fraught with issues of race, class, and power. More particularly, the excavation and appropriation of the dead were entirely antithetical to Nlaka’pamux values and practice. In Nlaka’pamux society, the care of the dead was very important. There were established practices relating to the preparation and disposition of the body, the protection of the bereaved and the community after death occurred, and to the ritual rewrapping of the body of the dead person a year after the death. Graves were marked by possessions of the dead, and in the Fraser Canyon by carved figures memorializing those within. During the previous twenty years Anglican missionaries, following the initiative of John Booth Good, had been advocating the alteration of Nlaka’pamux burial practices to conform with European practices of interment (see Extract from Good’s journal in November 27, 1867, Church of England, Tenth Annual Report of the Columbia Mission for the Year 1868, 36). It was into this cultural environment that Boas’s expectation of the expedition’s exhuming and transporting bodies fell. In the late nineteenth century Indigenous people in British Columbia were particularly vulnerable to trespass in this regard. The protection of Indigenous burial grounds was an issue dating from the first days of colonial settlement, but the protection afforded by law was far from complete. The initial instructions of the government of the colony of British Columbia were to include burial grounds in Indian Reserves (British Columbia Legislative Assembly, Papers Connected with the Indian Land Question, 22). Although burial grounds were generally located adjacent to Nlaka’pamux villages, pre-emption by settlers was under way a full ten years before reserves were formally surveyed in Nlaka’pamux territory in 1870. Even burial grounds clearly associated with villages were often surrounded by and even improperly included in land pre-empted by non-Indigenous settlers. Teit’s reply is the fullest articulation to date of his approach to acquiring skeletal material on Boas’s behalf. It is evident that he was keenly aware of the social prohibitions surrounding the disturbance of graves and aware of the law to some extent, but concerned to find a path to complying with Boas’s request. Teit’s suggestion that Boas seek a permit from the Canadian government was likely misguided. The federal Indian Act of 1876, which was in force in 1897, was silent on the matter of graves, although it prohibited the use of any part of a reserve by anyone who was neither an Indian nor an Indian of the associated band (Supreme Court of Canada, An Act to Amend and Consolidate the Laws Respecting Indians). A British Columbia statute, An Act to Prevent the Desecration of Graveyards, in force from 1888, allowed the removal of remains from graveyards in districts that were not municipalities and lacked a local board of health, such as those areas in which Boas and Teit planned to work, only with the written permission of the provincial secretary, a coroner, or the government agent for the district (British Columbia, The Revised Statutes of British Columbia, 1897). Although Harlan Smith, the Jesup Expedition archaeologist, certainly excavated graves in 1897, it is not clear that permission was sought. Both Teit and Smith continued to excavate

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getting along slowly with the myths, and have now finished writing 48 of them. I hope they may be of much service to you when I have finished them. I am writing notes along with some of them (when I think they are required) and which I hope will be of value towards the better understanding of the stories. I would have liked to have written the notes in some cases more in detail and more elaborately but I hardly have time, but hope at some future date to be able to collect and write more of these mythological stories. Another matter I was going to mention to you. I have heard for several years (from current report amongst the Indians) of a country and a tribe (evidently a small tribe) whose country is situated some [page 4] short distance beyond Walla Walla. The Okanagons call this tribe and country by the same name as they do the NLakyapamux viz Lö́kᴇtᴇmö́x and some of the Okanagons claim that the NLakyapamux or Lö́kᴇtᴇmö́x of the North came from there a long time ago. I saw an old man about two months ago who claimed that he had been there twice in his younger days. The principal village at that time was close to the banks of a large river (I forget whether he said the Columbia or not). At that time there was a U.S. graves over the next several years, Smith in the course of archaeological research, and Teit as older graves were exposed by industrial action or land slips. In 1905 he sent a list of skeletal material to the American Museum of Natural History, List 1905-07-00, July 1905 (ca.) (AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence.) At the time of his appointment to the American Museum of Natural History, physical anthropology was considered a strong component of Boas’s research. He was initially appointed as “special assistant in charge of the Sections of Ethnology and Somatology in the Department of Anthropology” (Zumwalt, Franz Boas, 260), a responsibility that embraced both ethnology and physical anthropology. In this first Jesup expedition in 1897 he arranged for Harlan Smith to take portrait photography, showing front, side, and three-quarter views (see Mathé and Miller, “Kwazi’nek’s Eyes: Vision and Symbol in Boasian Representation,” 107–35). Following his move to Columbia University in 1905 Boas placed more emphasis on the measurement of living people. His research on families of European immigrants established the possibility of generational change in the physical characteristics of a human population and challenged received doctrines concerning race (Boas, Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants). Much, if not all, of the skeletal material that became the subject of Boas’s research in physical anthropology is now subject to repatriation to the Indigenous communities concerned. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, enacted on November 16, 1990, provides for the repatriation to lineal descendants of human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony (“National NAGPRA Program,” https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1335/index .htm, accessed December 13, 2021). While this law is technically in force within the United States of America, American museums, including the American Museum of Natural History, have repatriated human remains and cultural material to Indigenous communities in Canada. (AMNH, “Repatriation of Individuals to the Haida Nation,” https://www.amnh.org/research/ anthropology/news-events/repatriation-to-the-haida-nation, accessed December 13, 2021). The Human Remains Policy adopted by the Canadian Museum of Civilization (now Canadian Museum of History) in 1991 provided for the repatriation of human remains, as does the Repatriation Policy adopted in 2001 (CMH, “Repatriation Policy,” https://www.historymuseum.ca/ wp-content/uploads/2015/09/repatriation-policy.pdf, accessed December 13, 2021).

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military garrison close to there and he described the distance as from one to one and a half days journey beyond Walla Walla. (I think by canoes). He said it was true that the Okanagons called these people by the same name as they call the NLakyapamux whereas to all other tribes they give different names. He said the manners, customs and industries of these people so far as he saw were identical with the NLakyapamux. They wove all kinds of baskets[,] mat, and bark thread work just the same and in many cases identical patterns. Their burial customs were the same. Canoes were hauled up and turned over on the graves, also dogs were tied there. He described many other customs and most of their dress as similar to the NLakyapamux. Their language he said was altogether different. At least he could not understand it and could not recognize any words similar to the NLakyapamux, Okanagon or even the Walla Walla. He said the name of their place was Waskốps. Do you think this would be the place called Wasco on the maps[?] Can you tell me what tribe this can be[?] Hoping you are well and that I have not bored you too much with my long letter.

Teit to Boas. April 6, 1897. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1897–2. Dear Friend Your letter of 24th ult duly to hand. I would have answered it sooner but was away packing supplies to a copper mine which has started up in the mountains near here.3 I find my services much more in demand this year than formerly and have had several summer jobs offered to me. All this is occasioned by the wonderful development in mining which is taking place in BC this year.4 Thanks for your information regarding the Wasko. I will send you the myths in four or five days time. I intended to write a short introduction to them but I find that I have little or no time to do so now, so I will leave that for you to do if you think it necessary. I have written 60 which is all that I know at present [page 2] but hope to collect more at some future time. These consist of all those I have heard told during the last three years. Some others I heard related in former years but as I did not take any note of 3. This may be a reference to the copper deposits east and south of Ashcroft, which were coming to be of serious interest to prospectors in the late 1890s. This is the present site of the extensive copper mine in Highland Valley. 4. Teit shares another, somewhat conflicting perspective on the utility of mining two decades later, writing to Edward Sapir during the later war years; see CMH, Sapir Correspondence: Teit to Sapir, September 30, 1918. b. 635, f. 6, folder “Teit, James A. (1918–1919).”

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them I have almost altogether forgotten them and cannot obtain them from the Indians here. Regarding the ladder you want made.5 I think it is possible to procure one which has been in use. There were 2 or 3 such still in Nicola last year. If you think however that the distance is too far to bring them then I will get one made here. Re the other similar material you want me to gather for you, if you explain more fully the exact things you want then I may be able to help you. I think it will be well to let me know as near as possible the exact date when you will arrive here so that I can order the provisions required for the journey and have them all ready, so no time may be lost. If you [page 3] are sure of coming here on the 1st June I will order the stuff about the early part of May and I will then have plenty of time to fix it up in packages for packing (before your arrival). If they do not give me the articles at reasonable rates here I will order from Vancouver. I will write again when I despatch the myths.

Teit to Boas. April 11, 1897. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1897–2. Dear Dr Boas I mail to you to-day 45 of the myths. I would have sent them on receipt of your letter, but as I had to go away packing I did not have time to go home after them. I will forward the rest of the myths as soon as I finish writing notes to them (probably in a couple of days). You will not understand some of the notes very well until you get all of the myths together. As I wrote most of the notes in quite a hurry I have no doubt you will find several errors of grammar, composition and spelling to correct before printing. I will leave the arranging of the myths for you to do. I intended to place all those of a similar character near one another as for instance the sun-myths and moon myths all together, the Coyote myths together, Grizzly myths [page 2] together and so on. I have got copies in rough of almost all of them.6 Amongst those I sent to-day are 2 Lillooet ones which I wrote down about 3 or 4 years 5. Teit and Boas are referring to a ladder with steps cut into a single log, with a groove, usually at the back, for a handhold, that was used to enter and leave the semi-subterranean winter dwelling. (See Teit, The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, 193, fig. 135.) 6. While Teit’s latter suggestion contradicts his previous suggestion anticipating that Boas would organize the myths, he respectfully and politely suggests arranging them by character and type, which may be more in line with the way in which they were routinely shared, and he takes responsibility for pre-arranging them accordingly. Lillooet storytellers shared stories arranged in this way.

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ago. The rest of them are all just as I have heard them amongst the NLakyapamux. I believe there are quite a number of myths amongst the Utamkt which are not current amongst the rest of the tribe but I have not the opportunity at present of collecting any of these. As I have a much better chance of hearing the Nkamtcínᴇmux telling stories, therefore you will find that most of them are from that source. Is anything being done towards the printing of my first paper. I suppose you will not have time to get the myths printed before you come out. I will write again when I send the next lot.

Boas to Teit. April 16, 1897. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1897–2. My dear Mr. Teit: I received your welcome letter yesterday. Your suggestion of obtaining a ladder in Nicola is very good, and it is certainly preferable to having a new one made. If you have time, I wish you could get it before I come; but if not convenient, we can just as well leave it until later on. I have not written to you in detail in regard to our summer’s trip7 because there are several matters undecided.8 Everything seems clear now, and I can give you a detailed statement of what we propose to do. I am going to leave here on the 25th of May, maybe one or two days sooner or later. I have to go to Victoria first in order to arrange money affairs; but from there I shall go to Spences Bridge without any further delay. Then we want to look over the old village site or burial-ground, whatever it may be, to which you refer, and decide if it will be best to start work there or at Lytton. Then you have to help me to engage two or three men to assist in digging; and at the same time we will take whatever casts of faces, hands and feet that we may be able to get. I have also written on this subject to Father Le Jeune, and if I can obtain through him a promise that the Kamloops Indians will be willing to let me take some casts, and if I can get permission to take casts of the children in the Kamloops school, I intend to go up there for three or four days.9 7. This 1897 trip by Boas, Farrand, Smith, and Teit was Boas’s first field work undertaken expressly for the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. 8. A few days later, in a letter from Boas to George Hunt (APS, Boas Papers: Boas to Hunt, April 30, 1897, text 64798) Boas outlines some of the planning for the summer trip in more detail. 9. Jean-Marie Raphaël Le Jeune, OMI (1855–1930), served as priest at the St. Louis Mission in Kamloops from 1882 to 1929. In 1893 he became the superior of the St. Louis Mission. In 1891

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I judge that all this may take me about ten days, so that we shall be ready to start on our journey to Bella Coola approximately on the 18th of June. [page 2] I wrote you in my previous letter that I expect to take two assistants along from here. Mr. Harlan I. Smith is going to carry on the archaeological work and Dr. Livingston Farrand is going along with me in order to enable me to extend the work of measurements and ethnological work; that is to say, you will have to obtain provisions, etc., for yourself, Farrand, myself, and, if necessary, an Indian. There is one question I want to ask you in regard to this trip. Unless it is absolutely necessary, I do not want to carry a tent. I would rather get along the way I always used to do, either camping out without cover, or, at most, using a sheet of canvas that we can put up on improvised poles. Camping outfits are rather expensive here and unnecessarily elaborate. Will it be desirable for me to bring along any thing [sic], or can we get along without it? I do not want to make the trip too quickly, and I have an idea that I shall want to spend time on the way wherever it may seem desirable. I also intend to carry, say, about forty pounds of plaster-of-paris, in order to try, if possible, to get a cast or two of Chilcotin faces. Of course that will require a good deal of coaxing, but if I can get them, it will be very valuable to me. I presume towards the end of the journey we can push on as fast as the trail will permit, because I anticipate we shall not find very many Indians after leaving the Chilcotin. If there are any points in regard to which you wish information or in regard to which you can make suggestions to me, I wish you would do so. I believe we shall have a very pleasant time making this journey in company.

Teit to Boas. April 20, 1897. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1897–2. Dear Friend I herewith send you by registered mail the balance of the Myths numbering 14. Three of them are written in Indian with literal (underlined) translations. I am afraid however that my (literal) translation of them is very poor. I find it very hard to convey the proper

he began the publication of the Kamloops Wawa, a newspaper in Chinook jargon. (See Blake, “Le Jeune, Jean-Marie Raphael.”)

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meaning of their words and phrases into English. All the other myths are written in as good English as I can command, although no doubt you will find grammatical and other errors in them. Of course they are all free translations but I took much care to preserve the true sense and meaning of the stories so that so far as expressing these goes, they are as true as if written in Indian.10 which is [page2] I presume all that is required. I think you will find much to interest you in these Myths and you will perhaps be surprised at the many conflicting stories, but I suppose that must be expected when different mythologies meet in one tribe. To find out the true mythology of the Interior Salish (or what is indigenous) and to separate it from the extraneous and find out the source of the latter I presume that it will require a study of the myths obtaining among the NLakyapamux’s nearest neighbours especially the Okanagon, Shuswhap and Sahaptin.11 But perhaps you already have considerable knowledge of the myths pertaining to the other Interior tribes. There seems to be an intermingling of 3 or 4 mythologies among the NLakyapamux. The money promised for the writing of these stories viz $50.00 you can send to me at your early convenience. I will also be glad to hear your opinion in regard to the myths.

Teit to Boas. April 29, 1897. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1897–2. Dear Friend Your communication of 16th inst duly received, also your acknowledgement of the receipt of my first batch of myths. You will also by this time have received the last lot I sent so you can now form an opinion of the whole. I was glad to get the information regarding your arrangements. I hope you will be able to get the casts at Kamloops that you desire. I think you ought to get permission to take casts of the Indians confined in the Prov. Penitentiary at New Westminster. Amongst them are a good many Shuswhap, also 10. Teit’s comment on accuracy and remarkable ability and intention to preserve the true sense and meaning of many of the stories was affirmed as both truthful and accurate by (Upper) St’át’imc Elders, fluent speakers and language teachers Qwa7yán’ak (Carl Alexander) [Xwísten (Bridge River)], Desmond Peters Sr. (Tsal’alh [Shalalth]/ Ts’kw’aylaxw [Pavilion]) (unpublished field notes of Sarah Moritz, August 2016; cf. Moritz 2021). Teit offers similar comments on the process of translation in a subsequent letter to Boas (see AMNH, Division of Anthropology, Teit to Boas, November 23, 1897). 11. In this comment Teit makes explicit what is more often implicit in his writing; that is, a preoccupation with an essential cultural utterance, something tied exclusively to a Nlaka’pamux identity untouched by external influences.

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Nkamtcínᴇmux, Cawáxamux and other NLakyapamux.12 Regarding the camping outfit required you will not need to buy any of it. I will furnish it all. All you have to bring will be your blankets and any other thing you may wish in that line. Also anything you think best as a protection against mosquitoes and flies which are bad in some parts of the country through which we will pass. Re the NLakyapamux like the Wasko having copied some of their customs from the Coast tribes, they could not have borrowed the burial customs I mentioned at least by way of Fraser River. The Nlakyapamuxōḗ were the people who used canoes over their graves the most. They (like all the people East of Lytton) did [page 2] not use “lúka” = (square boxes made of slabs of cedar in which the bodies of each family were deposited. These boxes had lids and were frequently painted and sometimes carved.) ́ From Sī́ska (7 miles below Lytton) down through the Utámk̠t “Luka” [sic] and grave effigies were altogether used (no canoes were hauled up near graves, nor tepees or poles with streamers erected). None of the Utamkt buried their dead until recent years. You will therefore see that the NLakyapamuxṓē could not borrow the custom of hauling canoes up on the graves from the Utamk̠t. From Lytton east along the Thompson the custom of hauling canoes up on graves gradually got less, but west of Lytton according to my information it did not pass beyond the first village. The custom of having grave effigies obtained only to a small extent among the NLakyapamuxōḗ and Nkamtcínᴇmux and finally died away among the nearest band of Shuswhaps. It seems that the NLakyapamuxōḗ borrowed this custom from the Utamkt, and the Nkamtcinᴇmux in turn from the NLakyapamuxōḗ. It is likely that the Utamkt themselves borrowed the custom of having grave effigies and also “lúka” from the Lower Fraser Indians. Did the Lower Fraser 12. The vulnerability of Indigenous people to incarceration was a social issue that both Teit and Boas considered to be outside their scholarly purview. From Teit’s casual comment it is also clear that, while he considered the Nlaka’pamux living near Spences Bridge to have full decision-making powers over whether or not they contributed casts to Boas’s collection, those imprisoned at New Westminster—apparently like children in the mission school in the Fraser Valley—did not have the same latitude. There is no indication that Boas acted on Teit’s suggestion concerning the prisoners, but his early letters indicate that he had taken measurements in both residential schools and prisons. On August 2, 1890, he wrote to his wife, “Yesterday morning at 7 a.m. I went up the river about thirty miles to measure children in a mission school. The priest who ran the boys’ school was very friendly and I measured twelve boys. He then brought me to the girls’ school which is run by nuns. The head of the school almost scratched out my eyes. She said such a request was never made before and that it is outrageous for a man to want to measure girls. ‘How can science dare thus to deal with the work of God,’ she yelled at me. Very sadly we had to leave” (Rohner, Ethnography of Franz Boas, 125). The school in question was apparently the school at St. Mary’s Mission in the north Fraser Valley, located near the present town of Mission, British Columbia.

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Indians differ in some customs from the people talking the same language in Vancouver Island[?] I am trying to gain further information regarding the ancient burial customs of the SLaxáiux and Upper Lillooets. Hoping that you are well and that I will have the pleasure of your company before very long.

Boas to Teit. May 6, 1897. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1897–2.

My dear Mr. Teit—Enclosed I send you a check for fifty dollars in payment for your manuscript. I have written to-day to Victoria, requesting Mr. O.C. Hastings to send to your address two barrels of plaster, which I beg to ask you to take in charge until the arrival of our party.13 I find it necessary to go to Victoria first, in order to arrange money affairs, but Mr. Harlan I. Smith and Dr. Livingston Farrand will go right to Spences Bridge.14 I shall write to you later on the date of their arrival. When they reach there the first thing to be done should be to collect the casts of faces. I shall reach Spences Bridge two or three days later. If you have any thing to suggest or to say in regard to the outfit for our trip across the mountains, please write to me without delay. I am going to start from here on the 25th of May. I have had a letter from the publisher of the Memoirs of the Folk-Lore Society, as one of which your collection of traditions is to appear, who promises to bring the book out early next winter.

13. Oregon Columbus Hastings (1846–1912) was a photographer, with a studio in Victoria Bc. He had taken photographs for Boas at Fort Rupert in 1894 (David Mattison, Camera Workers 1858–1950: The British Columbia Alaska and Yukon Photographic Directory 1858–1950, https://davidmattison.com, accessed January 15, 2024). Boas had corresponded with Hastings about photographs in early March 1895 (APS, Boas Papers: O. C. Hastings to Boas, February 13 and March 6, 1895). 14. Livingston Farrand (1867–1939) lived at a time when it was not altogether uncommon to work in more than one academic discipline. Trained in both medicine and psychology, he conducted anthropological research in association with Boas in British Columbia and on the coast of Washington. In 1897 he traveled with Boas and Teit as far as the Chilcotin Plateau. On the basis of his field work in 1897 he published two monographs in 1900, Traditions of the Chilcotin Indians and Basketry Designs of the Salish Indians. For the latter publication he drew on designs on Thompson and Lillooet baskets collected by Teit and on Quinault baskets he had collected in the course of his own field work in Washington state.

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Teit to Boas. May 17, 1897. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1897–2. Dear Dr. Boas I just take time to acknowledge the receipt of your letter and enclosed cheque for $50.00 for which please accept my thanks. I have no further advice (that I think about) to give you in regard to the trip. You can either bring blankets with you or buy them here. I will take the plaster of paris in charge when it arrives. I will attend to getting the casts as soon as your friends arrive. The Indians are scattered on their several reserves at present, and a few are out bear hunting. A good many women have been out digging bitter-root for several weeks but will be back (most of them) by 1st June.15 Hoping to have the pleasure of meeting you soon.

Teit to Boas. August 19, 1897. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1897–2.16 Dear Friend We arrived here [Spences Bridge] yesterday all right having had quite a disagreeable time travelling owing to the continuous hot weather and the very dusty state of the trails and roads. We brought everything through all right the casts receiving not the slightest damage. I will ship all the stuff to the Museum in a couple of days. We had to leave 15. Bitter-root (Lewisia rediviva), a staple food of the Nlaka’pamux, is harvested in spring (see Turner et al., Thompson Ethnobotany, 242). The roots were routinely dug up in spring, from around April to early May, before the plants were in full bloom. The thick roots were a key and staple food for Interior peoples of the driest areas and were traded by others (Kuhnlein and Turner, Traditional Plant Foods of Canadian Indigenous Peoples, 228). In the 1890s there were extensive bitter-root grounds still unaffected by settlement along both banks of the Thompson River downriver from Ashcroft, and people from all regions of Nlaka’pamux territory gathered there to harvest the plants. 16. While Teit and Boas were traveling together to Bella Coola they did not write letters; however, Boas provided some information about their journey in his own letters (Rohner, Ethnography of Franz Boas, 201–11). Boas arrived in Spences Bridge on June 3, 1897, and by June 6 had measured and photographed ten people, purchased a small collection of objects, and recorded Nlaka’pamux music on a phonograph he had brought with him (see ATM, “Canada, British Columbia, Spences Bridge, Thompson River Indians, 1897,” https://researchworks .oclc.org/archivegrid/collection/data/15995323). They left Spences Bridge for Bella Coola on June 12 and arrived at Bella Coola on July 20; Boas and Farrand interviewed Indigenous people whom they met along the way. Drawing on his experience as a packer and guide, Teit initially took them overland from Spences Bridge to the Fraser River and then along the upper Fraser valley to Lillooet. Boas wrote to his parents on June 15: “We rode across the mountains between the Thompson and Fraser rivers, following the trails of the Indians” (Rohner, Ethnography of Franz Boas, 205).

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old Charley behind in the Chilcotin. We lost a day and a half hunting the white horse. Crowhurst found him away up near the head of Alexis Creek.17 Probably the Chilcotins had driven him up there, otherwise I do not think he would stray so far back. We had rain the first four days after leaving Bella Coola [page 2] and got soaked through each day. Since then we have had no rain excepting a couple of thunder showers at Schultz’s. I expected to have some rest when I got back here and time to fix up the paper and procure lists of plurals and diminutives for you, but I am sorry I will not be able to do so for some little time yet as I have to start out with a hunting party who are now on their way from England, and will be here in seven days time.18 As I will have to take them to several rather distant hunting grounds I likely will not be back here until the latter part of November. Nevertheless write to me about anything you think of importance as I will receive your letters immediately upon my return. After a little study I have come to the conclusion that it is absolutely certain that the NLakyapamux have words in the 3rd person singular [page 3] and plural distinguishing between presence and absence. They are[:] He or she close bye [sic]. He or she a little distance off and He or she not present. I will explain to you all about it when I come back again and have leisure. At present I am very busy collecting a new outfit of horses etc. I have not got the cheque changed yet but can get it changed as soon as the CPR [Canadian Pacific Railroad] pay car comes (maybe tomorrow) then I will pay Sam. I hope Dr. Farrand had a nice trip through and got some shooting. Remember me kindly to him. I will write him when I come back as I promised to do. I will now close, hoping you have made a success on the coast of collecting etc. With kinds regards to yourself, Dr. Farrand and Smith

17. Charles Crowhurst settled in the Chilcotin in the 1880s and worked as a farmer, teamster, and blacksmith (see Bonner et al., Chilcotin: Preserving Pioneer Memories, 288). 18. This statement and comments in subsequent letters indicate that during the journey to Bella Coola, Teit and Boas conferred about his work and Boas provided him with typed versions of a portion of the manuscript on the Nlaka’pamux. Up to this point Teit had considered the manuscript to be finished and had been inquiring about a publication date. From here on he was engaged in revisions and additions and also began work on the grammar of the Nlaka’pamux language.

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Teit to Secretary, American Museum, New York City. August 25, 1897. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1897–2. Dear Sir, I ship to-day addressed to the Museum 5 boxes and 2 packages of Indian specimens which I hope may arrive safely. As follows. No. 1 Box

containing

Nkamtcinᴇmux casts

No. 2 [Ditto]

[Ditto]

[Ditto]

No. 3 [Ditto]

[Ditto]

Chilcotin specimens

No. 4 [Ditto]

[Ditto]

[Ditto]

Casts

No. 5 [Ditto]

[Ditto]

[Ditto]

Casts

No. 6 package [Ditto]

(snowshoes)

[Ditto]

NLakyapamux and Utamkt [Ditto]

No. 7 sack

(skins)

[Ditto]

Specimens

[Ditto]

[Ditto] and specimens

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

Dr Boas has collected full notes regarding all those specimens. On boxes containing casts I have written “Handle with great care” so I hope they may reach you without being handled too poorly.

Teit to Boas. November 23, 1897. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1897–2.19 Dear Dr Boas I just take time to drop you a note in the midst of my hurry. I just came back from the Itcha Mountains yesterday.20 We were hunting Caribou there. We are now on our way to Churn Creek to hunt Mountain Sheep. Crowhurst went with us up to the Itcha. He sends his kind regards to you and Dr Farrand. Remember me to Farrand. I enclose the Nkamtcinᴇmux̠ story I promised to send to you hoping it may not be

19. Sent from Crowhurst’s Ranch, Chilcotin Bc. 20. A mountain range on the Chilcotin Plateau, British Columbia.

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too late to print with the rest. It has a close connection with a Shuswap one. I will not be back at Spences Bridge until the last of next month.

Teit to Boas. November 23, 1897. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1897–2. Dear Dr Boas, Your letter of 17th Oct. duly received by me on my arrival here two or three days ago. I wrote a letter to you from Crowhursts enclosing a short Nkamtcínᴇmux myth which I did not include amongst the ones I wrote for you last winter. If it is not too late you may put it along with the others otherwise I can include it with the next number of myths I write. Regarding the titles of the myths I wrote, the great majority of them are those under which they are known to the Indians. I merely translated (perhaps in some cases rather freely) the names by which the Indians call them. Some of them have more than one name. In such cases I have given the commonest title. A few of them have really no names and those I entitled with what names I considered best as setting forth the most conspicuous persons or incidents in the stories. Re the cheque, I think it will be best for you to make out a new one to me which I will make over to Clemes.21 Before starting up country I wrote additions to the first few chapters of my paper which I mailed to your address in New York. I hope you received them all right. The saddle Dr Farrand sent back to me I sold to-day for $15.00 which I have credited to the Museum (collection) after deducting freight charges $1.10. I will have time now perhaps in a couple of weeks to go on with writing the additions to the other chapters of my paper. I will be glad to have a letter from you at an early date as I am very anxious to know how you are getting along with everything. [page 2] The Indians who had their photos taken are very anxious to get their promised copies at as early a date as possible. What about the wigs[?] What is the price of the cheapest ones you can procure[?] How did Smith make out in his researches at Kamloops, Lytton and elsewhere[?]

21. Archibald (Arthur) Clemes (1851–1922), who, with his wife, originally managed the Morton House, a hotel owned by Teit’s uncle, John Murray, became the proprietor of another hotel, called the Clemes Hotel, at Spences Bridge following John Murray’s death (Barbara Roden, “Golden Country: A Canny Pioneering Businessman Links Spences Bridge and the Marx Brothers.” Ashcroft–Cache Creek Journal, April 17, 2019).

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Teit to Boas. December 25, 1897. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1897–2. Dear Friend Your letter of 11th inst duly to hand. I am glad to hear that Mr. Smith arrived safely and has been so successful in his work. I will have nothing further to add to the traditions. Any other Nkamtcínᴇmux ͇ myths I may gather I shall send to you when I make a collection of the Utamk̠t traditions. I am glad to hear that you made such a success in collecting on the coast and that the collections look so well. I am revising my description of the NLakyápamux ͇ and have just finished the 13th chapter. You did not say whether you received the chapters I sent to you in August. I suppose you did however as I sent them by registered mail. I will be able to do some work for you next summer but I cannot yet say how much. I will do it either amongst the Utámk̠t or Lillooet perhaps both. Last summer you said that you thought one month would be sufficient amongst the former and four months among the latter. You left it to my option to put in the time as it suited me best either altogether or a month or two at a time. I would make minute enquiry amongst them upon all the subjects I have written on in my description of the NLakyápamux ͇ and am sanguine that I will be able to collect a large amount of information. I would also write down the traditions and anything else you deemed desirable. You said that while engaged on the work you would pay me fair wages and my expences [sic]. The latter would not amount to very much in the summer time probably not over $20.00 to $25.00 per month perhaps much less if I could manage to strike a place where I could camp out and pasture my horses. If I [page 2] could not manage to do this I would live with the Indians[.] I would visit the several bands of each tribe. Re wages you can allow me what amount you deem fair or can afford probably about from $50.00 to $60.00 per month would suit us both. Re making a collection amongst the Lillooet I should think it would require almost if not quite as much money as the NLakyápamux ͇ one. This puts me in mind that you promised some more money for the latter to procure the articles you made me take a note of last summer. I have already got some articles on hand which I have purchased out of the surplus money I got from you at Bella Coola and the saddle money. I have got answers to all the questions you got me to take a note of last summer. You did not give me any information re the wigs nor did you make out a cheque to me for Clemes. He is anxious to get the money soon. If you want me to do the Utamkt first I might manage to go there 138 | 1897

in a couple of months time (abt beginning of March). I hope you wont forget to send me the books you promised especially the annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (Smithsonian). Give my kind regards to Dr. Farrand and Mr. Smith. I will write to the former in a few days. PS A great many Indians have died here about and in Nicola and Bonaparte lately.22 Some very typical ones amongst them.23 You ought not to lose any time if possible in completing your measurements throughout the Interior.

22. Bonaparte, formerly spelled Buonaparte, is a Shuswap (Secwepemc) community near the border with Nlaka’pamux territory. 23. The “typical ones” mentioned in this comment may refer to elderly or sick ones, and Teit’s discreet attempt to communicate a sense of urgency regarding completion of measurements may also be a way to highlight the changes and devastating disruptions brought about by colonial institutions (unpublished notes of Sarah Moritz, focus group with Upper St’át’imc elders, July 2014).

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1898

Boas to Teit. January 4, 1898. AMNH Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. My Dear Friend, I was glad to receive your letter of Dec. 25th. I enclose today duplicate of the lost cheque. I could not do so any sooner because I had to wait for a new check book from Victoria. I did receive the corrected chapters which you sent me in August, and I look forward with much pleasure for the other chapters. Your proposition to collect the desired material on Lower Fraser River and Lillooet, if I pay you $60 per month, is quite acceptable to me. I shall write you soon how much money I shall be able to set aside for the collection of specimens at Lillooet. It will suit me very well if you should want to go down the river by the beginning of March. Please let me know in time so that I may have the funds ready. I have not forgotten to ask for the reports of the Bureau of Ethnology for you, and I have the promise of the people at Washington to send them to you direct. I have been making some inquiries in regard to wigs, and I find that we cannot very well make them here and send them out to you on account of the Customs Regulations.1 I believe if you could make up some shredded cedar bark or jute or any other material we could probably copy them here, at any rate I think it would be worth while to try this method. I expect that Mr. Smith will be out to British Columbia again by the end of April or the beginning of May. I cannot come this summer because I have too much to do with the previous results of our work. The photographs of the Indians were delayed on account of the change in customs laws, and I received the box containing the views only today. The first box arrived some time ago, and I am having the prints made now. I am sorry there was so much delay, but I hope you will be able to explain. 1. Apparently required for photography. Teit later took a series of photographs of Nlaka’pamux people illustrating pre-settler era hair styles, now preserved in the Canadian Museum of History.

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Teit to Boas. January 12, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. Dear Dr. Boas Your letter of 4th inst duly received with enclosed cheque which Mr Clemes was very pleased to see. I am glad to know that I am to receive the books from Wash etc. I will try to make some rough specimens of wigs for you here, or get an Indian to make them. I will use teased up rope for hair. I think you can depend on my going amongst the Utamkt sometime in March either beginning or end. I am busy on “the paper” every night almost and am now revising the XXIII chapter. I will send you some of the finished chapters in a few days. I have added as many as twelve pages to some chapters. I am afraid you will have quite a job putting the paper into shape when you get it all. I have written hurriedly and without much care (excepting to make things clear) depending on you to correct any errors you may find grammatical and otherwise. I was glad to hear you had received the other portion of the paper I sent you. If you intend publishing the first two or three chapters of the paper you better send them here for me to go over again[.] (They were not amongst the type written copies you gave me last summer) [.] I ask this because I think the list of villages would be better of being revised also the names by which the NLakyápamux ͇ are known to other tribes etc. I enclose herewith some notes which I think I did not include in the chapters I lately sent to you. Some are things that have come into my memory since and others are points learned through conversation with the Indians. [page 2] PS I wrote to Dr Farrand the other day addressing the letter to Columbia College, New York. Do you think the paper I am now revising will be printed by the early summer. It would be so much better for me if it were, because I could then take a copy along for reference (amongst the Lillooet). Are there any particular points you would like me to inquire about amongst the Utamkt [?] [W]hen are you going to send me the NLakyápamuxtcín ͇ (language) material (you collected) for me to look over for you[?] Also the rules of grammar and examples (Salish proper Margarini [sic]) which you said you would send so that I could find out if they also obtained in the language and to what extent.2 I might be doing something in that line this winter 2. A reference to Mengarini, A Selish or Flat-head Grammar. Gregorio Mengarini (1811–86) was a Jesuit priest who served at the St. Mary’s Mission to the Kalispel in Montana from 1841 to

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from time to time. As I promised I have written out for you over 200 plurals and over 100 diminutives and will write out more. I think it will be better if you could manage to send the rules regarding the forming of the Salish diminutives and plurals now, so that I could make inquiry regarding them and obtain examples before sending you the before mentioned lists of NLakyapamux ͇ plurals and diminutives[.] I am also writing out the terms of relationship for you.

Teit to Boas. January 17, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. Dear Dr. Boas. I wrote an answer to your letter a few days ago, and now drop you a note to let you know that I am sending herewith by registered mail Chapters 13, 14, 15 and16 of the paper being those dealing with Fishing, Hunting, War and Intertribal Trade respectively. Some points perhaps omitted in former chapters are viz. (1). Necklaces made of seeds of the Cactus and Kwṓis were worn by women.3 The seeds were bored and strung on bark strings[.] (2) A large birch bark (thick bark) water bucket was used some of them were narrower at the top than the bottom. In shape they were nearly round some of them being slightly square sided. They were carried on the women’s backs, because too large and heavy when full to be carried easily in the hands. They were ́ e̠ ɬ [page 2]and probably held five or more gallons.4 called sk̠auāk I hope you will find the additional information in these chapters of interest but I think you will have quite a bit of work putting my disorderly notes in order. PS Remember me to Dr. Farrand and Mr. Smith. I hope you are progressing with the casts.

1850. He subsequently served at the St. Paul Mission, in Oregon, and spent the rest of his life in California. Mengarini also appears as a co-author with Joseph Giorda of A Dictionary of the Kalispel or Flat-head Indian Language, and he provided information on Salish dialects to J. W. Powell, “Contributions to North American Ethnology” (Morrison, J. L. “Mengarini, Gregorio,” Encyclopedia.com, https://shorturl.at/imzf6, accessed March 6, 2022). Although Boas sent A Dictionary of the Kalispel or Flat-head Indian Language to Teit in March 1900, and in February 1907 sent “sheets relating to Calispelm grammar,” it is not clear that he sent Mengarini’s Grammar. Apart from the Flathead terms, A Selish or Flat-head Grammar is in Latin. 3. Eleagnus argentea Pursh, also known as Eleagnus commutata (see Turner et al., Thompson Ethnobotany, 207). 4. This is Teit’s first use of this linguistic symbol.

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Teit to Boas. February 6, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. Dear Friend, I herewith send you chapters XX, XXI, XXII and XXIII of the paper. I hope you will find the additional information therein contained of value and interest. I hope you will excuse me for writing the notes so hurriedly and without care regarding grammar, spelling etc. etc. but it would cause me a great deal more work if I was to write very carefully and revise time and again everything I write. I leave it to you to make all corrections and do the best you can[.] I will have added about 150 to 160 pages to the original paper by the time I am through. This is the third batch of chapters I have sent you within the last three weeks or so. I hope you have received them all. I expect to hear from you before long. You will find some additions to former chapters on the back of this letter. I have written out in the Indian language an address to the Rain, one to the Chinook wind, another to the First Fruits and one to the Day Dawn. I will send you these bye and bye (with next lot of chapters). [page 2] [A]ddition to chapter XVI. The skins of the small Black-Tailed Deer were sometimes bartered from the Utámk̠t. These skins were prized by the Upper NLakyápamux ͇ for making moccasins because it is said they were tougher than skins of Mule Deer and whitetail which were the common varieties abounding in the Nkamtcinᴇmux and Tcawáxamux͇ country. The dressed skins of the Blacktail were called yoayû́xt whilst the green hides were called Utámk̠tᴇkäí́ t. The deer (Blacktail) themselves were sometimes called by these names. [Ditto] Chapter XII Sníɬkîn5 was never boiled but simply soaked in water for a night before being eaten. One kind of nk̠aux6 was k̠óna7, ́ 9 boiled together. tcáwak8, and kokwîla

5. The root of wild sunflower, Balsamorhiza sagittata (see Turner et al., Thompson Ethnobotany, 23). 6. A staple Nlaka’pamux food, “n/kexw—a boiled pudding of deer fat and various ‘roots,’ Saskatoon berries and black tree lichen” (Turner et al, Thompson Ethnobotany, 316). 7. The application of “k̠óna” here is uncertain; “kona´lp or kônê´lp is identified as false hellebore, Veratrum californicum S. Wats., a poison” (Steedman, “Ethnobotany of the Thompson Indians,” 512). Turner transcribes the term as qwnéɬp and identifies it as Veratrum viride, but concurs that this is false hellebore and very poisonous (Turner et al., Thompson Ethnobotany, 131). Neither identifies an edible root plant with a Nlaka’pamux term like k̠óna. 8. Tiger lily, Lilium columbianum Hanson. (Turner et al., Thompson Ethnobotany, 126). 9. Hog fennel root, Lomatium macrocarpum Hand A., also known as Peucedanum macrocarpum (Turner et al., Thompson Ethnobotany, 155).

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[Ditto] Chapter XIV (In hunting by driving) The drivers were called ͇ and the sitters or shooters “kᴇmáks” “zax áist” [Ditto] Chapter XII A person who eat [sic] Coyote liver would swell either in the face or eyes. Coyote, plover, ptarmigan, Red shafted flicker, and robin were only supposed to be eaten by old people. Wolverine was sometimes eaten.

Teit to Boas. February 13, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. Dear Friend, Your letter of 28th ult duly to hand. I was glad to hear that you were progressing with your work and also that Dr. Farrand and Mr. Smith were getting along nicely. I am glad to hear that the traditions will be out shortly. I note all the points you mention regarding the Utamkt and Lillooet and I shall certainly make diligent enquiry and do the best I can. I hope to get meanings of the basketry designs from some of the elderly Utamkt. I will only make a collection of such things as bring out the differences between the tribes and the Eastern NLakyapamux. I will do the best I can re procuring of skulls, but this may be the most difficult task. I will of course obtain as full information as I can regarding all customs and traditions, myths etc., also as to whether there are any traces of the clan system etc. I hope to be able to send you a mass of information. I do not want you to send me any money for the Lillooet trip until I am nearly ready to go, but you can send some money within a week or two for the Utamkt trip because I think I shall certainly be able to go there towards the end of March. I send you herewith two more chapters of The paper and also some additional notes to be inserted in the other chapters. I also send you a sheet containing 120 plurals which you asked for. You can return a copy so that I may know exactly what plurals I have sent you. These contain a few from all classes of words and no doubt will give a good idea of the manner in which the plurals are formed. If you want me to give you plurals of any [page 2] particular words or certain class of words I shall be glad to do so. Next time I write I will give you a list of diminutives and send you the last chapters of my paper. The list of plants and the first chapters of my paper you promised to send have not turned up yet. I have made some progress in obtaining the names and meanings of designs and pictures amongst the people here, as set forth in their paintings on robes, rocks etc. carvings on pipes etc. and designs and patterns on bags 144 | 1898

etc. including some of those on baskets which are similar, also tattoo designs. It seems to me from what I have thus learned that a good many at least of the geometrical designs have at one time been animal designs and that at least so far as in the common things in nature they had a good deal of system in their representing of them.10 Re. the difference in our a/cs which you mention, I enclose a copy of the a/c as I have got it which may make things clear. If I am wrong or have omitted anything please let me know and I will make it right. PS The information I have gained throws some light on a few of the hitherto incomprehensible rock paintings etc. The enclosed a/c shows a balance due by me to the Museum of $25.25. I have already bought stuff to somewhat over the value of this amount and intend to forward same in about a couple of weeks.

Teit to Boas. March 1, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. Dear Friend, Your letter of 17th ult. with enclosed cheques amounting to $280.00 (for Utamkt work) duly to hand a couple of days ago. I will let you know when I make a start. I think the amount is quite sufficient to cover the work including a good collection of baskets and other things. I received the books you got the Smithsonian people to send me. I thank you very much for your thoughtfulness and kindness. I also received (presumably from yourself) the three papers by Otis Mason on Basketry, Carriers etc., etc. for which I feel deeply obliged. They are very interesting and instructive. Since reading these I understand the reasons much better why you are so anxious to get a good collection of baskets and basket patterns. Re. the latter if you turn up Mason’s paper on Basket work you will find the following identical or almost so with patterns which I have myself seen on Nlakyapamux baskets, bags, etc. Plates VI, XIV, XX, XXII, XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII, upper one IN XXIX, XXXVI, XL, LIII. If you look at his paper on Cradles, p. 169 is a hammock similar to those used here. P. 175, Fig 9 is a shape of carrier formerly used here but of which I have obtained no sample for the Museum yet. P. 187, fig. 18 is another kind of carrier the same as used here. P. 189, 10. For more on geometric design, see APS, Boas Papers: Teit to Boas, May 17, 1919, text 122068. For discussion of women’s design process see APS, Boas Papers: Boas to Teit, May 1, 1908, text 121418; Teit to Boas, January 1, 1908, text 121307; Boas to Teit, December 22, 1908, text 121424; Boas to Teit, April 15, 1910, text 121537.

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fig. 21 is the same shape as some of the carriers here but the manner of covering is different. P. 190, fig. 23 the style of covering is similar to some of those here. P. 212, fig 45. The manner of carrying the child is the same [page 2] as one way here, only the shawl generally comes over the mothers arms instead of under but the position of the child is exact. The other method of carrying large children is between the mothers shoulders high up so that the child’s arms are on a level with or can come around the mother’s neck. Turn up his paper on Primitive Travel, from p. 350, 351, 352, 353 it seems that the commonest kind of moccasin worn here was the same as that of the Nez Perce, Shoshone, and Cheyenne. P. 408, fig. 92 you will find almost the identical of one of the commonest kinds of Upper Nlakyapamux snowshoes. P. 447, fig. 134 is the same mode of carrying a burden amongst the Indians here and the tump-line is very similar. P. 448, fig. 135 is the same kind of packing case as used here made of horse, cow, and buffalo skin and either plain or painted in patterns. P. 449, fig. 136, is the same kind of bags used by many of the Upper Nlakyapamux and Okanagon. P. 472 figs 168 and 169 is the same manner of rising with a burden as here. P. 505 fig 200 is the other method of carrying children in vogue here.11 I have not received the first chapters of my paper you said you had sent or would send, nor the Ind. Photos. The several individuals are very anxious to see how they look and some of them have asked me several times when I expect to get them.12 I sent you a lot of chapters and some plurals etc. abt a week and half ago which you will have received by this time. I am glad you received all the others I sent. I am now ticketing the articles I have on hand and will forward them before long.13 I have got some nice samples of pipes, robes, weapons, etc., etc., with all of which I am sure you will be much pleased. There are about 30 articles altogether. Give my kind regards to Mr. Smith and Dr. Farrand and accept of same to yourself. PS I enclose some additional notes for former chapters.

11. Teit’s apparent enthusiasm for discovering parallels and similarities to Nlaka’pamux material culture in the societies Mason referenced contrasts with his earlier concern for identifying an essential Nlaka’pamux mythology. 12. AMNH Jesup North Pacific Expedition 1897–1902. With a few exceptions these photographs are of Nlaka’pamux individuals posed to show physical type; for example, front view and profile, with the focus on the upper part of the face in one or two instances. 13. That is, labeling.

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Teit to Boas. March 12, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. Dear Friend, Yours of 2nd inst duly to hand. I wrote to you lately acknowledging receipt of drafts. I expect to be able to go below about one week from date if nothing unforeseen occurs. I am glad to hear that the printing of the myths is progressing, and that you are getting along with other manuscript. The winter broke up here in the latter part of February and by the 1st of March the river valley was all dry. We are having very fine sunny warm weather at present and the snow in the mountains near bye is disappearing fast. I suppose the articles I have on hand will be in time for cuts of them to be inserted in my paper. Some of them are of special interest. I have got five or six very fine specimens of pipes each of a different kind. I would forward all the articles now but am waiting for some articles to be finished which I ordered to be made some time ago. I send along with this letter some additional notes and the last two chapters of my paper viz. those on the soul and future state, and Religion etc. If there is anything additional you want me to tell about or anything of importance I have omitted to speak of in my paper, or any of the notes not clear enough please let me know and I will endeavour to make up the deficiency. Give my regards to Dr. Farrand and Mr. Smith. I was glad to hear that you liked the plurals I sent. I will send some more bye and bye.

Teit to Boas. March 22, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. Dear Friend I give you (as above) a list of all the collection (Upper NLakyápamux͇) I have on hand, so that it may be in time for insertion in my paper. I think you will be very much pleased with all the articles when you see them. I have obtained almost full meanings of all designs on them. As soon as I come back from below I will forward the whole lot, along with what baskets etc. I may obtain. I am going down to-day and may get away on the train tonight, but the train service is very irregular at present, some of the passenger trains being upwards of 20 hours late some days. I will write you next from Spuzzum. I enclose some additional notes for the paper. These will be the last. Remember me to Dr. Farrand and Mr. Smith. 1898 | 147

PS I have not received the first chapters of my paper to correct yet, nor the Ind. Photos.

Teit to Boas. April 6, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. Dear Friend, I returned from Spuzzum to-day having been away altogether two weeks and one day. I spent most of my time at that place. I intend to go there again some time in May to finish my notes and to take away some baskets, mats etc. I ordered to be made. By that time the weather will be better down there, and I will be able to visit other villages besides Spuzzum. I may also be able to visit the rock paintings on Salmon River, and collect botanical specimens, which I can not do at present. I gathered a good deal of information on all kinds of subjects, but there are a good many points I wish to make further inquiry about. I wrote down 31 myths mostly all of them very interesting and some of them very long. I got one or two dealing with the origin of the Spuzzum people, and one about the woman who lived in the mountains and way laid or stole men similar to what you said was current amongst the Chilcotin or the Bella Coola. I also got the one about the chain of arrows and another about the man and canoe being swallowed which you asked me about last summer. Some of their stories are the same as the Nkamtcínᴇmux ,͇ others are partly similar, and a great many are different altogether. The people of Spuzzum (itself) have had a great deal of intercourse with the Indians of Yale and intermarriage has been rather frequent although probably not any more than is the case with similarly situated people. Their names for the sea and all sea animals have been borrowed from the Yale Indian language. A few of their myths have also been borrowed. I made special inquiry [page 2] regarding all the subjects you mentioned and will make further inquiry when I go there again. It is very difficult to get skeletons or skulls at Spuzzum now as the Indians have taken away the whole contents of the grave boxes they used to have and have buried them in their new graveyard. They did this because the ridge on which these large grave boxes were situated was commencing to cave from the action of the river. After they removed everything, they commenced to mine the ridge for gold running in tunnels from the [sic] side and wheeling out the earth or sand. They had not dug very far in when they came on ancient burials of which they knew nothing and which extended 148 | 1898

inwards from the side of the ridge for a distance of about twenty-five to thirty feet and at a depth of twelve feet or more below the surface of the ridge (where they had their grave boxes). The bodies were buried in a circle all around a spot where they found the remains of a large fire. None of the remains were extended but had evidently been buried [with] knee tyed up to chin and wrapped in birch bark. They numbered over twenty altogether and with most of them were found the remains of tools, weapons, and ornaments such as dentalia, bear claws, and a large species of shell, bone awls, stone pipes and hammers, and copper tubes. Grizzly claws and a copper spik was [sic] with one skeleton. This information I obtained from several Indians who took me to the place and pointed out where the fire had been and the position of the bodies. The Indians gathered the bones, put them in boxes and interred them in their present burial place all in one hole. Most of the implements etc. they threw away and they have been covered up with sand which the Indians have been shovelling off [page 3] from the top of the pay streak. A half-breed there knew that I was collecting for you and accordingly took possession of what he thought were the most valuable articles viz a stone pipe of peculiar shape, 2 stone hammers and a copper spîk which is 18 ½ inches in length 2 ¾ in at widest place and about ⅛ inch in thickness. These I purchased from him when I reached Spuzzum. They say some of the bones and skulls were very rotten while others were quite fresh. The discovery was made early this spring a month or more before I went down. The place is on the Indian reserve. I was treating with the Indians to let me take away all or some of the skulls from the place where they had buried them but they would not do so until they could communicate with their head chief (get his consent) who is away at present. I talked a great deal to them about it and hope I may persuade them when I go there next month. I am shipping to-day the articles I have collected during the winter and of which I sent you a catalogue over two weeks ago. I hope they may all arrive at their destination safely. I hope to see Mr. Smith when he comes out. I received the book on the Kwakiutl to-day and also an advise [sic] that the Ind photos were held at Ashcroft for duty.14 I am sending for them to-day. I received Dr. Farrands and Mr. Smiths letters to-day and am answering the latter. PS The spik is carved on each side to represent a mans face or head. 14. The book was Boas, The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians.

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Teit to Boas. April 11, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. Dear Friend, I was not able to ship the stuff on the day I wrote to you but shipped it on the 9th in two boxes both quite full and well packed. I enclose shipping receipt. I received the first batch of photos and have distributed most of them. The Indians are very pleased and think them well done. You did not send the first chapters of my paper back for me to revise as you promised to do, but probably you are so busy. I forgot to mention in my last letter that I did not get any stories at Spuzzum in which manufactured objects such as tools etc. figured prominently nor did the Indians seem to have any strong belief regarding implements having souls. There were formerly at Spuzzum two families who wore masks when dancing etc. but both these families were in blood half Yale, and evidently members of clans there. I got the traditions regarding the origins of the masks which came firstly into the possession of S’atcinko (Lower Fraser River or Yale Ind.) in both cases. I do not intend to send you the stories I collected until I come back from there again, as I may get additions etc. to some of them on my second trip. On the back of this sheet you will find some additions to be inserted in my paper. I also enclose a list of such things as I collected amongst the Utámk̠t and which I sent to you on the 9th along with the Nkamtcínᴇmux ͇ stuff I collected during the winter. I hope all may reach you speedily and in good order. [page 2] xx (additional) chapter on puberty 15 If a girl was very short when she became Lx ṓmᴇx ͇ ͇ the people made a very high lodge for her (so she might grow tall) but if the girl was tall when she became pubescent they made a low lodge for her (so she might not grow any more) so low in the case of a very tall girl that she did not have room to stand erect.16 A woman who was neither very short nor very tall was considered the best = viz. of medium height. xx a prayer said when crossing or stepping over the branches in front of lodge

15. That is, had her first period. “ɬx̣wumx [of girl at puberty] begin to menstruate [applies technically only to first day of first onset of menstruation]” (Thompson and Thompson, Thompson River Salish Dictionary, 163). 16. A hut constructed of fir boughs in which the young girl stayed during her training at first menses.

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A támus (May never) *tágîns (not I) tuwấkᴇna (bewitch I) ᴇk (any) Losk̠áiux ͇ (man (or human or Indian)), iɬ nkîlsmútlatc (and my like woman (myself or fellow)) a támus ta (may never no).17 May I never bewitch any man, nor my fellow woman. May it never happen. *Ta’kîns may be used (1st per sing) Or ta’ks or tags may be used (3rd per sing) xxxx. I put a skull into one of the boxes which I sent[.] I obtained it from the same Nkamtcínᴇmux ͇ graveyard as the former two I sent you.

Teit to Boas. May 9, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. Dear Friend, I send to you to-day the first chapters of the paper which I have revised. If you can manage to send me a copy of the plurals I sent you, so that I know exactly the ones I have given you, I will then send you another lot. I enclose some pictures drawn by an old Indian ́ at my request. I have put ink over the pencil lines named N’aukawī́lix̳ in case they might rub out. They may give you some hints and also some further idea of the style of pictography here (Nkamtcinᴇmux̳)[.] Probably some other man would draw some of the pictures differently as they have several different ways of making some things such as the sun, stars etc. etc. Some men prefer to draw from a back view and others from a side view. Some draw from a distant view and others from a closer view and so on. Most of the pictures are representative of the girls’ ceremonies. No (1) A. shows the squall cloud or a squall as it is called B. It is hard to say whether this means one heavy cloud or the whole sky line full of clouds (probably the latter). Rain is descending from it and it is a storm because the lower part of the rain is turned round or bent which means there is a wind along with the rain. No (2) shows pictures of a fir branch, snake or snake tracks, wood worm and cross trails. A is a boulder with a design which was often

17. Teit presented this in interlinear translation in the original letter.

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painted on boulders by girls and is emblematic of a mat or mat work. [page 2] No (3) is a picture of Lightning striking a tree. The rays around the arrow stone or thunder bolt mean light rays or fire[,] rays (like those around some pictures of the sun and stars). No (4) shows a thunder bolt, the thunder-bird with spread wings, the sun (with rays), the moon, a star, and the rainbow. No (5) A shows a man and wife or married couple, the woman is distinguished by her large breasts and belly. B. is a picture of a meteoric shower, showing the sky line or arch, stars, and lightnings from the shooting ones. C. is the earth with four quarters, and the position of the sun at sunrise, mid-sun, and sunset. D. shows a halo round the moon or the moon inside its house. E. are pictures of mountains with lakes on the top. The circles at the bottom are the earth lines (representing the earth and the strokes down the sides mean gulches or ravines[)]. Earth lines are usually made straight along the bottom of the object but below mountains are often made like a half circle, this represents the valleys which run up around them on each side. Looking at a mountain from a distance the land seems to ascend around each side. F. are other mountains G. is the earth with rivers and people’s lodges (or towns). It is surrounded by a lake as shown by the outer circle. H. is the road to the spirit land, with the tracks of the travellers. At the upper end a river crosses it which is [page 3] spanned by a bridge. At the end of the road is the portal of the land of souls. I. is the spirit land with its crowds of people (who are represented by dots and strokes). They are supposed to be dancing etc. etc. No (6) gives a picture of the trail which the girl walks over from her lodge to the hills and springs etc., also shows her lodge of fir branches, a stump she has crowned with her mask of fir branches,18 the trench she has dug with the earth thrown out to one side.19 A, is the trench, with three poles or sticks set up, the diverging strokes at the top mean articles suspended there such as the cup, 18. “During the first four days [the girl at first menses] wore a rough head dress of conical shape, made of small fir branches, usually four” (Teit, The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, 313). 19. An example of repetitive, symbolic tasks performed by the pubescent girl during her seclusion.

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basket and other things which the girl hangs up or disposes of when finished with her training. B. shows the line of fir tops or sponges which had been used by the girl for washing herself with. They were carefully placed in a line with their ends all one way (see paper). No (7) will be found on back of No (6) and represents a hunting scene. A man leading his dog and following the tracks of a buck deer which is running away I got this old man to look over copies of rock paintings I have with the result that I obtained some further information. If you send me all the copies of rock paintings which I sent you formerly I will mark on them the additional meanings I have obtained and return them to you. You have now in your possession on specimens in the museum and otherwise a good many pictures and designs with meanings, so you will soon be able to study out the pictography of this tribe. I have more information on hand re. pictures and designs but do not have time to write it out at present, but will do so soon. You need not send the rock painting that was printed, only the others.

Teit to Boas. May 15, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. Dear Friend, As some things happened to come into my mind I thought I would drop you a line. I don’t remember whether I mentioned in my paper about the difference between the hunting and war arrow in regard to the heads. The former was generally leaf shaped and never barbed while the latter was often barbed. It will require about three more pairs of moccasins and about seven or eight more pipes to make a complete collection of these for the museum,—showing all the varieties or rather types. While here last summer you got the meanings of colored patterns on a couple of horse skin parfleches or packing sacks but you did not buy the sacks themselves because they asked too much for them. Now I took sketches of these sacks (in water colors) when they were in my charge—before your arrival, and I can send you same if you have not got any sketches of the patterns. Please let me know about it. The explanations will be no good without the patterns. Would outlines of Indians hands and feet be of any value to you. I might procure some. It 1898 | 153

would show the size of the hands etc. pretty correctly, probably as well as measuring the length and breadth would do. I have not got any hair for you excepting that of one woman called x̳aisếska, but I have not tried to procure any yet (practically). I have got a model of a deer trap made (or rather snare) the same kind as set in fences and described in my paper. I have also got some other things on hand but refrain from sending them until I come back from below when I will send everything together. [page 2] I received your letter of 7th inst. the other day. I was glad to hear the myths were so nearly ready and also that you would forward the Indian photos. I expect to go down below sometime about from the 20th to the 23rd if nothing intervenes.20 I collected some more Nkamtcinᴇmux̳ myths last winter. The principal one is the Story of the Elk. It shows some Shuswhap affinities such as the old woman dressing a stump to look like herself and thus deceive her grandchildren etc. I expect to have the pleasure of seeing Dr. Farrand in a few weeks and hope he may lay over here a day and enjoy our fine air.

Teit to Boas. June 3, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. Dear Friend, I have been around here for nearly a week and expect to be here for four or five days yet.21 Afterwards I will be at No[rth] Bend for two or three days.22 The Indians tell me there is no use going to the head of Salmon River until the end of June so I will not attempt it.23 There is snow there yet and travelling in soft snow would be very difficult. I may go there at some future time. The last three days I have been at an Indian gathering six miles up the river here and was not able to do any work as you may know so I really lost that much time, but I had plenty of fun and became acquainted with a great many Indians belonging to this part of the country. [page 2] To day I have had the Indian Chief who is a very well posted man (and besides an old friend of mine) sitting with me all day.24 The Inds object to my touching any of the bones from the old grave, which they have reburied but I 20. That is, to the Fraser Canyon. 21. Spuzzum Bc. 22. North Bend is a community in the Fraser Canyon on the west side of the Fraser River upriver from Spuzzum. 23. Salmon River, now also called Nahatlatch, is a tributary of the Fraser River on the west side, between North Bend and Lytton. 24. Likely James Paul, whose Nlaka’pamux name was Xixneʔ

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may be able to get three or four skulls which are hidden near the old graves and which they have not yet buried. I have been quite successful in all my work here. My mail is all at Sp[ences] B[ri]dge and I do not know whether I will see Dr. Farrand or not. If he comes out about the middle of the month I will be home by that time and will probably see him. PS When I get home I will commence to write out the stories in my spare time and send them to you first.

Teit to Boas. June 13, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. Dear Dr. Boas I just arrived back from Spuzzum and North Bend etc. I was also over at Boston Bar.25 I gathered a good many stories and have got a really fine collection of myths. I collected a good many articles from below and enclose a shipping receipt of three boxes full which I have despatched to-day. I will send a description of the articles in a day or two. I also collected much information about the people below which I will write up bye and bye. I will commence writing out the stories at once. Will I send them to you in Germany or address to New York[?] [page 2] I hope you will have a pleasant time at home. I suppose your trip will be partly on business. I will send shipments to Mr. Saville as you direct and arrange through Smith for the Lillooet trip.26 If I do not go hunting I will certainly make the Lillooet trip and in case I may be able to go, it would be advisable to put up in the meantime at least part of the money. I will be able to do one months work at it anyway whether I go hunting or not. I intend to send you accounts of my expenditures in my recent work. Will I send them to you in Germany[?] Hoping this will find you well and wishing you a safe voyage. PS What about the Indian photos and are the Myths printed yet. PS If Dr. Boas has gone Mr Saville please forward this letter.27 25. Boston Bar: a Fraser Canyon community on the east bank of the river, across from North Bend. 26. Marshall Howard Saville (1867–1935) was the first curator of Mexican and Central American Archaeology at the American Museum of Natural History. Saville worked at the museum from 1894 to 1907 (OCLC Inc., “Marshall Howard Saville Correspondence 1896–1903,” Archivegrid, https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/collection/data/56945374, accessed October 13, 2021). 27. P.S. written at the top of the first page.

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Teit to Boas. June 24, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. Dear Friend28 Your letter of 18th inst duly to hand. I think the sum of $370.00 will probably be sufficient for the Lillooet work, but if not I will charge you with one months wages and wait until 1st of January for payment as you advise. I had the pleasure of a visit from Dr Farrand on the 22nd inst and enjoyed his short stay very much. I was glad to hear that your Asiatic party got their passports. I used some of the Utámk̠t money to repay myself for what I expended last winter and spring buying Upper NLakyápamux̠ specimens. I also have some on hand yet which I expect to spend for specimens I ordered to be made. I understand the myths are printed but probably will not be issued until fall. Dr. Farrand said they would probably send me a copy some time soon. I have written over twenty of the Utámk̠t myths but I suppose there is no use sending them to you in Germany[;] it will likely be better to keep them until you get back to New York. The same will apply to other information etc. Hoping you will enjoy your trip to Germany. PS A printed copy of the myths would help me a good deal in writing out the Utámk̠t stories so if you have not advised them to send me a copy please do so. I sent the description of articles in the last shipment to Saville.

Teit to Boas. August 28, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. Dear Friend. I expect you will be in New York shortly therefore I drop you a note to let you know how I am getting along. I am shipping some stuff today for the Museum of which you will find a list enclosed. I also send you registered, such of the Utamkt Myths as I have written out to date. I will not be able to write out the others until late in the fall. I am sure you will find them very interesting. I put in about a month on the Lillooet work and have already gathered a large amount of valuable and interesting information. My notes on customs alone fill 122 pages (of this size paper) and I have also gathered many stories. I am leaving here in

28. Teit’s letter is addressed to Boas at Winterfeld Strasse 31, Berlin W, Germany.

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a couple of days to join Mr. Dixon29 at Douglas.30 I enclose two Kodak pictures of a boy shooting arrows, but he was left handed and the hands did not come out so distinct as I wished so I am doubtful they will be of much value. If you wish the copies of the rock paintings you sent me I will forward them with what I have learned about their meanings to date. I enclose two copies of rock paintings which I obtained lately. If not too late you may add the following information to my paper*31 If a child is born with a hare-lip, the mother is supposed to have eaten hare flesh when pregnant. To guard against fatigue some hunters carried a small [page 2] quantity of sweet service berries which they ate if they felt tired or exhausted. Some believe that the Thunder besides shooting the ordinary thunder arrowheads also sometimes shoots “tcêkúkpa” or tail feathers of the “tcêkwáxên” Red shafted Flicker (variety of the woodpecker) which sets on fire anything it touches.32 Probably therefore the reason they attached feathers of this bird to arrows they shot at enemy’s houses. Boys and hunters used fir branches as toboggans sliding down mountain sides on hard snow. Some medicine-men have staffs (especially old m.m. [medicine men]) which are painted symbolically representing lightning, snakes etc. or their manitous and some have representations of the same carved or painted on their pipes. Formerly their [sic] was a custom that if it thundered and lightened very much the men bit their dogs ears so as to make them howl. This was supposed to make Thunder go away. If anyone possessed of much medicine pointed their finger at Kázik mountain near Lytton it would rain. Perhaps I gave you this last before. The Utámk̠t myths I am sending you are 31 in number. I have not taken so much time in writing them out as the first lot of Nkamtcinᴇmux̳ ones I sent you, so you will find 29. Roland B. Dixon (1875–1934) completed his master’s in 1898 and was beginning field work in British Columbia under the auspices of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition (Tozzer and Kroeber, “Roland Burrage Dixon,” 291). 30. Douglas, formally called “Port Douglas,” is a community at the mouth of the Harrison River and at the head of Harrison Lake, to the west of Nlaka’pamux territory. 31. Teit has used the asterisk to signal the beginning of the information he wished to add to his paper. 32. For a similar, perhaps correlated observation on the role and use of the red-feathered woodpecker, the feathers of which were also thought to be used by Lillooet women for ornamental uses on hair (i.e., as a headdress) with a special relationship to fire can be found within APS, ACLS Collection: “Lillooet Story of Burning Womans Head,” notes under “current beliefs” in Boas and Teit’s Salish ethnographic materials (Item 61), 1910.

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many grammatical errors etc. to correct. Hoping you have had a pleasant time in Europe.

Teit to Boas. September 9, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. Dear Friend I arrived here to-day about 2 o’clock having taken 10 days to make the trip from Sp[ences] Bridge.33 The trail is very bad and there is no grass the whole way from Lillooet except what is inside Indian Reserves. I am going back again to Pemberton Meadows where there is a large band of Indians and plenty of pasture for horses on the Ind. Reserve. The Indians through the valley are very tractable and the kindest I ever met.34 That is to say to a stranger. I can [page 2] do everything I want at Pemberton to as much advantage as here and it will be cheaper. There are about 150 Indians along the Lillooet River above here and 400 at Pemberton Meadows. I missed Dixon who started up the River 2 days ago but may catch him at the meadows. I expect to stay some time at the meadows. I am sorry I missed Dixon. I believe we passed him on the road at the Lower end of Lillooet Lake. If it was him he was foolish not to talk to us.

Teit to Boas. October 8, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. Dear Friend I arrived back from the Lillooet country two or three days ago after a very successful trip. I was away slightly over five weeks, and had very disagreeable weather on the way back. The first three weeks was very fine weather but the fall rains had set in at Pemberton before I left. As I stated to you in my letter from Douglas I was very disappointed at missing Mr. Dixon and no doubt he was also at missing me. We missed one another some way along the Lower Lillooet River. I raced back to Pemberton thinking he might stay there to take some castes [sic] but 33. He reached Douglas Bc. 34. According to Tsal’alh Elder Desmond Peters Sr. (Sarah Moritz, pers. comm., August 2016), Teit’s sentiment and appreciation was reciprocal and, alongside his extraordinary linguistic abilities, allowed him to establish an enduring and close rapport, trust, and collaboration with many local families and key collaborators such as Chief James Stager. For similar comments, see AMNH, Division of Anthropology, Teit to Boas, October 8, 1898.

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arrived there the day after he had left for Anderson Lake. I stayed most of the time at Pemberton where there was plenty of feed on the Indian Reserve and also laid over at the foot of Anderson Lake, at Lillooet and at the Fountain for a day or two in each place.35 I found the Lillooet country a hard one on horses[.] In most places the feed was about the same as at Bella Coola viz leaves. The trails were also extremely rocky and in some places dangerous. Owing to the long rest at Pemberton on plenty of good feed and taking my time and being careful I brought out all the horses in good order and all the stuff in safety. I had to buy hay at some places however. From the Fountain towards Sp[ences] B[ri]dge the country is full of the finest grass in great contrast to the Lillooet country. I found the Lillooets to be a very fine people— the most tractable and kindest I was ever amongst. I had no difficulty with them in any way. The Pemberton people especially were very good. I think you would have no difficulty in getting [page 2] a large number of castes and measurements (the former) very cheaply made. They seem to be an easier people to deal with than the NLakyapamux ͇ and more affable and obliging, but you want to take your time with them. I brought home a collection of about 110 articles of which about forty are baskets of all kinds, sizes and patterns. I got a good deal of information about the designs. I bought most articles at a lower rate than I could have done amongst the people here. I collected a number of myths and got much information on other points. They have no less than six transformers in their mythology. One of whom is a woman.36 The Lillooet seem to have been in contact with the Coast tribes for much longer time than the Utámk̠t for they are very much more influenced than the latter are (in every way). They are divided into two main divisions, the dividing line is a few miles SW of Anderson Lake, and is mentioned in their mythology. The people below are called and call themselves Líluet and those above SLátLemᴇx ͇ (or mux)͇ and the latter are again divided into three divisions, while the former are divided into two. The people of Upper Lillooet Lake and Upper Lillooet River (Pemberton) are called Liluetṓl (Lillooet proper

35. A St’at’imc village in the mountains north and east of Lillooet, Fountain is also known as Xaxli’p (First Nation), also spelled Cáclep. Teit was frequently helped by Chief James Stager (Pemberton Band) as he traversed St’át’imc territory four times—twice while on horseback, once on foot, and once by canoe journey (Drake-Terry, The Same as Yesterday, 218). 36. For more details on the female and other transformer figures Teit mentions and related stories shared by Upper St’át’imc Elders, see The Gwenis Lady that Turned into a Rock (Moritz, “Cúz̓lhkan Sqwe̓qwel ̓ (I’m going to tell a story).

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or real).37 Otherwise the organization is altogether different from the NLakyápamux̠ for they are all divided into village communities or bands having a common ancestor whom they personify in dances and amongst the Lower Lillooet have also at least four classes viz Hailtlólaux (a kind of bear people), Wolf, Owl, S’äínnux̳ (kind of half fish people). I think however that all these have at one time been distinct village communities. [page 3] Masks were worn in dances by both Upper and Lower Lillooets and totem poles were used by the latter. Although their carvings in wood etc. were generally emblematic of their mythological ancestors yet in their basket work it seems that totemic designs seldom or never occurred. I am going out deer hunting for a week or two and when I come back I will forward all the specimens I have on hand. I will if all is well finish writing out the Utamk̠t Stories in November and then will proceed to write out my report on that tribe. After I have finished it I will commence on the Lillooets, but will need to make another trip of about one month into the Lower Lillooet (Liluetṓl) country before I can finish my report on them. I cannot do this until next year. I also intend this winter to interview the Old Lillooet medicine-man again for the space of two or three weeks so as to finish up my collection of Upper Lillooet or (Lillooet of the Lakes) stories etc. etc. He is extremely well posted and very intelligent and as he talks NLakyápamux ͇ perfectly it will be an easy matter. From some stories I have already written down it seems that they ascribe the original inhabitants of the Fountain to a Shuswap source. I have also collected many interesting stories (historical) re. intercourse between the Lillooets and their neighbors especially relating to their wars with the Shuswhap and NLakyápamux .͇ I received three copies of “Traditions of the Thompson River Inds” the day before I left for Lillooet. I would like to get ½ doz more copies if possible[;] please try and procure them for me. I think I am entitled to more than three copies. I am very much pleased with the way you arranged and got up the book, and the introduction you wrote and the comparisons you make with myths of other tribes enhances [sic] the value of the book immensely. I read the introduction with very deep interest. There are a few misprints (some Indian [page 4] words, some English) but the printers are undoubtedly to blame for these. I 37. These characterizations and designations are overly rigid and inaccurate, according to many today, and continue to cause political, territorial, economic, and social divisions. They are the second or perhaps third disruptive layer of rigid colonial-style and Euro-centric boundarymaking after O’Reilly, Trutch, and reserve commissioners and that have simplified and misrepresented a dynamic social and kin-based system of belonging.

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enclose in this letter one of the (Lillooet) cheques you sent which you have omitted to sign. I did not notice that there was not a signature on it and sent it to the bank and they returned it to me yesterday. Please sign it and return. I hope yourself and family had a pleasant time in Germany and enjoyed the holiday. I am wearying to have a letter from you. I suppose by this time Messrs. Farrand, Dixon and Smith will have returned to New York. I hope they have all had much success in their undertakings. I hope you received the M.S. (Utamk̠t Myths) I sent you before going to Lillooet and also the stuff I forwarded to museum. I also enclosed in the letter I sent you of same date some new Rock paintings with translations.

Teit to Harlan Smith. October 30, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. My Dear Mr. Smith Your letter of 20th inst duly to hand. I was glad to hear you had such a successful season and had collected so much stuff. Re. Mr. Hill-Tout I hope he will be enlightened after a while. He seems to think he knows everything[;] therefore there is no harm in opening his eyes once in a while. I told you in the summer that I could not get any game made for you just then so advised you to procure one on the Coast if you were in a hurry. As I did not hear anything further from you regarding the subject I concluded you had got one there, but by your last letter I judge that you still wish one made. Would a set of birch bark cards do[?] I could get them easier than anything else and probably cheapest of all. I would very much like to drop in to dinner with you some day and also visit the Museum and hope the day may not be far distant when I may be able to do so. If I think of anything you can do for me I shall let you know with pleasure. I think with you that the dry country between here and Nevada would be a very interesting country to explore and hope you may be able to investigate it some day soon. I think some of the tribes in that [page 2] region need studying from every point of view. I was glad to see Mrs. Smith’s sketch in the N.Y. Herald. I suppose you have seen “The Thompson River Indian Traditions” by this time that were printed by the Folk Lore Society [sic].38 I am busy writing out the Utamk̠t stories now. It may interest you to know that I have through a study of the Lillooets obtained an explanation of the curious manner of 38. Teit is referring to the American Folk-Lore Society.

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burial formerly prevailing at Spuzzum as evidenced by the graves dug up last spring by the Indians here. If you remember they were buried in a circle round remains of a fire and the bodies showed evidence of having been wrapped in birch bark. Some of the Lillooets had the custom of burying a person in the lodge not far from the fire place (afterwards removing the lodge). Then when the next relative of the man thus buried died he was placed along side so eventually where the lodge had been became a grave yard with a circle of bodies around the old fire place. The Lillooets also sometimes used birch bark for lining the grave with or wrapping around or placing on top of the body. I understand that pieces of birch bark were sometimes buried in graves ( just like other articles) with the dead by both NLakyápamux̠ and Lillooet and probably also by the Shuswhap and perhaps other tribes.

Teit to Boas. November 3, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. Dear Friend Your letter of 17th ult duly received also check. I was glad to hear you had had a pleasant time in Europe. I have just shipped the Lillooet stuff and enclose herewith shipping receipt and also description of specimens. There are about 90 articles. I had rather to crush two of the specimens to get them in boxes. A basket made of cedar twigs and a cedar bark wallet. By wetting them with water you can get them back to their natural shape, the same applies to the cedar bark mat or anything made of bark, roots or grass. I am glad to hear that the drawings are being made for that long paper of mine and that the m.s. is about ready for the printer. I have no doubt you will manage to get it out this winter. I have only received three copies of my book (myths). I would like to get some more (half dozen at least). Please try and procure them for me. I have shown the Stryne Creek rock paintings and others to several of the best informed old men but was not able to get much additional information regarding them.39 I send them back to you. I will soon be through writing the last lot of Utamkt stories. 39. A reference to pictographs in the Stein River valley. The Stein River or Stein Creek is a tributary of the Fraser River on the west bank of the river, not far north of its junction with the Thompson River at Lytton. The pictographs in the Stein Valley are a factor it its current consideration as a possible World Heritage Site (“Canada’s Tentative List: Stein Valley, British Columbia,” https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/culture/spm-whs/indicative-tentative/stein, last modih fied 2017).

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Teit to Boas. November 11, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. Dear Friend I wrote to you last week, and enclosed the copies of rock paintings I had on hand. I also sent you a list of the Lillooet and Thompson specimens which I forwarded to the Museum on the same date. I now send you M.S. per registered mail. These are 21 stories of the Utamk̠t which I have just finished writing off. I sent you 31 stories in August just before starting for Lillooet. This makes 52 stories I have sent you, which is the total number I collected amongst the Utámk̠t. I hope you will find them to be of much interest and value. I wish we had as large a collection from each of the tribes of the Interior of BC, Washington and Oregon and of Idaho and Montana. Probably they would shed much light on one another. I make this letter very short as I know you are very busy. I am now going to begin writing out my report on the Utamk̠t and hope to finish it about the end of the year. I will send you a list of my expenditures some time soon. PS Kind regards to Dr. Farrand and Mr. Smith.

Boas to Teit. November 14, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. My dear Friend:— I received to-day your letter containing the lists of the specimens that you collected at Lillooet, which promise to be very interesting indeed. I also received a package containing the drawings and the shipping bill. I am very glad to get all this interesting material. I will write to Boston and try to get six more copies of your book for you. Can you kindly send me a statement of your expenditures during this year, including your own pay? I wish to hand in my vouchers up to date, and should like to include your accounts also. I have not very much time for scientific work this winter, because my lectures and the Museum work are very exacting, but I manage to put a couple of hours every day to the Tsimshian language, which I hope to complete next year. I should like very much to try the following experiment with some of your Indians. I suppose you have noticed that, in writing down the stories of Indians, the great trouble is to make them speak slowly, and still not more simply than it is their custom to do. 1898 | 163

It occurred to me that if your Indians talk into a phonograph in your presence, you would be able to repeat, after hearing the phonograph, what they said, so that [page 2] they might speak as fast as they pleased, and yet we get what we want. I am bearing this scheme in mind, and hope that we may be able to do something next summer.

Boas to Teit. November 22, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. My dear Friend:— The package containing the rest of the traditions reached us safely on Saturday. I have begun reading the traditions, and am very much interested in the results of your labors. I hope that you may have received the additional copies of your book.

Teit to Boas. November 25, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. Dear Friend Your letter of 14th inst duly to hand, and I was glad to learn that you had received the drawings and the lists of Lillooet specimens. You did not say whether you had received the last batch of Utamk̠t myths, but I suppose you did, as I sent them by registered mail. I enclose herewith statements of my expenditures viz. Utamk̠t a/c, NLakyápamux̳ a/c and Lillooet a/c. You will see that I amalgamated the two first named a/cs by placing the surplus money from the Utamk̠t to the credit of the Nla a/c. I think it would be advisable for you to vote $75 or $100.00 at least to enable me to continue the Nla collection during next year. There are many interesting things to be obtained yet, and by making a complete collection from the Upper NLakyápamux̳ (which will be typical of all the Southern Interior region) very little will be required to be collected from other neighboring tribes viz only those articles (very few in number) which are more or less different from the Nla. You will notice I have $101.00 of the Lillooet money on hand yet, but I expect to use up most of it before spring on necessary work which I have outlined in a note at foot of a/c. I think about $60.00 more will be required to finish the Lillooet work. If there is any surplus over I can use it in helping to complete the Nla collection. Your suggestion re [page 2] using the phonograph for recording Indian texts is very good. I think it is the best 164 | 1898

way possible. I could now be engaged recording words (as I heard them or as they occurred to me) for a NLakyápamux̳ dictionary if you had sent me slips. I have taken a few notes on the grammar showing the use of certain words. In the early summer I wrote down all the place names on both sides of the river between here and Ashcroft. I charged you only with what I paid the Indian and our expenses at Ashcroft. Have you arranged any programme for next summer, and is it likely you will be out here yourself[?] I thank you for sending for the six more copies of my book. Some parties who asked me for copies I directed to apply to the publishers, and some of them have done so. I am now engaged preparing my paper on the Utámk̠t, but will not be able to finish it for a month or more yet.

Teit to Harlan Smith. December 3, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. My dear Mr. Smith Your letter of 21st ult duly to hand. I must congratulate you on the acquisition of a daughter to your family circle. I did not order any games to be made for you, consequently you do not owe me anything. The tobacco you ask about is even now used by some Indians occasionally. It is a true tobacco. I have smoked it myself and find it strong. It is like a very strong cigar in flavor, and I would not be able to smoke very much of it at a time. It was the only tobacco used by the Indians formerly, and because it was so strong they mixed it about half and half with bear-berry leaf. The name of the tobacco is (English) Narrow-leafed tobacco (Scientific) Nicotiana attenuata (Indian) Skoiélux If you have time you might see about sending me the three Indian pictures which were promised. Dr. Boas is no doubt very busy and I will not bother him about them again. They were taken up at my place two years ago viz one woman and her child taken together (Kaxpítsa by name) full size. One young man Kilkálus (full size) One young man Nawấ ́ eskᴇt] (full size). All were taken full length [page 2]-weskᴇt [Nawáw in Indian costume. You sent their face portraits here last year, but it is their full length pictures they want. Dr. Boas promised to send them, and I told you about them last summer when I saw you. 1898 | 165

PS That elderly Indian with the very fine face (and regular and aquiline features) who got on the same train that you did going down to Lytton died here a couple of weeks ago. You remarked what a fine face he had.

Teit to Boas. December 20, 1898. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1898–32. Dear Friend I am glad to say that I received eight additional volumes of “Thompson River Ind. Traditions” and thank you very much for procuring same. I think these will be all I require. I was glad to hear that you had read over the Utámk̠t myths I collected, and that you found them interesting. I have now got about twenty pages finished of my report on the Utamk̠t [sic]. I would like to know if you sent copies of “Traditions Thompson Riv[er] Inds” to the Smithsonian Institute and to Dr. Dawson. I think you promised to do so. I will send one of the copies I received to Father Morice. I suppose you have not got your programme for next summer made out yet. How is my long paper on the NLakyápamux̳ getting along [?] [H]ave you any idea yet when it may be printed[?] I am expecting to have the pleasure of seeing a copy of Dr. Farrand’s report on the Chilcotin before long. PS I have just finished writing out a complete list of terms of relationship for this tribe and will send same to you very shortly.

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1899

Teit to Boas. January 12, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. Dear Friend I send you by this mail a very complete list of Nlakyápamux̳ relationship terms etc. About 225 terms in all, and I hope you may find them interesting.1 I have added notes to them in explanation of some of the words etc. and have compared them to some extent with the relationship terms you collected from Lillooet[,] Shuswap[,] Okanagan[,] and Kalispelm [sic]. (6th report on North Western tribes of Canada). If you desire any additional information regarding any of these terms I shall be very glad to furnish you with same if I can. As I have been rather busy and my wife sick a good deal I have not made as much progress writing the Utamkt [sic] report as I expected. I have finished 20 pages so far. A big landslide occurred here on the 2nd inst which entirely blocked the Thompson River ½ mile below Spences Bridge. The water rose about 20 feet (to a level with the building on the lower flat) and then discharged through an old river channel and now runs around the slide. The water still keeps at this high level and as we had some cold weather last week ice formed and we now cross very easily on it (much nicer than having to wait for the Ferry.)

Boas to Teit. January 21, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1902–1. My dear Friend,— I have to apologize for not writing to you on this, but my work has been very pressing, and I do not find much time for correspondence.

1. APS, ACLS Collection: Teit, James. 1905. “Ntlakyapamux relationship terms and terms applied to persons,” Item 61, S1b.9. Teit’s list includes not only kinship terms but also terms for parts of the body and other topics. The organization of the Nlaka’pamux kinship system and terms of relationship for both consanguineal relatives and relatives by marriage are presented in Thompson and Thompson, Thompson River Salish Dictionary, 192–96.

167

I have looked over your collection with great interest. The Lillooet material came in about a week ago. There are a great number of very beautiful baskets in that collection. In connection with this matter I looked over with Smith in detail his archaeological collection and I am struck with the similarity of the decoration on many of his specimens and on those that you sent us. I had a number of rough sketches made of those decorations, which I am sending you. Will you do me the favor to inquire among the Indians if they can give me any information about the designs found on those specimens? The numbers that you find on these specimens are our catalogue numbers. 3235 is the handle of a digging-stick. I had the upper end drawn in such a way that you can see both sides. The designs resemble so much your paintings that I thought some old woman might be able to give you an explanation. 5000 is also the handle of a digging stick. 4825 is the arrow flaker that you sent. I presume the design is what you call the butterfly design. [page 2] 3067 is a little implement that Smith dug out at Lytton. It is a thin, flat piece of bone, and I cannot imagine its use. The decoration is so much like that of your arrow flaker, that the idea must certainly be the same. You notice the same circles in the middle, and notches along the sides. I wish you could find out what this implement is, and what the designs signify. 5001, a specimen in the Museum of the Geological Survey of Canada, is a pipe with designs similar to those on the handle of the digging-stick. 2846, evidently four gambling-sticks, which Smith found with the skeleton that was buried near the fence-post at Spences Bridge that you pointed out to us in 1897. This is evidently a modification of the beaver-tooth game. I wish you could find out the meaning of this design. 4589, a pair of wooden tweezers that you sent 2527 and 2528, pieces of bone carved in the same manner 2801 is one bone carved with a chevron design The remaining three, 2542, 2508, and 2670, are very fragmentary. I do not think you will be able to do anything with them. We have also quite a number of dentalia which are carved with chevron designs, but the designs are so indistinct that we cannot well

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make them out. Will you kindly ask the people if they ever carved designs on dentalia, and, if possible, find out what designs they used. In accordance with your suggestion contained in a recent letter, I have asked for $300 to be placed at your disposal for continuing your work. I am exceedingly anxious to obtain a number of skulls from [page 3] Lillooet, particularly from the region between Fort Douglass and Pemberton Meadows. I consider this one of the most important things to supplement our work. I know, of course, that it is somewhat difficult to do ethnological work and to collect skulls at the same time. Do you think you could help me in this? When you see more clearly what you propose to do this year, I presume I can get a little more money for work in Lillooet. I am awaiting your suggestion in this matter. I am very sorry to hear that your wife has been sick this winter. I hope that she is better by this time, and that you are prospering. I think that it is very unlikely that I shall be out during the coming summer, but if I do not come this year, I shall certainly come next year. Smith will start from here some time in April, and I presume he will stop over at Spences Bridge to see you.

Boas to Teit. January 25, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–2. My dear Mr. Teit:— I am sending two packages of photographs, one to Pemberton Meadows, the other to Douglas. They were taken by Dixon. I am sending them in your care, as you will understand about getting them through the customs, and know if they are properly directed to reach the right people. We thought it would be nice for you to give these pictures to the Indians, as you may be going among them again. I am sorry they are not better. But you know the way we take pictures in the field, and that it is difficult to do as pretty work there as could be done in a proper studio. I have not been on horseback since I went up the mountain with you last May.

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Teit to Boas. January 30, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. Dear Friend. I have no doubt your work is very pressing consequently I do not expect to hear from you very often, nevertheless I always look forward with delight to receiving a letter from you. I am sorry I will not have the pleasure of seeing you this year, but hope to do so next. I was glad to hear the Lillooet and other stuff had come to hand and that you thought so much of the baskets etc. Your letter with sketches of designs came duly to hand, and I shall do what I can in the matter of finding out their meanings. I am glad to hear you will get more money to continue the work. I know you are very anxious to obtain a number of Lillooet skulls and I shall avail myself of any possible chance to get some, but when I was down there I did not see any chance nor hear of any place where they might be obtained[;] nevertheless I still hope to be able to do something in that way. There seems to be no old burial grounds down there at least I did not see or hear of any. Box burials above the ground seems to have been the custom and of late years they have collected all these remains and buried them in the fresh graveyards near their villages. This puts me in mind of a matter which I think requires attention, viz. cist burials. I never heard of any until this fall when a[n] old Nicola Indian informed me that he and party came on some in the hills between Nicola and Okanagon. He said they are regularly laid slabs of stone resting on one another so as to form something like a square shaped box. A number of them had become exposed probably about half a dozen. I have not seen him lately so cannot give you further details. I shant be long finding out about the designs you sent me. You did not state how my long paper was progressing or if it would be published this year, also as to whether you received the list of relationship terms I sent you.

Smith to Teit. February 2, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–2. My dear Mr. Teit:— There has been a slight change in the plans for my work for this year, and I think I shall visit the region between Lillooet and Douglass [sic] to collect archaeological specimens and human bones, both old and recent. Dr. Boas has not completed his advice to me on this subject. If you are 170 | 1899

to be in that region, I should enjoy arranging my work so that we may be together, if it would be agreeable to you. I think I shall spend about a month if everything went well.

Boas to Teit. February 2, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–2. My dear Friend:— Enclosed please find two checks for $100 each, which will enable you to go on with your work when you get time. I shall send an additional hundred dollars toward the end of the month. Further study of your Lillooet collection and of Dixon’s measurements from that country seem to make it very desirable to get further information, in certain lines, from the region between Douglas and Pemberton Meadows. I wrote in my last letter that I considered skulls and skeletons from that region as very important. It seems to me now that it would even be desirable to do some archaeological work in that valley. I have spoken to Smith about this matter, and told him to get all the information he can, and, if it seems at all promising, to make a trip up to Lillooet and to work there for some time.2 Perhaps you have some information that may be useful to him as regards the locations of old prehistoric sites. If you have any, please write to him on the subject. Perhaps it might be convenient for both of you to arrange a joint trip in that direction, but I am not certain, because Smith’s collection of skeletons in the old village-sites or graveyards might, perhaps, interfere with your work. It is best for both of you to arrange those matters in whatever manner seems most advisable. Since I wrote you last, I have received your list of terms of relationship. This is very interesting indeed. Many thanks for the same.

Teit to Boas. February 12, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–2. Dear Friend Your letter of 2nd inst duly to hand with enclosure of $200.00 to enable me to continue the work of collection. As I related in my last letter I do not know of any ancient and deserted burial sites in the 2. Further details regarding Smith’s Lillooet trip are mentioned in a letter to George Hunt (see APS, Boas Papers: Boas to Hunt, June 24, 1899, text 65012).

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Lower Lillooet country, but I saw some old village sites in a few places. I believe there is a large old village site at the mouth of the Lower Lillooet River and I should think there might be other remains (human) at no great distance from it as it was a very populous place before the whites came to the country. The present Douglas Inds (near Douglas on Little Harrison Lake) removed from there in 1858 and 59 and settled where they are at present so as to be near the white town of Douglas. I did not go over to this place as I was told no Indians lived there now, and it was a little out of my route. There are evidently some very old burial grounds in the Upper Lillooet country which might be worth exploring. You ought to find out the exact location of the one near Lillooet which Dr. Dawson excavated to some extent. Beyond skulls and skeletons you do not mention on what certain lines you desire further information (from that region). Is it anything beyond what you stated in former letters[?] I was glad [page 2] to hear you had received the list of relationship terms I sent you. I would very much like to send you as full a one from each of the tribes. The articles I have on hand at present are (1) a wooden cuirass, (2) a ‘nx̳wéka’ ring with 4 arrows for throwing at it, (3) a beaver skin cap with 6 tails (4) wooden matches (5) a man’s buckskin shirt (old style) (6) one pair of bark boots, (7) a fringed marmot skin robe. I am writing a note to Smith. PS Re. the last money you sent I have adopted a somewhat different method than formerly. I sometimes find the large checks hard to change here and have had to send them to the bank, also I do not care to keep much money around my person or in the house. Consequently I have placed the money to the credit of my a/c in the Bank of BC. Kamloops and can draw from same by issuing small checks as required in my own name. Doing this is much more convenient to me and I hope it may meet with your approval. 13TH FEB/99

PS You will be sorry to hear that Indian Sam died here to-day at 11 a.m. through blood poisoning, the result of a bite (or a cut) he got on the thumb from a white man with whom he had a fight.3 His life might have been saved at one time by amputating the

3. In 1897 Teit referred to “Sam” as a person who accompanied Teit, Boas, and Farrand on their journey to Bella Coola.

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hand but he would not let the doctor do this, as he put his faith in the medicine-men still be[ing] able to cure it. Thus he went on until nothing could be done for him and he became a terrible sight before he died. La grippe and neumonia [sic] have been very prevalent amongst the Indians this winter, and there are three individuals dying here with consumption. Our arrow maker is one of the numbered ones I am sorry to say.

Teit to Boas. February 14, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. Dear Friend. I have had a talk with several old Indians regarding the meanings of designs etc. on the copies of specimens you sent me, and have shown them to two old men and two old women.4 I now give you the results of my investigations and return the sketches forthwith. No 16/32355 Handle of root digger. Design is a snake or worm pattern representative of the striped skin of the reptile. Snakes and insects etc. when used as patterns in ornamentation were generally drawn or carved without showing head or tail.6 Design is an insect pattern representative of some hairy insect. The short lines from the sides mean hair. The snake and some hairy insect were probably the manitous of the woman to [sic] 4. An indication of the interaction between Boas and Teit concerning both the development of Teit’s ethnography and Boas’s own intellectual interests. Boas’s interest in design is a motif that surfaces from time to time throughout the correspondence. This interest was ultimately set out in his 1927 volume, Primitive Art, but in the context of his early work with James Teit it was expressed in the chapter “Art,” in The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, 376–86, a chapter that carried Boas’s name as the sole author. It emerged strongly in Boas’s later direction of the research of both Teit and Herman Haeberlin on Nlaka’pamux basketry. Boas seemed particularly eager to facilitate comparative perspectives on basketry designs and thus for Teit and Haeberlin to learn from and support each other with an emphasis on Teit’s expertise. In a letter to Haeberlin some years later, for example, Boas writes: “I forgot to say in my last letter that, in case you should have the opportunity to study the personal distribution of designes [sic] among the women of Puget Sound, it might be well to take up the subject right there. This, of course would help you later on when you join Teit. What I should like to know, is, of course, what designs are made by each particular woman, and how do they criticise designs, and how do they instruct the young girls in the making of basketry and basketry designs” (APS, Boas Papers: Boas to Haeberlin, October 17, 1916). 5. This is an American Museum of Natural History catalog number. The original catalog of the AMNH was arranged in volumes, with the material Teit collected entered in Volume 16. “3235” indicates the specific item number within that volume. 6. Teit included small line-drawings to illustrate the particular designs.

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owned the handle. It was common for women who had manitous to carve designs of them on their root diggers. Snakes, insects, and woodworms were some of the commonest creatures represented. The root-digger and the Tump-line were themselves the manitous of some women. Design

Is a snake design.

is

Probably [sic] cross roads. Other figures very doubtful. No. 16/5000 Handle of root-digger. Designs very doubtful. Probably represents a dream the owner had or perhaps a piece of country (mystery land) in which she dug roots. The long downward strokes may mean streams or per something descending and the dots may mean drops. No. 16/4835 Arrow flaker. The rings at ends represent the wood worm whose body is in sections or rings. The notches and strokes on sides represent the borings of the wood-worm. Both these are therefore wood worm designs. These decorations were much in vogue because the wood worm is typical of strength and persistency [sic]. It could bore right through a tree. This design seems appropriate on a flaker. The large point of the tool stands for the animals [sic] head and the rings or strokes underneath for his body. The circles are the design sometimes called the butterfly pattern because some butterflies have similar spots on their wings. It is also called the eye design and likened to the eye of a man, animal bird or fish. No. 16/4569 Pair of tweezers. The design is that known as the woodworm and represents the borings of same. No 16/2542 Too fragmentary. Cannot say what it has been nor what the design may be intended for. The notches or lines on edge are woodworm design. No. 16/2670 May have been a bone for a dog halter. Designs not certain. Short strokes radiating from a long line at right angles generally represent hair from a surface or trees from the earth. No. 16/3183 No. 16/2801 No.16/3182 all too fragmentary to tell what they have been. The designs on the latter are all snake and wood worm. Those on 16/2801 are arrow designs and those on 16/3183 are not plain enough or are perhaps rudimentary. No. 16/2512 Hard to tell meanings of this specimen. Probably represents [D]esigns like this may be simply arrow a man’s dream designs or may possibly stand for snake tracks. Where this pattern seems to hang down it might mean lightning. Long straight lines mean trails, earth, creeks[;] short lines radiating at right angles from 174 | 1899

a long line generally means hair or something similar growing from a surface or trees growing from the earth. The grouping of the patterns in this specimen makes it hard to determine the exact meaning of the designs. No. 16/2506 Doubtful what this has been. The design is evidently intended for a snake. No. 5001 Stone pipe. The designs on this are also probably a dream picture. It was common for men to carve their dreams and the pictures of them manitous on their pipes, especially on favorite pipes, pipes they valued, or on medicine or sacred pipes owned by medicine men and others. Owing to this fact it is hard to interpret the Probably meanings of these designs (with certainty). an arrow design just for ornamentation, or it may be snakes tracks. may mean wood worm but it is very hard to say. A design very similar representing a rattle snake tail and known by that name was formerly in use. It was like this likely snake or worm designs.

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

borings.

. The designs

are

may be wood worm

this might mean the earth, a mountain or the

likely represents a bat or may possibly be foot of a mountain. the goose design representing the flying of these birds. No 16/2846 These are gambling bones for lehal many of them in use formerly were as small as these and in former days they were almost invariably carved with ordinary designs, or with dream and manitou designs. The patterns on these are all wood worm and arrow designs. No 16/2527 and 16/2528 These are ‘head scratchers’ which were formerly in common use amongst men and women but principally amongst the latter. They were often worn stuck in a knot or plait of the hair. The designs are almost all wood worm patterns. Designs one (1) and two (2) may mean something else however. No (1) is sometimes painted by girls on rocks and is said to mean mat work. When work[ed] in different colors in embroidery, bag and basket work it is called by some a snake design probably because of the checks or stripes on snakes skin. No 16/3057 The use of this might be recognized if the Inds saw the original. They say it may have been a sap scraper or a bone for a dogs halter. If it had a long point it might be a head scratcher. 1899 | 175

The circles are the eye or butterfly design. design—may be wood worm design and may be wood worm design.

snake doubtful but

Boas to Teit. February 18, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend:— Will you kindly obtain for me, in the collection that you are going to make, another flaker for arrow-points, similar to the one you sent before, or, if they use another type, another type. I should like to have it for a special exhibit in which I want to illustrate the methods of working stone. I notice in many of the old specimens the use of the circular ornaments which we find so often in the decoration of primitive people. Will you kindly make inquiries in order to find out in what way these little circles were made before they had bits? Did they use chipped points with a notch in the tip, and how did they make circles that have no depression in the centre?

Smith to Teit. March 2, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48.7 My dear Friend:— At last I have a report on the green stone which you gave me last summer that I might find out whether it were jade, or not. Mr. Gratacap, the mineralogist here at the Museum, has spent some time examining it.8 He says that it is not jade, and that it is not like any rock that he knows. He believes it to be some artificial product, perhaps slag from some mine. I do not see how slag would get to Spences Bridge, unless from a railroad train. I might add that Mr. Gratacap’s knowledge of rocks is probably equal to that of any man in America. In regard to my getting skeletons in Harrison Valley, I think that if I do not see you on the way through Spences Bridge to discuss the matter, I will wait until after you have finished your work, so that I will not interfere with your getting ethnological information. Of course you will 7. There is no signature. However, see Teit’s letter to Smith, March 12, 1899. 8. Louis P. Gratacap (1850–1917) was a curator at the American Museum of Natural History (Python, “Gratacap, L.P. [Louis Pope] 1851–1917,” https://data.library.amnh.org/archives-authorities/ id/amnhp_1000843, last modified 2016).

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advise me when the proper time comes for me to do archaeological and physical anthropological work in that region.

Teit to Boas. March 7, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My Dear Friend, It is with great sorrow that I acquaint you with the death of my wife, which took place here on the 2nd inst of pneumonia. As she was a good wife to me and we had lived happily together for over twelve years I naturally took her demise as a great blow. Your letter of 18th ult came duly to hand and yesterday I received your paper on the mythology of the Bella Coola for which much thanks. I will procure another arrow flaker for you. I made inquiries regarding the tools with which circular ornamentations were made formerly. At present day they are made with iron bits of their own manufacture. Within the memory of some of the old men they were sometimes made with similar bits made of bone (generally bear’s bone) and they say it was quite easy to make these circles on wood, bark, horn and bone with these bone bits. The circles with no depression in the centre were also made with iron or bone bits one point of which was blunt. They say that very long ago before there was any iron, stone bits may have been used as well as bone ones, but they have no certain knowledge of this as they never saw stone ones used nor are they certain of ever having heard of their use, nevertheless they say it is not unlikely as many peculiar stone tools were made by their forefathers which they occasionally find and are not certain for what purposes they have been used. Re carving on dentalia they say they have seen it tried with some [page 2] slight success but it was not attempted much at least to their knowledge owing to the hard and brittle nature of the shells. Iron flakers for arrows were much used in latter days but for very hard (or at least some kinds of rock) horn flakers were preferred as they had more grip. I am well myself although I feel rather lonely and cut up after my recent great loss.

Teit to Boas. March 8, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48.

I wrote you yesterday giving you information regarding the tools used in making the circular patterns so much in vogue. Some time ago you asked me to try and obtain some samples of Indians’ hair. Perhaps 1899 | 177

one sample may not be of much use to you nevertheless I send you the only one I have so far obtained. It is that of my wife’s which I cut from her head some little time ago when she was sick. As she complained of her hair being heavy and in the way I cut all her hair short and kept these few hairs for you. I cut them off quite close to the skin. Hoping they may be of service to you in your investigation.

Teit to Smith. March 12, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. Dear Mr. Smith Your letter of 2nd inst duly to hand. I hope to see you at Spences Bridge on your way through and talk matters over with you. If you intend to stop over let me know when you expect to be here and I will arrange to meet you. When do you expect your memoir on the Lytton people will be published[?] I cannot see how the piece of rock I gave you can be slag. In what parts of the Coast will you be principally employed this summer. I understand Dr. Farrand is not coming out so I suppose you may be alone. Does Dr Boas wish you to investigate the cist burials I heard about. I am sorry to say that there is quite an excitement amongst the Indians owing to ten skeletons being taken from an old burial ground near Lillooet. Some of the Cornwalls Indians say openly that if any man disturb their burial grounds they will shoot him on sight.9 I have been busy explaining matters to some of them. I told them it was their own blame because if they cared anything for these old graveyards they ought to mark them with posts or put a fence around them, then no one would touch [page 2] them. If they did not do this it showed they did not lay claim to the graves, and any one would then have a right to dig there. I explained to them the law on the subject and they seemed quite satisfied. I have no doubt Dr Boas has told you of my wife’s death which took place on the 2nd inst. I feel greatly cut up about it and it will take a long time for me to get over the loss.

9. “Cornwalls” is a casual term for the vicinity of SLaz, the Nlaka’pamux village on the Thompson River near the town of Ashcroft. The Cornwall brothers, Clement (1836–1910) and Henry (1837–1892), emigrated from England to British Columbia in 1861, pre-empted a substantial amount of land in this area, and established a homestead and ranch. Clement Cornwall later became the second lieutenant-governor of British Columbia (see BCA, Cornwall Diaries: 1–149).

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Smith to Teit. March 21, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. Dear Mr. Teit:— Yours of the 12th is at hand. I suppose by this time you have received my letter which I wrote on learning from Dr. Boas of the death of your wife. If my ticket will allow me to stop over at Spences Bridge, I shall certainly do so, and I will write you as soon as I know about this matter. The manuscript for my memoir on the prehistoric people of Lytton will be finished this week, I believe. The 117 drawings are already at the engraver’s, so I hope it will be published soon. It will be very short except for pictures. I am indebted to you for your considerable information regarding the specimens, especially the ornamental carvings. I cannot understand how the piece of rock is slag, and I still have the piece properly catalogued among our collection from you. My plan for the season’s work is to go to Puget Sound or the Pacific Coast of Washington, and spend two months in one place and about a month and a half at the other; then to devote a little time to the headwaters of the large tributaries of the Columbia in Washington, but not to go to the Columbia. Later I expect to spend two or three weeks in the Harrison valley if I receive encouraging advices [sic] from you in regard to it. Of course the length of time I spend at these places will be determined by what is found; and when I say two months, I simply mean if everything is favorable. [page 2] I do not know whether Farrand will be out of not, nor do I know any thing about who is to be out besides myself, although I suppose you are to visit the Harrison valley. I should like to investigate the cyst [sic] burials, especially if you would be one of the party. I have talked to Dr. Boas about them, and we decided to let the matter rest until I had talked with you, or until we had more information regarding them. I should like to know if we could be at all sure of finding the place from the Indians’ description if we went to the trouble and expense of the search, which I understand will take about a week. Also is it classed with our Thompson River work, or does it come more properly with the Columbia River and Oregon work? I regret to hear of the excitement among the Indians about taking skeletons. I have had several experiences with them in such matters, in one of which they were backed up with a rifle; and while a bold front and kind feeling towards the Indians brought me out all right, I do not enjoy such nerve-trying experiences.

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Where do the Cornwalls Indians live? Is it in the region I am to visit? I understand that I am to go up from Agassiz, but not as far as Lillooet. I hope you will keep me posted on this matter, as it will be a great help to me in securing some bones without getting into a hornet’s nest. Of course I understand fully about not disturbing fenced graveyards, but Doctor is anxious to get skeletons from the Harrison valley, and I do not care to get into trouble with any one for taking bones from the unmarked and unfenced places, whether modern or old.10 Mrs. Smith joins in kind regards.

Teit to Smith. April 5, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. Dear Mr. Smith, Your letter of 21st ult duly to hand. The Cornwalls Indians are the most eastern of the Thompson people and live around Ashcroft so they are not in your line of travel going to Harrison or Lillooet. I may be able to get further information regarding the cist burials from the Indian who reported them to me. If he could be induced to go along there would be no difficulty finding them. I think they would come in the same class with the Thompson work. I hope you may have the best of luck in your researches this year.

Teit to Boas. April [no day], 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. Dear Friend. Your letter of the 14th ult duly came to hand and I thank you very much for your expressions of sympathy with me in my bereavement. I have finished my report on the Utamkt and I send it to you by this mail.11 I could have written it out again on fresh paper and thus made it look a lot better, but I thought you would have to rewrite it, and fix it up a good deal, so I send it as it is. I hope you will find it quite satisfactory, and if there is anything in it too obscure (or not very clear) I shall be glad to answer any queries you may think fit to ask 10. This suggests that Smith remained unaware of the provincial “Grave-yard Act” of 1888. He had, however, conducted archaeological investigations at the Lytton grave yard in 1897 and had collected skeletal remains there and at Kamloops (see Teit to Boas, June 8, 1899). 11. This report may not have survived the editorial process, in which Boas combined it with Teit’s earlier Nlaka’pamux manuscripts.

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concerning it. I have quite a number of interesting specimens on hand now and a lot more being made. I suppose Mr. Smith will be starting West before long. I wrote to him not long ago.

Boas to Teit. May 4, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend, The package containing your manuscript on the Utamqt [sic] reached me yesterday. I have not had time to look at it yet, but I am certain that you have succeeded in collecting much interesting material. I presume you may have seen Smith before receiving this letter. I told him to send you a number of cards for the dictionary which you propose to make. If he should not do so, just drop him a line at Tacoma, Washington, which will be his headquarters during the greater part of the summer. When do you propose to start for Lillooet? I am going to send you proofs of illustrations for your paper in a very short time. I think they are coming out nicely.

Teit to Boas. May 10, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–2. Dear Friend, I was glad to hear you had received the Utamkt [sic] m.s. I have not seen Smith yet, perhaps he has passed without dropping off. I will see that he sends me the slips. I intend to start for Lillooet some time this month if nothing intervenes, and will ship the specimens I have on hand for the museum before I start. I will be very pleased indeed to see the proofs of the illustrations for my paper. I have just made a commencement writing out the Lillooet stories. I expect to get a good many additional ones over at Pemberton, and from a Seton Lake medicine man who stays in Nicola. I also expect to procure some more Lillooet specimens. PS It is just possible I may not be able to start for Lillooet until about the 1st June.

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Teit to Boas. June 8, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. Dear Friend, I have shipped to the Museum to-day 2 boxes containing 31 specimens which I hope may turn up all safe. I enclose shipping bill, and also a list describing the articles. I am now ready to go to Pemberton etc. and expect to reach there in less than a week from date. I forgot to mention in my paper on the Utamkt that a person could take any article hung up at a grave if he replaced it with some other article although inferior in quality. When you write again I would like very much if you would give me a short testimonial to be used by our agent in England who is endeavoring to procure hunting parties. If you write it out on the same lines as the one Dr. Farrand gave me it will be first class. Did you read Hill-Tout’s paper to the Royal Society on the ‘Oceanic origin of the Kwakiutl—Nootka and Salish stocks’ and the Chinese origin of the Denes and Haida etc.12 His comparisons of Salish and Oceanic words seems [sic] to me to be utter rot. I cannot see the slightest analogy between them. The whole papers are full of assertions without anything to back them up. Some of the old Chinese and Tinne roots he gives seem to have a slight resemblance to one another. I saw Smith on his way [page 2] through. He intends to do his Lillooet work in the fall. One of the boxes I send contains specimens that Smith obtained at Kamloops (bones I think). PS Smith sent me the slips for the dictionary a few days ago.

Boas to Teit. June 24, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend:— I have your letter of recent date, and it gives me great pleasure to send you the recommendation that you ask for. I hope that you may have good luck on your present trip. The bill of lading for the box which you sent reached me safely. Enclosed: Letter, Boas to “To Whom it may concern,” June 24, 1899. It gives me great pleasure to say that I have known Mr. James Teit for a considerable number of years as an expert guide and packer. I have travelled with him for months in British Columbia, and his knowledge 12. Hill-Tout, Oceanic Origin of the Kwakiutl-Nootka and Salish Stocks.

182 | 1899

of the whole country and of resorts of game, his experience in hunting, and his intimate knowledge of the Indians, make him a guide of unusual excellence. I can recommend him most heartily for any one who desires to hunt or travel in the interior of British Columbia. (Signed) F. Boas Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University

Teit to Boas. July 19, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–2. Dear Friend I just returned lately from the Lillooet country and had a successful trip on the whole. I wrote to Harlan Smith to-day and have also just finished boxing up the specimens I procured at Pemberton. They consist of 17 articles encluding [sic] some very fine baskets. Two or three of these were very expensive but they are extra good specimens and are probably the last samples of basket work which will be required from the Lillooet country. The designs are almost all animal. I made a very good collection of stories mostly from Pemberton. I have now obtained upwards of 60 Lillooet stories and hope to get a number more by visiting a Lillooet Doctor who lives in Nicola.13 A short visit to this man will now complete the Lillooet work. Since 30th Nov last year when I rendered you the a/c I have spent (encluding [sic] my own wages) altogether 202.55 on the Lillooet work so there is now a balance due me of $101.50. It will require another $20.00 to $25.00 for a week’s work interviewing the old doctor. That will enclude a weeks wages for myself, some grub, and a present to the old man. Therefore if you can manage to send me about $125.00 it will square the Lillooet a/c. I have got a number of Thompson River specimens made lately but will not forward them until I get enough to make a good sized shipment. I will forward a list of the Lillooet specimens along with shipping bill in a day or two. I received a copy of Smith’s Lytton memoir which is very interesting. PS I just received on my return your letter containing the recommendation I asked for. Accept my best thanks for same.

13. For previous comments on the Lillooet doctor see AMNH, Division of Anthropology, Teit to Boas, May 10, 1899.

1899 | 183

Boas to Teit. July 28, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend:— The preparation of drawings and engravings for your paper is progressing, and I am making progress with the preparation of your manuscript. It seemed to me best to incorporate your paper on the Utamqt with your first paper, so that the two will be published as one paper on the Thompson River Indians. I am hoping to send you the first pages towards the end of August. Will you kindly revise the enclosed table, and if possibly carry it up to date. If you should have the data, I should like to divide the whole period from 1884 to the present time into intervals of five years, during which time I should like to give the statistics of increase and decrease, classified according to sex. If you can give the age of the children at time of death, it will be very desirable to have it. If you cannot give me the information, we will print the table as it stands. I have your letter in regard to the money I owe you. I have made requisition for the same, and hope to send it some time next week. I am very glad to hear of your success in the Lillooet country.

Boas to Teit. July 31, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend:— In working over your manuscript I find a few things that you mention but which are not contained in our collections. I am going to send you a list of these as they occur to me, hoping that you may be able to get the specimens made in the course of time. You mention a large waterbucket made of birch-bark, which is carried on the back, holding about five gallons of water. I have re-arranged the beginning of your manuscript somewhat, in such a way that the general methods of manufactures form a chapter by themselves. I do not find that you say any thing [sic] about the method of carving in wood and bone, polishing wood and bone, and drilling. Can you send me information on these points for insertion in the manuscript? I presume the Indians used stone drills without handles, but I do not know. Did they use hard grasses for polishing? If you should be able to secure an old-style drill and polishing material and also the implement used for making circular ornamentations, to 184 | 1899

which you referred in a recent letter, let us have them. We have a stone carving-knife in your collection, which I presume was used for cutting and carving. I am preparing a map of the location of the tribe for your paper, which I am compiling from Dr. Dawson’s maps and from Brownlee’s map of British Columbia. On these maps I enter the information contained in your papers.

Boas to Teit. August 8, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend:— Enclosed please find a check on the Bank of British Columbia, Victoria BC for $150. Will you kindly hold the check for about ten days before depositing it? I have sent my check to the Bank of British Columbia by this mail, and the check will not be good until my check has been cashed.

Boas to Teit. August 10, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend:— I am trying to get all the information together that you have given me in regard to methods of painting. I cannot find any reference as to the material that is mixed with the various earths to hold them on to bone, or stone, or wood. Do they use fish-eggs, or fish-oil, or any other material of that sort? There is one ref to deer’s grease. I have the following list of mineral materials:— Red ochre

Copper clay

Burnt deer-bones for white paint

White calcareous earth Yellow earths

I find reference to one vegetable paint, tiktikeza (Lithospermum augustifolium) roots. All the other vegetable colors, I take it, are dyes.14

14. Yellow gromwell. The roots were cooked and eaten but also useful as a red stain, either for painting dressed skins or as face paint (Steedman, “Ethnobotany of the Thompson Indians,” 480; Turner et al., Thompson Ethnobotany, 192).

1899 | 185

The only way of hafting stone axes that you describe were handles of this shape

among the upper division of the tribe. For

the lower division you have sent an adze with iron blade

.

Do you ever hear about hafting knives in the way described by Smith in his memoir, p. 144, Fig 50, and were stone chisels ever fastened in a wooden or bone or antler handle in a similar way, that is to say, let into

a socket

[?] I think I asked you in my last letter about stone

[page 2] drills, and if they were used with handles. If you can, I hope you will get for us a stone drill and a few of the little bone implements used for making the circular ornament, with and without central hole. I have not been able to ascertain the Latin names for the following plants:— Nkukaxîmuʹs

Laʹḵo

xalauʹx̳ûza

Tsǒʹxsatn or SauʹxsEtn15

x·laāʹza

Kazax̳în

Nxax̳āʹap maḵaʹ

nhoiʹtlexin

Zoūʹt

Kaʹluwat

I shall be much obliged to you if you will kindly answer these questions without delay. 15. The European botanical references for plants identified by Nlaka’pamux terms were incomplete when The Thompson Indians of British Columbia went to press, and several plants are referenced in the publication only by their Nlaka’pamux names. However, most if not all of these plants have subsequently been identified, either for publication by Steedman, or by Nlaka’pamux people working with Nancy Turner in the 1980s. Steedman in “Ethnobotany of the Thompson Indians” identifies xalaúxûza as fritillary, Fritillaria pudica (Pursh). Spreng, one of the first plants to be dug in the spring (482).

186 | 1899

Boas to Teit. August 11, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend:— You did not mention in your manuscript the method of making mats and of weaving bags. I have described the character of the weaving in detail, and am having drawings made for this purpose. Will you kindly look over the enclosed pages and add whatever may seem necessary? I should like to know particularly what kind of implements, if any, are used for making the matting and bagging, on what kind of frame the work is done, whether the warp or the woof is put up first.16 Please also add a few lines on the method of making bark twine. How are the spatsan and kwois fibres prepared?17 Are they twisted on the leg? And how is the two standard twine that is used practically everywhere made? Do they never string up rush mats in such a way that the stringing thread passes through the leaf? This is the style that is almost universally used on the coast, where sometimes these [m]ats are made double, the stringing thread running through both sides, and the edge being held together by a rush braiding. I take it that the wedges are driven with wooden mallets and with the stone pestles of this shape: I presume the mallets consist of [page 2] a branch and the adjoining part of the trunk of a small tree as they do on the coast.18

Boas to Teit. August 15, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend:— I am not quite clear from your description if in the underground lodge (kikuli-house) [sic] the entrance consists of a number of rows of logs which are made to interlock, or if there are only four logs tied to

16. A synonym for “weft.” 17. “Spatsan”: sp’ec’n Apocynum cannabinum L. (Indian-hemp, or hemp-dogbane); Kwois: q’wuys Eleagnus commutata Bernh ex Rydb., or E. argentea Pursh, silverberry or silver willow. Apocynum cannabinum fibers were used in the manufacture of cordage, particularly in the drier regions of Nlaka’pamux territory, and Eleagnus commutata fibers were used to make woven clothing and bags (Turner et al., Thompson Ethnobotany, 159–60, 207–9). 18. A space was left for a sketch, which may have been added to the original typed letter but not to the carbon copy Boas retained.

1899 | 187

the tops of the main rafters, like this: [space for sketch]. Please let me know as soon as you can.

Boas to Teit. August 16, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend:— I have been examining the pair of trousers that I bought on the second day of our visit at Spences Bridge two years ago. You may remember that when we were sitting near Clemes’s house I asked you to inquire in regard to the meaning of the ornamentation of these trousers. The Indians then replied that it was done in conformity to a dream. I have never examined the ornamentation very closely until to-day, when I find the following: The side seams of the trousers are set with a zigzag buckskin band painted red. Near the middle of the thighs begin fringes which are arranged as indicated on the bottom of this sheet: that is to say, the fringes run in groups of five; the first, third, and fifth being beaded, the other two not beaded.19 In the two outer ones there are glass beads alternating with two shell beads; in the middle one, glass beads alternating with one shell bead. It would seem that these are all intended to be blue, although there are some white and some green among them, only in the ninth fringe from the top on each side there is one red glass bead next to the lowest one. I have marked it with red ink. [page 2] On the right-hand upper part of the trousers there is a strip of seventeen fringes alternating beaded and unbeaded. The 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th, beginning at the outer side, consist of red glass beads and shell beads, seven in each string; the 9th, 11th, 13th, 15th and 17th consist of successions of blue glass beads and single shell beads, nine on each string with the exception of the middle one, which has only seven. The 2d blue string has also double shell beads, as indicated in my sketch.20 Over these there are two tassels of dentalia, ending in round green beads.

19. There is no illustration in the archived copy of this letter. However, it attests to Boas’s developing interest in design. The alternation of colors (i.e., red/white and blue/white) is also characteristic of Nlaka’pamux coil basketry decoration, although in designs incorporated into basketry the colors are red, white, and black and the materials are cherry bark and dried grass. 20. There is no sketch in the copy of the letter retained by Boas.

188 | 1899

Will you do me the favor to make inquiries about this matter? I am sorry to say that I do not recollect from whom we bought this pair of trousers, but it may be that you know. Perhaps this will give you an opportunity to make some further inquiries into matters of a similar kind, particularly into the numbers of fringes, beaded strings, etc., that are preferably used, and their significance.

Teit to Boas. August 18, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. Dear Friend, Your letters of July 28th and 31st duly to hand, also your favor of this month containing check for which much thanks. I shall be glad to get the list of things which you desire me to purchase for the Museum. I shall endeavor to obtain a specimen of the large birch bark water bucket. I think I can give you additional information regarding methods of carving, drilling and polishing wood, bone, stone and horn. They used the grass called horse-tail for polishing.21 I shall endeavor to procure some more carving tools and also polishing and drilling implements. I asked an Indian to make two tools for making circular ornaments and he may have them made soon. I sent you the blade of another stone carving knife with the last lot of specimens. I am glad [page 2] to hear that you are progressing so well with my paper. The data you ask for re the Spences Bridge band I shall endeavor to give you when I return home. I think I can furnish you with same. As I did not hear any hunting parties coming out I left Sp Bdg on 1st inst and came here to prospect for galena22 in the Mountains between the Coquehalla River and the head waters of the Similkameen or Tulameen.23 I am camped near the summit or watershed at present and in a very rough river country. I intend to prospect until the end of September and think I will be very tired of it by that time if I strike nothing.

21. Equisetum hyemale L., “Branchless horsetails, or Scouring Rushes.” There are several varieties of horsetail native to this region (Turner et al., Thompson Ethnobotany, 86). 22. Galena is a lead sulphide mineral and a primary ore of lead (King, “Galena,” Geology. com, https://geology.com/minerals/galena.shtml, 2021). 23. The Coquihalla River is a tributary of the Fraser River; the mouth of the Coquihalla is near Hope. The headwaters of the Similkameen and Tulameen Rivers are south of the Nicola Valley and east of the Fraser River.

1899 | 189

Boas to Teit. August 28, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend,— In the chapter regarding customs referring to childhood you mention the use of male and female branches of the fir. I remember that we spoke about this subject, but I have forgotten what the Indians call male and female plants. Will you please let me know.

Teit to Boas. September 3, 1899. “Near Hope, BC,” AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48.24 Dear Friend, Your letters of 15th and 16th ult duly to hand. I shall make enquiry if possible regarding the ornamentation on the trousers re numbers of beads etc. I do not remember from whom they were bought but I may be able to find out. The party who made them belonged to Nicola.25 Re the entrance to kekuli house I may state that it consists of 4 logs only tied to tops of the main rafters and resting on them and on one another. This was certainly the commonest method, and the only one that I remember seeing with certainty. I may be back home at Spences Bridge a little sooner than I anticipated.

Teit to Boas. September 5, 1899. “Near Hope, BC,” AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My Dear Friend, Your letter of 28th ult to hand re male and female fir etc. I may say that the plants called female by the Whites that is to say those that produce the seed are called the male plants by the Indians. Fir is judged to be male or female by the branches or formation of the needles. I cannot explain this to you very well but will send you specimens when I get home to Spences Bridge.

24. Hope is a community on the Fraser River, approximately twenty-two miles downriver from Spuzzum. 25. That is, was a resident in the Nicola Valley.

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Boas to Teit. September 6, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend:— In your manuscript you mention that the ladder always leans toward the east. At another place you state that the spaces between the posts of the underground house are called four rooms, and that they are directed towards the four quarters. There is a contradiction in these two statements. Will you kindly let me know if there was any definite way in which the four posts were placed,—north, south, east, and west; or northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest. In describing the clothing you mention braids woven of porcupine quills as used for ornaments. Did you mean to say that the porcupine-quills themselves were made into braids, or were they put into braids of buckskin thongs or other material? It does not seem very likely that the porcupine-quills themselves should have been woven in this fashion. The two boxes which you shipped during the summer have reached me. The specimens are very interesting. Have you any information about the four darts for the throwing-game, of which I enclose rough sketches? [no sketches on this copy]. Have the form and notches any significance? The buckskin jacket from Nicola is very fine. While I was out there, the Indians described the significance of the holes as meaning stars. Do you think those in the present specimen have the same meaning?

Boas to Teit. September 12, 1899, AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend:— I received your various letters in reply to my questions. Thank you very much for the information contained in the same. I almost conclude, from your plan of returning at an early date, that you have not been successful in your prospecting. I suppose you will see Smith pretty soon. I wish you would talk over with him very fully the results of your ethnological inquiries in Lillooet. He ought to know the results of work in that region.

1899 | 191

Boas to Teit. September 19, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend:— Can you please let me know what the plant wax aselp is. I evidently got a wrong name for it.

Boas to Teit. September 20, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend:— I am sending you to-day under separate cover the first ten galleys of your description of the Thompson Indians. If you find any thing that is material that you wish to add to the text, please send it to me, and I will have it added in the form of notes to be printed at the end of the volume. It will be necessary for you to send it to me without delay, so that we can put a reference in the pages, which will have to be printed in a very short time.

Boas to Teit. September 21, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend:— Will you please try to get some information for me in regard to the following points:— I should like to know what, in the olden times, the approximate difference in age was between men and their wives. Did it happen very often that a young girl married an old man, and continued to live with him throughout her life? Did it happen often that young men married old women? Did girls generally marry at a very early age? The surest way to get for me what I want would be to take up a few families and try by inquiries to get their family history during the past one or two generations, including remarriages of widows and widowers, time of marriage of young men and that of young women. I do not want this information for your paper, but on account of some general questions in which I am interested.26 26. This is one of the very few queries on Boas’s part about the contemporary sociology of the Nlaka’pamux. The fact that, at the moment when he was engaged in finalizing The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, he did not consider it germane to that study underlines his

192 | 1899

Boas to Teit. September 27, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend:— In preparing the chapter on religion of the Thompsons I am somewhat troubled in regard to the statement in reference to the worship of “Nature” or of the world (t mux [sic]).27 You will do me a great favor by sending a statement regarding the views of the Indians on this subject, and their prayers to “Nature.” You say in your manuscript, “When a bear dies or is killed, they have a warming day, just like people, consequently there is some sudden change in the weather.” Will you please explain a little more fully what you mean by “warming day”? At another place you say, “to leave the heads of bears or any large animals on trees or stones was a mark of respect to a hunter.” It is not quite clear from your manuscript whether you mean it shows respect to the hunter or the hunter’s respect to the animal. The custom of the Indians of having the parts of animals, such as deer’s tail and deer’s nose, for their guardian spirit, is very interesting. I wish you could in some way get a somewhat fuller statement from the Indians as to how they consider their relation to these parts of the animal. In what way is it their protector? Has it a spirit separate from the spirit of the deer. [page 2] Could the Indian eat or use such part of the animal? What is Tsanmlaux [sic]? We had a discussion at one time regarding the words used by the shaman which are unintelligible to the listeners. If I remember correctly, you said that they were made up at the time. I wish you would inquire once more, and find out if there are any obsolete words used by the shamans? In speaking of the shaman’s mask, you say at one place that he puts many pins into it. Can you explain this a little more fully?

retrospective approach to ethnography. This may, however, be one of the earliest examples of Boas’s developing interest in how a complex analysis of kinship relationships and terms, as connection between individuals, was useful to him (and by extension other anthropologists of the late nineteenth century) as an instrument to develop a theory of mankind and cultural belonging including the “races,” “families,” or “nations” constituting humanity (see MüllerWille, “Race and Kinship in Anthropology: Morgan and Boas” for more details on this trajectory). 27. Tmixw, a Nlaka’pamux term encompassing land and nature: “tmixw earth, ground, country, world, area, place” (Thompson and Thompson, Thompson River Salish Dictionary, 358).

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In going in pursuit of a soul, you describe how the shaman takes his club out from under his mat, and shows that it is full of blood. Does he use, in going in pursuit of the soul, any symbolic weapons; that is to say, implements simply made in imitation of real weapons? I hope you had a pleasant time on your trip with Smith up the Nicola.

Teit to Boas. October 7, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. Dear Friend, I returned with Smith from Nicola yesterday. We had a fairly successful trip. I now make haste to answer your queries and return the proofs. Re your letter of 28th July I may say that I cannot give you correctly the ages of children at death in the period from 1884 to 1894 nor can I give the increase and decrease in 5 year periods. I give you the births and deaths from 1884 [sic] to 1899 = 5 years to date with approximate ages Table 1. Teit’s death records 1895 to 1899 of NLaka’pamux̣ people in the vicinity of Spence’s Bridge (with approx̣imate ages)28 YEAR

MALES

FEMALES

TOTAL

1895

(1) 48 yrs (2) 45 yrs (3) 3 yrs (4) few days =4

(1) 35 yrs (2) 9 yrs (3) 1 yr =3

7

1896

(1) 78 yrs (2) 76 yrs (3) 85 yrs =3

— — —

—

28. Teit provided this information in rough tabular form, but did not specify the geographic range he had in mind. However, it is likely he was thinking about the Nlaka’pamux communities along the Thompson River near the mouth of the Nicola River, possibly between Pukaist and Nicomen. His information is presented here in standard tabular format.

194 | 1899

1897

(1) 98 yrs (2) 65 yrs (3) 5 yrs (4) 2 yrs (5) few months (6) few days =6

(1) 85 yrs (2) 76 yrs (3) 60 yrs (4) 32 yrs (5) 20 yrs =5

11

1898

(1) 80 yrs (2) 78 yrs (3) 11 yrs =3

(1) 60 yrs =1

4

1899

(1) 70 yrs (2) 65 yrs (3) 35 yrs (4) 2 yrs (5) few months =5

(1) 72 yrs (2) 33 yrs (3) 22 yrs =3

8

Table 2. Teit’s birth records 1895 to 1899 of NLaka’pamux̣ people in the vicinity of Spence’s Bridge YEAR

MALES

FEMALES

1895

2

2

1896

2

1

1897

4

1

1898

3

2

1899

2

1

[page 2] The births may not be absolutely correct as some of my notes I could not find. There has [sic] been many of the old people dropped off during the last 5 years many more than during the preceeding [sic] 10. I received your check all right for which much thanks. Re. your letter of Aug. 16th about ornamentation of trousers I cannot procure the desired information. The Indians say that a man would often do his ornamentation etc. according to his dreams and other people did not know the why or wherefore because he generally did not explain to them his secrets. They claim that 4 and 8 were favourite 1899 | 195

numbers because they entered largely into ceremonies at puberty etc. They were considered lucky or ‘mystery’ numbers. 6 and 7 were also favorite numbers with some [page 3] but not so common as 4 and 8. Four was commonest of all. In ornamentation things generally went in twos, fours, eights, sixs [sic] and sevens. Re your letter of Sept 19th about wáxaselp I may say it is a rather low flowering bush perhaps alied [sic] to the Dogwood. I do not know the Eng or Latin names as you collected a specimen of it when going up through the Sʟayáux [sic] country and I thought you had got it identified. The flower is white and the wood is very hard and has a greenish hue. Re your letter of Aug 10th Stone drills were used and were handled. They were generally made of flaked arrow stone and the handles were of antler or of wood. Stone knives and chisels were hafted with wood the stone being placed in a slit and filled with gum around [,] then a lashing put around the handle. When chisels and knives etc. were hafted in antler handles the horn was boiled to make it soft then the blade was driven into the end of the horn[;] when it dried the horn got very hard and held the blade firm so no lashing or gum was required. I have seen both these methods employed at present day in hafting iron tools. Antler handles with hole at opposite end for insertion of a crooked wooden handle were not used.

Fig. 1. (From left): “Stone blade handled in wood; stone blade handled in antler; blade connected to wooden handle with antler. This kind not used.” Teit to Boas, October 7, 1899.

[page 4] Of the plants you mention I had the following identified at Ottawa Nxax̳āá p x˙laāź a mᴇk̠á

196 | 1899

Arabis drummondii

Ribes cereum (wild currant) Zygadenus elegans

tsauzatᴇn

Oxytropin sampecticis

Re your letter of Aug 11 No frames were used in making matting or bags. Re your letter of Sept. 6th, The ornamentation on the four darts is all ‘wood worm’ designs. Porcupine and other quills were stitched onto the part of the garment to be ornamented or were stitched onto strips of buckskin which latter were in turn sewed onto the place. The porcupine quills themselves were not inserted into the skin. The strips or belts of skin were ornamented with quills is what I must have meant when I said braids, although I have an idea that an old Indian recently dead told me that quills (perhaps long bird quills) were dyed different colors and these woven into braids in the form of patterns and used for ornamentation on clothing and belts etc. Re kekwili houses, the rooms were North South East and West, and the posts were North East North West South East and South West. The Indians agree to this and I have examined 3 kekuli houses with timbers yet in lately, and they are all this way viz rooms towards the four quarters and post between the quarters. I must have made a mistake re the kekwili [sic] house ladder. The head of the ladder almost invariably leant towards the West. The face of the ladder was thus East. It was thus placed [page 5] so the Sun when rising in the East might shine on the top of the ladder the first thing in the morning. I cannot learn anything further about the reason of this. When a person died in a house the ladder was immediately changed generally so as to rest on north side of the hole thus leaning in that direction[.] [W]hen the body was taken up the ladder it was (the body) removed towards the west from the ladder that is taken off to the west side. After burial with some and after removal of body by others the ladder was put back to its usual place. The fire was generally on south side of the foot of the ladder. Re holes in Buckskin shirt. Some Inds say they may mean stars. Re your letter of 21st Sept I may say that all concur in the following. (1st) Both males and females married later in life than at present especially was this the case with males[.] (2nd) A number of girls married shortly after finishing their training probably when in their 17th and 18th years. A large number however did not marry for two or more years after finishing their training probably in their 20th and 21st years. Mostly, all women were married before the age of 23 years. (3rd) Only a few men married shortly after their training about 19 or 20 years of age. Most men married at from 3 to 7 years after finishing their first training at puberty[;] this time was spent in further training[.] [T]hus men generally married at from

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21 to 27 years of age. (4th) With most young couples who married the husband was about 5 years the senior[.] (5th) It was common enough for a young girl to marry an old man[.] Girls of 18 to 20 often married men of 45 to 50 or over[;] such men however were already married or were widowers [page 6] 6th Inconstancy in marriage or separation was rare. 7th Young men very seldom married women much older than themselves except in cases where a younger brother had to take an older brother’s widow. 8th at present day males and females commonly marry shortly after attaining the age of puberty 18 to 20 years for men and 17 to 19 for girls 9th at present day it is much less common for a young girl to marry an old man 10th at present day is it much commoner for a young man to marry a middle aged or elderly woman 10 to 20 years older than himself 11th at present day incontency [sic] in marriage and separation are frequent Re your letter of 27th. The word tᴇmǘx is used for earth, world, ground, nature, and weather. They say ‘hatlstcáms a tᴇmǘx kútLo ́ xī́nkîn’ ‘it has mercy on me the earth therefore I am longtime (spared). The Earth has mercy on me therefore I live long. Also ‘hatlstéia tᴇmǘx kwonkwanntkt’ have mercy on us earth we are poor. They look upon the Earth in the nature of a deity and address their prayers to it. The Earth deity thus addressed is not considered in the sense of earth or ground but is translated by the word nature. I cannot venture much more on this subject without studying it up. Re bears warming day is evidently a misprint for warning day viz a day on which warning or notice is given in the shape of some change in the weather owing to the death of the person. The Indian word is x̣aánnskᴇt evidently from [page 7] xaántêm to warn or reprove and êskᴇt compound word for day. I am not perfectly sure of this translation however. Re leaving of heads on trees etc. this is done by the hunter as a mark of respect to the dead animal. Re Manitou nose, tail etc. These have no separate existence from the animal, nor have they a soul. An animal has only one soul. These parts are called a man’s manitou because he keeps these parts of the animal in his medicine bag or because the animal (his manitou) told him that these were his (the animals) ‘mystery’ parts or told him to keep these parts near his person as representative of his manitou. 198 | 1899

The man whose manitou the part is, may and does eat it and give it to be eaten by others but other people should not eat these parts in his presence or they may become sick or bewitched. Words used by shaman are not supposed to be obsolete words but are words used by him when doctoring etc. and obtained by him from his manitou therefore not understood by others. Other words are made up at the time but consist only of syllables added to ordinary words as for instance the syllable ‘âllk’ added to each principal word of a sentence all through a speech. It is suffixed on and is used when the Raven is supposed to be talking. It is said to be the peculiar way the Raven talked in mythological times. Other words in some shaman’s speeches are made somewhat unintelligible by the peculiar pronunciation put on them for the time being or by cutting them very short in jerks. Re the pins they are of wood sharpened at one end and used for pinning the mask (mat) together. Some shamans use one pin, others 2 others 3 and others four. 1, 2 and 4 are the common numbers. When he returns from pursuing a soul and takes off his mask perhaps one or two of the pins are missing. [page 8] They are said to have been taken away or broken in the tussle with the dead people. Shaman used any piece of wood for club. Piece of fire wood or ordinary piece of stick. Sometimes a roughly hewed club is used. He does not use any symbolic weapons except this. The people at Lytton sometimes payed [sic] a medicine man with their daughter and she became a wife of the shaman. It is said the Okanagan shamans do not put on masks or go in pursuit of souls and when they sing the people also sing their song and beat time. Otherwise their practice is similar to the Nla. Tsamúlaux are dwarfs or little people believed to haunt mountains and cliffs. I think I sent you a good account of them either in my paper or by letter afterwards. The account given by the Utamkt is in my paper on the Lower Thompsons but their belief regarding them is different to some extent from those of the upper people. I have perused the proofs and think them fine also the cuts[.] I have added remarks on the margin and now return them. Please excuse this hasty letter and bad writing and mistakes. I will write again giving some further information on shamans, future state, widowhood etc. Hoping this letter may be in time. PS I solicit further queries.

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Teit to Boas. October 8, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. Dear Friend I returned the proofs yesterday and also wrote you a letter of eight pages answering your various queries. I received a copy of your final report to the British Association and am very much interested in your arrangement of and remarks on the Nla language. I find a few errors misprints and otherwise. When I have more leisure I shall give you a good deal of further information regarding the language and its forms. If you have any more copies of the report I would like to have another one. If you think however that all the reports will be published in the form or a volume (as Smith told me it might be) it will not be necessary to send me another copy. The following information on the Future State I did not give you in my manuscript. The entrance to the spirit land is through a large lodge made of a hard, close, whitish material resembling lime or a hard clay. It is somewhat like a long lodge because it is very long from East to West and much shorter from North to South. It is also of a rounded or dome shape somewhat like the shape of some ant-hills and looks like a rounded heap from the East or end view.

Fig. 2. Lodge at the entrance to the spirit land (side view). Teit to Boas, October 8, 1899. Fig. 3. Lodge at the entrance to the spirit land (end view). Teit to Boas, October 8, 1899.

It has a [page 2] door or entrance at the East end and another at the West end. The trail of the dead leads into the East entrance and the exit into the country of the shades is through the West entrance. All spirits 200 | 1899

upon leaving the world and entering the spirit world pass through this lodge from East to West. The west entrance leads out into the Indian paradise where the shades dance etc. and spend most of their time (described before in ms). Throughout the length of the lodge is a double row of fires (small lodge fires for cooking over). The East entrance to the lodge is just large enough to let a person pass through but the West entrance is much higher and wider. There are always some people in the lodge and when they expect a friend to arrive from this world they assemble there to meet and welcome him and to talk all about him, his affairs and his sickness etc. On the top of the lodge or at the door is an old man who acts as a watchman and is a kind of chief. He watches for spirits coming over the trail and hails them and addresses them when they arrive. He turns back those souls whose time has not yet come to die or leave this world. On the trail to the spirit land is another old man who generally watches between the river and the house of the dead and who also turns back souls whose time has not come to leave this world, but sometimes souls manage to avoid him. Yet another old man watches on the near side of the river to intercept and tell souls to return whose time has not come to leave this world, but souls sometimes do not see him or manage to avoid him. He spends most of his time sweat bathing and his sweat-[page 3] house is quite close to the trail. All these men are described as being very old, grey headed and of a very venerable wise aspect. The one at the lodge however is chief and an orator and he it is who sometimes sends messages to this world with returning souls. The name I gave you for the Milky Way viz npukxewéitᴇn means literally ‘thing emptied out on trail’ as for instance the phrase npukxewa̎t́ oza (imperative form) ‘ye empty out on trail[.]’ [P]eople gathered sand or other stuff in baskets and emptied the sand out on a trail which had become icy and dangerous to travel as for instance a trail between a lodge and watering place. The Milky Way is likened ́ kex x̳oit’ tracks to this. Other names for the Milky Way are ‘Lakxîns (of someone travelling) of those dead.29 The tracks of the dead. The Milky way is also called npāáuz ‘the grey trail.[’] I did not mention that sometimes when a man was poor or short of grub in winter he went begging in the following manner. He rolled dog skins around his legs and put on a dog skin or other hairy robe. He wore a mask of birch bark which had holes for the eyes and had whiskers glued on it of [h]orse or other animal hair. Part of the mask was painted black 29. Arranged as interlinear translation.

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sometimes all of it. Carrying a staff in his hand and a basket on his back he entered a kekwili house[,] went up to fire and warmed himself. The children of lodge always ran away in fright so such a person was much dreaded by them. Afterwards he danced uttering grunts and after the people had put some present of food or something in his basket he left the lodge. Such persons when acting like this were called tlanếka. The following are signs I did not tell you of I think. [page 4] Two first fingers placed together horizontally in front of body means ‘together.’ Same with a forward motion means ‘walking together’. Same fingers placed perpendicularly near one another means ‘standing together.’ Fingers separated by being brought away suddenly to opposite sides means ‘separated’ or ‘divided in two.’ Re. the suffix ‘allst’ or ‘êllst’ so common in men’s names I have now found out with certainty that it is an older form of ‘äist’ meaning ‘stone’. I find it in place names both forms meaning the same thing so such names as I gave with this termination you can properly translate same as meaning ‘stone’. I also forgot to mention the tipi sweat house used where suitable wands could not be obtained[.] [S]traight sticks were tied together at top like tipi poles. The rocks were not placed in a hole but on top of ground inside and the framework covered with a blanket. This kind were only used by the Up people especially the Tcawáxamux̠. I got Smith to take a photo of one near upper end of Nicola Lake. Of course they were conical in shape and mostly about 4 to 4½ feet in height[.] I did not mention in my m.s. any of the cigar-holder shaped pipes formerly in use, as I had not heard the Indians mention them and I did not know about them to ask about them until recently. Of late several old Indians have told me that they remember them in use when they were young but they were not so common as the other two types of pipe viz the round or square bowled ones [page 5] without a shank and the narrow bowled ones with long shank. An Indian told me that 3 or 4 years ago he saw an American Indian from Eastern Wash[.] smoking one of the cigar-holder like pipes the only one he has seen in use since he was a boy. All varieties of pipes were smoked through a straight wooden stem. Shamans always doctored their first patient gratis even if they effected a cure. Some shamans were only able to divine properly a person’s [illeg] after drawing the spirit of their Manitou into their breast. If this certain manitou did not help them to do so they let it out and drew in another of their manitous. When a shaman tried to draw in his manitou into his body and it would not enter but always jumped back it was a certain sign [that the] person would die and no use doctoring him. If a shaman was well paid for his services his manitou 202 | 1899

was well pleased and helped him more thus more likely he would effect a cure. Some shamans could make the hand-water in their basket— x(i) increase, decrease, or boil at pleasure [see footnote ending letter]. Certain sicknesses especially epidemics are sometimes seen by certain shamans in shape of an approaching mist[;] therefore they are able to foretell its arrival. When a soul is seen in this form by a shaman it is a sign some one will soon die. If there is to be many deaths sometimes the sickness is seen in the form of a large cloud of vapor approaching close along the earth. Some young men when training used to roll themselves naked in the dew on the grass in the early morning or washed their bodies with branches covered with dew. Perhaps I did not mention following animals as manitous[.] I don’t remember [.] Dog, Swan, tsamulaux or dwarfs, wolverine. The poor people of Nicola [page 6] often made leggings, ponchos and blankets of bull-rushes. House in which person had died if not burned ought to be washed with water in which was dissolved or soaked tobacco or juniper. If this was not done fresh fir branches ought to be spread on the floor and beds and pieces of juniper or tobacco hung up or stuck around several parts of the house. Ghost of deceased person addressed after burial by an elderly person and asked to pity the widow or widower [illeg] not to trouble him. A little of different kinds of food were often emptied near grave to be food of dead during his period of visiting and journeying also so that ghost might not visit house in search of grub and thus perhaps cause sickness to the people. If widow or widower blows out breath downwards on finger ends he will become lean. If he is very lean and wishes to be stout he places finger ends in front of mouth and draws in his breath. If he blows on different parts of body when bathing he will become fat[;] therefore should not do this except very lean. An orphan, widow and widower ought to eat very large meals but not eat often. If he eats a little at a time and often he will gain a huge appetite and be always hungry or anxious to eat. Some widows and widowers wore a breech clout underneath clothes and tight over privates[.] [E]nclosed in it was crushed juniper twigs and sage leaves[;] ghost cannot then have connection with him or cause sickness to his privates. Ghost of husband or wife often cause sickness because of their love because they are loath to part and like to be with or accompany the living hus [sic] or wife. Buckskin thong around neck ought not to be cut or tied on by the person to wear it—this would be emblematic of cutting own throat and person may meet with violent death. Ends of all the thongs ties [sic] when put on a person, except the ankle thong which is run through two holes. Excuse haste. 1899 | 203

X(i). Small basket placed at shaman’s service when doctoring. Half filled with water and he uses it for wetting his hands and filling his mouth.30

Boas to Teit. October 11, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Mr. Teit, I have Smith’s note in regard to the stone hammers. If you will kindly look at the first pages of the memoir, you will see that, in order to avoid the phonetically difficult Indian names, I used throughout “Lower Thompsons” and “lower division” for the Utamqt, and “Upper Thompsons” and “upper division” for all the tribes above the Utamqt. This shows you that the illustrations are correct. I added a footnote, saying that the form Fig. 120 is peculiar to Lytton and the form in Smith’s paper peculiar to Spences Bridge. Do not hesitate to send any remarks you please. I shall try to insert them as best I can. I think I mentioned in a former letter that I omitted all the Indian words on account of our plan of publishing the Thompson vocabulary and grammatical notes separately.31 It is ever so much easier reading without Indian names, and I am sure will be much [m]ore appreciated by most ethnologists.

Boas to Teit. October 23, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend, Will you kindly return the proofs of your memoir as soon as possible, as we are waiting for them to go to press. We have received through p. 191, but nothing beyond.

30. This is Teit’s original footnote. 31. In the absence of Teit’s original MSs it is not possible to see how they were originally integrated. However, Teit did incorporate Nlaka’pamux terms into his descriptions of the objects he sent to the American Museum of Natural History and these remain there.

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Teit to Boas. October 31, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My Dear Friend, Your letter of 23rd duly to hand also one of a somewhat earlier date. I was out hunting when the last lot of proofs came. Upon my return I looked over them at once and sent them to you next day viz the 25th inst so you must have them by this time to hand. I am sorry for the delay. I do not expect to be away for some time again so I will be able to look over the other proofs at once and return[.] I think you are doing splendidly with the work. The cuts are very fine indeed.32 Please let me know if I gave any account of the Up Nla ideas and beliefs regarding ‘dwarfs’ or tsamúlaux in the paper. If not I will send what I know about them. I am under the impression that I related what I knew about [sic] but am not sure. The articles I have on hand at present for the museum are a sap scraper, a bark lifter, a bark cutter, an ice cutter or breaker, a Beaver spear, a buck horn pipe with stem carved to represent a rattlesnake, a green stone pipe etc. Some of these things throw light on certain objects found by Smith in graves at Lytton etc. and it is rather a pity they will be too late for the paper but it cannot be helped. Hoping you are quite well.33

32. The “cuts” Teit refers to are highly detailed drawings of objects in the American Museum of Natural History collected by Teit during his ethnographic work, often presented to show several forms of cap, moccasin, or spear. Figure 222 a–g, for example, shows six different AMNH artifacts, representing six different forms of arrow, all shown to one-third scale. Figure 223 shows two quivers in the AMNH collection, one made of skin, the other of sagebrush bark. This museographic approach to the development and presentation of an ethnography reflects Boas’s conception of material culture as integral to the life of Nlaka’pamux society prior to the arrival of Europeans and reflective of Nlaka’pamux thought. On this point, see Berman, “‘The Culture as It Appears to the Indian Himself,’” 218. Boas’s emphasis on material culture as inseparable from ethnography is, in a way, a practical extension of his exchange with Otis Mason in Science in May and June 1887, a restatement of his position that objects assembled in museum collections were best understood within their social and historical context rather than within an evolutionary context, but it also underlies the interest he expressed in his letters to Teit in the conceptual basis of design within Nlaka’pamux society and in his later queries concerning the Nlaka’pamux basket maker’s conceptual approach to her work. 33. Harlan Smith’s Archaeology of Lytton, British Columbia was issued by the American Museum of Natural History on May 25, 1899.

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Boas to Teit. November 1, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend,— Your revised proofs reached me yesterday. I will try to insert all your remarks in the book. I had the cut showing the house made over in order to make it agree with your description.

Boas to Teit. November 8, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend, Can you learn any thing about the history of the introduction of the horse? When did they first get acquainted with it? I presume they were introduced from the Okanagon region. You gave me a description of the dwarfs, which I have embodied in the paper. I have been told by a Mr. Taylor of Russland, who says he knows you, that a telegraph operator in Lillooet has a very fine long serpentine axe, as he describes it, about fifteen inches long. Would you care to try to get it? I suppose you would have better chances of success than I.

Teit to Boas. November 14, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My Dear Friend Your letter of 8th inst duly to hand. I will write to the telegraph operator at Lillooet whom Mr. Taylor mentioned re the long serpentine axe. I have returned all the proofs I received. The last about a week or more ago dealing with costumes etc. The horse was introduced about the latter part or towards the end of last century but owing to the fact that the Indians slaughtered many of them for food, and horse stealing was so prevalent amongst them they never became really plentiful until 50 to 60 years ago, although of course on the increase ever since their introduction. Amongst the tribes immediately North and West of the Upper Thompson the horse was not introduced until about 70 years ago and was scarce amongst them until about 50 years ago, or less. Amongst the Carriers they have not been plentiful until within the last 10 to 15 years and amongst the Chilcotin within the last 30 to 35 years. Horses were first introduced from the Okanagon who are said to have obtained them first from Sahaptin, Shoshonean and Cayuse 206 | 1899

tribes. The Hudson’s Bay Coy also sold horses to Indians at a later date. They probably obtained their horses from the South and East. Many say from the latter place. [page 2] I will send you copies of the a/cs you ask for next time I write.

Boas to Teit. November 22, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend, Will you do me the favor to send me a statement of your accounts up to date, that I may be able to close up my books for the current year. We sent you some proof of your paper yesterday. The printing is proceeding quite rapidly now.

Teit to Smith. December 4, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My Dear Mr. Smith Your letter of 27th ult received by me yesterday and I hasten to reply to your queries. (1) I think the title of your memoir “Archaeology of the Thompson River Region” is quite appropriate. (2) Re the distance of Spences Bridge from Lytton. It is only 22 miles by the CPR line, but by the old wagon-road and the trail it is from 23 to 24 miles. The settlers always talk of it as 23 miles, and from Spences Bridge to Ashcroft by wagon road 26 miles. In some parts of the country the RR strikes a shorter line than the Wagon Roads and trails while in other parts the reverse is the case. I don’t see that it matters which of the distances you insert in your memoir as they are both right[.] (3) The place we last camped at and where you dug bones with Babtiste and I acting as scout is 9 miles from Spences Bridge or slightly over, (4) and the name of the place is ‘LîkLáḵᴇtᴇn.’34 (5) The name of the ‘shooting rock’ is ‘Kaíatamus a canᴇx,’35 (6) and it is 13 miles or slightly36 over from Spences Bridge[.] (7) The place where we made the big find is about 62 miles from Sp 34. In the “Introductory” to the posthumously published Teit and Boas, “Tatooing and Face and Body Painting of the Thompson Indians of British Columbia,” Teit identifies “Babtiste” as a shaman, “Babtiste Ululamếllst” (Iron Stone). Babtiste died in 1903 and was buried on June 7, 1903. See Teit to Boas, June 8, 1903, and also note on Teit’s letter to Sapir, August 10, 1913, both in this volume. 35. Rendered as “q’ayetmus: Place in the 14 mile area where people used to shoot arrows,” from q’ay’ “shoot” (Thompson and Thompson, Thompson River Salish Dictionary, 276). 36. “Slightly” is either underlined or crossed out. Teit’s script is ambiguous.

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Bdge and is called Nx̳ax̳tétᴇx or at least the lake shore immediately below the bluff is called that. (8) Qế˥amix is the name of the Indian village we visited close bye [sic]. I shall be glad to see a copy of your memoir whenever you are ready with it, and shall look carefully over it. PS I am going up to the Qế˥amix village in about 9 or 10 days time.37

Boas to Teit. December 9, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend,— Beginning at the place where we are now in your memoir, there are very few illustrations, and for this reason I am sending you the galleys before they are made up. This will expedite matters considerably. Kindly return them always as soon as you can. I am sending to-day galleys 44–47.

Teit to Boas. December 21, 1899. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My Dear Friend. Your letter of 9th inst duly received. I return the proofs of my memoir to-day, and would have done so sooner but have been away in Nicola for about eight days returning only last night. I remember the specimens you refer to encluding [sic] the obsidian point. You showed the arrow points to me when I was with you as interpreter, and you told me at the time that you had bought them in an Indian Curio shop in Victoria from a white man who had collected them in the Upper Thompson region. I do not remember what you said about the stone dish, whether you got it from the same party or not. I will procure the ‘cradle pipes’ for male and female children respectively as you desire.38

37. A Nlaka’pamux settlement near Quilchena in the vicinity of Nicola Lake. 38. “Cradle pipes” are hollow tubes set into an infant’s cradle and linked to an opening in the end wall of the cradle to allow the child to urinate without wetting the cradle.

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1900

Teit to Boas. January 5, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–2. My Dear Friend Your letter of 27th ult duly received. I am continuing to collect articles with the money on hand although I have not been able to get Indians to make many things lately. I have not been able to write out much of my Lillooet material as yet as I have been away from home a good deal but when I get at it steady, it wont take very long. I am glad to hear that my Thompson paper will be ready so soon. I enclose you a receipted bill for $18.00 which I think will be enough for my services last year in making collection etc. and hope same may meet with your approval. I would like to know if you would approve of my spending enough money to make a trip to a few miles above Lytton to try and procure a copper ‘spîk’ recently found in a grave there. It is described as being very thick and heavy so it may [page 2] possibly be made of native copper. I would charge only expenses and what I would pay for the weapon. I would like you to make out a full list of all the Indian words used in my papers on the Thompsons and in notes with specimens. I will revise them and incorporate the words in our proposed dictionary. I am quite willing to undertake the writing out of a Thompson dictionary and grammar and shall soon commence to write down words and texts—of myths and conversations. If I was rich and had plenty of time I would undertake the job with the greatest of pleasure without desiring any compensation, but as it is I shall be glad to accept anything you may deem proper for the work. I think I will be able to give you a great deal of information re the language. I suppose you will have seen Mr. Hill-Tout’s notes on the language. There are many mistakes in them. Please send me a copy of Giorda’s Dictionary of the Kalispelm [sic] as I am sure it may help me a lot.1

1. Giorda and Mengarini, Dictionary of the Kalispel or Flat-head Indian Language.

209

Boas to Teit. January 27, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend:— I have delayed writing to you longer than I intended. I notice in your accounts that you have not charged us any thing for your services during the past year. You have at present, according to our accounts, a balance in hand of $152.80. Will you kindly write me a receipted bill for whatever amount you may deem proper as your compensation for work during the past year. I know that I can rely upon you in charging the proper amount. I think it is very essential that you should go on with your work, and particularly that you should record your extensive knowledge of the Thompson language. Smith got for you last year a lot of small pads on which to write down words. I should like to suggest to you to commence systematic work in this line by writing down texts in the Indian language with interlinear translation, and putting down at the same time material for a dictionary. It is best to select for the texts, on the one hand traditional material, such as myths, and on the other hand material in the form of conversations or speeches, because the grammatical forms that occur in the latter are, on the whole, quite different from those found in the former. I hope you will be willing to undertake this work, and I believe I shall be able to set aside a certain amount of money to compensate you for the time that you devote to this matter. I think if you could continue work of this kind for four or five years, we shall be able to obtain a very full dictionary and grammar of the Thompson language. [page 2] In case you should be willing to undertake this work, I shall send you a copy of Giorda’s “Dictionary of the Kalispelm,” [sic] which may be of material assistance to you. The work on your paper is nearing its end, and I hope we may see it out not much later than the 1st of March.

LANDMARKS OF THE STUWÍX 2 tribal boundaries (60 years ago)

N.E. kînkînúlox̳

Hill at the East end of Nicola lake, a little beyond Sam Moore’s Ranch.

2. Teit’s compilation titled “Landmarks of the Stuwix” is filed with AMNH, Division of Anthropology, accession 1899–48, but not associated with a particular letter. The content harkens back to Teit’s work in the Nicola Valley in 1895, but the note indicating that tattoo marks were

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E. Spáxamîn

Where the creek falls out of Douglas Lake

SW. Tsoz’z

A valley with many dark coloured rocks on the Boston Bar trail and about 50 miles from Tsulús. Nicola

S. Tast xe zúli

W. CáxanEx̳

N. Mámit

On the north side of the little lake above Bill Mannings Ranch

At the slide a little East of CáxanEx̳ creek

Upper end of Mámit Lake

(It would be well if every tribe had its boundaries as well defined as the above)

STÛWÍX WORDS + where two names are given for the same thing, they are the renderings of different individuals Ram of Mountain Sheep

Ewe of [ditto]

= Tit-pîń

= Sisiếni, Tipí

Grizzly Bear

= Sas

Rattle snake

= SLosx’ó

Elk

(Lake) Trout

=SEsiáni, Êstahîz (*1) = Sapái i

*(2) (Hûlúliak)

= Hûlhûltút äi

Ground hog

= Zûl kéke

*(3) Eyínik Soap Berry Bear Berry

= Takínk tcîn = Texóztz

́ = TínEx’, Tînûx

Wild currant

= NoLxátzi, xLomázi

Man

= T’hatc

Buck deer Woman Knife

Horn spoon

Packing Line

Bow and arrow

= Ts’ho

= Tsekx’é. tsekxäi = Ta-áni

= S’o̎titsái i = ĹuL, ĹoL = Ḵ́́e

drawn by “Indian Paul” of the Lower Utamkt suggests Teit wrote this after his second visit to Spuzzum.

1900 | 211

Arrow head

= Naltsítse

Come here child

= Áwe x́e

(an angry answer)

apîn Lexi Ĺ en xäin

I may give you

= EL tcot

(they don’t know the exact meaning of this and liken it to the swearing of the whites)

PLACE NAMES Tast x’e zúli Tîz-zîla NAMES OF TRIBE SEÍLEX AMUX̳ (MEANS PEOPLE OF HIGH COUNTRY) Smîlếkamux̳ Stûwíxanux̳ ——————————— *(1) Probably a corruption of the NLakyápamux̳ stEhatz (elk)3 *(2, 3) NLakyápamux̳ names of certain small fish. I don’t know their English names.

Fig. 4. “Tatoo marks Tcuiêska.” From “Landmarks of the Stuwix,” AMNH.

3. The symbol Teit used, apparently to convey an initial phoneme here, is hard to decipher. The Nlaka’pamux term for elk is s/txéc̓ (Thompson and Thompson, Thompson River Salish Dictionary, 803).

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Fig. 5. [a] “Arrow tatoo used on arm by men. [b] “Common tatoo used by men and women on wrists or lower arm. Supposed to represent a snake. [c] “Tatoos used by men on lower arms. May mean stones of sweat house. Ancient tatoo marks drawn by Indian Paul of the Lower Utamkt.” From “Landmarks of the Stuwix,” AMNH.

Fig. 6. Sketches of moccasin designs: “(1) pḗpîn, also called s’kōmū́tia; (2) skōmáuîskîn, also called pḗpîn; (3) Lkōáuskîn; (4) tûktEkwéna.” From “Landmarks of the Stuwix,” AMNH.

Nos 2 and 4 [moccasins] are said to have been the commonest kinds formerly in use. The latter often had a long fringe around the side. No. 1 was the next commonest in use while No 3 was the least common. At the present day by far commonest is No 3 while the others are seldom used.4

4. At this point in AMNH, accession 1899–48, there is a single sheet of paper with sketches labeled in Teit’s handwriting, “ordinary men’s shirts.” They may represent two shirts or the front and back view of one shirt. There is no other information, and as their context is not clear, they have not been included.

1900 | 213

Boas to Teit. February 7, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–2. My dear Friend:— I received your proofs on the chapter on religion yesterday. You say that I have omitted some of your remarks in regard to souls and ghosts. I hardly think so, because I kept carefully all your letters and manuscripts. I had everything copied and cut out and pasted together the way I thought it ought to come, so that there is hardly a chance of any thing having been lost.5 If you know of any important information that has been omitted in the memoir, I beg to ask you to send it to me at your earliest convenience, that I may insert it as a note at the end of the book. You will find the information contained in a recent letter in regard to the “Limestone Lodge” and the three old men inserted in its place. What are you doing with your Lillooet material? Do you expect to find time soon to send me your notes? There is no special hurry. If it is not convenient for you this winter, later in the year will do just as well.

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

Teit to Boas. February 16, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–2. My Dear Friend Your letter of the 7th inst duly received. I was mistaken re your omitting some of my information re ‘souls and future state’. I was too previous for the next mail I received the proofs containing all my remarks on the subject in full. I think you have been very careful indeed as I have not come across anything that you have omitted. Re the Lillooet material I will be able to send you some (perhaps all) this spring. I have written out some of the stories already and intend to send you all the stories, before I write out the other material[.] I am writing out some words for the Thompson Dictionary in my spare time.

5. A very direct reference to Boas’s editorial method. In this regard, see Teit’s response shortly thereafter (AMNH, Division of Anthropology, Teit to Boas, February 16, 1900).

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Boas to Teit. March 17, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend:— I am expecting your book out in a very few days. It has a little over 200 pages, and has 7 plates: consequently it is very heavy, and will cost a good deal for postage. I presume you would like to send a few copies personally from Spences Bridge. Please let me know how many to send you. If there are any others that you wish to have sent directly from the Museum with your compliments, give me the addresses of those to whom you might wish to have it sent, and I will have it attended to. There are 50 copies at your disposal.

Teit to Boas. March 22, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. Dear Friend, I received the Kalispelm dictionaries all right and find them very interesting. I think they will help me a lot. I have written out several hundred words for the dictionary already. I asked you to send me a list of all the words I have used in my papers so I may revise them and incorporate them in the Dict. You did not say whether you would like me to go to Lytton and try to procure the copper club. I expect my paper will be nearly through the press by this time. I have written off a lot of the Lillooet stories and will send you a batch of them in about a week’s time. We are having beautiful weather here.

Teit to Boas. March 24, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. My Dear Friend, Your letter of 17th inst to hand yesterday and I was glad to hear that the book would be out so soon. I am glad also to hear that there are 50 copies at my disposal. You may send me ten copies here in the meantime, and when I want more I will let you know. I enclose list of addresses of those you may send from New York viz. Jno. Teit. Ravenscourt,

Lerwick,

Shetland Islands

Katherine Irvine [ditto]

[ditto]

[ditto]

Thomas R Teit. [Ditto]

[ditto]

[ditto]

1900 | 215

JJ Halden Burger

[ditto]

[ditto]

Harry L. Inskip

31 Pembroke Road, South Tottenham,

London England

David J. Williamson

Hon. Joseph Petre,6

[ditto]

White’s Club, St. James Street,

[ditto]

London SW England.

If I want any more sent from New York I will let you know. Please let me know the cost of postage and I will remit amount of same to you. I wrote you a letter yesterday.

Boas to Teit. March 28, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1899–48. My dear Friend:— I received your letter yesterday. It seems that one of your communications did not reach me, at least I do not recall that you asked anything about a copper club. If there is one to be had, get it, by all means. I cannot get for you the copy of all your Indian words from your manuscript until some time this summer. By far the greater number have been extracted, and are on cards. These I may bring along when I come out, but there may be a hundred or so that have been omitted.

Teit to Boas. April 7, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. Dear Friend Your letter of 28th ult to hand. I shall do the best I can re procuring the copper club. I note what you say re the list of words from my manuscripts. I sent you a batch of Lillooet stories the other day (17 in all) and hope they reached you safely. I have got a number more written off already. From what you say in your letter you seem to 6. Marginal note: “Died since this was written.” Capt. Joseph Lucius Henry Petre (April 22, 1866–January 24, 1900), youngest son of the 12th Lord Petre, of Essex, was killed in action on January 24, 1900, at Spioen Kop, South Africa, during the Second Boer War. He was a captain in the Loyal Sussex Hussars and Thorneycraft’s Light infantry (“Deaths,” South Africa Weekly Journal, March 3, 1900). Captain Joseph Lucius Henry Petre was the fourth child of William Bernard (Petre), 12th Baron (Cracroft-Brennan, “Petre, Baron”). Citing Teit’s journal, Wickwire notes that Teit’s hunting expedition with Petre was Teit’s “first major guiding contract” (Wickwire, At the Bridge, 322n18).

216 | 1900

infer that you intend coming out this summer. If so, what will be your programme. If you come you can bring out all the copies of my book in your luggage thus you need only send me two or three copies at present instead of the ten copies I asked for. This will safe [sic] expence [sic]. PS I intend making a shipment to the museum within a couple of weeks.

Boas to Teit. April 14, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. My dear Friend:— There has been great delay in binding your memoir, but I expect it now very shortly. The first copy came in yesterday, and I suppose we shall have some more in two or three days, when I shall at once send them to you. I am sending you to-day a number of photographs of your baskets, which may be of interest to you in connection with your work. Perhaps you will have an opportunity to ask again about the significance of the designs. I received your collection of Lillooet tales, and I am very much interested in them.

Boas to Teit. April 17, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. My dear Friend:— I have your note of the 7th of April. I intend to come out this summer, and I shall let you know when I pass through Spences Bridge. I hope I may be able to see you for a few days.

Boas to Teit. April 23, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. My dear Friend:— We have just received copies of your work, and I take pleasure in sending you two to-day by express.7 I hope you will be pleased with the looks of the book.

7. Confirming that The Thompson Indians of British Columbia is now in print.

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Teit to Boas. May 4, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. Dear Friend I enclose a list of specimens I have shipped to the museum to-day. I think you will find them all very interesting. I sent you 9 more Lillooet myths about 10 days ago. I wont [sic] have any more ready for a week as I have been away from home. Both your letters of recent date to hand. I will be glad to see you when you come out. No doubt the two copies of my book you sent will be here in due time and I am sure I will be very well pleased with it. I am doing a little work at odd times on the dictionary. PS Please do not send the copy of book I asked you to send to Hon Mr J Petre London England. I have just heard he was killed in So. Africa.

Otis Mason (Curator, Division of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution) to Boas. May 5, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. Dear Doctor Boas: I have received, and acknowledge with thanks, Teit’s paper on the Thompson River Indians; and to show you that I have been reading it, I will ask you to turn to page 249. This is the kind of trap called “springe,” which consisted of throwing the animal up into the air. The toggle catch rests under the two bases and the noose passes down between them. The victim, after passing its head through the noose, evidently falls down, the spring releases the toggle catch, and the animal is drawn up and choked to death against the underside of the two bows. The trigger is very meager and the trap very plain. I have never seen a trap like this, but it reminds me of the ordinary mouse trap in its final action, and I am quite curious to know whether the ingenious Indian who devised this may have seen a wire mouse trap. Perhaps Mr. Teit can tell me more about this very interesting invention. The deer-gate on page 247 is also interesting in one respect, that the trigger or release consists of a number of sticks, on which the deer steps, the tow passes the horizontal catch, which releases the trigger.8 Precisely such a trigger arrangement exists in Borneo. 8. This letter recalls the exchange between Franz Boas and Otis Mason in Science in May and June 1887. The reference to Borneo suggests that Mason had, perhaps, not quite abandoned his position. The pivotal element of the deer-gate illustrated by Teit was a snare attached to a pole

218 | 1900

Boas to Teit. May 8, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology 1900–48. My dear Friend,— I have been asked by Professor Mason if you are sure that the trap shown on p. 249 is a native invention or if it is possibly suggested by a modern wire mouse-trap. Will you kindly let me know your opinion in regard to this matter?

Teit to Boas. May 15, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. Dear Friend I am in receipt of your letter of 8th inst re Prof. Mason’s enquiry. I may say that the Indians agree that the trap figured on page 249 is an old trap which they used before the whites came to the country. In fact as far back as they can remember. I am sending you another batch of Lillooet myths in a few days. You will find them very interesting I am sure. I received the two copies of my book all right and think it is got up all right. PS I forwarded a lot of specimens to the museum the other day. I wrote you at the time I sent them.

Teit to Boas. May 22, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. Dear Friend I send to you to-day 12 more myths of the Lillooet and some war stories. You will find them interesting as some of them are clan traditions. They also enclude the Coyote and the Transformers. I still have a number of stories to write.

and hidden under a set of sticks placed just in front of the opening in the gate. When the deer stepped on the sticks he released the snare and was suspended by one foot as the pole sprang back. Mason appears to have used the old Scottish word, “tow,” meaning “rope” to refer to the snare.

1900 | 219

Teit to Boas. May 28, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. Dear Friend, I send you to day the last of the Lillooet myths and stories I have collected. There are 11 myths some very important and some war stories.9 Hoping they will reach you all right.

Boas to Teit. May 31, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. My dear Friend:— I expect to leave Chicago for the west on Friday, June 15. I intend to stay over at Spences Bridge for a few days, possibly for a week. I hope I shall meet you there at that time. I will wire you from Chicago the exact date when I shall be there.

Boas to Teit. June 4, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. My dear Friend:— Your last package of Lillooet stories came to-day. I am very glad to have them. My plans for this summer are pretty definite now. I do not know yet the exact day when I shall reach Spences Bridge, but I wish you would meet me at the railroad. I shall telegraph from Chicago when I am due. I should like to make a trip up the Nicola Valley with you, in order to collect measurements of the Nicola band. I have not got any so far. I shall not have very much time, and for this reason I think it would be best to take simply two saddle-horses, and to get provisions in Nicola Valley as we go along. I presume that will be possible. I hope you will be able to be ready when I arrive, so that we can start right off. When we go along, we shall have time enough to talk over the language and some other matters.

9. The war narratives were never published but remain in the APS, ACLS Collection’s Item 61, “Salish Ethnographic Materials.” Although these narratives involve both the Nlaka’pamux and the St’at’imc (Lillooet) and are, in fact, very pertinent to the history of both, this exchange between Teit and Boas makes it clear that Teit collected them during his work among the Lillooet.

220 | 1900

Teit to Boas. August 5, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48.10 My Dear Friend Your letter from Vancouver and your later one from Alert Bay to hand. I am now on my way up country. I got the fellow I talked of to accompany me. I give him no pay—only his grub—and he is glad of the chance to see the country with me, and do some shooting. I enclose a letter from Prof Hill-Tout which you can burn after reading it. You will see by it that after seeing my book he has given up the idea of further studying the Thompson and other Interior tribes. Probably he now sees that we can do the thing better than he imagined. I arrived here a few days ago and have been amongst the different camps of Stonies who probably have more baskets than an of the other bands; although they do not have the number of woven baskets to be found amongst the Lillooet and Thompson nor does there seem to be such a number of patterns as amongst the latter[.]11 I have procured a number of specimens—mostly all baskets and sacks. I have three of the latter viz two woven of mountain goats wool and one of bark thread. I have got explanations for most of the basketry designs I have seen—encluding the basket you bought when up here—but some of the designs are very old or borrowed for they seem unable to explain them. I have got the following names for designs so far. Net, arrowhead, stone, fish or fish rib, rib or animal rib, mountain, snake or mountain, beaver-tail, beaver trail, and sack. Ten in all, and I expect to get some more. On the whole the patterns (and style of basketry) are similar to the Lillooet only their method of arranging them on the baskets is somewhat different. The bridge across the river here was washed away about the same time as the ferry at SB and as the river is still quite high and the landings are bad on both banks it is very difficult to get across. I intend to swim one

10. Teit is writing from “South side of Chilcotin River Opp. Hanceville” to Boas at “P.O. Victoria.” Included with this letter is a photograph of a field taken by H. T. Scott, Esq. and inscribed on the back in Teit’s handwriting: “The four metamorphosed heroes of the Chilcotin mythology represented by the boulders in the picture. Near corner of Crowhursts fence.” 11. “Stonies” or Stone Chilcotin, Yunesit’in First Nation. In the summer of 1900 Teit undertook ethnographic research among the Shuswap of the Fraser River, and during this time he spent two weeks among the Chilcotin, whose traditional territory is located west of the Fraser River, with the specific goal of collecting Chilcotin basketry and interpretations of basketry designs. In “Notes on the Chilcotin” he wrote, “The Stone Chilcotin make their winter headquarters on a reserve on the south side of the Chilcotin Valley, about four miles west of Hanceville” (759–60).

1900 | 221

saddle horse or hire one on the other side and make a trip to Anahim12 and up to the Indian bridge above Crowhursts where some Indians are.13 I will likely be on the other side for three or four days. When I get altogether through here I will return to the Shuswap where I expect to be a considerable time. I intend to collect stories at three points if possible but will be most of the time around Canoe Creek where I intend to question my old friend Big Billy until he is tired. I received a letter from Dr. Farrand re the stories. I hope you are in good health and making progress amongst the Kwakiutl. I have answered Farrand’s letter. I will now close as my friend has been out all day after the horses without finding them. They may have strayed far so I will have to go and hunt them. PS address Sp. Bdge as usual.14

Teit to Boas. August 14, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. Dear Friend I thought I would drop you a note to let you know how I was getting along. I have now been at all the Indian camps between Hanceville and the Bridge and salmon traps above Crowhurst’s. I think I have got almost all the basket patterns to be found. A number of Indians are camped fishing in the canyon below Hanceville and I am going to visit them. Nearly all the patterns I have obtained are very similar to those of the Lillooet. Besides the list I gave you I have obtained the following designs ‘tree’, ‘lake and stream,’ ‘mink,’ ‘card,’ ‘duck.’ The common circular design on tools etc. is called ‘eye.’ The Indians tell me that the pure animal designs are put on baskets only by the Stone Chilcotin of Chilco Lake region where the patterns in vogue [page 2] amongst the other Chilcotins are not much used.15 The animal patterns consist of

12. In “Notes on the Chilcotin” Teit wrote that the Anahim band lived “in a village on the north side of the Chilcotin River, about eight miles west of Hanceville” (760). 13. A bridge constructed by the Chilcotin. Teit’s work preceded by fifty years the first comprehensive ethnography of the Tsilhqot’in (Lane, Cultural Relations of the Chilcotin Indians of West Central British Columbia). 14. Enclosed photo of a landscape with fence, labeled “View of Crowhurst’s ranch.” Also on the reverse, in Teit’s handwriting, “The four metamorphosed heroes of the Chilcotin mythology represented by the boulders in this picture. Near corner of C. Crowhursts fence. Photographed by H. T. Scott Esq.” 15. Yunesit’in First Nation (Stone Band). (Lane, Robert, “Tsilhqot’in (Chilcotin),” The Canadian Encyclopedia. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/chilcotin-tsilhqotin,

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rows of horses, deer, men etc. and the basket you saw at Big Bar no doubt came from Chilco as they used to sell them cheap to the other Chilcotin who in turn are in the habit of selling them and some of their own to the Shuswap.16 I have not seen any of them since I came here, and would very much have liked to visit that region to procure some samples and investigate, but the Indians tell me I would not find the people at home as they are all scattered through the Cascade Mountains at this season. Consequently I have come to the conclusion that it would be risky to go there except I had a guide who could pilot me to their haunts in the mountains, and employing such for several weeks would reduce my slender funds too much. I did not require to go to Chizikut and Puntzee Lake as almost all the Indians from there are now camped fishing on the Chilcotin above [page 3] Alexis Creek and I was through their camps. I have now procured over forty specimens and a good deal of information about some. I have not made any inquiries about special subjects or customs as you did not tell me to do so. I feel pretty confident that with a little time I could elicit very detailed information on these matters. As it is I have confined myself principally to getting all the information about specimens I could. The root you asked me to inquire about as figuring in their transformer story is the Kokwíla root of the Thompsons.17 The Indians told me it grew in the river valley so I got two of them to go out with me to hunt it. As soon as they pointed it out I knew it, although the leaves were much withered. I expect to be through here in a week at most and then will go straight back to Canoe Creek, where I expect to be a considerable time.18 Hoping this may find you quite well. [page 4] PS Remember me to George Hunt PPS The specimens I have got consist of several sacks or bags of different material and showing different kinds of weaving. published online November 30, 2010. Updated by Zach Parrott November 5, 2018, accessed October 14, 2021). 16. Big Bar, a locality in Shuswap traditional territory near the town of Clinton Bc. 17. q’wəq’wile. Hog-fennel. Lomatium macrocarpum (H and A) or Peucedanum macrocarpum (Nutt.) Jones (Turner et al., Thompson Ethnobotany, 155). 18. Canoe Creek, a locality also in Secwepemc traditional territory. Teit was apparently planning to resume his research among the Shuswap (Secwepemc) of the Fraser River. In the preface to The Shuswap Teit wrote, “At the request of Dr. Franz Boas, I made a journey with pack-train in 1900, and visited the western and northern bands of Fraser River, spending almost all the summer and fall among them. I was previously acquainted with this region, having made several hunting and exploring trips through it in 1887, 1888, and 1892, my journeying extending far into the Carrier country. I also accompanied Dr. Boas on his visits to all the western Shuswap bands, and across the Chilcotin country to Bella Coola in 1897” (447).

1900 | 223

Baskets woven and birch bark. Horn spoons[,] model of Bark canoe, 2 kinds of rabbit snares[,] Baby Carriers and pipes for same. Horn bark peeler and scraper. Horn Decoy fish[,] Stone pipe, bow and arrows, skin scrapers, wooden comb etc. etc.

Teit to Boas. September 1, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48.19 Dear Friend This place is between Dog Creek and Canoe Creek on the west side of the Fraser. I get my mail at the former place. I may leave here in a few days for Lower [sic] down and then come back here again later. I may also go up as far as Alkali Lake if I am not satisfied with the number of stories I get around here. I have been interviewing Shuswap since I came here and have got old Billy camped with me for a time.20 I have written down a number of stories. Only one Old man story yet. Billy says however that when he first remembers 50 odd years ago most of the stories told by the old men were Coyote and old man stories but almost all the latter now forgotten replaced by Bible and white man stories—only Coyote stories kept [page 2] alive because of the tricks narrated in them. I got the version here of ɬeḗsa the Shus transformer and find all the incidents the same as the Chilcotin transformer story. I think the latter is borrowed bodily from the Shus. It looks like it anyway. I obtained 50 specimens amongst the Chilcotin. I have spent what of my own money I took with me and most of yours and I think I wont have sufficient to finish the work. I would not like to see the work suffer for want of funds. I have sent to Spences Bridge for some more money and if you could manage to send me any way from 25.00 to 50.00 it will be all the better. Will write to you again in a week or two.

19. Teit is writing from Churn Creek Bc, but at the top of the letter in Teit’s handwriting is “Address Sp Bridge as before.” 20. Also in his preface to The Shuswap Teit wrote, “During the season of 1900 I collected the bulk of my information from several old men in the vicinity of Canoe Creek and Dog Creek, and especially from a very intelligent old man called Sixwilexken, who was born near Big Bar, and in early days had travelled all over the country inhabited by the tribe. He was particularly well posted on the history, traditions, and customs of his people, and took great interest in relating everything he knew” (447).

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Teit to Boas. September 20, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. Dr. Franz Boas Dear Friend, I have been away a while and am now back here again.21 I camp here because it is a good place for the horses and it is also central to Dog Creek and Canoe Creek, but there is the inconvenience of having to cross the Fraser at times. I wrote to you twice since I left Chilcotin but there is no certainty of your having received the last letter, as I sent it to you by a Chinaman who was going there and moreover the P.O. there is conducted rather loosely. I told you that I was nearly out of funds and had sent to Sp Bdge for more money but what I sent for wont be enough and the money I use for making Collections amongst the Thompson is locked up in the safe at Sp Bdge. I will need about $50.00 [page 2] at least to finish the work here, so if you can send me that amount in say two cheques of $25.00 each as soon as possible I will be much obliged. Send it by Registered letter if you can addressed to me at Dog Creek. I am progressing very well with my work amongst the Shuswaps, and have made extensive notes on all manner of subjects. These throw some light on the customs of the Chilcotin, and the Manitou dances and Dog and Corpse dances performed throughout this region. The clan system of the Lillooet did not obtain amongst the Northern Shuswap. The SétLmux̳ division of the Shuswap that occupied the country west of the Fraser were very much mixed with Chilcotin by intermarriage, did all the trading and acted as go betweens for the two tribes, who were really very hostile to one another.22 The SétLmux̳ owing to their relationship were exempt from all attack by either party. Undoubtedly through them the Shus myths were introduced amongst [page 3] the Chilcotin. I have collected 70 myths amongst the Shuswap and expect to get a few more yet. I think the Chilcotin have borrowed a very great number of tales and incidents of tales. Very many of the Thompson incidents of tales I also find amongst the Shuswap. All the incidents of the Chilcotin transformer myth I have obtained here, most of them in the story of ɬeḗsa. I have now interviewed old men belonging to High Bar, Big Bar, Canoe Creek, Dog Creek and Alkali Lake. I had one man living with me 21. Teit’s letter is written from “Churn Creek Bc (P.O. Dog Creek Bc).” 22. seTlmux. Teit identified this group as living “west of the Fraser, from about Churn Creek to beyond Riske Creek,” with their main villages at the foot of the canyon on the Chilcotin River (Teit, The Shuswap, 453).

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for 3 weeks under wages, and pumped him until he got tired. To-morrow I intend to go up Dog Creek some distance to copy a rock painting on a cliff there. There are very few specimens to be obtained here this branch of the Shus having given up the manufacture of almost everything except birch bark baskets and cradles and moccasins. According to what the Indians say I would have to go to Canoe Lake and the North Thompson to be able to obtain specimens of their old manufactures etc. The Indians of that region are said to talk a little different [page 4] dialect from those here and the Kamloops dialect is slightly different from both. The Shus. Lake and Spallumcheen dialect is said to be most different of all. Some of the Anahim Chilcotin are said to have Shus blood in them derived from the SétLmux̳. The Alkali Lake Indians have a large amount of Chilcotin blood from the same source and the Soda Creek people have a great deal of Carrier blood. The other Northern Shus bands are purer. There are many faintly sounded or slurred vowels here, more so than on the Thompson even and many consonants which are faintly soundly [sic] also. These I have marked with a dot underneath as t ̩ for instance. In some words whole syllables are sounded so faintly that you can hardly make out what it is, and generally the first or the middle syllable is uttered distinct and forcibly. How would you have me mark these faint syllables. If you have time you might give me some examples if you can of the difference between the sounds of ‘ei’ ‘ēi’ ‘ä’ and ‘äi’. This is one of the things I forgot to ask you about when I was with you. I forget whether you told me that you sent these books of mine that I sent you the addresses for before you left New York. I told some of them that the books had been sent but they write to tell me they have not received them. I will now close

Teit to Boas. October 21, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. Dear Friend I am detained here with heavy rains so I thought I would write you a note to post when passing through Clinton.23 I am on my way down to Hat Creek24 and the Buonaparte, and have been much delayed with rains.25 The mud is very bad here on the plateau. We are living on 23. Teit is writing from “Plateau S E of Canoe Creek, Bc.” 24. A valley west of the Thompson River, north and west of the town of Ashcroft. 25. The Buonaparte River, in southern Shuswap territory, near the border with Nlaka’pamux territory.

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dried venison and potatoes until we get to Clinton. I would not buy any more of the very expensive and exceedingly bad grub of Dog Creek stores. I hope you received my letter giving you particulars of my work amongst the Shuswap and acknowledging receipt of the $50.00 you sent. I wrote to Dr. Farrand and gave him a list of the stories I collected which were the same as those he obtained from the Chilcotin. As soon as I get home I shall start to write out and send you the balance of the Lillooet material, in fact I have occupied [page 2] myself in bad weather by writing out a little of it already. The study of one tribe throws light on the customs of the other in many ways for instance the Religious dances. I could not obtain any satisfactory reason from the Nla why stripes were almost universally used in face paint etc. at these dances. Enquiry amongst the Lillooet showed that earthly dancers were told to paint in the same way as the shades do when they dance (the same dance) [sic] in the spirit land viz in stripes. Amongst the Lillooet all dancers painted their faces with red and white perpendicular stripes for the above reason. They also say they were told by the chief of the dead that if they did not dance diligently they would be naked in the next world for their (dead) friends would not make and sew clothes ready for them to put on when they reached there. This perhaps explains the reason why the Nla speak of leaving their clothes at a certain place on the trail to spirit land. They did this likely because they expected their relatives [page 3] would have new clothes ready for them when they reached there. Besides the clothes of earth are said to be in a manner unclean and to stink of earth and of the things of earth, which odor might not be acceptable to the noses of the shades. Now enquiry re the same subject amongst the Shuswap brings out the reason why these ‘touching’ dances or marrying was associated with the regular religious dances. They were told from spirit land that any person male or female who remained single on earth would not reach the land of the shades, and they were all advised to marry soon after coming of age. For this reason the ‘touching’ dance was introduced and associated with the religious dance. There seems also to have been a vague belief amongst all the tribes that keeping up these dances might hasten the return of the dead, would show that they remembered and respected their dead relatives, and would help the living to find favor in the eyes of the dead, and thus preserve the people better from all harm which the dead might work on them. Some seem to [page 4] think that a person who did not dance would not live so long for the dead would be angry at him and bewitch or harm him in some way or another by sickness, accident etc. The dances were also looked upon as being to a 1900 | 227

certain extent a means of keeping up communication with the dead and thus a means of gaining knowledge: for the shades knew more and were wiser than living people and they often imparted knowledge to their living relatives by acting as their manitous, giving them wise dreams and sending messages to the world with returning souls, that is souls who reached the spirit land but were sent back by the chief because their time had not come to die. You will thus see we are much more enlightened re the ideas entertained on this subject by the Indians than we were a year or two ago. I enclose a rough list of the stories I have collected amongst the No Shus which may give you some idea as to their character. It is notable that there are no stories properly dealing with the origin of fire, water, light, darkness etc. I was much surprised to get no [page 5] Kokwíla story and not a single sun myth. The Indians all claim that they never heard any sun stories related. They say that in olden times their stories were nearly all Coyote, Grisly Bear, Cannibal and old-man stories. Most of the balance were Blue Jay, and Wolf stories. Most of the details of the Old man stories have been forgotten and their place taken by Bible stories learned from the priests which the Indians now consider the true versions of the creation and everything else.26 The Coyote tales are still pretty well remembered and kept up because of the tricks and fun they contain. A few of the Shus stories may have been borrowed from the Chilcotin but without doubt the latter have done by far the most of the borrowing. I think I have obtained the great majority or nearly all the stories remembered by the Fraser River Shus. Perhaps if I had gone to Soda Creek I might have got some additional ones due to contact at that [page 6] point with the Carriers but I think I did right in collecting as much as possible right in the center and most important part of the Fraser River band. One of the Shuswap stories I think has a French name viz alamḗr probably means ‘by the sea’ or something like that and tells of adventures by a great lake. Butcetsā́ also seems to be foreign but I cannot think of any French word like it. Can you think of any ́ and Sáwa or Cáwa French or Eastern Indian words like sesī́,́ Cesī́,́ or Cī́.´ meaning ‘friend’ and Sếma meaning ‘white man’. An old Shuswap told 26. A very overly generalized statement and only true depending on whom Teit interviewed at the time, as certain stories (their performances and various versions) were omitted to protect them and their keepers (unpublished fieldnotes of Sarah Moritz, August 2016). Coyote stories were like the Disney tales, popular and widely shared, but that didn’t mean they were more remembered than others (see Moritz, “Fishing for the Good Life,” and “Cúz̓lhkan Sqwe̓qwel ̓ (I’m going to tell a story)” for transformer stories that question the status quo of the nk̓yap (Coyote) stories.

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me that he though these terms had been introduced amongst the tribes of this region by the earliest North West Coy and Hud Bay Coy men. I think however that he is probably wrong.

Teit to Boas. November 6, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. Dear Friend I just take time to drop you a note and tell you of my arrival here.27 I turned out the horses yesterday. We travelled four days through snow on the way down, but here on the Thompson the weather is beautiful. I hope you received the letter I wrote to you giving you a list of the stories I collected.28 I forgot to enclude in the list four others. I spent four days on the Buonaparte and Hat Creek trying to hunt up three old men I wanted to tell stories but I failed to get them as they were away deer hunting. I bought a few things there and did a lot of talking with the Inds who were at home. I will send you some of the Lillooet material in a few days and will also ship the specimens in about a week. I have a great many letters to answer and small things to attend to so will write you at length when I get more time. Please tell Harlan Smith that I have not received any copy of his paper on the Archaeology of this region. He told me to let him know if I did not receive any in 60 days.

Boas to Teit. November 12, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. My dear Friend,— I am very glad to learn, through your letter of Nov. 6, of your safe return home. I received your list of traditions, which makes me expect a great deal of interesting material. I will see about Smith’s report on the archaeology of the Thompson region.

27. Spences Bridge. 28. An extensive list of narratives, designated by titles, including “Lad and Thunder,” “Mosquito and Thunder,” etc., attached to Teit’s letter to Boas of October 21, 1900.

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Teit to Boas. November 15, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. Dear Friend I shipped the specimens yesterday and hope they may reach you in due time all right. I enclose shipping receipt. There are 50 Chil. specimens, 9 Shus. and 7 Thompson. I think you will find them very interesting. I enclose with the Shuswap arrow stones two small samples of a green stone I think perhaps different kinds used by the Thomp and Shus for making arrowheads[.] You will likely be able to get them determined there. I will send you some of the Lillooet material in a few days and also will send in my accounts pretty soon.

Teit to Boas. November 23, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. Dear Friend I send you by this mail chapters III, IV and VII of my paper on the Lillooets and hope that you will find them interesting. I am writing the whole out in chapters in the same way as you grouped my paper on the Thompsons.29 As I am writing steady every night I expect to be able to send you the whole paper before very long. As soon as I have finished it I will commence to write out the Shuswap myths. I think it will be a wise thing if you can see your way clear to send me as early as possible next summer to the Shuswaps of Canim Lake, Upper North Thompson and Shuswap Lake. The stories of these regions differ a great deal from the Fraser River Shuswap and also from the Kamloops people. There is also some difference in customs, language etc. etc. If this were done I would be able to write out a paper on the whole Shuswap tribe, in the same way as the Lillooet and Thompsons have been dealt with. This would be much better than only writing up a part of the tribe, as our information and stories at present is confined to the Fraser River division, which we [page 2] have hitherto called the Northern Shuswap. The Canim Lake and North Thompson people are equally Northern Shuswaps[.] A three months trip to the divisions I have named would finish the Shuswaps completely, and the cost encluding $100 for specimens would not be any more and probably would be less than 29. This suggests that with the publication of The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, the essential organizational template was established for the Plateau ethnography produced by Boas and Teit and, with it, the comparative framework Boas had originally had in mind.

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that incurred on the last trip.30 During my trips amongst the Lillooets I collected many words mostly names of things mentioned in my paper. As you will see I have followed your suggestion and used as few Indian words as possible in writing out the chapters.31 The vocabulary I have numbers over 600 words and I want to know what to do with it. Will I write it out and send it to you soon or will I keep it until some future time. Hoping this may find you quite well.

Teit to Boas. November 27, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. Dear Friend I send you to day three more chapters of my paper on the Lillooets viz VIII, IX, and X and hope they may reach you safely. You will find a number of grammatical errors etc. for I have not taken much pains to write it very nicely, as I expected you would be sure to arrange and rewrite it for the printer. What about my copies of the Thompson paper[?] You promised to send them by freight this fall or winter. I will close as I am pressed for time just at present.

Teit to Boas. November 30, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. Dear Friend I send you to-day chapter XI of my Lillooet paper dealing with Birth, Childhood, Marriage and Death. If any of my expressions are not clear enough please let me know and I shall endeavour to explain more lucidly. I think I asked you in my last letter re the forwarding to me of the remaining copies of my Thompson paper. I received yesterday a copy of Smith’s Archaeology of the Thompson region and I think it is very good. I will send you some notes on the Chilcotin shortly.

30. The last trip involved the North Thompson River Shuswap people. 31. This suggests that, as Wickwire has pointed out (Wickwire, At the Bridge, 173), Teit adopted The Thompson Indians of British Columbia as the model for his subsequent ethnographies.

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Teit to Boas. December 7, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. Dear Friend I sent to you by mail yesterday Chapters V and VI of my Lillooet paper and one Lillooet myth[.] I hope all the chapters have reached you safely.

Boas to Teit. December 13, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. My dear Friend,— I ought to have informed you before this that I have Chapters 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, and 11 of your Lillooet paper. Your collection has not yet come, but will probably be here within a few weeks. Please do not fail to send me a statement of your accounts soon, including the amount that I owe you, so that I may settle our financial affairs.

Teit to Boas. December 28, 1900. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1900–48. Dear Friend I enclose herewith the a/c’s of expenditure etc. on the Chilcotin—Shuswap expedition. I will send you the Thompson and Lillooet a/cs in a few days. This being Christmas time I have not been able to write any more of the Lillooet paper lately.

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1901

Teit to Boas. January 2, 1901. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1901–2. Dear Friend I enclose herewith a/cs of money as expended on Thompson and Lillooet work. You will see that I have no further funds for collecting amongst the Thompsons and I will have to pay this month for eight other specimens I ordered Indians to make some of which are already finished. I have about 18 specimens on hand which are paid for as per a/c. I will be sending some more of the Lillooet paper in a weeks time or so. PS I sent you the Chilcotin etc. a/c a few days since.

Boas to Teit. January 9, 1901. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1901–2. My dear Mr. Teit,— I have both of your accounts for the Thompson River work and the Chilcotin work. I shall hope to send you the balance due you within a few days. I have asked for the coming year for $500 for continuing your work, as suggested by you.

Teit to Boas. January 23, 1901. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1901–2. Dear Friend, Your letter of recent date duly to hand and I am glad to learn that you will appropriate enough money for the completion of the Shuswap work. I send by this mail chapter I of the Lillooet paper and have attached a rough map to same so you may be able to see the approximate boundaries of the Lillooet tribe and their subdivisions. I will be much obliged if you could manage to send me by freight the 233

remaining copies of my Thompson paper as many people are bothering me for copies and I have none to give them.

Boas to Teit. February 16, 1901. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1901–2. My dear Friend,— I trust that the balance of the copies of your Memoir have reached you by this time. I inquired several times at our library and I have been told that they have been shipped by freight. The matter was inexcusably delayed in the library. I am sorry that I have not been able so far to send you the check for the balance that we owe you. I have been waiting for it for quite a little while, and I am expecting it now any day. We are just starting printing my Kwakiutl Texts, and we are expecting to have your Lower Thompson Traditions1 ready for the printer this spring. I presume Smith has sent you one of his last Memoirs, on the cairns of Victoria.2 You have a right to feel gratified with the reception of your Memoir. The reviews are not only very good, but I find that the contents of your descriptions are used extensively in all new books treating of the general subjects of anthropology.3 1. These narratives were published in 1912 as Teit, Mythology of the Thompson Indians, 203–416. 2. Smith and Fowke, “Cairns of British Columbia and Washington,” 55–75. 3. The publication of The Thompson Indians of British Columbia had local impact as well. It brought Teit into regular correspondence with C. F. Newcombe, a collector and amateur ethnologist living in Victoria. Charles Frederic Newcombe (1851–1924) emigrated from England to Oregon in 1884, and five years later to Victoria, where he established a practice as a physician. He developed a strong interest in the natural sciences and anthropology, and from 1895 became an amateur ethnologist and collector of artifacts for museums, particularly among First Nations living on the Pacific Coast of Canada. He sold collections to museums in Canada and the United States, including the Geological Survey of Canada and the Field Museum. He maintained a correspondence with Teit from 1900 at least until 1918. As noted, in 1903 he traveled through the Fraser Valley and into Nlaka’pamux territory. Newcombe also collected Haida artifacts for the Jesup Expedition (Boas, “The Jesup North Pacific Expedition,” 1–11). Although Boas had met Newcombe in Victoria in 1897 and benefited from his assistance in 1900, his relationship with Newcombe was never strong (Rohner, Ethnography of Franz Boas, 201). Newcombe published articles on various subjects, including petroglyphs, but the strength of his contribution to ethnology lies in his collector’s notes, which often contain information not in the published ethnographies. Newcombe’s personal collection of artifacts and his papers were acquired by the British Columbia government in 1961 and are in the Royal British Columbia Museum and the British Columbia Archives (Neary, “Newcombe, Charles Frederic”). In February 1901 Newcombe wrote to Teit, citing Teit’s “work on the Thompson River Indians” and asking Teit for specimens of plants for a collection Newcombe was making for the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, England, on “the use of native plants by Indians of the North-West tribes.” Newcombe was then president of the Natural History Society of British Columbia (BCA, Newcombe Family

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Teit to Boas. February 26, 1901. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1901–2. Dear Friend Your letter of 18th inst duly to hand also the check for $250.00 for which much thanks. I have not received the copies of my memoir yet but they will likely arrive at any time now. I did not receive Smith’s memoir on the Cairns and have written to him asking for a copy. I sent you the last chapter of my Lillooet paper to-day, and hope same will reach you safely. I think it would be better if you print it first along with the Lillooet traditions making a combined memoir containing all the Lillooet matter, and leave the Lower Thompson traditions until such time as I can send you the stories I have collected here recently and make a further collection from the Nicola as you proposed. When this is done then the whole could be printed together as one memoir making a compact complement to traditions already printed by the Folk-Lore Society. I am now going to commence writing off the Shuswap stories I collected and after I finish will write out the Upper Thompson stories [page 2] I have on hand and make the further collection of Nicola ones. My description of the Shuswap people I will not write out until after I make the proposed trip through the rest of the Shus. Country for which you expect to obtain funds. I have been and am still collecting specimens for the museum and have now many interesting specimens on hand including a few things hitherto unknown to me. As the funds for this collection are exhausted I have been paying lately for these specimens out of my own money. I would require a hundred dollars at least to continue the Thompson collecting for this year. Correspondence: Newcombe to Teit, February 20, 1901. S.A.5, f.143). This inaugurated a series of letters from Teit on plants and their uses in the Interior of British Columbia as well as collecting of artifacts for Newcombe. At this time Newcombe was also associated with the British Columbia Provincial Museum in Victoria and the Field Museum in Chicago. In March 1903 Teit sent a collection of twenty-three artifacts commissioned or purchased from Nlaka’pamux people, along with a list that included their English names, Nlaka’pamux terms, and the plant from which they were made. It is not clear if this collection went to Kew. In April 1905 Teit was collecting on Newcombe’s behalf for the Field Museum, and in the handwritten list he sent to Newcombe in May 1905 (“Description of Specimens”) Field Museum catalog numbers have been added in the margins beside each item (see BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence, MSS 1077: Teit to Newcombe, March 1903; April 5, 1905; May 1905). The majority of the letters in the Newcombe Family Correspondence in the British Columbia Archives are from Teit to Newcombe, with a few from Newcombe to Teit. Early in 1897 Newcombe expressed to Boas his appreciation regarding Boas’s ethnographic work and requested a bibliography of his papers on the North Pacific Region for use of the legislative library and natural history society alongside translated works published in German at the time while offering notes on any preferential subject of Boas’s choice on the Queen Charlotte Islands that he would be able to collect during an upcoming journey (see APS, Boas Papers: Newcombe to Boas, February 3, 1897, text 91998).

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Can you procure $100.00 or $150.00 for this purpose[?] Some of the specimens I am collecting I am sure will prove of great value to you, and anthropologists in general, and if the work can be continued it will be better. I have not done very much work this winter on the dictionary as most of my spare time has been occupied writing out the Lillooet material. I suppose it is too early to ask what your plans are for the coming season and whether yourself, Smith or Farrand will be out this way. Hoping this may find you quite well,

Boas to Teit. February 28, 1901. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1901–2. My dear Friend,— I received Chapter 13 and Chapter 2 of your Lillooet paper, and thank you very much for the same. The treasurer of the Museum informs me that he has sent you at last the money which we owe you. Please excuse the long delay.

Boas to Anthony Woodward, Librarian, American Museum of Natural History. March 7, 1901. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1901–2. Dear Sir,— Mr. Teit has asked me again in regard to his Memoirs. Will you kindly send me a statement giving date of their shipment, to enclose in a letter to him.

Boas to Teit. March 7, 1901. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1901–2. My dear Mr. Teit, I have just received your letter of Feb. 26. I will see what I can do in regard to the proposed continuance of your collection. I presume that this matter can be arranged. The chapter of your Lillooet paper has also come to hand. I will arrange for the publication of your material, as you suggest. The copies of your Memoir left here on [blank]. I hope they will reach you safely.

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Teit to Boas. March 29, 1901. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1901–2. Dear Friend. I have not received any copies as yet of Farrand’s Chilcotin legends and Smith’s researches in Vancouver Island. I have now written off a number of the Shuswap myths which I will send to you soon. Re the money you were to procure for the Thompson River collection $200.00 will be required as I have now over 100 specimens on hand for which I have paid nearly $150.00 of my own money and as $50.00 of a surplus to continue buying with is not very much $200.00 will not be over sufficient.4 I am thinking of making a visit to the old country in November returning again about the following April via New York. You told me once that if I thought of going East at any time you could probably manage to get me a free pass one or both ways as a member of the Jesup Expedition. If you can manage to do me this favor I shall be greatly obliged to you indeed. My books arrived at Ashcroft and I have to pay $18.00 [page 2] duty on them. This however is unavoidable but your librarian has sent them by express instead of by freight as I distinctly stated several times I wished them to be sent and now I have to pay express charges to the value of $21.40 whereas if they had come by freight I probably would not have had to pay over $5.00 or thereabouts. Thus the whole thing comes to be excessive. I may however recover some of it by charging friends for copies. I had a letter from Mr. Smith and he said he would probably be engaged at work in the Columbia Valley this summer. I suppose your plans are not quite definite yet however. Please reply when you have time and oblige[.]

Boas to Teit. April 3, 1901. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1901–2. My dear Friend,— I feel that it would be wrong on our part to let you pay the $39.40 for your Memoir, and I beg to ask you to charge them to me in your next statement. I hope to send you the money for which you asked within a few days.

4. As the complexity and momentum of Teit’s work increased, so did the challenges Boas encountered in meeting the costs, some of which appear to have been unpredictable.

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Boas to Teit. April 18, 1901. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1908–26, box 19, file 13. Dear Friend, I send you by mail to-day 20 Shuswap stories. They are all short ones but you will find them interesting. I received the check of $250.00 for the collection yesterday and thank you for same. I also thank you for your kindness in offering to pay the duty and express on the books. I have just received copies of Farrand’s Chilcotin Traditions and Smith’s Cairns of Van Island. I will be able to send you another batch of Shuswap myths shortly. Those I send you today are Story of Kuxkain

Story of Tsowau.na The Moon The Moon and his wives The Spider and the Otter The Beaver and the Porcupine The Women and the Muskrat The Woman and the Pelicans The Wolf and the Wolverine Story of Famine (or Hunger) The Coyote and the Fox The Coyote and the Fox (quarreling) The Coyote and the Hunting Cannibal The Coyote and Holxolī́ṕ The Coyote’s Daughter (and her dogs) The Owl The Owl and the Chipmunk The Grasshopper The Bound-one and the Grasshopper Kutlixwálaxen or The Wren

Teit to Boas. April 25, 1901. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1901–2. Dear Friend I send to you today another batch of Shuswap myths, 19 in number and I am sure you will find them interesting. I have introduced notes making comparisons with Chil. Lill and Thomp but I have only noted 238 | 1901

such comparisons as occurred to me. If you read them closely you will no doubt find many analogies that I have not noted. Those stories I send to-day are as follows The woman and her Paramour The Fox and Hare The Coyote makes Women Menstruate The Coyote and the Cannibal Boy The Coyote and his Niece The Coyote and the Black Bears The Coyote and the Swans The Coyote and the Wolf The Coyote and the Salmon The Bighorn Sheep and his wives Story of Húpken Story of the Loon The Fishes and the Cannibal The Old-one and the sweat-house The animals steal fire from the fishes Ntcímka and the Giant The Man and the Dwarfs Dirty-lad and his wives The Wolverine and Fisher [page 2] I received a copy from A. L. Kroeber of his Cheyenne Tales and find them interesting. Nos IX a and b are almost similar in some of their details to stories I sent you lately Coyote and Fox. Shuswap. No XI is similar to tale I sent you from Lower Thompson. I have also got it from Shuswap and Up Thomp. I have a tale from the Thomp lately similar to XII. A man who sharpened his leg and a number of incidents in XV are similar to Thomp and Shus. No XVIII is common to all this region and some of the details of XIX are similar to Thompson f.i. shooting an arrow and finding a house etc. I collected lately from Thomp. a story similar to XXI. Several incidents in XXII are similar to Thomp and I have a similar story to XXVIII from Thomp.

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Boas to Teit. April 25, 1901. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1901–2. My dear Mr. Teit, I received yesterday your letter of April 18 and the first instalment of the Shuswap traditions. Kindly let me know when you wish to start on your trip up the Thompson River and also when you expect to visit New York. I am reasonably certain that I can get a railroad-pass for you, at least as far as Montreal.

Teit to Boas. May 13, 1901. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1901–2. Dear Friend, Your letter of 25th ult duly to hand. I deferred answering it until able to state my programme definitely. I will not have time this year to make my proposed trip to the North Thompson and finish up the Shuswap work, as I have to prepare for a hunting party from England in July. They will start from here on the 1st of Aug and we will be away three months. Thus I expect to be back here about the 1st of Nov and will shortly afterwards start for the old country via the CPR. I will be in the Shetland Islands for Christmas and will leave England for New York probably early in April and would like [page 2] to spend a couple of weeks there. I will return here about the 1st of May and towards the end of the same month will start on the Shuswap trip if things are all right. I am very glad to learn that you will likely be able to obtain a pass for me to Montreal. It will help me a great deal. If you can get it ready for the 1st to 10th of November when I will be leaving here, it will be time enough. I will be hunting the greater part of the time in the Chilcotin country and may also be at Bella Coola so if I can do anything for you in these places I shall be glad. I will have time to collect stories in Nicola before going North to hunt. I enclose a list of specimens I am sending to you. I have just finished boxing them up and will ship them in a few days. Hoping you are well and thanking you very much for your kindness

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Boas to Teit. May 15, 1901. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1901–2. My dear Mr. Teit,— You will have received ere this a remittance of $250 on account of the work which you propose to do during the coming summer. I am sending enclosed a check for $230. Which is the amount that I can spare at the present time for your summer’s work. According to what you stated in your letter towards the end of last year, these amounts will be sufficient to cover your work on North Thompson River. Hoping that this arrangement will be satisfactory to you,

Boas to Teit. May 20, 1901. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1901–2. My dear Friend,— I have your letter in which you say that you will not be able to go up North Thompson River this summer. You will greatly oblige me by returning as much of the funds as possible, that are now in your hands, to me. Kindly make out a check to the Canadian Bank of Commerce, Victoria BC, requesting them to deposit the amount to my credit, and at the same time write to Miss H. A. Andrews here, notifying her what amount you have deposited to my credit. I am going to leave for Europe on the 1st of June, and expect to be back here by the 1st of October. I shall ask to have the passes sent to you by the 1st of September, so that you will have them if you should want them at that time. It is a great pleasure to think that you will be here next spring.

Teit to Boas. May 21, 1901. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1901–2. Dear Friend I just received your letter of 15th inst with enclosed check for $230.00. I also received the remittance of $250.00 making altogether $480.00 for my proposed trip amongst the Shuswaps. You will have received my letter by this time stating my programme for the year. All the money for the Shuswap work I am putting in the bank and will use it when I come back from the old country next spring if this is agreeable to you. I have been taking the Census here lately and 1901 | 241

consequently have not been able to write off any more Shus stories [page 2] but in a weeks [sic] time or so I will be able to send you another batch. PS I enclose shipping bill of three boxes of specimens I have shipped to you to-day.

Teit to Boas. July 22, 1901. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1901–2. Dear Friend, I hope you are enjoying your trip to Europe. I am sending you today another batch of Shuswap myths, and the list of specimens I am forwarding to the Museum. I expect to leave here for Bella Coola and Chilcotin via the Coast in five days. I sent the pack train forward two weeks ago. I will not be home again until the middle of November, so there is no need to send me the pass until October.

Teit to Boas. July 25, 1901. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1901–2. Dear Friend, I am shipping to the Museum to-day three boxes containing the last of the specimens I have on hand. I enclose list of same. I see a mistake has been made re my pass which I received from Mr. Winser the same day I wrote you last. The pass is only good until the 1st Oct so it is no use to me as I will not be back from hunting until about the 10th of November. I explained to you before that I would not require it until Nov. If the pass can be made out covering the time from [page 2] 1st Nov to the end of the year it will be all right, as I will pass east sometime about the end of Nov or the early part of December. If the pass is here ready for me by the 15th Nov it will be right. I have written to Mr. Winser returning the pass and suppose there will not be much difficulty getting the dates altered. Hoping you are well and enjoying your trip PS I leave here in two days for Bella Coola and Chilcotin. Letters will reach me at Hanceville.

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Teit to Boas. December 14, 1901. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1901–2. Dear Friend, I am sending you to-morrow another batch of Shuswap myths which I hope may arrive ok. I am leaving here about the 20th5 and expect to see you about the New Year.

Teit to Boas. December 20, 1901. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, November 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. Dear Friend. I am sending to day [sic] a/c to end of year, and two more Shuswap myths. I will be two days later in starting than I anticipated. Hoping to see you before long.

Teit to Boas. December 30, 1901. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, November 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. Dear Friend. I am leaving here on the 1st Jany and will be in New York same day at 10 pm.6 I am going by the New York Central. I will try to see you on the 2nd—Wishing you the compliments of the season.

5. Teit’s visit to Lerwick, Shetland Islands, as well as Norway and London is recounted in his letter to Boas dated March 2, 1902. 6. Teit is writing from Montreal.

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Teit to Boas. March 2, 1902. APS, Franz Boas Papers. Mss.B.b61, text 121291.1 Dear Friend I take time to drop you a line so that you may know that I am in the land of the living. I landed here on the 26th of January [page 2] having had exceedingly bad passage between Scotland and here. The passage across the Atlantic occupied 10½ days, two days of which we had a heavy sea. I am enjoying my holiday here and to-night am leaving for a trip to London. I expect to be in Norway about the end of the month and then return here again. Do you think it possible for you to obtain a pass for me on the way back (across America) which [page 3] will likely be in May. I will certainly be in New York sometime in May if all goes well.

Teit to Boas. May 13, 1902. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, November 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. Dear Friend. I wrote you a short note hoping that it may find you and yours well. I am leaving Shetland on the 31st of this month, and Liverpool on the 11th of June per SS ‘Oceanic’. I thus expect to arrive in New York on the 17th of June and hope to spend a few days there before proceeding to [page 2] Montreal. I wrote to you some time ago asking you if it were possible for you to procure a pass for me from Montreal to Vancouver but I do not know whether you received the letter. I told the Spences Bdge post master to forward letters for me to your care up to the 5th of June so I can get them upon arriving in New York. The weather here is very cold. It has been blowing from the North with [page 3] showers of hail and snow for the last two weeks. I hope Mrs. Boas and your children 1. Teit is writing from Ravenscourt, Lerwick, Shetland Islands on letterhead. This was Teit’s first trip back to Lerwick, Shetland Islands, the place where he had grown up and gone to school (Wickwire, At the Bridge, 70–77).

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are quite well also Dr. Farrand and Mr and Mrs Smith. I am afraid some of you may be away on holidays or at work before I reach New York.

Boas to Teit. May 29, 1902. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, November 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. My dear Teit,— I received your note of the 18th of May. There are a number of letters here for you which I am holding. I shall try to have a pass for you from here to Spences Bridge when you arrive. I am very glad that I shall have the pleasure of seeing you here. Both Farrand and Smith will be away at that time, but I trust that we shall have leisure to talk over matters.

Teit to Boas. June 24, 1902. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1902–1. My Dear Friend2 We arrived here all right at 7:30 this morning and tomorrow morning I am going to Quebec to see my brother as I see his ship arrived last night. On Friday forenoon I proceed West but will lay off at Port Arthur and Moosejaw for a day or so on the way.3 I cannot say anything definite about the hunting yet as I have to receive a letter from Chicago but will know for certain some little time after I reach BC.

S. C. Pirie to Boas.4 June 28, 1902. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, November 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. Dear Sir:— I have been in communication with Mr. J. A. Teit, and if my last letter reached him in due course, I should have had a reply before now. 2. On letterhead, Vancouver Hotel, Windsor Street, Montreal. 3. Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada, on Lake Superior, was amalgamated in 1970 with Fort William and neighboring townships to form the current city of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Moosejaw is in Saskatchewan. Both were on Teit’s route home to British Columbia. 4. Samuel Carson Pirie (ca. 1865–1938) and one of his brothers were among Teit’s hunting clients. Their father, John T. Pirie Sr. (1827–1913), emigrated to the United States from Scotland in 1854 and established in Chicago the substantial mercantile business Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company (“John T. Pirie,” Chicagology, http://chicagology.com/biographies/johntpirie/,

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I am writing him again by this mail, but as I am desirous of a prompt reply, will you be kind enough to inform me if he is in New York, and whether, or not, he expects to be in Chicago before going to British Columbia? Thanking you in advance for your trouble,

Teit to Boas. July 12, 1902. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1902–1. Dear Friend, I arrived here all right on the 6th inst but as there has been a block on the line until yesterday there was no use writing. I got through the Rockies on the last passenger train and then got stuck at Revelstoke for two days.5 Floods were the cause. I am going up Nicola on the 14th to collet myths there and I expect it will take me until the end of the month. I will also try to get some Indians at Nicola Lake to make a tule canoe or raft there—full size.6 By the time I come back I will know for certain if I have to take anyone out hunting. I rather think two Americans will be coming about the first of Sept. If not I will start early in August on the North Thompson trip. I will be able to go below about the end of November or in December and make the collection you desire on the Lower Fraser. I am sending you (by mail if I can) (otherwise by Express) 2 pr of Shetland skin shoes for which I charge you nothing, and some knitted goods (as per enclosed list) for which I will charge you the original cost.7 If you could get a small section of each pattern (except that on socks which I am positively certain of) drawn or printed someway to show the colors and designs plainly I will forward same to Shetland and try to get the patterns identified and also make enquiries regarding the other interesting patterns I mentioned to you. I have already written to a woman for a list of all the names of shawl [page 2] designs known to her. Re. the basket question I have not seen any Lower Thompson women since I came and may not for a long time. Those here cannot give me much more than I know already which © 2021; McKinney, “The Samuel Carson Pirie Line,” Classic Chicago Magazine, November 26, 2017; U.S. Census Bureau, 1870). S. C. Carson’s letter to Boas, written in 1902, suggests that the Pirie brothers’ association with Teit pre-dated that of Homer Sargent. Boas’s later correspondence with Homer Sargent suggests that Sargent became a client of Teit in 1904. 5. Revelstoke is located in eastern British Columbia. 6. “Tule” or bulrush, identified as Scirpus acutus Muhl (Turner et al., Thompson Ethnobotany, 115–17). This plant provided materials for mats, bags, and other items. 7. Traditional Shetland culture was a minor scholarly focus for Teit. He later corresponded with Edward Sapir about Shetlandic terms and published Teit, “Water-Beings in Shetland FolkLore,” 180–201.

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is as follows. (Most of this I told you when in New York). Difference between Lillooet and Thompson baskets. (1) Cedar root used by Lillooet sometimes of a darker, redder, or different hue from that used by the Thompsons. (2) Thompson baskets more nearly of average workmanship than those of the Lillooets who in a few cases make finer more evenly and smaller stitched specimens but in the majority of cases make baskets much coarser than those of the Thompson. (3) Lillooets far more frequently than the Thompson employ a piece of sap for the split coil.8 (4) Lillooets commonly employ straw dyed red, blue, green, yellow and other colors which the Thompson seldom or never do. (5) The Thompsons use more bark and less straw for ornamentation. (6) The shape of baskets are [sic] almost always different. The Thompsons more round the Lillooets more square. (7) The Lillooet baskets are often smaller bottomed in proportion. (8) On many Lillooet baskets there is a peculiar grass stitch never used by the Thompsons.9 (9) The Lillooet baskets are almost always grass covered for half or three quarters of the way down. The Thompsons seldom or never do this. (10) In most cases the Lillooet patterns are different or are differently arranged from those of the Thompsons I agree with all these reasons except 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 which I am not sure about. Only the Utamkt would be able to tell if there is any difference in manufacture, or the stitching or in the manner of making the bottoms or building up. I don’t think there is much if any. It might pay you however to examine the bottoms of the baskets Thomp. Chil. and Lill. I think there may be two ways of commencement or arrangement amongst the Thompsons. I enclose a sketch of the Lillooet “butterfly” design which I saw on a Lillooet basket owned by White people. They will not sell it. Hoping this will find you quite well and enjoying a much needed rest . . . [page 3] 8. That is, sapwood. In this region the “coil” in coiled baskets is made with an interior core covered with a thin, flexible strip of root, generally western red cedar root. Teit is referring here to the material used for the interior core of some baskets. Otherwise, basket makers in both societies have used a bundle of narrow root splints as the interior core of the coil. 9. Teit is likely referring to multiple strands of beading placed against a single coil, as illustrated in Haeberlin et al., “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region,” plate 18c.

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PS The pattern on the museum basket that you were in doubt about the Indians say is probably Thompson. They have seen similar patterns

Fig. 7. Lillooet Butterfly pattern (upper). Teit to Boas, July 12, 1902.

Fig. 8. Lillooet Butterfly pattern (lower). Teit to Boas, July 12, 1902.

[page 4] Shetland Specimens

One pair cowskin shoes (unstretched) One pair [ditto] (stretched) These shoes the commonest kind and are very much used by both men and women in the present day. They are called “Rivlins” from Old Norse “hrifings”. Two knitted woolen pillow cases. These are very old patterns the pieces having been in our family for fifty years. Two [ditto] caps. This kind of cap is called ‘kool’ or ‘kuel’. The patterns are quite peculiar. One [ditto] frock or sweater. This kind of shirt is called ‘frok’ or frɔk or ‘jupi’ etc. All these patterns are 248 | 1902

very ancient. There are names for all but I did not manage to have them identified. One pair [knitted] stockings. One pair [knitted] socks. ‘Wave’ pattern. So named from the waves of the sea. I can give you all the information about the dyes at any time. They are mostly from ‘lichens’ which grow on the rocks. I have the names of most of them.

Teit to Boas. August 3, 1902. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1902–1. Dear Friend, I was indeed very sorry to hear of your unfortunate illness.10 I had no idea of what had happened in my wake. It is too bad when you needed a holiday so much you should have to spend it in the hospital. Nevertheless I am sincerely glad that the operation was successful and that you are now almost well again. I was up in Nicola but it was a bad time of the year and I lost a good deal of time waiting for or hunting up the Indians I wanted for story telling. One of them was away at Savonas and I have not seen him yet.11 I got Babtiste to come down here and he is staying with me and I am writing down his stories and questioning him [page 2] re traditions every day. I will be through with him in two or three days. I am getting him to paint a series of the faces you gave me. He is busy at it just now as I write. Some of the Nicola stories are peculiar. I have got several creation myths, and several semibiblical stories. The latter had Indian elements, and are interesting as showing how stories get localised, and how Indian concepts are grafted on White ones. Strange to say the story of the “Life of Christ” contains an illusion [sic] to the former condition of women without fingers, toes, breasts and having sexual organs or semi-sexual organs on their faces. In fact the Nicola stories although more nearly related to the Thompson than any other, show signs of a great intermixture of both traditions and ideas. There is very little Tinne influence however. Some of the Nicola people were great travellers going far to the south and south east and 10. Teit does not identify Boas’s illness in 1902 but, as subsequent letters suggest, assumed that it was not chronic or life-threatening. 11. Savonas, originally called Savona Ferry, is a community in British Columbia at the west end of Kamloops Lake.

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even to the Coast. [page 3] Besides they are of different tribes who have made Nicola their home and intermarried very much with one another in recent years especially. The Biblical stories are told as old ones and are looked upon as the Indian counterparts of the Whiteman’s stories now taught to them by the priests. They probably owe their origin to the first missions on the American side and perhaps partly to the French Canadian and Half-breed employees of the Fur Companies. There are so many creation myths etc. or different versions of the same thing that the Indians often wonder which is true, and some are skeptical of all. I will be through with the Nicola work as soon as I have a chance to interview one other Indian whenever that may be. I got two Nicola Lake Indians to promise to make a full sized tule canoe this fall. I am going out hunting with two Americans on the first of Sept and will be back about the 10th of October. Then I go out with an Englishman hunting for [page 4] one week and after that go back in the mountains for two weeks or more to assist my neighbours to make a dam for irrigation water. After that I intend to tear down part of the store and build a small cottage at the back of same (close to the river). During my spare time I will write off the balance of the Shuswap myths and all the Thompson and Nicola ones. About January I will be able to go to the Lower Fraser and make your collection[.] As soon as the grass is long enough for feed on the plateau (abt 1st or early in May) I will go to the North Thompson and finish up the Shuswap. I have bought a few new things for the Museum since I came back. I will now close hoping this will find you far on the road to complete recovery with kind regards and many thanks for past favors

Teit to Boas. August 15, 1902. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1902–1. Dear Friend, I hope you are quite recovered from your illness by this time. I received the money all right and sent a receipt to your secretary. I used the star chart you gave me the other night and managed to identify several of the Indian star groups. I have got an old Lillooet Indian to promise to make Lillooet bark canoe models. I got a very good collection of stories from the Nicola Region[.] Some of them are quite interesting. I am sending by this mail the last batch of Fraser River Shuswap myths which I just finished writing off today. I am sure you will find the Shuswap collection of myths very interesting when you have time to read them over. I have added notes giving 250 | 1902

[page 2] comparisons with other tribes whenever I noticed similarities but they will be the better of being looked over again in this respect by Farrand or yourself. I got a very interesting series of paintings from Babtiste, over 30, with pretty full explanations. It strikes me as peculiar that in the Religious or Ghost Dance the paintings all represent objects of nature as the Sun, rainbow, cloud, clouds crossing the sun, shadows, shadows of clouds, shadows of mountains, the earth, prayers or speech, etc. The face paintings representing animals are not very common and only come in amongst the shamans etc. and in tattooing. Hoping again that this will find you strong again, I remain

Boas to Teit. September 6, 1902. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1902–1. My dear Friend:— I received both your letters, the last dated Aug. 15 from Spences Bridge. The myths also came to hand. I am very much interested in what you say about the Nicola Indians. It is quite contrary to what I expected. I thought, if anything, they were less influenced by whites than the people of Spences Bridge. I presume the history of their culture can be cleared up by studies in the Calispels district. I shall write to you more fully before you go down to the coast.12

Teit to Boas. November 19, 1902. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, November 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. My Dear Friend. I hope you are now quite well and strong again. I came back from hunting in the middle of October and since then have been back in the mountains with my neighbors erecting a dam for the storing of water for irrigation purposes. A sudden heavy fall of snow drove us out about a week ago. I had a successful hunting trip but as it was a short one I did not make much money. I am now engaged writing off the Thompson and Nicola stories and have finished about fifteen of them. When I am through I intend to extract all the Ind. words from my M.S.[.] You said you would try to get the Smithsonian to pay me $200.00 per year for 12. Teit’s trip to the coast concerns plans to conduct work among Lower Fraser River communities (see Teit to Boas, November 19, 1902).

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five years so as to allow me to work on the Thomp. vocabulary and texts. Did you make any arrangements about it yet[?] I will be able to go to the coast and do the Lower Fraser work about the 1st of January. Please give me full directions for the carrying out of same. The weather is quite mild here and there is no snow in the Thompson Valley.

Teit to Boas. December 24, 1902. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1902–1.

I am sending you to-day per registered mail a bundle of tales I have written off lately. Two of them are Lillooet and fifty of them are Thompson nearly all from Nicola. Of the latter 9 are Old-one myths, 7 are Coyote tales, and some are nature myths. The stories have no very special names excepting those with Indian titles, therefore if the titles I have given them do not always suit, you can change them for more appropriate ones.13 As a rule stories go under the name of the principal actor in them without reference to his deeds. When the chief actor’s name is unknown and the deed or plot in the story is very striking then the title frequently is derived from the latter. I have annotated all the stories as far as I could, giving variations and explanations and have also made comparisons with other tribes as far as possible. No doubt you will be able to increase very largely the number of these. I have some more stories written off which I will send you in a few days. I wrote you lately telling you I would go down and do the Fraser River work next month and [page 2] asking for instructions. I have had my first attack of rheumatism lately but nevertheless expect to be well enough to carry out my program. I enclose the return half of the pass I received from you as I think it will be as well to return it to the CPR people to show it was not used. Prof. Putnam was speaking to me in NY about buying some baskets for him (for the other museum).14 I could do this on my way back from the Lower Fraser. If he means it, he better send me the money now and get the thing done, as baskets are going up in price, owing to several firms in the States appointing agents through the country for the purchasing of Ind. basketry. One of the firms is Frank Covert NY. Baskets are consequently scarcer than they were. I will now close hoping this will find you quite well. PS I used the pass to ride from Sp. Bdge to Ashcroft only.

13. Another distinct reference to Boas’s editorial method and agency. 14. The “other museum” likely refers to the Peabody Museum at Harvard, where F. W. Putnam still served as curator.

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1903

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

Boas to Teit. January 2, 1903. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1902–1. My dear Friend:— I am in receipt of your letter of the 24th of December. I hope that you are feeling better by this time. I am sending to you to-day under separate cover my report on the Indian tribes of Lower Fraser river, and a report on the tribe of Victoria, which is contained in the Sixth Report. I shall be glad if you can let me have the Sixth Report back. I have only two copies left. I met Mr. Penhallow yesterday and I learn from him that Hill-Tout has been working in the region of Yale, perhaps even farther up the river.1 I think it might be well for you, for this reason, to do your principal work in the lower part of the Fraser Delta and in the northeastern part of the Puget Sound region. I should be glad if it were possible to do some thorough work amongst the Lummi, but I do not know if present conditions there are favourable. Their language is practically the same as that of the Victoria tribe, and perhaps there is some chance of obtaining material among them. In Victoria and Saanitch [sic] and among the Clallam the task seems hopeless. You will get most of the general points from my reports. In collecting, please remember that we have nothing that illustrates the culture of these coast Salish tribes, with the exception of a few mat needles and mats. There are a few points to which I should like [page 2] to call your special attention. You are likely to find a number of posts near the mouth of the Fraser River. Smith will send you photographs of these, and also of those which he collected on his previous journey. You will probably be able to get the story explaining the carvings on these posts. In my Sixth Report I have described the different cradles. I should like to get the rush 1. David Pearce Penhallow (1854–1910) was a paleobotanist who taught at McGill University in Montreal. Active in several scholarly organizations in Canada and the United States, he was instrumental in the founding of the Montreal branch of the American Folk-Lore Society. In 1897 he was appointed to the Committee on Canadian Ethnology of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and he became chair of the committee after the death of George Dawson in 1901 (Zeller, “Penhallow, David Pearce”).

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cradle as well as the wooden cradle. We have none of the large carved spindle-whorls, about 8 inches in diameter, which are found in the Fraser Delta, and I do not know the exact method of their use. Please inquire if the people know how far north these large spindle-whorls were used. I should like very much to get the whole weaving industry represented,—the loom and the batten; the diatomaceous earth, which is used for cleaning the dog’s hair and feathers; if possible, some of the feathers, prepared and unprepared; and whatever else belongs to this work. Among the games I should like particularly to get a set of the tendisk game with a full explanation of the same. I believe there are nine dark disks and one light one to the game. I am also sending to you a number of faces. The Indians used to use different kinds of face-paint in hunting, and you may find these useful. It is hardly necessary for me to call your attention to all the different kinds of industries. The more you can go into detail in these matters, the better I shall be pleased. I trust that incidentally you will find time to collect information regarding the social organization, religion, and folk-lore. I have quite a large collection of tales from the Fraser Delta, especially from the tribes on Harrison River. Mr. Smith is going to write to you in regard to a few archaeological collections that are in the hands of private individuals in the Fraser Delta.2 If you find par-[page 3] ticularly good material in any of these, and if they can be had at a reasonable price, I wish you would get them for us. On the whole, I should like to see you confine your trip to Fraser River, but I wish you would make inquiries as to the conditions of affairs in the Tlahus [sic] country round Toba Inlet.3 Perhaps that may prove to be a good field for future research. If you feel that it is profitable, you are at liberty to extend your work in the Puget Sound region. With best wishes for your success,

2. Smith wrote to Teit on January 13, 1903, describing purchases he had made for the American Museum of Natural History in British Columbia on the lower Fraser River and offering photographs of other material he had seen during his time there as well as at Lummi, New Whatcom, and at the mouth of the Nootsack River in northern Washington state (AMNH, Anthropology Collection, Correspondence 1894–1907, b6f.7). 3. Toba Inlet is one of a series of inlets on the British Columbia coast north of Vancouver. The Klahoose are a Coast Salish First Nation.

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Teit to Boas. January 10, 1903. APS, Franz Boas Papers. Mss.B.b61, text 121292. Dear Friend. I received the proofs of the Lillooet myths yesterday, and read them over last night. I am enclosing them to you again today under separate cover with a few notes I have added. I might mention the Lillooet have a variation of the name of Coyote’s son (generally called Nʟíkisᴇntᴇm by the Thomp.) viz yelᴇkúsxᴇn[.] The other form yi.kū́sxᴇn is used by Thomp and Lill. I notice I have some scraps of stories and two or three pretty full stories I have not marked out so I am not sure if I sent you copies. If you let me know I will send them. The scraps are concerning 4 ́ xwíxwa the marten, skwiāx́ ᴇnᴇmux̠ and kwᴇskapī́nek. I enclose them herewith as they are short. All of them are Thomp. but extend to the nearest bands of the Shus. and Lill. The full stories are ́ 1. komakstī́mut, an upper Lill story of a hairless woman who enticed men and was killed by two women (with very long hair) putting hot rocks and pitch on her head. 2. A fuller version of the K̠ wák̠tk̠watl myth, covering many more incidents than [are] generally attributed to this culture hero. 3. A migration legend [page 2] of the Upper Thomp. describing their first abode as having been near a large lake, which they crossed to get away from enemies, then near a large river where they divided and separated and then their present country. In case I have not sent ́ you komakstī́mut I will write it out and send it to-morrow. You may require it at once to include with the other Lillooet stories. I am cataloging some specimens just now, and also have commenced work on the Thomp. paper, making sketches of bag and parfleche designs etc. and getting them in order with the notes. PS Did I send you the Utamkt story of the Battle of the Birds. (a version of up Thomp. one) ending with the wife of the Baldhead (because she had urinated on his head) becoming pregnant and giving birth to two eggs resembling their father’s face. These rolled after her wherever she went.

4. See undated fragment between January 10 and Jauary. 20 letters later in this chapter: skwiāx́ ᴇnᴇmux ͇ (lit. ‘arrow arm man’).

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Teit to Boas. Fragment. Date uncertain. APS, Franz Boas Papers. Mss.b61, text 121292.5

[page 2] As a rule they finished by agreeing that both were probably correct. New stories and new versions of stories were sometimes introduced by visitors, and by people who had been visiting in other places. Most of the stories told however were very old, and current for several generations. There was a story about the seagull among the Utamkt in which he was ordained to tell the people of the coming of the salmon. This story is also not known now. ́ There was a long story about kwᴇskapī́nᴇk (This name is used by women of the Thomp.) who was called by some the mother, and chief of the people. She lived at Lytton in mythological times, and in the story was spoken of as the chief and mother of the people there. Whether she was their real ancestress and chief I don’t know, but it seems as if she was. A chief came from the south, and married her, took her away to a distant country, and she never returned. Some said he was the Sun, but others did not say so. Before leaving she was very sorrowful for she regretted parting from her children, so she thought of something she might do which would benefit them, and at the same time commemorate herself. It seems she was owner or mother of roots for she went to Botani with a large basket full and emptied out the contents [page 3] there. Since then all kinds of food roots have grown there, and the Indians go there to dig them. By some she was called the rootmother. Probably some of the old Indians at Lytton know this tradition yet. Stories were also current about skwiāx́ ᴇnᴇmux ͇ (lit. ‘arrow arm man’). He lived at the end of the mythological period. He was a very dark man, a chief, and possessed of great powers. He was also a warrior, and invulnerable. It is said he could shift from place to place like a bird. Some said he had wings, others said he lived in the sky or went there latterly. It was said he came down Fraser River in a canoe along with Sun, Moon, Star, .nmū́ipᴇm etc. about three generations ago, before the first whites came. These people were mythological beings who came to

5. The page marked [page 2] follows the letter of January 10, 1903, in the APS archival file but begins on a separate page. It is marked as page 2 of Teit’s original document. It is not entirely clear that this section actually belongs with the letter of January 10, 1903, or a missing letter dated March 2, 1903. It appears to be a separate letter, of which the first page is missing. “9x” is written at the top of the original of this and subsequent pages attached to APS, Boas Papers, text 121292, but not on the previous two.

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tell the Indians of the coming of the whites, and the great change which would take place (see Simon Fraser Traditions. Teit mythology?)6 Up. Thomp. ́ Origin of skwokwá, and tcᴇskī́kik birds (version) (=latter chickadee) [:] The first part of the story is just the usual Thomp version of the girl who became pregnant to a dog. She gave birth to two children a boy and a girl. The mother became aware they were human as well as dog. When pretending to dig roots or gather wood [page 4] at night she tied her torch to a stump and creeping up stealthily threw medicine on them. The boy got drenched all over and became entirely human. The girl got only partially drenched and became half dog and half human. She followed her brother like a dog whenever he went hunting, and generally ran up and ate what he had shot before he could reach it. One day he got angry because she did this and beat her. She changed into the skwokwá. bird, and that is why this bird cries like a dog now. Her brother became sorry for beating her and wept much. At last so as to be ́ able to join her he transformed himself into the Tsᴇskī́kik or chickadee 7 which calls ‘Oh my younger sister’ x versions of the Dog story are told by all the Shuswap and Thompson bands. See Teit Traditions p.p 62 and 778 Up. Thomp. Story of Martin (Xwéxwa.) and Fisher _ (Version) Marten and fisher were brothers and lived together. Marten was known as tsehwéxwa or Xwéxwa. Fisher went to hunt and told Xwéxwa not to go far from the house and not to shoot at any pretty bird he might see. They lived in a kekule-house. Near by in thick woods lived two women called tᴇmaɬípsᴇm and [page 5] tzakózaks (two varieties of woodpeckers). Tᴇmaɬípsᴇm (Red Headed woodpecker) made herself like a bird, and put a bright red piece of salmon flesh on her head. She went over, and perched on the ladder top of Xwéxwa’s house,9 and soon attracted his attention. He thought to himself[:] “I must get that bird. The skin of its head will make a fine ornament for my elder brother. It will look good on his bow. Forgetting his brother’s instructions he commenced to fire arrows at it. It flew away and he followed it shooting but all his arrows missed. It disappeared down the ladder of a kekule house he had never seen before. He followed. When he got inside he 6. The parenthetical aside and question mark are written in Teit’s hand. 7. Emphasis here appears to be original. 8. Written in Teit’s hand. 9. Teit is referring to the top of a carved ladder sticking out of the central entrance placed at the top of a semi-subterranean winter house.

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saw two women on the opposite side of the fire. One of them (Red headed woodpecker) passed him a piece of bright salmon across the fire asking him to eat it. When he took hold of it she jerked, and pulled him into the fire, and he got badly burnt. He returned to his lodge and his brother attended to him. Some of his skin had come off. His brother took marten skin and glued [it] onto his flesh. He did not have enough so left a strip uncovered at the throat. This grew up white and therefore the marten now has a white throat. Fisher then went over to the women’s house, and transformed them into woodpeckers. The red salmon on Red headed woodpeckers head became the large red top we see on it to-day. See ‘The Shuswap’ p 673. *All the Shuswap and Thompson bands have versions of this story.

Teit to Boas. January 20, 1903. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1902–1. Dear Friend I am in receipt of your letter of 2nd inst, also your reports. I will send back the 6th report to you upon my return. I am ready to start now but I expected to get the letter and photos from Smith you speak of in your letter. If they do not come by Monday I will start anyway and they will be forwarded to me from here. As I do not know where I may be at any certain time, if you write to me address Spences Bridge. I note all you say in your letter and will do the best I can. I am not quite well yet, but am going to take chances. If the muscles in my legs do not swell again I will likely manage [page 2] all right. I am sending you to-day another batch of Nicola myths, making 102 in all. I have about 20 more to send (some of them long ones mostly dealing of wars) but will not have time to write them out until after my return from below.

Boas to Teit. January 21, 1903. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1902–1. My dear Friend,— I send you under separate cover photographs of the totem poles on Lower Fraser River, which Mr. Smith took a few years ago, and which may be useful to you.

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Teit to Boas. March 16, 1903. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1902–1. Dear Friend, I returned from below yesterday. Although away nearly seven weeks I put in only about a month on the Lower Fraser work. The rest of the time I was visiting friends in Nanaimo and taking electric baths in Vancouver. As the weather was very rough at times, and I did not feel in very good trim (with the rheumatism) I confined my work entirely to the Lower Fraser where I visited all the places easiest to be got at. Hill-Tout has been around in a number of places working on customs and mythology as far as I can make out.10 I am going to write to him and find out exactly what he has been doing. I saw a friend of mine from near Toba Inlet and he thinks some work could easily be done there. About the Lummi I did not hear much. I confined myself pretty much to collecting and making myself acquainted—having talks and explaining things. This will make it much easier to do thorough work if I go back there again. I found a good many of the Inds. very stiff at first in the way of giving information and they are fond of trying to exact exorbitant figures for anything you want to buy. I gathered up a few things at most places but there is really very little of the old stuff now amongst them. I ordered a number of things be made. [page 2] Some of these I got, and others I will have to go back for at some future time. Some of the villages I visited several times. Now that I am acquainted and the ice broken as it were I could probably do fairly good work along most lines if I go back again. I collected some information on customs etc. but most of it simply confirmatory of the statements made in your reports—very little fresh. I also got a few stories. I obtained explanations of all the carvings on the posts in Smith’s photos but with no very detailed stories. I bought a sxoixoi mask and full dancing costume at the mouth of the Fraser.11 You can tell Smith there is now a branch line of the CPR running from Vancouver to Steveston and near

10. Between 1900 and 1904 Charles Hill-Tout published “Notes on the Skqo’Mic of British Columbia, a Branch of the Great Salish Stock of North America,” “Ethnological Studies of the Mainland Halkome’lEm, a Division of the Salish of British Columbia,” “Ethnological Report on the Steélis and Sk.Aulits Tribes of the Halkomelem Division of the Salish of British Columbia,” and “Report on the Ethnology of the Siciatl of British Columbia, a Coast Division of the Salish Stock.” 11. See Barnett, The Coast Salish of British Columbia, 156–59. The right to have and dance with a swaihwe mask (various spellings) and costume in ceremonies is an inherited privilege among Coast Salish First Nations.

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Eburne it cuts through the old shell mound he was digging in.12 I believe nothing was found in it when the railroad went through excepting a few bones and pieces of skulls. I stayed twice with his friends the Smiths in the red house. Lately there has been a great snowstorm in the Fraser Valley with 6 in snow at Van, 1 ft at Westminster and 1½ ft to 3 ft from Mission to Spuzzum. This with a strike on the CPR at Vancouver made it disagreeable for my work. Had it not been for this I would have brought the only remaining carved post at the North Arm, and perhaps also the woman stone at Musquiam (which Smith saw) although the latter is very heavy and there is not much carving on it.13 I got one very old spindle and was shown exactly how it was used also the loom. I will get a large one of the latter when I go there again. [page 3] I feel some better of the rheumatism now but was pretty stiff with it when I went below. I intend to start on the Shuswap trip on or about the first of June. I will return your report and Smith photos in a day or two.

Teit to Boas. April 6, 1903. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1902–1. Dear Friend, I wrote you upon my return from below letting you know somewhat of the results of my trip, and a few days afterwards I sent back the copy of your sixth report (which you loaned me). Do you want a copy of your a/cs up to the end of the year, you are generally in the habit of asking for it but did not do so last December. I have now got a fine collection of face and body painting and tattooing with very interesting explanations. 92 pieces in all. Lately I have bought a good many Thompson specimens (nearly all from Nicola) of clothes, weapons etc. etc. so I will have a rather large shipment to you. I intend to despatch everything I have on hand in a couple of weeks time, and think you will find most of it very interesting. Nearly everything is highly decorated and painted with designs of which I have got the full meanings. What can you allow me for skeletons and skulls from an old Upper Thompson River burial ground[?] I think I may have a chance to get some with everything buried with them. I will go there myself and look after it. A long time ago you told me you could allow $16.00 a piece for entire skeleton and $3.00 a piece for good skulls but you

12. Steveston is a coastal community near Vancouver. 13. Musqueam is a Coast Salish community now within the city limits of Vancouver.

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may not want them as badly now perhaps. The [page 2] rheumatism is gradually leaving me now and I feel it only a little in the knees. I will be as good as ever very soon I hope. I will now close with kind regards and hoping you will remember me to Smith and Farrand etc. . . . PS The spring is late here this year especially on the higher levels where the green grass has not even yet started. There was an exceptional heavy fall of snow in the higher mountains last winter.

Boas to Teit. April 15, 1903. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1902–1. My dear Friend,— I was very glad to receive your two letters. I am pleased to hear that you are getting over your rheumatism, and I hope that you will soon feel perfectly well again. I was of course much interested in the report of your journey to the Lower Fraser River. I presume that you are intending to send the specimens collected there, together with the material that you obtained in the Nicola and Thompson regions. I understand from your first letter that you are intending to make another trip down to the delta of Fraser River. If this is so, I trust that you will be able to procure the poles of which you spoke and also the full-sized loom. I trust you have detailed information as to how the loom was used. I shall be obliged if you will send me a statement of your accounts up to date. I can set aside for the coming year the sum of $400 for continuation of your work. Will you be able, with the balance from last year and with this amount, to carry out the proposed Shuswap work? The price for skeletons that you mention, $16, is rather high, while I am perfectly willing to pay $8 for skulls. Would not $10 for skeletons be suffi-[page 2] cient payment? I should be willing to take them at this figure, but all the work that you do must come out of the balance from last year, plus the $400 appropriated this year. Please let me know if you can do the Shuswap work with these funds, and if I shall send you the money.

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Teit to Boas. April 22, 1903. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1902–1. Dear Friend, I drop you a note hastily as I am somewhat busy. I received your letter of 15th inst. but you do not state when you will be out this way. I wanted to know in case I might miss you. I will likely get going out hunting bear in the Selkirks with a German big gun called Schwamb on the 4th of May and will not be back at Spences Bdge until near the end of the May just giving me time to make ready for the Shuswap trip. I am ticketing all the specimens now and will ship them early next week. I note all you say in your letter and will send you copies of a/cs. I think the price you [page 2] offer for skeletons will satisfy the parties and in fact I know I can get them very much at my own price. Yes, the $400.00 for this years continuation of the work will be sufficient to continue the collections, and carry out the Shuswap work. You can send it to me at any time. I will write you again soon.

Teit to Boas. April 26, 1903. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1902–1. Dear Friend, I just drop you a note to say the German who was going to hunt with me seems to have changed his mind and is undecided from the letter I received from him yesterday. Therefore I will likely be here all through the month of May. I do not know whether you intend to come out here in May, June or July. Please let me know. I dug up with help of three others some of the graves today. The bones are in fair preservation. We found a number of copper ornaments. I will send you a full report when through. PS You must be sure to bring the phonograph when you come and one copy of my Thompson book.

Boas to Teit. May 1, 1903. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1902–1. My dear Friend— I have your note of recent date. Am sorry to say that I shall not be able to go out West this summer. I have not had time so far to work 262 | 1903

out the material that I collected three years ago, and so I think it better to stay here and finish that work. I shall send the $400.00 for your Shuswap work within a few days. I am looking forward with interest to your next shipment.

Boas to Teit. May 20, 1903. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1902–1. My dear Teit,— I am sending under separate cover blank voucher-books, which I beg to ask you to use in your work for the Museum. Mr. Winser, Secretary of the Museum, is sending to-day four hundred dollars ($400) to your credit to the Canadian Bank of Commerce, Kamloops. I have been hoping to hear from you in regard to the shipment of your collection, which, however, I presume will come in due time.

Teit to Boas. May 29, 1903. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1903–24. My Dear Friend, I received your letter with enclosed blank vouchers. I suppose you desire me to fill one up with each payment I make. I have not had time yet to ship the Museum stuff nor copy out the a/cs but will do it soon. I have been away ten days with Dr Newcombe through the Nicola to Kamloops interpreting and helping him collect for the Chicago Museum. I picked up a few good specimens for you on the trip. Since then I have been at the Clinton assizes where I was a witness and returned only yesterday. Owing to the condition of my horses I will [page 2] be a week or two later in starting on the Shuswap trip than I expected. PS I received the copy of my Thompson work. When will you be ready to print the Lillooet material.

Boas to Teit. June 5, 1903. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1903–24. My dear Friend, I am in receipt of your note of the 29th of May. I am glad to think that you will soon be able to start on your journey up the Thompson River. I hope you will send your collection before you start, also your accounts. 1903 | 263

We have not been able to print for quite a little while, but I hope that we shall start again very soon, and your Lillooet paper will be one of the early ones to go to press. Farrand has almost completed the preparation of your Lower Thompson traditions, but I think it best to hold these and publish them with your Nicola material. I wish you would take the time before you start to think over the further development of your work on the Shuswap, and also the extension of your work on the Okanogon and the Salish tribes of Washington. I should like very much to be able to continue your work in the whole region which you know so well, and to push it a little more rapidly than we have been doing these last few years. Could you not make some estimate, say, for a period of about five years, including in such an estimate the expenses for field-work during such period and a salary for yourself. I [page 2] should like to see included in this work also the recording of texts in the Thompson language, about which we have so often spoken. My idea would be that you should begin to write these texts down, and that after you have made a considerable collection, I should come out, and that we should spend together some time with the Indians, getting really thorough information on the grammar of the language. Please let me hear from you from time to time regarding the progress of your work. Do you expect to go down the Fraser River once more to supplement your collection that you made last winter?

Teit to Boas. June 8, 1903. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1903–24. Dear Friend, I am shipping the specimens to-morrow and have to cross them over in a small boat as the river is very high. I enclose the list of descriptions, and will send the accounts before I start. I commence hunting horses for the trip in two days. The weather is 104 in shade here to-day. Tell Smith that our friend Indian Ba’tiste died of pneumonia and was buried yesterday.14 He was a good Indian for me and my work and I am very sorry he is gone.

14. Ba’tiste was a common pronunciation of “Baptiste.”

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Teit to Boas. June 14, 1903. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1903–24. Dear Friend, I have got in most of the horses and am just about ready to leave for the North. I shipped all the specimens in two lots[,] the first consisting of nine boxes, one barrel and one package and the second of four boxes (skeletons). The grave finds I did not enclose in the boxes. I am sending to you now in a parcel. I have sent you all the accounts made out to date, also descriptions of all the specimens and skeletons etc. The rivers are very high at present and the weather here has been so dry that since the break up of winter we had no precipitation to register. Lately it has been very hot for the last ten days the [page 2] thermometer has registered from 90 to 102 in the shade. I received your letter of 5th yesterday. I think it best to keep the Lower Thompson traditions and publish with the Nicola ones. I have a few more Nicola and Spences Bridge traditions on hand which I will send as soon as I can get time to write them out. I note what you say re. the extension of my work amongst the Okanagan, and Salish of Wash. etc. and the study of the language. I am very anxious to further the work throughout the whole southern country and would like to see it go ahead faster than hitherto. I am quite willing to devote more of my time to it, if you could manage and afford to give me sufficient remuneration so I could be able to give up some other lines of work I at present partly depend on. I enclose the estimate you ask for. I have got to be in Vancouver some time this fall [page 3] probably about the beginning of November and before I return home will try to procure some other specimens on the Lower Fraser, including the posts, carriers and disks you are anxious to get, and will try to get a woman started on a large loom making blankets so I can see the process properly. I think it worth while stopping off at Spuzzum also for the same purpose. There are very few museum articles to be seen on the Lower Fraser now a days. What about the large (woman) stone at Musquiam. Do you wish me to buy it. It is very heavy but no doubt can be removed if the Indians will sell it. I will now close. PS I enclose picture I took of the “woman” stone at Musquiam with the cup shaped depression on the top for holding the ball. I put a ball of twine in the place. [page 4]

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Estimate of Work amongst Interior Salish of B.Col. and Wash etc. For period of 5 years Per year

$150.00 for collections

[Ditto]

$150.00 for wages to Indians on trips and collecting of texts, traditions etc. etc.

[Ditto]

$150.00 for grub and expenses on trips

[Ditto]

$400.00 for salary $850.00 total

For above I would be willing to work for you approximately about eight months in the year. Writing out reports on the various tribes and subjects, gathering information on all subjects, collecting traditions and specimens etc. writing down texts and making notes on the language etc. Going on trips and visiting tribes wherever and whenever necessary. I would expect to be [illeg] at least [page 5] one extended trip every summer. I would consider the above salary as sufficient payment also for the hire and use of all necessary horses, pack train and camping equipment which I would supply. I would work on the texts and do most of the writing in the winter. By this means I think I could manage to do a lot of work for you in a comparatively short time and would be able to give it more attention and do it more thoroughly than at present. The amount I estimate for collections may come to more than $150.00 some years (perhaps as high as 200.00 or 250.00) but other years is sure to be much less. The same may be said of the item for Indian wages etc. but taking the five years together probably the average will be about as I have stated.

Farrand to Teit. June 23, 1903. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1903–24. My dear Teit,— Your letter of June 14 to Dr. Boas has been received, and I am forwarding it on to him with the estimate for the extension of your work in the future. I simply wish to acknowledge on the part of the Museum the notice of the two shipments from Spences Bridge, as well as the receipt of the boxes containing grave finds, and your accounts, which have already arrived.

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Teit to Boas. August 24, 1903. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1903–24. Dear Friend, I returned a short time ago from my trip, and am now forwarding all the specimens to you as per enclosed list. I have also a number of Thompson specimens obtained mostly in Nicola of which I will give you a list in a few days. I received at Kamloops Dr Farrand’s note acknowledging the receipt of the last specimens I sent, and also your letter from Bolton Landing, saying you would probably be able to make arrangements in October re. funds for the prosecution of the Okanagan work and the work on the Thompson Language etc. etc. [page 2] I visited all the Shuswaps and their villages excepting the Spallumcheen and of course the Kootenai band.15 I got some additional information and cleared up some points, but on the whole I did not add much to the information I obtained from the Fraser River Shuswaps two or three years ago. Probably this is because I got so much from them that there was not a great deal left. I find a great uniformity of customs, habits and beliefs amongst the several bands, and in every way they differ from one another much less than do the Upper and Lower Thompsons. I got old men at several points to go over all their old stories and took up a good deal of time this way, but without adding much to the stock I have already collected. [page 3] I expected to get a good many different stories on the North Thompson where there is even more contact and intermarriage with the Crees than I had thought but in this I was deceived. I was at a disadvantage there however as I had no knowledge of the Cree stories and therefore did not know how to ask about them. I had a very fair trip so far as weather etc. is concerned but had mosquitoes very bad especially on the North Thompson. We swam the horses across the river at Little Fort about 70 miles above Kamloops and nearly lost one there. We also nearly lost three other horses[,] two of them by a bridge breaking away beneath us. I managed to bring them all back however in good condition and without a single sore on any of them. I hear Smith is doing work in the Yakima Count [page 4]-ry. I hope he will have much success. I trust you had a pleasant holiday in the country and now feel quite yourself again. I am going out on a hunting trip to the Stikine on the 7th Sept and have got to canoe it about 200 miles up stream. I expect to be back early in November and 15. This may be a reference to the Kinbaskets, identified by Teit in The Shuswap (455) as “a band of Shuswap located on Upper Columbia River near Lake Windermere.”

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on the way home will stop and collect the Lower Fraser things you want.

Farrand to Teit. September 2, 1903. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1903–24. My dear Teit,— This is to acknowledge your letter of Aug. 24 to Dr. Boas, in which you tell of your return from your trip, and of the forwarding of the specimens according to the list which you enclosed. I have just come upstairs from watching the unpacking of your first large shipment, which we have just got free from the custom-house. I have not had time to look at it with much care, but it seems most interesting. I envy you your mountain trip to the Stickeen, and only wish I could be with you.

Teit to Boas. November 15, 1903. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1903–24. Dear Friend, I arrived back here a few days ago from the Stikine River. We had a very successful trip but the expenses were much more than I had anticipated and consequently I lost on it. We had very rough disagreeable weather and a good deal of hardship. I went over to Musquiam when I got to Vancouver but was not able to do much. The Indian and his wife who had promised to get the loom etc. were away and the Indian who owned the stone held out for a high price. The place was partly flooded and the roads in very bad condition so even if I had got it I could not have had it hauled out without waiting several days. I will try it again next time I go to the Coast. I bought some stuff for you on the Upper Stikine from the Tahltan tribe (Athapascan), snowshoes, bags, moccasins, gambling sticks etc. They play the ‘pᴇkū́m’ gambling stick game in the same manner as the Thompsons used to do, so it seems to have been general over the entire interior of BC. It may interest you to know that each Interior tribe increases in stature as you go North corresponding to the increase along [page 2] along [sic] the Coast. The Carriers are certainly taller than the Chilcotins and the Tahltans as certainly taller than the Carriers. I saw about 50 men of the Tahltans and a large number of them would measure about 5 feet 8 and 9 inches. Some of them were quite short too but none under about 5ft 4 inc. I did not see any that I would judge to be over 5 ft 10 in. 268 | 1903

On the whole they give a person the impression of being rather tall and slim. All the women I saw were somewhat short. In disposition and otherwise they are exceedingly like the Carriers. The Tlingets around Wrangel are not so tall as I expected to find them and are built altogether different from the Tahltan and Cascas [sic] of the Interior. I had a letter from Father Morice lately and he states the following “kindly tell Dr Boas that I am keeping in mind his request for Dené curios of which I have gathered quite a few for him.”16 It seems by this that he is quietly collecting things for you and when he gets a sufficient collection he will let you know without doubt. Did you make any arrangements yet about the continuation of my work. You said you thought you would be able to arrange things according to my estimate in October. Tell Dr Farrand that we procured the two finest moose heads taken out of the Upper Stikine and that we found sheep of two varieties and bears very plentiful. I hear Smith has been over in the Dalles country this summer. I sincerely hope he has done well there.

Boas to Teit. November 30, 1903. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1903–24. My dear Friend,— I was very glad to hear of your safe return from your long journey. Your last shipment of Shuswap and Thompson material reached me a few days ago. I was much interested in looking over the Shuswap collection. I am glad to hear what you say about the ethnological results of your trip. I only wish that financially you had come out better. I shall write to you as soon as I can in regard to the question of further work.

16. In the summer of 1905 A. G. Morice and Boas corresponded regarding the continuation of the Dene ethnological work. Morice inquired whether Boas would like him to draft a thirtypage essay on distribution, mental and physical characteristics, linguistic particularities, mode of life, sociological aspects, and so forth (see APS, Boas Papers: Morice to Boas, August 6, 1905, text 89867).

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1904

Teit to Boas. March 10, 1904. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1903–24. Dear Friend, I have not heard from you yet, re. further Indian Work, but likely you are very busy, and perhaps besides you may be having trouble re. the raising of sufficient funds for all your projected work. I am sending you by this mail copies of all accounts up to the end of the year. I was supplied with vouchers in June last, but partly through not being used to them, and also owing to their inconvenience when traveling amongst the Indians, I am afraid you will think I have made but poor use of them. Since the first of January however I have been trying to keep them as fully, and correctly as I can, and when I buy something am getting the Indians “to mark the paper.” I can generally get them to do this (especially if they know me well) but in some places (where they are more or less strangers) they frequently refuse, or show an aversion, which you cannot blame them for. To them “touching the pen” is a very serious, and solemn matter requiring much deliberation, and explanation—as for instance when they make an agreement with the government, or with some big tyhee about some important matter.1 It is also very unhandy for example in open camps, in all kinds of weather (raining or blowing) or perhaps pested with mosquitoes, or blinded with smoke, to get the Indian to mark a voucher for a little specimen I have purchased from him. Understanding the Indian mind about the thing as I do, it seems to me in the nature of a joke. [page 2] I know it is business, but up to date New York City methods do not always work out in the Wilds of BC. Any way it is no check on me, for it would be easy for me to put crosses and Indian names on any amount of them, and no one would know whether they are genuine or not. Signatures are different, but not one Indian in 200 can sign his name. Even amongst the Whites it is not the style here (in small matters) when you get a meal (for 25 cents) (as I may sometimes do when on a trip) to ask the 1. “Tyhee [tyee] means chief in Chinook jargon. See Hale, An International Idiom, 52.

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waitress to sign a voucher for it. I am not talking this way because I feel aggrieved or annoyed—far from it—I am only amused—and if the Museum people think it necessary to have them I will continue to get them made out for all money I spend (as far as I can). The specimens I have on hand for the Museum I will ship probably in May. Father Morice has left the Carriers for good, and is at present in Vancouver. He expects to be given some Indian Mission on the Coast before long.2 I should have written out some of the Shuswap material for you this winter, but you must excuse me a little, as I have been busy courting, and have finished up by getting married.3 I expect to be able to send you some of it before June however. The only writing I have done this winter is a small paper of 72 pages for the CPR on the game of BC.4 I sincerely hope this letter will find you well. When I do not hear from you for a long time I become anxious, and think you may be sick or something the matter. Remember me kindly to Dr Farrand and Mr. Smith. I will now close with kindest regards, and feeling grateful for all you have done for me in the past . . . PS Tell Mr. Pepper to quit sending me the Amer. Anthropologist. It is very interesting but too expensive for me. I will pay what I owe him soon. Some tragic deaths occurred here this winter. A shaman died in a sweat house, a young man dropped dead when going to have a drink of water, and an elderly Indian (formerly a warrior) fell in a trance as if dead. He awoke in 3 days quite insane, spent a week racing around on his horse, and then shot 2. Morice did not return to mission work. He had been removed from the Fort St. James mission, and his superiors in the Roman Catholic Church found him temperamentally unsuited to living with, or co-operating with, others. He spent time in Vancouver and Kamloops, and subsequently lived in Manitoba, and, for a brief time, in Saskatchewan. During this time he published several works, including The History of the Northern Interior of British Columbia in 1904, Map of the Northern Interior of British Columbia in 1907, Dictionnaire historique des Canadiens et des Métis français de l’ouest in 1908, Histoire de l’Eglise catholique dans l’ouest canadien du lac Supérieur au Pacifique (1659–1905) in 1921, and a two-volume work, The Carrier Language (Déné family) in 1932, which included both grammar and dictionary. He died in 1938 (Mulhall, “Morice, Adrien-Gabriel”). 3. On March 15, 1904, Teit married Leonie Josephine Morens (British Columbia Vital Statistics Agency, British Columbia Marriage Index, 1872–1935, James Teit and Leonie Morens, Registration number 1904-09-169558). The Morens family had a ranch situated below Teit’s own property in the Twaal Valley, about four miles up the Thompson River from Spences Bridge (Wickwire, At the Bridge, 130). 4. A reference to a commission Teit carried out beginning in 1902. During a stopover in Montreal in January 1902 he had received a contract from the Canadian Pacific Railway to write a report on British Columbia’s wildlife, to promote tourism by conveying “an idea of the country, its climate, [and] its game both large and small” (Wickwire, At the Bridge, 128, 325n76). The report is also cited as “British Columbia and Big Game Hunting,” 1–171, in Peyton, “Imbricated Geographies,” 569.

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himself. We have an Indian prophet here now making quite a fuss.

Boas to Teit. March 17, 1904. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1903–24. My dear Friend,— I was very glad to get your note of the 10th of March. I have been wanting to write to you for a long, long time, but I put it off from day to day, hoping that I should be able to let you know just how matters are going here in the Museum; but, instead of getting my affairs settled last October, everything is still hanging fire. Meanwhile I have re-arranged all your collections, and examined all the new material which you sent us, which is very interesting. There is one thing that strikes me as rather curious, and about which I should like you to inquire. The Indians made a number of garments and pouches on which they sewed porcupine-quills. Are they quite certain that this is the old style of their porcupine embroidery, or had they actually forgotten what the real style was, and did they make those, thinking that it was probably the old style? I do not know any specimens from any other part of the country that have the same style of porcupine-quill work. [page 2] I am sorry that the voucher forms have given you so much trouble. I presume I omitted to write to you in regard to them. The idea was that they would simply be convenient for you to use in place of ordinary bills, but there is of course no sense in getting signatures from Indians who cannot read and write; and in such cases, as well as in the cases of single meals, etc., we are fully satisfied with your statement. You wrote to me in your last letter that you had made a collection among the Tahltan. I hope you will let us have that collection, because we have nothing at all from that tribe. Do you believe that it is still profitable to go on collecting ethnological specimens among the Thompson Indians? Of course your recent collections have brought out a good many new points; but I sometimes get the impression that we are pretty near the limit, and that the Indians do not know very much more about the objects that they used in olden times, although of course their information on other matters is probably quite extensive. I want, however, to be entirely guided by your judgment. Mr. Smith and I have been trying recently to re-arrange the Thompson River collections so as to show the similarity of the prehistoric culture 272 | 1904

to the things made at the present time, and we ran against a few points in regard to which we [page 3] were not quite clear, or where at least we had no specimens to illustrate what we should like to show. For instance, we have no stone sinkers and no big rubbing-stones, no arrow-shaft polishers, etc., from the present tribes. Mr. Smith is getting together a list of such specimens in regard to which he wants to ask you, and we shall write to you again soon in regard to this point. If you are sufficiently interest in the “Anthropologist”, I shall be glad to continue to send it to you. I hope to be able to let you know soon what prospects there are of continuing our work in the way I proposed in my letter of last year.

Teit to Boas. April 18, 1904. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1903–24. Dear Friend, I was indeed glad to receive your kind, and interesting letter of 17th ult. upon my arrival home yesterday. I was down on the coast a month chiefly at Nanaimo, Saanich, Victoria, Port Guichon, and Vancouver, and had my wife along. Whilst in the latter place I ran over to the North Arm, and put in nearly two days amongst the Musquiam Indians and bought about $35.00 of specimens for you. There are no more posts left, but the “woman” stone is still there, and they will sell it to me but not for less than $50.00 which sum I did not wish to pay until I saw whether you thought it was worth it to your museum. I think myself that $20.00 would be a big price for it but some museums would no doubt pay more and soon some of them will get on to it. [page 2] I find it hard doing work around there. They have been visited by so many collectors, and consequently value what they have got at such absurd figures, and besides they are not at all anxious to tell any of their stories etc. I think however the articles I have got for you, and the information about some things will be of interest to you. Before leaving there I ordered seven articles to be made which I will get the next time I go down that way. When there I saw 4 nicely carved rattles of mountain sheeps horn, which have been in the possession of a family there (some of them for three generations). The Indian who owns them has given up the dances and says he will sell them (at least 3 of them) for $10.00 a piece. Amongst themselves they claim they are wort each 10 to 20 blankets. I told him to keep them a while until I heard from you as I considered his charge more than double what they are worth. 1904 | 273

I would like you to let me know as soon as possible if [page 3] you wish me to buy the stone at 50.00 and the rattles at 10.00 a piece, and if you consider the sums too high, then please state the best you are prepared to give for them, and I will let the Indians know. They may accept our offer or not I cannot say. I saw Father Morice when in Vancouver, and he has been writing a work on Northern BC (I think for the government). He says he sold his big (old) collection a good while ago, and is sorry that he sold it in the way he did. He says he has a few things he has collected for you which he will bring down from Stuart Lake this summer. Re. the quill work I sent you from here, it is one of the old styles in vogue. The Indians all avow that it was a style in very common use. The quills were chiefly those of the porcupine but frequently those of birds, and in the latter case especially were sometimes dyed—chiefly in red, and yellow colors. Sometimes they were sewed on, the sewing being across them and sometimes they [page 4] were merely stuck into the skin. In the case of the larger quills they were sewed on in the same manner as dentalia, the thread passing through the entire length of the tube. You will see the various methods in the specimens I sent. Besides this old style of quill work there was another which they describe as being like narrow plaited strips used chiefly on shirts, along the seams and on moccasins. They say this work was done in two ways. 1stly some process of braiding— the braid of quills being sewed on to the article to be ornamented and usually very narrow. 2ndly the quills worked into strips of buckskin, of varying lengths and widths[,] the work forming simple designs. As I have never seen nor yet been able to get any old people to show this kind of work I cannot describe it very well. I think owing to the presence of so much beads and shells for so long a time back they have almost if not quite forgotten how to do properly the last mentioned varieties of quill work and retain simply a knowledge of them through hearsay. It seems certain that [page 5] before the introduction of beads (and in a lesser degree within quite recent times) quill work of several kinds (including the kind which I sent you) was in very extensive use amongst all the southern Interior tribes, and amongst the Thompson as much if not more so than with the other tribes. I will still endeavor to get specimens of the other kinds of quill work, and just now as I am writing I have been talking with an old Indian who claims to have seen (often) all the kinds of quill work I have described and who says he will show his daughter how one of the common kinds (different from the specimens I sent you) was done so I have ordered a pair of moccasins to be fixed by them. Certainly the Tahltan collection I made 274 | 1904

was specially for you and you will see by the bills I sent you that I have already charged up the articles to the Museum. I will be glad to hear from Mr. Smith re. the specimens you speak of, and will give you all the enlightenment I can about same. Yes I think we are near the limit regarding the Thompson [page 6] collections, and there is not very much more to be obtained that is different, but still I know of some things which have not been procured, and would be of value and interest. These number to about 20 to 30 articles, and besides there are things hitherto unknown to me which crop up occasionally quite accidentally, and it is best to be prepared for emergencies and continue to have some money for collecting for a while yet. I know you have now got the great bulk, and what remains to be procured will not require much of an outlay. I would propose however to continue the collecting for two or three years yet. (It is impossible to get all I know of at once) and reckon say on an expenditure of at least $50.00 per year for that time. I bought two or three baskets lately showing old designs I had heard of but had never seen since I started collecting for you. They show the transition between the animal and the purely geometric figure. They are between the two, and very little more change would make them quite geometric. I did not get them made to order and fell [page 7] on them just by chance. I am interested enough in the Anthropologist but to me (who am not too rich) I feel the charge is too heavy for the value received, and think I can spend the $5.00 to better (and more necessary) advantage. PS I saw Dr. Newcombe in Victoria and he is doing work for the Chicago Museum. I bought a few things for them on the Thompson but nothing (of course) except things similar to what I have sent to you already such as common sage bark clothing etc. of which they wished to have specimens. Some of the stores here now buy that kind of thing, and the Indians are selling quite a bit of it. I suppose they sell to private collections. [page 8] PPS We had very hot weather here (in the Interior) for the early part of April viz 85 in the shade and this has sent down so much mountain snow that the CPR line has been put nearly out of business for some time back with slides and washouts. I came up from Vancouver yesterday and took two days to reach here and this was a local whereas the through trains have been completely blocked for over a week and they have commenced to transfer mail and passenger per Kootenai branch lines and the Crows Nest Pass. 1904 | 275

Boas to Teit. May 18, 1904. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, November 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. My dear Friend,— I have at last been able to get some money for the continuation of your work. For the time being I have $500; but I hope to be able, at least for the present year, to make an arrangement very nearly in the way you suggested. I do not think that I shall be quite able to get $850 for your work, but I think I see $700, and I shall be able to let you know very soon just how much I shall have. The $500, for which you will receive a draft at an early date, are to be used for the continuation of your work among the Salish tribes, and for payment of such collections as you may have accumulated during the past months. In accordance with your reply to my question in relation to the status of collections among the Thompson Indians, I would ask you to confine further collections among that tribe to such specimens as really bring out new points. The new collections I should like to see made among the Okanagon, Calispelm, Spokane, or such tribes of the northern Washington division as are likely [page 2] to yield the best results in specimens. The changes in that territory during the last few years have been so great, that I do not feel quite certain which among these tribes will yield the best results, and I must leave this largely to your decision. You understand, of course, that what we want is not only specimens, but also full information on the ethnology and the traditions of the tribes. I have received from you up to this time a description of the Lillooet, and collections of traditions of all the inland tribes; that is, of the Lillooet, Shuswap, Lower Thompson Indians, and Nicola Indians. These are at present being copied, and Dr. Farrand is looking them over and arranging them with a view to their publication next fall. Your Lillooet ethnology is also nearly ready for the printer. All the drawings have been made, and the greater part of the manuscript has been arranged and copied. You have not sent me any manuscript on the ethnology of the Shuswap. You wrote to me that you found the ethnology of that tribe very much like that of the Thompson Indians, but I presume you will have some remarks to make on their local peculiarities. It seems doubtful to my mind whether it will be necessary to prepare a special publication on the Shuswap, or whether it might not be well to incorporate your observations in such additional information on the 276 | 1904

Thompson Indians as has been accumulated in your hands during the last few years. [page 3] If you feel that the subject of the Thompson Indians has been fairly well exhausted, I should like to have you write out your additional remarks, so that I can see how they can best be published. I shall be obliged to you for your statement, and for your suggestions in regard to all these points. I presume you have also some remarks on the Tahltan, and I should be glad to hear from you as to whether they are sufficient for a publication, or whether they are simply notes accompanying your collection. In case I should be able to raise the whole or nearly the whole amount that you desired to have placed at your disposal in order to continue your work systematically, I should want to see included in your work records of texts in the Thompson language, which would serve for a later grammatical discussion. I expect to leave for Europe next week. During my absence Dr. Farrand will be here, and will attend to all administrative work of the department. I should like to hear from you directly in regard to the proposed literary work, and I shall be obliged if you will write to me in Berlin, Winterfeld Strasse 31, Berlin, W., Germany. If you have any questions to ask in regard to the field-work this summer, please write to Dr. Farrand directly.

Teit to Boas. May 25, 1904. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1904–37. Dear Friend. I was very glad indeed to receive your letter of the 18th inst. and to learn you had been able to procure some money for the continuation of the Interior Salish work. I will confine further collections amongst the Thompson entirely to such specimens as will bring out new points. Re. collections amongst the Okanagon tribes I will have to find out the best place. At present I have no idea which sept5 of them is best for making old work, or whether there is much old stuff of real value to be got. I understand Dorsey has been through a good deal of the country along the main route and just lately Dr. Newcombe has been

5. Teit is using “sept” in the sense of “clan.”

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over there for him.6 Neither do I know which tribe of the Okanagons is the most primitive, or best for collecting stories and lore etc. amongst. I think I will take a trip down the Similkameen and Okanagon River (by pack train) very shortly, and next time will go further afield amongst the Spokane etc. On the Okanagon River I should be able to learn something definite about the status of the various tribes, and afterwards be able to make arrangements accordingly. You can depend on me trying to get as full information as possible on the ethnology and traditions of these people. Personally I feel much interested in the work and will try to take an elderly man with me from this region, who is well acquainted with the Southern dialects, and interested in the old things. I learned just very lately that the Nez Perce bags (so called) which were made also [page 2] by the Thompsons were sometimes (in the olden time) ornamented with designs in quill work woven in, and this manner of decoration prevailed to a greater or less extent from here right through to the Nez Perce. I am glad to hear the Lillooet paper will soon be ready, and that Dr. Farrand is arranging the myths (Shuswap, Lower Thompson and Nicola). I will have a very few more Upper Thomp. ones to send and also some Shuswap ones (mostly variants) I collected on the North Thompson last summer. I will try to copy them soon. Re. the Ethnology of the Shuswap you may be able to enclude it, and my additional notes on the Thomp. in the same publication, but they will require to be under different headings as my Shuswap manuscript will be quite large–perhaps larger than the Lillooet one, and if the Shus. myths are also put in the same publication it will be a good deal larger than the Lillooet paper. The additional notes on the Thomp however will not take up much space, but if you enclude with them all the myths I have sent you of late from the Up. Thomp. Nicola and Lower Thomp. it will no doubt be as large as the Lillooet 6. In 1897 George Dorsey (1868–1931), then newly appointed curator of the Field Museum, traveled to the northwestern United States and the Pacific Coast of Canada to acquire material for the museum. Dorsey’s Harvard PhD had been awarded for analysis of Peruvian human remains, and the excavation of human remains—without either consultation with the associated Indigenous societies, attention to the prevailing law, or, indeed, great attention to historical context—was a primary object of his trip. The core of the Field Museum collection from this region had been established through collecting for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in the early 1890s. To augment the collection and to catalog what had been collected Dorsey hired C. F. Newcombe, who worked on contract between 1901 and 1905. In 1904 Newcombe was preoccupied with work for the St. Louis Exposition (see Cole, Captured Heritage, 165–208). In 1903 Newcombe traveled through the Fraser Valley collecting coil basketry, and with Teit serving as guide, he also traveled through the Nicola Valley and the region around Kamloops. During this time he also visited Penticton, in Syilx country (Cole, Captured Heritage, 197), and Teit may have been referring to this trip.

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paper. You will be able to judge better however when I have sent them all in, and will have more idea of their respective bulk and value. I have collected some baskets lately each showing an old Thomp. pattern hitherto not obtained. Re. the Tahltan and Lower Fraser what I have to say about them can easily be incorporated in the notes accompanying specimens. Amongst the former tribe I had time to do one days work only, although I met quite a few of them on the moose and caribou hunting grounds last fall. I hope to attempt some of the Thomp. texts etc. next winter. Hoping you will have a pleasant holiday and safe journey. PS Before leaving on any trip I will write to Farrand for any information I possibly may need. I will be forwarding the specimens on hand in a few days.

Teit to Farrand. June 13, 1904. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1904–37. Dear Friend. I am sending you to-day a list of specimens I collected (since last fall) from the Thompson, Okanagon, Lillooet, Lower Fraser and Tahltan. I also enclose some notes on the Tahltan, which may be of value in giving a general idea of the tribe. They are very brief, as I was engaged hunting under wages, and my time was so fully occupied that I had no leisure to go amongst the Indians, making investigations, inquiries, and collecting. I had talks with several of them in a general way, and thus obtained some information, and the rest is from my own observation of what I chanced to see, and hear. The Cascas adjoining the Tahltans on the East are much more primitive, but I was not in their country, and happened to see just three men of that tribe with whom I had no conversation. I heard Lieut. Emmons was up at Telegraph Creek once pr steamer on a flying trip, but obtained very few specimens. I think the Cascas would probably be well worth visiting and especially the more eastern Nahánes on the Liard, who resemble the Cascas but are even more primitive. If I remember right what Father Morice told me in Vancouver lately the Tahltan language although distinctively Athapaskan differs a good deal from that of the Southern tribes. I could find out more about this by writing him. He visited them once, and thinks they have mixed a little with Tlinket. I received the money from the Museum, and Dr. Boas wishes me to prosecute studies amongst the Okanagon tribes, and I think I will make a trip there this summer [page 2] leaving in about two weeks time, and making the Okanagon 1904 | 279

River my objective point for this year. Going, I will pass through Similkameen where I will probably stay a short time, and returning I will visit Okanagon Lake. I am not sure yet if I will cross the Boundary Line with the pack train as there may be bother with the Customs, and I want to know from you if there will be any duty on Museum specimens as the officials down there may not be posted regarding this. Perhaps if you furnish me with a statement showing that I am authorized by, and in the official employ of the American Museum engaged in Indian work it might simplify things in case of any difficulty arising. Also have you any advice to give re. any particular lines of work or inquiry amongst the Okanagons. You may think of something as you have been amongst the Yakima. Also re. the designs on Indian hemp bags. You better give me some idea of their motives and meanings of their leading designs if it is not too much trouble. The specimens I am sending you lists of, are all packed ready for shipment but I cannot get them across the river for a few days yet, as the scow is undergoing repairs. PS I am also writing Harlan Smith by this mail.

Teit to Smith. June 13, 1904. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, November 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. Dear Mr. Smith. Dr. Boas wrote me some time ago that you were making up a list of Thompson specimens regarding which you wished some information, and would be writing me soon on the subject. He said you had no specimens of stone sinkers, big rubbing stones, and arrow-shaft polishers from the present tribes. I feel certain I sent you one stone sinker attached to a line of Indian hemp, and used in fishing the largest variety of trout. The manner of fishing is by coiling the line up in the hand, then throwing it out as far as possible (the sinker helping to carry it) and then drawing it in through the water, the sinker being of such a weight that the line does not go either too deep or too shallow. This specimen was probably taken by Dr. Boas personally as I do not notice it in my own catalog of Thompson Specimens sent to the Museum. I also sent one stone arrow shaft smoother No. 69 made of sandstone I think, and of the same type found in graves. [S]ee Fig 57 in your Arch. of Lytton. I can probably procure more of these things if wanted. Re. the rubbing stones I do not clearly understand what is meant, whether scrapers for skin, pestles for food, or stones used for cutting nephrite 280 | 1904

etc. Did you examine the grave finds I sent last year—they are not particularly rich. I have been digging in the same place lately and came upon the skeletons of two children, much decayed and the skulls [all] badly broken. With one was buried a necklace of small blue glass beads and dentalia and with the other (probably a boy) an iron tomahawk, and a necklace of what seems wolf teeth (all of them perforated). Last Sunday I was digging in a layer of burnt ground, underneath some 7 feet of gravel (probably a slide or wash[,] how old or how recent I don’t know) the face of which has been cut away by weather action. [page 2] It is near the river, and I found a piece of arrowstone, some what looks like fresh water clam shells, [Whitfield says recent or fossil.7 Gratice of recent Margaritana]8 and some pieces of animal bones [Dr. J. W. Gidley says young elk]—all embedded in the hard gravel immediately on the top of the burned ground.9 It looks like Indian camp fires which have been covered by a very deep gravel slide. I would like to know the species of shell and the kind of bones if you or some of the Museum experts can identify them. I am sending specimens by mail. That was a very fine carving you got at Tampico, Wash. What you call the two inner hair rolls, suggest to me what are called in this region—tsenếka’ x(1) viz flaps of buckskin (usually of same proportion and shape as in your figure) which were attached to the rolled up braids or coils of the front hair on each side of the head, and hung down as in your figure. They were somewhat different types, and differed in the richness and style of their ornamentation, but one of the common styles was to cover them over thickly, with rows of the largest dentalia placed perpendicularly side by side, of which your figure is a good sketch. The rounded ends may stand for shell ornaments which were sometimes of 7. Insertions in square brackets superimposed on Teit’s letter in a different hand. Robert Parr Whitfield (1828–1910) was a paleontologist with little formal education but extensive experience in the field. He was appointed curator of the American Museum of Natural History in 1877 and served there until his retirement in December 1909. Although he was initially appointed with responsibility for geology, his early responsibilities came to include substantial collections of invertebrate fossils, which became a focus for his research. Whitfield published on various fossil invertebrates, including molluscs (“Whitfield, Robert Parr,” Dictionaries Thesauruses Pictures and Pre releases, https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and -press-releases/whitefield-robert-parr, 2019, accessed October 18, 2021). 8. Apparently a reference to a freshwater mollusc of the family Margaritiferidae (Bagni Liggia, “WMSDB—Worldwide Mollusc Species Data Base,” www.sciencedirect.com, accessed Novemu ber 29, 2023). 9. James Gidley (1866–1931), an expert in vertebrate fossils, first worked at the American Museum of Natural History in 1892 and returned there after completing undergraduate studies at Princeton University in 1898. He worked at the U.S. National Museum from 1905 until his death (“James Williams Gidley,” Prabook, https://prabook.com/web/james.gidley/3759920, accessed October 20, 2021).

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similar proportion and shape to those forms at the ends of the inner hair rolls on your figure. The outer hair rolls are evidently part of the head dress in the nature of buckskin flaps which were worn here attached to the sides of head bands, and were ornamented, generally with dentalia amongst women, with and more commonly designs in quills, or paint amongst men. The bands around the elbows probably armlets of skin embroidered with dentalia or quills like those formerly in use here. I may also mention that the Indians here were in the habit of sometimes painting their bodies in imitation of clothing. For instance—imitation of headband would be painted across the brow, fringed kilt or apron around the middle and upper part of legs, and fringed short leggings around the lower part of legs. (the fringes always long and hanging perpendicular) imitations of wristlets, armlets, and anklets etc. were also painted on the body. This is all I can suggest re. your figure and doubt it is [sic] not of much value. x(1) I sent one form of ‘Tsenếka’ to the Museum viz No 709.

Farrand to Teit. June 21, 1904. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, November 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. My dear Teit: This to acknowledge your letter of June 13, with the enclosed list of specimens from the Thompson, Okanagon, Lillooet, and other tribes. I presume that the box containing the collection will leave Spences Bridge in a few days, so we will be on the lookout for it. With regard to your trip this summer, I have practically nothing to offer in way of suggestion. I have never been able to obtain more than a few explanations of the designs of the Hump Backs of the Shaptanian tribes; whether or not you will be able to get them from the Okanagon, I cannot predict, but it will be extremely interesting if you do.10 I am also personally anxious to know whether there is anything in the way of a close social organization in that group. Most of the tribes of that region are so extremely loose in that respect that it is difficult to classify them at all. I am sending with this a general letter of introduction from the Museum, which you will of course use as you see fit. 10. “Hump Backs” is apparently a misprint for “hemp bags,” in regard to which Teit had sent Farrand an inquiry in his letter of June 13, 1904.

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A note received from Boas yesterday says that he has arrived safely in Berlin, but it gave no other news of importance.

Teit to Farrand. June 27, 1904. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1904–37. My Dear Farrand. I drop you a line to say I shipped the Museum stuff on the 17th and enclose herewith receipt of same. I am leaving to-morrow morning for the Okanagons. Except you give me instructions otherwise I will confine my collection of specimens from amongst the Okanagons chiefly to those things which may be different from the Thompsons and those which bring out points of value.11

Farrand to Teit. July 7, 1904. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, November 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. My dear Teit: I have your note of the 27th, enclosing the shipping receipt, and we will be on the lookout for the specimens. With regard to your work on the Okanagon, please use your best judgment, as you can tell on the ground what line of inquiry is going to be most promising.

Teit to Farrand. July 18, 1904. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1904–37.12 Dear Dr Farrand. I duly received your letter of 21st ult. with enclosed letter of introduction from the Museum. The letter is just what I wanted. I have made up my mind not to cross the line this trip as I have a lot of good outfit with me and eight good horses. I have been down right close to the boundary, and especially below here on the Okanagon River you have to be continually watching your horses else they will be stolen. 11. This is a somewhat surprising approach to collecting methodology, even in that day, and indicates the extent to which Teit held the Nlaka’pamux to be the model for all Interior Salish societies. 12. Teit is writing from “Dog Lake, Penticton, Bc.”

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The border country around here has many thieves. Next summer I will go straight to Nispílᴇm taking a small and poor outfit which I hope will arouse nobody’s cupidity and which if I lose I will not care very much. I do not think I will get anything very new on this trip—the Indians all say Nispílᴇm is the place, and give an interesting account of the people [page 2] there who it seems consist of two tribes on one reserve[,] Okanagon and Sahaptin. The place is 60 miles from Osoyoos BC to the S.E. A map of Washington State and a list of the Indian Reservations there would be very useful to me if you can procure them. I stayed some time in the Similkameen and gathered a lot of information and got a list of words of the old Tinne language which was spoken there. It encludes about 8 new words that I did not get in Nicola. I was unsuccessful in stories there however the only man who knows many being away and I got only one long story and four shorter ones from the other man. I have just arrived at this place and am trying here for stories principally. I have bought no specimens[;] so far all I have seen yet is just the same as the Thompson. I am going from here to the head of Okanagon Lake and on to Spallumcheen where I want to make a collection of stories if possible to complete the Shuswap series. I have a number of places to visit and expect to be home again about the middle of August and if I do not go hunting will at once start and write up the Shuswap material I have on hand.13 PS So far the organization seems to be quite as loose as amongst the Thompson and in Similkameen even more so.

Teit to Boas. August 26, 1904. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1904–37. Dear Friend. I returned in the early part of the month having been out fully six weeks on the trip.14 I had a good lot of horses, and the roads being 13. Citing Teit’s journal, which she received from Teit’s son Sigurd Teit, Wickwire writes, “Teit began his Okanagan trip with a stop in Nicola Valley to interview people. He then headed south and set up a camp at Ashnola in the Similkameen Valley, where he undertook a month of interviews before circling home via Vernon, Kamloops, and the Nicola River. Having been forewarned of rampant horse theft along the Okanagan River near the border, he was relieved to return without losing any of his eight horses. He was also relieved to return with extensive field notes” (Wickwire, At the Bridge, 131). 14. A footnote at the beginning of Teit’s essay “The Coeur d’Alêne” (1930, 37) stating, “Mr. Teit’s remarks on the Coeur d’Alêne refer to the year 1904,” indicates that Teit’s information came from work done in 1904, and both Reichard (Coeur d’Alene Indian Myths, 1) and

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nearly all in good order I made rapid time passing between points. I found out that Nespílᴇm [sic] in Washington is the nearest point I can do really good work, and will go straight there next summer. I confined myself on the late trip to the Ókanākín (Okanagon Lake and River) and the Smelếḵamux̳ (Similkameen River) who are practically all in BC. Amongst them I gathered a large amount of information all of which goes to prove their very close relationship to the Thompson in culture, customs, beliefs, etc. etc. and there seems to have been a very constant travel and trade between the Thompson and the S.E. following two routes which converged about where the boundary line now is or beyond. I did not make a large collection of stories (only 15 so far) but this was owing chiefly to the best story tellers being absent, so I expect to make up for it in that line next year. I bought very few specimens because old things were scarce in the first place, and in the second place most things which I saw were the same as what I have sent to you from the Thompson. The blood of Similkameen right to the boundary line is so largely Athapascan and Thompson that racially [page 2] the people of that region are no more Okanagon than those of Nicola. This is particularly true of the country from Ashnola North, and even at the present time the Indians from as far south as Tcutcuwíxa (the next camp above Ashnola) talk Thompson habitually, and teach their children that language. I made a small collection of Athapascan words[,] a few the same as some of those I collected in Nicola, and a number new ones. They were all I could get after carefull search. It seems that in earlier times when the Similkameen Indians were purer Athapascan they differed considerably from the Okanagons and Thompson in dress, arts etc. Rock paintings are very numerous in the Similkameen valley and the habit of burying the dead in rock slides was universal until recently. A fairly good map of Washington or of Eastern Washington and Idaho, and a list of the Indian reserves there and the names of the tribes on them would help me in my work next year if you could procure them for me. I suppose the latter can be got from the Indian Department, Washington City. I cannot think of anything more of importance to tell you, but shall answer any queries you may think of. I have shipped to-day all the specimens I had on hand (encluding Thompson[,] some of which are very interesting) and enclose list of same, and shipping receipt. Since I came back I have been putting my notes etc. in order, Palmer (“Coeur d’Alene,” 325) state that Teit worked among the Coeur d’Alêne in 1904. However, Teit did not cross the international border during his work with the Okanagan in 1904, and his subsequent letters indicate that his first visit to the Coeur d’Alêne reservation was in 1908.

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and have made a commencement on the Shuswap report. I am leaving (I expect) about the 10th Sept on a six weeks sheep hunt with some Americans but when I return shall hurry my work for you as fast as possible for I would like to get the Shuswap paper finished so I can tackle the T. language. The weather has been exceeding hot and dry here this summer 103 in the shade in June, 109 July and 107 August. I lost 13 lbs with the heat on the last trip. I suppose this will reach N.Y. shortly before your arrival back.

Smith to Teit. August 31, 1904. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, November 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. My dear Mr. Teit:— Your favor of August 12th received and I was very much interested in the information which you gave me regarding the Tampico carving, rock slide burials and the Similkameen. The sinkers which I found were of two sizes, some of them merely flat pebbles about 3” across, others oval pebbles about 7” x 3” thick. I never found any of either of these kinds in the Yakima River Valley. The little ones were notched at the edges, sometimes in two places, sometimes in four, the large ones usually had a groove extending entirely around them. I am very much obliged to you for the reference and information, especially as they will be useful to me whenever I come to write up my report on the Yakima Valley, for which I am massing considerable manuscript material. The 100 photographs consisted of rock-slide graves, graves in natural domes, such as described in the paper on the Tampico carving, kickulie [sic] holes, pictures pecked on rocks, and pictures painted on the rocks; see Tampico article, the specimens in private collections which I could not secure, and similar things. Besides this series however, I took some 20 pictures which give a very good idea of the character of the country, showing the desert, irrigation canals, fields, orchards, etc., and illustrating quite well [page 2] the story of reclaiming the desert land. This series has been pronounced by the Art Editor of “Country Life in America”, as the finest he had ever seen. They have published so much on irrigation and good roads, that they have tabooed the subject; but these pictures interested them so much that they have been trying for some months to get some one in Washington to write a story of a man locating in the country with his family, and his progress in developing a 286 | 1904

fine home, in order to use these pictures. They have failed to get a story and want me to write it. As I do not write stories, I shall simply see if they care to have me write a descriptive article. I regret to hear of the death of Baptiste. The best way for you to get a list of the Indian reserves throughout Washington, would be to write to the Department of Indian Affairs, Washington DC, telling them what you want and what you are doing. If they do not send you the books giving the information, gratuitously, kindly let me know and I will take up the matter with a Congressman. In regard to maps, the U.S. Geological Survey at Washington has issued a few very excellent sheets covering very small areas, most of them to the South and West of Ellensburg and North Yakima. These you can secure by addressing them. I think the cost is two cents or five cents each. In regard to the area East and North of Ellensburg, which is probably the region of which you desire maps, I find everything full of mistakes, even the Government Land Office map, which is one of the best, has such mistakes as to [page 3] have cities on the wrong sides of rivers, and the best maps I know of are those issued by the Land Department of the North Pacific RR Co., which you can obtain by asking for at the office in Tacoma, Washington. They have given me many copies but I do not have here any which have not been cut up, and you can save time by sending for them direct, as it would take you about two weeks or longer if I sent for them and then forwarded them to you. If you do not succeed in getting this material, let me know and I certainly will be glad to do it for you. I wish I could spend my vacation on the plateau with you among the pines,

Boas to Prof. N. L. Britton (Botanical Garden, Bronx District, New York City). October 26, 1904. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1904–37. Dear Professor Britton,— If possible, will you kindly have the enclosed plant identified for me.15 Handwritten at bottom: “Commandra pallida

Sincerely N.L.B.”

15. At the bottom of a copy of this letter: “No. 809 from Teit ‘Nut plant’ for identification. Used as dye and paint. Specimen of roots is No. 802. Copied by H.A.A. from wrapping round plant. Commandra pallida.”

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Boas to Teit. November 3, 1904. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, November 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. My dear Friend,— The nut-plant (No. 809) which you sent us for identification is Comandra pallida.16 I am sending the other plants which came in your shipment sent in August to be identified. I shall write again soon.

Teit to Boas. November 10, 1904. AMNH, Division of Anthropology, acc. 1904–37. My Dear Friend. I received your note giving name of the nut plant yesterday. I returned a few days ago from hunting and will be ready to start writing up my Shuswap material probably in about ten days time. I hope you had a pleasant and profitable holiday in Europe. The weather here this fall is particularly fine. Father Lejeune has been in Europe since August and has two Indian chiefs with him.17 They are expected back shortly. In the last number of the Anthropologist which I received two or three days ago, I notice several interesting articles viz. The Mythology of the Koryak, Iroquois in North Western Canada, The Development of the Clan System etc. among the North Western tribes. Re. the Iroquois see p. 462. I may say there is a small band of them located on the borders of the Shuswap territory in the Rocky Mountains. This band now mostly dispersed had more or less continued association with the Shuswaps for a long number of years. The history of the band, and their influence on the surrounding tribes cannot be properly ascertained except by investigation amongst the mixed people of the Jasper House and Yellowhead district. Re. The Clan System etc. by Swanton see p. 485. He (and perhaps also Father Morice for he does not state the latter’s exact words) is laboring under a mistake re. the Shuswap occupying the Chilcotin Valley towards Bellacoola [sic]. Both 16. Comandra pallida. “Pale Comandra, Bastard-toadflax.” Also Comandra umbellate (L.) Nutt. ssp. pallida. /q’apuxw=éɬp (lit. ‘nut plant’ or ‘hazelnut plant.’) (Turner et al., Thompson Ethnobotany, 281). 17. In 1904 Chilahitza, the Okanagan chief at Douglas Lake, and Louis, the Secwepemc chief at Kamloops, traveled to Europe with Father LeJeune, the Oblate priest stationed at Kamloops, in order to petition King Edward VII of England directly in regard to their claims to their traditional territories, bypassing the governments of British Columbia and Canada. Unable to meet with Edward VII, they went to Rome and met with Pope Leo XIII (Galois, “The Indian Rights Association,” 7).

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the Chilcotins and Shuswaps claim that on the arrival of the whites in 1858 they both occupied the identical grounds they had always occupied as far back as tradition goes. Viz. The Shuswaps occupied the Lower and the Chilcotin the upper part of the valley. The Chilcotins being a small tribe and the Shuswaps a large one it [page 2] was practically impossible for the Chilcotins to drive them out of the country. In fact all tradition is against it. The Shuswaps always kept the Chilcotins back in the mountains and appropriated the great salmon stream of the Fraser to themselves. If the Chilcotins could have done it they would certainly have taken possession of such a valuable asset as the Fraser long ago. It is only since the arrival of the whites (1858) and the depopulation of the Shuswap country by smallpox leaving the West bank of the Fraser tenantless that the Whites[,] to have the Chilcotins better under their eyes etc.[,] gave them reserves in the Lower Chilcotin Valley and they have settled there. There has never been any driving out as far as known. Besides against Swanton[’]s theory of the origin of the Bellacoola is your statement that the linguistic affinities of the Bellacoola are with the Coast Salish. Chamberlain’s reviews of anthropological works are very interesting. I have a number of books printed within the last two or three years relating to the Shetland Islands which might be of interest to students of European anthropology. Would it be worth while to send them to Dr. Chamberlain to review. If you think so I will send them. They are viz, (1) ‘Shetlands stednavne’ by Dr. Jakobsen.18 (2) ‘Det Norro̎ne sprog paa Shetland’ by Dr. Jakobsen. (3) ‘The Folk-lore of Shetland’ by J. Spence.19 (4) ‘Archaeology of Shetland’ by Gilbert Goudie.20

18. Jakob Jakobsen (1864–1918) was a Danish-speaking philologist, born on the island of Faro, who arrived in Shetland in 1893 (Shetland Amenity Trust, “Jakob Jakobsen,” https://www .shetlandamenity.org/jakob-jakobsen, accessed October 29, 2021; Jakobsen, “Shetlandsøernes stednavne,” 55–258; Jakobsen, The Place Names of Shetland; Jakobsen, Det norrøne sprog på Shetland; and see Barnes, “Jakob Jakobsen and the Norn Language of Shetland,” 15). 19. Spence, Shetland Folk-Lore. 20. Gilbert Goudie (1843–1918) published The Celtic and Scandinavian Antiquities of Shetland in 1904 (see Archaeology Shetland, Resources, https://www.archaeologyshetland.org/resources, accessed October 21, 2021).

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1905

Boas to Teit. January 16, 1905. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1908–1926, box 19, file 13. My dear Mr. Teit,— I do not know whether you are looking more anxiously for a letter from me or I more anxiously for a letter from you. I have had so much to do this winter that I have neglected to write to you. I assume that you are going on with your Shuswap work, as you wrote to me in the beginning of the year. Will you do me the favor to send me a statement of your accounts with the Museum, so that I may close our accounts for 1904, and please also let me know how your work is progressing. Have you made any beginning with the linguistic work of which we spoke? I mean the recording of the texts in the Thompson language. I think you will remember that I wrote to you that I have an appropriation of $250 for this particular work. I am trying again this year to carry the point in which I failed last year: namely, to get enough money appropriated for work in the interior of British Columbia so that you may be able to concentrate yourself on this work for a few years. I think this will be by far the more satisfactory arrangement. [page 2] Farrand is not yet through with the preparation of your papers for the printer, but he tells me that he expects to finish it very soon.

Teit to Boas. January 26, 1905. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1908–1926, box 19, file 13. Dear Friend, I was very glad to get your letter a couple of days since, and was just thinking of writing you. I know you will be very busy. I am glad to hear Dr. Farrand is arranging the myths I sent, and revising the Lillooet paper. You will probably have it ready for the printer soon. I will send the accounts in a few days time. I am very busy just now working on the Shuswap paper of which I have finished nearly seven chapters. 290

To accompany these I have drawn over thirty sketches illustrating various things. The above chapters are ready to send to you, but I am keeping them for a short time yet in case I may have something to add. I expect to be through with the entire paper about the end of February, and will send with it a few pages on the Chilcotins relating what information I gained about them when working amongst the Shuswaps. I have also to write out a number of North Thompson stories which will conclude my writings on the Shuswaps. I would like to finish this before I start anything else. I collected a few short texts (Thompson) last December, but have done nothing in that line since. As soon as I finish writing on the Shuswaps I will be at your disposal to collect texts. I have now a good deal of additional information on hand regarding the Thompson. Some re the Lower Fraser, and a lot about the Okanogan which I collected last summer. I will start to write up the notes on the Thompson as soon as I can. Probably the most interesting chapter re the latter will be on their face painting etc. [page 2] of which I have about 100 sketches.

Teit to Boas. February 8, 1905. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1908–1926, box 19, file 13. Dear Friend, I am sending you to-day chapters III (House and Household), V (Subsistence) and VI (Travel, Transportation, trade) of the Shuswap paper, also sketches (1) to (35) and one photo. The sketches are not very good, but I think they will help very materially in bringing out more clearly the exact meaning of various remarks, and descriptions. I have sent you numerous notes attached to each chapter. I also send you under separate cover all the accounts balanced to the end of last year, and hope you will find them all correct. About the end of the week I will send you four more chapters of the Shuswap paper, and some of the North Thompson stories (the Coyote ones). I am working every day from six to 12 or more hours on the Shuswap paper so I hope to have it finished about the end of the month. If there is anything in the chapters I am sending you that is not clear please let me know, and I shall endeavor to explain same as far as I can.

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Teit to Boas. February 18, 1905. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1908–1926, box 19, file 13. My dear Friend,— I received yesterday your Shuswap manuscript, Chapters 3, 5, and 6, also your vouchers. I have not had time to go over them.

Boas to Winser. February 18, 1905. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, May 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. Dear Mr. Winser,— I send you herewith accounts and vouchers of Mr. James Teit up to Jan. 1, 1905.

Boas to Teit. February 24, 1905. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1908–1926, box 19, file 13. My dear Friend,— I received Chapters 2, 4, 7, and 8 and a number of sheets of tattooings belonging to your Shuswap paper. Many thanks.

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

Teit to Boas. March 6, 1905. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1908–1926, box 19, file 13. Dear Friend, I received your notes acknowledging receipt of the parts of the Shuswap paper I sent you. I have three more chapters almost ready, and will forward them this week. To-day I am sending you Chapter IX and 31 stories I collected on the North Thompson. I wish to mention to you the reported finding of a great cave near Revelstoke last fall, in which some Indian remains (it is said) were found. I enclose a clipping from the Montreal Family Herald of 22nd ult about it. I wrote to the Government agent at Revelstoke re the matter and enclose his reply. The finder is called Chas. Deutschmann of Elgin, Ill. U.S.A. Perhaps it might be worth your while to write to him and ascertain the truth about the matter.

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Boas to Teit. March 13, 1905. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1908–1926, box 19, file 13. My dear Friend:— Many thanks for your letter of the 6th of March. Your manuscript has also arrived to-day. I shall write to Mr. Deutschmann and inquire about the cave.

Boas to Teit. March 31, 1905. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1908–1926, box 19, file 13. My dear Friend,— I received to-day two packages containing Chapters X–XIII and a series of sketches and tales.

Teit to Boas. March 31, 1905. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1908–1926, box 19, file 13. Dear Friend, I am sending you to-day the last of the Shuswap paper, consisting of Chapter I, One story, map and some photos. I am now writing out what information I happened to gather concerning the Chilcotins, from the Shuswaps, and what I have learned at different times whilst sojourning amongst them on hunting trips. It will probably amount to a little over 20 pages altogether, and a few sketches of tattooing etc. As soon as I am through with it I will commence to take out all the Shuswap words, and names from my notes, and make up a list. This will take [page 2] up several days as there must be a thousand words in all.

Boas to Teit. April 10, 1905. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, May 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. My dear Friend,— I received yesterday another instalment of your manuscript, being Chapter I and notes, map, and a few photographs.

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Boas to Teit. May 13, 1905. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1908–1926, box 19, file 13. My dear Mr. Teit,— I received to-day package containing your notes on the Chilcotin Indians.1

Teit to Boas. June 10, 1905. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, May 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. Dear Friend I see by the last weeks papers Deutchmann and party have gone to make a proper exploration of the great cave or caves near Revelstoke.2 I also [saw] in a Coast paper about a month ago or more, that 40 skeletons had been discovered in a cave on Raft Cove (between Quatsino Sound, and San Joseph Bay) Vancouver Island.3 I am forwarding to-day all specimens I have collected for the Museum during the last twelve months. Some things are objects hitherto not obtained for the Museum, and therefore I considered them very necessary for the collection, others are similar to some specimens I have already sent, and I bought them because I thought the designs on them were of value, being different from any hitherto procured. I am going to make out a list (to submit to you) of all those things I can think of, which may be required to complete the collection from the Thompsons. I am still making collections of tattoo marks, face painting etc. and getting explanations of them. I would like to get a few blanks of women’s heads (say about 20) and about (15) of men’s heads. I have a number of the latter still on hand, and some full length blanks of men. I suppose 1. On the page is a handwritten note, “Photo sent to J. Teit, Spences Bridge My[?] 1908.” 2. A reference to Charles Henry Deutschmann, a resident of Revelstoke, British Columbia, who popularized caves in the Cougar Valley in the Rogers Pass, now known as the Nakimu Caves, part of an extensive limestone formation known as the Badshot Formation (“Nakimu Caves,” https://bivouac.com/FtrPg.asp?FtrId=218, accessed January 1, 2000). 3. Teit wrote to Newcombe on June 18, 1905, “I am much interested regarding what the papers say about your conclusions re the Raft Cove skull. Does it approximate more to the Interior type than to that found amongst the people in the region where it was discovered[?]” Raft Cove is located between Cape Scott and Quatsino on the central coast of British Columbia. At this time Teit was also sending a collection of artifacts to Newcombe for the Field Museum and providing Newcombe with information on Chilcotin basketry designs. Teit also inquired about the Latin names of birds used in the manufacture of three of the items he had sent, and Newcombe relayed information from the Field Museum ornithologist identifying the birds used (Newcombe to Teit, November 15, 1905).

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you have no blanks showing arms and hands only. Most tattooing was done on the back of the wrists. I have finished going over all old m.s. and notes on the Thompson and have taken all the Indian words out of them and arranged them. I have also made out very full lists of Indian names of plants, birds and fishes etc. and have got a number properly identified lately. I have also been working at arranging Thompson notes preparatory [page 2] to writing them out next winter or as soon as possible and have collected some more texts. As my funds are now all gone it may be advisable to send me the sum of money or part of it you have on hand for linguistic work. I will have over a months time yet to spare in doing this work at least until August when I am going on a hunting trip to Cassiar. If there is anything in particular you would like me to gain knowledge about regarding the Tahltan Indians of the Upper Stikine please let me know and I will try to gather the information if possible when hunting in their country this fall. I will be back here again if all goes well about the beginning of Nov. and will continue the linguistic work during the winter. I enclose shipping receipt of the specimens and also lists descriptive of the latter. Some things are from Okanagons of the Douglas Lake Region. I have sent three boards with samples of Ind. paints applied on the wood. They will give an idea of the shades or colors of certain paints used by them. I have not attempted to give them names, as beyond the common colors my vocabulary is limited in that line. I would like to get the botanical names of the plants I sent you last year if you have had them identified. You sent me the name of one only viz Comandra pallida. Construction on the Nicola Railroad has commenced and for the time S.B. [Spences Bridge] is a busy place. The road will be in running order as far as Nicola Lake by the end of this year. I see by yesterdays paper Dr. Newcombe has made an examination of one skull (found amongst those mentioned in the first part of this letter) and pronounces it to be of a quite distinct type from those of the present inhabitants of that region.

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“Acting Curator” [C. W.] to Boas. June 29, 1905. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1908–1926, box 19, files 1–18.4 My dear Professor Boas:— I shall be able to provide the $200.00 for Mr. Teit’s work. Please advise me as to whether it shall be sent direct to him or transmitted by you. Acting Curator PS Please assume the direction of Mr. Teit’s work as heretofore.

Smith to Teit. July 6, 1905. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, May 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. My dear Mr. Teit:— Your recent letter reached me the 10th, I do not know much about Mr. Farrell. I am very glad that your brother was pleased with what he saw here at the Museum. Thank you for sending me the notes regarding the old graves, which you have been exploring.5 You dated the notes 1894–5, I refer it to several of the graves as dug last year. I have been unable to find any skeletons which have been dug during that point. I find skeletons, 99/4307–4313 belong to Nos. 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10 which were received here in 1903. I suppose these are the remains of the 10 first graves, which you mentioned in the field notes, is this correct? I do not find any of the specimens which you mentioned in the field notes. Did you send them here? I thank you for your kind remembrance to my family. With best wishes to you and yours 4. Clark Wissler became acting curator of anthropology when Boas left the American Museum of Natural History. This letter both indicates Boas’s changed status within the museum and suggests that the then current funds for Teit’s work remained within the museum’s budget, with the direction of that work remaining with Boas, now working full-time at Columbia University. Regarding the changed status, Boas considered it necessary to state in writing his affirmation of his ongoing personal interest and trust in Wissler’s work (APS, Boas Papers, Boas to Wissler, August 12, 1905, text 133175). See also, soon to follow in the present chapter, Teit to Boas, August 5, 1905. For Teit’s response regarding the status change, see APS, Boas Papers: Boas to Teit, March 7, 1906, text 121310 for further explanation. 5. In July 1905 Teit sent to the American Museum of Natural History a list of graves he had explored, with notes on their contents. The list has not been reproduced here, but the reference is AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907, Teit, James, May 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7.

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Teit to Smith. July 24, 1905. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, May 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. My Dear Mr. Smith Your letter of 6th inst, came to hand some time ago. Perhaps I was not explicit in the dates. The 10 first graves were dug in 1903. Graves 11 and 12 in 1904, and grave 13 in 1905. The last 3 viz nos 11, 12, 13 were all children and the skulls and bones so fragile and broken I did not take them away. Certainly, I sent all the specimens I found in the first ten graves along with the skeletons when I shipped the latter, and they must have been received at the Museum. You will no doubt find them if you hunt again. The specimens I found in the last three graves I forwarded lately to the Museum, and ticketed them with the other stuff. They have probably arrived there by this time, or if not, will very soon. I dont clearly understand whether it is negatives or simply prints you desire of Indians and other subjects. Good [page 2] negatives would be hard to get for they are scarce, and moreover dear. One photographer I saw lately had a very good picture of a Lillooet man and woman in costume with their dog amidst their tents, and he told me he would not sell the negative for $50.00 as he made money from it selling the prints mounted at 50 cents a piece; and there was a good sale for them. Pictorial postcards of Indians in costume, cowboys etc. are now becoming common in this country and can be easily obtained. There are no amateurs I know of who have really good pictures of these subjects. I have a number of small kodak pictures I took myself of Thompson Indians in costume but they might not suit you. I enclose a couple as samples. With very kind regards to you and yours PS I am leaving here abt the 12th Aug on a hunting trip and will not be back until late in Oct. PSS. Let me hear from you. PSS. If these are suitable I can send you lots of prints or the negatives to print from.

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Teit to Boas. August 5, 1905. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, May 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. Dear Friend. I received your very welcome letter of 19th ult., and was sorry to hear you had resigned from administrative work in the Museum. The management is certainly peculiar when it gets men to look after work they know nothing about. I hope however the new arrangements may not debar you, (for the time) from the control of the very important scientific work you have on hand. I received the $200.00 all right, and herewith enclose statements of accounts up to date. I worked all the month of July arranging my notes on the Thompson, collecting texts, and doing other work on the Thompson, and to a slight extent also on the Lillooet, Shuswap and Okanagon languages. When in the field amongst the latter tribes I collected vocabularies (some of considerable size) and these I was preparing for transmission to you. I have collected quite a number of texts now (most of them myths) but have written out translations of only about 14 foolscap pages so far. I am giving two translations (a literal and a free). My eyes got sore last spring when I had nearly finished the Shuswap M.S. and since have been getting worse if anything, so the Doctor has told me to quit reading and writing as much as possible for several months. My sight is good however. I am leaving here on the 12th inst. on a hunting trip to the Stikine River, and expect to be home [page 2] again about the middle of October. If my eyes are all right I can take up work again in November, but if not it may be December or Jany before I can do very much. I enclose a list of specimens which I think are important. I made it out somewhat hurriedly but nevertheless think it contains the majority of things required for the completion of the Thomp. and Shus. collection. I had a letter from Dr. Farrand some time ago stating he would likely be going to Portland, and would stay off for a day and see me. I answered by Post Card that I would be at home until the 10th of Aug. but he has not turned up yet. I have had a number more plants identified this summer (about 50 specimens in all). I find that several were wrongly named in New York either owing to the specimens I sent arriving in poor shape or to lack of knowledge on the part of the Botanist regarding western botany. Probably partly both. I have a good deal of correspondence with experts at Ottawa regarding various plants etc. I have now a list made up of nearly 300 Indian names pertaining to plants, trees etc. I will now

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close hoping yourself and family are well, and will enjoy your summer outing for such I judge you are now on at Bolton Landing. PS I have a number of Thompson and Okanagon and a few Lower Fraser tales to write out and send you as soon as I have time.

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1906

Teit to Boas. January 21, 1906. ACLS Collection, Mss.497.b63c, item 61.1

Regarding houses and fortifications, it seems almost certain the Lillooet sometimes used fortresses made of rows of logs set on end. See Simon Fraser “Journal of a voyage from the Rocky Mts to the Pacific Coast 1808” p. 176[.] Fraser speaks of a fort he saw on the Fraser River in the Lillooet country (near Bridge River or perhaps at Cayuse Creek) saying, “The village is a fortification of 100 ft by 24 ft surrounded by a palisade 18 ft high slanting inward, and lined with a shorter row which supports a shade covered with bark constituting the dwelling. This is the metropolis of the Askettih nation” (Lillooet is meant).

Teit to Boas. January 28, 1906. ACLS Collection, Mss.497.b63c, item 61. Dear Friend, I received your letter yesterday with queries re Botanical names of plants. 1 skámᴇtc is Erythronium grandiflorum var minor 2 konếlp is veratrum Californicum (Durand) if the same plant is called konếlp by the Thompson which I think it is. The Shuswaps call a different plant—a water lily by this name. 3 tekaza is Lithospermum augustifolium (Michx)[.] 4 wáxaselp. I was not able to get this bush identified last summer but will make a special effort to do so next May or June. It is a flowering bush something like a Dogwood and the wood is pale green, smooth and hard when seasoned. [page 2] I sent you a number of sketches of Lillooet tattooing with explanations of the designs a few days ago, and I hope same will not be too late for insertion. One Lillooet belief which you may insert is “when people ate Land Locked salmon they 1. A copied fragment of the original letter.

300

never gave the leavings to their dogs but generally burned them. If a dog happened to eat these leavings he would die.2

Teit to Boas. March 3, 1906. APS, ACLS Collection, Mss.497.b63c, item 61. Dear Friend Your letter of 24th ult. to hand yesterday. I received the paper (returned) on the Tahltan, and some time previous to that Hill-Tout’s paper on the Lillooet. I was glad to receive it and commenced to read it over at once. I then wrote out some criticisms (in pencil) and now at your request write them over (in ink) and enclose them herewith. I would have done this sooner but my eyes are still not in very good shape, and I am afraid to tax them more than about two hours a day at reading or writing. I agree with you that a great many things in H-T’s paper are not Lillooet at all but belong to the Fraser Delta (or the Stalo as the Indians of that region (from the mouth of the river to Yale) are generally called.) Nevertheless it is possible most of the things may have been introduced amongst the Douglas band, altho probably even there they were only adopted by such families as had Stalo blood, in the same way as at Spuzzum. These families only who were mostly Hope and Yale in blood had adopted the totems and customs of their Stalo friends. There were only two or three such families at Spuzzum when the Whites arrived (1858). Captn Paul may have had reference to similar families at or near Douglas when he gave H.T. his information. I myself have had only a slight acquaintance with Captn Paul and he may be a number one man for all I know, but I have often heard from people that he is unreliable. This may or may not be the case. Anyway H.T. has done wrong in trying to make a study of Lillooet culture etc. at Douglas. The extreme end of a tribe where it borders on another tribe always 2. Three St’át’imc fishers and Moritz (see Moritz, “Cúz̓lhkan Sqwe̓qwel ̓ [I’m going to tell a story]”) discussed, affirmed and also corrected Teit’s observation of the Lillooet as follows: Elder Qwa7yán’ak (pers. comm. with , December 2018): “It could be spiritual: What the creator brought for you must be sacred so do not waste [and] offer what is left back to creator.” Xwisten fisheries officer Gerald Michel (Sarah Moritz, pers. comm., December 2018): “Interesting, there would have been enough Gwenís (land-locked kokanee [Oncorhynchus nerka] salmon) lying around that the dogs would not go without. It might concern stored food. More research is needed.” Qwalqwalten (Sarah Moritz, pers. comm., December 2018): “Well let us think back a few hundred years and what the weather and winter must have been like. I’m sure there wasn’t much venturing out due to snow and extreme conditions back then. Am sure dogs have eaten Gwenís whole and not suffered fatal symptoms. Because if they weren’t picked off the beach, any animal could scavenge them. Crows, eagles, coyotes, and let’s remember there was far more Gwenís back then piling up on the lake shores.”

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shows a mixture of ideas, customs etc. etc., and a man who belongs half to each tribe is not always the best to give authentic information about one tribe. A man who does not know but his own tribe well is better. For this reason H.T.’s remarks on the Lillooet are no criterion to judge even the whole lower division of that tribe by, and most of the information on the Lower Lillooets is only applicable to all or possibly only part of the small band at Douglas. I notice that what I call a tribe Hill-Tout calls a division, and what I call a band, he calls a tribe, and what I call a division he calls a group. pp 127 and 128. My information was to the effect that the Lower Lillooet always held the country and were settled right down to the mouth of the Lower Lillooet River. They had no settlements on Harrison Lake but were in the habit of hunting on both sides of it for some miles down. The Stalo had 2 or 3 small villages towards the lower end of the lake on both sides and wars at one [page 2] time were not infrequent between them and the Lillooets. Afterwards a good deal of intermarriage took place between the two tribes resulting (at the present day) in the people of Lower Lillooet River (especially those near the mouth) becoming much mixed in blood with the adjoining Stalo, and the latter (especially those of Chehalis) receiving in return a considerable infusion of Lillooet blood. One informant took pains to point out that he thought the Lillooets had been more affected in this way than the Stalo, but in later days most of the people belonging to the extreme lower bands having been killed off with small pox their places were taken by people of purer Lillooet blood from up the river and thus in the new village of Douglas etc. the present day inhabitants are probably more purely Lillooet in blood than were the people of that locality prior to the small pox (prob. 1862). The Pemberton people claim that all myths, customs, and beliefs obtaining amongst the Lower Lillooet River people different from their own have been adopted through contact and intermarriage with the adjoining Stalo. Douglas Indian village was founded by people from the mouth of Lower Lillooet River, and some from farther up shifting there in 1858 (during the Gold excitement) and later. I heard nothing about the lower part of Lillooet River having been inhabited by Halkomelem people who after 1858 were absorbed by the Lillooets. I did not make much effort to gather information at Douglas but altho in conversation a good deal with Capn Paul and some others they never mentioned it. I aimed to gather the bulk of my information from the more central parts of the country, altho I spent a little time

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in every village of any importance.3 The Pemberton people through probably long and frequent contact were more or less mixed with the Squamish and Sechelt tribes. A considerable number of Lillooets settled amongst the latter, and Lillooet is spoken there by some families at the present day. Beginning four miles south of Lillooet or of Cayuse Creek and extending along the west bank of the Fraser nearly down to Fosters Bar (about 30 miles above Lytton) are a few small villages and reserves the people of which are mixed Sʟaxáiux ͇ and Lillooet, and talk both languages about equally. These in my work on the Thompson I classed with the Sʟaxáiux ͇ but it is hard to say really which tribe to assign them to. However they do not claim to be real Lillooets like the people of Cayuse Creek, and amongst the Indians are generally called Sʟaxáiux ͇. Then the people of La Fountain according to tradition were originally Shuswap but through frequent intermarriage with Lillooets, and less and less with their Shuswap kin eventually most families became Lillooet speaking amongst themselves, altho some families there talk Shuswap a good deal and teach their children that language first. Some Pemberton Indians claim or at least think4

Teit to Boas. March 4, 1906. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121293. Hill-Tout on the Lillooet5 p.137. I heard nothing of funerary shamans, and mortuary shamans. Of course there were men who fixed the corpse for burial etc. (in all the tribes) but they were not a special body altho some men did this work more than others, and in some places certain individuals became looked upon almost as regular undertakers. They were not necessarily shamans and in fact shamans seldom acted as undertakers. Neither were these men shamans of a special nature. Of course at Douglas they may have had some special custom but unlikely[.] Women prepared females for burial and men males. The rest of the description of mortuary customs is all right. The grave was

3. This statement insightfully summarizes Teit’s approach to his Lillooet work and his itineraries through the communities. 4. End of page 2. The rest of the letter has not been found in the ACLS collection, Item 61 file. 5. These notes by Teit refer to Hill-Tout, “Report on the Ethnology of the Stlatlumh [Lillooet] of British Columbia,” 126–218. Giving credit to Teit, Boas incorporated Teit’s points into a brief essay entitled “Notes,” appended to Teit, The Lillooet Indians, 292–300.

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and is yet always ceremoniously swept out by of the undertakers with a fir branch or rose branch. This holds good of all the interior tribes. p.138. Description of mortuary taboos is all right. I never heard however that the object of the buckskin thongs was to prevent coughs, lung troubles, and rheumatism, and I am inclined to think this explanation is wrong altho Captn Paul may have given it. p. 139. Hot water baths were occasionally used by all Interior Salish made in the manner described. Where natural hot springs abounded these were used. The Lillooets especially used these baths, and also drank the water of hot springs for medicinal purposes. Birth customs all right. Object of widows cleansings to make them long-lived and also innocuous to second husbands. p.140. The Lillooets of the Lower River had salmon ceremonies and H T’s description of these may be correct. I did not manage to get much information about them when there I think his conclusions regarding the significance of these ceremonies are correct[.] p.143. Commencing with ‘As I have stated’ all pages 144 and p. 145 as far as ‘robbed him of his mystery powers’ I consider all right.6 The rest of p.145 and pp. 146 and 147 to end of chapter on totemism is I think correct enough. Some Indians of all the Interior Salish tell such stories as these. Skācínak is a woman’s name having the suffix ínêk ́ ᴇn meaning ‘bow’ common to all the tribes of Interior Salish. āzāq ́ is a mans name-āxen meaning ‘arm’. It is used in the sense of ‘good marksman’. ’npēralṓcᴇm is the same as the Thomp. Word npiấrsem meaning to revive (as after a faint etc) and also to open the eyes. I do not understand it to have any meaning like sigh or breathe. [page 2] p.147. Nomenology I do not know much about the name systems of the Stalo or Lower Fraser people, and as the Douglas Inds intermarried with them and adopted some of their customs they may also have borrowed part of the name system. The system as described by H.T. is not at all characteristic of the Lillooets as a tribe. H.T. is probably wrong in describing most of the Interior Salish names as originating from Guardian spirits. At least there is no prove [sic] they originated in that way. All Indian names are or can become hereditary whatever their origin. Names amongst all the Interior Salish are of four classes[:] 1. Common hereditary family names with suffixes–‘head’, 6. Teit originally wrote “correct” here but crossed it out in favor of “all right.”

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‘stone’, ‘water’, ‘bow’ etc. Most of these are very old and their origin obscure and unknown to Indians. 2. Nick names. 3. Snam or Manitou names. 4. Dream names. There is also a fifth class which may be called Luck names. The first named are by far the most common but I never met an Indian yet who ever claimed or even seemed to think that names of this class were snam names or derived from guardian spirits of their own or their ancestors. If they so originated the Indians don’t know it. Class 3 or Snam names are uncommon excepting amongst certain bands such as the Lower Thompson for instance where a number of animal names are in vogue. Some of these according to the Indians themselves were adopted by the originators from the common name of their personal manitou. A person was given or could take names from both his personal and maternal ancestors without any restriction. p. 148. Children were generally named after the most illustrious or the best liked of their father and mother’s ancestors or relatives (deceased) but there was also a tendency to name a child after the relative it was thought to resemble mentally or physically. Infants were also occasionally named by dreams. Nick names were much oftener applied to or taken by men but women were no exception. p.p.149 and 150. No families of the Interior Salish that have not been influenced by Coast tribes consider themselves descended from animals or mythic beings. p.151. sQḗlᴇmkᴇn is one of class 1. names of the Interior–‘ken’ meaning ‘head.’ Nᴇrḗpᴇkᴇnāĺ ct is also of same class ‘allst’ meaning ‘stone’ and -‘ken-’ ‘head’ or ‘source’[;] .rep means ‘stuck up’ or raised up or erected [page 3] p.152. Commencing with ‘they are never used’ and concluding with ‘ceremonial occasion.’ This is wrong so far as the Interior Salish are concerned. Names certainly have a significance attached to them different from that of our names to us. An Indian looks upon his name as being almost part of his own being but nevertheless names are commonly used as appellations to distinguish one person from another, and also as terms of address. Names are never reserved for special and ceremonial occasions nor to the Indian’s mind do they bear special relationship to things historic and mystic to any greater extent than historic names amongst ourselves. Certainly common terms of address amongst the Interior Salish are those expressive of age or of relationship (in reality or in courtesy) but these do not by any means exclude the use of personal names in address which latter custom is in fact very common. 1906 | 305

p.154. Snam marks or ‘personal crests’ (generally merely a rude picture or a symbol of the manitou) were much used especially by the Lillooets for marking their belongings, weapons, clothes, and even themselves in the way of painting and tattooing. Markings representing the clan totem were used in the same way particularly by the Lower Lillooets. The clan totem was also carved or painted on some part of the house, on house and grave posts and on grave boxes. p.155. Time etc. All the Interior Salish languages are rich in expressions of Time or divisions of the day etc. HT’s list is by no means complete. p.156. Sundry Beliefs etc. These are no doubt correct. The Lillooets like other Interior Salish are afraid of certain kinds of lizards claiming they will follow a person and crawl up the rectum. I never heard it said they crawled up the nostrils. This must be a mistake or perhaps Captn Paul was too polite to state the correct thing to Prof. H.T. p.157. H-T. is correct regarding the verbal termination ‘ᴇn’, and the final ‘a’ added to nouns, and pronouns in composition. This is a very noticeable feature in the Lillooet language. I know an ‘ē’ is used preceeding [sic] certain words and H-T may be correct in defining it as a plural article. The Okanagons also have an ‘ē’ preceeding certain words but I am not sure if it has this meaning. [page 4] p.157 and 158. I am not sure about the particles here described. ‘men’ or ‘min’ occurs in Thomp. verbs. ta’lī́ does not occur in Thomp. ‘ses’ occurs as a suffix to some Thomp. verb forms, but I think it has nothing to do with the prefix ‘ᴇs’ or ‘ᴇc’. The latter is simply the ‘s’ or ‘Es’ or ‘es’ of the Thomp and Okan etc. and I am doubtful if H-T has got it defined correctly. To my mind its use makes a verb a noun rather than a noun a verb. p.158. What is said about dialectical differences and the interchanges of letters is I think correct. p.160. There is an intonation and accent in the Lillooet different from any of the other Interior tribes but I cannot explain it very well. The Lillooet language sounds quite soft and has an abundance of vowel sounds. kutʟmímᴇn is the diminutive of kutʟmén. The suffix ‘min’ is common in Thomp. and all the Int. Sal. Languages ‘ten’ or ‘tᴇn’ generally means ‘thing’ whilst ‘min’ stands more in the sense of ‘tool’ or ‘implement’ [page 5] p. 161. Substantiva etc. same suffix in Thomp. Synthetic nouns. These occur also in Thomp.

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pp. 162 and 163. Per. Pronouns—Copulative, Independent, Poss. Pronouns—general and selective. Locative two classes. These seem to be all correct as far as I know. All these forms also occur in Thomp. only there is [sic] at least four classes of the Locative pp. 164 and 165. Pronouns discussed prob. correct. In Thomp. there is a Substantive possessive Pronoun general form but I am doubtful if there is a selective form, and the emphatic form is constructed in a different manner from the Lill. Incorporative pronouns occur in Thomp. and also Reflexive, Indefinite and Interrogative forms similar to the Lill. Demonstratives seem to be numerous and complex in Thomp. p. 166. Prepositions somewhat similar to the Lill. are much used in Thomp. pp. 166 and 167. Numerals seem to be correct. The Thomp. has a number of classes like the Lill. Thomp. also has ordinals and distributives. The above is as far as I have reviewed Hill-Touts paper. [A]nd is probably all you require in the meantime.

Teit’s Notes on Hill-Tout’s Lillooet. [n.d.]. APS, ACLS Collection, Mss.497.b63c, item 61.7 Teit

1x Xa’xtsa 2x Lala´xx͇e̳ n (“fishing platform”) 3x Smê’mits (“little deer”) 4x Sx͇ṓ ̳ mEliks 5x Ska´tin 6 Sêxtcín (“serrated shore”) 7x Sama’gum 8x Kwexalaten

7. Although there is no date on this document, it appears to fit with Teit’s letters to Boas in early 1906. The original first page is organized in two columns, with Teit’s version of each name opposite H-T’s version. The first three pages are not numbered. The fourth page is Teit’s page 2, the fifth is Teit’s page 3, and so forth. In many cases Teit has used a symbol somewhere between ’ and ´ , making it difficult to know if he meant a stop or an accent at this place. In most cases here the symbol ´ has been used to represent this. Teit has not provided an explanation for the superscript x that appears next to some of the numbers on pages 1 and 2. Teit made similar corrections to Nlaka’pamux language material. See APS, Boas Papers, Teit to Boas, April 11, 1907, text 121302.

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Hill-Tout

1 Lūxskä’la (“place of many berries”) 2 Hᴇtci´psum (“narrow neck”)8 3 Sᴇä´ tctᴇ 4 Mil’kuᴇx·yin (“standing strong” cf smaleku “elk skin shirt”, -kyin “foot”)9 5 Cä´i (‘shorter point’) 6 S’kutzä´s (“butting”) 7x Xāaxtca (“little lake”)10 8 ɔ̄ekwä´ Lōc 9 Lelä´xin (“fishing stage”)11 12 10 “Cx͇ō ̳ ´mluk (“falling on the nose”) 13 11x Skä´xicten (“shallow water”) 12x Skaiten (‘waterfall)14 13x Cuxtcin (‘narrow strait)15 14x Sämä’kwäm 15 ´ngeluk (“head of river”)16 16 E’nmEtcūc 17 Togpägoʟ (“place of many store houses”)17 18 Zāx’uks (“long point or nose”)18 19 Xaiʟō´laux19 20 Encíq (“split”)20 1 Nk·împc (?) [page 2] ́ 2x Xazîlkwa (“eddy”) 3x Lágēnu´te

́ 21x Zäzī́lkwa (‘eddying water’) correct 22 Lilūetṓl (‘real Lilūet)21

8. Teit comment: “may have some connection with ‘neck.’” 9. Teit comment: “has some connection with foot.” 10. Teit comment: “probably connected with the name for Great Harrison Lake.” 11. Teit comment: “correct.” 12. Teit comment: “may mean pointed—point of nose.” 13. Teit comment beside no. 11: “place or thing.” At top of page: “‘ten—ten—ten is a substantial meaning thin or place as in Thompson.” 14. Teit comment: “probably means ‘place of getting above’ or ‘thing placed’ referring to the Barriere of rock across river here making a fall.” 15. Teit comment: “‘wrong’ cf cu’xatc ‘beach[?]’” 16. Teit comment: “probably means ‘opening up’ or ‘widening.’” 17. Teit comment: “prob. correct.” 18. Teit comment: “correct.” 19. Teit comment: ‘no doubt wrong’. 20. Teit comment: “prob serrated or cut into.” 21. Teit’s marginal note here says: “Wrong. There is a pace called Liluet near here however where there used to be an old village.”

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4x Sla’lek

5 Sûlpa’uɬtiw

1x Nɬua´tkwa

2x Nka’iot (‘top of height’)25

3 Sla-u’s

4 Tcaläɬ (“lake”)28

5X Esê´ltEn (“goats”)30

6 Skemga’in (“top” or “sown”)

23 Xulpau’Ltew (‘portage’)22 24 Nugä´tkwo23

25 N’kāi´tEm (“head or source of creek”)24 26 S’leō´c (“head of the lake”)26 27 Tralä’L (“lake)27

28 Hōsu´lkEn (“which has no mountain”29

29 Skumkä´iw (“head of the river”)31

Of the villages of the Fraser band Mr. Hill-Tout [illeg] Nxo’ist ᴇ n, which he translates “smiling” because the people were glad of on account of the [illeg] caught there.32 Regarding these villages, what I gave you according to my notes are those inhabited at the present day, and all of them I myself saw, so there is no doubt of [their] being there. Their names I obtained from Chief James of Pemberton an old and very intelligent man whom I consider as being the best authority on this tribe that I heard of. I never saw nor heard of any other villages at the time I was there than those I mention, and the above chief should certainly know if there was any such as he has lived all his life in the country, and moreover up to the time I last saw him had been in the [page 3] habit of going at least once annually down the Lillooet River to the Salmon fishing at the mouth of the Fraser and back again. I myself passed four times over the country between Douglas and Pemberton. Twice with horses over the whole extent of the trail and road, once on foot all the way, and once by canoe from Pemberton down to about a mile below 22. Teit’s marginal note: “possible.” 23. Teit: “prob ‘other water.’” 24. Teit: “Place of reaching top.” 25. Nqayt: Foot of Anderson Lake, east end of Anderson lake. 26. Teit: “think wrong” Now known as Lh7us, Head of Lake, Seton Portage west end seton lake. 27. Teit: correct. ̓ 28. Tsalálh: Lake? 29. lhq̓úlm̓ ecw: flat, wide land, spacious grassy areas of land with no or less trees, mountains. 30. Teit: “think wrong” sxwitá̓ z̓ = goat; xwitá̓ z̓ (sqwem): Goat Mountain South side of Anderson lake. 31. Teit: “probably correct.” 32. Coeditors’ note: Nxwísten or Xwísten now translates from St’át’imcets as “smiling place” and may derive from Nxúsesten, place of foaming water. St’át’imc Elder, fluent speakers, and language teacher Qwa7yán’ak (Carl Alexander): from Xwísten, started out as xusesten, the swift water at the falls where we fish.

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the lower end of Little Lillooet Lake and from there on foot to Douglas. I had ample opportunity of verifying the chief[’]s statements through other Indians whom I lived with, traveled with or met at various points. According to my notes Nos 2, 3 and 4 of the Lower Lillooet villages are very small—only a house or two at each place. Nos 1, 5, 7 and 8 I have marked as having churches. No. 2 I have marked as a very old village of considerable importance before 1858 but now almost abandoned. It was from this place mainly the people came from who now live at Douglas. According to my information there was no permanent settlement of Indians at Little Harrison Lake (where Douglas now is) prior to 1858. In that year owing to the creation of a white town at that place the Indians commenced to leave No 2[,] their main village and other smaller places near the mouth of the Lillooet River and commenced to locate at Douglas. Regarding the Pemberton villages I have No 2 marked as ‘three houses’[,] No 3 as consisting of ‘two houses,’ and No 4 as having a church. Of the Lake villages I have Nos 1, 2 and 4 marked as having churches [,] No 5 as consisting of one or two houses and No 6 as of two or three houses. Of the Fraser River villages I have Cayuse Creek, Lillooet, Bridge River and La Fontaine marked as having churches. Now regarding Hill-Tout’s list I think it is simply an attempt on his part to make up a full list of old villages, and therefore many of his names [4th page: Teit’s page 2] stand for old village sites and not for present day villages. I attempted this myself when there, but found—1st There was such a large number of these old villages (some of them according to tradition only)[;] 2nd Many of them or most of them had consisted of one house only[;] 3rd Some of them had been within half a mile or so of each other in some cases, as villages which we may name for instance A and B. Being very close together, sometimes both had been called by the name of B and sometimes again by the name of A, and again sometimes even both were called by a third name say C. which may have been the name of a more important place close to where A and B were situated. Altogether I found so much confusion and contradiction amongst the Indians regarding many of these old villages that I gave the matter up, and contented myself with making up a list of the present day villages only. Most of the latter are also on sites of old villages but perhaps not all of them. Regarding Hill-Tout’s first six villages they must have been on Great Harrison Lake and consequently may have been originally Coast Salish. I know nothing about them as according to all the information I obtained from the Lillooets the latter never claimed the country down there although sometimes they fished and hunted around the head of Harrison Lake and no doubt a few miles 310 | 1906

down all of which they claimed as hunting grounds. According to their traditions (as far as I heard or learned) they have always occupied the Lillooet River country down to at least their lowest village which was about four miles above the mouth. I heard nothing of the Coast Salish having formerly occupied the country up to Hill-Touts No. 10 which is ˑ́sx̳ómᴇleks ten miles by road above Douglas, and they all stated that xáxtsa was until 1858 an uninhabited place and not even the site of an old village. Regarding the meaning of the village names I only gave you such as I feel sure of. I might have translated some more with probable meanings. Some of the translations that Hill-Tout [page 5; Teit’s page 3] gives of his villages are correct I think, some are very doubtful, and others I think are wrong. I herewith give you some of the principal place names of the Lillooet country as given to me by Chief James and other Indians and these may throw some light on Hill-Tout’s names. s.átsta

Harrison Lake

xáxtsa

Little Harrison Lake (or Douglas)

Sếstsx͇em Nmesús

Lillooet Lake

Little Lillooet Lake

33

tsekálenaɬ

White Lake

Smáxen

Anderson Lake

Nléxᴇlêx

Anderson and Seaton Lakes together

Nzaút

Seaton Lake

Nuxkwexāt́ kwa34 Nukwexátkua

35

Sukatsáz

Nkalátkoᴇm Yoxalá

Wûkoks

Nsetʟátkwa

36

Líluet

37

Blackwater Lake and River Ditto

Mouth of Lower Lillooet River. Prob. an old village site. Lower Lillooet River

Pole or Mosquito River

Anderson Creek or White Creek Fraser River

Name of a place near the bridge and opposite Pemberton Rancherie where formerly there was a village–(a long time ago).

33. Teit’s marginal note: narrow or cramped. 34. Bracketed with term below to mean Blackwater Lake and River. 35. Teit’s marginal note: probably means ‘Black water’. ̓ 36. Sátatqwa7: Big drainage. 37. Teit comment: seems to mean ‘wild onions’.

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[page 6] (Teit’s page 4) Cék̠ats38

High mountain with a split cliff or peak at foot of Lillooet Lake. West side.

skwáxᴇt39

Stone and place name near White Lake marking boundary between Lower and Upper Lillooets

I think H-T’s translation of Nxóistᴇn is exceedingly fanciful and to say the least very improbable-in fact wrong. The Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs, Ottawa, 1903, gives the following population of the Lillooet tribe. Douglas, Skookum Chuck, Samahquam and Pemberton Meadows bands40

506

509

67

66

53

52

72

72

(a decrease of 3 from the previous year) Anderson Lake band41 (at head of Anderson Lake) (an increase of one from previous year) Seton Lake or Nacaet band no. 642 (Foot of Anderson Lake) (an increase of one over previous year) Seton Lake or Mission band no. 143 (west side of Seton Lake) (same number as previous year) Seton Lake or Enias band no. 244 (six miles from outlet of lake)

1 man ______ 699

[page 7]: Teit’s page 5 38. Teit comment: ‘means split’. 39. Teit comment: ‘foot’ or ‘little foot’. 40. Teit’s marginal note: Liluetól and Lower Lillooet. Most of them are Liluetól. 41. Teit’s marginal note: Nkuatkwa. 42. Teit’s marginal note: Nkait. 43. Teit’s marginal note: Tcaléɬ. 44. Teit’s marginal notes: Srok[?] and x͇ᴇsêltᴇn.

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bro. over Seton Lake or Slosh band no. 545

699 35

34

34

34

15

15

62

68

(head of lake) (increase since previous year one) Cayoosh Creek band no. 146 (mouth of Cayoosh Creek) (pop. same as previous year) Cayoosh Creek band no. 247 (four miles from latter) (same as year before) Lillooet No. 1 band48 (at Lillooet etc.) (a decrease of 6 from previous year) Lillooet no. 2 band49

7

(on west bank Fraser 12 miles below Lillooet) Bridge River band50

109

108

200

201

(an increase of one) Fountain band51 Total

1167

[page 8] Teit’s page 6 Lillooet River and Pemberton

506

Prob the latter are over two thirds of the number Lake Lillooet

228

Fraser River [ditto]

205

45. Teit’s marginal note: Sla ús. 46. Teit marginal note: skulᴇwás or skúlᴇwas. 47. Teit marginal note: mixed with Thompson. 48. Teit marginal note: setʟ. 49. Teit marginal note: mixed with Thompson prob more latter than Lillooet. 50. Teit marginal note: nxóísten and skákᴇtl. 51. Teit marginal note: xáxálᴇp.

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Fountain (mixed with Shuswaps)

200

Below Cayuse Creek on Fraser (mixed with Thompson and reckoned by many of the latter as belonging to the Sʟaxáiux = 22 _____ = 427 = upper Lillooets 655 = lower Lilloets _______ 506

1161

JA Teit (a decrease of one) End of document

Boas to Teit. March 7, 1906. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121310. My Dear Friend:— I told you last year what was happening in this Museum, and that my work here, owing to interference on the part of the Director, is practically ended, except perhaps so far as the winding-up of old work is concerned. I want very much to see your work continued and completed, but I presume it will take me some little time to put it on a different and more satisfactory basis. I anticipate, that, beginning July of this year, I shall have three hundred dollars at my disposal for use of linguistic work among the Thompson Indians tribe. I shall not know definitely until late in the spring, but there is every prospect of getting this money from the United States Government. In case I get it, would you be willing to undertake writing down texts of traditions for me, with such grammatical explanations as I may ask you from time to time? I am negotiating with several institutions in regard to the continuation of this work, and I hope that ultimately I shall be able to arrange something satisfactory.

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Teit to Boas. March 13, 1906. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121294. Dear Friend. I received your letter yesterday and I may say I will be very glad indeed to under-take the writing of Thompson texts as you suggest. My eyes are gradually improving so that after a time I will be able to write for a longer time each day. As you know I collected a number of texts last year, but I have written out only a few of the translations as yet. The Museum accounts at the end of the year stood exactly the same as last summer when I rendered them. Now however I have a few specimens on hand Lower Fraser, Shuswap and Thompson which I will forward to the Museum along with a statement of accounts in May. I have rewritten the notes on the Tahltan and send them to Dr. Laufer today.52 I return herewith the list of Tahltan specimens as you may require it. I forget whether I mentioned to you the derivation of the word Líluet. It may be well [page 2] to give same in my Lillooet paper. It occurs in many places in the Lillooet, Shuswap and Thompson countries, and is recognized by the Indians in all cases to mean ‘Onions’ as for instance Peɬkolếlua a mountain so named from the number of wild onions growing on it. LếluestEn, a valley so named for like reasons—literally ‘a place of onions’.53 Some Pemberton Indians ascribed the meaning to their place name Líluet from which the Lillooet tribe takes its name. This place I should think must have been at one time the head quarters of the tribe from whence they spread out over the adjoining country. When you come to revise my Shuswap paper preparatory to printing I have a few notes I wish to add. Hoping this will find you well.

52. A reference to Teit’s contribution to the Festschrift presented to Boas on the twentyfifth anniversary of the awarding of his PhD (Teit, “Notes on the Tahltan Indians of British Columbia,” 337–49). Berthold Laufer (1874–1934) conducted research on Sakhalin Island and the Amur region in 1898 and 1899 as part of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. In 1906 he was an assistant in ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History (Latourette, Biographical Memoir of Berthold Laufer, 1874–1934, 44). 53. Today St’át’imc Elders may describe the area as follows: “Cw7it i qwelawa7úla wa7 ri7p ̓ kenkw7ú lilwat7úla” (Lots of wild onions grow around Mount Currie) (unpublished fieldnotes of Sarah Moritz, June 2016).

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Teit to Boas. May 3, 1906. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121295. Dear Friend. I have a few specimens on hand which I will forward to the Museum in June. They are from the mouth of Fraser River. A duck net, a duck spear, disc game, a slate knife, and a cedar bark cloak which was exhibited at the Dominion Fair last fall. From the Shuswap an arrow, and a beaver spear. From the Thompson a Bark head band for dances, pair of woven rabbit skin leggings, and some woven baskets showing designs you have not got such as the Tsenếk̠a, swallow, a peculiar flying bird design and a peculiar arrow design etc. I have on hand a couple of woven rabbit skin blankets but do not want to send either of them to the Museum if they are the same you have got, but if they are different I suppose you ought to have them. You will be able to tell by examination of the specimen you have on hand. One I have is rather loosely but well woven and both warp and woof of twisted rabbit skin. The other one has warp of twisted rabbit skin and woof of twisted goats wool and I think the margin is in a different kind of weaving. I suppose my Lillooet m.s. is in the press now. When will it likely be out. When will you prepare my Shuswap paper[?] I have a few notes to add to it. I suppose you know a RR line is under construction from here to Nicola Lake and trains are now running up as far as Petit Creek (where we had lunch do you remember and my horse bucked his saddle to pieces). When they were grading about 14 miles from here (a little this side of the Potatoe Garden [sic] village where you took a lot of measurements) a gang of workmen [page 2] came on a very large stone mortar partly imbedded [sic] in the earth close to the sites of some old kekule houses. It seems they broke it in several pieces before they noticed it was different from any other stone, and then seeing it was broken they threw the fragments aside amongst other stones and in the course of their work these got buried up with earth on the side of the track to a great depth. One large fragment however got laid aside and an Indian woman coming along saw it and took it to her house. I was up there the day before yesterday and saw it and also two small stone mortars her husband found lately. I promised to buy them if she took them down to my house. I suppose however she will ask rather high for them. The peculiarity of the very large mortar is not only the shape but the great size of the cavity. The hole has been worked very smoothly and leaves nothing of the stone but a shell, whereas the common mortar of this region shows a great deal of stone and very little hole. In fact some of them are little more than 316 | 1906

depressions in a thick boulder. One of the very long stone pestles (about two feet or more in length) was also found near this village by a grading gang but the foreman carried it away, and I cannot trace where it is now. Hoping this will find you and your family well

Boas to Teit. June 13, 1906. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121311. My dear Friend,— I am sending to you under separate cover the copies of your manuscripts, which perhaps you may like to have. I am going to leave New York within a few days. My address during the summer will be Bolton Landing, Warren County NY.

Teit to Boas. July 30, 1906. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121296. My Dear Friend, I received all the old m.s. you sent me, and also very lately a printed copy of ‘The Lillooet Indians’ which looks very good, and I thank you for the excellent work you have done in putting it in shape. I have read it all over and find it all correct excepting the following three slight mistakes. 1st The map which gives the Lillooet the whole region of Pavillion [sic] Creek and considerably north of there but this may come from a wrong naming of the creeks figured on the map. On page one ‘Habitat’ I say—northwards to below Pavillion Creek which is correct. My study of the Shuswap made certain that Pavillion is claimed by them but at the present day the people there are very much mixed with Lillooet altho Shuswap is the predominant language. 2nd p. 292. 1903 ought to read 1899. 3rd p. 295. 14th line from top ‘unknown’ ought to be ‘rare’ or some similar word. A very few names exist among the upper people which have been adapted from animal guardian spirits of ancestors. On page 298. It would have been clearer if I had said ‘meaning “to open one’s eyes,” “to revive” for instance after a fainting spell. I see in the plan of publication ‘The Shuswap’ is intended to appear next after Smith’s ‘Archaeology of Puget Sound’[,] but I suppose the title of No VIII is wrong so far at least as the word ‘Lower’ goes. What do you expect to do with the large number of Shuswap, Lillooet, and Thompson myths I sent in. I am making ready for another hunting trip up to the Cassiar Country where I am conducting a Mr Sargent from 1906 | 317

Chicago after Bighorn sheep, moose and caribou and am also arranging a trip for a Mr von Hagen from Austria.54 I will not be home again until early in November (I expect) I will be leaving here for Vancouver [page 2] about the 13th Aug. The weather has been very hot here all month—the max. many days running from 100 to 108 in the shade. The Nicola railway is almost finished up to Nicola Lake now and I expect in another month or six weeks they will commence to run a regular service[.]55 I enclose a circular which may interest you slightly. I hope yourself and family are having a very pleasant outing in the country. [page 3] Remarks on Map JULY 30, 1906

B. territory now occupied by the Risky Creek band of Chilcotin (otherwise known as the Toozies) with the exception of a small Shuswap reserve belonging to the Kaɬáɬ́ st family. The Fraser River Div.56 still use the country to some extent and claim it as part of their territory. D. II. territory57 used by the Iroquois band but now almost deserted the Iroquois having shifted their head quarters farther east and become merged with the mixed Shuswap-Cree band.58 D. III. Mixed Shuswap, Cree and Iroquois. 54. This is the first mention in this correspondence of Homer Sargent, who later provided funds for Teit’s research. Wickwire (At the Bridge, 133) notes that Teit had guided Sargent on a hunting trip in the Chilcotin in the fall of 1904. 55. In the 1890s a charter was drawn for the construction of the Nicola, Kamloops and Similkameen Railway through the Nicola Valley. Teit preserved a speech made by Nkamcinᴇlx in a handwritten record in Nlaka’pamuxcin with an interlinear English translation, followed by a free translation. In the speech Nkamcinᴇlx, who asked that the speech be transmitted with the officials in charge, lamented that the railway was to be built, saying “[the train] is treading on us,” but offered support for the project in exchange for security for the Nlaka’pamux in their occupation of the Nicola Valley. Teit translated, “This land is the same as my father. Since I first awoke here I have found all that the chief (god) put here for me. I was not to be held back on anything. Since the whites came here it has been the same as if God helped them, and they got fat, and grew powerful in all things.” With oratorical flourishes characteristic of Nlaka’pamux formal speeches, Nkamcinᴇlx asked for “a paper (some kind of agreement) full of life (not a dead letter) making me secure to remain here in the country or title (or on the lands) all the country to be the same as my road (viz. free access for travelling over).” (APS, ACLS Collection: Item 61, S.1b.13, BCA microfilm A-248). The construction of the railway was delayed but it was eventually begun in 1905. By the late 1900s the railway had fallen into disuse, and the tracks were removed in 1991 (Giles, “Roads and Trails: Nicola Subdivision”). There is no record suggesting that the exchange suggested by Nkamcinᴇlx was ever discussed. 56. The word “Shuswap” is crossed out in favor of “Fraser River Div.” 57. The word “former,” which Teit originally placed before “territory” is crossed out. 58. The word “practically” has been crossed out and replaced by “almost.”

318 | 1906

. Present main villages of bands + Former village or main head quarters of bands

Territory recently occupied by the Chilcotin.

Territory occupied by the Sekanai for a time (C)• The present village of the Canim Lake band is wrongly mark [sic]. It ought to be at [page 2] the Western end of Canim Lake. As under

and the old main village as above viz a little west of the center of lake on South side I think it might be as well to mark in the Stony tribe.

Smith to Department of Indian Affairs, Washington DC. August 1, 1906. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, May 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. Gentlemen:— Will you kindly send to Mr. James Teit, Spences Bridge BC Canada, a list of the Indian Reserves in Washington, Idaho and Montana, giving the locations of each and the tribe or tribes on each. I suppose you have this printed form, possibly in a report, and if you can send him a map which I also suppose you have in some report, showing the locations of the reserves, it would be of use to him in carrying on work for us.

1906 | 319

C. F. Larrabee, Acting Commissioner to Smith. August 8, 1906. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, May 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. Sir: This Office is in receipt of your request of August 1, 1906, that a list of the Indian Reservations in Washington, Idaho, and Montana, giving the location of each and the tribe or tribes located thereon, be sent to Mr. James Teit, Spences Bridge BC, Canada, who is engaged in carrying on work on behalf of the American Museum of Natural History. You are informed that by letter of even date I have forwarded to Mr. Teit a copy of the annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the year 1905, which report contains all the information that you request be forwarded to Mr. Teit, and in addition a map of all the Indian reservations in the United States. If any further information is desired the Office will be pleased to assist you as far as it can.

Teit to Smith. August 9, 1906. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1908–1926, box 19, file 13. Dear Mr. Smith I thought I would drop you a line before I left on my hunting trip. I had an answer from the NPR people saying they did not have any more maps on hand at present. I would like you to do me a favor sometime before Christmas if possible viz. to send me copies of all the designs on Shuswap, Thompson, Lillooet, and Chilcotin baskets in the Museum which are not figured in Farrands book on Basket Designs of the Salish or in my recent book on the Lillooet. It will be too expensive to take photos so if you simply draw out an outline of each design on paper stating the kind of basket and name of the tribe that will do. Something in the same manner as the designs are figured in my Lillooet book.59

Teit to Boas. November 6, 1906. APS, ACLS Collection, Mss.497.b63c, item 61. Dear Friend I have just arrived back from my hunting trip in Cassiar having had very fair success. I have now to take an Englishman out from here for a 59. It is not clear whether this is the complete text of this letter or a fragment.

320 | 1906

short hunt, but expect to be through about the 22nd to the 25th Nov. I will now be in shape for you to give me definite instructions regarding the gathering of Thompson Texts etc. which I shall be glad to undertake commencing at the first of next month. I will also start to arrange and write out what additional information I have on the Thompson—but perhaps you would like me to work on the language first. I have a few additional notes on the Shuswap which might be well to include in my account of that tribe, and which I can send to you any time you are ready for them. They will not occupy much more than one page. I was up near the Teslin Lake region in Northern BC this fall, and find the inhabitants of that neighborhood are Tlingit and not Athapascan. The Teslin Lake band number nearly 100 souls, and subsist chiefly by trapping. They range over and claim the country for a long ways back reaching to some of the head waters of the Liard. They are encircled on all sides by the Athapascan bands except to the west. The nearest Athapascans to the NE are those of Pelly River. The Tahltans claim the southern country to a little N. of the Nahlin or nearly to the head of Teslin Lake. The Teslin Lake Tlingits intermarry with three bands of surrounding Athapascans but they talk nothing but Tlingit amongst [page 2] themselves. They have also the traditions, clan system, and mother right of the Tlingit. For trading purposes some of them visit Atlin annually. Before the location of a white town at Atlin they generally went to Juneau and occasionally to Telegraph Creek. It is not generally known that these Teslin Indians are Tlingit. While on the trip I collected a little more information regarding the customs and beliefs of the Tahltans.

Wissler to Teit. November 7, 1906. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, May 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. My dear Mr. Teit:— I enclose a little model made of yarn, which represents a fragment of matting that I found in Yakima country.60 The white and blue strands represent, what seems to me to be round rushes. The red strands represent twisted cord, perhaps of cedar bark or some such material. I am trying to have a botanist identify the material. The cords pierce 60. See also AMNH, Anthropology Collection, Papers of James Teit, t458.f6, and AMNH, Anthropology Collection, 1894–1907. For Teit/Smith, Teit/Wissler, see transcribed AMNH, Anthropology Collection, 1908–1926, box 19, files 1–18.

1906 | 321

the rushes. The rushes are arranged in pairs which are twisted. The cords pierce every time the rushes come opposite the other. The rushes have been pushed so close together that they do not appear to be in pairs. Similar matting made of straight rushes and pierced by cords, I have seen on Puget Sound and among your collections, but this Yakima specimen, I have never described in any collection or seen illustrated. Can you give me any information about this style of weaving? I have looked through your collection rather poorly, but it may be that you have seen a specimen of it. If not, possibly you know or may find out that some of the Indians of British Columbia or Washington made it. I am very [page 2] much interested in the matter and trust that you will be also. My Puget Sound paper is finally printed.

Boas to Teit. December 19, 1906. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121336. My dear Friend,— I suppose you are now back from your hunting-trip, and probably at work on your Thompson River material. It took me a little time to find out exactly how the financial status of your work is. The Bureau of Ethnology has $300 between now and the first of July which can be spent on linguistic work on the Thompson River tribe, and I would suggest that you begin your work by writing down traditions. If I can get the time, I will send you a number of grammatical questions which I believe you will be able to answer. I think it would be well to accompany your traditions by a vocabulary of the rarer words that occur in them, because this will make their ultimate use much easier. I trust you are well. A short time ago Mr. Sargent, who has been hunting with you, called at the Museum, but I did not happen to see him because I was out of town. Mrs. Smith told me about him, and we were all very glad to hear about you from some one who had seen you so recently.61

61. Boas wrote to Sargent on December 19, 1906 (APS, Boas Papers, text 107028), expressing pleasure at Sargent’s interest in Teit’s work, and indicating that a donation of $1,000 per year for five years would be helpful in financing it. Sargent replied on December 31, saying that he was not in a position to make such a large donation, but requesting an appointment with Boas early in January to discuss the matter. On March 16, 1907, Boas wrote to Sargent, “I do not need to tell you how much I appreciate your willingness to support the valuable scientific investigations carried on by Mr. Teit” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107061).

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1907

Teit to Boas. January 1, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121297. My Dear Friend. I received your letter of 19th ult. and am glad to learn you can obtain $300.00 for linguistic work on the Thompson. I will begin the work in about a week, and will commence by writing down traditions. I will also proceed with a vocabulary, and will jot down phrases and words as they occur to me or as they turn up in the texts. I will do my best to answer the grammatical questions you will send. You will please put them as simply and clearly as you can as I am not very strong [page 2] in my knowledge of grammar, (particularly of some grammatical terms, and their meanings) [.]1 However I hope to be able to give you a good deal of information nevertheless.2 I have vocabularies (extending to many hundred words) of the Lillooet, Shuswap and Okanagon which I collected when on trips amongst these tribes.3 I should think they will be of value for comparison with the Thompson and if you are of the same opinion I can write them out and forward them to you. I have also on hand some lists of Thompson place names, and personal names, and a small list of Shuswap place and personal names. As you know I have also a large number of notes on the people of Similkameen and Okanagon Lake and some myths from them. I have also a little material from the Lower Fraser and some specimens. I have done a little work on the Thompson material, a few days (in all) writing and arranging just before Christmas.

1. The words ‘of some’ are inserted in Teit’s handwriting. 2. This signals a new emphasis on language on Boas’s part insofar as Teit’s work was concerned. As is hinted in his letter to Teit on January 31, 1907, and more clearly indicated in his letter of February 27, 1907, this may also reflect the formal beginning of Boas’s own work on Interior Salish languages. 3. Note that there is no mention of Coeur d’Alene.

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Teit to Boas. January 18, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121298. Dear Friend I am sending you under separate cover the myth of Nkékaumstêm with literal and free translations and notes on some of the words.4 Before I write out any more I would like you to look over this one as you may have some suggestions to make as to my methods of translation, and notes, and also the orthography. I have written the words as closely as possible to the pronounciation [sic] of the speaker, and you will see that occasionally the word in the same sense is sometimes spelled differently. This is owing to the speaker varying his pronounciation of the word or to my fancying that he did. Any way wherever I thought this was done I have followed these variations in case they might have some bearing on the meaning unknown to me. I had a good deal of trouble getting this man to speak slowly viz out of his natural manner, and had I not been well acquainted with the language I would have made a poor job of transcribing. Some of the sounds in Thomp. are very indistinct, and in certain words the same speaker will vary his pronounciation of the same words so it falls between two distinct sounds, or sometimes inclines to one and sometimes to the other. Thus in some words ʟ does not vary except in degree of harshness, and in others tl does not vary except being sounded a little harder or a little softer, but in other words again the tl may range from extreme softness to a harsh ʟ or varies all the way between the two according to different individuals or even the same person at different times. The same may be said of [page 2] other letters notably k, ky, and k̠. There is also a k which is almost a g if not quite a sometimes.5 The same may be said of s, and c a very common sound being neither distinctly one or the other but about half way between. Then there is variation in individuals. Some people speak softly habitually, k̠ and ʟ̠ are rare sounds in their mouths, and even when 4. This summarizes Teit’s method regarding translation and interpretation of materials. 5. In the original letter the figure is slanted and half above and half below the line. This figure does not appear in Teit’s letters to Boas explaining his choice of symbols and diacritical marks. Steven Egesdal, a linguist with extensive expertise in Salishan languages, who was consulted about this figure, wrote, “The description before the written symbol (“The same may be said of other letters notably k, ky, and ḵ. There is also a k which is almost a g if not quite a . . .”) may suggest a voiced velar fricative, gamma: ɣ. For example, the g in the Spanish word agua, ‘water,’ is ɣ. Many write gamma with a loop ɣ (I do). Teit refers to other velars. Think of the N[laka’pamux] word for ‘tree’ sɣep. That ɣ can sound roughly like a k or a g” (Steven M. Egesdal, email to Andrea Laforet, September 16, 2019).

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used are comparatively soft. Whilst other people are the reverse. On the whole women speak more softly than men. I am just mentioning those things by way of explanation. Wherever I have inserted a dot ․ before or between letters there appears to be a slight pause or breathing as if a letter was wanted or vowel missing. Wherever the dot is underneath a letter the latter is indistinct, and I have inserted what I thought was the letter or sound. As in Shuswap sometimes the whole first syllable of a word is pronounced low or so indistinct that it is sometimes hard to know what letters to write it by, and in such words the following syllable is usually sounded very forcibly, perhaps it might be better to put the last in larger letters and the former in small letters. In some words generally following a k̠ there is a u breathing which I have written thus as k̠u (with a very small u). ɬ of course stands for what some call the Polish and others the Welsh l. You know this sound. A dash below a t or other consonant thus t ̠ means it is pronounced very sharp or rather explosive. In vowel sounds I often find it difficult to distinguish between ê and a, ua and wa etc. ‘wh’ and xw ͇ run into each other and I write them all xw. ͇ I will now close. Hoping to hear from you soon PS If you have any questions to ask send them at any time

Boas to Teit. January 31, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121270. My dear Friend,— I had the pleasure of seeing the other day Mr. Sargent, with whom you have been out hunting, and whom I find a very pleasant man and very much interested in your work. I wish you would kindly let me know what you are doing and how you are getting on. When you get any of your linguistic material written, I wish you would send it to me, so that I may formulate my questions and send them back to you; and I am sure we shall get on with this work quite satisfactorily. The only trouble is, that I have so little material on the interior Salish languages, that, without some connected texts, I can hardly formulate any questions.6 I may be able, in the course of the summer, to get some money for further researches, and I want to ask you whether you might be inclined to continue your studies, particularly relating to the customs of the 6. A direct reference to Boas’s meticulousness in regard to the new emphasis on linguistic work.

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people and their mythologies eastward. We know so little about the true Flatheads, that I am very anxious to get information from them, and my inclination would be to ask you to con- [page 2] tinue your work in that direction. Kindly let me hear from you what you think about this plan. [Added under signature] Your story came just at this moment, when I am about to send this note.

Boas to Teit. February 14, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121271. My dear Friend,— I have not been able to give very much time to your text; but I have written out a number of questions, which you will find on pp. 1 and 2.7 I wish you would accompany your texts with a vocabulary in which you give the various words, as you have done in some cases, in their simplest forms. On account of the great irregularity in forming distributive plurals and diminutives, you ought to give for each substantive the singular form, its plural, and its diminutive. In transitive verbs you ought to give the verb in the form “I (kill) him” (or whatever the verb may be), and then also in the form of “kill” without object. This I think would clear up a good many of the points. You will notice a number of questions which I have marked on the sheets. For instance, I have for “friend” the word snu´kwa; you write the same without the w.8 For the ending “-house” I have -elx, you have -elx.[.] I should like to call your attention to the important question on p. 2 regarding the sentence “He is always angry.” I wish you could answer that question fully. On p. 3 I have given a number of prefixes and suffixes that occur in [page 2] Calispelm. I wish you would kindly give me examples of equivalents in Thompson, if they occur; and the more examples you can give, the better. If these forms do not occur, kindly take a note of it.

7. Boas’s list of questions is not preserved with the letter of February 14, 1907. ̓ 8. Thompson River Salish Dictionary, 861: s/núk’weʔ “friend.” Snúkwa7 translates as “friend,” ̓ imcets. ̓ “first cousin,” or “close relative” in Upper/Northern Stát

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Boas to Teit. February 27, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121272. My dear Friend,— I send you enclosed a couple of sheets containing some more questions relating to Calispelm grammar. I should be very glad if you could give me examples of the equivalents in Thompson wherever they occur.

Teit to Smith. March 3, 1907. AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1894–1907: Teit, James, May 2, 1900–May 18, 1907, box 16, file 7. Dear Mr. Smith Your letter of 15th ult. to hand, and I thank you for your kind offer, and also for the list of baskets. I do not have funds for further ethnological and archaeological work but do not require them badly just now as I am engaged in linguistic work for Dr Boas, and this work will take up all my spare time until I am ready to go hunting again.9 I have a number of specimens on hand and continue to pick up a few others but have had no direction from Dr Boas yet as to where he wishes them sent. However I will remember your offer. Who is in Dr Boas’ place in the Museum[?] Yes I have a copy of Dr. Mason’s book on basketry. Some of my baskets are figured there, and of course there is no [page 2] need to send photos of any of those figured by Mason and Farrand and in my two papers on the Thompson and Lillooet. I am glad to hear you received the sketches of pipes and hope they may be of value if even a little. You will also find a good many pipes in the Museum from this region which I have sent from time to time.

Teit to Boas. March 4, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121299. Dear Friend. I received your letters of Jan. 31st and Feb. 14th. I will certainly be glad to continue the work amongst the people east and south if you can get funds for same. I have a lot of information on the people of 9. This suggests that in 1907 the responsibility for funding Teit’s research had shifted from the American Museum of Natural History to Boas at Columbia University.

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Similkameen and Okanagon Lake which is not written out yet, and about fifteen or more stories I collected there. I was very glad to receive during the winter Lewis’ paper on the tribes of Columbia Valley etc. which is very interesting and also shows there is a good deal of work yet to be done in that region. I note all you say re the texts [page 2] and the lists of words. I will answer the questions you sent as fully as I can. I had to leave the texts for over two weeks and go and help my brother in law [sic] feeding cattle etc. but am now back at them again. I have written out a number ready for translating and have a couple translated. I thought however it would save a lot of writing between us if I gave a little study to some of the grammar myself and send you the results which you would then have for reference, and at the same time it would enable me to translate more properly. For this reason I have put in the last four days writing out all the forms of the verb I can think of, and am taking up other parts of speech also. Re. the word Núka (friend) or Snúka[.] It is also pronounced Snúkwa but this is the form down the river rather than here. Re. êlx and êɬx. both ways are used and sometimes it is hard to detect which is the [page 3] true sound. I am making out a list of all the prefixes and suffixes I can think of used with verbs. It seems to me some of the Kalispelm ones you sent have no exact equivalent in Thompson, but I will discuss them later. I have a few items to add to my Shuswap paper and if you let me know shortly previous to your editing it I will write them out and send them in. I have also some more Thompson myths to write out and send to you when I get time. It would be well to have them included with those I have already sent you whenever you manage to get them published. I will now close at present. PS I was glad to hear you had seen Mr. Sargent. He is a very pleasant man.

Boas to Teit. March 12, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121273. My dear Friend,— I was glad to receive your letter to-day. I shall answer more fully later on. I only wish to let you know at once that your Shuswap paper has all been copied, and that if you wish to make any additions, you better send them to me at once.

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Teit to Boas. March 22, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121300. Dear Friend. I received your letter two days ago, and yesterday I despatched the additional notes on the Shuswap. I am sending you to-day a specimen of the stiétamux̳ beaver spear which I collected the winter before last from the Canim Lake band. I had intended it for the Amer. Museum but as you forbid me to send any more specimens to them until further orders I retained this specimen as well as the other things I have collected. I thought I would send you this specimen as it may be of value if figured in my paper. I am getting on slowly with the texts and notes as my eyes are bothering me occasionally. I have to rest them and go slow. Were it [page 2] not for this I would do more than twice the amount of writing per day. However I am keeping account of what time I put in and will charge you only for the time I work. If I do a days work in three days I will only charge you for the day.

Boas to Teit. March 28, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121274. My dear Friend,— There are a few questions I should like to ask you in regard to the Shuswap manuscript. I enclose two pages about which I am doubtful in regard to a few points. What do you mean by “shutters”? Do you mean a piece of bark for closing the door? The collection of baskets here in the Museum does not bring out the point that the Thompson baskets are round, and those of the Shuswap square. It is rather the reverse. I also return your sketches Nos. 4, 5, and 6. I have baskets of exactly the same type as you indicate from Alaska. There is only one question; namely, whether the stitch around the rim is close together, or whether the stitches are apart as you indicated. In our baskets from the East the stitching is far apart, while in practically all old and good baskets from the West the stitches are close together. There is also one other point about which I should like to have information. In most of the Eastern birch-bark baskets the bark is so turned that the grain runs at right angles to the rim, not parallel to the rim. This has the advantage that in close stitching the bark does not tear so easily, and the baskets do not [page 2] require an overlaid strip 1907 | 329

for strengthening. Could you find out for me whether the Indians know anything about these questions? Your supplementary notes to the Shuswap paper reached me yesterday.

Boas to Teit. March 29, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121275. My dear Friend.— I was glad to receive your letter of the 22d of March, and also the specimen which you sent by registered mail. I believe you must have misunderstood me if you say that I forbid you sending anything to the American Museum of Natural History. I merely suggested to you that conditions here are such that the collections will go to pieces, and will be scattered. The management of the material has since become worse rather than better. For instance, all the Bella Coola material that I collected, the bulk of the Kwakiutl material, and almost all the material from the Plains Indians, is packed up now, and is being handled and torn to pieces by little school-children, and scattered about by exchanges with other museums. The people here have gotten the craze of making a kind of ethnology which shall appeal only to those who do not know anything. I had some hesitation before I agreed to support the work that Mr. Heye is doing, about whom I wrote to you; but he had practically taken up the scientific work, and I have every reason to think that a development of his collection, which is quite a large one, even at this time, will be a means of reclaiming this Museum. For [page 2] this reason I advised in my previous letter that some specimens be added rather to his collection than to that of the Museum, because personally I am convinced that ultimately the two will come together again, and that any increase in the collections of the Museum at the present moment will be rather harmful than helpful. Still, however, you will understand that you are at perfect liberty to do with your specimens whatever you think best, and that I do not consider myself entitled to “forbid” anything that you may like to do. In case you should agree with me, would you do me the favor to send me a list of your collections that you have in hand now, with a statement of the prices that you would want to charge for the specimens. I know that I can get Mr. Heye to agree to take all your

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specimens, and in that case I shall be in a position to look after them, and to see that they are utilized.

Boas to Teit. April 5, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121276. My dear Friend,— I am going to send you within a few days the first chapter of your Shuswap paper. I think it will be a little better for you to read it over before I send it to the printer. If you should have any corrections or additions to make, please make them on a separate piece of paper, so that I may be sure to find them. I have drawn quite considerably upon your Thompson material and upon some Athapascan collections that we have here for purposes of illustration, which I think will considerably add to the interest of the whole paper. I shall be much obliged to you if you would kindly try to read over the manuscript as quickly as you can and return to us by registered mail at once. Please address the manuscript to Miss H. A. Andrews, American Museum of Natural History.

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

Teit to Boas. April 6, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121301. My Dear Friend. I thank you for your letter of 29th ult. re. museum specimens. I did not actually mean that you forbid me. That was my awkward way of explaining it. Advised would have been a better word. Any way I do not care to send specimens which may be of scientific value to a place where they will be torn about, and scattered around, in the manner you describe. I cannot find words to express my disgust for that sort of thing. As you seem to think Mr Heye’s work is all right I will dispose of my specimens to him, and will make out a list of what I have on hand with the cost of same and send to you at an early date. I suppose you are getting tired waiting for more texts (I know I am very slow partly owing to the [page 2] fear of overtaxing my eyes). I have a lot of material nearly ready however mostly notes on the verbs, adverbs, prepositions, and adjectives. Also lists of prefixes, suffixes and words with their plurals and diminutives. It takes time thinking out some of these things so as to be sure of explaining their use properly. I have practically finished my notes on the adverbs of time and place, and also 1907 | 331

the demonstratives. The latter were not so hard to clear up after all once I got myself down to study them out thoroughly. Of course if there remain any obscure points you can advise me of them, and I will do my best to explain them. I received your letter re. some obscure points in the Shuswap paper, and herewith answer same on a separate sheet. Hoping this will find you well. PS What is the value of x and ch in Kalispelm[?]. You can send me more prefixes if you have time. Those you sent brought out some points I might not readily have thought of.

Teit to Boas. April 11, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121302. Dear Friend. I will be glad to read over the Shuswap M.S. and will return same to Miss Andrews promptly. Any remarks I may have I will place on a separate paper, and enclose with the M.S. I am sending you to-day under separate cover two pad books full of suffixes (They are mostly what you call substantivals and derivatives) and eight foolscap pages of notes on the grammar etc dealing mostly with prepositional, and adverbial forms, and the demonstratives. No doubt the texts will be the means of correcting and amplifying these notes to some extent, and points will be brought out which at present I cannot think of, and probably others which with my limited knowledge of grammar and constructions I am not capable of seeing. If there are any obscure points, or if you wish further ex- [page 2] amples of anything in the notes write me accordingly. I have finished the intransitive verb, but am holding it until I finish the transitive[.] I am presently doing some work parts of nearly every day on the pronouns, numbers etc. etc. and making up further lists of words. I was first looking over Hill-Tout[’]s paper on the Thomp. language. Dover Meeting 1899, [British Association for the Advancement of Science],10 and it is very full of mistakes. You will notice this if you compare the notes I am sending you with his notes on the same subjects. When I finish my notes on the grammar I will commence sending you texts again. [page 3]

10. A reference to Charles Hill-Tout, “Notes on the N’tlaka’pamuQ of British Columbia, a Branch of the Great Salish Stock of North America,” 4–88.

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Notes and Additions etc to Chapter IV

page 108. Second line from the bottom. ‘red cloth’ ought to read ‘red ochre’ page 109. It seems the Shuswap were noted for the great amount of ornamentation they put on their shirts, and the comparative scarcity of it on their other clothing. Persons could be met with wearing very highly ornamented shirts whilst the rest of their clothing was exceedingly plain. page 115. In parts of the country where ground squirrels (spermophilus Columbianus) were plentiful—the skins of these were much used for children’s capes. (see a specimen in museum from Shuswap) page 115. to note by Dr. Boas. The style of caps referred to are said to have been fairly common amongst the Thompson long ago. page 116. I really cannot tell how the sandals were fastened as I have never seen them in use. The Indians who made those I sent to the Museum showed me how they were fastened on but I cannot recall the method excepting perhaps if I had the specimens before me. I think the [page 4] manner you describe is probably correct. page 120. Re. the bird quills. I believe there were several methods of arranging them and stringing them. It seems they were sewed onto skin in rows of various arrangement, and also strung loosely single, in pairs, in threes, and fours etc. In fact they were employed in all the same ways as Dentalium shells. Only the clear part of the quill was used. They were cut in various lengths, and scraped a little so as to be transparent, and then stuffed with dyed material which of course showed the color through them. [In a marginal note: White Black Red Yellow Green Blue]. Birds down, shredded bark, wool, hair etc. were used as stuffing. Necklaces etc. were made of these colored birds quill tubes strung together. Sometimes the quills themselves were dyed. When used for embroidery in the same way as porcupine quills they were split, flattened, and scraped, and then again split into strips of the desired width. page 121. Re. Abalone or haliotis shells. I have been told by old Shuswaps they were not used. They meant as ornaments for the [page 5] [page 3 of galley notes] person or attachment to clothing. However the Fraser River people occasionally acquired them in trade from the Lillooet, and probably also from the Chilcotin and Carriers[.] The persons obtaining them sometimes resold them if offered a fair price, but they were generally retained as house ornaments or as curiosities. 1907 | 333

page 122. Morice Western Denes p.174. evidently shows dentalia arranged in a headdress in a similar style to that used by Shuswap in their ‘breast pieces’ but I think probably better representations will be found in specimens from the Sioux and other tribes. A large kind ́ ̠ by the Thomp.) was that most used. of dentalium shell (called sʟāk In ‘Rinehart’s Indians’ (FA. Rinehart publisher Omaha Nebraska. Copyright 1899.) several specimens of ‘breast pieces’ similar to those described by the Indians here may be seen. Notably in the portrait of Freckled Face Arapahoe, who besides wearing a ‘breast piece’ also wears a necklace close fitting to the throat like those of dentalia formerly used here as bracelets and around the throat. A good specimen of ‘breast piece’ may also [page 6] be seen in the portrait of Swift Dog. Standing Rock Sioux. The shells in these however are very long (if they are shells) and cannot be dentalia. A large variety of the latter is what was used here. The form of the breast pieces in the above illustrations however corresponds exactly to some of those formerly used here. Re. the arrangement of elk teeth on garments and ornaments. They were sewed on in various ways to give artistic effect and make designs particularly around seams and margins. Sometimes they were scattered all over in the same way as painted spots on robes. This information is from Thompson[.] This is all I can think of adding to Chapter IV. I wrote to the Provincial Librarian in Victoria to get the exact title of the book containing ‘Fraser’s Journal’ and will get an answer in a day or two. It was in the Prov. Library I saw the book, having been told about it by Dr. Newcombe.

Boas to Teit. April 15, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121277. My dear Friend,— I received your letter of the 5th of April yesterday. I shall send you an additional list of Calispelm prefixes as soon as I get time to do so. I am not getting impatient, but I look forward with a great deal of interest to the linguistic material that you may send me. Will you kindly let me know from what edition of Fraser’s Journal you quote. Please send me the exact title of the book. I have not been able to get it in any of our New York Libraries, and I have also looked in vain in the Congressional Library in Washington. 334 | 1907

Teit to Boas. April 16, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121366. Dear Friend. The things I would sell to the Heyes Collection are as under From the Lower Fraser—

1. Slate Fish Knife. 2. Duck Net 3. Duck Spear 4. Disc game 5. Duck feather and goats wool blanket 6. Bark cape fringed 7. Dug out Carrier 8. Rush Carrier From the Shuswap—

1. arrow with stone point 2. Antler beaver spear head (same I sent you) [page 2] From the Thompson—

1. Big fragment of very large stone mortar 2. Bark head band for dances, ornamented. The value of all these is $33.00 I have a number of Thomp. baskets on hand each a different design. All different from ones I have sent to the museum before, and some of the designs I think are quite valuable for design study, but I do not wish to sell them except they can promise to give me photos of each as I am making a collection of photos showing all the designs occurring on baskets from this region. If they can promise this I will be pleased to let them go to a collection like the Heyes where things will be valued and looked after in a proper and scientific manner. I sent you some grammatical notes etc. the other day and will forward a lot more soon. PS I may say I have kept copies of all the words and grammatical notes I have sent you.

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Boas to Teit. April 19, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121278. My dear Friend.— I am sending you under separate cover drawing of the map to accompany your Shuswap paper, together with copy for the legend. Will you kindly read and [look] it over and return at your earliest convenience.

Boas to Teit. April 22, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121279. My dear Friend,— I received to-day the note-books with suffixes, and a couple of days ago the sheets with grammatical notes came into my hands. It is rather important that you should give not only the suffixes themselves, but also a sufficient number of examples with these suffixes. In selecting examples it is well to take, among others, a few words that are the same and to give them with each suffix. It is necessary to have full material of this kind, for the reason that all possible influences of the suffix upon the stem of the word must be investigated. We find, for instance, in some dialects, that the suffix changes the last sound of the stem, or that the stem changes the first sounds of the suffix. This accounts sometimes for the diversity of forms that are found. I do not return the suffixes, because, as you say, you have a copy. I find that in the Museum here the old original list of your Shuswap specimens cannot be found. I used to keep all these matters in numbered envelopes, and this particular number seems to have been recently mislaid. If you have a copy of your descriptive notes, I should be very glad if you could send it to me. I do not think it would be necessary [page 2] to take the trouble to copy the whole. I could have that done here.

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Harlan I. Smith to Teit. April 23, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 113563. My dear Mr. Teit:-11 In regard to your specimen No. 725, it is now No. 16/9193, catalogued as a robe of rushes and wool from Thompson Indians, James Teit, 1903–24. In addition to this the original list states that the pattern is net design, that the robe had been used and that this kind of robe was much used in Nicola (Tcawas). The weaving of this specimen, at the end, is entirely of woolen woof, and what is apparently cotton warp, of one of the simplest weaves, the warp being straight, the first woof going under and over the warp and the next piece of woof going over and under. The weaving is like wicker work or a simple Navaho blanket. Further on the rushes take the piece of every other woof strand, as that over one warp. All strands are wool, under it all are rush. In some cases the rushes have broken out, which leaves the wool woof all on one side of one warp strand and all the other side of the next warp strand, i.e., straight and between alternate strands of warp, next all are rushes, under it all are wool. So much for the weave. If this is not clear enough kindly let me know and I will try to send a model or a better description. Now the decoration consists of the sides of a strip of red wool warp, lying parallel with the regular warp, and with woof weaving over and under both it and the companion warp. In the middle there is a series of diamond shaped designs, made by red wool embroidery on one side of the robe, held in place by catching [page 2] it under every strip of warp passed but coming up between the same two stitches of the woof. I am returning to you herewith the sheet of pipe notes and the sheet of explanations of the sketches of the pipes.

11. Letterhead, American Museum of Natural History, 77th Street and Central Park West.

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Fig. 9. Nlaka’pamux woven mat. Smith to Teit, April 23, 1907. Courtesy of the Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, AMNH 16–9193.

Boas to Teit. April 26, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121280. My dear Friend.— I mailed you yesterday some more manuscript of your Shuswap paper. If you should have any corrections or suggestions to make, will you kindly put them on separate sheets, and return to me at your earliest convenience. The manuscript of the first three chapters has arrived safely, and also your notes on them.

Teit to Boas. April 26, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121303. Dear Friend. I received your letter and the map to-day, and I return same by reg. mail and enclose herewith some notes on same. I have received four chapters of the paper (Shus) which I have looked over and returned (with remarks thereon) to Miss Andrews. The notes you are adding to it are of the greatest interest and of much value. I think you are probably right in your suggestion that the squarer types of basketry may have arisen from copying of the coast wooden boxes and bark boxes. It is 338 | 1907

not clear to me whether you mean just the trunk (1) shaped baskets of the Thomp and Lillooet, with lids, the square (2) open baskets (generally with bottom stands), The squarer form of (3) the carrying basket [page 2] or all combined. According to what the Indians say (1) were in use long before the Whites came. (2) is recent amongst the Thomp. and the angular form of (3) (which I wrote about) seems to have originated amongst the Lillooet and been copied comparatively lately by the Thomp. Old people now living remember when those of the No 2 class were exceedingly rare, and nearly all the carrying baskets (3) were of the rounder type. Anyway all these forms as far as I know are confined to marginal tribes along the Coast tribes [sic] and do not penetrate far east or south. As the Lillooet had most contact with the Coast people it is probable these forms arose amongst them. When I write out the Thompson material I have on hand I will relate all I can find out about the matter. I sent you 8 pages Linguistic notes some time ago. I got a copy of your anniversary volume which is very fine. I am glad to see you got the Thompson Songs published. They appear in it.12

Boas to Teit. April 27, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121281.13 My dear Friend,— I send enclosed draft for $33 on the Bank of Hamilton, Kamloops BC, and beg to ask you to send the specimens which you enumerated in your recent note to Mr. George G. Heye, 52 Broadway, New York City. Please send your bill of lading direct to him. If there should be any charge for exchange on the check, please let me know. I have received the first three chapters with your corrections.

12. Abraham and von Hornbostel, “Phonographierte Indianermelodien aus British Columbia,” in Laufer, Boas Anniversary Volume, 447–74. Boas gave permission to Erich Moritze von Hornbostel to make and distribute copies for use in museums (APS, Boas Papers, Boas to von Hornbostel, April 1, 1907). 13. Letterhead, Columbia University, New York, Department of Anthropology.

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Boas to Teit. April 29, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121283. My dear Friend,— The envelope containing your list of Shuswap specimens in the Museum has turned up, so that you do not need to send me your copy of it, as I had requested in a recent letter. Your notes on the next chapter (Chapter IV) sent to Miss Andrews arrived this morning.

Boas to Teit. April 30, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121284. My dear Friend,— I can tell you to-day definitely that I have received an appropriation of $500 for extending your ethnological work towards the southeast, particularly to the various Flathead tribes. I think it would be very desirable to illustrate the general distribution of dialects in northern Washington and Idaho, and the exact old boundary-lines between the Salish and Sahaptin, and the relation of these two tribes. Of course, this ought to be connected with general ethnological work, collection of mythology, etc. This money is available any time between now and the last of June, 1908; so that you have ample leeway in arranging your plans. I have every reason to think that the appropriation of $300 for linguistic work among the Thompson Indians will also be renewed for the period from the 1st of July of this year to the end of June of next year. I wish you would kindly so arrange that you send me your notes and bill for linguistic work so that I may have them before the end of May. I shall presumably go to Europe for about eight weeks, and I should like to sign these bills so that you will receive pay before the first of July. I wish you could also at the same time let me know [page 2] how much more money would be required for your linguistic work during the month of June, so that I can have the amount set aside from this year’s appropriation, which otherwise would lapse.

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Teit to Boas. April 30, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121381. Dear Friend. I received your letter last night and herewith enclose a copy of the descriptive list of Shuswap specimens I sent to the museum[.] I note what you say about the suffixes and will send you a list of examples in a few days. I had to send to the Prov. Library to get the exact title of the book which contained Fraser’s Journal and from which I copied. I enclose the Librarian’s letter. I have about 14 pages on the verb ready to send but am waiting for an Indian who is to come tomorrow as there is [sic] a couple of points I want to make sure of. I also want my wife to copy it off so I can retain a copy for reference. I have a copy of the [page 2] eight pages of notes I already sent you. I have to study out everything about the grammar myself running over examples in my own mind as the Indians are practically useless in so far as being able to give correct information on these points. They seldom understand the meaning of what you ask them.

E.O.S. Scholefield to Teit, enclosed in Teit to Boas. April 24, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121372. My dear Mr. Teit,— In compliance with the request contained in your note of the 20th instant, I have much pleasure in giving you the exact title of the work containing Simon Fraser’s narrative of his exploratory tour down the river which now bears the name of this pioneer. The work in question is entitled “Les Bourgeois De La Compagnie Du Nord-Ouest Recits De Voyages, Lettres et Rapports Inedits Relatifs au Nord-Ouest Canadien. Publies avec une, Esquisse Historique et des Annotations Par L. P. Masson Premiere Serie Quebec. De L’imprimerie Generale A. Cote et Gie 1889.”14 I am returning Professor Franz Boas’ letter herewith.15

14. French language accents are omitted in original letter. Marginal notes: “Dear Mr. Hurlbut, Will you kindly let me have this book for a few days. Yrs F. Boas,” and “It is with regret that we send word that this book is not in the UGS Library. J. Hurlbut.” 15. Written on letterhead of the Legislative Library, Province of British Columbia, Victoria, “In replying refer to No. 183L07.” E. O. S. Scholefield (1875–1919) was provincial librarian and archivist of British Columbia (BCA, E. O. S. Scholefield fonds).

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Teit to Miss Andrews. May 3, 1907. APS, ACLS Collection, Mss.497.3.b63c, item 61, text 297390. Dear Miss Andrews I received Chap. V to VIII of Shus. m.s. and return same today by reg. mail. Enclosed you will find a few remarks on same, (all I can think of). PS I received Dr. Boas[’s] letter to-day saying the mislaid list of Shus. specimens had turned up, but I had already written out and forwarded a fresh list made up from the rough copy (of notes on specimens) which I have on hand. PPS I enclose a small sample of wáxaselp (perhaps sufficient for identification) which I collected last year. It is called Mock orange by the whites here.

Boas to Teit. May 7, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121285. My dear Friend,— I return enclosed the list of Shuswap specimens which you had the great kindness to send me. As I wrote you a few days ago, the Museum list has turned up.

Boas to Teit. May 8, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121286. My dear Friend,— I send enclosed a list of the titles of your Shuswap traditions. You have not given in this case the exact places where you collected them, and it seems rather important to have, on account of the peculiar relations of these traditions to those of the neighboring tribes.16 I hope 16. Teit answers Boas’s question concerning provenance in his letter of May 22, 1907. Neither Teit nor Boas explains what Boas may have meant by “peculiar relations.” In the “Introductory” to The Shuswap, 621, Teit conveys what Siwilixken, who told him many of the stories, said. “When I first remember, about sixty years ago, the people of my tribe had very many stories, far more than they have now. In each house they told them almost every night throughout the winter. The fullest versions of some stories were only known by certain individuals. When a fresh story was told, at first the young people flocked to hear it, and afterwards it went the rounds of all the houses. The half-breeds of the Hudson’s Bay Company sometimes camped with or lived for a time with the Indians. They were very fond of listening to and of telling stories. I think they probably introduced some stories to the tribe. Also, when Indians had been away for a time, among people who lived at a distance,—such as Kamloops, Spences Bridge,

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you may have a copy, so that you can identify the tales. If necessary, I will return your original manuscript. The pages that I give in the list are those of the copy of your original manuscript, which is arranged in the same order as the tales were sent by you.

Teit to Boas. May 10, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121304. Dear Friend. I received your letters of recent date, and was very glad to hear you had received an appropriation for work amongst the American Interior Salish. I note what you say and will lay out my plans accordingly. I received the cheque for the specimens and I will forward them soon. I enclose bill of linguistic work to date and also an estimate for June. I will address the specimens to Mr Heye and send him the bill of lading. I send you to-day 14 pages of notes on the Intransitive verb, and will send [page 2] you soon 12 pages of examples of suffixes which I have nearly finished. I have a lot of other notes and texts etc partly finished and hope to send you a lot more before the end of May. When do you expect to sail for Europe[?] I am going out in the mountains on Monday with two Vancouver sportsmen after bear but will be back in eight days or ten at furthest, when I will again resume the linguistic work. I read over a big batch of the Shus. M.S. last Saturday and on the same day returned it to Miss Andrews by Reg. mail. Hoping this will find you well [page 3]

[Accounts] Smithsonian Institute [sic] or Dr Franz Boas 1907 To JA Teit (for Linguistic Work) Mch To 6 Exercise books= Apl. “Foolscap Paper50

Ink30

Apl and May. “Stamps 40 Indian Michel 100

$—90 —80 1.40

Chilcotin River or The Fountain—they sometimes heard and learned fresh stories, which they related upon their return. Some of these new stories took root for a while, but eventually died out or were forgotten. I remember having heard stories a few times and never again afterwards. It is possible, however, that some of the stories introduced this way became permanent.”

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Apl.30. “

Indian X͇ wī́stamnítsā17

2.00

“

“

Nak̠êltse18

2.00

“

“

Work of self [portions of Feb. Mch and Apl.) @ 2.00) =

May . “

Indian Johnnie—

“

Self 7 days.

10.

60.00 .50 14.00 $81.6019

Teit to Boas. May 22, 1907. APS, ACLS Collection, Mss.497.3.b63c, item 61, text 297391. Dear Friend, I received your letter, and today I am returning to Miss Andrews the chapter on Religion (Shus. M.S.). Yes, I have the rough copies of all the Shuswap tales, but you have not sent the titles of all I sent in. I have compared your list with mine and ticked them off as I went along. I find that all the tales you forwarded are those of stories collected by me amongst the Fraser River Division. I got them all (with the exception ͇ of Canoe of one or two stories or variants of stories) from Sixwílixken Creek. He is a man over 70 years of age and was born around Big Bar but has lived most of his time at Canoe Creek. I found he had the best knowledge of stories of any man I came across in his tribe and was very intelligent. I tried another old man belonging to around Dog Creek who had the name of knowing many stories thoroughly, but went over with him mostly by title all the stories I had collected from Sixwílixken ͇ but found his knowledge was much more limited than that of the latter. I only got a very few variations from him which I noted and used when writing out the stories for you, and I think I also got one fresh short story which Sixwílixken ͇ did not give me (possibly two) but I do not remember which one, and did not make any notes of same as both men 17. Xwī́stamnítsa, also known as John Whistamnitsa, born ca. 1846 (Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Canada Census 1911) or 1852 (Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Canada Census 1891), was a Nlaka’pamux chief of the Spences Bridge Band and lived near Teit’s home. He later worked with Teit and other Interior Salish chiefs in the pursuit of resolution of claims to land. The date of his death is not clear, but he was not listed in the Canada Census for 1921. 18. Nak̠ếltse (born ca. 1849) was a Nlaka’pamux person who lived at both Nicomen, on the Thompson River, and the closely related village of Shackan, on the Nicola River. In the 1921 Canada Census he is listed as the chief of Shackan. 19. Written on the bottom in a different hand, “Salish Thompson River, Spences Bridge Bc.”

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belonged to practically the same place. Sixwílixken ͇ also always told me of variants as he went along with his story telling. These stories are therefore all Fraser River Shuswap and Canoe Creek may be marked as the centre of them. No doubt they were all more or less well known from High Bar to Dog Creek or Alkali Lake and most of them were probably current up to Soda Creek. [page 2] Besides these I sent you stories of 1. The Woman’s Mystery 2. Death of Tsilixhếsket 3. Xaákst and the Lillooets 4. Death of Sixwílixken ͇ 5. Murder of Tsek̠tcak̠ếk̠en 6. Death of Kwiɬtếsket20 10. Simon Fraser’s trip 1808 11. Death of Sowấxᴇxken 12. Billy’s a/c of stories 60 years ago 13.21 Wars with the Crees 14. [ditto] with Thompson 15. [ditto] with Lillooet 15. [ditto] with Chilcotin22 16. [ditto] with Carrier 17. War story. Fight with Crees 18. War story—war of the 4 quarters or the 4 tribes, all these from Fraser River Division and nearly all from Sixwílixken. ͇ The stories you have not sent titles of were all collected on the North Thompson at the reserve 50 miles above Kamloops. Nearly all from a man called Sisiū́lâx (I think this was his name)[.] They consisted of 33 mythological tales and 1. War with the Fraser Riv. Shuswap 2. War with Sekanais23 3. the Iroquois.

20. At this point Teit’s numbering skips from 6 to 10. Note that for ease of reading, the stacked presentation of this numbered list, and others soon following, is a departure from Teit’s rendering. 21. End bracket in original. 22. “15” is repeated. 23. There are check marks against the titles numbered 2 through 24.

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The titles of the myths collected on the No. Thompson were as I have them. 1. Wren and Bull Elk 2. The Old-one 3. The Lads and the Cannibals 4. Skunk and Fisher 5. Skunk and Badger 6. Water ouzel and grislies 7. War with the sky people 8. The goat woman 9. Skunk and Porcupine 10. Snánaz and Seven-heads 11. Lhépasken and ʟexhékst 12. Coyote and grisly strive 13. Coyote and his guests 14. Coyote and the grouse 15. Coyote’s nephew 16. Coyote and his wives 17. Coyote and the Cannibals 18. Coyote as the Sun 19. Red-headed woodpecker and his wives 20. Coyote and the girl 21. Coyote, Fox and Marmots or ground squirrels (I am not sure which. I think the latter is meant) 22. Coyote and Foxes Robe 23. Coyote snowed in 24. Coyote and his supply of salmon 25. Coyote and Cannibal owl24 26. Lost arm story 27. Coyote steals copper ball 28. Woman who married the Trout 29. Coyote tricks the Grisly Bear 30. Coyote deceives Grisly Bear 31. ɬeḗsa 32. Marten and Fisher 33. Kokwilahä́í t.

24. The titles of numbers 25 through 33 are underlined.

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I collected all the stories I could on Fraser River and North Thompson as I considered these the most important points. Probably I might have got a few additional ones from the head of No[rth] Thompson or around Soda Creek had I gone to these places. I did not try at Kamloops. I got some old men to tell stories at Canim Lake and on the Bonaparte but got nothing fresh from them that I can remember. PS I have a few additional Thompson stories on hand if you are going to get all the myths printed.25

Boas to Teit. June 1, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121287. My dear Friend,— You will find all the traditions to which you refer in the printed book. Just at present we are printing the Shuswap traditions; and after these are done, I hope to follow with the others, so that if you have any that you desire to add, kindly let me have them. I am going to Europe now, but expect to be back about the first of August. Until Sept. 25 I shall be at Bolton Landing, Lake George NY.

Teit to Boas. June 4, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121305. Dear Friend I sent you some time ago three double pages of examples of suffixes, and now send you three more. They are just examples which have occurred to me, and may help in showing the effect of the suffixes on the stems and vice versa. Some of them may be subject to slight correction of pronounciation [sic] or meaning as I have not revised them with any Indians. The latter are all busy just now or away. You will get plenty of examples of the suffixes, and prefixes when I come to write out the words of the language. Before I send these in I will go over each word with two Indians and test it for meaning and pronounciation so as to have all the vocabulary I send as correct as possible. I am sorry I cannot ship Mr Heyes [page 2] specimens until the highwater [sic] is over, that is to say without a great deal of trouble. I have had them boxed up ready for some time but the scow here sank two weeks ago and the river is 25. See Teit’s letter to Boas, June 22, 1907.

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very high. I would have to cross the boxes in my canoe, and pack them on my back up to the depot. They got a new scow here yesterday and are fixing her to run in place of the one sunk, but it will be two weeks at least before there will be any crossing with wagons.

Teit to Boas. June 22, 1907. APS, ACLS Collection, Mss.497.3.b63c, item 61, text 297392. Dear Friend, I am sending to-day care of Miss Andrews (by registered mail) the additional Thompson myths I have obtained of late (viz during the last two years or over). They contain about 22 pages fullscap and consist of the following ́ na 1. skelāu 2. Wren, and cannibal eagle 3. Old-one introduces quills etc. for decoration 4. Coyote when thirsty 5. Creation of earth, fire, water, good and evil or of the five women 6. Additional notes to former stories 7. Tradition of Simon Fraser’s visit 8. Mythological version of [Ditto] 9. Account of Cumaxáltsa 10. Account of the Lytton chiefs 11. War story. Women at Botáni [page 2] Hoping this will find you well.

Teit to Miss Andrews. June 22, 1907. APS. Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61. Dear Miss Andrews As Dr. Boas is probably now in Europe, and will not be at Bolton Landing until Aug. 1[,] I am sending in your care about 22 pages M.S. of Thompson stories which may be required for publication before I return from hunting in November. I understand the Shuswap stories are being published now (perhaps in conjunction with my memoir on the Shuswap), and the Thompson, and other stories will be published at an early date. 348 | 1907

Teit to Boas. July 29, 1907. APS, ACLS Collection, Mss.497.3.b63c, item 61, text 297393. Dear Friend I am sending you to-day some botanical specimens for identification viz26 (1) specimen of wáxasêlp bush (2) [ditto] of skaamếllk lit. ‘tree milk’27 the only stuff the Indians had which was really like sugar. It grows on the branches of fir trees in the dryest parts of the ‘dry belt’. I received the check from the Smithsonian for $81.60. Since I sent in my a/c to you I have been able to put in only five days at the texts etc. and was not able to complete much. I have about 30 or more pages partly completed, and some of it will not take long to finish when I come back. If my eyes were only ok I would soon get a lot of work finished. I intend to see a specialist in Victoria about them before I return home. I am leaving the day after [page 2] to-morrow for Cassiar and will not be back until November. Upon my return I hope my eyes will be in such condition I will be able to get your work done rapidly. I am very anxious to have you supplied with a mass of material on the language as soon as possible. I hope you had a pleasant time in Europe. I sent 20 pages of Thompson myths to Miss Andrews, and had notice from her she had received same.

Boas to Teit. November 16, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121288. My dear Friend,— I presume you may be back from your hunting-trip by this time, and I hope I may hear from you soon. You remember that I have five hundred dollars at my disposal for your research work, more particularly in the State of Washington, if you think it well to go there, and that we also want to make headway with the linguistic work. Can you send me some definite plans at an early date? In order to round off your work, we ought of course to get full collections of traditions from the region farther to the south, and we also ought to be clear on the distribution

26. Bracket from “viz. to “dry belt.” “Botanical” in left margin. 27. Also known as Douglas fir sugar. For information on the sources, distribution, and late twentieth-century Nlaka’pamux use of Douglas fir sugar see Turner et al., Thompson Ethnobotany, 108–9. On page 108, they provide the term “sqə./qeʔméɬq (lit. ‘breast(-tree)-milk’), and note that the botanist John Davidson worked with Teit in the research for his article “Douglas Fir Sugar” (see Davidson, “Douglas Fir Sugar,” 6–9).

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of dialects in the region between Idaho and the Cascade Range, and this will require quite a little travel.

Teit to Boas. November 22, 1907. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121306. Dear Friend. Your welcome letter of 16th inst. to hand to-day. I returned from the head waters of the Yukon (where I had been hunting) in the end of October, but since have been out on trips near here.28 I have one short trip of a week ahead of me yet, and then I will be through that kind of work until next fall. I am glad to say my eyes are much better. I had an operation on them in Vancouver, and got a lot of granulations removed from the edges of the lids. In about two weeks I hope to start work on the texts again, and will keep at the linguistic work as much as I can all winter. I would like to get what is on my hands work[ed] up, and sent to you as soon as possible, as I am always afraid some of the rarer words may get lost in some way. [page 2] In the spring—probably early in April I will undertake the trip to the American side and thus try to round off my work to the south. I feel that this is very important, and our knowledge of the Interior Salish cannot be complete without a study of the southern bands. I would try to make as large a collection of traditions as possible. On my former trip I only collected some fifteen traditions at Okanagon Lake and Similkameen, but the other information I collected re. the Okanagons of BC is pretty full. I suppose however there is no use writing it out until the further studies across the line are completed[.] I will do what you say in the matter however; perhaps it might be best to send you copes of the fifteen traditions in case they might get lost. When I go south in the spring I think I will travel by rail as much as possible to save time, and no doubt you will be able to obtain passes for me on the CPR great Northern and Northern Pacific. Do you think it would be advisable to take a Thompson speaking Okanagon with me, say the man I had on last trip whom I can get for 40.00 per month I think. In that case there would require to be passes for two[.] What about my Shuswap paper[?] Is it printed yet[?]

28. The headwaters of the Yukon River flow from Atlin Lake, near the British Columbia–Yukon border.

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1908

Teit to Boas. January 1, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121307. Dear Friend. I received your letter of 22nd Dec. and have noted all the contents of the same.1 I was glad to hear my note on the distribution of the tribes in Eastern Washington was instructive and makes the ethnography of the region clearer. I expect it will take some time to find out with absolute certainty the exact former boundaries to the south of the Interior Salish tribes. There appears to have been quite a mix-up there in tribal boundaries at various periods [page 2] However I hope to make more certain of many points next summer, and also try to find out the old eastern boundaries of the Flathead and Coeur d’Alene as well. The Cayuse is a puzzling element. Re. the basketry designs I will try to find out all I can about them. Here at Spences Bridge there was formerly some ten or more women who knew the basketry art and occasionally made woven baskets[.] These have been dropping off (two died last year) until there is [sic] now only two or possibly three left. I will look them up in a day or two and see what they say. Of course there are a number of basket makers in Nicola and many at Lytton etc. [page 3] and in the Canyon every woman makes baskets more or less. I may have a chance to go to North Bend some time this month and will try them there. I have already arranged all the pictures of basket designs I can get a hold of to take there for the purpose of going over the meanings of designs again with some of the most celebrated basket makers. There seems to be some difference between the designs of the Upper NLa. and those of the Lower. Also the two divisions sometimes interpret the same design different. The upper people are more inclined to give geometric names to designs. I have nothing more of importance I can think of at present.

1. Boas’s letter of December 22, 1907, is not in the APS, Boas Papers files.

351

Teit to Boas. January 20, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121308. Dear Friend. I am sending you by Reg. mail to-day some more Thompson texts with notes. I sent you some just after the new year, and a batch of notes before w about Christmas time. Three lots in all. I will have some more ready very soon. I also wrote you before Christmas in answer to your letter stating that I would go on a trip for you amongst the southern Salish sometime in the spring. I am not sure what time I can start but I will certainly go sometime before June if you can make the necessary arrangements. An Austrian wants me to go with him in April to obtain specimens of bear for European [page 2] museums and if I go with him then I will go south on the trip for you some time in May. If however something happens so he does not come then I would go on the trip for you some time say early in April. I expect anyway to have time to put in six weeks or possibly two months on the trip for you, and thus make a very good beginning on the work amongst the Salish of the American side. The Similkameen and Okanagon Lake people I probably will not require to visit again as I have been amongst them already. I feel very interested as to the coming results of your analysis of the Thompson texts I am sending you. Hoping this will find yourself and family all well.

Teit to Boas. February 12, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121309. Dear Friend. I sent you another batch of texts four days ago (23 pages including notes) and hope you have received it, and all the others I have sent. To-day I am sending you a few notes on the numerals with the probable derivations of the latter. I would like to improve my spelling of the sounds in the Thompson language, and would desire your advice in the matter as to the best signs or forms of letters to use for the purpose. The alphabet I have been using is deficient in some points. The sounds I would refer to are 1. a sound about midway between ‘c’ and ‘s’ 2. [ditto] [ditto] between ‘s’ and ‘z’ [page 2]

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3. a ‘z’ sound prolonged or rather dwelt upon, and sounded somewhat deeply. I have been using ‘z̠’ for it[.] Sometimes about half towards an ‘rz’ sound 4. a ‘l’ sound prolonged or sounded very fully, a perhaps about half way towards a double sounding of the letter. 5. an ‘n’ the same as above 6. an ‘m’ the same as above2 Then there is a very short sound of l n m before certain consonants, especially ‘t’ as in Eng. sent for instance. 7. There is a slightly exploded ‘t’ sound. sounded sharply with the point of the tongue on the teeth. 8. There is a ‘p’ kind of exploded by forcing out a short puff of breath at the end. 9. a ‘p’ sounded almost like a ‘b’ 10. a ‘t’ sounded nearly like a ‘d’ 11. a ‘k’ sounded nearly like ‘g’ in English ‘gay’ 12. a ‘k’ not as hard or sharp as k̠ but something like ‘ky’ 13. a ‘u’ and ‘o’ breathing at the end of certain words ending generally with x, x ͇ and k̠ [;] I have written this sometimes ‘ku’. [page 3] 14. In a few words an ‘r’ breathing at the end of words terminating with k̠. Father Lejeune writes this kr. 15. An ‘a’ sound as in Eng. ‘man’, ‘wan’ ‘plan’ 16. The Thomp. ‘r’ sounded back in the throat 17. The Okanagon ‘r’. I may have to write out Okanagon words. The English ‘r’ is used in a few borrowed words. 18. besides ‘tl’ and ‘ʟ’ there are in some words kl and an exploded ‘kl’. 19. I have been using the stop . in front of words and behind them, and between letters where there seems to be a pause or indistinct breathing as if a vowel were omitted. I have also used it underneath letters when the latter were indistinct or not quite certain of sound. 20. Sometimes one or more parts of a word are almost whispered, and a certain part of it is sounded forcibly, or with much more than average stress. Should this latter part be written in larger letters or the whispered parts in smaller letters[?] 21. hw like ‘wh’ in Eng. occurs [page 4] but is sometimes hard to distinguish from xw ͇ being often pronounced as if between the two. This is

2. In the original letter the entries for 5 and 6 are linked with a scalloped bracket }, with “the same as above” applying to both.

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all I can think of at present and no doubt it is enough to bother you with. [page 5]

SOME NOTES ON THE NUMERALS —Spelling etc— CARDINALS There are three forms of these viz. Inanimate, Animate and Personal but there is no need of repeating them here as you have them almost perfectly in Report 1898. pp. 29 and 30. B.A. for A.S. However I would like to point out the following additional variations some of which are much used. ADDITIONAL VARIATIONS 1. (personal) pápia 4. (personal) mūśmas 3. (Inanimate) katɬás and kaɬás 3. (In all three classes) Last syllable very frequently pronounced -ɬês and lês (‘e’ pronounced nearly like ‘e’ in Eng. ‘less’) ́ ·amakst 3. (Animate) k·ek·tlếs 3 (personal) k·ếk·ātlấs 6. (personal) tlektlāk ́ 7. (personal) tceltcūɬka 10. (personal) ṓpᴇnakst and ṓp’opᴇnakst 20 siɬ, .sī́l often pronounced cī́ɬ, cī́l. generally the sound is between ‘s’ and ‘c’ Corrections etc. 50. There is invariably an ɬ between the two words, and ́ ́ oft-times a t as well = tcī́êks ɬ ṓpᴇnakst and tcī́Ekst ɬ ṓpᴇnakst 90 and 100. The forms opposite the numbers are correct. The other two variations are wrong, and should be struck out. 100. 200 and so on. The ‘t’ at the end of xátst is very frequently left out making the first syllable ‘xats’ instead of xatst [.] 300. 400. There is a double ‘s’ between the words standing for 3 and 4 and 100. One ‘s’ belongs to the 3 and 4 and the other is prefixed to the xats = kaak·ɬas. sxats etc. mū́s.sxats etc. All the hundreds (excepting 100) The possessive ‘s’ is very frequently added at the end of the terminal ‘t’= .sxatspếk·ᴇnakets Derivations. Re. The formation of the Thompson numerals I would like to offer the following suggestions. There seems no doubt the system has originated from counting on the fingers. There are no traces of counting on the toes. Above ten the system appears to be purely decimal. The derivations of those up to ten are probably as follows.

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1. pai´a, pêi´a3 2. sêía The root of both these is probably ‘ếia’ (Thomp.) ‘ália’ (Shus.) meaning ‘here’. Both of them have an ‘l’ in them originally. This ‘l’ is retained in the Shuswap, Okanagon and Lillooet, but has dropped out of the Thompson. (There are scores of examples of this[.]) ‘p’ may be an adverbial prefix such as occurs in pista´, pitsa´ etc. ‘when’, ‘then’. The prefix ‘ep’ which I have given to you as corresponding somewhat to the Kalispelm ep ‘any’ is suggestive and also ‘ep’ foundation, root, bottom. The latter although a suffix may possibly be used as a prefix, in which case its sense would vary a little. (I cannot at present think of any examples of its being used as a prefix[.]) ‘S’ is likely the same which when prefixed to verbs gives them noun force. [page 6] 3. k·astɬás The elements in this word are evidently related to ‘k·at’ in ́ such words as k·aatᴇwī́îx ‘come near’, ‘get close’[,] and kī́k·at, kḗkat ‘close’ ‘near’, and to ‘ɬa’ in the words ɬaɬāᴇ́ t close by, next to and ɬaā´ along side, touching. The terminal ‘s’ may be the possessive suffix[.] 4. mūs I cannot think at present of any very likely derivation for this word excepting perhaps mîs, mes. as in .smîs ‘crowded’, ‘confined’. Although the first four are thus not positively clear I think the derivations of the others are quite certain. ́ 5. tcī́ᴇkst The Shuswap, Okanagon, and Lillooet all have ‘tcī́l’ so it is evident the Thompson has again lost the ‘l’ here. However there are Thompson words bearing a close analogy to tcī́l viz ‘.stcil’ and ‘tcela’. ‘Something rising straight up in a body as smoke for instance on a calm day. This would be applicable to the raising up of the hand after counting five as is generally done.-ᴇkst of course is the same as ákst ‘hand’ ́ ·amakst-akst is hand and ‘tlak’ has reference to the ‘coming in’ 6. Tlāk of the other hand. confer. ʟāk, tláak ‘come’ ʟákᴇm, ʟáket (Thomp.) t.ákᴇm (Shus.) ‘to cross over’ tlākk̠ím ‘to bring in something’ 7. tcūɬka from tcū́ɬᴇm ‘to point’ and -éka sometimes shortened to ka ‘fin-

ger’, ‘point’, ‘spike’. According to the Indian manner of counting (on the fingers) seven would fall on the index finger ́ ‘to arise’. ‘s’ is probably posses8. piṓps pi ‘one’, and ōp root of ōpī́ᴇx sive[,] meaning another finger arises. In counting each finger is raised as it is touched. 9. tᴇ́mᴇɬpaía tᴇmᴇɬ ‘without, less’ (negative) pai´a ‘one’ meaning one less than ten.

3. Pai´a and sêía bracketed together.

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10. ṓpᴇnakst ōp ‘arise’ ᴇn, .n. preposition ‘in’, ‘at’ etc.—akst ‘hand’ meaning the hand (or hands) is raised at. It is customary to raise both hands on counting ten. 11. This is simply ‘ten and one’. ᴇɬ ‘and’ 20. This is ‘twice ten’ .si ‘two’, and ‘ɬ’ probably the same as -aɬ occurring as a suffix in the form for ‘once’, ‘twice’ etc. (There is also ‘.ɬ’ occurring throughout the language with various meanings such as ‘already’ ‘repeat’ ‘again’, ‘and’ etc.) 21. ‘twice ten and one’ 100. xats(t)pếk·ᴇnakst from xatspêíᴇk, xatspäí uk ‘full stick’ ᴇn, .n, on, in etc. -ákst ‘hand’ xatcī́ṕ when a thing is finished or full to the end’ related to the word for ‘caught up’ -êiᴇk, ḗ.uk, äíuk ‘stick’, ‘pole,’ ‘line,’ ‘rope,’ a long thing [page 7] 101. ‘full stick and one’ 200 and upwards säá s xats(t)pếkᴇnakst(s) The ‘s’ added to sêia, säá or in most cases prefixed to xats-, and the ‘s’ often added to -akst are signs of the possessive, at least the last certainly is. 1000 is called ‘ten hundreds’ ṓpᴇnaksts xats(t)pếk·ᴇnakst(s). Counting above this is seldom necessary, but the Thompsons can continue as far as they wish. 100 hundreds is xats(t)pêkᴇnaksts xats(t)pêkᴇnakst(s). These explanations of the Thompson numerals hold good also for the Shuswap with the exception of the word for ‘one’ the derivation of which I am not yet certain of. They also explain the Okanagon excepting 1, 8, 9 (and possibly 7 and 100)[.] Okanagon ‘one’ is easy of explanation however as it is simply -aks ‘nose’, ‘point’ ‘first part of a thing, body or number’ prefixed with the preposition .n-at etc[.] They also make clear the Lillooet excepting 2, 4, 9, and 10. However 2 and 4 of Lillooet may possibly be borrowed from the Squamish with whom the Lillooet had such close relations. Of course as you will know the numerals can be combined with the many substantivals of the language, and are in other ways incorporated into the constructions of words. In this process they often become modified f.i. ‘one’ and ‘two’ generally take the forms ‘pi’ and ‘si’. Numerals can take nearly all the prefixes and suffixes of the language, and admit of being verbalized. On page 30. 1898. Report.—Indefinite numerals— “Few” ought to be ‘many’ or ‘How many’. The forms given are correct. The ́ ́ x ͇ (inanimate) kwī́nkwin. x ͇ (perfollowing are additional variations kwī́nᴇ sonal) as the various forms for ‘How many’ are generally used in asking a question they might almost as well be translated ‘How few’ as ‘How 356 | 1908

many’[.] On the whole however the sense all through seems to favor the latter translation. The word x͇weḗt ‘many, much, plenty, lots’ is much used but not in asking questions except it is suffixed with ᴇn Interrogative verbal suffix[.] The proper word for ‘few’ is kwḗkwᴇnᴇx ͇ (inanimate)[.] For animate it seems to be kwᴇkwḗkwᴇnᴇx ,͇ and for personal kwᴇnkwḗkwinx ͇ [.] These forms are never used in asking questions.

DISTRIBUTIVE NUMERALS The forms given seem to be all correct X(1) but the meaning is not ‘one to each’ but a kind of frequentative viz ‘one at a time’ ‘two at a time’ and so on. The forms for ‘one to each’ are according to the object given and the object receiving as follows. The prepositions used can be .ń (at, on, in) u (to[,] towards) and tu (from)[.] One inanimate thing apportioned to an inanimate thing Paía .nê paía two [inanimate] things [apportioned] to two [inanimate] things sêiá .ne sêiá4 two [inanimate things apportioned] to two persons (or each two persons) sêiá .nê sisêía (a variation of .ńê is .ńa, ê or a means the)5

[page 8]

Two animate things apportioned to one person or each person sếsia .nê pápia6 Four animate things [apportioned] to four persons or each four persons mṓms .ńê mū́smas7 and so on taking the regular forms of the three sets of cardinals, according to the objects[.] The nearest form for one to each and so on would be One——-ńê (to) one (or each) Two and so on one (or [each]) according to whether inanimate and so on one and so on according to whether personal and so not (.ńê or .ńa really means at, on, in[.] úa to, towards. If the thing is already given .n must be used for it shows it is ‘at’ or reached the person. If not already given úa would be correct). There is no word I can think of answering just exactly to the English ‘each’[.] 4. The words in the square brackets have been added for greater clarity. Teit originally used “do” for “ditto.” 5. In the original letter the parenthetical aside is to the left of the three preceding lines. 6. “One person or each person” bracketed together against sếsia .nê pápia in original letter. 7. “Four persons or each four persons” bracketed together against mṓms .ńê mū́smas in original letter.

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One from two (inanimate) would be ‘paía túa sēía and so on. Another interesting form is .npaía one piece (inanimate) .nsêía two pieces and so on and so on This has also an animate and personal form. viz the ordinary cardinals of each class prefixed with .n-(animate) .nsếsia and so on meaning the two are apart not from each other but from others.8 The two are in one as it were. (personal) ́ ia one person apart or alone[,] a lone person[.] .npāp .nsisếia and so on two person [sic] together apart from others[.] .nx͇weḗt many apart from others. .nsisếia is much used in the sense of two riding together on horseback and is verbalized as .nsisếíastᴇm [.] One to take another together with him (especially on horseback) ‘s’ causative ‘t’ determined object[.] There is a distributive form of the above.

Table 3. Inanimate, animate, and personal forms9 Inanimate

Animate

Personal

.npēapaía one piece at a time

.npipiäá

.npapápia

.nsēasaía and so on .nsêsếsia and so on .nsiasếa and so on two things together in one two animals together or in persons the same put apart from others one put apart from others These forms can further be verbalized with determined object as .npeapaíastᴇm to cause it to be put apart from the others. .npapápiasts (He puts the people one apart from the other) a sai.tkᴇnamux͇ (the people) [.]10 He puts the people one apart from the other[.] There are such a great number of various forms the numerals can take they become sometimes a kind of bewildering [sic][.] piū́zᴇm one group siū́zᴇm two groups. The sets of inanimate, animate and personal cannot be used here. There are a number of forms corresponding to first, second, third, etc., and also a number corresponding to once, twice, thrice. The most common form of the latter is paíaɬ, sêíaɬ, katlásaɬ, mū́saɬ and so on.

X(1) pēapaía This is used for animals but it really belongs to inanimate. pipiäá or pēpiäá are the real forms.

8. Emphasis Teit’s. 9. Teit’s handwritten table has been formalized so that it can be more easily read. 10. Original is interlinear translation.

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Boas to Teit. March 26, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121289. My dear friend, I have not been able to write to you for some time. I want to advise you today that I am in a position to place at your disposal the sum required for your proposed work in the State of Washington.11 I shall write some other time very soon in regard to the linguistic work.

Teit to Boas. March 30, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121411. Dear Friend. I am sending you to-day a list of about 250 terms of relationships and other terms applied to persons with pretty full notes on same.12 You can write me about anything that is not clear to you etc. I am working on two very long texts (myths) and a shorter one (war story). I take a rest from this by compiling lists of words etc. in intervals, and will soon have a lot to send you. I am engaged more or less on linguistic work most days, but cannot keep at it steady partly on account of my eyes, and partly owing to having to do other necessary work. I just charge you with what I do only; viz for the time [page 2] I am actually engaged in your work. I have also had an Indian on eight days since the new year, getting texts from him and going over words for the exact pronounciations [sic] and meanings. I am not going spring hunting this year except for one week or ten days so I will be able to give you most of my time until about 1st July either for linguistic work or on a trip to the south. I have not heard from you for a long time. Neither has Mr Smith written lately.

11. Sargent wrote to Boas on March 20, 1908, offering a donation of $250 for Teit’s work, with the possibility of raising it to $500 after a time. Boas replied on March 26, “It is very kind of you to consider contributing another five hundred dollars to this work toward the end of April” (APS, Boas Papers, text:107044). On April 24, 1908, Sargent confirmed to Boas a donation of $500: “This day I am mailing Pres. Butler my check for $500 as a contribution toward Teit’s work among the Salish tribes in the Northwestern States” (APS, Boas Papers, text107045). He had apparently given $500 in 1907 as well. Nicholas Murray Butler (1862–1947) served as president of Columbia University from 1902 to 1945 (Columbia University Archives, “Nicholas Murray Butler,” https://library.columbia.edu/libraries/cuarchives/presidents/ butler_nicholas.html, accessed June 5, 2020). 12. APS, ACLs Collection, Item 61, text 295606.

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Boas to Teit. April 4, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121449. My dear Friend,— I presume you have received before this the five hundred dollars which were sent to you from the Treasurer of Columbia University for the trip that we were planning for this spring. I think I do not need to write to you again in detail about the work that I have at heart. It is principally an investigation on the old lines of the Salish tribes on the American side with a view of determining the relationship of their culture and of their language to the tribe with which we are so familiar. You are aware that the distribution of dialects and the relationship of the dialects on the American side is still quite obscure, particularly in the western part of the State of Washington between Spokane and the Cascade Range. I hope you may be able to clear up this matter. I think it would be well to collect a number of brief vocabularies in order to determine the relationships of the dialects. I trust you will kindly let me know how far you expect to get with the money in your hands. I think I shall be able to send you a further supply in May. [page 2] I have been compelled to work so hard on some Eastern languages, that I have not been able to do much with your Salish; but I shall be sure to take the time before June, so that when you are ready to go on with your work, you will have a somewhat full statement from me in regard to the material.

Boas to Teit. April 9, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121414. My dear Friend,— I am in receipt of your letter of the 30th of March and of the manuscript. I am conscious of having neglected my correspondence with you during the last two months; but I have been very much driven with all sorts of work, and I have not been able to go over your linguistic material with the care that it deserves. You will have received my recent notes and the money which was to be sent to you from Columbia University.

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Teit to Boas. April 10, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121434. Dear Friend. I received your letter of 4th inst. yesterday, and a couple of days before received the $500.00 from the Treasurer of Columbia University. I will do the best I can re. obtaining the information you desire, and in fact getting all the information I can relating to the tribes in question. I will investigate their culture and customs, and record their mythology etc. in the same way I have done for the people of the BC area. I will try to find out all about the former habitat of the various bands, distribution and degree of variance of the dialects. I do not think I will fail to obtain a great deal of information that is much required, and of considerable [page 2] value. I would like to do as complete work amongst those people as I have already done for the people here, but I expect it will require more than one trip to accomplish this. If less is known about the Western bands it might be better to confine my work this year principally to them viz those between Spokane and the Cascades, but I will see how conditions are when I get over there. I will probably go direct to Spokane from here getting a draft on the branch of C.B. of Com. there. I was thinking of taking a half Okanagon half Thompson Indian from here with me on this first trip, and if I find I can get along well without him I will not take him on a second trip. I think he would be of advantage in pointing out differences of dialect. He would at once be able to detect these. He would also serve to break the ice as it were amongst strangers telling them of me, my work and the country and people up this way. His wages would only be $40.00 per month, and his living [page 3] expenses like my own will not be high. I think the railway fares (if we travel much) will eat up a large part of the money, and I would like to have sufficient to buy valuable specimens if I happened to come on any. The designs on bags and basketry in that region should have some study, and this would necessitate buying of specimens. However if money is short I will let the buying of specimens go this year. I expect I should have another two or three hundred dollars on hand, but cannot tell for sure until I get on the field. Having never been in any part of that region excepting in winter of 1883 and 1884 and then only on the train passing through I am at somewhat of a disadvantage in not knowing the conditions and the ground over there. In this country it was easy as I had been practically all over the ground several times before taking up Indian work and therefore could lay out my plans exactly and to advantage. I also knew certain Indians here 1908 | 361

and there all over the country [page 4] and in many places could use the Thompson language as a valuable medium. However as the Indians over there are of very similar style, and disposition to those here I will feel more at home and probably know better how to act with them than I would on the Coast for instance, where when amongst the Indians there I feel a good deal out of place. It would be a great saving to your funds if you could manage to get passes for me on one or more of the Railway systems but I suppose you cannot manage this or you would have obtained them already. I will have about two months time to devote to the work and will be able to leave here very soon likely about the 1st of May. Before starting I would like you to send me an open letter of introduction from either Columbia University or better still the Smithsonian Institution or both, showing who I am, and what I am there for. These may be necessary to show to Indian Agents or others who may want to eject me from Indian reserves [page 5] etc. It may be also well to have these in case of the objections of some educated Indian or Half breed who might some times be prone to relate that I was there gathering information etc. on my own account, and making money out of same. Be sure to attend to this. I have already got a copy of the US. Indian Report giving locations of Reserves etc. and last fall I purchased a pretty fair map of Washington giving most of the railway connections I would also like to go to Nicola before starting and interview an Indian there who claims to have been amongst a small band of Indians in the Western part of Eastern Washington of whom it is said there are now only a few survivors. It is claimed these people speak a kind of Okanagon much more closely related to Thompson than any other Okanagon dialect. This may only be a survival of the old story that I have often heard that there are Thompson speaking people down there (not real Thompson but still near enough to be under[page 6] stood) and also the tradition that the progenitors of the present Thompson people came in from the south, being a break away from a tribe there. I would like to find out what this Indian has to say on the matter and get the locality where he saw these people. According to the story of some he only saw two women who were pointed out to him by the Okanagons of that locality as some of the people who talked the same language as himself. Upon speaking to them he found this was true, but the language they used was not exactly the same as Thompson. I received yesterday an unbound copy of my paper on the Shuswap, and it is very well got up. The copy is incomplete however, all the end viz the stories, and the first pages before 455 being missing. I am still doing

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more or less work on the texts and vocabulary nearly every day. I will now close.

Boas to Teit. April 16, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121415. My dear Friend,— I was very glad to receive your letter of the 10th of April, which came this morning. I quite approve of your plans, and I will see whether I can get some special money for specimens. I hope to be able to let you know soon. The Shuswap paper that you received contains only the press sheets so far as they have been printed. I presume it will take until about July before the whole paper is done.

Boas to Teit. April 23, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121416. My dear Friend,— It does not seem likely that I shall be able to get money for collections to be made during your trip in the spring.

Boas to Teit. April 28, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121417. My dear Friend,— I wish to acknowledge the receipt of thirteen pages of manuscript containing text of a war story and of prayers. I should like to suggest to you that you number the pages consecutively, which will make it easier to trace the various packages.

Boas to Teit. May 1, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121418. My dear Friend,— I have received an additional sum of $500 for your work during the present year. I want to ask you particularly, when you come to the western part of the country, to pay attention to the distribution and eastern limit of imbricated basketry, and to the significance of the 1908 | 363

design, materials used, etc. I shall try to send you as full a collection as possible of photographs of imbricated basketry.13 I hope you can use them for identifying significance of designs, etc. There is one point in particular which I think ought to be investigated, and which presumably you can solve best among your friends among the western bands of the Thompson Indians. It is the question how the women lay out their designs, and how they adjust the various patterns to the available space. Do they count stitches, or do they put in the colored patterns merely by eye? Also how do they manage at the end of a coil when they try to make an even decorated band around a basket? A zigzag band, for instance, may not come out in the right way. How do they proceed when they see that the distances will not come [page 2] out right? The more detailed information you can get on matters of this sort, the better it will be for a clear understanding of the principles of decorative art. If you will look at the remarks which I made regarding the designs of the Lillooet in your paper on this subject, and again at similar remarks in your Shuswap paper, you will see what I mean. One of the points which struck me particularly in your Chilcotin baskets was that the design seems to be counted out approximately in the first coil, but that later on, as the work proceeds, adjustments are made which may upset the whole original plan. These are of course only inferences from an examination of the baskets, and it would be much better to have this information directly from expert basket-weavers, and also particularly the points which are told to young girls who begin to learn the art. Certainly definite instructions must be given by expert weavers, telling the children how to proceed. This problem is not quite the same among the western Thompson bands and in the region of Columbia River, because in the latter region most baskets are round, and the difficult problems of the corners are

13. This request for detailed information about basketry appears to follow Boas’s earlier request, which Teit acknowledged in his letter to Boas of January 1, 1908, but it also appears to reflect Homer Sargent’s interest in basketry. Sargent, who had a collection of Tlingit baskets and was impressed by G. T. Emmons’ Basketry of the Tlingit, suggested to Boas that he would like to see Teit write a comparable book, adding: “Of course you had not figured on that in your original expense calculation but I should like to have him get the information and when that is at hand, think the additional money for publication could be found” (APS, Boas Papers, Sargent to Boas, April 24, 1908, text 107045). Boas’s query reflects his continuing interest in design, and suggests that he was bringing his own interests to the rather simpler project originally suggested by Sargent. This was the inception of “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region,” eventually published in 1928.

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not present, while at the same time the endeavor to get uniformity of pattern all around the basket introduces new problems. I trust you will keep me informed from time to time of the progress of your work. I am just through with some work on the Tsimshian language. I had a Tsimshian here at our house for over a month, and I had a very interesting time with him. I am now working on your old Utamqt [page 3] material that Farrand was supposed to have gotten ready for the printer years ago. I hope we shall be able to bring it out soon.

Smith to Teit. May 6, 1908. AMNH, American Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1908–1926: Teit, James box 19, file 13. My dear Mr. Teit, Many thanks for your card. Spence’s Bridge seems to have changed since I was there. I sent you a copy of the Museum Journal, containing a brief popular account of my results in the Wyoming country. I am working on my final report which will probably not be printed for some time as I expect to go out for about two months this year. I expect to be in northeastern Wyoming and adjacent territory. The Museum is having photographs taken for you of all of the baskets collected by you, numbers of which I sent you, with the exception of three, numbers 1354, 9149 and 9566. These have not been found. You can tell by your list if these three are important to you. I wish I could get out to your country. I understand they have established a branch of the Archaeological Institute of America at Seattle. They talked with me some of going to the Aleutian Islands for them; but they have not confirmed the offer as yet and I thought best for the present to stay here.

Teit to Boas. May 23, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121435. Dear Friend. I left home on the 14th inst.[.] I was up in Nicola for four days before leaving, and on my return received your letter including the introduction and the photos of Klickitat baskets. I am just gradually learning the country here, and the means of communication with the

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R

O

BRITISH COLUMBIA

C

K

Nelson Creston

Waneta

CANADA USA

Flagstone Tobacco Plains Kootenay Indian Reservation

MONTANA Polson

U

Horse Plains

O

N

Ravalli Jocko

T A

De Smet

Missoula

S I N

WASHINGTON

Kalispel

M

Cusick Usk Sandpoint Chewelah Nespelim Spokane Newport reservation Fort Spokane Almira Spokane City Tekoa

Elko

Y

Kootenay District

Helena

Deer Lodge

IDAHO

Anaconda

100 km

Lemhi

Map 3. Research locales, 1908 and 1909. Cartography by Eric Leinberger, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia.

various reserves[.]14 This want of knowledge gives me inconvenience and delays me somewhat but it is absolutely necessary to get posted on this and when I come back here next year I will know the ropes and things will be easy for me and I will be able to avoid delays etc. almost entirely. This place is 61 miles SE of Spokane on the large [page 2] Coeur d’Alene Reserve. There is a Catholic mission and boys and girls schools here. I just came in by stage to-day and as tomorrow is Sunday I can do nothing until Monday morning. There are two tribes here 14. Teit is writing from De Smet, Idaho, on the Coeur d’Alene Reservation. Pierre De Smet was a Jesuit priest who established Roman Catholic missions in Washington Territory and Idaho in the 1840s.

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Spokans [sic] and Coeur d’Alenes and I expect to get vocabularies of each, using a good English speaking Indian as interpreter. The Indian I intended to take along from the Thompson happened to be over in Similkameen and although I wrote to him to come at once he did not turn up on time so I started without him.15 It would have been better to have him along but cannot be helped this time. I made all the inquiry possible when in Nicola re the reported small tribe of Indians speaking similar to Thompson on the American side. One Indian who had been over here for 3 years lived amongst the Nez perce [sic] gave me the most explicit information. From the names of places he gave me he must have traveled from Nicola in a S E line to consider[page 3] ably south and south east of Spokane. He met some of the people speaking the language like Thompson at a place called Nápwa (abt 3 days horse travel SE of Spokane) I think this must be Lapwai, Idaho (a Nez Perce reserve) [.] Their country was 2 days further at a place called by the Indians Kópa. He was not at their place himself. He said they were reported to number from 25 to 40 people and were ́ am called Wîsx ͇ by the neighboring Indians. I enquired of some of the Indians here to-day about these names and they say they do not know them but will ask the oldest men about them. Perhaps I may learn more on Monday. Anyway after I finish up here since I am so far in this direction I will go on to Lapwai which is not far and see if I can ́ am[.] locate the Wîsx ͇ The Indians here make no basketry. I met one Indian here to-day who had been on Okanagon Lake. BC. The country around eastern Washington and Idaho as far as I have been yet is just like the Dry Belt of Southern BC above the 2000 ft level [.]16 [page 4] There is no sage brush and the grasses, trees etc. and the nature of the country is just the same only here there is a very much larger area of good land. The BC Indian Reserves are small and poor in contrast with those here. The government is at present staking off allotments to the Indians of 160 acres to each[;] this I suppose preparatory to the opening of the Reserve. I may say that in southern BC there is considerable dissatisfaction and unrest amongst the Indians at present, the settling up of the country and changing of conditions is restricting the Indians more and more to their small reserves, etc. They are also of the opinion they are very much neglected and kept in an inferior condition. When I return home about 30 Thompson, Shuswap and Okanagon chiefs are to 15. The Similkameen Valley in British Columbia, along the Similkameen River to the south of the Nicola Valley. 16. Emphasis Teit’s.

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meet at Spences Bridge to hold a big ‘talk’ preliminary to sending a big ‘paper’ to Ottawa recounting their grievances.17 PS If you desire to write me about anything immediately, address C/O Hotel Aberdeen Spokane. Wash.

Boas to Teit. May 26, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121420. My dear Friend,— I am rather anxious to hear about your movements. I trust you received the photographs which I sent you the other day. I asked the Treasurer of Columbia University yesterday to send you another draft of $500, and I hope that you will thus be supplied with funds for your work and for your compensation. There is a possibility again that I may get about $100 for specimens.18 I hope to let you know soon. 17. The influence of Teit’s field work experience in 1908 and 1909 was implicitly evident in the text of the Memorial presented by sixty-eight British Columbia chiefs to Frank Oliver, the Canadian government minister of the interior in 1911 (Memorial: To the Hon. Frank Oliver, Minister of the Interior, Ottawa). The Memorial read, in part, “We think we at least should have as much land of our own country to far as is allowed to White settlers (viz. 160 acres), or as much as our Indian friends of Eastern Washington, Idaho, and Montana retain on the opening of their reserves (viz: from 80 to 160 acres of the best agricultural land available, chosen by themselves, for each man, woman and child)” (document available at Canadiana, https:// www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.65944, last accessed September 19, 2021). 18. In a letter to Boas on May 9, 1908, Sargent requested that Boas not tell Teit that Sargent was providing funds for his work. Describing his existing collection of 400 baskets from various tribes, he noted that Teit had previously collected Thompson baskets for Sargent and had provided information about their uses, shapes, and designs. Sargent noted, “This collection I have since prized very highly on account of the information I had about it” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107046). Without necessarily knowing anything about Boas’s own interests and intentions concerning basketry, Sargent wrote, “I realize that you would probably prefer that he should confine himself to information as to shape usage and design without spending any more cash than was absolutely necessary since the money can so well be used in other ways and on other things of which there are so many and money is hard to get at present. At the same time, as a basket collector, I realize Teit will have opportunities to collect which would be impossible to the ordinary man and I should hate to think of his passing them by without utalizing [sic] them, for the lack of a few dollars more. Therefore I suggest that you instruct him as you have said as regards the basketry,—To pay particular attention to the subject and to make a small collection of the baskets, to provide material for illustration and description using also what available material there is in the various museums of which you can get him photographic prints; enough to make an interesting publication.—And that I write him, that I have learned from you that he is limited as regards the funds at his disposal for baskets and should like to have him pick up a collection of same if he had the opportunity which he is at perfect liberty to use in his work and naturally my collection shall take secondary place in his choice but where there is a chance to do so a few dollars may not stand in the way of his obtaining an interesting piece of material which he would otherwise pass by. For this purpose

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Boas to Teit. June 1, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121421. My dear Friend,— I was very glad to receive your note of the 23d of May. I hasten to let you know that the Wi´sxam, about whom you learned, are Upper Chinook. I had one of my students out there a couple of years ago, and he collected a very large amount of text from there.

Teit to Boas. June 5, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121436.19

I have just returned from the South. I heard from Indians before I went that there were some people living on the confines of the Wasco above the Dalles who talked a different language from the Wasco but they could not tell me the affinities of same. This to my mind seemed to corroborate what I heard in Nicola, especially as these people were said ́ um or Wîsx̲ ́ ᴇnápo on the confines to live at or near a place called Wîsx̲ of Wîtskópa. I went to Umatilla Reserve first where the Cayuse, Walla Walla, and Umatilla now are gathered. I could not get any confirmation of this from the Indians there, some of the Indians saying they knew nothing about the people there now. Hearing there was a large number of Indians from the Warm Spring and Yakima Reservations and [page 2] from points along Columbia River gathered at Hood River for strawberry picking I went there and found indeed a large number of Indians mostly Klickitats, but there were also Yakima, Wasco and what they called Columbia River tribe viz people who had always inhabited the banks of the River below the Wasco viz from Cascade West. These I take to be Tsinúk. I asked some of the latter and also some Klickitats and Wascos but they said they did not know and I better go to the Dalles or to Celilo where I would soon find out. I then went to the

I shall supply him with about a hundred dollars a year if he needs it. Do you think this can be done without interfering in any way with your plan of action as you have it outlined to him for that I should not like to do? If so I will write him as I have suggested.” Boas agreed, writing to Sargent on May 19, 1908 (APS, Boas Personal and Professional Papers, b21, f: Sargent, Homer E), “I have obtained quite a number of photographs of baskets, which I have sent to him, and I hope to get some more; still, for the success of his work, it would be better for him to discuss the actual specimens rather than photographs, and your suggestion to place some funds in his hands for this purpose will facilitate this matter very much. If agreeable to you, I will also write to him, stating that on learning about his trip, you wished to use the opportunity to get some baskets, and asking him to collect these for you and to use the specimens in his discussion.” 19. Written on Hotel Aberdeen letterhead.

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[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

Dalles and walked some miles above there to the first Indian camp. They were Wascos and I spent the greater part of the afternoon with them[.] [S]ome talked English and others very good Chinook. They told ́ ópa was one of the names applied to the Wasco tribe and that me Wîtsk̲ ́ am or Wîskam ́ Wîsx̳ (as they pronounce it) was a name for a place on North side of Columbia just opposite Celilo (pronounced Sᴇláilo) a great fishing place 12 miles above The Dalles (at the Great Falls). There was a little village there yet but most of people were away at present fishing and berry picking for Whites. [page 3] They told me the inhabitants of this place were Klickitat and talked the Klickitat language and they did not know and in fact felt sure there was no other language spoken amongst them. They were intermarried to some extent with Wasco[.] The latter tribe had always occupied the South side of the Columbia from John Days River down to Cascades. (The Dalles is 88 m. from Portland. Cascades is about 43 m. below Dalles and John Days is the uppermost rapids 30 miles above Dalles[.] [A]s they went up to a little beyond the mouth of John Day [sic] River and took in basin of same they occupied as much above as below Dalles altogether about 85 miles with the Dalles as center). On the West they joined the Columbia River tribe and on the East the Umatillas who came west to within a few miles of John Day [sic] River. The north bank of the Columbia all the way along opposite the Wasco was inhabited entirely by Klickitat. Salish tribes from further up (always called Spokanes) were wont to invade this region on fishing and trading trips going in their canoes [page 4] sometimes as far as Portland and Fort Vancouver in later days. I then visited a White man (of German descent) called H. Gulick) [sic] who is married to a Wasco, and has lived around The Dalles and The Falls since 1857. As his information agreed entirely with what the Wasco told me, I thought I would not lose any more time on this quest and as the ́ Klickitat of Wîskam [sic] village were away I returned here as quickly as possible. My wife has forwarded your letter of 26th May and the photos of baskets. This is the third letter I have written you since I left home so you must have heard from me by this time. I note what you say re. specimens and money from same. Not having an Indian with me will reduce the expenses of this trip considerably and I can afford to spend some of the money I have with me for buying specimens. When at the Dalles I made arrangements with Gulick and a Wasco family to gather specimens (old things) and I would visit them.20

20. The letter ends here without signature.

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Teit to Boas. June 17, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121437.21 Dear Friend. Since writing you last I have been to Fort Spokane on the Spokane Ind. Reservation where I made the acquaintance of Captn Webster and Mr Avery of the Indian Service.22 They were very kind and obliging to me and Captn Webster gave me a letter of introduction to Mr McCrossan the sub-agent here. As I found I could not do much work there and could not get across country very well I came back to the RR line, and went to Almira and thence by stage out here. I really lost five days time by going in to Fort Spokane besides spending money practically for nothing, but I did not know and could get no information in Spokane City re. communications out here. [page 2] However I had the advantage of introducing myself to the people of the agency and this helped to facilitate my work here, as Mr McCrossan had every Indian brought to me that I wanted, and I have lost no time going around[.] I find the Indians here a very fine lot of people, and after I had explained to a headman of each principal band the objects of my visit, and of my work amongst them in general, they have become very interested and are desirous to give me all the information they can. They are glad that I have visited them, and also to know their history is to be recorded as the White man’s is. The Nez Perces and Yakimas here have asked me if I did not intend to do the same work for them that I am doing for the Salish tribes and I have told them I would later on. It will be a pity if funds sufficient are not forthcoming to work this fine field to the utmost extent[.] There are a good many very intelligent old Indians here of several tribes who are [page 3] full of knowledge regarding their people in the olden time, and are proud of such knowledge. The rising generation does not take much interest in those matters however and with the elderly 21. Teit is writing from Nespelem, Colville Reservation, Washington. He appears to have begun in the east, on the Coeur d’Alene Reservation in Idaho, and to be working his way gradually west. 22. At the time Teit visited Fort Spokane John McAdams Webster (1849–1921), a retired U.S. Army captain, had been superintendent of the Colville Indian Agency for four years. (See Yetter, “A Snapshot in the Life of John McAdams Webster. A Coast to Coast Adventure from West Point to Fort Spokane.” Spokane Historical. www.spokanehistorical.org/items/show/689, accessed June 5, 2020.) Frank Fuller Avery (1862–1916) worked with the Colville Indian Agency between 1898 and 1916, at first as superintendent of the Indian Boarding School at Fort Spokane and later as inspector of Colville Indian day schools (Washington State University, “Frank Fuller Avery Photographs,” WSU Libraries Digital Collections, https://Content.libraries.wsu.edu/ digital/collection/ffavery, accessed June 5, 2020).

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people it will almost all pass away. There is certainly a fine rich field for investigation in this region and I am glad to say I have on this trip managed to prepare the ground for good work in the near future. I shall certainly try to put in as much time as I can in this region next year and I have no doubt of the good results. Since I came here I have collected vocabularies of over 500 words each of the Columbia (viz s.nkeiḗus), Colville proper and of its sub dialect the nesiḷᴇxtcī́ń (spoken by the Nespilem and San Poil people). These with the Okanagon, Spokane and Coeur d’Alene makes six vocabularies I have now collected. I have also got the former boundaries of the various dialects marked off exactly in the NW but there is some confusion yet re. the southern boundaries of the southern dialects as it seems [page 4] these have been different at different times. I find the dialects much the same as explained to me by the Coeur d’Alene[.] The Colville has three very slightly different dialects. The Southern dialect is that spoken by the Nespilem and San Poils. It occupies the Lower Okanagon River up to the Falls. Western boundary half way between Okanagon and Methow Rivers. It crosses the Columbia a little below Okanagon mouth crosses head of Grand Coulee taking in Wilbur on the east[.]23 [I]t does not cross the Columbia except at one spot immediately north of the mouth of Spokane River. On the West and south they are entirely surrounded by Columbias [,] On the North by Okanagons and on east by Spokane and Colville proper. This southern dialect of the Colville give[s] place to the middle dialect or Colville proper a little over 20 miles up the Columbia from Spokane mouth. It extends up to a little below the mouth of the Pend d’oreille River and takes in all the lower part of the Kettle River. Immediately above them on the Columbia is the northern dialect spoken by the .s.náitcᴇkstᴇx̣ [page 5] (Lake-trout people) who formerly occupied to half way up Arrow Lakes where they came in contact with the Shuswaps and with the Flatbows or Kootenay Lake people on Kootenay Lake below the outlet. As their dialect is said to differ about the same or a little less than that of the Colville proper from the Nespilem I suppose it will not be necessary to collect it (at least at present). The Colville dialects are pretty closely related to the Okanagon, but the Columbia dialect differs a good deal and is a well marked off dialect. The Indians say the grammar of it is more like the Thomp than Okanagon, but I cannot say this of the vocabulary. However both it, and the Colville have a number of words which 23. Wilbur is in Lincoln County, Washington, approximately thirty miles from Lake Roosevelt and the Grand Coulee Dam (see “Town of Wilbur,” https://www.wilburwa.com).

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are nearer to Thomp and Shus. than to Okanagon. The Columbias at one time were a very numerous tribe and occupied a large extent of territory[.] They all spoke alike excepting those of Methow River who used a very few words like the Okanagons and also a very few like the Nespilem. They occupied all the Chelan and [page 6] Wenatchie [sic] country their border (at least in recent years) being in the hills half way between the Wenatcie and Yakima River valleys). Their band of the Wenatchie have intermarried with Yakima and at the present time there are about six mixed Yakima families amongst them. They claim the country along this line down to just east of North Yakima about the Priest Rapids on the Columbia[.] Just below here around the White Bluffs are the most northern Yakimas on the Columbia. They tell me however they formerly occupied the whole valley of the Columbia right down on a line due south to the Umatilla River and across the Columbia at that point, and up the Umatilla Valley, but this country has gradually be[en] occupied by Yakimas and Umatillas. Formerly the Yakimas were in the West south of the Yakima River and and [sic] extending up along the Cascade mountains a [sic] some distance North and along the North side of the Columbia West to White Salmon River[.] I may be able to get more information about this later so as to make things perfectly sure.24

Teit to Boas, June 17, 1908 [?]. Fragments continuing letter. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121438.25

[Teit’s page 11] of the region were of the round type.26 According to universal account the Kekule house of exactly the same type as the Thompson was very extensively used by all the Salish and Sahaptin tribes right over to and

24. In the archived handwritten letters the current page ends abruptly, without sign-off or signature. 25. In the archived file of handwritten letters the pages that follow are attached to the letter of June 26. However, the letter of June 26 was written after Teit reached home, and these pages appear to have been written before Teit left Washington. In the following fragment, Teit has written, “The distribution of the kekule-house [sic] and the mat and skin lodges I already told you about in my letter from Nespelem,” an apparent reference to his letter of June 17, 1908. The numbers, “11,” “14,” “22,” and “23” placed by Teit at the top of the pages suggest they are pages from a much longer letter, which has not been found in complete form in the file, but may be Teit’s letter to Boas dated June 26, 1908. 26. In the top margin “All the birch bark baskets” has been written in pencil in another hand, apparently an attempt to provide a complete phrase ending in “of the region.” Of all the interventions, this is the only one which overtly attempts to assume Teit’s intentions. The section is bracketed, with “Birch bark baskets” and “Houses” in the margins.

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up the Snake and especially along the valley of Columbia and other places where wood was scarce and the climate often windy It was considered a great wood saver and the best kind of winter house. They were not as much used in some places after the introduction of the horse and the skin lodge and only the old people remember them actually in use. The conical mat lodge it seems was according to all the typical summer house of all the Salish tribes around here. The long or oblong lodge was generally only used at gatherings and the chief fishing places when numbers were congregated together for a common purpose. It will not be necessary for me to go to Wenatchee now as I have met people from there here. In about two more days I will return to Spokane and then from there go home. [page 12] I could get a good many specimens of old clothes, bags and caps here with old designs in bead work and also many woven bags and some coiled basketry, but from what inquiries I have already made it will take considerable time to get authentic information on these designs[,] the Salish and Sahaptin both having to be studied[,] so I intend to leave it until next year when I have plenty of time. I have bought no specimens here as I thought there was no use without first having a thorough understanding of the designs on them. If there are any points you desire further information on, or others I have not mentioned perhaps I can give you some enlightenment if you mention same.27

Teit to Boas. June 26, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121438. Dear Friend. I got back here yesterday. I will send you an account of my expenses very shortly, showing amount still to credit of the work. I will also send you a copy of the vocabularies I collected as soon as I can[.] I found awaiting me here the second draft of 500.00 for continuation of my work across the line. Shall I place same to my credit in the bank awaiting next year’s work[?] Please let me know. The money will not be required by me this year. I will be leaving here very early in August on a hunting trip in Cassiar with Hr. Oberlander and will not be back until November. After my return if all is well I will engage again [page 2] in the linguistic work for you, and continue at it as much as I can throughout the winter. This puts me in mind I should send in the 27. Teit’s page 12 ends with a final salutation and his signature.

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account of my time for this year on the Thompson texts, and words. I suppose I will be paid for it separate from the Washington Indian work, or do you desire me to remunerate myself for it also out of the balance of the funds I have on hand[?] In April I will be at your disposal for the work in Washington etc, and will continue at it until July. I think in three months time I can make pretty complete studies of various tribes to the south. As I have succeeded so well in making friends down there on this trip and picked out good Indians as informants I must if possible take full advantage of it. On the way home I met just inside the BC boundary a Thompson Indian who is married to a woman of the Lake Colvilles. They are the people who speak the Northern dialect of the Colville (the one I did not get). On my way to the States next spring I will first stop at the mouth of the Kootenay River where this [page 3] man lives, and obtain this dialect. He told me only two small families of these people live in BC now. The others having obtained a share in the North East corner of the Colville Reserve (lately opened part) and settled among their friends there. Formerly most of them made their home in BC He said I might be able to get a specimen of a bark canoe from them if I wished. Would you like to get one or two specimens of these[?] I was told I can also get specimens in use among the people of Pend d’oreille River. (viz bark canoes I hear the Indians in most parts are now covering their canoes with canvas instead of bark, and making dug outs and boats, so I suppose before very long the real bark canoe will be a thing of the past in this region as it now is in many parts of BC where formerly used.28 After getting this dialect I propose to go direct to Nespelem and make a good study of the people of that part on the lines of my Thomp. and Shus. work. I can also make a good study of the Columbias at the same place. The work there will cover all the Interior Salish of Northern and Western Washington. [page 4] The Okanagons I understand pretty well already, having spent most of a summer amongst them. I will then go among the Coeur d’Alenes and make a similar study among them (as fully as possible) [.] It will not be necessary to do work among the Spokane as they lie between the Columbias and the Coeur d’Alenes and I think anything particular regarding them will probably crop out when investigating these two other tribes. I expect however owing to their position they will have nothing different from what will be found either among the Columbias or the Coeur d’Alenes. I 28. The passage from “I hear” to “Western Wash . . .” has apparently been removed from the original letter, labeled “Teit Letter Spences Bridge BC June 26, 1908 LK Jan. ’31” and preserved with APS, ACLS Collection, Item 61. It has been re-inserted here.

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will thus have full information from a North central tribe (the San Poil or Nespilem branch of the Colvilles), an extreme Western tribe, formerly covering the largest area of any (the Columbias), and an extreme Southern tribe (the Coeur d’Alenes). I expect also to have time to visit the Pend d’oreilles on the River of that name and collect a vocabulary of their language. I also intend to make a collection of everything important I can get as far as the money goes. I probably will not have time to visit the Flatheads next year except you29

“Teit Letter Spences Bridge BC June 26, 1908 LK Jan. ’31.” Pages separated from original but labeled. APS, ACLS Collection, Mss.497.b63c, item 61.

[page 13] Salish and Sahaptin tribes of Oregon, Washington and Idaho right up to and including the Thompson Indians and Okanagons of BC. Woven bags were also made by the Shuswaps and Lillooet but it is not certain that any were of this type. Some evidently were not. Plain as well as ornamented bags were made in all the Salish tribes. These Sahaptin style bags were also made by the Wasco, and in some places stiff ones were made as well as soft, flexible ones. I also learned that woven grass caps were made and used by all the tribes Salish and Sahaptin right up to the Thompsons. The Okanagons claim the Thompson also made and used them although to what degree is not clear. They had similar designs on them to those used in basketry, the zig zag being a very common design on them. The distribution of the kekule-house and the mat and skin lodges I already told you about in my letter from Nespelem. Re. Canoes it seems the bark canoe of the ‘sturgeon nose’ or ‘Kootenay type’ was used by all the Salish tribes living in a bark country. The upper or Lake Colville used nothing else and this was the prevailing canoe down to near the San Poil. Among the latter they were replaced by a few shovel-nose dug-outs and rafts, but they [page 14] claim canoes were very scarce before the advent of iron tools[,] the whole San Poil tribe at one time having only two or maybe three small ones which were kept at regular crossing places on the Columbia [.] The Columbias used mostly shovel-nose dugouts and practically no bark canoes on the river. The Pend d’oreilles used the bark canoe almost exclusively, and it was also the common canoe among the Okanagons and possibly the Coeur

29. The letter of June 26, 1908, archived with the Franz Boas Papers, ends here. Pages 13 through 21 are preserved in APS, ACLS Collection, Item 61. Pages 22 and 23 are preserved in the Franz Boas Papers with the letter of June 26, 1908.

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d’Alenes. All the tribes used tule-rafts on the lakes and stiller water in the mountains. All their rafts both pole and tule were pointed the same at both ends. Re. bows. Both the wide flat bow fired horizontally and the narrow bow fired perpendicularly were used by all the tribes but it seems the first-named kind was the common style among the Columbias whilst east of Columbia River or in fact among all the other Salish tribes of Washington the last named kind was a great deal the commonest. Re. baby carriers it seems that some tribes formerly used bark carriers and buckskin sacks (made like a shirt) like those [page 15] in vogue among the Thompsons.30 At the present day the Sahaptin type of Carrier is used a long way north, but where the dividing line is between it and the present Okanagon and Thompson type of board I have not ascertained yet. When I wrote you last I told you I had got the tradition of the ‘split’ among the Thompsons. The Nespelem chief gave it me as follows and said he had been told it by his father, and all the old people in his tribe, and the Columbias knew about it as it was a well known tradition and they all believed it. “Once upon a time, long ago before there were any horses among the Indians, the Thompson speaking Indians lived in two main camps (according to his description about 15 to 18 miles apart). I do not know in what country this was but suppose it was somewhere in the center of the country between where the two parts of the tribe are now, for afterwards part of the people went one way, presumably north, and the other part in another direction, said to be south. The two bands of the tribe were holding a gathering of some kind, and many men of both [page 16] bands were sweat bathing together in a number of sweat houses along a stream. The story does not relate the number of sweat houses but we suppose there were several because there were many men sweat bathing. The weather was warm and many men sat around naked near the sweat houses. Presently a loon uttered its call (some say it flew passed [sic] crying) and a leading man of one band (some say of the band acting as hosts) remarked about the Loon’s [sic] cry. This started a discussion in which the same man declared the Loon made the cry with its mouth. Another man who was sweat bathing, and a leader of the other band (said by some to be a prominent man of the guests) asserted the Loon made the noise with its wings, and not with its mouth. The disputants took sides, and the argument got very heated, and at last from words passed to blows. All the men naked as they were fought, and others from the camp joined in. After a severe battle in which a number were hurt (it is not known 30. In top-right corner: Teit letter Spences Bridge Bc June 26, 1908, Lk Jan 1931.

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whether any was killed but probably some were) the gathering broke up [page 17] each side declaring in great anger they would never live near to, nor in the same country, nor have communication with the other. They left that piece of country each going a different way until they got a long distance apart, and beyond all chance of meeting each other. The northern portion (said to be those whose chief asserted the Loon made its noise with its mouth) are now on the Thomp River. The other portion at one time said to be very numerous are I think now somewhere between the Yakima and the coast east or southeast of Seattle. Individuals of them it is claimed are met with from time to time at the Yakima and Puyallup hop fields. I believe formerly these people lived further east on the confines of the Yakima country but later on crossed the mountains through some of the passes. They are said to speak the same language as the Thompson Indians but with a very slight difference, probably as much difference as between us and the Okanagons. I never met any of them myself. We call them and the Thomp. River Indians by the same name. I have met Indians from the Thompson River both [page 18] among the Okanagons and in my own country. I know a very few words of this language and know it to be Salixtcín and related to ours.” After I wrote to you from Nespelem I interviewed three of the Columbia tribe regarding the matter. One a man about 50 had not heard the tradition but said he understood there were yet or formerly was [sic] people called by the same name, and speaking the same language as the Thompson that lived on the Columbia ́ at Wîsxᴇm. He had never met them, nor did he know the Thompson language when he heard it. Another man interviewed was a noted orator, and aged about 65. He related the tradition practically the same as the Nespelem chief had given it, but said he thought the people were living on the Thompson River at the time. After the quarrel half of them ́ came south and settled in the Wī́sxᴇm country. They were a numerous people and talked the same language as the Thompson. Gradually through being apart a long time, and through intercourse with other tribes their language became different from the other Thompsons, but he [page 19] understood they could converse with each other. He had never met any of them as far as he knew, and did not understand either Wishram or Thompson. His tribe had always had the tradition about the split in the Thompson tribe, and the Thompsons on the Columbia and those in the north were called by the same name. At the present day there were not many of them, and the Nespelem chief was mistaken in saying they lived west of the Cascades. They had always lived east of the Cascades around Wishram. The third man 378 | 1908

I interviewed aged about 75 gave practically the same tradition as the Nespelem chief, but he said he had always understood the main body of the Thompsons at one time was on the north side of the Columbia in the district around Wishram and north to the Yakima River. At one time they were very numerous. After the quarrel a large portion of the tribe (those who declared the loon made the noise with its wings) went north and settled on the Thompson River. At one time the two tribes spoke the same language, but after they [page 20] had been apart a long time the language of each became a little different. Both tribes always were called by the same name. Those in the north afterwards became more numerous than those in the south[,] the latter having decreased greatly in number. He had never met any of them but had heard of some being met nearly every year at the Yakima hop picking. He did not know whether the present Wishram language was like the Thompson or not. He understood that those that separated were originally less in number than those that stayed in the old home. The Columbia territory at one time adjoined on that of those people. This tradition of a former division of the Thompson seems thus to be quite general in Washington, and there must be something in it. What is your opinion about it[?] I have not met any person who had claimed to have actually seen these people except one Nicola Indian and I may see him shortly and interrogate him farther. If any people survive in Washington speaking a language very closely related to the Thompson [page 21] I do not know where they can be. Perhaps inquiry among the Wishram themselves or the Yakima might throw some light on it. I understood the Wishram were Upper Chinook related to the Wasco and you tell me in your letter than they are. I suppose it may be possible that some small tribe having affinity to the Thompson may have been absorbed by the Wishram. When down around the Dalles I was told by one Indian the Wishram were really Klickitat and by another that their language and the Wasco was so closely related they could understand each other. The material collected for you there settles the question of the relationship of their language, but possibly there may remain some Indians among them or near them that talk the so called Thompson. I find that the three species of plants used by the Up. Thomp for thread are also used by the southern Salish tribes, also that the painting of clothes was universal and also the use of porcupine quills for embroidering clothes, bags etc. The Indians tell me that antelope and elk were formerly quite plentiful over a large portion of eastern Washington. It is also [page 22] interesting to note that the Colvilles use the word Salixtcī́ń as a term embracing all the Salish languages of the Interior including the Thomp and Shus[.] I was quite 1908 | 379

successful in determining the former boundaries of the various Salish dialects in the north, north western and central part of East Washington but I am not satisfied with all the information I got about their southern boundaries and I will have to clear up this matter next year. There is [sic] two reasons for this. Firstly there seems to have been a shifting of boundaries in that direction and Secondly [sic] the old men could not manage to explain to me exactly some of the boundary lines owing to a lack of knowledge by them of the present names of places in that region as known to the Whites and printed on the map. I will manage to ascertain this correctly by taking more time and drawing sketches of the natural features of the country in the several places. I will send you a map showing what I have ascertained re. these boundaries I may say I look forward with great interest to the work I will undertake in that region next year.[page 23] PS I had no time to collect myths on his trip but I learned enough to know the region is rich in such and I will probably get a good collection of them next year. It seems that in early days the conical mat lodge seems to have been the most common type of lodge among all the Interior Salish including also those of BC. The oblong mat lodge was also used especially at fishing places and at gatherings. Only in the forested and wetter regions the square bark lodge largely took its place. I do not think the conical lodge can have been adopted from the Athapascans as none of the Athapascan tribes of BC use it. The lodges of the Chilcotins, Carriers[,] Tahltan, Cascas etc. are all of the lean-to type. The Athapascans also did not make mats with the exception of the Chilcotins who probably learned this from the Shuswaps. I told you in a former letter the Kekule house according to tradition was used by all the Southern Salish and Sahaplem tribes especially in the main river valleys.

Teit to Boas. June 30, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121439. Dear Friend. I received your letter last night stating you were going to Germany. I sent you a long letter two days ago, addressed to Columbia University. I have now started to make out a copy for you of the vocabularies collected by me on the trip. I forgot to tell you the Colville dialects have an ‘f’ occurring in a few words. In English words they generally make ‘f’ 380 | 1908

into ‘p’ and ‘p’ into ‘f’. I sent a receipt to-day to Treasurer of Columbia College for the last $500.00 and have sent in the draft to-day to credit of my a/c in Kamloops. Also have given you credit in my books I hope you will have a pleasant holiday in Germany.

Teit to Boas. July 28, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121440. Dear Friend. I am sending you to-day (or to-morrow) copies of the Salish vocabularies to your address Columbia University (by Reg. mail) 19 sheets of three pages each (foolscap) I have added the Northern dialects for comparison so there are nine dialects in all. viz Lillooet, Thompson, Shuswap, Okanagon, San Poil, Colville, Columbia, Spokane, and Coeur d’Alene. A comparison of these shows that the Okanagon, San Poil and Colville are very closely related and form a group by themselves. I have taken down a list of all words missing in these lists, and will fill up the gaps in all of them as soon as I can. Missing words in Shuswap and Okanagon I will obtain next winter but the American dialects cannot be improved [page 2] until I go out again next year. I am making up a further list of some 400 important words which I will get filled in next year, and thus we will have some 1000 words of each dialect for comparison. I have added some notes to these vocabularies, but as I have done this in a hurry they are not very full. After examining the vocabularies you can return them to me sometime if you so desire, and I will enlarge these notes a great deal. I see very many words in all the dialects which I can explain in the way of giving derivations etc. and this will throw light not only on the construction of words, but also help to show the manner in which the dialects have come to differentiate from each other. It will also be noticeable by examination there are several regular interchanges of sounds or letters which take place between tribes. I have included with the vocabularies a list of the names given to nearly all the peoples known to the several tribes and these are also in [illeg] [page 3] along with the vocabularies[.] I have sent in my accounts balanced to date, and also a map of Washington chalked in colors showing the former habitat of the people speaking the various dialects. I have supplied explanatory notes to the map so you will be able to see at a glance all I have so far learned re. the former disposition of the tribes. Next year I hope through extended inquiry to complete my knowledge of this matter, so it will be possible to 1908 | 381

reconstruct with certainty the former relative positions of the various tribes at a time before the arrival of the first Whites or as far back as tradition goes. I will also be certain to get a vocabulary of the Lake dialect (very closely related to the Colville) and a vocabulary of the Pend d’oreille and perhaps others. I also wish to mention I have now on hand some 20 baskets collected here during the last two years, showing designs different (or distinct variations) from any hitherto [page 4] collected. Some of the designs are interesting and important. I will sell these baskets to the Heyes Collection if you desire and ship them in November as soon as I return from hunting. I have also two or three other specimens on hand, but they are not of particular importance.

Teit to Boas. August 15, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121441. Dear Friend. I am leaving for the North to-day. I wrote you some time ago saying I had forwarded to you copies of the vocabularies and map showing distribution of dialects in Eastern Washington. No doubt you will receive them all right. I saw Father Lejeune lately, and he informed me a very ancient graveyard had been discovered lately near the upper end of Little Shuswap Lake. Part of it has been laid bare by a slide. The Indians there claim they know nothing of the people buried there, and were until lately unaware of its existence[.] They would probably offer no objections to some work being done there. Myself I believe this place to be an important point for investigation as it seems the region from the West end of great Shus [illeg] Lake around the mouth of Adams River and [page 2] down the South Thompson some distance is the place from whence the Shuswap people gradually spread over their present territory. This particular region is called Sexwapmux ͇ ū͇ ́lôx (Shuswap country) by all the Shuswaps, and the people of same Sexwápmux ͇ ṓē ͇ (real Shuswap). I saw a woman of the Sp Bdge band who makes woven baskets sometimes, and she informed me (re. your query) the stitches of the pattern are always counted by her, and are regular, but the stitches between the designs she never counts, the arrangement being done entirely by the eye. She says she was taught this way. Also that beginners always make circular baskets at first. I hear Father Morice is to attend the Anthropological Congress at Vienna.

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Boas to Teit. November 17, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121422. My dear Friend,— I received your letter last summer in Berlin, and I have delayed replying because I knew that you would not be back until this time. I regret to say that the registered letters which you have sent me, containing the account of your journey, have not reached me. Since all my registered mail this summer went astray and has been returned to the senders, I presume the letters must be in Spences Bridge. Will you kindly send out a tracer, and let me know the results. I hope you had a pleasant and successful summer. Your “Shuswap Indians” is not out yet; but the index is printing, and I think the volume will be published about New Years.

Teit to Boas. November 20, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121442. Dear Friend. I returned a few days ago from hunting up in the Cassiar Country. I have a couple of weeks deer hunting to do here, and then I will be through, and in position to go on with the Indian work. I received a few days ago—returned from the dead letter office—the vocabularies I sent you (of some 700 words each of the Lillooet, Thompson, Shuswap, Okanagon, San Poil, Colville, Columbia, Spokane and Coeur d’Alene), my a/cs up to August, and a map (with notes) showing the habitat of the various peoples speaking the aforesaid dialects. I forwarded this MS. in August before [page 2] I left for North—registered and addressed to Columbia University and I do not see how it failed to reach you. I wrote at the same time to your address in Germany. I hope you had a pleasant time in Europe and while attending the Americanist Congress in Vienna. While out hunting in Cassiar I heard told and wrote down two traditions of the Tahltan and got a few additional notes on their customs and beliefs. I also had a long talk with Adset a guide up there who has a fair speaking acquaintance with the Tahltan language and knows a little of the Casca and other Nahannie [sic] dialects and Cree.31 He lived for years among the Western Cree and afterwards had charge of HB Coy trading posting among the Nahanni and also at Teslin Lake. 31. “George Adsit, who was of German-American ancestry, was married to a Tahltan woman named Aggie” (Thompson, Recording Their Story, 43).

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He has always taken a lot of interest in Indian languages and customs and has a good memory for what traditions he has heard. [page 3] I got him to give me the boundaries of the various dialects of [t]he Nahanni and these I marked down on a map. This makes the whole of Northern BC clear to me. I find that the interior bands of the Tlinget occupy even more territory than formerly I stated to you[,] occupying as they do all of the Big Salmon River. In talking with Adset he told me ‘the Raven talks to his excrements, and is answered by them in Tahltan stories’. That the Western Cree have a story in which the culture hero pretends to die, and afterwards marries his daughter identical with a Shuswap and Thomp. story. Also that both the Cree and Nahanni have a story in which the culture hero makes his penis cross a river and enter a girl. I tried to persuade Adset to write down (this winter) what he knew of Cree, Liard River, Casca and Tahltan stories but although he promised to try it I am afraid he will not do it, owing partly to [page 4] illiteracy and partly to the difficulties in following the life of a guide and trapper. Rev. Dr Inglis32 of Telegraph Creek has been writing down some Tahltan stories at the request of Liet. [sic] Emmons33 but he has only collected a few and tells me he will not have time to do any more of that work. Anyway he would not be able to get at the heart of the thing like Adset. I will now close hoping this will find yourself and family in the best of health.

Boas to Teit. November 25, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121423. My dear Friend,— I received your welcome letter of the 20th of November to-day, and I presume you have my note in which I told you about my failure to receive the vocabularies, etc. I am very glad to know that this material is safely in your hands, and I trust you will kindly send it to me. I do not understand at all what happened to my mail this summer, but all 32. Dr. F. Inglis was a Presbyterian missionary who arrived in Telegraph Creek, at the junction of the creek and the Stikine River, in 1905 (Chapple and Raptis, “From Integration to Segregation,” 131–62. 33. George Thornton Emmons published “The Tahltan Indians.” A former U.S. Navy officer who had retired with the rank of lieutenant, Emmons was frequently referred to as “Lieutenant Emmons.” Eighteen months later Teit wrote to C. F. Newcombe, “I suppose Liet [sic] Emmons must be writing up the Tahltan myths Dr. Inglis the Missionary at Telegraph Creek wrote down for him. I believe they are a fair collection, but last summer when I was there Inglis told me he had collected next to nothing on general ethnology and had not time to continue” (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence, Teit to Newcombe, April 27, 1910).

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registered matter went astray. In sending the material to me, please send it in the old wrappers, because I am trying to follow up the failure of the Post-Office to deliver this material. If you have time, I hope you will kindly write down the Tahltan stories of which you speak. I shall be very glad to print them in the “Folk-Lore Journal.” There are about two more forms on the index to Vol. II to be printed, and then your “Shuswap” will be out. I hope to be able to send you the complete volume in the course of this winter.

Teit to Boas. December 2, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121443. Dear Friend. Your letter came to hand yesterday. I had destroyed the wrappers of the material I sent to you before your letter arrived. I remember it was stamped as returned from the Dead Letter Office. I forward the vocabularies, map, notes, and accounts to-day just as when I sent them to you last summer. There is no change in the a/cs, and will not be until the New year as I have done no work for you since I made them out, nor incurred any expence [sic]. I have a number of Thompson texts on hand which I have not had time to translate yet. I think the map shows very correctly the territories wherein the various Salish dialects were spoken so far as Eastern Washington is concerned from lat. 47. North. The older boundaries of some of the dialects south of this line [page 2]—the boundaries of the dialects to the east in Idaho and Montana, and the boundaries of the Sahaptin tribes are probably not as correct but next summer’s work will likely make sure of these. Anyway all the boundaries are as near as I could place them from all the best available information I could gather last summer. The vocabularies of the Lillooet, Shuswap and Okanagon are not as full as the others but I will fill up the gaps here this winter the first chance I have with members of these tribes and will forward same to you. The vocabularies show the English words I have chosen for the purpose of comparison of the various dialects. The notes on words I have added are not so full as I might make them as I wrote them out in somewhat of a hurry last summer owing to my desiring to send the matter in to you before going hunting. I can however write out these more fully [page 3] whenever you wish. I will write out the two Tahltan stories some time soon and send them to you for the Folk Lore Journal. I am glad to here [sic] my 1908 | 385

Shuswap paper will be out soon, and also that you will send me a complete copy of Vol. II. It might be of advantage to me to receive a copy of HJ Spinden’s paper on the Nez Perce34 printed Amer. Folk-lore Journal and also Harlan Smith’s paper on the archaeology of Gulf of Georgia and Puget Sound [.]35 If you can get these two papers sent to me I will be much pleased. The former may have some bearing on my work among the Salish of Eastern Washington and Idaho. PS If HI Smith’s paper will be in Vol. II which you are going to send me, there will be no need of sending a separate copy.

Teit to Boas. December 6, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121444. Dear Friend I am sending you to-day the two Tahltan traditions I spoke of. One is Historical and one Mythological. Hoping they will reach you all right.

Teit to Boas. December 16, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121445. Dear Friend I just received your letter and hasten to answer same. The entry numbers of the registered package I sent you was 841. It was mailed and forwarded from here Aug. 3rd It returned from Washington (Dead Letter Office) to my address and was received here Oct. 29th[.] No record of number on arrival here.

Boas to Teit. December 22, 1908. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121424. My dear Friend: I was very glad to receive your letters and the registered package containing the results of your last summer’s work. Your account of the distribution of the tribes of the interior is very instructive and makes the whole ethnography of that region much clearer. I hope you will be equally successful next summer and clear up also the eastern part 34. Spinden, “Myths of the Nez Percé Indians 1,” 13–23. 35. Smith, Archaeology of the Gulf of Georgia and Puget Sound.

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of the Salish territory. I have also looked over your accounts and I want to ask you to pay your Smithsonian account for the time being out of the funds in your hands which will leave us free to utilize the material that you have obtained one way or another. You also wrote me about a collection of baskets that you have.36 I should like to suggest that you take the price of this collection out of the funds which you have in hand and keep them subject to my order. In case anything should happen to me, they would be subject to the orders of Columbia University. I trust you will be able to give a good deal of time this winter to the work on the Thompson language and add to your collection of texts. At the same time I wish very much that you shall find time to follow up the basketry question.37 I suggested last winter some lines of inquiry that have hardly ever been followed out and which you are in an excellent position to take up. If you could talk over as many different types of patterns as possible with the makers and find out in considerable detail how the pattern is laid out, that is to say how the first colored stitches are put in and how the zig-[page 2]zag lines, diamonds and triangles are planned out so as to meet as evenly as possible, our understanding of this whole matter would be much helped. By asking these questions you would also get a clear description in regard to the way in which they have the pattern that is finally to be made in mind—whether they call it simply, let me say, a fly pattern of so-and-so many stitches, or a snake pattern, or whatever else it may be, and whether the form or combination of forms is clearly before their minds, 36. This appears to refer to the collection Teit has been making for Sargent. On December 12, 1908, Sargent wrote to Boas, “If you have no particular plans for the baskets Mr. Teit has on hand they might be kept at Teit’s place for the present and their cost charged against the funds he has of mine. He [page 2] can figure out their designs in his pamphlet on basketry if there are any new or rare ones among them and he wishes to do so. Afterward I will look them over for my collection and any I do not want can go with the other things to some museum. . . . Speaking of the specimens collected by Teit and the various museums, I might say that I feel very kindly toward the Field Museum here in town and with the new building which they will build, they will have a fine opportunity to keep things in sight for study and not packed away. You can count on another $500 between now and the middle of April for the continuation of this work besides the extra $100 for Teit for baskets” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107047). Although construction of a building for the Field Museum to replace the Palace of Arts which had housed the museum since the World’s Columbian Exposition was actively contemplated in 1908, construction did not begin until 1915 (“Field Museum Architecture,” https://www.fieldmuseum.org/about/history/architecture). 37. On December 18, 1908, Boas replied to Sargent’s letter of December 12, “I am writing to Mr. Teit in accordance with your wishes and I shall ask him to pay as much attention as possible to the basketry matter during this winter” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107027). In this request to Teit on December 22, 1908, Boas appears to be articulating his own interests in regard to basketry.

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by a combination of a number of technical terms or whether it is simply the form itself which they see before their mind’s eye without such a help of terms. It is or [sic] course difficult to give a definite suggestion for an investigation of this kind from a distance but I think you understand from what I have said what I mean. Any conversations between women about plans for patterns they intend to make will, of course, be helpful. I trust you will let me know from time to time what you are able to do in the development of this38 subject.

38. Added in pencil in Teit’s handwriting at the bottom of the second page of Boas’s letter of December 22: “only when all surface imbricated count stitches other were done by eye. Design laid out in mind only partly by technical form.”

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Fig. 10. A series of hand-drawn diagrams of basketry design motifs, with English and Nlaka’pamux accompanying terms, written on the back of Boas’s letter to Teit dated December 22, 1908. At the bottom is a handwritten note: “SmElaux learned some designs from Thompson. Intermarried a little long ago several from Thompson family settled among.” In his letter to Boas dated June 14, 1909, Teit writes that “SmElaux,” a term used by the Nlaka’pamux to designate Klickitat, is derived from a Cowlitz term for Klickitat.

1909

Boas to Teit. January 22, 1909. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121426.1 My dear Friend, Many thanks for the catalogue of specimens and the accompanying letter, which contains much interesting information. In noting down the details of the method of weaving used by different women, will you not be as specific as possible? You mention, for instance, that some of the women, who are not very expert, make only two or three designs. I wish you could get from as many women as possible, quite accurately, just what designs they make, and also the critique of other women of their work. Take, for instance, a basket from your collection that is not done very regularly and get the women who are really good basket-weavers to criticize the work. I think in this way the points that we are after will come out very clearly. It seems to my mind that the error in the whole treatment of the design question in recent literature lies in the fact that designs have been treated too formally and too little from the point of view as [page 2] they appear to the makers.2

Teit to Boas. March 23, 1909. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121545.3

re. gathering information on basketry and basketry designs. For this I would have to go to Yakima Reservation. However I will do the work as you outline according to which is most important to you at the present time. I enclose two letters I received lately from Dr. Seler.

1. Written on Columbia University Department of Anthropology letterhead. 2. Boas may have had in mind Mason, “The Technic of Aboriginal American Basketry”; Kroeber, “Basket Designs of the Indians of Northwestern California”; Farrand,” Basketry Designs of the Salish Indians; and/or Dixon, Basketry Designs of the Indians of Northern California. 3. This letter is a fragment, written in Teit’s hand and microfilmed as page 3 of Teit’s letter to Boas of May 28, 1909. In the top left-hand corner is a note: “Teit letter Spences Bridge BC. March 23, l909. Original under Basketry. LK Jan 1931. The rest of the letter of March 23, 1909, has not yet been found.

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Berlin Museum. One is concerning the purchase of a bark canoe, and the other (german one) seems not very important. The writing in it is so bad I cant make it all out altho I had the assistance of two Germans to decipher it. If you are in a hurry for further details re. construction of basketry and designs I can make a special trip of three days either to North Bend or Nicola and try to find out all you want. We are having very fine sunny weather here and altogether a nice spring. Hoping this will find you quite well and your family also.

Boas to Teit. March 29, 1909. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121427. My dear Friend,— I was very glad to receive your letter of the 23d of March. It is a pleasure to learn that you will be able to devote more time to the research work this summer; and I can place at your disposal the sum of $500, which will give you enough leeway so that you do not need to cramp your work too badly.4 I am looking forward with much interest to the linguistic material that you are going to send to me. If you have time to run down to North Bend and get some more information on the basketry this spring, I should be very glad, because I should like to think over the replies that you are sending me to formulate the further line of inquiry.5 The rest of the plan suggested to you suits me very well. I only think it might be better to put off the work in Montana until next year. I think you have gathered enough information in regard to the general distribution of tribes to allow you to add the missing information on the Eastern tribes at a time when you can devote more study to that particular field. Therefore [page 2] your plan to work out the ethnology and mythology of the Colville region seems to me a very good one. I wish, however, that you could spare enough time to go down to the Yakima Reservation to make a little headway with the special basketry inquiry. 4. In the first quarter of 1909 Homer Sargent sent to Columbia University $1,000, a subvention for Teit’s work for the years 1909 and 1910, and noted that a further $100 for baskets would be “turned over to Teit in a few weeks” (APS, Boas Papers, Sargent to Boas, March 16, 1909, text 107049). Sargent also noted that in a letter sent to Sargent on December 21, 1909, Teit said that he had been approached with substantial offers of work as a hunting guide in 1909, but told Sargent, “This is over six months under good wages and expenses paid but I do not care to go as I have promised to continue the Indian work for Prof. Boas across the line and although I do not make much at it I would like to go on with it.” The correspondence between Teit and Sargent has not been located. 5. North Bend is a village in the central Fraser Canyon.

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For some reason or other your Shuswap paper has not been bound yet, although it has been printed for quite a long time. I think, however, it must come within a very short time. It was delayed for a long time on account of the index to the whole volume. We are all very well here. I am at present engaged particularly in getting out the collection of Indian grammars on which I have been working for a long time; and this, together with my other routine work, keeps me tied down very much indeed. The enclosed letter from Dr. Seler dated the 10th of February, was evidently intended for me, and must have been sent to you by mistake.6 He inquires about the chance of your getting and shipping a bark canoe of the Kootenay type to the Ethnographical Museum in Berlin.7 Do you think you can do so while on your trip this summer? The Museum of course will pay any expenses connected with the acquisition of the specimen.

Teit to Boas. April 6, 1909. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121446. Dear Friend. I received your very welcome letter of 29th ult. and am glad to hear you have funds on hand for my work. I have lately received $100.00 from Mr. Sargent to purchase specimens of basketry for him under some arrangement between him, and you. I believe the baskets I bought for him with this money is [sic]to be at your disposal for examination, and illustration or photographing etc. If I got to the Yakima region I think it will be best this year for me to miss out the more eastern parts of the Salish territory altogether this year including the Coeur d’Alene and confine myself to the more Western part which I will endeavor to work as completely as possible for general ethnology, and mythology. I will make my headquarters at Nespelem, and work the San Poils and Columbias[.] It will not be very far away from there for me to visit the Yakimas, and the Chelan band of the Columbias for basketry. To reach Nespelem I have practically to pass through Spokane City, and going 6. Eduard Seler (1849–1922) had graduated with a PhD in Leipzig in 1887 with a dissertation on Mayan languages. In 1903 he was appointed head of the Department for America at the Berlin Ethnological Museum (Vicenz Kokot, “Short Portrait: Eduard Seler,” Interviews with German Anthropologists, http://www.germananthropology.com/short-portrait/eduard-seler/383, July 2012, accessed March 6, 2022). Seler and Boas had a long established correspondence, dating at least from Boas’s research with the BAAS (Rohner, Ethnography of Franz Boas, 136, 173). 7. Staatliches Museum für Vö́lkerkunde.

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there I will take the Arrow Lake route stopping at the mouth of the Kootenay River which is right on my route to collect a vocabulary of the Lake dialect of the Colville, and buy a canoe if possible. If I cant get one there I can no doubt get one by going up Kootenay Lake to the Flatbow which is not far but will consume about three days time. I will then proceed to Spokane and right direct to Yakima and Nespelem. When I return home I will likely come by way of Okanagon Falls and the Similkameen. I expect to be able to locate the American Thomp. Inds this summer from information I got since I came back here[;] I think they are near the Columbia but not as far south as I thought [page 2] last year, and as the eastern Salish led me to believe. I got a tradition about them from a Lytton man lately. I also met a Thomp. Indian who had met two of them at the Okanagon hop fields last summer, also an Indian from Similkameen visited them last summer, and a Columbia Ind. was visiting in Nicola lately and the man he visited told me the Columbia said he lived close to the Thomp. down there. Yet from none of these informants have I been able to get the exact location of their country. I am working on a very long text just now. I have written down several thousand Thomp. words ready to send you whenever you are ready for them. I have more texts on hand than I will be able to translate properly by the end of the month. I have also written down a great many notes on Thomp. ethnology to go into a supplementary work on the Thomp. whenever you want same written. I will take a short trip to either Nicola or No Bend before I leave, to solicit further information on basketry (the points you suggested). If you send me 300.00 or 350.00 of the money you have I think it will be plenty considering the money I have on hand, and the 100.00 Mr Sargent has sent. I sent some notes on hammers and sinkers to Mr. Harlan Smith lately which may interest you. Hoping this will find yourself, and family very well.

Boas to Teit. April 12, 1909. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121428. My dear Friend,— Many thanks for your letter of the 6th of April. I quite concur with your plan that you suggest for work this summer. While of course it is desirable to investigate the question of the location of the Washington Thompson Band, I would suggest that if it proves as elusive as it has done up to this time, you do not spend too much time on that particular 1909 | 393

subject; while, if the information seems promising, it would be right to verify the report. I understand, then, that the distribution of the eastern Salish will be left until next year, and that you will concentrate your attention upon the region around Nespelem. In accordance with your suggestion, I have asked to-day that the sum of $300 be sent to you. If necessary, I can send you $150 more for this year’s work. I shall be very glad to receive the linguistic material of which you speak, and I shall look it over with a great deal of interest. I think the most important linguistic material to obtain are texts rather than vocabulary. I shall try, in the course of this year, to send you some more grammatical questions which will help us to unravel the structure of the language. [page 2] Mr. Sargent wrote to me in regard to the basketry, and I agree to his proposal that he should take the baskets, with the idea that your collection of inland basketry, and the information that you have gathered, should later on be published. I do not know exactly whether he wants to have the baskets sent to him now, and I will write to him and inquire. If he asks for the collection, kindly send it to him. I feel that it is very desirable to get out the supplementary work on the Thompson Indians; and if your notes are so full that you think the time has come for compiling it, I shall be glad if you will send it to me. I have at last taken up again work on your Lower Thompson, Lillooet, and Nicola mythology, which was left uncompleted years ago by Dr. Farrand, and I hope that it may be possible to print it in the course of this year. Although I completed the proof-reading on your Shuswap memoir as early as the 16th of January this year, the bound volume has not come yet. I have ordered a set of the whole volume for you.

Teit to Boas. April 20, 1909. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121447. Dear Friend, I received your letter of 12th inst. a few days ago. I am going to the Coldwater Reserve in Nicola to ask the questions about basketry that you suggested and also to find out some more about certain basketry designs if possible.8 I start to-morrow and will be gone four days. Re. the additional information on the Thompson, it consists of 8. The Coldwater Reserve is located in the Nicola Valley.

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more detailed information I have collected on a number of points but slightly made mention of in my former memoir on the Thompson, and altogether it will throw more light on nearly everything in connection with the tribe. A good deal of it consists of inform-[sic] [page 2] on old designs such as those used in body and face painting and tattooing, designs on basketry, shields, weapons, clothes, drums, utensils etc. which I have ferreted out during these years and some of which is now impossible to obtain owing to the best posted people on these matters having died in recent years. There will also be something to add under the head of each chapter of my former memoir. Notwithstanding all I have gathered there is always some few new items I pick up each year and it will continue thus I suppose. However what I have now on hand might be of value to print in the near future. At least the portion of it that deals with certain subjects most fully. If you desire it I will commence writing it out, and send it to you as soon as I come back from hunting this fall. I will have no time to do it before. I have just finished 32 pages of text work and am now working on a very long story of “the Lytton girls [page 3] stolen by giants” which will run into about 50 pages, and I am doubtful if I can finish it before I leave for the States. Any way I will send you the one I have finished before I leave. It is a very good one for showing the grammatical construction of the language. Some new points seem to be brought out in each story however. I am glad to hear you are fixing up the Low. Thomp. Nicola and Lillooet mythologies[.] Among the myths I am using for texts are some different ones (new ones) from any I have sent you before. They are from the Spences Bridge division. Most of the myths however are only slightly different variants from the ones you have already got. Most of them contain a great deal of talk about very little. The thread or main points of the story could be put into small compass, but this is the usual way they tell stories here, and of course it is better for conveying an idea of the language. This is unlike [page 4] the methods of the Foxes in telling stories according to Mr. Jones.9 One thing I wish to mention to you for I am not certain if I told you before and it is of value to know viz. all the Salish of the Southern Interior in Eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana of whatever tribe, have a common designation for their languages as a whole, and this name is the same as that applied to the Salish proper or Flathead of Montana. This also includes the Okanagon 9. William Jones (1871–1909). Born in Oklahoma to a Fox mother and a non-Native father, and raised by his Fox grandmother until he was nine years old, Jones received his BA from Harvard, and his PhD from Columbia, where he was a student of Franz Boas in 1904. He was a specialist in Algonkian languages.

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of BC, even those of Douglas Lake in the Nicola District. Take for instance a Coeur d’Alene, a Columbia, a Colville and a Spokane and an Okanagon. They call themselves and each other by their tribal names and their languages or dialects are also often called by these names, but all clearly recognize their languages of whatever dialect as Sálix (with the suffix tcin or tcEn for language). The Salix of Montana [page 5] talk the real Salix they say, but all their dialects are Salix tcin also although they differ from each other. The Nez Perce, Blackfoot and Coast languages are not Salix tcin at all. Neither are the Shuswap and Thompson. They say of the last two that they are not Salix tcin but like it, and thus recognize the relationship. From this it seems to me these people consider the Flathead of Montana to speak or to have at a former time spoken the proper or purest dialect, in the same way as the Indians here refer to the Lytton people as being the original Nʟa and to speak the correct Nʟa. tcin.10 The Shuwaps refer to the people at the West end of Shuswap Lake in the same way (or Little Shuswap Lake and neighborhood to some distance West)[.] I suppose the money will be along in a few days. I may say that I heard a report of [page 6] small pox being in Eastern Washington and accordingly I wrote there to find out about it. Just previous to my receiving a reply there was 54 cases among the Indians at Nespelem, and cases in other places in that region. Although I am not much afraid of the disease myself I am afraid of getting quarantined down there and not able to leave when I want, and for this reason I may be forced to give up the work for this year around Nespelem and put in my time at Coeur d’Alene or some other place. I enclose the Agents letter.

Boas to Teit. April 26, 1909. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121429. My dear Friend,— I have just received your letter of the 20th of April. Unless the smallpox in western Washington has abated by this time, I should not advise your going there, and I should much prefer that you should use this year for determining the dialects of the eastern Salish, and settle down there to collect detailed information on mythology, etc.

10. Abbreviated term for Nlaka’pamuxcin; that is, Nlaka’pamux language.

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Boas to Teit. April 29, 1909. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121430. My dear Friend:— You asked in your last note about the additional information relating to the Thompson Indians. Of course I should be very glad to have it any time when you may be able to write it out, and I hope that it will be possible to publish it without much delay. There is one point in regard to the design question that I do not think I mentioned in my previous letters. I should like to know more accurately what the Indians mean when they speak of dream designs, and more particularly of geometrical dream designs such as occur in basketry designs. I should be very glad if you could get detailed information showing what they mean by this term—whether it means that it is a representation of an idea conveyed in a dream, or whether they believe to have seen a design in a dream and merely execute the dream invention. The matter of course is not quite so clear among the Thompson Indians as it is on the Plains, where dream designs play a very important rôle; but nevertheless I think it is worth while inquiring about.

Boas to Teit. May 14, 1909. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121430. My dear Friend,— Many thanks for your letter of the 8th of May, which contains interesting information on dream designs.11 You have not informed me whether the money which was sent to you from the University has reached you. I had it deposited to your credit in the Canadian Bank of Commerce, Kamloops.

11. Letter from Teit to Boas, May 8, 1909, does not appear to be in the APs Library files.

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Teit to Boas. May 17, 1909. Postcard. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121448. Nelson BC. Have finished in this district for the present and am going to Spokane to-morrow morning. Will write you fully very soon (From Spokane the day after to-morrow if possible).12

Fig. 11. Postcard showing “Chilkat Chiefs in Dancing Costume.” The photograph was taken in Alaska by Lloyd V. Winter and Edwin W. Pond at Klukwan before 1895. It shows Coudahwot and ye ɬ·gu ̩ x̣ú. From Alaska Historical Library, Juneau, PCA 87–295, reproduced in de Laguna, “Tlingit,” fig. 8. Teit to Boas, May 17, 1909.

12. The photograph was taken by Lloyd V. Winter and Edwin W. Pond at Klukwan, Alaska, before 1895 and shows Coudahwot and ye ɬ ·gu ̩ x̣ú (PCA 87–295, reproduced in de Laguna, “Tlingit,” 215, fig. 8).

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Teit to Boas. May 20, 1909. APS, ACLS Collection, Mss.497.3.b63c, item 61.13 Dear Friend I wrote you a post card from Nelson. Next day I came on to Waneta ( just about a mile on the BC side of the Boundary Line) at the mouth of the Pend d’oreille River where it falls into the Columbia. I had been told there was an old Indian graveyard discovered here some time ago, and many things taken out of it, some of which were probably still around there. As it was right on my route I thought I would stop off in case anything of value might be picked up. I visited the graveyard. A house now stands on part of it. While excavating and flattening off the ground for the building they dug into bones, and took out a good many skeletons (bones and skulls said to be large). The people living there say they think there are more burials remaining which were not disturbed. The white man who did the excavating sold and gave away all the ‘grave goods’ he found, and the skulls and bones were broken up, and scattered around and some probably reburied so nothing remains around now but small fragments. None of the articles found are now at Waneta so I saw nothing of value. From the description given me a large number of very good green stone celts were dug up, and some stone war club heads and spear and arrow heads[.] Some other things I could not identify from the description. Yesterday I came on to Spokane and to-day drew money from the bank, and will leave early to-morrow morning for Yakima where I will endeavor to investigate the basketry as well as I can. When I come back from there I will go to Coeur d’alene Reservation where I will settle down to do ethnological work, collecting of mythology etc. I expect to be there a month and about the beginning of or early July will go among the Pend d’oreilles, S.nī́āĺ ᴇmen and Flathead (Salish) to collect vocabularies and investigate their old boundaries, and will pass up into Kootenay and on to Nelson. When I left home I came straight through to Nelson, left my baggage there and went out to hunt up the small band of Indians who were reported to live right at the mouth of Kootenay River. I found them without much trouble and I took up my abode with them, staying with them four days and nights. I questioned them on all the most important matters I could think of and wrote down a vocabulary of 900 words of their language. It agrees with what the Indians of the Sans Poil etc. told me last year viz that it is a dialect very closely related to 13. Teit is writing from Spokane, Washington.

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the Colville. These Indians are Lakes as I stated to you last year. They speak exceedingly slow and measured and it is often difficult to say which syllable in a word has the accent on it. The [page 2] last syllable of some words is sounded very faintly and often hard to catch. They are nice people and treated me fine. All the old men of this band are dead so I got all my information from two women. They were glad to see a white man who took an interest in them, and who could talk the Thompson Language, and understand some of their own. I made notes on a number of things here, and saw some specimens. Their snowshoes are the same as the Thomp. I bought a birch bark basket and stone hammer here and ordered two more bark baskets to be made. In the specimens I saw the grain of the bark is up and down or at right angles to the rim, and the stitching at the ends is in two places instead of one. The rim rod was inside and sewed with a zig zag stitch, whilst the rest of the stitching was straight.

I learned that the people

formerly made (on looms) rabbit skin blankets, and goats hair blankets. There was no ornamentation in these by working in designs with colored material. They were made plain without any designs. Dog hair was never used for making anything, the breed of dog being the same as those of the Thomp. Shus. and Okan etc. viz (the Interior species resembling a coyote). Woven coiled basketry they claim was also made formerly by them, but it was all plain without imbrication until maybe about 80 years ago or less when designs were sometimes used in white and black (the material was a kind of grass obtained in high mountains. They could not define it well to me but said the Kootenay of Kootenay Lake used the same stuff in making designs on baskets and they may have learned it from them. When going home through Kootenay from the Flathead country I will stop off near Kootenay Landing and find out about this point. They gave me the name of an old Lake man who lives among the Kootenay there and is said to be very well posted. They also told me the Kootenay Lake Indians had two very old baskets among them. I also found out that the Lakes formerly used kekule houses with entrance from the top by a ladder. They say the same in every way as the Shuswap k.h., but generally small to accommodate only one or sometimes two families. They went out of use a long time ago. The women who told me this had never seen one, only the sites of them but the mother of one and the grandmother of the other had lived in them when young. The coiled basketry was of the round type—the most 400 | 1909

common shape was like a pail with straight sides, others had the mouth wider than the bottom more like some wooden buckets of the whites, others were very large mouthed (like the boiling baskets of the Thomp.)[;] some were shaped like bowls and basins and others were somewhat nut shaped, that is to say they were narrow at the mouth and bottom and bulged out between. Some were shaped like cups without handles. All these kinds were circular. The only other kind made was a low, long oblong shaped basket with rounded edges (evidently a similar form to the Thomp. ‘stlū́k’. Those like the common present day ‘square’ type of the Thomp and Lill with corners were not made and in fact were never seen until lately. [End of page 2] PS Lakes say they formerly had a severe war with the Kootenays. At last the Lakes defeated them in a big fight and since then the Kootenays and they have been good friends. It looks like as if the quarrel was about the Slocan mouth fishery. The Lakes say the Shuswaps were good fighters formerly and their war parties sometimes passed through the Lake country to attack the Kootenays of Kootenay Lake. They had no wars with any other tribes.

Teit to Boas. May 20, 1909. Letter fragments copied from the original.

The original segments are missing and there is no indication in the ACLS files of the order in which they appeared in the letter.

FRAGMENT 1 The bark canoe was the only kind used by these people [Lake Indians at the mouth of the Kootenay River]. It was of the ‘sturgeon nose’ type. This is still the only type used, but nowadays oiled canvas is generally used instead of bark [. . .]14 The Indians there told me the Kootenays now employed all canvas and that only at Arrow Lake or on the Upper Pend d’oreille might I be able to obtain a good bark one. I then decided it would be best to order a good large one made at Kootenay mouth, the bark just now being in proper condition for peeling . . . It seems that the bark of the white pine is mostly used if not altogether

14. This, and the similar sequence after “peeling,” may indicate that the copier omitted a passage from the original letter.

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FRAGMENT 2 Board carriers for babies were the only kind used. These were of two slightly different types, the kind without hoop being the older FRAGMENT 3 Grass caps were not made, nor any kind of bark clothes. Bark bags were made in great numbers excluding the Nez Perce type made of Indian hemp twine, but without ornamentation. They say these bags were ornamented only by the Indians further south and by the Kootenays etc. A large kind of bag was made of cedar bark. FRAGMENT 4 Besides the k.h., their houses consisted of mat, bark and birch lodges. The latter were only temporary and used by hunting and traveling parties. The bark lodge was used a good deal, as in most parts of the Lake country good bark could be obtained. These were made in the spring when the bark peeled. The strips of bark were put on perpendicular. Mat lodges were used a great deal. The most common shape of a lodge was the conical. The square lodge with poles leaning in (looked just like a conical lodge only the poles did not all join at the top) was also used, and the long lodge. The latter was the kind used at gatherings, and by large groups of visiting people at fishing places. This style of lodge was never used by single families or by people when at home. No skin lodges were used although among Colville proper they were used. FRAGMENT 5 Bows were of two types. The kind with double bend similar to fig. 218 Thompson being the common kind. The flat bow similar in shape to 216 and 217 Thompson was also used to some extent. It was the most common kind among the Kootenays. FRAGMENT 6 Correction of a mistake made re Shuswap Boundaries on Arrow Lakes The Kootenay mouth people say emphatically that the Arrow Lake band are their own kin and speak the exact same language as themselves. They have intermarried from time to time with Shuswap and in a less degree with Kootenay. At the present time the Arrow Lake band is made up of some 24 who may be called Lakes, and one Shuswap (from Spallumcheen) and one Kootenay (from Kootenay Lake[)] both 402 | 1909

women married there making about 26 altogether. They were all mentioned by name to me and some of them are cousins and other relations to the Kootenay mouth band (the latter numbers eleven– 10 Lakes and 1 Thompson). I took down a list of all the former villages of the Lakes in BC, that is to say regular wintering places. These number 19, 12 of them between Waneta and Revelstoke along the Columbia and Arrow Lakes and 7 in the Slocan district (Slocan River and Slocan and Trout Lakes). There were two villages on the Kootenay River, one at the mouth and one at the mouth of the Slocan River. They had no permanent camps above the Falls of the Kootenay viz Bonnington but they claimed the country for hunting and fishing purposes to about 6 miles E. of Nelson on Kootenay Lake. They also had no permanent camps north of Revelstoke although they claimed the right to hunt and trap a few miles north of Revelstoke, but the country from a little north of Revelstoke (about 15 miles N and beyond) was considered Shuswap. The latter tribe was always on good terms with the Lakes and often hunted and fished with them. They very seldom wintered on any part of the Lakes or River however. Numbers of them came across the mountains to Revelstoke where sometimes in the fall there were as many Shuswaps as Lakes. At the end of the fishing and berrying these people went up the Columbia on trapping and hunting expeditions or returned to Shuswap Lake. The other place where the Shuswaps reached the Lakes was by the Fire Valley trail to Lower Arrow Lake. They sometimes stayed most of the fall hunting caribou or fishing. These people came from Spallumcheen and generally returned home for the winter. To the south the Lakes the Columbia [sic; verb apparently missing from copied fragment] to about Marcus where they say the Colvilles began.

Boas to Teit. May 25, 1909. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121433. My dear Friend,— Many thanks for your letter from Spokane, dated 20th of May. I am very much interested in what you say. Your information in regard to the Arrow-Lake band agrees with what I got from the Indians at Revelstoke.15 The vocabulary that I got there is closely related to that

15. Hyphenated in original letter.

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of the Okanogan, although somewhat different, since it belongs to the Lakes Division.

Teit to Boas, May 28, 1909. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121545.16 Dear Friend. I have just returned from my trip among the Yakima. There is a fine field for study on the Yakima Reservation. The bulk of the people are Yakima but the Klickitat and Tenaina number nearly as many. The remains of the Wishram are also there, and a few Wasco, Cowlitz and Wenatchie. All these languages are spoken. My object in going there was to find out the meaning of the basketry designs, and to obtain information re. the distribution of imbricated and other basketry in that region, as you had directed. Accordingly I confined myself to the objects in view, and did not endeavor to solicit much information on general ethnological points. I made enquiry however concerning a number of things which were of special value to my mind and I obtained some interesting information. I am glad to report my trip has been quite successful so far as the main objects are concerned. I obtained the names, and descriptions of twenty basketry designs which embraces nearly all the specimens in your photos. There are two or three designs in the photos for which the Indians had no special names but I got even a partial explanation of these. So complete is your collection of designs from this area. I only saw two which were different. I did not see any use in buying baskets there and thus duplicating the designs and forms you already have specimens of, so I only bought two baskets one because of the weave, and another because of the design. No doubt if I had gone all over the Reservation examining the baskets in every house I might have come on a few more showing different designs not yet obtained, but I had no time for this as I want to make a [page 2] detailed study of the Coeur d’Alene this summer. It takes a long time to go over the ground on the Yakima Reservation and look at specimens, the houses are so very scattered, and there are so many. It is 40 miles between the extreme ends of the settlement. It would take the most part of two weeks with a horse and buggy working hard every day to cover the reservation. I believe a good number of old stone implements

16. Written from Spokane, Washington. On letterhead of “Hotel Tieton Strictly First Class, W. B. Ross, Proprietor.”

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might be picked up there in a house to house visitation. Any way Sargent’s money may come in good for buying basket specimens among the Wenatchie and Chelan (both Salish and basket weavers) up the Columbia next summer. These people will have to be visited, and I expect some interesting information from them on basketry and other matters concerning themselves and the Shahaptian. I visited seven different basket weaving experts of the Klickitat tribe, and went over all the basketry designs etc. with each one. There was practically no variation in their names for designs. All the common ones are well known. A few designs the names of which were unknown to the six were told to me by one woman who had special knowledge, and had a large collection of baskets on hand. The agreement of these people re. names for designs could hardly have been better. There was some confusion only with variation of the ‘gill’ ‘leg’ ‘zig zag’ and ‘step’ designs which appear to run into each other. I also visited some Wishram, Wasco and Yakima. Unfortunately all the best informants of the latter were away. (A large portion of the Yakimas being out in the lower mountains gathering and branding horses and digging bitter root.) For this reason I was not able to collect reliable explanations of the wallet designs. The soft wallets were made almost entirely by Yakima and the Klickitat, Wishram, and Wasco could only guess at the meaning of the designs in most cases. I will keep the basket photos until I get home in case I may need them to get explanations of designs among the Salish etc. I will send you what I obtained among the Klickitat as soon as I can.

Teit to Boas. June 4, 1909. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121546. Dear Friend,17 I have been here among the Indians for nearly a week, and am getting along very well so far. I am making inquiries on general ethnology, along the lines of all the subjects treated by me in my papers on the Thomp and Shuswap, and am glad to say I am obtaining pretty full information. I have copies of my papers along so I do not miss anything, and have also copies of Lowie’s Shoshone and Spinden’s Nez Perce so I can look them up, and enquire re points seemingly peculiar

17. Written from De Smet, Coeur d’Alene Reservation, Idaho.

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to these tribes.18 I am collecting stories dealing with localities as I go along, and when through with my enquiries will try to collect as many myths as I possibly can. [page 2] To-day is a church day among the Indians who are all Catholics here, and I cannot do any work until afternoon. Another bad? [sic] thing which will happen about the 16th is the visit of the Bishop of Idaho and as the Indians are to have quite a celebration while he is here, this I expect will knock out my work for about a week. I may in the interval go back to Spokane, and up to Newport or neighborhood, and try to get a vocabulary of the Kalispel or Pend d’oreille, and come back here again to try and finish up. When in Tekoa19 I sent you a letter (in two envelopes) giving the information re basketry designs etc. etc. that I gathered on the Yakima Reservation.20 One very good thing here is that the old people have a pretty distinct knowledge of conditions among the Coeur d’Alene before the advent of the horse, and some good light is thrown on the changes wrought in their mode of life, and social customs etc. by the introduction and use of the horse. Here they assert distinctly they got their first horses from the Pend’ Oreille [sic] or Kalispel and not from the Nez Perce. [page 3] The Shoshones and Flatheads at one time were friendly and occupied all the country from Missoula and Helena down to the Yellowstone Park. The Shoshones seem to have got horses first, and the Flatheads soon afterwards from them. The Kalispels who were very closely related to the Flatheads soon obtained them from the latter and from them they passed to the Coeur d’Alenes and probably Colvilles. Horses also came in very early by the Walla Walla route but the Coeur d’Alenes assert they had horses quite as soon if not sooner than the Nez Perces and certainly sooner than the Palouse. However they did not at first make quite as extensive a use of them as some other tribes as they were largely a fishing and mountain tribe, and part of their country was rather heavily timbered, and not quite so suitable as some other countries for horses. Moreover they did a good deal of their travel by canoe, and horses were not required by them to the same extent as among the Spokane etc. for instance. However they assert the horse was a great boon to them also, made their life easier, and finally resulted owing to their position so near the buffalo country in making them regular buffalo hunters almost like the Flathead. 18. Lowie, The Northern Shoshone. 19. Tekoa is located in eastern Washington, near the Idaho border. 20. This letter is not among the letters in the APs, Boas Papers.

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The first guns came in by the same [page 4] route as the horse but at a later date. The Blackfeet and Crows (not acting in unison) attacked the Shoshone and gradually drove them out of part of the Country occupied by them. These attacks were later followed up by Sioux and other tribes. Then the Blackfeet attacked the Flatheads but the latter drove them off. Later a combination of plains tribes attacked the latter but with no better success although there was much hard fighting. It seems then the Flatheads encouraged the Coeur d’Alenes, Spokanes, and others to come into their country and act as allies. Later a quarrel arose between the Flatheads and the Shoshone and a combined force of Flatheads, Pend’d oreilles [sic], Coeur d’alenes and Spokanes defeated a large band of the more eastern Shoshone some place in the Yellowstone Park[, and] captured all their buffalo meat, tipis and baggage and most of their horses. Formerly buffalo ranged throughout all the Flathead country right up to the eastern flanks of the Bitterroot, and many years ago two were killed in eastern Washington on a hill near Tekoa. If you wish to communicate with me you can write to c/o of ‘Sisters’ the above address and towards the end of the month c/o Hotel Aberdeen Spokane[.] After about the 25th to 31st, it might be better to address Spences Bridge. In case I get short of money before getting home you can send the $150 to Kamloops bank. I can use my own checks inside of BC. PS I will write and let you know where I am from time to time. PS When will Smith be in Montana and in what part. Also is Spinden among the Nez Perce now.

Teit to Boas, June 14, 1909. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121547.21 Dear Friend. I have considerable time to-day so thought I would drop you a line, and let you know how I am getting along. Whilst I have been working I have made very good progress, but unfortunately I have had to lose considerable time owing to numerous Catholic church days, and preparations for the arrival of the Bishop. The Coeur d’Alenes are all gathered here now, and also some Spokanes—altogether about 750 and when church is not on, then games are going full swing (mostly

21. Written from De Smet, Idaho, Coeur d’Alene Reservation, on Tieton Hotel letterhead, which Teit apparently carried with him.

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Baseball—the Indians having three teams and White teams from neighboring settlements come here to compete with them.) I have waited the last three days to see if any Pend d’oreille would turn up (some were expected) but none of them have come and now the Indians say they will not be. I am therefore leaving on to-days stage and going to Newport and Cusick to collect a vocabulary of their dialect etc. for I can do no work here until after the Bishop leaves. I will come back here as soon as I get through among the Pend d’oreilles. Re. manufactures These Indians claim they never made woven goat hair blankets. (goat skin blankets were used sewed into robes)[.] The only woven blankets they made were of musk rat skins cut into strips, twisted and woven. These belonged to the old style of dress before Buffalo hunting became the main occupation of the tribe. Women’s grass caps were woven of Indian hemp twine, and covered with elk grass[.] This grass was often dyed, and designs worked in white, yellow and green [page 2] colors. Red, blue and black were also occasionally used. (all native dyes)[.] Flexible baskets were also made, and the flat wallets. The latter were formerly made in great quantities, and before the days of colored wool, and corn they were covered with the same materials as the caps. A great deal of coiled basketry was made formerly. The material used was cedar roots. They were all circular in shape (so far as I have learned yet) only a few of them were imbricated. It seems barks were not used in imbrication (excepting possibly willow bark)[.] The common material being the inside bark of the cedar used its natural color or dyed black, or occasionally red or brown. The mortar basket was used but not the winnowing basket of the Nez Perces. For winnowing a bag made of Indian hemp twine was used woven rather loosely, and after the mouth was fastened the bag was struck against a smooth rock or beaten with sticks until the roots were clean. A woven basket was made of cedar roots and Indian hemp string combined. Mats of all the kinds on the Thomp. were made. Berrying-baskets were made of cedar bark (rough ones) and birch bark (neat ones). Bags were also woven of cedar bark, and of two other kinds of bark (unidentified)[;] from description I judge one kind to be elaeagnus and the other bark of dead willow trees. Rushes were also woven into bags. Mats were also woven of cedar bark (think square weave) and some open work baskets were made of cedar twigs. The exact manner in which the latter and the cedar bark mats were woven is uncertain, as no one now living has seen any. In fact all these articles went out of use with the exception of wallets and caps and a few baskets soon after the tribe became buffalo hunters, and many of these things the old people now living never saw and therefore cannot 408 | 1909

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

describe in proper detail. At the present time there is said to be only one or two old women living who know how to make coiled basketry, and they have not made any for many years. Porcupine and perhaps other quills were used very much for ornamenting of clothes and were also employed in ornamentation of basketry and caps and bags (it seems also in imbrication)[.] [page 3] Hide bags (with long fringes) and parfleches, were made and used a great deal. They were made and painted by women. Painting was done in Red, brown and yellow. [T]o a lesser extent blue and green were also used. These were all native colors. The paint was made fast by rubbing with heated beaver tail. No cactus grows in the Coeur d’Alene country. The making of these bags was learned from the Flathead, and they were not used by the Coeur d’Alenes until horses became numerous and buffalo hunting common. Horses were obtained first from the Pend d’oreille (or Kalispel)[.] Carriers long ago were made of birch bark a good deal higher at the head than the foot and no hoop was used with them. In these the baby was kept in fine rotten bark (which was repeatedly changed) also partly wrapped in skins until about three months old when it was changed to a board carrier similar to the present style. When older the child was carried in a skin carrier in warm weather and on the mother’s back enfolded by a robe in cold weather. Whilst on the board a pad of skin was drawn down on the child’s forehead to keep the head from moving and the body was kept partly rigid by the laced buckskin flaps. As soon as the child awoke the head pad and lacing were loosened somewhat to give it freedom of movement. They say that the child’s head would move too much and it might hurt its neck when asleep (and the mother walking etc.) if the head was not kept from moving with this pad. They claim here they never intentionally deformed children’s heads although they think this pad in the hands of a careless mother who did not pillow the baby well etc. sometimes flattened the childs head slightly. The Nez Perce also used these they say, and a few of them intentionally flattened their children’s heads[.] Pipes long ago were almost all of the tubular form. Before the skin tipi came into use their lodges were as follows[.] No kekuli houses or earth covered lodges of any kind were used. Mat and bark lodges were the only kind [page 4] of dwelling houses used. The bark lodges were oblong in shape and the [illeg] was strips of cedar put on perpendicular with the inside of the bark in. [illeg] most common family house was the circular mat lodge. Large oblong mat lodges were used at gatherings and and [sic] as dance houses. Lodges for the winter were excavated slightly and the earth banked up around the base. Bark canoes were the only kind used. They 1909 | 409

had sharp points like those of the Lakes and Shuswaps etc. Those of the Pend d’oreille and ‘S.niálᴇmen had square points. The Salish proper and the Spokane had no canoes at all until after the Whites came when they made rude dug-outs. Rafts of poles and tules were used by the Coeur d’Alenes in places where no canoes were available. Re. moccasins those with one side seam and two kinds with seam down front were the only kinds used long ago. Of these they think the kinds with seam in front are the oldest. The kind with separate sole came into use after the introduction of the horse and buffalo hunting, and the kind with round toe like fig 170 Thomp. were introduced by the Whites and the Coeur d’Alenes call them White man’s moccasins or Chippewa moccasins. The style of dress resembled the Plains style in many points before the introduction of the horse but after buffalo hunting became common it became modified so as to resemble it exactly. Re. boundaries and tribes the Coeur d’Alene affirm nearly all they told me last summer. The boundaries they assign to the Nez Perces agree very well with those given by Spinden. They say the Palouse were a small tribe with head quarters at the mouth of the Palouse (hence their Coeur d’Alene name) and they occupied a narrow strip of country running east along the Palouse as far as Moscow which was their eastern limit. Below them on the Snake right to the mouth were the Pásxepó which the Coeur d’Alenes think were the people called Cayuse by some of the Whites. On the Wallawalla River from the mouth to the head were the Walawalas [sic] and [illeg] all the Umatilla over to the Grande Ronde were the Umatillas. These tribes were all closely related through intermarriage and spoke slightly different [page 5] dialects. They don’t know why the people at the mouth of the Snake should be called Cayuse by the Whites[.] They think Moses tribe (Salish Columbias of the east side of the river) should be called by this name, and formerly were so called by some Whites. The Spokanes and Columbias had several wars with the people of the Palouse and the mouth of the Snake but the Coeur d’Alenes never warred with these people. Long ago they had wars with the Nez Perce[,] Spokanes and Pend d’oreilles and they sometimes sent expeditions against the Kootenays. I got a list of all the former main winter camps or villages of the Coeur d’Alenes and I find they went down the Spokane River further than I allowed them on the map of last year. Their most westerly camp was a little below Green acres which places their western boundary within 15 miles of Spokane City. They got their salmon supply mostly at Spokane Falls where they bought part of it, and were also allowed to fish. They also fished Salmon on the northern head waters [page 6] of Clearwater opposite Nez Perce 410 | 1909

territory. They controlled these streams for hunting and fishing purposes. This was from east of Moscow up to the main range of mountains towards the Lolo Pass. They claim the Flatheads of the Whites are in three divisions speaking very slightly different dialects[.] The Pend d’oreilles or Kalispels occupying the River and lake of that name up to the North end of Flathead Lake. The ‘S.niálᴇmen of Lower part of Flathead Lake down to Missoula and the Salish in the country from Missoula to Helena and some distance beyond. The Spokanes belong to this group also as they speak a very closely related dialect[.] In the sign language the Spokanes were ‘salmon eaters’ (sign of ‘eating salmon’ made) and the Pend d’oreilles and ‘S.niálᴇmen ‘paddles’ (the sign of ‘paddling’ as in a bark canoe made)[.] The Salish sign was the right hand placed on right side and top of the head, meaning not known. The Yakima had the sign of ‘pressed head’ both hands pressed down on the head. [page 7] The Coeur d’Alenes had the sign of ‘wide bow’[,] the Columbias east of the River (Moses’ band) the sign of being ‘squeezed’ (or wedged in), because it is said they were surrounded and squeezed by other tribes[.] Perhaps ‘wedged in’ would be a better term to use. The Kootenays had the sign of ‘deer robes’[.] I got the signs for nearly all the tribes from the Thompson across the mountains and out over the Plains. The sign language used long ago appears to have been a good deal similar to the Thomp. but it became modified owing to contact with the Plains tribes, and the present sign language is largely borrowed from that of the Crow according to the Indians[.] Trading appears not to have been so important with the Coeur d’Alene long ago as with most tribes and intermarriage with other tribes comparatively slight. Slave children were sometimes bought by the Coeur d’Alene from the Palouse. They were mostly Utes obtained by the Palouse [page 8] from tribes further south probably originally captives of war. It seems the Coeur d’Alenes were an isolated tribe living very much by themselves at one time, and this probably accounts for their well marked dialect and physical characteristics etc. The other Interior Salish all claim the Coeur d’Alene language is the hardest they know of to learn, and hardly any of them speak it. The Coeur d’Alenes speak Spokane to other Salish or use the sign language. A number of them can also speak Nez Perce. The priests here all speak Spokane, and none of them can preach in Coeur d’Alene. I forgot to mention when I sent you information re. the Yakima etc. there is another branch of these people called taítnapám who speak somewhat different from the Klickitats. They are the branch that has been a long time in the Cowlitz country. Also that the Thomp. name Smᴇláux or Smaláux for 1909 | 411

the Klickitats is a Cowlitz word either from Smā́laux (mixed) or Sxmálaux (people).

Teit to Boas. June 28, 1909. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121548. Dear Friend.22 I visited the band of Pend d’oreilles or Kalispels located in Washington, and collected from them a vocabulary of the same size as that I got from the Lakes. They number about one hundred under an old chief called Marcellin and their original home was along the Pend d’oreille River between Albany Falls (a little above Newport) down to Box Canyon, also Kalispel Valley in Washington and Priest Lake. They are a band which refused to go on any of the reservations. Now the government are going to give them allotments along the east side of the River as far south as Indian Creek, and down to about nine miles below Usk. This band live very much in the old style, work very little on the land, and dress a great deal in the old style. They are all uneducated. Formerly another band of Kalispels occupied the River from about Albany Falls up a long ways with head quarters around Sandpoint in Idaho. They used Pend d’oreille Lake and neighboring country coming in contact with the Kootenays in the North and Coeur d’Alenes in the South[.] The Washington band had most intercourse with the Spokanes, and they also bordered on the Colvilles, Lakes and Kootenays. There appears to have been a third division east of the Idaho Kalispels who stretched over to Flathead Lake. The Idaho division shifted on to the Flathead Reservation a number of years ago. These Indians have a good many bark canoes in daily use all of the ‘square point’ kind. Those used by the Coeur d’Alenes, Lakes, Kootenays, Shuswap etc. were all of the ‘sharp point’ or ‘sturgeon nose’ kind[.] If you have not got a specimen of the kind used by the Kalispels I could easily get one next time I come into Washington. There is [page 2] practically no difference between the types except that the square nose kind has the point at each end cut off square, and enclosed in birch bark. Some of the peculiarities I notice in the Pend d’oreille dialect are as follows. The hard ‘r’ found in Okanagon, Colville, Lake, Sans Poil, Columbia and Coeur d’Alene does not occur. It is generally replaced by ‘l’. The ‘r’ similar to that in

22. Written from De Smet, Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation.

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the Thomp. occurs occasionally. ‘k’ in many words becomes ‘t’ or ‘tc’ ‘t ̠’ explosive is very common.‘x’ in many words becomes ‘c’ ‘l’ is sometimes dropped as in the Thompson. ‘st’ .‘lst’ and ‘x’ at ends of words are frequently dropped. I asked them regarding a few things. No bark clothes of any kind was [sic] formerly made. The first horses appear to have come from the Flatheads. No goat hair blankets were made, but blankets woven of rabbit and muskrat skin, were made long ago. The common lodge long ago was the circular type made of tule mats. Oblong lodges were also used as large temporary camps, at gatherings and as dance houses. Women’s caps and wallets made of Ind hemp twine were formerly made in great numbers. I did not manage to get anything very satisfactory re. cedar root baskets and therefore I cannot state for sure whether they were made, altho it seems likely they were. Rough cedar bark baskets were made and also small birch bark baskets of the ordinary type among the Coeur d’Alene and Kalispels and some other neighboring tribes (I saw one made by the Lakes)[.] The grain of the bark was at right angles to the rim and not parallel to it as among the Shuswap etc. No kekule houses with entrance from the top were used, and it seems very doubtful if any kind of earth covered lodge was in use. The bow with double curve was used entirely. Bark carriers were never used for babies they say. Boards only used as far back as known. The religious or praying dance called .snko.wíɬᴇne [page 3] from description the same as among the Thompson was danced until not long ago. No salmon ran up the Pend d’oreille River and they procured most of their salmon in trade from the Spokanes and Colvilles. Some of them were allowed to fish salmon at Kettle Falls and others at Spokane Falls. I got the boundaries of the Washington band, but all the boundaries of the Idaho and Montana bands I did not get clearly and I hope to get them when I go to the Flathead Reservation. The Spokane dialect is so close to the Kalispel they can understand each other, but the Colville and Lake is so much different they have much difficulty even when each knows a little of the others language. I lost two days time in Spokane on the way back as I got sick with a bad diarrhea and had to see a doctor. I have had nothing of that kind for over twenty years so it came as a surprise to me. I got rid of it completely about three days ago. I have been here a week, and have finished up the general ethnology as far as I can do it at present. I have gone pretty well over the entire ground but some details remain to be worked out. It took me all the time I have been here to do this without making much attempt to collect stories so the latter has to be done yet. However I obtained a number of short stories dealing with localities—land and 1909 | 413

water mysteries some war stories, and a few regular mythological stories. These consist of 1. ‘Coyote snaring the wind’ 2. ‘Heat and Cold’ and ‘Hot and Cold wind peoples’ 3. ‘Origin of death’ 4. ‘Arrow-chain’ 5. ‘The following head’ 6. ‘Ascent of Coyote’s son to the sky’ 7. ‘Coyote breaking dam and liberating salmon’. All these are very similar in essentials and even in many small details to the Thomp. equivalents but the people I was working out the ethnology with were not very well posted on stories and those I got have the appearance of being a synopsis of the full stories and some are quite short. I also got the story of Coyote conquering the monster that drew people into his mouth with his breath and several star, sun and moon stories all of them short but clear enough. Four is the mystic number in stories and ceremonials. Coyote is the general culture hero, benefactor and trickster [page 4] combined. The Indians claim the ́ only other transformer in their mythology is ‘spoxanī́calt who traveled over the world and finally became the moon in place of Coyote who formerly was the moon for a while but was deposed owing to his foolishness. This man the Indians liken to Christ of the Whites and from their description he appears to have been much the same as the ‘oldone’ of the Thomp. and Shuswap. He performed only that people should be benefited and through pity and it seems never tricked people. I got the names for all the shapes of woven basketry formerly in use and a description of a few of the imbricated designs 1. Common round shape (like ordinary carrying basket of Klickitat.) These had a tapering bottom 2. Also circular with a wider mouth 3. Round kind drawn in at mouth (nutshaped). None of these with necks were used although known and called by same name as 3. 4. Circular with almost straight sides and flat bottom. The Thomp name for woven basket and the Coeur d’ Alene name for this type of basket viz 4. are evidently the same tseʻá. or tseʻế and tsetsḗa respectively. A variety of No. 4 going by the same name had flat bottom[,] was made low and elongated or oblong but the corners were rounded. Like the Thomp. .sʟū́k No baskets of the type of the common square cornered kind used by the Lillooet and Thomp were made or even known. Flexible baskets were all of one shape and birch bark baskets also all of one shape. Cedar bark baskets were of three shapes. All the latter were made roughly and without ornamentation. Rims of birch bark baskets were sometimes ornamented with beading in white black and red (by drawing strips of bark and quills under and over the stitching)[.] The grain of the bark was at right angles to the rim as already stated for the Kalispels. Animals, manitous and various objects in nature were occasionally talked to or prayed to by individuals 414 | 1909

as among the Thomp. etc. but the deities prayed to by every one[,] the whole tribe in fact[,] were Amó.tkᴇn and the Sun. [page 5] Amó.tkᴇn seems to have been a kind of earth god. The first fruits of berries etc. were offered to him, and he was prayed to for good crops etc. It seems He [sic] lived in the mountains and looked over all the country or earth. The sun was prayed to at a dance held for the purpose. Inds expected to get success, protection etc. from him. He was also much prayed to individually by warriors. The Coeur d’Alenes had a number of dances. 1. Shamans dance and 2. Common dance at feast when presents given etc. These were practically individual and not tribal dances (in which the whole assembly or a large number joined.) The latter kind of dances consisted of 1. Sun dances danced several times a year (possibly 4 times) Prayed to sun. No torture etc. 2. Praying dance danced once a year in January. (similar to Thomp Religious dance.) These were religious dances. 3. War dance 4. Scalp dance. Both in connection with war. 5. Marrying dance. (Similar to Thomp. Etc.) 6. Squaw dance (goes under two names) 7. Medicine dance. This was semi-religious and a good deal similar to Shus and Thomp[.] A kind of potlatch feasts were in vogue similar to that on the Thomp. in essentials. It seems doubtful if this has been imported from the Coast but seems rather to have been a development from the common feasting and exchanging or giving of presents prevalent among all the plateau and probably also plains tribes People were buried in rock slides mostly; ground burials were also common. These methods were the only ones for disposing of the dead. There were some restrictions or taboos in connection with death and puberty etc. but much less than on Thomp. as far as I can find out. I got very few names of designs on painted parfleches. The Indians claim very few of the designs on parfleches and bags had names and some of these few are now forgotten. Same with designs on wallets and baskets. The forms of marriage were very similar to those of the Thompson. Coeur d’Alenes believe in giants, and two kinds of dwarfs. Thunder is a man with wings that stays in the high mountains. He formerly [page 6] wore a feather robe and used to kill people. A transformer got hold of this robe, tore it up, and curtailed his powers for evil. Women shamans were nearly as plentiful as men. 1909 | 415

Shamans used to sing and blow. Never danced nor used masks. Men did not speak to their mother in laws, nor women speak to their father in laws. It is interesting to learn that small stone images of animals, birds and men were often made and kept in the houses. Most of these figures were of men, and all represented the personal manitou of the maker. A few were made which were more for ornament than as an image of the manitou but even these were ‘mystery’. I am leaving here this afternoon for Spokane. Will go from there to a camp of Indians at mouth of Hangman’s Creek to collect a few words I am short of, and ask a few questions about southern boundaries etc. I think I can do this in one day. After that I go to Montana on the Flathead Reservation where I expect to put in about a week. I will write you re results of my work there first opportunity. I see by the newspapers Harlan Smith is going expected presently to the Coast to do some work between Puget Sound and Alaska during the remainder of the summer.

Teit to Boas. July 4, 1909. Letter. APS, ACLS Collection, Mss.497.b63c, item 61, text 297394. Dear Friend I arrived here on the evening of the 1st and have been working the last two days. This is Sunday and the priest is holding church to-day, otherwise I would be working to-day as my man is not a very strict Catholic. The priest comes from the Mission every second Sunday and I just happened to strike it wrong. Unlike the Coeur d’Alenes the Indians here are not all church goers.23 The Fourth is to be held on Monday and the Indians are to have their procession on that day. Every man woman and child mounted, and all dressed up and painted after the old style and their horses also bedecked and painted. They have made their camp circle already. I counted 67 tipis in it this morning and there will be some more. There were 111 tipis in it last year. A similar performance is going on at the Mission. On Tuesday they start dancing and before the end of the week will give four or five dances including the war dance and scalp dance. The majority of the Indians here live and dress as much as possible after the old style. A large number of Kalispels and Kootenays have come here and to the Mission for the dances and four 23. Teit’s return address: Jocko, Flathead Reservation, Montana. “Jocko Reservation” was the original name of the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana. (“Jocko Indian Reservation (Montana),” https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Jocko_Indian_Reservation_(Montana), last edited March 31, 2021).

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lodges of Shoshonies arrived a few days ago. The man I am working with is a remarkable Indian of about 75 years of age, and very well posted.24 Besides talking a number of Indian languages and dialects he speaks very good English, French and Chinook. He loves to talk of the olden times, and when a young man traveled over all the country east of the Cascades from Sacramento River in California up to Lillooet in BC. He was one of the party that went from H.B. Coy post at Colville to look for gold on the Thomp in 1856. They went via Okanagon Lake and Nicola. Next time he went there was via Shuswap Lake, Kamloops and Savona to the Fountain. He has also been over most of the NW plains country many times. He is such a nice man to work with I feel like staying with him and working out information all summer, but I will have to tear myself away in a few days and go to Kootenay mouth. I have now got all the eastern Salish boundaries made clear, and am in the middle of writing a vocabulary and am also getting some other information of importance along the lines of the preliminary inquiries such as I made among the Lakes, Kalispels etc. The Salish is very close to the Kalispel in its vocabulary [page 2] not any more difference than between Sans Poil and Colville (if as much). It does not have the Okanagan sound.25 My informants tell me the Fur Traders called Flathead Lake people Pend d’oreilles and the tribe from the Pend d’oreille River Kalispels and the Salish (who lived to the south) Flatheads. These three tribes with the Spokanes speak one language in four very slightly marked off dialects forming no barrier to conversation. In like manner the Okanagons, Sans Poils, Colvilles and Lakes spoke one language, also in four very slightly marked off dialects forming no barrier in conversation. This makes two main Salish languages in the States[,] an eastern and western[,] closely related but still sufficiently different to make conversation very difficult except individuals speaking them understand some of each other’s languages. Standing apart from these to the south and west are the Columbia spoken by the Columbias and Wenatchis which seems on the whole to 24. Teit’s primary contributor in this work was Michel Revais. Reviewing Teit’s work, TurneyHigh (The Flathead Indians of Montana, 6) suggested that as a person of dual heritage, Pend d’Oreille and Euro-American, Revais had not been qualified to contribute information about the Flatheads. 25. Steven Egesdal, a linguist with extensive expertise in Salishan languages, who was consulted about this sound, suggested, “Teit might have meant an h-like sound (such as a hard h), not a nasal-sound, to try to capture Okanagan velar fricative /x/. Colville-Okanagan has an /x/; Salish does not. PIS [Proto Interior Salish] *x developed into Sp-Ka-Pd’O-Bt/Fl /š/ historically. Treating the symbol as /x/ would seem to fit with Teit’s description (Steven M. Egesdal, email to Andrea Laforet, September 16, 2019).

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show closest relationship with the western or Okanagon group and the Coeur d’alene spoken only by one tribe which appears on the whole to show most affinity with the eastern or Salish group. A perusal of the vocabularies may determine this. Then to the north are the three BC languages. I find the Salish also have a fair knowledge of their manner of life before the introduction of the horse. They obtained their first horses from the Shoshonies. The Pend d’oreille obtained horses from them (the Salish) and the Kalispels from them and the Pend d’oreilles. The Coeur d’Alenes from the Kalispels and the Kootenays from the Pend d’oreilles. The Blackfeet obtained horses by stealing from the Salish and the Pend d’oreille and Shoshonie and it is thought the Crows also obtained their first horses by stealing from the Shoshonie mostly and the Salish to some extent. They think the Nez Perces got first horses also from Shoshonies and do not know of any others they could get them from. It seems that long ago before the introduction of the horse a good part of the upper Missouri and Yellowstone River was occupied by Salish and Shoshoni who were usually at peace although intermittent wars occurred between the tribes or bands of the tribes. At this time they had no enemies in the buffalo country, excepting the Blackfeet, war parties of which came from the north and attacked both tribes but the Salish it seems were those principally attacked. The Salish and Shoshonie acted on the defensive and never made counter raids into the Blackfeet country until after they had plenty of horses. Blackfoot war parties were often very large [page 3] and they traveled further on foot than any other tribe was known to do. Later the Blackfeet crossed the mountains and also attacked the Pend d’oreillles. Shortly before this they were known to cross the mtns [sic] repeatedly and attack the Kootenay. At this time the Crows and other eastern tribes were never met and were practically unknown. The only people the Salish knew of were the Shoshoni and Blackfeet. In later days Blackfeet war parties even reached the Kalispel through the Kootenay country. About the time when the Salish first got horses these raids of the Blackfeet increased in frequency and severity[,] part of their object being to steal horses. When the Salish had become well equipped with horses they used to chase those war parties and even attack the Blackfeet within the borders of their own country around the Milk River. Shortly after this the Blackfeet got fire arms. (They and the Crows had guns before the Salish and Shoshonie). Then the Crows commenced to appear in the hunting grounds of the Salish and Shoshonie and in the Winter time to be safe they used to retire westward the Salish to the upper Bitterroot Valley where they lived in in [sic] one great camp and the Shoshonie in 418 | 1909

the mtns [sic] away south in one or two large camps. The Blackfeet and Crows continued to attack these people and they could hardly hunt in the eastern part of the country. They even penetrated to their winter headquarters and stole their horses and harassed them. The Pend d’oreilles however could still hunt pretty safely within most of their hunting country. Some time after this other tribes commenced also to appear in the west viz the Grosventre, Assinaboines [sic] and Cheyennes and they also used to attack the Salish and Shoshonie. By this time the Salish to the west had got plenty of horses for travel and were expert in the handling of them so the Salish and Pend d’Oreilles invited the Kalispel and Spokanes and Coeur d’alenes to come east as allies and partake in the buffalo hunting and keep the other tribes off. Soon also the Columbias and some of the Colvilles, Okanagons and other western tribes came also. The Nez Perces were also invited across and with them came some Walla Wallas and others and the Kootenays were also invited. These people formed such large parties they could easily more than hold their own with the eastern tribes and they soon kept the latter from coming often within the limits of the Salish country. They also followed the buffalo beyond the Salish limits to within the limits of other tribes etc. About the time these tribes became allied the Sioux also commenced to appear on this western disputed territory. The Shoshonies could not hold their own as well as the Salish allies and latter had to quit [page 4] hunting in part of what is now called the old Crow country. Like the Coeur d’alene, the Kalispel, Pend d’oreille and Flathead did not use any kind of kekule house or earth covered lodge.26 They knew of them however as used by western tribes. Michel who traveled as far as Shasta in 1849, says earth covered lodges were used in the winter time along Columbia River to below the Dalles some distance and by the Wallawalla [sic] and Yakima. They were also used up the Columbia by the Columbias, but all had entrance from the side.27 He does not know where the dividing line was between the types with entrance from top and side as he was not among the Columbias in the winter and most of their country he was never thru. He saw the first of those with entrance from top among the Okanagons in 1856 when on a northern trip and found them plentiful among Thomp. He is not sure which type the Columbias used but knows they had earth covered 26. “Kekule house”: a term, based on Chinook jargon, for the semi-subterranean winter dwelling used by many Salishan peoples. “Keekwilee, keekwillie, C. [kíkwili], low, below, under, down” (Hale, An International Idiom, 44). 27. Regarding “entrance from the side”: among most Salishan peoples, semi-subterranean winter dwellings had the entrance at the top.

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lodges. Among the Salish before the introduction of the horse a very few skin tipis were used made of elk or of buffalo skin. Tule mats were used for covering tipis and among the Pend d’oreilles these were used entirely (perhaps a very few elkskin tipis may have been used). Skin tipis were not painted in those days. The common lodge in fair weather was the conical mat lodge generally two families in each but very frequently only one family, and very rarely three. In the large main winter camps from three to five long mat lodges were used as a rule[;] these accommodated 6 families and had three fires. The rest of the people wintered in the small circular lodges. At each main winter camp two large long lodges were also made for dancing. One for married or elderly people and one for young unmarried people. These lodges were not lived in after horses became numerous and buffalo hunting carried on in a large scale. Buffalo skin tipis became the universal living house, but the long dance lodges were still used. The Salish made the square painted bags (before the horse) but the long fringes were introduced (after the horse)[.] Parfleches also came in (after the horse). No bark clothing or woven goats wool blankets were ever made or used. As far as known woven muskrat and rabbit blankets were not made altho [sic] the Shoshonie and Blackfeet were known to make them and also the Coeur d’Alene and some other tribes. The Nez Percé [sic] woven wallets were not made but obtained in trade occasionally from western tribes that made them. Neither were the woven grass caps made. Coiled basketry was made by both the Salish and Pend d’oreille. It was all of the circular type some with flat and some rounded bottoms. It had no imbrication. Blackfeet used to trade for these baskets long ago. Birch bark baskets were also made and rough ones of cedar bark. Bows were all of the double bend type. [page 5] The Pend d’oreilles used bark canoes of the Kalispel type. The Salish or Flathead had no canoes at all and used only rafts. In later days they also used bull boats of hide. The most ancient and at one time only method of burial was by burying in the ground and putting stones on top of the grave. The Flathead, and Pend d’oreille never pressed the heads of children and it was impossible to do so with the very old style of carrier which consisted of a short board which did not reach quite up to the baby’s head. Bark carriers were never used. The later high board carrier came in shortly after the fur traders settled in the country about 100 years ago or less[;] according to Michel in 1849 all the Columbia tribes Chinookan and Sahaptin, including many Yakima and Wallawalla pressed the heads of infants[.] At this time the custom was not in vogue nor had it extended to any of the Salish tribes he was amongst. The Salish and Pend d’oreille 420 | 1909

were decimated by Smallpox 100 years ago spread to Kalispels and thence to Spokanes and Colvilles[;] so many died in some camps people not able to bury them and dogs ate the corpses. I got the names of all the tribes here (Salish names). Michel says in 1849 the people called Cayuse by the whites lived in the northeast part of the Wallawalla country in close association with the latter. At that time the old people of both the Cayuse and Umatilla spoke the same language which was quite distinct from any of the Salish and Sahaptin dialects as he was acquainted with all. Even at that time the young people spoke mostly the Wallawalla language and the tribes were much intermarried. The Salish say that long before there [page 6] were horses they intermarried a little with the Shoshonies and a very little with the Pend d’oreilles and with no other tribes. Nez Perces never crossed the mountains at that time. Later they intermarried to a greater extent with the Pend d’oreilles and after the tribe allied with others they intermarried a little with all the allies. Very long ago the Pend d’oreilles intermarried very slightly with Salish and Kootenai and more with Kalispel. In later days they also intermarried with all the allies. The Salish never had any wars with other Salish tribes nor with Sahaptin. Wars were carried on by the Kalispel and Pend d’oreille against the Kootenai. The Lakes and Shuswap also made war with the Kootenai. The only tribes of Salish that fought each other were the Kalispel and Spokane who both used to fight the Coeur d’Alene. I will now close as it is getting dark and I have no light. I will try to write you from Nelson.

Teit to Boas. July 11, 1909. APS, ACLS Collection, Mss.497.3.b63c, item 61. Dear Friend I got through at Jocko on Friday last, and the same night came on to Ravalli on the west side of the Reservation.28 Next morning I took the stage across the Reserve to Polson at the lower end of the lake, and thence by steamboat to Somers up. end of lake and then to Kalispel Mont. by railway. Owing to lack of communications on Sundays I found I could not get to Nelson until Monday night or later from Montana and from Idaho not sooner than Tuesday night or later so I came back here

28. July 11, 1909, fell on Sunday. “Friday last” was July 9, 1909.

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last night to catch a train leaving here for North this morning.29 Our train got in a few minutes too late to catch it so I got stalled here for to-day, and am further from the BC line than I was last night. I will reach Nelson to-morrow evening however. I found the Indians around Jocko very nice to work with. I spent two afternoons and evenings at the dances and they were well worth seeing both as a study and a show. There were 74 tipis Flathead and Pend d’oreille in the camp circle besides some of Shoshoni from Lemhi and about ten tents of Crees and Chippewas.30 At the Mission and Polson celebrations there were about 40 tipis of Kootenays and Pend d’oreilles. There is a Thomp. Indian married at the St. Ignatius mission and been there over 20 years but I did not happen to meet him.31 I heard of 6 or 7 Indians [page 2] formerly in the employ of the H.B. Coy who left the Colville country and settled among the Flathead and Pend d’oreilles about 45 years ago or more (shortly after the Flathead Reservation was set apart). Two of these men were Colvilles, one was a half-breed Shuswap, two were Thompson Indians, and one a Lillooet. Another was evidently from the Fraser Canyon or below as he belonged partly to or had lived at Fort Hope, and was mixed with Thomp. and could speak that language.32 All these 7 men are now dead and altho all of them married on the Flathead Reservation and some of them had children they appear to have no descendants now living. A few Iroquois descendants live on the Reserve. I wrote you a long but very hurriedly written letter in pencil from Jocko last Sunday, which would give you an idea of what I had done there. I do not have my notes with me but I think the most important thing I found out before I left was regarding the distribution of the tribes as far as tradition gives it. It appears the Kalispels were originally in three or four bands. One of the bands being settled in the Colville country near Chewelah.33 The Kalispels claim the country of the Pend d’oreille River up to Plains and thence north taking in Thompson Lake and Horse Plains. The Pend d’oreilles (I used this name for the Kalispels in my 29. Sunday, July 11, 1909. 30. Agaidika (Shoshone) people from the Lemhi River Valley in Idaho (New World Encyclopedia contributors, “Shoshone,” https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Shoshone, accessed April 30, 2019; see also Campbell, “The Lemhi Shoshone,” 542). 31. St. Ignatius Mission in Montana. The mission was originally founded by the Jesuit missionary Jean-Pierre de Smet, in eastern Washington in 1845 and relocated to Montana in 1854 (Kelly, History of the St. Ignatius Mission, Montana). 32. By 1909 “Colville” had become the commonly used name for the people identified by Jesuit missionaries in the 1840s as “Scoelpi,” transcribed in IPA as Sx̌wʔiɬpx (Seymour, The Complete Seymour, 717). Their traditional territory is in the vicinity of Kettle Falls in eastern Washington. In 1825 the Hudson’s Bay Company established Fort Colville in this locality. 33. Chewelah is in eastern Washington State north of Spokane.

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letters before the last) or Flathead Lake people claimed all the country around Flathead Lake and Flathead River Little Bitter Root. The Pend d’oreille river down to about Plains. The Jocko and Missoula Rivers to about Missoula. Re Bitter Root valley to the south matters are not quite clear. The Pend d’ [page 3] oreilles claim it as part of their ancient territory but the Salish or Flatheads have used nearly all of it for fully 100 years and latterly used to make their main winter camp near Stevensville in that valley. Latterly the Pend d’oreilles in the winter time used to leave most of the country around the Lake etc. and congregate in the main camps in the Mission and Jocko valley. I am talking of a time between the beginning of the last century and the laying off of the reserve about 1855 when I use the word latterly and also up to say about 1875 or 1880 after what time conditions rapidly changed after the extinction of the Buffalo. There are indications that the Pend d’oreilles like the Kalispels were divided into two and perhaps three or four bands long ago with head quarters at certain localities. Although the Flatheads made their main winter camp in the Bitterroot Valley long ago and claim the upper part of same it appears doubtful if they lived there much before the beginning of the last century. They claim the country of the Big Hole, Madison and Gallatin rivers, around Anaconda and Butte. North to Helena and east taking in the head of Shield Creek and the head of Mussel shell River. They were also likely in local bands at one time before the introduction of horses and the early Blackfeet wars altho traces of these bands are less distinct than among the Pend d’oreilles. They probably (at least a large band of them) originally had their head quarters in the Big Hole Valley for they were very much associated with the Shoshoni of the Mountains (Lemhi division) and used to buy [page 4] supplies of dried salmon from the latter and some of them even crossed the mountains and fished salmon with the Snakes on Salmon River. The Pend d’oreilles got no salmon from any quarter. It seems a long time ago there lived two other tribes to the east of the Pend d’oreilles and Flatheads. One of these was the Sᴇmtḗuse who occupied the country from about Missoula east to the Main Rockies. They occupied the Missoula to Deer Lodge or a little east thereof, all the Big Blackfoot, Little Blackfoot, and Salmon Trout Creek valleys, and adjoining country. They owned the Big Camas Prairie east of Missoula between the Missoula and Big Blackfoot Rivers and toward the last made their winter head quarters near there. A large number of them formerly lived on the Big Blackfoot. They were noted as being a kind of foolish, ridiculous people, and many of them acted unnaturally or with little feelings or sentiment. Over 100 years ago they 1909 | 423

were destroyed and scattered by the Blackfeet and the remnants settled among the Flathead and Pend d’oreilles most of them among the latter. For this reason the Pend d’oreilles latterly laid claim to and occupied for hunting and other purposes the Sᴇmtēuse country and the Flatheads appear to have supported this claim only that Big Camas Prairie was to be open for root digging for all members of both tribes. Besides the Sᴇmtḗuse there was another tribe occupied the country east of the main Rockies viz the Dear Born and Sun River valleys, and it seems the country around Great Falls and south to Helena. About the time they were broken up they made their main head quarters [page 5] at what seems to have been a point on the Dearborn River. These people were called the Tunáxe, and were the opposite of the Sᴇmtēuse in their characteristics. They were brave, skilful, wise etc. etc. and at present it is considered honorable to be descendant of them. According to some they were numerous and war like and were the first Salish to obtain horses. They carried on a war with the Blackfeet the latter being the aggressors it seems, and over 200 years ago were driven out of their country and completely scattered by the Blackfeet. Some of them were made slaves or it rather seems were adopted by the latter tribe, and shifted into the Blackfoot [sic] country. A good many took refuge among the Kootenay. Quite a few settled among the Flathead, and the head chief of the latter preceeding [sic] the man who was head chief when Lewis and Clark met the tribe was a Tunáxe (or almost a full Tunáxe in blood). Some also settled among the Shoshone and Pend d’Oreille, and in late years after the dispersion some of them and their descendants were discovered among the Kalispel, Colville, Nez Perce and Crow. After this event the Flathead and Pend d’oreille laid claim to and divided the Tunáxe country between them[,] the former tribe claiming the greater portion because more Tunáxe settled among them. For a number of years however after the disruption of these two tribes the former countries of the latter were dangerous ground and as the Blackfeet followed up those successes by attacking the Flathead, Pend d’oreille and Shoshone [page 6] on their own grounds these latter tribes kept pretty well to the west. This may also have been partly the reason why these tribes latterly used to winter in the extreme west of their respective countries, each in one of two large bands and this may have been why the Flatheads for so long made winter head quarters in the upper Bitterroot valley and the Pend d’oreilles in the Jocko etc. However the Flatheads and Pend d’oreilles stood off these attacks, and became allies. After they commenced to fight together they occupied the old Sᴇmtḗuse country for hunting, fishing, and root digging purposes 424 | 1909

and latterly also with the Kootenays, Kalispels and their western allies fully occupied the Tunáxe country also, altho war was inveterate with the Blackfeet up to about 1870 or later. They even went far into the enemy’s country on buffalo hunting and war expeditions and could easily hold their own owing to their large numbers and skill. The Blkft [sic] got guns a good while before the Salish and about that time became very audacious[,] their war expeditions sometimes reaching as far west as the Kalispel and Kootenay in Idaho and the Pend d’oreille, Flathead and Shoshone in their winter camps on the border of that state. The Kootenai Indians were divided into two branches with separate names by the Salish. In Montana and Idaho they only occupied a very narrow strip along Kootenay River. The Sᴇmtḗuse spoke the same language as the Flatheads only a very few words being more or less different and they were noted for speaking ‘hard and long’. They spoke not as softly and had a drawl. On the other hand the Tunáxe spoke a very marked dialect differing so much from the Flathead that members of the two tribes could not converse intelligently without knowing each other’s languages. It was Salish however and a number of personal names with meanings are handed down. The last man I could learn of who spoke this language was a Kootenay of Tunáxe descent who died about 30 years ago. I got 4 or 5 words of the language. The Pend d’oreilles used at one time to use bark lodges a good deal when living near good timber. The bark was put on horizontal, overlapping like mats. Many of their bark lodges were built on posts 6 to 9 feet above the ground, fire being built on earth heaped in the centre and communication by a notched log.”34

Teit to Boas. July 17, 1909. APS, ACLS Collection, Mss.497.b63c, item 61, text 297395. Dear Friend I am leaving here tonight for home and expect to arrive there on Monday.35 I have lost about two days time here looking after the shipment of the canoe. The railroad officials here humbugged me quite a bit. First they would not accept delivery of the canoe because they said it was after hours. Then they had no time to make out the papers, then they wanted it prepaid and so on. I went to headquarters about

34. That is, as a ladder. 35. The letter is written on the letterhead of the Grand Central Hotel, Nelson Bc.

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it and have now shipped it in proper form via the Great Northern. I would not let the CPR people have the shipment after they rowed with me. The charges will be paid in New York at I think a rate of $16.60 per hundred. The weight is 180 lbs. I have billed it to you as I could not get it billed direct to Dr. Seler Berlin. I enclose shipping receipts. After arriving here I went out to the mouth of the Kootenay River and found the Indian had made the canoe as I ordered and had it lying in the shade of the bushes.36 He put it in the Kootenay River, and gave some exhibitions going up and down in it for half an hour. It never leaked a drop. As it had been lying in the bushes for about a month one end got very slightly warped, but it is a good canoe and well made and about 19 feet long. The Indians say it is a two man canoe for fishing or crossing streams, or a one man canoe with baggage shifting camp or cargo etc. Next day the Indian and I navigated it up the Columbia River to the CPR line and I had it shipped by express into Nelson. It came in on the second passenger from that point, the express car of the first train being too crowded to hold it. [page 2] I had to wait for it thus nearly a day here. Then I carried it up to a carpenter (It ways [sic] only about 50 lbs itself) and had it crated and covered on the top with drilling to shade it in case it got in the sun any place. To-day I managed to get it shipped. When crossing the line at Waneta the Canadian Customs official held me up on some Indian specimens I had with me. Some I got through without paying duty but some he classified them as clothing and made me pay 17.50 on them. I told him they were museum specimens but he paid me no attention. Next day I made a complaint about it to Mr. Johnston the Collector of Customs here but he would do nothing, because he said they were not billed to any Museum. I have crossed Indian specimens various times across the line before at Vancouver, Waneta and other points, and never had to pay duty on them before. There is no duty on Museum specimens and besides none of those things enter into competition with any similar thing manufactured in Canada. They cannot be classed as clothing for no one would wear such stuff. They are not intended for use and only as specimens for the Museum as you know. I think if you write to Ottawa about this matter you can get the money refunded as we can easily proof [sic] they are bona fide specimens going to your Museum. I will

36. The canoe was made by Baptiste Christian, a member of the Sinixt (Lakes), and the son and brother of Antoinette and Mary Christian, who provided information to Teit earlier in the season.

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write you after my arrival home. I enclose the customs officers receipt for the amount he collected from me.

Teit to Boas, July 25, 1909. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121549. Dear Friend. Your communication of July 7th re. scratching of designs on skins, and quill embroidery was forwarded to me in the states but did not reach me, and was returned here.37 I arrived here on the 20th [.]38 As I have to leave here in about five days to go hunting up North I will not have time to write out the vocabularies I collected until fall when I will send them to you upon my return. Before I leave I will send you maps showing the tribal boundaries of the eastern Salish etc. and probably my a/cs, and some other matter. Re. the scratching of designs on skins I made no special enquiry about it except among the Coeur d’Alene two individuals of whom asserted they had no knowledge of this having been done by them. To make sure of this for the Coeur d’Alene tribe individuals will have to be interviewed. I got however pretty full information re. colors and methods of painting bags and parfleches, but so far only a few meanings of design—the latter always takes time, patience and persistent enquiry—a number of individuals having to be interviewed. One man of the Flathead asserted that long ago some people made designs on skin by scratching but he had only seen a very few of these. Designs on stiff raw hide were also sometimes made by burning, but he could not tell if this was a very ancient method. The Thompson assert that long ago they sometimes made designs on raw hide by singeing or burning, and also by cutting out or scraping off the outer cuticle of the skin of hides, and bark baskets. All the old people now living have seen these designs. [page 2] I have seen a number of them myself, but in most cases it was difficult to tell the tribe where the articles had been made. Most of them were certainly not made here. They came from the south or south east. Shuswap and Okanagon as well as Thomp. were in the habit of making designs on birch bark baskets by cutting out the upper layer of bark. Designs were also burned in baskets by these tribes. I cannot find the note just now, but I think it was the Coeur d’Alene that informed me they had seen or

37. Letter, Boas to Teit, July 7, 1909, is missing from the APs file. 38. Teit is writing from Spences Bridge.

1909 | 427

knew of designs being made in hide by scratching by eastern tribes[,] they thought the Blackfeet and Gros Ventre. Re. quill embroidery I learned all the tribes formerly used porcupine quills very extensively before the advent of glass beads, and among some of them quill work is still done to a slight extent. The same main colors seem to have been in vogue among all the tribes in very early times viz white and black (natural) and yellow and red (dyed). Occasionally other colors were used (by some tribes) as for instance a kind of purple obtained from a berry juice etc. I have not enquired yet re. the manner of quill embroidery excepting among the Coeur d’Alene who state they used two methods[:] braiding and wrapping. Since your former enquiries on this matter however I have made very extended enquiry among the Thomp. and have interviewed a great many old men and women on the question with a like result in all cases viz as follows. 1st The most common method of quill embroidery formerly in vogue was by braiding viz flat braiding. The quills were split and flattened and braided[,] the desired width forming a flat braid on the skin of even width. The quills were always folded at the edges of the braid (except where something else such as a wrapped cord etc. hid the edges of the braid) and each fold of the quills was stitched down on the skin. Often the braid was thus stitched right on the garment etc. or perhaps more frequently it was stitched on to a piece of skin of the same size as the braid, and this [page 3] skin was stitched on to the garment. These embroidered pieces could then be removed from one garment etc. to another whenever desired. 2nd Round braiding was also done by braiding the quills around a thong, but this was not much practiced. In method No. 1. the loose ends of the quills were out of sight on the top of the skin underneath the braid—they did not pass into the skin. 3rd The quills were passed through the skin at where the edge of the braid was to be passed over in the direction desired and passed down through the skin again at the opposite edge of the braid. The loose ends underneath were stitched to the skin. This kind of work was fairly common. As a rule it was coarser than No. 1. and was generally done on a separate piece of skin to be stitched to the garment etc. 4th quills fastened to the skin by the methods of Nos. 1 and 3. but not braided or crossed over each other in any way. 5th Quills simply wrapped around a thong or string[,] the ends of the quills being tyed [sic] to each other so as to make a long wrapping. In all the above methods the quills were split, and flattened. 6th The quills were not split or flattened. The largest and whitest ones were generally chosen. The sharp ends were stuck into the skin, and a narrow strip of skin sewed across the blunt ends to keep them in place. 428 | 1909

This piece of skin was nearly always painted red. The quills were placed parallel to each other close together. Often a narrow thin piece of skin was employed for sticking the sharp ends in, and this was sewed on to the garment like the piece holding the blunt ends. All the Indians assert that as far as they know this method of quill work is as old as any of the others altho in the days when quill work was much in vogue it was not as much employed as some other methods because it was not considered as fine or lasting work. The more difficult and skillful the work[,] the more it was valued. Nevertheless they claim it to have [page 4] been in vogue as far back as they have any knowledge and it was a not uncommon. Designs were made in all those methods of quill embroidery including No. 6. As a rule however in the latter the quills were put on in even rows just about the same way as dentalia were sometimes stitched on garments, and they were generally used [sic] the natural color. Birds quills dyed and undyed were also sewed on in rows a string passing through them as in the dentalia, and number six style of quill work seems to my mind to be referrable [sic] to this class of ornamentation rather than to the real quill embroidery. Testimony is so complete as to its being an old method that I feel convinced it has not been introduced by modern Indians who have forgotten how to make the old quill work. I had a chance yesterday to see a couple of old people from Lytton, and they also affirmed all the above. I showed them a specimen I procured of the woven women’s caps used by the Nez Perce etc. etc. and they said these were never made by any of the Thompson bands, but a few were obtained from southern tribes in early days and they had seen a few in use. On showing them some wallets (Nez Perce bags) they said these were made formerly by a number of the Up. Thomp. women. Those they had seen made by Thomp. in the old time were of Indian hemp twine overlaid with leaf of the ‘konếlp’ plant, which wore very well or better than anything else for the purpose [.] Designs were woven in with strips of porcupine quills different colors and grass was also sometimes used both dyed and undyed. I also saw a woman supposed to be the most expert basket maker of the Coldwater band, and she told me she counts the stitches of all her imbricated work. If a basket is imbricated all over she counts the stitches all over not only of the design proper but also the spaces between. When the circumference of the basket increases (as in say a nut shaped basket)39

39. The letter ends abruptly here, without signature. At least one page appears to be missing.

1909 | 429

Letter fragments. July 25, 1909. APS, ACLS item 61. FRAGMENT 1 The custom of men acting as women obtained among the Flathead and Pend d’oreille. Two or three cases are remembered but none of women acting as men FRAGMENT 2 A very long time ago only the Shoshonie and Blackfoot tribes were known to the east and south and they only had definite names. Other people were known to be beyond but they were called by a generic name and were not met with. Later the Gros Ventre, Assinaboine and Crow became known. These people were from further away to the east and they like the Blackfeet all became enemies of the Salish and Shoshonie. FRAGMENT 3 The Flatheads, Pend d’oreilles, and Kalispels used also to address prayers to Amótken. They also had the religious dance and marrying dance same as the Thompson. In the former they addressed Amótken as well as when offering the first fruits etc. They also had a kind of evil spirit which they appear to have been somewhat afraid of. They say the old people long ago used to speak as if there was a great tree that had its roots in the earth and its top reached the sky. This evil one (I have the name in my notes) had his abode in the roots and Amótken sat at the top.

Teit to Boas. July 31, 1909. APS, ACLS Collection, Mss.497.b63c, item 61, text 297396. Dear Friend I am sending to you to-day four maps showing boundaries of the southern Salish tribes in BC, Wash., Idaho and Montana, and some notes explanatory of same. I also enclose account of the money I paid out in connection with the procuring of canoe [sic] for the Berlin Museum. I also send you five pages of variations and additions to some Thomp myths. I thought I would write them off and send them to you now as you told me some little time ago you had been going over all the Thomp. stories I collected some years ago, and if you are going to publish them soon, those I send you now may be in time to go in with 430 | 1909

the rest. I also send you a list of the Shuswap words wanted for the completion of the comparative vocabularies I sent you last year. I wrote them down at Kamloops last winter and have now copied them off. I will not have time to write out at present the vocabularies I collected this summer, nor send you a copy of my accounts. I will do this however as soon as I return from hunting in the fall. I was glad to receive Sapir’s Wishram texts the other day,40 and was surprised to find among them a story re a Wishram migration to the north corresponding in many details with the tradition I got re a Thompson migration last summer from Columbias and Sans Poils.41 I was very sorry to hear of Dr. Jones death in the Philipines [sic].42 I brought over a few specimens from the States, and will write to you regarding them later. I also enclose a list of tribal names in three Salish languages [page 2] 1. Lake 2. Kalispel and 3. Pend d’oreille and Flathead. Before the advent of horses the chief trade route between the east and west was via the Pend d’oreille River. The mountain passes were very little used at that time viz those leading out from the Coeur d’alene and Nez Perce countries etc. A secondary route for trading was near the head of the Snake in the Shoshonie country. No other routes known to the Salish amounted to much. After the advent of horses and the coming of the western tribes east for buffalo hunting, there was a marked increase in trading between east and west as greater distance could be traveled with ease and transportation was much easier and greater quantities of stuff could be transported. Then all the mountain passes were much used, each tribe as a rule taking the most direct route from their country. The western tribes (west of the Bitterroots etc.) did the most trading and transporting. Very few members of the eastern tribes went west.

40. Sapir and Curtin, Wishram Texts together with Wasco Tales and Myths. 41. See Teit to Boas, June 26, 1908, for Teit’s reference to this tradition. In “A Quarrel of the Wishram,” in Wishram Texts, Sapir notes, “The course of the supposed migration was thus east for a short distance along the Columbia, then north across the divide between the Columbia and the Yakima, and then along the Yakima to the Wenatchee” (202n1). 42. In 1909 William Jones was killed in the northern Philippines while doing research sponsored by the Field Museum (see Vigil, “The Death of William Jones, Indian, Anthropologist, Murder Victim,” 209–230).

1909 | 431

Teit to Boas. December 17, 1909. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121550. Dear Friend. I drop you a line to let you know I am sending you by reg. mail today my report on the basketry designs etc. of the Klickitat which I have written off since I finished hunting a few days ago.43 Next I will make out the a/cs and then write out the vocabularies I collected. After that I will be ready to work on the supplementary paper on the Thompson or on the Thomp. texts—perhaps both. I am retaining the Klickitat basket photos I got from the Museum as I may need them in future work in the States. I hope this will find yourself and family well.

Teit to Boas. December 22, 1909. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121551. Dear Friend I am enclosing herewith the vocabularies I collected last summer by the Lake, Kalispel and Pend d’oreille dialects. The Lake is very closely related to the Colville and belongs to the Okanagon group. The Kalispel and Pend d’oreille are closely related and belong to the Eastern or Flathead group. There was no difference in speech among the various bands of the Lake. The Kalispel bands differed very slightly in dialect. Most Indians aver the main body spoke all the same whilst the Chewehlah band (close to the Colville) called the .slâtéuse spoke 43. In Haeberlin et al., “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region” (353). Boas wrote, “The following account of Yakima and Klickitat basketry is by Mr. Teit, who completed his study during the summer of 1909. He says, ‘I visited the people on the Yakima Reservation last summer to obtain interpretations of their basketry designs, particularly those represented in the basketry collection of the American Museum. I did not make minute inquiry on any other subject. As I was provided by the Museum with very good photographs of all specimens of baskets and bags, identification and interpretation of the designs was effected without much difficulty by showing the photographs to various women who were considered to be authorities on the subject. From these women and others I also gained in the time available as much information as possible regarding the material used and data of value relating to basketry and other industries. I was successful in obtaining interpretations of nearly all the designs occurring on the Museum baskets. In this I was aided by Peter McGuff, who was with Doctor Sapir as interpreter. He speaks both the Wishram and Yakima languages. I obtained the following information mostly from the Klickitat, who are the principal basket makers on the reservation’ (353).” Peter McGuff (ca. 1870–1928) was the younger of two men with whom Sapir worked while doing the research on Kiksht narratives for Wishram Texts. He interpreted for Louis Simpson, Mánait, (born 1835), transcribed and translated narratives later provided by three other Kiksht speakers, and also contributed narratives (Silverstein, “The Secret Life of Texts,” 82–83). In “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region,” Boas also included a footnote: “Peter McGuff, a man of remarkable intelligence, died in 1928” (353).

432 | 1909

slightly different. The Pend d’oreille dialect was spoken by three tribes ̀ viz the Pend d’oreille (also called s.n.iálᴇmen, and Flathead Lake people), the Salish or Flathead, and the Sᴇmtḗuse (now extinct as a tribe) there being only a very slight difference in the speech of each. Another dialect was formerly spoken in the east by the Tunáxe tribe (scattered by the Blackfoot about 200 years ago)[.] It was a Salish language but so different from the Pend d’oreille and Flathead language the latter people could only understand a little of it without learning it. They claim it was at least as much removed from the Flathead as Coeur d’Alene or much more so according to some. The last man who could talk this language died among the Kootenay about 30 years ago. Probably some of the language might be collected yet if thorough inquiry was made. I collected 5 or 6 words said to be of this language (preserved in personal names of Tunáxe descendants) which I give below. About 1st [A]ug. before going hunting I think I sent you lists of Shuswap and Coeur d’Alene words to fill up gaps in the vocabularies of these languages sent you last year. —Words said to be Tunáxa—

́ sílᴇm

ɬoɬôᶮói ɬoɬoᶮói

chief

buffalo calf

ᴇɬ.ɬtcế ̀ ɬ ̣ tcế

grisly bear

kwoikwoi

meaning uncertain some think it means blue

haxtltsé ̀ xaiɬ ̀ tsi

horse

ᴇɬ.tsế

k[illeg] woi

xê.l’tci

hwihwi

xwei xwei.ɬ

[grisly bear]44 [grisly bear]

[horse]

[horse]

plenty, many

[plenty, many]

44. Three terms for “grisly bear” bracketed together.

1909 | 433

Teit to Boas. December 31, 1909. Postcard. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121553.

This is a Thompson Indian belonging to near Ashcroft and his two grandchildren. Wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas, and happy New Year.

Fig. 12. “Ashcroft Indians,” photograph by George N. Bailey. Ashcroft is a settlement on the Thompson River in Nlaka’pamux (Thompson) traditional territory. From Atlas no. 303. Teit to Boas, December 31, 1909.

434 | 1909

1910

Teit to Boas. January 17, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121290.1 Dear Friend. I enclose herewith copy of a/cs made up to the end of last year. I have been working most days of this month on the supplementary paper Thomp. Indians. I have finished the part dealing with tattooing and am fully half through with that dealing with face and body painting. There may be about forty pages or over of foolscap on these subjects of which I have already finished about thirty. I am also preparing a large number of sketches showing all the different designs. Some of these I have had for years, and were made by Indians. I had a letter from Harlan Smith to-day asking me re. kekule houses to the south. I gave him some brief notes on the subject. We are having a very fine winter here.

Teit to Boas, December 31, 1909.2 Statement of Accounts. Columbia University, per Dr. Franz Boas. 1908— DR. TO JA TEIT

$

Aug To 2 days managing lists and notes for the spring work 4.00 Postage .45

4.45

Dec. 31 “ “ amount of Smithsonian a/c as rendered 25 July

153.65

1909

Jany “ Thompson River baskets as per list sent (on hand) “ one days work Kamloops collecting vocabulary Apl. “ one days work writing etc. 2.00 4 days Nicola (basketry enquiry) 8.00

68.75 2.00 10.00

1. In the original letter the numeral 1 appears to have been written over the first 0 in the date, changing 1900 to 1910. The content of the letter indicates a 1910 date. 2. Filed with APS, Boas Papers, text 121533.

435

“ “ “ Train fairs [sic] 3.75 Horse hire 3.75 Meals etc. (Nicola trip)

10.50

Apl 30 “ Ten additional basketry specimens etc. (on hand) no list sent

36.00

“ “ “ Smithsonian a/c work on texts etc. July 1908 to April 30, 1909 as per enclosed a/c work in Washington, Idaho and Montana

48.25

Aug.1 “ Board, lodging, meals, and beds at Nelson, Spokane, Waneta, Marcus Tekoa, Desmet, Castlegar, Fort Simcoe, North Yakima, Newport, Usk, Missoula, Jocko, Ravalli, Polson, Kalispel and Sp. Bdg.

100.10

Aug. “ Meals with Indians, and grub bought when camping with Indians

11.00

“ “ Tobacco, and presents to old Indians, and to Indian dancers etc.

10.35

“ “ Meals, beds, and seats on trains and steamboats

18.40

“ “ Express, storage and transfer of baggage etc.

5.05

“ “ Foolscap paper, maps, Books, Pens, Ink etc.

1.95

“ “ Fares on trains, steamers, stages and Ferrys [sic] to and from the under named points Spences Bridge, Revelstoke, Nelson, Castlegar, Waneta Spokane, No Yakima, Fort Simcoie, Tekoa, Desmet, Newport, Usk, Pend d’oreille River, Missoula, Arlee, Ravalli, Polson, Somers, Kalispel, Thrums as per bill enclosed

107.15

“ “ Bark canoe and paddle as per bill

30.60

“ “ duty paid on specimens at Waneta

17.50

“ “ Paid Indians for work as per bill enclosed

111.75

“ To 72 days work 9th May to 20th July inclusive (while on trip)

144.00

“ To 5 “ “ after return preparing maps, lists etc.

10.00

“ To specimens procured on trip as per enclosed bill

65.25

Dec. 31 To 2 days work on texts, as per Smithsonian a/c

436 | 1910

4.00

“ “ To 10 “ “ on supplementary Thompson memoir Jesup N. Pac Ex.

20.00 ___________________ $990.70

[page 2] 1908

$

657.50 1909

Apl By Cash for work in Wash. Idaho and Montana June By Cash “ “ “ “

348.75 148.75 __________________ $1155.00

1909

Dec. 31 To amount brought forward

990.70 __________________

1909

Dec. 31 By amount (Balance) to credit of Columbia University

$164.30

[page 3] Bill of traveling ex̣penses: Fares 1909 Fare Spences Bridge to Revelstoke 8.35 Revelstoke to Nelson 8.45 Nelson, Castlegar and back 1.95 Nelson to Waneta 2.65 Waneta to Spokane 4.25 Spokane to No Yakima and return 14.00 stage Yakima to Simcoe 1.50 and return 1.50

16.80 8.85 17.20

Spokane to Tekoa 1.40 stage from Desmet and return 2.00 Tekoa to Spokane 1.40

4.80

Spokane to Newport 1.40 Newport to Usk .80 (encluding meal) Crossing Pend D’oreille River

2.20

Six times 1.50 Usk to Newport .30 Newport to Spokane 1.40

1910 | 437

Spokane to Tekoa 1.40

4.60

Stage Desmet and return 2.00 Tekoa to Spokane $1.40 Spokane to Missoula

11.15

Missoula to Arlee .80 Arlee to Ravalli .30 Ravalli to Polson 3.00

4.10

Polson to Somers 2.50 Somers to Kalispel .30 Kalispel to Nelson via Spokane 17.35

20.15

Nelson to Thrums 1.45 Castlegar to Thrums .35 Nelson to Spences Bridge 15.50

17.30 $107.15

Bill showing payments to Indians (Information, Vocabularies, Boundaries, basketry etc. and other work) Lake Indians Mary Christian 8.50 Paschal 2.50 Tsoltélks .50 Antoinette .50 woman .753 Yakima, Klickitat, Wasco Julia 1.50 woman .50 woman .25 Peter McGuff, Team, Rig, Horsefeed and Interpreting 20.00 Kalispel tribe Frank .50 Charley .smil.t 6.00 Marcellin 1.00 Dudley 1.00

[=]

12.75

= [illeg].75 [=]

8.50

3. The people whom Teit has listed here were members of the Christian family, a Lakes or Sinixt family, whose home was kp’ítl’els, a major Sinixt village at the mouth of the Kootenay River. Antoinette, born circa 1842, was the daughter of Ohlolstalix and Antonia Konguesimilem. She had married Christian, son of Louis Peter Silimuhlelchim and Marianna Sakakleune, also Sinixt, on August 5, 1859 (St. Regis Mission Marriage Records). Mary Christian was their daughter. Their son, Baptiste Christian, had a son, Paschal. In his field notes (APS, Boas Papers, S1b.7) Teit lists Paschal among the children of Baptiste Christian and his wife, Sophie. In Teit’s statement of accounts, Antoinette and Tsoltélks may refer to the same person, as Teit notes in his draft “Statement of Alexander Christian,” included with his field notes, that Antoinette also had the name Tsalotélks. Alexander Christian (ca. 1871–1924), also a son of Antoinette and Christian, discussed with Teit the fact that kp’itl’els was not reserved for the Sinixt. In the “Statement of Alexander Christian,” apparently written several years after Teit’s visit in 1909, Teit recounts his attempts to intervene with the government of Canada to address the issue, including during his visit to Ottawa in 1912. However, the Christian family lost their homes, outbuildings, and gardens, and the grave-sites of their relatives, when it came to light that the land at the mouth of the Kootenay River had been the subject of a Crown grant to an early settler, J. Haynes, in 1884, in spite of the fact that Aboriginal villages, even at that time, had long been legally exempt from pre-emption in British Columbia. In 1912 a representative of the Doukhobours, who were settling in the area, bought an additional sixty-seven hectares (Wilkinson and Sutherland, “From Our Side We Will be Good Neighbours to Them,” 37).

438 | 1910

Coeur d’alene tribe Korotús 15.00 Mrs. Nick $15.00 Jim Nick 1.00 Katharine 15.50

[=]

Flathead and Pend d’oreille Michel 16.25 Louis Pierre .50 Louison .50 Reg and Driver 2.004

[=]

46.50 19.25 $111.75

Meals and beds (board and lodging) At Waneta 1.25 Marcus .65 Spokane 28.75 Desmet 20.50

51.35

Polson .50 Kalispel .50 Ravalli 2.00 Newport .25 Castlegar 2.00

5.25

Fort Simco [sic] 7.00 No Yakima 3.50 Usk 6.00 Jocko 9.70

26.20

Missoula 2.20 Nelson 11.50 Tekoa 2.60 Spences Bridge 1.00

17.30 $100.10

Specimens 4 stone Hammers and 4 birch bark baskets (from Lakes)

5.25

1 Beaded woman’s shirt, 6 beaded leggings, 1 painted bag (from Flatheads 1 stone thong scraper (from Coeur d’alene) 4 pr beaded moccasins (from Spokane 4 pr Beaded Moccasins (Blackfeet or Blood make) 2 pr other moccs etc. (Spokane)

60.00 [=] $65.25

4. A summary of a Library of Congress collection of photographs, prints, and drawings of “Flathead (Salish) and Kalispel Indians on Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana” refers to “outdoor portraits of Kalispel chief, Charlot, and another chief, Louison.” See “Flathead (Salish) and Kalispel Indians on Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana,” https://www.loc.gov/item/ 91481852/. The collection contains a photographic print on a stereocard of Chief Louison weariing traditional dress, entitled “Near the end of a noble life, Chief Louison.” The photograph, dated 1908, was taken on the Flathead Indian Reservation, Montana, by photographer, Norman Forsyth (1869–1949), a well-known photographer noted for stereograph views (National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, N. A. Forsyth Stereograph Collection).

1910 | 439

Boas to Teit. February 1, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121568. My dear Friend,— I received your welcome letter and the statements of your accounts a few days ago. I have not had time to go over your accounts in detail, but I see that you have a balance at present of $164.30. I have some more money for continuing your investigations, and I should like to suggest to you that perhaps the best thing to do at the present moment would be to round off the investigation of the distribution of Salish dialects by a visit to Puget Sound and the neighboring country. I presume you know the old map by Dall which was published before 1880, and of which I can send you a copy. While the map itself may be all right, there is no clear distinction of dialects and languages. It is quite obvious that dialects that belong together have been separated. I think our information is sufficient as far as the Fraser Delta, but beginning with the Lummi on the east side of Puget Sound, and from there south to the Cowlitz, and westward to the coast of the Pacific, our information is very bad. I have some vocabularies and texts from the Puyallup and from the Chehalis on [page 2] the north coast of Shoalwater Bay; but we have no adequate material from the Quinault, Satseps [sic] (or Upper Chehalis), Twana, and we do not know the relationship of the dialects of the west coast of Puget Sound. I should be very glad if you should care to undertake this work this spring and summer, and if you would let me know how much money you think would be required. I should then like to publish your map and vocabularies. I presume incidentally you would be able to collect some mythology and other ethnological information; perhaps also some basketry and information on basketry designs.5

Teit to Boas. February 23, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121554. Dear Friend. I received your very welcome letter of 1st inst. and note all you say. Although I may not be as well qualified to deal with, and collect information from the Coast Indians as those of the Interior I am quite 5. On the back of Boas’s letter of February 1, the words “Quinault Up Chehalis Twana Cowlitz etc.” are written in pencil in Teit’s handwriting.

440 | 1910

willing to undertake the investigations you desire. You can send me one of Dall’s maps, and I will do my best to gather all the information on dialects, boundaries etc. that you require.6 Probably if you sent me $400.00 it would be more than sufficient for this work. You might also send me credentials from Columbia University stating who I am, and that I am conducting all kinds of ethnological work in Washington, Idaho, Montana, and BC so it may be good for coming years. The credentials I have from the Amer. Museum, Smithsonian Institute [sic] and Ind Department of the U.S. are good, and I have made use of them whenever required, but they specify my work as for Eastern Washington only. I finished the parts of my supplementary paper on Thomp. dealing with face and body painting, and tattooing some time ago, and since then have been engaged writing up the basketry and basketry designs [.] The latter I find a rather tedious subject taking up a good deal of time as during the last twelve years I have been making notes on the subject, and I have now hundreds of scattered notes to arrange, examine and compare. I will probably have to write this chapter over about three times before I get it in proper shape. The last two weeks I have done very little on it, as I have [page 2] been busy traveling around, and speaking to the Indians so as to get them united in an effort to fight the BC government in the courts over the question of their lands.7 Owing to more stringency in the laws, increased settlement in the country, and general development of the Capitalist system, the Indians are being crushed, and made poorer and more and more restricted to their small, and inadequate reservations[.]8 The BC government has appropriated all the lands of the country, and claims also to be sole proprietor of the Ind. Reserves. They refuse to acknowledge the Ind. title, and have taken possession of all without treaty with or consent of the Indians. Having taken the lands they claim 6. This may be a reference to Dall, Map Showing the Distribution of the Indian Tribes of Washington Territory. William Healey Dall (1845–1927) was a naturalist who served as a scientist with the Western Union Telegraph Expedition, the U.S. Coast Survey, and the U.S. Geological Survey. He is particularly known for work in Alaska. 7. This sentence and those that follow shed light on Teit’s developing role in the pursuit by Indigenous groups in British Columbia of claims to land and Aboriginal title, which began in 1908 and was a role considerably more extensive than the glimpses given by his letters to Boas. In 1910 he was associated with both the Indian Rights Association, a group of coastal Aboriginal societies, and the Interior tribes. Not only was he traveling to speak to the issues; he was also hosting meetings of chiefs of Interior tribes and in July 1910 had met with Nlaka’pamux, Secwepemc, and Syilx (Okanagan) chiefs to compose a Declaration supporting treaties and compensation for lost lands. Following this meeting, in response to a request from the Interior chiefs, Teit also wrote the Memorial presented to Sir Wilfrid Laurier at Kamloops in August 1910 (see Wickwire, At the Bridge, 202–7). 8. A rare mention in these early letters of Teit’s commitment to socialism.

1910 | 441

complete ownership of everything in connection there—with such as water, timber, fish, game etc. They also subject the Indians completely to all the laws of BC without having made any agreement with them to that effect. The Indians demand that treaties be made with them regarding everything the same as has been made with the Indians of all the other provinces of Canada and in the U.S., that their reservations be enlarged so they have a chance to make a living as easily and as sufficient as among the Whites, and that all the lands not required by them and which they do not wish to retain for purposes of cultivation and grazing, and which are presently appropriated by the BC government be paid for in cash. The Indians are all uniting and putting up money and have engaged lawyers in Toronto to fight for them, and have the case tried before the Privy Council of England.9 I came back from Nicola yesterday and am going to Kamloops to address a very large meeting there on Sunday next.

Boas to Teit. February 26, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121569. My dear Friend,— I wrote to you Feb. 1 in regard to plans of work for the present year. If it is at all convenient for you to reply now, I should be very glad to hear from you. Of course, I do not mean to press you, because you may have to think over the matter in relation to your other work. I merely want to say that I should be glad to hear as soon as you can write conveniently. I am holding up the final arrangement of your map until I know whether you will be able and whether you will care to go down to Puget Sound to round up the whole work. I am looking forward with a great deal of interest to the receipt of your additional notes on the Thompson Indians, on which you say you are working now. You will be glad to hear that I am at last at a point where I can go ahead with the publication of part of the collection of traditions of the Thompson Indians that you made years ago. First there was a hitch with the Museum which prevented the printing, and then I had to wait until the paper preceding your material had been completed, I have just received the last sheets of this, and I expect to get off your [page 2] off [sic] your 9. In 1909 Arthur O’Meara, a lawyer and Anglican priest who was working in association with British Columbia coastal tribes in their pursuit of resolution of their claims to their traditional territories, enlisted J. M. Clark, a Toronto lawyer, to assist with the work (see Galois, “The Indian Rights Association,” 8, passim).

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paper very soon. It has all been copied, and all it requires is general revision.

Boas to Teit. March 3, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121531. My dear Friend,— I have just received your letter of the 23d of February. Probably you got another note from me a few days ago bearing upon the same subject. I am very glad to hear of your good progress and of your willingness to go down to the coast. I am writing to Washington for a copy of Dall’s map. I hope that you will be successful in completing the whole map showing the distribution of the Salish dialects.10 I have also written for the amount of $400 to be sent to you. I think it might be well for you to have a small additional amount for the purchase of interesting specimens that you may run across. I hope I can find the time to write you in regard to a few specific questions to be inquired into on the coast. I hope you will let me know the time when you will plan to go down there. [page 2] To Whom it may Concern,11 This is to certify that Mr. James A. Teit is carrying on ethnological investigation in the State of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, and in the Province of British Columbia, on behalf of Columbia University in the City of New York. All assistance rendered to him will be gratefully appreciated.

Teit to Boas. March 4, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121555. Dear Friend. I forgot to ask you in my last letter re. the specimens I have on hand viz the basketry charged to Col. University and the specimens I collected last summer in the States. I have also a few stone implements from the 10. This statement, along with the note in Boas’s previous letter, “I am holding up the final arrangement of your map until I know whether you will be able and whether you will care to go down to Puget Sound to round up the whole work,” suggest that Boas planned to move quickly to confirm the distribution of tribes, and at this time envisaged a single map. This was an issue that grew more complicated as Teit’s work on maps progressed between 1910 and 1917. 11. The “draft” is written on Columbia University, Department of Anthropology letterhead, with “President” typed at the bottom in lieu of signature.

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Thomp. which are valuable including a piece of jade or serpentine from which a celt has been cut. Do you want any of these things shipped this spring.

Teit to Boas. March 9, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121556. Dear Friend. I received your letter of 26th ult. yesterday. I wrote to you about a week ago, and before that over two weeks ago. The first letter may have gone astray or reached you just after you wrote last. As I am living most of the time four miles from the PO. I send letters by persons going there sometimes, and occasionally they neglect to post them at the time. In my first letter I stated I would be glad to do your bidding re. The work in Western Washington, and I thought $400.00 would be quite sufficient to cover same. I have a copy of Dall’s map but if you can send me another to use on the trip it will be better. The one I have is not in very good condition. I am glad to hear you will be able to print the Traditions I collected sometime soon. What part of them do you intend to have printed. They consist of Upper Thomp. Traditions (mostly from Nicola) Lower Thompson (mostly from Spuzzum) and Lillooet Traditions (mostly from Pemberton). I have two or three variants of Thomp. traditions I will send you in a few days, in case you may require them. I should have answered your letter of 1st Feb. sooner but during February was away from home a good deal engaged in organizing the Indians, and getting the many bands to join the Indian Rights Association of BC12 and to fight the BC Government for Treaty Rights etc. I have at last got two women to undertake the making of specimens illustrative of the various kinds of porc quill work formerly in vogue here. The winter broke up here about [page 2] the 25th Feb. and we have had fine spring weather ever since.

12. The inception of the Indian Rights Association can be dated to 1909; it was formally in place by 1910 (Galois, “The Indian Rights Association,” 14). Galois explains that central to the IRA was a small executive responsible for fundraising, organizing conferences, circulating information to local representatives, and maintaining links with legal counsel (15). The IRA consisted of both white and Native members, with perhaps some form of regional responsibilities; the executive met in Vancouver at irregular intervals and regional participation required literacy and a familiarity with “white culture.”

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Boas to Teit. March 14, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121532. My dear Friend,— Will you kindly keep the various implements that you have until I give you instructions what to do with them. I do not know exactly, so far, where they are to be kept, and there is no need of paying duty which we can save when they go directly to the institution where they are to stay.

Boas to Teit. March 15, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121533. My dear Friend,— Many thanks for your letter of the 9th of March. You will have noticed from my previous letter that I received your note immediately after I had written to you. I am very much interested in the art question, to which I referred a number of times, particularly in relation to the method of invention and to the manner of teaching the making of basketry designs to children. I believe one of the things that would help us very much in understanding this affair would be to get as complete information as possible, stating what designs each woman in a basket-weaving tribe makes.13 You told me in a previous letter that some of the women make only one or two designs, and only the best artists invent new designs. I wish very much that you could get this kind of information from the Thompson Indians, telling me just what designs each woman makes, whether she has invented any new designs, from whom she learned the designs she is making, and why she is making those particular designs which she is producing. You will readily see that the point that I am after [page 2] at the present time is the personal attitude of the woman towards the art work that she is doing. If the information for which I ask you should require special trips along the river, I hope you will not hesitate to take them.

13. Here Boas foreshadows issues later addressed in Haeberlin et al., “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region” as well as in Ruth Bunzel’s The Pueblo Potter: A Study of Creative Imagination in Primitive Art (see Jacknis, “‘The Artist Himself,’” 134–61).

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Teit to Boas. March 19, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121557. Dear Friend I received the credentials from Col. University to-day, and also your letter regarding the specimens. The latter are not in the way here, but I am always afraid of theft or fire, and that was my reason for asking you re. their shipment I will write again later re. whatever comes in my mind.14 PS I will be glad if you find time to enlighten me re. any specific questions to be enquired into on the Coast. I expect to leave here about the 1st May.

Boas to Teit. March 19, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121536. My dear Friend.— Enclosed is a list of Salish tribal names which the Bureau of Ethnology has copied from their cards at my request. I thought it might be useful for you to have the list of names from the Puget Sound region for the purpose of trying to identify what they are and whether they have any standing as tribes. The spelling of most of the names is outrageous, but I recognize practically all the tribes from the coast of British Columbia.15 I have just received the copy of the map of Puget Sound, which I am sending to you under separate cover.

14. Following receipt of Teit’s letter of March 19, 1910, Boas wrote to Sargent on March 28, 1910, relaying what Teit had written, and saying: “I should also feel easier in mind if the specimens were in some museum, and I should be glad if you would consider this question again” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107032). Sargent replied on April 4, 1910, that he had written to the Field Museum and would let Boas know as soon as he had a reply. “Meantime if the specimens are not in Teit’s way I feel inclined to let them remain where they are for lack of a better place” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107052). 15. In the bottom right-hand corner of Boas’s letter of March 19 are the words, “Get chiefs. If [?] Chief Quinault also Chief Queets and Humtulip.” Quinault, Queets, and Humtulip are the names of three Washington tribes.

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Teit to Boas. March 22, 1910. APS, ACLS Collection, Mss.497.b63c, item 61, text 297400. Dear Friend I have just received your letter of 15th inst re the art question in connection with basketry. I will put the queries you suggest to a number of women some time as soon as I can conveniently do so. There are so few basket makers around here I will have to make a special trip or two for the purpose, and will probably either select the Coldwater band or the Spuzzum band as most likely to give best results. I have just received two of the quill work specimens, and the work is fairly well done. One piece in fact looks quite good. (1) One specimen I would call weaving[,] the quills being worked on a foundation of Indian hemp thread. (2) The other specimen I would call wrapping[,] the quills being wrapped around each stitch. Both specimens bear a resemblance to Athapascan quill work from the Northern Interior but I have never seen a full design in the north made like No (2). I expect to get the other specimens of quill work soon. I got a porc. quill necklace lately but there is nothing special about it. The quills are cut in short pieces and threaded in threes, in the same way dentalia are arranged sometimes. One thing I don’t remember if I told you about viz re the woolen blankets which used to be made in the Cañon (viz. Low Thomp.) (1) a coarse kind similar to the specimens I sent you from the Lillooet, Lower Fraser and I think Spuzzum, and (2) a fine kind of which you have no [page 2] specimens. The latter were woven of fine thread often on a foundation of Ind. hemp two ply string and the work was very close like that on woven tump-lines. Designs in various colors were made over the entire surface, and most blankets had three fields each carrying a different design viz a border, a center panel, and a main field between the two. These fine blankets were much used as robes and they must have been the same Fraser refers to in 1808 as he mentions blankets of bright colors much like Highland Tartans worn by people probably around Spuzzum. I don’t remember having noticed this reference of Fraser’s but Dr. Newcombe told me of it. These blankets appear to be different from any of those I have heard about from the Coast, at least the immediate Coast. I don’t know about Washington. These blankets are no longer made, and I have been unable to procure even a bit of an old one. Possibly another good hunt around Spuzzum might bring something to light. Mrs McKay in Victoria has four of them in good preservation bought by her husband (J. W. McKay who used to be Indian agent and H. B. Coy manager) in early days (probably in 1910 | 447

the sixties). She says he bought them at Yale from Indians from up the River who made them, and although in good order they were second hand when bought. He must have got them from Low. Thomp. Indians who used to trade with the H. B. Coy post at Yale. Dr. Newcombe has sent me photos of all four which I can send to you to see if you wish.16 The coarse blankets made were used more as bedding than robes by the Low. Thomp. I have almost finished writing up what information I have on blanket designs but am not near through with the basketry designs yet, as I have not been working at it steady. I am sending you herewith seven pages additional of Thomp. Traditions. PS I was wondering if these fine blankets bear any resemblance to the specimens thought to have been obtained from the Nez Perce by the Wilkes expedition? Either in weave or designs.

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

Teit to Boas. April 7, 1910. APS, ACLS Collection, Mss.497.b63c, item 61, text 297397. Dear Friend I am sending you to-day per registered mail the chapters I have written (for the supplementary Thompson memoir) dealing with Tattooing, and Face and Body painting. I hope you will find the matter interesting. I would have like[d] to have rewritten the pages over on clean paper and in better hand, but as my eyes are not any too good and I want to save them as much as possible I send the pages the way they are. I am still writing more or less most nights on the chapters dealing with the basketry and other designs of the tribe. I find there are about 90 basketry designs and design names and the variations of these of which I have either photos, sketches or notes number over 300.17 I got a 16. For information about Joseph McKay, see footnote 22 to chapter 1 (1984–1895) earlier in this volume (a note within Teit’s letter to Boas, March 12, 1895, AMNH, Anthropology Collection, accession 1895–32). From 1865 to 1870 McKay was the factor at the Hudson’s Bay Company post at Fort Yale on the Fraser River, approximately eleven miles downriver from the Nlaka’pamux village of Spuzzum. At that time he is believed to have acquired the four woven “blankets” to which Teit refers. Newcombe had approached McKay’s widow, who was living in Victoria in 1905, hoping to acquire one of the blankets for the Field Museum in Chicago. Although he photographed three of them, he declined to buy any because he found the price was too high. In 1910 Newcombe and Teit saw the blankets together during a visit to Mrs. McKay, but again did not buy them (Tepper et al. Salish Blankets, 122). This visit may have been in mid-May, 1910, as Teit wrote to Newcombe that he expected to be in Victoria on May 13, prior to his leaving for Washington state to conduct field work for Boas (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence, Teit to Newcombe, May 5, 1910). 17. In early April 1910 Teit was also corresponding with Newcombe concerning Newcombe’s recently completed Guide to the Anthropological Collection in the Provincial Museum

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hammer here lately with a very well carved head representing the face of a deer or some other animal. It was found by an Indian woman about 18 miles east of here at a favorite place for digging bitter-root.

Boas to Teit. April 15, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121537. My dear Friend,— I received your letter of the 7th of April and also the manuscript, which came by registered mail. I am afraid that I shall not have time to read it until the beginning of May. Will you kindly let me know whether you received the draft which I ordered sent to you. I am very curious to see your paper on basketry designs, which I am sure will be very interesting. I trust you will also send with it all such supplementary information as you may have on the kinds of materials used in basketry, and the methods for their preparation. I shall be very glad if you can find time to inquire about the questions of inventing designs and the kinds of designs each weaver makes in as great detail as possible.

and anthropological map of British Columbia. In his letter of April 1, 1910, Teit offered substantial corrections to Newcombe’s map, particularly with reference to the territories of the Tahltan and neighboring tribes, but also about the Bella Coola and others throughout British Columbia (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence, Teit to Newcombe, April 1, 1910). In the list of Illustrations in the Guide to the Anthropological Collection is “Plate I, Map of British Columbia. This map shows the approximate areas formerly occupied by the Indian Tribes of British Columbia, colored according to linguistic stocks. In making it, much assistance has been given by Mr. James Teit of Spences Bridge, who has supplied information recently acquired by him respecting the boundaries of the Kootenaian and Salishan of the mainland.” However, the illustrations in the booklet begin with Plate II, a photograph of the Haida village of Skidegate. The map is missing. In April 1910, as well, Teit was corresponding with Newcombe about the preparation of a map for the Victoria Memorial Museum, then near its opening date. “Your letter of 5th inst came to hand, and I was glad to hear you had an engagement to arrange the N.W. collection in the Museum at Ottawa. I shall be glad to prepare the map for them, but I have no idea what the job is worth. I think I better leave it with you to make the arrangement, and whatever price you set will be satisfactory to me. Either that or you might give me an idea of what to charge. I suppose it ought to be worth $10.00 any way” (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence, Teit to Newcombe, April 10, 1910). Toward the end of that month he wrote that he had not yet heard from Reginald Brock, then director of the Geological Survey of Canada (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence, Teit to Newcombe, April 27, 1910). At that time the museum was a component of the Geological Survey of Canada. The Victoria Memorial Museum building was completed in 1911.

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Teit to Boas. April 21, 1910. APS, ACLS Collection, Mss.497.b63c, item 61, text 297401. Dear Friend I drop you a line to say I received your letter last night, and was glad to hear you had received my m.s. on Thomp. Face and Body Painting and Tattooing. I have received no notice yet of the money you ordered sent. It should arrive soon now. I will stop off at Spuzzum either on the way going to or coming from the Coast and make enquiry re the points you refer to on basketry. I will take your several letters dealing with the subject with me on the trip so I may forget nothing of importance. I have bought about twelve more baskets lately for designs of interest, and have also bought a number of specimens of clothes, bags etc. showing various important points in methods of decoration etc. including some with quill work. The specimens of the latter have all come to hand now with the exception of one piece which the woman said she would do with [page 2] split quills. One of the specimens I have obtained lately shows a common method of binding quills. A woman found a stone mortar lately near an old Indian camp in the mtns and is to bring it to me soon. I saw a man to-day who informed me his grandfather told him the large stone mortars were made near old mtn camps which the Indians frequently resorted to, and some of them may have been used for several generations. They were too heavy to be carried around from place to place, so at many of the regular camps in the mountains they were to be found, and any one camping there used them if required. He said they were frequently used for boiling food in in the same way as the large circular woven baskets. Is there any dialect of the Coast Salish in Washington such as the Lummi or Nootsack that you have a vocabulary of and which I will not require to collect or will I collect a voc. of every dialect I hear of in Wash. irrespective of what material has already been collected[?] I suppose I will not require to collect the Quileute Chimakum and Makah but confine myself strictly to the Salish. If you have any particular points of information to be gathered in any place let me know.

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Boas to Teit. April 25, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121538. My dear Mr. Teit,— On receipt of your letter I made some inquiries in regard to the best way of placing your collection; and it seems altogether likely now that we may decide to place the collection in the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. I hope to be able to explain to you the reason for this act at a later time. I am not quite certain yet; but I write to let you know that I may telegraph within a few days, instructing you to pack up the collection and send it to the Field Museum.18

Boas to Teit. April 27, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121539. My dear Friend,— I have just received your note of the 21st of April. I have looked up the money question, and I understand that the Treasurer of Columbia University sent $400 to your credit to the Canadian Bank of Commerce, Kamloops BC, on March 15, but he addressed the letter to you at Kamloops, and it came back; then he sent it out again to the same address. I have now requested him to send out a duplicate payable to your credit at the Canadian Bank of Commerce, and to direct it to the bank, not to you. It might be well for you to write to the Post-Office in Kamloops, claiming the letter, and you must then return the original check to me. I am sorry for this blunder. It will be best if you collect vocabularies of all the different tribes. but do not take any except the Salish tribes. I believe your most difficult subject will be the area between Gray’s Harbor, Puget Sound, and Columbia River. We know next to nothing about the distribution of the so-called Upper and Lower Chehalis and the Cowlitz and the actual characteristics of these dialects. I have a few texts in Lower Chehalis which I collected at the north end of Shoalwater Bay. I believe this dialect is about the same as the Quinault but it 18. In a letter to Boas dated April 18, 1910 (APs, Boas Papers, text 107053), Sargent described his negotiation with the Field Museum concerning the proportion of the collection to be put on display, and the Field Museum’s reluctance to agree before seeing the collection. On May 2, 1910 (APS, Boas Papers, text 107054), Sargent confirmed to Boas that the Field Museum had accepted the collection. He enclosed labels and invoices to be sent to Teit. In this letter, as well, Sargent gave Boas permission to tell Teit of Sargent’s financial contributions to his work. Boas did so in his letter to Teit of May 3, 1910.

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is better for you to look into this matter. From all I know, the most remarkable dialect of the region is the Tana, which is quite a small area, and seems to differ a good deal from the others.19

Boas to Teit. May 3, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121540.

I have always felt awkward during the last three years because I have not been able to tell you that the funds for the work that you have been doing for Columbia University were given by Mr. Homer E. Sargent. Mr. Sargent did not want you to know it, and so of course I could not speak about it. This accounts also for his wish to have certain specimens collected for him, and for his present desire to have all the material sent to the Field Museum of Natural History. We have arranged, however, that the results of your studies will be published here, in connection with your previous work. I am sending enclosed shipping tags and invoices, which I hope you will be able to fill out, so that the whole material will go to the Museum in bond. I trust that the check which I sent you, and which by the blunder on the part of the Treasurer here was misdirected, has reached you by this.

Teit to Boas. May 9, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121558. Dear Friend I received your letters OK, your last one referring to the collection was received to-day. I had everything put past in trunks etc. already, for safe keeping for I intended to leave to-morrow morning for the Coast. As I have everything arranged for leaving, and have already made dates I think I better proceed, and take chances on the specimens being all right until I come back again when I will ship the specimens to the Field Museum as directed. If I do it now it will keep me back a number of days. I have just returned from Kamloops where I went up and drew money for the trip. The $400.00 you sent arrived all right at the Bank, but I could not locate any letter addressed to me at Kamloops. The check which was sent to me addressed to there must have gone astray, and I could not get any trace of it. It is certainly

19. The letter ends abruptly at this point, without Boas’s usual salutation. A page may be missing.

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Seattle

Humptulips Puyallup

Grays Harbor

Nisqually Reservation WASHINGTON

CAS CAD E

Moclips

mbia River Colu

Queets

RA NG ES

very good of Mr Sargent to have supplied you with money to carry on this very necessary work among the Salish tribes of Washington etc. I note all you say re. the work and dialects. I will be two or three days in Vanc. and Victoria and will then go straight to the Quinaiult [sic] Reservation via Seattle. The agent in charge there is a friend of mine. He was in charge at Nespelem on the Colville Reservation two years ago when I was [page 2] there. I will write you from there, and again from time to time as I make progress.

Yakima Reservation

b Colu m

i

a

40 km

Cascades

R iv e

r

Wishram The Dalles

John Days

Celilo

OREGON

Map 4. Research locales, 1910. Cartography by Eric Leinberger, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia.

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Teit to Boas. May 25, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 1221559. Dear Friend I drop you a line to let you know I am on the Quiniault Reservation and am getting along all right.20 I have had some delays here and there and the first three days I was here could do hardly anything. The fishing season is on here at present and the Indians are all busy netting salmon in the River. However last night I finished up the Quiniault and Queets etc. who talk the same language. They claim their language is a good deal different from the (Lower) Chehalis of Grays Harbor etc. The Quiniault etc. have a collective name for themselves embracing all those speaking their language. The tribe or language lately and at the present time extends along the coast from Copalis creek North to Queets. According to their tradition however they occupied a much larger area at one time, and in early times extended from the Point at the North entrance of Grays Harbor north to Cape Flattery. They were displaced at the southern point between Humptulips and Copalis creek by the Chehalis. They claim [page 2] to have gradually left the extreme Northern point of their territory through causes now uncertain (some think owing to food supply) and congregated further south. The point at Cape Flattery became occupied by the Makah whom [sic] they say crossed the strait from Vancouver Island. The Quiniault were never very numerous at Cape Flattery as it was the extreme northern point of their territory, but were once quite numerous in what is now Quileute territory, and from there south to Moclips. The Quileute who were once a strong warlike tribe came from the east and drove the Quiniault out of all the country North of Queets River. They tried also to occupy more country further south but the Queets who were the best fighters of the Quiniault people stood their ground and stopped further conquests of the Quileute. There are some strangers here among the Quiniault at the fishing, and I have strong hopes of securing vocabularies of the (Lower) Chehalis, upper Chehalis River dialect, and the Satsop River dialect. If I manage this I will be here for at least a week yet. If you write to me[,] address c/o Hotel Kenneth Seattle.

20. Early in his visit to the Quinault Teit wrote the name as “Quiniault,” but wrote “Quinault” in subsequent letters.

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Boas to Teit. May 31, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121541.21 My dear Friend,— I was very glad to hear from you and to learn that you had good success. I am very curious to see how the information in regard to the Upper Chehalis, Satsops, and Lower Chehalis turns out.

Teit to Boas. June 10, 1910. APS, ALCS Collection, Item 59, Mss 497.3 b63c, text 143672. Dear Friend22 I arrived in Seattle from the Klallam this morning and am leaving to-morrow morning for the Chehalis again. I lost about five days time among the Quinault between waiting on Indians, bad weather and connections but since then have fully made up time and am now more advanced than I thought I would be at this date.23 On the whole I have made good progress with the languages and boundaries. I find the Indians in this country are fast losing knowledge of everything old (although a few of the younger ones who are intelligent and educated show a tendency to take interest in the old customs and history of their people) and consequently to get anyways full and reliable information one has to travel around a good deal locating and interviewing old people reported to have old time knowledge. Some of these people are not on reservation but live on homesteads here and there in the state. It will probably occupy all the time I have to spare at present [page 2] to finish the vocabularies and boundaries etc. without attempting much in any other line. However I am asking a number of questions re basketry and other things as I go along but I plainly see the basketry will require considerable time for itself. The basketry of this region is quite varied in technique, materials, and designs etc. and I don’t see much use of just running over the ground and picking up specimens at random without taking the required time to obtain all available information regarding them and particularly the designs the elucidation 21. Addressed to Teit c/o Hotel Kenneth, Seattle, Wash. 22. Postmarked Kenneth Hotel, Seattle, Washington. 23. Teit sent a postcard to Newcombe, postmarked “Jun 10”: “I met Messrs Curtis and Myers among the Indians at Quinault and had a chat with them” (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence). This is a reference to the photographer Edward Sheriff Curtis, who was in Washington state in the summer of 1910. Curtis produced a twenty-volume series of publications entitled The North American Indian between 1907 and 1930.

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of which always takes time and patience. For this reason I am buying only a very few specimens. There is a lot of basketry to be obtained among nearly all the tribes, but they say in most places the young girls are not learning the art so in a few years the chance of obtaining full information will be much less than now, and the prices of specimens probably higher. Whilst working with some old Cowlitz people I learned a family of the Wilapa [sic] people lived only half a mile away consisting of an old woman, her daughter, and her grandchildren. Seeing they were so close at hand I thought I would visit them. I learned the old woman spoke nothing but her own language when a girl, and her first husband was a member of her own tribe. She remembered considerable of her language altho she had not [page 3] spoken it for a great many years—(Her daughter and grandchildren speak Cowlitz among themselves.) I took down a vocabulary from her corresponding to the others I am taking, but did not get all the words. I notice some words similar to the Nicola Athapascan as for instance the name for ‘man’ and ‘tump-line’ and I think ‘snake.’ This woman told me her tribe made only soft baskets formerly, and coiled basketry was never made by them until learned from the Cowlitz within her memory. A few people who were mixed with Cowlitz made them before her day but none of her tribe of pure stock made them, and none of her particular family until quite lately. Her daughter makes them now. She remembers lots of things her mother told her about her tribe, and she knows how the people spoke and their manner of living when she was young. The information she gave me agreed with all I had obtained from the Cowlitz including the former known habitat of the tribe. She remembered having heard her people telling of the splitting of her tribe as follows. “A long time ago a man of her [page 4] tribe was tracking an elk on the mountain and got lost. As he did not return and his people could not find where he had gone they concluded he was dead. He had traveled south to Columbia River. Somewhere in that country he fell in with another tribe and married a woman there. He had a number of children by this woman. After a number of years he returned to see his people, and after staying with them some time he went back again to the country of his adopted tribe taking a good many members of his own tribe with him. He had told them the country was better where he lived, and the surrounding people more friendly. Afterwards descendants of these people were met from time to time by members of the parent tribe. These people were called Tlakatskaneí-a”. The Cowlitz tell nearly the same story about this incident. They say “formerly some of the su‛wál got lost. They wandered off to the south. Afterwards a man and a 456 | 1910

woman (or a man and his daughter) of these people were met on Columbia River and recognized. This man’s people or the country they lived in was called Tlatskatskaneía.” The Cowlitz call the Willapa Athapascans Su‛wál or Su‘wāll and say they formerly inhabited [page 5] the Upper Chehalis and upper Willapa with head quarters near a high mountain called Lêkáiᴇks. Some also lived in other spots near the mountains. These people also call themselves Su‛wál but say this was the name of those only who occupied the upper Chehalis (southern and western headwaters of the Chehalis River). The tribe on the Willapa River were called Wᴇlápakotéli by the Su‛wál. They spoke the same language as themselves but with slight variations. They used at one time to go right to the mouth of the Willapa at certain seasons but made their head quarters up the River in the mountains. They say both tribes as far as remembered were never very numerous. They formerly had many enemies because there is a tradition that they formerly had to hide themselves, and live in holes in the ground (not caves). The nature of these holes the old woman could not explain as she said it was long before her time but she thought they were excavations in the ground from which spread out numerous underground passages or trenches covered with brush and earth through which [page 6] they could escape if attacked. (Evidently like those formerly used in the Interior of BC). She said the Su‛wál and the Wᴇlápakotélì were originally one people living together, and also the tlakatskaneí-́ a who were a branch of the Su‘wál. According to all the information I have gathered so far Gibbs extends the Willapa (viz Su‛wál) too far east and north. Possibly they may have occupied more country easterly and northerly at one time, but I am speaking from the information I have gained. Re the Cowlitz this is said to have been the most populous people of all the tribes of the region. Their settlements having been practically continuous all the way along Cowlitz River. They claim to have occupied the entire basin of the Cowlitz River from the extreme head water right down to the mouth including all the tributaries. They had settlements right at the junction of the Cowlitz and Columbia but did not extend up or down the latter river. Later the people on the extreme lower part of the Cowlitz became much mixed with Chinook but before that they had fought the Chinook. Some of the Cowlitz they say used to hunt at one time on the Lewis River (upper part) but they have no memory of the latter place having been inhabited by themselves or any other [page 7] tribe before the Taítnapam. They consider the latter to be a branch of the Klickitat from east of the mountains. (Some say ‘they were washed there from the latter place at the time of the flood, and probably what ever tribe may 1910 | 457

have been there before was washed out’). They claim the first Klickitat to visit the Cowlitz came by way of the Taítnapam. Afterwards they and the Taítnapam used to come in large bands and camp in the Cowlitz country where they held a kind of fair trading Interior products with the Cowlitz particularly dried thistle roots, and other Interior roots, dressed skins, woven bags, marmot robes, marmot skins, goats wool etc. etc. They were noted as great hunters and traders. It was long after this before Klickitat came in from the north through the northern passes. The Cowlitz never had any wars with these people. After the depopulation of the Cowlitz by plague many Klickitat and Taítnapam settled permanently in the Cowlitz country and from the beginning intermarriages between these tribes and the Cowlitz had taken place. This rather seems to [page 8] show the Shahaptan [sic] invasion followed along the Columbia at the back of the Chinook by Klickitat pass, and did not occur from the Yakima country which probably did not become the center of population of these people until later. The Cowlitz language was the same all through the tribal territory. There were slight variations in the speaking of it at different points along the river, but even the extreme upper, and extreme lower people had no difficulty in understanding each other. What the Indians told me when I first came here re the classification of the languages is borne out by my vocabularies so far. (1) The Quinault language stands alone but shows most affinity to the Chehalis and Cowlitz. The latter two languages are closely related and form group (2). The Skokomish or Twana also stands alone making no (3). It shows most affinity to the Nisquallie which makes No. (4). This language is very wide spread and is spoken by the Nisquallie, Puyallup, Muckleshoot, Squaxon, Dwamish and Snoqualmie. I do not know yet its extreme north eastern boundary. There is practically no difference in the language of these various tribes. Not any more than occurs between the up. and Low Thompson. The Nisquallie claim to have originated from the [page 9] Snoqualmie who are said to have been a very warlike, populous, and well organized tribe—the most powerful west of the Cascades. These people spread down over the upper parts of the rivers to the West and then down the rivers and out to the sea and over to the opposite shores of the sound it is claimed. So far I have not obtained any tradition of their having displaced any other people, excepting that some say the Skokomish or Twana formerly had their home on the west side of Mount Tacoma or Rainier. This would place them on the upper Puyallup and up Nisquallie Rivers. They tell the following story about this. “A long time ago Mt. Adams and Mt. Tacoma had a quarrel which ended in their fighting by throwing 458 | 1910

rocks at each other. A rock fired by Mt. Adams knocked off Mr. Tacoma’s head, and immediately a great gush of water came out at the neck which flooded all the country. Tacoma’s head was washed away, and now forms the Olympic Mtns. At this time the Twana people lived in the [page 10] country just west of Mt. Tacoma. Most of them were drowned but some escaped on a raft. When the water receded they found themselves on what is now known as the Olympic Mtns. Afterwards they came down and settled in the country where they are now.” The story relates about other tribes being drifted. They say some held on with ropes to the tops of high mtns, but many tribes were displaced. The Taítnapam were washed from the Interior to the Lewis River. The Su‛wál floated around until they hit against the mtns at the head of Chehalis and Willapa. At that time the Quileute and the Chimakum lived together and were one people. The Chimakum anchored themselves but the Quileute were washed away to the country they now inhabit.” The versions of this story from the Twana are as follows “The Twana drifted against the top of Olympic Mtns where they tied themselves to a rock with withe rope. When the waters receded they went down to Skokomish River and lived there. Some others [page 11] went down the west side of the mountains and settled some place to the south west. Afterwards they were met and talked the Twana language. Later they have been lost, no one has met them, and it is unknown what has become of them.” “Once a number of Twana lived at the headwaters of a river to the west. (west of Hood Canal (Duswallip River)) One was a man called Duswályups, and his two wives. The wives quarreled with each other and one scratched the face of the other. The husband became angry and tore out the breasts of one wife. She became transformed to a mtn, and may be seen now with her scratched face, and her breasts below her. Her husband and son were transformed to mtns near by. The other wife who escaped traveled towards the Cascade Mtns. She carried king salmon with her for food. When crossing a creek on the eastern confines of the Twana country she dropped the tail there, and said in this creek henceforth the salmon will always be thin and they are to this day. She continued traveling until just at the west side [page 12] of the mountains where they commence to get steep she was transformed into Mt. Tacoma. The Rest [sic] of the Twana living there came down out of the mtns along the Duswallips River and lived near the sea.”24 I find the boundaries of the Chehalis 24. Current spelling is “Dosewallips River” (“Dosewallips River Trail,” Olympic National Park Washington, https://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/dosewallips-river-trail.htm, accessed

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considerably different from what Gibbs gives them and those of the Skokomish also a little different. I have told you already about the Quinault. I am paying particular attention to the people along the Chehalis River. There were a number of different dialects spoken there it is said, but so far I find the differences very slight. I have taken down three of these dialects, already, and will try a fourth. This includes the Satsop which Gibbs claimed was a distinct dialect. I find the sound of it when spoken is markedly different to listen to, as they have a long intonation and drawl out there [sic] words but the words are almost the same as Greys [sic] Harbor.25 To be sure of the ancient boundaries of the Clallam I think it will be necessary to make inquiries at [sic] the Chemakum.

Boas to Teit. June 15, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121542. My dear Friend,— I was very glad to receive your full letter of the 10th of June with the interesting information that it contains. I am afraid I forgot to call your attention to one particular point that ought to be looked up in all the Salish dialects west of the mountains; namely, the inquiry into the occurrence of sex gender in the pronouns. We ought to be sure whether all these tribes have different expressions for he present, he absent, she present, she absent, both in the personal and possessive pronoun. I am much interested in what you say about the Willapa, and I have a good mind to try to send some one there right away who knows Athapascan, in order to get whatever can be obtained. Will you please, therefore, write me very definitely where to find the old woman to whom you refer, and please also send the same information by letter to Mr. Leo J. Frachtenberg, General Delivery, Portland, Oregon.26 He is out June 27, 2021). 25. Teit’s spelling of the name Gray’s Harbor varied from Gray’s to Grey’s. 26. Boas wrote to Frachtenberg on June 17, 1910, saying: “Willopa [sic] is an Athapascan dialect that was spoken in former times in the region between Shoalwater Bay and the upper regions of Puget Sound. It represents the branch of Athapascan spoken in southern British Columbia, which is also extinct, and south of Columbia River, between Portland and Astoria. This last dialect, however, is also extinct; and if it is possible to get any information on the dialect it will be highly welcome. . . . The essential point will of course be to get enough to establish the philological position of the dialect in relation to the northern and southern dialects. I am going to have copied for you what little we have about the Tlatskanaiju and also a brief vocabulary of the Willopa which was obtained by Anderson and in part by myself. If it

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there now, studying one of the Oregon dialects, and I will see whether I can get him to go there.

Teit to Boas. June 18, 1010. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121560.27 Dear Friend. I have now finished up the Chehalis so far as language and boundaries are concerned. I have taken down four vocabularies from people of this tribe. One from people originally from Gray’s Harbor, one from the Satsop, and two from people orig. belonging to different parts of the river above there (viz. from a point very close to the Cowlitz and from a point a little above Black River)[.] To be sure I was getting proper Satsop I took down a full vocabulary from one man and a partial one from another. Besides this I have interviewed some ten or twelve persons belonging to different parts of Chehalis River and Grey’s [sic] Harbor (and others belonging to the nearest tribes) re. the different dialects within the tribe. I find that the Quinault do not stand quite alone, but rather that there is a gradual transition in the language of the Chehalis commencing with the Cowlitz and ending with the Queets. In fact the Chehalis dialects form a succession of links uniting the Cowlitz at [page 2] one end of the chain to the Queets at the other end. The languages spoken at the two extremes being distinct in so far as the Cowlitz on the one hand and the Quinault and Queets on the

should turn out that only a small vocabulary and no grammatical information can be obtained, do not spend much time with the woman. If, however, you can obtain any sort of connected text, it would be of the very greatest value. I am also sending you proof-sheets of Goddard’s Athapascan, so that you may have some idea what to look for. . . . According to Teit, the woman claims that the Tlatskanaiju and her own tribe became separated quite recently. In all likelihood this is not a true historical tradition, and you may be able to ascertain the probability of its being historical by a comparison of the Tlatskanaiju material and the Willopa material” (APS, Franz Boas Papers, text 46517). Leo Frachtenberg (1883–1930), a student of Boas, was a linguist and cultural anthropologist who received his PhD from Columbia in 1910 for a study of Coosan languages spoken in Oregon. As a linguist Frachtenberg specialized in the study of Penutian languages. An early publication was Coos Texts, Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology, volume 1 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1913). Frachtenberg taught at Columbia University after graduating and worked at the Bureau of American Ethnology from 1913 until 1917, when he was fired from the BAE for criticizing the government of the United States. Boas’s attempts to resolve the situation were unsuccessful. Frachtenberg served in the United States Army from 1917 until 1920, leaving the service as a lieutenant-colonel. He subsequently worked with Jewish organizations until his death from pneumonia in 1930. (“Leo J. Frachtenberg, Anthropologist, Linguist,” https://www.peoplepill.com/people/leo-j -frachtenberg, accessed June 5, 2020). 27. Written on letterhead of the Hotel New York.

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other cannot understand each other without learning each others [sic] tongues. (I should judge without having examined the vocabularies critically there is fully as much or possibly more difference between the two as there is between the Thomp. and Shuswap for example)[.] Even the Grey’s [sic] Harbor dialect differs so much from the Upper Chehalis they can understand each other only to a limited extent (without some knowledge of each other’s dialects.) This Lower Chehalis or Gray’s Harbor dialect stands much nearer to Quinault than to Cowlitz whilst the up. Chehalis is quite close to the Cowlitz. If it were not for the Satsop which unites the two and stands about midway between the up and Low. Chehalis, and the fact of transition in dialect traceable all the way along I would have no hesitation in saying the Low. Chehalis and Quinault stand together as opposed to the up. Chehalis and Cowlitz, thus making two tongues spoken each in two dialects. [page 3] According to my information the Chehalis speech can be divided into four groups or dialects all of which are still spoken (two of them by very few individuals now). These are as follows. 1. Humptulips dialect 2. Lower Chehalis or Gray’s Harbor dialect. 3. Satsop dialect 4. Upper Chehalis dialect. No 1. was spoken throughout the North Bay of Grays Harbor, Humtulips River and Damon Point up to about Copalis where the Quinault came in. This is the part of the country the Quinault people claim belonged to them and their tongue long ago, and which later became Chehalis. It is not clear whether the Quinault were driven out of this section by war with the Chehalis or was it rather a peaceful supplanting of the former by the latter through force of numbers and intermarriage. Any way this dialect is claimed by all my informants to have stood midway between the Low. Chehalis (viz No 2.) and the Quinault, and some claim it originated from a blending of these two peoples. Certainly in later years [page 4] at all events the people here were a mixture of the two tribes. Because of its standing midway between the Quinault and Low Chehalis I did not make any attempt to obtain a vocabulary of it, and besides no one appears to be alive now who speaks the straight Humtulips [sic]. The people along the outer Coast viz Damon’s Point up to Copalis spoke slightly different, and more harshly than the people of North Bay and Humptulips River. There were thus two variations of this dialect. There is said to be just 462 | 1910

one man living who knows the old Damon way of speaking. No. 2 was spoken on all the rest of Grays Harbor and up the Chehalis River to and including the Wynootchi River.28 Between Hoquiam and the latter place there were slight variations in speaking from place to place ascending the river, but these differences were very slight. This dialect was also spoken on the Salmon River, and all the north shore of Shoalwater Bay. The difference in speech between the Low. Chehalis of Shoalwater Bay and the Low. Chehalis of Gray’s Harbor is said to have been slight.— some say almost nil. These people occupied also the mouth of the Willapa and along the east side of the Bay south nearly to Nemah, and on the point opposite West side [page 5] Bay to below Oysterville. Nemah and south of there was occupied by a division of the Chinook who spoke a little different dialect from those of Columbia River etc. There was at one time quite a band of Chehalis at Bay Center and Palix (pḗlᴇks) River. According to tradition however the Chehalis at one time were confined to the north shore of the Bay and south to the mouth of Willapa River, whilst the Chinook occupied all the South part up to the mouth of the Willapa probably so far as where South Bend is now. The Willapa Athapascan tribe occupied the Willapa River down to near South Bend which is very near the mouth. Some say quite down to the mouth. This country became Chehalis later and the Willapa became confined to the upper portion of the River only. In later days the Chehalis who lived around the Willapa mouth, Bay Center, Palix etc. were much mixed with Chinook. According to tradition a war with the Chinook was followed by a good deal of intermarriage between them and the Chehalis, and the latter were invited by the Chinook to come across to the south side and use the country in conjunction with them. This the Chehalis did, and later formed permanent camps as far south as Oysterville (a little above Nahcotta)[.] This is how the Chehalis came South of the Willapa. The Shoalwater Bay Chehalis are said to be a branch of, and to have sprung from the Gray’s Harbor Chehalis. They are considered the same people[.] No 3. dialect was spoken only on Satsop River and a very short distance east of there. It appears to occupy a position about midway between the Low. Chehalis and Up. Chehalis. No 4. is the upper Chehalis dialect. It was spoken along all the upper part of the river above No 3. with the exception of [page 6] 28. Current spelling is “Wynoochee.” The Wynoochee River is a tributary of the Chehalis River in Washington. (“Satsop and Wynoochee River Restoration Projects,” Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, https://wdfw.wa.gov/species-habitats/habitat-recovery/chehalis-basin -strategy/satsop-wynoochee-restoration, accessed June 27, 2021).

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the Southern and Western headwaters of Chehalis River which were occupied by the Athapascans. Some of this people lived over at Mud Bay (Here they are now mixed with Nisqually) and some also allow them the head of Oyster Bay. (Mud Bay is marked Eld Inlet on many maps and is in the Puget Sound Region[.]) The name by which the Upper Chehalis are generally known is derived from a place name at the head of Mud Bay. The speech within this area differed a little at various points, those lower down speaking closer to the Satsop and those highest up more like the Cowlitz. The Chehalis have no name for themselves as a whole. Re. the Quinault this tribe claims to have spoken the same language throughout but with three slight variations. The Quinault formerly occupying the country from Humptulips up to Copalis were one, the Queets people at the extreme north made two, and the Quinault proper in the center made the third[.] The differences were very slight just amounting to a word and a pronounciation [sic] here, and there. The vocabulary I took down is from a Queets man. In my last letter from Seattle I gave you particulars regarding the Willapa, Cowlitz, Nisqually, Skokomish or Twana etc. From information collected from Clallam and others it seems the Chimakum at one time occupied the country slightly further west than what Gibbs gives as their western Boundary Line (viz all the Bay and river there around Port Discovery). It seems there is a tradition among the Clallam that the Clallam tribe had their original [page 7] center around Clallam Bay and River and some say their name is derived from that place. They assert the Makah tried to drive them out of there but failed. Their flood tradition places their original home on Vancouver Island (according to the version I obtained, but I will try to get it from some others to make sure as the people I was amongst could not tell the full tradition in all details.) They claim the Lummi and Songish speak the same language as themselves, and the same language was formerly spoken throughout the San Juan group. If their traditions are to be depended on, possibly the Chimakum and Quileute occupied much or all of what is now Clallam territory. The Clallam agree with the other neighboring tribes the Quileute were part of the Chimakum who shifted west. They say they were drifted over there the time of the flood and dispersal of the Indians, but I have it from the Queets and Quinault that they came in from the east and drove the Quinault out of the country between Cape Flattery and Queets making war on them. The Clallam language is the first one I have come across having the ‘ng’ sound as in English (thing etc.) [.] In the Quinault, Chehalis dialects, and Nisqually etc. ‘g’ is a common sound, also ‘j’. In 464 | 1910

some ‘j’ seems to interchange with ‘y’ rather than ‘tc’. Interchange of ‘tc’ and ‘j’ occurs, also ‘g’ and ‘k’, ‘k’ and ‘tc’, ‘l’ and ‘n’[.] Nisqually is full of ‘b’ and ‘d’ which change to ‘m’ and [page 8] and [sic] ‘n’ respectively in other dialects. A ‘dt’ sound occurs in Skokomish. The Thompson ‘r’ occurs sometimes. It is often difficult to determine whether ‘s, c or z’ is uttered because the real sound is between these. Many vowels are also half sounds and difficult to determine properly. I may mention that the Lower Chehalis and Satsop claim they did not make coiled basketry long ago, but procured in trade from the Upper Chehalis, Nisqually and Cowlitz—coiled baskets for boiling in. They say the Chinook and Willapa also did not make them. I have already stated that the Quileute and Quinault and Suwál did not make them. The Makah may also be added. The Satsop, Chehalis etc. made a variety of Kekule house—used only by the chiefs or best families of each place. I did not get any flood tradition from the Cowlitz—one existed but my informants did not know it. They gave me a tradition re. the Chimakum to the effect that these people long ago were attacked (somewhere in the Mt Tacoma country) and dispersed many of them being made slaves. Afterwards some of those who lived in the present Chimakum or Clallam country went back expecting to find the remainder of the tribe in their old home but they were gone, and have never been located since. I am going to leave here to-morrow for the Snohomish Country and will not return until I have finished the North eastern part of the Puget Sound area up to the BC line. [page 9] PS All the languages gathered so far show resemblances in words to the Interior languages.29 Some appear to have Interior words that others lack. In some words the Nisquallie [sic] resembles the Interior tongues closer than others, but on the whole it appears to me the Cowlitz has the strongest connection with the Interior Salish[.]

29. From a Teit letter marked “Hotel N.Y. Seattle. June 18, 1910.” Lk Jan 1930. As suggested in the Introduction, L.K. probably stands for Lucy Kramer, later Lucy Kramer Cohen (1907–2007), a student of Boas.

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Teit to Boas.30 June 26, 1910.31 Aps, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121561. Dear Friend I have just received your letter and answer at once as you direct. The old woman whom I interviewed is living on the Nisqually Reservation about one mile from Peter Kalama’s house, and about five miles from Roy a station on the main line of the Northern Pacific R.R. between Portland and Seattle. This is the nearest point to get on the Reservation. Her name is Tonàmáɬ (also Gúla). I forget for the moment her English name but all the people on the Reservation know her by these names. I collected from her about 255 words but perhaps six of these are obviously Salish words and borrowed. Her first husband was a man of her own tribe. She is a widow and lives with her daughter also a widow and her grandchildren. She told me [page2] the other woman remembers more of the language than she does. Her Indian name is Yakāúts[.] Her English name is Mary Judson and she lives quite close to Rochester, Wash. (not on any Reserve)[.] I did not visit her. The only way to do [so] would be to hire Peter Kalama as interpreter (Both women speak Nisqually fluently). He is a good interpreter and I have used him a good deal lately in the way of introducing me and explaining everything concerning my work to the Indians at various places. So the path will be smooth for Mr Frachtenberg if he lets Kalama understand he is working the same as I am viz for you as our head. (I have everything explained to the Indians all over here so if I come back I will have no trouble. I did this in my own way, and got them all on my side and interested)[.] Nothing can be done with these women without Kalama[.] The latter has the confidence of most of the Inds and is a big leader in the Shaker movement which has become very strong all over

30. Written on letterhead of Kenneth Hotel, Modern European Plan, 701 First Avenue, Seattle, Wash. 31. On June 26, 1910, as well, Teit wrote to Newcombe, enclosing “a sample of the ‘arrow wood’ and a sample of what is called ‘basket grass’ used by the Skokomish for imbrication. I would like you to identify these if you can and give me proper botanical and English names . . .” and “I left a map of BC in your house. Please be good enough to send it to Sp. Bdge. I want to mark it off showing the habitat of the various Ind. Tribes for the Lawyers of the Ind. Rights Ass of BC[.] If you can get another one the same from Mr. Scholefield send the two. One I can mark off for Ottawa later on” (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence, Teit to Newcombe, June 26, 1910).

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Western Wash.32 I am writing to Frachtenberg as you direct and also to Kalama in case F. comes. I will write you re. my work shortly.33

Teit to Boas. June 27, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121562. Dear Friend. I just returned from North last night when I got your letter and answered it at once. The Snohomish I find is a dialect of the Snoqualmie or Nisqually language and is very closely related to it. The Skaget [sic] is Snohomish and can hardly be called a dialect. A very few words in it differ from the Snohomish. The Swiwamish or Lower Skagets and the Sauk or Upper Skagets speak exactly the same. The only difference is the latter have a more drawling way of speaking. The common words and the grammar of the Snoqualmie and Snohomish are so much alike these people have no difficulty in talking with each other. The Lummi is closely related to the Clallam but in some words comes closer to the Skaget and Fraser River. The Lummi say although they use many words different from the Clallam the majority of words and the grammar are so similar they can converse with each other without [page 2] much difficulty. The Samish were Lummi and also the Semiahmoo to the North around Blaine [Washington] and BC [.] The latter talked Lummi slightly different. The people on the Islands (San Juan, Orca 32. The Native American Shaker movement, distinct from the Shakers (United Society of Believers) of the eastern United States, began in Washington state in 1882 when John Slocum, a member of the Sqaxin Tribe in the region of Puget Sound, had a religious illumination leading him to believe that through God Native Americans could turn away from gambling, drinking, and traditional curers. The first Shaker church was built in south Puget Sound in 1892; the church was incorporated under the laws of Washington state in 1910. Although a schism split the church in 1927 into the Indian Shaker Church and the Indian Full Gospel Church, in 1996 the church as a whole had approximately 3,000 members in twenty-one congregations in Washington, Oregon, northern California, and British Columbia (David Wilma, “Native Americans Organize The Indian Shaker Church in 1892,” The Free Encyclopedia of Washington State History, 2000, http://shorturl.at/orhjr, accessed March 5, 2022). 33. The middle portion of Teit’s letter to Boas dated June 27, 1910, is in several parts, some of which were copied and filed elsewhere. In the APS file page 2 of Teit’s letter ends abruptly with the word “Chilliwack.” It is followed by pages marked “7” and “8” by Teit, and those are followed by a typescript page marked “3” and “continuation of Teit letter marked Kenneth Hotel, Seattle, Washington.” In its content this typescript does appear to follow page 2, although whether it was a separate page 3 is not clear. Fragments 4 through 6 are in the ACLS files. The letter ends with page 8. In this volume page 3 has been placed after page 2, with fragments 4 through 6 following. The letter concludes with pages 7 and 8. A note added in another hand in the top left-hand corner of page 7 says, “From a Teit letter of June 27, 1910. Remainder filed under Linguistics and Mythology. LK Jan 193_.” Notes made by “LK” on earlier letters bear the date 1931.

1910 | 467

etc.) were all Lummi. They also talked very slightly different from the main body of Lummi. The Lummi consider themselves to be one people with the Clallam and the Sooke, Songish, and Saanich of Vancouver Island. I failed to obtain any flood or migration legends from them. The Lummi retain the ‘l’ where the Clallam omit it. (The same difference as between the Shuswap and Thompson in this respect). The Lummi also has the ‘ng’ sound the Clallam has [.] I don’t know what relationship the Nootsak [sic] bears to the Squamish but very many of their words are similar to either the Skaget or the Fraser River and a few resemble the Lummi.34 The Nootsak have a ‘flood’ tradition but I did not manage to get it. The Lummi occupied the mouth of the River but the Nootsak all the rest up to Mt Baker[.] They [were cut off] had no access to the sea.35 Gibbs’ boundaries to the north I find are very much wrong in most parts. The Nootsak all spoke exactly the same, but formerly they claim a branch of them occupied Cultus Lake (Chilliwhack) [copied fragment marked “3”] and they spoke slightly different.36 These people amalgamated with the Fraser River people and their language became lost. None remain who remember any of it. Even the Nootsak proper will soon die out. Only a few old people are now in the habit of speaking it. The majority of the people speak Fraser River, and some speak Skagit [sic]. The Nootsak used to be visited by bands of Thompson long ago, and intermarriage took place. I met a number of Nootsak who were ¼ and ⅛ Thompson. One old man could speak a few words of Thompson and another could talk it fairly well.37

Teit to Boas. June 27, 1910. Letter fragments APS, ACLS item 61 and Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61.

Their name of given [sic] to the Thompsons by the Skagit and Snohomish means ‘wild people’ and they were very much afraid of them. They say the Thompson used to kill many Skagit. I met a Wenatchie man among the Snohomish and had a talk with him. The Snohomish have names for several of the tribes east of the mountains. I obtained their flood tradition. The most important [page 4] part of

34. More commonly spelled “Nooksack” today. 35. Typescript on Columbia University Department of Anthropology letterhead, with a note in green crayon in the upper right-hand corner, “continuation of Teit letter marked “Kenneth Hotel” Seattle, Wash., 27 June, 1910.” 36. The remainder of page 3 and pages 4–6 are filed with APS, ACLs Collection, and, like the fragment labeled “continuation,” are marked: “From a Teit letter of June 27, 1910, LK Jan. ’31.” Pages 7 and 8 are in the APS, Franz Boas Papers file with the first pages of the letter. 37. Apparent continuation of June 27, 1910 letter.

468 | 1910

it is as follows “many people were drowned but some got in canoes. They did not know where they were. One canoe landed on Pilchuck Mountain and the people in it settled there and became the ancestors of the present Snohomish tribe. One canoe of people drifted away north, far away, perhaps as far as the Stikine River. They landed there and after crossing a range of mountains settled on a large River. The name [illeg] Later a boy taken away as a slave reached that country and when he returned he told the people these people still spoke the Snohomish language. Others of the original people were drifted away out in the sea where they settled on an island. The name of one of those countries where the people settled was pálapála or pálahwála. (seems to stand for Bellabella or Bellacoola). Before the flood all the people spoke one language.” I got a tradition from the Snohomish as follows: “A large band of Indians (men women and children) came from east of the Cascade Mountain[s] and took up their abode in the Snoqualmie Country on a prairie about one mile north of Snoqualmie Falls. Here they made their headquarters for a long time and in the winter lived in k [sic] underground [page 5] houses (from description kekule-houses like those of Interior Thomp etc.) the remains of nearly 100 of which may be seen there yet. These people hunted a great deal. Before coming there they had had a war with some other people east of the mountains and had as a result left their country. Just five generations ago from (the present old people yet living make the fifth generation in descent) the chief of these people gave his daughter in marriage to the son of the Snohomish chief who had gone to visit them. After this seven family men of these people with their wives and children left there, and settled among the Snohomish. (The names of all seven men are remembered and I got them [.] They are Interior Salish personal names, and might either be Columbia or Thompson etc.). One of old man [sic] years aft wards and his son went back again after and eventually settled among the Wenatchie. The These [sic] rest of them remained and they have descendants among the Snohomish. These people intermarried a lot with the Snoqualmie with whom many of them [page 6] eventually settled, and eventually they disappeared as a distinct people. Some of their descendants among the Nesqualm [sic] could still speak their language about 50 years ago. Among the Snohomish it died out three generations ago. No one now living knows a word of it. These people had not been very long at the Falls (perhaps one generation) when the seven families left and settled among the Snohomish.” The It [sic] is said the Klickitat proper (Sahaptian) did not come through the Natches Pass very long ago, they think long ago only the Wenatchie speaking 1910 | 469

people came. The Snohomish have a tradition there was formerly a severe war between ḗtakᴇmüx tribes Dwamish etc. and the Chimakum, and the former occupied the Port Madison country which they think was likely Chimakum before. The ḗtakᴇmüx spoke the Nisqually language and were closely related to the Dwamish. The Snohomish like almost all other tribes used underground fortresses, but no kekule house proper. The Nootksak used the latter with entrance from the top. It was not never [sic] the common house of the tribe. Coiled basketry was not made by the Clallam, and the Lummi long ago, and among the Nootkak only a few families made coiled basketry long ago. The Snohomish [page 7] and Snoqualmie say they have always made it. but not the tribes to the North and West long ago. I gained some more information re. the Columbias to the effect they or people related to them at one time used to extend down to the Dalles at the back of the Wishram (North side of Columbia River) and at one time there was no Yakima near Columbia River I got some information on this point from Mr McCrosson who used to be agent for 8 years at Nespelem, where the Moses Columbia’s are.38 I did not try to get any grammar from any of the tribes. I confined myself to words. However had you told me I would have taken pains to get all I could concerning ‘this’, ‘that’ and the other pronouns as to location and gender etc. For the demonstratives ‘this’ and ‘that’ I received only two words in most places and three in some places. I detected gender in the pronouns (both common and possessive pronouns) in all the languages excepting possibly the Nisqually[.] For instance in Twana the third person [page 8] singular ̀ (regardless of sex). In the possessive is tse (fem.) te (masc.) and dzê díł they have for ‘my’ tᴇd (masc.) and tcᴇd (feminine) In Nootsak ‘my’ is tᴇn (masc) and tsᴇn (fem) and besides they have a gender or sex prefix which is attached to nouns viz tᴇs (masc) and tsᴇs (fem)[.] To make the distinction between widow and widower for instance these are used and in other cases. In the common pronouns in Nootsack tī́á stands for ‘he’, and tsī́á for ‘she’. I will prepare and send you maps as soon as possible after I reach home. I have also to catalog and ship the specimens I have at Spences Bridge. I expect to reach home about the 1st or 2nd July.

38. Thomas McCrossan was a sub-agent at Nespelem when Teit was visiting the tribes of eastern Washington (see Ackerman, Ethnographic Overview and Assessment, 89).

470 | 1910

PS The Skyhomish are the Upper Snohomish and spoke exactly the same. Most of the list of tribal names you sent me I have got recognized.

Boas to Teit. August 4, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121543. My dear Mr. Teit,— I understand from Mr. Sargent that you are shipping your collection to the Field Museum in Chicago.39 I trust you will kindly let me have lists of your collections, which will ultimately be published in connection with the work that you are carrying on for me. I hope that you will find the time to send me a report of this summer’s work before you leave for hunting. If it is at all possible, we ought to bring out your map and vocabularies towards the end of this 39. Sargent’s letter to Boas, July 11, 1910 (APS, Boas Papers, text 107055), indicates that the collection sent to the Field Museum did not include the collection of baskets Teit made in 1909 with Sargent’s funds. The baskets were apparently reserved for the basketry study Sargent proposed in 1908. Sargent wrote, “The baskets which Teit collected last year are here and I am writing to ask if I shall send them to you at the Scheumerhorn Bld or where. . . . There is no hurry about returning the baskets and if they are not in your way you might as well keep them for a year if you like. I have taken some photographs but they may not answer your purpose.” On July 28, 1910, Boas replied, “I should be very glad if you will send me the baskets at my address, Columbia University, where I shall take good care of them and study them preparatory to publication” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107036). In mentioning the “Scheumerhorn Bld” Sargent apparently means the Schermerhorn Building on the Columbia University campus, and the baskets he mentions appear to be those he had acquired for his private collection. It is not entirely clear whether Sargent actually sent baskets to Boas at Columbia. On August 6, 1910, Teit wrote to Newcombe, “I have just lately shipped part of the collection I had on hand to the Field Museum. Over 160 specimens” (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence). Documents in the Field Museum (Accession 1112) associated with this collection indicate that it was shipped from Spences Bridge by Teit on July 27, 1910, and formally accessioned by the Field Museum on September 26, 1910. Sargent sent the Field Museum $50 to defray the shipping costs (Field Museum: Letter from Homer Sargent to Director, Field Museum, August 1, 1910). Of the 166 items listed for Accession 1112, 61 are baskets or sets of basketry items, such as small mats, cataloged together. Teit’s August 5, 1910, letter to Newcombe continued, “I am leaving here probably on the 9th for Vancouver as we are posted to sail on the 13th. I enclose a copy of the Indian Declaration sighed by the 24 Shuswap, Okanagan and Thompson Chiefs who attended the meeting here last month” (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence). This is a reference to the Memorial presented to Sir Wilfrid Laurier, prime minister of Canada, in Kamloops in August 1910, “Memorial to Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Premier of the Dominion of Canada, from the Chiefs of the Shuswap, Okanagan, and Couteau tribes of British Columbia” (see footnote to letter from Teit to Boas, February 23, 1910). Teit’s letter to Newcombe of August 6, 1910, also touched on weaving. “I see in the last Anthropologist an article by C. C. Willoughby on a new type of blanket from the Northwest Coast. I see in it a statement that you have under preparation a paper on blankets to be published by the Field Museum. If you can manage to send me a copy of this when published I shall be glad as I may want to refer to it in my writings next winter” (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence).

1910 | 471

year. Will you please also let me have a statement of your accounts for our Treasurer. I shall be away from the city from Aug. 25 until about the 1st of October, perhaps a little later; and if you can find the time, please let me hear from you before you are out of reach.

Teit to Boas. August 7, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121563. Dear Friend. I have not been able to get very much completed to send you before my departure for North with Mr Sargent. What I have finished I am sending you herewith under separate cover. This consists of 1st List of those tribes I was able to identify, mentioned in Handbook of Smithsonian people. 2nd Names of tribes from twelve dialects spoken in Western Washington, with notes on same. 3rd Three maps of Western Washington showing distribution of tribes about 1850, 1790, and according to traditions respectively. 4th Sixteen pages of notes to these maps. 5th Summary of information gathered from all the tribes West and East regarding the Introduction of the Horse, the distribution of Coiled, and imbricated basketry, and of grass caps. Among all the tribes I have collected vocabularies from (East and West) I have also asked a series of questions regarding subjects I thought of much importance. These deal with (besides those mentioned above re. the horse, coiled basketry and grass caps) kekuli-house and other lodges, bark basketry, mats, bags (particularly the Nez Perce type), carriers, woven blankets, (goats hair, rabbit etc.), canoes, bows, fortresses, dogs, slaves, wars, trade, etc. A summary of the answers to these I hope to send to you as soon as I can. You were speaking of having all the vocabularies (Salish) I have collected printed some time soon[.] If you send me back all those I have sent you from the eastern tribes I will add a lot of notes to same (before they are printed)[.] Also send back the maps as I may have some notes to make to them also. I have only been able to copy out a few pages of the Western Washington Vocabularies as yet, and am adding notes to them as I go along. I will try to hurry this work as much as possible next winter. I shipped the specimens to the Field Museum on the 27th July, and since then have sent them a descriptive catalog of the specimens. There are about 170 specimens in all divided about as follows Coiled basketry about 60 specimens, Moccasins and clothing about 45, ancient stone implements [page 2] about 17, ornaments about 472 | 1910

12, war utensils etc. about 10, Bags 5, Bark baskets 5, mats etc. etc. Of these 1 specimen is Flathead, 2 Coeur d’Alene, 4 Spokane, 8 Lake, 1 Lillooet, 1 Chilcotin, 2 Casca 7 Tahltan, 1 Cree, 2 Piegan and all the rest Thompson. I have retained some leggings, bags etc. already charged to try and get further details of designs on them, and I also have on hand some Thompson and Casca quill work etc. I am leaving here the day after to morrow to go hunting with Mr Sargent in Cassiar. I hope to be back here again about the 1st Nov. Hoping this will find yourself, and family in the best of health.

Teit to Boas. August 13, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121564.40 Dear Friend. I received your letter of 4th inst. just as I was about to get on the train at Spences Bridge. We were to sail from here to-night, but owing to the wreck of the steamer we were going on we cannot get away until the 16th.41 Mr Sargent has arrived here, and I have spent the greater part of yesterday, and to-day with him. He wishes to be remembered very kindly to you. I wrote to you just before leaving Spences Bridge, and sent you some reports dealing with part of the work I carried on this summer in Washington. Also a series of maps. This was all I was able to finish before I left home. I balanced the accounts before I left, but did not have time to copy them out. I will send them in on my return towards the end of the year. I can furnish you with a copy of the catalog or list of specimens I sent to Chicago as I have an entry of all in my books, with descriptive notes. I have retained a number of other specimens (not charged and a few charged in former a/cs chiefly [page 2] for the purpose of obtaining further information re. designs particularly in bead work. No doubt you will have my letter by this time.

40. Written on letterhead of the Hotel Europe, Powell and Alexander Streets, Vancouver. 41. Teit does not identify the steamer. However, on August 5, 1910, the CPr Company’s SS Princess May, was wrecked on Sentinel Island, Alaska (COV, Documentary Art Collection: “Princess May, C.P.S.S. wrecked on Sentinel Is Alaska, Aug. 5, 1910,” Item 74–539). A Washington coast steamer was also wrecked that week, but as Teit’s subsequent letter to Boas indicates that their destination was the Cassiar region of northern British Columbia, it is more likely Teit is referring to the SS Princess May.

1910 | 473

Teit to Boas. November 30, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121565. Dear Friend, I returned home from the Cassiar trip on the 8th Nov.42 I had a pleasant time with Mr Sargent, and we had good success. Since then I have been out on a short hunting trip near here from which I returned a couple of days ago. I have to go out on another short trip, and then will be through for this year. You were speaking of having the Salish vocabularies and maps arranged and printed soon. If you wish to send them all back to me I shall go over them, and add all the notes I can and then return to you. I think the notes I might add would be of some interest and value. I have not received any copy of the Thompson and Lillooet myths yet so I suppose they are not yet printed. If there is any special work you want me to do between now and spring please let me know, and I will go on with same as fast as my eyes will let me.43 I will send in my accounts before the end of the year. I enclose two or three pictures of a series I had taken of Up. Thomp. Indians in old style costume.44 They look very well.

42. Wendy Wickwire (At the Bridge, 327n114) cites a glowing recommendation received in 1910 by Teit from Lincoln Wilbar: “Mr J. A. Teit, the well-known authority on Indian folk-lore whose home is at Spence’s Bridge, British Columbia, is the premier guide of the province, with a wonderful record. He has unrivalled knowledge of the topography of the country from the international boundary to Cassiar, a marvelous instinct for game, and a complete mastery of the various Indian tongues—three qualifications which ensure success, while his unimpeachable honesty and optimistic temperament make his expeditions, even under the most trying conditions, delightful. In short, sportsmen who desire to take out a policy against failure could not do better than pay their premium to Teit” (Wilbar, “British Columbia for the Sportsman,” 279). 43. Throughout his letters Teit makes repeated references to difficulty with his eyes that interferes with prolonged writing. At one point he reports that the difficulty is external. While retrospective medical diagnoses are hazardous in the extreme, particularly by people who are not medical doctors, it is possible that he suffered from a condition known as blepharitis, or granulated eyelids, described as “an inflammation and sometimes an infection of the eyelids and lashes.” It is cited as a common condition in both adults and children (Troy Bedinhaus, “Granulated Eyelids: Blepharitis,” Very Well Health, https://verywellhealth.com/granulated-eyelids -3421772, accessed July 31, 2019). Another possibility is ocular rosacea, which has similar symptoms (Jaqueline W. Muller, MD, “Blepharitis and Ocular Rosacea,” https://dryeyespecialist .com/blepharitis-ocular-rosacea/, accessed February 3, 2022). 44. A note in another hand at the top of the letter: “Pictures not enclosed. H.A.A.”

474 | 1910

Teit to H. A. Andrews. December 13, 1910. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121668. Dear Miss Andrews. Dr Boas has directed me to you. I would like you to send me all the maps and manuscripts relating to the Salish vocabularies, and territories of tribes as I want to revise them soon and add notes to them. Do you know if the Thompson myths collected by me have been published yet[?] Where is Dr Boas staying this winter[?] He says he likely will not be in New York. PS Send by reg. mail well wrapped. a/c of Ex̣penses Western Washington Trip 1910 (May and June)45 FARES TRAVELING RAILWAYS, STEAMBOATS, STAGES ETC.

$

To Spences Bridge to Vancouver 7.20 Vancouver to Victoria 2.00

9.20

To Victoria to Seattle 2.00 Seattle to Moclips 4.95

6.95

To Moclips to Tacoma 3.75 Tacoma to Roy .75

4.50

To 2 Fares Roy to Tacoma 1.10 2 Fares Tacoma to Olympia 1.50

2.60

To Fares to Shelton 1.50 Fares Shelton to Skokomish Reserve 2.00

3.50

To Fares Union City to Seattle 3.00 2 Fares to Oakville from Seattle 5.80

8.80

To Canoe Crossings Port Gamble 1.00 Horse feed Chehalis Reserve .50

1.50

To Hire of Buggy to Chehalis Reserve 2.50 Fares Oakville to Roy and Chehalis 2.90

5.40

To Fare Chehalis to Moclips 2.50 [Ditto] to Quinault Reserve Tahola 1.00

3.50

To Moclips to Roy 3.45 Rig hire Nisqually Reserve 1.00

4.45

To Fares Roy to Seattle 3.60 Fares Seattle to Marysville 2.50

6.10

To do Marysville to Bellingham 3.40 Ferrying Nootsack River .75

4.15

To do Bellingham to Brennon .45 Fares [ditto] to Everson 1.40

1.85

To do Central to Bellingham 1.00 Hire of rig Lummi Reserve 2.00

3.00

45. Filed with December 31, 1909, APS, ACLs Collection.

1910 | 475

To Ferry to Lummi Reserve .50 Fares to Goschen and return 1.40

1.90

To fares Bellingham to Seattle 5.00 Fare P. Kalama Seattle to Roy 1.80

6.80

To Seattle to Vancouver on steamer 3.00 Vancouver to Sp. Bdge 7.10

10.10 74.30

MEALS, BOARD, LODGING ETC.

To 3 Meals Sp Bdge .90 Hotel and Meals Vancouver 7.00

7.90

To Hotel and Meals Victoria 4.00 Room Seattle 1.00

5.00

To 2 Meals Seattle .50 Room and Meal Hoquiam 1.50

2.00

To Meal Moclips .25 Meals and bed Moclips 1.25

1.50

To 3 Meals Tacoma 1.30 Room and 1 Meal Tacoma 1.50

2.80

To Meals and beds at Roy 3.75 Lunch .50 Meals Nisqually Inds .50

4.75

To Board and Mrs. Kalama 5.00 Rooms and Meals Olympia 5.00

10.00

To Meals at Shelton .80 Board Mrs. Joe Adam (Skokomish) 3.00

3.80

To Hotel Port Gamble 2.80 Meals Mrs. Lambert (Clallam) .75

3.55

To Rooms and Meals Seattle 5.50 Meals and beds Oakville 3.25

8.75 50.05

[page 2] To carried forward $50.05

$74.30

To 2 Meals to Satsop Indian .50 Meals 1.00 Mrs. Hicks (Chehalis)

1.50

To Meals to P. Kalama and Indians 1.50 Hotel and Meals 2.50 Chehalis

4.00

To Meal Hoquiam .60 Meals Moclips .70 Bed Moclips .50

1.80

To Board T. McCrossan 15.00 (Quinault) Bed and Meals Moclips

16.50

To Meals Centralia 1.00 Room and Meal at Roy 1.00

2.00

To Meals Mrs. Kalama second visit 1.00 Hotel and Rooms Seattle 6.90

7.90

476 | 1910

To Rooms and Meals Marysville 4.00 Hotel and Meals Bellingham 6.40

10.40

To Meals Brennon 2.00 Meals and Beds Everson, Bellingham 2.00 Goschen etc. 5.50 and 6.80 also Lummi and Nootsack Reserve

12.30

To Meals and Room Seattle 4.35 Meals to P. Kalama .50

4.85

To Hotel and Meals Vancouver 6.50 Meal Sp. Bdge .50

7.00

To Meals and beds on trains and steamboats 1.50 .75 1.00 1.50 .75 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

9.50 =$130.80

Paid Indian wages etc. giving vocabularies, boundaries, information, Interpreting etc. To Albert Smith (Quinault) 5.00 Mrs. Al. Smith .50

5.50

To Point Damon Indian 1.50 Nisqually Jim .50

2.00

To Alice (Nisqually) 3.50 Peter Kalama 5.50

9.00

To Anton Jackson (Cowlitz) 5.50 Gúma (Willapa) 1.50

7.00

To Peter Kalama 10.50 Joe Spar (Twana) 4.00 To Henry Lambert (Clallam) 3.50 Charley Konheap (Chehalis) 3.00 To Mrs. Hicks (Low. Chehalis) 2.50 Peter Kalama 24.00

14.50 6.50 26.50

To George Sickman (Satsop) .50 Judge .50 Gúla and daughter 1.50

2.50

To Sam (Snohomish) 4.00 old man (Snohomish) .25

4.25

To Andrew Tom and son (Skagit) 1.50 Henry Kwain (Lummi) 3.50

5.00

To Mrs. Harry .50 Jim Nootsack .25 James Antoine 3.50

4.25

To Chief Robert (Nootsack) 3.50 Boy .35 Women 1.00

4.85

To Charley Cexpentlam .50 Peter Kalama 25.50

26.00 = 117.85

Sundry To Tip .25 Maps at Seattle and Tacoma 1.00 Paper .25 Pen, Ink and chalks .50

2.00

1910 | 477

To arrowheads .20 arrowheads (Cowlitz) .20 carriage of valise .25 To chalks etc. .40 Express on baggage .50 do .25

.65 1.15 =3.80

[original: in right hand column:

$74.30 130.80 117.85 3.80 $326.75]

1910

Aug. 1 By amount charged to Columbia University a/c [page 3]46 Columbia University a/c (Dr. Franz Boas and H. Sargent) 1910———DR—

$

Jany 31 To 12 days work on supplementary Thompson Paper @2.00 =

24.00

Feb 28 To 8 [ditto] [ditto]

16.00

Mch 31 To 10 [ditto] [ditto]

20.00

Apl 30 To 3 [ditto] [ditto]

6.00

May To 1 [ditto] preparing for Washington trip 2.00 Stamps .30

2.30

“ “ To Insurance on baskets and specimens 1.50

1.50

“ “ Part expenses of trip to Lytton re basketry and migrations Legend etc. in February 4.75

4.75

Aug 1 To specimens sent to Field Columbian, Chicago as per Bill and catalog

301.05

“ “ To Expenses Western Washington trip as per bill

326.75

“ “ To Wages 48 days West. Wash. Trip @2.50 per day

120.00

46. In top left corner “Kindly return to F. Boas.”

478 | 1910

“ “ 8 To 6 days work cataloging, packing specimens and writing Descriptions, fixing boxes etc. 12.00 Boxes, lumber, nails and haulage 2.75

14.75

“ “ To 13 days work fixing maps, notes to maps, lists names of tribes and writing parts of vocabularies and reports @2.00

26.00

“ “ To 1 day cutting lodge poles and fixing tipi with Indians

2.50

“ “ To paid three Indians erecting and taking down tipi and packing Mats back and fore encluding 12 miles travel

6.00 871.60

1909—— CR—— Dec. 31 By Balance a/c rendered $164.30 1910

1910

May By Cash for work in West. Washington etc. 399.00

563.30

Dec. 31 To Balance due JA Teit

308.30

1910 | 479

19111

1. Teit’s letter to Newcombe, dated January 1, 1911 (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence), provides a snapshot of his working life at that moment. “I have been engaged the last few days with a canoe down the river salving silk for the CPR and am not through yet. . . . I was glad to hear Sapir had received the appointment of Dominion Ethnologist. No doubt he is a good man, and will do good work in various parts of BC and elsewhere in Canada. His letter written to you from Alberni is very interesting, and give a person some idea of the West Coast field. I will correspond with him re. the map as you suggest. . . . I had a picture from Curtis at Christmas and I also saw him in Seattle about the 1st Nov. when I came down from North. He intends to come here some time in April to get Indian types etc. After that I think he intends to continue his work among the Kwakiutl.” Teit writes, “I am glad that the work of writing up the BC Indians has been allotted to you. I think that 40 pages gives too little scope for even a very concise description of the BC Indians. There are so many different linguistic stocks, physical types etc. Because of this they ought to allow more space for the BC Indians than is required for the Indians of any other Province in Canada. I should think about twice as much if all points concerning the various stocks are to be touched on. Re the Indians of the Interior I think all those of the southern Interior—at least all the Interior Salish can be grouped together. I shall be glad to help you in the Description of the Interior tribes. Preferably I would like you to write up the Interior people yourself, then send same to me. I would go over same making additions, giving suggestions and making corrections ‘if required[’] until the whole matter was suitable to us both. I would prefer this because I do not know exactly the methods to be employed in the write up, and the various points to be dealt with and moreover I might not have time to write up the Interior people myself. If this does not suit you then if you give me a general idea of the scheme of writing and the subjects to be dealt with I will write the Description of the Interior tribes the best way I can, and then send same to you—after you have perused same and supplied suggestions etc. we can either pare it down or ‘improve’ it until the matter is in what you think suitable shape. . . . I will be engaged this month going over the vocabularies I collected and maps I made showing boundaries of tribes in Washington[,] Idaho and parts of Montana and Oregon. I believe they will publish same soon after I get through. . . . Dr. Boas is in Mexico but I do not know what he is doing there. He is expected back in New York some time in February. . . . The Indian Rights Movement is going ahead. There will be a big meeting of Indian chiefs (Interior) at Kamloops on the 5 Feb next. The united Shuswap, Okanagan, and Thompson tribes presented a memorial to Sir Wilfred Laurier when he was in Kamloops last August.” Teit’s reference to being engaged “with a canoe salving silk for the CPR” suggests that a train carrying bales of silk from Vancouver east had met with a mishap along the Thompson River. Trains carrying silk from the Orient to the eastern United States were routed through Vancouver after the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway was finished in the mid-1880s. Silk was a highly valued cargo, and silk trains were very fast and often had priority along the route. There was a “silk wreck” on September 16, 1927, when a silk train derailed and dumped bales of silk (and at least one entire freight car) into the Fraser River at Yale (UOC, Kilpatrick Fonds: “Canadian Pacific Railway Silk Train Wreck, East of Yale, British Columbia,” CU1123570), but Teit’s note suggests that there was a silk wreck, possibly on the Thompson River, that predated the Yale silk wreck. From his observation, “I think that 40 pages gives you too little scope,” it is not clear which publication Teit is discussing with Newcombe. His reluctance to write the section on the Interior peoples may reflect a legitimate concern that he has too little time available.

480

Teit to H. A. Andrews. January 16, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121670.2 Dear Miss Andrews I received the two bundles of M.S. all right. I notice however a number of pages M.S. relating to the Coast Indians of West. Wash. is [sic] not among them. These consist of names of tribes in about 14 dialects, and some notes on habitat etc. Probably you have these at hand, and can send them to me soon. I may be able to add some additional notes to them. I forwarded them to Dr. Boas last summer in July or August. I had a letter from Dr Boas lately.

Teit to Boas. February 1, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121566.

I am sending you to-day my accounts and hope you will find them correct. They are made out to the end of last year. I received your letter from Mexico and note all you say.3 I will put in as much time as I can on the vocabularies etc. and afterwards on the supplementary paper on the Thompson so as to get more rapidly along with this work. At present I am writing out the Coast vocabularies I collected last summer. I hear from Peter Kalama lately that he missed the man you sent last summer to work with the Willapa women owing to some mistake and dates. This is a pity as these women [page 2] would be very hard to get information

2. Teit appears to have written the year originally as “1910” and corrected it; “1911” is printed underneath in pencil. 3. This is a reference to Boas’s work with the International School of American Archaeology and Ethnology in Mexico. With support from within the United States, Germany, and Mexico developed since 1905 by Boas and the president of Columbia University, Nicolas Murray Butler, the school was organized in 1910 when the Congress of Americanists met in Mexico City. Apart from the general goal of extending the range of Americanist anthropology, the school was intended to provide advanced graduate students the opportunity to study the archaeology, mythology, and languages of Mexico under expert professional guidance as well as to strengthen the quality of work carried out by Mexican anthropologists. Boas was one of several directors of the school, which had its first year of operation in 1910–1911 (see Godoy, “Franz Boas and His Plans for an International School,” 228–42). In 1915 Boas published “Summary of the Work of the International School of American Archaeology and Ethnology in Mexico, 1910–1914” (384–96), explaining the protocols for administration of the school, the emphasis on field work and the intention of developing in Fellows, who had completed preliminary studies, the ability to do independent work, and the agreement that the results of research would remain in Mexico. Boas, who was associated with both the school and the University of Mexico, was in charge of the work in ethnology, with the goal of studying the structure and distribution of languages in the country. Boas, W. H. Mechling, Paul Radin, and John Alden Mason all undertook research and published in this area (see, e.g., this volume 1917 note 31; 1918 note 2.

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from and to understand without Kalama’s help. The woman at Rochester has died lately and she was the one stated to know the most.4 What I collected from the surviving woman at Nisqually I will send you soon. I am going to a meeting of Indian Chiefs at Kamloops to-morrow and on the 1st Mch. go with a deputation of Interior Chiefs (Lillooet, Shuswap, Thompson, Okanagan and Kootenay) to interview the gov. at Victoria.5 Hoping this will find yourself and family well.

Postcard. Teit to H. A. Andrews. February 16, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121672.6 Dear Miss Andrews. I received the M.S. you sent. It contains nearly all I wanted. I had a letter from Dr Boas and will answer him soon. I suppose he will be in New York before long now.

Teit to Boas. February 16, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121567. Dear Friend. I received your letter of 25th ult. a few days ago. I received your former letter (of which you speak) and answered same. I made out my a/cs some little time ago and sent them to your address in New York. Yes, I will try to rush along the vocabularies etc. as fast as I can. At present I am writing out the Coast vocabularies I collected last summer and am nearly half through with them. There are fourteen dialects (including the Willapa which I am writing out at the same time) I am furnishing notes (including everything of note occurring to me) as I go along. Re. your proposition I would like it very well but I am afraid my eyes might not allow me to do as steady work for you as I would like to do for the wages you would give. I like to feel that I give good value or returns for what I receive. I realize very fully the urgent necessity of getting along faster with the ethnological work I have in hand, and also the great amount of work that should be done in the various fields, and nothing would please me better than to prosecute all this work with the greatest vigor until all was finished if that is possible in the years that 4. After receiving this letter from Teit, Boas wrote to Frachtenberg, saying: “Do you think we ought to make another effort?” (APS, Boas Papers, February 24, 1911, text 46588). 5. A reference to a meeting with British Columbia Premier Richard McBride in March 1911. 6. A blue one-cent stamp with a black post office stamp.

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are left to me. There is a great deal of work yet remaining to be done in Wash. (East and West) Idaho, and Montana besides what I see of further work which should be done in this country (BC) [.]Then there is the fact all too apparent that all the Indians best qualified to give information in the various fields are fast passing away. When in Cassiar last fall I made a speech to the Tahltans regarding the ethnological work being done among the Indians to the south. They became very interested, and asked me to place before you their request that similar work be done among them. They said they would like a history of their tribe and all regarding their former condition placed on record before too late. They did not wish this work done for other tribes and they left out in the cold.7 My connection with the present political movement of the Inds of BC [page 2] for their rights has given me greater influence than ever with all the Indians of the country, and this may be used to good advantage in ethnological work whether done by myself or by others introduced by me.8 The southern Interior tribes practically look on me as occupying the position of head-chief for them, they have elected me their secretary, treasurer and organizer in the movement[.] On the 27th of this month I go to Victoria with a deputation of 16 or more chiefs to interview the gov. on the land question, Indian title etc. The tribes are all organizing and commence to work in union as part of one league. 1. The Thompson (Upper and Lower) are all in except the Lytton band (who have been led astray by the Eng. Church missionary there.)9 He tried hard to hold the Lower Thompson, Sʟahaiux͇ and some 7. At this point Teit appears to have been sharing similar information with both Boas and Sargent. Sargent was beginning to act on this to affect Teit’s work beyond basketry and broad financial support. In his letter to Boas of February 17, 1911 (APS, Boas Papers, text 107057), Sargent wrote: “Teit told me to tell you that the Tahltan up on the Stikine River were ready and anxious to have a man come there to do their work and if he starts properly he will have no trouble to get all the information there is to be had. Of course, the sooner the better. [para] Teit also would like a phonograph or something of the kind on which he can take records of the Thompson songs to have them studied for music etc;—No doubt you are better posted on what is best for his use than anyone else, and through the university could get an instrument at the most favorable price. It might be well if you picked out just what was wanted in the N.Y. Agency got their stock number and had them forward the order to their general agents in Canada with orders to fill exactly as stated and express to Teit. You can then pay the bill through Columbia University and send it to me. I will reimburse the University for that amount. . . . PS You might include 3 to 6 of the best vocal records you know of for Teit. He and his family will get to appreciate them even if they do not at first. Standard operas.” This suggests that Teit was considering the recording of Nlaka’pamux song two years before he actually began this work for Edward Sapir in 1913 and a year before he began similar work among the Tahltan, again for Sapir, in 1912. 8. The word “Spence” is written at the top of the page in a handwriting other than Teit’s. 9. This appears to refer to Edward William Pugh, who began missionary work among the Nlaka’pamux at Lytton in 1902 and succeeded Richard Small as the Anglican missionary at Lytton following Small’s death in 1909. Pugh retired in 1928 (Lowman, “My Name Is Stanley,” 85).

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other Thomp. bands from joining but I beat him out of all except the Lytton band)[.] 2. The entire Shuswap tribe (including the Kinbaskets of Kootenay.) 3. The entire Okanagan tribe [.] 4. The Upper Lillooet, (5) The Lake, (6) The Tahltan, and Casca.10 (7) The Southern Carriers. The Lower Lillooet, the rest of the Carriers, and the Kootenay I expect will all join soon. The Chilcotin hold aloof so far. The Naas and Upper Skeena tribes belong to the similar [page 3] Coast organization. To return to your proposition I think I may be able to work say 8 months per year for you at an average of six to eight hours most days. My eyes will not stand more if that much so whatever proposition you make for wages make it on that basis. The field work does not tax my eyes so much as the steady writing. This will leave me about four months in the year for Indian political work, and for hunting etc. The latter I find acts as a great relaxation and my eyes is [sic] always better after a trip[.] The looking at long range and resting from writing, reading etc. relieves them. Wages and the cost of living in particular has gone up a great deal in this country of late years therefore the chief reason I have to take advantage of all the high wage work I can during the year as I could not make a living sufficient for my wife and family otherwise.11 I suppose you may want me to stay home most of this summer and catch up with my writing on Thompson etc. etc. PS There is one excellent man (Ind. Chief) for Thompson linguistic work close at hand but I have not utilized him so far. PS I forgot to say that the a/c of specimens I sent includes 10 per cent I added to the cost prices of all those I did not collect in the field under wages[.]12 This as remuneration for collecting. I am glad to see lately the Canadian gov. have appointed a Dominion Ethnologist in the person of Sapir.13 This may help things along on the Canadian side. 10. This may refer to Cassiar. 11. Here Teit is making a realistic assessment of his own rhythm of work, and the practical issues that frame it and support it. In the letter that follows, Boas indicates that it would be hard for him to structure continuing employment around eight months per year. Unlike Teit, he does not share his reasons, but they may have concerned Columbia University’s administrative requirements. 12. Written at the top of the first page of the letter. 13. Following a strong recommendation from Boas, who provided Reginald Brock, director of the Geological Survey of Canada, with a candid review of various candidates in May 1910 (APS, Boas Papers, Boas to Brock, May 14, 1910), Edward Sapir (1884–1939), who had been Boas’s student at Columbia, and had subsequently worked with Alfred Kroeber in California and at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, was appointed to the Geological Survey of Canada in 1910, with a mandate to develop a program of ethnological research. Sapir’s

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Boas to Teit. February 24, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121544. My dear Friend,— I find your letter of the 16th of February here on my return to the city this morning, and I hasten to reply very briefly. The establishment of an Ethnological Department in Ottawa was in part due to the action of the Quebec Congress and of the Winnipeg meeting; and I am very glad that, on my recommendation, Dr. Sapir was appointed to the position in question.14 I am expecting great things from him. I wish you would kindly reply to my question a little more definitely. I find it very hard to make you an offer of salary, as you suggest, for eight months’ work. I should decidedly prefer to make you an offer for the whole year, let me say, with a certain period leave of absence and not less than a certain number of months field work, which of course should be paid outside of your own salary. I wish you would kindly figure out the matter clearly, and make me a definite proposition, stating first for how much a year you could undertake work of this kind, how much vacation you would want, and how much money for field work, including the travelling [page 2] expenses, wages of interpreters, etc., would be required. I think I could formulate plans more definitely on this basis.

primary interest was in linguistics, but in his initial years at the Geological Survey of Canada he took steps to establish a permanently appointed staff able to undertake the four sub-fields of anthropology then generally recognized: linguistics, ethnology, archaeology, and physical anthropology. Marius Barbeau (1883–1969), a Canadian anthropologist trained in Britain, joined the Geological Survey of Canada in 1911. Harlan I. Smith, whom Teit first met when Smith conducted archaeological work at Lytton in 1897, moved from the American Museum of Natural History to the Geological Survey of Canada the same year. Francis (later Sir Francis) Knowles (1886–1953), a physical anthropologist, was hired in 1912 (see Darnell, “The Sapir Years at the National Museum, Ottawa,” 99–119). For an examination of Sapir’s life and work, see Darnell, Edward Sapir: Linguist, Anthropologist, Humanist. 14. Sapir wrote to Boas on June 6, 1910, to say he had received an offer of appointment (APS, Boas Papers, text 105418), and again on July 22, saying that he expected to pass through New York on his way to Ottawa in early August (APS, Boas Papers, text 105422). On October 1, 1910, he wrote to Boas, using Geological Survey of Canada letterhead (APS, Boas Papers, text 105423). The appointment was official, and as an indication of the value the GSC placed on research, Sapir was already in the field on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

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Teit to Boas. March 12, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121703. Dear Friend I have just returned from the Coast Indian Convention and the interview with the BC gov. Forty Interior chiefs and Deputies accompanied me to Victoria[.] I received your letter on my arrival home and will write you fully in a few days. Thinking it may be in time as a note to the Lillooet and Thompson traditions which are likely not yet in the press I enclose a couple pages of information re. Lillooet mythology I collected lately[.]15

Teit to Boas. March 16, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121704. Dear Friend. I wrote to you a few days ago, and enclosed some notes on Lillooet mythology. I have thought over the matter you asked me to figure on, and I may say I would like very well to work for you for the whole year 15. During the winter and spring of 1911 Teit also spent time with Lillooet representatives regarding political work to support a formal St’át’imc assertion of treaty-like sovereignty over territorial lands, and a strong opposition to the confiscation of land by settlers in the area, through the charter political and legal position document The Declaration of the Lillooet Tribe, signed by several St’át’imc Chiefs. It was accompanied, witnessed, and translated by Teit, on May 10, 1911, in Spences Bridge. The ongoing political and legal significance of the Declaration is still emphasized by St’át’imc leaders and Elders during many public events and gatherings, such as the annual Declaration gathering to commemorate the historic period and day of voicing, translating, and co-signing the document. It is frequently considered a manifest form of St’át’imc law and “treaty-like” in the absence of a valid treaty (cf. Drake-Terry, The Same as Yesterday; T. Smith, Our Stories Are Written on the Land; unpublished interview with Morris Prosser (Tsal’alh) by Sarah Moritz, August 2016). Tsal’alh’s Elder Dez Peters Sr. (Sarah Moritz, pers. comm., June 2016) commented as follows on the visionary teachings of the 1911 Declaration during a life history interview with Moritz: “The Declaration of the Lillooet Tribe is about Tsciwalus—the ability to see clearly, the ability to see into the future. It reminds us of the natural boundaries of the land, not those on a map the way we map things today. The chiefs could see into the future and know that things would be taken that which was their livelihood and they could already see the destruction. The Declaration was about protecting the land. The chiefs all gathered at Spences Bridge because it was the most central point. They were all of hereditary descent. I think we called this Declaration Ntákmenkalha, which means using the good ways, the law and standards of the people of the land as passed down through the generations. The role of James Teit was his meticulous documentation and by writing in his journal he could compare all the differences between the people and how they belonged to the land and this way owned it while the other Sama7s—the white men just figured that the land was up for grabs. Teit translated from what people said and what they wanted and helped them phrase it into a ‘we declare’ and what they were gonna do” (“1911 Declaration of the Lillooet Tribe,” Lillooet Tribal Council, http://lillooettribalcouncil.ca/1911-declaration/, accessed February 27, 2022).

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[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

at Ethnological work as long as I can make as much for myself and family as I can on the average of best years at the other work I have been engaged in. I like the Ethnological work (although not more than some of the other work I do) and I am very anxious that same should be prosecuted with vigor for I see the necessity of doing [page 2] such work with as little delay as possible[.] I also realize the magnitude of the field, and the considerable time it takes to do really good work[.] [T]herefore I am prepared to give your work the preference and do it as well as my ability will allow. I would require to be on a basis of about $80.00 per month, and say $100.00 per month when in the field to make the equivalent of what I now earn from all sources on the better years. About 6 weeks vacation in the year would be sufficient. Some years I might not take any or very little. It is very hard to give a close estimate for expenses living, traveling and for interpreters and payments to Ind informants etc. etc. when in the field as same varies so much on different trips. In many places I would not require interpreters[.] I should think that in most places these expenses of all kinds would not average over $150.00 per month and on some trips [page 3] would be considerably less than this. I would be willing to start work on a basis the same or similar to what I have outlined at the commencement of next year. I am afraid I have already made too many engagements for this year, and it will be hard for me to cancel some of them. During this year I will likely thus have to work along on the old basis doing your work from time to time as I can manage it. When I was in Victoria lately with the Deputation of Indians the Premier had a private talk with me. He told me he was prepared to go on with the making of an ethnological Museum to be thoroughly representative of BC [.] A Building would be put up for the purpose, and the small ethnological collection now in the present museum would be taken from there and the latter left as a zoological museum entirely. It thus seems the BC gov. are going [page 4] to move in this matter at last. The chief gain however is in the Federal gov. at Ottawa commencing to take up ethnology for the Canadian Nation along well directed lines, as shown by their appointment of Sapir at your suggestion etc. etc. A great commercial development is setting in here in BC and Western Canada lately and this year exceeds others. I have already had various jobs offered me for this year in the lines in which I work packing[,] canoeing etc. etc. the lowest wages being $100.00 per month and board. For much of the work I do I earn $5.00 and $6.00 per day, but after all the big wages do not count so very much at the end of the year as there is always considerable lost time, and part of the winter and early spring 1911 | 487

there is only work at low wages or not work at all. I have often refused minor jobs at good wages and given the preference to your work because my heart was in it[.] Hoping this will find yourself and family well. PS I have almost completed the writing out of the Coast vocabularies including the Willapa.16 I had my eyes examined again in Vancouver lately and the Doctor said they were all right internally. My trouble was external.

Teit to Boas. March 26, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121705. Dear Friend. I feel pretty sure I wrote you some notes to go with the three maps of the Coast Salish of Wash. These I cannot find in the papers Miss Andrews sent back to me. I received the maps and everything else[.] Perhaps you may come on them and send them back as I would like to go over them again in conjunction with what I am now writing and may have something to add to them. I have just finished the writing out of the Coast vocabularies consisting of 64 [page 2] pages of foolscap and 9 pages of notes. I am now writing out the general information I gathered. I will also have a little to do on the lists of tribes (tribal names) and maps. One of the latter I may do over again and no doubt will require to revise the notes I sent pertaining to this map. I wrote to you in reply to your proposition some short time ago. I intended to rewrite the letter I sent you as it was over crowded and not very well written but my eyes being rather sore that day I posted it as it was. Hoping this will find yourself and family very well.

Boas to Teit. April 21, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121741. My dear Friend,— I have not answered your letter in regard to my suggestion of your more permanent employment in ethnological work before this, because I wanted to consult with Dr. Sapir. I suggested to him that as long as the appropriation which I have at my disposal lasts, you continue to work 16. Written in the top left-hand corner of the letter.

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for me, and that then they should give you an appointment from Ottawa on the terms that you propose.17 It seemed to me that it would not be right on my part to ask you to give up your other engagements for a few years unless I could see that you were going to have a permanent appointment later on.18 Dr. Sapir writes to me that he will communicate with you directly, laying his proposition before you. You can then let me know what you think about the whole plan, and I shall be ready to make an agreement with you for such time until all our money is spent, and then have you transferred to the Geological Survey of Canada.

Teit to Morice. May 4, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121706. Dear Father Morice I am sending you to-day some spare books as under 1. Symbolism of the Huichol Indians 2. Kwakiutl Texts 3. Decorative art of the Amur Tribes 4. Cairns of BC and Washington 5. Traditions of the Quinault Indians 6. Traditions of the Chilcotin (unbound.)19 I send them by mail in two parcels and hope they may reach you all right.

Teit to Sapir. May 16, 1911. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Dr Sapir, Your letter of 6th inst. to hand, and I may say that Dr. Boas appears to be quite agreeable, and desirous that I should work for your

17. This letter has not been found in the APs collection or in the Canadian Museum of History files. 18. With this letter Boas appears to convey two points: that even if Teit agreed to work for him on a full-time basis, the arrangement would not necessarily be long term, as Boas had no permanent source of funds. The government of Canada, on the other hand, could offer permanent employment, which would be of greater benefit to Teit. In either case, as the words, “it would not be right on my part to ask you to give up your other engagements for a few years” imply, Boas anticipates that once employed full time, Teit would give up short-term, nonethnological work. In 1911 Boas was also at a pivotal point in his own work. The Handbook of American Indian Languages was published in that year, bringing together analytic sketches of particular languages by various anthropologists and linguists and placing the analysis of North American Indian languages on a clearly articulated conceptual and professional footing (see Silverstein, “Introduction,” v–xviii). By 1911, as well, Boas was deeply involved in the development of the International School of Archaeology and Ethnology in Mexico City. 19. Originally included, but crossed out, was: “all of my printer’s proofs of my papers on the Shuswap.”

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department as soon as the funds he has on hand are expended.20 I do not know myself how much funds remain at present in his hands for my work. He sends me money and outlines the work he wants done from time to time. No doubt Dr. Boas himself will be able to inform you as to the amount of funds remaining or not yet consumed. At present I am working for him in the preparation of 26 vocabularies of Salish languages and dialects spoken in Washington, Idaho, etc. These consist each of about 750 words, and are for comparative purposes. I believe he wishes to publish this material soon. There [page 2] are also a number of maps showing ancient tribal boundaries, and very many notes to them, and the vocabularies etc. As it is your desire, and also Dr. Boas’ wish, for me to work for your Department I will be very pleased to do so providing the wages are sufficient, and there is a good chance of the work being permanent. I may say I receive letters occasionally from your friend Peter McGuff, Yakima Reservation. In his last he desired to congratulate you on your present appointment, and to be kindly remembered to you. I wonder if it would be possible for you to make some arrangements or exercise some control over the people of the Can. NRR who are about to start construction of a line through this part of the country, so that any archialogical [sic] specimens found by them may be saved. Their line is almost sure to cut through some ancient and unknown grave yards, and it would be a pity if the contents of these were destroyed or scattered as has been the case in construction of RRs hitherto. In some countries they have laws governing these matters.

Boas to Teit. May 16, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121742. My dear Friend,— If you can spare the time, I should like very much to know how you are getting on with the work on the maps and vocabularies. If it is at all possible, I should like very much to send the material to the printer this spring.

20. Sapir’s letter is not in the Canadian Museum of History file.

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Teit to Boas. May 22, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121707.21 Dear Friend, I received your note last night on my way up here. I will likely be going home again to-night. Re. the Vocabularies I have got them nearly finished—all excepting a few pages of notes, the preparing of two maps and some fresh notes to the latter. I received the MS notes I sent to you for, all excepting those pertaining to, and explanatory to the Coast maps. You must have them on hand somewhere and it will be better if I revise them. Also I wished to ask you if you desire the extra vocabularies I have. Those I have written out consist of about 750 words in 26 languages and dialects. I can add to these about 300 words more in six languages of the Interior viz Lake, Coeur d’Alene, Pend d’oreille, Thompson etc. I had a letter from Dr Sapir lately. He asked me when the funds with which I am presently working will be finished. I told him I did not know. They were in your hands and I had no idea of the amount remaining on hand [.] I collected some interesting genealogies of chiefs [sic] families here lately[.] They go back six generations.22 PS I received the check in payment of a/c. lately (a few days ago) It had been sent to Kamloops in mistake last March, and returned again to New York after [a] while

Teit to Boas. May 31, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121708. Dear Friend, I am sending you to-day (or to-morrow) all the Coast material excepting the maps. It consists of 33 double foolscap pages of vocabularies, 9 pages of notes to same, 6 double [ditto] of tribal names, 3 pages of notes to them, and 14 pages of general information. I have to go to Vancouver to-morrow. On my return in about four days, I will continue with the Interior material, some of which I will send you in about eight days. Part of it I will retain until I return from Kootenay near the end of June as I expect to be able to collect some information on certain points which I would like to include (prints on tribal 21. Written on letterhead of the Grand Central Hotel, George Ward, Proprietor, Ashcroft Bc. 22. Teit, “The Okanagon” (Teit and Boas, “The Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateaus,” 263–76, and chart facing 276).

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boundaries, some Okanagon words and some tribal names) [.] I am going to Kootenay in behalf of the Indians of Ind. Rights Association to speak with the Kootenays who want us. An Okanagan and a Thompson Chief will accompany me. I had a very encouraging letter from Dr Sapir to-day.

Boas to Teit. June 6, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121683. My dear Mr. Teit,— I presume the enclosed sheets are what you want. I knew that Sapir was going to write to you.23 The position is this. He would like to have you work for the Canadian Government, and I suggested that if he wants to do so, it ought to be done under such terms that your position should be a permanent one. I have at the present time $2800 approximately for your work, and we ought to plan your researches in such a way that you will as nearly as possible round off definite work for Mr. Sargent. It is my plan to get your paper on the distribution of the Salish tribes as soon as possible, and then to follow this by your supplementary paper on the Thompson Indians, and after that to bring out the full paper on basketry, for which Mr. Sargent is particularly anxious.24 I think the field-work that you might do for me during the 23. On June 19, 1911, Boas wrote to Sapir from Mexico, saying, “I did not answer your question regarding Teit in my last letter, however I cannot do so until I get home. I still have so much money on hand what I can get only for him personally, that I do not think it would be any g[illeg] to S[illeg] to swap his work for me for work for you. His eyes have troubled him for a few years, and he does not seem to care to work more than part of his time on work of this type. I am trying to find out from him, what his attitude would be, if we could give him a regular salary for a number of years till he gave up his trips with hunters. Can you wait until I get my reply” (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b.621, f.1, folder: “Boas, Franz [1910–1914]”). With this note Boas clarified a significant feature of the money he had for Teit’s work; namely, that he could only use it for Teit’s work, and not for any of the other projects he may have had on hand. With the words, “his eyes have troubled him for a few years,” and “he does not seem to care to work more than part of his time on work of this type,” Boas identified two longstanding and critical factors influencing Teit’s preferred pattern of work. 24. Boas refers here to three projects: the distribution of tribes, a supplementary paper on Nlaka’pamux ethnography, and the book on basketry that Sargent had requested. The paper on distribution of Salish tribes was the overview of the work on vocabularies and maps that Teit had been doing for some time. Teit had also been working on the supplementary paper on Nlaka’pamux ethnography and had mentioned it to Boas in previous letters. As well, Teit had been conducting research on basketry, although it began as part of the supplementary Thompson paper. Boas had not yet defined a change in its projected scope. Teit had been requesting the opportunity to do additional field work on the U.S. side of the border in order to address more fully the work he had done previously. The unspoken issue in this letter rested in the sum available for the work; that is, $2,800, more than a year’s salary and expenses. It is difficult to

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next year or so ought to be done among the Salish on the American Side, provided that Sapir will make an arrangement with you, and that he will want you to work among the Salish on the Canadian side. I have suggested to Sapir that it would be very desirable for you to undertake a general survey of the Athapascan [page 2] field in the north, particularly to travel over the whole country for the purpose of determining accurately the distribution of the various Athapascan dialects in a similar way as you have done now with the Salish; but I do not know, of course, what his preference may be. Mr. Sargent was here a short time ago, and said that you had the Tahltan in such a condition now, that you could easily get from them all the information that might be desired. How much do you think this work would cost, and how long would it take? PS—I received your letter of the 31st of May after writing the preceding note. I think it would be better for me to keep the notes to your map. I will try to send you a copy in a day or two.

Boas to Teit. June 9, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121684. My dear Friend,— Your letters of the 22d and 31st of May have come to hand, and yesterday I received the manuscript of the vocabularies. I found the sheet containing the notes to the coast map, and I will have it copied and sent to you. I take it, of course, that you are going to return the maps also, from which I am to compile a general map of the whole area.

Teit to Boas. June 10, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121709. Dear Friend I am sending you to-day by Reg. Mail the Interior Salish Vocabularies, 36 double pages, 8 pages of notes to same and 2 pages information ́ 25 I will probably get the Okanagon words on the Tunāx́ e and Stᴇ‘wī́x. wanting for the Okan. voc. in a week or two from an Okanagan chief who is going to visit here and will forward them for insertion[.] I will see how work justifying this sum could be expended in time for Teit to take up work for Sapir in the coming fiscal year, April 1, 1912–March 31, 1913. 25. Nicola Athapaskan.

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send you the balance of the information re. the Interior Salish in about a week. PS I have no funds on hand for work, and collecting. I have been using my own money and charging it against your a/c for some time. I have some good specimens on hand which I would like [page 2] to sell. I suppose Mr Sargent wants them shipped to Chicago.

Teit to Boas. June 14, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121710. Dear Friend Your letters of 6th and 9th inst. are to hand. I wrote to you a couple of days ago, when I sent you the Interior vocabularies. I was glad to hear you had received the Coast ones. I just want to look over the notes to the Coast maps in case I may have something to add to them. Yes I will send you all the maps. They are all ready, I just have to glance over the Coast ones again after the notes arrive[.] There are eight maps altogether I think. The writing is almost finished now I only have five or six pages more to write out. I am going packing for the CNRR today, and will be back again in about five days, and then I will finish the writing. I put off the trip for the Indians to Kootenay [page 2] until the 22nd so I could finish the whole paper as soon as possible. I am very much obliged to you for your kindness in trying to get me permanent work with Sapir. I agree with you a general survey of the Northern Athapascan field is much required. Yes I have the Tahltan now very amenable to ethnological work being done among them and I would not have much trouble in obtaining a considerable amount of information from them, in fact about as full as it is possible to obtain. I do not know how much money would be required to work the Tahltan field. It would take several months and possibly 600.00 besides my own wages. I believe this would do the thing well. Possibly it could be done on less. A study of the Tahltan would prepare a person to some extent for further Athapascan work in the North. [page 3] I consider further study of certain Interior Salish tribes necessary if we wish to understand these people as a whole, and I am of opinion a study of these American tribes is necessary for a thorough comprehension of the BC Interior Salish, so this work ought to be quite so much Canadian as American. I think it would be short sighted to make the ‘line’ a too rigid boundary of Can. Ethno. work. The same people are on both sides of it, 494 | 1911

and a group of people (tribe or tribes) cannot be thoroughly understood without carrying on studies among their neighbors all round.26 I will commence work on the supplementary Thompson paper as soon as I can, but probably will not get much done before I go hunting. I suppose you have the paper I wrote out for you a couple of years ago, on the Klickitat basketry designs, and Klickitat and Wasco names of tribes etc. It also contains some information on the distribution [page 4] of tribes which might go well in conjunction with the Salish information both Coast and Interior[.] If you intend to print it in the present series it will be better perhaps to send it to me to look over first, although if I remember right it is about as complete as possible and I don’t think I will be able to add much to it, although there might be something. The weather is very hot here at present.

Boas to Teit. June 17, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121685. My dear Mr. Teit,— I have asked to-day that the sum of $900 be sent to you, I must write to Mr. Sargent in regard to the question of specimens. I shall write to you again within a few days.

Boas to Teit. June 20, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121686. My dear Friend,— Thanks for your note of the 14th of June. The manuscript material has just arrived, and I am glad to have it. I ordered a couple of days ago $900 to be sent to you.

26. Here Teit puts his finger on an issue that is still of concern today: that the border drawn between Canada and the United States separated people who were closely related and arbitrarily divided the traditional territories of some Interior Salish societies. In April 2021 the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed the continuing hunting rights of the Sinixt or Lakes, many of whom are members of the Colville Confederated Tribes, in the Canadian section of their traditional territory (Supreme Court of Canada. “R. v. Desautel,” Judgment of April 23, 2021).

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Teit to Boas. June 22, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121711. Dear Friend I am sending you to-day 14 pages of notes to the Interior maps, 5 pages introductory to Languages of the Interior, 13 pages general information Interior, and 6 or 7 double pages of Interior tribal names. No doubt some of the writing is not very well worded as part of it I have written rather hurriedly, and I cannot write good English off hand. I generally have to correct and rewrite a thing two or three times before I am satisfied the English is passable, and I have not taken the time to do that in this instance. I think I sent you some pages introductory to the Coast languages written in somewhat the same way I have done for the Interior languages. If I didn’t I suppose it is not very necessary anyway, as a good deal is explained in the notes to the Coast maps, and the vocabularies show the relationships. I received the copy of notes to Coast map. (1) I have changed the no. of this map to (5) as I have included on it the traditionary [sic] homes of Interior tribes. The notes you sent do not include those I must have sent you marked xA to xK but these are no doubt all right, and the information all I can give you so I return the copy herewith with some slight alterations The only things I wished to add were what I have marked XL and XM[.] It is not clear in my notes whether I got the information from Up. Chehalis, Cowlitz or Nisqually but I think from the Cowlitz to the effect that a small band of Willapa formerly lived or hunted in the Country around the Upper Skookum Chuck, but at a later date they disappeared from there and it is thought they must have joined the main body perhaps owing to pressure of other tribes. This happened a long time ago. I have marked them XL. XM. I could not learn what people formerly occupied the country in which the Klatskanai settled, but it seems they located in a place partly vacant, were surrounded by various tribes, and their nearest neighbors or the people with whom they came most in contact or among whom they settled are said to have treated them very well. I don’t think it will be necessary to send me copies of the other notes. I send you in a separate parcel the eight maps. This completes what I have written. Of course I have a great deal of detailed information on hand I collected from the Coeur d’Alene, and some other tribes, almost as much from the former as I collected from the Lillooet. I also have [page 2] a number of myths and historical tales from Okanagan, Pend d’oreille, Sans Poil, Coeur d’Alene etc. but all this matter can be worked up some other time when more detailed 496 | 1911

studies are made of the tribes along the lines of their general ethnology, mythology etc.27 If there is anything not plain in what I have written, or anything you want further information about, or any of the special letters or manner of writing sounds in Indian words not quite clear to you I will explain as best I can. I think I may have used a letter or two different from the correct method employed by you either because I had partly forgotten the right way or the sounds were different from those I am most accustomed to, and I did not know the method employed by you for writing them. An instance is “ng” in thing etc[.] [S]ee Clallam and Lummi. This is all I can think of to speak about at present. Hoping you will receive all the material safely.

Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, to Teit. June 30, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121687. Dear Mr. Teit,— In Dr. Boas’s absence I beg to acknowledge the receipt of the two packages of manuscripts and maps to which you refer in your recent letters. Your letters have gone forward to him.

Teit to Boas. July 4, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121712. Dear Friend. Please add the following words to the Nicola-Similkameen Athapascan words I sent you lately (with vocabularies)[.] I just came on them yesterday when I was arranging a great many scattered notes I have on the Thompson etc. I looked for them this spring but could not find them until now. I collected them from a middle aged woman (Half Thompson—half Similkameen) in Similkameen a few years ago. She 27. Boas published later narratives recorded by Teit in Folk-tales of Salish and Sahaptin Tribes (1917), including Thompson, Pend d’Oreille, Coeur d’Alene, and Lower Fraser narratives. Teit’s work was at the core of the publication. In the “Introductory” Boas wrote, “Through the liberality of Mr. Homer E. Sargent of Chicago, Mr. James A. Teit has been enabled to carry his investigation of the Salish tribes of the interior. During the past ten years he has conducted researches on the distribution of tribes and dialects and on their customs as tribes. The following collection of traditions was made in connection with these researches.” Boas added interpretive notes as well as narratives he had collected himself in 1888, Okanagan and Sanpoil narratives collected by Marian K. Gould, Sahaptin narratives collected by Farrand, and Nez Perce narratives collected by Spinden. In 1917 Boas anticipated that Teit’s work on the Interior Salish was coming to a conclusion, and both the “Introductory” and the composition of the publication convey the sense of rounding off a period of work.

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remembered only six words of the old speech which she had heard from old people when a girl. Viz 1. Male of Mtn sheep } 2. Female of [ditto] [both] exactly the same as given to me by Michel. 3. Tumpline practically the same as given by other informants. She pronounced [page 2] it ʟóᴇɬ 4. Crow Sau.ᶯáutcᴇn ́ confer numeral 4. McKay 5. Raven naxiī́liē These are variants of words I have already sent you. 6. Wolf .n)kauwḗuxᴇlie kauwüxiliē28 No. 6. is really the only new or additional word I got from her. I did not go to Kootenay after all, and therefore have been doing preliminary work on the Thompson paper. I will likely be going to Cassiar hunting about 3rd or 4th Aug.

Teit to Boas. July 7, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121713. Dear Friend. I sent you yesterday some Similkameen Athapascan words I came across in my notes, and to-day I send you herewith two phrases I wrote down in Nicola about eight or nine years ago from an old man (I think aᶯápkᴇn) I just came on them to-day among the Thompson notes. (1) Xapent ʟē x̠e xäin ʟēx͇ên exact meaning unknown. Used as a term of reproach. Above is no doubt a variation of No 37 collected by me. (Brit. Assoc. Report 1895.) (2) sisi xé t.wápᴇtatc. said to be a request to another person, and thought to mean ‘give me the knife’[.] However the sentence does not contain the word for [page 2] knife which was ‘ta.áni’ as collected by me in Nicola.

28. Terms for wolf bracketed together in original.

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Teit to Boas. July 17, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121714. Dear Friend. I saw some old Kamloops men lately, and inquired at [sic] them re. ́ and re. the tribe of that name. The the meaning of the word tenasī́na Northern Shuswap consider this term to be a designation for the mixed Iroquois band of the Yellowhead Pass (mixed Iroquois-French-ShuswapCree) and I accordingly included it in the list of tribal names as referring to them. The Kamloops men claim that ī́re ‘kwḗ is the right name of the ́ is the name of a people further east (E. side Iroquois band and Tenasī́na of Rockies) according to Chief Louis who has been in the Cree country around Jasper House, and Henry House etc. They are not Chipewyan, Beaver, Cree, or Assinaboine but speak a dialect related to Kootenay. He had never met any, but had heard this. He thought now there there [sic] must be very few. In older times the Shuswap sometimes met them in the Rocky Mtn Region. He referred me to Chief Pierre of the Kinbaskets (Kootenay-Shuswap) as being able to give correct information about them[.] The word seems to have an Athapascan sound about it. I lately collected from the Thompson (Sp. Bdge) a variation of the k̠wák̠tk̠watl myth containing the incidents of the Snake woman who enticed men, and bit off their privates (almost the same as the Shuswap version) and the monster horse? [sic] who put his mouth on the trail and people walked inside, evidently closely related to versions I obtained from the Flathead in Montana and Coeur d’Alene. You may add to the vocabularies tceᴇxháitsa the Okanagon term [page 2] for woven rabbit skin robe. I can send you the myth if you want it now. We are having very hot weather the last eight days 100 to 107 in the shade max. day temperature. PS I have been working on the Thompson paper a good deal this month. and have made fair progress[.]

Postcard. Teit to Boas. July 23, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121715. SPENCES BRIDGE BC

Dear Friend. I received the money in full you speak of, and acknowledged receipt of same to the treasurer. I am doing work off and on on the Thompson paper. Will leave for North on 4th Aug.

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Sapir to Teit. November 14, 1911. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Mr. Teit, I have been planning for quite some time to make you a more definite proposal than I have hitherto been in a position to make. Owing to the long illness and delayed return of our director, Mr. Brock, I have had to defer taking up the matter with him until yesterday.29 I am greatly pleased to be able to say that Mr. Brock warmly seconds my desire to have you permanently added to our scientific staff. As I understand it, you would not care to reside in Ottawa as a member of the inside service of the Geological Survey. This would seem, provided I am correct, to make it necessary that you be made a member of the outside service. The only fault that you could find with this arrangement is that appointments in the outside service are not permanent but need to be renewed from year to year. This does not mean of course that in practice such appointments may not be as permanent as those in the inside service, for in many cases men have been continued in the outside service for a great number of years. The chances of a scientific member of the outside service being displaced because of changes in party power are of course very slight; nevertheless should there be financial retrenchment, for reasons of economy, the outside service is generally thinned down before the inside service. [page 2]. You thus have before you the alternative of accepting a position as ethnologist in the Anthropological Division of the Geological Survey as an outside service man, with the comparatively small risk connected with the 29. Reginald Brock (1874–1935) was a professional geologist appointed to the Geological Survey of Canada in 1897. He served as director of the GSC from 1907 until 1914, when he was appointed deputy minister of mines in the Canadian government. He left the government late in 1914 to become professor of geology and dean of applied sciences at the University of British Columbia, and resumed his position as dean in 1919 after several years’ service during World War I (Shipley, “Brock, Reginald Walter”). Brock was instrumental in establishing the Division of Anthropology as a component of the Geological Survey of Canada, following strong recommendations from the British Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Society of Canada, and other learned societies. Following his appointment as head of the Anthropology Division, Sapir had also recruited Frank Speck as well as Boas’s graduates W. H. Mechling, Paul Radin, and Alexander Goldenweiser to conduct research on contracts of limited term (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b.621, f.1, folder: “Boas, Franz [1910–1914]”). The Geological Survey of Canada was established in 1842, and in 1911 it was a component of the Department of Mines. Geologists such as George Dawson (1849–1901) had developed interests in ethnology and natural science in the course of their geological field research, and over the years the Geological Survey had acquired collections and had a de facto museum. Following Queen Victoria’s death in 1901, the government of Canada built the Victoria Memorial Museum. By 1911 the building was completed and housed the Geological Survey of Canada offices as well as the collections and exhibition halls (see Zaslow, Reading the Rocks).

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position, and of a regular permanent inside service position which would normally mean residence in Ottawa. The salary that I am authorized to offer you is $1500.00, outside of field expenses. I have asked Mr. Brock if it would be possible to make a special arrangement in your case, whereby you might be legally considered an inside service man with residence in British Columbia, the understanding being, of course, that all your working time be devoted to the prosecution of researches and publication for the Dominion Government. Mr. Brock is uncertain as to whether such an arrangement could be made, but has promised to inquire.30 Meanwhile I should like to hear from you as to your preferences in the matter, and as to when you will be in a position to begin work for us. It is my desire first of all to have a systematic mapping instituted of the Athabascan tribes of Canada, and I believe that you would be the very best person that could be chosen to work out the exact tribal boundaries in British Columbia and Yukon. Hand in hand with this preliminary work should go the gathering of representative collections for our museum. At least certain tribes, Tahltan for instance, should be chosen for complete ethnological study on the scale that you have adopted for your Thompson River or Shuswap Indian monographs.31 I hope that you will be in a position to accept my proposal and to do systematic work for the Canadian Government. I am looking forward with pleasure to your cooperation. [page 3]. Mr. Smith wishes to be remembered to you.32 As you know, he is continuing his Canadian archaeological work, only he has transferred his base of operations to the East. He is also looking forward to scientific affiliation with you and hopes that his and your work may “dove-tail” into each other. PS In the event of your being appointed to the inside service it will be necessary for you to go through the formalities of a civil service applicant, in other words a vacancy for the position that you are to fill will be advertised. This, however, is merely red 30. As Sapir later wrote to Boas (APs, Boas Papers, January 13, 1912, text 105496), this was not possible. 31. From this it is clear that, in scope and substance, the ethnographic work Teit had done on Interior Salish societies was the model for the projected work on the Athapaskan-speaking societies of northern British Columbia. 32. Harlan I. Smith had left the American Museum of Natural History and joined the Anthropology Division of the Geological Survey of Canada in 1911 (Canadian Museum of History, “Harlan Ingersoll Smith,” Gateway to Aboriginal Heritage, https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/ exhibitions/tresors/ethno/etp0400e.html, accessed August 23, 2021).

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tape and does not by any means imply that some one else, such as Hill-Tout, may slip in by mistake. Mr. Smith’s appointment was accompanied by the same kind of rigmarole.

Teit to Sapir. November 21, 1911. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Dr Sapir, I received your letter of 14th inst. on my return from hunting yesterday. I think I would prefer to live in this country for some time yet, but might later be prepared to take up my residence in Ottawa. I would thus have to become a member of the outside service.33 I cannot state yet when I would be able to start work for you. It depends a good deal on how Dr. Boas can arrange the matter. I have not been doing any ethnological work since last summer as I have been engaged hunting, and at other things in which the pay is higher. [page 2] I have made promises to do some small jobs which would not be completed until next year, but most of them are such I could finish them without interfering with your work were I to take up same very soon. I realize the importance of the Athapascan work in the West, and think it should be done by me as soon as possible. I have hopes to see you personally within two months, and will then be able to discuss all matters with you. The Indian Rights Association of BC want me to go to Ottawa with two to five chiefs from the southern Interior of BC to discuss the matters of land rights, treaties, etc. We would thus form a deputation to the Gov. representing some 20,000 to 21,000 Indians of this country. As every hotel will not admit Indian chiefs it is sometimes difficult to get [page 3]34 good quarters in a strange place at a moments notice. I will be much obliged to yourself or Mr. Smith if either of you could locate 33. Teit’s decision to remain in British Columbia and accept an appointment to the Geological Survey of Canada as a member of the outside service was one of several significant factors governing the shape and outcome of his work for the GSC. All of these factors are foreshadowed in the letters between May 16 and November 21, 1911; that is, his preference for taking advantage of multiple sources of income, which proved to be at odds with the demands of a salaried appointment; Boas’s list of work yet to be done, which was substantial and unlikely to be easily fitted into a limited period before the beginning of work for Sapir; the increasing demands of Teit’s political advocacy, which required both travel and unforeseen changes in schedule; and last but not least, Sapir’s decision that Teit should undertake an Athapaskan survey, which meant that, in spite of its similarity in form to Teit’s prior work, the goals of the work for the GSC and the goals of the Interior Salish work for Boas were entirely separate and, eventually, in conflict. 34. Wickwire noted, “Sapir forwarded Teit’s note about the hotel to Harlan Smith, who arranged rooms at Ottawa’s Grand Union Hotel” (At the Bridge, 351n3).

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a suitable stopping place for us that we could go to on our arrival, and let me know soon. If you want casts of faces and measurements and photos of the chiefs who come with me I think I can easily arrange that. I cannot state what date we may leave here yet. We will probably stop in Kootenay en route to address some meetings of Indians there.

Teit to Boas. November 21, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121716. Dear Friend. I just drop you a line to let you know I returned from North some time ago, and have been out on some hunting trips near here since. I still have to go on two short trips but will be thru about the 15th Dec. or earlier. I have also been on a couple of short trips as interpreter etc. settling the right of way of the Can. No. RR thru the Thompson and Shuswap Ind. Reserves. The Coast Indians are [page 2] anxious that I take two or three of the strongest men of the Interior chiefs, and go as a deputation from the Indian Rights Association of BC to the Dom. gov. at Ottawa on the land question and other grievances of the Indians. One Thomp. one Shus, two Okan and one Kootenay chief may go with me. Possibly only the Thomp and two Okanagan may go. We would represent at least 21,000 Indians of this country as nearly all the Indian bands have joined in Assoc. I had a letter yesterday from Sapir and may see him when I go to Ottawa. I got a copy lately of Vol. II of the Handbook of the Amer. Inds. and I notice page 50 of same[:] [page 3] “Necootimeigh. a tribe formerly living at the Dalles of the Columbia in Oregon (Ross. Fur Hunters 1. 186. 1855)[.] It was probably Chinookan as it was within Chinookan territory, but the name may have been that of a temporary village of a neighboring Shahaptian tribe.” This is interesting as seemingly strengthening the assertions of the Interior Salish as to their former occupancy of country near the Dalles and particularly of a tribe speaking a Thompson dialect having been located near there. Confer my information on this subject “Survey of the Salish tribes of Wash. etc.” sent to you last summer. Necootimeigh is undoubtedly a Salish word, and is the same term as applied to the Thomp [page 4] son tribe by the Okanagons and all the Southern Interior Salish tribes. It seems from Ross that these Necootimeigh were living near the Dalles in his day. Probably a remnant only. I will now close with kindest regards to yourself and family.

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PS What Ross says about these Necootemeigh might be added as a note to my remarks re. the ancient territory of the Interior Salish if the matter is not printed yet.

Teit to Sapir. November 25, 1911. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Dr Sapir, I will be leaving Kamloops with the Indian deputation on the evening train 9th Dec. We may go straight thru to Ottawa or may stay off a few days among the Kinbaskets of Kootenay. Most likely we will go straight thru, but in case we stop en route I will wire you from Golden.

Teit to Sapir. November 27, 1911. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have your letter of November 21st and am pleased to find that you seem ready to undertake work as a member of the outside service. I had rather anticipated this, knowing of your attachment to British Columbia. I believe that an arrangement whereby you become an ethnologist in the outside service has the advantage also of putting you in more immediate touch with the natives and enabling you to concentrate more thoroughly on the work you undertake. A member of an inside service generally has a good deal of administrative truck to attend to which eats sadly into his time. As far as I can make out from short notes received from Dr. Boas, he is favorably disposed towards your taking up work with us as soon as may be. He merely demands that I make you a definite offer.35 I have 35. On October 23, 1911, Boas wrote to Sapir from Mexico, saying, “The Teit matter stands, so that is up to you to make me a definite proposal, so that I can clear up the matter with Sargent. All that Teit must finish for me, is the supplement to his Thompson Indians, a paper on basketry and Okanagon myths. If you want him, you must try to give him a definite proposal for a permanent job.” On November 14, 1911, as well, Sapir wrote to Boas, saying, “Enclosed I am sending you carbon copy of a letter I have just sent to Teit.” Boas replied on November 21, 1911, “The Teit question is up to you. You must make a definite offer to him, and then we can agree,—all four of us,—the donor of the funds, Teit, you and I, how the matter can be definitely arranged” (emphasis in originals). Writing to Sapir on November 25, 1911, Boas added, “I have read your letter to Mr. Teit with much interest. I hope that you may be able to get him. I certainly shall not stand in the way. We must only get him to write out his material for me first, which ought not to take him very long. I am writing to him on these terms, I shall write also to Mr. Sargent, who has given the funds for this work, and I hope this matter may come out satisfactorily all around. Would you mind sending a copy of your letter to Teit to Mr. Homer E. Sargent, The Dakota Hotel, Chicago Ill and say that you do so at my request?”

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sent him a carbon copy of my letter to you of November 14th, which should enable him to decide as to his own moves. I am waiting to hear from him in regard to that letter. I am greatly pleased to hear that you intend coming East within two months. We shall then be able to discuss all details of administration and field work more satisfactorily than by correspondence. I am also looking forward to the opportunity to meet representatives [page 2] of various tribes from Southern British Columbia. If they are not too busy palavering with Parliament, perhaps I can seize the opportunity to do a little linguist work with them.36 I guess Smith can attend to the casts

Sapir replied on December 2, 1911, “Thank you for your attitude in regard to Teit. I have already heard from him in reply to my letter, and gather that he would be willing to become a member of the outside service. In accordance with your request, I am writing to Mr. Sargent, enclosing a copy of my letter to Teit. I expect to arrive at a satisfactory understanding with Teit personally before long, as he expects to be here in Ottawa some time this month as spokesman for a deputation of Indian chiefs from Southern British Columbia, who have, I believe, some complaint with the government. I think that I shall have Teit take as his first task the mapping of dialectic boundaries in the Athabascan area” (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b. 621, f.1, folder: “Boas, Franz [1910–1914]”). Sapir wrote to Sargent on December 2, 1911, enclosing his letter of offer to Teit. Sargent replied on December 5, 1911, “I am too good a friend of Mr. Teit to wish to allow the work he had been doing for Prof Boas to stand in the way of his accepting a permanent position such as you offer, and think that you and he can readily arrange for the completion of Mr. Teit’s present work at an early date.” However, he added, “Like many western men who have lived long on the frontier Mr. Teit has a taste for hunting in the fall and has usually made that hunting pay him handsomely by guiding. I would suggest that in the fall of the year, if it is compatible with the rules of the outside service, he be allowed an absence without pay of from one to three months in some years. Were you to talk with Game Warden Williams of British Columbia I am sure he would second this suggestion” (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b.633, f.3, folder: “Sargent, Homer E. [1911]”). With this note Sargent identified Teit’s long involvement with and passion for hunting, a third factor influencing Teit’s preferred pattern of work. In 1911 and afterward, the Geological Survey of Canada was an organization of scientists who engaged in extensive field work during the summer months, followed by the writing of summary reports and longer reports prepared for publication. It was also a hierarchical, rule-bound organization, with little administrative flexibility for extended hunting trips. It was the sort of organization in which the granting of several weeks’ sick leave to a valued secretary required the permission of the Privy Council (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, McInnes to Sapir, May 3, 1916, b.629, f.1, folder: “McInnes, William [1915–1916]”). Teit, Boas, and Sargent all recognized that Teit’s preferred pattern of work involved substantial flexibility, but no one suggested that it might be incompatible with the established culture of the GSC. 36. On January 13, 1912, Sapir wrote to Boas, “Teit has come to Ottawa with nine Interior Salish Chiefs. Mr. Barbeau is making use of the opportunity to get song material and information on manitous. I have also had a chance to hear Lillooet and Thompson River. Thompson River I find to be characterized by a very peculiar z sound which tends to give following vowels a dull quality. I believe Thompson River z is pronounced with faucal resonance, that is, with accompanying position of back of mouth and of throat as for velar consonants. I have heard Arabic so-called “emphatic z (written ẓ) and find that Thompson River z reminds me of it. Sometimes the Thompson River z seems to have a thick l-quality about it.” For a discussion of z, z’ in Nlaka’pamuxcin phonology, see Thompson and Thompson, The Thompson Language, 3, 7. During this visit to Ottawa Marius Barbeau recorded 41 songs sung by Nlaka’pamux Chief Tetlenitsa (29 songs), Lillooet Chief Ignace Jacob (9 songs), and Shuswap Chief Francois (3

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and either he or our photographic department to the photographs.37 As for measurements, we have no physical anthropologist, but perhaps my assistant, Mr. Barbeau, who has training in physical anthropology in Oxford, can do something in that regard.

Teit to Sapir. December 5, 1911. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Dr. Sapir, I received your letter of Nov 27th also letters from Mr. Smith. No doubt you have received my last letter by this time stating we were leaving Kamloops on the evening of the 9th inst. We will go right there to Ottawa without stopping in Kootenay. There will likely be four leading chiefs with me. One Thompson, one Shuswap and two Okanagons but I am not sure yet until I reach Kamloops. Hoping to have the pleasure of [page 2] meeting you soon PS Possibly my wife (elle est Francaise) and one little boy will accompany me. PPS I have just received notice the Dom. Govt is to close on the 7th inst for XMas, and will convene again in January. This knocks out our trip for this month, but you will see us in January, and I will give you notice of the date beforehand.

songs) (CMH, Barbeau fonds, “Thompson River and Fraser River: Songs Transcribed.” B.287, f.9). Barbeau also recorded songs during Teit’s visit with chiefs in 1916. 37. In May 1912 Harlan I. Smith made a cast of the face of one member of the 1912 delegation, John Tetlenitsa. A bust was made from this cast by GSC staff member F. W. Waugh, in May 1914 (Kelly Cameron, Canadian Museum of History, pers. comm. to Andrea Laforet, September 17, 2021). Qwalqwalten (Garry John) (Tsal’alh) notes the following regarding the nine songs sung by Ignace Jacob and recorded by Barbeau: “These recordings have been shared several times within the communities since they were found again in Ottawa. Those recordings have helped us keep some of those songs alive. Few young people listened to those recordings and sang them as closely to the recordings as possible. Today, if I hear some songs sung a certain way I can kind of tell where they learned from. I think we need to get some speakers and writers to document the words spoken in our language” (Sarah Moritz, pers. comm., February 2022).

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Teit to Boas. December 6, 1911. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121717. Dear Friend. Your letter of 25th ult.38 to hand last night. I was going to Ottawa with a deputation of chiefs in a few days, but the trip has been put off until January when the gov. convenes again. I note all you say in your letter, and when in Ottawa next month will talk things over with Dr Sapir and will also communicate with Mr Sargent.39 No doubt we will be able to come to some definite understanding re. the taking up of the Ottawa work, and also the completion of the work Mr Sargent would like done. I thank you very much for your kind words, and will be writing you from time to time.

Sapir to Teit. December 11, 1911. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have your letter of December 5th, and I am sorry to learn that you had to postpone your visit East until January. However, time flies and we shall get together without fail, as you remark, early next year, so that we shall be able to have a good talk and make arrangements satisfactory to all concerned. I have heard from Mr. Sargent of Chicago in regard to our plans. He is glad of the opportunity that presents itself to you of getting permanent work and does not in the least wish to stand in your way. With best wishes for a merry Christmas and a happy New Year

38. This letter from Boas to Teit dated November 25, 1911, is not in the APs Library file. 39. By the end of 1911 the group influencing the direction of Teit’s work had expanded beyond Boas and Teit to include both Sapir and, in a more minor but not inconsequential way, Sargent. In May 1911 Sargent undertook to meet expenses from Teit’s 1910 work in Washington state and Leo Frachtenberg’s work in Oregon. He was also making annual contributions to Boas’s work in regard to the International School of American Archaeology and Ethnology in Mexico (APS, Boas Papers, Boas to Sargent, May 3, 1911, text 107039; Sargent to Boas, May 25, 1911, text 107059). While the primary agenda for Teit’s work discussed among Sapir, Boas, and Teit was the completion of Interior Salish ethnography and the beginning of Athapascan ethnography in British Columbia, Sargent’s basketry project also had priority for Teit and Boas. By the end of 1911, as well, Boas was inaugurating a discussion with Sargent concerning funds for publishing Teit’s work. In a letter to Boas on January 9, 1912, Sargent referred to a December 23, 1911, letter from Boas that is no longer in the APS file. Sargent wrote, “Regarding a contribution for publication of the memoir, if you will let me know the amount, I will endeavor to find it” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107152).

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Teit to Sapir. December 16, 1911. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Dr Sapir, I received your note of 11th Dec. yesterday and in reply would say I am glad to hear you have been in correspondence with Mr Sargent. Probably you will be able to come to some agreement with him re the work I have been doing for him, and we can talk this over when I see you in Ottawa. I feel pretty sure we will be there some time between the 5th and 10th Jany. There may be as many as 11 or 12 of us. I will let Mr Smith know the time when we leave[.]

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1912

Teit to Boas. January 21, 1912. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121718.1 Dear Friend, I am here en route home from Ottawa, and tomorrow am going down to Tobacco Plains to see the Indians. A Shuswap and a Thompson chief are with me, the other chiefs of the Deputation went home by direct line. I have three places to visit here and then go straight home and expect to be there in ten days or less. I had a talk with Dr Sapir when in Ottawa re. my work for him and we agreed that I should finish the work I have on hand for you before taking up [page2] any Ottawa work.2 We 1. Written from Elko, East Kootenay, on letterhead of the Grand Union Hotel, Ottawa, Ontario, the Victoria Summer Hotel, Aylmer, Quebec, James K. Paisley, Proprietor, but dated at Elko, East Kootenay. Aylmer, Quebec, is located across the Ottawa River from Ottawa. Elko is a town in the extreme southeast corner of British Columbia, not far from the Canada-U.S. border. 2. APS, Boas Papers, Sapir to Boas, January 13, 1912, text 105496: “Teit’s visit has given me a further opportunity to get to a final agreement with him in regard to work for us. We have had a conference with Mr. Brock and are agreed on all points. As soon as you are prepared to release Teit from his present obligations to you and Mr. Sargent, or as soon as you believe he has fulfilled them, Mr. Teit can go ahead on Athabascan work for us. This work is to be considered as outside service work. While Teit’s position will be practically permanent, it can not be made legally so unless he becomes a member of the inside service and takes up his residence in Ottawa. Teit informs me that he expects to write to you before long in regard to coming to an agreement with you on his present Thompson River material, Salish basketry, and Okanagan mythology. I may say that I am very favorably impressed by Teit and have taken a great liking to him.” In the early years of Sapir’s work for the Geological Survey of Canada, he and Boas corresponded frequently about field work assignments for other anthropologists, including Paul Radin, W.H. Mechling, and John Alden Mason, all of whom worked at various times for both Boas and Sapir. For example, in regard to Radin, Boas wrote to Sapir on March 28, 1913, “It is quite evident that Radin will not be able to finish his Mexican work by the 1st of July, and I have asked for his re-appointment as a Fellow in such a way that he can continue on this material until about the end of September. After that time it is my intention to send him into the field in the Great Lakes region for a period of about three months. In this way he will be busy for me until about the end of the present calendar year; and I hope that when he then starts in for you, he may be able to continue right along on your work.” Sapir replied on March 31, 1913, “Such arrangements as you suggest for Radin would be quite suitable to me as it is, of course, best that he should stick long enough at his Mexican work to see something definite completed. As for his Great Lake [sic] trip of about three months, I understand that that would merely be in order to collect specimens. If it is for ethnological research, I hope that his material will not be such as to interfere in any way with what he has already collected for this Survey” (CMH, Edward Sapir, Correspondence, folder: Boas, Franz (1910–1914),

509

found it practically impossible to arrange for doing the two works in conjunction. Dr Sapir told me the works you want me to complete are 1. supplementary paper on the Thompson 2. a paper on basketry 3. Okanagon mythology[.] The first one I perfectly understand, but the others I want to be clear about. Do you desire the second to be a distinct paper on basketry. All the information I have gathered on it is from the Thompson, with the exception of what I gathered re. designs from the Klickitat (a copy of which I think I have already sent you) and a few notes on the distribution of coiled basketry gathered from the Interior Salish tribes and which I included in the paper I sent you dealing with Salish vocabularies and habitats. It was my [page 3] intention to make the basketry information simply a chapter in the supplementary paper on the Thompson. It will be easy enough to deal with it either way but as I thought it was Thomp information it better go into the paper on the Thompson. I believe at one time Mr Sargent was thinking of having all the information possible gathered re. the basketry and basketry designs of Western and eastern Washington and a full collection made of the basketry and designs of that region but of course I have done nothing re. that yet and it would take a good deal more field work before a paper on same would be possible. It is very important however that this should be done some day.3 Then re. the third [page 4] I do not have a great many myths gathered from Okanagon tribes and none of them are very long. I do not remember just now how many I have—possibly not over 20. I would require to do box 621, file 1). Accordingly, it was not unusual for Boas and Sapir to consider a plan whereby an anthropologist would complete work for Boas before beginning work for Sapir. Unlike Radin, Mechling and Mason, who all worked for the Geological Survey on contracts of limited term, Teit had formal employment status assigned as an “outside man.” This gave him a salary covering the entire fiscal year and gave considerable weight to the requirement that his time be used exclusively for GSC work. Teit’s decision to join the outside service was undoubtedly wise, in that his life and his family’s economy were too intricately connected with British Columbia and his wife’s family’s farm (see Wickwire, At the Bridge, 274). However, by not moving to Ottawa he missed the inevitable day-by-day indoctrination into the expectations and accounting practices of the GSC, and he placed his employment by the GSC on a year-by-year rather than permanent basis. This required Sapir to justify the budget for his work and, eventually, his employment with each new fiscal year. 3. This suggests that while Sapir had now been made aware of the importance of the basketry project in Teit’s work, Boas, Teit, and Sargent had not yet had a full discussion of the projected scope of the work. Sargent had initially suggested to Boas that he envisioned a book along the lines of Emmons’s “Tlingit Basketry” (APS, Boas Papers, Sargent to Boas, April 24, 1908, text 107045). Teit’s response suggests that his primary focus remained on Nlaka’pamux ethnography. Boas included the paper on Okanagan mythology in the list he sent to Sapir but did not mention it in his letter to Teit of June 6, 1911. It clearly introduced a point of uncertainty, if not confusion, into the conversation. Finally, there is also a hint that Teit was finding the new work for Sapir more enticing than the unfinished work for Boas.

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further field work say among the Okanagon proper (Okan. River and Lake) before my paper would be any ways full for the mythology of that tribe. Other uncompleted work I have on hand (all only in field notes) is Ethnology of the Coeur d’Alene, and a few ethnological notes re. the Flathead and Pend d’oreille etc. Also the Thompson texts I started for you. When I return home I will make a short trip to Spuzzum for the collecting of some additional basketry information and then will continue with the Thompson paper as fast as I can. Hoping to hear from you at your leisure

Teit to Boas. January 29, 1912. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121719.4 Dear Friend I have just returned from East a few hours ago. En route home I traversed part of Kootenay District becoming acquainted, and talking with the Indians. Altho I was speaking to the Indians on the land question, I did not fail to make inquiries re. some ethnological points of special interest to us. Re. the eastern southern and northern boundaries of the Upper Kootenays I got considerable information. Their oldest real boundaries to the south appear to have been about as I marked them on the map for you (my informants for these being Pend d’oreille etc.) only it seems they used the upper part of the Flathead River as hunting grounds. South of Tobacco Plains they did not usually range more than a few miles S. of the present international boundary. (In later days (horse and buffalo hunting days) they interlapped [sic] with the Pend d’oreille and often used the country S. to St. Ignatius mission and east of the Rockies to the Sweet Grass Hills.) To the north it seems there has been a band of them at Windermere from very early times, and they claimed they ranged and hunted the country to Arrowstone River about ten miles North of Golden but not beyond. Later Shuswap and Stony (Assinaboine) used part of this country. This would make the Shuswap Kinbasket band entirely interlopers in Kootenay territory, and the boundaries I gave you dividing the Shuswap and Kootenay will be correct for present day boundaries [page 2] but wrong for ancient boundaries. One Shuswap told me that altho long ago the Shuswaps hunted a long way up the Columbia they never came farther S. than Golden if so far, and that the Shuswaps when they located in their 4. Written on letterhead of The Hermitage, Spences Bridge BC.

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present position in East Kootenay had never been there before and had no knowledge they were so near to a permanent camp of Kootenays. He said however the present Kinbasket chief is the best posted man on these matters and he referred me to him. I may see him at Kamloops at the Indian meeting about the 1st April. Re. the eastern boundaries of the Kootenays there seems little doubt but that some of them were located E of the Rockies at one time [.] They told me a band of them formerly lived in the Crows Nest Pass near Michel and according to tradition they raised tobacco there, and also at Tobacco Plains (long before the first Whites were seen) and a band of them lived further South in the eastern foothills of the Rockies nearly due east of Tobacco Plains.5 In the minds of some it was doubtful whether this band was Kootenay or Tunáxe but the best informants said they were of the same language as themselves. All this information agrees pretty closely with what I got in Montana and gave to you on the maps I prepared. Regarding the Tunāx́ e, the Kootenay information agrees pretty closely with the Flathead. They say the Flatheads probably know most about these people as they have preserved a better chronicle of historical events than the Kootenays. They say the Tunāx́ e all lived E of the Rockies around the head of the Missouri bordering on the Flathead and Kootenay etc. They were at least in two bands. At one time long ago they were decimated by disease which they think must have been smallpox. Of one band only 9 people were left (8 brothers and a sister)[.] These traveled to the neighboring band to settle with them but were refused as the others thought by admitting [page 3] them the disease would be reintroduced. They then crossed the mountains to the west and settled among the Pend d’oreille, and several of them afterwards married Kootenay of the Tobacco Plains region. Descendants of them ⅛ Tunaxe [sic] in blood I saw there lately. Some people ½ and ¼ Tunāx́ e in blood talked the language until quite recently, and one woman survives (whom I did not manage to see) who knows a good many Tunāx́ e words. The other band of Tunāx́ e was also decimated by the disease but a considerable number survived [.] These eventually were scattered by war etc. and disappeared, a few settling among the neighboring tribes (Flathead, Pend d’0reille, Kootenay, Piegan etc.) [.] Two men of them passed into Kootenay via the Crow’s Nest Pass, one of them settling at Windermere. The oldest Kootenays say the Tunāx́ e language they have heard spoken by descendants of survivors was 5. In the original handwritten letter, “foothills” is hyphenated, but likely only because it is started on one line and finished on the next.

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distinct from both Kootenay and Flathead, but they think more nearly resembled the former. None of the neighboring tribes could understand them without learning it. A good many Kootenay words were used by the Tunāx́ e they say but these may have been borrowed. At the present day the Tobacco Plains Indians use the term Tunāx́ a in the sense of the Kootenay in general but claim this use of the word is not very ancient, and came into vogue from the Blackfoot word gutᴇnāx́ a applied to the Kootenay as a whole, there apparently having been no common term in use among the Kootenay for themselves in general. From gutᴇnāx́ a (the last ‘a’ often faintly sounded) is derived the white man’s term Kootenay. They say the Blackfeet originally called only the Tunāx́ e east of the mountains gutᴇnāx́ a, and after that tribe became scattered and extinct thru disease and war not knowing exactly what had become of them the Blackfeet later discovering the Kootenays west of the Rockies believed they were the Tunāx́ e shifted there and [page 4] accordingly applied the name to them, and it has stuck to the Kootenays ever since. If you think the remains of the language so far as remembered by the Kootenays should be recorded at once I will call this old woman to Kamloops for the Indian meeting of the 1st Apl. She will come I think if her traveling expenses are paid as the chief of her band and her son are going to come to the meeting any way. I can either pay this out of Sargent’s money or possibly get Sapir to put up the amount. Either way you think best. When on the boundary line of Montana the other day I heard all my informants on the Flathead Reservation were now dead. The two old men and interpreter I used there. This shows the necessity of hurrying with our work with all speed, for the best informants are fast disappearing. I have written down the Shuswap, Lillooet and Okanagon words missing in the vocabularies I sent you, and if yet in time I will forward them to you on receiving instruction [.]

Teit to H. I. Smith. February 8. 1912. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121793. Dear Mr. Smith, What do you think of the enclosed. H.T. must be surpassing himself.6 Show it to Sapir and pass it on to Boas.

6. A reference to Charles Hill-Tout, whose earlier work Teit had reviewed for Boas in 1906. Sapir’s letter to Teit dated March 15, 1912, suggests that Teit had sent Smith a newspaper clipping.

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Sapir to Teit. March 15, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Mr. Teit,— I am sending you a complete set of pictures of yourself and the British Columbia Indians that accompanied you on your recent visit to Ottawa.7 All these pictures are prints from negatives made by our regular Survey Photograph Department. I am also enclosing seven similar pictures of yourself and several Indians that were taken by Mr. Barbeau. You will also find eight pictures of four Okanagan and Thompson River specimens that you wanted prints of in order to be able to study design. I have placed our museum specimen numbers on the backs of these eight pictures. Numbers in pencil are our regular Survey negative numbers. I am sorry that you had to wait so long for these pictures, but as you can well imagine, our Photographic Department is pretty busy most of the time and we often have to wait for our turn. I have written Dr. Goddard in regard to your Athabascan work and requested him to draw up a list of words and forms that it would be useful to get for purposes of dialectic study.8 I am enclosing you his list. You will find that it contains queries bearing on many grammatical points and it may be that you will find it rather difficult to get satisfactory data on all points. Dr. Goddard has prepared lists of monosyllabic noun and verb stems in his paper on Hupa forming part of Boas’ Handbook of [page 2] American Indian Languages, part I,

7. Members of the delegation who were photographed were Adolphe Thomas, La Fontaine, Band; Babtiste William, Williams Lake Band; Basil David, Bonaparte Band; Francois Selpaghen, Little Shuswap Lake Band; Ignace Jacob, Pemberton Band; James Raitasket, Lillooet Band; John Chelahitsa, Douglas Lake Band; John Tetlenitsa, Pekaist Band; Louis XlExlexkEn, Kamloops Band; and James Teit. Several images were taken of each person, including Teit, and are preserved in the Canadian Museum of History Archives (Email to Andrea Laforet from Kelly Cameron, September 22, 2021). 8. Pliny Earle Goddard (1869–1928), who first served as a lay missionary among the Athapaskanspeaking Hupa of California, studied linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley, beginning in 1900, and completed his PhD under Benjamin Wheeler in 1904. Goddard taught anthropology at Berkeley from 1901 to 1909, when he moved to the American Museum of Natural History, where he worked first as an assistant curator and eventually as curator of anthropology. In 1915, as Boas had done before him, he became a lecturer in anthropology at Columbia University. By the time Teit was contemplating work on Athapaskan societies for the Geological Survey of Canada, Goddard had published four monographs on Hupa culture and language in the University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, including Life and Culture of the Hupa (1903), Hupa Texts (1904), The Morphology of the Hupa Language (1905), and The Phonology of the Hupa Language (1907) (Kroeber, “Pliny Earle Goddard,” 1–6).

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and in his forthcoming paper on Kato.9 He suggests that you examine these lists for further hints as to what to ask for. The former paper you can easily get by writing to Mr. F. W. Hodge, Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington. The latter you can also get without trouble by writing to Dr. A. L. Kroeber, Affiliated Colleges, San Francisco, California. I am hoping to be able to see you in Spences Bridge before you start out definitely for Athabascan field work. It might not be a bad idea for us to test Goddard’s list on some Athabascan dialect such as Chilcotin that is not too far out of reach from Spences Bridge. I do not expect to be out in that country before August or perhaps even September. I received your amusing newspaper clipping about Hill-Tout’s wonderful archaeological discovery, and sent it on to Boas as you requested. You may be interested to learn that Hill-Tout got quite sore about my recent paper in Science, and wrote to both Smith and myself in regard to his irritation.10 He claims that I adopted a “superior” and “patronizing” attitude and that I have aroused dissatisfaction among several Canadian anthropologists. I presume he means himself. I had the bad taste to omit any reference to Hill-Tout in the paper. Such resemblances as you found between Takelma and Interior Salish cultures are doubtless due to their both being more or less typical of 9. Goddard, Kato Texts, 65–238. Kato is also spelled “Cahto.” The Cahto are the southernmost Athapaskan-speaking group in California. Their traditional territory was located in the Cahto Valley and Long Valley in what is now Mendocino County (California Language Archive, “Kato,” Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, https://cla.berkeley.edu/languages/kato.php, accessed March 13, 2020). 10. Sapir, “An Anthropological Survey of Canada,” 789–93. In this paper Sapir sketched the parameters of a program of anthropological research organized around the four fields and reaching all areas of Canada, to be conducted with some urgency in order to record as much information as possible concerning Aboriginal cultures before what was perceived as the inevitable loss of cultural knowledge in the face of acculturation. While he noted the prior contributions of Boas, Wissler, and other professionally trained anthropologists, he gave virtually no attention to self-taught Canadian scholars such as Hill-Tout. In this document, which became the mandate for the work of Teit and others hired at that time by the GSC, Sapir called for particular attention to be given to elucidating “the five culture areas into which it is customary to divide Canada (Eastern Woodlands, Arctic or Eskimo, Plains, Plateau-Mackenzie and West Coast)” (790), and in some instances, including the “Plateau-Mackenzie” area, determining whether the region could be defined as a distinct culture area. He wrote, “The Plateau-Mackenzie area is known least satisfactorily of all. Teit’s work on the interior Salish tribes of southern British Columbia constitutes a model of ethnological research, but the tribes that he describes have been so much influenced by the West Coast and Plains cultures that they are presumably far less typical of the culture area than the Athabascan tribes of the Mackenzie Valley” (Sapir, “An Anthropological Survey of Canada,” 791–92). While notions of a “Plateau-Mackenzie” culture area did not survive, Sapir did give significant attention to the documentation of Athapaskan societies through the work of Teit and John Alden Mason. The question of the independence of the Plateau as a culture area was explored in 1939 by Verne Ray in Cultural Relations in the Plateau.

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general Plateau culture and not to any specific relation between them. In this connection you may be interested in reading another paper entitled “Notes on the Takelma Indians of Southwestern Oregon” that I have published in the American Anthropologist, N.S., Vol. IX, 1907, pp. 251–275. I am sorry that I am all out of copies or I should send you one. [page 3] Kindly let me hear from you as to your progress on work for Boas and as to when you expect to be able to start in for us.

Teit to Sapir. April 5, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Dr Sapir, I received your letter of 15th ult. OK and also all the Indian pictures. I will keep one of each for myself, and send the others to them. Dr Goddard’s list of words you enclosed is quite interesting. The equivalents of most of the terms will not be hard to obtain, but correct data on some will be rather difficult to get owing to imperfect knowledge of English on the part of the interpreters. The only thing I don’t understand in the list is ‘vocative cases for mother, and father.’ Please explain. I have Dr Goddard’s paper on Hupa [page 2] as it is contained in Boas’ Handbook of Amer. Ind. Languages, and will write to Dr Kroeber for the paper on the Kato as you suggest. Yes I hope you will be able to meet me in Spences Bridge early in August. I would prefer to go North about the middle of August when the steamer runs on the river rather than go later, and have to take launch or canoe.11 I guess I did not see the article you speak of in Science so I do not know about the ‘superior’ and ‘patronizing’ attitude which caused our friend Prof HillTout to jump on you and Mr Smith. I have not made much progress with Dr. Boas’ work since I came back from Ottawa. I have been engaged at one thing and another (too numerous to mention). Almost the only writing I have done is a short article on the Interior Indians for the New History of Canada, and it I wrote in a hurry. I have just lately been going over my notes on the Thompson, and soon will have some of them in shape to write out. I feel pretty sure I will be able to finish the writing out of this paper before the 1st of Aug. Some delay may be caused if I make a trip to Kootenay. Dr. Boas will likely want me to go, as it is very important. I discovered an old woman there who 11. At this point Teit appears to have disregarded both Sapir’s expectations that Teit finish the work for Boas before beginning work for the GSC and his own statement to Boas in his letter of January 21, 1912.

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is the only person left knowing the Tunāx́ e language. The Flatheads of Montana told me when I was among them a couple of years [page 3] ago that the Tunāx́ e was a Salish tribe speaking a distinct dialect of Salish, and that they inhabited the Sun River Country (Upper Missouri). (The Blackfeet say the same thing[.]) I could find no one on the Flathead Reserve who knew any words of the language but I got several personal names (said to be Tunāx́ e) with their interpretations thus obtaining thru them about half a dozen words of the language. These appeared to be related to Salish. Curtis however collected about 20 words from an old Kootenay of Tunāx́ e descent in the north end of the Reserve, and he told me he considered these words to be related to the Salish. I have never seen these words. The Flatheads claim that a division of the Kootenay formerly lived adjoining the Tunāx́ e on the north, and the [page 4] two had much intercourse, and intermarried a good deal. Between the attacks of the Blackfeet, and epidemics these two tribes were killed off, and dispersed, the survivors settling among the Western tribes and losing their language. The Kootenay say that formerly some of their tribe speaking the same language as themselves lived east of the Rockies, and that immediately south of them lived the Tunāx́ e who spoke a distinct dialect of the Kootenay, and beyond them lived Salish and Shoshonie. They say the language remembered by this old woman is distantly related to the Kootenay, so it may be the language of the branch of the Kootenay who lived immediately north of the Salish of Sun River, and is quite [page 5] as important to record as the latter. The Kootenay also tell me the Blackfeet applied the term gutEnāx́ a or kutnāx́ a first to the people called Tunāx́ e east of the Rockies, and later after the latter had disappeared to the Kootenays west of the mountains, whom they thought was the same people shifted west of the range, and that finally the Kootenay themselves commenced to use the term for their tribe or people as a whole and from this the word Kootenay is derived. I would have collected what I could of this language when in Kootenay lately but the old woman was away in the States. I asked her son to bring her over to Kamloops at the time of the late Indian meeting there 14–18th Mch, but he could not get her to come, but came himself. I will now close with kind regards to Mrs Sapir, yourself, Mr and Mrs Smith and Mr and Mrs Brock. PS The museum should furnish me with a phonograph for recording Tahltan music when I go north. I can use it to good effect here and elsewhere also.

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Sapir to Teit. April 11, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Mr. Teit,— I was much pleased to receive your interesting letter of April 5th and to have your interesting data in regard to Eastern Kootenay and Salish dialects. I am not surprised that you will not be able to begin work for us before August 1st, as I know from experience that one always underestimates the time that it will take to do work already in hand. I do not know positively whether I shall be able to get out as early as the beginning of August, but I should certainly like to see you at Spences Bridge on my way out to Vancouver Island. How late does the steamer run? “Vocative case” means that form of any noun which is used in address.12 What Dr. Goddard wants is to get those terms for “mother” and “father” which are used by children in addressing them (“mother!” and “father!”). Terms of address for nouns of relationship are apt to be quite different in American Indian languages from the ordinary form of the nouns themselves. As for the phonograph, I think it will be more practical to have you buy one out in British Columbia yourself. (I suppose you would have to have it shipped from Vancouver.) Whatever money you expend on phonograph and recorder would legitimately come out of your field funds, which will be supplied you whenever you are ready to begin field work for us. Of course you will get duplicate receipts for this as for all other purchases. How are you getting on with collecting museum material for us?

Teit to Sapir. April 19, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12.

I received your letter of the 11th. I now understand what vocative case is. The Interior Salish tribes of this region use many terms of address for relations which are quite different from the ordinary relationship terms. Yes. I will get a phonograph in Vancouver later on when I am about to take up your work. Can you tell me what size and kind would be best for such work viz recording songs, [page 2] also give me an idea of price. Yes, I am collecting specimens for you right along and also for the Provincial Museum in Victoria at the same time. I am writing off and

12. This question, and Sapir’s answer, suggest the disadvantage under which Teit was working in not having had formal linguistic training.

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on at the paper on the Thompson, my time is a good deal broken however, as I have been to Ashcroft a couple of times (on wages. CNPRR work) and I have been helping my people in the orchards with spring work in which they are somewhat behind.13 So your paper “An Anthropological Survey of Canada” was what Hill-Tout jumped on. I read it on my way to Ottawa and I dont remember anything in it that might be offensive to any one. I considered it a good and opportune paper, and it afforded me great pleasure to read it. Do you want to have an album of Indian types for your Museum. I will be prepared to take a lot of photos myself later on, but at present Mr. Vinson a photographer in Vancouver has a number of valuable ones I got him to take.14 They are head and shoulder portraits, full face and profile of each person [page 3] and quartering view of some besides. There is also some costume pictures, most of them taken in front of an old style mat tipi. They represent Kootenay (upper and Lower), Okanagan, Shuswap, Ntlakyapamuk (upper and Lower), Lillooet (Upper and Lower) and a few Stalo or Lower Fraser. I dont know how much they will cost, but can easily find out. If you think of having such an album I can send you samples of the pictures so you can have an idea what they are like. [page 4] PS An educated Kootenay Indian approached me lately on the subject of his collecting Kootenay myths for me, and I told him I would write you about it. I am afraid his English is not all-sufficient and if he did write down the myths I would have to go all over them with him before they would be good. However his writing them down as far as he was able would save some time in collecting, and he might happen to jot some from old people that I myself [page 5] might not get later. In the event of his doing something along this line I do not know what arrangements to make as to pay. I have not thought it over.

13. At this time the Canadian Northern Pacific Railway, one of several railroads that later combined to create the Canadian National Railway, was constructing the line in British Columbia between Ashcroft and Vancouver. Teit had provided translation services for Canadian Northern Pacific Railway officials and members of Nlaka’pamux bands discussing proposed rights-of-way through reserves, and would later express concern to Sapir about the Canadian Northern Pacific Railway’s destruction of heritage sites, particularly graves. 14. Valient Vivian Vinson (1877–1934) owned the King Photo Studio in Vancouver in the early decades of the 1900s (David Mattison, Camera Workers 1858–1950: The British Columbia Alaska and Yukon Photographic Directory 1858–1950, http://david.mattison.com, accessed March 6, 2022).

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Sapir to Teit. May 2, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have your letter of April 19th and am very glad to learn that you are collecting Thompson River specimens for our museum. I believe the kind of phonograph you should get for recording songs among Indians is one that is easily portable. The phonograph that I used in Vancouver Island and which Barbeau used in Ottawa in getting songs from Interior Salish Indians is small enough to be carried about. It is called the Edison Fireside Phonograph. It [sic] do not remember its price but I do not believe that it cost more than $25. Of course, you will need a horn and a recorder. I think it is best to have a rubber connecting piece between the recorder and horn rather than to have the horn directly set on the recorder, as there is generally more of a metallic noise in the latter case than in the former. In making records, you will of course number your cylindrical boxes and prepare a list giving corresponding numbers and appropriate data. Mr. Glasgow was in the other day and told me about your having prepared a paper on Interior British Columbian Tribes for “Canada and its Provinces.”15 He wishes me to prepare a corresponding paper on the coast people. I should be much obliged to you if you send me samples of Mr. Vinson’s photographs of Indians. If you can get your Kootenay Indian to work for you at a reasonable rate, say $2.00 per full day, I should think it would be a good idea for him to record as many myths as he can. The only trouble with payment per day is, of course, that [page 2] you would have no definite control over your Indian. It might be preferable on the whole to pay him so and so much per page. I do not know what rate would seem fair out in his country, but perhaps fifteen cents per page would be satisfactory. The way in which we might best manage payment for this Kootenay material would be for your Indian to prepare a bill for so and so many pages of manuscript 15. Head of publishing company Glasgow, Brook and Company, based in Toronto (see Teit, “Indian Tribes of the Interior,” 283–312). Glasgow Brook and Company published several volumes on Canadian history. In 1914, as well, the company published Burpee, Pathfinders of the Great Plains. Wickwire (At the Bridge, 178) notes, “Robert Glasgow, head of an American publishing company, had launched Canada and Its Provinces as a way to create the Canadian equivalent of the hugely popular US-based Encyclopedia Americana. By the time of its release in 1914, Canada and its Provinces had expanded to a twenty-three volume set, with 153 chapters by 90 authors. Glasgow’s goal with this series was to offer Canadians a general history of their country through a series of special-interest chapters on politics, economics, immigration, natural resources—and “Indians.” The editors paired Teit’s chapter “Indian Tribes of the Interior,” with Edward Sapir’s “Indian Tribes of the Coast” and placed both in the final volume, The Pacific Province.”

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material at so and so much per page. This bill could be forwarded to me and, on your assurance that that number of pages had been received by you, I could certify to receipt of manuscript and fairness of charges. I do not then anticipate any trouble in having our accountant make out a check for the amount involved. If you are personally willing to do so, it might be advantageous if you could pay the Indian yourself first, in which case he would turn the check over to you. Such bills for purchase of manuscript could naturally be presented from time to time. On the whole, I think that purchase of manuscript material at irregular intervals would turn out to be a more satisfactory arrangement than engaging your Kootenay Indian to do regular work at a wage.

Teit to Sapir. May 11, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Dr Sapir I received your letter of 2nd inst, and note all you say re. the phonograph. I will see the Indian re the collecting or rather recording of tales when I go to Kootenay and very likely will be able to make some satisfactory arrangements with him. When I do so I will let you know. I am writing to Vancouver, and will get samples of the photographs from Mr. Vinson, and send you them to examine. I am working on the paper for Boas but progress is rather slow so far as my time has been broken a good deal by other jobs.

Sapir to Teit. May 11, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Mr. Teit,— Kindly fill in enclosed estimate blank allowing for $2500 expenditure, of which sum, $1500 is to be your year’s salary and $1000 is to be estimated for field expenses. It will naturally be impossible for you to estimate expenditure for field work with any degree of accuracy, but, at any rate, have your items total up to that amount. Please put in the beginning date of field work as nearly as you can judge at present. Should it turn out that you begin later, your estimate will be good for a year’s work nevertheless.16 16. On August 8, 1912, Sapir wrote to the Geological Survey accountant John Marshall, “I am writing you in regard to Mr. James. A. Teit of Spences Bridge BC who, beginning with this

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Teit to Sapir. May 17, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Dr Sapir I enclose herewith the estimate you ask for. Of course the field expenses as to items and total is only approximate. In fact a guess. I have put down August 1st as date of my starting the work, but it may be later than this. I notice in the Anthropologist for the last quarter of 1911, reviews of a paper by Lieut. Emmons on the Tahltan,17 and a paper by Hill-Tout on the Okanagon.18 I should have both of these as it is important I see what is in them. Likely you will be able to procure me a copy of each or order them sent. PS I am acquiring some specimens every week for your museum, and for the Victoria Provincial Museum, and will soon have quite a lot on hand. I am getting along slowly with the Thompson paper. I got another skull, and a jaw bone yesterday.

Sapir to Teit. May 29, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have requested Dr. Gordon to send you a copy of Emmons’ Tahltan paper. In case he should not find it possible to do so, for the work has a few colored plates and is rather expensive, I shall be glad to forward you my personal copy for your own use. I have also written Hill-Tout requesting him to send you a copy of his Okanagon paper.

month, is, in accordance with the estimate of expenditures for our Division this fiscal year of which a copy has been submitted to you, to be added to our regular Anthropological Staff for outside service. It has been arranged to employ Mr. Teit for a year at a time, the understanding being, so long as his work is satisfactory and our means enable us to do so, to reappoint him from year to year. His first year of service is to begin from the date on which he starts in with field work. I have estimated $1000 for his first year of field expenses, while his salary is to be $1500 per year, to be paid in monthly instalments of $125” (CMH, Edward Sapir, Correspondence, folder: Marshall, John (1911–1918), box 628, file 3). In this way Sapir, presumably with Brock’s approval, provided time for Teit to finish his work for Boas before beginning his work for the GSC. There is no suggestion in Sapir’s letter to Marshall that Teit’s employment would be on anything other than a full-year basis from this point on. 17. Emmons, The Tahltan Indians. 18. Hill-Tout, “Report on the Ethnology of the Okanák’en,” 130–61.

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Teit to Sapir. July 7, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912). box 635, file 12. Dear Dr Sapir, I have lately received the papers of Hill-Tout on the Okanagon and of Emmons on the Tahltan. Neither are very full but they help a little toward the understanding of these tribes-particularly that of Emmons on the Tahltan. I will not enter into any discussions of points at present, but I notice H-T still dwells strongly on the Oceanic origin of the Salish. Dont you think it is time that some one ‘laid this ghost.’ Well I have been getting along very slowly with the paper I am writing. Many little things have cropped up to retard me, and I have lost a good deal of time one way and another. The weather being very hot, my body sometimes rather tired, and my eyes not just at their best I felt indisposed to writing at nights to make up for the lost time, so I have not made as much progress as I would have wished. If I go north this fall to make a good starting the northern work I should leave not later than 17th Aug from Vancouver. This would give me practically two months in the field up there. In the latter part, and end of October ice usually starts running in the rivers, and you have to leave before the close of canoe navigation, otherwise you cannot get out until about Christmas by dog sleigh and snowshoes traveling a distance of possibly 250 miles. There is not much to stay for after October as practically the whole tribe breaks up, and scatters out for trapping generally in groups of two or three families, many of them going long distances [page 2] and not returning until spring. The season to catch the northern people at home is the summer time (or any time between May and end of Oct). I will not have my paper for Boas finished by the 17th Aug. but it will be in such shape that it would not take long for me to complete it in my spare time on my return. You can let me know what you think. I bought a phonograph when in Vancouver lately. It is quite as good as the one Mr. Barbeau has and possibly slightly better. In fact it is the same kind of instrument, but cost more out here. It cost nearly $40.00 with a number of blank cylinders included. I intend to record a few pieces of music at the big Indian meeting which will take place here (Sp. Bdge) on the 29th July. I wrote to Mr. Smith lately re: the stone figures etc. Mr. Camsell saw and others. Further information I gained at Spuzzum lately seems to point to a former occupation of at least the lower part of the Fraser Riv. Canon by people of the same type, language and culture as the Stalo tribe (viz Yale, Hope and Lower Fraser). At the present day the people are of mixed type and the culture and language is Thompson 1912 | 523

down to near Yale. I will close for the present with very kind regards to you all[.] PS There is a special commissioner for the Ottawa Gov out here seeing the Indians at present.19 He is to be present at the meeting on the 29th.

Teit to Boas. July 18, 1912. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121720. Dear Friend I have not written to you for a long time. When the Tunāx́ e woman did not come over to Kamloops I thought I would go to Kootenay and see her. I learned however she had gone over to Flathead Lake so I did not go after her. There is to be an Indian convention here at Spences Bridge commencing the 29th July, and I have written to her son to bring her over, and I will pay the expenses of both. I was down at Spuzzum last month making some inquiries re. basketry and blanket designs etc. Whilst there I got some traditional, and other evidence which points to occupation of the Fraser Cañon by the Lower Fraser tribe in early times. This seems to show that the Lower Fraser people at one time extended up the river to near Boston Bar, bringing their type of Coast culture about 25 miles nearer Lytton than was supposed. This of course must have been a considerable time ago. The Thompson Indians appear to have absorbed the old inhabitants in the area between Boston Bar and half way between Spuzzum and Yale, but in doing so have suffered considerable change in their physical characteristics. The Thompson influence has kept on extending towards the Coast until at the present time it is felt as far west as Agassiz. Numerous carved stone dishes etc. some very large and others small have been found in this area of overlapping (most of them between Yale and five miles above 19. A reference to J. A. J. McKenna, a federal civil servant with the Department of Indian Affairs, appointed by Prime Minister Robert Borden to investigate land claims in British Columbia and to negotiate with British Columbia a settlement of the outstanding issues between British Columbia and Canada. In 1913 the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs for the Province of British Columbia, now generally referred to as the McKenna-McBride Commission, was established by Canada and British Columbia, with a mandate to review and adjust reserves. The mandate was limited to specific issues concerning reserves, including the number of reserves, their location, size, and the question of reversionary interest; that is, the status of land that lost reserve designation. The McKenna-McBride Commission did not have widespread support among Aboriginal communities. Those concerned with resolving outstanding claims to land and Aboriginal title to traditional territories actively opposed it. The commission made its report in 1916 (see Galois, “The Indian Rights Association, 1–34).

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Spuzzum)[.] The Indians claim these belong to the ancient inhabitants related to the Yale people [page 2] and that such vessels were common throughout the region below the Cañon but not above it. Some were used in Salmon ceremonies, but most of them in puberty ceremonies[,] it being customary for qualified persons to be sent for to wash girls when they come of age. And these vessels were used as fonts to hold the water and herbs. Each of these persons had their own carved vessel for this purpose, and even if quite heavy transported it to where required. Some great men who had noted fonts of large size did not go around, but girls and their parents went to them. Both sexes practiced this kind of medicine but the majority were old men. I have been getting along slowly with the paper on the Thompson Indians but will not be thru by the middle of next month as I anticipated. I have lost too much time doing other jobs at higher wages or that were very needful to do. I don’t know yet whether Dr Sapir will dispatch me north next month to start work on the Athapaskans [sic] or will he want me to stay, and completely finish my writing of the paper for you. I have written to find out. I hope you had a successful time down in Mexico, and also that your family and self are quite well.

Sapir to Teit. July 22, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Mr. Teit,— I am glad to learn from your letter of July 7th that you received copies of Hill-Tout’s Okanagon paper and Emmons’s work on the Tahltan. I have not read Emmons’s paper yet, but, judging from its small compass and evident lack of specific detail on anything but material culture, I should not imagine that it anywhere near disposes of the tribe that he treats. I hope that you will be able to get out to the field as early in August as possible, in order to allow you to get a good start in this season’s work. I am afraid that it will not be possible for us to meet out west this year, as I can not well leave Ottawa before well on in September at the earliest. While your present trip is of course to be one chiefly of reconnaissance, I think it would be a good idea if you can keep a weather eye on some one particular Athabascan tribe with a view to future working up in monographic detail. How would the Tahltan do? Perhaps the Sicannie would be a better example of a typical relatively uninfluenced Athabascan tribe.

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Sapir to Teit. July 26, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Mr. Teit,— You may be interested, or distressed, to learn that another journal is being established in which anthropologists are given a chance to express themselves. Mr. Brock has recently set a museum bulletin on foot which is to comprise various articles of a general or technical character dealing with subjects of interest to the scientific staff of the museum. The articles may be quite short, averaging, I should imagine, in length those found in most scientific journals. It is not intended that these articles should forestall or merely summarize material presented in more exhaustive monographs, but it sometimes happens that one has incidental material on hand that one hardly knows what to do with unless he makes use of it for the purpose of a separate article. Your paper on the Tahltan in the Boas Anniversary Volume will give you an idea of what I have in mind. Please do not go out of your way to prepare an article, but if it comes more or less spontaneously, I should be obliged to you for the use of it.

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

H. E. Sargent to Teit. August 1, 1912. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 107192.20 My dear Teit Just a line to acknowledge the receipt of your nice letter of 1st July today. Will answer at a future date. I am sorry you have had such poor luck with the camera in taking portraits. I write to say that if the films are entire blanks it may be because the little wire release is screwed down so tight onto the camera that the shutter does not open at all. This can be tested and determined by trying, and unscrewing the knob at the end of the wire (where it is attached on the camera) [page 2] you can tell this by looking through the opening of the lens until the shutter opens properly: then take your pictures. I had this thing happen to me this spring and after doing my own developing racked my brain for a day for an explanation. The shutter worked all right without the wire release hence I judged it screwed on too tight and on testing found the surmise was correct.

20. Written on letterhead of Hotel Rydberg’s, Stockholm.

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It is really a case of the inside wire in the release being a little too long. No camera is perfect but yours is as good as there is. Am writing to catch you at Telegraph and have sent a card to Spences Bridge. If the negative is too black you are over exposing[;] if too thin, it is under exposed. Give my kindest to all the people at Telegraph and Wrangel, particularly the former. Be sure to tell me what Adsit has been doing and don’t fail to “shake a leg” or let any good dance partners have to sit around as wall flowers. I found a fine postal to send to Hyland in Paris but could not find a duplicate: be sure he shows it to you. There were many others but they would have required asbestos envelopes and I feared they would have burned the mail sack before they got to Arthur. (B).21 Am much pleased to have the picture of your children and have been tracing resemblances. They all seem to be fine sturdy little people.

Teit to Sapir. August 2, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Dr Sapir, I received both your letter of recent date and note contents. I expect to start on your work in a few days. I will require about a week for preparations, and expect to sail from Vancouver on the 17th Aug., leaving here about the 15th. I have just had a letter from Dr Kroeber saying Dr Goddards paper on the Kato will not be ready for some time yet. I have not received any money for the expenses of the trip yet, but if same does not reach me before leaving here you can send it to me at Telegraph Creek.—meanwhile I will use my own money. I will require likely all the sum I estimated for wages to Indians, traveling and living expense, and buying specimens. As I understand it you want me this fall to investigate as far as possible the general ethnology of the Tahltan and Kaska, record music, traditions, mythology, and obtain some idea of the structure etc. of the language. If you could possibly send me a copy of what was written by Dr Dawson on these tribes including the vocabulary he got of the Tahltan it might be valuable for suggestions or reference and I could also learn in how far his information is correct.22 I note what you say re. the new bulletin to be brought out by 21. “Arthur” refers to Arthur E. Belfrey, business partner of John Hyland. 22. Teit may have had in mind two different publications: Tolmie and Dawson’s 1884 Comparative Vocabularies of the Indian Tribes of British Columbia, and Dawson’s 1887

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the Museum. Will it be issued at regular intervals[?] I may have time to send you something for it maybe next winter and possibly short notes from time to time. I am sending you to-day under separate cover samples of Vinson’s pictures of Indians. Look over them and let me know. I consider them most excellent pictures especially the head and shoulder portraits and I consider you have here a splendid chance to commence with them building up an album for the Museum which will from the beginning be of great value for studies of facial types of the various stocks and tribes, and of costumes. If you decide on this I can give you very full information re. details of costumes for each picture. Full information re. each individual such as personal name [page 2] (with translation in many cases), the name of tribe, band of tribe, descent or blood, approximate age, position in the tribe etc. Many of them are photos of Chiefs. Mr. Vinson took both full face, and profile pictures of most individuals. I have sent you mostly profiles, but you can obtain full face pictures also of all the head and shoulder portraits. For your purpose you will probably require to buy just once, you will not require duplicates. If I remember right Mr Vinson told me the head and shoulder pictures would be 2.50 each, the large costume pictures I think the same, and the small ones considerably less. I forget the price. Mr Sargent was talking of obtaining a series of a certain number for the Field Museum, and wants me to pick them for him. The Provincial Museum in Victoria also want a pretty full collection. I think Mr Vinson has just lately had most of the pictures copyrighted. Show the samples I send you to Mr Smith and to Mr Brock[;] I think they will be interested in them. The samples I send you are 1st groups in costume A (1) Three Ntlakyapamuk in front of mat lodge. 2nd Full figures in Costume B. (1) to (5) Ntlakyapamuk (3 men and 2 women), (6) and (7) Kootenay Head and shoulder portraits [.] C. (1) Stalo or Coast Salish of Fraser River, (2) and (3) Lillooet, (4) and (5) Shuswap, (6) (7) (8) (9) Ntlakyapamuk, (10) and (11) Okanagon, (12) (13) (14) (15) Kootenay. Small pictures D. (1) and (2) Ntlakyapamuk. There was a big Indian meeting here which broke up yesterday. Members of the Carrier, Chilcotin, Shuswap, Kootenay, Okanagon, Ntlakyapamuk, Lillooet and Stalo tribes were there to the number of about 450. Also several chiefs from the south Coast, and one man each from the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene. This is all I think of saying at present. Give my kind regards to Mr Smith and Mr Brock and accept same to yourself Notes on the Indian Tribes of the Yukon District and Adjacent Northern Portion of British Columbia.

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PS As far as I know at present my PO address for anything important after 14th Aug will be Telegraph Creek BC. I expect to receive mail there about once a week or a least once every ten days.

Teit to Sapir. August 9, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Dr Sapir, I forgot to ask you in my last letter when you expected to be out on the West Coast, and also about the time you would be going back to Ottawa again in the fall. If you do not return before the end of October possibly we might arrange to meet. I have a very considerable collection of specimens now on hand part of them for the new Victoria Museum and part for your Museum.23 I must have about $600.00 worth on hand, and am getting more. I am leaving here on the 14th.

Sapir to Teit. August 9, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have your letter of August 2nd in which you outline your plans relative to leaving for the Stikine River country. I have instructed our Accountant, Mr. Marshall, to send you an advance of $750 to Spences Bridge, advising him, in case he could not get it off in time to catch you by August 15th, to forward it to Telegraph Creek. As you understand, your first year’s employment is to begin with your first day of field work, which would be properly dated from the date that you leave Spences Bridge for Vancouver.24 Your monthly salary is to be $125 in accordance with the estimate made some time ago of $1500 per year for you. Under another cover I have sent you account sheets on which you will kindly enter all expenses incurred in work for the Survey, small or great. Vouchers, that is receipts, should be obtained in duplicate. It 23. This is the first indication that Teit was actively collecting for the newly established museum in Victoria BC. 24. This suggests that, in spite of the fiscal year by fiscal year (April 1—March 31) contracts signed by Teit, his first GSC working year was anticipated to extend in a de facto way from August 1912 to August 1913, even though it was necessary from an administrative point of view to renew his salary allocation on April 1, 1913.

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will not be necessary to obtain vouchers for trivial expenditures, but I should say that everything over $3.00 or at any rate $5.00 should be covered by vouchers. In dealing with Indians who are unable to write, you will naturally have to obtain their X-mark and get a witness. Of course, you understand that this is largely a formality and that it will not be necessary in every case to bother with dragging a witness around. What is generally done under such circumstances is to [page 2] have some man of the locality that is able to write witness the whole lot for you at some convenient time. This is of course between ourselves. Please send your accounts and vouchers in duplicate to me at the end of each month of field work. Please enter $125 of salary each month as one of the entries under wages. If you need further advances of money, you can let me know by letter or telegram. Under other covers I am sending you Dr. Dawson’s report that you have asked for together with accompanying maps, also a list of specimens that it is advisable to get in field work. This list was drawn primarily for Survey officers and naturally includes many items that have no place in British Columbia. My only object in sending the list is to help you remember types of specimens that might otherwise escape your mind at the time. I shall also forward you Government stationery at the first opportunity. You will need no postage for letters or other postal communications addressed to me. I shall be greatly interested to see Mr. Vinson’s pictures when they arrive and shall let you know more about this matter in the near future. With best wishes for a successful trip, PS Kindly inform me as to whether you are now undertaking to work continuously for the Canadian Government or whether you will want to take off several months on your return to Spences Bridge for unfinished work that you have still to do for Dr. Boas.25

25. With this postscript, Sapir focuses on a point that must have been critical to him in justifying Teit’s annual salary expenditure. Even with the salary framed as $125 per month, it would be hard in future years to justify a continuing yearly commitment by the GSC of $1,500 for Teit’s salary if the months worked did not add up to a full year.

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Boas to Teit. August 9, 1912. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121688.26 My dear friend, On my return here yesterday I received your letter of July 18th. I do trust that you will be able to finish the work for us before starting on your trips northward and eastward.27 We owe it to Mr. Sargent to bring out the results of your inquiries and I hope we can make good headway this winter. Your Thompson and Utamqt traditions are printing at last and I have read proof this summer of 112 pages proof.28 That must be about ½ of the whole. When I go back to New York, which will be on Sept. 2nd I shall take up again work on the map and vocabularies. Mr. Sargent would like to make the basketry a special paper. I am very anxious to give in it as full information as possible on the designs and forms that each woman uses, criticisms of special basket[s] by makers, as to technique and as to design, and information on new inventions by particular women: how they develop old forms or designs in new 26. Dated Bolton Landing, Warren County, New York. 27. On August 26, 1912, Sapir casually wrote to Boas, “Teit left Vancouver for Stikine a short time ago this month for work among the Tahltan and Kaska” (APS, Boas Papers, text 105429). Boas replied on August 29, 1919, “It is news to me that Teit has started on work for you. I have been expecting his report on the Thompson and [some?] other matters and I thought we had agreed that he was to finish all this first. It put me out a little (not much) however. I had this material on my docket for work this month” (CMH, Edward Sapir, Correspondence, folder: Boas, Franz (1910–1914), box 621, file 1). Boas added a request for further information. The following week, on September 3, Sapir wrote to Boas: “I was rather surprised to learn that you did not know of Teit’s departure for Northern British Columbia on work for the Geological Survey. I knew that he had been delayed in finishing up his Thompson River work, but took it for granted that his decision to begin work for the Survey had been made with your knowledge. I believe that his reason for starting in now was simply that if he had delayed leaving for the field much longer he would have been unable to get into the Tahltan country until next year’s season. As to arrangements that we have made with Mr. Teit, they are still in a somewhat fluid condition owing to the fact of his still having work to do for you. As far as we are concerned, we are prepared to engage him continuously at a salary of $1500 a year, and in fact in my estimate for 1912–1913 I have set aside that sum. However, as our fiscal year begins April first and Teit has not begun for us until well on in August, only part of the sum estimated will really be used, even assuming that he is to be under the continuous employ of the Survey from the time that he left Vancouver. As a matter of fact, however, I am not [page 2] clear as to whether Teit wishes his employment to be continuous just yet. If he has much work to finish for you, it would be more reasonable, I should imagine, for him to take time off some time after his return from the field for this work. I have written him to the effect that when he is under salary for us he is supposed to devote his working time to us, whether in field work or in working up results of field work. I am still waiting to hear from him as to exactly what disposition of his time he expects to make after returning to Spences Bridge. If the work that he still has to do for you is such that it can be done incidentally from time to time without interference with the Survey work, it would be perhaps just as practicable to have him remain in our continuous employ” (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b.621, f.1, folder: “Boas, Franz [1910–1914]”). 28. This refers to Mythology of the Thompson Indians, published in 1912.

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ways, and, so far as feasible, how they invent, whether by conscious deliberation, or as an intuitive form. Also, how the women instruct and correct the girls who learn how to make designs, and whether the name of the design and form alone suggests the whole plan; particularly also how they plan to fit the design into the whole basket. I know you have answered some of these questions, but the more specific information with specimens you can get, the better it will be. I cannot look up our financial status now. Will you, please, let me have a statement (only a summary), for comparison when I get back.29 It seems to me, it would be best if we paid you enough of a salary now, to enable you to finish up. Let me hear about this.

Teit to Sapir. September 6, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Dr Sapir, This the first chance of writing to you since I got up here. A boat is going down the river to Wrangel to-morrow, and she will take out the mail. Arrival and departure of mails is very uncertain here. There is no regular service, any boat that happens to be going between the two points takes out or in the mail, and sometimes for two weeks none will go either out or in. I left Spences Bridge and Vancouver on the dates I gave you, and arrived in Wrangel on the 20th. Here we were delayed five days, the boat that was to leave there on the 22nd not arriving till the 24th. She left next day, and it took us six days to get up the river to twelve miles below here. From there I walked with a pack on my back, and a pack train took up the baggage later. The boat was not able to get right through to here owing to low water in the rapids. I got here the night of the first instead of the 25th or possibly the 24th as I had expected. I had a meeting with the Indians on the 2nd and they selected a man for me to work with. He has turned out very good so far although I have really only made a commencement with him. I have rented a log cabin in [page 2] a nice quiet, and convenient place, and fixed it up now so I am quite comfortable. I go down town? for my meals.30 I expect to be here until about the 20th Oct. which is the latest one can stay with any safety on account of ice in the river. The last of 29. An attempt by Boas to place the work remaining for him and Sargent on a secure footing, even as Teit had begun work for Sapir. At this point Boas was expanding on his expectations of the basketry project, but again apparently with specific reference to Nlaka’pamux basketry. 30. Question mark inserted by Teit.

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the hunters and miners will be going out about that time and I will go out with them. We will likely get a boat out of Wrangel not later than the 25th which ought to land me in Vancouver or Seattle about the 29th. I will send you a statement at the end of the month as you direct. I commenced here by finding out all I could about the tribal boundaries, names for tribes etc. and then tackled the social organization which I am still working on and find very interesting. On points where Dawson, Morice or Emmons disagree with information obtained by me, I am taking great pains to get hold of the true way, and have asked a number of informants. So far they all agree so I feel confident I am correct. They say these other men were only a short time here, and picked up their information casually and without taking any pains, so they say there is no wonder they have made a few mistakes. (They had no paid men to give them information). Re. the tribal territory the information I got now is practically the same as I have repeatedly heard before when on hunting trips, and must be correct. I find a number of the elderly men are well posted on old matters, and there appears to be more unanimity among them, and less vagueness then is found in some other tribes. I will write you again next mail and give you some information. Meanwhile I will quit as the mail will soon be closed preparatory to packing it to Glenora.31

Teit to Sapir. September 27, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Dr Sapir, I write you a short letter to let you know how I am getting along. I have been working on the general Ethnology right along, and early next week expect to start in on the mythology. I have collected a number of short stories as they cropped up, but the real mythological tales I have not touched yet. I think there are a good many of these to be got and they will be interesting. I find the puberty ceremonies especially regarding girls are very full, and similar to those in the south (Thompson etc.)[.] In fact many are identical. On the whole I think the information I have collected is interesting, and enlightening. The language I have hardly touched yet. I have collected a number of botanical specimens and got their names, and found out about their 31. Glenora was site of a Hudson’s Bay Company post and a settlement on the Stikine River, approximately thirteen miles from Telegraph Creek (“Glenora,” http://www.stewartcassiarhighway .com/attractions/glenora/, 2004).

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uses. Also have collected some sign language. Re. music I now have 53 songs and soon will be out of blanks. I have taken [page 2] mere translations of the words in the songs as far as possible, to get at the sentiment conveyed, but the actual Indian words I have not taken down as they are garbled a good deal in adapting them to the singing and they would not do in most cases as samples of the language, also they are in many cases not fixed words belonging to the song, but put in at will according to the fancy of the singer. Besides the words of many songs are in Tlingit or other languages not very well pronounced or known in some cases. Little doubt there has been considerable inter borrowing of tunes here in the north, but still most pieces appear to me to be Athapascan. I have been running here mostly on credit during the month and probably will not get my bills made out by the firm I am dealing with until shortly before I leave. I asked them to make out my a/c to the end of Sept. but if they do not do so I will not insist and will get the whole thing when I am through. I hear there may be mail from Glenora going out almost anytime therefore I write this. After that there may not be a mail until well on in October. With kind regards to yourself and to Mrs Sapir. (I suppose you may be on the West Coast of Vanc. Island now).

Teit to Sapir. November 2, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Dr Sapir, I write you this to let you know I got home quite safely yesterday, and on the whole had a good trip. I left Cassiar on the 21st Oct. It was commencing to get wintry at Telegraph Creek then, although the fall throughout had been finer there than usual. I came down the river with the last of the hunters. I had a chance to send out mail several times but received none during the time I was there, the mail boat not being able to get up to Telegraph Creek after the early part of Sept. The hunting season was good in Cassiar a large number of bear, and heads of game, being obtained and the old records for caribou were broken. The records for the latter are now (for Telegraph district) 55 inches spread and 62 inches length of horn. I heard there was a man shooting specimens of moose etc. for the Vict. Mem. Museum in the neighborhood of Teslin Lake just across the Yukon line. I saw the heads in Vancouver the other day and they did not appear to be as good as the best ones from the Telegraph district. I brought out about 25 to 534 | 1912

30 ethnological specimens with me, mostly small things, bags, tools, etc. These I will forward to you whenever you want them. [page 2] I did no work on the language until the last week as going over the general ethnology, and collecting myths took up so much time. I got 19 foolscap pages of language covering most of the first two pages of Dr Goddards notes. I found the language rather hard to transcribe, full of stops and pitches, and containing several sounds I was not accustomed to among the Salish of the south. I got abt 205 pages on general ethnology thus making our information considerably fuller than what was obtained by Emmons. His information so far as it goes compares very closely with mine. I got pages or more of myths, all the stories are short excepting that of Big Raven. There are probably more Tlingit than Athapascan elements in the stories. Many incidents occurring in Interior Salish myths are not to be found. I collected a number of botanical specimens which I have forwarded to Prof. Davidson, Prov. Botanist for identification. Also I have collected 61 songs nearly all of them good and I have about 20 or more pages of matter relative to these. A number of the songs belong to the Bear Lake branch of the Sekanais and appear to differ on the whole in the character of their music from those of the Tahltans. For fear of damage I transported the phonograph and records on my back going in and coming out. The only time I let them out of my sight being when I expressed the records from Vancouver to here. I have not had time to examine them yet but I think they are likely all right. When do you want me to ship the records to you. [page 3] I took a few photographs for types of faces etc. and left them in Vancouver to be developed. I do not know how they will turn out. I left the taking of pictures to the last when weather conditions happened not to be very good. I think it will probably be better for me now to quit your service for this month, and next, and make a try to finish up Boas’ work. I also have some affairs of my own to attend to, and my wife is sick in bed at present. I hope to take up your work again as early in the new year as possible at New Year if I can. First of all I will likely write out and forward to you all the Tahltan myths I have collected. I will make out the necessary accounts as you desire, and send them as soon as I can—maybe inside of a week or ten days. For continuation of the Athapascan survey next year it will probably be best for me to go up the Stikine with the opening of navigation early in May, make a trip with the first boats and pack trains going N.E. for fur to the head of the Liard. I would then meet the several bands of Indians of the Upper Liard region assembled at Liard post, obtain comparative vocabularies etc. and what was possible in a short stay, overtake the 1912 | 535

canoes on [page 4] their return trip up stream. This would bring me back to Telegraph Creek about the 1st of July. I could then continue the work on mythology and linguistics there until abt the 1st Aug. when I would leave for east traversing the in great measure unexplored country between the Stikine and Finlay waters on a line South of the Liard River. I would expect to meet some bands of Indians such as the Nelson River Sekanais etc. and obtain information re. dialects and their distribution etc. etc. and would hope to be out at Edmonton some time in Oct. and return home by rail. The following spring I might commence work in the Atlin and Teslin districts of BC and continue down the Yukon etc. all summer and fall returning by the last boats to coast and Vancouver. Of course I am just making these suggestions. It depends on you as to where you want me to go and what you want done first. I received your letter of 24th Aug on my arrival at Wrangel (on 22nd or 23rd Oct).32 I dont know the exact number of Vinsons photos, but I think there are 40 to 45 of the head and shoulder portraits, almost all men and three fourths of them chiefs. About 11 of these are Upper and Lower Kootenay abt 13 Up and Low. Thompson, about 6 Okanagon, abt 9 Up and Low Lillooet, 1 Stalo and abt 4 Shuswap. Of these individuals all except 3 or 4 [page 5] are taken both full face and profile, and a few have ¾ face as well. I think the head and shoulder portraits are good pictures and most of them show the types of faces quite well. The other pictures are not of much scientific value, and as you say the pose of some is not good. They were taken to show the different costumes. I think there are about 25 full figure costume pictures Up. Thompson and Up. Kootenay (men and women) each of a single individual, and a few others of groups. Yes, I think the charge is on the high side but you may be able to make some arrangement with him to get them cheaper. His address is V V Vinson, King Studio Hastings St W Vancouver BC. It might be well for you to write to him direct. The pictures I take myself are P.C. sizes. My camera is pretty good and has a goertz lens but I have not had much practice at taking portraits so far. No doubt I will get on to it later. I suppose you did not come out to BC this fall and have been busy installing exhibits etc. Did Smith make his trip along the Grand Trunk line as he expected. Give my kind regards to him and to Mr Brock and accept [page 6] of same to Mrs Sapir and your self. Hoping to hear from you ere long

32. Sapir’s letter to Teit of August 24, 1912, is not in the CMh file.

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Sapir to Teit. November 12, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Mr. Teit,— I am very glad to learn from your letter of November 2nd that you have arrived home safely in Spences Bridge. I regret very much, however, to learn that your wife is sick in bed, but hope that she will be better before long. My reason for not writing sooner to you was that I was not certain whether there would be any incoming mails to reach you at Telegraph Creek, and also because I was afraid that you might have left the country before you could receive word from me. As the event proved, you had no opportunity to receive mail while at Telegraph Creek. Your work on Tahltan ethnology seems to have been going on very satisfactorily and I am delighted to find that we have at last made a real start on the Athabascan tribes of Canada. Your plans for next season’s trip strike me as eminently suitable for the further carrying on of your work. In fact, I shall have to leave the planning of your trips very largely to yourself, as you are so much better acquainted with transportation facilities in British Columbia, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories than I am, and would know best when and how to get at the various bands of Indians. I presume that you do not consider the Tahltan work you have done as definitely disposing of that tribe, but that you are prepared to continue more intensively on them as time [page 2] goes on. At the same time it is well that you should try to reach as many Athabascan tribes as possible in these first few years of field work, so that we may be enabled before very long to map out satisfactorily the general area. Incidentally, I may say that I have arranged with Dr. J. A. Mason, who has already had some field experience in California and Mexico, to begin work this summer on the Athabascan tribes of the Mackenzie Valley.33 Between the two of you, 33 John Alden Mason (1885–1967) had been Sapir’s student when he taught at the University of Pennsylvania from 1908 to 1910 and had been his companion in field work among the Uintah of Utah during the summer of 1909 (Darnell, Edward Sapir: Linguist, Anthropologist, Humanist, 31–32). In 1912 Mason was doing field work in Mexico under Boas, and Sapir and Boas were continuing a long correspondence touching on issues concerning Radin, Goldenweiser, and Mechling, all of whom worked on contract for the Geological Survey of Canada during this early period. Mason, Radin, and Mechling also worked with Boas in Mexico (Godoy, “Franz Boas and His Plans,” 235). Sapir wrote to Boas, on October 5, 1912, “I thought myself, almost immediately after last writing you, about having Mason take up Mackenzie Valley work for us one of these days, but I agree with you that it would be premature to start him on it now. Do you think he would be prepared to begin work next summer? It might not be a bad idea to have him start fairly early in the season, so as to give him about three months or so in the

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we should soon be able to break the back of Athabascan ethnology. As regards linguistic work, you understand of course that I am, at least for the present, mainly desirous of having you obtain enough lexical and other comparative material to afford a sound basis for classification of tribes and dialects, rather than to make thoroughgoing linguistic studies for their own sake. I presume that on the whole this will suit you just as well. I am particularly pleased to learn that you have collected sixty-one Tahltan songs, and I am looking forward to hearing them some time in Ottawa. I regret that you were unable to take down the text forms of these songs as actually sung. While the free renderings you obtained are of course preferable to not getting any data on the songs, it seems always advisable to try to reduce the texts to writing as they actually occur in singing, and this in spite of the fact that the text itself may be in a mutilated form or in a foreign language. Prose forms are often mutilated according to various stylistic devices to suit the requirements of music, and it is by no means uninteresting to study this side of native lore. Of course, I recognize that it is by no means easy to get song texts from Indians, as they are accustomed to sing them rather than recite or dictate them. When forwarding your records to Ottawa, kindly send a numbered list of records, giving in brief the type of song or songs contained [page 3] on each record, also from whom obtained. However, if you need the songs for manuscript purposes, you are at perfect liberty to hold on to them as long as you see fit. I presume that you were so much occupied with purely ethnological work that you did not care to devote much energy to mere specimen collecting, which would account for the rather small number of museum specimens that you have collected. As we are very poorly off, however, in regard to Athabascan museum material, I hope that on the next trip you will be able to make a more substantial collection. field. This might give him enough of a start to make him realize the nature of the problem to be worked out, so that he might start for a year’s or so continuous work one year later” (APS, Boas Papers, text 105432). During his single season of field work at Fort Rae from July to September 1913, Mason followed a research path much like Teit’s among the Tahltan. He recorded linguistic texts in the four Athapaskan languages spoken in the Great Slave Lake region as well as ethnographic information, collected 133 artifacts, made phonograph recordings of songs, and took photographs (Helm, “Dogrib Folk History and the Photography of John Alden Mason,” 43–58.) Mason published a summary report of his work in “On Work among Northern Athabascan Tribes, 1913” (375–76). He also prepared a set of narratives for the GSC. Mason did not return to Canada for the full year’s work Sapir anticipated but carried out substantial research in Central and South America. He published Notes on the Indians of the Great Slave Lake Area in 1946. For twenty-nine years, until his retirement in 1955, he worked at the University Museum, University of Pennsylvania (see Kroeber, “Obituary John Alden Mason (1885–1967), 871–79.

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In forwarding your specimens to the museum, kindly submit data with them. As for photographs, I notice that you have left them in Vancouver for development. Of course you understand that we have a regular photograph department here that generally takes charge of development, and I believe in future that it would be advisable to forward your plates and films directly to Ottawa. You can always receive a full set of your pictures for your own personal use, and if you have promised Indians pictures, you can always have an extra set for distribution. Kindly let us have a full set of prints with appropriate data on the back of each. I agree with you in thinking that it would be best to take up work with Dr. Boas for November and December, so as to try to finish up at least part of the work that you have arranged to do with him. I hope you will be able to be under Government salary again beginning January 1st and finishing up for this fiscal year. In making up my estimates for next fiscal year, which begins April 1st, I shall count on a full year’s salary for you of $1500. On the basis of your recent experience in field work, how much do you think I should estimate for field expenses [page 4] Would $1000 be enough? Kindly let me know at your early opportunity. Under another cover I have sent you a copy of the summary report for anthropology for 1911. Will you kindly write out some time this month or early in December an account of your field work this year? Your report need not take up more than three or four pages of printed size (even less perhaps). This summary report and your accounts should be the first things submitted. I was compelled to postpone my trip to Vancouver Island owing to the arrival of museum cases. They are now placed on the floor and before long should be ready to have exhibition material moved into them. Mr. Smith did not do any field work personally, but his assistant, Mr. Wintemberg, did rather an extensive and thorough piece of archaeological work at a site in southern Ontario. Mr. Barbeau sends his best regards to you. PS Under another cover I am returning you Vinson’s photographs. I have decided that it would not be advisable for us to invest in them. They are undoubtedly very fine, but in view of their excessive price and the fact that we have such facilities for adding to our stock of photographs in course of field work, I have thought it would be better not to make any definite arrangements with Vinson for their purchase.

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Teit to Sapir. December 4, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Dr Sapir, I received your letter of 12th ult. some little time ago, and intended to answer same sooner. Yes, I do not consider the Tahltan work finished. I will be able to get a little more information. some of this I will probably get next summer. Yes, I know the point that is most pressing is to reach as many bands of Athapascans within as short a time as possible so you can in the near future map out the whole Athapascan area and know the relationships to each other of the various tribes, and bands. Yes, I know you want sufficient lexical material from each tribe to afford a basis for classification of the tribes and dialects. The vocabularies I intend to collect will contain about 800 words of each language and dialect. What points in general ethnology do you consider best to obtain for comparative purposes[?] I asked questions on about 20 points among the tribes of Eastern and Western Washington that I had no time to study. This I did at each place where I collected a vocabulary. Besides, at each place I learned all I could about [page 2] tribal boundaries, and afterwards prepared maps of these which I sent to Dr Boas. Of course the difficulty in the North is the huge expanse of territory so thinly inhabited and the big distances between bands. Also lack of rapid transit and communication and the nomadic character of the inhabitants. For these reasons it will take considerable time and a good deal of experience to cover the ground especially west of the Rockies. Yes, I know it would have been better if I had got the text forms of the songs I collected even if not altogether correct. I could have got texts at least of those sung in Tahltan. Some of the individuals showed a disinclination to give me the words of the songs they sang. The Bear Lake songs they probably could not translate properly as the words in them are said to be in Sekanai and I did not meet any of the latter tribe. However next time I will try to get full texts of whatever songs I may collect. When I forward the records which I will probably do before long, I will give you a list of them stating the type of song, tribe, and by whom sung. Regarding the specimens I collected I will submit data with them. I made no great effort to obtain specimens because I knew from the first the tribe as a whole were [page 3] against the sale of old things to collectors, and several individuals stated they were sorry they had sold what they did to Lieut. Emmons. There appears to be a growing tendancy [sic] in some tribes in BC to preserve what they retain of old stuff, and pass it on to their children. Also to educate 540 | 1912

their children in old tribal traditions and lore. There is also a revival (probably a reaction from the too rapid adoption of the white man’s methods) of old dances, certain games, music and songs and costumes taking places in certain tribes of both Coast and Interior and this movement seems to be spreading. The tribes of the Interior most affected at present are the Kootenay, Lillooet and Tahltan and Shuswap. I broke the ice re. specimens very gradually among the Tahltan, and what I got was offered to me voluntarily the last week or two I was there. Most of the things I got are bags and tools, only a few of them old. A few other old specimens were shown me and I figured [sic] them but they would not sell them. I may do better next year and possibly among the Kaskas and Sekanais purchase will be easier. Yes, the pictures I take I will in future send to you for development or do it myself. It costs too much in Vancouver. Anyway likely all the negatives I will send [page 4] to you eventually. Some of those I took among the Tahltan turned out fairly good. In some of the film packs I have pictures of my own of no value to you and this was partly the reason I left them in Vanc. to be developed. I have some pictures I took of Thompson which I can send you at the same time as the Tahltan ones. Re. the estimate for my proposed trips of next summer. I think it will at least take 1500.00 besides my own wages. I will have to buy two pack horses at probably 150.00 (Cassiar price) a piece [sic] to transport grub, bedding and specimens etc. These I might be able to sell at the end of the season and maybe not, also will have to buy equipment for them either pack saddles or apparejos. I will require a companion with me as interpreter etc. We have to cross many rivers and pass through much hard and unknown ground on the second trip. I will probably try to get George Adset or a good Indian to make the trip with me, and no one any good can be got up there for less than 4.00 or 4.50 per day and expenses. The first trip viz to Upper Liard I will probably be able to make without much expence [sic] as I will go and come if possible by canoes that make the trip for fur. My wife being sick kept me back from being able to accomplish [page 5] any thing last month, and I see I will not be able to do much this month for Dr Boas. However I will do the best I can and get through with his work as soon as possible so as to start again for you. I was glad to hear you had got Dr Mason to start work among the McKenzie Basin Athapascans. I will write out a few pages for your summary report regarding my field work of this year, and send it to you before Christmas. I have charged the Museum with two days work for writing out same and making out a/cs etc. I am enclosing under separate cover my a/cs, and you will probably 1912 | 541

find them all right. If any explanations are required let me know. The sums I paid out under wages were to persons who supplied information viz worked with me or who sang songs etc. My main informant was Dandy Jim who sat with me early every day. I will forward the Tahltan specimens to you in January, also likely some of my collection of Thompson material. It might be as well for you to allow in your estimate for next year some money for the purchase of these specimens—say 300.00 or 400.00. I have not gone over them yet and dont know the number and the total cost. Some of the things I collected two years ago and over.

Boas to Teit. December 18, 1912. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121690.34 My dear Friend,— I heard only to-day from Sapir that you have been back at Spences Bridge since November.35 I wonder whether you received my communications from Europe, and again this fall from here. We ought to try our best to get your work, so far as it has been supported by Mr. Sargent, into shape during this winter, so that you will be free to take up your obligations to the Canadian Government unhampered by other duties; and I should be very glad to receive from you as detailed a plan as possible of your work.36 You understand, of course, that it means quite a good deal of work here to get your material ready for the printer and to see it through the press.37 34. Addressed to Teit via “Hyland and Belfry. Telegrapher and reeler. British Columbia. Via Wrangell, Alaska U.S.A.” 35. Sapir wrote to Boas on December 16, 1912, “In reply to your letter of December 13th, I may say that I received no letter from you in regard to Teit. It must have miscarried somehow. Teit arrived at Spences Bridge early in November, and told me shortly after that he was going to take off several months from our work in order to be able to finish up some work that he owes you. More recently he wrote me that he had not been able to do very much for you, chiefly owing, I believe, to his wife’s illness. As I understand matters, he expects to be working up your material this winter and possibly also spring, and I should not be surprised to find that he will not be able to get around to working up any of his results for us before well on in the spring, when he will be starting on this next inland trip” (CMH, Edward Sapir, Correspondence, folder: Boas, Franz (1910–1914), box 621, file 1). This is the first mention of an ongoing point of concern in Teit’s work for the Geological Survey, where both summary reports and full reports of each year’s field work were expected. 36. If Teit sent Boas a detailed plan, it has not survived in the records. 37. On October 3, 1912, Boas wrote to Sargent, “Undoubtedly you are aware that Mr. Teit is on the Stikine for the Canadian Government, and that the Canadians are anxious to obtain his services as soon as possible, and I believe this is best for Mr. Teit also. If, therefore, it meets with your approval, I should like to suggest that we push his work to completion as quickly

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I am sorry to learn from Sapir that your wife is not well, but I trust that she may be better by the time when you receive this note.

Teit to Sapir. December 20, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Dr Sapir, I received the cheque yesterday for which much thanks, and I herewith enclose the receipts as you request. I have written out about a five page article for your summary report of 1912 as you asked me to do. I just have to copy it in ink, and send it to you. This I will do tomorrow if I have a chance. I enclose the card with address of a man I met in Vancouver the other day. Dr. Newcombe introduced us and I had a hurried talk with him. I promised to put you in communication with him. He has a business in Vancouver Is a steady man; a half breed and his wife is the same. Dr Newcombe has known him for some years, and says he talks the Cowichan language well, and is well posted. He takes an interest in all matters connected with the history and customs of his tribe, and is anxious same should be recorded correctly. He claims to know the mythological tales [page 2] of S.E. Vancouver Island (vicinity of Duncan etc.) very thoroughly and as I do not know of much from that quarter which has been collected or published I thought you might be able to come to some arrangement with him whereby he could write out for you the mythology of these parts. I believe he has enough of education to enable him to do this. He says he has always had a strong desire to write down all the history of the Cowichans as far as he knows it to be published some time, and I believe he has made a start at this work. Possibly it might pay you to utilize him to some extent if you can make satisfactory arrangements. I had a letter from Pete McGuff lately and he wished to be remembered to you. He says about 700?38 as possible. There will of course be a considerable amount of labor involved in arranging his miscellaneous notes which I have in my hands; and if you do not object, I should like to use some of the funds which you so generously gave us for carrying on the work of Mr. Teit for assistance in the preparation of the manuscript. I believe you understand that almost all of Mr. Teit’s manuscripts, but particularly scattering ethnological notes like those with which much of his work for you deals, have to be written here” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107174). Sargent agreed, writing on October 18, 1912, “Your idea of pushing [Teit’s] work to completion seems good to me and if you can get the skilled assistance you require for the preparation of the manuscript, I should be pleased to have you use any amount of the funds you have on and if necessary, call on me for more. It is my wish that you relieve yourself of as much of the detail work and that which you can have done for you, as it is possible to do. You directing the work” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107154). 38. Teit placed a small question mark a half-line above “700.”

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men on the Yakima Reservation have joined the new ‘Brotherhood of No Amer. Inds.’ and they have already proved unity is strength by bringing pressure on the Fed. Gov for a resurvey of the reserve resulting in the Indians getting back much valuable land which was stolen from them by the first surveyors.39 I will now close this hurried letter and wishing Mrs. Sapir and yourself and Mr. Smith and family a very merry Xmas . . . PS I hear of a number of skeletons being unearthed on the construction, but nothing done to save them for you, I wired about same to [illeg] lately.

Sapir to Teit. December 21, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Mr. Teit,— I intended to reply in greater detail to your letter of December 4th, but was rushed at the time I sent you the check and so have had to postpone my reply. Your plans for continued work seem very acceptable and I shall make such estimates as you speak of. In making out accounts hereafter, it would be more convenient to enter items strictly according to the dates on which they were incurred and not to group them according to character of item. It would also be advisable to submit accounts in duplicate. I received an enquiry recently from Dr. Boas in regard to whether you had returned to Spences Bridge. I imagine that he is rather eager to have you finish up work for him. I told him that it was your plan to take off some time from our work for that purpose, but naturally could not give him precise information as to just how long you would be at it. If you have not already done so, I think it would be rather a good idea to inform him personally of the status of his work.

39. The Brotherhood of North American Indians was founded in 1911 by Richard Adams, a member of the Delaware Tribe of Oklahoma. Its objectives included enabling tribes to seek redress for lost lands through the U.S. Court of Claims, having the Bureau of Indian Affairs release a proportion of trust money to individuals so that they could make improvements on allotments received under the 1887 Dawes Act, having the Bureau of Indian Affairs hire qualified tribal members for jobs in the BIA, and providing tribal members with either the right to vote or full U.S. citizenship. The Brotherhood of North American Indians collapsed in 1913, unable to withstand opposition from the BIA and critical scrutiny of certain of Richard Adams’s financial practices by other opponents, including the Society of American Indians, a rival organization also formed in 1911 (Crum, “Almost Invisible,” 43–49).

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As regards classification of Athabascan tribes, my primary idea was to base this classification on linguistic evidence as deduced from fairly extensive vocabularies and test grammatical questions, and on information obtained by direct enquiry as to the exact tribal boundaries [page 2] of the various groups of Indians you might come in contact with or hear about. To make out a list of test ethnological questions which would be of real service in marking off cultural boundaries within the Athabascan area is rather a more difficult task, particularly as cultural boundaries are apt to be far less sharply defined than linguistic ones. Moreover, as no really thorough study has yet been published of any Athabascan tribes in Canada, it is not quite easy to see just which questions would be of greatest scientific importance in determining boundaries and currents of influence. I should think that everything connected with bark industry and types of houses would be of primary importance. As for social organization, it is of course always important to observe in how far coast influence has made itself felt, and to obtain particularly full data in regard to more primitive conditions that may be supposed to exist farther east. Shamanism is surely a very important aspect of primitive Athabascan culture, and full details on this subject would be almost welcome. If you can let me have a list of the twenty test questions that you used in determining Salish boundaries in Washington, a serviceable list of a parallel nature could perhaps be made out. I have recently heard from Dr. Newcombe in regard to a Cowichan Indian named John Humphreys who lives in Vancouver, and who, he says, has been collecting Cowichan myths, writing them down himself in both English and Indian. Dr. Newcombe stated that he had talked to you about the matter and that you would follow it up. I shall be glad to hear from you in regard to [page 3] it. By the way, what has become of the Kootenay Indian that was going to supply us with mythological material? I hope that your wife is by this time much improved in health. With best wishes and greetings of the season . . .

Teit to Boas. December 26, 1912. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121721. Dear Friend I got your letter of 18th inst. last night and was glad to hear from you. I did not receive the communications from Europe you speak of, nor 1912 | 545

the one from NY in the fall. They may have gone astray when I was in Cassiar. My letters were forwarded to me, but some I never got. Others went up to Atlin and returned and others again I received in Alaska. Only two letters early in the season got thru to me at Telegraph Creek. My wife is now almost quite well so I will be able to go on with some work very soon. I intend to start work on the Thompson paper in a few days, and will try to finish it for you as soon as possible. I do not think it will take me long now to finish it when I get working steady at it. The survey of the Amer. Salish (vocabularies etc.) I finished and sent to you[.] Also you have ‘Tales of the Lillooet’, ‘Tales of the Utamkt’ and ‘Tales of the Upper Thompson’ all of which I sent to you [page 2] long ago. Besides the additional notes on the Thompson I am engaged on now, I have a little information on the Interior Salish tribes of the States. Quite a bit from the Coeur d’Alene and from the Okanagon, and scraps from the other tribes. Do you want me to write this out.40 Of course I thought I would likely be back among these tribes again and finish up, and thus expected to have quite a large and full report to give you of these people. I also have a few stories mostly Okanagon. It seems too bad to publish a report say for instance on the Coeur d’Alene which will be half or three quarter full when a very full one might be obtained. Still I suppose there is no use my holding the material. I might fill up the blanks, and finish say the Coeur d’Alene work fairly well by correspondence with some members of the tribe I know (one was here last summer for a few days visiting me), but the Ottawa people apparently do not want me (Sapir told me it was against the rules of the Museum or gov) to do work for others at the same time I work for them. Personally I consider this somewhat unfair as a person ought to have liberty to do writing or whatever other work he likes in his spare time even if paid for it and if I work for them it should not follow that they own my time all day and all night and all the time. If I average 8 hours a day for them I think they ought to be satisfied. Of course work out in the field for them or any one else is different [page 3] There I would naturally work entirely for them and would put in some very hard long days as well as easy days. As a rule in the field I would not have any chance to do work for myself or for other people than to whom I was engaged. I would not mind this, but what I speak of is at other times. If my eyes can stand the strain I do not see why at certain times if I 40. This suggests that “the scattering ethnological notes” Boas mentioned to Sargent in his letter of October 3, 1912 (APS, Boas Papers, text 107174) did not represent all of the information Teit had gathered in the course of his research in the United States. In fact, he wrote up the material over the next several years.

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feel like it I should not write or work for other people in my spare time either for nothing or for money as I see fit. I do not think this would hurt them, and I am sure I would not be inclined to do too much of it, but in a case like the present etc. for instance. One thing I nearly forgot to mention viz. re. the collecting of the different dialect of Kootenay formerly spoken East of the Rockies. I have kept myself in touch with these people right along and had a letter from them only a few days ago. They are back now from the States and I am writing them to-day to find out what their movements will be for the winter. I intend to make a special trip for you down there to see them, and collect all I can of the language as soon as I can make a date with them. I will likely go in February. I think this is likely very important and I will set aside all other work to make the trip.41

Sapir to Teit. December 28, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have your letter of December 20th and also your paper on Tahltan work, for which I wish to thank you. I am leaving this evening for the anthropological meeting at Cleveland and so shall not be able to correspond with Humphreys for at least a couple of weeks, but I think it would be of advantage to get him started for us, provided, of course, reasonable arrangements could be made. Thank you for letting me hear from Pete McGuff, and kindly remember me to him next time you write. Please excuse my haste.

Teit to Sapir. December 29. 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Dr Sapir, I received your letter yesterday and note contents. Re. Boas Work I received a letter from him which I have already answered giving 41. This suggests that Teit continued to see his work for Boas as accommodating new initiatives as well as working strictly on the projects outlined by Boas, and that in spite of Sapir’s concerns, he saw working time as entirely fluid. Teit also wrote to Newcombe, saying, “I had a letter from the Kootenay lately, and the people I want to see there for Boas are now at home. I have written to find out about their movements for the winter. I think I will try to go over there in February. Do you think you can go too” (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence, Teit to Newcombe, December 24, 1912).

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the required information. Re. Humphreys I wrote to you a few days ago about him and you will likely have my letter by this time. Re. the Kootenay Indian who was talking of writing stories I have made no definite arrangements with him and probably cannot until I see him. He has been away in Montana and Alberta for a number of months but he wrote me just lately saying he was back. I will probably have to go on a short trip to Kootenay for Dr Boas to try to collect the remains of the Kootenay dialect said to have been spoken East of the Rockies and when I do I will see him about the matter. Re. the trips I propose to make next summer I think the first one (which will be made by canoe) is very important as I expect to find at the date I would get in there some members of all the surrounding Nahani bands rendezvoused at Liard post. These will include the Pelly Inds and bands from Upper Liard River. The Goat or Mtn Nahani etc. There may also be a few non Nahani. Re. the second trip it depends on what I find out at the Liard post and elsewhere and from George Adset and Simpson re. the locations of bands to the east [page 2] in the summer time, as to the exact route I will take and even whether I will make it at all, as the eastern portion around Fort St. John and Lower Liard may be easier reached from E. of the mountains. It depends on the movements of the Indians I meet at Liard post, and what means I may have of transportation and returning as to how long I will stay there. In the event of my not making the second trip I contemplate I will go north and do the Teslin, Atlin, Tagish country. I am clear re. the vocabularies and the tribal boundaries (that is to say as to what to ask, and how best to obtain the information), but the test grammatical questions I do not know enough about. Will you make out a list of these arranged according to their order of importance or will I simply depend on obtaining information (as much as I can) on the points suggested by Dr Goddard of which I have a list. Yes I know it is difficult in our present state of knowledge to make up a set of test ethnological questions which would be of value in determining boundaries of cultural influence[.] I think myself that cultural boundaries will not be sharply defined once you get a certain distance east or way [sic] from Coast influence. However the eastern boundaries of Coast influence should be determined, and the western boundaries of Mackenzie River influence, (and in the extreme S and SE Cree and Salish influence and in the far north Eskimo influence)[.] I may be able to pick out better some points for enquiry once I have taken time to look over [page 3] thoroughly all my field notes on the Tahltan. Re. Mackenzie River culture I know but little and can think of nothing further than the 548 | 1912

occurrence of the conical lodge or tipi to inquire about. I think types of lodges and methods of burial are important questions to deal with. Re. shamanism it seems to me not a question that can be dealt with in a very hurried inquiry altho it is very important. However you may have some points in mind that do not occur to me, and may be obtained easily. I am enclosing to you herewith a list of the test questions I used among the Salish tribes to the south etc. where I collected vocabularies. I gathered more or less extended information from all the tribes I visited on all of these points. A few of them I know would not be suitable for Athapascan work. Others would only be of slight importance but possibly most of them would be quite valuable. There may be again on the other hand certain questions which might be valuable in Athapascan work and of little value among say Salish and Algonkin etc. I note what you say that accounts should be made out in duplicates and itemized in order of date and not grouped according to character of items. Have you any printed receipt forms which could be used. In some places [page 4] persons do not care to give me bills in duplicate. I suppose because it is not customary, or they do not care (especially when busy) to write out a thing twice. These receipt forms I might fill up myself and then ask them simply for signatures. My wife is almost all right now so I will have more time. I will now close wishing you all a happy and prosperous New Year [page 5].

Test Ethnological Questions used among Salish tribes of U.S.A. etc. (in Eth. survey of tribes in Washington, Idaho, Montana, etc.)—JA Teit 1. Vocabulary of 600 to 800 words Some inquiry re. pronouns and demonstratives (to find if any gender in these). 2. Distribution of tribes, languages and dialects with boundaries and head quarters of each and preparing maps showing same approximately Names of tribes. Migration traditions former shifting and movements of tribes. Flood traditions which on the Coast are often coupled with migrations. Origin traditions. Tribes with which had wars and results of same. 3. Types of basketry, woven and bark. Nature of ornamentation. Shapes of baskets, ancient and modern. Materials used in basket making, and in ornamentations. (Chiefly to ascertain the 1912 | 549

distribution of coiled and bark basketry; the distribution and eastern boundary of imbrication, and the boundary line between the so called Klickitat, and Fraser River shapes.) 4. Kinds of woven blankets, (Chiefly to find out the distribution of goat and rabbit blankets) 5. Types of bags—Chiefly woven bags, with materials used in manufacture and ornamentation (Particularly to ascertain the distribution of the so called Nez Perce wallet). 6. Women’s caps—principally woven caps and materials used in manufacture and ornamentation (to learn distribution of so called Nez Perce grass cap.) [page 6] continued 7. Vessels used for boiling in 8. Types of bows (to learn distribution of flat bow and other types) 9. Types of war clubs 10. Types of canoes (particularly re. distribution of bark and dug out types) 11. Types of houses and lodges (summer and winter) (chiefly to learn distribution of the kekuli house and conical and long lodges) Dance and feast lodges etc. young people’s lodges. Womens lodges. Hunting and fishing lodges, bark and mat and skin lodges, sweat houses, forts etc. 12. Types of Carriers or Cradles (to find distribution of board and bark types etc.) 13. Navel pouches (to learn distribution) 14. Head flattening (to learn distribution) 15. Methods of burial 16. Types of mats (to find boundaries of Coast and Interior types) 17. Woven bark clothing (to learn distribution) 18. Woman’s kilt or bodice ([ditto]) 19. Types of moccasins (Chiefly to find out distribution of two or three kinds) 20. Quill work (to ascertain distribution) 21. Types of fish spear heads 22. Introduction of the horse 23. Distribution of game animals (Buffalo, antelope, goat, elk etc. etc.) I was able to cover a bigger field among the Salish proper, and among the Coeur d’Alene and Okanagon to gather about as much as Spinden did on the Nez Perce, but a good deal more could be gathered on these tribes and I expected to do this later. Among the Yakima I made special inquiry re basketry designs.

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Teit to Sapir. December 31, 1912. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1911–1912), box 635, file 12. Dear Dr Sapir, I received a letter from Dr Newcombe in which he says “I am glad you saw Humphreys I dont know how good he is, but, if Sapir can raise the money it might be worth while to give him a test. He will at first have a great tendency to make a pretty story rather than to give the exact rendering of the true legend, I should think. That is where you old hands can check him up, and get him into better ways.” Do you have any bark canoe [sic] in the Museum from Kootenay district viz from the Lower Kootenay or from the Lake tribe (Salish)[?] I may order one made for you if you dont. It will probably be impossible to get one that is in use at least any where that it could be got out and shipped. I suppose you have little or no specimens from Kootenay. PS If it is not too much work it might be well for you to give me a list of all the Interior Salish specimens you have on hand so I do not reduplicate too much when collecting. In fact a list of Salish, Kootenay and Athapascan (or all Interior of BC)[.]

1912 | 551

1913

Boas to Teit. January 16, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121691. My dear Friend,— I was glad to receive your letter and the proofs, which came this morning. I am sending to you a copy of the letter which I sent to you last summer, and which you did not receive. The Thompson Tales are all printed, and I don’t think that I can add anything to that publication.1 I will try to get the other material of which you spoke in with the Lillooet Tales, but I am not absolutely sure that that can be done. If not, I shall make a little paper of it in the next number of the Folk-Lore Journal. The Folk-Lore Journal allows 50 reprints of papers. If you should want more, it would cost you a few dollars. I cannot tell exactly how much, because it depends upon the number of pages, but hardly more than $3 more. Perhaps you might also like to have a separate cover, for which the charge is, for 50 copies, $1.00, and 1 cent for each additional cover. If the 50 are enough, please let me know. I want to ask you very particularly to make a special effort in regard to the basketry affair, in which Mr. Sargent is so much interested.2 1. Teit, Mythology of the Thompson Indians, 203–416. 2. With this letter the underlying issues in Teit’s work on basketry began to take more precise form. Basketry emerged as a focus of interest for both Teit and Boas in the writing of the first monographs, but Teit had been working on Nlaka’pamux basketry as a particular topic for several years at Boas’s request. The work on basketry had been identified as a component of the work Teit was to finish before turning to full-time work for the Geological Survey of Canada, and Sargent’s personal interest in basketry and financial support for the work were also reasons for Boas’s giving it priority. Teit’s letter of February 17, 1913, indicates that he planned to include the final paper as a chapter in an additional work on the Nlaka’pamux and was in the midst of writing it. According to their established collaborative model, Teit could expect to see this published under his own name, with Boas preparing the publication and listed as editor. However, for some time Boas had also been asking Teit questions about particular aspects of basketry that spoke to broader questions. For example, in a reply to a query to Boas, Teit wrote on April 26, 1907, “I think you are probably right in your suggestion that the squarer types of basketry may have arisen from copying of the coast wooden boxes and bark boxes.” Boas had been writing about aspects of art outside Salish basketry, beginning with “The Decorative Art of the Indians of the North Pacific Coast,” in 1896, and continuing with “Notes on the Blanket Designs of the Chilkat Indians,” in 1907, and “Decorative Designs of Alaskan Needlecases,” in 1908. The request for a detailed list of all the patterns, with which Teit complied, suggests

552

I should like very much to get a detailed list of all the patterns that [page 2] every basket-worker makes, at least in a few of the villages.

Sapir to Teit. January 16, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have your letters of December 29th and 31st. In regard to test grammatical questions, I think that it will be well enough to depend on the points suggested by Dr. Goddard in his list. It will naturally not be either necessary or possible for you to go into details on any grammatical points. The main stock of your linguistic data would have to be lexical and the grammatical data would be merely supplementary by way of more sharply defining the linguistic boundaries already presumably fixed on the basis of the phonetic peculiarities revealed in the vocabularies. Of course anything like a thoroughgoing study of the Athabascan dialects would have to be undertaken by a linguistic specialist and would require an extended period of time with each tribe visited. In fact, such a study could hardly be undertaken by one man. As for printed receipt forms, the Survey has none at its disposal, but you can easily purchase them in Vancouver on your next trip out and charge them to the Government. Thank you for your list of test ethnological questions used among Salish tribes. It strikes me, on the whole, as capable of doing good service for the Athabascan survey, particularly on the side of material culture. There are naturally several points that are of little or no interest for Athabascan research. Thus: [page 2] 1. Enquiries in regard to pronouns and demonstratives would not yield data on gender, at least as ordinarily understood, as there is no difference in Athabascan between masculine and feminine. that Boas was now channeling his interest in design into a particular interest in Salish basketry design. His own established pattern of publication suggests that his focus and publication goals were different from Teit’s, but it is not clear from the surviving letters that this was explicitly discussed with Teit. Moreover, even though Sargent’s interest in basketry and financial support had been factors since 1908, there is no record that Boas, Sargent, and Teit had discussed together their several perspectives on the basketry study or come to an agreement about its scope and focus. Through 1913 and 1914 Teit continued to write about the basketry paper as an independent work. The issue of Boas’s particular interests vis-à-vis his collaboration with Teit and the broad model of the ethnologist vis-à-vis ethnographer played out in a very particular way between 1916 and 1919 as Teit’s research on basketry was drawn into the work of Boas’s former student Herman Haeberlin and, following Haeberlin’s death, Helen Roberts.

1913 | 553

2. Flood traditions could hardly be expected to be of consequence. 3. Imbrication in basketry would naturally not concern you much. 4. Head-flattening is probably of no consequence, but you might enquire as to other types of body mutilation. Such as circumcision which has been reported for Mackenzie Valley tribes. Besides the queries on material culture which you have listed, it would be highly advisable to get data also on various points of nonmaterial culture. Under social organization, for instance, it would be well to get data on chieftainship; inheritance of property; fishing, hunting and other economic rights; marriage regulations, with emphasis on property transactions involved; and methods of naming individuals. Under religious ideas it would be well to secure data on taboos connected with hunting and fishing and other economic pursuits; rituals connected with these; guardian spirit or manitou experiences; cosmic beliefs; supernatural beings of various sorts; religious dances outside of those presumably connected with economic matters; and the religious use of masks. Naturally it is far more difficult to suggest significant questions in dealing with mental culture than in dealing with material culture. Several leading questions will generally enable you to discover what seems to be of most significance in the life of the natives and will lead you to further enquiries along the lines suggested by the replies of the natives. In fact, it is almost a hindrance rather than a help to have too detailed a question list to go [page 3] by,3 as the data contained are apt to be forced into preconceived groove [sic] rather than to arrange themselves as they would naturally appear on a direct study of facts.4 As for shamanism, there are naturally many facts of interest and importance to be considered. Among these are:— How does the shaman secure his power? Is it entirely a matter of fasting and dreaming, or do the elements of actual instruction and transfer or purchase also enter? What are the kinds of guardian spirits that a shaman may have as distinct, if so, from ordinary guardian spirits such as normal individuals acquire? What is the mode of procedure of shamans? Is there a difference in the native mind between the shaman or conjurer proper and an herbalist? Is there a difference between a shaman proper or healer and a juggler? Is there a class of dreamers 3. At top of page 3, “Ont., January 16th, 1913.” 4. This constitutes a significant departure from Boas’s 1894 instructions to Teit and to which Teit had so far adhered in his Interior Salish research. However, Sapir’s subsequent list of queries provides an even more detailed road map than Boas provided, particularly in regard to social organization.

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or prophets apart from shamans proper? These queries have been suggested by different terms for different classes of shamans in use among the Ojibwa. Is there a tendency for the shamans as a class, to form a society and perform a ritual as such, or, barring that, do they tend to have common bonds? I understand, of course, that it is hopeless to get full data on all ethnological points for every tribe visited, but I am rather eager that you should get enough of an insight into Athabascan culture to settle down eventually to a more elaborate study of some one typical tribe, on at least as large a scale as, for instance, your treatment of the Thompson River Indians. Your summary report for last summer’s field trip was very interesting, and I have sent you a carbon copy of the only slightly revised version. [page 4] Your data on Tahltan social organization are of particular interest. If you get a chance at the Tahltan again, I hope you will take particular pains to look into several important matters connected with this subject. In the first place, try to get all the data possible on the exact nature of the Tahltan clans. Are they definitely associated with particular localities? May they be represented in more than one locality? If so, what is the rule of inheritance in the case of such as are not born in the territory of their mother’s clan? If the clan, as you say, is not totemic, what features, aside from localization and maternal inheritance (is this rigid?), does a clan possess to distinguish it as such? Are you sure that clans do not possess totems or distinctive legends? Are they connected with functions of any kind? Are they graded in rank? Do the clans enter as such in the rituals, or other tribal activities? What is the nature of inheritance of chiefs of each clan? Is it possible to distinguish distinct families or lines of descent of privileges within the clan? Is any one clan absolutely associated with only one of the two phratries? Are the clans considered independent units or merely as subdivisions of the phratries? Is the rule forbidding intermarriage within the clan due to a feeling that the members of a clan are related by blood, or to some other cause? Do the members of the clan, as such, observe any taboos such as in eating or killing? I have reference, of course, to clan taboos, if any, not to personal taboos which may be connected with individual guardian spirits. Do the natives consider the phratries as having originated by the coalescence of various clans, or do they consider the phratrie [page 5] as having been split up into clans, or do they consider the clan and phratry divisions to have nothing to do with each other? Is the crest or totem of a phratry directly associated with each member of the phratry, or does it pertain more particularly to the family or clan of the head chief of the phratry? 1913 | 555

Obtain legends of the acquisition of crests, either in mythological times or more recently, by purchase or gift. What characterizes a phratry besides the fact that it has a definite name, a totem, observes the rule forbidding intermarriage within it, and is inherited through the mother? Is one of the phratries superior to the other? Have they more or less definite functions or rights, as in council, war, hunting, ceremonials, and other activities? You will see from this rather long list of queries that I am particularly eager to have all the fundamental facts of Tahltan social organization laid bare, and, where possible, with plenty of evidence gathered from as many sources as possible. The very fact that the Tahltan evidently represent the case of an interior tribe which has become profoundly influenced in its social form by the Tlingit of the coast, makes it particularly necessary to understand exactly what aspects of the social organization are emphasised by the natives themselves. In other words, it is important to determine from internal evidence which features are primary and which secondary. For instance, the phratry may seem to be the most fundamental social unit, yet the clan or local group may turn out to be, after all, the more conservative Athabascan unit proper. I am particularly eager to obtain clear evidence in regard to the point that you raise as to the clans being entirely non-totemic in character and [page 6] yet distinctly exogamous and matrilineal. I am hoping that you will be able to get continuously to work on the manuscript before very long, as I should like very much to have you submit manuscript, at least the first installment of it, before you go out to the field again. As to a Kootenay bark canoe, we have one of the typical cigar shaped Kootenay canoes in the museum, and it would hardly be worth while for us to get another one at present. If you can get us museum material from the Kootenay, I should be greatly obliged to you, as we have practically not a single specimen from that tribe out side of the canoe. As for the interior Salish and Athabascan material, you need not be afraid of duplicating too much, as it will be quite a while before we have substantial enough collections from those tribes to make it worth while considering the matter of duplication.5 Just collect whatever seems of real interest to you. PS I shall write Humphreys as soon as I get a chance. 5. Newcombe wrote to Sapir in 1912, asking for duplicates, not of baskets but of horn spoons, which he might trade for other, rarer objects of more use to the museum. Sapir replied that there was no such thing, in his view, as a duplicate (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, Edward Sapir to Charles Newcombe, December 21, 1912).

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Teit to Boas. January 21, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121722. Dear Friend I received your letter of 16th inst. to-night and was glad to get same. I was glad to hear the Thompson Tales are printed, and the Lillooet ones soon will be. What notes on and variations of Thompson Tales I have sent you annexed to the Lillooet proofs, better go together with the two or three I have on hand. They will be all right as a short paper in the Folk-lore journal, or included in the paper I am writing on the Thompson, any way you prefer. Possibly the former way is the best. If you like I can add to them the Tales I collected among the Okanagon and tribes further south and east [.] The latter are all short excepting two or three. Altogether Thomp. and Okan. may reach about 30? [sic] foolscap pages. Yes—I think the 50 copies will be enough. I have been working pretty steady since about New Year on the Thompson paper and have made fair progress. I had already a number of the chapters started and a lot of sketches made. The last week I have worked over time until very late most nights. At present I am [page 2] working on the Basketry chapter, and have about 20 pages finished with the exception of some notes. This is the hardest chapter, and will take most time, especially the designs. I note all you say re. additional information on the designs. I find only a few women who enter into this subject seriously, some of them look upon the questions as a kind of foolishness, and for that reason are hard to get full information from. Another difficulty is the great number of variations of designs, these being described rather than called by special names, and if the variation is not well known, or rather called by say a descriptive design name which is in use, different women will describe it in different ways, and it often is not clear what is meant. As a rule they will not attempt to mark the design on paper saying they cannot do it well enough. However I have made a little progress, and learned a little more since I sent you the explanations and answers to queries of last year? [sic] The last time I went to Spuzzum I got only a very little additional, as most of the women were away or busy. The winter is the best time, but I cannot write and travel too. However I will do the best I can. If I can get at some of the places before the spring work starts in the latter part of March it will be all right. [page 3] There are a number of your queries I have not got enough of information on yet. I was thinking of sending you in the chapter on basketry as soon as I have finished it, even if it is not very well written off, and then you 1913 | 557

would be the better able to see what is missing. You would then see exactly what I have got, and in our discussion over it some other points might come out I have overlooked, and may know about and what I don’t know properly I can inquire for. The Potatoe [sic] garden band of Indians make considerable basketry, and live between 12 and 18 miles from here on Nicola River.6 I could go and live among them for say a week, and make a house to house visitation of the basket makers any-time before spring. Here at Spences Bridge there are only 2 or 3 basket makers in the band. It is also I think very important to visit the Kootenay very soon and get what the old woman there knows of the old Plains Kootenay dialect, and at the same time make further inquiry re. the old Kootenay boundaries[.] I think I gave you the information I collected there a year ago this month re. the whole boundaries of the Kootenay. On the same trip I could visit the Western or Lower Kootenay and try to collect some specimens of their basketry which I believe is little known. [page 4] I will certainly be able to finish all the paper for Mr Sargent before I go North in May for Sapir, but I would like to finish it before if I can so I can write off some material for Sapir, and have time to prepare myself properly for the summer’s work in the North, as well as attend to some personal matters for myself. Thus if I see it is necessary I will do a good deal of overtime or night work so as to get the work finished as soon as possible. Regarding paying me now for the completion of the work will suit me well enough. I am sending herewith my account to the end of the year. I will charge a little higher wage for this year as the cost of living has gone up so much. I have also been working very cheaply all the years past. Not that I consider myself very highly or any better than formerly or even worth the wage, but I have to live and even the Ottawa wages is really none too much as living is going up all the time and I have a wife and family to keep. You will see there is a balance of $207.00 in your favor. My wages for this month will take about half of that and I expect the expenses of the Kootenay trip will be about $150.00 so I will need money soon. Also I will have some expenses and payments to Indians when I go to Nicola. I think I can easily finish the whole work by 1st May if nothing happens. PS I may also have to buy a few more baskets to illustrate points. [page 5] Dr. Boas. 6. “Potato Gardens”—an informal name in local use at that time for the Nlaka’pamux village of Sx̣ix̣nx or Shackan in the Nicola Valley, approximately fourteen miles from Spences Bridge.

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Col. University a/c. (H.E. Sargent) in a/c with JA Teit

1912 Feb 28 By Balance to credit of Dr Boas

$409.50

1912 Mch. To 8 days work on Thomp. paper =

$24.00

Apl. To 16 [ditto] [ditto] =

48.00

May To 15 [ditto] [ditto] =

45.00

June To Fares Spuzzum and back and meals on train [Ditto] To pd. Inds at Spuzzum for meals and Information =

= 7.70 6.50

June [Ditto] 5 days work on Thomp paper etc. =

15.00

June To 4 days wages at Spuzzum on basketry and blanket designs =

12.00

July To 4 days on trip Lytton and Cisco etc. Inquiries =

12.00

To Fares and pd for meals and information =

13.80

To 4 days work on Thompson paper =

12.00

Dec. To 2 [ditto] [ditto] and notes = To stamps ¢25 paper ¢25 =

6.00 .50 $202.50

Dec. 31st By Balance

$207.00

Teit to Sapir. January 21, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I received your letter of 16th inst. to-night, and just send you a few lines to say I am very glad to get it. I like to get such a letter as it furnishes me with so many points to make inquiry about, and helps me to gather fuller information. There are always points crop up when I start writing out my material which I never thought of inquiring about while in the field, simply because they did not come to my dull mind at the time. I find that a person requires some time whilst in the field to digest as it were what he collects, and study out (as far as he can) 1913 | 559

each subject from all points of view. If he works in a hurry, or tries to cover too much there are always many things missed. The subjects of further enquiry among the Tahltans, that you outline bring points to my mind which I quite see the importance of, but many of them I would never have thought of had you not suggested them. This is why it would be [page 2] good if I had time to arrange and write out my Tahltan material, and send to you before I went north. We could then discuss it, and you could make suggestions for further points to be inquired about and in this way the information could be made very complete. I received the typewritten copy of my report and it reads all right. One little thing I intended to mention in it, but which I forgot is it seems to me of interest viz riddles. These are not used by the Interior Salish or other tribes I have been among as far as I have noticed and I dont know whether they are an Athapascan feature or North Coast. I do not have my notes handy to refer to but they told me that at a certain feast ? or something similar in the winter time they commenced ? the ceremonies by asking riddles of each other.7 It seems to have been like a game. This custom has long been in disuse and not many of the riddles are remembered, but I got two or three. Do you want me to ship your Tahltan specimens by express[?] They will only occupy a small box and will not be heavy. I can send the songs at the same time. I am up to the eyes in Boas work and am in the basketry chapter and got about 20 pages of this chapter finished. PS Dr Boas tells me my Up and Low. Thomp. myths are in print and the Lillooet ones soon will be.

Sapir to Teit. January 27, 1913.8 CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have your letter of January 21st and am very glad to hear that my questions in regard to ethnological points seemed suggestive to you. As 7. Teit inserted a question mark beside the word “feast” and a handwritten symbol beside and a little above the word “commenced” that resembles a question mark. 8. In January 1913 Teit was also collecting for the British Columbia Provincial Museum. He wrote to Newcombe, “I forwarded most of the specimens for the Prov. Museum in Feb and Mch, and have a few yet on hand ($128.00 worth) which I will send them as soon as I return from Kootenay. They sent me vouchers to make out yesterday to cover the full amount I had received from Mr. Scholefield, viz $500.00. These I have filled in and returned to-day. Mr. Kermode wrote me that he would like me to continue collecting as much as I could for them, but it seems no provision has been made for my so doing so I am out of funds from them. For this

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to the point in regard to riddles that you raise, it is not too late for me to slip in a sentence in regard to that in your summary report.9 If you can let me have at least part of your manuscript on Tahltan before you leave again for the North, I shall be delighted to read it over and discuss it with you by correspondence.10 You may as well send the Tahltan specimens by express, also the songs. Please do not fail to let me know at what rate of revolution you ran your phonograph so that your songs may be pitched correctly on our office machine. The best method of handling the problem of pitch is to get a standard whistle of some definite pitch, such as a or c, and to record its note by blowing into the horn at the start of each record made. In this way the pitches of the songs can be correctly judged by referring to a standard pitch. Of course you must let me know what standard pitch is used so that a definite record can be made when the songs are catalogued.

Boas to Teit. February 5, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121692. My dear Friend,— I should like very much to print all the remaining tales that you have from the Okanagon, etc., and also the miscellaneous notes which have accumulated, and which have not been printed in other series, in one paper in the Folk-Lore Journal. Therefore if you can conveniently send them to me soon, I should be glad to have them.

reason I will not do any collecting for them in Kootenay except possibly place an order for a bark canoe as you suggested. I may collect some things for yourself and for Ottawa, but have not time to cover the whole field there at present. I probably will not be taking up the Ottawa work again until June, when I will go North. Meanwhile rather than lose the chance (as I am receiving constant visits from Indians from different quarters with specimens) I am buying quite a number of things with my own money. However the slack time will soon be over for after the Indians commence in earnest their farming operations they will not make any more things. I placed some orders for specimens in Nicola which have not arrived yet, but will soon” (British Columbia Archives, Newcombe Family Papers, MSS 1077, Teit to Newcombe, January 29, 1913). 9. Teit, On Tahltan (Athabascan) Work, 1912, 383–87. 10. With this request Sapir indicated that he was expecting Teit to abide by the standard terms of work for the GSC, namely that in addition to a brief summary, a comprehensive report of the results of a period of field work would be written up in the ensuing months.

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Teit to Boas. February 17, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121723. Dear Friend. I received your letter a few days ago, so I stopped working in the basketry, and have been writing out the myths the last few days.11 Their bulk is more than I expected. I have finished 35 pages, and there will be nearly 30 more I judge. I will be able to send you them all within a few days. I have not got copies of the Thomp. mythology yet, except some pages of editors copy you sent me. I have finished most of the chapter on basketry excepting the designs which I am nearing the middle of. As there are about 500 designs and variations to be dealt with it takes some time. The stories I am writing for you now are all mythological tales. I have a few short stories of giants, water mysteries etc. from the Coeur d’Alene such as are included in texts of Thomp. and Shuswap, and also some Historical tales chiefly of wars such as are printed in texts of Shus. and Lil. books, but this class of stories I am not including except you desire them. You can let me know. I have some baskets on hand showing particular designs etc. Where would you prefer these sent[?] To Chicago or Ottawa[?] I can charge them up to either place. I am going to send some specimens to Ottawa shortly. I have taken [page 2] photos already of most of these baskets, and will photo the others before I send them anywhere. PS I was interested in the Mexican stories you collected a copy of which you sent me. There is a story current here called ‘Jack’ or ‘Jack the Grizzly Bear’, and I will try to collect it as fully as possible, and send it to you. I could have collected it long ago, but considered it of lesser importance as I thought it was originally a White man story. I can see the importance of it now. Where it originated is hard to say. Some Indians say it is not very old, and none of the elderly Indians class it as a real Indian story. They look on it as a different class, and some of them call it a White man’s story that deals with happenings in a country where both Whites, and Indians lived. Probably some elements or incidents of this story are absorbed or taken over into Indian stories here from time to time. Direct contact with 11. This exchange highlights the absence of a coordinated strategy among Teit, Boas, and Sapir for defining the extent of Teit’s outstanding work for Boas and a schedule for its completion. There was also no apparent agreement on the relative priority of the projects, with Boas’s agenda of the moment taking precedence.

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Mexicans in this country (BC) only dates back to 1858, and if any of them introduced stories among the Indians here it must have been 1860 or later, and it would take some years for the tales to permeate (and they seem to be older than this.) Before 1858 the direct influence here was practically all French (French Canadian and French Half breed from Canada)[;] other employees of the Fur Companies were mostly Highland Scotch and Orkney with a sprinkling of Shetland, Norwegian, English etc. but all these latter elements seem to have left no impression only the French[.] During the period of the Fur Companies say 1810 to 1860 a good deal of communication was opened up especially in the 40s and 50s between Columbia River (Fort Vancouver) and California and some Mexicans may have worked in the pack trains. Some Spanish influence may have come this way. Either that or the influence is from tribe to tribe from the SE (old Mexico) following the route of the introduction of the horse. The first priest or biblical stories appear to have come through via Montana and SE and NE from there, originating from French sources. Also some elements came directly from employees here.

Teit to Sapir. February 17, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I just send you a line or two. I have finished packing up the Tahltan specimens, and will send them soon whenever I get a chance of taking them across the river. I am living four miles E of here with my wife’s people, and am not here every day.12 I am doing the writing for Boas up there. I have finished most I have to say on basketry, and am not near the middle of the basketry designs. As there is a number of these to deal with about 500 (with variations) it is quite a job. I am working most days, almost all day, and up to 11 and 12 at night. When I get very tired of so much sitting I come down here and work on the specimens etc. for a while. I collected some interior stuff for the Prov. Museum in Victoria during last year and the year before, and I have shipped most of them off a few days ago. I have a few baskets on hand at Dr Boas disposal which may go to Chicago. I have quite a collection of my own gathered up during the last five years whenever I had a chance. I hated 12. In the vicinity of Martel Bc on the Thompson River, just upriver from Spences Bridge.

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to see good rare things and good duplicates go by, at times when I had no funds for collecting from the Museums, so I bought them with my own money altho sometimes not very convenient for me. A few of these things can hardly be duplicated now, so I am glad I got them. I am listing a number of them, and when I finished I will send you the list, and see if you will buy them. I would prefer them to go to you, but can easily dispose of them to the Province, or elsewhere[.] I do not [page 2] know the total value of the lot I am making up at present until I go over all the specimens and list them. I had a number of myths on hand from Pend d’Oreille, Coeur d’Alene, Nespelem and Okanagon etc. and Boas wants to get them soon for publishing in the Folk-lore journal so the last five days I have been working on them. There will be about 60 pages I think. I did not know about obtaining the pitch of the songs. I have sent for a standard whistle ‘a’ or ‘c’ as you suggest. The rate of revolution that I ran the machine when making the records was 160 revolutions per minute. The record itself ran at this rate of speed, and also the gear that moves the reproducer etc. The records are all two minute ones.13 I have a letter from Mr Smith which I will answer as soon as I can. PS I see by the papers Stefansson and Andersson are back.14 If you want at any leisure moment to study the phrases of a dying language or the stages of transition f.i. from Norse to English read Jakobsen’s “Det Norro̎ne sprog paa Shetland,” part of which is published and the balance will soon be out. There is a ‘treatisi’ and a ‘ord bog’[.]15

Teit to Sapir. February 21, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I just write you a line to see what you think about payment for songs, as I may collect some for you this spring from time to time as I have a chance. When Dr Boas was with me a number of years ago I got the Indians to sing without any trouble for tobacco presents. The 13. Teit was using a wax cylinder recorder. 14. A reference to Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879–1972) and Rudolph Martin Anderson (1876–1961) of the Stefansson-Anderson Expedition to Alaska and the Yukon, 1908–1912, sponsored by the Geological Survey of Canada and the American Museum of Natural History. See Stefansson, “Stefansson and Anderson in the Canadian Arctic,” 771–73. 15. ‘Ord bog’ (ordbok) is ‘dictionary’ in Norse. “Norron (second o with down-to-left slash, no accent, Norrøn) Ordbok (Old Norse Dictionary).” https://www.uib.no/en/discipline/scandinavian/ 84643/norr%C3%B8n-ordbok-old-norse-dictionary.

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phonograph was a new thing to them. Up at Tahltan last fall I paid by the day or hour, and many songs I got for presents of tobacco, cigarettes, candy etc. I have not paid any Indians by the song so far. There is an old man here who is a good singer, and knows all the old songs. He is one of the few left who is a competent singer, and has knowledge of all kinds of songs, but he wants 75 cents per song to sing, and give all the information he knows regarding the songs. I thought this somewhat high so I have made no bargain with him. Of course the songs he has is [sic] the ones we want, and when he dies no doubt [page 2] a number of songs will go with him, as others do not know them well. There is a great decadence of singing here within the last few years, and the same may be said of dancing. If there is a revival later (this has set in in a few places) it will likely be on somewhat different lines, and not exactly as it was of old. What do you think about it[?] Write and let me know. I will write you when I forward the songs and specimens. I am making fair progress with Dr Boas’ work, but it will take me quite a while to finish it up properly. PS I got a whistle ‘C’ and will use it as you directed.

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

Teit to Boas. February 24, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121724. Dear Friend I am sending you to-day 57 pages of the stories you asked for, comprising nearly 40 Tales (pretty well divided between the Eastern Salish tribes, and the Central or Okanagon group of tribes). There are 16 or 17 from the Coeur d’Alene (all short stories, more or less fragmentary). 6 from the Pend d’oreille (the same versions said to be current also among the Salish proper or Flathead). These are all pretty full stories. 14 Tales from the Sans Poil, and Okanagon tribes (some of them are quite long, and one really contains three full stories). They are from four points[:] Similkameen, Okanagon Lake, Okanagon River, and Nespilem [sic]. The Coeur d’Alene stories I collected on the Coeur d’Alene Reserve, Idaho the narrator being Koro’tu, a pure Coeur d’Alene aged over 60.16 The stories marked Pend d’oreille I got on the 16. Teit offered at least two spellings of the Schi ̱tsu’umsh name of Nicodemus, with whom he worked during his time among them: “Koro’tu” here, and Qwaroˊtus in his essay, “The Coeur d’Alene” (Teit and Boas, “Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateaus,” 122). Members of this family also contributed to the work of Gladys Reichard (An Analysis of Coeur d’Alene Indian Myths, 33), who recorded mythology from Dorothy Nicodemus, the widow of Croutous

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Flathead Reserve, Montana from Michel Revais an old man of about 75 years, ¼ French, and ¾ Indian (Pend d’oreille, and Kalispel) [.] The Tales marked Nespilem, and Okanagon River I collected in Okanagon Valley from a Nespilem Indian called Kwᴇlkwᴇltāx́ ᴇn (Red Arms) aged about 70 who was visiting there. (The Nespilem people are the Western division of the Sans Poil.) He was related to the Okanagons and said the versions of the stories he related were common to the Nespilem, Sans Poil proper, and Okanagons of Okanagon River (at least certainly all those on the lower part within the U.S.). Those marked Okanagon Lake etc. I collected from two or three men at the head of Okanagon Lake. Those marked Similkameen I collected in Similkameen Valley from an elderly man who was ¼ Thompson. Some of the stories were related in English others in Okanagon, Thompson etc. The Thompson story included is a variant of the K̠ wák̠tk̠wᴇtɬ myth.17 After searching through all my notes I find I have far more stories than I thought I [page 2] had. I find I have a considerable number of Thompson variants, and fragments. 23 of these I have written out already, and there are maybe 10 more. I think there will be about 80 pages in the whole manuscript. I have taken sufficient time to add some comparative notes to the stories. I have noted most of the comparisons with Thomp and Shuswap, but no doubt omitted some as I have no proper copy of the Thomp. mythology. As I have no copy of the Lillooet stories I have not made any comparisons with stories of that tribe. I used Hill-Tout’s Okanagon paper and I glanced over Wissler and Duval’s Blackfoot stories, Kroeber’s Ute, and Lowie’s Assiniboine, and Shoshone marking these similarities I happened to notice. No doubt there are others that have escaped my notice as I did not compare them thoroughly. I have not looked at the Cheyenne and Arapahoe stories for comparisons, nor any others than those mentioned. Besides the Interior Salish stories I find I have four Lower Fraser myths collected at Hope not far from the borders of the Utamkt. I will write them out, and send

Nicodemus, and assisted with translation by Susan Antelope Nicodemus, their daughter-in-law, in the late 1920s. A son, Lawrence Nicodemus, worked with her at Columbia University in 1935, and later taught the Coeur d’Alene language at Eastern Washington State University (Nicodemus, Snchitsu’umshtsn: The Coeur d’Alene Language, inside flap), assisting with the preparation of the Coeur d’Alene grammar (Reichard, “Coeur d’Alene,” 517–707). Gary Palmer also cites a personal communication from Lawrence Nicodemus concerning Teit’s work with Croutous (Palmer, “Coeur d’Alene,” 325). 17. The story of the four black bear brothers, collectively known as Qwaqtqwetɬ (various spellings), who traveled through Nlaka’pamux country and transformed both parts of the landscape and some of its inhabitants. For one of many accounts see Boas, Folk-tales of Salish and Sahaptin Tribes, 16–17.

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them with the others. I will be able to forward the rest of the Tales [sic] sometime this week. If I had more time I would have written some of the stories out a little better. Perhaps I have crowded them a little too much on some pages. This is all at present. PS In making these comparative notes it struck me there was a very considerable degree of resemblance between the myths of the Interior Salish tribes and those of the Northern Shoshone. Notwithstanding the smaller number of stories recorded from them they appear to stand closer to the Salish than any of western Plains tribes. This may partly be accounted for perhaps because of the more intimate relations between the two which must have existed when the Northern Shoshone extended all along the eastern borders of the Salish[.] Blackfoot myths seem to have more leanings to Salish, than Assiniboine do. I may however be wrong in these opinions.

Sapir to Teit. February 27, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have received your letters of February 17th and 21st. I shall be glad to get your Tahltan specimens and songs when they come. I shall also be glad to get your list of Thompson River specimens, and there is little doubt but that we would be glad to purchase them here. As for collecting Thompson River songs, I should like very much to have you get all you can, but I must say that 75 cents per song strikes me as decidedly high. Among the Nootka Indians in 1910, I paid 25 cents per record, regardless of whether there was one song or more than one song on the record. I generally got the words of the song down and often supplementary information without charge, except, of course, insofar as the interpreter that was used at the time was being paid by the day. It is rather hard to estimate on general principles, because to get a song down completely is quite an undertaking among some tribes, while it may be relatively simple in other cases. Perhaps you could make arrangements to work with the old man by the day or half day. If, however, you think the total charge would be more reasonable if we take it by the song, I should think you might safely offer as much as 50 cents per record, which would probably generally mean per song, provided that full information, including interpretation of text, is given with it. 1913 | 567

I wrote Humphreys in Vancouver some time ago, but have not heard from [page 2] him as yet. Do you know when you will start for your next trip north? Is there anything special in the way of supplies that you will want that will have to be forwarded from here? How about cuts for face paintings such as I sent you last time? Will you need more of them? PS You have probably learned from the papers by this time that Stefansson is to head an expedition to the Arctic regions for the Canadian Government. It is to last three years and we are trying to get two or three anthropologists put on.18

Teit to Boas. March 1, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121725. Dear Friend I am enclosing to you to-day a list of words Lillooet, Shuswap, Okanagon and Thompson to complete gaps in the comparative vocabularies of these languages. This will leave just the Spokane not very full. I suppose it is not too late yet to insert those words I am sending. I will have the last of the stories written by Monday or Tuesday next. So you may expect me to forward them about Tuesday. 18. The Canadian Arctic Expedition, funded entirely by Canada and administered by the Department of the Naval Service and the Geological Survey of Canada, was led by Vilhjalmur Stefansson and Rudolph Anderson, but included, as well, the anthropologist Diamond Jenness (1886–1969). The expedition was divided into two parties, a Northern Party led by Stefansson, exploring the Beaufort Sea area, and a Southern Party, led by Rudolph Martin, a GSC zoologist who was second-in-command of the overall expedition. The Northern Party remained in the Arctic from 1913 to 1918; the Southern Party returned to southern Canada in 1916. Jenness, who served with the Southern Party, spent the first year on the Alaskan coast, and the subsequent two years on the Coronation Gulf among the Innunnait (Copper Inuit, known then as “Copper Eskimo.”). As chief of the Division of Anthropology at the GSC, Sapir was instrumental in setting out parameters for anthropological field work to be conducted in the course of the Canadian Arctic Expedition. These were in keeping with the field work and data collection carried out at that time by anthropologists associated with the GSC. Jenness came to the Canadian Arctic Expedition as an Oxford-trained anthropologist with field work experience in New Guinea. Following service in World War I from 1917 to 1919, he joined the National Museum of Canada, which had been formed from the GSC, and following Sapir’s resignation and subsequent move to the University of Chicago, Jenness became chief anthropologist in 1926. Between 1922 and 1925 Jenness published four monographs detailing the results of his research: “The Life of the Copper Eskimos,” “The Copper Eskimos,” “Eskimo Folk-Lore, Part A,” and “Eskimo Folk-Lore, Part B,” and—with Helen Roberts, Boas’s former student, who was an ethnomusicologist, as the principal author—“Songs of the Copper Eskimos” (see Peter Kikkert, “Canadian Arctic Expedition,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, last edited February 16, 2016, https:// www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canadian-arctic-expedition, accessed March 16, 2020; William E. Taylor Jr. and Peter Kikkert, “Diamond Jenness,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, last updated March 23, 2016, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/diamond -jenness, accessed March 16, 2020).

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Teit to Boas. March 3, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121726. Dear Friend. I am sending by reg. mail to-morrow morning the balance of the myths, and stories numbering about 48 from the Thompson. Nearly half of them are Coyote myths chiefly of the Trickster cycle. A large number of these stories are merely fragments, and stories told alone or disconnectedly[.] Some may have formed incidents in fuller stories, and got loose from their settings. It seems many of the trickster stories, and several of the motives common to the tribe, are picked up, and set into stories by different story tellers in any place where they seem to or can be made to fit and where they can be used to lengthen a story, ́ or round it off. Most of the stories are from Nkamtcī́nᴇmux ͇ and several are variants. I have supplied comparative notes with nearly all. The comparisons are with Thomp. Traditions, Thomp. Mythology, Shuswap, Okanagon (Hill-Tout), Blackfoot (Wissler and Duvall),19 Assiniboine (Lowie),20 No. Shoshone (Lowie),21 Wishram (Sapir).22 I did not take time to go over these works thoroughly therefore the comparisons are not full especially with the Wishram. I find it takes up a lot of time making these comparisons, and after all many are missed. I see in Lowie’s notes to his Assiniboine stories, many places where parallels with Shuswap, and Thomp. occur but he has not noted them. A book of reference for the various tribes in which analogies could quickly be found is now badly needed. The number of pages I have written off is 84, and I have added three more giving the four Stalo stories I spoke of. If I come on any more fragments of stories in my notes I will send them at once. I will send the Jack the Bear story as soon as I can. I have an Indian coming to tell it in a few days. At least I expect him this week or next.

19. Wissler and Duvall, Mythology of the Blackfoot Indians. 20. Lowie, The Assiniboine. 21. Lowie, The Northern Shoshone. 22. A reference to Sapir, Wishram Texts.

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Teit to Sapir. March 5, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I am enclosing herewith the list of Tahltan specimens. I am too late to ship the box to-day but will do so to-morrow. The songs I may also be able to ship to-morrow or if not at least in two or three days. I will finish writing out the list of them to-night.

Teit to Boas. March 8, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121727. Dear Friend I enclose herewith a few short stories from the Coeur d’Alene[,] star myths and stories of Land and water mysteries of certain localities. I thought you might want to include these so I am sending them. I have no other stories on hand now excepting Historical stories relating to chiefs, and wars etc. (from Pend d’Oreille, Coeur d’Alene, Shuswap and Thompson) [.] I may pick up a little more Thomp. fragments from two or three men who I expect to see next week. Two of them I asked to come and relate the John [sic] the Bear story. I have a number of questions to ask them regarding [page 2] particular stories. I am now working again on the basket chapter. This is all at present.

Teit to Sapir. March 8, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I just send you [a] line to say I am shipping the Tahltan specimens and Tahltan Phono. Records to-day. I enclose shipping receipt and also a list of the songs. The records are labelled on the lids, and marked on the sides. I intended to mark them all with roman numerals on the ends of the records themselves, but have marked only the first 19 of them thus.

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Teit to Sapir. March 11, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I received your letter re. the records of songs. I got the old man to agree to the 50 cent rate. I have made a few records with him already, and will get some more again sometime soon. I would soon gather up all the songs from the tribe if I had time to attend to it but I am too busy with Boas’ work to do much. I will have a good chance to get Okanagon songs in two or three weeks from now, as there will be an Okanagon singer here visiting. If I have time I will record some. Re. when I go north I cannot state the exact date. I should go some time in May (before the middle) but may not be through with Dr. Boas work then although I hope to be. If I am not through I suppose it will be better to continue until I am through, and then go North, and do as much as I can. If I cannot manage to or am too late to make all the trips I proposed I will make other trips in places that have to be visited so the [page 2] survey will proceed just the same. There is a man coming out from Cassiar in a few weeks over the river ice before it breaks up, and I think he will be able to tell me about the date of trips with canoes to the Liard, and know something of the movements of the Indians there during the summer. He has been in on the Liard. Re. supplies I do not know of anything in particular I require excepting maps. I want to get all the Geo. Sur. maps to be had of all parts of the Interior of BC from the Line north, and also those of the Yukon Territory. I also want those giving the natural features of the country like the Kamloops sheet for instance. I am working on the basketry designs again after having stopped for two weeks or more to write off the mythological stories I had on hand. These I finished a few days ago and forwarded to Dr Boas. I have to stop my writing again, and go on a short trip to Kootenay to collect, if possible, the old dialect I told you about (this will take about ten days). I also have to make a trip to Nicola (of about a week) to get some more data Dr Boas wants on basketry. Were it not for these trips and the writing of the myths I think I would easily have finished the writing of the supplementary Thomp. paper for Boas by the 1st of May, but now I am very doubtful if I can. In fact it does not seem likely.

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Boas to Teit. March 12, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121693. My dear Friend,— I received yesterday the registered package containing the notes on traditions of the Thompson Indians. Many thanks! I am sending to you under separate cover the rest of your Thompson tales, which have just come. I trust you will let me know when you need further funds.

Sapir to Teit. March 14, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— Thank you very much for your detailed lists of Tahltan specimens and phonograph records. These will come in very handy. We have received yesterday your phonograph records and also your box of specimens. The phonograph records have all been unpacked and I have just been listening to a few of them, which I found quite interesting. I shall get at the specimens almost immediately.

Sapir to Teit. March 17, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have your letter of March 11th, and I am glad to learn that you are making progress on collecting Interior Salish songs.23 It is too bad, of course, that you can not get to work sooner on your Athabascan material, but of course we all realize that it is most satisfactory to finish up your back work with Boas before you go very deeply into new fields. I have unpacked your Tahltan specimens and find them very interesting. I have asked that all maps that we have published for Yukon Territory and British Columbia be sent to you, and you will doubtless receive them before long. 23. This work, continued by Teit until 1921, culminated in a substantial body of songs recorded on wax cylinders. Over the years Teit worked with thirty-one singers, primarily although not exclusively Nlaka’pamux people from communities near Spences Bridge. He also recorded songs from some members of neighboring societies as well as some songs originating in neighboring societies but sung by Nlaka’pamux singers. His accompanying manuscript, “Notes on Songs of the Indians of British Columbia,” is preserved in the Canadian Museum of History archives (CMH, Ethnology Documents, VI-Z-35M). See also Wickwire, “James A. Teit: His Contribution to Canadian Ethnomusicology,” 183–204.

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Teit to Boas. March 20, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121728. Dear Friend. I received your letter, and was glad to hear you had received the packages of Thompson, and other Salish myths I sent you. I have not received the copy of the Thomp. tales yet but it will likely come soon. I collected another Thomp. story last week, and some scraps of Jack the Bear story. The man who claims to know it best had to go to Lytton but I will get him as soon as I can when he returns. The other Indian who it is said knows it fairly well got put in jail when he was on his way here to tell me the story. I am quite out of funds now and working on my own money. I am nearly finished writing out the Thomp basketry with the exception of what I may gather from the women when I go to Nicola. When I finish the part I am nearly through with, I will copy it off, and forward to you so you may know what it consists of, and find out what further information is required to complete it, or round it off. I am leaving for Kootenay to try and collect the old Plains Kootenay dialect about the end of the month, and will return as soon as I possibly can.

Teit to Sapir. March 20, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I am sending you to-day 91 negatives of Indians and Indian subjects.24 This is all I have taken during the last twelve months or more. 60 of the negatives are Interior Salish, and 31 Athapascan. I have numbered all of them on the corners adding I.S. for the Interior Salish, and A. for the Athapascan. I have kept a list here of the number, and character of each photo, and the names of the Individuals, tribe etc. etc. so I can furnish any required information regarding any one or all of the people pictured. I can send you a copy of the list if you want it, some time when I have leisure. Some of the group pictures were not necessary to take for ethnological purposes, but only by taking them in some cases could I get the others. I made no prints of a number of the Salish ones, 24. The photographs Teit took during his GSc years and sent to Ottawa are a valuable record for scholars, for the descendants of the people he photographed, and for others in their communities (see Canadian Museum of History, “James Teit Photos, Gateway to Aboriginal Heritage, https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/tresors/ethno/etf0200e.html, accessed March 16, 2020; see also Tepper, The Interior Salish Tribes of British Columbia).

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and would like to get two prints of each. One to give to the Indians as I promised, and one for myself. One print of each of the Athapascan ones will be enough. As I developed all the Salish ones myself (being in a hurry to get some prints of baskets) I will only charge you up with the price of the films. 75 cents per doz. is what I paid. The Tahltan ones I got done in Vancouver by a photographer I will charge you the amount I paid him for developing. I do not have the bill handy to look at, but the amount is not much. Some of the negative I am sending are pretty good, but quite a number are rather flat, and your man will have to be pretty careful with them to get results in the prints. Perhaps there is a special paper he can use for the flat ones, and some people also use what is called intensifier. Likely I did not give quite long enough exposure to some of them therefore the flatness. In some cases also the films you buy vary in quality some being better than others. Film pack is what I use. The next batch of pictures I take I will mail to you for both development and printing.

Teit to Sapir. March 22, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I received your letter last night, and was glad to hear the Tahltan specimens and records and lists had reached you all right. If you can manage it some time I would like you to give me a type written copy of each list so may have them for reference as I retained only very rough copies of them. I was glad to hear you found the songs interesting. I am sending you herewith a list of the specimens I have catalogued for you (if you want them). The specimens (as per catalogue) number 136 (130 Ntlak., 1 Shus, 1 Koot, and 4 Tahltan), and amount to about 315 pieces. Almost all are No. 1 as to materials, workmanship etc. and a few pieces are different in type from any I have collected for New York, Chicago and Victoria. I value the lot at about $470.00 or $475.00 which includes all expenses in connection with collecting, fixing and supervising, cataloguing, ticketing and packing. These are all of my collection I have time to go over, and catalogue at present. I have a good many specimens still on hand, chiefly coiled basketry (amounting prob. to abt $250.00 worth of baskets), a number of cradles of different types, a number of men’s and women’s costumes, weapons, pubescent girl’s ceremonial stuff, games, etc., etc. If you are satisfied I

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can catalogue most of these before May, and send you a list. I think this is all at present. PS If you decide to buy you can keep this list and send me a copy when you have time. Otherwise send it back.

Boas to Teit. March 28, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121694. My dear Friend,— I received your letter of the 20th of March to-day. I am asking the treasurer at once to send you a draft for $500. Will you do me the favor to let me know some time what your further plans are, and how much more money you think you will require before you wish to close our work and take up the work for the Canadian Geological Survey. In a way I am very sorry that we cannot continue to work together, but I feel very strongly that your interests will be better guarded by the new arrangement.

Sapir to Teit. March 28, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have your letters of March 20th and 22nd, also your list of Thompson River and other specimens, and your 91 negatives. In accordance with your request, I am sending you carbon copies of your Tahltan specimen and song lists. I have had our museum numbers entered against your own numbers. VI H is our number for Tahltan, including Kaska, Taku, and Nehanie.25 VI P is our number for Sekanais, as you will see from your song list. I thought it useful to add these numbers so that you could refer directly, if necessary, to our regular filing numbers for specimens and songs. In collecting further specimens 25. The catalog number system set up by Sapir for the collections assembled by curators in the Anthropology Division of the Geological Survey of Canada assigned a Roman numeral to each culture area, a letter to each tribe located within it, and an Arabic number to each item or cluster of items. The system remains in place in the Canadian Museum of History in 2021. In this system the Northwest Coast is area VII, the letter assigned to the Haida is B, and VII-B-1 would be the first cataloged item attributed to the Haida. In Teit’s day both the Interior Salish and Athapaskan were included in Area VI. At a subsequent period, the Interior Salish collection was renumbered as Area II. In this letter Sapir outlined the system as it applied to Athapaskan collections and indicating that songs were numbered in the same way as artifacts.

1913 | 575

for us, I think it would be very convenient if you continue your old system of numbers instead of beginning it all over again. In other words, when adding Tahltan material to what we already have on hand, begin with number 30, 29 being where you left off, similarly with Tahltan and Sekanais songs, and with Thompson River, Shuswap, and Kootenay specimens. We always enter in our catalogue original numbers in parentheses after our own running numbers so that ready reference may be made to original lists, which, as in your own case, sometimes convey valuable information too detailed to be entered as catalogue entry. Through some inadvertency you evidently failed to distinguish Athabascan and Interior Salish negatives, all of them being numbered consecutively from 1 to 91. This being the case, I can not, of course, [page 2] tell which, and so instead of having only two prints made of the Athabascan set, I think it will be simpler to have three prints made of each negative. One set we shall want to keep on file here; the other two I shall send to you for yourself and Indians. On receipt of your prints, which may be some little time in coming, kindly send me a list of titles including time when taken and place where taken. You will find that each of the prints has been assigned a negative number by the Photographic Department, so that you will find it quite easy to refer to the photographs without bothering with your original numbers. Your list of Thompson River specimens seems quite promising, and I should like to see that material here. I should think that $475 would be a fair price to pay, judging from the number and character of the specimens as described by you. Please make out a bill in duplicate covering the lot, and send them on at your earliest convenience. I think it might be well to submit with the bill a statement in duplicate to the effect that the specimens were obtained at a time when you had no connection with the Geological Survey, as you understand that it is not allowable to make private collections and sell them to the Government while under the Government employ. This statement may prevent embarrassment. In future, in case you see yourself forced to have developing done outside of the Survey, it might be more convenient to include expenses for same in your field accounts. This would apply to purchase of films, plates, or other photographic material.

576 | 1913

Teit to Boas. April 4, 1913. Postcard. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121729. Elko BC26

Dear Friend. My eyes got a little tired so I lay off about four days then I came down here to hunt up the woman that is said to know the old Kootenay Plains dialect. I left home on the 31st I am waiting here for a Great Northern train to take me to Flagstone where an Indian is waiting to drive me over the Ind Reserve SE of there. Will let you know results as soon as I can. I will stay at Creston one or two days on the way back to investigate the Low Kootenay basketry. Plenty of snow and mud around here yet and bugs in the hotels.

Boas to Teit. April 7, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121695. My dear Friend,— Many thanks for the story of the Orphans, which I received yesterday. I trust you received the money which I had sent you.

Teit to Boas. April 9, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121730.27 Dear Friend. I write you this to let you know I am now on my way home and ought to be at Spences Bridge again in a couple of days. I went to the Lower Kutenai but had not sent notice to the chief of my intended visit so I found the chief and almost the entire band away at an Indian dance being held at Bonner’s Ferry.28 As they would not be back for four days I made up my mind to leave the investigation of the Kootenay basketry to a later date. I notice the Low. Kut. make baskets or bags of rushes the same as the Thomp (Nicola etc.). The Tobacco Plains Kut. claim the Up. Kut. never made any baskets, only the Low. Kut. and those made by the latter were not so well made nor as fancy as those of the Salish tribes. I got two short stories (mythological really altho in one case the events 26. Elko, Flagstone, and Creston are communities in southeastern British Columbia, near the Canada-U.S. border. 27. On the letterhead of the Queen’s Hotel, Nelson Bc. 28. That is, Bonner’s Ferry, Idaho, just south of the Canada-U.S. border.

1913 | 577

narrated are said to have happened about 5 generations ago) giving accounts of the origins of the present up and Low. Kut. or repeopling [sic] of the region. I also heard of a an [sic] origin story whereby the Kootenay and other tribes are said to be descended from trees. I did not get the story but likely will later. My inquiries confirmed the information I received over a year ago re. the occupation by Kut. of the Crows Nest Country[.] This was a distinct band of the Up. Kut. They had their headquarters near Michel BC, and had a chief of their own. They talked the same dialect exactly as the other Kut. They appear to have occupied and ranged or hunted the country both west [page 2] and east of the Rockies. In the latter direction probably at least as far E. as Old Man Riv. and maybe as far as near Pincher Creek. They are said to have been killed off by an epidemic something like small pox or a disease of red blotches a few generations ago probably 100 years ma29 date uncertain but not very long ago, and the few survivors if any became scattered.30 They cultivate tobacco like the Kut. of Tobacco Plains. South of them and south of McLeod lived the Tunáxa who were at one time it is said a very numerous people. Remains of a great camp of the latter is said yet to be seen. Chief Paul told me he had seen when young the remains of the old camp S. of MacLeod in the shape of tipi sites easily discernable [sic] by the rings of stones which were placed at the butts of the poles to hold them steady during wind. This old camp is in at the foot hills (prob. near the S.W part of the present Blood Reserve) and can be traced for a distance of five miles. I found the old woman who was said to speak Tunáxa (Tunāx́ e is the Salish pronounciation she says)[.] She says she talked it altogether when a very small girl. She remembers only 28 words of it diff. from Kut. and these I wrote down. I also got one personal name and one tribal name. She said several of the neighboring tribes were called by them differently from in the Kut. language but she had forgotten them. Her remembrance of Tunáxa words had been getting less during the years. According to her, the head quarters of the tribe was near Browning, Montana, and they consisted of 2 distinct bands that had separate chiefs but generally camped together. The tribe once was very numerous, but one band was killed off with an epidemic before the introduction of the horse. Only 9 survived. One of these settled among the other band and 8 went west and settled among the Pend d’oreille. The other band disappeared later and she does not know what 29. Here “probably 100 years ma” is crossed out in original. 30. Here “if any” is crossed out in original.

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became of them. According to her, over half the words in Tunáxa were identical with Up. Kut. So it is considered one of three old dialects of Kootenay. PS My previous information re. the relative positions of Kootenay, Salish and Shoshone east of the Rockies was affirmed. These Kut. Tunáxa are evidently the Kootenay people or related to Kootenay who according to the Flathead lived close to the Salish of Sun River (on the north of them) but the Flathead considered the Tunāx́ a Salish in language so it seems there was both a Salish and a Kut. Tunāx́ e [sic] tribe living close to each other. Why they should both be called by the same name is a mystery. I got nothing showing the meaning of the name.

Teit to Boas. April 12, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121731.

I write you this to let you know I have just returned safely. I wrote you a postcard from Elko and a short letter from Nelson. I was successful so far I suppose as I could be re. the Tunāx́ e (or Tunáxa) work, but failed re. the basketry inquiries, owing to the absence of the particular Indians I wished to see. Had I not so much writing to do here I would have stayed another week there, and no doubt obtained pretty full information as to the basketry, and possibly have obtained some specimens, altho I hear very few baskets are made there now. All the more reason to procure specimens now and information. Thank you very much for your kind letter of 28th ult. which I received to-day. I know you have made all arrangements for the best, and I certainly appreciate the marked kindness, and consideration you have always shown to me. You have been my best friend, and what more can I say. After all these years I will miss my working with you. Dr Sapir however is an able, and a good man, I think a lot of him, and no doubt we will get along all right. I some times [sic] long to see you, and if at some time in the not too distant future I should have the chance [page 2] to visit New York again nothing would give me greater pleasure than to meet you again. I received the cheque for $500.00 all right, and have placed the amount to the credit of your account. I will try to make out an estimate for you of the money required to finish up the work, but it may be rather uncertain. I suppose it is agreed between yourself and Dr Sapir that I continue on Thomp. paper until finished. This is going to take me longer than I anticipated, and may possibly (as 1913 | 579

it looks now) run out into the summer. Little doubt however I will be able to get through in time to make a trip up North for Dr Sapir altho maybe not the particular trips I was reckoning on. When the Thomp. paper is finished there remains nothing more of our work in my hands that I can think of excepting the notes I have on material culture etc. of the Okanagon, Coeur d’Alene and other Salish tribes that you know about and a number of Thomp. texts which I have not written out fully, and translated yet. These things you have not declared your wishes regarding yet. Also the baskets with new designs which I mentioned to you. I mean as to where you think best I should send them. I will send you the Plains-Kootenay or Tunáxa words in a few days. My eyes feel very well rested up now so I will start in on my writing again in a couple of days. I have to write some letters etc. first. PS Perhaps I should send you a map showing the boundaries of the Kootenay tribe agreeing with what I have ascertained since I made out the Salish maps.

Teit to Sapir. April 13, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I have just returned from a trip of about two weeks duration among the Kootenay (for Dr Boas). I was successful in finding out all possible re. the Plains Kootenay and their old dialects etc., but did not get much information (at least not satisfactory) re. coiled basketry, as the Lower Kootenay were nearly all away. I would have had to wait another week for this, and felt that from my other work I could hardly spare the time so I returned. Were I not anxious to get on with my writing I would have stayed until I got all the information I could. I saw the young man I spoke of re. Kootenay traditions, and made arrangements with him to write all he can of them at his own convenience. I considered the price you suggested of 15 cents per page far too little for this country. It is not like as if a man was a fast writer, and just sat down, and wrote right ahead, and the job would be a lasting one. In that case I believe 15 cents a page would be good pay. I considered that these stories required to be written but once, and their number was limited. Also that the expense of another man making a special trip to collect them would be eliminated, and the chances are the Indian would be able to give some stories that a collector on a short trip prob. would not obtain. The young man claims to know most of the stories of the Upper 580 | 1913

Kootenay, and a good many of those current among the Blood and Piegan. Of course there will no doubt be a number of Kootenay stories he will not be able to give (especially at [page 2] first) as every part of the tribe would have to [be] visited to get a very complete collection. However if he does well he may later act as a collector as opportunity offers. He is continually mingling at dances etc. with other bands. I gave him instructions re. the writing that he must give the stories as near as possible to the way they are related. To miss out no so called vulgar or other parts, and to be sure to mark each story whether Kootenay, Blackfoot or both etc. When he had written them he could send them to me. I would look them over, and help him re. the insertion (spelling, etc.) of Indian words, and also, obtain from him any notes re. points in the stories I thought might be required. I promised him 30 cents per full sized fullscap page, (finished page) with the understanding that after the work was finished if you considered his work up to the mark or worth more it was left with you as to whether you would pay him something additional per page. I also promised to provide him with fullscap paper. He said that all he could write per day was about 5 or 6 pages as he wrote in pencil first, and then wrote it over again in ink on other paper which was equal to writing of 10 to 12 pages so far as work went. Of course he only gets paid for the finished work. As this price is considerably less than what Dr Boas paid me for the first work I did for him in writing down traditions, and I know I made not very much at it I thought the above bargain with the Indian quite reasonable or cheap. Let me know what your wish is regarding this matter, and I will write to the Indian, and clinch the bargain if you think desirable. I received your letter to-day. It had been awaiting me. Thanks for the carbon copies of the Tahltan specimen and song lists, also for attaching your Museum numbers to same. I will keep on numbering additional specimens as you direct. Yes, I noticed after I had numbered [page 3] the negatives, that the numbering was not quite satisfactory to my mind. As soon as the prints arrive I will send you a list of the titles etc. If you look at the negatives you will find I have marked following each number letters for the stock. A for Athapascan, and I.S. for Interior Salish, you will thus be able to see at a glance at least the stock. I will give you the particulars of tribes etc. in the title list. I will also add place and time of taking the picture as you desire. I am glad you will take the part of my collection I catalogued for you, as I would like to see it go to you, and you need such stuff there. I think you will be pleased with almost every number in it. I will make out a bill in duplicate, and also a statement 1913 | 581

of the character you suggest so there may be no complications. I know it would not be right for a person to make a collection on their own account whilst working for you, and then turn around and try to sell it to you. Some of the articles I have had for quite a number of years, and others are comparatively recent. Some of the things I bought at times when I could not very well spare the money to lock it up in this way, but I did not want to let all the good things go by. I lost the chance of acquiring some very good, and rare specimens as it was by not always having the money handy, or not offering enough. These included a magnificent war bow made in the early 50s, a fine copper war club, and a carved stone war club. These three things in particular I have always regretted not having acquired at almost any cost. My wife has a small collection commencing 10 years ago mostly baskets a few articles of costume, and some women’s things, all good but I dont think she cares to sell it just yet. She has a notion that if she does sell it she would rather see it go to Victoria where she can occasionally see the things.

Sapir to Teit. April 19, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have your letter of April 13th. It is very satisfactory to learn that you have rescued the Plains Kootenay dialect from oblivion. I suppose this recent Kootenay work that you have been doing is for Dr. Boas. I shall be much interested in seeing the results some day. As for arrangements in regard to obtaining Kootenay mythology, I realize that 15 cents per page, which I previously suggested, is very little, particularly out in that country where the rates are so high. I should think that 30 cents per full-sized foolscap page, as you suggest, would be all right. Do you think we need pay more than that? One trouble with material obtained from Indians is that it is apt to be in such poor literary form that it requires an awful lot of time and energy going over it and preparing it for publication. Of course, I do not know how well your Kootenay informant can write. Please let me know when you expect to leave for your next field trip.31 Did you get the copies of Lowie’s Chippewyan Tales and Goddard’s 31. Teit’s contract for the fiscal year 1913–1914—that is, April 1, 1913, to March 31, 1914—signed by Teit and Brock and witnessed by Art Clemes, of Spences Bridge, appeared to provide time for Teit’s continuing additional activities. As in the 1912–1913 fiscal year, the contract provided for “a salary of $125 per month, each month of such time being exclusively devoted to

582 | 1913

Chippewyan Texts and Grammar that I asked Dr. Wissler to send you[? These have been published only recently, and I thought you might be interested in looking them over by way of comparison with your own work.

Sapir to Teit. April 22, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— Under another cover I am sending you prints of your films recently submitted by me. They are all in duplicate. Kindly let me have titles for them referring to our negative numbers.

Teit to Sapir. April 24, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr. Sapir, I received your letter to-day. I do not know much myself about how the Kootenay man will write. I think 30 cents per page will be enough considering the way the writing will likely be done. However I will likely be able to help him out some in making the matter clear (where the English is too bad or obscure) and by adding notes, and writing the Indian words for him etc. Yes, I got the copies of Chippewyan Tales, Texts, etc., but have not had time to read them over very carefully yet. Yes, the Kootenay trip was for Dr. Boas. I just sent in the report of same to him to-day. This trip took about two weeks [page 2] time, and before that I lay off for nearly a week resting my eyes so I have not done much on the writing for Dr Boas (Thomp. paper, Basketry etc.) this month. I am writing on it again now however. These delays (at other work than writing) has [sic] put me back so I dont know exactly when I may get through. It probably will not before about the end of June when I will be able to take up your work again. I sent duplicate bills of the specimens you bought a few days ago. I may not despatch the specimens for a couple of weeks or more as some Kootenay Indians are coming over here to the scientific work for the Geological Survey of Canada, whether in the field or while working up material for publication.” The wording implied that there might be periods not exclusively devoted to GSC work; however this related only to his pending work for Boas. As Teit indicated in his letter to Boas of December 6, 1912, the GSC did not contemplate any other legitimate nonGSC work (CMH, Edward Sapir Correspondence, folder: “Contracts (1913–1920),” box 638 f.16).

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Big Indian Chiefs meeting, and I would like to show them some of the specimens to find out how they correspond with those formerly used in country. PS Send me if you can a type written copy of the catalogue of the specimens I sent you (that you bought) so I may have a memo to refer to. [page 3] PS I am sending you to-day 2 film packs of Indian pictures I took lately (for development and printing). I cannot number them until I receive the prints. I do not know how these have come out. Whether they are good or bad. I hope they will turn out good. Forward prints as soon as you can conveniently do so for the Indians keep bothering me to find out if their pictures came out good.

Teit to Boas. April 24, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121732. Dear Friend. I herewith enclose to you the material I collected on my late trip to Kootenay excepting a couple of short traditions, and a list of tribal names. I also send you a map showing old traditional boundaries of the Kootenay and some additional notes on the Nᴇkutᴇméux. If you want the two Koot. stories, and the list of tribal names let me know. Re. what additional money I may require for finishing of the Thompson paper. I may say I think I have now nearly enough excepting you want to purchase the basket specimens I have on [page 2] hand. These are collected to show designs etc. and include a number of designs not in the museums so far. I don’t care which museum they go to as long as it is a good place. I can send them to New York, Chicago or Ottawa which ever you desire. I think the value of them is about $300.00 and there must be about 70 to 80 or more baskets. I am just guessing at the number, and value as I have no proper list made up. The rest of the work (Thompson paper) may be finished on the money you sent me. It will not be over $100.00 more at the outside I think. I have not done much work on the paper this month, but am working on it again now. PS I enclose the papers under separate cover.

584 | 1913

Boas to Teit. April 29, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121696. My dear Friend,— Will you kindly let me know what the following characters used in your vocabularies of the interior and coast tribes of British Columbia mean:—

also ʻ preceding various letters. and the period at the beginning and in the middle and at the end of words. Please let me hear from you regarding this as soon as you can make it convenient.

Boas to Teit. April 30, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121697. My dear Friend,— I got your letter of April 24 to-day and also the notes on the Kutenay, together with the map. Thank you very much for the same. I shall be very glad to have the two Kutenay stories and the list of tribal names that you mention. PS—I will let you know later in regard to the baskets.

1913 | 585

Teit to Boas. May 3, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 143671. Dear Friend I send you herewith the following additional information on the Tonáxa [sic] that I have received from the old woman I saw in Kootenay. As there seemed to be one or two points not quite plain in the information I received from her I wrote to her son, and got the following from her through him regarding these points. The headquarters of the Tonáxa (her son spells it Ktunagha) band from whom she is descended was at or very near the place now called Browning in Montana in the center of what is now the Blackfoot Reservation in that state. Her grandfather viz her father’s father was pure Tonáxa and one of the eight survivors who settled among the Pend d’oreille (see tradition sent you). He was probably a very young man at this time. Some time (don’t know how long) after settling down among the Pend d’oreille he married a woman from Windermere (up. Kootenai). [He may have been born about 150 years ago, and the breaking up of the Tonáxa of Browning have taken place say about 125 to 135 years ago or thereabouts. This would be about the date according to some Flathead informants (viz abt 150 years) when the Blackfoot broke up ́ se [sic] (Salish). JAT.] the Sᴇmtāu The same year that the eight crossed the mountains to the Pend d’oreille all or some of them returned to the Plains with the Pend d’oreille, and went to the Tonáxa country (around Browning) [page 2] to visit the other band of Tonáxa (see tradition) but although they looked thoroughly for them throughout their old territory they found no trace of any people of the other band. After this these men returned with the Pend d’oreille and settled among the latter for good. No one knows among the surviving Tonáxa what became of the other band of their kinspeople, nor did anyone learn afterwards with any certainty what had become of them. The most general believe [sic] was that they had migrated in a body. Tonáxa lodges were all or at least mostly of the ‘Tipi’ style and were covered with buffalo skins and elk skins dressed soft, and sewed together so they were very convenient for packing and carrying. No mats were used for covering tipis or lodges (at least by the Browning Tonáxa). The climate was far too windy to use mat lodges. All the old Tonáxa country was a very windy country. 586 | 1913

The Tonáxa of Browning never owned or used any horses up to the time of their dispersal. They traveled all around between the Rockies and the sweet grass hills without horses. The whole Tonáxa of the plains had no horses during the time of their existence as a tribe there. The eastern boundary of all the Tonáxa was the sweet grass Hills (Her son says “The Ktunagha was at around or between the Rockies, and Sweetgrass Hills”). The Tonáxa and the Shoshonies were enemies, and fought in this part of the country (during the existence of the Tonáxa) viz on the borders of or within parts of the Tonáxa country especially the eastern part near the Sweetgrass Hills. PS I have a number of pages on basketry ready to send you. I only have to add notes to them. PS There seems to be some kind of a vague tradition that the Tonaxa Country was the original home of the Kootenay but so far I have been unable to get any definite tradition or even opinion from the Kootenay on this point.

Teit to Boas. May 4, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 143673. Dear Friend I received your letter to-day, and as you might like to have the Kootenay tribal names I collected for comparison with the Salish I herewith enclose same. Re the signs used by me in the vocabularies A dot or period under a letter signifies that the sound is vague, indefinite, or not clear or variable like a breathing. Thus d̟ sounds like d or nearer to d than anything else to my ear but it is not a clear sound, and sometimes may be heard more like n to t. The same with c̟. Sometimes it sounds more like s or even z. It is variable or not clear and so on. A period at the beginning of a letter denotes there seems to be a short indistinct breathing as .n almost like En but shorter or less distinct. .s the same almost like Es. When the period in [sic] after n or s it is almost like nᴇ or sᴇ̄. Sometimes also .t and so on. A period at the beginning of a word same as above, also for a kind of stop or slight pause as if a letter or sound was there which is not uttered. 1913 | 587

A period in the middle of a word any place denotes there is a stop or pause there sometimes a catch or perhaps glottal stop (I do not know this well, and some people use them and others will not in the same word so I did not pay much attention to glottal stops. In some cases no doubt the period represents them) as if a letter or sound was there which is not uttered. In some cases I know it actually represents a missing letter. C.f. án.tko anátko full form—atko substantival for water Thomp. and many other examples. A period at the end of a word also denotes there seems to be something missing (a letter or even sometimes a syllable) it appears as a kind of a breathing or indistinct sound or continuation of the word. Raised small letters (I think I wrote most of them under rather than above the line) denotes there is a feeble rather indistinct sound there which my ear catches as the small letter put in. f.i. skwos a faint w sound between k and o in the mouths of some. Sometimes it may be pronounced by some skwos by others skos and again between the two. Same with yll where there seems to be a y tinge [?] preceeding [sic] the el and so on. -xu common at the end of words as mixu means there is a breathing with a u tinge at the end of x miux that it occurs between i and x ́ z32 also-kku where there is a faint ku same with-xo-ku-lux , qwë́ɳ sound after the k tss where there is a prolongation of the s sound ṡ I think I also wrote sometimes (same as 8) if you can give me an example of a word or two that ṡ occurs in and the name of the language I will likely be able to tell you for certain re it. Re ȧ, ė and o̟ I do not remember using them, and I cannot find any notes regarding them. n I sometimes used for long n but when writing out the vocabularies later I probably used nn viz double n33 [Page 2] [illeg]34 iɫ about like ʟ but variable sometimes tl or L [illeg] t kind of exploded t breath forced out with force and quickly p kind of exploded p breath [ditto] and [ditto] with lips [illeg] it seems

32. Last word nearly illegible. 33. Several lines appear lost at the top of the page. 34. Top line illegible.

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ng kind of nasal n like ng in thing, bring etc. [P]robably you have met with the same sound among the Songish or Lkungen[;] I found it only among the Klallam and Lummi. ‘ syllable following is accented with great force or stress or pronounced higher than rest of word. Often there is a stop preceeding [sic] the raising of the voice e.g. sxa‘xá ) the first part of the word preceeding [sic] is sometimes used and sometimes not ( end of word used sometimes and sometimes not[;] in both cases it makes no difference to the meaning of the word. If there are any other signs not clear or if I have not explained these good enough[,] I have just got your other letter and will send the two short Kootenay stories to-morrow.

Teit to Sapir. May 4, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I received the prints all right, and your photographic department has done them well, and they are nicely finished. Some of those I took last Feb. are poor and I think not worth mounting. I will try to get these individuals again. Almost all the others have come out well. It is hard for me sometimes to judge the light correctly and I suppose all amateurs have this difficulty, and occasionally over expose or under expose their pictures. It is a pity the costume pictures were not a little better, but I will likely manage to make a number of good ones some time. I had a letter from our Kootenai Man lately asking for some more instruction on certain points which I have now given him yesterday. He says he will have about 100 pages finished by the end of June or earlier. I am sending you to-day the list descriptive of the negatives. If you want additional information re. same I will try to furnish it. I was very glad to hear you had a son.35 I congratulate both Mrs. Sapir and yourself and hope he may be long spared to you.

35. Herbert Michael Sapir, born March 14, 1913, was the eldest of three children born to Edward Sapir and his wife, Florence Delson Sapir. For a discussion of Sapir’s family see Darnell, Edward Sapir: Linguist, Anthropologist, Humanist, 45–49.

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Sapir to Teit. May 6, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— Under another cover I am forwarding you two sets of prints of 23 exposures recently submitted to me and referred to in your letter of April 24th. I regret to say that there was one miss. Please let me have titles for these as soon as you conveniently can.

Teit to Boas. May 6, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 143674. My Dear Friend I sent an answer to your queries re signs I used in writing and also the list of Kootenai names for tribes yesterday. I may not have got the spellings of some of the Kootenai words exactly right as I am not much accustomed to the sounds of their language some of which are rather indistinct. Besides when I wrote down the names of the tribes the room was full of men talking, and smoking and it was hard to hear distinctly. I notice however that some of the names I have got agree fairly well with some of those of Chamberlain’s that I have noticed in books. c.f. terms for Sarcee, Cree etc. When I took down the Tonáxa words everything was quiet, and the old woman, her son and myself alone in a house. I took them down with great care, and repeated until I was certain I had them right. In a former letter I gave you an [page 2] explanation of one of the tribal names I got from the Kalispel of a tribe I could not identify at the time. There was another tribe also which I could not identify. It seems pretty certain now that these tribes are as follows. .ntcu‛wā3́ 6

Or tcu‛wa´ pílakᴇn ́ pī́lᴇkᴇn

37

Ojibway or Chippewa

Piegan or North Piegan

pílᴇkén

36. The two similar terms are bracketed together in original letter. 37. The three similar terms are bracketed together in original letter.

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The South Piegans were called ‘Small Rockies’ and [‘]Poor Robes’ by the Kalispel and some others. You may include the above in the vocabularies. I got this information lately from a Kootenay who understands the Salish language and has been among the Kalispel, Pend d’oreille and Flathead. He considers and understands the above two names to represent these tribes.

Teit to Boas. May 7, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121733. My Dear Friend If it will not inconvenience you or keep back your work in any way I would like you to send me for a short time the part I wrote on basketry annexed to the survey of Interior and Coast Salish tribes of U.S. I do not have any copy, and do not remember all I wrote. I ask this because I think I have some information on the shapes of baskets Coast and Interior which I did not include in the paper, and either ought to be included in it or in the present chapter on the basketry of the Thompson. I also have a little information on designs which may not have been included. I will require to keep it for only a few days. I sent you the 2 short Kootenay stories yesterday.

Sapir to Teit. May 7, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— Dr. Boas has asked me whether I would care to purchase some seventy or eighty baskets that you have on hand and that you have been using for your paper on basketry.38 Could you kindly give me some idea of this collection, and whether you think it will duplicate to any extent what we already have on hand and what is to be included in your forthcoming Thompson River shipment? Dr. Boas specified 38. Boas wrote to Sapir, on April 30, 1913, “In connection with his work for me, Mr. James A. Teit has made a collection of from seventy to eighty baskets, which are to be described in a paper which Mr. Sargent wants to publish. Mr. Teit would like to dispose of the collection to a museum, and values it at about $300. I might, of course, refund the money from the appropriation made by Mr. Sargent, but I do not see any reason why I should encumber Columbia University with a collection. Will you let me know whether you would be in a position to buy it. I should have to reserve the right to use the baskets for the publication in question” (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b.621, f.1, folder: “Boas, Franz [1910–1914]”).

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that he would have to reserve the right to make use of these baskets. I do not know what he means, but presumably he has reference to photographing them or making drawings from them for your paper. If so, I think it would be best to have all that kind of work done before we take over the baskets, should it seem advisable to purchase them. I will want to have a good deal of photographing of specimens done here for various lines of work which we have in progress, and as the Photographic Department is always more or less rushed, I should not like to encumber them with more work than is really necessary. Please let me know what tribes are represented in your collection.

Boas to Teit. May 10, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121698.39 My dear Friend,— I have received your letter of the 3d of May, for which I thank you very much. I have written to Sapir in regard to your baskets, and you will hear from him directly. Of course, I presume we shall need them for your paper.

Boas to Teit. May 13, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121699. My dear Friend,— Many thanks for your letter containing the notes on the Kutenay.

Boas to Teit. May 15, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121700.40 My dear Friend,— I am sending enclosed the following pages of manuscript on basketry, in accordance with your request:— pp. 6, 7, Coiled basketry.

39. On Columbia University letterhead. 40. On Columbia University letterhead.

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pp. 1–12, containing letter to me from you, dated Dec. 1, 1909, and information on bark and woven baskets and designs and their significance.41 pp. 9½–12, on basketry in general Letter of March 22, 1910, from you to me, bearing on the subject of basketry. You will find in the second lot (pp. 1–12) a few paragraphs bearing upon other subjects; but as these were so interspersed with the basketry information, I could not well cut them out. So when you are through with it, you might return it to me.

Teit to Sapir. May 15, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I have both your letters to hand, and the prints I am glad to see the latter have come out very well. I enclose list of the subjects. Please send me a type written copy of these lists at your convenience. I will then have a proper duplicate to refer to. Re. the baskets that Dr Boas speaks of they will not reduplicate what you have so far as designs go. I think the only ones you have from here are in Dr Newcombe’s collection that he sold to you. In the collection I sold you lately there are very few baskets, and none of them if I remember right are of coiled basketry of cedar roots, so they will not reduplicate any of these. The baskets are collected specially to show designs so each is a different design, and many of the designs are different from those that went to the Amer. Museum and the Field Museum that I collected from here. Some are also collected to show special shapes, and points in structure and ornamentation. They are all sizes and some are No. 1 workmanship and others rough. I suppose what Dr Boas means is photographs or drawings he may want of some of them. I think however he will not require many of these. I could take pictures here to show the designs, and have them developed at Dr. Boas expense.

41. This letter is not in the APs file.

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Teit to Boas. May 19, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121734. Dear Friend. I am enclosing herewith with a long story I collected a few days ago. It is one of the versions I have been trying to get for a month or more viz one of the Jack or Bear cycle. I think you will find it interesting for besides containing incidents of other Thomp. and Shus. stories it has a great similarity to the Assiniboine, and Shoshoni versions, and some resemblance to the Micmac. I heard a story years ago among the Okanagon whereby skᴇlāú.na (viz Bear) who could put on his skin and become bear at will travels to look for work and picks up three or four companions who also seem to have been semi bears. I did not record the story at the time, and do not remember the details, but remember the incident of his going to school was in it, and because the children made fun of him he attacked and killed them. Years ago I heard a story among the Lillooet of a bear man who traveled and got as companions other bear men, but the details I have completely forgotten.42 I know it was of the same cycle but differed very considerably in details from the versions obtaining among Shuswap and Thomp. By the way don’t you think alamḗr may be French meaning By or at the sea [?] An old Indian informed me he thought the name was Cree and meant lake dweller or something similar. I am trying to collect some more incidents of the Jack story before I send it to you, but have not found any one who knows more than pieces of it. One of the incidents I collected is holding up the rock, and two others are connected with the fooling of priests. Jack (or John) was a Whiteman according to some, an Indian according to others (he fooled Whites)[,] a kind of semi bear according to others. Others say he was Snānaz and others claim he was related to Coyote. Besides stories of Jack there are stories of Bear [page 2] (see the enclosed)[.] The Indians here consider these stories not to refer to the same person but to different personages according to their role[.] Thus Bear was different from Jack and there were several Jacks (or Johns) such as Jack the bear boy, Jack that gambled, Jack that fooled the priests etc. Then Snánaz was different again and so on. I have now asked a good many old people (men between from 50 to 75 years of age or over) regarding this class of stories (and from different districts viz. Nicola, Spences Bridge and 42. Upper St’át’imc (Tsal’alh) Elder Peter Alexander confirmed through personal communication with Sarah Moritz, August 2016, the story of one bear, then several, traveling through sQémˋqemˋ (“the land of plenty”), the local valleys and rivers such as the Bridge River.

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Lytton) and they all tell me the same thing viz 1. that they have heard these stories from the time they first remember, and that the stories were told to them along with other stories (when they were small children) by their fathers and uncles etc. 2. That these stories (namely Jack and Bear stories) are called White men’s stories not because they learned them from Whites but because they deal with adventures in White men’s countries or places where both Whites and Indians lived. 3. That in no case from the earliest time up to the present have they ever heard these stories told except by Indians[.] They have never heard them told by Whites (not even French or Mexican) and the Whites do not seem to know these stories at all. This shows these stories are comparatively old, and date back at least to the fur trading period, and have not been introduced here by Mexicans the first of whom came into the Interior of BC at the time of the big rush of miners in 1858. The Indians here must have got them either direct from some of the Half breeds and French Canadians of the Fur companies in the early part of last century or they must have come in the usual way from other Indian tribes (maybe partly both ways) from the south or east. In the latter case they may show Spanish influence. They do not seem to be much among the Athapascans of BC who were also in direct contact with the fur traders at an even earlier date than the Interior Salish, but we have no very full collections of myths from the North. The Tahltans I collected traditions from last fall had no stories of this kind. However my wife tells me (she is French) that she has heard the stories of holding up the rock, and of removing a bone from an animals [sic] throat, and one of fooling the priests told by her old country French relations or friends.

Teit to Sapir. May 26, 1913. Postcard. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I am sending you to-day 6 film packs for development and printing. I am boxing up your specimens now and can forward them almost any day. I will not forward however until I hear from you as to whether you want them sent by express or freight. I forget whether you told me about this before or not. I sent the Tahltan specimens by express but these will be considerably heavier, and more bulky probably over 100 lbs but I have not had a chance to weigh them yet. 1913 | 595

Sapir to Teit. May 29, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— Your last batch of photographic prints have been sent to you yesterday, including all three prints of your private photograph. As soon as I get the negative of this one, I shall forward it. Enclosed you will find four negatives that were failures. One of them is blank, two double exposures, and the fourth is too poor to print. I am very glad that you are in a position now to obtain many valuable photographs and songs from Indians gathered about Spences Bridge. If you pick up any interesting museum material, so much the better. As regards the baskets that Dr. Boas referred to, I would suggest that you send me a list of these with bills to the amount that you think they are worth. As our collection of Indian basketry is very small, I think that there is small doubt but that we will be prepared to take over your collection. This evening Mr. Beuchat leaves for Victoria, and may stop over at Spences Bridge to see you and to obtain some idea of the Interior Salish Indians.43 He is a French anthropologist that is going up North with Stefansson to do ethnological work for the Survey. You may get this letter somewhat too late to meet him at the depot, but if you see him I shall be very [page 2] much obliged to you for anything that you can do for him. I feel sure that you will find him an interesting man to talk over anthropological matters with.

43. Like Diamond Jenness, Henri Beuchat (1878–1914) was a scientist recruited for the Canadian Arctic Expedition and, also like Jenness, assigned to the Southern Party. When Sapir wrote to Teit, Beuchat had traveled from his home in Paris to join the expedition before it set out on the vessel Karluk from Esquimalt, a Canadian naval base near Victoria. A graduate of the Sorbonne, Beuchat had co-authored with Marcel Mauss a comprehensive literature study of the effect of seasonal conditions on social organization and culture of Inuit societies between Greenland and Alaska, published as “Essai sur les variations saisonnières des sociétés Eskimos: Étude de morphologie sociale.” He remained very interested in Inuit life, and at the age of thirty-four he was enthusiastic about embarking on field work. Although a second ship, Alaska, was expected to carry the Southern Party from Nome to the Coronation Gulf, the site of their field work, a change in plan saw the Southern Party re-embark on the Karluk with the intention of meeting the Alaska part way. However, the Karluk, poorly equipped to handle high Arctic conditions, became ice-bound and was eventually crushed. The members of the Southern Party made camp, and as they had enough provisions, intended to wait until March when the increasing daylight would enable them to travel to Wrangel Island. A small group wishing to make the trip immediately left the camp, and Beuchat went with them. Although a scouting party from the camp discovered him some days later, very weak and in serious distress, he refused to return to the camp. Neither he nor his companions were seen again (Richling, “Henri Beuchat (1878–1914),” 117–19).

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Sapir to Teit. May 30, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— I write you this note to let you know that Mr. Beuchat’s departure has been delayed and that he is not leaving until tomorrow evening (Saturday, May 31st). If you could meet him at the depot on the arrival of the train, it would be a great convenience to him, and I should esteem it a great favor to myself.

Sapir to Teit. May 31, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— In reply to your postal of May 26th, I may say that it makes little difference to us whether you send your shipment by freight or express, provided that the former does not involve too great a delay. If you find that a freight shipment would arrive within a reasonable time, you may as well send the material on by freight, and so save the extra expense. If this, however, would require a delay of several months, it would be preferable to send the specimens by express.

Teit to Sapir. June 3, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr. Sapir, I managed to get a good many songs during the time of the Indian meeting, and these with what I collected at different times during March and April make 102 I now have on hand. Of these 71 are ́ amux, 10 Okanagon, 4 Shuswap, 5 Lillooet, 1 Cree, 2 Chilcotin, Ntlakyāp 4 Carrier, 1 Sekanais, 1 Bella Coola and 3 Stalo. I expect to get a number more Okanagon this week or next. My information is not full on all the songs, and I expect to be able to add considerable to what I have. I find that not always the singer is the best informant on the history of the song so I am trying to get what I can from other parties as well. This takes some time, but I do a little now and then as I have the opportunity. I am sending you my bill of expenses etc. up to the end of May. I will make out the estimate you asked for in a day or two. I have been pretty busy the last two weeks on way or another, and yet have not managed to put in much 1913 | 597

time of Dr. Boas’ work. Some matters have turned up which must be attended to, and there is no one to attend to them properly excepting myself. However when they are done they will not crop up again, but it may take sometime to get them fixed. I have at last got a complete settlement, and understanding with the CNPRR[;] their right [of] way runs through my lot and house at Sp. Bdg.44 I have to take the house down, and have it out of the way before fall when engines start running. On the new lot I have got I am going to build an office mostly out of the old building, and a cottage for living in. The arrangements for this work is [sic] taking up some of my time. Also [page 2] there is trouble about water rights (irrigation water) in the district, and my own people and others want to hold me as witness before the water commission as I know more about the matters than anyone else in the district.45 There is no date out yet for the sitting of the Commission but it will be some time in the summer. I have been writing them trying to hurry things, and bring them to a head. My wife’s people’s ranch (which is the largest around here) and of which I am the executor, and a piece of land of my own are involved, and if we lose the first water rights it means a big depreciation in their value, and a lawsuit for damages against us (by a kind neighbor) may follow. I am not worrying at all, the only thing is that all this extra work prevents me from devoting my time to ethnological work, and keeps me back. I should be through with the entire Thompson paper for Boas some time this month, but instead will only have the basketry part finished by the end of the month, and the rest will have to remain unfinished if I go up north. However it is just the same to me as to how Dr Boas and yourself arrange it. If you agree to my finishing it completely before taking up steady work for you or if you agree that I go north on a trip, and then work again for Dr Boas when I come back. I am agreeable and willing to do either way. I received the prints yesterday. I was sorry to see four films turned out useless. I expect the rest of the prints will arrive soon. I did not hear from you yet as to whether you want the specimens sent

44. Canadian Northern Pacific Railroad. This letter and the letter that follows highlight the ways in which matters beyond Teit’s control could present impediments to meeting his obligations to both Boas and Sapir. It is not clear whether Teit, who had interpreted for CNPRR officials when they were negotiating rights-of-way through Indian reserves along the Thompson River, knew beforehand that the right-of-way at Spences Bridge would go through his own house. 45. In the Interior of British Columbia water rights were assigned when properties were first pre-empted and were jealously guarded. In the dry country around Spences Bridge irrigation was—and is—necessary for cultivation of crops.

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by express or freight. The latter will be much cheaper so if I do not hear from you in a few days I will forward to you by freight.

Sapir to Teit. June 4, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— Your six film packs recently forwarded have been received and submitted for development and printing. Enclosed I am returning you your two first lists of prints with accompanying data. All this information has been transcribed into our photographic catalogue and on our prints, so that we have it on file. I thought it would be as well to let you have your original manuscript instead of having typewritten copies made, as there would be nothing gained by this extra work. When do you think you will be able to start out for the field? Doubtless your original plan, which you outlined some time ago and which made arrangements for two rather distinct trips, will now have to be considerably modified. Dr. Goddard was here yesterday and we talked over some matters that would have interested you. He is going to work among the Beaver in the Peace River country this summer.46 I gather from what he says that in succeeding years he intends to take up other western and northwestern Athabascan tribes, chiefly, of course, from the purely linguistic standpoint. I think that on the whole it might be as well for us to modify our original plan to the extent of laying somewhat less stress on securing linguistic material, than was at [page 2] first intended. This, of course, would not interfere seriously with the idea that we started out with of carefully mapping the Athabascan tribes of the Dominion. Test vocabularies, tribal traditions, and exact tribal boundaries are naturally still to be obtained. I hope that you will be able to secure us a rather good Athabascan collection this summer.

Sapir to Teit. June 10, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have your letter of June 3rd, together with bills and vouchers which I have forwarded to Mr. Marshall for payment. I am glad to see that you are getting together a good set of Indian songs. 46. Goddard, The Beaver Indians and Beaver Texts, Beaver Dialect.

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I gather from all that you say that you are so very much behind in your work for Dr. Boas that you would be rather well disposed towards staying at Spences Bridge until such time as you could finish up this work, and, if necessary, cutting out field work for this summer altogether. I am inclined to think that this would be the best arrangement, on the whole. It must be unsatisfactory to yourself to be under obligation to two parties at the same time. For my part, I should prefer, if convenient to you, that you free yourself of all previous obligations at your earliest opportunity, so as to be able to devote all your working time to ourselves. It will be a pity, of course, to have to sacrifice field work this summer, but there are other summers coming, and it would probably be a gain in the long run to concentrate on one thing at a time. Did you make connections with Mr. Beuchat?

Teit to Sapir. June 10, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr. Sapir, I am sending you to-day the agreements, and the estimate for the Cassiar and Northern trip. I may have done wrong in including some of my salary, as possibly the estimate is for expenses only. If this is not right then stroke out same, and either add the 400.00 to specimens by altering the first figure of the latter, or leave it out altogether making the total $1100.00 whichever way you see fit. It is very hard for me to give anything like a close estimate as I will not know exactly the trips I will make until I go up to Telegraph Creek. I happened to be away when Mr. Beuchat called. He remained here only four hours. I was very sorry to have missed him, and I have written him a long letter. Just before he arrived I had of necessity to make a trip to Victoria to see the Water Commission. I was gone only three days altogether. Had I received your first letter a day sooner I could have put it off until he came and then gone to Victoria with him which would have been better. As it was I called on the other members of the expedition seeing them all excepting Stefansson. I saw Dr. Anderson and Mrs. Anderson and had long chats with Msrs Johannesen,47 McKay48 and Murray49—and particularly with 47. Frits Johansen, a biologist. 48. Alistair Mackay, a surgeon. 49. James Murray, an oceanographer. McKay and Murray had been to Antarctica in 1909 with Ernest Shackleton. With Beuchat, they were part of the small group who left the Southern

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Dr Jenness who is to be Beuchat’s assistant. I had supper with them, and remained until nearly midnight when Jenness and McKay followed me down to the Vancouver boat. I had a letter from Dr Goddard to-day and have answered it. I am glad he is going to study the Beaver language thoroughly. I inquired about the shipping of your specimens and think I will forward them by express which will cost about $21.00 but they will reach you quickly, and will be safe and insured whereas by freight they are at our risk; and the Agent here would not guarantee they [page 2] would reach there in less than two months. When I go north I will try to get as many specimens as I can but really there is not a great deal to be got excepting you order things made. I could get some things made at Telegraph to be picked up on my way out if I am sure of coming back that way. I received the lists of photos I sent you. Yes, it is as well that way as having them type written. As soon as the next bunch of prints arrive I will send you the information regarding them. I have already written out that for those I received a few days ago. I have commenced going over the baskets to-day, and hope that by the end of the week I may finish cataloguing and sketching them. I will certainly finish next week and let you know numbers and price etc. The specimens are ready to go forward. I am just waiting on a chance to get the boxes conveyed across the river.

Teit to Sapir. June 12, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr. Sapir, I got the specimens off to-day by express, and enclose shipping bill of same. I hope they will arrive all right. I am sending to-day two more film packs consisting of the pictures I have managed to get during the last two weeks.

Sapir to Teit. June 17, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have your letter of June 10th with enclosed estimate, also two film packs. I have asked to have the latter developed and printed. As to your Party camp after the destruction of the Karluk and apparently died (Richling, “Henri Beuchat (1878–1914),” 118).

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estimate, I see that you slightly misunderstood. $1500 were intended to apply only to expenses, not to your salary, for which I am regularly estimating $1500 per year, of which sum, of course, only proportionate amounts are to be paid you according to the time actually spent in Survey work. I have therefore added $400 to your specimen estimate, making $500 in all for specimens. I have asked that the complete amount of money estimated, namely $1500, be forwarded to you, or at least a liberal portion of it. I am rather sorry that you missed M. Beuchat as he was very eager to meet you. You would have found him interesting company.

Teit to Sapir. June 20, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr. Sapir, I received your letter of 10th inst. and yesterday the cheque for the amount of my a/c less some 52 cents error in wages. I have acknowledged receipt to Mr. Marshall. In my a/c recently submitted there are no large number of charges made for developing films. There is only one item of the kind viz 1.80 for developing the Tahltan films which I believe is less than I actually paid for the work. As I had mislaid Mr. Vinson’s bill I did not know the exact amount I paid him, but put in a figure against you which I felt sure would not be an over charge. Of course I could have written to Vinson and found out the exact charge but I did not think it worth while. My chief reason for not sending these films for development to you was because they were almost the first portrait time exposures I had attempted to take, and I was very much afraid most of them would be failures. I therefore made up my mind to pay for their developing myself, and if they were no good then the loss would be mine. However as they turned out pretty fair I gave them to you and charged you for the developing and the film packs. Since then excepting one batch I developed myself I have sent all to Ottawa. Prob. Mr Brock has mistaken my charges for film packs for developing of films. There are a number of charges for film packs. I charge these up as I forward them for development. They cost 75 cents each (the dozen ones) in Vancouver and postage here amounts to about 5 cents each pack. [page 2] Yes, I believe it will be better for all concerned to continue with Dr Boas’ work until finished. It will suit me better to be here this fall, and see to the tearing down of my old house which is on the Can. No. RR. Right of way and look after the building of a new one. I have 602 | 1913

been discontented for some time back owing to the inconvenience of having no suitable place to work and write in and at the same time to live in, and the sooner this condition is remedied the better. By staying here this summer I can work along at Dr Boas [sic] work as much as I can, and at the same time attend to the affairs of my own which are being forced on me until I finally get all completed. It is certainly much better to have only one job on hand at a time, and I would like to get into that position. I received the prints the day before yesterday and am pleased to see most of them have come out very well. I sent two more packs a few days ago. The Water Commission commence to sit here on the 3rd July, and I have to appear before them. Do you think you will be out here this summer, and if so when[?] Also will you be able to stop off and see me[?]

Teit to Sapir. June 24, 1913. Postcard. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr. Sapir, Our letters have been crossing each other. I received the two cheques today one for 475.00 and one for 700.00. I will hold the latter until I hear further from you, as according to our correspondence it may be better for me not to go north this summer or until I am through with my own and Dr Boas work after which I will be able to give undivided attention to yours.

Sapir to Teit. June 26, 1913. Telegram. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13.

You need not leave for field. Hold $700.00 for current expenses.

Teit to Sapir. July 1, 1913. Postcard. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr. Sapir, I forwarded to you yesterday 1 film pack for development. I received your wire O.K. Am busy tearing down house also cataloguing baskets in all spare moments. 1913 | 603

Sapir to Teit. July 4, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— In your recent shipment of Thompson River and other Indian specimens, there were included skull and other bone fragments. No data came with these. Will you please inform me where they were found, and such other particulars as you may have?

Teit to Sapir. July 7, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13.

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

Dear Dr. Sapir, I received your wire all right and have credited your account current expenses with the 700.00. I am sending a receipt to Mr Marshall to-day. I am busy house building but have managed to finish ticketing the baskets. I will try to write out the catalog tomorrow or as much of it as I can, and when finished forward to you along with the cost. After you examine the list you will know as to what you will do. If you can manage it I would like one more print of No 23537 for Chief Thomas Adolf as I promised him one. The extra one you sent I gave to the other man in the photo. Also two prints more of No 23523 for parties in the picture. This will be all [page 2] I enclose list of the last photos (prints) I received.

Teit to Sapir. July 9, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr. Sapir, I received your letter this morning. The skull and bones came from the same place as the majority of those I shipped to you before viz from a little burying place on the North bank of Thompson River three miles east of Spences Bridge on the line of the Can. No. Pac. RR. This place was delved into by the steam shovel and every thing broken and turned over[,] most of the bones and all grave goods being mixed up and scattered and lost. I saved what I could at the time and shipped to you last year. The skull and fragments I sent with the ethnological specimens I picked up since down over the bank of the grade. I have no special news. Am doing a little work for Boas and at the same time house building. I am writing out the catalog of baskets, and will finish to-day or to-morrow. 604 | 1913

Teit to Sapir. July 10, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir, Please make the following additions and corrections to lists of photos The names of the children in the photo 20820 are eldest Alexander youngest Walter. Koín.tko (a dream name given to her by her father. It is supposed to mean ‘blue water’). See woman in Ind. dress last batch of pictures I received. I cannot refer to the no. just now (23593)

Correction

́ No 23545 is XawólEmux ‘fox’ belonging to Sī́ska band. Low. Ntlak. (This band is only 8 miles below Lytton on the Fraser and formerly was counted with the Lytton division, but lately it has been reckoned with the Low. Ntlak. or Utámkt). He is an uncle to No 23543[.] I had him marked as a man from Nicola Lake band. Up. Ntlak. whom he somewhat resembles.

Teit to Sapir. July 16, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir, I just write you a line to say I have not been able to do any work the last eight days owing to a violent attack of rheumatism which crippled me in both shoulders, the right arm, part of the neck and the left foot at the same time my eyes became very sore so I could not read or write.50 It is ten years since I had any rheumatism before. My eyes are a good deal better to-day but the rheumatism is still pretty bad. Had I not got sick I would have sent in the basketry list long ago. I had almost finished it when I got struck. I am sending you to-day 2 film packs which I intended to send some days ago. I expected to be all right again before long, and now [page 2] I dont care so much that my eyes are nearly well again.

50. In this letter Teit refers to the two maladies that became chronic and affected him, at least intermittently, for the rest of his life: “rheumatism,” generally characterized by inflammation and pain in the joints, and an eye condition. If he received a more specific diagnosis of either condition he did not mention it in this correspondence.

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Teit to Boas. August 3, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121735.51 Dear Friend. I suppose you have been wondering why you have not heard from me. I have done hardly any work for you since May. I was busy tearing down buildings and rebuilding, all of which I was forced to do. Dr Sapir let me off from going up North so I could finish up the work for you and attend to my business here until through. Nearly a month ago I got a severe attack of rheumatism which laid me up so I have been able to do nothing[.] I got it in both shoulders. Right neck and arm and in both knees and one ankle[.] My legs swelled so bad I could not walk so had to take to bed and resting in chairs with my legs outstretched. For over 2 weeks I could not write either. It has let up a good deal the last 2 or 3 days and has left my arm so I can write but I cannot walk very far yet. I am enclosing herewith by reg. mail the manuscript I received from you in May to peruse. I have a little additional information on Amer. Salish basketry which I will include in present paper.

Teit to Sapir. August 4, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir, I have been laid up completely since I wrote to you so I could do no work of any kind not even writing. My legs swelled so bad I had to lie down most of the time and until a couple of days ago could only walk a very few paces now and then with aid of a stick. The rheumatism was also bad in the right arm (muscles) so I could not write. I have improved a good deal the last 2 or 3 days and now can write without trouble but I cannot walk very far yet as the swellings have not gone completely out of my legs yet. I am enclosing here with the description of photos (prints) I last received. I hope to get at the baskets again soon I have only a few specimens to examine and sketch (abt 2 or 3 hours work) and then I can send you the list. The latter I finished long ago.

51. On letterhead of Department of Mines, Geological Survey, R. W. Brock, Director.

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Teit to Sapir. August 6, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir, I am enclosing herewith the catalogue of the baskets which are all ticketed and ready for packing. I will not box them until I hear from you. The number of specimens is 145, and the price of the whole lot is $475.00[.] I can send you the individual price of each specimen if you desire. The designs are all different even where they are of the same name they are variations. A number of the designs are different from any in the Chicago and New York Museums where there are large collections made by me. I have sketched all the designs that are important for my paper on basketry and taken a few photos. My rheumatism is very slowly improving. PS I included some birch bark work, and some coiled work other than baskets proper such as carriers, quiver, rattles, spoons etc. as these are interesting specimens and moreover belong to basketry.

Teit to Sapir. August 6, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir, The publishers of the new history on Canada want a few pictures of Indians to illustrate the article I wrote for them on the Interior tribes. Would it be possible to supply them with say six or eight prints of your photos (those I have taken this year for you). I would pick the ones I consider best for the purpose. If this cannot be worked then I will get a few of Vinsons pictures for the purpose. In the catalogue of baskets I sent you to-day I forgot to add re. No. 139 Birch bark Carrier as under “This carrier was supplied with cloth flaps (sewed to the sides inside) which laced over the child. Therefore there are no strings inside like No. 137.”

1913 | 607

Teit to Sapir. August 10, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir, The following are some additions and corrections to Description of photos. No. 23153 VI M.25. ought to be ‘baby son’ instead of ‘daughter of 23135’ No. 23213 VI.L.34, 35, 37 properly Manuel Louis instead of Louis Manuel as I gave it to you No. 23206 and 23207 The child in the picture is named Hilda (she has no Indian name yet) aged about 2 years. Mother Tceía who holds her. Father Potatoe Garden band Up. Ntlak.52 No. 23208 VI.M.223 The girl standing is named Alice KamḗExa, Potatoe Gardens band. Up. Ntlak. aged abt 11 The Indian name of Theresa No. 20820 VI.L.10,11 is Kei.māt́ ko (or Kēimāt́ .k.) “camping water” ́ The name of the little girl in Nos. 23591, 23589 etc. is LexomtĪ́nEk “Smooth-bow” Father and mother Up. Ntlak. VI.M.204, 5, 6 201

52. Hilda Austin (June 29, 1912–January 19, 1994) was born at Shackan (sx̣ix̣nx) in the Nicola Valley, the daughter of Ellen Jack, Tceia, and Joe Edward. Joe Edward died fighting a forest fire when Hilda was about five years old, and Tceia died in the influenza pandemic in 1918–19. Hilda and her younger sister, Millie Michel, were raised by their paternal grandmother, Sapél. Hilda grew up speaking Nlaka’pamuxcin and learned English in adulthood from her children. In her late sixties and early seventies she was living at Lytton. During that time she guided Steven Egesdal in his study of Nlaka’pamux narrative. In the Preface to Stylized Characters’ Speech in Thompson Salish Narrative, Egesdal wrote, “I was fortunate to discover a skilled raconteur of traditional legends in Hilda Austin, of Lytton BC, with whom I began my study of Thompson Salish narrative. I worked with Hilda Austin during the summers of 1981, 1982, and 1983, and the winter of 1982. Hilda Austin’s patience and willingness to share openly of her heritage and generously of her time have had an impact on me that this book only begins to tell” (Egesdal, Stylized Characters’ Speech in Thompson Salish Narrative, xvii). In Egesdal et al., nɬeʔkèpmx̣cín: Thompson River Salish Speech (15–16) the authors noted that Hilda had made an essential contribution to the book, contributing ten narratives and a prayer and translating most of the material included. Hilda’s maternal great-grandfather was wlwlmélst (Egesdal et al., nɬeʔkèpmx̣cín, 16). “Wlwlmélst” is likely a modern transcription of “Ululamelst,” the name of Teit’s friend, Babtiste, who died in June 1903 (Teit to Boas, June 8, 1903). Nlaka’pamux linguist Mandy Na’zinek Jimmie has noted that “w” and “u” are very similar sounds in Nlaka’pamuxcin (Mandy Na’zinek Jimmie, email, August 25, 2021). In the Nlaka’pamux naming system it was rare for two living adults to have the same name. In 2021 one of Hilda’s nephews carried the name wlwlmélst.

608 | 1913

Teit to Sapir. August 19, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir, I have just received your letter of 11th inst. and am glad to hear you will take the baskets. I will get boxes as soon as I can and ship the lot. I will charge the amount against the 700.00 credited to current a/c. I will make out the bills as you desire with a statement that the collection was made prior to taking up work for the Geo. Survey. Re. the photos I may require for the article in the Canadian History I have written to the publishers re. the exact number they will be able to use. I think they will probably want about ten (one print of each). I don’t know if my choice is very good but the numbers I have chosen are for Athapascan Nos 19436, 19461, 19475, 19473, and Interior Salish Nos 23130, 23575, 23540, 23588, 23591, 23581, 23212. As I have no Kootenay so far I will try to get a couple of prints from Vinson. Yes, the Geo. Survey should be acknowledged by the publishers and Vinson if I use any of his. I have not got prints yet of the last films I sent you (2 packs = 24 pictures) sent in about 4 weeks ago or earlier. I am improving all the time but the process is slow.

Teit to Sapir. August 21, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir, I shipped all the baskets by express to-day in three boxes and enclose herewith shipping receipt. Re. No. 30 basket

the design

is generally called ‘patch design’ but a few people call it ‘tree design’ or ‘earth and trees’ the horizontal lines being ‘earth lines’ representing the earth or ground, and the vertical lines ‘trees’. I think I simply gave you the name patch design in the catalog. The cost of boxes and haulage of the boxes will I charge to you or Boas. It is not much. I am getting short of paper and envelopes especially the latter.53 Perhaps you can send me some more. PS I hear a party of 96 geologists are to stay off at Kamloops on Sunday (24th) [.] 53. Teit is referring here to GSc letterhead.

1913 | 609

Teit to Sapir. August 25, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir, I have just had a letter from the publishers of the History of Canada and they think six pictures will be sufficient. I have chosen the following Nos. 23212, 23591, 23588, 23575, 19461, and 19475, so these six will be all you will require to print (one print of each). You can send them to me and when I enclose them to the publishers I will ask them to acknowledge the Geo. survey. The second party of Geologists were in Kamloops yesterday I believe and I hear Mr Brock is in charge. The Indian agent came down here, and borrowed four costumes from me for Indians who were to meet them and be photographed. He asked me to go up but I did not feel well enough.

Teit to Sapir. August 29, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir, I received the copy of my list of Thomp. etc. specimens I sent you for which thanks. Do you want to buy the balance of my collection consisting chiefly of costumes, bags, weapons, tools etc. I dont know how many pieces there are nor how much the price will be until I go over them thoroughly. This will leave me with nothing on hand in the way of specimens (excepting a small collection belonging to my wife about which I really have no say). Thereafter any specimens I get will be Museum property collected for you in the course of my work. Knowing what specimens you have on hand, it would only be necessary to collect things you have not already got from this region. I could make out a list some time for reference of those things required to complete your collection, and try to obtain them as rapidly as possible in the course of my work. You may yourself be able to suggest a number of things required that you consider of major importance. I enclose herewith the title list of the prints I received a couple of days ago. The weather is very hot 96 in the shade just now and not a breath of wind.

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Teit to Sapir. September 24, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir, I received the book all right and also your P.C. I was glad to hear you had found the book of some interest and especially the ‘haaf’ words regarding which Jakobsen has enlightened us so much concerning derivation etc. and reasons for their use. The sea language differed very much from the land language in Shetland and when a boy I used to wonder why they had a different language at sea. The sea language was also often used on land when fishermen related events that had happened at the fishing and I have often heard old and middle aged men thus speaking. I loaned part of my collection to the Kamloops Ind. Agent to exhibit at the Westminster Fair (beginning of the month) as representative of the art of the Interior Salish. The carpenters are now working on my house full swing and I am doing a little work myself. I may also go out hunting deer (very soon) for a few days. I suppose you have now got settled down to work. I hope you will have good success. The weather here continues very fine with bright sunshine during the day. How is Mike[?] I collected a few more songs and took a few pictures since you left but have [page 2] not been able to start Boas’ work yet. A few Indians are returning from the hop picking now and some of them are going out on hunting trips. In a couple of weeks a lot of the Indians will be going up the valley above here to help in the ́ returned the day harvesting of the potatoe [sic] crops. Chief Tedlinī́tsa after you left and was sorry not to have met you. He told me to send his regards. He is driving around at present collecting farm produce from the Indian reserves to exhibit at the Westminster Fair.54 All is to be 54. A reference to the annual fall fair at New Westminster Bc. Tedlinī́t́ sa or Tetlenitsa (ca. 1856–1918), the Nlaka’pamux chief at Pukaist on the Thompson River upriver from Spences Bridge, worked closely with Teit in the pursuit of resolution to Nlaka’pamux claims to land and the recognition by government of Aboriginal title. He was among the Nlaka’pamux chiefs in the Kamloops Agency who signed a letter in 1908 to the superintendent general of Indian Affairs protesting the inadequacy of existing reserves and among the chiefs of the Interior tribes who signed the Memorial presented to Sir Wilfrid Laurier during his visit to British Columbia in 1910. Tetlenitsa traveled with Teit and other Interior Salish chiefs to Ottawa in January 1912 and March 1916 to press the issues of land claims. While in Ottawa in 1912 he recorded a set of Nlaka’pamux songs with the anthropologist Marius Barbeau at the National Museum of Canada (CMH, Barbeau fonds: “Thompson River and Fraser River Songs transcribed,” b.287, f.9), and in 1916 he provided Barbeau with information concerning the Cook’s Ferry Band (CMH, Barbeau fonds: “Thompson River Land tenure, 1916,” b.287, f.8). The people of Tetlenitsa’s home community, Pukaist, had a mixed economy combining long-established economic activities with agriculture, earning their living by farming, raising cattle, mining, fishing and hunting, and gathering bitter-root and other wild plants. Land on the reserve was very limited in comparison

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collected at Sp. Bdge and go forward in charge of the Indian Agent. This will do at present I think.

Boas to Teit. October 1, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121702.55 My dear Friend,— I have not been able to reply to your letter before this, because everybody has been away from here, and our office has been moving, so that everything has been more or less mixed up. I do hope you are better by this time, and I trust you will let me hear from you again soon. We have been working this winter on your vocabularies, and I find it quite a large piece of work to get this material ready for the printer. I thought it best to work in all the coast dialects, which, of course, are not quite parallel to your material. I collected that material between 1886 and 1890. I am also extracting Hill-Tout’s material to fill in, so that the whole will be, as I hope, a final presentation of the distribution of Salish dialects. I hope you will like it, and I also trust that Mr. Sargent will be pleased with it.56 You will be interested to hear that I had quite a with ranches held by settlers, there was no road to facilitate the transport of crops to market, and irrigation was an issue in the dry Thompson River climate, but in spite of these drawbacks the Indian agent for the Kamloops Agency testified to the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs for the Province of British Columbia in 1913: “Chief Tedlanetsa and his family have cultivated all land possible . . . they have produced excellent quality—the Minister of Agriculture took everything they had to the Chicago Exhibition and got excellent feed-back” (Evidence of the Kamloops Agency, in McKenna and McBride, Report of the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs for the Province of British Columbia). Tetlenitsa was particularly well known for growing fruit. In 1916 his attempt to market fifty boxes of apples and twenty boxes of plums door to door in Merritt was blocked by the town council, who imposed a fine and had the fruit seized. In a response that took place between September and November 1916, the Indian agent intervened on Tetlenitsa’s behalf, the Indigenous residents of the Nicola Valley held a protest meeting, and Duncan Campbell Scott, superintendent-general of Indian Affairs, wrote twice to the Merritt town council, to no avail (Sasges, Colliers and Cowboys, 41–44). Tetlenitza died in 1918. 55. Columbia University letterhead. 56. In Boas’s letter to Homer Sargent of November 26, 1913, it is apparent that the manuscript Sargent had agreed to underwrite is the work on vocabularies. Boas wrote, “During the whole time you were away the work on Mr. Teit’s vocabularies has been going on. It proved necessary to compare quite a good deal of literature, which has been added to the material, but I am not through yet with this work. There also remain to be added the dialects from northwestern British Columbia and from Oregon, for which I collected material years ago. The whole work was ever so much greater than I anticipated, but I believe it will be an important contribution to our knowledge of the Salish tribes. I also found an old manuscript written about 1880, or a little before that time, giving comparative data on the American Salish dialects, which I had to utilize. [para] The whole matter has come to be so bulky that I feel somewhat worried about the expense of publication; and for this reason I went to Washington recently and took

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number of requests for your Lillooet Traditions from different parts of the world, and that I have sent copies to these various people.

Teit to Boas. October 7, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121736. Dear Friend. I got your letter of 1st inst to-day and was very pleased to hear from you. Yes. I am very much better now but am lame still in one ankle. This no doubt will gradually leave or mend. I have torn down my old house and am building a dwelling house and an office or working place on the new lot I have got. The office is now finished and the house is about half up. I have also some fencing to do and building of a cellar, and small stable so I will be busy all the month and part of next. I will hurry your work through as soon as possible when I get at it. I quit after I got the rheumatism and have not been able to start since owing to work etc. I have two men working steady on the house etc. and will soon get through. I am very pleased to hear about the vocabularies no doubt they will please both Mr Sargent and myself and I will be pleased to see them when they are out. I never got a full copy of my Mythology of the Thompson Ind. yet. The pages you sent me (loose ones) were 50 short. [page 2] I had the pleasure of seeing Dr and Mrs Sapir here last month[.] They stayed off two days and we had a long chat.57 S. was on his way to take up his studies among the Nutka. I sold the collection of baskets to Dr Sapir and also some other specimens and the baskets are now in Ottawa. the manuscript along, discussed the whole matter with the Smithsonian Institution, with the result that, [page 2] in all probability, the Institution will be ready to publish the material, with maps, etc. This, of course, will be very satisfactory, because it will guarantee a wide circulation. I trust that this will meet with your approval. Of course, no final arrangement has been made yet” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107134). Boas continued, “I feel rather anxious about Mr. Teit’s work, particularly about the description of the Thompson people, because I cannot take up the formulation of the results until I get the batch of manuscript that he promised to send. Evidently his state of health has not been particularly good; and that, together with his building-operations and so on, have delayed his work. I am particularly desirous of getting at the basketry matter, about which you spoke several times. First of all, however, the present paper has to be gotten out of the way.” Sargent replied on December 7, 1913, agreeing with the decision concerning the Smithsonian Institution, renewing his commitment to assisting financially with the publication of Teit’s work, and adding, “Teit wrote me on October tenth telling of his illness and the persistancy [sic] of his Rheumatism which then bothered him: said he was still house building but expected to work on the Basketry and Suplimentary [sic] Thompson Paper during November” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107158). 57. That is, interrupted their train journey.

1913 | 613

PS I notice in Wissler’s late “Inds of the Plains” Handbook series. Amer. Mus. the Nez Perce are included altho stated to be a border tribe partly Plateau in culture [.] I should think the Flathead ought to be included. They appear to have adopted or absorbed as much of the Plains culture as the Nez Perce, and moreover according to my information the Flathead lived more on the Plains than the Nez Perce who at one time never went there. Also what about the Kootenay.

Teit to Sapir. October 8, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir, I just drop you a line or two hoping same will find yourself and Mrs Sapir well. I suppose you are having plenty of rain now. The weather here still continues pretty fine. I had a letter yesterday from Dr Boas which altho containing nothing important I enclose. It seems he is at work on the Vocabularies of the Salish (Coast and Interior). I saw Mr Campset? (not sure if this is quite his name) last night.58 He had been on a round trip through Okanagon, Similkameen and Nicola and was on his way home to Ottawa. I see Dr Wissler has got out a hand book on the Plains Indians and includes the Nez Perce altho stating that they are a border tribe partly Plateau in culture.59 What about the Flathead and the Kootenay[?] I should think they come in the same category as the Nez Perce; and really have more claims to being Plains tribes than they as part of them formerly actually inhabited portions of the Plains, whereas at one time the Nez Perce never even went on the Plains. If present day (or recent) culture is the basis of classification I think the Flathead have absorbed as much [page 2] of the Plains culture as the Nez Perce. If ancient culture is the basis then the Nez Perce are a pure Plateau tribe (and more so than the Flathead). However Wissler’s book is very good as a hand book and there is only the above I find fault with. I also see Hand book No 2. Amer. Mus. by Dr Goddard on the Inds. of the SW. It is good also. I suppose you are quite in harness by this time with the Nutka. I have the new house half up now and 2 carpenters working at it. I will not be able to start on Boas work this

58. Teit was likely referring to Charles Camsell (1876–1958), a geologist with the Geological Survey of Canada. 59. Wissler, North American Indians of the Plains.

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month but when I do will be steady at it and rush it through. I can think of no more news at present. PS I have not seen your paper yet on the new Algonkin dialects in Cal.60

Teit to Sapir. October 16, 1913. Postcard. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr S I had a note from Dr Goddard who is now back again in NY. He says he arrived too late to catch the band of Beavers at Fort St John Peace River BC but saw a few for a couple of days. He got a lot of material from the Vermillion band away down the River. He found the two bands linguistically almost identical. He heard nothing of the Snare Inds I had asked him to enquire abt.

Teit to Sapir. October 16, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir, I take time to send you a line in answer to yours of 11th Oct. The Flathead only partially adopted the sun dance I believe, but the Nez Perce not a vestige. Yes. You are right, from what information I gathered the Flathead and Blackfoot had many wars with each other, and before these wars started the two tribes traded with each other. Coiled basket kettles was one of the commodities the Flathead disposed of to the Blackfoot. The Northern Shoshone, Flathead and Pend d’oreille (and two other tribes of Flathead relationship living further east that were afterwards swamped with the southern movement of the Blackfoot), the Kootenay, and the Blackfoot were at one time all close neighbors and a great deal of intertribal trade was carried on between them at certain points. This is supposed to have been at a time before the introduction of the horse and gun and before the Nez Perce commenced to go to the Plains. At that time it is said many of the Plains tribes (that later were in the West) were unknown or lived further east. Where did Boas get his Shuswap material for his coming article 60. Sapir, “Wiyot and Yurok, Algonkin Languages of California,” 617–46.

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in the handbook[?] (I suppose the Handbook of Amer. Ind. languages is that you refer to). I know he collected some Shuswap linguistic material himself, but I do not know [page 2] of his having collected any texts for study. I will try to get the moccasins for you as soon as I can but all the women are away just now taking their crops off the reserves or working for whites in the potato harvest. Re. the estimate for next year I do not know of anything different from what I outlined before I will make the trips I anticipated if possible, and which I should have made this year. That is to say I will go to the head of the Liard to try and meet the bunch of Indians when they rendezvous there so as to get an idea of the dialects spoken in the country up and down the Liard and North into Yukon for a considerable distance. I expect also on another trip to get in touch with some Sekanais bands to the South and S.E. I will also be able to do the Kaska of Deace River etc. and hope to make a third trip the same season to investigate the Salmon River, Teslin and Atlin[.] I will also be able to round off the Tahltan vocabulary. It is impossible to state what the expenses will be but I think probably $2000.00 (including some money for specimens) will cover it. Re. the Blackfoot name for medicine bundle it looks similar to the word for manitou in some of the Interior Salish dialects. I do not remember the Salish word for Manitou.61 The Ntlak. use the same word for manitou and song, or at least almost the same, but I think the Okanagon and Salish use separate terms. I think the Salish word for song is kwếlem probably related or the same word as Ntlak. kwaíEm ‘speaking’ or supplicating in a song or prayer. I hope this will find you all well. Some of the people up at the ranch are down with Typhoid at present and I have drank [sic] much water up there[;] there is a chance I too may get it. I hope not however.

Teit to Boas. October 24, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121737. Dear Friend. I was thinking that before you publish the vocabularies it might be as well to send me proofs of the Interior Salish languages as I think I can add some notes to many of the words which may be of some value. Also the maps of the Interior Salish tribes as I may be able to add some 61. The closest equivalent to “Manitou” in Nlaka’pamuxcin is sneʔm, which also means “song.” See Thompson and Thompson, Thompson River Salish Dictionary nł ̳e?̳kepmx̣cín, 212, “spirit power; spirit power song.” See also Laforet and York, Spuzzum Fraser Canyon Histories, 1808–1939, 62, 63, 109.

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notes or give a little further information on boundaries. It will not be necessary to send me proofs of the Coast Salish etc. as I cannot think of anything I can add. Of course I am only proposing this if it is advisable to you.

Teit to Sapir. December 16, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir, I send you a line or two before Christmas, and also am forwarding to you by pcl. post the two pairs of moccasins. I picked No. 1 buckskin and heavy for them. They are made up into one of the ordinary styles of the Ntlak. The beadwork is more profuse, and gaudy than I thought you would like, but you cant always get things done exactly as you desire. I hope they will fit and the wearers have good luck with them. You know in some parts of the old country new shoes are examined as to good luck, bad luck, etc. the same way as a new boat is (or was) in Shetland. I have had some letters from Harlan Smith lately and he appears to be very enthusiastic in his Museum work at present. He mentioned the discovery on his late trip of the sites of many kekule-houses near Banff, Alberta, which is interesting to hear of. He asked me to prepare a sketch showing the locations of tribes in the Rocky Mountain region of BC and Alberta. I marked off a fairly good map for him showing the former and present distribution [page 2] of the tribes and have told him to keep same for the use of himself and yourself. I am rehearsing songs with two or three people to try and get all I can re. the origins of the various songs I have recorded. When through I will forward the records to Ottawa, and also send in the detailed information re. the songs. One thing I was thinking of mentioning to you but it has often escaped my memory when writing to you, viz the procuring of a wig. Dr Boas was thinking of this several years ago but at that time I had no good camera and knew very little about taking pictures. As there are hardly any male Indians here now that wear their hair full length excepting among the Kootenay, and the old people who knew all about the different styles of hair dressing are disappearing very fast. I thought it would be a good idea to use a wig on some Indian who is willing to have his photo taken frequently and show his face under the various old styles of hair arrangement. A couple of photos could then be taken of each different style until a complete set of the hair dressing of the tribe was obtained. Of course a woman might be used for the 1913 | 617

purpose instead of a man with a wig, but a woman’s face would not be correct nor fit in so well, and women would be possibly harder to get for the purpose than men. A woman would be used for showing female styles only. These were few and simple whereas the men had a great many styles of them difficult to copy properly. [page 3] Last spring I asked an old man who wears his hair full length to have his hair done up in the various styles and photographed but he seemed rather averse so I did not press him. Before that I asked an old Okanagon who also wears his hair full length and sometimes does it up in old styles but he wanted to make as much or more money out of sittings than it would cost to procure a wig. I have got at last a complete copy of my ‘Mythology of the Thompson Indians’ I guess Dr Boas ordered it sent as I had written him a couple of times about it. To-day I received proof of the short paper I wrote on the Interior Indians of BC for the new history of Canada and its provinces so I expect same will soon be published.62 I hear the Stefansson expedition has had bad luck which is too bad after so much preparation and outlay. I expected to hear of some valuable results (scientific) had they got through. We are all well at present and hope this will find you all the same. PS What I paid the women for making the moccasins and the beadwork was 3.00. One woman made a pair and her daughter the other. The skin cost abt 2.00. This accept as a Xmas present to Mrs Sapir and Mike[.]

Teit to Sapir. December 18, 1913. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I received your letter of 14th inst. re. potlatches.63 I agree with you the BC law against potlatches is unnecessary and harmful, and ought 62. Teit, “Indian Tribes of the Interior,” 283–312. 63. Sapir’s letter to Teit of December 14, 1913, is not in the CMh file. In 1884, with encouragement from missionaries working among Pacific Coast societies, the Canadian government added a clause to the Indian Act, banning the potlatch as of the beginning of 1885. The term “potlatch” ultimately derived from the Chinook word “patshatl,” was a colloquial umbrella term for a series of ceremonies, practiced with some variation by coastal societies, confirming marriages, the inheritance and transfer of material and non-material property, the assumption of ranked names, and the induction of novices into dance societies. These events were witnessed by invited guests whose act of witnessing was acknowledged through substantial distribution of goods by the hosts. Missionaries and government officials, who defined wealth in terms of material goods, rather than the non-material ritual properties prioritized by coastal societies, saw this distribution as inimical to assimilation. The potlatch ban essentially gutted institutions

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to be repealed. Dr Boas I believe some years ago had a discussion in the Victoria papers regarding it, and his attack I think did some good. If you make out a petition against it asking that it be appealed, giving a few concise reasons the Chiefs beside you will no doubt sign it, and then when the Interior Chiefs meet here some time early in the spring I will ask them to sign it also. We can get the names of from 30 or 40 to 60 chiefs here. Copies can be sent to BC and Dom. Govs, the Royal Commission on Ind. Affairs and Ind Reserves and to some societies who take an interest in fair play for the aborigines. I think you are right such petition or resolution should be backed by letters from ethnologists[.] These could be put together and sent in with the resolution or petition. The trouble is I am not the Chairman and secretary of the Indian Rights Association. A namesake of mine Rev. C. M. Tate occupies that position and being a missionary I suppose he would not back up the Indians and probably would not even care for the matter to be discussed at the meetings of the Association.64 I am one of some twelve on the executive [page 2] of the Ind Rights Association—the others are all Indians and halfbreeds and the executive meetings are held from time to time in Vancouver. The Indians of the Interior have a loose organization for the discussing of their grievances, and the redress of wrongs etc. and I am secretary for them and treasurer. Some years ago they agreed to affiliate or work together with the Coast Indians (who were organized under the name of the Indian Rights Association) for the settlement of the land question. Therefore Delegates from the Interior attend the general meetings of the Indian Rights Association which meets once (sometimes twice) a year. The last meeting was held in Vancouver on the 12th inst. I was present and some 23 other delegates central to the social organization of the coastal societies concerned. By 1913 the ban had been in force for over twenty-five years, with consequences including underground resistance and open defiance, strategies that carried the risk of exposure to arrest, and compliance with the law, which led to progressive loss of cultural knowledge. Following his appointment as deputy superintendent of Indian Affairs in 1913, Duncan Campbell Scott chose to encourage Indian agents and members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police working on the coast to enforce the law vigorously. William Halliday, Indian agent at Alert Bay, pressed charges against two Nimpkish (Kwakwaka’wakw) men in November 1913, with a trial to follow in May 1914 (Cole and Chaikin, An Iron Hand upon the People, 96–97). Subsequent letters address the potlatch further. See CMH, Sapir Correspondence, Teit to Sapir, August 5, 1914, b.635, f.13, folder: “Teit, James A. (1913–1914)”; Sapir to Teit, February 10, 1915, CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b.635, f.14, folder: “Teit, James A. (1915)”; and CMH, Barbeau fonds, Excerpts from Letter, Teit to Sapir, February 18, 1915, B.B26, Northwest Coast file, folder: “Definition and Explanation” (B-F-344): Correspondence and Notes Concerning Potlatch). 64. Charles Montgomery Tate (1852–1933) was a Methodist missionary at Chilliwack and Bella Bella (BCA, Tate Family Fonds MS0303, https://www.memorybc.ca/tate-family-fonds, accessed February 26, 2022).

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from the Interior. I did not see any delegates from the West Coast (Nutka etc.)[.] I know the Indians of the Interior would pass a resolution or sign a petition asking for the abolishment of the law against potlatches although they have never been interfered with in this matter any place in the Interior so far as I have ever heard. The potlatch was never much of an institution up here and has now almost disappeared. It was confined to spots and did not have the deep meaning and social importance it had on the Coast. I wrote you a few days ago, and yesterday or the day before despatched the moccasins which I hope will suit. The weather continues very fine here. No snow yet and many nights no frost. There has been only three showers or sprinklings of rain during the last few weeks. The house building is not quite through yet. I am writing a few stories for Dr Boas to day. I expect to start cataloging the specimens almost any time now.

Teit to Boas. December 28, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121738. Dear Friend. I am sending you to-day or to-morrow over thirty pages of tales ́ collected from the Nkamtcī́nᴇmux ͇ during this year.65 I suppose they will not be too late to include with the Ntlak. and Amer. Salish stories I sent you last winter or early last spring. Among the stories I am sending you, are about 20 pages of ‘Jack’ stories including a pretty full version of Jack (or John) the Bear, which I believe you were anxious to get. I am nearly well now of the rheumatism and also nearly through with house building etc. (also nearly broke as a consequence)[.] I will finish up the chapter on basketry as soon as possible and expect to forward it by the end of next month. Anything that occurs to me to add I can send you later. As soon thereafter as possible I will send in the other chapters of additional information on the Thompson. There will be no use keeping them for something to add, as there will always be something to learn and add to most of them. The chapter on face and body painting etc. I sent you long ago is probably the only one about as complete as possible to make it.66 The Indians have now lost most of their knowledge on the subject and I have been able to get nothing new to add to it of late years. I was ́ 65. The last letter of Nkamtcī́nᴇmux ͇ has a triple underline. 66. Published as Teit and Boas, “Tatooing and Face and Body Painting of the Thompson Indians of British Columbia,” 397–440.

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lucky to catch a few old people (that had the [page 2] knowledge of this subject) before they died. I enclose herewith an index of the tales I am sending you. I will make out a copy of my a/c after the end of the year. There is quite a balance in your favor as I have done but little work for you during the last six months. [page 3]

Commencing Galley No 48 A version of this story is said to be current among the Utámk̠t and Nlakyapamuxṓē ͇ and is known under the name of ᶯoiastcút67 (or ́ ᶯoiestcūit plural form.68) ‘they burnt themselves’ or ‘they set fire to themselves’. I believe Hill-Tout collected his Thomp. myths at Lytton from Chief Michel who was Utámk̠t. They may be classed as Utámk̠t and Lytton stories or a mixture of both. The Black Bear transformers are meant. Perhaps this should go with Thomp Mythology. C.f. Shuswap and Thomp. stories where similar incidents occur of the husband of a woman being a handsome man at night and ugly and decrepit during the day. Also his being carried around (in a basket) by his wife. Teit Mythology. C.f. Shus and Thomp. stories where bundles are made to become small and then when desired assume again their natural proportions. Teit Traditions p. 39. p. 25. etc. C.f. Teit. Traditions p. 40. C.f. Stories of testing son in law. Teit Traditions pp 38–40. Shuswap. p. 728. and p 756. see also x at end of these notes. C.f. Teit Traditions p. 39. ī́’aí or ī́.ái C.f. incidents in Lill, Shus and Thomp. stories where people are made tame or human by eating deer meat. Teit Traditions p. 97. Shus. p 632. see Lill. story [ditto] p. 97 where those who do not eat the meat are transformed to dogs. [page 2] or mū́ipᴇm (also .smū́ipᴇm and .nmū́ipᴇm. see Simon Fraser Traditions Teit Mythology. or ‘arrow arm man’

67. Cf ʕʷyəp, “burn, catch fire” (Thompson and Thompson, Thompson River Salish Dictionary nłe?kepmx̣cín 668). 68. Written by Teit in right-hand margin.

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.nkékaumstᴇm appears to means ‘They twisted bark with him.’ C.f. Shuswap p. 710. and 709 some incidents of which are similar to those of this story. also Teit Traditions p. 51. x A story is said to be current at Lytton of a man who (after others had failed and been killed in the tests) went to obtain the daughters of a wicked or cruel chief. He came on them bathing in a creek or at a lake. He saw them coming and hid in a tree or bush from which he watched them. He then stole their clothes, and would not give them up until the one he admired most had promised to be his wife. She then informed him of the tests her father would impose on him, and told him if he only concentrated all his thoughts on her he would win and come out scathless. He did this and succeeded. He was given a great many tests including one of racing with the girls father. A version of this story is also known in Nicola. C. F. Hill-Tout. (Thomp.) and Teit. Shuswap p 728. This note I suppose should go in Thomp. mythology69

Teit to Boas. December 30, 1913. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121740. Dear Friend Just as I was about to send you the stories I advised you of I had a visit from an old man aged over 75 and his wife who is over 15 years younger. From them I obtained some additional tales which I enclose with the others viz. 1. a fuller version of the Horse Races story 2. a little different version of the Hand-Hammer etc. story[.] 3. a short story of Flea. 4. a variant of the Hôlakwṓxa story. and 5. The story of the Horse Woman which until now I thought was absent here. I had never happened to hear it, nor hear of it. However I had never enquired for it as I was not acquainted with it until lately. In making inquiry re two other stories viz ‘the cutting of mouths in people’ and ‘the dancing ducks’ these informants stated they had never heard them. Regarding the Jack stories I have made a good deal of inquiry and I have not yet met any Indians who claim to have heard these stories from Whites. They all aver they heard them first from Indians. Some of these stories have been in vogue here for at least seventy years,

69. Some Jack stories collected by Teit were published in Teit, “European Tales from the Upper Thompson Indians,” 301–29.

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and their origin is unknown to the Indians. Nevertheless most of the Indians consider them to be White man’s stories or at least dealing with adventures in the White man’s country or on the verge of the latter. By many Jack is considered an Indian who has gone over there. How these stories came to be here none of the Indians can explain, for as far as they know they have always been current in the tribe. Some conjecture that they may have been introduced among Shuswap and Okanagon by story telling Half-breeds, and white employees of the Fur traders x(1) and /or passed on to the Thompson. The traders had long established posts among the Shuswap and Okanagon but none among the Thompson. The employees of the Company here were mostly French Canadians, Half-breeds from Central and Eastern Canada, Highland Scotch, and Orkneymen, with a sprinkling of English, Shetlanders, and others of various nationalities. French was the prevailing language of the employees en masse. As far as I know stories of the Jack class are very little in vogue among the Scotch, and Orkneymen so if their origin is to be sought for from this source the French Canadians, and French Half-breeds would be those most likely to have spread them x(2). The extent to which these stories are current among the Canadian French I don’t know. It may be noted that French priests (most of them from France) have been [page 2] in close contact with the Indians for periods of forty to over sixty years in some places. It is hardly likely however that they have originated these stories among the Indians. Regarding a possible Mexican source it may be stated there was no direct contact between the Indians here and Mexican settlers, packers, and cowboys etc. previous to 1858 and on Indian evidence some of the stories were known to the Thompson Indians considerably prior to that date. One other possible source of origin may be noted viz the passing of these stories from tribe to tribe following the main trade and cultural route from the South east. The Salish tribes in the U.S. east of the Columbia River appear to have been the recipients of influences from the South and South East through Sahaptin and Shoshonean tribes, and also from the East (by way of their route to the Plains) through the Flathead of Montana of influences belonging to the Western Plains and reaching the Flathead from the North east as well as the east and south east. These various streams amalgamated among the Salish tribes east of the Columbia from whom a strong current set North to the Shuswap and Thompson. These influences were stronger and traveled much more rapidly after the introduction of the horse. Before that there was probably only a gradual filtering through. If these stories reached the Thompson in this manner as it seems some of them probably 1913 | 623

did their white source of origin (French, Spanish etc.) would be through contact with tribes a considerable distance away. On the whole it seems the strongest and the oldest current of influence passing through the tribes has been from the south east and therefore the main source of these stores may be looked for in that direction. In fact the scenes of some of the stories are placed in Mexico or among Mexicans (3) (1) C.f. Shuswap p. 621, and Note p. 729. Is not alamēr French meaning “By the sea” [?] The story is connected with a lake or sea. X(2) As contact with French was quite as strong and as ancient with the Carriers and some other Athapascan tribes as the Shuswaps and Okanagons therefore if the Fur traders have been the originators of the tales the Jack stories ought to be as much in vogue among the former tribes as among the latter. I do not know if this is the case. If it is not the case then their introduction by the Fur traders seems to be improbable. X(3) C.f. Mythology of Thomp. Inds p. 385 notes 5 and 8 and p. 386 note 2

Index to Thompson (all Nkamtcin’Emux) Tales forwarded to Dr. Boas. Dec. 1913. Story of Wolf-boy [Ditto] [Ditto] (version two) Migration legend. (another version) The Woman who was captured by a Grisly Bear (almost same version as from Similkameen) Story of Eight-heads. Story of the Three Brothers and their dog. (includes another version of Eight-heads) Coyote and Buffalo (or Elk) (another version) Coyote and Fox. (two new incidents I had not got before) Story of the race with the Turtles or The Turtles and Antelope (almost same version). Story of Hand-hammer, Wood chisel, Boil and Spittle. (new) 1. Story of Jack the Bear. 2. Story of Jack the Trickster A. Jack and the Priest B. Jack and the Hat C. Jack and the church 624 | 1913

D. Jack and the Pot E. Jack and the Fat 3. Story of Jack the Thief 4. Story of Jack and his Brother 5. Story of the Horse Racer (also sometimes known as Jack)

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1914

Boas to Teit. January 3, 1914. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121909. My dear Friend,— Many thanks for your letter of the 28th of December. I am very glad to hear that you feel better, and that we may hope that you will write up the rest of your notes at an early date. I shall be very glad to receive the tales about which you are writing. I may send you within a short time quite a number of words for which I should like to get translations. The work on the vocabulary seems to be almost endless, but I am still hoping to finish it in the course of this winter.

Teit to Sapir. January 5, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I received your letter of 22nd Ult. and later the basket came to hand. Mrs Teit thinks it is fine and extends her best thanks for it. Thanks also for the cheque. I am sorry to hear the moccasins were too wide for Mrs Sapir. I did not think about the width. The Indians here are used to making moccasins rather wide partly I suppose because they have rather wide feet and high insteps themselves, and partly to give room for the blanket duffels and thick socks generally used inside of moccasins. Probably with a pair of thick socks and a pair of blanket duffels Mrs Sapir’s moccasins would be about right for her, but she may not care to keep her feet so warm as this would make them. Yes. 3.50 would be the price of the large pair. I notice up North the Indians often err the opposite way making moccasins (particularly slipper moccs.) too low and narrow in proportion. I have seen me have difficulty in getting a pair to fit. Yes. I think it would be well if you took up the matter of the potlatch. I will write my piece about it any time. I do not think being

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Gov. employees will matter.1 We are not mixing in politics or taking sides openly with any political party. The potlatch as whether it should be or should not be is altogether [page 2] a non political question. We are still having very fine weather here, Many days no frost whatever. There is no snow on the ground excepting in the mountains. We have had no nights colder than a few degrees of frost. Yesterday we had a good shower of rain for a change. I am scraping the floors in the new house preparatory to oiling them. I will be through with this and most of the staining etc. about the end of the week. The carpenter work was finished a couple of days ago. I am also doing some writing for Boas. I sent him another batch of stories about a week ago, the last of the tales I had on hand. There will be an Indian meeting here in the spring some time[,] date uncertain yet. Some Chilcotin delegates will be at it. If the date of your returning to Ottawa would coincide it would be possible for you to investigate the phonetics of the Chilcotin and possibly Lower Carrier and also possibly Kootenai.

Teit to Boas. January 7, 1914. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121872. Dear Friend, I write you this to let you know I will have a few more stories to send you different from any I have yet collected, and including some so called ‘white’ stories, all obtained from an old Indian who is said to know them best. They include a story of Deer and her husband etc. One of Jack and woman who lost her children etc. Hoping this will find you very well. With best wishes to you for a happy and prosperous New Year.

Teit to Boas. January 14, 1914. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121873. Dear Friend I have written out four Lower Fraser stories and have men coming tomorrow (probably) to relate some Thompson stories I have been

1. A letter from Sapir may be missing here. As employees of the Geological Survey of Canada, both Teit and Sapir were government employees; members of the Geological Survey of Canada were employees of the Department of Mines. Openly taking issue with a Canadian law was an act of courage for both.

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enquiring about but never heard told excepting little bits of them.2 Some of them are Indian and the others probably of European origin. 2. As these early 1914 letters suggest, Teit was occupied at this time in preparing narratives for Boas, and these may be the Lower Fraser stories published in 1917 in Folk-tales of Salish and Sahaptin Tribes. In a letter to Sargent on January 13, 1914 (APS, Boas Papers, text 107136), Boas provided rare insight into his own concerns. “The status of my own work at the present time is as follows. I have compiled and had compiled the vocabularies of thirty-five Salish dialects, which embrace at the present time over eleven hundred entries and a considerable number of others that are not listed yet. These have all been classified and collated with older manuscript and printed material. At present I am engaged in work necessary for bringing together the data necessary for a correct classification of the dialects. The results of this comparison look very promising, and we find linguistic evidence of a peculiar division of the Salish tribes into one western and one eastern group, that must have been separated for a very long time, and a division of the people of the interior into a northern and southern group, [page 2] northern and southern group [sic], with the probability of a late invasion of the northern dialects into the southern district. I think this may very well correspond to the alleged migration of the Thompson Indians southward, to which Mr. Teit has referred quite a number of times. This work has progressed so far that I do hope that I will finish it within a reasonable time; and I have made an arrangement with the Smithsonian Institution that they will print it. [para] The ethnographical material collected by Mr. Teit is very largely still in rough notes. I have segregated one large collection of traditions, which were printed in the “Journal of American Folk-Lore.” A second series of miscellaneous traditions supplementary to those already published, I think would best be published in the same way, and I hope to get these ready in the course of this year. [para] The ethnographical material must be published as a supplement to Teit’s monographs of the Shuswap and Thompson Indians, with constant reference to these volumes; and this is to form a volume of the Columbia University Series. A number of chapters are entirely in my hands. This is particularly true of the chapters on tattooing and facial painting, and additional notes on manufactures, etc.” Boas then turned his attention to the work on basketry, and his comments demonstrate that (a) there continued to be no set plan for a work on basketry incorporating Teit’s perspective, Boas’s perspective, and Sargent’s; and that (b) even the basketry project, which had been a motivating factor in Sargent’s involvement and growing financial support for Teit’s work, and had had priority in discussions even within the past year, was susceptible to losing force against Boas’s commitment to the ethnography project as a whole. Boas continues, “I am somewhat in doubt what to do with the chapter on basketry. You will remember that you expressed to me at one time [page 3] to have this published in a form similar to Emmons’ “Tlingit Basketry.” This of course would be a very expensive publication. It would require many photographs, and necessitate particularly a personal examination of the collection. I thought, therefore, that it might be best at the present time to put this aside, because probably I cannot get around to this matter for some time. At least, it would be easier to publish the other material first. On the other hand, of course, it might be possible to publish simply Teit’s notes on basketry with a limited number of illustrations as part of the ethnographical notes on these tribes. The larger work of course will be very interesting, but it is not absolutely necessary that it should be embodied in this particular series. I should like to be guided in this matter by your wishes. [para] Of course the total amount of work involved here is quite considerable; and if you do feel that you would care to enable me to engage assistance in carrying it through, I should feel very greatly indebted to you.” Sargent’s reply on January 29, 1914, expressed support for Boas’s ethnographic publication project, as well as additional editorial assistance, but reaffirmed his commitment to his vision for the basketry publication. “I still think I should like the paper on basketry to be as complete as possible, and for the present, it might as well be put aside and give way to the other subjects, until such a time in the future as you feel you can spare the time to take it up. My ideas as to the expense of publication of a form similar to Emmons’ “Tlingit Basketry” are very vague and I should like to have an estimate when you are at liberty to consider the subject. This estimate does not have to be a close one.”

1914 | 629

As soon as I hear them and write them out I will forward to you. I enclose herewith copy of our a/c to end of year. The Kootenay trip, and the work in connection with stories has taken considerable of the money so the balance probably will not be sufficient to finish the Thompson paper, it would therefore be all right to [page 2] send me a little more money any time later on say about 100.00 or there about. I have charged you for the collecting of baskets (those that went to Ottawa), perhaps this should have been charged to Ottawa but I did not know.

Teit to Boas, January 29, 1914. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121874. My Dear Friend. I was very sorry to hear the m.s. of the stories had not reached you and I have to-day informed the P.M. here who is sending out a tracer. If they are lost it will be unfortunate as I have got no copies of some of them, and have not even a list of the titles. Yesterday I forwarded to you by registered mail about 18 pages of stories. They include 5 short stories from the Lower Fraser. The others are all Thompson, in the main two long stories, one of the Deer, and the other called spiṓla of European [page 2] origin.3 I have been working a good deal on the basketry since the beginning of the year and soon will have much of it ready to forward. I have been a [sic] kind of sick the last 3 or 4 days[.] Foolishly I took no care of myself and allowed a chill to get on my kidneys. I feel some better to-day[.] I was not sick enough to have to stop writing (nor smoking).

3. Teit indicated in the 1916 publication, “European Tales from the Upper Thompson Indians” that the meaning of this word is unknown (301n1). However, the term “spiol,” meaning “mixed,” was known among the Nlaka’pamux in the 1980s, and is a version of “espagnol”: that is, Spanish. Spanish-speaking packers from Mexico came to the Colony of British Columbia with the gold rush of 1858 and several married Nlaka’pamux women and settled in Nlaka’pamux territory. The name “Spiol” was held by at least two people in modern Nlaka’pamux history, a man from the Nicola Valley reserve, Joeyaska [i.e., from the Joeyaska reserve in the Nicola Valley], and Chief John Raphael.

630 | 1914

Boas to Teit. February 4, 1914. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121910. My dear Friend,— I was glad to receive your note, and I hope that you are feeling quite well again by this time. I believe the best way, in order to make sure, will be to send you a list of the Thompson traditions which I have received up to this date, which will perhaps help you to clear up the question whether anything is missing or what may be missing. I have put the material together according to the way it was pinned together; and as it arrived here at the same time:— Story of Wolf Boy, Version 1.

)4

Story of Wolf Boy, Version 2.

)

Migration Legend, Another Version.

)

Story of Woman who was capture by a Grizzly Bear.

) pp. 1–12.

Story of Eight-Heads.

)

Coyote and Buffalo.

) Nkamtcin mux.

Coyote and Fox.

)

Story of Hand-Hammer, Wood Chizel [sic], Boil, and Spittle.

)

Story of the Race with the Turtles.

)

Story of the Three Brothers and their Dog (Another Version of Eight-Heads).

)

[page 2] Teit, Feb. 4, 1914.

2

Story of Bear Boy (or Jack the Bear).

)

Story of Jack (the Trickster).

)

Jack and the Priest.

)

Jack and the Hat.

)

4. In the original letter these parentheses form a continuous bracket.

1914 | 631

Jack and the Church.

) pp. 1–19. Nkamtcin mux

Jack and the Pot.

)

Jack and the Fat.

)

Story of Jack the Theif. [sic]

)

Story of Jack and his Brother.

)

Story of the Horse—Racer.

)

Additional. Another Version of the Horse-Racer Story.

) Sent Dec. 13, 1913

Story of Hand-Hammer, Wood Chisel, Boil, and ) Spittle. Story of Flea.

) pp. 1–5.

Story of Holholakwoxa.

) Nkamtcin mux.

The Horse-Woman, or the Woman who became a Horse.

)

Manuscript from Interior Salish. Coeur de Leon [sic],5

pp. 1–10

Pend’ Oreille

10–15

Okanagon

17–44

Similkameen

45–51

Nkamtcin mux

52–57

Upper Thompson

58–83

Historical Notes

84

Coast Salish, not numbered

3 pages.

Coeur-de-Leon, not numbered

2 [Ditto]

Nkamtcin mux, not numbered

2 [Ditto]

Okanagon, not numbered

1 page

Upper Thompson, not numbered

5 pages

5. Apparently Coeur d’Alene.

632 | 1914

Teit to Boas. February 5, 1914. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121875 Dear Friend Please send me all the dates on which I shipped you stories, according to my written advises [sic] to you, also send lists of titles of stories as far as I have sent them. This is to help in the tracing of these stories which have gone astray during the last four or five months. I will then be able to know if I will be able to re-write them again. I am sick in bed with an attack of la grippe and biliousness and cannot do anything.

Teit to Sapir. February 5, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Friend I am asking my wife to write this letter to let you know that I am sick in bed with an attack of la grippe etc. This is a pretty severe attack and I have been in bed for several days, another stroke of bad luck[.] I have nothing new to tell you except that I had a letter from Tobacco Plains the other day which informed me that the young educated Indian who was to take over the writing of the Kootenay mythology had not much more than made a start on the work early last summer when he was put in jail, so this matter is squashed in the meantime. Hoping that Mrs Sapir, Mike and yourself are well. Many thanks for the pretty little basket. L. J. Teit6

Leonie [Mrs. J. A.] Teit to Boas. February 12, 1914. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122264. Dear Dr. Boas, Your letter of the 4th received. Mr. Teit is sick in the hospital and cannot answer letters. I expect him home again in a week or ten days.

6. Leonie Josephine Teit.

1914 | 633

Boas to Teit. March 20, 1914. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121853. My dear Friend:— I am very anxious to hear from you. When last I wrote you were ill, and I do hope that you may have completely recovered.7 I am expecting to go West this summer, and it is not impossible that I may have a chance to see you, although I am not sure.8

Sapir to Mrs. J. A. Teit. April 6, 1914. Telegram. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Please send balance of $275 due or voucher accounting for same. Accounts must be closed for fiscal year just ended.9 7. Boas wrote to Sapir, on March 24, 1914, “Did you see Teit on your way back? I worry about him. He had been quite ill for some time, and the last I heard was from his wife, who told me that he was in hospital” (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b.621, f.1, folder: “Boas, Franz [1910–1914]”). 8. A reference to Boas’s projected work on the Ktunaxa language. In his letter of March 24, 1914, he wrote to Sapir, “I am planning to leave here about the middle of May to do some linguistic work among the Kutenai. It seems very inconvenient to get at them on the American side, and I am wondering if it would not be more convenient to work on the Canadian side. Can you find out for me in Ottawa how the conditions are, whether it is easy to get at them, whether there are good interpreters, and whether I can get a ticket with stop-over privilege in the Kutenai country, going on from there along the Pacific Coast to San Francisco, coming back the same way, with another stop-over privilege among the Kutenai?” Boas added a marginal note, “The phonetic forms, I think, are fuller among the Upper Kutenai” (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b.621, f.1, folder: “Boas, Franz [1910–1914]”). 9. Communications concerning expenses and accounts constitute a subtext in the discourse between Teit and Sapir. Teit’s expenses and submission of accounts became a significant focal point in the constant challenge to reconcile the rhythm of Teit’s life and work in British Columbia with the rhythm of bureaucratic life and work in Ottawa. In 1914, as now, the fiscal year ran from April 1 to March 31. As chief of the Division of Anthropology of the GSC, Sapir was bound to send in the accounts for the fiscal year 1913–1914, and in April 1914 they were a week overdue. This may seem a trivial matter, but Sapir was responsible for ensuring that all monies expended during the fiscal year were accounted for by March 31. As a division chief, Sapir’s administrative competence was measured by the degree to which he was able to comply, and to a degree, Teit’s reputation with the accountant and deputy minister depended on his own compliance. In subsequent fiscal years, as issues ranging from ill health, family exigencies, and the press of other obligations caused Teit to delay sending in accounts, this moved from the problem of a single moment to a chronic concern, and the communications about it expanded from communications between Sapir and Teit to communications between John Marshall, the GSC accountant, and Sapir, and then to communications between Marshall and Teit. At one point, William McInnes, the directing geologist acting for the deputy minister of mines, communicated with Sapir about it. An inability to resolve this matter certainly led to Sapir’s being at a recurring disadvantage with the accountant, but it also had the potential to make it difficult for him to negotiate leeway required to resolve any other issue related to Teit’s work within the Division of Anthropology. As Teit indicated in this letter, his convalescence prevented him from doing Athapaskan field work in the fiscal year 1914–15. As his work for Boas and the need to rebuild

634 | 1914

Teit to Sapir. April 6, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I intended to write you two or three days ago but somehow could not manage it. It tires me to write in the ordinary way for any length of time, so I am writing in a reclining position with the pad against my knees. Therefore the use of pencil which you must excuse. We received your wire to-day and are sorry you had to go to the trouble. The bills were all made out already excepting some vouchers for payments to Indians which had to be signed. I got my wife to make out the bills about the end of March but she did not quite finish them and being very busy put them off. She will make a special trip to Sp. Bdge tomorrow to mail them and also remit the balance of over 40.00 which is due the Museum. I suppose you have heard of the famous McKay blankets.10 Well they are for sale at last. They are the only blankets of the kind extant as far as I know. I believe they were made at Spuzzum and I think I could even now get the name of the maker who is of course now dead. The blankets were purchased by McKay in the sixties. I have seen and examined [page 2] these blankets in the McKay’s home in Victoria. I dont know if you desire to purchase one for the Museum (I think the price too high at present) but if I could take one to Spuzzum to show the exact kind of specimen possibly I might get some woman there to undertake the making of one. Last year I asked one of the few blanket makers left there (the maker of coarser ordinary type of blanket you saw in the place last fall) to make one of the McKay type but she said she was too old and it was too hard work. Some others I asked did not quite understand the type of blanket wanted. They said they might make a little square but I did not order anything. I enclose Dr Newcombe’s letter to me re. the blankets which will be better than my explanation. I also enclose to you photos I have of the blankets showing the designs. Please return photos and letter when through with them and oblige. his house had prevented his going to the field in 1913–14, Sapir was faced with accounting for a second successive year in which the principal raison d’être of Teit’s employment, field work and ethnographic publication, was not fulfilled. 10. A few days earlier Teit had written to Newcombe, “Very many thanks for your letter re the blankets. I am afraid I cannot touch any of them at that price. I think with you the blankets were probably made at Spuzzum. I would like to have one of them to take to both Yale and Spuzzum. I think I could find out the name of the maker. There is no likelihood of there being any dog’s hair in the blankets. I have written to Mr. Sargent and will write to Dr. Sapir. You ought to try to get a first option on the blankets from the McKays. They would no doubt give you this. It would make the Prov. Museum safe” (BCA, Teit to Newcombe, April 2, 1914).

1914 | 635

I had a set back after leaving the hospital at Ashcroft (my little boy Erik also got the fever and was in at the same time as myself) and was put back to bed when we reached the ranch.11 I am recovering slowly (it seems awful slow to me) and gathering some strength. They will not give me solids yet and I crave for them. I can walk around a little. They say that after two weeks my progress will be more rapid. I will be able to write a little every day and was thinking of starting work on Boas’ basketry next week. As soon as I can [page 3] eat solids so I can get along and am a little stronger for sitting up and walking which they say may be any time after two weeks I will shift to Spences Bridge taking my wife along to help me, and will commence listing and ticketing the collection you said you would take. I may at first make out a preliminary list naming and describing the articles without going into detail of designs etc. etc. so you can learn more quickly what the things are and the price of the lot and see if it is satisfactory. There will be a good many specimens and some very good ones. They will round out the previous lot you bought (at least to a considerable extent)[.] I have the mats on hand I collected for your tipi and will ship them about the same time as the collection. After I do the above work and finish up for Boas I will be at your disposal for any work you may want done. This will be in the summer and too late for the far North. I am also debarred from going north by the doctor who says I must not attempt any rough Northern trip this year, and I must take great care of myself for the next four or five months and not exert myself too much or take violent exercise or do very hard work of any kind. He says I may make trips and travel where communications are easy and I would not be exposed to any risks of over exertion. He adds that next year or next spring he expects (after full recovery from the typhoid and effects) that I will be in better physical condition than for years and able [page 4] to perform any kind of work or journey. I am rather disappointed in not being able to go north as all the people were expecting me and I had in a way made a good part of my arrangements already. However it cant be helped and anyway I see a great deal of work I can do for you in the south after I finish up for Boas. After writing out for you the Tahltan tales and material I have on hand (or should this be put off until winter and the most possible use of fair weather be made for trips) I could visit the Chilcotin and Lower and Upper Carrier (and possibly the Southern Sekani [sic]) collect vocabularies and make collections. The Chilcotin would probably have the most specimens coiled basketry, birch bark 11. Ashcroft Bc is located on the Thompson River north of Spences Bridge.

636 | 1914

work, mats and weaving, Rabbit blankets etc. etc. etc. The Carrier would have fewer specimens but birch bark work and other things can be procured. If you desired I could make collections of mythology from the Carrier at one or more points. Hardly any of their myths have been collected[.] Morice did not do this work. Farrand made a collection from the Chilcotin. On the way back I could collect some stuff especially basketry from the Northern Shuswap. As communication is now easy I might on the same trip visit the [illeg] Shuswap band of the Upper Fraser and gather specimens and mythology. After this there would be lots of work among Kutenai and So. Okanagon etc. if there was time to do it. Mythology, collecting, etc. etc. [page 5] I would get lots of good photographs on these trips. No. Shuswap, (maybe Shus, Cree, Iroquois) (Maybe So. Sekani) Up and Low Carrier, Chilcotin etc. One thing I was going to mention. I dont see why with some practice and of course the necessary outfit I could not take the principal measurements of Indians (such measurements f.i. as Dr Boas took around here). The only thing that might bother me a little would be getting the head measurements correctly but I could practice on individuals here until I got used to it. All the rest seems easy. Even the taking of statures and finger reach if I had the outfit would be better than nothing. It always seems to me too bad to miss all the fine opportunities I have in this line. It looks like wilful neglect. Let me hear what you think and about outfit. Dr Boas could give advice. The figuring out of the results of measurements would have to be done by you. I am not good enough on figures. Titles to the photos I took in December and beginning of Jany I will get my wife to write out or later write out myself and send you as soon as I can. Dr Boas writes me he will be out west during the summer and hopes to visit me twice viz May and Aug. He does not state what researches he will be engaged in. He says he will stop a short time in Kootenay.

Mrs. James Teit to Sapir. April 7, 1914. Telegram. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Accounts and balance gone forward

1914 | 637

Sapir to Teit. May 8, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— I must apologize for keeping you waiting so long for an answer to your letter of April 6th. I have been away for about three weeks to New York and Philadelphia, and returned only yesterday, so that this is practically the first opportunity I have had to take up correspondence. I am glad to learn that you are on the road to recovery, and hope that by the time this reaches you you will be able to get about freely. Of course, under the circumstances, it [is] quite clear that our original plans in regard to this summer’s field work will have to be radically revised. A second trip to the Tahltan and other relatively inaccessible tribes is, of course out of the question. What I should like to have you do, as soon as you feel that you are able to take up the work for us again, is along the lines that you yourself suggest. We are quite weak on collections from all interior tribes of British Columbia except Thompson River. It would, therefore, be an excellent plan for you to see what you can get among the Carrier, Chilcotin, and neighbouring Salish tribes such as Lillooet and Shuswap. At the same time you could make collections of mythology, as you suggest. For Carrier, Chilcotin, and possibly other Athabascan tribes you could also get type vocabularies, in accordance with our original plan, and work [page 2] out exact tribal boundaries. Photographs and phonograph records would, of course, also be welcome as usual. I do not know whether it would be preferable for you to wait until you completed your field work among them at some later date. Perhaps you could get the folk-lore ready anyway, as that kind of material can be added to, as a rule, without very seriously affecting the general outline. I take it for granted of course, that you will be able and prepared next fiscal year to continue with your Tahltan research. I shall be glad to get your private collection, photographic data, and phonograph records whenever you are prepared to send them. As you request, I am returning you Dr. Newcomb’s [sic] letter, together with your photographs of McKay’s blankets. Dr. Newcombe also wrote me independently in regard to these, and seems to feel strongly like yourself that an absurdly prohibitive price is being asked for these blankets. There is, of course, no doubt that they are very fine examples of blanket weaving, but I should certainly not be prepared, from the looks of the case, to recommend as much as $500 for a blanket. Even $100 per blanket would seem to me to be a pretty tall maximum. Please see what you can do about procuring these blankets for the Survey, 638 | 1914

going as easy as you can, without debarring ourselves from the chance of eventually getting them. As you are on the spot, you are in a better position in regard to bidding and dickering that we are here. I should be inclined to recomme[nd] purchase at $100 each as a maximum, but you will, of course, try if [page 3] possible, to get them for less. Please consider all travelling expenses that you may incur in connection with purchase of these blankets as chargeable to the Survey. If you think that it is impossible to secure at least one of the blankets for $100, let me know, and perhaps we can manage to get one or more of them for a trifle more. If, however, you ascertain that they are not as unique as the McKay’s make them out to be, and that, as you suggest, it would really be possible to have a good sample made by and Indian woman, at a more reasonable figure, it would not be worth while going beyond a fairly moderate sum. In short, I am relying almost entirely on your judgment in this matter. There is, of course, no reason why you should not take measurements of Indians if you are interested in doing so. Some time next month or in July I expect Mr. Knowles, of Oxford, to take up systematic work for us as permanent physical anthropologist. As soon as he arrives I shall tell him of your interest in this matter and get him to correspond extensively with you.12 I saw a good deal of Dr. Boas in New York recently, and found him looking forward to seeing you on his way to San Francisco. He is to spend some time among the Kootenay Indians, both going and coming, taki[ng] one of his pupils with him. The object of the trip is purely linguisti[c].13 I hope that your little boy has entirely recovered from typhoid. Please give my best regards to Mrs. Teit and her mother. Kindly rememb[er] me also to the children. 12. Francis Howe Seymour Knowles (1886–1953) studied law at Oriel College, Oxford, and in 1909 received the one of the first diplomas in anthropology awarded by Oxford University. He taught physical anthropology at Oxford from 1909 to 1912. He arrived in Canada in 1912 to do field work among the Iroquois and was appointed to the Geological Survey of Canada as physical anthropologist in 1914. In 1919 he succeeded his father as baronet and returned to England (Petch, Discover . . . Francis Howe Seymour Knowles; see Knowles, The Glenoid Fossa in the Skull of the Eskimo, 1–25; and. Knowles, Physical Anthropology of the Roebuck Iroquois, 1–79.) 13. Boas’s 1914 field work followed up the work he had done among the Ktunaxa near Windermere BC in 1886 (Boas, First General Report on the Indians of British Columbia), and Alexander Chamberlain’s summer of field work in 1891 (Chamberlain, “Report on the Kootenay Indians of South-Eastern British Columbia”). In the summer of 1914 Boas recorded narratives from several “Upper Kutenai” men; that is, Ktunaxa living on the upper reaches of the Kootenay River. Chamberlain died in 1914. Boas published the results of his work and Chamberlain’s work in their Kutenai Tales, 1918.

1914 | 639

Teit to Sapir. May 20, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I was very pleased indeed to receive your letter of 8th inst., and I note carefully all you say. I will do work for you as soon as I possibly can along the lines I suggested. I will also write out the Tahltan myths as soon as I can, and continue with the recording of songs and obtaining photos etc. I made enquiry about a wig in Vancouver. I have tried two houses with the result that they want to charge $20.00 for the making of a wig of long dark hair of the kind and size I want. I would not order any until I heard from you as I thought this price about twice too much. Perhaps we might be able to do better than this by you purchasing one in Ottawa or I may try some other ‘wig’ houses here and possibly get one at a more reasonable price. Re. the McKay blankets I will commence to do some dickering about them and may possibly take a trip to Victoria about them. I hear that 300.00 has been offered for one of the best ones. I shall be glad to correspond with Mr. Knowles re. the measuring whenever he is ready. Yes. I heard you [page 2] were over in New York lately, and I was glad to learn you had seen much of Dr Boas. I will be glad to see him whenever he comes along. My little boy has quite recovered from the Typhoid. Myself I am getting along all right. I am putting on weight rapidly of late, but do not gain in strength so fast. My feet are still almost like lead when I go up hill or up a stairs, yet I notice some improvement in my condition from week to week. The chief thing holding me back now is rheumatism which has returned and some times [sic] attacks me so hard in the muscles of the back and ribs that I can hardly bend and it is often painful to breathe. To sneeze at those times is something awful. However there are signs of those conditions passing off and I hope before very long to be almost rid of them. I have no funds on hand from the Museum to carry on any work. I had a few dollars remaining to your credit but these I was required to send at the end of the fiscal year. I sold some specimens to the Prov. Museum, Victoria last year. Duplicates from my collection and two or three things they wanted specially collected for them. Just now I am selling them a few more things. I am cataloging my collection to be sent to you at present, but cannot work even at that more than a few hours per day with some rests between.

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Sapir to Teit. May 30, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— I was glad to get your letter of May 20th, and to learn that you are much better, though I regret to learn that your rheumatism has returned with vigor. I am also greatly pleased to learn that your little boy has recovered from typhoid. I think I would prefer to leave the matter of purchase of a wig, for the purpose of posing Indians, entirely to you. Please use your best judgment in regard to the quality and price. As you have no funds to work with at present, I am making out a contract for this fiscal year to be approved by Mr. Brock and signed by you. In this I shall estimate for salary at the rate of $1500 per year, and field funds amounting to $1000.14 For the field work as originally planned, I had estimated $2000, but as you will not be able to carry out the original plan this year, it will, of course, not be necessary to estimate so large an amount. As soon as Mr. Brock approves the contracts, I shall send them to you for your signature. On receipt of these from you, I shall immediately request Mr. Brock to give you an advance. The paper on Algonkin languages in California, in which you seemed somewhat interested when I last saw you in Spences Bridge, has at last appeared in the American Anthropologist. Under another cover I am sending you a separate copy. Please give my best regards to Mrs. Teit and [page 2] remember me to the children. Mr. Barbeau sends his best regards to you. 14. Teit’s contract for the fiscal year 1914–15, dated May 30, 1914, was adapted to accommodate his state of health. It required “an ethnological field trip or ethnological field trips among various Salish or Athabaskan tribes of British Columbia, the beginning of such field trip or trips to be reckoned from the time at which his home is left for the field, its termination to be reckoned at the time at which his home is reached. . . . In connection with his ethnological research, Mr. Teit is to obtain for the Geological Survey representative museum collections illustrating the life of the various tribes visited.” At the same time, the new contract reinforced the need for written results: “A scientific paper, or a series of scientific papers, embodying the scientific results of the field researches, is to be submitted for publication to the Geological Survey by the end of the year 1916. . . . During that part of the period that Mr. Teit is under salary, as hereinafter stated, and is not actually engaged in field research, he shall be required to devote all of his working time to the writing up of the scientific results obtained for the Survey either during this fiscal year or during the two preceding fiscal years.” The contract states, “the Survey hereby agrees to pay Mr. Teit a salary of $125 per month for the time spent in field research or in working up of material obtained in the field.” Sapir included a salary estimate of $1500 as in previous years, although he must have known that, with a portion of Teit’s work devoted to the unfinished work for Boas, a portion of the GSC salary would lapse at the end of the fiscal year (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b. 638, f.16, folder: “Contracts [1913–1920]”).

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Teit to Sapir. June 9, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I was glad to receive your letter of 30th ult. I have signed the contract and return same to-day under separate cover. I will see about the wig again the next time I go to Vancouver. I am putting off dickering re. the McKay blankets until such time as I can get into communication with Dr Newcombe who may have an option of some kind on them.15 He has not returned from North yet. I read your article on the Yurok etc. in the Anthropologist, and it seems to me you have made out a very certain case for the Algonkin relationship of these tribes. As you say this opens up new vistas re. the early distribution and movements of tribes in America. I am sending you to-day one film pack for development and printing. I thought I would obtain a lot of photos at the time of the Indian meeting here but the Indians took up too much of my time and I did not get as many as I expected. 15. The previous day Teit had written to Newcombe, “When will you be in Victoria again as I am anxious to confer with you re the purchasing of the McKay blankets. I would go to Victoria and see you” (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence, Teit to Newcombe, June 8, 1914). Teit was not entirely ready to go to Victoria at a moment’s notice, however, as he had another commitment. On June 11, 1914, he wrote to Newcombe, “Just received your PC as I am leaving on a ten days trip in the neighbourhood botanizing with Prof. Davidson. Will write you re blankets and my program on my return” (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence, Teit to Newcombe, June 11, 1914). John Davidson (1878–1970) was appointed the first provincial botanist of British Columbia in 1911, and from 1917 to 1945 was on the faculty of the University of British Columbia (UBC, Davidson Fonds). In the second week of June 1914 Davidson traveled into Nlaka’pamux territory and, in company with Teit, gathered plants in Botani Valley and in the Laluissen Valley to the north. (UBC, Davidson Fonds, Davidson, “Notes on the Flora of the Lower Thompson 1914–15,” box 6–5). Teit and Davidson continued to correspond at least until 1920, and Davidson also identified plants for Newcombe (UBC, Davidson Fonds: Journal of John Davidson, Botanist, 1917–1920). Teit continued to gather plants for Davidson after their trip to Botani Valley. In September he wrote to Newcombe, “I want you to send me a list of the seeds and wild plants from here that you want. I expect to be going out in the mtns before long and will try to get what I can for yourself and Davidson” (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence, Teit to Newcombe, September 18, 1914). The discussion with the McKays had been renewed because the McKays were finding themselves in a difficult situation economically (Tepper et al., Salish Blankets, 122). In July 1914, with Newcombe’s knowledge, Teit sent a letter to Joseph McKay’s daughter, listing the four blankets and offering to purchase one or all of them at prices ranging from $70 to $100. He added, “The Ottawa Museum will not go much if any beyond the figures above quoted, but will be glad to consider any proposition you have. Possibly by further correspondence between us in this matter we may be able to arrive at some arrangement that will be satisfactory” (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence, James Teit to Miss McKay, July 21, 1914, Series A, Vol. 5, f. 143). Miss McKay responded that she considered Teit’s offer “exceedingly low” (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence, Teit to Newcombe, July 31, 1914). By the third week in August Teit had had no further word from the McKays but had written to Sargent, explaining the situation (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence, Teit to Newcombe, August 22, 1914).

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Teit to Sapir. July 16, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I write you a few lines to let you know I returned from Victoria last night. I spent four days there dickering re. the blankets and waiting on Dr Newcombe who happened through a misunderstanding to be away when I arrived. There are only three parties actually in the field after the blankets viz. Mr Sargent, Dr Newcombe for the Prov. Museum and myself for you. We have agreed not to pay over 100.00 each for the two best blankets 90.00 for another and 70.00 for the fourth. I made an offer on that basis to the McKays, and expect to hear from them again before long as I am writing them. Whilst in Vancouver I went to see some private collections. Only one of them is for sale. It consists chiefly of Chilcotin baskets which I thought were held too high so I bought nothing. Later on I may be able to get a few individual specimens from this collection at reasonable prices. I managed to procure a wig while there at 15.00. I could not get any of the kind I wanted for less than 20.00 when I was there before. I will now be taking some pictures showing styles of hair dressing from time to time. I still have the rheumatism but the hot weather we now have is good for it. I will now quit as I expect to be writing you again before long

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

Teit to Sapir. July 24, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I am sending you to-day by mail some branches of fir having ‘tree sugar’ or ‘Indian sugar’ on them. The Indians call it ‘tree milk’. I would like to know the proper name for the stuff and whether it is from the tree itself or is it made by insects. I sent you titles yesterday to the two parcels of prints I received last. I have not got any copy of the Report Geol. Survey 1912 yet. Give my kind regards to Smith Barbeau if there. I suppose they will be off on some trips now however. PS The rheumatism is improving slowly.

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Teit to Sapir. August 5, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir Dr Boas was here a day with me and left last night at 11.30 pm on his way to Kootenay where he is going to remain a month investigating the Kootenai language. He wants me to write up first what material I have on hand re. the Coeur d’Alene, Okanagon and Salish proper and the additional information I have on the Thomp. (general information outside of art)[.] The basket designs and all designs on bags, parfleches, clothing, shields, drums, face and body painting etc. etc. is to be combined on paper on Art of the Thomp. as I have collected a good deal of information on designs outside of basketry. I am going to start on the first named paper as soon as I get through cataloging the collection for you. It will take me a week yet (at least) to finish the cataloging. As soon as I do so I will forward the catalog to you so you know exactly what the specimens are and the price. I will not know the latter myself until I finish. A lot of the things are marked with the price I paid for them but nearly fifty per cent are not (all the oldest specimens) and I have to guess at the price of each. I saw some of the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs here lately (a few days ago) and find that Dr McKenna (the Special Commissioner of the Ottawa Gov.) (this is private between us) is in favor of maintaining the potlatch institution or rather letting it take its natural course. I told him that you were also of this opinion and in fact every one [sic] who knew anything of the social institutions of the Indians. I asked him [page 2] to call on you and discuss the matter when he goes to Ottawa again. He promised to do this. He has a great deal of sympathy with the Indians. It is important to have him thinking this way as it may be possible on his recommendation to the Gov. to get the law against potlatching abolished or at least modified. I would like you to send me four or five copies of the Report of the Anthropological Divisions of the Survey/12 if you have them to spare. I want to give one each to Dr McKenna and to two or three others. When I finish the Coeur d’Alene etc. paper I intend to write off your stories (Tahltan). I told Dr Boas if I felt good enough I would likely take a trip for you this fall and might try to make a collection in Kootenay. We have had very hot weather lately. This war is a bad affair and I feel depressed about it.16 16. Britain had declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914, and Canada was automatically at war as well.

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Teit to Boas. August 6, 1914. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121876. Dear Friend A pc came for you which I am readdressing and forwarding to-day. One thing I am not quite clear on is will I treat of bags, basketry etc. as to shapes, materials etc. in the first paper I write (viz Coeur d’Alene, Okanagon and Thomp.)[.] (In fact all except designs the latter only to be in the art of the Thomp. Paper) or will everything on basketry be included in the art paper which would then really be a paper on Basketry and Art of the Thomp. If you think it is all right I prefer to do it along the first named lines. This means No. 1 publication will consist of notes on the general ethnology of Coeur d’Alene, Okanagan and Flathead with supplementary notes on the general ethnology of the Thomp. (This will include all information obtained on materials, shapes etc. of bags of all kinds, baskets of all kinds, etc. and also the myths already sent you.) No. 2 publication will consist of all exposing the art of the Thomp. It will consist almost entirely of the information I have on baskets, bags, clothing etc. etc. (You took notes of the different heads) face and body painting etc. A number of small things I forgot to talk over with you when here, particularly quill work of which I have some specimens on hand showing several different methods. At least two of these methods are I know common to the Athapascan tribes and probably Algonkin and other stocks. Remember me to Pierre.

Teit to Sapir. August 29, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I was sorry to receive the news conveyed in your letter which reached me to-day. I had just finished cataloging the collection and had the catalog ready to send to you. It consists of 57 closely written pages of foolscap. The specimens as cataloged number I think 370 but the number of separate pieces must be 500 or more. This is all from Ntlak. and there are about 20 specimens besides from other Salish tribes, Kutenai and Athapaskan etc. It would take years to make a similar collection and in fact I have taken years to collect it. I am very anxious that it should go to you as I am working for you and am taking a pride in doing the best I can for your Museum. Having this collection along with the part of same

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I sent you before would make your Museum comparatively complete in its representation of the Interior Salish of BC. Only a few things would remain to be obtained (from time to time) to make it altogether complete. Another thing is I need the money. I will however hold the collection in the meantime for you if you will agree to [page 2] my insuring it and charging the cost of insurance to you added to the total price of the stuff when you buy. I do not want to take the chance of holding it uninsured much longer as I have too much money tied up in it, and the loss would be mine in case of fire etc. Of course if I get very hard up and you defer buying very long I will have to try and sell it elsewhere but I hope this will not happen. I would like to get rid of all the articles made of fur or having fur on them at once if I could as they are hard to keep in good shape and require attending to a good deal. All the other things of buckskin, stone, bone, matting etc. etc. can keep here without much trouble. Besides the above collection I have on hand a number of baskets (designs you have not got) and mats for a tipi etc. that I have collected for you during the last year and have charged you with. These I will ship to you next week if I can by freight except you otherwise direct. The basketry contains specimens from Up. and Low Ntlak., Lillooet, Shuswap, Wenatchi, and Chilcotin. I will send you a catalog of these things in a day or two. I have almost finished writing it out at the same time will look over our account and see what balance of money I have on hand to work with. I will commence and work as hard as my health will stand on the paper Dr Boas wants on the Coeur d’Alene etc. as soon as I ship the Baskets etc. I think that not having my full collection in your Museum may interfere to some extent with Dr Boas’ plan for illustrating specimens in the paper I am writing and to write. However this cant [sic] be helped. I could add a lot more to this letter but will quit. PS I sold a few duplicates I happened to have to the Prov. Museum Victoria and collected 2 or 3 things for them also duplicates of things you have.17

17. The previous week Teit wrote to Newcombe, “I shipped a big box of stuff to Mr. Kermode a few days ago by freight, and a parcel of robes and mats by express because I thought it rather small to go by freight and a possible danger of its getting astray” (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence, Teit to Newcombe, August 22, 1914).

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Teit to Sapir. August 31, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I was just thinking that having so much to do for Dr Boas (this fiscal year) to finish up his work that I probably will not be able to use up the amount of my estimate for proposed work for you. Would it not be possible to charge part of my collection against the estimate. I would like to get rid of the things made of fur etc. as soon as possible as same are hard to keep in No. 1 order whereas in the Museum they can be poisoned etc. and do not deteriorate. I can let you know what the price of the articles I refer to are if you think this is feasible. Otherwise I will start to put past all the stuff in trunks and boxes with camphor as soon as I hear from you. excuse haste18

Sapir to Teit. September 4, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— I regret, of course, very much that the present necessity of economizing has compelled me to write you some time ago that we could not at this moment consider purchase of your second Thompson River collection. I do not believe that it would be possible to have the Auditor General pass an item for insurance of your specimens, particularly as technically such material would not be our property at the time that it is insured. I think it would be simpler if you simply shipped us your material and allowed us to hold it for you until such time as we could purchase it. When that time will be nobody knows, of course. I may try to see the purchase of your material through on the plea that arrangements for it were made long before the breaking out of hostilities. I can not definitely promise that this argument would carry weight under the present circumstances, but I shall do what I can to see that it does. Meanwhile, there would be nothing lost in having your specimens stored with us. I shall be glad to receive the new material that you say you have recently purchased for this Survey. As regards later illustrations for Dr. Boas, I presume that you are taking the precaution to keep a check 18. Written below Teit’s signature.

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list of your own material that you send us, so that you would be able at any time to refer to your original numbers. When do you think that you could definitely finish up all your [page 2] work for Dr. Boas? I have been hoping for a long time that you would be able to start in devoting all of your working time to the Survey, as was the original understanding. Do you think that you will have all of your back work cleared up by the beginning of next fiscal year, April 1st, 1915? I presume that you will want me to estimate next fiscal year for the continuance of your work among the Tahltan and other Northern Athabascan tribes. Shall I repeat my estimate for this fiscal year, or will you want to change the figures?

Teit to Sapir. September 21, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I received your letter of 4th inst. some time ago but delayed answering thinking you would probably reply to my second letter suggesting that part of the money in the estimates might be used for purchasing some of the collection—the part consisting of fur etc. which required careful looking after. Of course I do not know if this is feasible or can be made feasible. Then I thought I might hear from you soon as to whether your recommendation for purchasing the collection (because the promise to purchase had been made long before the outbreak of war) had been successful. I see that it would not be quite in order for you to insure the collection when it was not yet your own, and no doubt the simplest way would be to ship the whole thing to you and let the Museum look after it as their own property. Were I in an easier condition financially I would not hesitate to do this even if I had to wait a year or more for the money, but I am so placed that I may have to use the collection as an asset to draw money on. If things continue normal as they have been lately I probably will not require to do this, but if any abnormal conditions arise such as sickness in my family etc.[,] I will have to depend on getting back my money by [page 2] selling the collection as quickly as I can and wherever I can. For this reason I do not care to let it out of my hands without receiving the money for it. Possibly elsewhere I might get a rather bigger figure for it than I am charging you, but I do not consider this as I am not out for profit and as I stated before I am anxious that you should get it as it is certainly required 648 | 1914

by you to fill a gap which should be filled and later on will be much more difficult to fill than at the present time. Re. later illustrations for Dr. Boas the catalogs and my notes I think will be all that will be required for me to refer to the original number of any specimen necessary for illustration. My notes although rough are pretty full and I have included sketches in them of everything I thought of much importance. Re. the time when I will definitely finish up all my work for Dr Boas I am almost afraid to make any definite statement. I have done so before and found myself wanting owing partly to sickness and loss of time I had not foreseen and therefore did not calculate on and partly because the writing etc. did not go as fast as it used to with other papers I have written. This was partly owing to some of the material being rather difficult to work up and partly because I could not work the overtime (or do the day and night work) I formerly did for fear of seriously hurting my eyes. The paper I am working on now will not take me very long as I do not expect there will be over [page 3] 250 pages in it. Of this I have finished 34 pages already and none of the remainder is hard writing. The other paper will be shorter in text but will have a great many illustrations. I think I will be able to finish both (which means all Dr Boas’ work) by the beginning of April next. Within the period I also expect to write off the Tahltan stories for you, and the notes on the music I have collected here. I think if I can finish these four things by the 1st Apl. next I will have done good work and be well satisfied. I would also like to make a trip for you either to Chilcotin or Kootenay sometime before the 1st April but am not sure if I will manage it, probably the four writings above mentioned will take up all my time. Had I not been so sick last winter and spring I would have had Dr Boas’ work finished before this. Yes, I think you better estimate for the continuance of Tahltan and Northern Athapascan work for next fiscal year. I think the figures for this year may be a little too low to repeat for next fiscal year that is to say if I happen to get into very good shape and can do the work and traveling I formerly could do. I do not remember exactly what the estimate was for expenses outside of salary. I think it was only 1500.00. My trip to Victoria at last seems to have borne fruit[.] I had a letter a couple of days ago from the Misses McKay saying they were now prepared to sell two of the blankets at my figures but they did not mention which two. [page 4] I have written them to find out. I suppose you only want one of the best ones. The Victoria Museum (Provincial) and Mr Sargent want one each. My intention was if I could get all four together to pick what I considered the best one for you. Then let the 1914 | 649

Prov. Museum and Mr Sargent have one each (they agreed to pay the figures I offered) and then give you the fourth specimen (which would be cheaper) to retain if you wished or exchange with some other Museum. Each specimen is different in design and has some points of value different from the others in weave, material etc. so they are all good. What I call the fourth one is smaller than the other three but the weave is very fine, I think the finest of all and the foundation is of different material from No. 1. If I purchase these blankets I will require some more money, and I will require a little more anyway for continuing the local work here. I have balanced up the a/c in pencil and find you have a credit of a little over $100.00 which is not sufficient to do very much work with. If you sent three or four hundred dollars more it will make things about right. PS I heard lately that Mr. Brock had left Ottawa and taken an appointment in this country. Is this right? My wife has been sick for a few days but is up again to-day. Her sickness interfered with my writing a little.

Teit to Boas. September 22, 1914. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121877. Dear Friend I got your letter last night re the ‘sugar’. It is called ‘tree sugar’ by the whites of this locality and ‘tree milk’ is a translation of the Thompson Ind. name. As far as I have observed myself, and as far as I remember having heard from Indians this substance 1stly Does not grow on the Coast, nor far north, nor far east. I cannot state the limits of the region or area in which it occurs, but it seems to be confined to the Dry Belt of BC and neighboring parts of the Interior of Wash. How far south it can be found I do not know. 2nd It does not appear on trees high up in the mountains, nor very low down in the valleys, but in the open wooded country on the lower mountain sides, and in the lower mountain valleys and plateaus at an altitude generally of 1800 to 2800 ft above sea level which is equal to the general lower margin or limit of the Douglas fir where it mixes in the open woods with the Yellow Pine both trees being abundant. As far as I have noticed exposure does not count much but I have not seen it in very shady places. 3rd As far as I have seen or know it is found only on Douglas Fir. Sometimes on large trees and sometimes on small trees. A single tree 650 | 1914

may be seen with some on it and no other trees for miles around may have any. Again a lot of trees may have it (either scattering [sic] trees or in clumps) a little being seen here and there on different branches of scattering trees over a considerable [page 2] area (of say several hundred acres) or it may be seen on old trees here and there for a distance of miles. Again it may be seen on groves of trees. Some young trees may be almost entirely coated with it the same as if covered with snow, other trees near by will have plenty on one side only, others will have it in spots all over them, and other trees again between these (only a few feet away) these may not have a particle on them. It sometimes forms in large thick lumps on the branches, covering both bark and needles and again in other places is in tiny speck. Often it is flat and cake like and again in form like congealed drops. The latter is a common form on the needles. It may also be seen on the trunks of trees where the bark is not very old and thick. As a rule however it is found on branches. I do not remember having seen it on dead trees, but I have often seen it on the smaller dead branches and spikes of live trees and also on dead needles where mixed with live ones. 4th It appears on trees only in the summer generally the late summer (particularly July and August) 5th It appears generally most abundantly in years when there is a long dry, hot spell of weather in July. The Indians claim it requires a long, dry, hot spell of weather lasting a month or six weeks to mature and become plentiful. Rain interferes with its growth. Most Indians think it is an exudation from the trees whilst some think it is a deposit made by certain wasps, bees or other insects. The last believe [sic] may be accounted for because great numbers of wasps, flies, ants etc. feed on it when it appears. The Indians gather it as soon as noticed because a few showers of rain will wash it all away and even a single slight shower will spoil the flavor and make it taste older. It seems to form very rapidly when it starts. 6th Some years it is very scarce, other years there is more, and on rare years there is a great abundance for a short time. Almost every year a little may be procured somewhere. It does not necessarily appear on the same tree every year, rather the reverse is the case. [page 3] The above is most of the information I can give you re the ‘sugar’[;] I might possibly get a little more details from Indians. I started writing up the American Salish of the Interior about the beginning of the month, and have now completed 38 pages on the Central or Okanagon group (including introduction). I am treating the groups separately viz. 1914 | 651

1. The Northern or Shuswap group (already dealt with in publications The Thomp. Inds, the Shuswap, The Lillooet, Trad. of Thomp, Myth. of Thomp, Trad of Lillooet) The only thing in this paper on the Northern group will be supplementary information on the Thomp. outside of art. You can combine it here or include it elsewhere as you see fit. 2. The Central or Okanagon group (Okanagon, Sans [sic] Poil, Colville, Lake) 3. The Southern or Coeur d’alene (Coeur d’alene) 4. The Western or Columbia (Columbia with Wenatchi, and Chelan divisions) 5. The Eastern or Flathead (Flathead, Kalispel, Spokane etc.) There will be a number of references in the text or in notes to customs etc. of neighboring tribes Sahaptin etc. etc. In Aug. I finished cataloging my collection that was to go to Ottawa but I was informed lately that they will not purchase it because all departments had received orders not to expend any money that was not absolutely necessary on account of war. At the same time they are anxious that I keep it for them. I am thus stuck with some 1400.00 to 1500.00 worth on my hands and cannot get back my money except I sell it elsewhere. I would prefer it to go to Ottawa but may be forced to try and sell it elsewhere as I will need the money. If they could state a definite time in the future for purchase I might keep it for them but as it is they cannot do this it seems. The baskets went forward to Ottawa as I had bought them with their own money. The other things are what I refer to numbering some 400 Cataloged specimens and I don’t know how many pieces. I did not figure them up.

Teit to Sapir. September 24, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I have just received a letter from Miss Agnes MacKay telling me the two blankets they want to sell. She says they are hard up and want have concluded [sic] the best place for the blankets is in a Museum. These blankets are Nos 2 and 4 of my list and the price I agreed with Dr Newcombe to give and also offered the ladies was 105.00 for No 2 and 90.00 for No. 4. I enclose photos of Nos 2 and 4 which please return. The price for No. 1 was to be 70.00 or 75.00 and for No. 3 100.00 or 105.00 but they have not offered these for sale yet. If it is in order to purchase send me some money and I will go ahead. I wrote you re. the collection etc. a few days ago. 652 | 1914

Fig. 13. One of two woven Salish blankets. Teit’s caption: “10: No. 2, 65½ x 56 in. Blue, red, white, blue, red, white, red, blue (in this order from centre).” Teit to Sapir, September 24, 1914.

Fig. 14. Second woven Salish blanket offered for sale by the McKay sisters. Teit’s caption: “No. 4 62½ x 55½ in. White, mauve, blue, red, black, and green. Centre: 27 x 21 inches fringed (Ind hemp foundations).” Teit to Sapir, September 24, 1914.

Sapir to Teit. September 28, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have your letter of September 21st. In regard to your collection, I may say that I have not asked the Director whether it would be possible for us to purchase the material at this time, thinking that you would send the material on anyway for us to store, and that it would be best on receipt of it to ask the Director’s authorization for its purchase. If, however, you believe that it would be inadvisable for you to let go of the material before being assured of receiving a return for it in the immediate future, kindly let me have a statement of the number of specimens in the collection and of the total price that you would ask for it. I shall then try to put the business through for you. In making up my estimate for next fiscal year, I shall include provision for the continuance of your North Athabascan work, and shall repeat the same figure that I originally estimated for you this year, namely $2000, for field expenses and purchase of specimens. I am glad to learn that the purchase of blankets that we discussed some time ago is coming around satisfactorily. I am relying entirely on your judgment in regard to the blanket chosen and the price paid for it. In accordance with your request, I have asked Mr. Marshall to send you an advance of another $400, which I hope will be enough for the present.19 The report that you have heard in regard to Mr. Brock is quite correct. [page 2] He has left the services of the Survey and is doubtless now in Vancouver. He has been appointed head of the Department of Applied Sciences in the University of British Columbia. In a short farewell address that he gave some of the members of the Survey, he remarked that he had found that the work was getting too heavy for him here, and that he thought his health would be better served by taking up another position. I understand that one of his main reasons for leaving may have been some difficulties that he has been having with the Minister. On the whole, I should think that his position was rather a thankless job, though I am personally sorry that he has left the Survey. The

19. John Marshall, who exercised extreme vigilance about Teit’s accounts (and other Division of Anthropology accounts) throughout Teit’s career with the GSC, had joined the Geological Survey of Canada in 1872, and by the time Teit became a member of the outside service had worked there for forty years. He retired after World War I (Zaslow, Reading the Rocks: The Story of the Geological Survey of Canada, 1842–1972, 328).

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new Deputy Minister is Mr. R. G. McConnell, who is one of the older geologists of the Survey.20 I was sorry to learn that your wife had been ill, but hope that she is fully restored. Please give her my best regards, and remember me also to the children.

Teit to Sapir. October 7, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I received your letter of 28th ult. Re. the collection there are 398 catalog numbers of which 377 are Ntlak. (nearly all Up. Ntlak.) and 21 Other tribes (Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, Pend d’Oreille, Lillooet, Kutenai, Athapascan etc.). The number of separate pieces is about 508 and the price I would ask is $1500. This may seem high but is not much more than I paid for the specimens some of which I have had from five to ten years and similar ones are hard to get now. What raises the price a good deal is the large number of dressed skin costumes which are costly and the ornamentation on some things also costs a good deal. About half the 20. Brock’s departure signaled a perhaps not-so-subtle shift in the administrative conditions within which Sapir worked. Brock had been appointed to the GSC in 1897 while Dawson was still director. Brock, who became director in 1908 at the age of thirty-four, had studied petrology internationally, had taught at Queens while simultaneously managing to work at the GSC, and was interested in expanding the GSC’s focus. Interested in the museum, he had visited American museums and had “decided to equip the new Victoria National Museum [sic] on the lines now being followed by the American Museum of Natural History” (Zaslow, Reading the Rocks, 268). Zaslow described Brock as “a man of grand ideas, rather untidy at paperwork, and impatient with details” (265). His early correspondence with Sapir suggests that they communicated without difficulty (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b.621, f.12, folder: “Brock, Reginald Walter [1910–1911]”). R. G. McConnell (1857–1942), on the other hand, had joined the Geological Survey of Canada in 1879, eighteen years before Brock, following graduation from McGill. During his first year with the GSC he worked as assistant to Dawson. In succeeding years he had carried out substantial field work, often in western Canada, each field season followed by a summary report and a longer published report. Zaslow described McConnell as a “self-effacing, conscientious administrator who . . . considered himself first and foremost a geologist, and even managed to do some fieldwork in the years 1915, 1916 and 1918” (Zaslow, Reading the Rocks, 312). William McInnes (1858–1925), a geologist with the Geological Survey of Canada and Sapir’s superior in 1919, was appointed “directing geologist” (not director) in 1915. During his career with the GSC McInnes had published ten reports between 1893 and 1915 on his geological explorations in Quebec, New Brunswick, the Attawapiskat region of northern Ontario, and the basins of the Nelson and Churchill Rivers. His orientation was clearly to the physical sciences and industry. In 1913 he coedited, with D. Dowling and W. W. Leach, The Coal Resources of the World. He was formally appointed director of the GSC in 1919 and later became the first director of the National Museum of Canada. Neither McConnell nor William McInnes necessarily had any insight into the character of anthropological field work or the expansive views Brock had held.

1914 | 655

collection (all the later specimens) I had ticketed with the prices I paid for them, but the other half (older specimens) I had forgotten the prices I paid and had to guess at the same. However I am not out much either way on most of them I am sure. My aim was to charge you cost price for the collection and add the price of my time ticketing and cataloging and a little for collecting. The cost price of the things is I think about 1300.00 or slightly less and I have added $200.00 or a little over for the cataloging, collecting etc. I [page 2] [have] not taken into account interest on the money I have been out these years as I collected little by little with spare money and there was no hardship and I was not tight for money until the present. Some of the specimens I collected are quite valuable and would have been lost had I not collected them at the time. I hated to pass up good chances of getting good stuff and therefore collected these things as opportunity offered. After a time I was surprised at the amount of stuff I had on hand and the amount of money I was out. I therefore decided to sell as soon as I could and would have done so sooner had I not been sick. As it would be unfair not to let you know exactly the kind of articles in the collection I am sending you the Catalog by Registered mail. If you dont buy you can return it. In the catalog are a number of references to photos which you have on hand and can use if you like in discussing the matter of buying with the Director. You can do the best you can and if it does not go through well it cant be helped. All the specimens are in No 1. shape and I will endeavor to keep them so. I intend to write to Miss McKay to-morrow re. the blankets as the 400.00 you ordered sent has come to hand. Thanks for the information re. Mr. Brock.

Sapir to R. G. McConnell, Acting Deputy Minister of Mines. October 13, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Sir,— For a period extending considerably over a year, I have been in communication with Mr. James A. Teit, of Spences Bridge, British Columbia, in regard to the purchase by us of a large and valuable Thompson River Indian collection that is at present in his hands, and which was collected during a long period by Mr. Teit himself, a man who is undoubtedly better qualified than any other single person that could be mentioned to make such a collection. The number of separate pieces is something over 500, and the price asked is $1500. 656 | 1914

In regard to the price asked, I may quote from Mr. Teit’s letter of October 7th:—“This may seem high, but is not much more than I paid for the specimens, some of which I have had from five to ten years, and similar ones are hard to get now. What raises the price a good deal is the large number of dressed skin costumes which are costly, and the ornamentation on some things also costs a good deal.” Further on in his letter Mr. Teit states: “Some of the specimens I collected are quite valuable and would have been lost had I not collected them at the time. I hated to pass up good chances of getting good stuff, and therefore collected these things as opportunity offered. After a time I was surprised at the amount of stuff I had on hand, and that amount of money I was out.” What greatly enhances the value of this collection is a detailed [page 2] catalogue of sixty closely written pages that Mr. Teit has submitted to me, in which each specimen is carefully described, much valuable ethnological material being given in connection with each entry. My original impulse was to tell Mr. Teit that we could not, under present circumstances, consider the purchase of this collection, but as he is determined to sell, and as the material is undoubtedly of exceptional value and by no means excessive in price, when its quality is considered, I feel decidedly inclined to recommend that purchase be seriously considered. Kindly instruct me as to whether it will be possible for us to purchase Mr. Teit’s material at this time.

Sapir to Teit. October 14, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have communicated with the new Deputy Minister in regard to the purchase of your collection, which in your letter of October 7th you offer us for $1500. I have tried to put your case as strongly as I could, but I regret to say that Mr. Connell is not inclined to consider purchase. He writes: “It will not be possible for us at present time to make a bid for Mr. Teit’s collection. There is an off chance that towards the end of the financial year we may find ourselves with enough money to buy it, but it is not likely.” I am accordingly returning your catalogue.

1914 | 657

Teit to Sapir. October 30, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I received your letter all right and intended to answer it sooner. Of course it cannot be helped that the Gov. at present will not buy the collection. Thank you for doing your best. I have put everything away in trunks and boxes with camphor excepting a few bulky things like saddles, carriers etc. I will hold it as long as I can and will insure it against fire. I am shipping a few baskets, and carriers I collected several years ago for Mr Sargent. He wants them now. I purchased one of the McKay blankets for you. One of those with vegetable fibre foundation and fine weave. Very little of the material in it is native. I am making fair progress on Boas’ work, but will be delayed now for a short time as I have to attend Court in Vancouver as a witness, and will also probably be examined before the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs in Victoria sometime this month. Thanks for the news about Mr. Brock. I may take your blanket along and stop off at Spuzzum on my way back from the Coast to show it to the Indians there and see if I can get a little more re. the history of these blankets, and find out if it would be possible for any of the women now there to reduplicate it in native material and dyes.21 Hoping this will find yourself and family well

21. A reference to the McKay blanket Teit had purchased for the museum in Ottawa. Ten days later Teit wrote to Newcombe, “Re. the blankets the ladies sold two of them to me at the figures I originally offered. One for 100.00 and one for 90.00. The first I have ticketed for the Ottawa Museum, and as you informed me the Victoria Museum was out of funds I sold the other to Mr. Sargent. They wished me to take or find a purchaser for the other one (100.00 one) but latterly decided not to sell just now so they have it and the 70.00 one on hand. They seem to think the one they have (especially the large one) are really worth more than those they disposed of to me” (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence, Teit to Newcombe, November 10, 1914). The blanket Teit purchased for the museum in Ottawa is in the collection of the Canadian Museum of History, catalog number II-C 679. Homer Sargent placed the blanket he purchased in the Field Museum (catalog number 19133). A third blanket, purchased by G. T. Emmons, is now in the American Museum of Natural History (catalog number 16.1–1748). The fourth was acquired from a private collector by the Museum of the American Indian (Heye Foundation) in 1925 (catalog number 22-10-10-97917) (Tepper et al., Salish Blankets, 122–23).

658 | 1914

Sapir to Teit. November 23, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— I am just about to make out my estimate for next fiscal year. I am intending to include $2000 for your field trip up North and $1500 for a full year’s salary, that is $3500 in all. If you know definitely, however, that you will not be able to use as much as $2000 for field expenses or as much as $1500 of salary, owing to back work that you will still have to do for Dr. Boas or others after April 1st, 1915, please let me know explicitly, as I am very eager not to estimate more for particular items than I can really use for them.22 My reason for this is that I have to be rather economical in my estimate this time, and I should hate to tie up any sums of money in large amounts when they would not be made full use of. You understand, of course, that I am not hinting at any retrenchment in our estimate as far as you are concerned. I merely wish to know whether you are reasonably certain that you can actually use $3500 for next fiscal year.

Teit to Sapir. December 1, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Dr Sapir I received your letter of 23rd ult and have been considering same. I feel pretty certain I will be able to put in the summer and fall up North and expenses will be rather heavy there. I will also have work to do for you here writing etc. There is however a good deal of back work to be done and I now feel certain I will not be able to finish Dr Boas’ before the commencement of the fiscal year although I expect to have it nearly completed. For this reason I think you can be safe in knocking off say 500.00 from the field work and about three months in salary. In fact I believe it would be safe to deduct 1000.00 altogether reducing the 22. In his November 6, 1914, letter to Sargent (APs, Boas Papers, text 107138), Boas anticipated that the war might have an effect on Teit’s work for Sapir. “Since that time the conditions in Canada have changed very considerably, largely owing to the war, and I hear that Mr. Sapir has been compelled to cut all his expenditures down about one-half. I have not said anything about this matter, but it occurred to me that perhaps you would like to ask Mr. Teit what his plans are in case his work also would have to be pared down.” However, while Sapir hinted in his letter to Teit of November 23, 1914, that he was under some pressure to be careful about expenses, he maintained his estimate of $1,500 for Teit’s salary, should Teit be able to work the full year.

1914 | 659

estimates to $2500.00. I would not care to reckon on less than this as I may be able to do considerable work for you. I am making pretty good progress in my writing up the information I collected from the Interior Salish tribes in the States. I have finished all the groups excepting the Flathead and Coeur d’Alene and have finished 124 pages on the latter. I have more information on the Coeur d’Alene or as much as in my book on the Lillooet and I think considerably more under most heads than Spinden has in his memoir in the Nez Perce.23 I do not have very much data on the Flathead probably not over 40 to 50 pages. Then I have to copy all this out before I sent [sic] it to Boas as there are too many corrections etc. on most pages. It is my intention when I finish copying to write out the Tahltan myths for you. Then I will [page 2] write the supplementary paper on the Thompson for Boas. Next I will complete the information on Thompson songs I collected for you and ship them off as I would prefer to have them in your possession as soon as possible. After this I have the paper on Art of the Thompson for Boas. Tell Smith the weather is very mild here yet and he might easily be digging bones and finding celts if he were here. PS I have received no prints of the last two film packs I forwarded a considerable time ago and two of the Indian women are constantly calling on me for their pictures. If this keeps up my ‘Frau’ will be getting jealous.

Sapir to Teit. December 10, 1914. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1913–1914), box 635, file 13. Dear Mr. Teit,— They have at last finished the analysis of the fir bough specimen that you submitted some time ago. I do not know if you will be able to make much out of Dr. Shutt’s report, as it is couched in such technical terms.24 23. Herbert J. Spinden, The Nez Perce Indians, Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association vol. 3, pt. 3, 1908. 24. In 1914 Sapir sent samples of Douglas fir sugar to Frank Shutt (1859–1940), the Dominion (of Canada) chemist; in 1917 he sent additional samples provided by Teit to C. Gordon Hewitt (1885–1920), the Dominion entomologist (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, Sapir to Teit, September 7, 1917. B.635, f.15, folder: “Teit, James A. [1916–1917]”). In response to a request from Boas, he also sent samples to Boas’s daughter in 1917 (APS, Boas Papers, Teit to Boas, October 6, 1917, text 122050)). In his 1919 article “Douglas Fir Sugar,” John Davidson, the British Columbia provincial botanist, addressed both analyses conducted in Ottawa as well as a subsequent analysis by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington DC, revealing that the Douglas fir sugar samples had “a significant concentration of melezitose, a very rare trisaccharide” (Davidson, “Douglas Fir Sugar,” 9).

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They seem to want some more material of this sort, so as to complete the analysis. Perhaps you could send me more of it.

Teit to Boas. December 21, 1914. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121878. My Dear Friend. I have just finished writing out my notes on the Coeur d’Alene. The information I collected is fuller than I thought and amounts to 166 foolscap pages (I think considerably more than Spinden got from the Nez Perce). I would have filled in all details and had it much fuller had I visited them another time as I expected. However I think the information is sufficiently full to allow of their position being pretty clearly defined as to material culture etc. etc. Were the information from the Columbia, Okanagon and Flathead groups as full we would have a pretty clear idea of the whole culture of the Interior Salish. However the information on the Coeur d’Alene helps a good deal towards this end. Further study among the Flathead and Columbia especially would be very desirable. I finished writing out my notes on the Columbia about 20 pages and the Okanagon group about 66 pages a considerable time ago. This makes 242 pages I have finished altogether. Tomorrow I will likely start on the Flathead group. My notes on them are far from full and probably will not run over 40 pages. When I finish them I will start copying and remitting to you. Probably when copied out there will be considerably less pages than now in the rough—possibly not much over 200 to 225 all together. I have some sketches for the paper to make yet (over) [page 2] I also intend to make an appendix of what information I gathered in the course of my research from the Coeur d’alene and other Salish tribes regarding neighboring tribes principally Sahaptin. This will contain some items of interest, will throw some light on certain points, and in some cases strengthen information collected by Spinden and Wissler and maybe others. For this purpose it might be well to include what information I gathered from Yakima, Klickitat and Wasco when I collected the names of basketry designs on the Yakima Reservation. This I believe I wrote out and sent you. I have a copy but it may not be quite as fully written as the one I sent you. I suppose the information on basketry designs therein contained will not be suitable to include in the present paper and might rather go in as an appendix with the paper on basketry designs and art of the Thompson. Perhaps however you may have 1914 | 661

some other plans regarding the above.25 I notice I have not checked off all the Coeur d’Alene myths or stories I sent you and therefore am not sure what stories I have to include in the text and others I will simply require to refer to in the text. I think probably some of the local ‘water mystery’ stories should be in the text but if I have sent copies of them to you already I will simply refer to them. For this reason I will be glad if you can sent [sic] me a list of titles of all the Coeur d’Alene stories I have sent you (both long and short stories). As the work has turned out to be a little larger than I thought and taken more time than I expected (viz the Salish paper) I have now a balance of slightly over $100.00 against you’re a/c and a little more besides this will be required to finish the M.S. Then afterwards there will be work on the Thompson supplementary paper and Thompson art so it will not be out of the way for you to send me $200.00 any time. I will make out the account to date and send to you after the end of the year. Perhaps Mr. Sargent or Dr. Sapir told you the Ottawa authorities on account of the war on which they are spending millions [Page 3] of money have decided not to buy my collection.26 They are cutting down expenses in all directions excepting that connected with the military, and all heads of departments have orders to expend no money more than is absolutely necessary. The BC gov. is also retrenching and the Prov. Museum has been supplied with no funds for collecting and does not expect to get any this year. The collection I made is required to fill a gap in the Ottawa museum and I would prefer it to go there. Did I not require the money I would send it there and they could pay me for it any time when they were ready. It would then be in a safe place and could be made use of. Some of the things are required for illustration of my Thompson paper, and the paper I have nearly finished writing. Mr. Sargent proposed to me to write to Mr. Hayes [sic] regarding it. This I suppose would be the next best thing viz have it in the Hayes Collection which I believe is in New York. The price I was to charge Ottawa for the collection was $1500.00. Of this amount I paid out in cash someway [sic] between 1150.00 and 1250.00 in buying the specimens and the rest I added as a charge for collecting, and work of ticketing cataloging etc. It took me over a month to go over the specimens making notes for references, ticketing, and writing 25. At this point Teit does perceive that Boas’s goals concerning basketry design may be different from his own. 26. Two pages, labeled 3 and 4 by Teit, appear to complete this letter; they were found among the APS, ACLS Collection, Item 61, with the notation at the top of page 4, “Teit letter Spences Bridge BC Dec 21, 1914 LK Jan ’31.”

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the catalog. The latter consists of 60 pages of closely written foolscap. I did the collecting as chances offered during the last several years keeping the best of everything and selling any good duplicates I chanced to get to the Prov. Museum. The collection contains duplicates of a number of things in the Amer. Museum but which the Ottawa Museum does not have. It also contains things that are as yet in no museum. It is particularly rich in [page 4] skin costumes etc. which are scarce from this area in Museums. These are expensive and together with increased costs lately having to be paid for most kinds of specimens runs the price up to what may seem a rather large figure. Mr. Sargent proposed I should charge at least $1600.00 for the collection as he thought I was not charging sufficient for my labor in making it etc. but I will be satisfied if I can get my money back and something for my work. I can make a collection at some other time for Ottawa with funds supplied specially for the purpose and procure most things to fill up the representation of the plateau for there but there are at least a few things in my collection which will be hard or impossible to get reduplicated after this. I think there are 397 catalog numbers of which 376 are Ntlak. 6 Lill. 2 Spokan, 1 Pend d’oreille, 1 Coeur d’alene, 1 Kutenai, 7 Tahltan and Kaska, 1 Tlingit and 2 Eskimo [sic]. The number of single pieces must be considerably over 500. If you think the collection can be sold to Mr. Heyes I can send you the catalog to look over. All the stuff is ticketed and ready to ship at any time. The collection contains no coiled basketry. I think this is all I have to talk about at present. I feel considerably better but still have a little rheumatism usually only in the legs now however. PS I made enquiry among the Indians re the sugar but they could not tell me much more than I know myself—viz what I sent you. The only additional information was that some of them had occasionally seen some of it on Yellow Pine as well as fir. I cannot say I have seen it on any tree excepting fir myself. I may have seen it rarely on yellow pine long ago but have forgotten. It can be found on dead limbs of trees as well as live limbs. Ottawa and Vancouver don’t seem to know what it is and want more samples. Of course they cannot get any until next summer. The Thomp. Shus. and Okanagon all call it by the same name. It is said to have been very plentiful some years long ago and the Indians in some places gathered it in large quantities some of it in quite large ‘chunks’.

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1915

Teit to Boas. January 1, 1915. Account. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121879. Dr To JA Teit 1914 Jany 11 To writing stories ½ day 1.75 (23) Tobacco to Inds .30

$2.05

23 To paid roipêllst and Walter telling stories1

4.00

[ditto] To time writing down stories and making inquiries

3.50

25 To time writing out stories

5.00

30 To Indian ½ day on stories 1.00 self ½ day 1.75

2.75

[ditto] To 10 days during month on Basketry etc. m.s.

35.00

Apl 30 To paid Jimmy Spence for cutting and hauling tipi poles from Mountain 3 ½ miles (see below)2

3.50

To 3 half days work Thomp. M.S.

5.25

May 31 To time cataloguing, ticketing, and packing basketry Collection sent to Ottawa (Payment refused by auditor At Ottawa)

17.00

To 4 half days work during month on Thomp. Paper

7.00

June 30 To paid two women carrying poles, mats etc. and erecting a Tipi for further study of construction of same by different families

3.50

1. Roipêl.st, [ʕʷypélst], “burning stone,” born ca. 1848, lived at Nq’awmn on the Thompson River, although he also fished on the Nicola River. He appears in the Government of Canada census for 1881 as the head of a full household. His wife, Sinsintko, also contributed to Teit’s work. 2. Jimmy [James] Spence (1894–1978) was a resident of the Spences Bridge area and served for a time as chief of the Cook’s Ferry Indian Band.

664

To two half days work on Thomp. M.s.

3.50

Aug. 31 To 2 days work on m.s. (Okanagan stories)

7.00

Sept 30 To 16 [ditto] on m.s. (Okanagan group)

56.00

Oct 31 To 16 ½ [ditto] on m.s. (Columbia and Coeur d’alene)

57.75

Nov. 30 To 20 [ditto] on m.s. (Coeur d’alene)

70.00

Dec. 31 To 17 [ditto] on m.s. (Coeur d’alene and Flathead)

59.50 __________ $342.30

1914

Cr

Jany 1 By balance

$123.75

Feb. 15 By Draft from Dr. Boas

100.00 223.75 ___________

To Balance due

$118.55

Boas to Teit. January 5, 1915. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121854. My dear Friend,— On receipt of your letter I wrote to Mr. Heye, telling him that you have your collection, which you value at $1600.3 Mr. Heye replied and said that he would like to see the catalogue. He also asks whether the specimens are “modern, ancient, or models.” If you care to do so, please send me the catalogue, and I will see what I can do with Mr. Heye.

Boas to Teit. January 9, 1915. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121856.4 My dear Friend,— Below is the list of stories asked for in your recent letter:—

3. George Heye, a New York collector and originator of the Heye Foundation, now the Museum of the American Indian. Boas and Teit had corresponded about Heye in April 1907. 4. On Columbia University letterhead.

1915 | 665

Coeur d’Alene

Sun story: Coyote and the Sun. Moon Stories: Carrying the Moon. Toad and the Moon. Story of the Wind. Hot and Cold Winds. Heat and Cold. Thunder. Old-One or the spoxanī́´tcᴇlt. Arrow-Chain Story. Origin of Death. The Rolling Head. Tốrtôrsᴇmstᴇm Ascent of Coyote’s Son to Sky. Coyote and Wêweī́´ˑ́tc. Coyote introduces Salmon. Division of Cannibal’s Body, or Origin of Peculiarities of Tribes. [page 2] From Pend d’Oreille.

Arrow-Chain Story, or Wren Story. Story of Coyote and Wren and Grouse. Coyote and the Snake Monster. Coyote and Mountain-Sheep. Coyote and the Skukula´na Women. Coyote and Elk.

Teit to Boas. January 14, 1915. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121880. Dear Friend. I received your letter of 5th inst. on my arrival home last night, and yours of 9th to-day. I had to go to Victoria on an appeal case and have been away about 9 days. I took some work with me but was unable to write much when away. The Flathead notes are also more than I thought and I have now 80 pages completed on the Flathead group. I am now nearly through with the whole paper and will soon commence copying. I think I sent you a few notes on Kutenai names before I left. I thank you for taking up the matter of the collection, and I am forwarding the catalog under separate cover. I also enclose a few photos of some of the specimens. Regarding Mr Heye’s query I would say that very few of the things are really ‘ancient’ (that is prehistoric or 666 | 1915

made previous to the coming of the whites) and neither do the terms ‘models’ and ‘modern’ exactly describe the class of specimens. Most of the specimens are ‘modern’ only in the sense they were made by Indians within the last one to fifteen years. (A few of the bags etc. maybe 25 years or more old and the root digger handles are said to be 40 or 50 yrs old) [.] Some of the specimens have been in actual use or were in use when bought, and others probably the majority were made either at my request or for use by the Indians themselves but were not actually used or if used only to a very slight extent. I will mark on the catalog the specimens that were in use when bought as far as I remember them without overhauling the specimens which are all packed in trunks with camphor. Many of the specimens are ‘models’ [page 2] but only in the sense that they are representations of things formerly in use but which are out of use now. Everything is as if it were for use. There are no miniatures or ordinary models. The whole collection is illustrative as far as it goes of the old or ancient material culture of the area and there are not many specimens showing the recent or modified culture. Some of the things were collected as showing the art of the tribe rather than simply the material culture, but as most of the specimens are painted, beaded or otherwise embellished they really show both. The paints and dyes used are mostly native and also the materials used in sewing and ornamentation etc. If Mr Heye does not want all the collection I can split it. You will see from the catalog the chief things that may be required for illustration of my paper but all the collection is really valuable to a museum. I do not have any copy of the catalog excepting a very rough limited one in pencil which I retain in case the one I am sending you gets lost. The photos I am sending are prints or negatives belonging to Ottawa. You may keep them or return them to me as you see fit. The most costly parts of the collection are articles of dressed skin and eagle tail feathers. Also some other things such as the large net of Ind. hemp twine etc. I will make out copy of our a/c to end of year and send to you in a day or two. PS The list of Coeur d’Alene and Pend d’Oreille stories came to hand and is just what I want.5

5. On both pages of the letter, several paragraphs are outlined in blue.

1915 | 667

Boas to Teit. January 28, 1915. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121857. My dear Friend,— I sent your catalogue to Mr. Heye, and I enclose his reply. I do not know whether, under those conditions, you would consider it worth while to negotiate with him. It seems to me hardly feasible to ask to have specimens sent on approval.

Teit to Sapir. February 2, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr Sapir I hope everything is going along OK with you and the Museum and your department. Of course almost anything may happen with this ridiculous war going on. Is it the end of March when I have to send in my a/cs[?] I want to be on hand this time. Last year I was so sick in March I could hardly do anything, not even talking which used to wear me out. I expect to get quite a lot more photos when the spring opens in a few weeks and the Indians commence moving around more, and light conditions for taking pictures are better. I have finished writing the paper on the Interior Salish of the U.S. for Dr Boas except some of the correcting of text and copying for transmittal. As I am finishing this up I am also doing a little work for you getting the titles of songs written out, and writing out some of the Tahltan stories. I will probably be able to forward the records or most of them by the end of March and will have most or all of the stories finished by the same time. The Salish paper turned out to be a far bigger job than I reckoned on and has run to over 400 pages. It was also a hard task as there were so many tribes and my field notes were scattering [sic] and mixed up, and covering information gained on several trips and at odd times later from numbers of sources or individuals thus the paper took me much longer to complete than I anticipated. I will have it all off my hands [page 2] very shortly now however. I tried to sell my collection to Mr. Heye in New York but he is willing only to buy those things in it which have actually been in use no matter how good the others are, and he proposes to have them sent to him for inspection first. I dont mind sending them for inspection so much but think that his buying only things which have seen actual service is not on the whole the best method of showing the old culture of an area. Specimens in use now a days are generally 668 | 1915

more or less modified and not true types of the old culture although of course they have their value. It would be impossible to get a clear and full idea of the old material culture of this area (or I suppose now a days any area except the Eskimo) by purchasing specimens only of the things now in use. The only way to do is to obtain from the Indians who have the knowledge, specimens made by them which are true copies of the things formerly in use. Most of my collection consists of this kind of material, the specimens having been used only to the extent to show they were actually serviceable such as some kinds of tools, and games etc. and clothes worn a time or two at a dance or a gathering or for the taking of pictures and then sold to me. The same styles of clothes (in most cases) would not be made for continued use by the Indians now a days. For instance men’s buckskin clothes now a days for actual use consists of fringed pants and chapps [sic], long and short coats, vests, and shirts every one of which is an entirely new form copied from the whites or old styles very much modified. No old style shirts are used at all excepting rarely only in dances etc. I do not intend to split the collection in the way Mr Heye would like nor go to the trouble of shipping him specimens on approval except I am absolutely forced to it by necessity.

Teit to Boas. February 3, 1915. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121881.6 My Dear Friend. I received your letter last night and the catalog and photos returned from Mr Heye. I thank you very much for your trouble in this matter and taking up your valuable time. I do not think it will help me out financially very much by selling to Mr Heye only those things in my collection that may be classed as archaeological such as hammers etc. etc. and other things in actual use such as scraper’s [sic], and certain kinds of bags, mats etc. etc. Neither would this help me out much in the way of illustrations for the papers I am writing. It is the copies of the very old style things which are most valuable as showing the old material culture of the area. Things in actual everyday use nowadays are all more or less modified and although they have their value they are not truly illustrative of the things formerly in use or the old culture. If collectors (at least in many culture areas) depended entirely 6. On letterhead of Department of Mines, Geological Survey, R. W. Brock, Director, Ottawa.

1915 | 669

on what specimens they could procure actually in use, and the very few old ones (which had once been in use—such as stone tools etc.) it would I think be quite impossible to reconstruct or get a full and clear idea of the old culture of an area.7 Investigators would have to depend almost entirely on oral description of the things formerly used, and word of mouth description is not very dependable when it comes to matters of designs, and the finer details[.] I consider my collection all the more valuable because the bulk of [page 2] of [sic] it consists of true copies of old things showing the original culture of the area, the clothing for instance, saddles, carriers etc etc showing the old materials used, the shapes and types of different things, styles of cutting, sewing etc and methods and styles of ornamentation etc. Although made expressly to illustrate the very old culture, still most of the specimens such as tools, games etc have been used to the extent of showing they were quite serviceable before being bought and the same way with most of the clothes and ornaments etc. which have been worn a time or two (in some cases oftener) at a dance or a gathering or for the taking of pictures in costume before they were sold. However in most cases they would not have been made had not I expressly ordered them or as in some cases the Indians made them as copies of old style things with the object of selling them to me. In some cases when they brought things which were duplicates of what I had already got and I therefore refused to buy them the Indians at once recut them or otherwise altered or modified them to suit the modern styles of usage among themselves. I finished writing up the Flathead some little time ago there is over 100 pages. I am now correcting text and copying. I have the part on the Columbia ready to send you, and part of the Okanogan finished. I may hold what I have finished for a while to put in some number references to other parts of the paper. When I sent you the Copy of a/c for last year (1914) I noticed the a/c was balanced at the end of 1913, but it was not marked opposite whether the a/c (for 1913) had been rendered. I may have neglected sending it to you as I got sick with fever in Jany/14. Let me know about this and I will forward the missing part for 1913 if I did not send it last year. I will be glad to receive some money from you on a/c whenever you can manage it as I am earning nothing except what I am making on work for you (writing) at present, and a little work I am doing for Sapir on intervals.

7. Here Teit articulates his understanding of the purpose of a material culture collection.

670 | 1915

PS Mr. Sargent told me to write to Willoughby if Mr Heye did not buy and I may write to him and possibly Wissler if you think it would be all right.8 I do not know if Dorsey is at Chicago or whether there would be a chance of selling there. I may write to Sargent about it.

Sapir to Teit. February 9, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have your letter of February 2nd. Your accounts for this fiscal year should be in by the end of March. As regards next fiscal year’s work, I have made out a contract allowing for a maximum expenditure of $2000 for field work and $1500 salary.9 It is at present in Mr. McConnell’s hands, and I am waiting for his approval before forwarding it to you for your signature. I am not surprised to learn that Mr. Heye did not wish to take your collection as it was, but wanted to eliminate all objects that had not seen use. This is one of his well known hobbies. You understand, of course, that Mr. Heye is far from being what we call a scientific collector. He is, after all is said and done, a curio collector on a vast scale. He would be the last man that I should care to dispose of scientific material to. As I happen to know, he is not very scrupulous in his methods of amassing material either.

8. Charles C. Willoughby, Clark Wissler, and George Dorsey represented, respectively, the Peabody Museum at Harvard University, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Field Museum in Chicago. Dorsey resigned from the Field Museum in 1915 (Cole, Captured Heritage: The Scramble for Northwest Coast Artifacts, 211). 9. While the full salary was not mentioned in Teit’s contract for 1915–1916, signed March 8, 1915, his salary was maintained at $125 per month with field expenses up to $2,000, as Sapir suggested. The number of months anticipated to be covered by salary was left open. The contract specified, “For the balance of the fiscal year 1915–1916 not spent in field work, I agree to accept a salary rate of $125 per month, on condition that all my working time so paid be devoted to the services of the Survey in working up for publication ethnological data obtained for the Survey in the fiscal year 1915–1916 and in previous seasons of field work.” Specifying further, the contract said: “I agree to prepare and forward to the office of the Deputy Minister a complete and final memoir on at least one important phase, such as mythology, religion, social organization, or material culture, of the ethnology of the Tahltan Indians on or about April 1st, 1916.” The wording of this contract indicates that while Teit was paid a salary for time spent on work in the field collecting data and artifacts, the contract itself carried the embedded obligation to write up the material in “complete and final form.” If this obligation was not met in one year, it was expected to be met in a subsequent year (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b.638, f.16, folder: “Contracts [1913–1920]”).

1915 | 671

Sapir to Teit. February 10, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Mr. Teit,— You doubtless remember that when out in Alberni I wrote you in regard to the potlatch excitement. The matter seems of late to have taken a somewhat concrete form, and has been referred by the Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs, Mr. D. C. Scott, to our Division for advice. Among other things, I am desirous of obtaining a number of statements from various anthropologists who have had first hand acquaintance with the potlatch, as to their opinion on the subject, the emphasis being, of course, put on the injustice that would be done the Indians by ruthless abolition of the custom.10 I shall, therefore, 10. The “Nutka” (Nuu-chah-nulth) among whom Sapir was conducting field work were affected by the renewed enforcement of the potlatch ban. In February 1915 Sapir wrote, not only to Teit but to Boas and others, soliciting letters supporting the rescinding of the ban. “I do not know if you are aware that there is a good deal of trouble again about the potlatch law. When I was out in Alberni, the Indians were very much disturbed at the renewed vigour with which the old more or less dead letter potlatch law was being applied. For this reason I was asked to draft a petition for them, asking that the law be applied with more discrimination. I did this for them, but do not know what they have done with the petition. Recently a letter has been sent from Alert Bay, dated January 28th, 1915, to H.S. Clements of the House of Commons, in which the Kwakiutl Indians collectively ask that they be allowed to continue with the giving of potlatches, and particularly with the selling and buying of coppers. I enclose you a copy of the letter, which will doubtless be of great interest to you, as it incidently [sic] contains an extremely valuable list, with values in blankets of all the Fort Rupert and Alert Bay coppers in use at the present moment. As I am personally fairly well acquainted with the Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs, Mr. D. C. Scott, and as the present Deputy Minister of Mines, Mr. R. G. McConnell, is very eager that my Division should, if possible, be of direct practical value to the community, I am thinking of getting up a rather brief and semipopular bulletin on the potlatch, with the main purpose of making it clear to whites generally that the potlatch can not be summarily condemned even from the white man’s standpoint, and that at any rate the abolition of it would mean the inflicting of a great deal of unnecessary hardship on the Indians and would only assist in a general demoralization. In other words, it seems necessary to repeat today what you yourself pointed out years ago. Meanwhile I think it would be of advantage if you and several others, who are acquainted at first hand with West Coast ethnology, would briefly indicate in letter form your reasons for opposing a rigorous application of the potlatch law. I am writing in this same sense to several others. Could you, therefore, forward me a statement of this sort, which I shall then be glad to put in Mr. Scott’s hands. I have no doubt that a systematic presentation of our point of view, with due regard to the general ideas and needs of the public, would do much to assist the Indians” (APS, Boas Papers, Sapir to Boas, February 10, 1915, text 105650). Boas replied the following week, “I am glad to state my views in regard to the potlatch system of the West coast Indians. As I pointed out repeatedly, an abolition of the potlatch system would mean as great hardship to the Indians as the wiping-out of all credits in our community would mean to us. The potlatch is essentially the public pay of contracted debts. In other words, nobody receives “gifts” in a potlatch who is not entitled to them for services rendered” (APS, Boas Papers, Boas to Sapir, February 18, 1915, text 105639). H. S. Clements was the Conservative Member of Parliament for the region including Alert Bay, and he was unsympathetic to the push for prosecution. Sapir assembled additional letters from Harlan Smith, John Swanton of the Bureau of American Ethnology,

672 | 1915

be much obliged to you if you can let me have a statement, in letter form, as to your point of view.

Teit to Sapir. February 19, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr Sapir, I enclose ten short pages in connection with the Potlatch.11 Perhaps I have covered too much ground but then you did not hold me to any particular points and I thought it would not hurt the Ind. Department to know a good deal. If too long you can type write it and shorten it up by cutting out what you consider unnecessary. Some of the Indians are after me pretty often for their photos so please hurry them up a little if it is possible. Of course any time for the prints will suit myself excepting occasionally when I take experimental pictures for light etc. and want to know results. who had conducted field work among the Haida, Charles Hill-Tout, and Charles Newcombe and forwarded them to Scott (Cole and Chaikin, An Iron Hand upon the People, 101). Neither Scott nor William Halliday, the Alert Bay Indian agent, was completely deterred by this. In 1918 the Canadian Parliament made an infraction of the anti-potlatch law a summary offense, which, though appearing to reduce the gravity of infractions, inadvertently gave the Indian agent greater power, and eliminated the possibility of a jury trial or a suspended sentence (Cole and Chaikin, An Iron Hand upon the People, 101–2). Following a potlatch held in 1921 by Dan Cranmer, a Nimpkish member of the Kwakwaka’wakw of Alert Bay, Kwakwaka’wakw people who had participated were arrested at the instigation of the Indian agent, William Halliday, and given the choice of surrendering their ritual property to Halliday and the Department of Indian Affairs or going to prison. Several people were sentenced to prison terms. Halliday took possession of a substantial array of masks and other material ritual property. While it was in storage he sold a portion of it to George Heye, who had it transported to New York. The balance of the material seized by Halliday was sent to Ottawa and subsequently sent by Duncan Campbell Scott to the National Museum, which by then had evolved from the Geological Survey of Canada, on loan (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, October 9, 1922, to May 16, 1923, b.633, f.16, folder: “Scott, Duncan C. [1919–1925]”). At Scott’s request, a portion was sent to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. In 1979 the material sent to the National Museum was repatriated by the National Museum of Man (now Canadian Museum of History) to two Kwakwaka’wakw heritage societies, the Nuyambalees Society and the U’mista Society, and preserved by them in cultural heritage centres at Cape Mudge and Alert Bay, which were opened in 1979 and 1980, respectively. The material at the Royal Ontario Museum was recalled by the National Museum in the mid-1980s and repatriated. The material purchased by George Heye became part of the collection of the Heye Foundation, established in 1916 in New York City. As the National Museum of American Indian, it became part of the Smithsonian Institution in 1989. By this time some of the Kwakwaka’wakw material purchased by Heye had been sold by the Heye Foundation through fund-raising efforts by one of the directors. The remaining material was repatriated by the National Museum of the American Indian in the 1990s at the request of the U’mista Society and Nuyambalees Society and the government of Canada. The clause banning the potlatch was dropped from the Indian Act in 1951. 11. Teit’s original letter to Sapir of February 18, 1915, has not survived. However, excerpts have been preserved by the Canadian Museum of History in a file kept by Marius Barbeau.

1915 | 673

PS I have seen Dr. McKenna one of the Commissioners on Ind. Affairs for BC, several times and have had a number of talks with him re: the Potlatch etc. and he is in favour of annulling the law against it. Prob. he has brought influence to bear on Mr Scott and so the latter has approached you.

Teit to Sapir. February 18, 1915. Extracts from Letter. CMH, Marius Barbeau fonds Northwest Coast file, folder: Definition and Explanation (B-f-344) (Correspondence and Notes Concerning Potlatch), box b26.12 However I may be able to give you some information regarding the Potlatch (or so called Potlatch) as it exists in the Interior as I have had first hand acquaintances with it there for over thirty one years. I refer more particularly to the southern Interior as the forms of Potlatch existing (or rather in most places ‘which existed’) in the parts of the central and northern Interior where it took hold, varied somewhat from the form in vogue in the south. The ceremonies connected with the Potlatch further north seem to have had more Coast characteristics than in the south. In the Southern Interior the Potlatch is almost entirely a social affair between individuals and families and has no very close connection with the economies of the tribe (or people in general). It may have developed from or been an outgrowth of the old ‘inviting’ feasts of the interior, or [of] the ‘giving’ custom between individuals modified to some extent by influences from the Coast emenating [sic] from the Potlatch system in vogue there. It is not more than about fifty or sixty years old in most parts of the Interior. It seems to have spread from the West, and it never reached the eastern parts.

Teit to Sapir. February 18, 1915. Extract. CMH, Marius Barbeau fonds Northwest Coast file, folder: Definition and Explanation (B-f-344) (Correspondence and Notes Concerning Potlatch), box b26. In the Southern Interior the Potlatch is called ‘calling’ and briefly consists of an individual (or a family) who wants to have a good sociable time etc. ‘calling’ or inviting a friend (generally from one of the neighbouring bands) to visit him (ceremoniously) on a certain 12. Note in top right-hand margin of each page “b-f-344.6” Unlike the handwritten letters Teit normally sent to Sapir, these extracts are typed, and their place in Teit’s original letter of February 18, 1915, is uncertain.

674 | 1915

date. The friend accepts this as an honor (generally [page 2] he is sounded beforehand, and it is known he will accept when ‘called’[)]. He takes any of his friends with him who may want to go, and on arriving at the home of his host is feasted by the latter and the latter’s friends who have everything ready. An exchange of presents takes place, the host’s friends giving a few presents to the guests’ friends and the latter returning the compliment with presents of about the same value. After this the people settle down to enjoy each other’s company for a few days. Two or three liberal meals are served each day by the host and his friends. The time is spent in smoking, bathing, conversations, story telling, speech making; a few games, some dancing, and a good deal of music and singing. On generally the third day the host gives a number of presents to his guest, and after that (generally the following day) the latter and his friends leave. Sometime afterwards (generally the following year) the late guest returns the complement and ‘calls’ his late host, and on this occasion returns to him presents of about an equal value to those he had received. The affair is then finished, and there are no further obligations between the parties. Any one is welcome to attend a potlatch or ‘calling’ and the poor people of the neighbourhood always do. All the uninvited guests are equally as hospitably entertained as the invited ones (in fact they are fed at the same table) and they may stay and enjoy the entertainment as long as it lasts. Of course no presents are given to them excepting that generally when the gathering breaks up any cooked food which may be left over is distributed among those poor people who may ask for it, or who it is thought would accept it. Regarding the particular ceremonies connected with the ‘calling’ or potlatch you will find [page 3] a short account of same in my first paper on the Ntlakyapamuk (see Thompson Indians of British Columbia, pp. 297–299). You will see by above account that this form of Potlatch is quite a simple social affair, and the gifts are merely an exchange. The motive for giving a Potlatch is twofold. Firstly, the person’s desire to entertain his friends and have a good time, and secondly his desire to make himself and his guest prominent (in the eyes of the tribe) thus honouring him and receiving honour. The Indian holds wealth in esteem and liberality and hospitality he considers about the greatest of virtues. A person cannot give a ‘calling’ or Potlach if he is poor for it takes a little wealth to be able to entertain another person and his friends (and others who may come) for several days, and give them presents when they leave. Of course he gets the value of the latter back, but it requires some wealth to commence. By giving a Potlatch to a friend he brings the latter and himself into prominence as wealthy 1915 | 675

men. (A person who ‘calls’ a friend is always careful to select one who is at least equally as wealthy as himself, so he can be sure of receiving an entertainment as good as he gave, and get the full value of his presents back.)

Teit to Sapir. February 18, 1915. Extract. CMH, Marius Barbeau fonds Northwest Coast file, folder: Definition and Explanation (B-f-344) (Correspondence and Notes Concerning Potlatch), box b26. It will be seen there is practically no idea of putting out wealth at interest and obtaining rank in the tribe etc. as among the people on the Coast, or at least these ideas are scarcely developed. The Interior Indian seems not to have grasped the idea of profit making in his social affairs, or at least it is very rudimentary with him. Although perhaps owing to the simple social organization prevailing [page 4] in the Interior the mind of the Indian there, has not readily conceived (or adapted itself to) the idea of a system of investing wealth at interest, and obtaining rank (as through the Potlatch). Still it seems the germs of the Coast system have been implanted (or are there) and there is it seems a possibility that the Interior potlatch in time might have developed into a system somewhat similar to that existing on the Coast. For instance in the Interior it is now considered a mark of wealth and liberality to give a slightly greater value of presents than you received, and this is sometimes done. If a person gives less he is in a sense dishonoured, and is laughed at, and talked about. Also the greater the number and value of presents a person gives the greater he shows himself to be in wealth, and his guest must give at least an equal value or be pronounced an inferior man in wealth. There is here room for rivalry and ranking and the extension of this principle might lead to a system of challenging resulting in one person becoming the pronounced chief of the tribe in wealth, (and combined with wealth is always influence, power, distinction, etc.)[.] The Indian’s esteem of liberality, (and a show of liberality) honor, distinction, etc. might naturally lead him along these lines once he had discovered (or adapted) a means which might be utilized for the purpose such as the Potlatch system.

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Teit to Sapir. February 18, 1915. Extract. CMH, Marius Barbeau fonds Northwest Coast file, folder: Definition and Explanation (B-f-344) (Correspondence and Notes Concerning Potlatch), box b26. I have heard the following urged against the Potlatch by whites as sufficient reasons for its suppression: That individuals (or families) giving potlatches part with all (or most of) their wealth to other Indians. Thereafter they are poor, and in some cases they have to depend (temporarily or permanently) on the charity of other Indians or have to be helped or supported by Government. That in any case they are crippled financially and the resources they would require for making progress, developing their lands, etc., and making themselves comfortable, are wasted. No. 1 objection is false. No one gives either all or most of his wealth away at a potlatch. The other Indians would consider any man who did this either a fool or crazy. The fact is a comparatively wealthy man gives or rather loans to another some of his surplus wealth for a year or so, or exchanges wealth with him. The amount of wealth thus loaned or exchanged is not great, perhaps in most cases two or three hundred to a thousand dollars. This wealth consists chiefly of horses (Indian ponies) which most of the time are unsaleable. Very little cash changes hands. Secondly I have never known of a case where anyone beggared himself by giving a potlatch. For a man to reduce himself to poverty by giving a potlatch would disgrace him in the eyes of his tribe (even if it was only for a year) as it would show he pretended to be wealthy when he really was not. Pretence of this kind and hypocrisy are things that the Indians scorn, and they are remarkably free of these vices. Thirdly, I never knew of a case where an Indian crippled himself so he could not carry on his usual avocations. No farming tools, harness, teams, hay, seed etc. are given away at potlatches. No one would voluntarily cripple himself to any extent.

Teit to Sapir. February 18, 1915. Extract. CMH, Marius Barbeau fonds Northwest Coast file, folder: Definition and Explanation (B-f-344) (Correspondence and Notes Concerning Potlatch), box b26. [page five]

Objections and refutations:

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That the Potlatch induces laziness and improvidence and encourages the poor to live on the wealthy without trying to provide for themselves. Objection 2 is rubbish and also untrue. The reverse is the case. A mild emulation is engendered by the Potlatch which is beneficial in that it incites to thrift and industry and thereby to an accumulation of wealth. That the poor are entertained hospitably at the Potlatch (and all other social affairs of the Indians) I think is to their credit and not otherwise. As there are seldom more than two potlatches in a year in a large tribe and many years none at all, it is impossible for poor people and lazy people to make a living by sponging on the rich through the Potlatch. They could not live more than about three weeks in a year this way at the most. That the potlatch is a waste of time and the Indians could be better employed. Objection 3 is . . . A Potlatch generally takes up about a week including coming and going which is not much time out of a year. Surely people ought to be privileged to waste this much time in relaxation and enjoyment. Of course if everybody was giving potlatches and one was coming off each week it would be bad but unfortunately this is an impossibility and may be only half a dozen Indians in a whole tribe of say 2000 can afford to give a Potlatch and that not every year. In fact some give one only once in their life time.

Teit to Sapir. February 18, 1915. Extract. CMH, Marius Barbeau fonds Northwest Coast file, folder: Definition and Explanation (B-f-344) (Correspondence and Notes Concerning Potlatch), box b26. [page 6]

As the potlatch has no connection with the old religion of the Indians I do not see that it can be any impediment to their adoption of the religious ideas of the white man. (Extract from letter of James Teit, Spences Bridge BC Feb. 18, 1915) For these reasons I believe it is inflicting a serious injury and injustice on the Indians for the Government [or] anyone else (however well intentioned) to try and abolish ruthlessly or uproot the Potlatch or anything else which is part of the old social organization of the Indians. It is a serious matter to destroy suddenly and by force 678 | 1915

the social, economic, and other institutions of a people. You are aiming a blow at their whole life, and if the blow is effective it means their demoralization. Any white race powerful enough would fight to the bitter end against this. As well might a person knock the staff out of the hands of a cripple and then expect him to walk (or to walk more quickly and steadily than before).

Teit to Sapir. February 18, 1915. Extract. CMH, Marius Barbeau fonds Northwest Coast file, folder: Definition and Explanation (B-f-344) (Correspondence and Notes Concerning Potlatch), box b26. The reasons of its demise in the Interior are two. 1st, a change in the ideas of the Indians, and 2nd, a change (the most important) in their material conditions and manner of living, one result of this being that on the whole the people are poorer (in wealth etc.) than they were 25 to 30 years ago. (I know of hardly a man in for instance the Thompson tribe to-day who has sufficient wealth to give a decent potlatch). That the potlatch is still retained on many parts of the [page 7] coast shows conditions are different there, and that it must still function usefully in the economy of the Indians there. That the time will come when it will cease to do so is certain, and then it will become very much modified or disappear entirely. Let it die naturally.

Teit to Sapir. February 18, 1915. Extract. CMH, Marius Barbeau fonds Northwest Coast file, Folder: “Definition and Explanation” (B-f-344) (Correspondence and Notes Concerning Potlatch), box b26. . . . the Potlatch . . . is an integral part of their own social and economic system

Teit to Sapir. February 18, 1915. Extract. CMH, Marius Barbeau fonds Northwest Coast file, folder: Definition and Explanation (B-f-344) (Correspondence and Notes Concerning Potlatch), box b26. On the Coast the credit system among the Indians is so intimately connected with the Potlatch that the complete suppression of the latter would result in something the equivalent to a collapse of the banking system amongst us, and the suspension of all payments of debts 1915 | 679

Teit to Sapir. February 18, 1915. Extract. CMH, Marius Barbeau fonds Northwest Coast file, folder: Definition and Explanation (B-f-344) (Correspondence and Notes Concerning Potlatch), box b26. In the Interior a band chief was considered a kind of father who looked after the welfare and best interests of his people etc., and there was a custom of the chief from time to time (as he felt disposed and could afford it) calling his ‘children’ together and giving them presents of food, clothing, etc. etc. These presents were absolute gifts and were not returned. Sometimes his ‘children’ to show their approval, gratitude and kindly feeling gave him a feast and spoke many kind and encouraging words to him. They seldom gave him any presents however. This custom was also called a Potlatch by the whites.

Teit to Sapir. February 18, 1915. Extract. CMH, Marius Barbeau fonds Northwest Coast file, folder: Definition and Explanation (B-f-344) (Correspondence and Notes Concerning Potlatch), box b26. [page eight]

Another very important ceremony among the Interior Indians which continues to be in vogue as much as ever in most places is what is called ‘paying.’ This custom is invariably called a Potlatch by the whites. It is a burial ceremony in which the affairs of a deceased person are settled up at the time of his death (or more generally a year afterwards) by his relatives, his debts and funeral expenses paid, etc. Usually the people who come to see the ceremony are given a present (by the relatives of the deceased) for the purpose of ‘wiping away or drying their tears’. The present (or presents) is sold on the spot for whatever it will fetch and the amount divided among the people. Usually it does not come to over 50 cents or 75 cents a piece. The remains of the feast are given to the poor people present. (Confer Thompson Indians, pp 334, 335)

Teit to Sapir. February 18, 1915. Extract. CMH, Marius Barbeau fonds Northwest Coast file, folder: Definition and Explanation (B-f-344) (Correspondence and Notes Concerning Potlatch), box b26. Still another custom confounded with the Potlatch is that called ‘giving’ by the Indians but as this is confined to individuals and families and has no public ceremonies in connection with it very few whites know about it (see Thompson Indians, p. 299). 680 | 1915

Robert H. Lowie to James Teit. March 1, 1915. AMNH, Anthropology Collection, American Department of Anthropology Correspondence, 1908–1926, box 19. Dear Mr. Teit: At Doctor Wissler’s suggestion I write to you for information on a rather interesting point of Flathead ethnology. In Clark’s book “Indian Sign Language” there are the following two paragraphs: “The tribes of the Flathead Agency seemed to have a very meager organization. In former times they claimed to have had one or two men called “dog-soldiers,” and when a war-party started they went in advance of the rest without arms, only taking their medicine and their rattles. As the old Indian who told me the story, said, “They went right into the enemy’s camp or ranks, and, if killed, the rest turned back.” “It was claimed that they also had a band of club-soldiers, forty or fifty in a tribe, who executed the orders of the chief, and were apparently a police force to preserve order in the camp (my informant here sang for me a beautiful and inspiriting war-song, suitable for a dog-soldier, at least he seem to think so.)” (pp. 353–356.) We have been making a comparative study of the military and police societies of the Plains Indians and should be very glad to get any data from you confirming or expanding the information here suggested by Clark. Thank you in advance for whatever data you may be able to send to us

Peter McGuff, White Swan, Washington, to Teit. March 3, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. My dear Sir, Long time I no hear from you. My book of the Wishram Text last year lost in the fire when my house burned down where and how can I get another one.13 I’d like awful well to get another one. You know Mr Sapir credited me for the work I helped in completing the text (Vol 11). 13. Sapir wrote to Boas on March 11, 1915, “I have just received word from my old Wishram interpreter, Pete McGuff, through Teit, to the effect that he has lost his copy of my “Wishram Texts.” As he seems to be very eager to get another copy, I wonder if you could not arrange

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I have not been well all winter. My family all pretty sku-kum.14 What became of my friend Mr Sapir?

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

Teit to Sapir. March 6, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr Sapir, I enclose a letter I received today from Pete McGuff. I am sure you will be able to get a copy of Wishram Texts for him. Address it to White Swan, Wash. I am writing him to day. If you can you might let me know the exact dates during 1914 you sent money to me. I am not sure if I have them right. Also please hurry up some of the pictures if possible as some of the Indians are bothering me for prints and besides I want to see how certain of them came out as I experimented under certain irregular light conditions. I have made a back ground now so you will not see so many houses, fences and other unnecessary things in the background after this. We had a very important Indian meeting here commencing on the 25th and this took up most of my time for a week. The tribes represented at the meeting by chiefs were Lillooet, Shuswap, Ntlak., Okanagon, Kutenai, Chilcotin and Stalo. Two of the Nass River delegates you saw recently [page 2] in Ottawa were at the meeting. They are going back to Ottawa again very soon. I asked the Kutenai Chief Paul re the kekule house sites at Banff and he says they are Shuswap. Please tell Smith this. During the meeting I took a number of photos mostly Shuswap and Kutenai and some songs. Thompson, Kutenai and Naas. The Indians are interested in the question of singing and dances and costumes and they want no more interference from the Indian Agents and missionaries re. same.

to have the American Ethnological Society send him one. His address is White Swan, Washington. I am all out of copies myself.” It is not clear if the book was sent. Sapir wrote again on April 18, but in early May received word from Columbia that Boas was ill (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b. 621, f.2, folder: “Boas, Franz [1915–1917]”). 14. “Sku-kum” or “skookum.” A Chinook jargon word meaning “strong.” (Hale, An International Idiom, 51).

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Teit to Lowie. March 7, 1915. AMNH, Anthropology Collection, American Department of Anthropology Correspondence, folder: Teit, James, 1908–1926, box 19, file 13. Dear Mr. Lowie, Yours to hand yesterday. Unfortunately I cannot give you much information on the points you bring up as so far I have made no special study of the Flathead. I was among them for a very short time when engaged in making the survey of the Salish tribes of the U.S. for Dr. Boas but my time was almost fully occupied collecting a comparative vocabulary of their language and finding out all I could re. the ancient tribal boundaries of themselves and their neighbors. However thanks to the excellence of my informants I made rapid progress in the time at my disposal and was able to gather considerable information on the material culture of the tribe before the advent of the horse, and besides collected some historical and mythological stories. Owing to lack of time I hardly touched the social organization of the tribe, and in fact I was not particular in this matter as I expected at a later date to collect full information from them on all points of their culture. It was my intention after the completion of the survey to make detailed studies of a few tribes, and for this purpose had selected the Flathead, Okanagon, Columbia, and Coeur d’Alene as representative of the four groups of the Interior Salish in the U.S. I have commenced with the Coeur d’Alene when other work considered more pressing demanded my attention and I have not since been able to complete the Interior Salish work in the States. In the paper I am now writing viz. ‘Notes on the Interior Salish tribes of the U.S.” the Coeur d’Alene therefore are the only people rather fully dealt with. It seems to me [page 2] the information you cite re. ‘dog soldiers’ and ‘club soldiers’ is probably correct. The fact that the terms ‘dog’ and ‘club’ are used would I think point to Plains influence which is not unlikely as the Flathead adopted several items distinctly of the material culture of the Plains such as the cylindrical medicine case, the bull boat, the back rest etc. In later times (after the introduction of the horse) the Flathead became an almost typical plains tribe having all the traits of plains material culture outlined by Wissler (pp. 449, 450, Mat. Cultures of No. Amer. Inds) excepting possibly the use of the travois. Their ancient culture was nearer to that of the Plateau area as defined by Wissler but differed from it in some ways being more like the Wind River and other Shoshoni which are classed by Wissler within the Plains culture although not perfectly typical thereof. Of course it is a difficult matter 1915 | 683

to determine the learnings of some of these tribes intermediate between two cultures. Anyway the culture of the Flathead both ancient and later was much nearer to Plains culture than say the Nez Perce. If the latter are included then the Coeur d’Alene and many Interior Salish tribes would have to be included too. Was there any single distinct Plains culture long ago? Did not all the tribes bordering on the Plains partake of or belong to the several cultures at the back of them modified to some extent by contact with the Buffalo? Has not the Plains culture as we know it arisen since the introduction of the horse and been made possible in large measure only by the horse? To return to our subject the Flathead certainly had some kind of police organization in their camps (especially winter camps) but exactly what the system was I did not learn. Probably their old system became considerably modified by the change in social organization forced on them by their becoming completely [page 3] buffalo hunters after the introduction of the horse, and also through later contact with eastern tribes x1. Most tribes of the Interior Salish had what appears to have been a mild form of police organization (especially in the largest camps and at tribal gatherings). These men assisted the Chiefs in various ways acting as messengers, peace officers, watchmen, reporters etc. besides these were war messengers and dispatch bearers, (considered very honorable) camp scouts, public criers, speakers etc. all more or less under the authority and directions of the chiefs. The Head Chief of the Thompson 1856–62 is said to have had about 40 men who acted for him [in] the camps and when he traveled half or more of them accompanied him as a kind of body guard or armed escort. These soldiers did not form a society of any kind and it was optional whether they attached themselves to the Chief or not. However as it was considered very honorable to be one of the soldiers young men were always forthcoming for the work. Re. the “dog soldiers” I may say in all the Interior Salish tribes there were some warriors who were considered immune from harm in battle because of their powerful ‘medicine’. They scorned to wear armor and many went into battle wearing hardly any clothing. Some even did not carry weapons of offence but instead they bore small shields of skin (not arrow proof) hanging from their elbow like a tobacco pouch. These shields were panted with pictures connected one way or another with their manitou or ‘medicine’. Some carried rattles and sang and went in the front of battle. They were called ‘those who cannot be pierced (or penetrated) by the Thompson. They did not belong to any society. There were no organized societies among most of the Interior Salish tribes. Besides this class of warriors every large war party had one or 684 | 1915

two war shamans whose duty it was to make protective medicine for their own people and cast spells on the enemy. In some cases these [page 4] men went to the enemies’ camp but at least in some cases they performed rites before and during battle at a safe distance. I heard a story the other day of a Shuswap who had been asked by the Kutenai to help them against the Blackfoot, who had taken a number of Kutenai women captive. He went alone to where the Blackfoot were and gathering the women together took them back. The gaze of all the Blackfoot men became fixed on a large star he wore on his breast. Each one who gazed at it came under his spell or power and became unable to attack. This rambling information I have given you is not exactly to the point but may have some slight bearing on the subject you are studying. In conclusion I might say a word on old locations of tribes or tribal boundaries. The information I have gathered from Flathead, Pend d’Oreille and Kutenai on the former distribution of tribes on the Western Plains agrees with what I have read of Dr. Wissler’s information gathered from the Blackfoot. A Salish tribe occupied the Sun River Country down to the great Falls on the Missouri. They and the Flathead lived entirely E. of the Rockies. The Pend d’Oreille and another Salish tribe lived W of them (on the West side of the range). Shoshoni occupied the country S, E and NE of them and Kutenai were N of them, (at the same time Kutenai were also W of the Mountains in BC). Blackfoot lived just N. of the eastern Kutenai and eastern Shoshoni. The Crow were not known at this time nor any of the Plains group of tribes excepting the Blackfoot tribes. The first tribe to appear from the east was the Crow and other tribes came later. I think I have inflicted enough on you that is divergent from the point of your queries so I will quit. xMichel Revais and Chief Louison both now dead x1The Flathead had the regular camp circle[.]

Sapir to Teit. March 8, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Mr. Teit,— Thank you for your potlatch letter, which I had copied and forwarded to Mr. Scott. I have no doubt it will help along the good cause. Enclosed I am sending you three copies of your contract for 1915–1916. Kindly sign these as indicated; keep one for yourself, and 1915 | 685

send me the other two. You will observe that I have again provided for the full fiscal year. While you may not perhaps be able to utilize all of the time, I do sincerely hope that you will be able to take up work for us more continuously than heretofore. I feel that from now on, any other obligations that you have, while they can not of course be ignored, should, if at all possible, be assigned a secondary place.

Sapir to Teit. March 8, 1915. Telegram. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Send accounts for this fiscal year immediately. N.B. Charge to Geological Survey of Canada

Teit to Sapir. March 10, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr Sapir, I have finished making up the a/c and will mail same early tomorrow morning. I am too late for the mail to-night. I had only part of the a/c made up when I received your wire as I did not expect I would be required to send the a/c until near the end of the month. There is a balance of 10.50 I owe the department which I enclose herewith. This balance may not be exactly OK to the cent but is the way I make it. Hitherto my a/c has always been a little different from the way Mr Marshall reckons as I have reckoned the days wage by dividing 125.00 per month into 28 working days. Whereas Mr Marshall divides it in 30 working days thus implying that I should work on Sundays even when at home. This is not a usual way of reckoning in this country and reduces my wages to the rate of 4.18 per day. [page 2] However I dont care for a few cents either one way or another and this time I have entered days wages at 4.15 and 4.20 per day time about which will come to about the same thing as Mr Marshall’s 4.18. I have done the best I could regarding specimens. These are all No. 1. Four or five pieces are not finished yet. The Indians have them and I advanced money on them. I have therefore charged the full amount I will pay for them.15 I 15. That Teit’s GSc funds had been spent for something even he had not yet received may have placed Sapir in a difficult situation with Marshall. In the late twentieth century, when a co-editor of this volume was director of ethnology at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, essentially the same position Sapir had held in the Anthropology Division of the GSC, the CMC’s

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will have them all by the end of the month. I have no catalog of the specimens ready and cannot have until after the end of the month. I will ship the specimens some time next month and all or at least part of the records of songs.

Sapir to Teit. March 11, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have your letter of March 7th, also Pete McGuff’s letter of March 3rd. I am all out of copies of my Wishram texts, but have written to Boas to find out if the Ethnological Society could not provide him with one. I am afraid they are rather slow with photography these days, because they are loaded up with any amount of work, and things have to take their turn. Your experience has been duplicated in various other directions. However, I hope that you will not have to wait too long. I am glad to see that you are getting new photographs and songs from other tribes than Thompson River.

Teit to Sapir. March 14, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr Sapir, I am sending you back the contract duly signed. Yes. I hope to do a good deal of work for you during the coming fiscal year. I may be able to work on Dr Boas work in spare or over time. I will have the Interior Salish (of US) nearly off my hands by the end of this month. Then there is the supplementary Thompson paper and the paper on art for him already partly written. This is all.

predecessor organization, it was absolutely required that materials for which funds had been expended in a particular fiscal year be received by March 31 of that year. Marshall’s communication to Teit, noted in Teit’s letter to Sapir of March 10, 1915, suggests that this was also the rule in the early twentieth century. Moreover, the salary of $1,500 per year for Teit’s position was originally foreseen to be expended month by working month, with the work ideally occupying a full twelve months, and not calculated on the basis of a working day. The delay in Teit’s transition to full-time work for the GSC had given John Marshall the opportunity to place his civil service annual compensation on a daily fee-for-service footing. In effect, Teit’s work for the GSC had been drawn into the same ad hoc regime he had followed with Boas since 1894.

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Teit to Sapir. March 30, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr Sapir, Mr Marshall wrote me to send the specimens at once.16 I have commenced cataloging them and will forward them as soon as possible. I have to go to the Coast for five days and this will put me back. I have collected two or three other things lately which I did not want to pass up so I used my own money. One is a stone pestle with a carved head, another is a very large wide flaked stone skin grainer. I have also collected some more songs and paid for them, and am taking some photos. If you get your estimate through you better send me say $100.00 so I can be in a position to collect and go with the work as usual[.] I think this will be enough until I am about ready to go up North. I am enclosing some negatives I had developed here. I will not charge you for them if you send me the prints I require viz. 2 prints of each as usual and half a dozen of the group. I developed the films here to try and get on to some points about the light and exposure as the prints from Ottawa were so long in coming.

Boas to Teit. April 5, 1915. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121858. My dear Friend,— I have been wanting for some time to send you some money on account of your work; but I have been unable to do so, because all our funds had been spent, and I have been waiting for further supplies. I expect now that we shall have funds by the end of the month, and I shall send them to you just as soon as I receive them. I thought of sending you some money on my own account; but, owing to the war, my finances are very much cramped. I am corresponding with Mr. Sargent in regard to your collection, and I hope that something may come out of it.17 16. Apparently Marshall had taken matters into his own hands in an attempt to ensure that the requirements for end-of-fiscal-year accounting were met as nearly as possible. 17. In a letter to Boas dated March 23, 1915, Sargent commented on Teit’s attempt to market the collection that the Geological Survey of Canada was unable to buy: “He tells of his efforts to find a market for his collection but at this time I fear that no Museum has any funds and all individuals are afraid to part with their money if they have any” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107160). He asks Boas’s opinion as to whether Teit’s collection might be of value to the Field Museum. Sargent also renewed his commitment to assist financially with Teit’s work. “Now I wish to inquire if you have on hand available to your Department funds of mine to keep Teit

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Sapir to Marshall. April 6, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), at his work or have they been used up?James And if soA. what more is required and file what 14. will he take Correspondence folder: Teit, (1915), box 635,

up next?” Boas replied on March 30, 1915, saying that the collection “was a very excellent representation of the whole culture of the tribes of the interior. Naturally Teit’s knowledge of the Thompson Indians is much greater now than it was more than ten years ago, when he collected for me, and for that reason the collection is also more systematic and exhaustive” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107139). He added, “I have no more funds to keep Teit at his work, and confess that I feel somewhat embarrassed by it. I believe I told you in my last letter that he estimated that it would take about $200 worth of his time to finish the manuscripts on which he is working. According to his last letter, he is at work at his material. I did not tell him quite definitely last summer to go ahead with it; but circumstances were such that, in order to avoid the loss of what he had done before, he had to finish his work. I think you know by this time that Mr. Teit always underestimates the time that work takes, and I should not wonder if it were not actually a little more than he needs in order to finish. A little more than a year ago I asked him the same question, and I sent him the money that he expected that he would need in order to finish his work; but when he was through, he made a new estimate, saying that he would need $200 more. I do not mean to criticize Teit by this, but it is simply one of the regular experiences of every investigator that he can never predict exactly how much time an investigation may take.” Boas mentioned his own plan to take the first half of the next academic year off to concentrate on writing, and wrote, “If it were possible to take up during that time also the basketry paper, I might be able to do quite a little on it. It will be a matter somewhat difficult to handle, because it will be necessary to bring together photographs and drawings from your own collection, the Ottawa collection, that of Chicago and New York, and possibly also from Washington.” Sargent replied on May 7, 1915 (APS, Boas Papers, text 107161), enclosing a cheque for $300 for Teit’s work, and pressing Boas a little about the basketry publication. He also appeared to be under a misapprehension about Teit’s status with the Geological Survey of Canada. At a time when Sapir was increasingly concerned to have Teit devote full time to GSC work, Sargent believed Teit to have been “practically laid off by Dr. Sapir.” Sargent wrote to Boas, “If you should take the next half year off, beginning with the new academic year would you feel that you could devote some time to Teit‘s basketry and Native Art Paper or would your other matters take up all your time? If you could, it would seem that now was the logical time to take up the subject with Teit practically laid off by Dr. Sapir. I shall be short of funds until after the middle of July but after that would be able to raise some. Does your academic year begin in the fall or sooner? [para] You know that in the Basketry paper my idea was that one on the model of Emmonds [sic] Paper was desirable but you thought such would be rather expensive. At your leisure you might figure out an estimate of what you think the total cost would be and let me hear from you on the subject. It need be only an estimate.” On May 12, 1915, Boas replied, listing issues such as drawings and photographs that would be expensive if the book were to follow the model of Emmons’s publication, and asking, “On account of the vagueness of the whole proposition, might it not perhaps be better if you could tell me how much you would want to expend on a publication of this kind, and I might then make plans accordingly” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107140). In his reply on May 24, 1915, Sargent wrote, “I shall be pleased to have the basketry paper taken up at your early convenience and I still think I should like an elaborate paper patterned after that of Emmonds [sic] if I can find the means for it. Thus a woodcut from a sketch of each one of the original designs or “motifs,” where Teit has secured the identification and meaning from several independent sources in the same tribe, and plates of baskets which illustrate these designs; some of which are in color. Also plates of more complicated designs, and those which are recognized as being old even if they are unable to identify them. I had hoped that your letter would give a rough idea of what the expense of such a publication would be. In your estimation, would $2,500 do it in the elaborate way I should like? If so, I think that I could supply about a thousand dollars the first of August and the remainder by the first of the new year. This is providing we are successful in remaining out of the great European War, and it looks now as if the Administration in Washington would be able to manage it. [page 2] In the study of the actual baskets themselves, a start can be made from my collection which contains over fifty baskets from the Salish tribes and a dozen of the hemp and corn husk bags. About half of these were collected

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Dear Sir,— Would you kindly send Mr. J.A. Teit, Spences Bridge BC, an advance of $100 as soon as money is available? This is to cover purchase of specimens and expenses incurred in collecting songs and taking photographs.18

Sapir to Teit. April 6, 1915. Telegram. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Marshall states you must close account for nineteen fourteen by sending in all specimens purchased before another advance can be made. N.B. Charge to Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa

Teit to Sapir. April 7, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr Sapir, I got your wire to-day. I will ship the specimens in a few days. I am enclosing 12 negatives I developed here all of them are No. 1. Send prints of two of each as usual. I will charge you just for the film pack-as I do under ordinary circumstances.

by Teit. The above number does not include those which you have in New York or half a dozen more which Teit shipped to me at my Minnesota address last fall, after my return to Chicago. I have photographs of almost all of these, but unfortunately my duplicates are in Chicago, else I would enclose a set for you to look over. They have some photographs of the baskets which they have in the Field Museum, but I really believe that when the time came for the actual work to be done it would be best for Mr. Teit to take a run east and stop at Chicago, Washington and New York to look over the baskets himself, which are in these various institutions making notes on those which interest him and getting photographs. He can then consult with you and possibly take his notes of the trip back west with him before writing them up. Such a trip would undoubtedly add three to five hundred dollars to the expense but I think could be justified by the results as there are many points about a basket which may elude a photograph, but are seen instantly when the basket is held in the hand. Also age and past history mean much in working on designs. [para] It was my understanding that Teit wished to devote a paper to, and had enough material for, an article on the Art of the Salish, which should be taken up in the near future. This to include face painting, and designs on bags, costumes etc;—He could have this paper in mind on such a trip as I have spoken of above. [para] It seems as if the time were opportune now to go on with this work and if I can find the means I wish to start the former at least” (APS, Boas Papers, text 197162). 18. Written in the margin, apparently in reply to Sapir: “Mr Teit must close a/c for 1914 by sending in all specimens purchased before another advance is made.”

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PS As I will be forwarding a number of songs to you before long you might let me know how you wish them sent. I think the last ones were sent by express unboxed. (Simply in the paper boxes and lashed 2 boxes together.)

Teit to Boas. April 7, 1915. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121883. My dear Friend, I am sending you to-day the Okanagon part of the paper dealing with the Similkameen, Okanagon, Sans Poil, Colville and Lake. Also the Introduction and several pages of sketches and some photos. I am holding the genealogy belonging to this part of the paper for a few days to see if I can fill it up a little more. In my notes I came on some Athapascan words collected in Nicola and Similkameen. I may have sent these to you before but in case I did not send all of them I enclose the seven words. I have finished the Columbia excepting a few notes and will forward that part in a day or two. I still have a good deal of copying to do and notes to insert on the [page 2] Flathead and Coeur d’Alene parts and should have been through by this time but during the last month have not worked very much on the paper having had a number of other things which took up far too much of my time. PS The Peabody Museum people are considering buying my collection but the matter is not quite settled yet.

Sapir to Teit. April 10, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Mr. Teit,— Kindly let me know if any of the photographs still awaiting titles are Shuswap, and if so, please let me know which they are. My reason for asking is that I have been requested recently to get ready a popular pamphlet on the Indian tribes in the vicinity of the Dominion Parks Museum at Banff, and it would be convenient to have a couple or more good photographs of Shuswap and Kootenay Indians. If convenient to you, it might be a good idea for you to try to get some photographs of Shuswap and Kootenay Indians in native costume before leaving for your summer’s field trip. 1915 | 691

Teit to Boas. April 14, 1915. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121884. My Dear Friend. I was glad to receive your letter of 5th inst. I am glad you did not cramp yourself on my account. I have been able to rub along without the funds. My credit is good here so far, so everything is all right. Things have been very bad in BC[.] [D]uring last winter a good many thousand [sic] of people had to be fed by the City of Vancouver and the BC gov. and the latter is about broke I believe through graft etc. They quit relief to 2000 or more men in Vancouver lately and the men went down and raided restaurants and fruit stores in the city. A good many thousand men have joined the military and most of them have been sent out of the country.19 [page 2] This may relieve the pressure in the local labor market. Over 80 percent of the men who have joined are English. Very few Canadians could be got to enlist even in these hard times. Quite a number of men joined because they were broke and joining made them sure of their meal ticket. Here in the Interior things are better during the last month and considerable railway and other work is starting up. We have had an exceedingly early and warm spring, one of the best I have ever seen. The winter was very short and mild. I sent the catalog of my collection to Willoughby and expect to hear from him finally in a few days as to whether he will buy or not.20 I sent you the Okanagan part of the paper two or three days before I received your letter. To-day I am sending the part on the Columbia.

Teit to Sapir. April 15, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr Sapir, I got your letter to-day and hasten to reply. The photos awaiting titles are Ntlak, Shuswap, Kutenai and Chilcotin. Nos 30597, 30598, 30599, 30633, 30632, 30631, 30646, 30647, 30648, 30640, 30641, 30642, are all Shuswap from Kamloops and Shuswap Lake. 30637, 30638, 30639 is a Northern Shuswap. 30634 etc. is a Shuswap Half blood. Unfortunately none of the Shuswap are in Costume. You have a considerable number 19. Canada entered World War I on August 4, 1914. 20. After serving as an assistant to Putnam in the Department of Anthropology at the Chicago Exhibition, Charles Clark Willoughby (1857–1943) joined the Peabody Museum at Harvard in 1894. He served as director of the Peabody Museum from 1915 to 1928, and remained director emeritus until his death (Hooton, “Charles Clark Willoughby [1857–1943],” 235–39).

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of good Shuswap pictures among the older photos but I think none in costume. The only picture I have of Shuswap in costume as far as I can remember is a large picture I got from the Indian Agent in Kamloops (a group of four). The costumes they are wearing are [page 2] Thompson but then there is very little difference between the old costumes of the Shus and Thomp.[,] taking the tribes as a whole or at least the Up. Thomp. and the Southern Shuswap. North differed a little. Nos. 30604, 30606, 30600, 30601, 30602, 30607, 30608 are Kutenai. The Tobacco Plains Chief who is part Flathead (Montana) and part Blackfoot in blood. He is about half or a little over Kutenai in blood. The costume he is wearing and the spear are Ntlak. but the bonnet is Kutenai. I have some pictures of Kutenai in their own costumes taken by Vinson a few years ago and he would not mind the use of them I suppose. I do not think I will have a chance to get any costume pictures of Kutenai and Shuswap for some time as I do not expect any of them will be around. The only chances at all likely are Ntlak. and Okanagon. PS I had a son born on the 7th ult.21

Teit to Sapir. April 23, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr Sapir, I am enclosing catalog of the specimens. The skull and specimens Nos 131 to 179 comprise all the specimens charged the Museum before the end of the fiscal year except the eagle feather bonnet and the shield. I arranged a price for these with the Indians and advanced some money on them but they are not finished yet and may not be for a week or two. You cannot always get things finished or delivered when you want them. Nos 180 to 186, I have bought since the account was closed and am charging them to the Museum. I would have shipped some days ago but have been waiting to see if I could not get the two above named specimens before I did so. [page 2] There is no use waiting longer so I am shipping all the rest of the stuff. I enclose also 8 negatives. Please send prints as usual.

21. In the years that followed Teit’s marriage to Leonie Josepine Morens, they had six children, Erik, Inge, Magnus, Rolf, Sigurd, and Thorald. Rolf passed away at birth in 1912.

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PS I have just received word from Mr Willoughby they will take the collection I made at the 1500.00 figure. I will try to ship it next week.

Teit to Sapir. April 25, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr Sapir, I just thought of it when checking over the things. The catalog I sent you was all Ntlak. I think-I neglected to include two Athapascan specimens and 1 Nez Perce which I charged to last fiscal year a/c. They are ticketed but somehow I forgot to include them in the list. I have bought two or three more specimens which I will list with them and send you the additional catalog tomorrow. All will go forward together.

Sapir to Marshall. May 31, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m). Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Sir,— I beg leave to state that all of Mr. J.A. Teit’s specimens, of value amounting to $666.75, have arrived today and been checked up. There are no discrepancies with his list as previously sent. The charges are fair and just. This clears up everything for last fiscal year.

Sapir to Teit. June 1, 1915. Telegram. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Specimens have arrived and check up OK. How much advance for field trip do you want and when do you expect to begin field work. Am sending estimate blank for you to fill out. Wire at survey expense. N.B. Charge to Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa

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Teit to Sapir. June 2, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr Sapir, I am sending you another film pack to-day. I would like one print each of the following 32 photos to take up North as samples. When you have something pretty good to show and break the ice with, it makes it much easier to get pictures. If it is too much work to send the 20 prints send at least 10, picked from any of the numbers I give over [page 2] Nos 30608 (B40), 23190 (B26), 25777 (B31), 30987 (B41), 23507 (B27). 27000 (B34), 30642 (B40), 23575 (B27), 26996 (B34), 30697 (B41), 23510 (B27), 26998 (B34), 30693 (B41), 23516 (B27), 27111 (B34), 30979 (B41), 23581 (B27), 27052 (B34), 30993 (B41), 23856 (B28), 27063 (B34), 30991 (B41), 23206 (B26), 30989 (B41), 23853 (B28), 30986 (B41), 23853 (B28), 30992 (B41), 23845 (B31), 30981 (B41), 25804 (B31), 30673 B41)25800

Teit to Sapir. June 8, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr Sapir, I am returning the estimates. I have estimated the outside figures on most items. The trip probably will not cost as much as my estimate, but it will not be a great deal less if I manage to stay out the full time. I intend to visit the Athapascan and Tlingit of the Atlin and Teslin districts (it is not clear in some cases which stock the bands belong to and I will try to sort the matter out). I also want to get hold of all the dialects of the Nahani to the N and E of Telegraph Creek, and also get in touch with the nearest Sekanais bands if I can. For this reason I will go to Liard River. If I have any spare time I will fill out my information on the Tahltan a little more. I suppose I will take my own camera along but as this year will be more or less of a rough trip with canoes and horses there is a possibility of it getting damaged. It is an expensive camera and I do not wish to suffer any loss, through it suffering damage or being spoiled. For this reason I would like the Geol. Survey to guarantee any damage it may sustain and pay 120.00 for it in case of its getting spoiled entirely. This may easily happen in canoe travel especially where canoes get capsized. Any way a good camera is a very necessary part of equipment for my work and the gov. should by rights have furnished me with one when I commenced work instead of my using my own during the last three or four years.

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However I dont mind this as long as I do not lose by it. As I will have to travel in the [page 2] wilds this trip a rifle is a necessary part of my equipment. I will take my own rifle along but I want a guarantee on it also in case of damage or total loss. I should be provided with a rifle for these trips (like the camera) instead of having to use my own. I think I have progressed so I am able now to take a northern trip. I asked the doctor’s advice a few days ago and he said he thought I could stand it. He found I was quite sound although my heart is not quite so strong as before I had the fever. However this keeps improving. I still have a little rheumatism, now confined chiefly to the right foot. It keeps going and coming. Whilst recovering first from the fever I got a swelling in one lobe of the prostate gland which threatened to form an abscess. However it gradually settled. The swelling returns a little yet but the doctor thinks I will have no trouble with it and eventually it will disappear. I intend to go to the Hot springs for a week before I go up north. I also want to ship you some of the Thomp. music before I leave. I have collected a number of specimens during the last week and charged to the Museum. I have been doing all this and other work with my own money instead of having Museum money to do it with, but I am not going to keep it up except money comes soon. I put nothing in the estimate of the Cassiar trip for specimens. I may possibly spend 200.00 to 300.00 or more on these and perhaps much less. I think I better buy a press and paper in Vancouver for Botanical specimens I may gather on the trip. You can fill in 200.00 for specimens in the estimate if you deem it right. If you send me say 1000.00 or 1200.00 now I will let you know later from Cassiar if I need more. I can get all the credit I want up there as I am well known. PS Send me a few envelopes and paper.22

Sapir to Teit. June 12, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Mr. Teit,— This is merely to inform you that I am leaving Ottawa June 16th, or at latest June 18th, on a three months’ leave of absence, in order to take

22. This request, which recurs from time to time in Teit’s correspondence with Sapir, is for envelopes with the letters OHMS, “On His Majesty’s Service,” which exempted government employees from paying postage for letters sent on government business. “Paper” undoubtedly refers to letterhead.

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up some work for the University of California in Berkeley.23 If there is anything of an official nature that you wish to communicate, and which requires an immediate answer, it would be advisable to write either to Miss Bleakney or Mr. Barbeau. If you wish to communicate with me personally, you can do so by writing c/o Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, California.

Sapir to R. G. McConnell, Deputy Minister of Mines. June 14, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Sir, Under date of June 8th, Mr. J.A. Teit writes, in regard to forthcoming ethnological trip in Cassiar District BC: “I suppose I will take my own camera along, but as this year will be more or less of a rough trip with canoes and horses, there is a possibility of it getting damaged. It is an expensive camera, and I do not wish to suffer any loss through its suffering damage or being spoiled. For this reason, I would like the Geological Survey to guarantee any damage it may sustain and pay $120 in case of its getting spoiled entirely. This may easily happen in canoe travel, especially where canoes get capsized. Any way a good camera is a very necessary part of equipment for my work . . . As I will have to travel in the wilds this trip, a rifle is a necessary part of my equipment. I will take my own rifle along, but I want a guarantee on it also in case of damage or total loss.” The camera that Mr. Teit refers to has been used by him during the last three or four years continuously on Government work, and we have now a splendid collection of ethnological photographs on file as a result of Mr. Teit’s use of it. The point that I wish to make is that Mr. Teit’s camera is in effect a Government instrument, for which Mr. Teit has himself advanced the money. I do not know [page 2] if we would be able to give the guarantee on the camera and rifle that Mr. Teit asks for. Perhaps we ought to send him a camera of our own, and authorize him to buy a rifle out of field expenses. Kindly instruct me in regard to this at your earliest opportunity, as Mr. Teit is ready to leave almost any day now.

23. During this leave of absence Sapir went to California at the invitation of A. L. Kroeber to work with Ishi, the last living member of the Yahi, a Southern Yana tribe. Sapir had worked on Yana in 1907–8 (Darnell, Edward Sapir: Linguist, Anthropologist, Humanist, 79–82).

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William McInnes, Directing Geologist, to Sapir. June 16, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr. Sapir;— Mr. McConnell agrees that it is just that the Geological Survey should reimburse Mr. J.A. Teit for loss in the event of an accident to his camera or rifle while using them on account of the survey. Will you kindly, in instructing Mr. Teit about his work, call his attention to the necessity of accounting promptly for the amounts advanced to him.24 The accountant is forwarding to Mr. Teit a cheque for $800.00 on account of his appropriation and asking him to send in accounts from time to time as his funds run low, when further advances to the amount of his appropriation will be made.

Sapir to Teit. June 16, 1915. Telegram. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Survey agrees to reimburse loss of camera or rifle in case of loss. Please account promptly for amounts advanced. Accountant is forwarding cheque for eight hundred dollars. Best wishes for successful trip. Write me in Berkeley, care of University of California. N.B. Charge to Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa

Teit to Sapir. June 21, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr Sapir, I received your note of 12th inst. from Ottawa. I received the cheque for 800.00 from Mr Marshall to-day. I am nearly ready to leave but I think I will take time to make up my a/cs to date with vouchers and send in to Mr Marshall as he states in his letter to me this will be required before I can get further advances. I will also ticket the 24. This note, appended to a letter about insuring Teit’s camera, indicates that concern about Teit’s late accounts had spread beyond John Marshall to the upper echelons of the GSC, almost certainly with Marshall’s help.

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specimens I have on hand that I am not shipping at once. Some others (28 specimens) I am now boxing and will ship before I leave. I have been able to finish only 44 pieces of music (20 Ntlak, 1 Cree, 1 Sekanais, 4 Carrier, 2 Chilcotin, 1 Bella Coola, 3 Stalo, 5 Lillooet, 5 Shuswap, 1 Niska and 1 Crow.) [.]The notes on them amount to 17 foolscap pages. I will ship the records by express to Mr. Barbeau. I have word from the Hudson’s Bay Coy saying their steamers will not run any more on the Stikine River this summer owing to shortage of freight, so I will have to get up the river any way I can and may lose some time and be put to more expense. I do not know for certain yet what boat I will take going up to Alaska. Hoping you will have good success with your work in California I remain

Teit to Barbeau. June [n.d.] 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Mr Barbeau I suppose you are alone in charge of everything now. I am shipping to you by freight as soon as I can get it across 44 records of Ntlak, Shus, lill, and other music. I am enclosing notes to the songs (as full as I have been able to collect) amounting to 17 pages, and also catalog of the specimens I am shipping. I hope all will arrive in good shape. I have saturated with coil oil the corners of the two boxes containing specimens to keep out moths.25 I will be leaving in a few days. The weather is very hot here at present. PS I heard some time ago you were now married. I wish you the best of luck in the new life. PPS Please send me type written copies of the last lot of specimens I sent you from here in April also of this lot, also a copy of the notes to the songs—as I am retaining no copy. There is no hurry for these. Hurry the prints of photos you may have if you want the titles before I leave.

25. This is in the original text, but “coal oil” is probably meant.

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Teit to Boas. July 6, 1915. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121885. My Dear Friend. I am sending you by registered mail two pcls [parcels] of M.S. The smaller one is 31 pages on the Flathead completed and the large one is Coeur d’Alene and Flathead uncompleted. I did not manage to copy out the whole paper as I had expected. When I return you will please return to me the uncompleted Flathead and Coeur d’Alene as same requires to be copied out in ink with the text corrected and notes have to be added and some sketches made etc. I see also there is a little information to be added to the text in a few places from field notes. I notice I have forgot to include in the pcls the genealogy of the Okan. head chiefs so I will hold this until I return. I think there will also be some slight alterations in the maps I sent to you with the vocabularies some years ago. I have the new maps completed but would like to check them over and have not time to do this just now. I am leaving for the Athapascan country (Carrier and neighboring parts of Yukon) to-day or tomorrow and it will be late in the fall before I am back. I feel considerably stronger than I did [.]

Boas to Teit. July 16, 1915. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121859. My dear friend, I just received your welcome letter and also the two packages. I have been quite ill this spring and had to undergo an operation which left the left half of my face paralyzed, a condition that is not very pleasant.26 I have, however, truly reason to be grateful that things are not worse and I shall get along well enough if the trouble does not come back. It was the beginning of a cancer in front of the ear. I went to Puerto Rico after the trouble and just got back here.27 I had [?] a letter from Mr. Sargent who writes about the basketry paper. Maybe he wrote to you too. I think we ought to try first of all to get the others off.28 26. An operation for a cancerous growth on his face (Lewis, “The Passion of Franz Boas,” 447–67). 27. Ocasio, Race and Nation in Puerto Rican Folklore. 28. Sargent wrote to Boas on June 29, 1915 (APs, Boas Papers, text 107163), indicating that he was making a thousand dollars available for Teit’s work but without specifying how it was to be used. He did advise Boas to state to the Board of Trustees the fact that this was work to be carried out under Boas’s direction and through the Department of Anthropology.

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Teit to Sapir. July 19, 1915. Postcard. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14.29 Dear Dr Sapir, What amount of appropriation did you manage to get for me for this year’s work[?] I do not remember your stating the amount. I am leaving here in two or three days for the Kaskas. From what I hear lately I may have difficulty in meeting some of the Indians further east who may not be in their usual haunts.

Boas wrote again to Sargent on July 21, 1915 (the letter is missing). In his response on August 24, 1915, Sargent wrote, “I think I understand about the estimates for the work and the difficulty in obtaining them in the summer time of an off year when people are anywhere but where one would expect to find them. If Teit is busy for the present in the North, I presume it is on work for Dr. Sapir so that this delay does not affect him and though the wait is undoubtedly trying to you, it really is not as serious as it might be” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107234). However, Sargent added two postscripts that indicated that he was thinking about basketry research and at a very detailed level: “The enclosed Photographs taken some ago were made to show the break or joining of the pattern in those Salish baskets where it was pronounced enough to be visible. [para] You can file them away until that subject is taken up.” And he added, “After numbering these baskets, I am under the impression that I sent you a set to show the faults in the design and that this set was to rather supplement the former one.” Boas did not let the issue slide. In September 1915 he discussed the basketry publication with Frederick Hodge, the director of the Bureau of American Ethnology, and on September 25 he reported to Sargent that Hodge would be willing to publish the study in a BAE annual report, assuming all of the expense related to the publication except “the making of the photographs, drawings, and the work connected with the final preparation of the manuscript” (APS, Franz Boas Papers, text 107142). Covering these expenses would be Sargent’s responsibility. If this met with Sargent’s approval, “the best thing to do would be to get Mr. Teit to make a detailed description of the available collections in accordance with a number of questions that I would be glad to prepare for him; and it might be necessary to engage draughtsmen in a number of places; as in Chicago, Ottawa, Washington, and here [i.e., New York]—to make the necessary drawings.” Boas assumed Sargent would want to include items from his own collection. Boas added, with somewhat mysterious logic, “It seems to my mind that it would be best to combine this paper with everything pertaining to art, because it will very greatly reduce the expense of publication.” Sargent concurred (APS, Boas Papers, Sargent to Boas, October 10, 1915, text 107164), offering suggestions for binding and paper for the volume, and offering to ship the Salish basketry from his own collection to Boas for study by Boas and Teit. He provided insight into his particular interest, as opposed to Boas’s and Teit’s, in the statement, “I do not care for what is termed a “write-up,” but probably Teit will wish to use half a dozen for illustrating some points and one of these might be a color print of some basket which is richly colored by age.” 29. Photo of the Beaver Totem, Wrangell, Alaska, Telegraph Creek bc.

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Teit to Boas. September 7, 1915. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121882.30 My Dear Friend. I received your letter of 16th ult. here yesterday. I was very grieved to hear of your sickness and I sincerely hope you will become quite well again. I have not heard from Mr Sargent lately. He may have written. I have received my mail in a very irregular manner since I left home and may not have received his letter. I have just returned from a trip to the N.E. among the Kaska. I collected a vocabulary and all the stories I could get. I also took many photos and got nearly 50 songs. I intended going further N but the Indians there had scattered already and I thought it better to come back and work on some unfinished work here rather than chase them over the country. Next year I will get in early on the Yukon boundary so as to meet them and will travel N. with them when they leave for their summering grounds and fall hunting grounds and will come back over grounds of still other tribes. The stories I collected appear to be more Athapascan in character than those of the Tahltan. They show hardly any Coast influences. Also I think they resemble Southern Interior of BC and Cree stories more than the Tahltan stories do, although they probably do not stand very close to them either. It may interest you to know the ‘naval string pouch’ is used by all the Athapascans I have met [page 2] including the Tahltan so I hardly think that the custom can be more of a plains custom than a plateau custom[.] All the Salish have it and prob. all the Shoshone and Sahaptin. I notice however especially among the Kaska a strong current of influence sitting W from the Mackenzie influencing styles of lodges, snowshoes, moccasins, fleshing tools etc. In many cases the Indians plainly say these styles came from below on the Mackenzie. Possibly the Algonkin (Cree) have in turn influenced [the] Mackenzie Athapascans very strongly. and the Mackenzie influence affecting the Kaska etc appears to be really Algonkin. When I get home I will finish the writing of the Salish paper I left uncompleted and then will do the supplementary Thompson or the Art and Basketry whichever you desire first [.] Again hoping you will become quite well again and with very best and kindest regards PS I have collected a number of specimens and will probably get some more. There are no indications of coiled basketry having 30. On letterhead of Department of Mines, Canada Geological Survey.

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been made anywhere in the region. Some woven baskets (spruce root etc.) were made long ago in places[,] kettles etc.[,] but it is said the art was learned by taking to pieces Tagish baskets and copying the construction. This points to Tlingit.31

Teit to Sapir. September 7, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr Sapir, I drop you a few lines to let you know how I am getting along.32 I have just returned from my trip among the Kaska and have had very fair success. I took down a vocabulary, collected a number of specimens, got over 60 pictures, and about 50 songs. I also collected some general information on various points and wrote down all the stories I could get. I got as much information as I could regarding the name of neighboring tribes, and their boundaries and relationship of their dialects but the information re. the more distant tribes is rather vague. I see there is no way to do but penetrate further afield to the E and N. I would have gone on the Liard this season but on the Dease met the boats just returning from there and they told me all the Indians had already scattered and left so there was no use to go beyond the Kaska proper. After finishing with them I came back here to finish up some work here and there is some promise of Kaskas and Bear Lake Inds coming in here so I may do a little additional work with them. There is to be a big meeting of Indians on the Liard next summer and I must try to get in early enough to catch them. There will be Sekanais from the Nelson River and other parts, Goat or Mtn Nahanni, Inds from the Mackenzie and elsewhere. In all it is said some 7 tribes [page 2] will be represented. I hear some Indians of a certain tribe are wanted by the NW police and this tribe or band has in consequence moved NW and N and other tribes have come into the territory of the first (at least temporarily). Anyway there has been a general movement of bands NW and temporarily displacement of some or all in the Liard region etc. Somewhat similar to the movements of tribes after the Custer defeat on the Plains but on a much smaller scale. A [sic] met a number of Bear 31. This is a reference to baskets constructed of spruce root in two-strand twining. The Tlingit of Southeast Alaska made a substantial array of water-tight containers using two-strand Z (stitch slant down to the right) twining. The Gitksan and Nisga’a used a variation of this technique to make water-tight “kettles.” Teit included illustrations of these in his letter of June 6, 1919. 32. Teit is writing from Telegraph Creek.

1915 | 703

Lake Inds but had no opportunity of doing work with them and besides I was not very anxious to deal with them as they were all young men not particularly well posted and being intruders and living in the Kaska country they had adopted more or less of the Kaska ways and even speech. I did not think it advisable to take down a vocabulary from them even as I could not be sure what I was getting. I tried to get some songs from them one day but they wanted 1.00 per song which I would not pay. I got a few later at .50. The trip I have outlined for next year and which I have let the Indians understand I will make is from here to Dease Lake (starting in June), down Dease River, down and up the Liard some distance (depending on circumstances) from Liard post (on the Yukon line) N. (I dont know how far yet) and then W. down the Nasutlin to the middle of Teslin Lake, thence down the Hutaulinqua to Big and Little Salmon and probably further, thence around to the west thru Atlin and Tagish and back to Telegraph. The first part of my journey will be on foot with pack horses, the rest by canoe to Liard post and above (except I take some short cuts on foot) then to Teslin on foot with pack dogs, thence by canoe as far as I go N.[.] [R]eturn may be by canoe part of the way or on foot with dogs and in the Atlin country I may be able to do part of it with horses and by steamer and train. This trip I believe will complete our knowledge of the disposition of the bands and dialects within all the N. and NE part of BC and some parts of the neighboring Yukon. The following year the work will be all in Yukon, [page 3] and perhaps part of the interior of Alaska. The stories I collected among the Kaska appear to be more thoroughly Athapascan than those of the Tahltan and are but little influenced by the Tlingit as far as I can judge. They also appear to have a slightly closer relationship to the Plateau and Cree stories than the Tahltan stories do. The ‘navel string pouch’ is used by all the Athapascans of this region so it may belong quite as much to the Plateau and Mackenzie areas as the Plains. Of course I cannot say yet whether the custom is distributed all over the Mackenzie area or not, but it is practically all over the Plateau area. So far there are no indications of any coiled basketry having been made in this region. Some woven spruce root baskets were made for kettles in some places but the Indians aver the art of making them was learned by taking Tagish baskets apart and studying their construction. This points to a Tlingit origin of the basketry. I notice evidence of a strong current of influence setting W. from the Mackenzie to the Kaska, the source of it probably coming from the Cree. This influence is noticeable in styles of lodges, snowshoes, moccasins, fleshing tools etc. In many cases the 704 | 1915

Indians plainly say these styles came from below the Mackenzie about such and such a date. I was very sorry to hear in a short letter I had from Dr Boas that he had been very sick. I suppose this will prevent him from going to Frisco. I am writing him by this mail. I hope you have had a pleasant time in Berkeley. Before [page 4] I left home I shipped a lot of songs to the Museum and also some boxes of specimens[.] [S]ome of the latter were very good ones. Some how or another they kept the boxes in the RR. warehouse at Sp. Bdge until the day I was leaving. I suppose you got all in good condition or at least Mr Barbeau did. I expect to be here for a month or more yet. The weather has been very good but the nights are getting pretty chilly now.

Teit to Boas. September 27, 1915.33 APs, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121887.34 Dear Friend. I am nearly thru. here for this season now and thought would send you a line regarding a matter which might interest you. I obtained some information lately re. the Tsetsāút which confirms the information you obtained from them and confutes the tradition and dates of Mr McKay. My chief informant Dandy Jim told me his father several times visited these people the last time probably about 50 years ago. (His father died 20 years ago). At that time the tribe was reduced to a few people and his father years afterwards used to say to Jim “I guess these people are all gone now.” Since then the Tahltan have heard they are extinct. Jim said according to what he has always heard in his family by way of tradition these people were at one time numerous. They were frequently visited by members of the divisions or clans of the Tahltan tribe called 33. While Teit was among the Tahltan, Boas was moving forward with the basketry book. He wrote to Sapir on September 25, 1915, “Mr. Homer E. Sargent would like to have a paper published on the basketry of the interior of British Columbia and adjoining countries. He has asked me to make an estimate of the expense. Will you kindly let me know how many specimens of this kind are available in the Victoria Museum, of which I trust you will allow me to have a study made.” Sapir replied on September 30, 1915, furnishing the number of baskets for each tribal group, and saying, “I shall be glad at any time to make whatever arrangements you wish in regard to having this material studied.” A year later, on September 8, 1916, Sapir wrote to Boas, “You will doubtless be pleased to learn that all the exposures for Interior Salish basketry have been taken. There may be quite some delay yet before the negatives are printed off, but it is good to know that the better part of the job is done.” (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b.621, f.2, folder: “Boas, Franz [1915–1917]”). 34. On letterhead of John Hyland, General Merchant, Packer and Forwarder, Fine Furs a Specialty, Dease Lake BC, Branches at McDames Creek BC, Liard River BC, Telegraph Creek BC.

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Nanaái and Naskoten. Jims father visited them several times, his grandfather in his time did the same and his great grandfather the same. In his fathers [sic] grandfather’s days these people were numerous. They were called Sastoten by the Tahltan and lived in [page 2] the country at the N.W. head and west side of Portland Canal and extend[ed] further to the W. bordering on the Tlingit.35 The Tahltan know the locations of Portland Canal and some other places on the Coast such as Chunah, Unak etc. The Naas people held the country on the opp. side of Portland Canal viz E. side from the head down. (this I have from Naas and Tahltan both agreeing on mutual boundaries of the Tsᴇtsāút, Naas, and Tahltan.) From Tahltan knowledge the Tsᴇtsaut have been in the country they lately occupied a long time (at least 150 years and as far as tradition goes always). They claim their language was different from theirs but for the most part intelligible to them. They also speak of tribal wars in which the Tsᴇtsaut were connected in the early half of last century. There is no tradition the Tsᴇtsaut are a breakaway from the Tahltan but they may have sprung from the Tahltan or Kaska a long time ago. They say if 3 or 4 families of the Tahltan had got to Portland Canal at the date McKay says and been made slaves by the Nishga[,] the Tahltan would certainly know it. From all the Tahltan say (and they were neighbors of the Tsᴇtsaut visiting and intermarrying with them) there appears to be no doubt the Tsᴇtsaut was a well known tribe established for a long time in their recent habitat, and at one time fairly numerous. At one time at least they were able to hold their own with other tribes and avenge the murder of their people as need be. The early introduction of firearms among the Tlingit and Naas was against them. They were thinned out by disease and wars. They are said to have had phratries like the Tahltan, Tlingit and Naas, but the old Tahltan people who knew them are now all dead and the younger people know but little about them. Hoping this will find you well again.

Sapir to Teit. October 5, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Mr. Teit,— Your interesting letter of September 7th from Telegraph Creek was very welcome. I am writing to Spences Bridge so that these few lines may get you at as early a date as possible. To avoid any uneasiness 35. Page folded over.

706 | 1915

on your part, I will say at once that we have received a shipment of phonograph records from you, consisting of 20 Thompson River, 1 Crow, 1 Nass River, 5 Shuswap, 5 Lillooet, 3 Stalo, 1 Bella Coola, 4 Carrier, 1 Cree, 1 Sekanais, and 2 Chilcotin records, all of which have been numbered according to our scheme. You may remember that Mr. Barbeau obtained quite a number of Thompson River records himself some years ago, so that we have now altogether 48 records from this tribe. We have also received two boxes of specimens from you, covering original numbers 189 to 216. I am very glad indeed to learn that you have had good success among the Kaska and at Telegraph Creek, and hope that it will not be too long before you can buckle down to our material and prepare it for publication. Your note in regard to navel string pouches is of interest because I think these objects were used by probably most northern tribes well on into the east. Speck collected quite a large number of them from the Temagami Ojibwa and Temiskaming Algonquin. [page 2] Could you let me have at your earliest opportunity a brief statement of your field work for the calendar year 1915, which I may use as a basis for a paragraph in the next summary report. With best wishes and looking forward to hearing more from you in regard to your past work and future plans,

Sapir to Teit. October 7, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Mr. Teit,— Kindly attend to the following detail. Voucher M, dated Porter’s Landing, BC, August 24th, 1915, accounts for $43 for work and specimens obtained from Albert Dease. Your account referring to the voucher gives no limiting dates nor is any rate mentioned. Will you kindly give particulars at your earliest convenience.

Teit to Sapir. October 13, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr Sapir, I just send you a few lines to let you know I have finished up the work here a few days ago. The last few days I have been packing up everything. I have now everything ready to leave at an hours notice. I am simply waiting on a chance to get down the river, at the least 1915 | 707

possible cost to the Gov. and the least inconvenience to myself. I hope to get away before the ice starts running which may be any time in about ten days. The river has been very low this fall and the gas boats have been unable to get up more than half way. Two of them got wrecked and had to be repaired. The freight (and even mail) for the Interior is strung out here and there about half way up where the boats dumped it, and they are using small (manpower) boats and canoes for bringing it up here. I have some of my papers and books out to do a little further work with some of the Indians if chances are favorable but most families have already left for their trapping grounds; others are preparing to leave, and some of the men are working on the river. A few women are left temporarily and I have been making inquiries among them re. medicine etc. I have bought [page 2] a good many specimens for you—most of them old pieces. There are some duplicates but you said that would not matter. I think you will find the collection quite interesting—there are about 150 pieces composed chiefly of tools, bags, utensils, clothing and ornaments. As I suppose you want a pretty full collection from this area, I have left a list with Dandy Jim my chief informant of the kinds of things I will buy next year. The Indians here have many valuable old things but the only way to get them is to be here in the early part of the fishing season when they are congregated chiefly at Tahltan where they have all their stuff stored away in their houses. The early summer and Christmas time are the proper periods to catch the Tahltan altogether. A number of the specimens I got are from the Kaska. I used up all my blanks for recording songs and all my photo film packs, and could get no more up the river on account of the bad mail and freight facilities. Two film packs came by the last mail but they may be useless as they have been about 40 days on the road from Vancouver, were somewhat crushed, and moreover had got wet by the sinking of the boat the mail was on. The phonograph I have requires some repairs when I get to Vancouver, but these will not [page 3] cost much. A few of these records got broken in transit with the pack trains, but I have been very lucky so far no doubt owing chiefly to my taking great care in fixing everything well for transportation. I made enquiries along the line of social organization you suggested with fairly good results in the way of making matters clearer. I will write you later respecting some of the points when I send you my report of the trip. When do you want same? Also let me know how much you would care to allow for buying of specimens next year. I have prepared the way for obtaining a good collection next year (last time I was here the tribe was stiff in this respect) and I think some way between 500.00 and 708 | 1915

1000.00 at least should be spent on this next year—possibly 1000.00 would not be too much to have on hand for the purpose as there are a good many things yet to be procured, and next year will probably be the last I will be in this particular area with full opportunities. The following year I expect to be entirely in Yukon breaking altogether new ground. One thing I obtained which may interest you is the pretty full substantiation of Dr. Boas’ information on the TsEtsaut. According to what I obtained from the Tahltan these people have been a long time in the Portland Canal region and at one time numbered a good many [page 4]—over—people. One man of 50 told me his father, his grandfather, and his great grandfather used to visit and trade with these people who were at one time numerous although not a large tribe like the Tahltan. In his fathers [sic] day through disease and wars they had become very few in numbers and now they are believed to be extinct or almost so. They spoke a language slightly different from the Tahltan who could understand most of their speech. There is no tradition that they were originally a break away from the Tahltan. The latter called them Sástotḗn which seems to mean ‘Black bear people’. This name is applied by the Kaska to the most western Sekanais of the Sestoot or Bear Lake Region but the Tahltan claim the Bear Lake Sekanais are comparatively recent arrivals in the West and altho the Tsᴇtsaut may originally have sprung from some migrant band of Kaska or Sekanais they cannot be the same as the present Bear Lakes owing to the long time they have been living in their recent habitat which is quite apart from the Bear Lake Sekanais with Kitikshan, Naska and Tahltan territory intervening. Hoping this will find yourself and family quite well. PS Altho I am posting this letter now it probably will not get out earlier than I go myself so I may be in Vancouver or even home about the time it reaches you.

Boas to Teit. October 22, 1915. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121860. My dear Friend,— I was very glad to get your letter of the 27th of September. I am much interested in the information that you give in regard to the Portland Canal tribe. Of course I was quite sure of my ground, because I have a long vocabulary. 1915 | 709

Sapir to Teit. October 28, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Mr. Teit,— Just a word in regard to your estimate for field expenses, submitted in June of this year, for “purchase of ethnological specimens.” You have estimated only $290, whereas accounts received from you covering expenditures for specimens this fiscal year amount up to $718.75 to October 1st. I do not wish to point this out in order to find fault with the expenditure, but merely to call attention to the necessity of preparing the estimates more carefully in the future so that such great discrepancies may not result. They make a rather unfavorable impression on the administration here that is, of course, not so well acquainted with the subject matter of your work as I am myself. In this particular case the low estimate for your purchase of specimens was probably due to a misunderstanding on your part. In you[r] estimate you allow $500 for four months salary while engaged in field work. As a matter of fact, the understanding was that you were to have $2000 clear for field expenses over and above your personal salary, which was otherwise provided for as payable at a monthly rate of $125. Had you not provided for this item in your estimate, you would have had $790 at your disposal for purchase of specimens, which would [page 2] have easily covered all the expenditures of this sort up to October 1st. My object in sending you this is to guide you in the preparation of future estimates. They are apt to be particularly annoyed in the administration here if we buy specimens up to an amount considerably exceeding the original estimates. It should be remembered that all expenditures for museum specimens come out of a special appropriation that is distinct from the appropriation allotted to the Survey for field work. With best wishes, and hoping soon to hear further from you in regard to your recent trip,

Sapir to Teit. November [n.d.] 1915. Telegram. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Send brief account of field work for summary report immediately. N.B. Charge to Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa.

710 | 1915

Teit to Sapir. November 11, 1915. Postcard. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Have just arrived here last night. Sorry about the specimens. I will answer your letters and attend to the accounts almost immediately.

Teit to Sapir. November 11, 1915. Telegram. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Report mailed yesterday afternoon.

Teit to Sapir. November 13, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr Sapir, I have your letters of Oct. 5th, 7th and 28th upon my arrival here also typewritten copies of the lists of specimens sent to you in June and of the Notes and data on songs sent to you the same date. I was glad to learn that the specimens and songs reached you safely. I shall write for you as soon as possible a brief statement of my field work for ’15 as you request. I will commence to-day on the accounts for Mr Marshall and will little doubt be able to forward them on Monday or Tuesday. At the same time I will give explanations re: Albert Dease’s Voucher. I am sorry there has been a misunderstanding on my part re. the purchase of specimens. The reason I gave in such a low estimate for specimens was because I expected to make a rapid trip along way back into the Interior on Liard River etc. Had I [page 2] done this I would not have had the time to look up specimens nor the opportunity to get them out. I would only have bought a few light things that came in my immediate way. (In many parts of the country the only means of transportation is the ‘dog pack’ and your own back). For this reason I did not expect to bring out many specimens and therefore put in a very low estimate for purchase of same. As it happened however there was no use (or at least in my opinion it was inadvisable) my going on to the Liard, Pelly etc. as I received news on the way that the Indians had all scattered. This change in my program gave me the chance to spend considerable time among the Kaska and Tahltan where transportation is easy and I took advantage of this to collect as much as I could that seemed of value. I thought I should not neglect this opportunity as I understood the 1915 | 711

Museum was very short of specimens from the Athabaskan tribes and you were very anxious that full collections should be made. I thought it would not matter under the circumstances if more was spent in buying specimens than I estimated for as long as the total expenses of the trip (exclusive of salary) did not go over (or much over) the 2000.00 voted for same. My [page 3] traveling expenses have been lighter than I estimated for (owing also to change of program) and possibly also some other items. In my a/cs rendered to Mr Marshall I included salary but by including the latter in the accounts I did not expect that same would therefore be deducted from the 2000.00 granted for field work. I took it for granted that the 2000.00 could be spent on anything within the scope of the work as I considered best to do and as circumstances allowed, and my salary would be over and above. Also I did not know that the money to be used in purchase of specimens came from a different appropriation than that for field work and therefore I was not aware that any annoyance or difficulty would be occasioned by my (as it were) using one money for the other. You will probably have my letter by this time written at Telegraph Creek relating to the purchasing of specimens in the North next year and [page 4] you will be able to judge by it that I must have erred unwittingly in respect to the specimens and that my intentions were for the best so far as the work and the Museum are concerned. I may mention here that the last film pack I forwarded to you from Telegraph Creek contains a number of pictures of white persons there. They pressed on me to take their pictures as I had a good camera. I intended to develop this pack myself but somehow later I shipped it off to you without thinking. As the pictures will be no good to you I think you better ship the pack back if not already developed. If already done then send me the negatives. Owing to the very low stage of water no gas boats get more than half way up the river and as winter up there was drawing nigh it looked as if we might get stuck. Seventeen of us were waiting for transportation down the river. At last we had to build boats to get out. Ten of us (including two women) came out in the boat I was on—a flat bottomed scow 24 x 5 ft propelled by six oars. I was captain of the boat and worked the big steering oar or sweep. It took us four days to reach Wrangel two days and nights of which it snowed continually. We camped in two feet of snow one night. [page 5] We had on all my out fit of specimens etc. a large bale of valuable furs belonging to Hyland Coy, gold dust between $20,000 and $25,000 in value from Pike’s Mine at Thibet Creek and with camping outfit, crew and passengers were pretty well loaded. We reached our destination without mishap. At the 712 | 1915

mouth of the river we had a very high wind but it was in our favor. The other boat which came out at the same time had several mishaps and finally was abandoned at the boundary where a big gas boat met the people and took them to Wrangel. There were two ladies in this boat also. I reached Vancouver on the 1st and had the phonograph repaired there etc. I could have left for home on the 4th but remained until the 10th attending to some business of my own and visiting some friends. This time I will deduct from my November salary. I find the Thompson photos here viz prints of the pictures I sent you in June I will forward titles for them as soon as possible. No prints of the pictures I took up north have arrived yet and [page 6] and I am wondering how they turned out. The light is more difficult to judge up North and I am afraid I may not have made as good pictures as I have down here. PS Remember me to Messrs. Smith and Barbeau.

Teit to Sapir. November 16, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr Sapir, I got your wire yesterday and accordingly have written a brief account of my trip for the summary report and am forwarding same to-day. The botanical collection I made I left with Prof. Davidson Prov. Botanist in Vancouver for identification.36 All plants I have collected within the last two or three years I have given to him for identification including the few I collected on my 1912 trip. He is particularly well posted on the Botany of BC it being his special subject and giving the plants to him saves time and expence [sic] as he is right at hand. There are no charges of any kind made by him. I have the accounts almost ready for Mr Marshall and will no doubt forward them tomorrow. The Dominion Forestry Branch, Victoria are very anxious that I give them what information I can re. the distribution of the different kinds of trees in the Province and I may go to Victoria for a few days before Christmas to give this information. I will go over the [page 2] music I collected in the North and ship to you as soon as possible. I have also to go over the specimens. After that I intend to write off for you all the tales I collected among the Kaska and Tahltan. 36. Following their meeting and work at Botani Valley in 1914, Teit maintained a professional relationship with Davidson for the rest of his life, sending botanical specimens to Davidson and exchanging information with him.

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Teit to Sapir. November 17, 1915. Telegram. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Report mailed yesterday afternoon.

Teit to Sapir. November 17, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr Sapir, I received your wire and mailed to you yesterday a brief statement of my trip to Cassiar. To-day I have mailed statement of expenditures etc. to Mr Marshall with vouchers up to end of trip. I have also sent him a statement of disposal of field equipment and particulars re. the payment to Albert Dease as requested. I wrote you days ago explaining re. the expenditure in purchasing specimens on the trip. As I have now looked over my a/cs thoroughly I can give you exact figures. The total expenditure for specimens in Cassiar is 603.50. (July, Aug, Sept, Oct) Expenses of trip

1096.28 [Total] 1699.78

Thompson work (Mch, Apl, May, June)

Specimens 274.25 Expenses 17.95 [Total] 292.20 [Grand total] 1991.98

Of course I have gone a long way over my estimate for specimens only but not over the 2000.00 granted for expenses (including specimens).

Teit to Boas. November 18, 1915. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121888. Dear Friend I have your letters of 8th and 22nd ult. and hope you are quite well again by this time. I arrived home about a week ago. I had a pretty good trip and would have been back sooner had it not been for the low water 714 | 1915

in the Stikine River which precluded the gas boats getting up. At last winter was setting in there and there was danger in waiting any longer so those of us who were stuck made boats and came out. We had a good deal of snow on the way down the river. Since I came back I have been making up my a/c for Ottawa and writing a brief account of my trip for their summary report etc. . . . I got a good many photos and songs up north [page 2] and bought a good many specimens. This trip has made the distribution of the tribes between the Stikine and Mackenzie considerably clearer but the approximate differentiation of the dialects cannot be ascertained until I travel further in and collect a number more vocabularies. Next year I hope to do this and also cover the adjoining portion of Yukon but I must start earlier than I did this year. One point which may interest you is the distribution of the navel string pouch. I find it in universal use among all the Athapascan tribes I have visited but the style is quite different from the Interior Salish. Among the latter the string is enclosed in the pouch and the latter is of various shapes and styles of ornamentation[.] [A] good many are lozenge shaped, some oval, some nearly round, some oblong etc. [page 3] [I]n the north they are all circular (it seems)[.] The string is stretched and wrapped with sinew and stitched to the outer edge of the pouch all round the outside. In the pouch there is generally feathers or something connected with the parents’ manitous. I am now engaged going over the music I brought from North, preparatory to shipping to Ottawa. Then I have to go over all the specimens and catalog them and ship. After this the titles to the photos I took, and lastly I want to write off all the Tahltan and Kaska tales I collected. When this is finished I will try to take up work for you again for a while. Firstly I would like to finish the partly written paper on the Amer. Salish tribes and for this purpose I will ask you to send me back the unfinished ms. I sent you for safe keeping. After that I will commence again on the basketry and art of the Thompson. If Mr Sargent [page 4] wants me to visit some of the museums I dont [sic] suppose I would be ready to do so until about February at earliest and by this time we may all know better as to the importance of this point. I would like to take a trip of this kind but do not feel like putting Mr Sargent to the expense except some very material advantage in the work will come of it. I am very much indebted to him now for his kindness and I appreciate very much his interest in me and in the work generally.

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Teit to Sapir. November 19, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr Sapir, I am sending you herewith titles to the prints of Thompson Indians which came here in July after I left for North. I am doubtful as to the translation of some of the Indian names and have kept a list of the names I have not translated to discuss with some of the Indians. I would like to get prints of the Athabaskan pictures I took at an early date as I want to forward the spare prints to Telegraph Creek to reach the Inds when they come [page 2] in there at Xmas. If they do not leave here by the 1st Dec. they will be too late to reach there at Xmas and the Indians go out again early in January and do not return until April and May they will not get them for a long time. I am commencing to check up the songs I brought from North and writing out notes on same.

Boas to Teit. November 20, 1915. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121861. My dear Friend,— I have been hoping to hear from you for some time. I wrote to you quite a while ago in regard to Mr. Sargent’s wishes relating to the chapter on art and on basketry.37 Mr. Sargent had an idea that he would like you to go east and to examine a number of collections, and I asked the question whether you would be in a position to do so. I do not feel quite certain in my own mind whether this will be the best plan, because the work to be done on the collections really ought to be done by an artist.38 However, your knowledge of the subject-matter 37. On November 20, 1915, as well, Boas wrote to Sargent, “You may have wondered that I have not written sooner in regard to the progress of your work; but I have been waiting all this time for a letter from Teit, whom I asked whether he would be in a position to visit the eastern museums.” He brought Sargent up to date on other work, adding, “Meanwhile the work on the Salish vocabularies is progressing satisfactorily, and I am hoping that the manuscript will be ready in the course of this winter. It is going to be a very bulky affair. [para] We are also making progress on the collections of traditions of the Salish of the interior” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107143). 38. Although the reference to “the chapter on art and basketry” confirms that up to this point Teit’s work on basketry has been seen as a chapter to be included a larger ethnographic work, Boas’s reference to “artist” is the first indication that Boas believes that some part of the basketry research might not appropriately be done by Teit. It is difficult to know exactly what he meant by ‘artist’ and if he meant a practicing artist he appears to have abandoned the idea by the time he came to direct other scholars in this research. It is not apparent that either Herman Haeberlin, to whom Boas delegated the examination of museum collections of Salish basketry and the analysis of basketry design in 1916 and 1917, or Helen Roberts, who

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may of course make such a journey and examination of all the available material of the greatest possible use. Before making further plans which I want to submit to Mr. Sargent, I want to hear from you whether you could undertake this work.

Teit to Sapir. November 22, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. For Summary Report on Kaska and Tahltan (Athabaskan) Work, 1915 (JA Teit) In continuation of my work among the Athabaskan tribes of British Columbia and Yukon commenced in 1912 (and since delayed through sickness) I made a trip to Cassiar District BC again this year 7th July to 6th Nov. Although as usual there were several unavoidable delays waiting on transit I made good progress on the whole. This season it was my intention to meet the Indians who gather at Liard post as usually representatives of all the bands and dialectic divisions of the Nahani assemble here for a brief period each summer. On my way in at Dease Lake I received intelligence that the Indians had already scattered so I settled down to do work among the Kaska a branch of the Nahani living immediately east of the Tahltan. These people inhabit the Dease River country between Dease Lake and Liard River. Their present head quarters is at McDames Creek, and they are now very few in numbers. They call themselves sêsoténa (or tsêzotḗne) which they declare means “Mountain: or ‘high land people’ with reference to their habitat in the Cassiar Range. Their dialect differs a good deal from the Tahltan. Research among them and further inquiry among the Tahltan and Bear Lake Indians have made considerably clearer the distribution (number and positions) of the various divisions of the Nahani and in fact of all the tribes occupying the country between the Stikine and Mackenzie. However the approximate [page 2] differentiation of their dialects cannot be determined until several more of the groups are visited and vocabularies taken down. Although the Kaska claim to be organized in phratries (viz Raven and Wolf) the same conducted a study of museum collections of San Carlos Apache basketry under Boas’s direction between 1916 and 1918, was an artist. However, in a letter to Boas (APS, Boas Papers, Haeberlin to Boas, September 12, 1916) Haeberlin reports giving Helene Boas a little parcel containing Puerto Rican potsherds, and discusses color charts for Klikitat, Lillooet, and other basketry and baskets packaged for Sargent. He reported to Boas that he had begun his work at the Tulalip Reservation soon after (APS, Boas Papers, Haeberlin to Boas, September 21, 1916). Haeberlin letters translated from the German by Sarah Moritz.

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as the Tahltan the system appears never to have had a strong a hold as in the latter tribe and is now practically broken down. Among the Tahltan however it is still in almost full force. Children belonged to the clan and phratry of their mother. The Kaska have been less influenced from the Pacific Coast (Tlingit) than the Tahltan and are in culture more thoroughly Athapaskan. They have little of the ceremonies and of the potlatch system in vogue among the Tahltan. On the other hand they have been more exposed than the latter tribe to influences from the Mackenzie and Plains. The crooked skin scraper, the sharp pointed snowshoe, and the moccasin with seam down the front are claimed to have been introduced from this direction. The long legging, the breech clout, and possibly some other things have also it seems come in this way. Formerly round toed moccasins and boots were in vogue. The woven rabbit skin robe was much used and woven goat hair blankets were also made. A little spruce root basketry was made formerly but the art was learned not very long ago by some women studying and copying the structure of baskets made by or obtained from the Tagish. No matting was made nor woven work in grass or bark. Woven bags and nets were made of sinew and babiche etc. Considerable porcupine quill work (of at least six kinds) is still done by the women. Hardly any work was done in stone and very little in wood. The skin tipi was not used but very small tipis open on one side were used occasionally by individuals as shelters when traveling. [page 3] Puberty ceremonies were much like those of the Tahltan. Burial long ago was in the same manner as among the Sekani [sic]. Later burning of the dead was introduced but never became universal. As among the Tahltan it is said that long ago dogs were not used for carrying burdens nor for hauling sleds. A skin toboggan was and is yet in use hauled by women. An interesting point learned is the universal use among the Kaska, Tahltan (and seemingly all the Athapascans of this region) of the navel string pouch. The style however is quite different from that in vogue among the Interior Salish. The Kaska are more entirely dependant [sic] on the chase than the Tahltan as they have no salmon in their country. They claim buffalo was to be met with in many parts of their country until recently, and they have traditions of the mammoth the bones of which they occasionally find. I collected a number of songs and specimens among the Kaska and recorded all the mythological tales I could get. The longest story is of the Beaver who acts as a transformer. The Raven also was a transformer among the Kaska but there is little doubt the Raven story is introduced from the west (probably from the Tahltan) where it is told much more fully. The tales of the Kaska and 718 | 1915

Tahltan differ considerably in content. Apparently there are more incidents in Kaska stories connected with or resembling features in tales told in the south and south east (Interior Salish and Algonkin). A few of the resemblances are striking. Among the stories I collected are those of Diving for the earth (absent among the Tahltan), the sisters who married the Stars, the Dog husband, the stealing of fire, and [page 4] the World flood or Deluge. Giant stories are common. Returning to Telegraph Creek I spent the latter part of the season in completing unfinished work among the Tahltan especially in regard to their social organization, naming, and marriage systems etc. I collected about 150 ethnological specimens from the Tahltan and a considerable number of songs—some of them composed since 1912. In all I got 74 songs originating from the following tribes Tahltan, Kaska, Liard, Mackenzie, (Fort Simpson), Sekani, (Nelson River and Bear Lake), Cree, Naaos, and Kitiksian, Taku and Tagish. I collected a considerable number of botanical specimens and got as many Tahltan names of plants as I could with data on their uses. I also procured many photos among both the Tahltan and Kaska. It may be of interest here to note that I obtained from the Tahltan pretty thorough substantiation of the information given to Dr Boas by the TsEtsaut (see Tenth Report on North West Tribes of Canada, BAAS, p. 34)[.] The Tahltan call these people Sastotén “Black bear people” but consider them quite distinct from the Bear Lake Indians. They have prove [sic] that the tribe has lived in their present or late habitat (they are now practically extinct) for at least six generations. They were often visited by Tahltan and some trade was carried on between the tribes. There was no tradition of their being originally a break away from the Tahltan. The latter consider them a distinct tribe speaking a language related to but differing considerably from their own. They were living in the Portland canal region before [page 5] the Sekani came into the Bear Lake region. About four or five generations ago they are said to have numbered perhaps 500 or more. Wars with the neighboring tribes and epidemics reduced them to about 30 or 40 a generation ago. The summer was dry and good for travel in the Interior but the lowness of water in the late summer and fall prevented boats getting up the Stikine River and seriously hampered transportation and the mail service. Bad weather was experienced coming down the river to the Coast, and winter was practically setting in. The last of the Indians were moving out to their winter trapping grounds when I left.

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Sapir to Teit. November 22, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Mr. Teit,— Thank you for your letters of November 13th, 16th, and 17th, with summary report of recent field work. This report is really fuller than it needed to be for my purposes, as I shall not be able to devote more than a paragraph to the work of each field man. I am glad to get the details all the same. I was much interested in the general account of your trip that you gave in your letter of November 13th, and shall be all the more appreciative of the results of your recent trip in view of the great difficulty you had in coming out of the country. I hope that you will be able to devote yourself fairly uninterruptedly henceforth to the working up of your notes for publication in the form of memoirs. I do not wish you to understand that I am in any way critical of your expenditures for specimens this fiscal year. On the contrary I shall be delighted to get all I can. The only point involved is a purely administrative one of being more careful in future to estimate high enough for specimens so as not to allow too great a discrepancy to appear between estimate and accounts. This is merely to protect us in our relations with the Accountant. Please [page 2] remember me to Mrs. Teit and the children. PS I forgot to mention that your letter of October 13th from Telegraph Creek has also been received. In making out your estimate for expenditures next time you may allow $1000, as you suggest, for specimens. This ought to be large enough to include all purchases throughout the year.

Teit to Sapir. November 28, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr Sapir, I received your letter of 22nd inst. last night. I know you are anxious to have a good collection of specimens from the plateau and Mackenzie areas and I realize the points you bring out re. relations with the accountant and discrepancies between estimates and accounts. I have finished going over all the songs and have made out a list of them with what information I obtained re. origins etc. I enclose list herewith. I will 720 | 1915

ship the songs either before I go to Victoria or soon after my return. I have also gone over most of the specimens and have the catalog of the Athapaskan [page 2] ones nearly finished. I have also commenced writing out the tales I collected in the north, and expect to have most of them finished before the end of the year. I intend to annotate them as far as possible. I will write you later re. some unfinished work I should do for Dr Boas.

Boas to Teit. November 29, 1915. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121862.

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

My dear Friend,— I was very glad to get your letter of the 18th of November. I do think that the first thing to do is to finish the paper on the American Salish tribes. I presume you do not want the traditions back, because, as I understood you at the time, that collection was completed. I am picking out, however, the other manuscript and am returning it to you by express. I shall write to Mr. Sargent about the basketry matter, and will hear what he has to say.39 39. On December 8, 1915, Boas wrote to Sargent, “I have been corresponding with Mr. Teit about the basketry question, and have also received replies from most of the museums. It comes [word typed over] to mind that the initial steps in the present work had best be taken here; and if it meets with your approval, I should like to have the baskets in the museum in New York examined, and a little later on, those in the National Museum in Washington. This might probably be done during the last week of this month. We could then select what could be illustrated; and if you so desire, I could now engage an artist to have a great deal of the matter drawn, and a series of complete baskets photographed. I believe, however, that the discussion of the patterns, at least, had better be done by drawings; while the general arrangement will probably best come out in photographs. If you approve of this plan, I am ready to go ahead. [page 2] I should have the examination of the baskets made by my assistant, who is well versed in problems of art, and in this way get the material together. It should then be necessary to have funds in hand for the payment of the artist. [para] The base map for the Salish linguistic paper has been made in Washington, and I expect that it will be photographed very soon. The vocabularies are all done, and we are now grouping the dialects according to their phonetic characteristics and probable relationships. The collection of traditions is being copied. Mr. Teit asked me to return to him his general notes on the American tribes, because he wants to make some additions. I hope I may get this material back from him very soon, so as to be able to continue work on it” (APS, Boas Papers: text 107144). Sargent replied on December 11, agreeing with Boas’s plan for the basketry publication and indicating he would pay both the artist and the salary of Boas’s assistant (APS, Boas Papers, text 107165). Boas replied on December 14, 1915, “I have practically used up the funds for assistance; and if it is convenient to you, I should be very glad to take up the further work if you find it convenient to send funds for the artist and for assistance” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107145). Sargent replied on December 16, 1915, sending a check for $1,000 and asking if a further $1,000, to be sent early in 1916, would sustain the work until mid-April (APS, Boas Papers, text 107166) Boas replied on December 21, 1915, thanking Sargent and saying, “It will be necessary to see how our work progresses during

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Sapir to Teit. December 2, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Mr. Teit,— Just a note to remind you betimes that the balance of ethnological specimens, secured at Spences Bridge this fiscal year and charged on your accounts, have not yet been received in Ottawa, and should arrive here not later than some time in March. You remember we had some difficulty because of overlapping last time.

Teit to Sapir. December 16, 1915. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1915), box 635, file 14. Dear Dr Sapir, I received your letter of 2nd inst. Yes. I will see the specimens you mention go in in time. I have them all ticketed already but have not had time to write out the list or catalog. I have returned from Victoria and hope to ship the Athapaskan songs to you by express to-morrow. My mother in law died very suddenly on the 7th inst. and this has upset the family considerably. I have had to be up at the ranch since then and have been unable to get work done either for you or Dr Boas. Besides my wife, sister in law and all the children have been laid up with ‘la grippe’ lately and are only now getting over it. I saw Dr Newcombe in Victoria and also Miss Kissell who was studying the Indian blankets in the Museum there. She intends to visit you and study the specimens you have-prob. in the spring.40 the next few weeks, and I will then write to you in regard to our future plans” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107146). 40. Mary Lois Kissell (1864–1944). Following an early career in art and art education, Mary Lois Kissell had worked at the American Museum of Natural History from 1905 to 1910 and had participated in a field expedition to the Southwest, studying Pima and Papago basketry. In 1915 Kissell spent two months in British Columbia studying Northwest Coast textiles. There is no record of her conversations with Teit and Newcombe, or even an indication of how much time she spent with them. Ira Jacknis and Erin L. Hasinoff note that Newcombe and Teit influenced her field work in British Columbia: “Guided by Newcombe in lower Vancouver Island and Teit along the Fraser River valley, she visited Native villages, observing and interviewing weavers” (Jacknis and Hasinoff, “More than a Footnote or Bibliographic Entry,” 5). Teit wrote to Newcombe in March 1915, but with no mention of Kissell (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence, Teit to Newcombe, March 26, 1915, vol. 5, folder 143). Kissell clearly anticipated a longer collaboration. Shortly after her 1915 meeting with Teit, Kissell introduced her paper, “A New Type of Spinning in North America,” with the words, “While assembling the material for a forthcoming publication on the “Indian blanket of the northwest,” under the joint authorship of Dr. C. F. Newcombe, James Teit and the writer, a unique manner of spinning was noted among two of the Salish tribes” (264). The letters between Teit and Newcombe preserved in

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the British Columbia Archives do not mention Kissell, but Teit and Newcombe corresponded about highly decorated twined Salish textiles in late 1907 and early 1908. These had not previously come to Teit’s attention. Commenting on photographs sent by Newcombe, Teit wrote, “The photos you sent of the blankets are exceedingly interesting. They appear different from any blankets I have ever seen. They do not appear to be the common coarse blanket but a much finer weave viz. like the fine closely woven work (generally on an Indian hemp foundation) of the Lower Thompson Indians in such articles as garters, belts, and tump-lines. The patterns also agree with those used in the latter class of work rather than with those found in the common blanket where so far as I have seen the designs consist entirely of dots, lines, and zig zags. The Indians have told me however that formerly even on the coarse blankets they had more elaborate designs than those lately in vogue, and their goats wool blankets were more gaudy than those used by the Yale or River and Coast Indians, whose blankets were comparatively plain.” Teit planned to consult a woman who was visiting Spences Bridge from Spuzzum (BCA, Teit to Newcombe, November 15, 1907) and he subsequently wrote a detailed account of her visit (Teit to Newcombe, November 25, 1907, BCA, Newcombe Family Papers, MSS 1077). Teit’s visitor, who appeared to him to be about fifty years old, provided information about the woolly dogs, the hair of which was used in weaving blankets in the lower Fraser Canyon, and he wrote to Newcombe that “the pure breed was totally extinct around Spuzzum before she can remember but she has heard from the old people they were a medium sized animal with long and very fine thick hair. They were mostly white but some it is claimed were black. They were a distinct species according to tradition introduced from the Lower Fraser, and were to be found nearly as far East as Lytton. The Indians tried to keep them from inter-breeding with the real Interior dog, and around Spuzzum favored the keeping of them rather than the former. Their hair was used in blanket weaving at Spuzzum generally mixed with the wool of the goat. People who did not have any of these dogs used only goats wool. The using of dog’s hair it is said made the blankets of a softer texture and furthermore they supplied a source of wool right at hand, whereas the goats had to be hunted and their wool thus cost considerable labor. These dogs were altogether a different species from the common dog of the Thompson further east, and were called by the special name of x̳lítsElkEn. The other dog called skaxaṓē (viz. real dog) somewhat resembled the ‘Husky’ and also bore some resemblance to the Coyote and to the Wolf with both of which they occasionally inter-bred. They were used mostly for hunting purposes. Re. the dyes used with blankets etc. the common colors were yellow, red and black. Yellow was obtained from Wolf moss (evernia vulpine I think is the botanical name) red from alder bark, and black bear’s hair for black. The hair of black dogs was also used when obtainable viz black specimens of x̳lítsElkEn. She has however heard of the following dyes also being used viz red ochre (giving a reddish tint, roots of Oregon grape (yellowish) berries of Oregon grape (bluish) and crushed leaves of the cedar (greenish). Possibly other dyes like those used amongst the Upper Thompson may also have been used, but she does not know” (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence, Teit to Newcombe, January 3, 1908; Teit’s January 3 letter to Newcombe is bundled with November 25, 1907, in Newcombe Family Correspondence). Teit, Newcombe, and Kissell did not publish together, but Kissell went on to write other papers on Northwest Coast woven textiles: “The Early Geometric Patterned Chilkat” in 1928 and “Organized Salish Blanket Pattern” in 1929. A manuscript titled “Indian Blankets of the North Pacific Coast,” submitted to the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1928, was never published. In a sequence of events that echoed Boas’s experience with the BAE’s handling of the manuscript “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia,” the BAE deleted illustrations and returned the manuscript to Kissell for revision. Although she continued research in this area throughout her life, she did not complete it, and it is now missing (Jacknis and Hasinoff, “More than a Footnote of Bibliographic Entry”). For a study that draws the results of Kissell’s work and the work of late twentieth-century scholars together with the perspectives of contemporary Salish weavers and traditional understandings of the role of robes and designs, see Tepper et al., Salish Blankets: Robes of Protection and Transformation, Symbols of Wealth.

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Teit to Boas. December 17, 1915. APS, ACLS Collection, mss.497. b63c, item 61, text 297398. Dear Friend I received the bundle of Salish m.s. all right. I do not require the m.s. of the stories. I have sent off the music I collected up north to Dr. Sapir and will try and get all the specimens for him dispatched as soon as possible (Thomp and Athapascan specimens). I have been at work on the stories I collected in the North and have a number of them written off. I would have had most of them finished by this time I think had it not been for the sudden death of my mother-in-law on the 7th inst. which has upset things somewhat and necessitated my giving up a good deal of time to the family. I had a letter lately from Mr. Sargent and will answer him in a few days. I was in Victoria lately and there happened to meet Miss Kissell formerly of the Amer. Museum. She was busy studying the technic [sic] of the various woven blankets now in the Museum at Victoria and seemed intensely interested in the subject. It seems there are at least four [page 2] types of woven goats wool blankets belonging to the area of Alaska[,] BC and Washington. 1. The Northern or so called Chilkat blanket. Alaska and Northern Coast of BC 2. Central or Bella Coola ? type.41 Bella Coola and prob. neighbouring parts of the Coast of BC and possibly elsewhere. 3. Southern or Coast Salish type. Coast Salish of BC and Washington. This is the coarse type so well known. 4. Cascade type. Along the Cascade Mtns in BC and Wash. Interior Salish and possibly other stocks to south. This is the blanket of which I sent you photos. The McKay and Finlayson blankets are of this type. I have given the above names to the types for convenience in speaking of them to you. Some Indian tribes along the Selkirks where goats also abound formerly made goats wool blankets—the Lakes of BC for instance but I do not know the exact type or weave of blanket made by them. I brought out a specimen of the woven rabbit skin robe from North this fall (made by Tahltan). The weave is unlike the Interior Salish and Chilcotin rabbit blanket and seems to be the same as that of the Athapascan game bag of babiche. PS Miss Kissell is very anxious to make a complete study of the woven blankets of the Coast and to have the results published.

41. This appears to be Teit’s question mark.

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1916

Teit to Sapir. January 9, 1916. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir I just write you a line or two to let you know I am pegging away at the writing out of the Athapaskan stories. I have finished the Kaska ones, and am I should judge nearly ⅔ through with the Tahltan. Altogether I have completed 123 foolscap pages, but there will be quite a number of pages yet. Since my mother in law [sic] died I have been living up at the ranch and therefore it has been unhandy for my working on and shipping the specimens. I am shifting down to Sp. Bdge next week and then I will attend to them. I have been working very steadily at the stories as I want to get that item off my hands any way. I then will take up the completing of the paper for Dr Boas I was writing on last winter. PS The photos I took up North are taking a long time. I guess the Indians up there will be disappointed in not receiving them for Xmas and New Year, but of course this cannot be helped.

Teit to Sapir. January 20, 1916. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir I just write you a line to say I have finished writing out the Tahltan and Kaska myths. There are about 130 tales occupying about 200 pages. I have to read them over yet and add some comparative notes but this will take only a very few days. I received the copy of Barbeau’s Memoir on Huron and Wyandot Mythology.

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Teit to Boas. January 20, 1916. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121889. Dear Friend. I just send you a line to let you know I have just completed the writing out of the Tahltan and Kaska myths for Dr Sapir. I have to read them over yet and add some notes but this will take only a very few days. There are about 130 tales and about 200 p.p. As soon as I send them in I will commence at once on the completion of the Salish paper. I have a couple of short Cree tales and a couple of short variants of Thomp. tales which I will send you if not too late for incorporation in the myths I sent you [page 2] which are not yet published. If too late they may be worked into something else later. There must be a big lot of tales current among the Salish tribes in Wash, Idaho and Montana which have not been collected.

Boas to Teit. January 28, 1916. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121863. My dear Friend,— I was glad to receive your note of the 20th of January. I trust you may be able to finish up the other papers at an early date. It occurred to me that I did not send you some of the first material that you sent me. I assume that you do not need it. If you should, please let me know.

Teit to Sapir. January 31, 1916. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir I am sending you by registered mail all the Tahltan and Kaska tales. You can fix them up to suit yourself as I dont know whether the title and arrangement of the tales will suit. I have written out an index of the contents and a preface. If you think an introduction is required including conclusions I will leave that for you to write.1 I have annotated the tales but the comparisons are chiefly with Interior Salish. These are not exhaustive but fairly full. The analogies in some cases are rather slight and on perusal you may consider that some of them 1. Teit’s request is consonant with his experience of preparing manuscripts for Boas and suggests that Teit assumed his relationship with the Geological Survey was parallel to his relationship with Boas.

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should be eliminated. I have not attempted making comparisons with any of the Plains or Coast tribes as I have but few books dealing with tales from the Coast. I have none from the Tlingit and only three from Athapaskan tribes and these are the two stocks which the Tahltan and Kaska tales should be compared with chiefly. As I have so much work ahead of me I have written out the tales as rapidly as I could and perhaps have not been as careful about the English and the hand writing as I should. I am now going to get your specimens ready to forward. This will not take long, so I expect to ship them in about a week [page 2] if I can get them across the river as soon as packed. I will make out the a/cs so as to be in Ottawa about the end of the month.

Teit to Boas. February 4, 1916. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121890. My Dear Friend. I received your note of 28th Jany. I think you sent me all the material I require. I finished the Tahltan and Kaska Tales and sent them on to Dr Sapir a few days ago. I hope he will manage to have them published soon as they will be handy for reference in collecting among the tribes in the North. I am working now on the Flathead M.S. You did not answer my query as to whether you wanted the two or three short variants of Thompson myths and the two Cree myths. Possibly it is too late to incorporate them in the last lot of myths from Thompson, Okan, Coeur d’Alene [page 2] etc. that I sent you. I have not heard from Mr Sargent lately.

Sapir to Teit. February 8, 1916. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have just received your Tahltan and Kaska myths, for which I wish to thank you. There are so many other manuscripts ahead that it will be some time before I can take up this material for publication, but we shall get around to it in due course of time, so you need have no worry about its eventual appearance in print. I have prepared a contract for next fiscal year for you, and as soon as it is approved by Mr. McConnell, I shall send it to you for your signature. I do not think that there is any likelihood of his failing to approve the contract. It is just a matter of delay, accentuated by the 1916 | 727

recent fire and the necessity of withdrawing from the greater part of the museum building to make room for Parliament.2 The anthropologists, however, are staying in the building, though their offices have been moved.

Boas to Teit. February 11, 1916. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121864. My dear Friend,— I should be very glad if you would send me the additional notes to the tales. I can insert them.

Sapir to Teit. February 14, 1916. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Mr. Teit,— I find that I have been able to take up your Tahltan and Kaska Tales sooner than expected. It occurred to me that it was too bad you had apparently not had access to collections of West Coast mythology for the concordances between Tahltan and Tlingit and Tsimshian mythology, all probably of greater significance than those which you note between Tahltan and Interior Salish. I have therefore asked Mr. Hodge at Washington to send you some literature. By the time that I am through with your manuscript and typewritten copies have been made, I hope that you will have had the opportunity to look through this literature and to note cross references. Perhaps you will be able to add these when you receive a revised typewritten copy of your manuscript. I take this opportunity of pointing out a small matter of detail. I would advise you in future to write somewhat less closely and to paragraph much more liberally. This would make it easier for the eye 2. On the evening of February 3, 1916, while Parliament was in session, a fire, first noticed in the Reading Room of the Canadian Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, Ontario, spread out of control and destroyed the Centre Block and the clock tower, then called the Victoria Tower. Seven people died. The parliamentary library did not burn (Susan Monroe, “Canadian Parliament Buildings Fire of 1916,” Thought Co., https://www.thoughtco.com/1916-Canadian -parliament-buildings-fire-510702, accessed September 18, 2020). While the Centre Block was being rebuilt, Parliament met in the Victoria Memorial Museum Building, which had been completed in 1911 and housed the GSC Division of Anthropology (Parks Canada, “Victoria Memorial Museum National Historic Site of Canada,” Canada’s Historic Places, https://www.historicplaces .ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=4483, accessed March 20, 2020). The fire caused little disruption for Parliament, which met in the museum almost immediately, but it required the movement of GSC offices and the closure of some exhibitions.

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to handle your manuscripts. This is a small point, of course, but small matters of this kind are often quite helpful.

Teit to Sapir. February 20, 1916. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir I received your letters of 8th and 14th inst. and note all you say. I also received the prints of the Tahltan and Kaska pictures I took up North and I am glad to see most of the[m] turned out very well. It is difficult to judge the light up there for time exposures especially in the fall but I see I did very well excepting in the places where I could not get a proper shade and in a few cases of pictures taken early in the day. I have written out a list of the titles and enclose under separate cover. No. 33097 was my great informant among the Tahltan for mythology etc. and Nos 33050 and 33089 among the Kaska. I think I have 2 or 3 pictures of places of mythological interest in the Tahltan country which were not printed in Ottawa (from 1912 trip) and which I will better send you in case you may want them. I am glad to hear you will be able to take up the Tahltan and Kaska tales soon. Yes. I will add the cross references with Tlingit and Tsimpshian when I receive the literature and the revised type written copy of the M.S. Yes. I know I wrote too closely on many of the sheets and I am poor at paragraphing any way. To have had the M.S. good I should have written many of the sheets over again before sending them in but this takes up time, and I have so much to do between your work and Dr Boas’ [.] If I was through with the latter I would be able to do your work more [page 2] leisurely and therefore in better form. I am working as hard as I can to get through with it but it takes longer than I expected and I do not want to do any skipping. I have finished packing all the Athabaskan [sic] specimens but do not know when I will get them shipped. I would like some Kutenai Inds who are coming here to see some of the specimens and some of the Salish specimens I have on hand before I ship. (I did not put the lids on yet on the boxes) as I may gain some information as to whether the Kutenai used certain things which are at present in doubt and this can often be done best by showing specimens of the things in question. I expect they will be here about the 14th Mch. I have finished the catalog of the Atha. specimens and enclose under separate cover. I am writing out the catalog of the Salish specimens and will soon have them all packed also, excepting the shield which I have never 1916 | 729

got yet. I think we ought to come to an agreement about the spelling of certain names in M.S. for publication. Some that occur to me now are Nahani, Sekani, Kutenai. I favor these spellings although I have spelled them different ways at various times. Then there are Tsimpsian, Kitiksian these are the spellings I generally use. I see you use Tsimpshean. If this is more correct then the other should be Kitikshean but many spell it Kitikshan. Then there is the name for the Naas tribe spelled variously Naas, Nass, Nasga, Nishga, Nasgar, Niska etc. etc. Which is best? Nishga is used a good deal by the people themselves in writing. PS I will send the accounts on the 25th. [page 3]. PS I see see [sic] the pictures of mythological scenes I refer to were printed at Ottawa (Apl. 21/13) No. 19460 is the place near Tahltan where the Raven urinated. The marks of where the urine ran down over the rocks are quite plain in the photo. No. 19455, shows the wind break to the Raven’s house viz the cliff which is quite plain in the photo. The Tahltan River flows beneath and there is a group of fishing or summer houses in the foreground No. 19459 shows the Raven’s house viz a large cave in the cliff but as the picture was taken far off the cave is not very plain. I enclose 3 Tahltan negatives developed here. Please have prints sent and retain the negatives.

Teit to Boas. February 22, 1916. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121891. I am sending you herewith the two tales of the Cree I collected from Adsit and some additions, variants and notes on Thompson tales mostly Coyote stories.3 I asked an Indian to come and tell me some more Jack or John the Bear stories thinking I might get some fresh incidents but he has never been able to come yet. He lives at Thompson Siding.4 PS I have nearly finished writing out the Flathead but had to quit for a few days to do work for Sapir. I will take up the writing on the Flathead and Coeur d’Alene again in a few days. 3. Teit had met Adsit among the Tahltan during earlier field work for Sapir. 4. That is, Nq’awmn (Nicomen) on the Thompson River.

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Teit to Sapir. February 25, 1916. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir I am enclosing the a/cs to date. The balance coming to me is nearly all for wages. I have bought no specimens since I came from North as my estimate for same was over drawn. I have arranged however for the purchase of some archaeological specimens lately and have them in my house now. I will buy them with my own money and charge them to the Museum later as it would not do to let the opportunity of obtaining them pass. They consist of two stone mortars, 2 or 3 stone hammers, some old slate knives from a cache, a stone carved to represent a rattlesnake’s tail, 2 or 3 old antler tools, and an old stone pipe. I had a chance to buy a small stone image (generally called ‘stone dolls’ by the whites here) but refused to pay the price which was too high so I sketched it and gave it back to the white woman who owned it. I tried to locate two much superior ‘dolls’ which had been dug up and were in the possession of a half breed woman but so far without result. It seems the woman took them over to the states.

Teit to Sapir. March 14, 1916. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir I am enclosing herewith three negatives of an old Lillooet Chief which I developed here. Please retain and send me prints. I enclose title to the prints I received a few days ago. The Provincial Game Warden of BC Mr Bryan Williams is anxious to get pictures of certain Tahltan Indians who act as guides for hunting parties after Big game.5 He wants 5. In 1916 Arthur Bryan Williams (1866–1946) was the provincial game warden for British Columbia. Originally appointed in 1905 as the provincial game and forest warden, he served as provincial game warden from 1909 until the department was restructured in 1918 (BCA, Hyland and Belfry Correspondence). Teit and Williams had corresponded since 1905 on various matters relating to hunting and the conservation of game in British Columbia. Citing a letter from Teit to Williams on January 28, 1908, Wickwire notes, “In this letter, Teit offered detailed corrections to the inventory of wildlife that had appeared on ‘page 18’ of a document he referred to as ‘Official Bulletin No. 17’” (Wickwire, At the Bridge, 134–35, 326n105). Jonathan Peyton notes, “Williams’ correspondence with Teit is voluminous and full of both quantitative and qualitative information on animals, environment and climate. Teit provided exacting detail on questions raised about habitat, conditions and behavioural particularities of virtually every game and fur-bearing animal in the province. The letters teem with references to game, weather, seasonal and other variable conditions that influenced hunting prospects. . . . In the summer of 1915, while engaged in ethnographic fieldwork in the Stikine, Teit wrote to Williams from Telegraph

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them for show in his office. If you can accede to this request please have one print made out of each of [page 2] Nos. 33116, 33050, 33037, 33022, 33086, and 33097, and send either direct to him Prov. Game Wardens Office, Vancouver or to me and I will forward them to him.

Teit to Sapir. March 20, 1916. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir I write you a few lines. The big intertribal meeting of the Interior Indians is now over and the last chiefs leave to-day. There were people here from the Chilcotin, Upper Lillooet, all divisions of the Shuswap, Okanagon and Ntlak., Kutenai, one Tahltan, and the Stalo as far down as Chilliwack. I went over a lot of the specimens (I am sending to you) with one of the Kutenai chiefs and got considerable information on a number of points). I had very little time to take photos and songs so got very few. A number of chiefs and others from various tribes were very interested in the large collection of pictures I have taken and this will help to make the taking of pictures among these tribes (at a later date) easy. The Kutenai people ask me to get for them about 40 samples of pictures I have taken of people around here and in the North, and I saw I would write you about it. I enclose a list of the numbers they selected—They want a single print of each number and the whole to go to Chief Paul David of the Tobacco Plains band.6 PO address Roosville, East Kootenay BC. [page 2] They say they want these pictures for exhibition among themselves (the Kutenai) and also to show to Assinaboine and Blackfoot visitors who often ask about the tribes further west. I think it would be all right to send these prints if you can as it may help to facilitate work I may do for you among the Kutenai some time in the future. I will now ship all the specimens to you within a few days. I enclose three negatives of Tahltan pictures taken in 1912 which I came on to-day. They are negatives I did not send in to you as I thought at the time they were not good enough. Two of them may not be good. Any that are good send me one print of each.

Creek.” Citing Dandy Jim and Taku Johnny of the Tahltan, with whom he was working on ethnography, Teit informed Williams that there were “good reports” of game, and especially moose in the Stikine region in that season (Peyton, “Imbricated Geographies of Conservation and Consumption in the Stikine Plateau,” 559–70). 6. Chief Paul David (1852–ca. 1948) succeeded his father, Chief David, as Chief of Tobacco Plains in 1893 (Montgomery, Tobacco Valley, 12).

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PS I may say there is a possibility that a deputation of Chiefs of the Interior tribes may visit Ottawa some time in the near future and I may accompany them. If they go there will be one chief each from the Lillooet, Shuswap, Okanagon, Kutenai, and Ntlak. I will know in a couple of weeks or so whether they go or not.

Teit to Sapir. March 29, 1916. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir I shipped to-day all the Salish and Athabaskan specimens that were charged to the Museum excepting the shield charged last year and which I have not received from the Indian yet. If I do not get it soon I will get another man to make one for the same price. I enclose shipping receipt of the specimens.

Teit to Boas. April 7, 1916. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121892. My Dear Friend. I received your letter yesterday.7 Re. your query I may say I do not yet know my plans for the summer. Dr. Sapir fully intended that I should go North on a trip again among the Athapaskan tribes of No. BC and Yukon and I had made up my mind to start a full month earlier than I did last year which would mean very early in June. As a rule before this time viz March my estimates are all in and everything is settled for the years work but so far I have heard nothing and it seems to me quite probable that the Can. Gov. will cut down expenses (on account of the war) by dispensing with a good deal of the field work of the Geol. Survey and in other branches of the gov. service. Sapir wrote me some time [page 2] ago that he thought the delay was owing to the confusion arising through the upsetting of things in various departments caused by the burning of the Parliament Buildings. My intention is if I do not go North on the proposed trip for Dr Sapir to continue at your work until finished in which event I will be at your service for any extra work you may have for me to do. I would then be available for any

7. Teit appears to be referring to a letter from Boas that is not in the APS file.

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work you may want me to do with Dr Haeberlin.8 However I expect to 8. This is Teit’s first reference to Herman Haeberlin. Boas may have mentioned him in the letter that appears to be missing. However, Boas had written to Sargent on March 1, 1916, to say: “Dr. Haeberlin, who is assisting me in the work on the vocabulary and on the baskets, has been in Washington for some time, and we had the illustrations of a number of baskets made. At present he is working on the baskets in the American Museum of Natural History. So far, we have planned about 100 illustrations, but I think the number here will still increase” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107147). Haeberlin was to study collections in Cambridge (Massachusetts) and Ottawa before the end of March. Boas noted, “Quite a number of interesting and I think important points have come on so far in this study, and I am planning for Haeberlin to go to the Pacific Coast this summer. I am hoping [page 2] to get for him a fellowship from Columbia University, that will allow him to do this; and in case this work can be done, I should want him to spend some time on the basketry problem, where a number of definite questions have to be asked which I cannot very well explain in detail to Teit. . . . I wish you would kindly tell me how you would like to have your own collection treated. . . . I am certain it would be very desirable to study your collection and to include illustrations in the monographs, which certainly ought to be exhaustive. [para] We are still working at the general paper on the distribution of Salish Tribes and languages, but the greater part of the work has been done now, and practically all that remains is to throw the material into shape.” In a reply to Boas on March 22, 1916, Sargent concurred with Boas’s plans, indicated that he was ready to ship his basketry collection to Boas, and wrote in regard to Haeberlin: “Let him get in touch with Teit while there [i.e., in the west] and it might be well for him to talk over what he had done and what plans he has for the basketry work outlining any conclusions he may have arrive[d] at” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107167). Herman K. Haeberlin (1891 to 1918) was born in the United States and moved with his family to Germany, where he attended university. In 1914 he moved back to the United States to finish his PhD under Boas at Columbia University. He was a member of Boas’s anthropological research team in Puerto Rico in May–June 1915 (Ocasio, Race and Nation in Puerto Rican Folklore, 3). In late September 1916 Haeberlin began to conduct ethnographic and linguistic research, as well as research on basketry, among the Snohomish and other Coast Salish people on the Tulalip Reservation near Everett, Washington. During this time he made a collection for the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence: Haeberlin to Goddard, September 28, 1916, b.53, f.778, folder 11). During his first months there he was diagnosed with diabetes. At that time, five years before the discovery of insulin, there was no cure. He was prescribed a strict diet, according to the medical protocols of the day. Boas arranged an unpaid position for him as assistant in the AMNH Department of Anthropology for 1917–1918 (AMNH, Department of Anthropology Correspondence, Goddard to Lucas, June 12, 1917, b.53, f.778, folder 11), and he continued to pursue his research in basketry collections in the eastern United States as well as the Victoria Memorial Museum during 1916 and 1917, as his illness permitted. Haeberlin died on February 12, 1918. Teit and Haeberlin were able to meet just once, in late June 1917, and Haeberlin spent a few days then with Teit and basket makers. Haeberlin’s letters to Boas in September and October 1916 reveal his initial enthusiasm and the impact of his diagnosis. In a letter dated September 25, 1916, written from the Tulalip reservation, Haeberlin provided a brief report of his work: he described being busy during the week he had spent there and had managed to document stories in English. Two informants had taught him the smEt’na’q’ ceremony for which boards he understood to be held at the museum were required. He also learned a considerable amount about games, ghosts, shamans, and many other topics. He had only managed to get familiar with the phonetics of the language thus far. He emphasized that this work was complicated by the fact that people were generally very occupied with other activities and only available during evenings. These circumstances were causing delays. Haeberlin noted that people were of diverse and mixed heritage, the “old culture” increasingly disintegrated, and baskets were difficult to find, which made work urgent and intricacies difficult to study. Haeberlin concluded his correspondence by expressing intentions to visit other reservations upon his departure from Tulalip in a few weeks’ time (APS, Boas Papers, text mss.B.b61; translated from German by Sarah Moritz).

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hear from Dr Sapir soon and then shall be able to tell you my plans for certain. I finished writing off the Tahltan and Kaska myths for Dr Sapir last winter. Since then I have only done a little work for him and as much work as possible for you on the notes on Salish tribes of the U.S. I have finished all this paper now excepting the part on the Coeur d’Alene, and should have [page 3] been well through with the latter part had I been working at it steadily. Instead however I have been engaged now for a full month doing services for the Indians in connection with the settlement of their dispute with the govs. over their claims for compensation for unsurrendered lands etc. etc.9 Acting as their secretary and interpreter etc. and attending their meetings. All the Interior tribes are organized in this affair and striving to get their rights. As the Indians have so much confidence in me and there is no other one to fill my part I am simply forced to help them out in the matter as best I can. The Indians are all poor and of course there is no remuneration for the work I have been doing for them, simply loss of much time and therefore of money for me. It is now proposed that a delegation of chiefs go to Ottawa [page 4] sometime this month and I will have to go with them. They will likely be able to pay my fares but little if anything else. If we go on this trip to Ottawa I will likely lose at least three weeks time. After it is over I will probably have again be His letter to Boas a month later, written on letterhead of the Mitchell Hotel, in Everett, Washington, Haeberlin provided details of his developing diabetes and support by Frachtenberg to obtain a proper diagnosis and medical care and to implement a strict diet while in and around Seattle. He communicated difficulties of reconciling a strict diet and work at the Tulalip reservation where “[one] may only eat what [one] is served.” He suggested that this would not prevent him from conducting work, but he expected to be less efficient. He reported having collected a number of translated texts and expected to focus more on ethnology (APS, Boas Papers, Haeberlin to Boas, October 30, 1916, text mss.B.b61, translated from German by Sarah Moritz). 9. Teit had, in fact, been working with Nlaka’pamux and other First Nations of British Columbia to bring forward to the governments of British Columbia and Canada their requirements for better local conditions and recognition of their Aboriginal title to their lands since his return from field work in Washington state in 1908. The issues in British Columbia were becoming urgent at that point, and as noted earlier, he had become aware of the fact that Native American groups in Washington state had more land than Aboriginal groups in British Columbia. That summer he assisted chiefs of the Kamloops Agency to write to the superintendent-general of Indian Affairs in Ottawa concerning issues relating to lands, education, and medical needs. He became involved with the Indian Rights Association and the less formal Interior Tribes, which were both being formed in 1909, and in 1910 assisted Interior Salish chiefs with the development of a petition to Sir Wilfrid Laurier. He traveled with delegations to Ottawa in 1912 and 1916, and hosted several inter-tribal meetings at Spences Bridge, including one in March 1916. In June 1916 Aboriginal groups in BC, including the Indian Rights Association and the Interior Tribes, came together to form the Allied Tribes of British Columbia, and Teit continued to be closely involved with the Allied Tribes (Galois, “The Indian Rights Association: Native Protest Activity and the ‘Land Question’ in British Columbia, 1903–1916”; Wickwire, “‘They Wanted Me to Help Them,’” 297–320).

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[sic] able to take up your work fairly steadily if I do not go North for Sapir. PS Physically I feel I am becoming more and more fit all the time but the effects of the fever last a long time.

Teit to Sapir. April 10, 1916. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir I will probably be in Ottawa with the Indian delegation about the 25th and will no doubt be over a week there. You will likely have a chance to take some photos, casts, measurements, and linguistic work if you are prepared for same. I dont know how many will be in the delegation yet. Three Lillooet are certain and one Okanagon and one Ntlak. There will likely be others including Shuswap and Kutenai and possibly Chilcotin.

Boas to Teit. May 9, 1916. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121865.10 My dear Friend,— I wrote to you some time ago about our plan to send Dr. Haeberlin to the Pacific coast during this summer or fall.11 This matter has been definitely decided now, and Dr. Haeberlin will go West probably about August, and will stay on the Pacific coast until sometime in winter. I am very anxious that he should have the opportunity to spend some time with you on the problem of the Thompson basketry, and I wish you would let me know whether you would be in a position to accompany him for about a fortnight either in August or some time next winter. I have not heard from you for some time, and I do not know what arrangements you may have made with Sapir. If it is at all possible, I wish you would send me whatever part of the ethnology of the Salish has been finished, because I should like to look it over and have it copied. My present plan is to publish most of 10. Boas wrote to Sapir, as well, on May 9, 1916, “I have arranged for Haeberlin to go West this summer to do some work on the Salish tribes. Presumably he will spend most of his time in the Puget Sound region, the place where there is a big gap in our knowledge of the North Pacific coast; but I want him also to investigate certain points in regard to the basketry of the Thompson Indians” (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b. 621, f.2, folder: “Boas, Franz [1915–1917]”). 11. On Columbia University letterhead.

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the material, including the vocabularies, in one volume, to be entitled “Contributions to the Ethnology of the Salish Tribes.” Your Thompson texts will go in there too, so that the bulk of the material that I still have will appear in this form.12

Teit to Boas. June 12, 1916. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121893. My Dear Friend. I returned from Ottawa just a few days ago and got your letter of 9th ult. on my arrival. I may say I shall be glad to see Dr Haeberlin any time. August will suit me quite well or any time convenient to you and him. I will accompany him as much as he wants and will give him all the assistance I can re. the basketry. I learned when in Ottawa that were will be no field work for me this season nor in fact until after the war is over.13 The Can. gov. has cut out very much of the field work in all departments. This is on account of the heavy expenses they are incurring for the war. The purchase of specimens has also been cut out for the time being. My time however is guaranteed and Dr Sapir wants me to put in as much time as possible writing up the work I have done on the Athapascan tribes. Thus my work for Ottawa this year will consist entirely of writing.14 I went to [page 2] Ottawa with a delegation of Indian chiefs from the Lillooet, Shuswap, Thompson, Okanagan and Kutenai, and remained there much longer than I expected. This helping the Indians with their land question is taking up very much more of my time than I like and puts me behind in my ethnological work. Besides 12. Plans for this volume never came to fruition, and this is the only time Boas mentioned it to Teit. 13. On January 17, 1916, Sapir wrote to Deputy Minister of Mines R. G. McConnell, “In accordance with your instructions, I am cutting down my original preliminary estimate for expenditures in anthropology for 1916–17 to $15000–$16000. . . . I am also preparing contracts for P. Radin, J.A. Teit, W.H. Mechling, and W.D. Wallis.” On April 8, 1916, just before Teit’s arrival in Ottawa, Sapir wrote to McConnell, “Herewith I beg leave to submit revised contracts of Dr. P. Radin and Mr. Teit, and respectfully urge that you give them your kind consideration at an early opportunity, as I should not like to keep Dr. Radin and Mr. Teit longer in suspense than necessary. I have ventured to allow small sums for both Dr. Radin and Mr. Teit in addition to salary, in order that they may meet such expenses in connection with their work as are liable to come up from time to time in the course of the year” (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b. 628, f.18, folder: “McConnell, R.G. [1916–1920]”). 14. This has been a common pattern in the GSc’s successor organizations in times of economic restraint. The fact that Teit’s salary was protected is an indication that Sapir was treating him as a regular employee, insofar as possible.

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it is loss to me as the Indians cannot afford to pay me excepting bare expenses when I take a trip with them and not even that for all the writing I do for them. However it is hard to get out of it as there is no one else to help the Indians that they have confidence in, so I suppose I will have to remain losing my time until such time as the question between the governments and the Indians is settled. I will send you the parts of the Ethnology of the Salish as far as finished so you may look over and copy same. I also have another Thompson story to send you[.] I will forward these some time this week.

Teit to Boas. July 3, 1916. Postcard. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121894.15 My Dear Friend. I received your two short letters. Re. the tree-sugar I will do the best I can but according to some Indians very little is forming this year on account of the weather not being very suitable. I will know better later however. PS Have been away for two weeks. Will now send in some of the paper you asked for in a day or two

Teit to Boas. July 4, 1916. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121895. Dear Friend I am sending you another Thomp. story—the latest—I have collected. I suppose it will not be too late to insert with the others.

Teit to Francis Knowles. July 4, 1916. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Mr Knowles, I received your letter on my return from Vancouver on the 2nd. I have been there for two weeks at an Indian Conference.16 Mr Scott 15. Written on a Canada Post Card and addressed to Bolton Landing, Warren County, New York; that is, Boas’s summer residence. 16. In June 1916 the Indian Rights Association and the Interior Tribes merged to form the Allied Tribes of British Columbia (Galois, “The Indian Rights Association,” 22). This is a very

738 | 1916

was there part of the time.17 Afterwards he went North to Port Simpson. I received the books and the parcel O.K. I have had a try at the anthropometry but not with Indians so far. I will get lots of them ere long however. Those I have measured are all whites viz three of my children (Half Shetland and half French), my wife and her sister (French) and one Shetland man. If it is not too much trouble I would like you to give me a copy of the chief’s measurements you took in Ottawa with indices.18 Also if you have time give me the indices of those measurements I enclose. I think I will likely have some questions to ask [page 2] you by and by as I go along with the measuring. The book you gave me helps me a lot. I was glad to hear the casts have come out so good. I will try to take the next lot of pictures at closer range making the subjects larger. For this I have to focus with the ground glass and as the shutter of my camera would not work at B and T. [sic] and would not remain open I had to take it to Vancouver to be fixed.19 PS I was looking up Hansen’s article on the Physical Anthropology of the Faeroe Islanders.20

muted reference to what was a watershed event in the ongoing pursuit by Aboriginal groups in British Columbia of recognition of both unresolved claims to land and Aboriginal right. 17. In mid-1916 Teit’s relationship with Duncan Campbell Scott, deputy superintendentgeneral of Indian Affairs, was one of acquaintanceship shot through with wary mistrust. By 1913 Wickwire notes in At the Bridge (218) that the Department of Indian Affairs had “a large dossier on James Teit,” and Indian agents and others in localities in the interior of British Columbia as separate as Lytton, Vernon, the Stikine, and the Kootenays viewed Teit’s political work with suspicion and opposition. The months leading up to the summer of 1916 had been dominated by opposition by Aboriginal groups working for the recognition of Aboriginal title to an Order-in-Council introduced by Duncan Campbell Scott that called for acceptance of the McKenna-McBride Commission report on reserve allocation before it was released. At the urging of McKenna, who had met Teit in 1914, Scott sought rapprochement with Teit, who was courteous but unpersuaded. The formation of the Allied Tribes of British Columbia marked the resolution of internal dissension within the groups opposing McKenna-McBride and gave new force to their advocacy. Teit became the secretary. Wickwire (At the Bridge, 218–21) provides a full discussion of these events. Teit’s newly established connection with Scott opened a path for the Allied Tribes of British Columbia to communicate with Scott through Teit to request information on the status of the McKenna-McBride report and for Teit to write directly to him concerning poor medical services on reserves, the protection of chiefs against improper use of the X’s that often stood for their signatures, and compensation for reserve residents whose property had been damaged by the railroads (Wickwire, At the Bridge, 293–30). 18. This suggests that Knowles met the chiefs who accompanied Teit to Ottawa in 1916 and took measurements. Teit and Knowles exchanged several letters between 1916 and 1918, with Knowles inquiring about measurements of specific parts of the body and Teit endeavoring to provide the information, either from photographs or from direct measurements of Nlaka’pamux people. 19. “B and T” refer to shutter speed settings on Teit’s 1912 vintage camera. 20. Hansen, “On the Physical Anthropology of the Faeroe Islanders,” 485–92.

1916 | 739

The average cephalic index of men in Southern Faeroe appears to be 79.63 and women 80.53. Aver. stature of 495 adult females measured by Jorgensen

158.38

[Aver. stature] of 493 [adult] males [measured by] Berg21

169.12

[Aver. stature] of 99 [adult] males [measured by] Berg

168.17

[Aver. stature] of 20 [adult] males [measured by] Lund

170.45

Teit to Sapir. July 4, 1916. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir I am enclosing herewith notes to some of the songs sung by Tetlinitsa when in Ottawa. These are the three songs I took from him there. I sent you a couple of packs of photos last month before I went to Vancouver. I have been away at Vancouver at an Indian Conference for two weeks but now for six weeks I expect to be steadily at home and will rush all I can both work for yourself and Boas. [page 2] Boas writes me Dr Haeberlin will be out beside me in August. As I have not received any money for this fiscal year yet I would be glad if you can get a little sent me say at least 200.00 to 300.00. I saw Mr Scott at the Conference in Vancouver. The conference ended with the Indian Rights Association coming over to the position of the Interior and Naas Indians and all making up their minds to work together. I see a book on the war which might be worth reading—at least extracts from it are good. ‘Why War’ by Frederic C. Howe, PhD, published by Chas Scribner and sons, New York price 1.50. I believe it deals chiefly with economic causes of war. Some say Dr Howe is a socialist. This I do not know.

Teit to Knowles. July 30, 1916. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Mr Knowles, I received your letter and the enclosed measurements of the chiefs. I have taken ten white and eleven Indian measurements so far. Of course the Indian ones are those I am after and I will get quite a lot in time. I 21. Teit used “do” for ditto to signify “Aver. Stature.” “adult,” and “measured by.” The actual terms have been substituted in square brackets to make his informal table more readable.

740 | 1916

have not measured any of those taken my [sic] you yet to test myself but among the 11 Indians I have measured are two measured by Boas many years ago. The agreement between his measurements and mine on these subjects could hardly be closer on all points excepting two (in fact nearly all are exactly the same). These two points on which we do not agree are the height of the face and the height of the nose. I get both the face and nose higher than he does. Possibly he may have used greater pressure at the chin and the bottom of the nose than I do but I think this alone could not make the difference. Probably the [page 2] chief reason is that I have measured from a different part of the nashion than he has. I find there are a lot of Indians here who are very smooth at the juncture of the nose with the brow and I cannot feel the suture. (Prob. the same difficulty you found with Chief Basil). In cases like this I look for a wrinkle at this place (It is always present in elderly people) and measure from it. In cases where there is no definite wrinkle I measure from immediately below the arch of the brow or glabella where I think the suture nought to be. I may be too high some times I dont know but I think I get it about right. As I understand it nashion is the general name of the depression between the eyes, where the nose forms the brow or the deepest part of the hollow between the bridge of the nose and the brow. The suture or real joining of the nose with the brow may be about the middle of the nashion, or above the middle but not below the middle. Is this correct? On me the suture is a little above the middle (or deepest part of the nashion) and I feel it distinctly, (see sketch and way I measure). If a person always measures from the middle of the nashion the noses will be lower than the way I generally get them. In cases where the suture was hard to get Boas may have measured from the middle of the nashion and this would make the difference between his measurements of the nose and mine. I want you to [page 3] tell me re. the descriptive observations, viz what particular points do you consider most important of the nose, lips, ears, forehead, eye slits, molars, nashion, chin etc. and what are the best terms to use in describing such and give me rough sketches if necessary to convey your meaning. There are many different kinds of chins, noses, ears, and foreheads. Re. the nose I think the sheet Boas used had 13 different forms of the nose but among the Indians when doing rapid work he simply I think took notes of the nose profile whether straight, concave, or convex, whether ‘hook’ or ‘Indian’, whether bridge high, medium, or low, point whether short, long, and whether thin, or thick. A sheet of nose outlines would be the best for profiles (and I may make this when I get time). You might think 1916 | 741

a little over these things are let me know.22 With best wishes regards to all and hoping this will find Mrs Knowles, baby and yourself well. PS I will write you re. any other points that may come up.

Fig. 15. Teit’s diagram of a nose in profile, with lines pointing to the “suture,” an arc designating the area measured, and the “middle or deepest part of the nashion [sic]. If measured from here noses are 1 to 6 mm lower, according to the nose.” Teit to Knowles, July 30, 1916.

Teit to Sapir. August 9, 1916. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir I am sending you one dozen films I had developed in a hurry so as to know how my camera was working. I am glad to see by them and by some prints I have just received from Ottawa I am about on to the use 22. Knowles replied to Teit on August 15, 1916, defining the term, “nasion,” as “the point at which the internasal suture meets the naso-frontal suture,” enclosing four photographs of skulls to illustrate the shape of the brow, and providing detailed comments and suggestions for noting other features of the head, such as the shape of forehead, eyes, and nose and degrees of prominence of the chin (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b.635, f.15, folder: “Teit, James A. [1916–1917]”). Another definition of “nasion”: “The nasion (also known as bridge of the nose) is the midline bony depression between the eyes where the frontal and two nasal bones meet” (Daniel Bell, “Nasion,” https://radiopaedia.org/articles/22725, July 5, 2019, accessed March 20, 2020).

742 | 1916

of the shutter as it is arranged now, so now I will try some pictures at close range and see if I can get on to the focusing at less than six feet. Most of the pictures I have been taking are at between 5½ and 7 ft. Send me two prints each of the negatives I am sending, and retain the latter. I will not charge the Museum for the developing of them. [page 2] A big Indian meeting is just over here and it took most part of my time for a week. I managed however to get a few pictures and a few measurements of Chilcotin and Shuswap for Knowles. Most of my time lately has been on Boas work. I am making a new set of maps just now in connection with the paper on Salish of the U.S. I expect Dr Haeberlin will be along soon but hear he is going to Puget Sound first. In this case he may not be here until next month. I will send the titles to the prints I received in a few days. I received Barbeau’s book on French Canadian Folk-lore and find it interesting. You may tell him I have collected two French stories for him but I will render them (or write them) in English as it would take me too long to attempt the writing off in French. I hardly know how to write French although I read it a little. PS My wife will not attempt the writing of the stories in French either. I asked her too.

Teit to Boas. August 10, 1916. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121896. Dear Friend I received your letter and note what you say re. Dr Haeberlin. I have not heard from him yet. I sent you the text on the Columbia group of the Salish a short time ago. I note you received the Okanagon part which I sent you first. I am preparing a set of three maps which combine up to date all the information re. the Interior tribes and you can fill in the Coast tribes according to the maps and information I sent you on them before. I did not send the genealogy belonging to the Okanagon part of the paper as [page 2] it is not quite finished. If you have any funds available for my work I would like to get about $10000. I can send you the account any time you may desire. I did not send it in at the end of the year. I have been delayed lately by having to attend some important Indian meetings in connection with the land question The weather is very hot here just now. PS A Similkameen Indian who gave me a story re. the origin of people which I sent to you some time ago called on me lately and 1916 | 743

said he wished to correct a word in that story. He gave me the name stahḗn (or something similar) as the name of the first people. Since then some of the old people had told him the proper name was ‘ɬēn’ or ‘ɬin’. This looks like the Athapascan word for ‘dog’

Teit to Boas. August 20, 1916. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121897. My Dear Friend. In explanation of the names of the first people in the world (see Similkameen story I sent you and also some notes in my last letter) another informant from the Similkameen-Nicola region says stories were told by the old people there in which the ancestors of the Indians were called ɬi.n or ɬe.n (ɬíᴇn or ɬéᴇn) Others called them tahḗn, tehḗn, taiḗn, or teḗn which seems to have meant the ancients or first people. This informant thinks the two names meant nearly alike and were terms applied by the old people to designate the ancients or at least those [page 2] particular people (fully human) who lived in the days of the ancients when the world was young and from whom the Indians are descended. He believes the terms are from the old Athapascan language formerly spoken in Nicola and Similkameen but he is not certain. I pointed out in my letter that the word łen (etc.) resembles the word for ‘dog’x(2) in Athapascan. C. f. Chilcotin etc. The word tahḗn or teḗn seems to resemble the Athapascan ‘déne’ meaning ‘man’ or ‘people’. C.f. ́ Chilcotin, and Nicola voc. etc. The only Athapascan (stuwī́xᴇmux )͇ words this informant knew were those for man, woman, and packing line which he have as tehḗ x(3) or tehḗts ‘man’, tehḗts or të́tḗts] x(4) ‘man’ or ‘young man’, tsekhé ‘woman’, tɬōɬ x(1), or tɬū́ɬ? ‘pack strap.’ x(1) This word means rope or line of any kind among the Tahltan. x(2) C.f. Chilcotin story No.1 also various trad. in var. tribes where dogs, wolves, coyotes etc. are ancestors or heros x(3) This word seems to be related to the word ‘dene’ ‘tinne’ x(4) C.f. Willapa atha. for ‘man’.

744 | 1916

Teit to Boas. September 4, 1916. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121898. My Dear Friend. I received your letter of 28th ult. yesterday. I will make out the a/c and send you. I received a letter from Dr Haeberlin to-day and have answered it.23 I think it better after he has finished his work on Puget Sound for him to come direct to Spences Bridge. After discussing everything together and getting our bearings (as the sailors say) I can take him to the most likely places for him to obtain what special information he may want from the women themselves. The season has been bad for the [page 2] formation of tree sugar so I do not know if I will be able to obtain any this year[.] July is the best month when it is steadily hot and dry. Last July the weather was so changeable and not conducive to its formation. Sometimes it forms in August also when the weather is right. August this year was pretty good but none of the Indians have brought me any in yet. Some very poor specimens of it were reported in the latter part of July but the Inds thought they were not good enough to bring in. I told some of them if they discovered a tree well covered not to disturb it as I would go out and photograph it first. I enclose a picture I took a week or two ago. The place will be familiar to you [page 3] 14th Sept./16 I did not finish the letter started on the 4th. To-day I have sent you by reg. mail all the text of the Flathead part of the paper (between 120 and 130 pages). It came into my mind that if Dr Haeberlin is doing any work around the Nisqually country he might use Peter Kalama as interpreter and guide. I found him to be a good man and he is well known all over Western Washington because he is a leading man in the Shaker movement. His address is Nisqually Reserve, Roy, Wash. I will make out the a/c and send you to-day or tomorrow if I have time.

Teit to Boas. September 16, 1916. Postcard. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121899.24 Dear Friend. I received the cheque for $100.00 to-day, and have sent it to the bank. I wrote you yesterday and sent you the account.

23. Letters between Teit and Haeberlin have not yet come to light. 24. Written on Canada Post Card and addressed to Bolton Landing, New York.

1916 | 745

Teit to Boas. September 22, 1916. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121900. My Dear Friend. I am sending you to-day by reg. mail the genealogy of the head chiefs of the Okanagon to go with the Okanagon paper.25 It runs back to about 1675 A.D. There are 11 pages of the genealogy (names) and 15 pages of notes. I could have made the latter fuller by adding items (some them very interesting) out of different works but have simply referred to these instead. This genealogy throws considerable light on the doings of the Indians of this region in early times migrations, customs etc. and is also of value for the names etc. I enclose a photo I took of women’s leggings of the Flathead showing designs[.] This you may want to reproduce in the paper. I think I have certainly [page 2] long ago sent you all the words of the Stuwī́x́ language collected both in Nicola and Similkameen but I came on some words unchecked off in one of my note books and in case I have not sent you these I enclose them herewith. PS I have added a few notes hurriedly to the Stuwī́x́ words[;] some of them are merely suggestive.

Boas to Teit. September 28, 1916. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121866. My dear Friend,— I received the package containing your manuscript the day before I left the country. I also have your letter in which you tell me about the pine sugar not forming this year. Haeberlin is now in Tulalip and seems to be getting on very well. I hope that you will like him.

Sapir to Teit. October 1916. Telegram. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Please send brief account of work done for Survey this fiscal year. Statement needed for summary report. N.B. Charge to Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa. 25. See Teit, “The Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateaus,” 263–76. This is the most substantial body of genealogical data compiled and published by Teit.

746 | 1916

Boas to Teit. October 3, 1916.26 APs, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121867. My dear Friend,— I was very glad to receive your letter and to get the interesting genealogy of the Okanagon family, and also the photograph, which reached me to-day. I am publishing the European stories from your collection in the next number of the Folk-Lore Journal. It seemed to me that it would be well to give them some prominence in this form.

Teit to Boas. October 4, 1916. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 297399. My Dear Friend I received your letter of 28th ult. and was glad to hear you received the M.S. and also that Dr. Haeberlin was getting on well at Tulalip. In the part of my paper dealing with the Flathead I gave a sketch of the manner a party (I saw on one occasion) approached the dance house. I made the sketch from memory as I could not find the original sketch. Lately I came on it and enclose a copy herewith. If the sketch I sent in does not agree in the main with this one you can change it as this is the most correct one. In a note book I came on a few more [page 2] Stuwī́x́ words which are unchecked off and I feel certain I must have sent them to you already. However in case I have not I enclose them herewith. I am busy on the Coeur d’alene part of the paper and have finished about 45 pages of it to date. Hoping you are keeping well.

Teit to Boas. October 20, 1916.27 APs, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121901. My Dear Friend I was glad to hear you had received the Okan. genealogy etc. and also that the European stories collected from the Inds. were to be 26. Date hard to read. 27. In October 1916 the work on the basketry publication was also going ahead. On October 13 Sapir sent Boas photographs of Salish baskets, with data and catalog number on the back of each print. On October 17, 1916, Boas wrote to Haeberlin in Tulalip outlining a very specific focus for his basketry research there, with clear implications for his planned research in British Columbia. Boas wrote: “I forgot to say in my last letter that, in case you should have the opportunity to study the personal distribution of designs among the women of Puget Sound, it might be well to take up the subject right there. This, of course, would help you later on when

1916 | 747

published in the next number of the Folk-lore Journal. I have a letter from Dr Haeberlin from Tulalip saying he was doing well among the Snohomish and that he likely would not reach the Thompson Country until some time in January. I am getting along well with the Coeur d’Alene section of the paper and have 93 pages completed.

Teit to Knowles. October 20, 1916. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Mr Knowles, Thanks for your letter of 20th ult. which helps to clear up some points considerably. I find the term ‘spatulate’ jaw used in some you join Teit. What I should like to know, is, of course, what designs are made by each particular woman, and how do they criticize designs, and how do they instruct the young girls in the making of basketry and basketry designs. I also wish that, if you have the chance to observe basketry making by an expert basket-maker, you would try to observe as carefully as possible the regularity and speed of her movements, how many stitches she makes per minute and how the piercings and pulling etc. is done with good regularity. The question in my mind is, particularly, what relation there is between the regularity of movement and the regularity of appearance of the finished work” (APS, Boas Papers, Boas to Haeberlin, October 17, 1916, text 54068). Boas also wrote to Sapir on October 17, 1916, “I want to thank you for the beautiful photographs of the baskets which I have just received. I am sending them to Haeberlin, who is now on the Pacific Coast. He will join Teit sometime in January to make personal enquiries in regard to the basketry designs. [para] Is there any reason why Teit could not work for me in regard to a few questions, say February and March? I should like him to continue the work that Haeberlin is beginning and which I think he can do very well after he once understands what we want. Of course, I should pay him during that time.” Sapir’s October 19 reply to Boas’s question was prescient: “I should personally have no objection to having Teit take off time to work for you for a month or two, but I am inclined, to be frank, to somewhat doubt the wisdom for Teit’s own sake of his so doing. It has taken a very long time for Teit to take up regular work for us, in accordance with our arrangement of several years ago, so much so, in fact, that I am rather afraid that the nature of this arrangement, in spite of my explanations, is not as clear to the present administration as it was to Mr. Brock, with whom it was made. I must tell you frankly that I do not consider the present Deputy Minister of Mines to be in the slightest degree interested in anthropology, and I am rather afraid that he might be inclined to drop Teit altogether if we give him any leeway. I think that the more clear-cut and easy to explain Teit’s accounts are, the better for him. However, I leave this matter entirely to you and Teit himself. You must ask him directly, and I shall be glad to abide by his own decision (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b.621, f.2, folder: “Boas, Franz [1915–1917]”). Sapir was correct in his assessment of the view of anthropology held by Brock’s successor as Deputy Minister of Mines, R. G. McConnell. One of the issues was the potential of the research of the Anthropology Division to foster Canadian economic growth. Considering Sapir’s attempt the following year to hire Diamond Jenness following his return from the Canadian Arctic Expedition, R. G. McConnell wrote, “The Anthropological Division, a purely scientific one [emphasis in original], is already costing the Department over $17,000 a year in salaries and a further amount, which I am endeavouring to make as small as possible, for field expenses . . . a further increase in the permanent salary list would not be justified even if conditions were normal” (LAC, McConnell Correspondence, R. G. McConnell to M. F. Gallagher, May 12, 1917, cited in Richling, In Twilight and in Dawn, 114).

748 | 1916

discussions by Beddoe and other British Physical anthropologists. I was not sure whether it meant ‘spoon shaped’ or ‘spade shaped’ and like you I dont know whether they refer to a front or side view. It is a form of jaw said to be common among Scandinavian Races. I have measured two or three subjects lately who had double wrinkles near the nasion. I judged the nasion to be at the upper wrinkle which makes the face and nose longer than Boas’ measurements. On measuring from the lower wrinkle I found my measurements almost corresponded with those of Boas. Very few Indians have been around lately. They are all busy finishing up their harvests, so I have not got many measurements and photos just lately. I hope yourself and family have had a pleasant vacation.

Teit to Boas. November 15, 1916. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121902. My Dear Friend. I finished the Coeur d’Alene section of the paper last night. There are 182 pages of text, about 15 pp. of notes and about 10 pp of sketches. I just have to read it over now and perhaps make a few corrections and then I will mail it to you. This finishes the U.S. Salish paper excepting the maps I propose to send you with some notes to same. I have one map finished but cannot go on with the other until I obtain a map to draw the tribes on. The map I want to use is one of Western Canada showing the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan (with parts of BC and Montana). It is printed by Rand McNally and Co. New York (Fifth Ave) and is a cheap map (abt ¢25) entitled New Pocket Map of Western Canada. I sent to Vancouver for one but could not get it although I have got them there before. Perhaps you might send me one from New York by mail. If you have any spare funds on hand for my work I would like you to send [page 2] me a little more money say 100.00 if you have it to spare[.] I will send in the a/c at the end of the year. I am now going to catalog and write titles and information for about 200 songs I have on hand and which I collected for Sapir. I would like to have them off my hands (or most of them) in case of fire. Last month a stable took fire near my office and the latter nearly took fire. Had I not had water and hose handy to play on the roof I would have lost my office in which are all my books, notes, m.s. etc. This stable is being rebuilt in a place further away from me so in future there will be no danger from it at least. 1916 | 749

Teit to Boas. November 20, 1916. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121903. My Dear Friend. I am sending you to-day by registered mail in two bundles the m.s. on the Coeur d’Alene with Index, notes and sketches. The notes and sketches are chiefly to help in a better understanding of things referred to in the text and it may not be necessary to include all of them in the paper. Probably however, most of the notes should be retained and possibly some of the sketches. I intended at one time to write a comparative list of the more important things in material culture to include with this paper and show at a glance the distribution of these things among all the Interior Salish tribes and their neighbors but I found this would entail a good deal of extra work so I cut it short after commencing it. It is a thing that can be done at some future time say after [page 2] the paper is published. The Coeur d’Alene paper would have been considerably fuller as to detail had I been able to visit the tribe again and round out my notes, nevertheless as it is I expect it will be of some value and I think although incomplete will throw a good deal of light on the subject of how a people’s environment and methods of making a living influences28 their material culture, social organization etc.29 The old culture of the Coeur d’Alene was that of a semi sedentary people living in a wooded country and largely dependent on fishing. Their environment in large measure forced them to be this. Later they found what seems to have been considered an easier way of making a living and they became buffalo hunters. This new method of procuring a living forced them away from the woods and the water bringing them into a new environment [to] which they had to adapt themselves thus changing very materially their whole old time culture. The introduction of the [page 3] horse was the chief factor and made the change possible. (Proximity to the buffalo country and friendly relations with the Flathead helped.) The history of the change effected among the Coeur d’Alene on their culture etc. may give an idea of the greatness of the change which must have taken place among all the tribes who adopted the culture dependent on the horse and the buffalo, and some light may be shed on the origin of a number of points in the cultures of the plains. If any of the points in the text are not explicit enough (my wording is 28. Teit first wrote “stamps” here and crossed it out. 29. This is probably Teit’s most succinct statement of his view of a central theme in his ethnographic work. This theme is present in The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, although cloaked by the rigidity of the organizing template.

750 | 1916

sometimes not of the best) I will try to explain better anything obscure or not clear. Hoping this will find you keeping well.

Boas to Teit. November 22, 1916. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121868. My dear Friend,— I received yesterday the two bundles containing the Coeur d’Alene material, but I have not had time to look them over. I have inquired about the map of western Canada, but the bookseller tells me that there is none in existence. I am therefore sending you the Rand McNally map of Canada. I should be very glad if you could send me the map material soon. The whole paper on Salish dialects is practically ready. We are simply waiting for the maps.

Teit to Sapir. November 27, 1916. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, I finished the paper for Dr Boas on the Coeur d’Alene about the middle of the month and am now engaged on work for you. I am writing out the titles and information I gathered on the songs. I have on hand and will continue until I finish same and forward the records to you. I am also preparing indexes to the Salish and Athapascan specimens I have sent to the Museum and the Indian photos so that I can find and refer to them with ease. In writing the late paper for Boas I lost a lot of time hunting up the numbers of specimens I wanted to refer to in different Museum catalogs. I am grouping the specimens by their character and in this way can find what I want easily. This will save time when I come to write up the Tahltan. After I finish the Music I intend to commence work on the Tahltan paper. Dr Haeberlin will not be along to visit me until January. I will [page 2] then likely have to take him on a short trip to two or three points to interview some of the basket makers. I dont know how much of the proposed paper on art Dr Boas wishes me to write or how this matter is arranged until I see Dr Haeberlin but if possible I will pass the whole thing to him including all my notes and hundreds of sketches etc. The Coeur d’Alene section of the paper on the Salish I wrote for Boas ran into 183 pages besides notes and sketches. 1916 | 751

PS As I will now be working pretty steady for you I will be obliged if you can get the treasurer to forward me say $200.00 on salary. PPS Boas informs me the Indian stories I collected for him that are of European origin will be out in the next Folk-lore number.

Teit to Sapir. November 28, 1916. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, I received your wire to-day and have written out a brief account of my work for the Summary Report. It just happened that I had written to you yesterday regarding work and the sending to me of a little money. I enclose the report of work herewith. I hope this will find you all well. Best regards to yourself, and family, also Mr and Mrs Barbeau and the Smith and Knowles families. Also remember me to Mr Waugh and others. I got his book on Iroquois food and he seems to have gone into the subject very thoroughly. PS You may curtail the report I enclose any way you deem desirable.

Marshall to Sapir. December 6, 1916. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, Acknowledging the receipt of yours of the 5th inst. relative to a further increase of $200. to J.A. Teit, I may state that on the 10th July an advance of $300. was made to Mr Teit which has not yet been accounted for. Would you be good enough to have him render an account, in duplicate, of his expenditure on account of the sum already advanced.30

30. Reading between the lines, Teit’s approach to the GSc’s accounting practices had become a chronic issue for Marshall, and by extension, for Sapir.

752 | 1916

Sapir to Teit. December 1916. Telegram. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Marshall wants you to submit accounts in duplicate of three hundred dollars ($300) already advanced before making further advances. Charge to Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa.

Teit to Sapir. December 7, 1916. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, I received your wire yesterday and to-day am sending the a/cs to Mr Marshall in your care. I remember now you telling me when in Ottawa that I should send in to Mr Marshall a statement of a/c from time to time or at least when money was asked for but when I wrote you I forgot about this. The statement shows a balance of 23.15 to the credit of the Museum. I was much interested in your paper on Time Perspective in Aboriginal American Culture31 and I think you bring out many good points[,] suggestions which are very interesting and might be worth following up. Your paper brought to mind a point I had thought about several times for the Salish and it might be applicable to some other stocks as well. I thought an idea of the original [page 2] home of the Salish might be obtained (or even it might be proved) by a study of all the words in the various Salish languages or dialects relating to environment such for instance as the names of all mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, insects, trees, bushes, plants, bark of trees, berries etc. ́ a for the dry or dead needles of the yellow pine Thus the word kām is used by every Interior Salish tribe. Some of the tribes have spread beyond the limits of this tree but the name is retained. As the yellow pine (pinus ponderosa) belongs entirely to the dry valleys of the Interior parts of BC, Washington, Idaho and Montana (I do not know its limits to the south) it would seem the home of the Interior Salish before their language split into dialects was somewhere in the region within the range of this tree. The name of ‘tree sugar’ is another similar instance and there are many others.

31. Sapir, Time Perspective in Aboriginal American Culture.

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I have just received a letter from Dr Boas who says he is waiting for the maps so I will drop your work for a few days and finish them.

Teit to Boas. December 19, 1916. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121904. Dear Friend. I received your letter and was glad to hear you had received the Coeur d’Alene material. I am busy on the maps and notes to same and will have them ready in a few days. The maps I am making show the Interior Salish tribes as a whole and all the tribes adjoining them at two periods—one the earliest known time and the second at the time before they went on reserves. This shows at a glance the distribution long ago and lately and the great change in position of some tribes. The notes are chiefly data on the tribes neighboring the Salish containing what information I was able to gather regarding [page 2] their early and late positions and immigrations etc. I received copies of the ‘European tales from the Thomp.’ and thank you for same.

Teit to Sapir. December 20, 1916. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, I am enclosing some negatives. They are not very good as the subjects have moved. The shutter of my camera is not working very good again and I am sending it away to be examined. As I got lots of copies of “European Tales from the Up. Thomp.” I am sending you a few copies under separate cover. I will send you a copy of the Clarion32 containing an article on Russia by Moses Baritz33 (Soc.) which may interest you. This is all just now. PS I want only one print of each of the negatives. 32. The Clarion was a weekly socialist paper established in Manchester by Robert Blatchford in 1891 (John Simpkin, “The Clarion,” Spartacus Educational, https://spartacus-educational .com/Jclarion.htm, published online September 1997, updated January 2020, accessed February 8, 2022). 33. A committed socialist and musician, Moses Baritz (1883–1938) was born in Manchester, England, to Jewish parents who had emigrated from Odessa. A very active member of the Socialist Party of Great Britain, he traveled to North America, Australia, and New Zealand promoting socialism (see Waters, “Moses Baritz,” The Socialist Party of Great Britain, https:// www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1950s/1954/no-601-september-1954/moses -baritz/, accessed March 11, 2022).

754 | 1916

Boas to Teit. December 21, 1916. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121869. My dear Friend,— I have not written to you for some time, because I have been very busy. During the last few weeks I have been preparing your mythology for the printer, and I am going to send it off now within a few days. In accordance with your request, I sent to you some little time ago a check for $100; that is to say, a second check for this amount, which I trust reached you. Haeberlin had hard luck out West. He developed diabetes, and I had to call him back. I am glad to say that he is getting on very well, and it is not at all impossible that I may be able to send him back within a few weeks.34 In that case, I should like him to take the C.P.R. and to do the 34. On December 6, 1916, Boas wrote to Sargent, “I have had a very serious disappointment this winter. Dr. Haeberlin, who was doing splendid work out on Puget Sound, was suddenly taken ill. He developed what seemed to be acute diabetes; and since this is an exceedingly dangerous disease in young people, I had only one way out, and that was to call him back. It seems now that at least the present situation is not so dangerous as it seemed. The sugar has disappeared completely, and he is gaining in weight again. Whether or not he can go back will depend upon the developments during the next six weeks. He is exceedingly anxious to return, and in that case we shall simply have had a delay of a couple of months. It so happens that I have another young man, Dr. Frachtenberg, on the west coast of Washington, who has been working for the Bureau of Ethnology, and I have asked him to do some of the things that we need, and which Dr. Haeberlin was expected to do. This unexpected event upset particularly our plans in regard to the basketry work. [page 2] Haeberlin and I are trying now to elaborate a number of detailed questions which I am going to send to Teit. I do not feel confident, however, that we can get all we need that way” (APS, Boas Papers, text: 107148). Boas continued, “A few days ago I received from Teit his manuscript on the Coeur d’Alene and I am now waiting anxiously for the maps showing certain changes that he wishes to make in the outlines of distribution of inland tribes. As soon as I have these, we can go ahead with the printing of the general paper on the distribution of the Salish, which has been pending for so long a time. Teit’s notes on the inland Salish have become so bulky, that I do not think they can be combined with the paper on the distribution of types, so that we shall have practically four papers,—one on mythology of the inland Salish, one on the distribution of Salish dialects, one on ethnology of the Salish on the interior, and one on Salish basketry. For the last paper I still need the detailed notes which I returned several years ago to Mr. Teit for revision, and also that particular information on designs that I wanted Haeberlin to collect.” This suggests that Boas saw Teit’s primary goal conducting field work in Washington, Idaho, and Montana as the gathering of information on language distribution rather than comprehensive ethnographic information, and it accounts, at least to a degree, for Teit’s frequently expressed concern to return to the Coeur d’Alene and neighboring groups to gather additional information, and Boas’s equally persistent lack of response. He never actually refused. He simply did not respond. When he was editing the essays that became “The Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateaus” following Teit’s death and required additional information from the Coeur d’Alene, Boas sent Gladys Reichard in the summers of 1927 and 1929 to do the necessary field work, with a definite focus on linguistics and texts. Reichard worked with members of the family of Nicodemus Croutous, with whom Teit had worked in 1909 (Reichard, An Analysis of Coeur d’Alene Indian Myths, 2, 33). In 1938 Reichard published a grammar, “Coeur d’Alene,” in Boas’s Handbook of American Indian Languages (see Mattina, “Gladys Reichard’s Ear”).

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work with you as we had planned. We are working out now a number of questions which I want to send to you, which, either in case he cannot go, you might use, or, in case he should go, it would enable you to set this kind of work going very quickly. I trust you received the map which I sent you. I am exceedingly anxious to get the map material, so that the bulky [Page 2] paper on the distribution of the Salish Tribes may go to the printer. It has been a terrific piece of work. Haeberlin is now engaged in winding up the work on the manuscript. As soon as these two things are out of the way, I should like to take up the general ethnological description of the people of the interior, and then finally the basketry matter, for which we have a great many illustrations.35

35. Here Boas was likely referring to illustrations made by an artist in the course of Haeberlin’s research in museums in New York, Cambridge MA, Washington DC, and Chicago early in 1916. To the extent that his illness allowed, he continued research in museums in 1917. On January 7, 1918, Boas wrote to Haeberlin in Washington DC, enclosing an illustrator’s estimate for photographs and drawings of baskets (APS, Boas Papers, text 54027).

756 | 1916

1917

Teit to Boas. January 4, 1917. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121905. I sent you the maps and 50 pages of notes to same by reg. mail a couple of days ago. There are four maps and you will find some reduplication both in the maps and notes. Some of this was almost unavoidable in four maps. With only one it could have been avoided. I hurried the work toward the end so if you find any points that are not clear let me know and I will explain them. I found I could not use the map (of Canada) you sent as it was too small in scale, so I used an old map I had of Western Canada which was partly [page 2] marked and had some of the marks wrong. I changed these and managed to fix it up fairly well. This is map (3). I hope you will find the maps and notes of interest and value. I was sorry to hear of Dr Haeberlin’s ill luck and hope he will be well enough to come west again before long. The questions may simplify and expedite the work so if you send them along soon I will have a chance to commence looking them over and preparing the answers. With best regards to yourself and Dr Haeberlin and wishing you a very prosperous New Year PS I received the 100.00 cheque two or three days ago and have credited the a/c with same. I will make out the a/c soon and send it to you.

Teit to Boas. January 12, 1917. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121906. Dear Friend. I enclose herewith copy of a/c up to the end of the year, and also some notes which I find are not checked off and therefore may have been omitted from the text of the paper on the Interior Salish tribes of the U.S. lately finished for you. [page 2]

757

Spences Bridge BC 12TH JANY/17 Columbia University a/c

Dr To JA Teit 1916 Sept 15 To Balance of a/c rendered

$87.05

30 To 10 days work on Coeur d’alene m.s.

35.00

Oct 31 To 20 [ditto] [ditto]

70.00

Nov 15 To 9 [ditto] [ditto]

31.50

30 To 5 [ditto] reading over and correcting Coeur d’alene m.s. and preparing maps To postage .30 Foolscap paper.30 Dec 31 To 14 days work preparing maps and writing notes to same To Exchange on cheques .15 Postage .25 Jany 12 To 3 days work on maps and notes to same and going over Coeur d’alene and Flathead notes for omissions

17.50 .60 49.00 .67 10.50 301.82

Cr 1916 Sept By cheque

$100.00

Dec 31 By cheque

100.00

Jany 12 By balance

101.82

$301.82

$301.82

1917 Jany 12 To Balance due JA Teit

758 | 1917

$101.82

Sapir to Teit. January 8, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Mr. Teit,— Thank you for your letter of December 20th, 1916, enclosing negatives, also for your copies of “European Tales from the Upper Thompson Indians,” and for the copies of The Clarion. I have distributed the tales according to your directions. I have just returned from the meeting of the American Anthropological Association in New York, where I met a number of people that you know, chiefly Dr Boas and his family. The meeting was not particularly interesting, except for the fact that we got up a little luncheon in honor of Dr. Boas 35th doctorate anniversary. Several of us toasted him in little addresses that no doubt pleased the old man.1 With best regards to Mrs. Teit,

Teit to Sapir. January 12, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, I am enclosing herewith titles to the last lot of photos. The archaeological specimens I have on hand I will ship to you some time this month so they have a chance of reaching you before the end of the fiscal year. I will make out the accounts and send them in to you about the 25th February so it will not be necessary for you to wire for them except, they are required at an earlier date.

Boas to Teit. January 18, 1917. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121870 My dear Friend,— I am sending enclosed the notes in regard to basketry which Mr. Haeberlin has prepared. I should be very much obliged to you if you would be good enough to read them over and see what can be done. I think if you have a chance to talk over the matter first with some one woman who may be a good basket-maker, it might be possible to develop the matter in such a way that it would be worth a trip to 1. In December 1916 Boas was fifty-eight years old.

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some villages where there are more basket-makers, in order to get more general information. The maps and notes which you were good enough to send me arrived a few days ago, and just this moment I received your accounts and the notes. I shall look them over as soon as I can.

Teit to Boas. January 25, 1917. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121908.

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

My Dear Friend. I received your letter and the enclosures last night and have glanced over the list of questions.2 Most of the information is hard to obtain right here as there are only perhaps five or six basket makers in the Spences Bridge band, None of them are really No 1. and of the number only one makes baskets more or less constantly. In my opinion to get the information fully one would have to be in a place where a number of expert women were making baskets at the same time and these women observed and questioned each day for [page 2] a number of days as they proceeded with their work. In this way baskets of various kinds would be seen in all stages of their manufacture and much valuable information be obtained easily. Between now and April would be the best time as in some bands many women at this season give most of their time to basket making. A place like Spuzzum would probably be the best place for this part of the investigation.3 Also for the better 2. Haeberlin’s notes are not filed with the letters, but Teit’s reply suggests that they included questions, perhaps those Boas mentioned in his letter to Teit of December 21, 1916. Up to this point Teit had been working independently on basketry, while sending Boas information in answer to his particular queries. With Haeberlin’s entry into the equation, the relationship between Boas and Teit slipped much more squarely into the model of the ‘ethnologist’ who interprets data and the ‘ethnographer’ who gathers information. As Haeberlin’s condition worsened, and the urgency to finish the work increased, Teit’s role was defined in a more limited way as a gatherer of facts. 3. On February 8, 1917, Boas wrote to Sargent (APS, Boas Papers, text 107149), noting that Haeberlin “has been working at his and Mr. Teit’s material all winter, and he is apparently quite well; but his diabetes has not been overcome, and, as you may presume, it is quite a serious matter in a young man. The doctor had him try three weeks ago to take his regular diet in order to see whether he could go West again; but there was at once such an increase in sugar, that he had to be put back on a most rigid diet at once. Under these circumstances, we have written to Mr. Teit and sent to him a number of very detailed questions in regard to the basketry; and I will write to him now and ask whether he can go down between now and April to Spuzzum and several other places in order to get the necessary information. I shall have to ask him to report to me often, and we may perhaps be able to handle the matter in that way, although I am certain that Haeberlin’s presence would have helped along very much.” Sargent replied to Boas on February 28, 1917 (APS, Boas Papers, text 107170), “I wrote Teit a long letter about a week ago to urge on him to make an effort to do exactly as you wished in the matter of getting

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understanding of differences especially in design as between the several divisions of the tribe several other places should be visited more briefly. Of these places Lytton and one or two places in the Nicola Valley would probably be most important. However in the meantime I will try what I can get out of the basketmakers here. A few of the questions Dr Haeberlin [page 3] asks I have made some inquiry about from time to time and have already noted the answers.

Teit to Boas. February 5, 1917. Fragment of Letter. ACLS, Boas Collection, Mss.497.3.b63c, text 61.4 The dance in vogue among the Thompson women when the men were away on the warpath was also common to the Okanagon of Okanagon Lake and Okanagon River and possibly also tribes bordering on them to the north.5

Boas to Teit. February 19, 1917. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 121871. My dear Friend,— I have made a requisition for a check for three hundred dollars to be sent to you for the purpose of studying the basketry questions which Haeberlin sent you the other day, and also to cover your last bill for $101.82. I think I may have a little more money to spend on this matter, but we must of course be as economical as possible. I trust you will have the time to go down the river some time to consult the basket-makers. Perhaps it will be possible for you to send me a statement saying how much it would probably cost to get the information that we desire. I am sorry to say that Haeberlin’s health is not such that I feel justified in sending him out again. He must keep the most rigid diet, which would be quite impossible when he is moving about from one Indian village to another. Just at present he is finally finishing up the big comparative vocabulary, and I hope to get this whole matter to information for you this winter and spring, and the need of haste in the matter that you might have what you wanted in hand and where you could look it over. People tell me that times are pretty hard in Canada so I think that he will give your work all the attention his health and eyes will permit.” 4. This is a fragment apparently detached from an original letter. Top right-hand corner: “Teit letter. Spences Bridge BC. Feb. 5 1917 LK Jan 31. Top left-hand corner: “Ceremonies—Dance” Top centre: “Note 2” (Note 2 in Teit’s handwriting). 5. See Teit, Thompson Indians of British Columbia, 356.

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the printer very soon. The large map is done except the lettering, so that can go too. I still have to write out all your notes [page 2] in regard to the distribution of tribes.6

Teit to Sapir. February 24, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, I expect you have received the Arch. spec.’s I forwarded some time ago. To-day I am sending you by express 88 records of songs. 84 of these are Ntlak. and 4 Okan. I have taken considerable trouble to obtain as much information as possible re. these songs and my notes on them will cover 50 pp. of foolscap. Some of the records are of considerable value as they represent songs not now used and with death of a very few more of the oldest people they would be lost for ever. This winter I have been encouraging some of the young men here to learn the songs of some of the old time dances etc. and also to learn the dances. At least two or three of them took the matter up and have been practicing off and on during the last month or more. I will send you the notes to the songs (I am sending in) almost immediately. I just have to read them over. [page 2] The a/cs for Marshall I will forward to you tonight or to-morrow, and within a day or two (perhaps when I forward the notes on the songs) I will write you at greater length re. future work. The measurements I have taken of Indians I will forward to Mr Knowles about the end of the month. I think there are about fifty. I am keeping copies of them for reference and have not quite completed the copying. The information re. the songs I obtained not only from the singers for [sic] from other old people. In fact I discussed the songs with a good many Indians including some supposed to have special knowledge of songs. Hoping this will find yourself and all your family well.

Teit to Sapir. February 27, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, I am sending you to-day the notes on the songs. 84 Ntlak, 4 Okan. and some notes on Lillooet songs (already sent to you). I have about 6. It is not clear that Boas ever did this. The notes preserved in the APS are in Teit’s handwriting.

762 | 1917

100 or more songs yet on hand. About 10 of them are Okan. and most of the others are Ntlak. I will try to write up the notes on these and ship them as soon as I can. I intend to make further inquiry about a number of them before shipping them and will collect as much information on them as possible from informants to hand. roipếllst who was particularly well posted on songs and gave me a large number of records is now dead.7 He was the old man you saw at the camp I took you to when you were here. I hope for this year you will be able to obtain an allowance of 100.00 at least (the same as last year) for the buying of Archaeological specimens and for songs and photos. The last two are not so important and I would not spend much on them now when things are so stringent but there are still several old, and valuable songs to be obtained before the collection of tribal music will be complete. Some apparently valuable archaeological finds have been made at Lytton and vicinity lately [page 2] by Indians including some carved mortars, small stone images and other carvings and I think I may be able to obtain some or most of them if I have the funds. Otherwise they will be lost to all Museums as there are persons around Lytton who buy every thing of that kind they can obtain and sell them again as they have the chance to private collectors in various places. I know of many things from the Thompson and Okanagon regions now in the hands of individuals in many parts of BC, Washington, Alberta and elsewhere. Many of these things eventually land in the curio shops of cities in Canada and the States with little or no data accompanying them. I had expected to go right along with your work this year and still expect to do a good deal of it. I have however received word two or three days ago that Dr Boas’ health is causing his friends much concern and Mr Sargent writes me to hurry with the data on basketry and art I have collected. I expected Dr Haeberlin would be out here to make further investigations himself on these subjects and that all I would have to do would be to take him around a little bit and introduce him to a number of expert basket makers and at the same time give him all the notes, sketches, and data I had collected on these subjects. I then thought the matter would be off my hands except perhaps for the answering 7. Roipếllst (ʕʷypélst), “burning stone” (ca. 1848–1917), was the first and most prolific of the singers who participated in Teit’s recording project. Between 1913 and his death early in 1917 he recorded thirty-seven songs in a repertoire that included both men’s and women’s dance songs, songs sung while traveling and working, songs sung at potlatches, lyric songs, and shamans’ curing songs (see CMH, “Notes on Songs of the Indians of British Columbia,” VI- Z-35M). Teit photographed ʕʷypélst in 1914 demonstrating the hair style of a Nlaka’pamux warrior (CMH, neg. 27016, Gateway to Aboriginal Heritage, “James Alexander Teit,” https://www.historymuseum .ca/cmc/exhibitions/tresors/ethno/etp0800e.html, accessed December 7, 2021).

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of some queries or giving a little additional information now and then as Haeberlin proceeded with the writing up of the subject. However I have a letter from Dr Boas a couple of days ago saying that the doctors will not allow Haeberlin [page 3] to come out owing to his incomplete recovery from his recent illness and Boas asks me to collect as soon as possible the data on the points Haerberlin was to make inquiry about. Mr Sargent asks me to write you to allow me to give precedence to this work on account of Dr Boas’ health. I enclose his letter which you can return to me after perusing it. I think the work outlined for Boas will take me about three months. There will be about a month of field work and two months writing up the data collected. I cannot commence his work at once however as at present my wife is sick. I expect however she will be all right in a couple of weeks time. Another point I wished to mention is the Tahltan myths I wrote out for you. I gathered from what you said when I was in Ottawa that these should be put in better shape before printing. The trouble is I have done hardly any writing prepared for printing so I dont know the exact requirements of such writing. Dr Boas has always put my M.S. in shape for the printer in all work I have done for him. Perhaps I could have done a good deal of this myself and saved him trouble but [page 4] it seems he preferred it this way. He liked to arrange the material himself or supervise the arrangement and no doubt Miss Andrews and other stenographers he had knew all about preparing and typing the material ready for the printer.8 If you think I should write out these Northern myths afresh send them back to me and I will do so. At the same time you will require to instruct me as to the number of lines to write to the page, size of page, best method of inserting the notes, and all other information you think necessary. After having done one piece of work of this kind or at least after receiving full instructions once I will be able to send the next paper in better shape. Anyway before I write out the Ethnology of the Tahltan I would require some instruction on the points named. Of course there is no hurry as I have only progressed a very short way (and only in the first pencil 8. With these few sentences Teit put his finger on an issue that is central to his work for Sapir. The contracts he had signed since 1912 required that he produce finished, publishable work. Although Teit had sent manuscripts to Boas in the past, and his letters indicate that he was capable of writing clearly, by 1917 he still had no experience in bringing comprehensive manuscripts to publishable form. The fact that few, if any, of the completed manuscripts on which Teit’s publications are based have survived makes it difficult to assess how far he actually stood from being able to meet Sapir’s requirements. The unpublished fragments that exist indicate that he had very little difficulty in organizing or in writing, although he may have been more comfortable with shorter essays than a full-fledged monograph. On the whole his hesitation appears to have been a matter of confidence rather than ability.

764 | 1917

writing) of the Tahltan material yet. In fact, I have done little more than arrange my notes and this not perfectly. Re. the translations of Ntlak. words in the notes to the songs I would have to go over these a little more carefully if at any time you want to use them for studying the construction of the language. On the whole they are correct but some of the words and phrases may require further elucidation. PS I sent you the a/cs a few days ago.

McInnes to Sapir. February 28, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, Mr. McConnell has handed to me the proposed agreement with Mr. Teit. It seems to be all right, although perhaps we may make a slight verbal change. Mr. Marshall reminds me that Mr. Teit’s accounts for last year are now about ready to be sent to the Auditor, and he would like to have a statement from you as to what has been received from Mr. Teit in justification of last year’s expenditure.

Sapir to Teit. March 2, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have your letter of February 24th. Your shipment of 88 phonograph records came the day after. As soon as we get the notes to these I shall have them catalogued and put with the rest of your material. The archaeological specimens do not seem to have arrived yet. Mr. Smith is looking after the shipment. The accounts just received are going in to Mr. Marshall, together with a statement of various classes of material received from you in 1916–17. I have drawn up a contract for you covering next fiscal year. I understand from Mr. McInnes that it will be approved, and I shall probably be enabled to send you the copies for your signature before very long.

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Marshall to Sapir. March 2, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, Would you be good enough to note on the accompanying list of material from Mr Teit, the dates certain items, noted in pencil, were received from him, and sign, date and return both lists.

Teit to Boas. March 4, 1917. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122046. My Dear Friend. I received your letter a few days ago and to-day I received the cheque for $300.00 for which thanks. I was very sorry to hear Dr Haeberlin was still unwell and would not be able to come out. I was looking forward to having the pleasure of meeting him and also of talking over many points re. the basketry and art. Of course as you say it would be impossible to move around among the Ind. villages here and preserve a rigid diet. One has to eat whatever one can and often what one gets is not the best as regards both quality and cooking. Under the circumstances there is nothing for it ex-[page 2] cept for me to take up the work and make one or two trips among the basketmakers. One as far down as Spuzzum taking in Lytton and one point between and another trip to one or two points in Nicola Valley. Of course I will try to do the best I can with the questions Dr Haeberlin sent me. I may also be able to collect a little additional information on design names. I have already interviewed the two or three basket makers here on most of the questions. I don’t know when I will start but I think it will suit me best to go on the first trip very soon. I cannot say how much it will cost. This will depend chiefly on the time put in. I think the writing out of the information will take more time than the field work [page 3] possibly twice as long. The field work I expect will not take longer than three or four weeks. Possibly the whole may take about 100.00 more than you have sent but of course I don’t know for certain. I know I generally underestimate the time and cost of nearly all pieces of work. In writing especially I always think I can write faster than I can. I am glad to hear you are progressing well with all the material you have on hand and that soon a lot of it will be in the hands of the printer. When should I forward you the sketches and notes I have on hand relative to designs on woven bags, parfleches, hide bags, beaded bags, and clothing etc.[?] You saw some of the sketches 766 | 1917

when you were here. I suppose there will be [page 4] no use forwarding these until Dr Haeberlin is ready to deal with them. The information on face painting you have already and I have very little to add to same. Spring is coming on here now and the weather is quite fine. We have had bare ground nearly all winter and a fine winter all through. On the other hand there have been heavy snow falls east and west of here, including Vancouver and Victoria.

Sapir to Teit. March 5, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have your letter of February 27th, also notes on phonograph records recently shipped. I am very sorry to learn of Dr. Boas’ ill health, which was news to me. I myself, to be perfectly frank, feel strongly that Dr. Boas’ insistence on you doing this basketry work for him is rather impolitic for reasons which I have defined both to him and to you. I do not see why Dr. Haeberlin or someone else could not take this up later on, and why people seem to think it necessary to have you intermittently taken off of your regular Government work. To me personally it does not make the slightest difference whether you are collecting scientific material for us or Dr. Boas or anyone else. I am thinking only of your own economic advantage in this matter. It may prove embarrassingly difficult to explain why we should continue you from year to year when so little material ready for publication is being submitted by you.9 However, I do not wish to influence you in the slightest in this matter. Personally I do not at all object to you taking up three or even six months of your time for this new work that Dr. Boas wants you to take up for him. Please use your own judgment altogether in this matter. [page 2] I do not think it will be necessary for you to rewrite your Kaska and Tahltan myths. I started to look over the set with a view to correcting little matters of style, punctuation, and so on, some time ago, but have 9. With this letter Sapir was endeavoring to convey to Teit that his continued employment by the Geological Survey of Canada was endangered by his failure to produce manuscripts for publication and, consequently, by his continued work for Boas. While the problems concerning Teit’s delayed accounts eroded Teit’s standing with the GSC administrators and potentially reduced Sapir’s ability to negotiate for him, the repeated lapsing of a significant portion of the annual salary estimated for Teit and the failure to submit publishable material on the basis of field work had the potential to put Teit’s continued employment in peril. In the restrained language of the civil service of that day, “embarrassingly difficult” is close to a flashing red light.

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not done anything at this work for some time. I shall finish the work as soon as I get the chance to do so. The only thing that I shall want you to do to them later on is to put in foot-note references to Swanton’s Tlingit material.10 That I think is really essential.

McConnell to Sapir. March 13, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, Referring to your letter of February 6, 1917, and the blank forms of contract for Mr. Teit accompanying it: I send you herewith three revised forms of contract which meet with my approval.11

Sapir to Teit. March 13, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Teit,— Enclosed I am sending you the contracts that I wrote you about some time ago. Please sign the three copies enclosed and return two of them to me.

10. This is likely a reference to Swanton, Tlingit Myths and Texts. 11. The words “meet with my approval” suggest that the Sapir’s superior, McConnell, the deputy minister, had taken responsibility for defining the conditions of Teit’s continued work. Among the terms of Teit’s contract for 1917–1918, the compensation clause, “I agree to accept a remuneration of $4.16 per day for the days devoted exclusively to this work,” indicates that Sapir was no longer able to secure approval for Teit’s annual salary of $1,500, even on the basis of $125 per month. The contract gives priority to the production of a manuscript based on the field work covered by preceding contracts: “I, James A. Teit, hereby agree to prepare and forward to the Office of the Deputy Minister of Mines, on or about April 1st, 1918, complete and final memoirs of such phases of the ethnology of the Tahltan Indians (religion, social organization or material culture) as it is possible to complete within the fiscal year 1917–1918, such memoir or memoirs to be based on the field material secured for the Geological Survey of Canada in seasons of field work preceding 1917–18.” There is provision of an allowance for recorded songs, photographs, and artifacts, but with reduced priority: “I agree to incur no greater expenditure than a maximum of $150 for the fiscal year 1917–18, in the purchase of ethnological specimens and the taking of phonograph records, photographs and such other data as may seem advisable from time to time, in the prosecution of my research work.” The clause, “I agree to forward with the above report all notes, note-books, photographs, negatives, plans, maps and specimens, etc., collected or acquired during the periods when I was employed by the Geological Survey” suggests that the deputy minister of mines does not foresee a continuation of Teit’s work. Earlier contracts required that all such materials be forwarded, with the exception of those required for further work (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b.638, f.16, folder: “Contracts [1913–1920]”).

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Teit to Sapir. March 20, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, I received your letters and also the enclosed contracts. I have signed two of them and return them herewith. I appreciate all you say in your letter of the 5th inst. and thank you for all you have done in my behalf. I quite agree with all you say and see all the points clearly. For the reasons you state I would certainly refuse to engage in further work for outsiders (viz for Dr Boas and Mr Sargent) except I was asked to do it by yourself as a part of my regular work.12 However as there seems a strong possibility that Dr Boas may not last very long and he is the head of the work I have been engaged in it seems to me better on the whole for me to undertake the piece of extra work he wants done.13 I think I can hurry it so it will not take over two months in all. I will not take the time to arrange and write out my notes particularly, but will send them on in their rough state for Haeberlin to work out. As long as they are intelligible that will be all that is necessary. This will certainly be the last I will do for them. I have [page 2] told Mr Sargent that I was writing to you and also have told him I cannot spare much time to do the work in question even if I am allowed to undertake it. They thus understand that if I make the trip I will simply collect the additional information they want and turn it in without writing it out in connected form etc. I think that during the balance of the year I will without fail be able to complete the Tahltan paper for you and also do other work for you of several kinds. As soon as you are ready for it I will add the foot note references of Tlingit analogies to Tahltan tales. I agree with you that these notes are quite necessary on account of the intercultural relationship of the two peoples and the seeming Tlingit origin of a number of the Tahltan tales. I have lately obtained some more arch. specimens from the Lytton region. When these have accumulated sufficiently for a box shipment I will forward them. Meanwhile I should have some funds soon for this purpose as I am using my own. I forwarded to Knowles the measurements I took up to near the end of 12. This is a misapprehension on Teit’s part. As Sapir’s correspondence with Teit to this point demonstrates, he consistently exempted Teit’s work for Boas from work compensated by the GSC, and also, through the five years since Teit had signed his first contract with the GSC, repeatedly expressed the hope that Teit would conclude Boas’s work and begin full-time work for the GSC. 13. This is puzzling, as there is no indication in the correspondence between Boas and Teit or between Boas and Sapir that Boas’s health was frail at this time.

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the fiscal year, and also sent him a number of notes. Since then I have taken quite a few more measurements chiefly of women, and expect to get a lot this year (viz. all I can without incurring expense). I got the shield which was charged up in the a/c a long time ago and will forward it some time when it is convenient [page 3] to do so. It would not pay to ship it alone, and it is a thing which cannot very well be shipped in the same box with arch. specimens of stone nor with song records. The Indians of Lytton ask for one print each of the following old pictures 23535; 25038; and 31512; An Ashcroft Indian asks for one print each of 23512, 23513. He never received his prints of these as I sent them to the wrong address and they got lost. The Tahltan sub chief asks for one print each of the following Tahltan Nos. These are to show the Indians up there. 33006, 33003, 33012, 33015, 33129, 33086, 33087, 33085, 33122, 33097, 33023, 33019, 33126, 33026, 33037, 33049, 33103, 33001, 32994, 33009.14 Twenty in all or any number of these the Gov. sees fit to give. Well, I think this is all at present. We had bare ground most of the winter and now the spring is on and preliminary farm work is almost in full swing. The spring has come on very gradually and on the whole is backward for here. PS My wife and baby (2 yrs old) were sick lately but are now quite well again. I have not managed to procure the bearskin for Mrs Sapir yet. I had a chance to get a very large grizzly skin but it was too large (abt 9 ft) and too large a price or beyond the real value. A good black bear of medium size would suit and look better in my opinion.

Sapir to Teit. March 21, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Teit,— Your letters of March 10th and 13th to Mr. Knowles are in my hands, also the sketch maps and list of places referred to in your schedules. I may say that I have read over your letters with great interest and am very pleased to know that you are making such good progress in anthropometric work. Mr. Knowles himself is quite ill now, and will not be in a position to take up serious work until several months from now. 14. These are Geological Survey of Canada, now Canadian Museum of History, photograph negative numbers.

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At present he is in the hospital and on leaving will probably have to spend some time in the country to recover. The case seems to be one of nervous prostration or neurasthenia.15 Meanwhile, I shall hold all letters and data that refer to Mr. Knowles’ work pending his return to the office. Kindly send all further material intended for Mr. Knowles in my care.

Sapir to Teit. March 22, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Teit,— I beg leave to acknowledge receipt of the package of anthropometric schedule which you have send [sic] to Mr. Knowles’ address. I shall put it away with the other material on hand for him pending his return to the office.

Sapir to Teit. March 26, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Teit,— I have your letter of March 20th, also letter of March 19th to Mr. Knowles, together with data on types of Indian noses. I think that on the whole it is as well that you have decided to take off a little time for Dr. Boas’ work. I had not realized that his health was as precarious as you state it to be. Under the circumstances it is hardly possible to act otherwise than you have done. I am ordering the prints that you asked for.

Teit to Sapir. March 27, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, I received your letters and am glad you have received all the schedules and notes and letters I forwarded to Mr Knowles. I am also glad to hear you are pleased with the work I have done in this line. This work is interesting to me although a beginner, and I have done the 15. In an obituary for Knowles in May 1953, R. M. Blackwood wrote, “A severe attack of typhoid, contracted in the field, left his health permanently impaired, and brought his career as a physical anthropologist to a premature end” (Blackwood, “Sir Francis Knowles, Bart,” 818).

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best I could under the circumstances. Some of the Indians are averse to having their measurements taken, and also averse to my taking their pictures, but there are only a few this way around here. Some think their bodies or souls or both may be injuriously effected [sic] in some way by picture taking and measurements whilst others are suspicious the Gov. or the White’s may have some ulterior motive which in the end may work out detrimental to them. A few put up the plea they are not good looking and the Gov. or the Whites who see their measurements or pictures will laugh at them. Thus occasionally I have to use considerable argument and persuasion. In a few cases however they are obdurate and I then cease pressing them. If the Indian land (and game and fish) question was once settled in this country fairly for the Indians it would help [page 2] to make Anthropological work among the Indians of almost all parts of BC much easier. At present some of them look upon the Gov. as rather an enemy than a friend, and that the underlying motive of the Gov. and leading whites and missionaries is to undermine and weaken the Indian tribes, destroy them underhandedly and take all their lands and possessions as they already have done to a great extent. For this reason some of them do not care to help out Gov. work to any extent excepting in some cases where they have a good money reward. Even then some will not consent. I was sorry to hear of Knowles’ illness. It is too bad to be laid up that way and have to remain so long away from work. I sincerely hope he will be well again soon. PS An Indian woman asks for a single print of a relative No. 25038. I am out of envelopes but have some writing paper left yet.

Boas to Teit, April 5, 1917. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122096. My dear Friend,— I shall be very glad if you could drop me a line and tell me whether you have succeeded in doing some work on the basketry problem. Haeberlin is a good deal better, and it looks now as though I may perhaps be able to send him west during the summer. In case he goes, he will, however, have to spend most of the time on Puget Sound. He could not go to remote Indian villages, because he has to keep very strict diet.

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Teit to Boas, April 13, 1917. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122047. Dear Friend. I received your letter all right and was glad to hear Dr Haeberlin was improving and would be west during the summer. I hope he will be able to call on me when he comes West. Dr Sapir gave me liberty to put in two or three months at your work viz at the Basketry investigation so I could finish it up. I have made several short trips to women in this neighborhood and watched them making baskets. In all, I have now made a practically complete study of eight women on all the points defined by Dr Haeberlin in the set of questions he sent me. A few points of interest came out in the inquiry which are not called for or set out in the questions received from Dr Haeberlin. As the notes I took when interviewing these women grew to considerable bulk and were jotted down without any order I am presently engaged putting all this information in a fairly connected or readable form for reference. I want to finish putting these notes in order before I go on the next trip which will likely be to Spuzzum. I will likely interview women [page 2] of all the tribal divisions to find out what differences there are in the divisions if any. I know there is at least a little difference in designs and design names but cannot say regarding other points. I may have to leave out the stlaxaíux ͇ but I will certainly include all the others.16 When I have finished all the trips I will write out the notes so they will be intelligible or readable but I will not trouble to write them up very connectedly as I expect they will have to be gone over and arranged by yourself or Dr. Haeberlin[.] [B]esides this will save me a good deal of time. I told Mr Sargent I will probably buy a few more baskets for the purpose of illustrating certain points and he has sent me 100.00 for this purpose already. I received it yesterday.17 16. Teit’s term for Nlaka’pamux living along the Fraser River upriver from Lytton. 17. Sargent also wrote to Boas on April 13, 1917 (APs, Boas Papers, text 107171), noting a delay in Teit’s work because of his wife’s illness, and Sapir’s concern that his doing substantial work for others outside the museum might compromise his status as a permanent employee. Sargent wrote that Teit “has been making visits to neighboring basket makers recently, of which he has taken copious notes. That he soon expects to take a couple of more extended trips and he thought it would be a good plan for him to have some cash on hand to allow of his picking up examples to illustrate some new points in his text; in which I quite agreed with him and to that end sent him $100 to use for that purpose and to get anything else he saw of particular interest. Says he had not spoken of this to you yet but would do so. He wished to know where to send such specimens as he found and I said that probably you and Dr. Haeberlin would like to see them and that afterward they could go to the Field Museum to strengthen their collection.” Boas replied on April 20, 1917 (APS, Boas Papers, text 107314), agreeing with Sargent’s initiative concerning collecting and saying that Haeberlin was studying collections in Cambridge.

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Boas to Teit. April 17, 1917. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122097. My dear Friend,— I am sending to you by registered mail a blue print of map made from sketches you have sent me, showing the distribution of Salishan tribes. Will you be good enough to go over the map for revision and approval?

Boas to Teit. April 20, 1917. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122008. My dear Friend,— I was very glad to get your note of the 13th of April, and to hear that you are making good progress with the basketry work. Your plan of work will be quite satisfactory, because probably the material will have to be worked up with the notes that we have been collecting here in museums. I wish you would write to me just how much expenditure will probably be involved in the work that you are doing now; that is to say, how much more money I may have to send you, because my plans for Haeberlin will depend upon that question. I should not like to get into the position again in which I was a couple of years ago, when I had actually pledged more money than what Mr. Sargent had sent me.

Teit to Sapir. April 24, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, Yesterday the post master here gave me a letter addressed to you which he said had been here some days. As I did not know whether the letter was intended for me and they had wrongly addressed it to you or was it intended for you and they had made the mistake of addressing it to Spences Bridge I opened it before the postmaster who when I told him it was for you asked me to enclose it to you with explanation. You will find it enclosed herewith. Three prints of 26997 are wanted for Indians and one print of 25038. I have been unable to take any pictures for you lately as the shutter of my camera is not working right. I am sending it to Montreal to be fixed. I am taking measurements for you right along as I have the chance and am also collecting archaeological specimens from time to time. [page 2] No money has been sent to me yet for this purpose so I am using my own which does not seem quite 774 | 1917

fair. I will make a shipment of the stone things I have collected when I have enough to fill a box which will probably be in about a month. I am working at Boas work most of the time and have advanced fairly well with it. However I lost about a week from it as I was working outside. I had a touch of grippe a while ago which settled somewhat in my throat etc. and as the weather was very fine and warm last week the doctor told me if I kept outside constantly doing some kind of work that it would cure itself. This I did and I feel about all right now. I have done all the investigation I can with the basket makers of this division and the next step will be to go to Spuzzum for about a week. PS I hope Mr Knowles is progressing towards recovery.

Teit to Boas. April 30, 1917. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122048. Dear Friend. I received the map (blue print) you sent and am returning it today. It seems to be OK so far as the boundaries of nearly all the Salish tribes are concerned—that is to say for a date about the time of the coming of the Whites and immediately prior thereto. Several names are not filled in on the map viz. Lillooet, Thompson, Pend d’Oreille, Quileute, Chemakum. As I have no copies of the maps I sent you I have to depend on memory for all the boundaries of tribes (Salish and others) I gathered information on. The last two maps I sent you were practically a compilation of all the information up to date—One showing the oldest or traditional boundaries of the tribes and the other the late boundaries. The blue print you sent does not seem to follow exactly the lines of either. If intended to show the oldest boundaries of the tribes it is wrong for the southern boundaries of the Stuwī́x́ which should extend down to a point almost at the mouth of the Similkameen River and also therefore wrong for the Okan. at this point.18 Also wrong for the Okan. and to the NW of Okan. Lake where a triangular piece of territory with point extending S. should belong to the Shuswap. Also wrong for certain Thomp. boundaries viz the Shuswap should extend down Thomp. River almost to the mouth of Nicola River, and on Fraser River the Stalo should extend up almost to Boston Bar. The triangular 18. In the original letter there are five check marks in the right-hand margin, beginning ́ and ending with “the triangular point E. of Frawith “the southern boundaries of the Stuwī́x” ser River at La Fountain.”

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point E. of Fraser River at La Fountain should be Shuswap instead of Lillooet[.]19 The Columbia should extend much further south along Columbia River to the Dalles, etc. The boundaries of all the above tribes as given on the blue print are their late boundaries and not their oldest known boundaries. As I see the Tenáino, Klickitat, Paloos [sic] etc. etc. are also placed in their late habitats I suppose the map as a whole is intended to show the late boundaries of all the tribes viz Salish and their neighbors. If this is the case then there should be no Plains Kutenai, and Plains Salish, nor Plains Shoshone (near the Missouri)[.] The Blackfoot should occupy the Plains Kutenai country. Possibly also an island of Assiniboine (the Morley or Stony band) should occupy the Rockies on the Upper Bow River and south of the there. It is doubtful however if this band was there much (or at all) previous to the coming of the first fur traders in the NW. The Sarcee migration S. to near Calgary, the Shus. migration to the head of the Columbia, and the Iroquois settlement on the N.E. confines of the Shus. are [illeg] all since the fur [tr illeg] The Cr [illeg]-tainly also the Assiniboine [illeg] [page 2] [illeg] the [illeg] of the Blackfeet [illeg] coming of the f [illeg] traders.20 If the map is simply intended to accompany the Salish vocabularies (and not the paper on the ethnology of the Salish tribes) to show the boundaries of the different tribes speaking Salish languages and dialects and their immediate neighbors, I think it will be quite good enough for this purpose as it shows all the contacts ancient and recent with non Salishan tribes excepting the old contact of the Columbia with the Chinook and Cayuse. I suppose the rounded line of small dots on the map immediately S. of the Spokane represents the claim of the latter to territory down to the mouth of Cow Creek, but I do not understand what the lines of dots within Spokane territory represent, and it may be better to omit these. I suppose the full lines on the map represent boundaries of stocks, the broken lines boundaries of tribes of one stock speaking different languages, and the dotted lines boundaries of tribes speaking the same language. If this is so then broken lines should surround the Lill, Thom, Shus, Columbia, Coeur d’Alene, Plains Salish etc. where they converge with other Salish tribes, and dotted lines should divide the Okan, Sans Poil, Lake and Colville from each other, and the Spokane, Kalispel, Pend d’Oreille, Sᴇmteuse and Flathead from each other. Nothing on the map indicates the location of the Nᴇkutᴇmeux near the 19. “La Fontaine,” “Fountain” or Xaxli’p (First Nation) on the upper Fraser River. 20. Pages of the original letter are torn.

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Dalles claimed to have been Salish. I do not know whether the Cowlitz reached exactly to the mouth of Cowlitz River but if they did not their old territory certainly reached very near there. In reply to your letter of 20th inst. I think I will not require much if any more money than 100.00 to finish the basketry work. This is additional to what you sent me. To make sure it might be better to allow for 150.00 [.] If not all used so much the better. It is always hard to figure exactly on a piece of work of this kind. As a rule the writing out [illeg] information takes longer than I [illeg] anticipate [illeg][.]

Sapir to Teit. April 30, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Teit,— Thanks for forwarding Boas’ letter to me; it had been misdirected to Spences Bridge. I am ordering the prints that you requested. I shall drop Mr. Marshall a note in regard to forwarding you some money, and hope that there will be no great delay in the matter. I am very sorry to learn that you have recently had a touch of grippe, but am glad to know that you are in good condition now. With best regards to Mrs. Teit,

Sapir to Marshall. April 30, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Sir,— Mr. Teit is engaged in taking measurements among the Indians for us, also in collecting archaeological material. As both of these require outlays, he would be grateful for an advance from you about $200. His address is as usual Spences Bridge BC.

McInnes to Sapir. May 1, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, Mr. Marshall showed me your letter asking for an advance to Mr. Teit. We are sending him $100., as I find on referring to an 1917 | 777

agreement with him that it stipulated that $150. shall be the maximum expenditure for the year in addition to his salary.21

Boas to Teit. May 9, 1917. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122009. My dear Friend,— Many thanks for your letter of the 30th of April, and for the map which came a couple of days ago. My greatest difficulty in arranging the map for a period that will be about the same east and west is the position of the western Sahaptin tribes, but I will try once more to see what I can do.

Teit to Sapir. May 18, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, I received 100.00 from Mr Marshall for the buying of arch. specimens etc. I have just finished packing two boxes of specimens and will ship them as soon as I have an opportunity of getting them across to the depot. There are 83 numbers (all arch. specimens). I enclose catalog of them. I happened to be writing Smith a day or two ago re. a rock painting and I mentioned to him I was shipping these specimens and wanted from him (he has a stenographer) or from you a type written copy of the catalog as I am retaining no copy. I made out the list of all the Indian place names on the Lytton Sectional map for the Geographic Board with translations and charged the time against the Anthrop. work.

Boas to Teit. June 1, 1917. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122010. My dear Friend,— I have requested to-day the Bursar of Columbia University to send you draft for $150, in accordance with the estimate contained in your

21. The budget for Teit’s work was no longer a matter simply between Sapir and Marshall but subject to the directing geologist’s ongoing scrutiny.

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last letter. Haeberlin is probably going west about the middle of June, and I hope it will be possible to so arrange it that he will meet you.22

Boas to Teit. June 8, 1917. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122011. My dear Friend,— Dr. Haeberlin is planning now to be in Spences Bridge about the 25th of this month. In order to make sure that you meet, will you be good enough to telegraph him care of Dr. Berthold Laufer, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, and make a definite appointment. I presume he will be in Chicago on the 19th or 20th.

Teit to Boas. June 22, 1917. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122049. My Dear Friend I received your letter of recent dates and two or three days ago I received also the 150.00 from the Bursar of Columbia University. I wired to Dr Haeberlin as you suggested and I had a wire from him stating he will be here tomorrow afternoon. I thus hope to have the pleasure of chatting with him tomorrow evening. I expect he will stay here a couple of days. I am making fair progress with the basketry work but have had delay doing other work which has set me back somewhat. I was down at Spuzzum for several days and will have to go there again. The weather was very rainy when I was there and this prevented me from doing as much work as I otherwise might. There is less difference than I expected to find between the basket work there and here. The methods are [page 2] about the same. They make some very fine work there[.] I have also interviewed some of the Lytton basket makers. Probably two

22. Boas wrote to Sargent on June 11, 1917, noting that Haeberlin was well enough to go back out west to finish his previous summer’s work. “I have written to Teit, and I hope the two will meet about the 25th to talk over the basketry situation. We have not done anything on that part of the work during the winter, because all the next steps depend upon Mr. Teit’s present inquiries and upon the material that Haeberlin is going to get.” He continued, “The whole manuscript relating to the distribution of Salishan tribes is now in the hands of the Bureau of Ethnology. The map is in the hands of the draftsman. I was not satisfied with the base map which they had furnished, and after all the trouble of the boundaries having been put in, I am having the base map re-drawn. It is a tremendously bulky manuscript, more than a thousand pages. I hope I may be able to make further progress on the work during the summer” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107271).

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or three short trips of a few days time each will finish the field work. However I will hear what Haeberlin has to say. Hoping you are keeping well.

Boas to Teit. July 26, 1917. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122012. My dear Friend,— I presume this is about the time when the sugar on the sugar pines makes its appearance, and I write to remind you that we should like to have samples of the plant, and a good deal of the sugar for chemical and microscopical investigation. If you can get some, will you do me the great favor to address it to my daughter Miss Helene M. Boas, New York Botanical Garden, Bronx Park, New York City. I heard from Haeberlin that he spent some time with you. I hope you like him.23

Teit to Sapir. July 26, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, I am enclosing list of titles to the last lot of photos. Dr Haeberlin was here some time ago and stayed four days. He appears to be a nice fellow. I expect to be completely through with the basketry work by 23. On September 17, 1917, Boas wrote to Sargent (APs, Boas Papers, text 107271), announcing the publication of “Folk-Tales of Salishan and Sahaptin Tribes” and noting that the United States Geological Survey was preparing his new base map. “There is no decent map available showing the river systems and configuration of the land, covering western Canada and the northwestern United States. I feel that these maps are a contribution of very great importance, and they are based, so far as the inland is concerned, entirely on Mr. Teit’s work, while the coast is based on material that I collected between 1886 and 1900 and other material collected by my former students in Oregon.” Concerning the basketry project, he wrote, “Haeberlin has been in Puget Sound all summer, and I am expecting him back here to-morrow. He writes that he has had very good success in his work, and that Teit will furnish the notes on basketry, which they have discussed together, by the end of this month. I had a letter from him to the same effect. It was quite necessary for some one to talk over this matter in detail with Mr. Teit, because a number of points of view which I think are important are new to him, and these matters cannot be very well explained by correspondence. . . . During the last week Haeberlin has been in Chicago studying the basketry collection there, and before the term opens he will go to Ottawa to study a collection in the Geological Survey. We are also having some illustrations made in Chicago, which I hope will be useful soon. [para]I have not done any work on the Salish during the summer, because I have been occupied particularly with my Kutenai and Kwakiutl work, but both Haeberlin and myself are planning to give a good deal of time to it during the coming winter.”

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the end of next month excepting perhaps for a few questions that may be asked me by Haeberlin from time to time next winter when he commences to write up his material. The Indians ask for one print each of the following photos viz Nos. 23512, 23513, 27064, 27053, 31495, 31496.24 Relatives of the three persons numbered want the prints for enlargement. I hope this will find yourself and family quite well. PS There is a good deal of feeling against conscription in this country.

Sapir to Teit. July 31, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have your letter of July 26th enclosing list of titles for recent prints, for which I am much obliged. I understand, however, from Miss Bleakney,25 that you have omitted to send us the titles of your prints nos. 37485, 37482, 37484, 37481, and 37483.26 As far as we know, two sets of prints of these negatives were sent to you quite some time ago. If this is an error, please let me now.

Teit to Sapir. August 25, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. My Dear Dr Sapir, I received your letter last night. I have been delayed one way and another in the basketry work so I see I cannot finish it until some time in Sept. I had to go to Vancouver and lost all this week owing to sickness etc. I had one of my little boys in the hospital there for several days having an operation for the tonsils etc. They are all ok now and will be commencing school again on the 4th Sept. My wife is quite well and the baby. I was glad to hear you had received the notes on Shetland water beings I sent to Barbeau. Re. the words you mention I will jot down those that come to my notice.

24. The Nlaka’pamux people whose photographs had been requested were John, Tsikamin, in costume (23512, 23513); Roi.pêllst, presenting a man’s hairstyle (27064); Tommy Lick (Nsəlkapesket), presenting the hairstyle of young men and warriors (27053); Hilda, Tôtôeinek (31495, 31496) (Tepper, The Interior Salish Tribes of British Columbia). 25. Sapir’s secretary, later the wife of Diamond Jenness. 26. Citing Tepper, The Interior Salish Tribes of British Columbia. These are all photographs of Harvey, TaxEleps, PyealExkEn, his wife, and their baby.

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There are a great many in English but you must have most of them such as ‘willy-nilly’, ‘hodge-podge’ etc. etc. I have heard ‘bim-bam’ often. I dont think there are so many of this class of words in Shetlandic but some certainly occur in the New Shetland or Modern Shetland dialect. I dont know so much about the old Shetland dialect or Norse. I can think of one or two Shetland words of this kind now as I am writing viz. 1. “hinter-tinter” meaning [page 2] just on the balance, first one way then another as on a scales. The term seems to be derived from words (or at least may be connected with words) of Norse origin in the dialect and likely is not English (nor Lowland Scottish). There is a saying in some parts of Shetland which I have heard. ‘Hinter-tinter pa Geordi Gade’s bismar’ (bizmer)—on (name of a man) kind of scales or steelyard. It is said this man had a ‘bismar’ for weighing things on which weighed very correctly and if anything was ‘hinter-tinter’ on it must be the exact correct weight. The term Hinter-tinter is in common use in Shetland. [page 2] 2. To “wigg-wagg” = to continue shaking or wagging. Seems to be a frequentative (viz repeated action) form derived from the Shetland word to ‘wigg’ or ‘wig’. = to wag, to shake, to move back and fore. I dont know whether the derivation is Norse or English (Low. Sco) but more probably the latter. A lot of words of this class are found in children’s counting out verses used in games both in English and Shetland etc. but they seem to have no definite meaning.

Teit to Sapir. August 27, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, I think you asked me last year in behalf of the Botanical (or perhaps Entomological) Department to procure some more samples of the tree sugar used by the Indians. There was a lot of it on the fir trees this year but I was too late in procuring specimens. However I am sending some that I obtained lately as there probably will now be no chance of procuring better this year. The specimens I am sending are not No. 1, but still may be of value for study. If you think of it you might send me a few gum labels or stickers some time to use on parcels so I can send the latter free. I am making up the a/cs at the end of the month and will also ship what arch. specimens I have on hand to Smith. 782 | 1917

PS Did I tell you the Inds have some of these same kind of words you are collecting. I dont mean ordinary reduplications.

Teit to Sapir. August 31, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, I am sending you herewith my a/c made up to date with vouchers etc. There is a balance of 158.65 owing to me. It will be well to have the balance of the money voted for arch. specimens sent to me in case any specimens of value come around. I have expended a little over 100.00 of the amount so there will be about 50.00 coming for this purpose. I enclose a list of specimens I am shipping now. I suppose this goes to Smith. I will address the shipment to him. There is only one box. PS I have jotted down a number of the words you spoke of.

Sapir to Marshall. September 6, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Mr. Marshall,— I beg leave to submit to you Mr. J. A. Teit’s accounts for March 31st to August 31st, 1917. Under date of August 31st, Mr. Teit writes me: “There is a balance of $158.65 owing to me. It will be well to have the balance of the money voted for archaeological specimens sent to me in case any specimens of value come around. I have expended a little over $100 of the amount, so there will be about $50 coming for this purpose.” A list of the archaeological specimens already shipped has been received and transferred to Mr. Smith.

Sapir to Teit. September 7, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Teit,— I have your letters of August 25th, 27th, and 31st, also accounts which have been duly forwarded to Mr. Marshall with the request that the balance of the money appropriated for purchase of specimens be forwarded to you. I have also received the specimen of tree sugar, and am sending it to Dr. Hewitt, Dominion Entomologist, for examination. 1917 | 783

I am glad that you are going in for a list of hocus-pocus words; my own list continues to grow apace. Thanks for your note on Shetlandic hinter-tinter, which must be Norse in origin. Wig-wag, however, is undoubtedly English. Words belonging to this general category are really not uncommon in certain Californian languages. In Takelma, for instance, two important classes of verbs are formed by reduplication with vowel change. There, however, the verbs are treated in a strictly formal manner, like all other verbs. What are the Thompson River examples that you refer to; I should be interested in noting analogies. PS I learn from Dr. Boas that he is looking for good Indian material for the Journal of American Folk-Lore. If I could get [page 2] the necessary authorization here, would you have any personal objections to my turning over the Tahltan and Kaska myths to Dr. Boas? It would be made perfectly clear, of course, that the material was obtained for the Survey and that it is published with our permission.27 27. On September 7, 1917, Sapir wrote to the directing geologist, William McInnes, broaching the subject of transferring the Tahltan and Kaska tales to Boas for publication. Sapir wrote, “I have long had a large and excellent collection of Tahltan and Kaska tales from British Columbia, collected for us by Mr. J. A. Teit, and have already edited a considerable amount of this for publication. Owing to the present tendency towards restricting publication of non-economic material [editor’s emphasis], I have so far refrained from submitting this material to you” (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b.629, f.1, folder: “McInnes, William [1915–1916]”). While the economies imposed by the expense of the war may have been the primary reason for restricting funds for anthropological publication, Sapir’s use of the term “non-economic” may refer to the position of the deputy minister, R. G. McConnell, that anthropology was less useful than other disciplines represented in the Geological Survey of Canada because it did not generate information that contributed to the economic development of Canada (LAC, McConnell Correspondence, R. G. McConnell to M. F. Gallagher, May 12, 1917, cited in Richling, In Twilight and in Dawn, 114). Sapir and Boas discussed the publication of Teit’s Tahltan and Kaska myths in the Journal of American Folk-lore in an exchange of letters between September 7 and October 31, 1917. On September 7, 1917, Sapir wrote, “There is no special difficulty at present in publishing folklore here any more than there is any other kind of anthropological material. The fact is that anthropological publication has been suspended at present on account of the war. If you are desirous of having good Indian material for the Journal of American Folk-Lore, it occurs to me that perhaps we might turn over Teit’s collection of Tahltan and Kaska myths to you. I have already read over part of this material and edited it, but would be perfectly willing to let you have all of it, provided of course I could get the consent of the Survey authorities. I do not suppose that Teit himself would have any objections.” Boas agreed on September 11, 1917. On September 24, 1917, Sapir wrote, “I am authorized to transfer Teit’s Tahltan and Kaska Tales to the American Folk-Lore Society for publication in its Journal, or if preferred as a Memoir; but I have not been able to secure a definitive statement as to whether or not it would be possible to have enough reprints made or extra copies purchased to supply our anthropological mailing list. If I learn more definitely in regard to this point later on, I shall let you know. Meanwhile, you may go ahead with the material as you see fit. [para] I would be much obliged to

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Teit to Sapir. September 12, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, I received your letter of 7th inst. to-day. Re. your query of course I have no objections to Boas taking over the Tahltan and Kaska myths for publication in the Journal of Amer. Folk-lore. As long as it is suitable to you it is all right. Once I turn material in to you the same is then yours to have published in whatever way you deem best. The war has probably put an end in the meantime to further publishing of material by the Geol. Survey on account of the expense, so if you can obtain the necessary authorization to have the myths published elsewhere all the better. In my opinion the time is ripe for their publication since Boas published his Tsimpsean material28 these myths being now required to round out the information from this area for comparative purposes etc. The Tahltan and Kaska occupy a corner of the region forming a kind of wedge between Tsimpsean and Tlingit territory in the Interior with at their back the great Athapaskan [page 2] hinter-land so their mythology should be of considerable importance for comparison with Tlingit and you if you could publish the enclosed prefatory note with Teit’s collection, as I am rather eager to have the [sic] made clear that the material belongs to the Geological Survey and has been transferred by it to the American Folk-Lore Society. I had begun to edit the material some time ago, but had put the matter aside when I ascertained that we were going to have very considerable difficult[y] in getting anything of an anthropological nature published during the continuance of the war. The portion that I have edited embraces the first seventeen stories. This part of the material has been typewritten, and I am sending you with the complete manuscript also two typewritten copies of the part edited. The rest of the work I shall leave entirely up to you.” The Prefatory Note: “The following collection of Tahltan and Kaska Tales was collected by Mr. J. A. Teit, in the seasons of 1912 and 1915, in the region of Stikine River, British Columbia. The two seasons of field work referred to were devoted to a general ethnological investigation of the Tahltan and Kaska, under the auspices of the Geological Survey of Canada. The present publication embraces the mythological results of the trips. Other aspects of ethnology will be published by the Geological Survey from time to time in the form of special monographs. To facilitate the appearance of Mr. Teit’s Tahltan and Kaska Tales, the Geological Survey of Canada has authorized its Division of Anthropology to entrust their publication to the American Folk-Lore Society (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b. 621, f.2, folder: “Boas, Franz [1915–1917]”). Boas published the narratives in two parts, “Kaska Tales” in 1917, and “Tahltan Tales” in 1919. Early in 1918, in response to a letter from Boas (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, Boas to Sapir, February 27, 1918, b. 621, f.3, folder: “Boas, Franz [1918–1921]”) asking him to indicate the number of reprints of “Kaska Tales” he might want, Sapir wrote to Boas as follows on March 1, 1918 (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b.621, f.3, folder: “Boas, Franz [1918–1921]”): “Please let me have as many reprints of Teit’s Kaska Tales as you conveniently can, so long as your allotment does not involve any expense to the Survey. It is so difficult to get authorization nowadays for even modest expenditures, that I do not care to ask my Deputy Minister for a grant. Are you intending to send Teit any reprints or shall I send him some out of the allotment that you will allow me[?]” 28. Boas, Tsimshian Mythology, 29–1,037.

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Tsimshian on the one hand and Athapaskan on the other. Besides the Tahltan and Kaska occupied the most important part of the important trade route connecting the Pacific with the Mackenzie and Yukon in this latitude and I believe trade routes favor the dissemination of myths very considerably. I notice a number of analogies between the Tahltan myths and some of the Tsimpsean published by Boas, and there are lots of analogies with the Tlingit. The myths at present are practically minus notes pointing out analogies with Tlingit and Tsimpsean tales and are also very weak in showing comparisons with Athapaskan tales to the east and and [sic] north as I had no books on the myths of any of these tribes when I wrote out the tales. If Boas is in a hurry to take them over for publication he can no doubt remedy these defects by supplying notes to the tales himself. You sent me the myths collected by Swanton from the Tlingit and Haida and I have now the Tsimpsean myths by Boas but [page 3] I have no collections from Athapaskan tribes excepting those of Morice (Carrier) and Farrand (Chilcotin) which I have already made use of when writing out the tales. Perhaps however (if there is plenty of time) you could prefer the tales to go in as complete a form as possible from the Geol. Survey to Boas and in this case you or I or Barbeau (or some one of the Survey) would have to add the extra notes. Re. Indian words of the “hocus-pocus” type, there are several, (most of them representing sounds) and in some cases they come near English. ́ tît) ́ = the noise of something One I remember just now is pîtatît́ (or pîtabeing evacuated as in defecating for instance. Also to make this sound. The word implies frequency of the action or repetition of the sound. ́ pît́ = a sound made by small Another is pîta-pát or I think rarely pîtafoot steps. A kind of pattering sound. As of light footsteps moving rapidly. I think also the sound of finger points struck on a board etc. etc. Also to make this sound. The word is also frequentative like the other. Is there not an English term pit=pat viz to go pit=pat and the sound itself viz to hear pit=pat viz a [page 4] pattering sound. I have heard it somewhere. Also pitter-patter f.i. [for instance] the pitter-patter of the rain, of feet etc. I think these are English although I may not have heard them used by real English people. I suppose you must have the following English ones? 1. Tick-tack Tick-tock 2. Dickety-dock 3. Hip-hop 4. Hippity-hop Hoppity-hopp 786 | 1917

5. Skippity-skip 6. Higgilty-piggelty 7. Wishy-washy I dont know if I spell them exactly right as some of them I have never seen in print. Also have you got these? I think some are likely dialect forms. Any you dont have I will explain to you. Jingle-jangle Jiggle-jaggle Higgle-haggle Widdle-waddle Wimple-wample Whazle-wheezle Clitter-clatter clunk-clunck or Kelonk-kelonk holus-bolus clink-clank cling-clang swish-swash [page 5] PS I sent you some spare copies of the Salish tales lately published. They sent so many reprints I dont know what to do with them all. The war probably (under present economic and social conditions) had to come and advancement will probably come out of it and good in the end, but at the same time it is a disgrace for peoples calling themselves Christian and Civilized. All these Nations but it seems especially Eng. Can. and the U.S. claim to be fighting for democracy. This is quite ridiculous. Who ever heard of any modern capitalist class fighting for democracy?29 They always wish to suppress it and are taking advantage of this war to do so in their several countries. See how they are doing it now in the U.S. and in Canada. They throttle 29. After meeting socialist friends during his trip to the Shetlands in 1902, Teit joined the Socialist Party of British Columbia in November of that year. The Socialist Party of British Columbia merged with the Socialist Party of Canada in 1905. Its headquarters was in Vancouver. For discussions of Teit’s connections to socialism see Banks, Comparative Biographies of Two British Columbia Anthropologists, 52–54; Campbell, “‘Not as a White Man, Not as a Sojourner,’” 37–57; Wickwire, At the Bridge, 185–92.

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everything that is democratic with their trumped up war time measures. No longer [page 6] is there any freedom of speech, press, and assembly. They bring in conscription30 without any referendum and now there is the Borden War Time election act (the most unfair measure I ever heard of in any country) to make sure of the return to power of the Conservative and Conscription party in Canada.31 There is an intense feeling in BC against this measure and also a strong feeling against conscription. Conscription would never pass here in BC if it went to a vote. About ⅞ of the Liberal party here is against it which would about beat the Conservative and ‘win the war’ vote alone. There is practically all the Labor, Socialist, French, Scandinavian, Pacifist, Unitarian and most of the Roman Catholic vote against it as well. People are being driven to think these days and it will be a good thing if they really wake up. The time is about ripe for some big and necessary changes or even revolution.

Teit to Sapir. September 14, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, I have shipped the last lot of Arch. specimens addressed to Smith and have sent him the shipping bill. I want to know about the regulations as to correspondence and sending of pcls by mail free as the Gov. appears to be becoming particular all at once. The pcl of tree sugar I sent to you I forwarded marked OHMS but the Postmaster at Ottawa wants me to pay 48 cents on it claiming it should have had postage. I dont see how this should be as the contents were specimens going to the 30. The Military Service Act, passed by the Canadian government on August 29, 1917, made all men between the ages of twenty and forty-five subject to conscription for military service until the end of World War I (Richard Preston, “Military Service Act,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/military-service-act, published online February 7, 2006, updated by Richard Foot, David Joseph Gallant, and Andrew McIntosh, May 7, 2021, accessed February 7, 2022). 31. A reference to the Wartime Election Act, passed on September 20, 1917, by the Canadian government led by Sir Robert Borden. The Wartime Election Act gave the vote to women serving in the military as well as to the wives, sisters, and mothers of men serving overseas. At the same time it disenfranchised citizens from countries now considered enemy nations who had been naturalized after March 31, 1902, although it exempted those who had a son, grandson, or brother serving with the Canadian Expeditionary Force (John English, “Wartime Election Act,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/wartime -elections-act, published on-line February 7, 2006, updated by Daniel Panneton, May 7, 2021, accessed February 7, 2022). The Wartime Election Act was repealed following the end of WW I.

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government for scientific purposes and I had been asked to send these specimens. I want to know whether pcls such as this one or say any other at any time containing say Ethnological specimens, Botanical specimens or other specimens or manuscripts etc. desired by you in the interests of your work is entitled to go free through the mails or not. I am refusing payment of postage on the pcl of tree sugar until I hear [page 2] from you on this question. Also re. letters I understand I can write to yourself using the Geol. Survey envelopes OHMS but can I also write to Barbeau, Smith and Knowles in the same way. Of course I suppose what I write in all cases is supposed to be on business in connection with the work of the Department (or Survey). Barbeau, Smith and Knowles all use the ‘free’ envelope in writing to me and as a member of the survey also I suppose I should be entitled to write to them in the same way. I ask this because lately the P.M. here rather objected to my sending M.S. and letter marked Free to Mr. Barbeau. I suppose the next thin[g] the PO authorities may do will be examination or censoring of our letters if they have not commenced that already. PS I will have to confine my correspondence strictly to business Ethnological and not pass any remarks about the war after this?32

Sapir to Teit. September 18, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Teit,— Thanks for your letter of September 12th. Dr. Boas has already expressed his willingness to take over your Tahltan and Kaska myths for this year’s last number of the Journal of American Folk-Lore, but I have not yet heard in regard to this matter from headquarters. In case it is decided to transfer the material to Dr. Boas, I think it would be up to him to finish the editing of the material. He could decide as to whether to put in the crossreference notes himself or have you do the work. How are you getting on, by the way, with other aspects of Tahltan and Kaska field results? Thanks for your notes on words of the hocus-pocus type. There were quite a few new ones among them. You might let me know just what you mean by the following: 32. This suggests that Sapir may have written to Teit concerning his references to the war, but if he did, the letter has not survived in the CMH file.

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tick tack

widdle waddle

tick tock

wimple wample

dickety dock

whazle wheezle

jiggle jaggle Any more material of this sort that you could send in would be greatly appreciated.

Sapir to Teit. September 19, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Teit,— I do not really know if new regulations have been passed in regard to franking parcels that go through the mail. Your parcel of tree sugar had to be paid for by our mail man, but it seems to me that he should be refunded not by yourself but by the Survey. I shall ask him about this matter next time I see him, and shall let you know whether he has been refunded or not. Meanwhile, you had better pay no attention to your postmaster at Spences Bridge. As regards franked letters, addressed to the Survey, there seems always to have been a certain doubt. Ordinarily letters addressed to anyone of us here without postage go through all right. Once in a great while we hear of a complaint from the postal authorities to the effect that only such letters as are addressed to the institution as such are entitled to franking privileges. To save misunderstanding in future, it might perhaps be just as well to address letters either to the Director of the Geological [Survey] or to myself with the title “Head of Division of Anthropology” subjoining. The actual addressee should be indicated to one side, as “For so and so.” This little device ought to settle the difficulty.

Sapir to Teit. September 20, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Teit,— Postage on your shipment of tree sugar has been paid for at this end by the Survey, so there is nothing further for you to do about it. I understand from our mail man that parcels sent by post can be 790 | 1917

franked only up to 12 oz.; above this weight the sender is required to pay postage. This applies to all branches of the Government service, whether sent from Ottawa out or in to Ottawa. If in future shipments of this sort you find yourself compelled to lay out a considerable amount of money in postage, you could, I presume, charge it to the Government on your regular accounts, or if you prefer, you could [send] the parcels by express, collect at Ottawa.

Teit to Sapir. September 29, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, I received your letter giving the information about franked letters and parcels and note same. I think it will be well if Dr Boas takes over the Tahltan and Kaska myths for publication as it may be a long time before the survey allows funds for their printing owing to the war. As you say if Dr Boas obtains them he can do the editing and furnish the additional cross references. I do not have much time to do it myself at present as I am not through with the basketry paper yet and then I have the Tahltan material to finish before the end of the fiscal year. I have done very little on the latter yet. The basketry is taking me longer than I expected. The designs especially make a lot of work and I want to get them as complete as possible. I have about 700 of them to work on and am not quite through with the description and arrangement yet. The technical part of the paper (data on) is not quite finished either. Mr Marshall has sent no money yet either for wages nor for specimens or at least I have not received [page 2] it up to date. I agree with all you say re. the war etc. but what is the use of discussing it. I am quite disgusted. I believe socialism alone is the cure. That is to say S. of the true brand. To-night is the last wet night in BC. After to-night BC is dry or at least the saloons will be out of business.33 I can see a lot of graft underneath this prohibition scheme. The big interests are now in favor of Prohibition. Re. the words you ask about. Tick-tack and tick-tock and dick-dock and dickety-dock are all English or used by English speaking people and represent sounds made by the clock ‘Tick-tack’ says the clock. The clock says ‘tick-tock’, ‘tick-tock’, etc. Listen to the tick-tack of the clock! All these are pretty common 33. Prohibition was in effect in British Columbia from October 1917 until 1921 (“1917—Prohibition Begins by Referendum,” Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, https://www.leg.bc.ca/dyl/ Pages/1917-Prohibition-Begins-by-Referendum.aspx, accessed November 5, 2021).

1917 | 791

and used in the same way. Dickety-dock also occurs in an old verse about the clock f.i. “Dickety dickety dock, the mouse ran up the clock. The clock struck one, the mouse ran down, D.D.D.” etc. figgl, jiggel (or jiggle) is a word used in Shetland meaning to rock or sway backwards and forwards. It is probably from English although I dont know any English word with this meaning. It may be related to the English words jig and to jig. The form jiggl-jaggl is occasionally used for repeated jiggling. jingl-jangl or Jingle-jangle is no doubt from English jingle or from jangle applied to sounds. A jangling noise, a jingling noise. The jingling of bells etc. Wimpl-wampl or wimple wample is little doubt from English whimple or wimple confer [page 3] English The wimpling brook. The words wig-wag, jingle-jangle and wimplewample all occur together in a cumulative rhyme used in Shetland. Wimple-wample refers in it to the running of the brook (or waters of the brook). Jingle jangle refers to the moving of the door on its hinges. No doubt the noise made on its hinges or by its hinges when moving. “I will jangle upon my hinges” said the door “So the door jinglejangled.” Wig-wag refers to the swaying or wagging of a hook in this rhyme. Widdl-waddl or Widdle-waddle is used occasionally in Shetland and is little doubt from English Waddle or at least related to it. Widdl in Shetland means ‘to walk slowly about’. Wigg means ‘to move,’ ‘to shake’, ‘to wag’. Whazle wheezle, Whassl whiezl, hwasel-hwisel (many different spellings). This combination is sometimes applied in Shetland to continued wheezing sounds made by the throat or chest and no doubt is related to the English wheeze. It seems however the words are of Norse origin as Dr Jakobsen includes them in his dictionary of the Norse dialect in Shetland. Hwasel, hwasi etc. a wheezing sound made by the throat, also verb to hwasel etc. These words are also applied to the wind. Hwisl, hwisel, noun and verb, applied to wind. Jakobsen gives related forms Old Norse. hvoesa, Swedish dialect hvasa, Danish hvaese, Swed hvissla, Dan. hvisle. The Lowland Sco [page 4] Whaisle and the Eng. whistle are related. A word Kabbi-labbi is used to some extent in Shetland. It means a confused talking as many persons speaking at the same time. It probably is not Norse as Jackobsen does not have it in his dictionary. It may be English or Low. Sco. Perhaps you have got it? I have heard in Shetland and possibly elsewhere klonk-klonk or more rarely kelónk-kelónk for a gurgling sound as water running out of a barrel etc. or of liquid when drunk out of a bottle. Also sound made by the throat when drinking. I expect you have likely got it? I suppose you have the American ones flim-flam and flim flams, whim-wham, jimjams, and pow-wow. Also the English harum-scarum, helter-skelter, 792 | 1917

bing-bang, cling-clang, ding-dong, clitter-clatter, dilly-dally, bow-wow, hook or crook. Have you got higgle-haggle and holus-bolus? They are much used by the Low. Sco. I dont know exactly where to draw the line sometimes between these hocus pocus words and some of the reduplicated words. Some French and Indian words are in my mind but they may be mere reduplication. PS Perhaps Klonk-klonk given above is not a real hocus pocus word viz the kind you want. There are a number of similar words in Indian etc.

Teit to Boas. October 6, 1917. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122050. My Dear Friend. I have just written to Dr Haeberlin and explained the reasons of the delays in completing the data on Basketry and no doubt he will show you the letter.34 I find I am short of funds and would require about 100.00 in the meantime if you can spare some. I would at the same time like you to tell me the amounts you have furnished me with (during the year or since it was agreed I should finish the collecting of data) and the dates same were forwarded to me as I am not quite sure if I have my a/c right. The writing out of the data and putting the notes together is taking up the most time. I hear from Dr. Sapir that you will likely take over for publication my collection of tales from the Tahltan and Kaska. This would be well as I am afraid that (owing to the war) the Geol. Survey will not assent to the expense of publishing it for a long time. I have just written to your daughter re. the possibility of her obtaining an analysis of the tree-sugar I sent her specimens of. I was very glad to hear from Dr Haeberlin that you were quite strong and in good health. With very kind regards PS I just finished revising the text for Mr Barbeau of the short paper I wrote some time ago on Water-beings in Shetlandic folk-lore [.]

34. Haeberlin was continuing to study basketry in museum collections. In a letter written from Chicago, Haeberlin expressed his gratitude to Boas for inviting him to Lake George, which he thus intended to visit before heading to Ottawa as he saw the need to discuss with Boas in more detail the basketry collection to be studied in Ottawa prior to arriving in the city (APS, Boas Papers, Haeberlin to Boas, September 1, 1917, translated from German by Sarah Moritz).

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PPS. I think it is important the Tahltan and Kaska tales should be published as they have considerable connection with the tales of neighboring Athapascan tribes and the Tlingit and Tsimpshian, and even the Salish.

Sapir to Marshall. October 11, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. My dear Mr. Marshall,— Under date of September 29th, Mr. J. A. Teit writes that he has as yet received no money for either wages or specimens. I take it that he wishes me to call your attention to this, as I understand that he has made certain outlays of his own resources.

Marshall to Sapir. October 11, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr. Sapir: I have yours of even date, relative to Mr. Teit’s account. Today I am sending him a cheque for $150.00, as a further remittance on account of his expenses. In the account submitted by Mr. Teit there is an item charged, 16th May, for four days work on Lytton Sectional map preparing lists of Indian places for Geo. Board, $16.64. Would you be good enough as to let me know why this item should be charged against this Department, as we here have no knowledge of what connection Mr. Teit may have with the Geographic Board.

Sapir to Teit. October 12, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Teit,— Thank you for your letter of September 29th. I was very glad to get further information in regard to words of the type that I have recently been collecting. A few of the examples you gave were new. You might let me know in your next letter what you mean by whim-wham. I have dropped Mr. Marshall a note in regard to his failure to send you an advance. As to the transfer of your myths to Dr. Boas, I have taken the matter up with Mr. McInnes, the Directing Geologist. Although I have obtained no specific answer yet, I have little doubt that 794 | 1917

my recommendation will go through all right, and that we shall be able to turn the material over to Dr. Boas for early publication.

Sapir to Teit. October 12, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Teit,— I have just received a note from Mr. Marshall to the effect that he was sending you a check for $150. He notes as follows: “In the accounts submitted by Mr. Teit there is an item charged, 16th May, for four days work on Lytton Sectional map preparing lists of Indian places for Geo. Board, $16.64. Would you be good enough as to let me know why this item should be charged against this Department, as we here have no knowledge of what connection Mr. Teit may have with the Geographic Board?” You might forward a statement either to me or to Mr. Marshall clearing up this matter. Perhaps you could arrange to have the money paid through the Geographic Board if Mr. Marshall continues to object.

Teit to Sapir. October 12, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, It seems they are not through with their trouble and red tape yet re. the pcl. we were discussing. You gave me instructions the same had been paid by you over there so I should not pay it here. Now the postmaster here has instructions that I am requested to pay the amount here so they can make a refund to the parties who paid there. In other words they want me to pay here although they have received payment over there from you. Probably this is mere red tape, or are they particularly anxious to soak me?, or is my money better than yours? PS Of course I have not paid it, and will not do so except you tell me to.

1917 | 795

Teit to Sapir. October 17, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, Re. the work I did for the Geographic Board as they have paid me nothing I thought it would be all right to enter it in my a/c under my ordinary work for you. The work was ethnological viz giving the correct pronunciations and spellings of Indian place names occurring in the Lytton sectional map (printed by the Ottawa Gov.) and also giving the meanings of place names. I have always understood that one of the functions of the Anthro. Division was to supply expert information to other Gov. departments and even to the public, whenever such was desired or asked for by them. H. I. Smith just now is providing information to Can. Manufacturers re. designs derived from Can. Archaeology which it may pay them to adopt in certain classes of work. Information is also no doubt supplied by our Department or Division to the Indian Department. f.i. information on the potlatch and systems of property etc. obtaining among the Indians. I thought [page 2] work of this kind would naturally form part of our regular work and would not require any special explanation. I did not expect the Geographic Board to pay me anything for the work I did. I thought it was merely a case of their asking expert information from us which we were expected to supply in the ordinary course of our work, or one Gov. department aiding another in their scientific work. In this particular case you referred the Geographic Board to me and I felt bound to give them the information as far as I could, and I did so by neglecting for the time being other work for the Division. If I had known it did not come into the ordinary course of our work I might have done the work for the Geographic Board at nights or have refused to do it at all without special arrangement. If Mr Marshall thinks it does not come within our province to do this kind of work and that this item should not be charged against the Anthrop. Division it may be possible to arrange it in some way whereby the amount will be paid by the Geographic Board to the Geol. Survey. Otherwise I suppose keep the amount off them and I will give the work to the Gov. gratis. Also I suppose it might be arranged that the amount be paid me by the Geographic Board in which case of course it would not require to appear in my a/c at all.

796 | 1917

Teit to Sapir. October 17, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, I just write you a line to say I had a visit lately from Chief Paul of Tob[ac]co Plains, Kut. He came over to Indian meetings held here [Spences Bridge] and at Kamloops. He stayed with me three days. Owing to his participation and interest in the Ind. Rights movement etc., he is fast becoming recognized as the leading chief in Kutenai and is wielding considerable influence although he does not push himself with that object in view. I have now got him thoroughly interested in our ethnological work and he is very anxious that his tribe be studied thoroughly from all points and all the information obtained be put on record. He wants his tribe written up in the same way as the Ntlak., Shus., Blackfoot etc., and is prepared to help in this matter. He asked me to communicate with you to this effect, but I told him prob. nothing much could be done until after the war.35 I took down some general information from him (as I always do when he comes over here) and a few stories. The latter are very close to some of those of the Ntlak. especially those relating the [page 2] origin of death, origin of the sun and moon and the introduction of salmon. It seems a peculiarity of the latter is that Coyote drifted against two dams (one below the other) his adventures with two women at the first dam being similar in details given by some tribes, and his adventures with the two women at the lower dam being like those related by other tribes. The Kut. thus having the incidents divided into two, and between the two having nearly all the details of all the tribes. From information I got from Paul re. certain customs now obsolete it seems almost certain the Kut. had certain (several) medicine societies formerly. However there is not the slightest trace of anything like clans, phratries, etc. One interesting piece of information which he said he had perfected by inquiry among his people before telling me was that oldest traditions divide the Kut. in two not in three, viz Plains Kut. and Kut of the Up. Kut. River, instead of the later main division of Plains Kut., Up. Kut, and Low. Kut. The Kut. West of the Mtns stretched from abt the Amer. line to Windermere with headquarters around Tobco. Plains. The Low. Kut. of Bonner’s Ferry, Creston etc. were an early 35. This work never took place. Chief Paul David did provide information twenty years later, in 1938 and 1939, to Harry Holbert Turney-High, who wrote the only comprehensive ethnography of the Kutnaxa, Ethnography of the Kutenai.

1917 | 797

break away that migrated down the Kut. River. The Kut. of Cranbrook and Fort Steele etc. (now the central and main part of the tribes in BC) are a late offshoot from the same source. With accretions. PS I received $150.00 from Mr. Marshall to-day. I was glad to hear from Mr. Barbeau he was pleased with the Shetlandic folk lore I sent him.

Teit to Sapir. October 17, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, I got your letter to-day. Whim wham means a thing created from (or by) a whim, a kind of freak thing or notion. Jim-jams means diarrhoea at least as some use it f.i. “he has the jim-jams.” “I have got the jimjams to-day.” I never heard of syphilis being implied by the term. I think delirium tremens is meant by the way some others use the term. Generally the term is used the same way as the expressions. Would not that give you a pain (“Would not that give you the jim-jams”) “Would not that make you sick”, “would not not [sic] that give you the shits” “would not that give you the (or a) belly ache” etc. I dont remember any more of these reduplicated expressions just now but if I think of any others I will send them or jot them down. I wrote to you the other day re. the [pcl]. again. I will await a reply as to whether I will pay. PS Jim-jams means that one is ‘staggered’ or ‘flabbergasted’ or ‘knocked out of commission’ by something said or [done] viz. made sick. PPS I suppose you have topsy turvy, rolly polly, bric a brac. Hotch-potch is the name of a dish among the Low. Sco. The name seems to be the same as Eng. hodge-podge. PPPS Perhaps it would have been better if I had not itemized the few days work for the Geographic Board. It might have saved trouble.

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Boas to Teit. October 22, 1917. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122013.

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

My dear Friend,— I have your recent letter, and feel a good deal troubled by it. The situation is such that we have to try to close up the basketry paper as soon as may be. I do not expect that Dr. Haeberlin will be here after next spring, and for this reason the paper ought to be finished by that time.36 I want to have the subject written out in connection with some of the fundamental questions of the theory of art, and for this reason I presume I should have to re-arrange your notes, anyway; and it occurs to me that perhaps the best way would be if you would not give so much time to the arrangement of your data, and rather send us the material.37 Of course we cannot hope to make the investigation entirely exhaustive. My own idea is rather that after the present work has been done, it will be necessary to try the same kind of work in another place, for instance in California, and then, with the new experience gained there, go back once more to your field. I hope that this may prove acceptable to you, and that it will help expedite your work. I am sorry to say that I cannot see at the present moment how I can spare $100, but I may be able to do so within a short time. I am obligated for [page 2] field expenses, expense of illustration, to such an extent that 36. In this letter Boas communicated to Teit, perhaps for the first time, his vision for the basketry research, a vision that is rooted in his own earlier research, his intention to generate research results amenable to comparison from one region to another, and his practice of directing the work of particular scholars to achieve this goal. His statement conveyed the sense of a plan rapidly evolving as he faced the inevitability of Haeberlin’s death. The consequence was the rapid shifting of the basis and outcome of Teit’s own work on basketry. In a letter preceding this one by a few weeks, Haeberlin informed Boas that Teit had promised him to send his fieldnotes by the end of the September 1917 (APS, Boas Papers, Haeberlin to Boas, September 5, 1917, translated from German by Sarah Moritz). 37. Boas wrote to Sargent on October 24, 1917, saying, “I am urging Teit to send us whatever notes he has on the basketry questions in which we are particularly interested. I feel that he is putting more time in to the arrangement of the material than is necessary. I think you will understand me if I say that, although I value Teit very very highly and have the greatest respect for his persistence and clear judgment, some of the theoretical questions are naturally removed from his interest; and since it is impossible to stay with him long enough to explain to him all their bearings, the material that he sends us must necessarily be re-arranged here and be discussed here. I think therefore that the best way of doing the present piece of work would be for him simply to send his notes without trying to discuss them himself. I have written to him in this sense. It is of course no reflection at all on his work if we recognize that there are certain limitations inherent upon his situation. I merely wrote to him, saying that very likely Haeberlin would not be here after this spring, and that for this reason this particular part of the work must be completed, and I urged him for this reason to send us his material. If you should happen to write to him, I hope you will also say something to this effect, and of course in a form that would not hurt his feelings” (APS, Boas Papers, Boas to Sargent, October 24, 1917, text 107273).

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my balance runs very low. I wish very much I could send it to you right away. You must have had some expenses with the pine sugar that you sent to my daughter. Will you not please let me know what it amounts to.

Sapir to Teit. October 22, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. I have your three letters of October 17th, also previous communication in regard to charges for parcel recently sent.38 I did not bother about answering your communication in regard to the parcel, as I assumed that there was nothing further to be done about it. The parcel has been paid for at this end and I do not see why there need be any further discussion. As regards the items that you had entered for work done for the Geographic Board. I should like to explain that I had forgotten all about my having advised the Board to consult you in the matter. That being so, inasmuch as all the work you did for them was in regard to the pronunciation and spelling of Indian place names, I should think that the items might, without impropriety, be passed by Mr. Marshall. I shall write him to this effect. I am glad to see that Chief Paul is enthusiastic about the business of collecting ethnological information from the Kootenay. This is a matter that should be taken up some time after the war. At present it is, of course, quite impossible to initiate new work. Thank you for the further information in regard to words of the type that I have been collecting.

Sapir to Marshall. October 22, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Sir,— I had written Mr. Teit in regard to the items entered on his recent accounts covering work done for the Geographic Board. In reply to my communication, he writes as follows: “Regarding the work I did for the Geographic Board as they have paid me nothing I thought it would be all right to enter it in my a/c under my ordinary work for you. The work was ethnological viz giving the correct pronunciations and spellings of 38. There is no salutation in Sapir’s letter to Teit of October 22, 1917.

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Indian place names occurring in the Lytton sectional map (printed by the Ottawa Gov.) and also giving the meanings of place names. I have always understood that one of the functions of the Anthro. Division was to supply expert information to other Gov. departments and even to the public, whenever such was desired or asked for by them.” I may mention also that the Geographic Board had consulted me in regard to these names and that I had referred them to Mr. Teit as being far more likely to be familiar with the particular place names in question. Under the circumstances, it seems to me that it would be perfectly legitimate to allow time spent on this work as equivalent to time spent on Survey work.

Marshall to Sapir. October 23, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr. Sapir: I submitted your letter of the 22nd instant to the Acting Deputy Minister, and his decision respecting Mr. Teit’s charge against this Department, for work done for the Geographic Board, is that the work was altogether outside of the contract or agreement entered into last Spring, and should not be borne by the Geological Survey.39 The item $16.70 in question will be deducted for Mr. Teit’s account.

Sapir to Teit. October 24, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Teit,— The enclosed letter from Mr. Marshall explains itself. You might return it at your convenience. The enclosed design is from an Indian pictograph. I am rather interested just at present in a little psychological experiment. I should like to determine differences of individual conception of the essential nature and elements of any given design. One method that has suggested itself is to see how different people develop a simple design into more complex designs or patterns. Would you mind giving me a series of say fifteen to twenty designs based on the enclosed. There

39. This is not R. G. McConnell, but someone acting in his place on a temporary basis. McConnell remained deputy minister of mines until his retirement in 1920.

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should be no attempt to draw with rigorous care; the main requirement in the experiment would be spontaneity.

Sapir to Teit. October 29, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Teit,— The enclosed letter from Dr. Hewitt, in regard to your specimen of tree sugar, will probably be of interest to you. I have at last obtained explicit leave to turn your Tahltan and Kaska myths over to Dr. Boas; they are now in his hands.

Teit to Boas. October 31, 1917. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122051. My Dear Friend. I received your letter a couple of days ago, and note all you say. Your explanation shows the importance of my hurrying up the work and I will do so as much as I can. I will send you the designs first so Dr Haeberlin can start on them. I will not trouble writing them out in ink but will forward the pencil writing. I had an idea the study was to be very exhaustive and still I could not see how this could be done on so little funds and comparatively little time. I would have been through before had I been working steady on your work but my time has been very much broken one way and another. I can see that even with the fairly good information I have gathered there is still a good deal more which might be obtained to make the study really complete. Perhaps as you say after a similar inquiry to this one in California or elsewhere a further investigation may be conducted here again to round off or complete the study of the basketry of this tribe. I think you will find the information re. designs is pretty complete as I have gathered together all I have learned re. designs and design names in years of [page 2] taking notes. I have not nearly completed however references to designs on baskets in the various collections. I intended to add to each design all the references I could to individual baskets carrying these designs in collections in photos etc. As it is you may have to rely largely on the sketches I have made of the designs. I think the number of designs I have got together is more than any single investigator could obtain in the field except he took a very long time and the design names I have collected are nearly complete for the tribe. 802 | 1917

I think I may be able to send you part or all of the notes on designs in about a week. Any information which seems to you short or wanting I may have omitted and Dr Haeberlin can write me re. any matter of this kind which comes up. Re. the specimens of tree sugar I sent your daughter you [do not] need to trouble. I did not intend to charge for same I paid an Ind. woman 2.00 but I sent only part of what she brought in to your daughter, the rest going to other parties.

Teit to Sapir. October 31, 1917. CMH. Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, I received your letters and note the ruling re. the work for the Geographic Board. I will not approach the Geo. Board on the subject and will let the matter drop. Re. the design experiment you mention, the results from a number of individuals should be interesting. I suppose you mean me to enlarge the enclosed design element myself or do you want me to try the Indians. If it is desired from any individuals I may get my wife and others also to try it. I will try this some evening. I think I could build up a hundred or more of designs suggested by this element as a base but many would be no good and I would discard them as patterns. I received the photos and will send you the titles soon. I think a few more of your class of words as I am writing viz. Hootchie-kootchie and kan-kan (I dont know if I spell them the common way). These are common [page 2] names among the whites (Amer. Can. Eng etc.) for certain women’s dances of a lewd nature (Two kinds of dances) danced by nude or semi nude women. I have heard the names are of Hawaiian origin but I dont know about this. Also kili-kalum (I spell phonetically as I dont remember the Gaelic spelling) a dance of the Scottish Highlanders. Perhaps this word however is out of your class. Also Kerom-Gorom (I spell again phonetically I think the common spelling is Carum-gorum but I am not sure) = a kind of pebble or precious stone found in some parts of the mountains of the Scottish Highlands. I think it is of a yellowish color.

1917 | 803

Sapir to Teit. November 6, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Teit,— Thanks very much for your letter of October 31st enclosing supplementary information on words of sing-song type. The designs that I wish you to construct may or may not be desirable as patterns.40 The main interest in the matter for me is psychological, that is, I should like to determine from the comparison of a number of series wherein individual differences of conception lie. After I have all the series sent in to me I shall probably prepare a set of questions on the material and return the various sets to the draftsmen for answers to these questions. I should be very glad to get other series from such people as you may care to ask. A set of Indian series would be of interest, though, as I have already indicated, my standpoint is not all ethnological. I have already obtained several series and while there are some coincidences, they exhibit rather striking divergences on the whole.

Sapir to Teit. November 8, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Teit,— The parcel business is not solved to everybody’s satisfaction yet. To my amazement, I have just been given 42 cents worth of stamps by the Post-office people here. I imagine that they are now going to collect from you at your end, so I am sending you the stamps enclosed. Then, if you pay the local postmaster at Spences Bridge, I suppose the powers that be will sigh with relief. Mr. Knowles is back at work now and is in receipt of all your recent communications. He was much pleased to get the material and expects to let you know more about it in the near future. He also wishes me to send you his best regards.

40. This request on Sapir’s part is somewhat mystifying, coming as it does shortly after both the deputy and Marshall have demonstrated that they are taking a particularly hard line in the matter of paying Teit for any work not covered by the very specific terms of his current contract.

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Sapir to Teit. November 28, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Teit,— Kindly let me have a brief summary of the anthropological work you have done for the Survey during the present calendar year. Please let me know also if you think you can have finished ethnological manuscript by the end of this fiscal year. Before very long I shall be preparing a contract for you as usual for the next fiscal year. I have no idea whatever at present as to whether or not there will be any difficulty this time with seeing the matter through. You understand, of course, that under present circumstances nothing can be assumed. I shall, however, try my best to have the contract passed. PS I should like to have those design series that I wrote you about some time ago before long if possible.

Teit to Sapir. November 30, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, I received your letter with the enclosed stamps. The Postal Department asked me to pay the 40 odd cents at this end so they could refund the amount to you. I did not intend to do it but latterly thought it best to fall in with their ‘red tape’ for otherwise the time of many good employees (at least 5 or six) would be occupied in correspondence on the subject and this would not be right now in war times when the Gov. is cutting down expenses so as to be able to win the war. My motives were altogether patriotic and I believe I have performed a very important patriotic duty altho I do not expect to get any Distinguished Service Medal for it. I was glad to hear Mr Knowles was back at work again. He has had a hard time of it. I am commencing to do some work on the Tahltan now as my work for Boas on basketry is nearing [page 2] completion I think. I will send you the designs we made out here in a few days. made by about six persons (most of them French ladies). I notice a good deal of difference in method between those I have received. PS Re. the word you speak of ‘cairngorm’ is the common spelling but I have heard several scotch pronounce it cárum-gṓrum and 1917 | 805

cáirm gṓrum.41 The spellings I give are following the English. C standing for K. and ‘ai’ having nearly the sound of ē or a̎.

Teit to Haeberlin. November 30, 1917. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122052. Dear Dr. Haeberlin. I received your letter on my return home last night. I had to go to Victoria and Vancouver in connection with the Indian Rights question and therefore the reason I have not answered you sooner. On the way back I stayed off at Agassiz and Spuzzum to round off some basket work.42 I sent you three packages of notes on basketry designs before I left so you could be working on same. The basketry photos I had along with me on this trip. I will send you in a lot more material in two or three days. Yes I managed to round off the material on the points we discussed although perhaps the information is not as full as desirable. I see that a [illeg] exhaustive treatment of the whole [page 2] subject would require considerable more field work to be carried on in a slow and thorough manner and necessarily costing a fair sum of money. No doubt considerably more than is available at present. Anyhow Prof. Boas has told me the present investigation is not intended to be exhaustive and this field may be worked again with a view to completeness. I will hurry all the material remaining in my hands so that you will have all in a very short time although same may not be well written out nor arranged.

Teit to Sapir. December 5, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir, I am enclosing about 50 variations of the design. These I made. Also 18 made by my wife, 22 made by my oldest boy, and 10 made by my 41. This continues the discussion of cairngorm in Teit’s letter to Sapir, October 31, 1917. 42. Agassiz is a town on the north shore of the Fraser River in the Fraser Valley. While Agassiz is not within Nlaka’pamux traditional territory, Teit may have been visiting Nlaka’pamux basket makers living on the nearby reserve at Seabird Island, at that time the home of several Nlaka’pamux families originally from Spuzzum. The term, “stayed off,” as well as the references to Agassiz and Spuzzum, which are both on the Canadian Pacific Railway line, suggest Teit was traveling by train.

806 | 1917

girl. I will have some more to send in a few days. Some more of my wife’s and some from two other ladies and perhaps others. If you want the ages, races etc. of the persons I will give them to you. I will send you the information you want re, the work I have done in a day or two.

Teit to Sapir. December 7, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir The following is the amount of work I did for the survey during 1917. Jany. 1 month[.] Feb, 20 days. Mch, 10 days. Apl. 3 days. May. 6 days. June. 4 days. July, 3 days. Aug. 7 days. Sept. 9 days. October, 8 days. Nov. 4 days. Dec. 15 days? (Dec is an approximation of the work I have done and will do). I expect to put in full time for the Survey during Jany, Feb and Mch engaged almost entirely on the Tahltan paper. The work I have been engaged in during the year has been chiefly in connection with measurements, photos, songs, collecting arch. specimens, collecting general ethnol. information from Kut, Ntlak, Shus, etc., writing up information on songs, specimens, measurements, photos, Tahltan, etc. PS The Indians in this country are taking a strong stand against conscription.43 Laurier is going to get a very big vote in this country.44

43. See Wickwire, At the Bridge, 230–34, for a discussion of the opposition of Aboriginal people throughout British Columbia to conscription, mandated by the federal Military Service Act passed on August 29, 1917, Scott’s role in omitting to define the status of Indian people vis-à-vis conscription, and his subsequent adamantine insistence that they be included. Wickwire discusses, as well, the roles of Teit, Peter Kelly, and the Allied Tribes of British Columbia, both in mounting opposition and in communicating with Prime Minister Borden’s office, and the decision in January 1918 by the federal government that as Indian people did not have the right to vote, they were exempt from conscripted military service. 44. Sir Wilfrid Laurier (1841–1919) served as prime minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911. In December 1917 Laurier’s Liberal party was defeated in a general election by the Unionist Party, which had recently been formed by Sir Robert Borden (Real Bélanger, “Sir Wilfrid Laurier,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sir-wilfrid -laurier, published on-line July 18, 1912, updated by Tabitha Marshall and Andrew McIntosh, February 5, 2021, accessed February 7, 2022).

1917 | 807

Sapir to Teit. December 11, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Teit,— Thanks very much for the four series of designs which you enclosed with your letter of December 5th. I find these very interesting, and note a number of coincidences with designs in other series, though on the whole they are quite distinct. You might let me have the ages of the informants.

Sapir to Teit. December 12, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Teit,— Thank you for your summary of work done for us this year. I do not understand the letter that you enclosed from Ana ank Bob.45 What am I to do with this letter? I find it far from self-explanatory.

Teit to Sapir. December 19, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Dr Sapir I received your two letters. I dont understand about the letter from Ana ank bob. I think it must be Anahem Bob, the name of a chief in the Chilcotin country. I must have enclosed it wrongly to you. I think it is meant for Mr. Scott. Probably you better return it to me. I was glad to hear you found the four series of designs I sent you interesting. The ages of the informants are myself 53, my wife 37 or 38, Inga my girl 10, Erik my boy 12. I have not got the series from the other people yet but may very soon. PS I enclose a few more designs made by myself and wife. The results of the election seem to me unfortunate from the standpoint of democracy over[.] [page 2] I enclose copy of a wire sent to Borden on the question of conscripting the Indians. It has caused considerable discussion in the Victoria papers. The Indians of BC are objecting very strongly to being conscripted. Enforced military service is exceedingly objectionable to them. 45. Sapir originally typed “Anna Hankbob,” but crossed out the second ‘n’ and the ‘H’, linked Anaank and drew a vertical line separating ‘bob’ from the rest, with the second ‘b’ underlined.

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They believe only in the voluntary system which was also their old system among themselves. The idea of force in this respect is entirely foreign and repulsive to them. Personally I don’t see they will gain much by conscripting the Indians. The number of Inds. falling in class 1 is small and many will be unfit. Besides in most cases their ages are unknown or uncertain. It may cause a lot of trouble and hard feelings if not bloodshed and the game is not worth the candle for what they will get out of it.

Sapir to Teit. December 24, 1917. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1916–1917), box 635, file 15. Dear Teit,— I have your letter of December 19th enclosing literature relative to the attitude of the BC Indians on conscription. I have read this over with interest and am returning it to you enclosed. I am also returning the misaddressed letter from Annahem [sic] Bob. Thanks also for the supplementary designs drawn by you and Mrs. Teit.

1917 | 809

1918

Sapir to McConnell. January [n.d.] 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Sir,— I beg leave to submit to you forms for a contract with Mr. J. A. Teit of Spences Bridge BC, on the same basis as our contract with him for the fiscal year ending April 1st, 1918. I understand from Mr. Teit that he expects to have an ethnological memoir on some important phase of Tahltan Indian life ready for us by the end of this fiscal year. This would still leave a considerable amount of ethnological material to be completed in form suitable for publication. As it has been understood right along that Mr. Teit’s connection with the Survey as an outside service man be continued from year to year, I hope that there will be no difficulty about passing this contract. Kindly instruct me at your convenience in the matter. Should the contract meet with your approval I should like to forward the copy to Mr. Teit for his signature before the expiration of this fiscal year.

Teit to Boas. January 22, 1918. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122053. My Dear Friend. I have spent all forenoon looking for the originals of the Cree tales got from Adsit but I could not find them.1 I found all the originals of the Tahltan and Kaska tales but Adsit’s tales I think were on separate sheets and not in books like the Athapascan tales. This is too bad because I do not remember the tales myself. I remember what they were about or the leading incident of each but not the full details. If I ever come on these Cree tales I will forward them. Did I not forward you [page 2] some Kutenai tales also.—perhaps these would do as substitutes. I have also 1. See Teit to Boas, November 20, 1908, for earlier reference to Adsit (Adset).

810

two or three Kutenai stories I think I did not send in—collected later. One is a version of the Origin of Death, one origin of sun and moon and one origin of salmon. They are not quite full but fairly so. I came on one Tahltan story (or version) not ticked off so am not sure if I sent it. It is a version of the Raven and Tide man. PS I will have the last of the basket work sent in to Dr Haeberlin very soon[.]

Boas to Teit. January 23, 1918. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122014. My dear Friend,— A couple of days ago I received a batch of papers addressed to Dr. Haeberlin, and another lot came about two weeks ago. I am sorry to say that Haeberlin is sick again, and for this reason I have kept the papers here. He is, however, getting along well at the present time, and I hope he may be able to take up the work soon. I should be very much obliged to you if you could send your notes as soon as possible. All our scientific work is so exceedingly uncertain on account of the war that I am very anxious to push ahead as quickly as possible.2 If things cannot be completed the way we should like it cannot be helped.3 I want to see that Mr. Sargent gets at last some results for his patient waiting, and I am trying to get the various Salish papers finished as quickly as possible. I presume you know that the manuscript for the paper on the distribution of Salishan dialects is in the hands of the printer. I am expecting to finish the map this week, and then the printer can go ahead.4 2. The United States declared war against Germany on April 2, 1917. 3. Here Boas crossed out “looked over” and wrote “completed” above. 4. On February 7, 1918, Boas wrote to Sargent, “During the last few months Mr. Teit has sent me a considerable part of his notes on Basketry, and I think we are gradually getting together all the material that is needed. From an examination of his notes I judge that the essential part of the report will be a study of the collections. Mr. Teit has, however, given information on the peculiarities of individual basket makers that will be of very great importance. Some of the notes have been arranged tentatively, and I cannot very well go ahead with the final writing until all his material is in” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107275). He added, “I have also received a new revision of the large map of the distribution of Salish dialects, which is to form the bulletin on the classification of the Salish languages. I did not like the base map that had been made by the draftsmen, and I had to have the whole revised. I sent the outline map to Mr. Teit, and had his approval, and he made several corrections. We are now advanced so far that the map can be engraved. I have indicated the color scheme. I have everything ready for the printer. As I told you at a previous time, the whole manuscript on the Salish dialects [page 2] is also in shape.” Boas added that he was now working on the description of the ethnology of the Salish

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Boas to Teit. January 25, 1918. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122015. My dear Friend,— I received yesterday another bunch of manuscript containing notes on the time taken in making basketry, characterization of individual work, etc.

Teit to Sapir. January 29, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir, I am enclosing a set of 15 of the designs made by a lady friend Miss Emeline Wilson Aged 20, School Teacher.5 Norwegian and French lady friends have not sent in their’s [sic] yet. How would it be to test the artistic sense of individuals from a color standpoint (with Designs to be colored.) I am doing the last touches on the basketry paper and am also working on the Tahltan. I am sending some notes to Mr Scott on Indian handicrafts. He asked me for this information. After a hard struggle the Indians are now clear of military service. PS The weather has been very mild here this winter.

tribes. The section on mythology had been recently printed [Boas, ed., Folk-tales of Salish and Sahaptin Tribes] and he envisioned the remaining material to be “a supplementary description of the various tribes of interior British Columbia, and of the tribes of northern Washington. Mr. Teit’s notes on this subject are in pretty good shape, and a great deal of the work will be finished very soon. There are a few chapters, however, that will require quite a little work. These are particularly the chapter on decorative art and body painting, for which we have very interesting material.” After mentioning his current work on Kutenai Texts and a report on the Kwakiutl, Boas noted that Teit was owed $100 for work already done. “I have not sent the money, because I have not got it, and I wrote him that I could not tell him at that time whether I should be able to pay that amount.” Sargent had been sending to Columbia University sums of money fairly regularly; however, while Sargent’s earlier contributions were directed by Boas to supporting Teit’s research and writing, a substantial portion of the more recent contributions had, at Sargent’s suggestion, been directed to paying for assistance for Boas with the preparation of publications. 5. Emmeline Wilson (ca. 1898–1964) was born in New Westminster BC, in 1897, married Edwin Walter Thomas in 1926, and passed away in Vancouver BC, on October 13, 1964 (British Columbia Vital Statistics Agency, Marriage Index 1926-09-304387; Death Registration 64-09-013286). In the Canada Census of 1921 she was listed as a boarder in a household in Hullcar BC in the Spallumcheen district (Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Census 1921, British Columbia, Yale District, Sub-district 13, North Okanagan, 25).

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Sapir to Teit. February 4, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— Thank you for your letter of January 29th enclosing another set of designs. These make a welcome addition to my set. I am glad to learn that you are progressing with the writing up of your Tahltan notes.

Boas to Teit. February 18, 1918. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122016. My dear Friend,— I have very sad news to report to you. Haeberlin, who as you know has not been in good health for quite a while, died on the 12th of February.6 It will, therefore, be necessary for me to finish the paper on the Thompson basketry, which you two started together, and I hope you will help me with your knowledge of this subject.7 Of course I am familiar with the points of view of the whole investigation, which I suggested to Haeberlin, but I do not by any means know all the details of what he has done. I rather wanted him to finish the work as independently as possible.

6. In one of his last letters preceding his death, Haeberlin wrote to Boas to thank him for his support during his illness; provided further details in regard to his symptoms (i.e., shaky legs) and care (i.e., being taken care of by a nurse); discussed plans to return to New York once he had regained strength; mentioned his longing to see his parents, a longing he had previously discussed with his doctor, who was also in agreement that life on reservations and in boarding homes was no longer durable for him; and finally inquired about “Teit’s material” and whether it had finally arrived (APS, Boas Papers, Haeberlin to Boas, January 19, 1918, translated from German by Sarah Moritz). 7. With this letter Boas subsumed Teit’s work on basketry, begun long before Haeberlin’s, along with the work Haeberlin did before his death into a single joint project which he now planned to finish himself, although with Teit’s help. The independent paper Teit had been working on before Boas introduced Haeberlin was no longer mentioned. The profound value Boas accorded Haeberlin as a graduate student and professional anthropologist is evident in the memorial he read to the American Anthropological Association and later published (Boas, “In Memoriam: Herman Karl Haeberlin,” 71–74). Boas was in touch with Haeberlin through the long emergency of Haeberlin’s illness and death, and afterwards both he and his wife corresponded with Haeberlin’s parents. Boas’s desire to ensure Haeberlin’s legacy, as well as the need to provide a return on Sargent’s investment, appear to have come together to provide the animating impulse for Boas’s immediate arrangement for the development of Haeberlin et al., “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region.” If Teit was surprised or concerned at this fairly abrupt change in plan for his own work on basketry, he did not comment to Boas, but continued to send Boas information for inclusion in the new work.

1918 | 813

I have not heard from Mr. Sargent for a long time. For that reason the financial matter about which you wrote to me last fall is still hanging. I wrote to him recently, and I hope I may get an answer soon.8 8. On February 15, 1918, Boas wrote to Sargent (APS, Boas Papers, text 107276), notifying him of Haeberlin’s death. In this letter and those that followed through 1918 the correspondence between Boas and Sargent had three principal themes: adjustments to the basketry project following Haeberlin’s death, the progress of the manuscript and map relating to Salishan vocabularies, and the ethnographic essays that eventually became components of “The Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateaus.” Also mentioned were growing financial constraints that by the end of 1918 had become serious. In his letter of February 15, 1918, Boas reported: “So far as the first large piece of work, the distribution of Salish tribes, is concerned, there is no particular difficulty, because the manuscript is practically completed, and what remained to be done I was doing. [page 2] The question of the basketry paper is more difficult. [Haeberlin] was working on this, and while I outlined the general scope of the work, it will be necessary to go through all his notes in order to familiarize myself with the situation. I do not doubt, however, that since the plan of the work was suggested by me and since Haeberlin of course talked about the various aspects that came up in his mind, the work can be completed. Only I do not know exactly how I shall be able to do It. I shall let you know in the near future. [para] The other parts of Teit’s work do not offer any particular difficulty, because there all the material has been sent by Teit fairly well arranged, and simply means adaptation [“revision and cross references to literature” written above ‘adaptation’] which, under my direction, can be done almost as well as they could be done by Haeberlin” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107276). Sargent replied on February 18, 1918, sending $500 discussed with Boas the previous fall as well as $100 for Teit. “I have no doubt that it is practically impossible for him to estimate correctly the expenses of his work so I presume the best thing is to allow him to run over when the occasion demands more time, than he could foresee. The great pity is that we are all so hard up at the present time, and cannot see relief in sight for the future” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107299). He added, “I am glad that the basketry paper is slowly being gotten together, and pleased to think that it will have so many side lights and angles from which it may be studied and really be a help to the study of the whole human race for they have almost all had to go through the basket stage of culture at some time in their history.” There is no indication of Boas’s reaction to this evolutionary perspective. In his reply on February 23, 1918 (APS, Boas Papers, text 107277), Boas informed Sargent that he had hired Helen Roberts, who had been working on southwestern basketry, to continue the work on Salish basketry, and was considering appointing a student to work on Haeberlin’s Puget Sound material. He added, “It becomes clearer to me every day how great a loss Haeberlin’s death is. He had done an enormous amount of work for one as young as he.” In spite of Sargent’s continuing financial support, Boas was short of funds again by the end of April 1918. On April 25, 1918, he wrote to Sargent that he foresaw a shortfall of $160 between then and July. “I was promised by the University the full appropriation for our necessary assistance for the coming fiscal year; but as we are now told that there is such a tremendous deficit owing to the loss of students, that the greatest economy in every way will be necessary. I do not know what I shall succeed in doing, but I shall let you know in due time. I shall be very much disappointed if the University will not do what they promised, because I succeeded in freeing for them for the coming year the income of the Loubat Fund, which could easily provide for this work. Of course, I am powerless in these matters, and all I can do is to urge strongly the claims of the Department” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107280). On April 30, 1918, Boas wrote to Sargent, providing an update on the progress of the work. “The basketry paper is slowly taking shape, and some chapters have been written. We had to repeat, with a good deal of care, the measurements which Dr. Haeberlin had taken of the various baskets, and I have had to write to Teit in regard to this matter too. Naturally he had not all his observations down in notes, and every now and then it is necessary to look into the details of matters again. The technical chapters are practically completed, and we are now working on the general form of decorative design. [para] The large maps are still a subject of discussion between the Bureau of Ethnology and myself. About a week ago I had a final draft

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Sapir to Teit. February 20, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— I have just received the enclosed letter from Dr. Hewitt, the Dominion of the map with color scheme, so that is practically completed. All that remains to be done on the manuscript in question is to make the tabular statement of tribal names. [para]Among the other materials here Mr. Teit’s description of the Coeur d’Alene is farthest advanced. The whole material has been edited and is being copied. I do not think that there is more than two weeks’ work on it. [para] I found it necessary to go over all his letters as far back as 1905, because all the letters contained observations of miscellaneous character. All these notes have been copied and classified, and will be inserted in their proper places wherever they contain new information. I hope I may be able to get the illustrations for this paper to Washington this spring. The arrangement is that they are to be drawn there by the Bureau of Ethnology. The basketry illustrations, excepting Mr. Teit’s sketches, which are in his manuscript, have all been made” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107281). On June 11, 1918, Boas wrote again to Sargent (APS, Boas Papers, text 107282), saying that he had been unsuccessful in obtaining university funds. He had enough money to pay Helen Roberts until February 1919, and enough to pay other assistants until the end of July 1918. “The status of the work at the present time is the following: all the chapters on basketry dealing with the technique have been written; the material on decorative art is in hand, but will require a good deal of work before it is completed; the illustrations, as I told you at a previous time, have all been made. [para] The ethnography of the Salish tribes has progressed fairly well. The whole description of the Coeur d’Alene has been edited, and is being copied. The description of the Okanagan is being made. I have brought together the illustrations for the supplementary report on the Thompson Indians, and I hope to send these to the artist in the course of the summer. [para] A good deal of time has been spent on the revision of the printer’s proof of the maps. As I wrote to you last fall, the maps were then completed, and have been in the hands of the Bureau ever since that time. They have been sent for and back a great many times, but they are now in final shape. It remains to prepare a map on a reduced scale, which is to be used as a base map for entering a number of details like the distribution of certain phonetic characteristics of the languages, characteristics of vocabulary, and so on. As soon as all these illustrations have been made, the manuscript will be ready to go to the printer. As I wrote to you last year, the completed manuscript has been in the hands of the Bureau of Ethnology ever since last June.” Sargent replied on June 17, 1918 (APS, Boas Papers, text 107302), saying he would try to find money and asking for an estimate of Boas’s expenses. Boas replied on June 25, 1918, that apart from Helen Roberts’s salary, he was spending $162.33 per month (APS, Boas Papers, text 107283). On July 2, 1918 (APS, Boas Papers, text 107303) Sargent provided $500, extending Boas funds for three months. Boas wrote again to Sargent on October 19, 1918 (APS, Boas Papers, text 107284), reporting that he had not been able “to get very much from the University” and between January and June he would need about $750 as well as an additional $400 to pay Teit, to whom he then owed $130. “There are naturally constantly questions coming up about which I have to ask him; and since during the present year he has lost to a great extent his income from the Canadian Geological Survey, it is the best time to ask him these questions. [para] During the summer the whole work on the Coeur d’Alene was written out, and is in the hands of the Bureau. The Okanagon is also almost completed, but there still remains a considerable number of items. [para] The work on the basketry has not made any progress during the summer, but since the beginning of October we have taken it up again quite energetically. All the chapters on technique have been written, [page 2] and we are now engaged in a discussion of the designs.” In a letter to Boas dated March 17, 1919, Sargent noted that he had sent Columbia University $400 “for Teit’s work so that you could plan it and lay out the work at your convenience,” and a further $880 in January 1919, “a part of which was to pay Teit for work already done and the remainder to cover assistance for you until the middle of the present year” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107304).

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Entomologist. You will probably be pleased with the definiteness of the chemist’s report. Perhaps you have enough information on hand to write up the article that Dr. Hewitt refers to. If so, please let me know.

Boas to Teit. February 23, 1918. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122017. My dear Friend,— I received yesterday your registered letter containing the notes on “Lids,” and to-day the one on “Handles.” I have been able to make arrangements so that the work on the basketry paper will go on without interruption. Of course it will take quite a good deal of time to familiarize myself with all the details of Haeberlin’s work, although I know the general outline of the work, and, although I suggested the principal point of view, I do not know of course all the details that you and he brought out.

Boas to Teit. February 26, 1918. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122018. My dear Friend,— I am sorry that there has been so much delay about the financial matter. I am glad to say that Mr. Sargent is keeping up his interest, and he has enabled me to send you the hundred dollars for which you asked me several months ago. I am to-day making requisition on the treasurer of the University to send it to you in the form of a draft on Kamloops. I received today your notes in regard to the use of lids, also some notes on Ottawa baskets, designs, etc. It will of course take me some time to get hold of all the details of Haeberlin’s work, but I hope I shall be able to do so. I have given the material to one of my advanced students, who is now looking over the notes and illustrations.

Teit to Boas. March 4, 1918. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122054. Dear Friend. I received your letters and was very grieved to hear of Dr. Haeberlin’s death. Although I met him only once for a few days, I was very pleased 816 | 1918

with him and liked him much. He was very unassuming and devoid of prejudice, very reasonable, and was very thorough and painstaking apparently in all work he did. It is too bad such a promising young life should be cut off. Whilst here he talked over probably all points of the basketry with me and seemed to be very anxious to get very full and minute information on every point connected with same. I thought at the [illeg] however that it would take [page 2] a great deal of time to collect such full information and time and funds were somewhat short. However I tried to collect as much as I could as cheaply as possible, but the investigation is not complete. There is so much to be gathered on this subject (or in this field) following all the lines of investigation Haeberlin outlined that I believe it would take a man about a year or even more in field work and writing to make the subject nearly complete. I think however the data I have supplied will fill up a number of gaps in our knowledge and make a good foundation for further work. Dr Haeberlin took some notes on basketry himself when he was here as I took him to see two or three women basketry making. He also took two or three pictures of one woman making baskets and took some notes from men of Thomp and Shus. pronounciation [sic] [page 3] of words and reduplications of certain series of words. He took down a myth tale from one man. I am sorry that I have not had time to write out the data in a better and more connected form but I have spent a lot of time on the basketry already and am now behind in the writing up of the Tahltan I promised to do for Ottawa. I am sending about the last of the information on basketry to-day, photos, lists etc. I sent yesterday Indian basketry terms etc. and to-night or tomorrow will send a list of the Indian design names. If there is any of the papers I sent in written out too roughly for you to understand you can send them back for me to go over them. I may have sent [illeg] mistake some sheets of rough [page 4] field notes. There are six sheets of same I cannot find. If there are any obscure points in the writing or anything requiring more elucidation I may be able to give further light on these. You will no doubt find some duplication in numbers, sketches, photos, and the information etc. This happens when a paper is not written connectedly before sending in and when it is sent in piece by piece, instead of as a finished whole. Yourself and student will have quite a bit of work putting this paper in shape.

1918 | 817

Teit to Sapir. March 4, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir, I received your letter with the analysis of the tree sugar. I am corresponding with Prof. Davidson about it and if he will write an article treating of the sugar from the botanical side he can use my data. If he does not decide to write a piece, then I will do so but I cannot treat the subject as a botanical expert can. I can however give what I know about it which may be of some interest and possibly value. I will make out the accounts in a day or two and forward them about the middle of or at least before the end of the month. I was grieved to hear of Dr. Haeberlin’s death.9

Teit to Boas. March 6, 1918. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122055. My Dear Friend I will probably send the last of the Basketry notes tomorrow. I received your letter last night re. the list of incidents in Salish stories which I enquired for among the Tahltan and did not get. (I made enquiry for a large number[,] many more than I have notes of). I must have written out a list and sent [it] or if not then I must have worked on one and did not finish it. I think I must have surely written one out as 9. Haeberlin’s death prompted Sapir to think of the research Haeberlin had done in Ottawa and of Geological Survey of Canada material that had been lent to him. Sapir wrote to Boas on March 7, 1918, “When Dr. Haeberlin was in Ottawa on his return from his last field trip, I put into his hands a number of specimen lists with accompanying ethnological notes. They referred to basketry specimens obtained from Teit. I wonder if Dr. Haeberlin’s scientific effects are in your hands. If so, I think that you should know that the material referred to is the property of the Geological Survey and should be returned when such use shall have been made of it as you see fit.” Boas replied on March 11, saying, “I have all Haeberlin’s papers. So far I have not come across the list of which you are speaking. As soon as I find it I shall return it to you (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b.621, f.3, folder: Boas, Franz “1918–1921”). A year later, on March 19, 1919, Sapir wrote again, “There is one little detail that has probably escaped your memory, but I should like to remind you of it again, in order that we may straighten out our file. Some time before his death Dr. Haeberlin borrowed some manuscript data referring to the Thompson River Indians. These were to be returned to me as soon as possible. If I remember rightly, you told me some time ago that all of Dr. Haeberlin’s papers are in your hands. I should be much obliged to you if you could let me have this manuscript.” Boas replied two days later, on March 21, 1919, “I picked out today the manuscript to which you referred in your note which I received today. I will return it within a few days. It has never been copied and I am having it copied now (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b.621, f.3, folder: Boas, Franz “1918–1921”). Sapir’s original description, “specimen lists with accompanying ethnological notes,” suggests that the manuscript in question was Teit’s collector’s notes. Such notes are prized by the museum.

818 | 1918

I find in a copy of the introduction that I wrote to the Tahltan stories a list of this negative evidence mention [sic]. I have looked over my material and I find in one book a list of these incidents unchecked off. These I have copied and now enclose as list (1)[.] There is another list which I enclose as list (2)[.] [S]ome of these had query marks and notes as if somewhat similar incidents occurred in Tahltan stories. I enclose still another list (3) which is just as I found it. I suppose the incidents stroked out either occur in Tahltan and Kaska stories or they may have been scored out because carried to some other list. These lists are all I can find.

Boas to Teit. March 14, 1918. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122019.10 My dear Friend,— I received a few days ago your letter containing the Indian terms etc. And to-day a package came containing photographs and notes. I have listed all the material that you have sent us, without, however, going into very great detail, and it seems to me that there is one thing particularly missing in regard to which I am very anxious to have information,—that is, observations on the way in which the older women teach young girls to weave baskets.11 There must be a lot of criticism and definite instruction in regard to the way of holding the material, evenness of coils, and so on, which of course comes out to great extent in the critical notes which you sent us. Have you any information on this particular point? I trust you received the check I sent you a few days ago.

Teit to Boas. March 15, 1918. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122142. My Dear Friend. I sent you the last of the basketry data a few days ago. I have a few Chilcotin designs which I may send for comparison if you are going to make any comparisons say between the Thompson and designs of neighboring tribes such as the Lillooet, Chilcotin and Klickitat. I think I 10. On letterhead of Columbia University in the City of New York. 11. This omission is somewhat mystifying since a focus on teaching and mentorship among expert basket makers has featured prominently and was expressed repeatedly through various lines of inquiry between Boas and Teit since studying basketry became worthwhile for Boas.

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have already sent you (or to Dr. Haeberlin) some notes and sketches of Lillooet and Chilcotin?12 designs and a full list of the Klickitat designs (with their names) that I collected on the Yakima Reservation some years ago. Dr. Haeberlin said he wished all these for comparison with the designs of the Thompson. I received the $100.00 you had sent me. I will make out our a/c some time and see how we stand. As I am not sure of all the amounts I received from you during last year I will be obliged if you will let me know whatever amounts I received from you since May /17 when you sent the 300.00.

Sapir to Teit. March 14, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— Thank you for your recent negatives with supplementary data. Mr. Marshall has asked me to tell you that if you should have any further expenditures between the final date of your last submitted accounts and April 1st, that you send in a supplementary bill for such items rather than lump them with any possible bills to be submitted for next fiscal year. I have reminded Mr. McConnell about the contract that I drew up for you, and he has promised to take the matter up with the Minister, but so far I have nothing definite to report to you.13

Teit to Sapir. March 14, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir, I have had an answer from Prof. Davidson and he has promised to write an article on the Tree-sugar for the Agricultural Gazette of Canada. This will be much better than just bare data on the subject from myself. I may add a few notes to Prof. Davidson’s if I see he has 12. Teit’s question mark. 13. With this mention of the minister of mines, it becomes clear that the issue of Teit’s employment was subject to scrutiny at an even higher level. In 1918 the minister of mines was Martin Burrell (1858–1938), who was also the secretary of state. During Sapir’s tenure at the Geological Survey of Canada, the Ministry of Mines was at various times under the jurisdiction of the minister of one of the other government departments, including the ministers of Inland Revenue (1907–1912), Interior (1912–1913), secretary of state (1913–1919), and Interior again (December 31, 1919–1930). Each of these ministers was known as minister of mines, as well as minister of his other department (Wikipedia, “Minister of Mines [Canada],” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Minister_of_Mines_(Canada), accessed August 26, 2021).

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missed any thing seemingly important in connection with data. I enclose Prof. Davidson’s letter so you may see exactly what he says. I finished the last of the paper on basketry for Boas some little time since and feel relieved to have this off my hands.

Teit to Sapir. March 20, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr. Sapir. I received your letter and note what you say. I will send in my a/c to Mr. Marshall through you at any time now, and will make it up to the end of Mch. As I will be working on the Tahltan every day. I am writing up the Tahltan and Kaska as a whole in the same way as I treated the Thompson Indians. This instead of writing several separate papers such as one on Sociology, another on Material Culture etc. I will also send in at the end of the month measurements I have taken during the year to Mr. Knowles. I have bought hardly any specimens of late so I have hardly anything on hand. PS During the year I did all I could as occasion offered to gather additional information on the material culture, customs etc. of the Thompson, Kutenai and other tribes. I have a large mass of scattered notes on these subjects now which with more I will certainly get can be written up some time.

Sapir to Teit. March 21, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— Mr. Scott has just sent me a copy of your detailed account of existing Indian handicrafts in BC.14 I am glad that you have gone to so much 14. In December 1917 Duncan Campbell Scott, deputy-superintendent of Indian Affairs, had written to Harlan I. Smith concerning the possibility of encouraging Indigenous people to make basketry. Smith showed the letter to Sapir, who wrote to Scott, supporting the idea (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, Sapir to Scott, December 20, b.633, f.15, folder: “Scott, Duncan C. [1912–1918]”). On March 21, 1918, Sapir wrote to Scott again, saying, “Thanks for your letter of March 20th with enclosed detailed statement by Mr. J. A. Teit of the existing Indian handicrafts in British Columbia. I am glad that you communicated with Mr. Teit on this important matter, as he is undoubtedly the best qualified to give information on the subject. He is also an excellent man to get interested in the possible practical developments of the idea, because of his exceptional popularity with the Indians themselves” (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b. 633, f.15, folder: “Scott, Duncan C. [1912–1918]”). The intensifying opposition by the Allied Tribes

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trouble in the matter, as it may bear important fruit. As soon as I return, about April 1st, from a lecturing trip that I am making to Columbia University, I intend to get together with Scott and Smith and to discuss with them the possible practical applications of your suggestions. The point that you make in your last paragraph in regard to the appointment of a suitable and energetic man to do special work in BC in regard to marketing Indian handicrafts is an interesting one, and it is likely that Smith and I will try to get Scott to do something along that line. Do you know of anyone that would be suitable for the work? Do you suppose that you would care to take it up yourself?

Boas to Teit. March 22, 1918. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122020.15 My dear Friend,— Since December, 1916, I find the following amounts entered as sent you: December, 1916 . . .

$100

February, 1917

300

June, 1917

150

February, 1918

100

We are working now at your basketry material, and also getting ready the Coeur d’Alene descriptions. I may have to ask you a few questions in the near future.

of British Columbia to the federal government’s plans with respect to the McKenna-McBride Commission report and other issues had certainly not made Scott less aware of Teit’s political work and popularity. In approaching Teit in regard to craft work, Scott appears to have been extending his previous invitation to rapprochement. In suggesting to Scott that Teit would be qualified to consider the practical development of Scott’s idea, Sapir appears to be working against his own best interests, as Teit was in his employ. However, Sapir may also have begun to doubt his own ability to maintain Teit’s tenure with the GSC, given the financial constraints imposed by the war and the heightened attention of GSC and ministerial officials to Teit’s accounts and contracts. 15. On letterhead of Columbia University in the City of New York.

822 | 1918

Teit to Sapir. March 29, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir, I received your letter of 21st inst. and was glad to hear you were pleased with the notes on Ind. handicrafts I sent to Mr Scott. Mr Scott seems to be pleased with the information also. Re. the appointment of a man to take hold of this branch I cannot think of anyone who would be specially suitable, but I have not thought over the subject much. Re. myself taking the job, I think I would prefer to continue my present work even if there is less money in it. I would I think be quite qualified or as well qualified as almost any one obtainable to do the work from the Indian side as I am thoroughly acquainted with the Indians themselves and the country (practically all parts of BC) and I would know how to get what I wanted and the exact people and parts of the country to go to for what was required, but, I am not at all equally competent on the business side[;] [page 2] I am not much of a business man. I believe I am not adapted as a salesman etc. I think a man for this position requires to have two sides—he has to be posted or qualified on the Indian side of the question and on the business side. He would require to push and organize etc. for the sale of these Indian products, and find and organize markets. Except for this part of it I suppose I would be as good as any one as I feel I am quite posted on the Indian side of the question, having very full knowledge of the Indians, the country, and the handicrafts and materials etc. I believe that once this thing was well organized as to markets, outlets of sale etc. etc. it would go along pretty smoothly and be of considerable advantage to the Indians especially those in certain localities. Of course there would be considerable labor and trouble to start the thing and put it on its feet. I have not heard further from Prof. Davidson re. the article he is to write on the tree-sugar but I have no doubt he will do as he promised as soon as he finds time. He said he would send it to me first. I have two or three more hocus-pocus words I think of. I enclose them on a separate page.

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Boas to Teit. March 30, 1918. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122021. My dear Friend,— I have given the work on the Salishan basketry to one of my students here, Miss Helen Roberts.16 She tells me that she has written to you, asking a few questions. I should be very much obliged to you if you would kindly answer them as well as you can.

John Neilson at Aleza Lake BC, to Teit. April 10, 1918. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 91370. Dear Friend.17 Your letter is hand. Your request to answers is as follows. 1st. Name of Indian. Mary Paul[.] 2nd. Quesnel tribe[.] 3rd. Spoke same language as Fort George Indians. 4th. Always lived in Bear Lake[.] 5th. Died there did not move out[.] Had about 7 feet of snow and still 4 remaining. Winter was rather hard.

Teit to Sapir. April 13, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir, I just write to say I am sending you by registered mail copies of all the Indian measurements I took last year. I send them to you as I do not know whether Mr Knowles is on duty. I hope however he is well, and working. I have about 20 measurements of Whites which I can send to Mr. Knowles any time he wants them. I enclose a copy of some 16. Helen Heffron Roberts (1888–1985). Roberts’s early training was in music, and she taught music for several years before becoming a student of Boas in anthropology at Columbia in 1916. She had also spent some time in the southwestern United States and had received a master's degree from Columbia University in 1919, on Apache basketry, eventually published as Roberts, “Basketry of the San Carlos Apache,” in 1929. In 1928 she is listed as the third author of “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region” after Haeberlin and Teit. This was not her only contribution to Haeberlin’s legacy. In 1918 she published, with Haeberlin, “Some Songs of the Puget Sound Salish,” 496–520. She also worked on contract for Edward Sapir, transcribing Copper Eskimo songs collected by Diamond Jenness during the Canadian Arctic Expedition (Roberts and Jenness, Songs of the Copper Eskimos). After leaving Columbia she focused on ethnomusicology, doing field work initially in Jamaica and Hawaii (see APS, Boas Papers, Helen Roberts to Franz Boas, May 13, 1925, text 103834; Jacknis, “The Artist Himself,” 134–61; Nettl and Bohlman, eds., Comparative Musicology and Anthropology of Music, 249; “Special Bibliography Helen Heffron Roberts,” 228–33.) 17. This letter provides some insight into some of Teit’s other work and correspondents.

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of the figures you wanted drawn by one of my boys. They were drawn more irregularly in the original and less symmetrical. I copied them preserving all the idea in each one. Hoping this will find you quite well with best regards PS Spring is well advanced here now the trees are all leafing, some blossoms are out, and some bushes are nearly in full leaf. Chief Tetlinitza is dying with cancer of the stomach.

Teit to Boas. April 16, 1918. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122056. My Dear Friend. I came on some notes of two of Adsit’s stories and have copied them out fully. They are not the notes I copied from when I sent you his stories first but are nearly the same as far as I remember. I think there were some others stories or notes on incidents of stories I got from Adsit and sent you but I have not come on these.

Sapir to Teit. April 18, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— I have your letters of March 29th and April 13th. I wish to thank you for the supplementary set of drawings from one of your boys. I am now having all of my series carefully redrawn by Prudhomme, so that these new drawings are just in time. I am not surprised to learn that you hesitate considerably about taking up the new line of work that I referred to in my last letter. By this time you have probably heard from Mr. Scott in regard to it; at least, when I last spoke to him about it he said that he was going to write you about it and make some sort of tentative offer. I hope you will not turn the work down entirely, even though you do not care to devote all of your time to the encouraging of Indian industries. I have still to hear definitely as to whether or not the new contract that I have prepared for you is to be approved. I have again spoken to Mr. McConnell about it, but he had apparently not taken it up with the Minister of Mines, though he said he was about to do so. When I hear anything definite I shall let you know. I was very sorry to learn that Tetlenitsa is dying. Please give my best regards to all at home. 1918 | 825

Teit to Sapir. April 26, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir, Thanks for your letter of 18th inst. I was glad to hear the drawings were in time. I have not heard from Mr Scott yet but no doubt will before long. I suppose he and Smith and yourself had a long talk about the whole matter of Indian industries. No, I will not turn the work down, especially if they lay me off from my regular work as seems not unlikely by the way they are hanging fire in approving the contract. In any case I would do very much as you advise in the matter both in regard to my work for the Geol. Survey and this proposed work for the Ind. Deptmt. One side of the latter work I feel competent to do, but for the other side (viz. the selling) I may be short of ‘gall’ to do it effectively. However one never knows what one can do until one tries. I enclose five negatives for printing—2 of each as usual. My camera is in poor shape just now that is why I am having all the pictures developed here lately. I am ashamed so many are no good so I have just sent you the best ones. [page 2] The fault is entirely with the shutter which has been getting worse and worse. There is no remedy now except to get a new shutter of rather high price. So Mr Knowles is Sir now.18 I suppose it will make no difference on him however. Chief Tetlenitsa died on the evening of the 20th.19 I went to his funeral on the 23rd. He will be a big loss to the Indians here in many ways. I enclose Clarion under separate cover.

18. When Francis Knowles (1886–1953) inherited his title from his father in 1917, he became the 5th baronet in a line that extended back to his great-great grandfather, Admiral Charles Knowles, who was awarded the title for naval service in 1765 (Wikipedia, “Sir Francis Knowles 5th Baronet,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Francis_Knowles_5th_Baronet, accessed Novemp ber 11, 2021). Knowles’s son, also called Francis, became the 6th baronet when Francis Knowles died in 1953 (Darryl Lundy, “Person Page 4928,” The Peerage, http://www.thepeerage.com/ p49281.htm#i492802, 2019, accessed March 21, 2020). 19. John Tetlenitsa (ca. 1856–1918) was born at Pukaist, on the east bank of the Thompson River upriver from Spences Bridge. He was baptized and married at the Anglican mission in Lytton at the age of 17 (Church of England: Mission of St. Mary and St. Paul Parish Records). Teit photographed Tetlenitsa (CMH, Gateway to Aboriginal Heritage, James Teit Photographs, CMC/MCC 35996, https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/tresors/ethno/etp0800e .html, accessed March 28, 2022). As chief of the area surrounding Pukaist he negotiated the allocation of Indian reserves in Highland Valley, cultivated orchards on his reserve, and served as a strong advocate for the recognition of Aboriginal title and the recognition of land claims. At the time of his death he was about 62 years old.

826 | 1918

Boas to Teit. April 27, 1918. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122022. My dear Friend,— I have just received the tales which you obtained from Adset [sic]. Thank you very much. The Kaska tales have just appeared. I hope to be able to send you the re-prints soon.

Knowles to Teit. April 29, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Mr. Teit,— I have to acknowledge receipt of the 2nd batch of Anthropometric schedules that you have sent in.20 It is a long time since I last wrote to you, for as you know I was sick all last year and only returned to work this winter. I have gone over all your letters, M.S.S, and schedules that you sent in last year, and am delighted at your progress and results in physical anthropology. I have tabulated your measurements of adult Thompson River fullbloods and am sending you a copy so that you may see the grouping and variation. I have not worked out the averages; it is not worth while doing so yet, as I hope to add from time to time further measurements that you may send in. You will be able to see, though, by inspection, whereabouts the averages occur in the present series. When I get from you a sufficient number of Okanagan, Shuswap, and other tribes, I will treat them in the same way. I am naturally most interested in the measurements of the adult full-bloods, though of course the measurements of half-bloods and of children are both of value. The full-blood Indians, owing to their lessening numbers, etc. are of prime importance. I was very pleased with your observation on the physical characteristics of the Athabaskans. If you could supply a similar record of your observations [page 2] from other tribes you may meet—even those from whom you can obtain measurements—it would be of great interest and value. I should like to compliment you on your powers of observation and the clear way in which you can record what you see. Descriptive work of this sort gives life to the tables of measurements. I have been studying your letter of March 19th, 1917, with the subjoined tables of nasal forms.21 I scarcely know how to advise you with regard 20. Mentioned in Sapir’s letter to Teit, March 22, 1917. 21. This letter is not in the CMH file.

1918 | 827

to the treatment of the various types of noses. On the one hand, as you say, the term convex, straight, and concave, do not sufficiently express the shapes of noses met with. On the other hand too elaborate tables tend to become confusing. Perhaps with your later experience you may have arrived at some conclusions with respect to this matter; I should like to hear if you have.*22 To[o] minute a classification may cause you some trouble and even then be inadequate to present your observations in a satisfactory manner. I should say—make the groups as broad as possible and trust to good photographs to illustrate the variations and most usual forms met with. Tables based on descriptive observations are so dependent upon the observer (as opposed to measurements in which the personal factor should be at a minimum), that I should think it would be scarcely possible to find uniformity in the record of two observers. For this reason a very minute descriptive classification is scarcely worth while. I am glad that you have the opportunity of checking your measurements with those of Dr. Boas. To judge from the comparisons you have sent in, you have the technique of [page 3] measuring well mastered and it must give you great confidence to see that you are working along the right lines. Have you any method of checking your callipers to see that they continue to record accurately? The steel millimetre rule with the measuring outfit should be useful for this purpose. Measure off 100 mm., for instance, on the callipers, and see if it corresponds exactly to 100 mm. measured by the steel rule; and the same with other measuring instruments. In this way you would be able to detect any deviations that might occur from the effect of wear and tear, climate, etc. With reference to the measurements of the hand, Dr. Hrdlicks’ a [sic] system is as follows: For the length measure.23 From the tip of the middle finger measure in a straight line, to the centre of a straight line joining the two thenar eminences of the palm. Very often this point corresponds to the middle of the 1st transverse wrinkle on the wrist. To find it, place 22. Asterisk added by hand to original typed letter. The associated note, written by hand at the bottom of the page, reads, “I am glad to see from your notes that you have tackled this question in such a thorough manner. It will teach you much and you will probably be able to arrive at a simpler classificatory scheme suitable to the types you meet with.” 23. In 1918 Aleš Hrdlička (1869–1943), a physical anthropologist originally trained in medicine, was curator of the physical anthropology collections at the Smithsonian Institution. He had served as director of physical anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History during the Jesup Expedition years and had moved to the Smithsonian as assistant curator of physical anthropology collections in 1903 (iResearchnet. “Aleš Hrdlička,” Anthropology, http:// anthropology.iresearchnet.com/ales-hrdlicka, accessed November 7, 2021). In 1918 he founded the Journal of Physical Anthropology (“Guide to the Ales Hrdlicka Papers, 1875–1966,” Smithsonian Institution, https://sova.si.edu/record/NAA.1974-31, accessed November 7, 2021).

828 | 1918

a straight edge across the wrist, just touching the lower limit of the two thenar eminences; the centre of this line will be the point desired. Make a slight mark there (with chalk, etc.) and measure from there to the end of the middle finger. For the breadth— close the thumb loosely against the hand, then, without pressure, measure the breadth from the inner angle of the thumb and 1st finger to the other side in a straight line (parallel to the sides of the palm). This ‘angle’ is at the bottom of the slit caused by the closure of the thumb against the side of the hand. When taking this measure, the sides of the measuring instrument [page 4] should lightly clip or enclose (without pressure) the sides of the hand. See subjoined sketch to illustrate these measurements. With reference to measurements, I should advise you to take measurements to the nearest millimetre and to disregard fractions of millimetres. As you will see from the tables I send you, I have taken them in whole millimetres and have therefore disregarded fractions. For instance, where you have recorded a head length of 187.5 mm., I have treated it as 187 mm. and so on. With some of the minuter cranial measurements (on the skull) I take to a fraction of a millimetre, but for the large measures, and in measurements on the living, I have not found it worth while to deal in less than 1 mm. groups. The difference between two observers (or, often, between a measurement by the same observer on the same individual, taken at different times) is generally at least 1 mm. Perhaps some authorities might criticize me in this and say ‘you cannot be too exact’! However, from my own experience a millimetre itself is so small that to take measures to fractions of a mm. is to give oneself extra trouble and complicate tabulation without—in my opinion—obtaining any real advance in exactitude. As far as your work is concerned I am delighted to see that you have gone to so much care, as it will have helped you greatly in acquiring skill in handling the callipers. But now that you have become so consistent in your measurements I should be inclined to advise you to disregard the fractions unless personally you find it preferable to use them and consider that they make for greater exactness [page 5] in your measuring. Let me know what your own opinions are on the subject. I hope that you [and] your family are well. I was very sorry to hear that Chief Tetlenitsa is so sick. Please remember me both to him and to Chief Paul David. I am engaged in modelling a bust of the latter from measurements and photos etc. that we have here, and hope it will prove a good likeness. I shall look forward to hearing from you and learning how you are getting on in the measuring work. I am greatly pleased with 1918 | 829

what you have sent in during this last year, and hope you will have the opportunity of sending in more notes and schedules during this year.

Sapir to Teit. May 7, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— I have received 150 copies of your Kaska Tales from the New Era Printing Company. This was in reply to a request that I made Dr. Boas some time ago for a limited number of copies to be distributed to a selected portion of our anthropological mailing list. I understand that 50 copies have been sent to you besides. Owing to the small number of copies thus at our disposal in Canada for distribution, I think we ought to be somewhat careful about whom we give copies to. We should aim to avoid duplication, and besides it might be best not to send copies to those that subscribe to the Journal of American FolkLore. I have asked Mr. Barbeau to make out a list of individuals and institutions culled from our mailing list. In order to help you to avoid unnecessary duplication, I shall send you a copy of this list as soon as it is prepared. I suppose you will want some of your own copies for purely personal gifts.

Teit to Sapir. May 12, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir, I have yours of 7th inst. to hand to-day. I have received 2 doz copies x (1) of the Kaska Tales which is all I want and even more than I care to distribute. You say they are sending me 50 copies. I would rather that they send the balance of mine to you. Also if I have some copies over of those I have received I will send them to you. I have too many copies on hand of ‘Salishan Folk-Tales’ and some other lately printed tales I have written. If you want these spare copies for distribution or other purposes I will send them to you. I received a letter from Mr Knowles lately and will answer it soon. I am glad by it to see he is pleased with the measurements I have taken. I have not heard from Mr Scott yet. x(1) Possibly 25 copies. There are 2 packages of about equal size and the one I opened has 12 copies. [page 2] 830 | 1918

PS I am sending 5 or 6 copies of the Kaska tales to persons up in the Tahltan and Kaska countries—3 of them Indians. I am sending a copy to Dr. Newcombe and a copy to the Prov. Gov. Librarian, Victoria BC. I am sending 2 or 3 copies to friends in BC who are interested somewhat in Folk-lore. These are all I have in mind at present.

Teit to Knowles. May 15, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Mr Knowles I was very glad to get your letter and also glad to see you were pleased with the measurements of Indians I have taken. I was also glad to learn you were well and had been back at work since sometime last winter. I know you had a long siege of sickness. Thanks for the table of measurements you enclosed. I dont know how to work out the indices myself. Is there any simple rule or rules that I could use especially for the cephalic index? Some Whites I have measured have asked me what their indices were but I could not tell them exactly. I was glad you were pleased with the observations I sent you on the physical characteristics of the Athabaskan tribes. As I kept no copy I do not remember whether I dealt specially of the Tahltan or included the Chilcotin, Carrier etc. I could write similar observations on other tribes such as the Lillooet, Thompson, Shuswap, Okanagon and Kutenai etc. I may do this for you some time. If you can [page 2] manage it some time you might get copies of what I sent you in the way of descriptive data (such as Observations on the Athabaskans, notes on noses, distribution of types, etc.) typewritten and send me single copies. Not having any copies myself it is difficult at present for me to refer to what I wrote in case of my discussing any of the points with you. I some times cannot remember exactly all I said. I agree with you that too elaborate or minute classification of types of noses becomes confusing. When one goes into this, one finds certain noses are difficult to classify as many noses are not clearly of a certain type but fall between two types or even partake of certain points or characteristics of more than two types. In fact if one goes into all the minute points very seldom will two people be found with exactly the same type of nose in all respects. Thus there would be nearly as many classes of noses as individuals measured. I think that as I am doing probably near enough viz. giving the general outline of the nose whether ‘convex’, ‘straight’ or ‘concave’. The latter 1918 | 831

I generally divide into ‘concave’ (viz more or less pronounced) and ‘slightly concave’ (viz nearly straight) and the convex into ‘convex’ (viz more or less pronounced) and ‘slightly convex’ (viz nearly straight). I always take note of convex noses of the so called ‘Indian type’ and those of ‘hook type’. I also note ‘sinuous’ nose and occasionally others which appear to be somewhat ‘flat’ or otherwise remarkable. [page 3] I also note the point of the nose whether ‘long’ (viz drooping more or less)[,] ‘medium’ (viz about at right angles) or ‘short’. Also the bridge whether ‘high’ (viz prominent), ‘medium’ or ‘low’. These notes taken together with measurements I think give a fairly good idea of the nose form of most individuals. Of course besides in most cases I have photos, which help a good deal. I dont know exactly whether ‘high’ is the proper term to use in describing the bridge of the nose for prominence. High may perhaps also stand for height of the bridge of the nose (viz up and down) or whether the bridge is very near the nasion or rather lower on the nose. Bridges of noses vary a little in this respect. I have not so far taken into account the prominence of the point. Points of noses vary considerably in this respect particularly among the whites.—I think at least more so than among Indians.24 Photos however show this point pretty clearly. I suppose measurements are seldom taken of this characteristic. Re. the instruments I have tested them in the way you suggested and they seem to be all right and correspond with each other. Thanks for the information re. the best way to take the hand measurements. I will henceforth follow same. I am glad to see my hand measurements are not far out.25 In [page 4] measuring my hand I find the length by the method I employed is exactly the same as by the method you suggest. The width is 2 mm more by your method. In measuring the hands of two other persons the lengths also come the same by both methods whilst the widths vary slightly. The hand of one person is 1 mm more by your method than mine and the other person by the same by both methods. I think it will therefore be all right for you to depend on and use the hand measurements I sent you. This is certainly so for length and almost so for width. Perhaps you could add 24. Teit inserted a long dash here. 25. Teit’s obvious interest and enthusiasm for work in physical anthropology is similar to the interest he has brought to every new research project since he began work with Boas. However, this was not a good time to branch out, nor was it a good time to ask Teit to take on new work for the Division of Anthropology not in his contract. Within less than two weeks, Sapir was answering a request from McConnell for a justification of Teit’s continued employment (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, Sapir to McConnell, May 27, 1918, b.635, f.16, folder: “Teit, James A. [1918–1919]”).

832 | 1918

1mm (or 2) to the widths I took which would make them about correct as a whole. Some will be exact as they are, whilst others will be 1 and 2 and possibly in a few cases 3 mm more than the widths I gave. My width measurements are across the knuckles or widest part of knuckles with the hand flat or fingers extended. This is about as wide a part of some people’s hands as any other part and the Indians do not generally have fat or fleshy hands. I enclose a sketch of the way I measured the hand. I agree with you that it is practically useless taking fractions of millimetres in measurements of the living and I will neglect same after this. I am glad to hear you are making a bust of Chief Paul David. I think you finished one of Chief Tetlinitsa already or perhaps it was merely a cast. I am sorry to tell you Tetlinitsa died on the 20th ult. [page 5] Taking him all round he was probably the most intelligent chief in the Interior of BC and he cant be replaced by another like him. At least none of the others are quite his equal. I am enclosing a list of Indians whose photos appear in the Album of the No. Pac. Coast referring them to their Measurement Nos. as published by Boas. I thought you could by getting this list be able to use these photos in conjunction with Boas’ measurements of the Individuals photoed. Boas’ reports or lists of measurements do not give any reference to the photos and the latter do not refer to the measurements so a stranger cannot use the two together without information such as I am sending you. Well I think I have written enough so will quit. Hoping this will find you quite well. With best regards to yourself and Mrs Knowles. List of Indians in the Ethnographical Album of the No. Pac. Coasts of American and Asia, Part. 1 (Amer Mus. of Natural History, New York, 1900) and Measurements of same individuals by Dr. Boas (Brit. Assoc. Reports on the North Western Tribes of Canada, 1895, etc.) for study of the faces in conjunction with the measurements.26 26. In this list Teit identified Nlaka’pamux people who were measured by Boas during his work for the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1894 and his work for both the BAAS and the Jesup North Pacific Expedition in 1897, linked them to photographs taken by Harlan Smith during the first Jesup Expedition in 1897 and subsequently published in the JNPE’s Ethnographical Album, and enabled their identification in Boas’s BAAS reports of 1895 and 1898. Apart from Boas, Teit was likely the only person able to do this, as several of the people concerned were or had been members of his intimate circle. Antko was his late wife; Kolomascut was her uncle, who had been a witness at their wedding; Roipêllst had contributed in many ways to Teit’s work until his death in 1917. Teit’s note both supports and confounds the scientific approach of the day, which subordinated the particular to the general and person to type. The people measured in the course of Boas’s visits to Spences Bridge were among 18,000 people from British Columbia and Siberia measured in the course of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition research. Boas retained the data when he moved to Columbia University, but returned it to the American Museum of Natural History later. Both Boas and Dina Jochelson Brodsky analyzed some of the data, reaching different conclusions about the relationship

1918 | 833

Album Report Plate 1. Upper figure. Kolamastcū́t

Report 1895. Ntlak.

No. 180

“Lower”27

Konzodếskᴇt

“

“

No. 200.

Plate 2. Upper

Áluskᴇn

“

1898 Ntlak.

No. 13.

“Lower”

and Roipếllst

“

1895 “

No. 178

Plate 3. Upper

Kotcᴇlū́

“

“

“

No. 179

“Lower “

Sam (or Salmon) “ “

“

“

No. 35

Plate 4. Upper “

and Nawáwaskᴇt “ “

“

“

No. 169

“Lower “

Kᴇlkálus

“

“

“

No. 170

Plate 5. Upper “

́ and Zᴇlaxī́ta

“

1898 “

“Lower “

SᴇlkapếskEt

Not measured, or at least not in reports

Plate 6. Upper “

́ and Sinsī́ntko

[ditto] [ditto]

“Lower

“

Ker figure. A

Ntlak.

No. 7

The above are all Up. Ntlak. with the exception of Sam. No. 6 (see plate 3 Lower figure) who is Low. Ntlak. ́ Nos 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 14, 17, 18, 19, 21 are pure Nkamtcī́nᴇmux or Up. Ntlak. of the Sp. Bdge (or Thomp. Riv division) No. 1 is ¾ of this division and ¼ sltaxiaux (or Fraser River division) No. 12 is ½ [ditto] and ½ of Real Ntlak (or Lytton division) No. 2 is ¾ [ditto] and ¼ Shuswap tribe No. 10 is ⅞ [ditto] and ⅛ [ditto] No. 20 is ¾ [ditto] and ¼ [ditto] No. 15 is ¼ [ditto] and ¼ Nicola division ¼ Lytton division and ¼ Okanagon tribe No. 9 is ½ Lytton division and ½ Nicola division mixed with some Stuwī́x́ (viz Nicola-Similkameen Athabaskan) No. 11 is ½ Lytton division and ½ Nicola division No. 13 is ½ [ditto] and ½ [ditto] No. 16 is ½ [ditto] and ½ Okanagon tribe. Those marked with + have their faces in their profile pictures turned too much away and a few others have this fault slightly. among Siberian, Amerindian, and Inuit populations. Full analysis of the data awaited the advent of computers (Ousley and Jantz, “500 Year Old Questions,” 272). 27. Teit used “where indicated” here.

834 | 1918

The Indians in the other plates commencing with the lower figure plate 11 are Shuswap of the Kamloops band to plate 14. The Indian plate 13 is ¾ Shus. of Kaml. band and ¼ Up. Ntlak. Nkam. or Sp. Bdge. div. Lower figure plate 14 is ¾ Shus, of 2 or 3 different bands and ¼ Up. Ntlak. Sp. Bdg div. The Upper figure plate 15 is ½ French. The Lillooets plates 25 to 27 are Lower Lillooet with the exception of those in plate 25 who are Upper Lillooet over [page 3] These Lillooet show a close resemblance to Coast types with the exception perhaps of the lower figure of Plate 26 and those in plate 25 who probably more nearly resemble Interior types. The lower figure of plate 25 has a typical Ntlak. face in every way. The Shus. and Lill. individuals in the Album do not appear in the measurements of Boas. The Lillooets were measured by Dixon at a later date than Boas and Farrand’s measurements of Shus, Lill etc. [page 4]

1918 | 835

Fig. 16. Teit’s drawing of a hand, including a line of dashes. “My old method Measurements as taken up to end of April/18,” and a line of dots, showing, “Present method. Measurements as advised by Mr Knowles (commencing May/18).” Teit to Knowles, May 15, 1918.

Sapir to McConnell. May 27, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Sir,— In accordance with your request I am submitting the following information in regard to Mr. J. A. Teit of Spences Bridge [BC]. and his work. Mr. Teit is very well known in anthropological circles as a careful scientific student of the Indians of the interior of British Columbia, and the monographs already published by him, chiefly under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History, are among the best anthropological works yet published on any of the tribes of Canada. Aside from his scientific competence and experience, Mr. Teit has the great advantage of being in immediate personal contact with the Thompson River Indians of British Columbia, among whom he has lived for many years. He wields a great personal influence among the Indian tribes of British Columbia, and is thus a very useful man for those interested in Indian tribes to be in close contact with. Our original idea in adding Mr. Teit to the scientific staff of the Division of Anthropology was to have him make a thorough [page 2] going scientific survey of the Athabaskan tribes in Canada, a large and important group occupying the greater part of the interior of BC, and large sections adjoining in Yukon Territory, Alaska, and the Northwest Territories. These Indians are among the most primitive of Canada, but unfortunately little scientific study has yet been explicitly devoted to these tribes. The two field trips already undertaken by Mr. Teit for the Survey were devoted exclusively to the Tahltan and Kaska Indians of the region of Stikine River, the intention being that in further field trips Mr. Teit continue with other Athabaskan tribes to the north and east of these. The material that has resulted from these two trips among the Stikine tribes is very considerable in extent and requires arrangement for publication in a number of scientific monographs. The first volume of the series planned, namely “Myths and Tales of the Tahltan and Kaska”, has already been submitted by Mr. Teit and is, with your authorization, now being published by the American Folk-Lore; one instalment of this mythological monograph has already appeared. The greater part of Mr. Teit’s scientific material, however, still remains to be prepared for publication. In the last fiscal year Mr. Teit has been working steadily, as I learn from him by correspondence, on this remaining material, but completed [page 3] manuscript is not yet in my hands. The material 1918 | 837

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

that he covered embraces the material culture of the two tribes in all its details, the social organization and social customs, and their religious practices and beliefs. These three large topics might either be prepared in the form of three special monographs or combined into a large monograph on the ethnology of the Indians treated. The time that it would take to finish up this work could hardly be planned to cover less than two years, beginning from April 1st, 1918. I would recommend, therefore, that we continue Mr. Teit on the same arrangement as hitherto, on the understanding that all the outstanding material be put into definitive shape for publication by the end of the fiscal year 1919–20, that is by April 1st, 1920. I would also recommend that at least one monograph be submitted by the end of this fiscal year, or, if Mr. Teit prefers to combine all of his material in a single volume that as much of the material as will then be thereby be submitted to us for examination. I take this opportunity of pointing out that it would be a pity to discontinue Mr. Teit’s services even on completion of the work on which he is immediately engaged. The original understanding was that he was to be continued regularly from year to year on anthropological field work and on preparation of scientific manuscripts for publication, and the Tahltan and Kaska work was to [page 4] be merely the start, as I have already pointed out, of a systematic survey of the Athabaskan tribes of the Dominion. Mr. Teit’s position also enables him to give us a great deal of useful information from time to time on the tribes living in the vicinity of Spences Bridge. We have been at various times indebted to Mr. Teit for much valuable material dealing with these tribes: ethnological and archaeological specimens, photographs, phonograph records, physical measurements, and other data. Indeed, I know of no man who has been working for us on outside service that could be less wisely dispensed with than Mr. Teit.

Sapir to Teit. May 29, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— Thanks for the Indian painting which I have received. I am having it put with other drawings of the Indian prophet. Mr. McConnell has recently asked me to give him a statement of the work that is to be required of you during this fiscal year. It seems that he has seen the Minister about the contract and that the 838 | 1918

Minister is eager to know exactly what kind of work you are doing for us and how much longer the material you have on hand is likely to keep you. I estimated two years from April 1st, 1918 for the completion of your manuscript material, and further took the opportunity to urge your regular reappointment from year to year regardless of whether or not you finish up the amount of material that you have on hand at present. I do not know if this plea will carry weight, but at any rate I am hopeful of having this year’s contract passed. We are now distributing your Kaska Tales and will send you a list of addressees later on.

Sapir to Teit. May 31, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— Enclosed I am sending you the list that I referred to in my last letter. We have not had enough copies on hand to cover as many of the institutions as we would have liked. If you have any copies left over that you could let us [dis]pose of, I should be obliged to you for them. We should then try to cover as many of the remaining institutions as possible. We will see to it that all who receive copies of your Kaska Tales also obtain copies of further instalments. PS You will notice that practically all those that subscribe to the Journal of American Folk-Lore have been excluded from the list.

Teit to Francis Kermode, Director, Provincial Museum, Victoria BC, October 12, 1917.28 University of Calgary, Glenbow Library and Archives, A. E. Pickford fonds, m-3689. I received your letter a few days ago but have been unable to answer until now owing to absence at Kamloops and attendance at Ind. meetings. I saw the parties who asked you for the information and sent the sketches, and also saw some slabs of the rock painting they 28. Although this letter was begun in October 1917, Teit set it aside and wrote most of it in May 1918. A copy of the greater part of this letter was compiled in 1982 by Grant Keddie of the Royal British Columbia Museum into an unpublished document, “James Teit Document on Rock Painting,” with the long excerpt from the letter entitled “Notes of Rock Paintings in General” by J. A. Teit Spences Bridge 1918 (Grant Keddie, James Teit’s Notes on Rock Painting in General, http://staff:royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/2013/08/Teits-Notes-on-Rock-Painting-in-General -Grant-Keddie.pdf, accessed January 15, 2024).

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had brought in to Kamloops. Both men are very well known to me but whilst at Kamloops I did not have time to impart very full information to them on the subject. 31ST MAY/18.

I wrote the above in Oct. and now I am finishing it in May.29 I subjoin a few notes on rock paintings in general and on this one in particular. These may be of some value in the way of information to my friends at Kamloops. Rock paintings are quite common throughout the Southern Interior of BC [,] in the whole country between the Cascades and Rocky Mountains wherever inhabited by Interior Salish tribes and Kutenai. Further north among the Athabaskan tribes of the Interior [page 2]they are much less common and seem to decrease in number towards the North. They are also on the whole scarce on the Coast. They are plentiful to the south in the Interior of Washington, Idaho, etc. Many of the Rock paintings in the Southern Interior of BC and to the South have been sketches or photos or both. This Seymour Arm painting conforms to the general types of the Rock paintings of the region and has no striking features of any kind. I don’t know what the Indians living nearest to this Rock painting say of it, but they will likely disclaim knowledge of its history and also of the exact meanings of the pictographs. This does not cause surprise to persons acquainted with the general origin of these Rock paintings. These paintings are to be found in places such as cliffs overlooking or close to lakes and streams, near waterfalls, within and around caves, on the walls of canyons, natural amphitheatres, and on boulders near trails etc. Generally they are in lonely or secluded places near where Indians were in the habit of holding vigil and undergoing training during the period of their puberty ceremonials when they generally acquired their manitous. These places were resorted to because they were considered mysterious or were the haunts of ‘mysteries’ from whom they expected to obtain power[.] The mysterious forces or powers of nature were believed to be in greater abundance and strength at these places and the Novices desired to imbibe power and knowledge from these sources to help them in after years. They went through exercises, purified, supplicated, slept, prayed, fasted and held vigil at or near these [page 3] places so as to obtain as much as they could of this power. At the expiration of their training (or sometimes also during same if they had any vision or experience

29. U. Calgary, Glenbow, GAIA, A. E. Pickford Fonds, Glen-1858, MSS m3689.

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considered extraordinary or specifically important.) The novices painted pictures on cliffs or boulders near by (or at) these training places wherever rocks with a suitable surface for painting on could be found. Where these did not abound very few paintings were made or the paintings were done on small smooth stones or on debarked trees etc. The paintings made were largely in the nature of records of the most important of the novice’s experiences whilst training, such as things seen in peculiar or striking visions and dreams, things obtained or partially obtained as manitous or guardians etc., things wished for or desired to be obtained, things actually seen during training or during vigils which were considered good omens, actual experiences or adventures of the novice, especially those in connection with animals etc. By making paintings of these things on rocks the novices believed they would make such powers of the manitous etc. they had attained (and or obtained) stronger and more permanent, and what they desired to attain to (for instance to be a shaman, warrior, proficient hunter etc. etc.) or to obtain (as [for instance] in a certain Manitou, or certain powers, and benefits etc. etc.) more easily and quickly obtainable. The common paint used was vermilion earths or red ochres (a native paint obtained in many parts of the country in abundance)[.] It was generally mixed with melted animal fat and applied with the point of the index finger. Red was the color almost always used as [page 4] it was symbolic of Life, goodness, good luck etc. etc. Black, yellow and white colors were only very rarely used and no other colors so far as I know. Occasionally paintings on rocks were made by both novices and adults of any age for what seems to have been chiefly protective purposes such as after a very striking dream (or an event) believed to portend evil for the purpose of warding off the disaster or evil happenings. Paintings of manitous and men were also sometimes made in certain places near camps at overlooking paths and routes (on land or on water) by which enemies or evil (such as certain sicknesses or harmful things might approach). These pictographs by reason of their connection with the manitous or guardian spirits of the people who made them were believed to help in the protection of the latter. Still other paintings made occasionally were of a monumental and historic character either marking the spot where certain important happenings took place (such as battles etc. etc.) or narrating or recording in a pictographic way some event important in the life of the person (or in the lives of the people) who made them. Occasionally also persons when they saw (or thought they had seen) something supposed to be supernatural, or some monstrosity or some ghostly thing[,] drew a picture of it in red partly it 1918 | 841

seems to propitiate it, partly to protect themselves from possible harm, and partly to obtain power from it or as a manitou. These pictures might be made any place. Indians also frequently painted pictures on rocks which were thought to be metamorphosed beings (originally human, or semi-human or semi-animal, or semi-god like in character concerning which [page 5] there were two stories in their ancient mythological tales or traditions. These rocks are generally boulders and of shapes corresponding roughly to human and animal forms or to parts of the body etc. or rocks worn into peculiar or fantastic forms of various kinds suiting in some way the story that is told of them. By painting on them power in some degree[,] it was thought[,] might be obtained from them or their spirits[.] It will thus be seen that all the large rock paintings were made by several or many different individuals (male and female) at different times. Some individuals made only a figure or two and others a number. Thus one person did not know exactly the meaning of the figures painted by another because he did not know the other person’s dreams, experiences etc. He might guess at the meanings and might also know that certain figures represented certain things but of their connection one with the other he could not be sure. A person who saw the pictures of say a Basket, and of a Sun painted on a rock would probably know that the pictures represent these things but beyond this he would know nothing with certainty. He would surmise that the basket was painted by a girl because men generally did not picture such things. He would surmise that she had pictured the basket as a record of the sample basket she had made during her ceremonial training at puberty (At this time girls made samples of all kinds of work they might be expected to make in after life) or because she desired to be expert in basket-making in after years. So with the figure of the sun. He would surmise a [page 6] young man painted it either because he had acquired it as a Manitou, desired it as a Manitou, or had dreamed of it. Different forms of the sun or lines connected with it might enlighten him as to which of these reasons was the correct one. People usually made their paintings in secret and alone, and often offered prayers when making them. Some individuals [who] painted depicted the objects they desired to record, by painting the figures clearly, whilst others who were very poor in the pictographic art painted figures so carelessly and rudely that other people had great difficulty in making out what they represented. In places where older figures had faded or become indistinct Indians often painted over these. On some rocks which were favorite places for painting so many figures had been made by many persons at many times that the whole cliff had 842 | 1918

been covered with figures which so ran into each other and over each other that there was no room left to paint any more. In cases like this the pictures had become so intermixed and confused very few of them could be made out clearly or understood. On some cliffs where the surface of the rock within easy reach had been completely covered young men sometimes made ladders and put on their paintings above the others. In some cases young men suspended themselves with ropes to make their paintings out of ordinary reach or in some striking place. The lower parts of cliffs overlooking lakes were generally painted from Canoes. Striking natural phenomena (such as eclipses etc.) if they occurred during a person’s training were frequently recorded by painting on rocks. Rock paintings [in] different places vary a great deal in age as also do very often [page 7] the different pictures on the same rock. As far as the Indians know rock paintings have been made from time immemorial[,] and until lately. A number of old men and women still living have made them. It may be said the practice of making these paintings commenced to fall into disuse about 60 years ago. Of course some have been made since then and paintings are still made occasionally on small smooth stones and pebbles. Probably most of the rock paintings now to be seen are between 60 and 100 years old, but some in places where the rocks or their situations are favorable to the preservation of the paint no doubt are very much older. Some Indians believe that many of the larger and older rock paintings are not the work of human beings but are pictures made and shown by the ‘mysteries’, or powers, or spirits of the places where they are to be seen. It is said that in some places these pictures appear and disappear. and in some places different pictures appear at different times. [For] some printed information re. rock paintings in general, and certain particular rock paintings and their meanings see Teit[,] ‘The Thompson Indians of Br. Columbia’ plates XIX and XX. (Photos and sketches of Rock painting from 13 different places are here given with explanations of the figures as far as obtainable)[;] also Teit ‘The Shuswap’ p. 591[;] Teit ‘Notes on the Chilcotin Indians’ (appendix to The Shuswap) fig. 280[;] Teit ‘The Lillooet Indians’ plate IX, Teit Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist VIII p. 227[;] etc. An old Indian to whom I showed the sketches and photos of the Seymour Arm painting that you enclosed, agreed with me that these pictures had probably been made by pubescents during their training period. Most [page 8] of the pictures he thought represented dreams, or were connected with dreams. He said he could not give an explanation of any of the figures or combinations with certainty excepting a very few. The explanations he gave of the others are he said large[ly] 1918 | 843

conjecture. I have marked on the sketches what he said about them. The explanations the Indian seemed quite certain of I have underlined. I enclose the sketches but am retaining the photos. If you want them let me know. All the figures on the photos are in the sketches. If you can manage it you may send me a copy of these notes sometime so I may have a record of what I wrote as I am keeping no copy. Excuse hasty writing. I may possibly be in Victoria sometime next week and may then see you.

Sapir to Teit. June 5, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— I have just learned from Mr. McInnes that the Geological Survey has allowed you $600 for this fiscal year, the rate of payment being as heretofore. I am sorry that the full $1500 for the whole year was not allowed. What they did was to take the amount of money actually expended for your work last fiscal year and to repeat the sum for this year.30 I had rather counted on your being able to put in the better part of this fiscal year in manuscript work for us, but I suppose it is just as well to be satisfied with what we have managed to keep. Next fiscal year the fight will have to be fought all over again no doubt. Meanwhile, I do not know if anything will come out of Mr. Scott’s proposition to have you take up industrial work for the Indians. He is out of town just now, but as soon as he returns I shall take up the matter with him again.

Knowles to Teit. June 14, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Mr. Teit,— I was very glad to get your letter of May 15th. With reference to your questions, an Index is the proportion of one measurement to another in terms of 100. For instance, a cephalic index of 75 means that the breadth of the head is 75 per cent or ¾ of the length. It is obtained as follows, 30. A standard Canadian government response to estimates resulting in lapsing funds. It is remarkable that Sapir was able to maintain the overall estimate for six years, even as Teit’s salary was recast, first as a monthly salary, and then as a daily fee. The exchange between McConnell and Sapir highlights the central issue, namely the absence of publishable results from Teit’s field research.

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Breadth of head x 100 [divided by] Length of head = Cephalic Index. Say the length of a head is 200 mm. and the breadth 150 mm, then 150 x 100 [divided by] 200 = 75, i.e. the cephalic index of that head is 75, the breadth being just ¾ or 75 per cent of the length. Other indices are: Facial length x 100 [divided by] Bizygomatic width = Facial index. Nasal width x 100 [divided by] Nasal height = Nasal index. You would therefore have to do a short sum in arithmetic every time you wanted to calculate an index. I am enclosing a copy of your observations on the Athabaskans, Carrier, and Chilcotin. I hope that some time you may be able to let me have similar observations on other tribes with whom you have come into contact. I am also enclosing a copy of your tables on nose-forms and other descriptive data, so [page 2] that you will be able to refer to them at need. The scheme you outlined as the one you are adopting for the description of nasal forms seems very good and quite complete enough. A high bridge in a nose refers, I suppose, to its height above the general face level in its projection above a line joining—say—the nasion and chin. Re the prominence of the point of the nose, measurements have been taken of this, the measurement being taken from the top of the point to the akanthion. Personally I think it is a measurement too hard to take with sufficient accuracy to make it worth while. I am glad to see that your hand measurements are not far out. I should think that adding 1 mm to the widths would make them comparable to the measurements by the method which I explained in my last letter. Re the nasion, the terms high and low, as I understand them, refer to the prominence of the nasion above the level of the inner corners of the eye. From this point of view the nasion is generally high in adult whites, lower in white children; low in Eskimo, West Coast Indians, etc. (I have noticed it often low in Iroquois women and very low in children). It does not influence the notch at the junction of the forehead and nose. It would be necessary to make the notch a special observation, i.e. whether deeply notched, smooth, etc. The way which you have used the terms high and low for the nasion has therefore been correct. Many thanks for the list of Indians that you enclosed. The list you [page 3] supply will make the photos available for study in connection with the measurements. I was very sorry to hear of Chief Tetlenitsa’s death. I should think he would be almost impossible to replace. He was a most intelligent man and a very likeable character. I 1918 | 845

am glad to hear that you are well. Is there any prospect of your visiting Ottawa again? I hope the information I have given you in this will be of help. Let me know if there is anything that I have not explained clearly enough.

Teit to Sapir. June 29, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir, I am sending you to-day the following copies of books which I have spare. 12 ‘Folk-Tales of Salishan Tribes’ 12 ‘European Tales from Up. Thomp. Inds.’ 12 ‘Two Tahltan Traditions’ 6 ‘Notes on the Tahltan Inds of BC’ 6 ‘Kaska Tales’ 6 ‘Traditions of the Lillooet Inds of BC’ Of the Kaska Tales I have just 5 copies left. Of the others I have on hand 8 to 20 copies of each so I could spare some more copies of some of them if you want them. I am enclosing copy of my a/c to date so that Mr Marshall can send me a little money. I did not do much work for you especially in April and part of May as I thought I would put in a big garden. I put in nearly an acre in crops and had a good deal of preliminary work to do on the land. The crops on this ground now look fine as I have plenty of irrigation water. [page 2] You ought to be here to eat some of the stuff of it. It is too bad they could not see their way clear to let me work as much as I could for you this year but of course this cannot be helped.31 The time I do put in for you will help some in these hard times with high prices. I will have to hunt other work part of the time. I took my camera to Vancouver and then sent it to Toronto to get a new shutter as I could take no more pictures with the shutter I had. It was worn out. I ought to have the camera back any day now and will then be able take numerous pictures. For nearly a year now I have taken but few pictures owing to difficulty with the shutter and therefore you have received but few pictures from me of late. This shutter will cost me abt 18.00 or 20.00. Do you think the Gov. will stand the expense of this? (It 31. Teit’s contract for 1918–1919 is not in the CMH file.

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could be included in the 600.00 work I am to do?) If they will not then I suppose I should not take any pictures except they want to provide me with a good camera for the purpose. I have been doing their work with my own camera for years now. Judging from past experience it is hard to say how they will view the matter. Two Indians from here went back to Ottawa to see the Ind. Department two or three days ago. You should get Mr. Scott to send them to you so they can be photoed and measured in the Museum. They will be amenable. These Indians represent a separate clique who do not pull well with the others. They are dissatisfied but have no clear cut program like the chiefs who were there with me. They also have little influence and represent but a few people mostly old people of this tribe only. They will probably find out they cannot do much there and will not stay long. In fact the less ‘chiefs’ they see the better for they are very mixed up in their ideas and one of them is not altogether dependable in veracity and is a weak man viz the Her. Chief Spentlam of Lytton.32 He is a first cousin to Chief Thomas Adolf who was there with me but is not any thing like the fine character Adolf is, nor has he anywhere near the ability and good qualities. PS You can let Mr. Scott know what I say about these Indians if you like.33 He has already heard considerable of Spentlams’. The latter is not very bad nor dangerous[.] [T]he chief trouble is that he is so weak and foolish and is inclined to sly or behind the back work. The Indian with him is merely a companion for the trip.

32. This is a reference to Charlie Spintlum, who was a son of Sexpinɬəmx (1812–1887), known commonly as “Spintlum.” Sexpinɬəmx was a prominent Nlaka’pamux chief at the time of the gold rush and in the decades that followed. Although Teit refers to Charlie Spintlum as “Her. Chief Spentlam,” the reference is to some degree ironic. Although Charlie Spintlum might have been eligible to succeed his father as chief, after Sexpinɬəmx’s death, the position of chief at Lytton passed to someone who was unrelated to the family. Within Nlaka’pamux practice at that time and before, the position of chief, kwukwpiʔ, could be and often was, hereditary, but this was not absolute. A son without leadership qualities could be passed over in favor of an unrelated person who did have the required character. As his letter to Sapir on July 23, 1918, indicates, Teit believed that this was what had happened in Charlie Spintlum’s case. Teit knew him. In his statement of accounts for 1910 Teit included compensation for “Charley Cexpentlam” at $0.50. 33. Sapir forwarded Teit’s information about Spintlum and his companion to Duncan Campbell Scott (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, Sapir to Scott, July 5, 1918, B.633, f.15, folder: “Scott, Duncan C. [1912–1918]”).

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Sapir to Teit. July 6, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— I have your letter of June 27th and have received all the copies of your papers that you specify in your letter. The six extra copies of “Kaska Tales” I am having distributed to various institutions. The others I am holding for distribution from time to time. Thank you for your memorandum in regard to Chief Spentlam, which I have communicated to Mr. Scott. Mr. Scott informs me that he is very glad to get the little tip. So far the Indians have not put in an appearance.

Boas to Teit. July 8, 1918. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122023. My dear Friend,— I have just received your letter, to which I shall reply more fully a little later. I just want to let you know that Miss Roberts was mistaken in regard to your sketches. They are all in my hands. They were together with Dr. Haeberlin’s papers.

Boas to Teit. July 11, 1918. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122024. My dear Friend,— As I wrote you some time ago, my daughter had the tree sugar examined. It turns out that it contains a rare sugar, and she has been asked whether it would be possible to obtain several hundred pounds of the material, and she is still corresponding with the people who made the investigation in regard to this subject. I think it is not unlikely that they may be willing to pay a fair price for a considerable mass of the sugar; and I thought I had better let you know now, because I fear that the time might pass when the sugar can be collected. My daughter will let you know just as soon as she hears about the matter. For the botanical investigation of the sugar, it would be essential to have fresh branches of the trees taken at the time when the exudation just begins, and if possible before that time, and the material ought to be examined fresh. Therefore it would be very desirable if you could send here by letter-post some material of this kind. My daughter is going to be here at Bolton Landing until the middle of September. 848 | 1918

Therefore it would be best to send it here. Even if the postage for a letter of that kind [page 2] should be high, it ought to be sent that way well protected, because all other mail nowadays is so very slow. It is, of course, essential that the material should not be crushed.

Boas to Teit. July 16, 1918. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122027. My dear Friend,— We have just heard from Washington that they will offer 50¢ per pound for the tree sugar up to an amount of 100 pounds; they would pay the express charges from Spences Bridge to Washington, and they want to have the material shipped by express, boxed up. If the expense of getting the material should be greater than I anticipate, they might perhaps be willing to pay a little more. Will you kindly let me know whether you think that you can collect the material at the priced named?

Teit to Boas. July 18, 1918. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122057. Dear Friend. I have received both your letters. By the first I was glad to learn that the sheets of sketches of the basketry designs had not gone astray. Re. the tree-sugar. I will be on the look out for it and I have told several Indians to tell me when they see indications of it coming on. Most of them however are working on their own places or on White men’s ranches as there is a great scarcity of labor and wages are considerably higher than they were. However some of them will be almost sure to notice the sugar forming somewhere if it is a good sugar year. There is no sign of it yet but from now on it may form any time[.] [G]enerally the last half of July and early part of August are the best times for its forming if the weather is right. The weather has been a little erratic lately but on the whole [page 2] dry and hot with temperatures up to 102 in the shade. I got an analysis of the sugar I sent to Ottawa last year and the previous year and analysis of both samples came out almost the same. It would thus appear the content is pretty stable there not being much difference in different years between the percentages of sugar. These samples were about 95 percent in different sugars. I was thinking there might be some scientific means by application of which 1918 | 849

trees could be made to exude and form this sugar. Of course before this could be possible I suppose more must be obtained in the way of data re. the formation and conditions bringing about the formation of this sugar on these trees. If I have the chance this year I will give what attention I can to the collection of further data on the several points including those you suggest. I will also collect specimens and take photos. I wanted Prof Davidson34 to come up here and make a study of the whole matter this year but the Prov. gov. will not supply him with funds and the same with me so I do what I can without them.35 There is little appreciation of things scientific in this country except some commercial [page 3] end can be plainly seen.—or in other words the making of dollars is in clear view. I have just finished writing into a book all my notes on Indian (Ntlak only) names of plants and their uses. I have some 500 or more names now and about or over 250 botanical identifications. I thus have considerably more than the number of Ind. terms included by Chamberlain [sic] in his ethno-botany of the Gosiute[.] I have hitherto had these names etc. in scattered sheets and mixed up with other Indian notes and it had become quite a task to find any one reference to a particular plant.36 I have now written all the botanical names in one book and all the Indian names in another. By next summer I expect to have a great many more identifications, if I can afford the time for 34. John Davidson, the British Columbia provincial botanist. 35. Teit did go out to gather botanical specimens in June or early July 1918. He wrote to Newcombe in the third week of July, “I received your letter of 17th inst with the explanation re your hurt etc. I am glad to hear the wound is now well. Yes. I suppose it was better for you to take no chances of making a bad thing (viz the wound) worse. It was a disappointment to us not to have you along. The weather was ideal and no mosquitoes nor flies. We found the flowering season was more advanced than at the same time last year—this by about two weeks, but there was no harm in this as some plants not in flower last year when we were there we found in flower. The very best of the flowering season for most plants has passed so there was not such a great display of color as we saw last year when there, but nevertheless the great variety and profusion of flowering plants in the district was very striking especially to a stranger. It seems in this Botani district within a comparatively small area very easy of travel there occurs a blending together or contact of more eastern and western floras so one finds plants of the Dry Interior, the Cascades, the Coast (or West of the Cascades), and the semi-alpine mountains together or within very short distances of each other in the one District. I am sure you would have enjoyed the trip and obtained many new specimens you have not yet collected. As this is the third season we have been botanizing there we have now covered the district there pretty thoroughly—that is to say for a preliminary botanical survey (emphasis Teit’s). There is talk that next year the Botanical Club of Vancouver may take their week’s outing there and put up a camp, and also that Myself, Perry and another may do a piece of the country North of Botani in what are higher and dryer mountains forming a kind of divide or watershed between creeks running into the Fraser, Thompson and Bonaparte respectively” (BCA, Newcombe Family Correspondence, Teit to Newcombe, July 20, 1918). 36. Chamberlin, The Ethno-Botany of the Gosiute Indians of Utah, 329–405.

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a little field work in this line in two or three sections of the country a little distance from here. Thus I hope by that time to have almost complete data on this whole subject from the Ntlak. I expect there will be at least 600 Ntlak names of plants and parts of plants etc. (viz Indian botanical names.) Well, this is all just now.

Teit to Boas. July 22, 1918. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122057. Dear Friend I received your letter to-day. In reply re. the sugar ¢50 per lb. may be enough if it happens to be a good sugar year and if this price includes the needles. It would not pay to gather the pure sugar at this price. As you know the sugar forms on the needles so the needles are contained in it there being many masses of the sugar containing the needles. To remove all these small needles would make a very considerable amount of work. The sugar adheres to them very tightly when fresh. When kept a while owing to shrinkage of the needles through drying they can be pulled out of the sugar fairly easily and the older the sugar the easier they can be removed. Of course in gathering the sugar as few sticks and needles as possible would be included or in other words the sugar would be [page 2] as clean as reasonably possible and only the more sugar masses would be included. It would not pay I think to gather and transport to a shipping point and perfectly clean the sugar as well for ¢50 per lb. In a good year when large masses of sugar formed it might but not in any ordinary year excepting Indian women were to be obtained who would work cheaply. At present wages are up and Ind. labor scarce. However I will do the best I can in the matter if sugar can be got this year and try to get the 100 lbs if there is a chance to do so near here. PS Another thing about the tree sugar is that it is light for its bulk. At least it seems so to me.

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Teit to Sapir. July 23, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir I received your letter of 6th inst. and your list of distribution of Kaska Tales. I was going to send a copy to Mr Hatt but I see you have forwarded one to him. I wrote to him not long ago. Chief Spentlam and his companion returned after being one day in Ottawa. I suppose they had left there before my letter reached you. They saw no one and were the same as lost when they got there. They said they returned because Mr. Borden was away and there was no use seeing any of the smaller chiefs. Since he returned I believe Spentlam has been telling his gullible followers some of the wonderful things he had been told by secretaries of Chiefs at Ottawa. These stories are all lies to bolster up himself for having been able to accomplish nothing etc. at Ottawa. The reason that Spentlam has any following at all is [page 2] because a certain number of old people believe the reason the Ind. question has not already been settled is because the gov. will not recognize the chiefs who have been at Ottawa. They believe if the old head chief Cexpéntlam were alive the question would have been settled long ago and not the gov. is only waiting for his son and legitimate heir the present [S]péntlam to show himself at Ottawa and the whole matter will be settled in quick time. The more intelligent portion of the tribe and the majority do not want the present Spentlam to take a leading part in anything as they recognize him to be a very weak man, who cannot talk intelligently on anything and besides he is not dependable in hardly anything he says. It is therefore probably as well he saw no one in Ottawa and thus saved making a fool of himself. I am preparing for shipment to you the songs I have had on hand for two or three years, and will soon have part of them ready. Some of them I am holding apart to see if I can get a little more information than I have relative to their history and origin. We have had very hot weather here lately—four days between 100 and 102 in the shade. PS I sent in my a/cs the end of last month but have received no money yet.

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Teit to Sapir. July 23, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir I received the money from Mr Marshall tonight. I will have a shipment of records ready next week and will send in the balance as soon as possible thereafter.

Teit to Sapir. August 1, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir I am sending you to-day or tomorrow by express 4 doz records (viz Nutka 1, Cowichan 1, Stalo 2, Chilcotin 1, Carrier 2, Shuswap 2, Okanagon 15, Ntlak. 24.) I will have a number more to send you again soon (Mostly Ntlak.)[.] I will not send you the Catalog until I forward the next lot. The Catalog containing information on the songs I am now sending embraces 17 foolscap pages and information on the next lot will probably occupy about as much space or more. The whole may contain about 35 to 40 pages. I have had for years a great many notes on the Ethno-botany of the Ntlak. I have been adding to these a little every year, and now have a considerable body of material which will be valuable to write up some time. I intended some time to write up [page 2] all this for you but things do not look promising now. As all this material was in loose pages and scattered notes it had become quite a task to find anything. I have taken the opportunity of slack times to write all the information into two books—one containing the Botanical and English names with notes on habitat and range of the plants etc. and the other containing the Indian names (with translations as far as possible) and the uses to which put by the Indians. I now find I have more material of this kind on the Ntlak. and more Ind. terms by quite a number than Chamberlain has in his Ethno-botany of the Gosiute Inds of Utah. and I consider his paper pretty full. I have between 500 and 600 Indian names of plants and botanical terms and will get more yet as the information is not complete. I have about 265 Botanical identifications or names. There are still however a number of important plants I have not been able to have identified so far and for this purpose some field work would be necessary to achieve the object quickly. With some funds I could complete the whole thing next spring. It is too late this year now to

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obtain most of the specimens wanted for identification as the flowering season of most plants has passed. This work will have to wait until some time in the future[;] meanwhile I am pleased with the work I have done of getting the notes all gathered together and in order. PS Smith is out here with an expedition but I have not seen him yet. I suppose they could easily have had me out (as packer, cook and guide etc. and with horses) at work that is all old to me and in a country I know well seeing that I have only 5 mo. Anthrop. work to do this year but there seems little coordination with the Geological Survey. Possibly however the Gov. expects me to go working on a farm for 7 mo. to take the place of the farmers and farm laborers they have conscripted?37

Teit to Sapir. September 2, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir Thanks for letter of 9th ult.38 I know Smith had no idea I would not be employed as usual this year. I have been corresponding with him right along since he has been out. He is very interested in all the sites of kekule-houses he has seen lately. He says had he known the Department was to cut out my Anthrop. work so much he would probably have been able to get me on with his party packing, cooking, etc. They must have written to Dr. Ferrier who is also out here on Geol. work and the latter foned [sic] to me from Kamloops a couple

37. It is hard to know how Teit viewed the contracts he had signed over the previous several years. It does seem clear that apart from the significant intrusion into his GSC working time created by the work for Boas, he had never quite accepted the idea of his work with the GSC as essentially a full-time position with field research and publishable research results as the primary focus of the work. Throughout this time, it appears that rather than leaving behind the ad hoc mode of work he followed with Boas, he had, in a de facto way, drawn the GSC work into that mode—at the expense of both the possibility of drawing a full salary for any year’s work and, ultimately, the continuation of his employment. The next several letters convey his bitterness but also his continuing disregard of the money which was actually available to him should he do the work specified. He turned to prospecting once again, was wistful at missing out on packing for Smith’s archaeological expedition, and in October, not long before the summary of work for the Anthropology Division’s annual report was due, sent word to Sapir that he had not done much work for him, again putting Sapir in a potentially difficult situation with the deputy minister. 38. Sapir’s letter to Teit of August 9, 1918, is not in the CMH file.

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of days ago wanting me to go out with him.39 The offer was only for a week “possibly longer” so I did not take [page 2] it. I already had a job on hand at better wages for as long a time with chances of others. I have been out on two or three prospecting trips in the mountains and have a couple more trips in sight. For this reason I have been doing work for you only part of the time. I have another batch of songs half ready to send you. I am taking measurements and notes re. physical anthropology but have cut out the photos because no doubt the Department will not allow payment for the films. I had my camera put in first class shape with a new shutter etc. costing in all $22.50. If they want photos in the future they will have to come up with the cost or provide me with another camera. I will take photos now and then for myself as I can afford to pay for the films so types will be obtained whether they allow for it or not. Re [page 3] your offer to submit my paper on Ethnobotany to the Amer. Anthrop. Assoc. would they care to pay me for the writing up of it and the collecting of a little additional data? or would they pay me for the finished paper a certain sum? or would they pay for it at all? So I am suffering the penalty of being too distinguished a scientist viz non-employment the penalty. Perhaps I am too obscure? Although they found me when it came to knocking off time (or salary) or it may be I am not the right kind? If I was scientific at viz something they consider valuable I would be a success. Their point of view is different from ours. Well, you better look out, for you are much more distinguished than I am. With best regards to yourself, Mrs Sapir and the children PS I enclose my a/c for last two months to be given to Mr. Marshall. I dont remember whether it is required in duplicate. I know vouchers are to be in duplicate but there are no vouchers.

39. Telephoned seems to be what Teit meant. Walter Frederick Ferrier (1865–1950) was a mineralogist, mining engineer, and geologist with the Geological Survey of Canada (“Ferrierite-K,” https://www.mindat.org/min-6930.html, accessed December 5, 2021).

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Teit to Sapir. September 9, 1918. Postcard. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Could you have sent to me two maps of late Dr. Dawson’s accompanying his Kamloops sheet[?] One is topographical and the other is geological.

Sapir to P. E. Goddard. September 15, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Goddard,— It is only fair to myself to say that I did not really expect that it would be possible to pay Teit anything for his ethnobotanical MS.40 I asked merely because he had put the question to me and I wanted to be able to give him a definitive answer. Nor was I over sanguine as to the possibility of having the Association publish his manuscript altogether, but I thought it might do no harm to bring the matter to your attention. Perhaps we could put his paper on our waiting list for consideration at a more opportune time.

Sapir to Teit. September 15, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— The enclosed letter from Dr. Goddard, who is editor of the American Anthropologist, will tell you how we stand financially in regard to publications. I am afraid it will not be possible to handle your MS on ethno-botany for some little time to come. I hope that it will be possible

40. Boas later commissioned Elsie Viault Steedman to edit Teit’s extensive notes and manuscript on ethnobotany for publication (Steedman, “The Ethnobotany of the Thompson Indians of British Columbia,” 441–522), but the scope of the paper sent to Goddard is not clear. Although Teit had a significant number of publications to his credit by this time, he was apparently unaware that professional journals did not pay for papers submitted, nor for their preparation. His record of publication and his breadth of knowledge supported his observation to Sapir that he was distinguished, but his lack of experience in preparing material himself for publication, in meeting other anthropologists in professional settings such as conferences, and in working day-by-day with other anthropologists in a professional institution had left him at a signal disadvantage. At this time he was also under substantial financial pressure—he was fifty-four years old and had several children under the age of fourteen.

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to consider your manuscript when conditions are more favorable, but for the present evidently nothing can be done. Please return the letter.

Teit to Sapir. September 30, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir, I received your letter of 15th inst. and herewith return the enclosure from Dr Goddard. Thank you very much for your endeavors in my behalf. I would have answered sooner but have been away on a prospecting trip for mineral. I found some silver and copper but in those days it is difficult to get capital interested excepting in something which is very rich and contains practically no risks. Properties of this kind of course are very hard to find and the finding of them it seems depends sometimes on blind luck. I do not expect much if anything to come of my finds and am not building on them. American capital is practically tied up or excluded from this country at present—anyway it seems very tight and very little of either Amer. or Can. capital is being used for any investments excepting those which appear to be war measures and for these the money flows. It looks now as if the war might end next year—that is the present war but I will not be surprised if another wars follow it in some of the countries. I mean revolutionary wars. I have done very little work for you this month. Hoping this will find yourself and family quite well I remain.

Teit to Sapir. October 30, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir, I am enclosing a/c for the last two months. I did not get in very much work for you. I was prospecting, and working on ranches picking apples, haying and digging potatoes etc. I was on the point of sending you some printed information throwing what seems to be true light on the Bolsheviki but I hear the same has been suppressed by the Gov. and anyone found with the same in their possession is liable to fine etc. I see the Soc. papers throughout Canada including the Clarion has been suppressed as a war measure? it seems. The Indians have given me a job for a time at least whenever I want to work at it. This may come in handy seeing the Gov. does not deem my services of much 1918 | 857

value evidently? I may thus be in Ottawa with a delegation in Jany if all is well. You need not mention this however as it is not quite sure yet. It will depend somewhat on funds and other circumstances. Did you get the Low. Sco. word Hotch-potch the name [page 2] of a certain kind of dish made of vegetables, meat etc. A very mixed kind of soup or stew. The word is no doubt the same as the Eng. Hodge-podge. It seems the German ruling class will have to make peace soon to save themselves otherwise Revolution may get them. The grippe is very bad on the Coast at present and all the towns are closed more or less tightly. I hope you have all escaped it. So far we are exempt here at Sp. Bdge. I suppose Smith got home all right. I did not see him.

Sapir to Teit. November 8, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— I have your note of October 30th with enclosed accounts, which I have forwarded to Mr. Marshall. I am sorry that it was not possible to make things more interesting for you this year in our Department, but I hope that we shall be able to do better next fiscal year—at least I intend to try. Your word hotch-potch that you speak of you gave me once before. The influenza epidemic has been quite bad here. We ourselves have almost, if not quite, escaped it. I am glad to hear that it has not touched Spences Bridge.

Teit to Sapir. November 16, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir I received your letter of 8th inst. and was glad to hear you had escaped the influenza. I thank you for your intention of doing the best you can for me next year. Since I wrote you last the ‘flu’ epidemic has been very bad in the West. It is now spreading from the Coast all through the Interior and has also now extended up the Coast to Alaska. I hear the Eskimo there are dying wholesale with it. This plague has been and still continues very severe among the Indians here and a great many have already died. In some places as many as 28 and 30 per cent of those Indians contracting it have died. This is a serious matter. A number of Whites have also died but not nearly in the same proportion. 858 | 1918

Many Chinese contracted it but very few of them have died. The Indians were struck down just at the time when the ranchers in many places were depending on them almost entirely (owing to the scarcity of labor) for the garnering of their crops. [page 2] Some crops of Whites, Indians, and Chinese are not in yet, and much would have been lost had not the fall been exceedingly mild. We have had only very light frosts up to date and these far between. Three degrees of frost is coldest night to date. There has been no snow excepting in the mountains and very little rain. I see you are wise on the Bolsheviki. I hear the Ottawa Gov. has now taken off the bans against Socialists and the strike. The war is ending in what seems the best manner possible with thorough going revolutions spreading throughout the former enemy countries and spreading beyond. The Indians have received such a severe knock with the ‘flu’ that they will not be able nor feel like making collections for some time and the matter of my going east is now more uncertain and at least may be delayed. The ‘flu’ has now been in Sp. Bdge for some time but so far my family have escaped it. PS I have been working on a ranch where they were short of labor for ten or eleven days of this month. One of my eyes is not in very good shape. I cant see quite straight with it and not very clear but have not seen any doctor yet. Have been using Bon-optos.41

Teit to Sapir. December 2, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir I received your letter to-day, and will try to get the Blk Bear skin for Mrs Sapir. The Inds around here have been almost all unable to hunt this fall and have brought in no bears. I will try to get it elsewhere and bring it with me if I go to the East.

41. The National Museum of American History website carries an image of a bottle of BonOpto Solution, made circa 1920 by Valmas Drug Co., Inc., of Rochester NY, with the note, “The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer are: Healing, soothing, cooling, non-irritating, and cleansing for the eyes” (National Museum of History, “Bon Opto,” https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1297920, accessed August 27, 2021).

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I will let you know my program as soon as I know same myself. I dont know if Camsell is now in Ottawa or in Vancouver.42 If he is in Ottawa in March and the Deptment does not give me full work next year I would be obliged to you to see him as little doubt he may be able to give me a job with some of the Geol. Survey parties next year as packer etc. Of course I would only take this if I was not fully employed in Anthrop. work. If Camsell is still in Vanc. or will be there for some time yet I may have a chance to see him about it myself. They have a Norwegian fisherman up for sedition here now for remarks which you often here [sic] about [page 2] matters in connection with the war. Things a person can say openly in England, and put even in print is sedition here in Canada. It is time there was a little more democracy here.

Sapir to Teit. December 9, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— Mr. Camsell is in Vancouver. I believe that he is in permanent charge of a survey branch in that city. Smith tells me that he has spoken to Camsell about you and that Camsell is already favourably informed of you. I should think then that the best thing for you to do, if you wish to do such work for the survey parties as you refer to, would be to look up Camsell yourself next time you are in Vancouver, or at any rate to write to him betimes. It will probably be well to do this fairly soon, as otherwise you may be caught too late again.

Teit to Sapir. December 9, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir I am enclosing my a/c for Nov. I intended to forward it sooner but forgot about it for a time. I am getting in considerable time on the Tahltan M.S. this month. I will also have some more songs ready to send you soon. I have got very few measurements lately as very few Indians have been around owing to the prevalent sickness among them. I have 42. Charles Camsell, a geologist with the Geological Survey of Canada, who had been appointed to head a regional office of the GSC in Vancouver. He assumed the position in May 1918 (Zaslow, Reading the Rocks, 314).

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not attempted to take photos as no provision was made for the cost of film packs etc. I have bought a very few arch. specimens but of course with my own money. I will know about the end of this month as to my proposed trip East and will advise you. As I may not be writing again before Xmas I send you all the best greetings of the season. PS If the a/c is too late for Mr. Marshall to pay it this month it does not matter. Early next month will do.

Teit to Sapir. December 21, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir I will be going to Vancouver soon to see about my eye and will then see Mr Camsell if he is there. Mr Davidson the Provincial botanist has at last written the paper on the tree sugar he promised. He suggests several ways of handling the article for publication. Please make up your mind as to what you think best and let me know as soon as possible. I am writing to him that I am communicating with you and will forward to him your answer, I enclose his letter to me so you can see exactly what he says.

Teit to Sapir. December 23, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir I am sending you to-day 48 photos vis 3 Okanagon, 1 Shuswap, 2 Lillooet, 1 Carrier, 1 Kutenai, and the rest Ntlak. I may forward them either by Dominion or Northern Express probably the former. The catalog comprises 37 pp. foolscap. I will forward same perhaps to-morrow.

Sapir to Teit. December 26, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— I hope that you will be able to make satisfactory arrangements with Mr. Camsell for future work. Although I am hoping to be able to renew

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our previous arrangements with you for next fiscal year, it will be nice for you to have another string to your bow. I am glad to learn that Mr. Davidson has made a report on the Douglas fir sugar. It was Dr. Hewitt, was it not, who first suggested the writing up of the subject? If that is so, I think it would be courteous to submit the paper to [him] to dispose of as he sees best. You might, therefore, send it to me if you don’t mind for forwarding to Dr. Hewitt.

Teit to Sapir. December 26, 1918. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir I am enclosing herewith the catalog of the two shipments of songs. The last shipment I forwarded by Dom. Express on the 24th inst. I am registering this pkge as I retain no copy of the catalog only rough notes containing information on the songs. I find there are a number of songs I have forwarded of which I have received no copy of information given with them to you. Some other songs I have typewritten copies of from you. I have nearly finished the first writing of one of the chapters of my account of the Tahltan viz the chapter dealing with Birth, Childhood, Puberty, Marriage and Death. This chapter alone will run to 50 pp or over foolscap closely written. Of this puberty takes abt 18 pp as I have very full information on puberty ceremonials. I have another chapter more than half finished and several others, carried forward some distance. I have also some sketches and maps etc. about finished. I may say I still have some song records on hand which I will forward some time later. I think about 30 in all, mostly Ntlak. the others Okan. and Kut.

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1919

Teit to Sapir. January 1, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir I received your letter and am communicating with Mr. Davidson today as to the disposal of his paper. I expect to go to Vancouver in two or three days to see a doctor re. my eye and also will see what Mr Camsell says re. a possible job. Of course I would prefer to keep on very steadily with the ethnological work and get as much as possible of the big mass of writing I have off my hands. Therefore it will be to our advantage to try to have the previous arrangements renewed as far as possible for the coming fiscal year. There should also be some provision made for purchase of additional specimens, continuation of photography etc. Surely the Museum (and the National one for Canada at that) is not going to stand still. Re field trips I say nothing. They depend on funds and what your mind is regarding them. I will likely know about the middle of the month as to the trip east. I will let you know what Camsell says after I return from Vancouver. I enclose a/c for last month.

Sapir to Teit. January 2, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— The catalogue covering the last two shipments of songs has been duly received. The last shipment of phonograph records has also arrived. Please let me know if it is imperative for your work to have typewritten copies of the data submitted by you in regard to the songs. There is now such an accumulation of clerical work in our office that any saving that can reasonably be made should be considered. It goes without saying, of course, that any material you send here is always at your disposal, further that any passages that you particularly need from time to time we should be most pleased to make a transfer of. If, however, you indicate that the information forwarded to us is being

863

constantly used by you for reference purposes, I shall be glad to arrange to have a copy made of the last manuscript sent. Please let me know what further entries you would need to have copies made of. I was greatly pleased to learn of your substantial progress in the writing up of Tahltan ethnology. I am looking forward to the completed volume with a great deal of interest.

Teit to Sapir. January 3, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir I received your letter of 26th ult. and have to-day mailed to Dr Kroeber the copy I had of your ‘History and Varieties of Human Speech’.1 The article of yours is very interesting and very valuable. I would like to get a copy of Kroeber’s book of selected readings on Anthrop. subjects if same is published. I have just received a letter from Cassiar telling me of the death on a trapping trip of Dandy Jim who was my chief informant for the Tahltan, and my chief companion when I was collecting data there.2 He was a very bright Indian. I also lately received letters from Denmark and Shetland telling me of Dr Jakobsen’s death last fall.3 It seems he had been sick a considerable time and had not quite completed his etymological dictionary of the Old Norse language of Shetland embracing over 10,000 words. He had reached to letter V. His Faroeic dictionary and several other important works were also uncompleted. The papers (at least the Norwegian ones) claim him to have been about the best philologist in the North. Best regards

1. Sapir, “The History and Varieties of Human Speech,” 45–67. 2. In 1912 Teit photographed Dandy Jim standing in front of the cabin where Teit worked in Telegraph Creek (Thompson, Recording Their Story, 54, fig. 21, CMH 26310). In his field notes, later edited and published by June Helm, Teit wrote, “Dandy Jim . . . was specially selected by the tribe to give me the desired information, partly because of his superior knowledge of English and partly because he was considered to be of superior intelligence and one of the best posted persons in the tribe.” (Thompson, Recording Their Story, 55). In his 1915 field notes Teit identified Dandy Jim as tu ú.ts, ‘strong rocks,’ Crow, Naˊlote’n. Judith Thompson, who brought together this information, noted: “Dandy Jim was about forty-five years of age and a member of the Nahlin clan of the Raven phratry. Almost certainly, he and Teit already knew each other from Teit’s hunting trips in Tahltan territory” (Thompson, Recording Their Story, 54–55). 3. Jakob Jakobsen (1864–1918), a Danish philologist and contemporary of Teit, studied connections between the Faroese dialect he had spoken from childhood and dialects spoken on the Shetland Islands. For a discussion of Teit’s substantial interest in Jakobsen’s work see Wickwire, At the Bridge, 64–66.

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Teit to Sapir. January 15, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir In reply to your letter of 2nd inst, I may say it is not particularly necessary for my work to have copies of the data furnished with the songs. That is to say not at present as I will not be referring to any of these songs etc. for some time. It would be better for me to have copies some time however but there is no hurry. I may not have to refer to this data perhaps this year. I was down in Vancouver lately seeing the Doctor about my eye etc. There is an Indian meeting called here for the 22nd. Mr Omeara [sic] is to be here soon.4 I will give you more news next time I write. over [page 2] PS I saw Camsell in Vancouver and had a long chat with him. He is quite favorable to my going with some of the survey parties in the event of my not receiving full employment from the Anthro. Division. He told me that altho he has the direction and locating of the parties the head of each party generally hires his own men. For this reason he thought it would make the thing surer if I wrote to Ottawa and let my wants be known. He said I might let Smith know. I told him I would wait until March by which time I would know whether I would have anthrop. work for the whole season, and would then let him know. The Geol. Survey parties do not go out until May.

Teit to Boas. January 26, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122059. Dear Friend. Re. the points in your letter of yesterday.

I. RELATION BETWEEN BASKETRY DESIGNS AND DESIGNS ON SOFT BAGS. I may say that as far as I have noticed designs fall into very distinct classes. 1. Designs on coiled basketry. 2. Designs on bark basketry. 3. 4. Arthur O’Meara (1859–1928) worked with the Indian Rights Association and, after 1916, the Allied Tribes of British Columbia in their pursuit of the recognition of Aboriginal title and the resolution of land claims between 1909 and 1927 (Galois, “The Indian Rights Association, Native Protest Activity and the ‘Land Question’ in British Columbia, 1903–1916,” 1–34; see also Patterson, “Arthur E. O’Meara, Friend of the Indians,” 90–99).

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Designs on woven bags (or soft basketry?) 4. Designs on A rawhide bags and B parfleches[.] 5. Designs in embroidery etc. A soft leather bags B. clothing. 6. Designs on weapons, tools etc. 7. Designs on drums[.] 8. Designs on shields[.] 9. Designs on pipes and so on. Perhaps however painted designs such as 4, 6, 7, 8 and in part 2 and 5 and also incised and carved design, should be left out. Although all these designs fall into classes each having very distinct characteristics of its own still there is an interrelationship traceable throughout. I have noticed embroidered designs on soft leather bags similar to painted designs on rawhide bags. Some painted designs on clothing are similar to embroidered designs on clothing and designs on coiled baskets and so on[.] I could point out many examples. According to my own observation and also according to the testimony of many old Indians the strongest relationship to basketry designs was to be found in embroidered designs on skin clothing and soft skin bags. Many designs were the same in all three therefore the reason so many basketry designs are called ‘embroidery’ designs and claimed [page 2] to be copied from designs embroidered on skin. It might be inferred from this that embroidery is older than basketry designs. A lot of the designs on clothing and soft leather bags done by painting and by scraping and by burning were similar or the same as embroidered designs and also the same or similar to designs on coiled basketry. Probably the designs next nearest to basketry designs were those on woven bags. The trouble is very little is remembered of the latter and very few specimens are preserved anywhere. Most of the woven bags of the Sahaptin type used here were made by tribes S.E. (Salish and Sahaptin). It seems probable that bags of this type made by Ntlak. also had designs of the same general style as to the S.E. and some Inds. say so. I have taken copies of a number of designs on bags of this kind but in all cases I found it impossible to learn where the bags were made. All copies are from fairly old bags. It is almost as difficult to deal with embroidery designs on leather bags and clothes, floral figures having almost completely supplanted the old geometric designs. The old Indians however seem to remember more about bead embroidery designs, than any of the other designs excepting perhaps painted designs. I have copied all the geometric designs I have happened to see on everything for a number of years past, and have quite a few on hand. Most of them are painted designs on parfleches, rawhide bags, drums, shields etc. I obtained interpretations or names for a number of them. All this however opens up a big subject. I can if you like send you what woven bag designs I have to look over or any other designs you may desire. I still keep collecting these designs as I have a chance, but they 866 | 1919

are becoming harder and harder to find. Designs on bark baskets are also similar to some on coiled ones. I may say here I have some copies of Chilcotin basketry designs I can send you. [page 3]

II. PREFERENCE IN RHYTHMIC REPETITION PARTICULARLY IN ‘FLY’ PATTERNS. 5 It I may say I have made inquiry on this point at various times especially in regard to stringing of beads etc. I have also asked about the ‘fly’ designs. I get the same answers for all. viz. all depends on the fancies, ideas or tastes of the women. Some women show a preference for arranging beads etc. in some regular order relative to number and color or both. They have a taste this way and like to do so. They do not as a rule have a preference to any one particular order but simply a taste for regular order in a general way. These women make different rhythmic arrangements. When they ornament anything it is always this way. On the other hand many women are the reverse. They have no taste or preference this way and it does not hurt their sense of taste or order to arrange beads or anything in a mixed manner nearly or quite devoid of order as to number and color. These women have no taste or artistic sense for rhythmic arrangements. In the same way for ‘fly’ patterns on coiled basketry, and patterns on borders of bark basketry but here another element comes in viz use and wont or custom so here the tastes of women are more controlled than say in the beading of strings or fringes where there are no customary methods or hardly any. With the latter women have more freedom of expression. Some women do not make fly designs and others do so only sparingly[,] confining themselves to simple checks[.] These women can make them but they do not care for them. They like other designs better. Some make them perhaps simply because these designs are well known or in common use and because they are convenient to put on certain parts of baskets as for ‘fillings’ etc. [page 4] Some women who use them may thus have no particular liking or preference for them. Again some women show a certain amount of preference for designs of this kind. It is considered that a woman who prefers rhythmic arrangement of beads etc. will probably carry her taste in this respect into basketry when making fly designs etc. Fly designs at one time very common are getting out of fashion and are much less in vogue now than formerly—or at least 5. Fly patterns are checkered motifs created on Salish coiled basketry by alternating the standard colors (e.g., black/white or red/white) of imbricated stitches in order to achieve a particular pattern (Haeberlin et al., “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region,” 340, fig. 104: “Lillooet designs. Fly patterns”).

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this is said to be the case (or seems to be) with a number of them. Rhythmic arrangements in stringing of beads etc. etc. had no symbolic meanings at least this seems to have been the case generally. Also these arrangements had no connection with luck etc.

III. CONNECTION BETWEEN TLINGIT AND CHILCOTIN AND LILLOOET BASKETS IN ARRANGEMENT OF DESIGNS ETC. AND BASKETRY IN THE INTERVENING AREAS. The Chilcotin, Lillooet and Shuswap were the most northern tribes in BC who made coiled basketry. The designs on the basketry of these tribes were no doubt interrelated, but it is impossible now to obtain much detailed information on the designs of the Shuswap. There seems to be no doubt the Chilcotin learned the making of coiled basketry through contact with the Shuswap and the Sechelt and Squamish from the Lillooet. The Lillooet and Chilcotin were in contact with Coast tribes who made other kinds of basketry probably some of which had designs. I know nothing of what influence these would have on Chilcotin and Lillooet. The Chilcotin and Shuswap were in contact with the Carrier who no doubt procured baskets (not coiled ones) from the Coast and it seems possible some of the Carrier may have copied and made a few baskets similar to the baskets of their Coast neighbors. The Chilcotin were in contact on the west with Bellacoola and Kwakiutl tribes and the Carrier with Kwakiutl tribes on the W. and Tsimpsian tribes N.W. [page 5] It is important to know what designs these tribes used on their particular kinds of basketry. I don’t know anything of this but two things I think of seem to be important in this connection. 1. The Tlingit formerly extended further down the coast to S. of where the Tsimpsian are now. This would bring them possibly in contact with the Carrier and at least nearer to the Chilcotin-Lillooet area. 2. The upper tribes of the Tsimpsian stock certainly made baskets if they do not do so yet, and they formerly sold many to the Carrier to be used as kettles etc. These baskets were not coiled basketry. It seems they resembled the Tlingit basketry but I know nothing of the designs on them. Some baskets were very large, some small. Different kinds, and all were more or less flexible. I have a photo of one which I will hunt up and send you.6 6. A handwritten note, accompanying them on a piece of paper marked “At F.M.” reads, “For use of Dr. F. Boas Photos of upper skeena (kitiksian) baskets from Dr. C. F. Newcombe Victoria BC supplied to JAT.” In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Gitksan and Nisga’a basket makers living on the upper Nass and Skeena Rivers made a small container with a circular base and mouth and mildly flaring walls, often identified as a kettle. For examples, see AMNH, North American

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Fig. 17. (a) Twined baskets from the Skeena River. (b) A handwritten note accompanying them on a piece of paper marked “At F.M.”

Re. the tribes to the North the Tahltan made no basketry of any kind except bark but procured baskets from the Tlingit. The Kaska made a few baskets and say they learned the making of them by studying the construction of baskets they procured in trade from the Tagish. I know nothing of their designs nor of designs used by the Tagish. As the latter were in intimate contact with the Tlingit (Chilcat etc.) their basketry may have been the same as that of the Tlingit. It was not coiled basketry. It seems the Tlingit were the great basket makers of the Coast. The influence of Tlingit basketry was undoubtedly felt in the Northern Interior and may have extended at least to the Carrier. The influence of the basketry of the Coast (Tlingit and tribes south of them to the Squamish) may have been felt in the Interior. Coiled basketry on the Coast does not go north of the Sechelt as far as I know but [page 6] in the Interior extended to the Northern limits of the Shuswap along Fraser River. This is all I can think of at present on these subjects.

Sapir to Teit. February 19, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— Thank you for your letter of February 14th with enclosed MS. on Douglas fir sugar by Professor J. Davidson. I am forwarding your letter to Dr. Hewitt so that he may know about your wishes in this matter. I am sure that he will greatly appreciate Professor Davidson’s article. I regret very much to hear that your left eye will be suffering from a permanent disability. Please give my best regards to your wife.

Teit to Sapir. February 22, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir I enclose titles for the prints you sent me. I also enclose a number of films I had developed here. Perhaps you can manage to send prints of them. If so then keep the films. The new shutter I have on my camera is different from the old one and I have not quite got on to it yet. I think I told you the Doctor I went to in Vancouver told me the trouble with my left eye is a partial detachment of the retina and is Ethnographic Collection, 16.1/1603, “Bag woven of spruce root. Collected at the Skeena River village of Kisgagas in 1916 by George Thornton Emmons.”

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incurable. I have been busy lately with a number of Indian meetings and there is another at Kamloops on the 28th. I have therefore only been working occasionally on the Tahltan and Kaska M.S. I will sent [sic] in the Indian measurements I have taken to Knowles sometime early in March.

Helen Roberts[?] to Teit. February 24, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122028. My dear Mr. Teit,—7 I am very much obliged for the answers to my questions, which in most cases have now settled the points on which we were held up. I am enclosing a series of sketches of the geo-metric figures, the common and simple ones. I am anxious to know if the people have terms for these figures which merely relate to them as figures in a geometric sense and which everywhere are understood to mean the same thing, not design names, where interpretations may vary among different individuals—such as the names “snake” and “hair ribbon” for the simple straight line. As to the dyes, I would like to know, not so much the trees and herbs from which the women obtain colors, as the methods of abstracting [sic] them, the mordants, etc., and all you can give about the actual processes of dyeing. I know there is nothing more to be said about the burying to obtain black, but the material on colored dyes does not seem quite complete, and I have not found any more data in your notes. As to the three Upper Ntlak informants, Dr. Boas wanted to know more about them. I cannot tell you much about them which would help you to recall them, but they were the three women who passed upon [sic] the proper sizes of spanak and spapan k baskets. I [page 2] believe they also discussed the average sizes of trays.8 You mentioned them several times in your notes about the forms and purposes of baskets.

7. The originator of this unsigned typewritten letter is listed in the APS library collection as Boas, but as the author refers to “Dr. Boas” in the text, it is unlikely to have been written by him. It may have been written by Helen Roberts. By February 1919 Haeberlin was no longer living, and Helen Roberts was writing up his notes along with Teit’s. It is evident that Roberts corresponded with Teit (see also Wickwire, At the Bridge, 152–53), but letters from Roberts to Teit are not listed in the APS digital library. The APS library does hold later correspondence between Roberts and Boas. 8. s/p’éńeq, “berry basket”; also “small square cooking basket.” The term “spapan k,” cited in this letter, is a reduplicated form of s/p’éńeq, “little berry basket” (Thompson and Thompson, Thompson River Salish Dictionary, 612).

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I shall see Dr. Boas about the beaded9 basket.10

Teit to Boas. February 24, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122060. My Dear Friend. I received your letter of 13th inst. and to-day have provided one Indian woman with colored pencils and paper to make drawings of the different methods she employs or favors in stringing of colored beads in necklaces and also fringes of garments. She is a woman who has done considerable beadwork and is considered a good hand. Perhaps to-day or tomorrow I will try some other women. Will say 8 or 10 women be enough? Re. basketry in the North I have hunted up notes I took from Harmon’s Journal printed in 1820. Harmon was a trader of the No. West Coy at Stuart’s Lake (Carrier Country) in the early part of last century (over 100 years ago). I subjoin the notes on basketry. p. 291 “The Carriers are not so ingenious as their neighbours the Nâte-ote-tains and the ate-e-nâs” p. 292 “They have also other vessels which are manufactured of the small roots and fibers of the cedar or pine tree closely laced together which serve them as buckets to put water in. I have seen one at Fraser’s Lake made of the same materials that would hold 60 or 70 gallons, which they make use of when a feast is given to all the people of the village.11 All the vessels fabricated of [page 2] of roots as well as the most of their bows and arrows they obtain from their neighbours above mentioned” viz the Nate-ote-tains and ate-e-nas. On the map accompanying the journal the Skeena River is called the Natteotain River and the Natteotain tribe is marked near the head of it. On the North side of the Skeena is marked Atena Indians. As this name is used for foreigners or non-Athapascan speaking Indians by the Carrier the Atena across the Fraser are the Shuswap and the Atena on the N. side 9. This undoubtedly refers not to a basket decorated with glass beads but to a basket decorated with cherry bark and/or grass, depending on the color, with the decorative strand moving under one cedar root stitch, over the next, under the next, and so on to make a dotted line of color. This is called ‘beading,’ and is distinct from imbrication, in which the decorative stitch is folded under and then back over each cedar root stitch to make solid blocks of color (Haeberlin et al., “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region,” 223–26). 10. The word “Sincerely” is placed in the original letter below the main text. There is no signature, but this last line is added below. 11. Baskets of this type in this size would be much larger than the relatively few examples in North American museum collections.

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of the Skeena the Kitiksian. The Natteotain or Nate-ote-tains are the Babines. (see Morice)[.]12 It thus seems clear from Harmon’s references the Carrier proper did not make baskets (excepting those of bark) and procured their baskets from the Babines and Kitiksians.13 ([P]ossibly also Shuswap but as the journal deals more especially with the Upper Carrier the Atenas referred to are most likely the Kitiksian with whom the upper Carrier carried on a very considerable trade.) The Babines have been in very close touch with the Kitiksian since very early times and are mixed in blood with them to a very considerable extent. Harmon would seem to infer the Babines made baskets but although this is likely they may have simply procured them from the Kitiksian and passed them on in trade to the Upper Carriers[.] At the present day (and lately) the Kitiksian certainly make baskets of the kind called the Upper Skeena basket (see the photos and information I sent you from Vancouver a week or two ago) and it seems possible the Babine make some also. I am not however as yet sure of this point. [page 3] Baskets collected on the Upper Skeena and at Hazelton in recent years are simply known as Upper Skeena or from the Upper Skeena tribe and it is not clear whether all are made by the Kitiksian or are some also from the Babine. Anyway there seems to be just the one type of basket from there. If the Babines made them they no doubt acquired the art from the Kitiksian and made the same kind of basket as the latter. Harmon does not give sufficient details to determine the weave of basket but there is little doubt these baskets were not of the coiled type but of the type made by the Kitiksian for a long time back and still made by them to some extent (see photos etc. I sent you)[.] Harmon treats of the Sekani but has no reference to them making any woven basketry.14 I have looked up several old books ( journals 1769 to 1820) dealing with the Sekani and Mackenzie River etc regions but there are no references to any baskets excepting those of bark. I enclose a photo of some Up. Ntlak baskets as I am not sure whether I sent you one before. These baskets show ‘Deer’s ears’, ‘Deer’s head’ and ‘shield’ designs all of which are uncommon and at the same time said to be old.

12. Teit may have been referring to Morice, “The Great Déné Race” or “The Great Déné Race (Continued).” 13. A reference to the Gitksan of the Skeena River. 14. See January 26, 1919, figures 17a and 17b.

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Fig. 18. Upper Nlaka’pamux baskets. Teit to Boas, February 24, 1919.

1. Designs. A ‘shield’ B. ‘star’ or ‘small star’ C. ‘deer’s ears’ D. ‘morning star’ or ‘Big star’. 2. Designs all beading. (I have this basket in my possession) 3. Designs (2 pointed design) ‘Deer’s ears’, (3 pointed design) called ‘arrowhead’, sometimes ‘barbs’, ‘spear head or harpoon’ etc. The design is unfinished according to some as it should be brought to a point to make a complete arrowhead or spearhead. [page 4] As this unfinished blunt end (where it should be sharp) was made first[.] The

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woman who made the design must have intended it to have no point and therefore it is not a true ‘arrowhead’ design. Evidently it is not an unfinished ‘arrowhead’ design because of lack of space. If the design was upside down it might have its present form owing to this reason.

Some call it a ‘three pointed design with an ornamented or arrowhead center’. Some say it is a variation of the three pronged fish spear or harpoon design and others see in it simply a variation of a ‘flower’ design 4. Designs. A. ‘star’ design (variety) or ‘cluster of stars’ also called simply ‘cluster’. You will notice the center forms a cross, also called Mūla or Rice root design (variety of) and fly and bead design variations B.‘Deer’s head’ design 5. Designs A. ‘star’ ‘small star’ B. called by the same names as the design on No. 3. I received the 300.00 for which much thanks PS The above interpretations of designs were by three Up. Ntlak women I showed the photos to yesterday. Only one of them makes baskets.

Teit to Sapir. February 26, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir I got your paper on the kinship terms of the Kutenai. I notice Chamberlain gives ́ am papān

grandfather

[ditto]

grandmother (said by female)

titḗnam

[ditto] (said by male)

māᴇ́ nam

mother

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I do not know what the seeming suffix -nam or -ᴇnam stands for. I had these words marked down in a note as the only Kutenai kinship terms which seem to resemble terms in Interior Salish languages. [for instance] pāp and pápa vocative for father in Ntlak. etc. man and máma [ditto] for mother [ditto] tet [ditto] for younger sister [ditto] or a child female relative also Kutenai nánka (from Chamberlain) orphan. Ntlak. s)nan.ka [ditto] Some members of the S.P. of C.15 would like to get hold of some good text-book on Anthropology. Do you know of any?

Boas to Teit. March 3, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122029. My dear Friend,— Thank you for your letter of February 24th with the enclosed photograph. I have not heard whether you received the $300 which I sent you recently. I hope they have reached you safely. We have compared recently the designs on the baskets with those on Tlingit blankets, and I think that there cannot be the slightest doubt that there must be some kind of relation between the Lillooet designs and the Tlingit designs. There are the same kind of droppers in both cases, and some of the geometrical patterns are also the same. I am, however, quite at a loss to understand the links that connect the two areas. I have been thinking for a long time that the designs which we find on both Tlingit baskets and on the imbricated baskets of the Thompson may be connected with old designs in porcupine-quill embroidery, but unfortunately this art seems to be practically lost in that whole district. The quill embroidery of the coast tribes has all been adapted to the conventional style of animal designs, and does not help us very much. I am going to look over various types of material of this sort and see what I can find, and I wish you would be good enough [page 2] to inquire too. It is barely possible that some of the tribes in the mountain ranges from Bellacoola northward might form the connecting link. That of course is merely a guess. 15. Socialist Party of Canada. The Socialist Party of Canada’s headquarters was in Vancouver.

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Miss Roberts requested me to ask you whether you have any further data on interpretations to go with your sketches of Chilcotin designs. It seems that there are quite a number that have no interpretations.

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

Sapir to Teit. March 3, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— Thank you for your note of February 25th in regard to Chamberlain’s Kootenai kinship terms. There is no really good general text book on anthropology. A very convenient little introduction for the general reader is R. R. Marrett’s Anthropology, published in the Home University Library Series.16 This is excellently written and is rather useful as introducing one to the spirit of anthropology in its theoretical aspects, but is no good as a summary of actual facts. From that standpoint, E. B. Tylor’s Anthropology is perhaps better, though rather antiquated.17 Deniker’s Races of Man and Keane’s texts books give many facts but are fearfully antiquated. Boas’ Mind of Primitive Man and Lowie’s Culture and Ethnology are useful, but again rather for theories and general points of view than for concrete data. About the best general ethnographic survey I know is Buschan’s Illustrierte Volkerkunde, but unfortunately that is in German and would not be generally available.18 If by a text book on anthropology you mean particularly one introducing the reader or student to American Indian anthropology, then there can be no doubt as to the best book to get hold of: this is Wissler’s American Indian, which, [page 2] with all its shortcomings is easily the best book on the subject.19 It is published by Douglas C. MacMurtie in New York. I have taken up the matter of renewing our former contract with you at a salary of $1500 per year. I shall let you know as soon as possible whether I am succeeding in putting my recommendations through.

16. Marrett, Anthropology. 17. Tylor, Anthropology: An Introduction to the Study of Man and Civilization. 18. Theodor, Illustrierte Völkerkunde. 19. Wissler, The American Indian.

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Teit to Boas. March 11, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122061. Dear Friend I have your letter of 3rd inst. and note all you say. I suppose the information I sent you on Kitiksian baskets and basket designs will not help you much as there is so little of it. Re. the relation you find to exist between the basketry designs of the Lillooet and Tlingit what about the basketry designs of the intervening Coast tribes? I know nothing of them but there should be some specimens in the museums. I suppose they will be geometric and not conventional animal designs. The Lillooet had much contact with the Jarvis Inlet people. This was their most northern contact on the Coast. This might be a possible route of dissemination. Although the Tlingit at one time extended further south than they do now it seems unlikely they and the Lillooet were ever in direct contact. However the links may have been through the intervening tribes. A contact route seems to be an impossibility by the Interior as the intervening Athapaskan tribes made no basketry (excepting of bark). The Chilcotin (the only basket making tribe of the stock), little doubt copied many of their designs from the Shuswap and the present designs of the Chilcotin are likely at least in part representative of the old art of the neighboring Shuswap[.] If the Kitiksian at one time lived further south between the Lillooet and the Tlingit they may have formed the link between the two areas but there seems to be no tradition of theirs having been at one time South of their present habitat, alth[ough s]ome people seem to think they have been in contact with Salish [illeg] [page 2] [illeg] construction of their language. Perhaps as you say it may be that the designs on Tlingit and Lillooet baskets are connected with the old quill embroidery of the area. This art being now practically lost it is exceedingly difficult to get data. It seems sure that very many of the basketry designs of the Thompson (those called ‘Embroidery’ designs[,] [s]ee list of them given) were adapted from old Quill and bead designs used on clothing, bags etc. by the tribe. Some of the Lillooet and Tlingit designs may have originated the same way. No doubt in the old quill work there would be dissemination of designs between the tribes. The Tahltan and Kaska still do considerable quill work. Their designs are all geometric and seem to me to be very similar to those of the Mackenzie River tribes. They have a number of techniques. Further South among the Kitiksian all the quill work I have seen is of the Coast type, a single technique being employed, and the designs are all of the conventional style of animal 878 | 1919

portrayal. South of the Kitiksian I have not seen any quill work until the Thompson and Okanagon are reached although all the intervening tribes formerly did quill embroidery. According to the old people of all the Athapaskan and Int. Salish tribes all their quill-work designs was [sic] geometric. According to old people of the Thomp. and other neighboring tribes beadwork gradually displaced quillwork (according to others the displacement was rapid) but a number of the designs in bead embroidery were copied from old quillwork designs. Thus bead embroidery is important for the light it gives on quill embroidery[.] I have some notes on old quill and bead work designs of the Thomp. which may help you out in your investigations[.] I notice two or three things in this data which may have some connection with the question of ‘[Droppers?]’ 1st [L]ines ‘[dropping?]’ from other lines from other designs at regular intervals in em- [page 3] broidery and paintings on bodies and skirts of women’s dresses etc. 2nd In fringes of garments etc. particularly bottoms of women’s dresses there are often uncut pieces of fringing at intervals. These pieces are often painted with dots or designs or ornamented with punctures and pinking[.] The Indians say these pieces were sometimes embroidered with quills or beads. I notice the Tahltan and Kaska also have fringing of this kind both on bags and clothes. The Interior Tlingit, Taku etc. had the same[.] Among these tribes the uncut pieces are usually plain or unornamented[.] 3rd The long or short flaps of embroidered skin or instead of same the embroidered bands or strips which extend down from the shoulders of men’s shirts and coats generally two at the back and 2 in front. They often connect with an embroidered or ornamented area on the shoulders[.] I will try to copy tonight some of the sketches I have of this ‘dropper’ like embroidery and hope to send you same tomorrow. I am getting a little slow with my work for you as I have not had the time owing to ‘flu’ in the house. I have to go over the geometric terms with some more Indians and see some more women about their methods of stringing necklaces etc. Re. the Chilcotin designs I think I may have 2 or 3 more to send in that I copied some time ago but I have no interpretations as I have not been in contact with Chilcotin for a number of years. Some Chilcotin men come to the Indian meetings here but they know very little about the names of basketry designs. PS This letter is written in a great hurry but you [illeg]le to understand what I intend to convey.

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Teit to Boas. March 16, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122062. Dear Friend. I am sorry I will not be able to do any work for yourself nor Dr Sapir for a few days—perhaps a week. My sister in law who was my most valued friend here died of the ‘flu’20 and was buried yesterday. My wife is very sick and I have a great deal to do looking after the children etc.

Teit to Boas. March 21, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122063. Dear Friend I went over most (but not all) my notes on decoration of clothing and enclose herewith rough sketches of all the most striking designs having what may be called ‘droppers.’21 Most of them are sketched from notes I made from descriptions of old Indians chiefly women. I have for years as opportunity offered been collecting what information I could get from old people relative to designs on clothing especially women’s dresses. I also have considerable information on construction of clothing. When I wrote my Thomp. memoir I was not well posted on this subject. Besides what I have jotted down from descriptions and explanations of old people, I have copied a number of designs etc. I have noticed on clothing made by modern Indians and I have also some photos of articles of clothing I have seen or which have gone to museums. Some of these photos I can let you have if they are any use to you. Perhaps a few of them show ‘dropper’ ornamentation. Any further queries I will try to answer. I am still unable to do much work. My sister in law died last week of pneumonia following the ‘flu’ and my wife is at present [illeg] ill with the same. Two of my children have been sick [illeg] better. PS All the sketches are only approximate but they will give you an idea of the style of ornamentation.

20. The global influenza epidemic that followed World War I reached the interior of British Columbia in 1919 (Kelm, “British Columbia First Nations and the Influenza Pandemic of 1918–1919,” 23–48). 21. “Droppers” are short, narrow, vertical bands of decoration depending from a much larger motif that occupies the upper wall of a basket.

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Teit to Sapir. March 23, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir Drs Gudmond Hatt and Vahl of Kjobenhavn Denmark have asked me to procure four or five pictures for them. These are to be used in illustration of BC section of the Geological Handbook of the Countries of the World they are preparing in Danish. Dr Hatt would like one print of each of the following[:]22 1. An Interior Chief in costume. 2. A Coast Chief or Indian in costume. 3. An old style Interior house, 4. An old style Coast House and 5. One Indian picture showing some industry such as fishing, basket weaving etc. If you can manage to send him say half a dozen prints no doubt he will appreciate same very much. His address is Dr Gudmond Hatt Voldmestergade 12. Copenhagen. For photo No. 1. I would suggest that of Chief Paul. 36000. [Ditto] 2 [I would suggest] Barton 35989 [Ditto] 3 [I would suggest] Mat tipi 26628 [Ditto] 4 perhaps you have some picture of a coast house with totem poles [Ditto] 5 for fishing perhaps 25004, basketmaking 26293, root digging 39755. These or any others you may care to choose instead for them. I have written to the BC gov for eight pictures Dr Hatt wants for showing industries etc. of BC. PS I will send in my a/c in a day or two. My wife is still very sick and not yet out of danger.

22. Vahl and Hatt, Jorden og Menneskelivet.

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Sapir to Teit. March 29, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— I shall be very glad to let Dr. Hatt, of Copenhagen, have the photographs you mention. I shall forward them to him a soon as the prints are ready and shall inform him that they are sent at your request. I was very sorry to learn that your wife is very sick, but I hope that by the time this letter reaches you she will be definitely out of danger.

Teit to Boas. April 8, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122064. Dear Friend. I enclose some sketches of Chilcotin designs copied from notes taken a couple years? [sic] ago, with interpretations given by a Chilcotin man lately. I also enclose the first set of the arrangement of beads on necklaces etc. In a couple of days I will have about six more sets. I am sending them just as the Indians made them. They are thus originals and not copies. After you copy them and use them you can send them back to me if you have [page 2] no further use for them. I will write again in two or three days.

Teit to Sapir. April 14, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir I received your letter and note that you will be good enough to send the photos to Dr. Hatt. Do you want for the Museum some primitive shoes from the Shetland Islands and Faeroe Islands. They are all of skin and wool. I think six pairs in all each kind different. They may be of value for comparative purposes. I will let you have them without cost excepting that I would like two series of sketches, drawings, or good photos of each made in the best way to show the construction or main points of each kind of shoe. One series for myself and the other for Dr. Hatt. If you do not care for them then I will send them to Denmark or Norway. I thought however you would like them and therefore I offer them to the Museum first. I am glad to say My wife has improved and is now able to walk around a little. Another one of the children is now sick however. The 882 | 1919

proposed trip to Ottawa is put off until I dont know [page 2] when. It depends a good deal on Mr. O’meara. He is in England now.

Teit to Boas. April 17, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122065. Dear Friend. I am enclosing again further sketches of beadwork—chiefly necklaces showing the combining of the colors and the methods or repetition of numbers in beads and colors. These make 51 sketches I have made myself of things I have examined lately among the Indians and of specimens I have on hand myself. I sent you lately about 57 sketches by Indian women. Some of these however may not be of much value. Some women have not turned in their sketches yet so there will be a number more within a few days. I am glad to say my wife is much better and able to walk around in the house. One of my children has been very sick the last 7 or 8 days but seems to be a good deal better to-day.

Sapir to Teit. April 19, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— We do not, of course, go in for museum material outside of Canada, but inasmuch as you are disposed to present us with primitive shoes from the Shetland and Faeroe Islands without charge, I shall be glad to accept them for comparative purposes. I shall arrange for two series of either drawings or photographs as soon as they arrive. I am very glad to hear that your wife is out of danger. I hope that the illness on one of your children will not prove to be a serious matter. I have a letter of yours dated March 6th, addressed to Mr. Knowles. Mr. Knowles is ill again and has not been able to attend to his office work for quite a long time. I observe that you speak in this letter of anthropometric schedules. They have not come into my hands; possibly they were readdressed to Mr. Knowles, but, if so, I think they would have been referred to me as was your letter. Kindly inform me about this.

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Boas to Teit. April 21, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122030. My dear Friend: I received yesterday the batch of drawings of necklaces. I have not had time yet to look them over, but some of them seem to be very interesting in regard to the matter in which I am interested. I should like very much to know whether you are all well again.

Teit to Boas. April 30, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122066. My Dear Friend. I received your letter and was glad to hear the sketches I was sending in gave some of the information you desired. I am sending you some more to-day. I have to get sketches from two more women and that will be all. There will likely be about 200 sketches altogether. I am glad to say my wife recovered from the pneumonia[.] She is not quite strong yet however. Three of my children have been sick but are now well. The last one commenced to go to school again three days ago. I hope yourself and family are all quite well. I see you are losing your daughter—I wish the newly-weds the best of luck.

Teit to Sapir. April 30, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir I received your letter of 19th inst and will send the Shetland and Faeroe Island shoes soon. I was very sorry to hear Mr Knowles was again ill. I did not know this when I wrote to him. Yes, at the same time I wrote him I forwarded a number of schedules of measurements of Indians. They were addressed to himself, and little doubt went on to him. Of course I have copies of them so I can forward others if these have been lost. I have measured several more Indians since I sent in the schedules but will hold same in the meantime. Three of my children have been ill but all are now well again.

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Teit to Boas. May 11, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122067. Dear Friend. As the other two Indian women did not return their papers I hunted them up. I found one had gone away and will not be back for some time and the other is sick. I have thus sent you all the sketches I can obtain easily. Perhaps the number of informants and sketches will be sufficient for your purpose. If not let me know and I will try to get some others from further away. As I stated before I have a number of sketches of painted bags, shields, drums etc. I sketched several years ago. As these were sketched chiefly for the designs not all of them are in color. Some are of bead embroidery but none show stringing of beads of various colors. If you think they may be of use to you in your present enquiry I will forward them but they may not be what you want. My wife is at present in the hospital at Merritt and two of my children have the mumps. [page 2] PS I am doing the best I can with my own money this spring to have the balance of the food plants and medicinal plants of the Ntlak, collected and identified. I have got two or three women a little interested and of course pay them something for their trouble. I am gradually getting the ethno-botany of the tribe in fairly good shape so it may be published some day.

Boas to Teit. May 13, 1923. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122031.23 My dear Friend: I am sending enclosed a number of sketches of basket designs all of which have been selected on account of the use of symmetrical or unsymmetrical designs. Would you be good enough to ask the women in regard to their tastes and predilections in relation to symmetry. I am 23. Boas also wrote to Sargent on May 13, 1919, saying that Columbia University had provided $1,200 of the $1,900 he had requested for the year, and telling Sargent that “[i]t is a very great relief to me to think that in this way a burden has been taken off your shoulders, which you so generously took upon yourself and for which I shall always be deeply grateful to you.” He added, “I am just on the point of sending the manuscript on basketry to Washington in order to have the drawings on technical matters made. The manuscript if [sic] quite bulky and is more than four hundred pages. The next thing I hope to get at are the results of Haeberlin’s work which he did on Puget Sound” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107287).

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under the impression that there is a rather decided difference in feeling for symmetry among the Thompson Indians as compared to our own. Is there a word for symmetry or for asymmetry? I wish you would write to me as fully as you can what they say about these subjects. One point that seems to appear fairly clearly from the sketches of necklaces, and so on, that you sent me, is that in the order of arrangement, there is also a clear difference between their feelings and ours. Apparently, they arrange their sequences in the order 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on. Each number stands for one color or form, or there may, of course, also be four units and sometimes, also, more than five units. We arrange matters, ordinarily, in the form [page 2] 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1, so that the arithmetical unit is symmetrical. These occur, also, in the Thompson patterns, but not so very often. On the other hand, there are also metrically complicated arrangements, so that in a necklace, the units may gradually decrease towards the middle, beginning first with five unit sequences and gradually going down to sequences of three and two. I wish you could talk to the women about these points and hear what they will say. Miss Roberts asked you quite some little time ago whether the Indians have purely geometrical names for triangles, rectangles, and similar forms, and you replied to her that they had, but you do not send us the Indian words with the nearest translation that can be given. I am much interested at the present time in the question of geographical names. I wonder whether you would care to make a collection of such names. It so happens that we have a pretty good map of your district and it will be possible to enter the names fairly accurately. Of course, the interest in the names centers largely in the translation and they ought to be collected with translation.

Teit to Boas. May 17, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122068. Dear Friend I am sending you to-day the list of geometric terms (over 200). I have added a few figures to those Miss Roberts asked for as I thought the names might be of interest. I did not depend on myself for the terms but got them from four individuals—two young men and two middle aged women. I noticed the latter were much quicker at giving the descriptive terms than the men. Some of the figures can be described 886 | 1919

more minutely than in some of the terms given. This depends on how important it is considered to give an exact description. All the terms are in common use. The young men said some of the old people had very exact terms when describing geometric figures and some of them used terms which are now not in general use. It seems certain figures do not have very definite names but the language seems to be rich enough there is little difficulty in describing any figure very exactly when this is necessary. Perhaps I might have done the translating a little more exactly [page 2] by taking more time. The two women who gave figure names also made sets of sketches. Their names are Tsᴇntāĺ .ks and Tsóstko. I think I sent you the ages of all the women who made the sketches I sent in. I thought this might be of importance. Is it not possible that the droppers in basketry designs may represent pendants of necklaces? ‘Necklace’ and ‘embroidery’ designs designs [sic] are common in basketry. On breasts of women’s dresses and men’s shirts semicircular designs of lines with droppers are common These lines are embroidered or painted etc. and they are said to represent ‘necklaces.’

Some horizontal straight lines on skirts of dresses embroidered or painted also have droppers but generally lines on skirts when they have any radiating lines have those ascending much more often than descending. On breasts of dressing [sic] they are generally descending. I have already spoken of ornamented flaps or portions of fringes like droppers fairly common on bottoms of dresses but also occurring in side of fringes of garments and on the fringes around bags.

Teit to Boas. May 23, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122069. My Dear Friend. I received your letter of 13th inst. last night on my return from Nicola. I had been at Merritt seeing my wife who is in the Hospital there. She is getting all right and likely be out in about a week. I note all you say about symmetry and will do my best to get information on same. It may take a little time however as nearly all the women are away at present. Some up in the mountains on the reserves there irrigating, fixing irrigation ditches and putting in crops, and others are away at the 1919 | 887

Bitterroot grounds digging Bitter root. I think it will be a week or more before I will have much chance to work with them. I cannot think at the moment of any Ntlak. words having the exact meanings of symmetry and asymmetry. The nearest I can think of is when two or more [page 2] things or designs measure up the same in every way or are like duplicates (as nearly as possible) also the reverse. However some terms may come up when I make the inquiries. I sent you the list of geometric terms with translations some days ago. I did not register it I think. Re. geographical names I can collect almost any number. Some years ago I collected two or three hundred and did some work at translating them. I have these notes yet. Lately I gave the Geographic Board of Canada the pronounciations [sic] of the Indian place names occurring in the Lytton sectional map and the translations as far as I could.

Teit to Sapir. June 5, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir I just write to say I got hold of a pretty good Black Bear skin for Mrs Sapir. I bought it from a friend of mine (a Norwegian) who shot it about two weeks ago in Highland Valley.24 The skin has the claws but not the skull. Usually in this country only Grizzly Bear are mounted as mats with the skull. Had I not got this skin I intended to pick up one in Kamloops about the end of this month. In the end of April two parties were very anxious for me to take them Grizzly hunting in the Rockies for a period of four to six weeks but although they offered me 10.00 per day and all expenses I was unable to go owing to sickness in my family. Had I been able to go on this trip I would likely have been able to shoot a Black Bear for Mrs Sapir myself. I am glad to say Mrs Teit is now much better, at [page 2] the end of her troubles she gave birth to a boy who is well. Some of the doctors despaired of her pulling through with the ‘flu’, double pneumonia, the grief of losing her only sister, and the condition she was in at the time. Besides she is much of a pessimist. However she has got through it all. The children are now all well. I hope this will find yourself, Mrs Sapir and the children all well.

24. Highland Valley is in the northeastern sector of Nlaka’pamux traditional territory, east of the Thompson River and south and east of the town of Ashcroft BC.

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PS If I learn I will not be East this summer or fall I will forward the skin or if you are in a hurry for it I will send it by express any time you so desire. I am enclosing ten Indian negatives herewith. I had a note from Dr Hatt saying he had received the pictures you forwarded and he is quite pleased with them. He ought to have the BC pictures by this time.

Teit to Boas. June 6, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122070. Dear Friend. I have made enquiry with four women of the Spences Bridge band re. symmetry and with the help of the sketches etc. got them to understand exactly what I meant.25 All of them were strongly in favor of symmetry in designs. They said designs which were arranged symmetrically were desirable and pleasing. They were better than those which were unsymmetrical because they were pleasing and looked better. One woman (Tsóstko) maintained unsymmetrical designs were not right and a person who had a good taste in basketry designs would not make them.26 She makes all her designs symmetrical. I found however there was not the same sense of symmetry in the four women, Tsóstko and one other woman seemed to have the same sense of symmetry as ourselves as they quite agreed with the descriptions given as symmetrical and unsymmetrical in all of the 19 sketches. The 25. Although Teit did not name the Nlaka’pamux basket makers he interviewed concerning designs and symmetry, he provided short biographies of thirty-five basket makers whom he had interviewed concerning designs. He identified six of these basket makers: Yiôpāˊtko, her daughter Tuxiˊnᴇk, Xamālˊ.ks, Sinsiˊn.tko, her daughter Tᴇkwe’tlixqᴇn, and Tuxiˊnᴇk’s half-sister Tsôˊs.tko, as members of the Spences Bridge Band (Haeberlin et al., “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region,” 431–54). 26. Teit listed Tsóstko (“Rattling Water”) as number 6 of the thirty-five basket makers whom ́ he had interviewed. However, he did not list Tsᴇkᴇnîɬᴇmᴇx or Pilpiltko, although he photo ́ graphed Tsᴇkᴇnîɬᴇmᴇx (CMH, “James Teit Photos,” Gateway to Aboriginal Heritage, https://www .historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/tresors/ethno/etf0200e.html, accessed March 28, 2022). He noted that Tsóstko had grown up at Spences Bridge and “at the time of the investigation” was 45 years of age. This suggests that she had been born ca. 1874 (Haeberlin et al., “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region,” 434). Teit’s photographs of Tsóstko are preserved in the Canadian Museum of History, catalog numbers 30715 through 30718 (CMH, “James Teit Photos,” accessed August 2, 2021). Province of British Columbia records indicate that Tsóstko’s English name was Emma (“Emmy”) Drynock, born at Seddell on the Thompson River on June 15, 1882. She was the wife of James (“Jimmy”) Spence (1884–1978), who was chief of the Cook’s Ferry Band, and also worked from time to time with Teit. Tsóstko, Emma Spence, died on May 2, 1970 (British Columbia Vital Statistics Agency, Death Records, Registration of Death for James Spence, 78-09-008455; Registration of Death for Emma Spence, 70-09-007719).

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other two women agreed at once that sketch No. 1, droppers of No. 3, sketches No. 11 and No. 16 were unsymmetrical and they also agreed with the [page 2] others that the middle dropper of No 5 should have been a different design but they did not think it mattered very much that the lines on the two side droppers leaned the same way. However one of them TsEkEnélEmEx No 4 agreed with the first two women (Tsóstko No 1 and Pilpiltko No. 2) that it would look better if the middle dropper had been put to the right side and a different design made in the middle dropper.27 However they did not see much of anything wrong or unsymmetrical with the designs on No 7 and 2. They said ́ these were regular and therefore good. Tsᴇkᴇnîɬᴇmᴇx said it might look a little better to some and she thought perhaps to herself also if the 2nd and 4th lines of No 7 faced opposite to the 1st and 3rd [.] This would make it symmetrical but some women she said thought it just as good if the designs were regularly and evenly repeated. She said there were thus two methods employed by good basket makers[;] one followed symmetry and the other simply followed regularity and repetition. These women had the same to say of the design on No. 8. They saw little or no fault in it. The informants claimed women’s tastes differed on these points. None of the four women cared much for the design on No 11. However informants 3 and 4 said it would be good enough if there were many stripes which were all the same but with only two stripes it would be better to be symmetrical or the lines in the one stripe leaning the opposite way from these on the other. All four [page 3] women denounced the designs on Sketch No 1 saying they were bad because they all leaned one way. It gave a leaning to one side appearance to the basket. Nos 3 and 4 said if the main designs had been on vertical bands enclosing short lines leaning one way as in the droppers of No 1 and No 3 for instance it would not look so bad. Informants 1 and 2 said this design must have been made by one of those women who put on designs at random as it were. They said a few women have no taste or at least no fixed ideas regarding the arranging of designs and therefore put them on without consideration. Some such designs jar on the taste of other women or are unpleasing to them. Informant No. 3 failed to see anything distasteful or unpleasing about No. 9. and Informant No. 4 was almost of this opinion. They considered the design good because the elements were placed regular and similar 27. There were two Nlaka’pamux women named Pilpiltko living at this time. However, it is more likely that Teit spoke with the person named Pilpiltko who was a member of the Drynock family and lived on the Thompson River. He took three photographs of her (negatives 25793 through 25796; see CMH, “James Teit Photos,” accessed July 2, 2021).

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say to +0+0+ [.] If they had been placed say like 0+0+0 it would also be equally good or like +0+ or 0+0. Informants No 1 and 2 favored the disposition +0+0+0 looking at the balancing or symmetry of the lines within the band [.] This balance could not be effected without adding another band. In the view of informants Nos 3 and 4 the rhythm of the bands or strips appeared to them most important and therefore no sixth band was desirable[.] Probably this basket was made by a woman having this feeling. [page 4] Re. sketches 10, 12, and 15. all the informants agreed an extra strip was desirable to make them symmetrical and pleasing. No 1 informant said that the lines in the strips or bands of No 10 should lean opposite ways and a string of the bead design be added to the right [.] In this way the line designs would be enclosed by the others and all be balanced. The informants averred that designs like those of 10, 12, and 15 have an unfinished appearance for lack of the fifth strip[.] They stated sometimes women with a taste for symmetry made unsymmetrical designs like these simply because they found they did not have room on the basket for the fifth strip except they made the designs smaller or placed the strips too close together. In some cases it was considered the basket would be too bare looking or have too wide spaces between the strips if only three strips were used and too crowded if five were used[;] therefore 4 were used even if these made it unsymmetrical. Thus because a woman sometimes made designs unsymmetrical (like these) it did not necessarily follow that she had absolutely no taste for symmetry. Informants Nos 3 and 4 agreed with Nos 1 and 2 that all the symmetrical designs (in sketches) were good and pleasing. Re names or terms for symmetry the following are used [page 5] although none of them convey quite the complete meaning that the word symmetry does to us. Some however are very near to symmetry in their meaning[.] ́ ́ (Going at random) {viz. without a definite method or a defi1. pī́ᴇɬtlā k nite object or aim in view or without following a regular order} (tᴇk tcutcuäí́ stᴇns) (its designs)28 Asymmetry or unsymmetrical 28. In the original handwritten letter Teit provided interlinear translation for the Nlaka’pamux terms and wrote the terms and explanation relating to symmetry to the right. Here the translation of each Nlaka’pamux term is provided in parentheses, and Teit’s additional summary, e.g., “symmetrical” or “unsymmetrical,” which he placed at right, is written below each term.

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́ s (Going regularly) or following a regular or definite order 2. shêk .stlāk (tᴇk tcutcuäí́ stᴇns) (its designs) Symmetrical ́ x̳u. (Alike or the same or) In like manner to each other 3. tsitséamᴇntwāu ́ s (going) (tᴇk tcutcuäí́ stᴇns) (its designs) .stlāk symmetrical 4. .s)kéz (káz) ᴇmᴇntwáux͇u (Wrong or not straight to each other) (not in a ́ s) (going) (tᴇk tcutcuäí́ stᴇns) (its designs) straight manner etc.) (.stlāk unsymmetrical The ‘k’ here like kh and the ‘z’ is weak [page 6] 5. tétoxᴇmᴇntwaux̳u (going straight with each other)[;] (may also mean going in straight lines or directly with or towards each other) ́ s) (going) (tᴇk tcutcuäí́ stᴇns) (its designs) (.stlāk symmetrical ́ xu (wrong or bad effect to each other or wrong or 6. .s)nuknúkᴇmᴇntwāu bad position to each other) ́ s (going) (tᴇk tcutcuäí́ stᴇns) (its designs) .stlāk unsymmetrical ́ s (going) (tᴇk 7. .s)tcutcuwếs (Measured or in a measured way) .stlāk ́ tcutcuäístᴇns) (its designs) symmetrical ́ (going) tsḗta (same as or like it or they) tatak (not) stcuwếs.s 8. tlāk (measured) (tᴇk tcutcuäí́ stᴇns) (its designs) unsymmetrical Terms Nos 1–6 imply order and regularity which may or may not be symmetrical or unsymmetrical from our point of view. Nos 7 and 8 are only a little better or not much nearer to our terms. about design sketch No 1. Informant no. 1. Said [page 7] k̠ést . (bad, or evil)

skwántᴇns (its appearance)

áwi (because) tes (that)

khazk̠áins (having heads leaning over or off the straight) ū́a (to the)

skwōt (one side)

tākᴇm (all) .ɬ (the) tcutcutäí stᴇns (its designs) ́ (same as it, like that) tsī́ta

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piᴇɬtcū́ᴇm (work at random)

́ us kᴇx (who) tcutām (made it)

Bad looking because all the designs lean one way as if the person who made them had worked at random without method I will try the sketches with two or three more women and see if I can obtain a little further information. I saw a tray in the Nicola Valley lately which had four or five designs on it all arranged within themselves and between each other in the most symmetrical manner and all very evenly spaced from each other. [page 8] PS I managed to make a small collection of archaeological objects during the last two years at my own expense.29 I did not like to see some of the valuable things discovered by Indians lost entirely to the museums[;] therefore I purchased things occasionally as I had the chance[.] I expected Ottawa would take these things over this year as the war was over. After receiving Dr Sapir’s letter and learning there was no chance of this I wrote to Lieut. Emmons who has now bought the lot for 115.00 (the price I put on them). He was anxious to get them before. I don’t know if I mentioned that during the last few years I have taken a great many photos of Indians for Ottawa, and recorded a great many songs. I have also been taking measurements of Indians during the last three years. I think up to the present time I have taken 101 measurements of Indians and 35 of Whites. I find this work interesting. As I have the instruments I will keep on whether I work directly for Ottawa or not.

Teit to Boas. July 15, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122071. Dear Friend30 I have seen two more women about symmetry in designs. They both agreed that symmetry was better than asymmetry. In going over the sketches Miss Roberts sent they agreed with all the other women had said who had favored symmetry—(see information sent you some little time ago) [.] I got the following additional from these women. Both (Nos 5 and 6) agreed that meandering lines on a basketry [sic] should be symmetrical 29. In his original letter Teit provided this comment as interlinear translation in a format which is very difficult to convert to typescript. The English translations of the Nlaka’pamuxcin words and phrases appear here in parentheses. 30 Letterhead of Canada Department of Mines, Geological Survey.

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f.i this way

and not this way In showing them a basket with designs on it as under

they say the meandering

lines C were good and symmetrical but the other designs were not arranged well and did not balance each other viz were unsymmetrical to some extent. They said E and D should have been of equal length to give a good appearance; also that the figure A should have been lower down viz in the center of the space between C C[.] Informant 6 said that the figure B should not have been there at all[.] Informant 5 said if used there should have been another one inverted above the A figure to correspond with the one B. below. [page 2] To make it symmetrical the figure above would require to be upside down viz inverted or viz the opposite way of the lower figure

like this, not like this

. The same woman agreed that a position like this

894 | 1919

would also be all right. No 6. informant did not think it mattered much. She preferred no figures such as B, but just A alone in the middle but if a figure like B was used then the positions of A and B as on this basket were all right or good enough. Both informants believed a different design from the other designs on a basket following the rim of a basket was desirable[;] although both acknowledged they did not always make rim designs on their baskets [.] They said many women did not favor rim designs and some women never thought of making them because not used to them. No 5. thought lines or designs enclosing a field of other designs and forming panels as it were was a good looking method of ornamentation whether on basketry or on beadwork or painting [.] Designs made this way on baskets are rare and she herself had seldom made designs of this kind. No 6. did not care for designs with enclosing lines [page 3] Designs with enclosing lines as favored by No. 5.

Teit to Boas. July 27, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122072.31 Dear Friend. I saw another good basket maker two or three days ago and asked her re. symmetry in designs. She favored symmetry and said No. 1 sketch was bad looking because all the elements of the designs pointed in one direction. This made the designs and the basket look one sided or unbalanced. Nos. 7 and 8 and 11 had somewhat the same fault as No.1. She said 10 and 12 should have had additional strips to make them symmetrical. The lines on the droppers of 3 should have pointed 31. Letter of July 27 apparently continued from letter of July 15, 1919.

1919 | 895

opposite ways[.] She said although she favored symmetry herself and tried to make the designs on her baskets symmetrical or ‘balanced’ she thought most women were not particular on this point. She knew of many women who paid no heed whatever to this point and others who did only to some extent. The first class of women would see nothing wrong with the designs on sketch No 1. for instance. These designs would give them no impression of one sidedness and would not jar on their taste. The second class of women would consider the design as on 8 just as good as the one on 14 but they would not like the designs for instance on 1 and 11. Very many women would [page 4] say there was nothing wrong for instance with 9, 10, 12 etc. [;] others would prefer that these designs had another band to make them symmetrical. Some women would say at once that they were short a band. This informant (whom I will call No. 7) used the following terms for symmetry or symmetrical[:] ́ or its ornaments] tētoxaí.st or tetḗtixaí.st “straight design” [ntcūmī́ns ́ [.ntcutcuäistᴇns its designs] ́ or its ornaments] .stcutcuwếs balanced or measured [ntcūmī́ns 32 ́ [.ntcutcuäistᴇns its designs] for unsymmetrical[:] ́ or its ornaments] .skwot kwot ái.st] one sided design [ntcūmī́ns [.ntcutcuäí stᴇns its designs] ́ or its ornaments] tatá.k .stcuwếs.st not balanced or measured [ntcūmī́ns [.ntcutcuäí stᴇns its designs] It seems some of the women in arranging designs go altogether on a sense of order or rhythm as 1, 2, 1, 2, etc. whilst other women (the minority it seems) have a distinct sense of the symmetrical. I am sorry that I have been so long in sending you the balance of the information[.]

32. Teit used “do” for “ditto” to complete the entry for each term, but for greater clarity the original words have been repeated in square brackets here.

896 | 1919

Sapir to Teit. July 18, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— I would have answered your letter of June 5th ages ago if I had had anything definite to tell you about your contract. I have been after Mr. McInnes tooth and nail to get him to approve of the usual contract I drew up for you for this fiscal year, but he has always put me off with one pretext after another, leaving me to believe that he would take the matter up at an early opportunity and give me instructions. Today I inquired once again and he informs me that funds are too low to make it possible for us to make any arrangements with you. I suggested, however, that it might be possible to make some arrangement whereby we might purchase manuscript form you when it is finished. I intend to talk it over with him as soon as possible and try to get at something definite, which I would let you know about at once. Meanwhile you might perhaps put in as much time as you can afford on your ethnological manuscript, keeping account of time spent this fiscal year in such work. [page 2] I am awfully sorry that I have been unable to do better for you, as I feel keenly our indebtedness to you and the morally binding nature of the agreement we entered into with Mr. Brock years ago. However, it is almost impossible to get anything done here these days in Anthropology. I am quite pessimistic over the whole outlook and see no hope of a change for the better under the present administrative conditions. Thank you very much for the black bear skin that you were kind enough to procure for Mrs. Sapir. Bring it along with you if you are coming east in the near future, otherwise you might send it by express. Please let me know what we owe you. I was very sorry to learn that Mrs. Teit had such a hard time recently, but hope that she is much better now. I take this opportunity also of congratulating you on the latest event. Please give my best regards to Mrs. Teit.

Teit to Sapir. July 25, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir I received your letter of 18th inst. a day or two ago. Yes, I will keep the bearskin until I find out if I go East in the fall and if I dont I will express it. I think it very likely I will be East about the end of 1919 | 897

September or in October. I was sorry to hear you had been unable to do anything with the Department in the way of getting funds for my work. However I expected this and if it were not for so much sickness in the family it would not make much difference to me. Although of course I am anxious to continue the work for you. I know you have done your best in the matter and no more can be done. I dont know whether Mr McInnes is to blame in the matter but he should at least have told you before that there was no funds and this would have saved you considerable trouble. Yes, I grant the outlook is not good. The Gov. as a whole and the [page 2] the [sic] Capitalist class which they represent have no appreciation of anything except dollars are in immediate sight. They seem to be paring down your department and restricting its work and usefulness as much as they can. No doubt this will continue as long as the present combination is in power. There may be a change for the better with a new government and there may be no change to amount to anything until the working class comes into its own and controls everything. The working class shows more intelligence, interest, and appreciation of the sciences and of knowledge for the sake of knowledge than any other class. The capitalist class will not help nor advance anything except they see that by so doing some profit in the shape of dollars will accrue to them. A few who have made their pile may help some scientific project with funds so they may obtain notoriety for themselves but here in Canada there are few or none of that class. Anyway, why should we have to go begging? The present system is all out of joint and wrong. A saner and more equitable system must come in, and I believe it will not be very long. Be of good heart until this happens. Meanwhile there will be days of stress and hard times which we must endure as best we can. One good thing will be that our children will have [page 3] security in the means of life and the opportunity of developing the best that is in them for the true benefit of themselves and others and not for the mere sake of dollars. Things are going well in Europe and this country must fall in line. It cannot however go faster than Europe. The latter of necessity sets the pace. I managed to do a little more this spring in collecting of data and identification of specimens for my Ethno-botany of the Thompson. I spent eight days in the field on this work at my own expense and also paid a little to some Indian women for help. There are still some gaps which I hope to fill up next spring. Sickness in the family and consequent lack of time and funds this spring held me back. Otherwise I could have completed the collecting of almost all the

898 | 1919

remaining data this spring and summer. I have done nothing on the Tahltan-Kaska paper since March but if I find any spare time I intend to work a little on it. I have collected during the last couple of years quite a number of archaeological specimens which I held thinking [page 4] the Museum would desire them and take them over after the war but now I see there is no hope of this. I will therefore catalog them and try to dispose of them to Lieut. Emmons. I know he wants some of the things. I am still taking some measurements of Indians and Whites but am not pushing this work much. Owing to the hard ‘racket’ the baby went through before birth he has not been very well. He is troubled with indigestion and therefore is a great care. He will no doubt outgrow this however in a few months. My wife has been sick again. This time with appendicitis. She has now recovered from the attack without undergoing an operation, but she may be attacked again any time. Family sickness has thus tied me up again so I have not been able to do very much work of any kind just lately. I am presently preparing some papers to go to the BC Gov. in connection with the Indian case.

Teit to Boas. July 29, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122073. Dear Friend. I forget whether I gave you the following terms. They may be of value but may be too late to use in any way. I collected the Lillooet ones some years ago. Thompson terms ́ .s)kux͇h ̳ wī́la

Baby basketry carrier from .skū́x̳ coiled basketry h for euphony -íla child or to do with children, infants, young etc.

.skux̳hwḗka

Basketry spoon

from .skúx̳ coiled basketry (or made of coiled basketry) h for euphony

́ kux̳hwī́lama

-ḗ.ka spoon, spike, point etc. to make a basketry carrier

kux̳hwḗ.kᴇma to make a [basketry] spoon

1919 | 899

Lillooet terms X(1). NZAZĀ́ U.MᴇN

ROUND OR BOWL SHAPED BASKET, WATER BASKET ETC.

Kátca

Large oblong or trunk shaped basket (with lid or cover) The equivalent of the Thomp. stlūk

́ kîkᴇtcā

Dim[.] of kátca small oblong basket (with lid or cover). Generally used as work baskets; [page 2]

X(2) KOMếɬAMᴇX

BASKETS OF ROUND COILS (OR ALTOGETHER OF ROOTS— NO SLATS)

X( 3) XᴇNᴇXANếɬᴇMᴇX

BASKETS OF FLAT COILS (COILS OF SLATS)

X(4) KWÉKWOM

BASKETRY DEVOID OF ORNAMENTATION

.npánᴇk

Imbrication or imbricated ornamentation

lîkalúk̲a

Ornamentation of a kind known as ‘false embroidery’ (common on Lillooet baskets)

X( 5) TCếTCUTIN

DESIGN OR PATTERN

́ .ntcîtcuᴇktî ń

Lower or lesser designs on baskets Droppers etc. (com. on Lillooet baskets)

X(6) TCÚKOSTSTᴇN

THE UPPER PART OR END OF A DESIGN WHERE IT ENDS AT OR NEAR THE RIM OF A BASKET.

́ tsîlztᴇn

Projecting rim of a basket on which the lid fits RAISED WORK OR LOOP WORK ON RIMS ETC. OF BASKETS.

X(7) NKÁITLATCIN

xexalḗnuas

900 | 1919

partition inside a basket

Design names X(8) SINAMḗUK [OR] ZᴇNAᴇMḗUK

‘CIRCLE’ DESIGN

X(9) TSOTSOĀ́ L US

‘STRIPE DESIGN’ (VERTICAL) [PAGE 3]

sikoltsálus

‘step design’

X(10) ZINZINKÁLUS

‘MEANDER DESIGN’

tsîm.kálus

‘entrails design’

hatsᴇm.nálus

‘Head or mouth design’

X(11) XEMAZ(S)ếLUS

‘FLY OR CHECK DESIGN’

xemuxtcᴇnếlus X(12) NKAKALITCÁLUS

‘Arrowhead or Triangle design’ ‘CROOKED OR ZIGZAG ? DESIGN’

Above translations by Inds. X1 C.F. THOMP .NZAÚ.M

TO DIP WATER

X2 [DITTO] .S)KOMÓX

ROUND

-ếɬamᴇx

vessel, receptacle basket, sack etc.

X3 [DITTO] .S)XᴇNÎ́ X

SQUARE OR OPP. OF ROUND

.snîx́

corner

X4 [DITTO]

TERM

X5 [DITTO] .STCᴇTCŪ́ U

ORNAMENTED, ORNAMENTATION

-tin ,-tᴇn

thing

X6 [DITTO] TCŪK

FINISHED, COMPLETED

X7 [DITTO]- TCIN

MOUTH, RIM

X8 [DITTO] ZᴇNÎ́ K

IN A COIL OR SPIRAL .SZÎ́ N , ENCIRCLING

X9 [DITTO].STSÄTSố

STRIPED LONGITUDINALLY

X10 [DITTO] ZᴇNÎ́ K

COIL OR SPIRAL

X11 [DITTO] XᴇMÁZA

‘FLY’

X12 [DITTO] .SKAKᴇNÎTC KIND OF ZIGZAG

álus is Lillooet for design

1919 | 901

Teit to Boas. July 30, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122074. Dear Friend. You wrote me some time ago re Indian place names. I have been noting these for years and have lists of several hundred (Thomp and Shus) and I can easily collect many more. I have a letter from Dr. Sapir a few days ago saying that after repeated attempts he has failed to get the Can. gov. (Geol. Survey) to renew my contract for this year. The excuse they give is there are no funds. Their own fault, I suppose? Dr. Sapir says he is “quite pessimistic over the whole outlook viz. (his department) and sees no hope of a change for the better under the present administrative conditions.” I am thus without any work for the Geol. Survey this year. I think I told you my wife had been sick again lately with an attack of [page 2] appendicitis this time. She is quite a lot better now and may or may not have another attack. I collected some additional data during the last two months to fill gaps in the Ethno Botany of the Thompson. I have two uncompleted papers on hand. The Ethnology of the Tahltan and Kaska and detailed information on many points in the Ethnology of the Thompson (chiefly material culture). The first belongs to the Geol. Survey but they are putting up no funds for its completion. The last I intended for them also but they have no claim on it. I have been doing occasional work for the Allied Indian Tribes in connection with their Land Case. PS Excuse the scraps of paper but I am out of note paper until this evening.33

Teit to Boas. July 31, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122075. Dear Friend ́ I have interviewed another woman .s)kī́ksa (No. 8) who is an expert basket maker. She also favors symmetry in designs[.] She thinks designs arranged symmetrically look better. She says she has often made unsymmetrical designs because she often does not see at the time the best way to arrange the designs for symmetry. When the basket is finished she often sees defects in the arrangement of the designs and 33. Teit wrote the letter of July 30, 1919, on two sides of a half-sheet of paper with one corner missing.

902 | 1919

ways in which she might have made the designs more symmetrical and pleasing. She is the maker of the basket with designs discussed by other women (see letter) [.] The designs on this basket are

When I told her what some other woman had said re. symmetry in these designs she said she agreed it would look better if A and B were of equal lengths[,] also if D had been lower down and another E was inverted above it. This would make all the designs balanced or symmetrical[.] She said that in making the basket it had not occurred to her to make A and B equal. They were ‘filling’ designs and as there seemed to her rather more open space on the side of B, she thought the spaces would look more filled by starting B design low down[.] She had not thought of any symmetry[.] [page 2] In putting in D and E designs she intended to have an inverted E above D but found she had made the designs too large for to do this[.] It would have necessitated her making her basket too high and therefore out of proportion. She thought of the symmetry of C, C when making the basket and knew it would not look well if she had made these designs face the same way.

She had not thought of any symmetry in connection with F and G[,] for instance the making of another G above F. If this were done she said the two Gs should be smaller than the G she had made on the basket. 1919 | 903

In speaking of rhythm she said she preferred series such as 1 2 1 1 2 1 to those like 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 or 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3, etc. She said 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 was not so bad. PS I gave you the names of the other women corresponding to their nos. This makes 8 informants. Will that number be sufficient for your purpose?

Boas to Teit. August 4, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122032. My dear Friend: I thank you very much for your two letters of July 15 and 27, which I received yesterday. Your previous letter came during my absence while I was in New Mexico studying the language of one of the pueblo tribes. When your previous letter came, I was looking in vain for the sketches to which it referred, and I am not certain now whether the sheet of the sketches which you sent me refers to your previous letter or whether it refers to the photographs. In the latter case, I have to ask you to be good enough to return the photographs to me, because without them I should not be able to tell what you are talking about. The whole manuscript on basketry is completed now except the chapter on symmetry and rhythm, in regard to which we are corresponding now.34 I am having the sketches and illustrations 34. In the published version of “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region,” there is no chapter on symmetry and rhythm per se. Issues of symmetry are discussed in the section on the application of design to the field (Haeberlin et al., “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region,” 119–484). This is the section in which the information provided by Haeberlin and that provided by Teit overlap most clearly. Indications of material specifically contributed by Haeberlin and that contributed by Teit are found where their names are mentioned in association with various parts of the text. Teit is mentioned frequently. Calling “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region” “a neglected classic in the study of primitive art” (Jacknis, “‘The Artist Himself,’” 134), Ira Jacknis sees Boas as the primary researcher with both Teit and Haeberlin having significant but subordinate roles. Jacknis places both the initiative for the work and its results within Boas’s developing interest in design and theory of art, from his 1896 paper, “The Decorative Art of the Indians of the North Pacific Coast” (101–3) to the publication of his monograph, Primitive Art in 1927, with a shift to considering the role of the artist in aesthetic production coming soon after his 1908 publication, “Decorative Designs of Alaskan Needlecases” (321–44). The greater part of “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region” is an explication of Nlaka’pamux coiled basketry and the associated materials, techniques, and designs. This is followed by the section “Basketry of the Tribes of the Neighbors of the Thompson,” including the Lillooet, Shuswap, Chilcotin, Yakima, and Klickitat (335–59). These components of the paper are clearly informed by the questions that Boas brought to the work of both Teit and Haeberlin; “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region” was finally published in 1928, approximately ten years after it was finished. Boas’s framing of the paper reflects the scope of his work with Teit

904 | 1919

redrawn, and I hope they may be finished some time during the summer.35

Boas to Teit. August 6, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122033. My dear Friend, I received your note yesterday. I am very sorry that the Canadian government is not ready yet to resume work.36 I am very anxious that between 1908 and 1919. The “Introduction,” likely written by Boas, but clearly drawing on Teit’s work, sets the paper in the context of the plateau at large—placing coiled basketry and its most distinctive decorative technique, imbrication, in a geographic context primarily centered on the plateau, but extended to the Athapascan societies of northwestern British Columbia, the western Plains, and the Pacific Coast of British Columbia and Washington state—and offering a comparison of imbricated basketry to basketry made in California and by the Tlingit. A “Summary and Conclusion” written by Helen Roberts is followed by an untitled addendum by Boas, “I add a few general considerations to the summary and conclusion written by Miss Roberts” (383–88). In introducing a discussion of specific aspects of basketry decoration, Boas draws imbricated basketry into the history of territorial shifts since 1800 in the eastern Cascades, noted by Teit, with reference to his own work on sound shifts in Salishan languages, and the map accompanying “Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region,” not published directly with the paper, but inserted into an envelope attached to the back cover of the Forty-first Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. This map is identical to the map published with “Sound Shifts in Salishan Dialects.” 35. On August 6, 1919, Boas wrote to tell Sargent that “the manuscript on the basketry has been sent to Washington, and I have been promised by Dr. Fewkes that the illustrative material will all be gotten into shape during the summer, and I hope they may take it up very soon. The plates, as you know, have all been made, but the little sketches of the decorative designs must be redrawn from photographs and from Mr. Teit’s pen and ink sketches. [para] Incidentally, the question of the use of symmetry and of rhythmic arrangement came up, and in regard to these, I am still corresponding with Mr. Teit, who has collected quite a good deal of material on the subject. . . . [page 2] I had a letter from Teit yesterday in which he tells me that the Canadian Government has not authorized his reemployment for the present year, and he is evidently in trouble. I am sending him the money for research provided in your last gift and I am arranging with him to collect the Indian names of places in the Thompson territory. He has also almost finished a paper on the use of plants among the Thompson Indians which he intended to send to the Ethnological Survey of Canada [that is, the National Museum of Canada department headed by Edward Sapir], and I read between the lines of his letter that he would like to have some arrangement made for the purchase of this manuscript. I am telling you about these matters because I know how much you are interested personally in Mr. Teit, as well as in the scientific results of his studies. [para] I am hoping that the Bureau of Ethnology may be able to take up at last the printing of the Salish maps and the discussion of distribution, the material for which has been in their hands for fully two years, but I have not heard yet definitely” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107285). 36. Boas wrote to Sapir on August 6, 1919, “I have heard from Teit yesterday that your appropriations are not yet satisfactory. . . . I am trying to get the money to keep Teit at his work. I have a small part of it, but not enough. Sapir replied on August 11, 1919: “We have not been able to continue salaried support of Teit this fiscal year owing to the lack of funds. I am trying, however, to have some arrangement made whereby we could purchase manuscript from Teit whenever it is ready for publication. I think one thing that might have injured Teit somewhat is the fact that he has put in so very small a proportion of his time in scientific work for

1919 | 905

you should not be drawn away from ethnological work and I wish you would tell me clearly and definitely just how much money you need until July of next year in order to continue work and whether it might be possible, for instance, to make arrangements for your paper on the use of plants and of the other one on place names to keep you engaged on your present work. I am very glad to hear that your wife is getting better. You certainly had your share of troubles during the past year.

Sapir to McInnes. August 7, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. My dear Mr. McInnes, I wish to take up with you the matter of Mr. J. Teit’s manuscript material. In view of the fact that you found yourself unable to renew Mr. Teit’s appropriation for this fiscal year I think that we ought, if at all possible, to make an alternative arrangement whereby we could us since our understanding with Mr. Brock some years ago. It is obvious that his name hardly impresses the administration as an essential one for the prosecution of the work of the Division of Anthropology. I think it is too bad that he has not prepared more manuscript for us by this time.” In response to a suggestion Boas had made on March 6 about shifting the focus of the Anthropology Division’s work to a study of population, Sapir commented, “I do not think emphasis on demography would be of assistance to us at the present. What we need here more than anything else is administrative reorganization quite apart from the particular character of the work my Division is doing. I do not feel that we shall ever even be on our feet until we have a more independent status than at present” (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, b.621, f.3, folder: “Boas, Franz [1918–1921]”). Continuing the conversation, Boas wrote on August 11, 1919, “I have been giving some further thought to the question of Teit’s work and have been wondering whether it might be feasible, provided I can obtain the money, to have him continue his work for the Geological Survey. I think this could easily be done provided you can have this material printed. It occurred to me that an arrangement of this sort might make it easier to have Teit reemployed by the Survey at a later time. Even if you could not get the material printed, the arrangement might seem feasible provided there would be no difficulty in getting the material printed elsewhere, if necessary” (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, Boas to Sapir, August 11, 1919, b.621, f.3, folder: “Boas, Franz [1918–1921]”). Sapir replied, “I do not think it would be possible to have Teit nominally continued on the Survey staff in the manner that you suggest. What I am trying to do at present is to have an arrangement made whereby we can purchase Teit’s manuscript when ready. Later on I hope also to re-establish Teit’s former status in the Survey (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, Sapir to Boas, August 22, 1919, b.621, f.3, folder: “Boas, Franz [1918–1921]”). Boas replied, “I have obtained the funds for keeping Teit at work during the present year. I have arranged with him to finish his notes on the “Uses of Plants” and another one on local names and personal names. This arrangement is to last until July of next year. The first half of his Tahltan Tales will appear in the next number of the Folk-Lore Journal. We have had quite a good deal of trouble with the printer who is getting the numbers out (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, Boas to Sapir, September 4, 1919, b.621, f.3, folder: “Boas, Franz [1918–1921]”). Although Sapir was able to get permission to pay Teit for his Tahltan manuscript as it was completed, Boas’s letter of September 4, 1919, marks the shift back to Boas as the primary sponsor of Teit’s ethnographic work.

906 | 1919

secure manuscript material from Mr. Teit with just compensation to himself. In other words, instead of putting Mr. Teit on a salary basis as heretofore, we might arrange to purchase manuscript from him. Mr. Teit has accumulated in the two intensive trips among the Tahltan and Kaska Indians undertaken some time ago under our auspices a large amount of valuable ethnological material. This material naturally falls into four groups. The first, comprising the mythology, has been presented to us and, with your authorization, turned over to the American Folk-Lore [page 2] Society. The outstanding papers would include: one on the social organization and social outcomes of these Indians; the second on their religious beliefs and practices; the third, on their material culture. I am very anxious to secure these papers for the Survey at as early a date as we can arrange and I would most earnestly urge you to consider the making of some arrangement with Mr. Teit whereby we could secure them for publication. As regards compensation to Mr. Teit, I believe that three courses are open to us. We might either agree to pay for finished manuscript when presented on the basis of time spent on the preparation of the manuscript; or, second, we might pay for manuscript presented at so much per page; or third, we might agree to pay a certain lump sum for each of the three ethnological papers I have defined. Kindly inform me at an early opportunity which of these three arrangements would seem most advisable to you provided, of course, you agree with me as to the advisability of making some sort of further arrangements with Mr. Teit.

Teit to Sapir. August 9, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir A friend of mine Mr Matthews of Vanc. has just sent me a photo of a stone tablet dug up lately near Kispiox and I enclose same to you with his letter.37 Perhaps Smith may pass this way (Grand Trunk Route) on his way back to Ottawa and if he has any funds may procure it. Some people out here (in Victoria) who are interested in anthropology and would like to see data collected are saying “How is it only the Archaeological branch can get appropriation to carry on work (for instance Smith is out,) whilst the more important matter of collecting data on general ethnology is neglected? They say archaeological work 37. The photograph is not in the correspondence file.

1919 | 907

can on the whole wait (the stuff is in the ground and it has to be found before any one can run away with it, and it can be found as easily a few years hence as now) but information which can only be obtained from the old Inds. is being lost every day because the old people are fast passing away. Perhaps the reason is that people in general are [page 2] more interested in finding out about the dead and their history than investigating the living. It appeals more to their imagination. Of course the two should go as far as possible hand in hand because the one throws light on the other. Of course I would rather see archaeological work done than no anthropological work at all, and it seems there is a tendency among the powers that be in Ottawa to cut out anthropological work altogether or at least pare it down so that it just merely exists. However, what can we expect from the class of people who are in power? They cannot be expected to advance anything except they see dollars in it.

Teit to Boas. August 11, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122076. Dear Friend, I received your letter last night. I may say that all remarks in my recent letters including the one which came during your absence in Mexico refer to the sketches Miss Roberts made (re symmetry) and which I returned to you enclosed in one of my last letters. None refer to any photos as far as I remember. I was glad to hear the whole M.S. on basketry is completed excepting the chapter on symmetry and rhythm. I enclose a sketch of designs on a tray which may be of interest and can send you a photo if you desire. The main design is a common one called by various names such as ‘bent design’, ‘broken back’, ‘broken leg’ etc. The maker and another woman from Lytton call it ‘moon design’[.] A very old woman from Lytton who has made baskets all her life and knows considerable about the designs commonly in vogue when she was young—also called this ‘moon design’. She said this was the only basketry ‘moon’ design long ago. Other moon designs of different forms are recent and some (such as the forms with faces) arise from white influence

(moon with face on basketry).

I don’t remember if I gave the [page 2] the [sic] name ‘moon for this 908 | 1919

design in the data I furnished on designs to Haeberlin and Miss Roberts. I can send you a photo if you think you need it of a basket all covered with ‘beading’ instead of ornamentation in part beading and part imbrication or only imbrication as most baskets. I could send you the basket itself if you desire.

Fig. 19. Sketch of basketry tray made at Lytton. Teit to Boas, August 11, 1919.

Teit to Boas. August 15, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122077. My Dear Friend.38 I was very glad to get your letter of the 6th inst. and as you desire I will tell you as clearly and definitely as I can my requirements for carrying on the ethnological work which should be done. It may be well

38. On letterhead of Canada Department of Mines, Geological Survey.

1919 | 909

however first of all to explain to you somewhat about the special work I have been doing for the Indians here, and of which I have occasionally made mention to you. The Indian Tribes of BC for years back have been trying to get a settlement of their land rights, and the hunting, fishing and other rights claimed by them. They claim an aboriginal title in the lands of their forefathers—a title which has generally been acknowledged in Canada and the U.S. and extinguished by the govs. of these countries making treaties with the tribes, and getting them to surrender their rights in their respective tribal territories etc. At the same time compensation was paid them, and the Indians reserved sufficient lands for their own requirements (viz the Ind. reservations). Here in BC this policy has not be[en] followed. Treaties have not been made with the tribes, and reserves have been laid off arbitrarily for bands only. Former BC govs. even claimed the Indians had no rights. The present reserves are scattered in small patches all over the country. The Indians by gov. regulations are being more and more restricted in their hunting, trapping and fishing and in the use of the so called government lands for the pasturing of their stock. When they turn to their small reserves and attempt to depend on them entirely for making a living they find these are inadequate. A Royal Commission was [page 2] appointed to deal with the Reserve question but accomplished nothing of real value to the Indians after working three years and using up nearly half a million of the Govs. money.39 The Commission did not attempt to deal with hunting, fishing, water, foreshore and other rights of the Indians. The Indians refuse to accept the Findings of this Commission even as a settlement of their land requirements. The late Laurier gov. was about to put the matter before the Courts for a decision as to the claims of the Indians but the present Borden gov. changed this policy and by Order in Council has been attempting to force the Indians to accept the Gov’s terms and particularly to accept the findings of the Roy. Com. as a final settlement of lands to be reserved. Besides the BC gov. claims a reversionary interest in all the reservations so the Indians have really nothing which they can in the full sense call their own.40 The Indian tribes have refused this kind of settlement, and a number of tribes formerly in three separate organizations in the attempt 39. McKenna and McBride, Report of the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs for the Province of British Columbia. 40. The “reversionary interest” claimed by the government of British Columbia mandated that the land occupied by an Indian reserve revert to the province if the reserve was no longer required or was abolished for another reason. (Harris, Making Native Space: Colonialism, Resistance, and Reserves in British Columbia, 217.

910 | 1919

to get their rights have come together in a single organization known as the Allied Tribes of BC. They have engaged lawyers and are preparing themselves to put their case before the Privy Council in England except in the meantime the Govs. come forward with proposals of a fair settlement. The tribes allied are the Niska (all), Kitkahtla, Kitiksian (most of them), Massett Haida, the Bellacoola (all), Stalo or Lower Fraser (all), several of the Cowichan tribes of Vanc. Island, some of the Squamish, and all the Interior tribes from the Tahltan and Kaska in the North, South to the American line. For several years the Interior tribes (who formerly were a separate organization) have had me doing their writing, keeping accounts for them, interpreting, and acting as chairman of their meetings etc. When the tribes became allied they appointed me their secretary-treasurer, secretary and convenor of their executive [page 3] Committee, and their special agent. For a number of years I did work for the Inds. without charge—They simply paying my expenses when I went to meetings etc. As the work has kept increasing of late they have paid me wages for what time I put in for them. Owing to the now high cost of living this spring they raised my wages to 6.50 per day. I do not care to desert the tribes at this time (It might have a bad effect on future ethnological work in the field) but desire if possible to assist them until such time as they get some kind of settlement of their case. However as it is, their work takes up only part of my time, and fully half of my time is thus available to do ethnological work which I am quite anxious to get on with. I have thought over the contents of your letter quite carefully and now make the following proposition as to requirements for carrying on the ethnological work. I will engage to do ethnological work for you during all my spare time which as already stated will equal 50 percent or more of my total available time. This will mean an average of about 15 days per month, but will vary some months more and some less. I will charge 5.00 per day = 75.00 per month of 15 days. Of course I will charge up only the actually full days works [sic]. I will take up work on the unfinished papers I have on hand or do whatever work you desire. As I think I told you already these papers are 1. Ethnology of the Tahltan and Kaska 2. Additional information on the Ethnology of the Thompson (chiefly material culture) 3. Ethnobotany of the Thompson 4. Place names of the Thompson (This can include Shuswap place names of which I have a lot collected and also Okanagon place names). I have also a large genealogy partly finished, kinship terms partly finished, and a partly finished paper 1919 | 911

on the Snare Indians. I [page 4] may also mention Tahltan, Kaska and Tlingit vocabularies, and a few tales of various tribes. I would prefer to complete No.3 first or at least have it all ready excepting for some further identifications of plants to be procured next spring. I may say most of the information composing papers Nos 2, 3 and 4 has been collected on my own time and at my own expense for in the past from time to time I have paid small sums out to Indians for information and collecting especially in connection with No.3. (Eth. Botany). However I have no intention of asking any return for this, but will be quite satisfied if I can get the chance of writing out the information at a fair wage whilst so engaged. I give you the following estimate of the total cost of carrying on my ethnological work until next July (viz the time you state in your letter). This will equal ten months, and I consider the estimate as nearly correct as may be. 1.Wages

750.00

2.Expenses trip to Fraser Canyon (for collecting of certain plants etc. paper No 3.)

50.00

3.Expenses trip to Upper Nicola Valley ([ditto])

50.00 (These sums will include payments to Indians for information and help in collecting etc.)

4.Payments to Indians for additional information on certain points

25.00 in connection with paper No. 2.

5.Payments to Indians for additional information on certain points

25.00 in connection with paper No. 4.

6.Writing material etc.

5.00

Sundry. Perhaps specimens etc.

20.00

[Total]

925.00

Possibly I may not require to spend the full amounts stated under Nos 2 to 7. I think what I have said will probably suffice to give you a good understanding of everything in connection with my work.

912 | 1919

Sapir to Teit. August 22, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— Will you please let me have a fairly explicit statement of what there is still to do to finish up your ethnological manuscript, itemizing from the point of view of contents, probable number of pages, and time to be spent? I am calculating that your total manuscript would comprise three papers aside from the folk-lore already submitted—a paper on Social Organization, one on Religion, and a third on Material Culture. What I am trying to do now is to have the Survey make some arrangement with you whereby we could procure the outstanding manuscript on a basis of just remuneration to yourself, said remuneration to become payable on presentation of manuscript, in whole or in part, preferably the latter I should say. Would you mind indicating whether you would prefer payment of a time basis, finished manuscript basis, or rate basis per page? I hope that it will be possible for us to come to some definite agreement, as I am eager to secure the manu-[page 2] script for publication[.]

Boas to Teit. August 22, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122034. My dear Friend, I thank you very much for your full letter of August 15. There is one additional point in regard to which I should like to have information. Last winter, I had a check sent to you from Columbia University, and you have been doing a certain amount of work for me. Will you kindly let me know just how our account stands at the present time?41 41. On August 23, 1919, Boas wrote to Sargent (APs, Boas Papers, text 107361), providing him with a detailed summary of Teit’s letter of August 15, 1919. Sargent replied on August 24, 1919 (APS, Boas Papers, text 107305), saying, “If you will look into the matter of what [Teit] should get for his paper on the Use of Plants among the Thompsons and where and how it should be published I shall be pleased to supply the funds. Also give me a rough estimate of what it will cost to collect the Indian Names of places in the Thompson Territory. I shall be glad to supply that.” Boas replied to Sargent on August 27, 1919, “I think the paper on plants must be almost completed, at least the material must be in hand, because he has written me about this quite a number of times. The paper on place names would also not be difficult because, in this case, I should want to have him write it out myself, and simply have him furnish the material. I am still waiting to hear from Teit in regard to the present accounts, and after I receive these [page 2] I should be in a better position to tell you definitely what it seems best to do. [para] Meanwhile, I take it that on the basis of your letter, I might write to him saying that you are

1919 | 913

Teit to Boas. August 26, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122078. Dear Friend I have letters from Dr Sapir saying he is endeavoring to get the Geol. Survey to make some arrangement with me whereby he can procure the completion of my M.S. on the Tahltan and Kaska for publication. He is asking that they pay me just remuneration to become payable on presentation of the M.S. in whole or in part. He wants an estimate from me of the probable total number of pages and the probable time it will take to write out the paper completely. Of course he may or may not manage to get the Geol. Survey to put up the required funds. Their excuse for not employing me this year was lack of funds. I am enclosing a photo taken by a friend of mine of a sandstone tablet dug up lately near Kispiox (about 10 miles above Hazelton in Skeena River Valley) [.] It may interest you. I wrote you fully a few days ago relative to the questions you asked me in your last letter.

Teit to Sapir. August 27, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir I received your letter of 22nd inst and reply at once as you are probably in a hurry for information. I commenced to write out the Tahltan-Kaska M.S. on the same or very similar lines to that of my paper on the Thomp. Inds. There will first be an Introduction, Historical and Geographical with map or maps. Second. Material culture under a number of heads. Third social organization probably under several heads. Fourth customs relating to Birth, Puberty, Death etc. under several heads. (Perhaps this part should go under Social Organization. What do you think?) Fifth Religion under several heads. All the information I am combining in one paper as I did with the Thomp. willing to support his ethnological work during the present year. Will you be good enough to let me know to what extent I may tell him that you will be ready to help in this work. [para] I do not need to repeat to you how much I am indebted to you for your continued interest” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107286). On August 31, 1919, Sargent replied to Boas (APS, Boas Papers, text 107306), agreeing that Teit should continue and advising, “It would be well to have him send you a statement in order that you might see where you stand with him in past work and if there are funds enough on hand to meet it. Concerning this you can let me know at some future date and also the question as to assistance mentioned in my last letter.” On September 1, 1919, Sargent sent $1,000 to the Trustees of Columbia University for Teit’s work (APS, Boas Papers, text 107371).

914 | 1919

However as I am writing out each chapter separately the whole can be arranged in any manner you see fit for publication viz either in a single memoir or in several, and if in a single paper the chapters or parts can be arranged in any order you may prefer. I have the first writing of the following finished or nearly so. [page 2] Table 4. Organization of Tahltan Manuscript42 CHAPTER

NO. OF PAGES

COMMENT

Introduction Historical, Geographical etc.

24 foolscap pages

There may be a few more pages

Clothing, ornaments and 29 pages personal adornment

There may be a page or two more when quite complete

Travel, Transportation and Trade

19 pages

([ditto])

Pregnancy, Birth, Childhood

12 pages

Puberty

18 pages

Marriage

8 pages

Death, Burial and Mortuary Customs

10 pages

([ditto])

Subsistence just commenced

Only 2 pages completed

This will be a long chapter

([ditto])

Most of the sketches and maps are finished or nearly so. All the Field notes are arranged as far as possible or almost so. I think the part of which the first writing is completed is probably about ⅓ of the whole M.S. so there likely will be maybe 200 pages more or less yet to write out from the notes. After the first writing of all I have to copy over in ink and correct it and add a number of notes. I think it would take me four months or maybe more of steady work to complete the memoir so this will give you an idea of the cost in time. As a rule however these papers take longer to write out than one estimates so it may be better to figure on a little longer time. I would not finish it in the time [page 3] specified however for I have 42. In the original letter Teit has presented this information in columns but without a formal, titled table. The tabular form is used here for clarity.

1919 | 915

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

now undertaken to do other work for a considerable part of my time. I therefore would not be able this year to work steadily on the memoir. I would prefer remuneration to be paid on presentation of the M.S. in parts although the parts will vary in extent. The finished M.S. might be estimated by you at so much and then divided into say three or four parts. Payment on a time basis would probably be the best but a manuscript basis might be just as good. You could figure out some fair basis and I will agree. I have given you an idea of the extent of the M.S. and the least time it will take to complete it. I told Dr Boas that the Survey was giving me no work this year and that I had a number of uncompleted papers on hand viz (Ethnology of the Talhtan and Kaska (for the Survey) and other papers such as Ethno. botany of the Thomp. Inds., additional on Material Culture of the Thomp., Ind. Place names of the Thompson River Country etc. etc.). He wrote to me at once, saying he did not want me to drift away from Ethnological work and asked me to give him an estimate of the time I could put in on the completing of some of these papers during the next ten months. I answered his letter a few days ago and gave him an estimate. He may be able to find some funds or means of providing for the carrying on of my work which will come in good if your present endeavors fail. PS I forgot to say the above does not include special information on the Kaska. I have not quite decided whether to incorporate it in the proper places with the Tahltan or treat it as an appendix or second part of the paper. I think the latter may be best. It probably will not be over 50 pages in all.

Teit to Boas. August 31, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122079. Dear Friend, I am enclosing a statement of a/c as you desire. It shows a balance in your favor of $14.00. I believe there were a few small items of work (during 1918) I did not charge. They were trivial and I did not keep a strict a/c of them. We will let them go. I hear lately the article written by Prof. Davidson on the Tree Sugar was printed[,] I think in the ‘Ottawa Naturalist’ but I have not received a copy. Did your daughter receive one[?] It would interest her.

916 | 1919

PS I don’t remember if I mentioned that another paper I have in hand partly finished is one on Thomp kinship terms, with notes. [page 2]

Columbia University (Dr. Franz Boas) 1918 Dr To JA Teit Mch 31

To Balance of a/c due (a/c rendered)

$121.80

1919 Aug. 31

To Work and since 1st April 1918 to 31st Aug. 1919 as under Paid 12 Indians at different times for Information sketches etc.

$13.00

Work of self visiting Inds, soliciting information, Examining specimens, writing etc. 30 days @$5 =

$150

Stamps and material about

1.20

To Balance on hand

14.00

_____

$300.00

Feb, 1919

By Cash from Dr. Boas Col. University N.Y.

$300.00

Aug. 31, 1919

By Balance on hand

1919 -Cr-

$14.00

Boas to Teit. September 4, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122035.43 My dear Friend: I thank you for your note which I received yesterday, and for the photograph of the slab from Skeena River. It is very interesting. May 43. From Bolton Landing, New York.

1919 | 917

I have it published? The form reminds me very much of the stone carvings of Vancouver Island and some from Alaska. I am still waiting to hear from you in regard to your accounts, but, however this may be, I am now in a position the make the definite arrangement with you for the present year until July, assuming that you will give about one half of your time to ethnological work and charge $5.00 per day for this work. I should like to have you do the work on ethno-botany that you suggested, and perhaps you could go on at the same time collecting local names. Has the Land Office of British Columbia made surveys of the Thompson region so that we might apply for blue prints of their maps? It would probably be best to insert the local names on these maps. Of course, when you make the collection, I should like to have the translation of the names as near as you can give them.

Teit to Boas. September 16, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122080. Dear Friend. I was very glad to get your letter of 4th inst. and to learn that the work had been provided for. We cannot (and especially I myself) cannot thank Mr. Sargent too much for his continued interest in our ethnological work and his generosity. I am much obliged to him. I have started to do some work on the Ethno-botany. Yes, I can collect place names besides the large number I have already collected. I think the best way will be as you suggest viz to insert the names in their places on Gov. maps. I think fairly suitable ones can be procured. I will either write for them or get them when I go to the Coast which may be soon. I may have to take a trip to the Lower Fraser and Naas River in connection with the [page 2] Indian land case to attend large meetings of Inds. at these places. Re. my a/c I sent you a statement some time ago and you should have received it ere this. I was glad to hear you were interested in the stone slab. Yes, of course you can publish what information I gave you concerning it along with the photo. Of course I have not seen it myself and am depending on the information my friend Mr Matthews gave me and his photo.44 If you have it published send me a copy if convenient so Matthews will know what you have to say about it.

44. The identity of Teit’s friend, Mr. Matthews, is not clear. There are no other references to him in the correspondence. It is possible that this is a reference to James Skitt (Major) Matthews (1878–1970), who later established the Vancouver archives. James Skitt Matthews was a

918 | 1919

Sapir to Teit. September 16, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Teit,— Before writing Mr. McInnes definitely in regard to arrangements for the purchase of the balance of your manuscript, I should like to go over with you the scheme that I have hit upon and have you tell me whether it seems alright. I intend to estimate that your manuscript be purchasable in four parts consisting of:— (1) Introduction and Material Culture for

$300.00

(2) Social Organization and Customs relating to Birth, Puberty, Marriage and Death for

200.00

(3) Religion for

250.00 ______ 750.00

(4) Appendix on Kaska Indians for

125.00 ______ $875.00

You see that my first entry includes your first and second, my second includes your third and fourth and my third corresponds to your fifth. I have figured out the above as follows. You state that it will take you at least four months of steady work to finish the manuscript. I feel pretty certain that it will take you a good [page 2] half year to do so as both of us know from experience how much longer it takes to prepare manuscript than one is inclined to figure. You have been paid at $1500. per year at steady work which would mean that these six months of steady work to finish the manuscript would be worth $750. to us. I suggest allowing for one month’s steady work for Kaska which means payment at $125. I would suggest that payment be due whenever any of the four parts listed above are actually completed and received here. This, of course, does not mean that we are to publish the four parts as separate papers. That question will have to be decided later on[,] on its own merits. If you think that my figures are not quite right, please change them about any way that you like so as to seem fair to yourself, and I shall resident of Vancouver and had returned in 1918 from serving overseas in WW I (Davis, The Greater Vancouver Book).

1919 | 919

recommend accordingly. I do not, of course, know that Mr. McInnes will approve of my recommendation in this form, but I am very eager to be able to put something extremely definite before him.

Teit to Sapir. September 25, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. Dear Dr Sapir I have your letter of 16th inst. with estimate for purchase of M.S. I think your figures are quite fair and I desire to make no change in them. On reflection I think the Kaska material may not be quite as extensive as I said but this need not make any change in the total sum as possibly some of the Tahltan material may be more extensive than I stated. I have a letter from Dr. Boas relating that he has obtained funds for my work and the completion of any of the papers I have on hand and can manage to write out. This is very satisfactory. I have this to fall back on and I will attempt the completion of the paper on Ntlak. EthnoBotany and another on place names during the next ten months. I may be able to do more than this if I do not write out the Tahltan M.S. for you. I am going to the Naas River in a couple of days to attend a big meeting of the Niska. The Indians are still quite [page 2] on the job in fighting for their land rights and more tribes have joined the allies since spring. I think it is quite likely now that a deputation will go East late this fall, prob. in Nov. I then hope to see you for a few days. Give my best regards to Barbeau, Smith, Waugh and others and the best of best to Yourself and Mrs Sapir.

Sapir to McInnes. October 3, 1919. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1918–1919), box 635, file 16. My dear Mr. McInnes, I have had explicit correspondence with Mr. J. A. Teit in regard to his Tahltan manuscript and possible arrangements looking towards its completion and remuneration. The manuscript is an extensive one and we find that the most convenient form in which it can be submitted is in four installments as follows:— 1. Introduction: Historical and Geographical (with map or maps) 1.B. Material Culture 2.A. Social Organization 920 | 1919

2.B. Customs relating to Birth, Puberty, Marriage and Death 3. Religion 4. Appendix on Kaska Indians. [page 2] Various chapters in the manuscript have been completed in whole or in part, as follows: 1.A. Introduction—24 foolscap pp. (may be few more pp.)45 1.B. Clothing, ornaments, personal adornment—29 pp. (may be page or 2 more when quite complete) Travel, transportation, trade—19 pp. (may be few more pp.) Subsistence—2 pp. completed (will be long chapter) 2.B. Pregnancy, birth, childhood—12 pp. Puberty—18 pp. (may be few more pp.) Marriage—8 pp. Death, burial, mortuary customs—10 pp. (may be a few more pp.) 122 pages completed This, Mr. Teit feels, comprises about one-third at best of the Tahltan manuscript proper. That is without including the Kaska supplement. The completion of the paper would require one-half year’s full-time work for the Tahltan section and an added month for the Kaska supplement. On the basis of payment hitherto made Mr. Teit for ethnological work, namely $125.00 per month, the payments due on the completion and submission of the four instalments first outlined may be computed as follows: On submission of part

1

$300.00

““““

2

200.00

““““ [page 3]

3

250.00

On submission of part 4 (Kaska Supplement)

$125.00 Total $875.00

45. At a later date Sapir made the following marginal notes beside the items in this list: Beside 1.A. “14 pp submitted March 30, ’21”; beside 1.B. “31 pp submitted March 30, ’21”; beside Travel, transportation, trade, “19 pp submitted March 30, ’21”; beside Subsistence, “1 p submitted March 30, ’21”; beside Pregnancy, Birth, Childhood, “13 pp submitted March 30, ’21”; beside Puberty, “18 pp submitted March 30, ’21”; beside Marriage, “7 pp submitted March 30, ’21”; beside Death, burial, mortuary customs, “10 pp submitted March 30, ’21.”

1919 | 921

I think myself that an arrangement for payment of manuscript instalments is preferable for us to one based on time. I feel convinced that the above estimate is far from excessive. If it errs at all, it is on the side of under-payment. I would urgently recommend that you instruct me to inform Mr. Teit of your desire to enter upon some such understanding as I am here suggesting. If there are any technical difficulties in the way of making of the contract, please let me know and perhaps we could talk over some type of arrangement, incorporating the substance of these recommendations, that would get around any technical difficulties.

Boas to Teit. November 18, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122036. My dear Friend: I rather expected to hear from you. When I wrote to you last, I ordered at the same time $300 to be sent to you, but I never learned whether you received it. I should also like to know how you are getting on with your work, and how near you are to completion of your paper on the use of plants. I wish I could tell you more about the progress of publication in Washington, but the people there are discouragingly slow. I have to have all the little sketches of basketry designs redrawn which is not much work, but nothing has happened so far.46 Please let me hear from you.

Teit to Boas. November 30, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122081. My Dear Friend I received your letter of 18th inst. to-day. I have been away up the North Coast and in other parts of BC attending meetings of the Indian tribes in connection with their land case and the statement of the Indian mind on the question of settlement which the BC gov. has asked the Allied Tribes to present. At a conference held at Prince Rupert on the 18th inst the Tsimpshian and Kitikshian tribes fell in line by passing 46. Jacknis (“The Artist Himself,” 148) states that the bulk of the manuscript was sent to the Bureau of American Ethnology by mid-1919. After several years of delay Boas arranged for it to be published by the Field Museum. It was later returned to the BAE and published in 1928, although some of the original plates and captions had been lost and not all of them could be restored.

922 | 1919

a resolution that they would ally themselves with the Allied Tribes. I have one more short trip to make to Vancouver Island and then I expect to have time to apply [page 2] myself seriously to the writing out of the papers for you. So far during the fall I have been able to put in only an odd day now and then for you between trips. I received the $300.00 you were kind enough to have sent to me for your work. The cheque reached me in Vancouver. I intended writing to you before in acknowledgement of the money but put it off. I got a number of maps from the BC gov. to use in connection with the place names. Yes. It seems the Washington people are slow with the publications. Also I have not heard of the Amer. Folk-lore Society publishing the Tahltan tales yet. The Kaska ones came out quickly but the Tahltan ones appear to be slow. My family all had the chicken pox lately but are now quite well. I hope you are all well.

Boas to Teit. December 8, 1919. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122037. Dear Friend: The Tahltan Tales are going to appear very soon. The first half is now in print. The whole collection was too long for one number. I trust you will be good enough to let me have your accounts regularly.

1919 | 923

1920

Teit to Sapir. January 28, 1920. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Dr Sapir, I got the papers from So. America which came addressed to me c/o the Museum. It was all right for you to take off the stamps for Mike. I generally take off foreign stamps from letters I receive and have quite a few in a box. These I can give to Mike as no one here makes any stamp collections. It seems likely that I will go East some time about the middle of February if the money is available. I think there will likely be sufficient funds for a small delegation. This will all be decided within the next two weeks. If I go I will of course take along the bear skin. I might mention that I never received any copies of Davidson’s article on the tree sugar for which I furnished the data, or most of it. Mr Davidson got some copies but I received none. I suppose you received a copy. I think I should be entitled to at least one copy. When up the Naas River last fall I saw many fine totem poles which the Indians were anxious to sell cheap as many [page 2] of them were in the way of the houses where they were building a new village on the upper river (about 2 miles above Aiyansh). I suppose however you have no funds. Whilst at Aiyansh I saw Andrew Mercer (one of the Nishga delegates to Ottawa when I was there last). He asked me to write you and learn if any of the Indian information he gave Mr Barbeau and yourself had ever been printed yet. He desires to get a copy. I have been doing no work for you except taking some measurements occasionally. Nearly all my time has been taken up with work for the Allied Tribes and work on the paper regarding Thomp. uses of plants for Boas.1 I 1. In June 1919 the Allied Tribes of British Columbia issued a statement, based on feedback from Indigenous societies and prepared by James Teit and Peter Kelly, criticizing the failure of the governments of British Columbia and Canada to address Aboriginal title. The statement called for the assignment to Indigenous people of 160 acres of reserve land per capita, compensation for lands held by non-Native people, recognition of fishing, hunting and water rights, and, in the event that the provincial and federal governments were unable to reach agreement with

924

am sending you a copy of a statement I delivered to the BC Gov on the 13th Dec. last (some would say an unlucky day). Have you ever done anything yet with the drawings we sent you a year or two ago. You were studying out the tendencies of different people in working out designs from a common element. You may tell Waugh that I took most part of a week lately and jotted down all I could think of in the shape of folk-lore among the Whites in BC.2 The material assumed larger proportions than I had any idea of and I am not through yet. I hope this will find you all well.

Sapir to Teit. February 5, 1920. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Teit, I was delighted to get your letter of January 28th. It was a treat to hear from you after your long silence, and I am particularly glad to know that you are likely to come to Ottawa before the end of the month. I am sure that you will be gratefully received with the bear skin, and the stamps that you are kindly offering to return over to Michael would be most enthusiastically received. I am afraid that Barbeau has not yet had the opportunity to treat systematically the Nass River information he received from Andrew Mercer.3 The kinship terms that I got have been reduced to the form of a systemitcal [sic] article, but I want to supplement this with some data that I got from Barbeau’s interpreter, W. Benyon, for the Tsimshian the Allied Tribes of British Columbia, referral of the issue of rights to land to the British secretary of state for the colonies (Allied Tribes of British Columbia, Statement of the Allied Tribes). 2. Frederick Waugh (1872–1924) joined the Geological Survey of Canada in 1911 as a contract ethnologist, and continued as an employee of the Victoria Memorial Museum when it became independent of the Geological Survey of Canada and became a separate component of the Department of Mines in 1920. Waugh was appointed associate ethnologist in 1923. In the course of his career he worked among the Six Nations near Brantford, Ontario, the Mohawk of Kahnawake, in Quebec, the Ojibwa of northern Ontario, and the Naskapi and Inuit of Labrador. In 1916 he published Iroquois Foods and Food Preparation. His actual death date is unconfirmed, as he disappeared en route to field work in Quebec in 1924 and was never found (CMH, “Frederick Wilkerson Waugh,” https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/aborig/jaillir/jaillfwe .html, accessed March 24, 2020; Richling, “Frederick W. Waugh (1872–1924),” 257–58). 3. Andrew Mercer, a Nisga’a Wolf clan chief at Gitlakdamix, was a member of the Nisga’a Land Committee, a group significant in organizing and encouraging the pursuit of Aboriginal title and the resolution of land claims by Aboriginal people in British Columbia in the early 1900s (Nisga’a Lisims Government, Nisga’a Land Committee, https://www.nisgaanation.ca/nisga%e2 %80%99-land-committee, accessed March 24, 2020; Galois and Sterritt, Tribal Boundaries in the Nass Watershed, 156).

1920 | 925

proper before I submit the paper for publication.4 Meanwhile I am sending you under another cover a copy of my published paper on Nass River Social Organization. You may let Mercer have this. [page 2] Thank you for the pamphlet on Indian Claims. I shall read it over at an early opportunity. I am surprised to hear that you did not get a copy of Davidson’s Article on Tree Sugar,5 but I am writing Dr. Hewitt in regard to this. The drawings that you submitted some time ago are filed away with a large number of others, and have so far been utilized only in lantern slides for lecturing. I am hoping to go through this material carefully, one of these days, and prepare a psychological art study. When you come to Ottawa, I may have something interesting to tell you in regard to the development of the Museum of the Geological Survey, but it would be rather premature to say anything at present. Please give my best regards to Mrs. Teit.

Sapir to Teit. February 16, 1920. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Sir, The members of the Anthropological Division of the Geological Survey of Canada have recently met and organized themselves into an Anthropological Club of Ottawa with the undersigned as President and Mr. H. I. Smith as Secretary. It was decided at this meeting to include a number of individuals in Ottawa and other parts of Canada who have either carried on researches among the aborigines of Canada or have manifested considerable interest in Canadian anthropology. We have taken the liberty of electing you a member of our club, and hope you will permit us to consider you one.6 Membership carries with it no 4. William Beynon (1888–1958) was a high-ranking member of the Nisga’a Wolf (Laxgibu) phratry, born in Victoria to a Nisga’a mother and a non-Aboriginal father. Barbeau hired Beynon as an assistant during his first field season among the Coast Tsimshian in 1915. Beynon worked intermittently for Barbeau recording information on matters relating to the history and culture of various Tsimshian-speaking communities until his death in 1858. On Barbeau’s recommendation Beynon also worked for Boas between 1937 and 1939. Correspondence and unpublished notes relating to the work of Barbeau and Beynon between 1916 and 1954 are preserved in the Canadian Museum of History. Papers relating to Beynon’s work between 1937 and 1939 are in the William Beynon Papers, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University, New York. (Winter, “William Beynon and the Anthropologists,” 279–92). 5. Davidson, “Douglas Fir Sugar,” 6–9. 6. Sapir sent an identical invitation to Duncan Campbell Scott (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, Edward Sapir to Duncan Campbell Scott, February 14, 1920, B.633, f.16, folder: “Scott, Duncan C. [1919–1925]”).

926 | 1920

onerous duties, nor is there a membership fee. I may say that members will have the privilege of attending meetings of the Ontario Branch of the American Folk Lore Society and that due notice of such meetings will be given to those members of the Club that are not also members of the American Folk-Lore [page 2] Society.7

Teit to Sapir. March 15, 1920. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Dr Sapir, I just write you a few lines to let you know I am here8 with the Indian delegation and expect to reach Ottawa on Wednesday morning.9 I hope to see you on Wednesday or Thursday. PS I ordered letters for me to be sent to Ottawa in your care.

7. Sapir signed this letter as “President, Anthropological Club of Ottawa.” 8. Toronto, Ontario. 9. Teit was in Ottawa with Allied Tribes members Peter Calder (Nisga’a), George Matheson (Tsimshian), Peter Kelly (Haida), and Basil David (Shuswap) to lobby against the passage of Bill 13, “The British Columbia Indian Lands Settlement Act,” proposed by Duncan Campbell Scott and accepted and introduced into Parliament on March 12, 1920, by Scott’s superior, Arthur Meighen, who was at that time minister of mines, minister of the Interior and superintendentgeneral of Indian Affairs. Arthur O’Meara joined the Allied Tribes delegation a few days after their arrival (Mitchell, The Allied Tribes of British Columbia: A Study in Pressure Group Behaviour, 49). The British Columbia Indian Lands Settlement Act not only provided for the adoption by the federal government of the provisions of the McKenna-McBride Commission report but also overturned “an essential aspect of the McKenna-McBride Agreement, that no cut-offs would be made without Indian consent” (Titley, A Narrow Vision, 147). Wickwire (At the Bridge, 238) notes Teit’s role in forwarding a petition from the Allied Tribes requesting that they be heard in the matter of Bill 13, to Mackenzie King, who unsuccessfully opposed Arthur Meighen’s facilitation of the passage of the bill. The Allied Tribes’ delegation to Ottawa was unsuccessful in preventing the passage of Bill 13, and the British Columbia Indian Lands Settlement Act received royal assent on July 1, 1920 (Mitchell, The Allied Tribes, 57). Wickwire (At the Bridge, 239–42) also discusses the role of a report prepared for Duncan Campbell Scott by Marius Barbeau in supporting the Borden Government’s Bill 14, which supported enfranchisement without consent. She notes that Teit, upset that a colleague would do this, contacted Sapir about it and cites subsequent correspondence between Sapir and Barbeau in June and July 1920, in which Barbeau admitted that he had written such a report for Scott, and Sapir warned him against a repetition; Wickwire also cites a letter from Sapir to Arthur O’Meara on July 13, 1920, denouncing Bill 14.

1920 | 927

Sapir to McInnes. May 7, 1920. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. My dear Mr. McInnes, Following our recent conversation with Mr. James A. Teit in regard to his Tahltan manuscript, I beg leave to suggest the enclosed contract as a suitable one, embodying the terms recommended in my letter of October 3, 1919, and recently acknowledged by yourself as reasonable. I hope that you will see your way clear to getting these contracts approved at an early opportunity, so that they may be submitted this month for his signature, and so that he may feel free to go ahead with the completion of his valuable manuscripts. [page 2] Contract with James A. Teit of Spence’s Bridge, BC regarding completion of Tahltan manuscript I, James A. Teit, hereby agree to prepare and forward to the office of the Deputy Minister of Mines, on or about April 1st, 1921, complete and final memoirs on various phases of the ethnology of the Tahltan and Kaska Indians, such memoirs to be based on the field material secured for the Geological Survey of Canada in seasons of field work preceding 1920–1921. I agree to forward with the above report all notes, note books, photographs, negatives, plans, maps and specimens, etc., collected or acquired during the periods when he was employed by the Geological Survey. I agree to accept remuneration for the above manuscript as follows: Part I: Introduction and material culture

$300.00

Part II: Social Organization; and customs relating to birth, puberty, marriage and death

200.00

Part III: Religion

250.00

Part IV: Kaska supplement

125.00

Total $875.00 These amounts are to become payable on submission of the respective parts. In addition to the above manuscript work I agree to incur no greater expenditure than a maximum of $150.00 for the fiscal year 1920–1921, in the purchase of ethnological specimens and the taking of phonography records, photographs, and such other data [page 3] as may seem advisable from time to time in the prosecution of my research work. 928 | 1920

Approved. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deputy Minister Signed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Address. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Witness to signature. Ottawa, May 7, 1920.

Teit to Sapir. September 3, 1920. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Dr Sapir, I am sending you some Thompson specimens by express—a small bundle which I could not well get into the box with the others. The rest of the specimens I have boxed and will ship by freight some day soon. There are 61 catalog numbers and the value is 145.00 which leaves 5.00 for films for photographs of the total of 150.00 arranged to be spent of these things. I will send you the catalog of the shipment as soon as I get time to copy it out. Mr. Scott is now on the Coast and he has asked me to meet him in Victoria and give him information on reserves etc. I have also to see the BC Minister of lands and may be gone a week or ten days. I hope you are all well. Best regards to yourself and Mrs Sapir. over—[page 2] PS I am shifting the family back to Merritt on the 6th and immediately thereafter go to the Coast. I received the cheque you sent for which thanks

Teit to Sapir. October 14, 1920. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Dr Sapir, I shipped the box of specimens to-day. I sent it forward by express as the agent told me that owing to the raise in freight rates there would only be a difference of about 2.00 viz. 6.00 by freight and 8.00 by express. I thought the greater speed and safety by express would be worth the 2.00 difference. Part of the specimens done up in a package I forwarded to you by express about a month ago. If you can see your way clear to forward soon [the] cheque for the specimens so much the 1920 | 929

better for me. The value is $145.00. I sent you the catalog about a week ago and herewith enclose shipping receipt. I have in mind what you told me re. the Tahltan M.S. and think some chapters can be sent to you before Christmas or as soon as I have time to go over them a little. When do you expect to come out here—Probably next month? Let me know about the date and whether you will stop off here. When on the Coast in September seeing Mr. Scott [page 2] I took down my phonograph to Vancouver to have a new belt put on it. It was not ready when I came home so is in Vancouver yet. You can use this machine when you go to Bellacoola instead of bringing one with you from Ottawa.10 There seems to be a growing interest in Anthropology in Vancouver particularly among students and Dean Klink of the University of BC, J[.] Davidson Instructor in Botany there, and F. Perry of the Natural History Society have requested me to ask you to give a lecture or talk on some anthropological subject when you pass Vancouver on your way to Bellacoola. The talk would be I think before the Natural History Society to a crowd of about 80 and I think the subject preferred would be something connected with the ethnology of the BC Indians. I think the dates of their meetings are 17th Nov, 1st and 15th Dec. but these are not quite fixed. I have not seen Mrs H—since I returned but must look her up some time at Merritt. I hope Mrs. Sapir and the children are quite well. I heard from Dr. Newcombe that Smith did not find very much at Bellacoola.

Sapir to Teit. October 29, 1920. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Teit, Your letter of October 14th has been received, also the specimens which you refer to. They all have been gone over by Mr. Waugh, and have been found to check up with your list. I have consulted with Mr. McInnes in regard to refunding you your expenditure of $145.00 10. In the spring of 1920 Sapir was planning to go to Bella Coola to do field work and anticipating that Harlan Smith might accompany him (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, Sapir to McInnes, March 20, 1920, B.629, f.2, folder: “McInnes, William [1918–1919]”). In the end, Sapir did not go. Smith worked in Bella Coola between 1920 and 1924 and made collections for the Victoria Memorial Museum. T. F. McIlwraith (1899–1964) conducted ethnographic research there between 1922 and 1924 (McIlwraith, The Bella Coola Indians).

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for these specimens, and have been requested to instruct you to submit an itemized account covering this amount, upon receipt of which the cheque will be duly forwarded to you. I am very glad to learn that you are making progress on the Tahltan manuscript and hope to have one or more finished parts before the end of the fiscal year. I am afraid that I shall not be going out west during the winter, so that it would be impossible for me to arrange for a lecture before the Natural History Society in Vancouver. I appreciate the honour of their request very highly, and hope to have the opportunity one of these days to [page 2] address the member on some subject of anthropological interest. I may say that my plans have changed somewhat since we last discussed the matter. I am quite keen on going to Bella Coola but meanwhile my interest in the NaDene problems (in other words the relationship between Athabascan, Haida and Tlingit) has been recently revived for reasons that I may tell you some other time. So much so indeed that I am seriously thinking now of having a try at at least one Athabascan language myself in the near future. This may be Sarcee, or it may be some other tribe further west, There are some important problems connected with Athabaskan linguistics that I do not think I can tackle without direct contact in the field. Later on I may try also to get in direct touch with Haida and Tlingit. Please give my best regards to Mrs. Teit, also to Mrs. Horwood when you next see her.11

Teit to Sapir. November 10, 1920. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Dr Sapir, I received your letter of 29th ult. and enclose herewith itemized account as desired by Mr. McInnes. I did a little work on the Tahltan material but have now to occupy all my time during the rest of the 11. Although there are several references to Mrs. Horwood in Teit’s letters to Sapir, Mrs. Horwood’s identity and relationship with the Sapir family are not made clear. The 1921 Census of Canada for Merritt has a listing for Mary Horwood, widow, age 33, born in Ontario, living on Coldwater Avenue with three children (Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Canada Census 1921, British Columbia, Cariboo, Yale District, Sub-district 51, Merritt (City) and Middlesboro Settlement, 12). In a letter to Sapir on October 7, 1921, Teit mentions that Mrs. Horwood’s sister and brother-in-law live in Ottawa.

1920 | 931

month and the greater part of next with work for Mr Scott and the Indians in connection with placing the Indian case before the Board which has been appointed by the two governments to investigate the actual needs of the Indians as regards lands, fishing, hunting etc. This Board of two officials will later make recommendations to the governments and then an attempt will be made to settle with the Indians and if possible end this troublesome controversy.12 Work in connection with this important matter will take up most of my time for some months to come but still I expect to have sufficient time to look over and improve the parts of the Tahltan M.S. I have already written and forward the most completed portions to you before Mch. [page 2] I note that you will not be out this way during the winter, so I will have no chance of a long chat with you on various subjects. I note what you say re. the Nadene languages. You would probably be able to get in touch with Chilcotin and Lower Carrier at Bellacoola. Small parties of them frequently visit there. They also sometimes come to meetings of the Interior tribes at Spences Bridge and Kamloops. I have to visit these tribes in connection with the work I am now doing and if you want me to get any special information (that you think I can manage) I will get same for you. I believe however by far the best results would be by getting in touch yourself. This puts me in mind I have the Tahltan, Kaska and Tlingit vocabularies I collected still unwritten out. My intention was to revise them at Telegraph Creek before sending them in to you particularly with respect to certain sounds which I think I have not got sufficiently well recorded and differentiated owing to my lack of familiarity with these sounds and their rendering. Of course I have not had a chance to return to Telegraph Creek and do this. There are some Kaska half breeds living in Vancouver who know and speak the Kaska language.

12. The “Board” to which Teit refers was a committee consisting of William Ernest Ditchburn (1862–1932), then chief inspector of Indian agencies for British Columbia and Major J. W. Clark, superintendent of British Columbia soldier settlement, established to assess the McKenna-McBride recommendations. Duncan Campbell Scott had suggested that Teit represent the Allied Tribes’ perspective on the committee. Teit was willing to do this if the British Columbia chiefs agreed. Teit continued to work on this committee until his death (McFarland, Indian Reserve Cut-offs in British Columbia, 65–67; Titley, “Ditchburn, William Ernest”). In the course of his work with Ditchburn, Teit wrote a report on reserves and requirements for land based on interviews with Nlaka’pamux and Sto:lo people living along the Fraser River (LAC, Indian Affairs Record Group: Teit, “Report Lytton Band, or Bands, 1922,” vol. 11302, file 158/30). The original report is not in Teit’s handwriting, but Leonie Teit may have written it for him.

932 | 1920

Sapir to Teit. November 17, 1920. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Teit, Thank you for your letter of November 10th enclosing itemized account of $145.00 for specimens recently sent here. I am letting Mr. McInnes have your account today, and I hope that there will be no undue delay in refunding you your outlay. You will doubtless be greatly interested to learn, if you do not already know it, that the Victoria Memorial Museum has been disconnected from the Geological Survey, although it is still under the Department of Mines. The Director of the Museum is Mr. McInnes, while Dr. Collins has been made Director of the Geological Survey to succeed Mr. McInnes. This means that we are at last a separate organization with an independent budget. I am very glad indeed to learn that the Department of Indian Affairs is actually taking steps to get to terms with the Indians of British Columbia, and I am sure that you can hardly spend time more usefully than in connection with these negotiations. [page 2] Thank you for offering to help me on Athabaskan. I am afraid, however, that the kind of material that I can use at present will have to be such as I must secure myself. There are certain problems of a rather delicate phonetic nature, such as pitch accent, which are of prime importance to me. The Na-Dene problem seems at present so very much more important to me than anything I can do at Bella Coola that I am very likely to take a trip to the Sarcee next summer in connection with the work I plan to do and I may possibly wish to get in touch with some other Athabaskan dialects if I can conveniently do so without going to inaccessible places. Any addresses therefore that you can give me of easily reached Indians who speak Athabaskan are likely to be of great help to me. You might give me the exact addresses of the Indians in Vancouver who speak Kaska. Kaska and Tahltan belong to the Nahane group of dialects, which have not as yet been adequately recorded. In general I should be much obliged to you for any information you could give me as to the convenient whereabouts in the near future of Athabaskans, Haidas and Tlingits.

1920 | 933

Boas to Teit. December 12, 1920. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122038.13 My dear Friend: I have not heard from you for a very long time. I hope you are well. I am wondering how the paper on Ethnobotany is getting on and whether there is any possibility of seeing it completed. I am very much worried because nothing of the material provided for by Mr. Sargent has so far come out, and I should like to have him see some returns.14

13. This gap, an entire year in length (since December 8, 1919), is unprecedented in the correspondence between Teit and Boas. 14. There are no letters in the APs file between Boas and Sargent during 1920.

934 | 1920

1921

Teit to Boas. January 11, 1921. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122085.1 My Dear Friend. Although I cannot report much progress still I was glad to get your letter of 20th ult. as I had not heard from you for a long time. Yes, it is unfortunate that the material provided for by Mr. Sargent has not so far come out. I myself was wondering as to the cause of the delay.2 I 1. Dated at Merritt BC. 2. On January 17, 1921, Boas wrote to Sargent (APS, Boas Papers, text 107289), saying: “About a year and a half ago, the work on basketry in British Columbia was completed and the manuscript and map for the work on the distribution of Salish tribes in British Columbia was also completed. All this material has been in Washington every [sic] since that time and all my endeavors to get the machinery of the Bureau of Ethnology going to have the material printed were in vain. Upon a recent appeal to the present director of the Bureau, Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, I received a reply in which he says at the end, ‘I cannot give you any hope that I shall take up the papers in the near future.’ I argued with the Bureau that in case they did not want to publish the paper they had no right to accept material dependent upon your liberal contributions, but all this was to no avail. I think I have to explain to you the situation that has arisen. [page 2] There has been enmity of very long standing on the part of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution against me. It goes back to 1893 when I protested vigorously against what I considered nasty political methods which were used against me and to my protest against insinuations which Mr. Walcott made against me. I enclose a statement of this latter matter which will explain what happened. In 1912, I introduced two young men to the Mexican Government as Fellows of the American Archaeological School and during the war, these same two men, based on my introduction, went to Mexico with fraudulent introductions from museums, in which it was stated that they wanted to do archaeological work while actually they were civilian spies. Since this seemed an absolutely intolerable action and since it involved my good faith with my Mexican friends, I protested publicly against this matter. Immediately upon this, Dr. Walcott wrote to me that my former relation with the Bureau of American Ethnology was ended without giving any reason, although of course, I understand what the reason was. You will notice that I waited until the very end of 1919 when the war was out of the way before I published my statement, which it seemed especially important to make as one of the young men had been arrested by the Mexican authorities.” Here Boas was referring to his censure by the American Anthropological Association in 1919 following his letter of December 20, 1919, to The Nation, deploring the use by four anthropologists of scientific research as a cover for espionage activity in Central America on behalf of the U.S. Government during World War I (David Price, “Scientists as Spies,” The Nation, November 20, 2000). Opposition to Boas’s position in this matter was strong in the Bureau of American Ethnology (Darnell, And Along Came Boas, 262–63). In a letter to Sargent written on January 17, 1921 (APS, Boas Papers, text 107289), Boas continued, “The second and equally important reason, it seems to me, is the one-sidedness of Dr. Fewkes’ interest. He cares only for archaeology and is trying to direct the whole [page 3

935

think myself that if the paper on basketry was out Mr Sargent would be particularly well pleased. I say this because I think he takes a particular interest in basketry, blankets etc. On the whole I think he is more interested in material culture and art than in subjects such as linguistics, mythology etc. Re. my paper on Ethnobotany I fully expected to have it completed by this time but a number of things unforeseen has [sic] prevented me from devoting the required time to its completion. The botanists at the University of BC Vancouver are also very anxious to see me complete it as soon as possible. The trouble is I [page 2] have been overworked this year by the Allied Tribes of BC. in connection with their land and other rights, and once having entered into this work I could not very easily withdraw. I found that I had very little time to work on the papers I had on hand for yourself and Dr. Sapir and I have been handicapped by sickness as well. Jany and Feb of last year I was down with the ‘flu’, and my family also. In March I went East and was in Ottawa in connection with the work of the Allied Tribes until July [.] On my return I did a little botanical work but most of my time was taken up with the meetings and work of the Allied Tribes[.] In Sept. the Dep. Sup. Gen. of Ind. Affairs came out here and asked me to put information before him in Victoria[.] The interviews with him and an agreement reached with the two govs. has resulted in what seems a change of policy on the parts of the govs. who now seem willing to meet the actual needs of the Indians as to lands, water etc. etc. A board consisting of an official of each gov. has been appointed to make recommendations and by agreement [between] the govs and the Indians I am to present the H.E.S. -3] work of the Bureau into these channels, and I may add to this his timidity because from what I know about the Washington people, I feel quite certain that if he would say he wanted to publish such and such a paper, Mr. Walcott would not object. [para] So far as I can see, therefore, the only thing to do is to recall the basketry paper and the Salish ma[p] from Washington, and to try to publish it in some other way. I did not want to bother you with this matter until I could see clearly how it would come out and whether there would be a slight chance of the matter going through in Washington. If the basketry paper is to be issued by a publisher, it will be necessary to cut out quite a number of the illustrations, because it will be too expensive.” At this point he apparently sees little chance of the BAE’s publishing his lengthy paper on the distribution of Salish tribes. “The paper on the distribution of Salish tribes, I think might best be placed as a supplement to the American Anthropologist and the principle [sic] expense would be the making of the map. [para] Will you kindly let me know your wishes. You may be sure, in justice to all that you have done for ethnological research, that I shall try my best to bring out the material.” Apparently in response to a letter from Sargent dated January 27, 1919, which is not in the file, Boas wrote on February 1, 1921, “It would, of course, be very agreeable to me if the [basketry] paper could be published by the Field Museum and you may be sure that I shall be glad to do everything in my power to see it through the press when we have reached that point” (APS, Boas Papers, text 10729).

936 | 1921

case of the Indians. I have been engaged in this work until Dec. when I got sick, and am still sick in bed most of the time with swellings in the rectum got from a severe chill. I am on the [page 3] mend now but I will not be able to get around much until about the end of the month. As I am here in Merritt and almost all my books are at Spences Bridge I cannot send you statement of a/c until I can go to Sp. Bdge which may be about the end of the month. Any way I spent very little of Mr Sargent’s money last year because I did so little work on the paper. I certainly intend to finish the paper as soon as I possibly can—I think it would take only 2 mo. (or even less) to complete the paper. I made a start on place names but did not get very far. I have a lot of notes however, on this subject. I may mention that when in Similkameen lately (viz. Nov.) I collected 3 or 4 more Stuwḯx͇ words which I had not got before. The note on them is at Spences Bridge. I will send them to you some time soon. I sincerely hope this will find you quite well.

Teit to Sapir. February 2, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Dr. Sapir, I received your letter some long time ago—I think when in Vancouver early in December. I am glad you are tackling the Nadenne problem with such vim—but you will have a lot to do to make good—and quite a bit to satisfy Dr. Boas. I have just read with interest his article on the classification of Amer. Ind. languages (latest Anthropologist).3 I hope you will be able to surprise them. I do not have many addresses of Nadenne speaking people who live in Vancouver and other easily accessible places. I give two or three. Rev. Peter R. Kelley 46 Gillespie St. Nanaimo (Haida) Mrs Arnott [and] Miss Lucy Dease 277 49th Ave. E. Vancouver (Kaska) Dick Inkster (has changed address) Vanc. (Tahltan) [page 2] I have been at Merritt since before Xmas until now when I came to the Bridge for a few days change. Since before I returned from the Coast in December I have been sick and in bed a good deal. I am not fit to do much traveling or even work such as writing and expect will 3. Boas, “The Classification of American Indian Languages,” 367–76.

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not be until about the end of this month. The chief difficulty is it tires me to sit as my trouble is chiefly a rectal one and I cannot do much writing reclining. I lost 30 lbs weight but am picking up again now and my appetite has also improved a great deal. All this came about in Vancouver by sitting on a cold object and getting a severe chill and then neglecting it. I wonder how many more decades before I will learn certain things. You desired me to send you the first writing of certain chapters of the Tahltan paper viz those the first writing of which was nearly finished. I am doing this although I hate to send in such unfinished material—I should write out all the second time improving the text and the English and completing the notes. The first writing is simply putting my notes together in connected form and [page 3] I exercise little care with my language. I am afraid you will not be able to do much with the M.S. so after reading it over you can send it back to me to write out. The chapters consist of (one) Travel-Transportation and Trade (Snowshoes, Dogs, Horses, toboggans etc.) (Two) Birth, Childhood, Puberty, Marriage and Death (Pregnancy, Twins, Carriers, Conduits, Hammocks, Infancy and Childhood. Puberty of girls, puberty of males, Marriage, Death, burial and mortuary customs)[.] (Three) Clothing and Ornaments (Dress, Moccasins, boots, socks, leggings, pants, garters, shirts, dresses or gowns, coats, belts, mitts, neck wraps, adornment, face painting, ideas of beauty.) When you return the paper any advice or suggestions from [page 4] you will be appreciated. I hope this will find yourself, Mrs Sapir and family all quite well. PS I have just received to-day the cheque ($145.00) for the specimens. PPS I suppose you have in your list Humpty dumpty Namby pamby Wishy Washy

Teit to Boas. February 18, 1921. AMNH, Papers of James Teit (t458), folder 6. Dear Friend, I am writing under difficulties as I am in the Hospital here and have few facilities.4 I was down at Spences Bridge for a few days before I came in here. I do not feel quite well yet although improved in some

4. Teit is writing from Merritt Valley Hospital.

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ways. I may come out of here in a day or two and later may go to Vancouver if I don’t improve faster. I enclose copy of the a/c to the end of the year (Eth Botanical work) and a list of the Stuwix (Athapascan) words I collected in Similkameen last Nov. I hope this will find you quite well.

Sapir to Teit. February 22, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Teit, I have your letter of February 2nd, also the sections of your manuscript that you speak of in the letter. I was very sorry to hear that you have been suffering so much with illness recently, but I hope that you are fully restored to health by now and able to continue with your work. However, if you find that it tires you too much to work steadily, you had better go easy and let the scientific world wait a little longer. I am hoping to be able to look over your manuscript at an early opportunity, but I am rather busy with various things just now. Let me know if you wish to have the manuscript returned very soon. Thank you for your addresses, which I shall note, and which are likely to be of some use to me in the summer. I also have read Boas’ article in “The Anthropologist.” I am afraid that I shall have to confess to not being unduly overawed by Boas’ onslaught. I think I can swallow the [page 2] medicine without turning a hair, and feel that he laughs best who laughs last. All in good time! Please give my best regards to Mrs. Teit, and also remember me to Mrs. Horwood next time you see her.

Teit to Sapir. February 28, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Dr. Sapir Your letter of 22 inst. to hand. I am in no hurry for the return of the M.S. Yes. I have been ill since Xmas and since then able to do very little. The work I was doing for Mr Scott has been set back at least two months by this illness. Last week I came out of the hospital at Merritt where I was 12 days. The doctor says I am improving as fast as possible but I fail to see any speed in it. I am still unable to go on any trips or 1921 | 939

in fact away from home and I even have trouble writing as I cannot for any length of time continue in a proper sitting posture. No doubt you have something up your sleeve re. the Nadenne question which Boas does not [page 2] know about. Whilst in Ottawa you told me something re. the latest Anthrop. opinion on the affinities of the Tsimpshian Linguistic stock, the Salish, and the Kutenai, and Chinook etc. but I have forgotten same. It was supposed the Kutenai had leanings towards the Shoshoni but you told me later research showed no relationship. I dont want the information for any special purpose but just to satisfy my curiosity and have an idea of the latest expert opinion. With best regards to yourself, Mrs. Sapir and family PS I am getting pretty short of envelopes. Send me a few.

Teit to Sapir. March 1, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Dr. Sapir I just drop a few lines to say I hear there are two Indians going to Ottawa. They may have already gone a day or two ago. They are from Similkameen I think but I have not heard exactly who they are. You better get in communication with Mr Scott so he may deliver them up to you for the purposes of recording their measurements (Jenness can take these), photos, and music (songs) if they have any interest. These men belong to a reactionary bunch who are against the Allied Tribes and in fact against control of any kind. Some of them are religious fanatics. The bunch is found only in Okanagon, Similkameen and Nicola where they go against everything as a rule whether coming from their chiefs, other Inds., or the Gov.

Boas to Teit. March 1, 1921. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122039. My dear Friend: I am sorry to see from your note that you are ill. I had already heard from Mr. Sargent that you were suffering and I only hope that your present treatment may be successful. You will let me hear from you every now and then. I hardly know at all what you are doing nowadays. 940 | 1921

Teit to Boas. March 5, 1921. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122086. My Dear Friend.5 My health has not been improving as it should and the doctor here has become alarmed and thinks I may have some additional trouble besides that for which he was been attending to me. He is afraid this other trouble may be cancer and so he is taking me to Vancouver tomorrow that I may have a thorough examination under the X rays. The results whatever they may be I will know in a few days. I don’t know whether I told you that I collected lately over 20 foolscap pages of White man’s stories from the Indians[.] They are very full and with the exception of two or three incidents are new or different from those already collected by me. Hoping you are well[.]

Teit to Sapir. March 6, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Dr. Sapir I just drop you a line to say the doctors here have come to the conclusion I have something else the matter with me [than] the trouble they have been treating me for and advise that I go to Vancouver for thorough examination with the Xrays. I am leaving to-day. As the doctors are somewhat scared of cancer it is hard to tell what the result will be.

Teit to Boas. March 11, 1921. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122087. My Dear Friend.6 I have had very full examination here under the X rays etc. etc. and four doctors working or consulting together on my case. The verdict seems to be that I have a cancer on the upper end of the prostate which passes around one side of the bladder and presses on same and also presses on one part of bowels. The pressure [page 2] on the bowel seems most serious at present as it will ultimately stop anything from 5. Dated at Merritt BC. 6. On letterhead of Hotel St. Regis, Vancouver.

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passing through. The doctors as yet are undecided as to whether it will be of advantage to operate. One advises me seeing Mayo Bros in the States and another advises the radium treatment if it is obtainable. I am very sorry about this trouble not only on account of my wife and family but also on account of the much unfinished and unworked up anthropological work and data I have on hand. I could work up all the best of this had I even only 2 or 3 years longer to live. Some of this work would be of very considerable value I know.

Teit to Sapir. March 13, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Dr. Sapir I just write to say that I have had all kinds of examination this last week here under x rays etc. and I am sorry to say the doctors have pronounced my case as cancer in a lower bowel where it is very difficult to operate. They have thus given me up, and I am under sentence of death. They give me only 2 or 3 months to live. This is pretty hard lines as I feel still quite in my prime [page 2] and able to do all kinds of physical and other work. However the decree has gone forth, my time is now very limited and I have to accept my fate. When I get to Spences Bridge I will ship to you all the rest of the Tahltan material viz notes etc. Also anything else which may be of value. The collection I have of skin clothing etc. etc. you should purchase from Mrs Teit for the Museum.7 I will try to catalog it briefly. We will have a short time yet for correspondence with each other. I hope this will find Mrs. Sapir, the children and yourself all well.

Boas to Teit. March 14, 1921. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122040. My dear Friend: I feel very much troubled over the news contained in your letter of March 5th, and I only hope that the examination to be made may reveal nothing serious.8 I think you know I had a malignant tumor in 7. Sapir did purchase this collection for the museum. 8. Sargent wrote to Boas on March 19, 1919, expressing concern for Teit’s health and recommended that Teit go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “Have talked with Mr. Ayer one of the Executive Committee of the Field Museum and learned that they have no funds available

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1915 on the left side of my face, which was taken out, but left my face paralyzed, but there is no sign of a relapse and I am feeling fairly well. No, you did not tell me about the white men’s stories. I trust you will only think of your health now and I hope I may hear good news soon.

Teit to Sapir. March 22, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Dr. Sapir I am sending you to-day some linguistic material I collected in the North viz. 18 pp Tlingit Vocabulary 20 pp Tahltan [ditto]. and gram. notes. 22 pp Tahltan and Kaska vocabularies ___ 60 pp. I intended to write these out plainly on fresh paper and supply some notes, but now I just send you the original notes which I have gone over a little bit to make them clearer. I have just lately returned from Vancouver and in a few days am leaving for Mayo Bros Minn. the great experts in the U.S. to see if they can do something for me.

Teit to Sapir. March 24, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. My Dear Dr. Sapir I enclose letter and list of Ind. Relics collection Mr R. Sutherland Vanc. now for sale. The outstanding feature about it is the large number of arch. objects from W. Kootenay BC. Arch. Specimens from Kootenay are I think rare or meagre in the Museum. I came down here last night and will forward the Tahltan Note books etc. tomorrow. I will leave for Mayo Bros prob. on 27th. If I can get all right I can take over the Tahltan material and write it out. I know it will be very difficult for for printing such a book but it probably could be done if I supplied them. All their energies are being devoted to getting their own building, at present” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107308).

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anyone except myself to write it out fully. If I pass beyond then you will just have to do the best with the material you can yourself.

Teit to Sapir. March 25, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Dr. Sapir, I am forwarding to-day all the Tahltan notes I can find here—or at least all those I had together in connection with the writing out of the paper. There may be a few more notes somewhere—perhaps at Merritt or here [Spences Bridge]—I am not sure. I have no time to go over any other papers at present and no time to catalog the specimens—All this I will do if I have the time after returning from Mayo Bros. Of course there is a chance that I may go under over there and in that case my work will be finished, but it seems to me more likely I will come back as I am or perhaps cured. It is just a case of taking the chances, and the sooner the better. PS I have a lot of notes and sketches on the bag designs, parfleche designs, and ancient clothing of the Ntlak[;] also shield designs etc. This is the last word on these things from the Ntlak. as all the men posted on these subjects are now dead.

Sapir to Teit. March 31, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Teit, Your Tahltan notes have arrived safely and I am keeping them here in my office. I hope that you may have the opportunity of writing them up yourself, but should fate have it otherwise, you may rest assured that I shall do all that I can to prepare them for publication. I received your letter enclosing note from Mr. Sutherland. As the material seemed to be chiefly archaeological I referred the letter to Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith has written Mr. Sutherland about the collection. I am afraid that he is not very eager to purchase it. As a general thing he does not care to purchase private archaeological collections. He would rather see the money spent on field work.

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Teit to Boas. May 9, 1921. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122088. My Dear Friend. I thank you for your letter of 20th Mch. and the many kind expressions contained therein. I write you a few lines as I know you will like to hear how I am progressing—whether towards life or death. I was back at the Mayos and was thoroughly examined by them. It was somewhat of a strain on me going and coming etc. as I traveled all alone. They would do nothing for me as they claimed it was impossible in my case to operate with success. They advised me to return to Vancouver and take x ray treatments [page 2] there. They said that was my only chance. I finished taking the first series of treatments and came home on the 30th Apl. to have a rest. I have to return for the 2nd series near the end of this month. The results are quite uncertain yet but the doctor said I stood the treatments exceedingly well and much better than he expected. According to the doctors I should now be in worse shape than I am. I should be steadily failing except the x ray treatments interfere with the progress of the disease. My own feeling is that I have been improving very slowly during the last month. However time will tell as to this. Mr Sargent has stood by me nobly and helped me with money and advice. I would be stuck financially by this time were it not for his help. PS Don’t worry too much about the actions of the Smithsonian people [.]9

Boas to Teit. May 16, 1921. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122041. My dear Friend: I was glad to learn from your letter of the 9th of May that you had a thorough examination in Rochester, and that the xray treatment seems to be improving your condition. I do hope that the disease may be stopped in that way. There are quite a number of cases where malignant tumors have been cured with either radium or xrays, and let us hope that yours will be one of the cases that will yield to this treatment.

9. This may be a reference to the delays Boas was experiencing in having “Coil Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region” published.

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I am on the point of sailing for Europe.10 I have not seen my sisters for eight years and I go there to visit them. My address during the summer will be, c/o Mrs. Toni Wohlauer, Kaiser-Allee 19, WilmersdorfBerlin. I should be very glad if you would let me know how you are getting on and I trust that your reports will be better every time.

Teit to Sapir. May 31, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. My Dear Dr. Sapir I received your letter of 19th inst and I cannot say how sorry I am to hear of the shocking blow you have received in Mrs Sapir’s illness.11 I believe with you that your presence near your wife will help in her recovery and I hope you get leave to be near her for a month or two to see the result. It will however be a trying month or two for you. I do sincerely hope that Mrs Sapir will soon recover and become herself again. Probably her physical condition is bad and if this is improved she will soon get well. It seemed to me she was in a weak state when I last saw her in Ottawa. She had very little stamina at that time, and seemed to be run down in some way. [page 2] I note what you say about the matter you put before Mr McInnes and hope it may go through.12 10. In a letter dated August 25, 1921 (APs, Boas Papers, text 107309), Sargent thanked Boas for his letter of May 18, 1921 (APS, Boas Papers, text 107292), with which Boas had enclosed catalog cards relating to Sargent’s basketry collection in the Field Museum, and relayed news from Teit concerning his health and efforts to ensure an income while he was unable to work. In a postscript Sargent wrote, “I finally wrote to Dr. Fewkes and asked about the basket paper.” In his reply he says: “It will be necessary for me when I take up this publication to see what arrangements can be made in regard to the completion of the work, Dr. Haeberlin dying leaving the paper incomplete.” I was under the impression that Miss Roberts (?) brought the paper to completion under your direction. [Fewkes continued:] “The work now in press will exhaust all our present appropriation for the printing.” Sargent continued, “I do not know just which way to turn, but I do not regard the matter as hopeless, by any means. Time may present the opportunity we want. Meantime I would like to ask if you considered the paper incomplete.” On September 7, 1921, Boas wrote to Sargent, “Dr. Fewkes is entirely mistaken in regard to the basket paper and if he had taken the trouble to look over our correspondence regarding the paper he would have found that it is completed. The only thing that was not done was that the office of the Bureau of Ethnology did not complete the drawing of a large number of text illustrations which would not have taken more than about a week to do. These are the little design elements used in decorating baskets. [para] If Dr. Fewkes’ letter was written before the 1st of July, he may refer to the appropriation of ’20–’21; if after the 1st of July he refers to ’21– ’22. I am inclined to think that if you should urge the publication of the paper without apparent irritation, we may succeed in getting them to consent to print it” (APS, Boas Papers, text 107293). 11. Sapir’s letter of May 19, 1921, to Teit is not in the CMH file. 12. In a letter to Sapir on May 21, 1921, McInnes wrote, “The other matter of Mr. Teit to which you refer in your letter, I shall take up immediately and arrange as favorably as possible. I shall

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Dont bother much about this however, I will always find some means of getting along. I really was not relying in any way on this when I mentioned the subject. I am down in Vancouver to commence taking my second series of X ray treatments commencing tomorrow. I am not discouraged altho I have a big fight on my hands. You have my sincerest sympathy in your recent severe trouble. I am glad to hear the children are with the Jennesses. They are kindly people and will look after them well. With best regards and again hoping for Mrs Sapir’s speedy recovery

Sapir to Teit. June 15, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Teit, I have your letter of May 31st from Vancouver. I sincerely hope that the X ray treatments that you are receiving now will pull you through. I am afraid that I misunderstood somewhat in regard to your Tahltan manuscript. You may remember that when the contract was made up you had made a statement of what manuscript had already been completed. Payment in accordance with the contract could therefore be hardly made except on the basis of manuscript completed since the beginning of the term of the contract. I had been hoping that there would be enough new material on hand to justify my making a liberal recommendation for payment. In view of the fact that the manuscript submitted and the field notes contain nothing, as far as I can see, that has not already been paid for by previous agreements I do not see how Dr. McInnes and I can honestly make any recommendation for further payment, however [page 2] sincerely both of us would like to help you at the present time.13

write you with details quite soon” (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, B.629, f.4, folder: “McInnes, William [1920–1921]”). 13. On June 13, 1921, Sapir wrote to McInnes, “I have looked carefully through Mr. Teit’s completed manuscript and field notes submitted March 30, 1921, and beg leave to state that I find nothing new in this material, that is, no completed manuscript is included in it which had not been completed by Mr. Teit before our contract of July 8, 1920, was drawn up. This completed manuscript material is indexed in my letter to you of October 2, 1919. I am afraid, therefore, that there is no basis for payment to Mr. Teit of monies in pursuance of our contract of July 8, 1920 (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, B.629, f.4, folder: “McInnes, William [1920–1921]”).

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Possibly, however, I am making a mistake in regard to the manuscript already completed. I am assuming that time spent on the writing up of this material had been paid for by agreements made before the last contract was drawn up. If you tell me, however, that this is not so, and that the manuscript was prepared during your own time without payment from the Department of Mines, I shall be more than glad to recommend part payment for your manuscript on the terms of the contract. I am sorry that I have to go through all this dry business with you at this time, but you can readily understand that my hands are tied. With best regards to Mrs. Teit and hoping that this finds you somewhat improved in health

Teit to Sapir. July 18, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. My Dear Dr. Sapir In answer to your letter of June 15th I think we better call it off. Probably you are right in all you say. My a/c book is up at Merritt and I will not be there until late in Sept. The book I have here is only to Mch 1917. Commencing abt. the 25th June and continuing until about a week ago I have been going downhill and am now very thin. This seemed to come on after the second series of x ray treatments. Before this I held my own for a long time. I was glad to hear there was some slight improvement with Mrs Sapir. A little improvement [page 2] is better than going the other way.

Teit to Sapir. July 27, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. My Dear Dr. Sapir I write you a line or two to say I have 24 songs here belonging to the Museum which I held over to obtain additional information about. I will ship them to you by express in a few days and send you a list. I heard Harlan Smith was out here again this summer. If he is[,] please be good enough to communicate with him and tell him an old graveyard here has become exposed with high water this year so people can see it. Boys and others go there every Sunday and oftener and take 948 | 1921

necklaces[,] copper pendants, and anything they can find[.] [page 2] It might be well for Smith to investigate this place before he returns East. I can do nothing myself. I will be going to Vancouver for my 3rd series of treatments about the end of Aug. and will be there two weeks in Sept. My mail will be forwarded. I had a bad spell at the beginning of the month—result I suppose of the 2nd treatments. I lost 10 lb more weight and became quite weak. I feel some better lately but cant do very much. I hope the news you are having re. Mrs Sapir continues to be increasingly good.

Teit to Sapir. August 11, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. My Dear Dr. Sapir I shipped the records—a complete box of 24—yesterday by express Can. Nat. R.R. I enclose herewith receipt, and also list of the songs, I hope they will arrive in good shape. I have four more records on hand which I could not get into the box. These I will forward some future opportunity. I was very sorry indeed to hear Mrs Sapir has had a relapse. As you say truly ‘it does not do to hurry nature in these things’. I sincerely hope she will improve and become herself again. Re. myself after losing considerable weight and strength which I could ill afford to lose I suddenly took a turn for the better and now for three weeks or over I have been improving continually and putting on weight and strength. At the end of this month I go to Vancouver to take the 3rd series of x ray treatments, which may set me back temporarily. There is no telling what this trouble will do. The end is not in sight—good or bad. PS Dont worry about the money which may or may not be coming to me. I will write you about it sometime later regarding it.

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Teit to Boas. August 12, 1921. Postcard. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122089.14 My Dear Friend. I received your letter of 16th May when I was having my second series of x ray treatments in Vancouver. I go again to have the third series at the end of this month.15 As far as I can judge myself I am no worse. I hope you are having a pleasant time in the old country.

Teit to Sapir. August 21, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. My Dear Dr. Sapir I received your letter of 15th inst. and was glad to hear you had received the phonograph records O.K. Smith may not be able do much work on the old graveyard here as it is a difficult place to work, but he may be able to [do] a little. I have looked up my recent account book and see you are perfectly correct regarding payments for work on the Tahltan M.S. The chapters that are written out are all paid for. I have written out nothing under the last contract, and in fact have had no chance to do so. My memory was entirely wrong in the matter—but this is not strange for me. After a little lapse of time I often become forgetful and mixed up re. money transactions especially sums due to myself. I suppose this is because my mind runs so little along those lines. You will therefore have to excuse me this time. When you [page 2] write next please give me the approx. date when you sent payment for the specimens I sent you last fall ($145.00). I see the date is not entered in my book. I am slowly improving myself and hope I will continue. I feel quite a little stronger and have gained weight. I have however a lot to gain yet before I regain my normal weight. I sincerely hope Mrs Sapir is improving.

14. Canada Post Card, dated at Spences Bridge Bc, addressed to Mrs. Toni Wohlauer Kaiser, Kaiser-Allee 19, Wilmersdorf-Berlin, Germany. 15. On October 9, 1921, Sargent wrote to Boas (APs, Boas Papers, text 107310) indicating that he had offered to see if he could defray the cost of Teit’s trips to Vancouver for the most recent x-ray treatment and the treatment scheduled for January 1922.

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Sapir to Teit. August 22, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Teit, Since last writing you your list of phonograph records has come to hand. I am sorry to say that six of the records proved damaged, two of the Thompson River records and the Kootenay record were cracked and three Thompson River records were broken. We seem to have had a lot of bad luck of this kind recently, a number of Eskimo records which we sent to New York for study being also broken in transit. I am delighted to learn that you have taken a turn for the better. Putting on considerable weight and strength does not sound as though the disease were making progress. It looks very much as though the X-ray treatments [are] proving affective. At least I sincerely hope so, and you have my best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery.

Sapir to Teit. August 29, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. My dear Teit,— I learn from the Accountant that the $140.00 that you speak of was paid out to you January 24th, 1921. I am delighted to learn that you are constantly improving and gaining weight and strength. I sincerely hope that this improvement will prove to be a definitive one and that before long you will be restored to your former health.

Teit to Sapir. August 30, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. My Dear Dr. Sapir I was sorry to hear that three of the Thomp. records had arrived broken and two cracked. This is really too bad. Please tell me the titles of those broken and those cracked. The Kutenai one I know as there was just one. Perhaps the broken ones can be fixed up with liquid glue if not in too many small piece[s]. They would not be good records but perhaps sufficiently good for you to get the air etc. and an idea of the 1921 | 951

characteristics of the song. The Folk-lore people seem to be slow in getting out the second part of my Tahltan Tales. I am leaving on the 1st for Vancouver and will remain there taking treatments for two weeks. I am still improving but I suppose it is possible that I may get a setback. I hope Mrs Sapir is improving.

Sapir to Teit. September 5, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Teit,— The enclosed card contains a list of the injured records. Your original tags are enclosed in parentheses. I am very glad to hear that you are still improving in health. I sincerely hope that there may be no relapse.

Teit to Sapir. September 26, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. My Dear Dr. Sapir I received your letter of 29th ult. upon arrival here a few days ago. I was 20 days in Vancouver taking treatments on most days. They did not inconvenience me the slightest this time—I suppose because I am so much stronger. I was down to 117 lbs in July and now I am up to 142 lbs. My old weight used to be generally abt. 160 lbs to 165 lbs. If I can get up to about 155 lbs I will be well enough pleased. I feel a lot improved and can sit and walk ever so much better. I have to take treatments again—probably the last—at New Year. I have been doing some work lately on the paper concerning the Indian uses of plants and have made considerable progress but on the 1st of Oct I start work for the Indians and Ind. Department [page 2] on the job I was engaged on when I got sick. I dont know how long I will take to finish this work. It may not last very long. I was glad to hear Mr. Jenness had had a successful trip among the Sarcee and also Mr Waugh among the Naskapi. Mr Smith missed me in Vancouver when on his way back to Ottawa. By the foot note in your letter I notice Mrs Sapir has not been improving lately and I am very sorry to hear this.16 16. The CMh copy of Sapir’s letter of August 29, 1921, to Teit does not include a footnote. It was likely handwritten by Sapir on the letter he sent to Teit.

952 | 1921

Teit to Sapir. October 7, 1921. Postcard. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Dr. Sapir If you have any spare copies of my little paper on “Water-beings in Shetlandic Folk-lore” please send me one or two copies.17 I saw Mrs Horwood at the school sports at Merritt last week. She is looking fine. Her sister and bro in law from Ottawa are living with her at present. I am still improving and have commenced to do some work.

Sapir to Teit. October 12, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Teit, I am delighted to learn both from you and Mrs. Horwood of the excellent progress towards complete recovery that you have been making of late. I am very hopeful that there may be no relapse and that in a comparatively short time we may know that you are as well as ever. Under another cover I am sending you two copies of your “Waterbeings in Shetlandic [sic] Folk-Lore. We have no separates of the paper, so I am sending you the whole number on Canadian Folk-Lore. I understand from Barbeau that the Ontario Branch of American FolkLore Society has a certain amount of money at its disposal now, which we should like to use in part for the purchase of folk-lore material. I understand that you have a certain amount of folk-lore material on hand. We should be very glad to devote from $50.00 to $100.00 for such material if it is in shape to send to us. It does not necessarily have to be in form for [page 2] publication. The notes as you have them would be sufficient. Please let me know if you are prepared to continue work on your Tahltan manuscript. Whenever you are ready, I should like to return to you the notes that you sent me some time ago. I am very eager to be able to submit manuscript to the Director for publication, as the prospects seem to be brightening a little.

17. Teit, “Water-Beings in Shetland Folk-Lore,” 180–201.

1921 | 953

Teit to Sapir. October 19, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Dr. Sapir I have your letter of 12th inst. to hand, and the two copies of Folklore have also reached me for which thanks. When I return to Merritt I will look over the BC folk-lore material I have and will forward same to you. I think most of it will do as it is as in many instances I just refer to Waugh’s and Wintemberg’s numbers.18 A little of it I will have to write out more fully so as to be intelligible. You can pay me whatever sum you think the material is worth. I intended to write out a little French material—chiefly snatches of songs—my wife has but for this I am handicapped in not being able to write French. I would have to be continually referring to the dictionary for spellings. My wife could write it out but she has very little time, and will not take the trouble. For these reasons I will let the French go in the meantime. Re. the Tahltan and Kaska material I think you better keep it for a while yet, until my health is more fully improved and I am ready to go on with it. At present I am doing work for the Ind. Department and the Indians in connection with the BC Ind. [page 2] land question etc. I have a big meeting of Chiefs on my hands for tomorrow and next day. Lately in my spare time I have been copying out and writing up the measurements of whites I have taken during the past few years. They are all European, 128 in all. 93 of them are Shetlanders. I have just finished and sent them in to the Brit. Association in London, Eng. Of course I get nothing for this work. I have also in my spare time during part of Sept and Oct been working a little on the Ethno-botanical paper for Boas. I would soon finish this if I could put in anything like full days work on it. A months regular work would probably suffice to finish it. It is in my mind to tackle the Tahltan work once it is finished whenever that will be. I have not taken any Indian measurements for a considerable time back, 18. It is not entirely certain what Teit meant by “Waugh’s and Wintemberg’s numbers.” However, both F. W. Waugh and William John Wintemberg, also an employee of the museum, published articles on Ontario folklore in the same volume of the Journal of American Folklore as Teit’s article on Shetland water-beings (see W. J. Wintemberg’s, “Folklore Collected at Roebuck, Grenville County, Ontario,” 154–57; “Folklore Collected in the Counties of Oxford and Waterloo, Ontario,” 135–53; and “Folklore Collected in Toronto and Vicinity” 125–34; and see also Wintemberg and Wintemberg, “Folklore from Grey County, Ontario,” 83–124). Waugh published “Canadian Folklore from Ontario,” 4–82 (Fowke and Henderson-Carpenter, A Bibliography of Canadian Folklore in English).

954 | 1921

but will again once I am better and have more time. Could you tell me if I sent you copies of Peter Calder and G. Matheson’s measurements.19 I took these over a year ago and I think they are the last Indian measurements I took. I may have copied them out and given them to you just before I left Ottawa. Well I hope this will find yourself and all my Museum friends well. I also hope Mrs Sapir may be on the mend by this time.

Boas to Teit. October 20, 1921. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122042.

[128.104.46.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-09 03:55 GMT) UW-Madison Libraries

My dear Friend: I received your postal card after my return to this city. A you know, I was in Europe during the beginning of September and since then I have been in New Mexico studying one of the Pueblo languages. I do hope your health will continue to improve. I think you ought to feel very much encouraged by the progress that you have been making. I trust you will follow your doctor’s instructions carefully so that you may get quite well again. As you can imagine the first two days after my return I had my hands full with routine work, but I am going to take up the question of publications again. Write to me and tell me how you are getting along.

Teit to Sapir. October 26, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Dr. Sapir I am sending enclosed in two other envelopes the first part of my notes on Folk-lore among Whites in BC. 20 pages in all. I will have at least as much more to send you and hope to send the balance in a few days. The whole thing needs improving as to arrangement etc. etc. I have written out the notes hurriedly and roughly but there will be no trouble in your understanding them. I saw Mrs Horwood a couple of nights ago in Merritt. She is well and appears to be getting along all right. She has a sister and brother in law staying with her at present.

19. Exactly how these members of the Allied Tribes delegation of 1920 saw this has not been recorded.

1921 | 955

The latter is there for his health. I hope Mrs Sapir is on the mend by this time.

Sapir to Teit. October 27, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Teit, I have your letter of October 19th. I shall be very glad to get your folk-lore material and when it arrives Barbeau and I will decide on what seems a fair payment for it. I do not remember if you sent me copies of your measurements of Peter Calder and G. Matheson or not. Jenness and I have been looking over Knowles’ schedules among which they would have been put if they had arrived, but we could not locate them, so I assume that they had not yet been turned in.

Teit to Sapir. October 28, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Dr. Sapir I am sending you to-day in two envelopes another 20 pages of folklore. I expect there will be about 15 or 20 pages more. Yesterday I sent you 20 pages. I hope this you will receive all OK. Some time this winter when I have time I will catalog all or most of the Indian specimens I have on hand and send you the list and the price so you can make up your mind as to whether you will buy them. I suppose you will if you can get the money or an appropriation. If not I will try to sell them or most of them to the Heyes Museum through Lt. Emmons.20 PS I suppose Mr Jenness had good success among the Sarcee.21

20. In late 1921 the Museum of the American Indian, founded by George Heye, was still on the drawing board. The Museum of the American Indian opened to the public at 155th and Broadway in New York City in 1922 (Smithsonian, “History of the Collections,” National Museum of the American Indian, https://americanindian.si.edu/explore/collections/history, accessed July 5, 2021). 21. Jenness spent two months during the summer of 1921 among the Sarcee (Tsuu T’ina) of Southern Alberta. He published The Sarcee Indians of Alberta in 1938.

956 | 1921

Teit to Sapir. October 29, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Dr. Sapir I am sending you to-day in separate envelope 10 more pages of the folk-lore. I see now that instead of about 15 pages more, there will be over 30 pages yet to send in. The whole will run to about 80 or 85 pages. All three railways here are blocked to the west owing to slides and wash outs in the Fraser Canyon and near the Coast caused by very heavy rains and sudden melting of early snows by a chinook wind in the Cascade Mtns. Here in the Dry Belt there has been no rain nor snow—only a warm wind and some clouds. I hear the CPR will not be open for 5 days yet. No trains have been passing for the last 2 days. There is also a threatened wholesale strike on the railways so it is hard to say when this will reach you. I made out a list of Plateau specimens you are short of for the Museum and among these are the various kinds of old style saddles. The old man who is a good maker of the old style saddles is still alive and has good sight. [page 2] If you can get the money some time I think I could get him to make two or three saddles. Hoping this will find you well and Mrs Sapir on the mend by this time.

Teit to Sapir. November 3, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Dr. Sapir I am sending you in separate envelope the last of the “lore”. In all there are 92 pages. I could give more—it is just a matter of taking the time to rake over my memory some more, but I think what I have sent you will suffice just now. What I have sent you is all I jotted down in 1919. I have a few more notes dealing with beliefs etc. of old country French and German people resident in this country but I have not been able to find them yet. Perhaps they will do some other time. I wrote most of these down about 1915. I also have a lot of Shetland ‘lore’ etc. but it is really European rather than this country, and some of it is rather hard to translate. A person[,] to understand some of the sayings etc.[,] even when translated[,] would require a knowledge of the living conditions and customs of the Shetland. I heard from 1921 | 957

Mrs Horwood yesterday that Mrs. Sapir was improving and I am indeed very glad of this. PS I gave Mrs Horwood one of the copies of the Can. Folklore you sent. If you can manage to send me two or three more copies I will be glad and can make good use of them. The French numbers I have loaned to various French people and families and they have aroused much interest. PPS I also have some notes on dreams which I have not been able to find yet.

Teit to Sapir. November 4, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Dr. Sapir I enclose a little extra ‘lore’ consisting of similes etc. I think a complete list of similes used in Canada should be collected for comparison with those in vogue in other countries. I could give you translations of some Shetland and Norse ones and also a number of Indian ones. Similes used in Canada could easily make a big article by itself. Perhaps Mr. Waugh could take it in hand. From now on for two or three months I will be pretty busy with the Indian Deptment work I have on hand, and will not be able to do much work on the side. However I will do what I can on certain ethnological work etc. I want to get ahead with. I have just got your letter of 27th ult. and will send you Calder’s measurements in a separate cover. I cant find Matheson’s so it may be I did not take his.

Teit to Boas. November 7, 1921. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122090. Dear Friend. I was pleased to receive your letter of 20th ult. and to learn that you had safely returned from Germany. No doubt you will be very busy for a time as there will be a big accumulation of correspondence etc. for you to dispose of. I have not very much to report. Regarding my health it continues to improve although I have put on very little weight just lately. I feel myself gradually gaining in strength and agility. During July I was at my lowest and reduced to 117 lb. (My old weight used to 958 | 1921

be 160lbs or more.) Every one thought then that I would continue to decline and the end was not far off. For myself I somehow never felt that I was going to die, and never got really depressed. Towards the end of the month I took a turn for the better—the fevers I had left me and I commenced to pick up so rapidly that in less than a month I gained 25lbs in weight. My color also improved and now for some time back has been about normal. I took the third series of x ray treatments in the early part of September and will take a fourth series of treatments after New Year. Some doctors (those who believe I have cancer) consider the x rays is curing me whilst others think I had some rare kind of a trouble which had some of the symptoms of cancer and which I have been strong enough to throw off. Even the x ray doctor acknowledges that I am one of the very exceptional cases in which [page 2] the x rays has effected a cure. He thinks I will be permanently cured. Many of the things in my case prophesied by himself and some other doctors including the Mayos have not come to pass so some of them are rather puzzled. However this is immaterial—the chief thing is my health and I am pleased I am getting well, whether it was cancer I had or not, and whether the x rays have cured me or not. During September I became sufficiently well to commence some writing and I worked for a while on the paper concerning the Ethno-botany of the Ntlakyap.22 I think that had I the time available I could now finish this paper with a month’s steady work. However owing largely to pressing need of funds I had to commence work on the 6th Oct. for the Ind. Department on the job I left off when I first got sick. This work may take me about three months yet. They are paying me $200.00 a month for this work and traveling and living expenses when away from home. During September I cataloged and sent in the remainder of the Indian songs etc. I had collected for Dr. Sapir. My partly finished paper and notes on the Tahltan and Kaska I sent to Dr. Sapir for safe keeping when I first got sick. In my spare time during October I copied out all the measurements I had taken of Whites (mostly Shetlanders) and sent them to the Brit. Assoc. in London to the Committee conducting the Anthrop. survey of the Br. Isles. The measurements were only those of the head and face and statures accompanied by notes on pigmentation etc. [O]f course I received nothing for this work. After that I copied out all the notes I had on BC folk-lore of Whites and have sent them to Mr. Barbeau.

22. Published posthumously as Steedman, “Ethnobotany of the Thompson Indians of British Columbia,” 441–522.

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I am glad to have these things off my hands so I can go on with other work, and make some progress after the long delay caused by my illness. I have now [page 3] commenced to catalog what Indian specimens I have on hand in case Dr. Sapir finds funds in the spring to buy them. They should be cataloged any how. After that I intend to continue work on the Ethno-botanical paper whenever I find spare time. I suppose the next thing thereafter will be the completing of the Tahltan-Kaska paper for Dr. Sapir. Besides these I have in mind the working up of Indian place names, and an article on the clothing of the Up. Ntlak and neighboring plateau tribes. Also an article on designs on rawhide bags and parfleches. I have a great many notes on clothing and the designs on bags etc. Last fall I collected several lengthy stories of European origin from a Similkameen man. They are different from any hitherto collected by me although some of the incidents in them are similar to some in stories already published. I think this is all the news I can give you at present.

Sapir to Teit. November 8, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Teit, I have your two letters of October 28th and 29th, also the various instalments of folk-lore that you referred to in them. Thank you for these. I hope to be able to write soon to you in regard to the valuation that the Ontario Branch of the American Folk-Lore Society has put upon this material. I shall be glad to get your list and price of specimens. I cannot promise that we shall be able to buy them, but I shall do what I can to induce the Director to secure them for the Museum.

Sapir to Teit. November 12, 1921. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Teit, I have your two letters of November 3rd and 4th with balance of folklore material. I have asked Barbeau to let you have two or three extra copies of the Folk-Lore number.

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Teit to Boas. December 20, 1921. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122091. Dear Friend. I hope you are well and getting along all right. I am still improving and have got up in weight now to abt 154 lbs[.] I feel however that I have not reached normal strength yet. I am busy doing Ind. Department work in connection with the requirements or needs of the Indians re. farming land, irrigation water, pasture lands, fishing, hunting etc. I don’t know whether a settlement will come out of the work—it all depends whether the govs will go far enough to really satisfy the needs of the Indians. I am enclosing my a/c made out to the end of the year. I suppose you are very busy and besides at the present time there is little to correspond about.

Teit to Columbia University. December 31, 1921. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122251. In a/c with JA Teit Cr 1920 Dec. 31 By Balance a/c rendered to Dr. Boas Dr

$212.00

1921 May 31. Paid to Chief James Paul of Spuzzum and his daughter for collecting and naming of plants etc. (including R.R. fares of the Chief Spuzzum—Spences Bridge and return.)

$30.00

To self 4 days writing and work with the Spuzzum Chief, and with plants collected by Mr. Perry.

20.00

Aug.10 To paid Spuzzum Chief wages and fares

10.00

31 To self 3 days work with Mr. Perry and Chief and writing

15.00

Sept 30 To 13 days work on notes and M.S.

65.00

1921 | 961

Oct. 31 [To 1 day work] self

5.00

To paid Indian women Rachel for specimens

1.00

Nov. 30 To 1 days work self.

5.00 151.00

Dec.31 By balance to credit of work

962 | 1921

$61.00

1922

Teit to Sapir. March 18, 1922. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17. Dear Dr Sapir, I have not heard from you for a long time but I suppose everything is well with you. At least I hope so. I was wondering how Mrs. Sapir is now and whether she is quite well. I see Mrs. Horwood quite often and she always asks if I have word lately from any of the Museum folks in Ottawa. I have never found time to go over the specimens I have for sale. I made a start to catalog them but never got very far. Indian meetings and the work I am doing for the Ind. Deptment [sic] has taken up nearly all my time. In the latter work I have covered most of the ground and commenced on reports giving the results of my investigation. I have had to quit my work however for the last two weeks my wife got very sick with ‘flu’ followed with brochitis [sic], then pleurisy and now congestion in one of the lungs. I have had to be nurse, nursery maid, cook and housekeeper meanwhile. She seems to be improving a little now. As I have not finished cataloging the specimens and therefore do not know how much the lot will come to I think the best way would be for you to include in your estimates the sum of 100.00 or 125.00 and later when I have some spare time I will send you specimens up to this amount. (Hardly any of them will be baskets). I think [page 2] the Museum is making a mistake (I dont mean yourself of course) in not having some funds on hand yearly for the purchase of specimens—especially for archaeological and old stuff which cannot be duplicated. This stuff is constantly going to the Museums in the States and here and there to private collectors and speculators instead of the National Museum of Canada as it should. Several small collections belonging to Whites[,] some of them with good stuff, and also things in the hands of Indians have to my knowledge been disposed of as above, and this continues of course. Some of the collections or the best part of them I might easily have got for you if there had been funds. Lieut. 963

Emmons has been supplying me with a little money occasionally to buy Arch. stuff from Indians and I have shipped him two small lots. Some of the stuff is good such as carved stone implements etc. Now a White man at Lytton desires to sell his collection and asks me to come and see it. He desires the money and Lieut. Emmons will likely buy it. This man gave me a list of the stuff he has and a lot of it seems to be good including a few rare things. All consist of finds he has made at Lytton and Walhachin during the last fifteen years.1 Of course I dont mind so much when I know these things go to good Museums even if they are in the States instead of Canada but I regret seeing good stuff disappear from sight altogether. I dont know when I will be able to continue with the Tahltan-Kaska paper but it will be as soon as I can whenever that may be. PS I still keep improving.

Teit to Boas. May 5, 1922. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122092. My Dear Friend. I received your letter of 24th ult. yesterday evening on my arrival here from Merritt.2 I was very glad to hear from you as there has been no correspondence between us for some time. I shall be very pleased indeed to see you this summer, and shall keep you posted as to my movements so we shall be sure to meet. I continue to get stronger. I now feel no effects of my illness excepting some little stiffness and weakness which are rapidly disappearing and some slight pains in the lower part of the abdomen seemingly near the bladder. I hope you are quite well yourself and also all your family.

1. In the early 1900s Wallachin was a community located west of Kamloops, between Ashcroft and Savona, on the Thompson River in Secwepemc traditional territory. Although irrigation was a challenge, the warm dry climate favored the development of orchards, and for a time the town thrived. However, its economy never recovered from the effects of World War I. In 2020 Wallachin has a small population (Michael Potestio, “Wallachin—from Dust to Riches to Rags,” Merritt Herald, October 1, 2015). 2. Teit is writing from Spences Bridge.

964 | 1922

Boas to Teit. June 28, 1922. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122247. My dear Friend: I am at present at Berkeley, 2422 Hilgard Avenue, where I am lecturing at the summer school of the University of California. I expect to be in Spences Bridge on the 1st of September. My wife is with me. I am very glad that I shall have an opportunity to see you again and I trust that I may find you well and recovered after your sever [sic] illness. I saw Mr. Sargent in Pasadena a few days ago and he sends his kindest regards.

Teit to Boas. July 4, 1922. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122093. My Dear Friend I received your letter of 28th ult. and was indeed glad to hear from you. I was just on the point of writing to learn the date when you would be here when your letter arrived. I will indeed be very glad to see yourself and Mrs Boas and I think I will no doubt be here about the 1st Sept. If anything turns up which will prevent my being here I will let you know in good time, but I don’t expect anything to intervene. I have been very well up until about two weeks ago when I commenced to get an attack of the old trouble. I don’t know whether it [page 2] will last like last time or will be very severe. At present it does not look good but a short time from now will tell. I am still able to do a little work writing etc. every day. With very best regards and hoping you will have a pleasant sojourn at Berkeley [.]

Teit to Sapir. July 31, 1922. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, James A. (1920–1922), box 635, file 17.3 My Dear Dr Sapir, I received your short letter of 16th inst. about two days ago.4 I have been sick more or less for the last two months with an attack of the 3. Dated at St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver BC. 4. Sapir’s letter of July 16, 1922 is not in the CMH file.

1922 | 965

same trouble as last year but have been badly sick for only some 3 weeks. My stomach got badly upset this time so I had to come here for treatment and have been here 2 weeks. I am improving and may be able to go home in a couple of weeks. I was glad to hear Mrs Sapir was improving even though slowly. You will be glad to be among the Sarcee and make the studies you wished. Boas is to visit me on his way E in Sept.

Teit to Boas. August 3, 1922. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122094.5 Dear Friend I have been here about 3 weeks and expect to go home to Sp Bdge in about another week as I am improving and have gained sufficient strength to travel on the train. I will not however be quite well for a considerable time. My wife will be at Spences Bridge until the 3rd Sept. when she has to go to Merritt and make ready for the children going to school there on the 5th when all the schools open. I shall be very glad to see you whenever you come along.6 Hoping yourself and Mrs Boas are quite well[.]

Boas to Teit, October 14, 1922, APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122044. My dear Friend: I am sending you today under separate cover reprints of your Tahltan tales. The collection is not quite complete yet, but I hope to finish it soon. I am hoping all the time to hear that your health is making good progress, and I should be very much indebted if Mrs. Teit would let us have a line. We had a very pleasant trip through the Rocky Mountains after we left you, and found our children well at Lake George. Since the end of September I have been back at work here in New York.

5. Dated at St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver BC. 6. Boas wrote to his sister, Toni, from Spences Bridge on August 30, 1922. “The visit here is very sad. An old companion of my travels is dying of cancer of the bladder. I spend much time with him trying to give him courage. Tomorrow we leave” (Rohner, The Ethnography of Franz Boas, 276–77).

966 | 1922

Leonie Teit to Sapir. October 31, 1922. Postcard. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, Leonie J. (1922–1925), box 635, file 18. [____] Sapir, Mr. Teit passed away last night. Mrs. J. A. Teit

Teit, James A.: Obituary, 1930. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61.7 Mr. James A Teit, well known for his researches on the ethnology of British Columbia, died on October 30 at Merritt, British Columbia. Mr. Teit carried on researches in connection with the work of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History. He contributed to the work of the Bureau of American Ethnology and to the Anthropological Department of the Geological Survey of Canada. During the last years of his life, Mr. Teit succeeded in organizing the Indians of British Columbia for the purpose of acting collectively in the necessary negotiations with the Canadian Government relating to questions of land holding, fishing rights and other matters concerning the life of the natives.

7. Boas wrote to Sapir on November 6, 1922, “I suppose you have heard of Teit’s death. I have written to Mr. Sargent, whom I also saw last summer, and I rather imagined at that time that he would make some arrangement for the care of Teit’s manuscripts, and I rather anticipate that he will make this an excuse for helping Mrs. Teit financially. I understand that he had considerable material belonging to the Geological Survey, so when it comes to settling these matters it would be well for you, Mr. Sargent, and myself to be in communication. Sapir replied on November 8, 1922, “I had already heard of Teit’s death from Dr. D. C. Scott, the Deputy Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs, and also directly from Mrs. Teit. All of Teit’s manuscripts that we are entitled to had been put in our hands quite some time ago by Teit himself and are now in our offices” (CMH, Sapir Correspondence, B. 621, f.4, folder: “Boas, Franz [1922–1925]”). On November 24, 1922 (APS, Boas Papers, text 107311) Sargent replied to a letter Boas had sent on November 6, 1922 (Not in the APS file), “Your letter of the sixth reached me just as I was starting on a two weeks trip to the northward and although I took it along on the trip hoping to answer it I found no opportunity. I fear the great trouble was that I could think of nothing adequate to say. [para] Yes, the Indians will be the chief sufferers from Teit’s death and I fear that he was working so hard in their behalf and on their case that he neglected the signs of his reoccuring [sic] illness until it got so strongly fastened on him as to be hopeless. I hardly think any one else will take up that part of his work or even attempt it and what sentiment he had stirred up in the past which was favourable will soon die away. . . . I have some two hundred dollars in the Bank of Vancouver and if you wish to add something to that I will send it to Mrs. Teit as coming from his friends of long standing. Or specify that it is to be expended on the children, whatever you think best.”

1922 | 967

Postscript Boas and Sargent continued to correspond regularly through the ten years following Teit’s death. The last letter in the APS file is dated December 22, 1932. Their correspondence had two primary themes: concern for the support of Teit’s family, and the ongoing work, organized by Boas and supported by Sargent, to see Teit’s manuscripts into publication. Both Boas and Sargent contributed funds in 1923 for the interim support of Teit’s family. Three of Teit’s hunting clients, based in Chicago, also contributed individual amounts. Through 1923 Sargent took the lead, developing a plan for providing a contribution on a quarterly basis.1 Following Teit’s death Leonie Teit sent Boas the manuscripts on which Teit had been working and she corresponded with Sapir, Boas and Sargent.2

Leonie J. Teit to Sapir. May 3, 1923. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, Leonie J. (1922–1925), box 635, file 18. Dear Dr. Sapir You will be surprised to receive a letter from me, but I thought I would ask you to do me a great favor. When Mr. Teit visited Ottawa in May 1916, he was photographed in the Photographic Division of the Geological Survey on May 31st. I would like very much to get four or five prints of No. 35962, as this is the best likeness I have. The print I have is damaged and I would be very grateful if you could do me this favor, or I would be pleased with just one print, as I could get others taken from it. If it would be much trouble do not bother, as I know you are very busy. Hoping Mrs. Sapir and children are all well, and with kind regards

1. APS, Boas Papers, Sargent to Boas, July 19, 1923, text 107423. 2. APS, Boas Papers, Boas to Sargent, January 15, 1923, text 107295.

968

Sapir to Mrs. J. A. Teit. May 11, 1923. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, Leonie J. (1922–1925), box 635, file 18. Dear Mrs. Teit, I have your letter of May 3rd, and shall of course ask immediately for the prints that you wish. There is sometimes considerable delay in having photographic orders filled, but I shall make it a special point to try to hurry them on. If there is anything else that I can do to help you from time to time, please to not hesitate to drop me a note. With best regards to you and the children.

Sapir to Mrs. J. A. Teit. May 18, 1923. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, Leonie J. (1922–1925), box 635, file 18. My dear Mrs. Teit, Under another cover I am sending you 5 mounted pictures of Mr. Teit, one of them an enlargement. Please accept these with the compliments of the Museum. The negative which the photographer used is not quite the same as the one you specified. He thinks it is a trifle better than the one you referred to.

L. J. Teit to Sapir. June 2, 1923. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, Leonie J. (1922–1925), box 635, file 18. Dear Mr. Sapir I received your letters of the eleventh and eighteenth May, also the five nicely finished and mounted pictures of Mr. Teit, and I cannot express in writing how much I appreciate your kindness in having them done for me. I should have considered myself fortunate had I received a few unmounted prints, and it was a pleasant surprise to receive these five fine pictures, one of them an enlargement. I also wish to thank the Museum for the most acceptable gift, as I did not have a good photograph of Mr. Teit excepting one taken about twenty years ago. I am having the enlargement framed, and it shall always be one of my most treasured mementos. I was sorry to hear that Mrs. Sapir had been so seriously ill, but I am pleased that she is much better, and hope she will soon be quite strong and well again. Postscript | 969

Should there be anything else you might be able to do for me I will drop you a line, and I thank you for the kind offer. With best regards to you, Mrs. Sapir, and the children.

Leonie J. Teit to Boas. July 9, 1923. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122265. Dear Dr. Boas. I received a letter from Mr. Sargent some time ago in which he told me of your kindness and I want to thank you very very [sic] much for all you have done for us. I feel that I am taking advantage of your goodness and generosity in accepting so much from you when I cannot do anything in return. I cannot express my gratitude as I should like to in this [page 2] poorly written letter but I think you will understand how deeply thankful I feel for having such true friends, and for being able to keep our children at school and have them with me.3 Things are looking much brighter than I even hoped they would. The schools closed for the summer holidays on June 29th and we should know the results of the first and second year High School exams in about a week. I want to ask your advice. Mr. Teit left a lot of notes [page 3] which he intended writing up later. Just before he became ill he was working on a paper on the Ethno. botany of the Thompson. I do not know if any of this material would be of use, and would like you to let me know what you think would be best to do with it. Trusting this finds yourself, Mrs. Boas, and your family all well. With kindest regards from us all.

Leonie J. Teit to Boas. October 3, 1923. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122266. Dear Dr. Boas. As I have received no answers to the letters I wrote to Mrs. Boas and yourself, I am writing again, as my letters must have gone astray. I received a note from Miss Robbins dated Aug 1st saying that owing to

3. This statement, which Leonie Teit repeats in a subsequent letter, conveys the gravity of the situation in which Teit’s death at age 58 placed his family.

970 | Postscript

a mistake my letter of July 9th (the last I wrote to you) had only just reached her, and that she had forwarded it to you. [page2] I am very sorry if you did not get my letters as you will be thinking I am very ungrateful for all you have done for us. I only wish I could tell you how thankful I am to have such true friends and how much it has helped me, by making it possible for me to continue sending my children to school and to be able to keep them with me. I feel that I am taking advantage of your kindness by accepting so much from you. We have had a nice summer and the [page 3] weather is lovely now. The children are all at school except the little one and are all well. The two older boys were working during the summer holidays and earned a few dollars to buy themselves some clothes. Hoping this finds yourself and Mrs. Boas enjoying good health and with kindest regards and many thanks . . . PS In the last letter I wrote I asked you what you thought would be best to do with the notes, sketches etc. that Mr. Teit left, and if you thought they might be of some use. I sent a catalogue of the Indian specimens of clothing etc. to Ottawa but have not heard from them yet. I hope they will be able to purchase the collection because Mr. Teit bought most of it with the intention of sending it to the museum there if possible.

Boas to Leonie J. Teit. October 10, 1923. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122303. My Dear Mrs. Teit I must apologise for not having replied to your kindly letter which came to us during the summer when I was in Europe, but there were so many things to attend to that I neglected all my correspondence. I did not answer your questions in regard to the notes left by Mr. Teit because I hope to see you sometime early in November. I expect to leave here November 1, and shall let you know when I shall be in Spences Bridge. If it is at all possible I hope I may see you at that time. I will then look over the material and form some judgment as to what had best be done with it. I sent you yesterday a note in regard to Mr. Teit which I had published in the American Anthropologist. Postscript | 971

Leonie J. Teit to Boas. October 19, 1923. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122267. Dear Dr. Boas. I received your letter of the 10th inst. yesterday and needless to say I was surprised and pleased to hear I should see you so soon.4 I am looking forward to your visit and to having a talk with you about different things. We are all well and enjoying the fine fall weather which I hope will continue for some time yet. I have not heard from Mr. Sargent [page 2] for some time. I have not received the note in regard to Mr. Teit which you had published in the American Anthropologist. I would like to have it very much. Trusting that Mrs. Boas is well and with kind regards . . .

Sapir to L. J. Teit. October 21, 1924. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, Leonie J. (1922–1925), box 635, file 18. Dear Mrs. Teit, I am writing to ask if the collection of Indian specimens left behind by Mr. Teit has already been sold or is still to be had. The list in my hands shows that it consists of one hundred and two objects and that it is priced at $309.00. If I find that the collection is still undisposed of I shall try to persuade the Director to recommend its purchase.

4. On November 11 and 12, 1923, Boas stopped in Spences Bridge on his way to do field work in Bella Bella, and met Leonie Teit, who had come to meet him with two of her children. On November 13 he wrote to his wife, “I sat with her over some papers which she had classified and which she is going to send to New York. I am sending one to little Viaux [sic] (one of my students) to be finished by her, and some of it she is to change.” (Boas to Wife, November 13, 1923, cited in Rohner, The Ethnography of Franz Boas, 277). This is an apparent reference to Elsie Viault Steedman, who edited Teit’s material on Nlaka’pamux ethnobotany. This is the clearest indication that Steedman, who later taught at Hunter College in New York, had been one of Boas’s students, and confirms that all of those whom Boas recruited to prepare Teit’s remaining manuscripts for publication were or had been his students. The following day he wrote to his sister, Hete, with more details. “I was in Spences Bridge from Sunday night until Monday. I looked through and brought to order all the papers Teit left there. He has many notes, which I have sorted. I shall let a few of my students sort these things. For instance, Erna Gunther Spier . . . is finishing the Puget Sound stuff of [Haeberlin]” (Boas to Hete, Vancouver, November 14, 1923, in Rohner, The Ethnography of Franz Boas, 278).

972 | Postscript

L. J. Teit to Sapir. October 29, 1924. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, Leonie J. (1922–1925), box 635, file 18. Dear Mr. Sapir, Your letter of the 21st inst received and in reply I would say that I still have the collection of Indian specimens left by Mr. Teit. I could have sold part of it to private collectors, but did not care to do this unless I really had to. I will be very grateful if you can persuade the Director to recommend its purchase. PS I hope that Mrs. Sapir and the children are well.

Sapir to L. J. Teit. November 4, 1924. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, Leonie J. (1922–1925), box 635, file 18. Dear Mrs. Teit, I am in receipt of your letter of October 29th. I have again urged the Director to purchase Mr. Teit’s collection and he has given his authorization. You will, therefore, kindly have the collection sent to us at your early opportunity, to be paid collect. Please send a bill in duplicate for the collections, covering one hundred and two ethnological specimens, at a total of three hundred and nine dollars.

L. J. Teit to Sapir. November 18, 1924. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, Leonie J. (1922–1925), box 635, file 18. Dear Mr. Sapir, Your letter of the 4th inst received. I am writing to say that specimens Nos. 80 and (girl’s dress and woman’s dress) which I had stored here in Merritt have been damaged, so that I can not include them in the collection. The other specimens are stored at Spences Bridge, and I am going there in a couple of days to pack them ready for shipping. I would like to know if you want them shipped by freight or express, and whether by C.P.R. or C.N.R. railway. When I send the bill must each specimen be priced separately. I am afraid I may not be able to do this as the list I have totals $310.25 and I do not know where I made the mistake. Postscript | 973

The collection,—with specimens Nos. 80 and 81 not included—will now consist of one hundred specimens at a total of two hundred and eighty dollars ($280.00). PS I was very sorry to hear of Mrs. Sapir’s death, and extend to yourself and the children my deepest sympathy in your great loss.

Sapir to L. J. Teit. November 24, 1924. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, Leonie J. (1922–1925), box 635, file 18. Dear Mrs. Teit, I am glad to know from your letter of November 18th that you are prepared to forward to us Mr. Teit’s collection. I note that specimen numbers 80 and 81 are not to be included because of their damaged condition. Please use your own judgment about sending the collection by freight or express. Unless there are breakable objects in it, it might perhaps be wise to send it by freight, provided you can learn that the collection will reach us at not great delay. I should not like to have the purchase of it held up beyond this fiscal year, which, as you know, ends March 31, 1925. It will not be necessary for you to give the price of each specimen separately as we have the prices on the list in our hands.

L. J. Teit to Sapir. December 19, 1924. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, Leonie J. (1922–1925), box 635, file 18. Dear Dr. Sapir, I am enclosing bill of lading, and the bill in duplicate for the box of ethnological specimens which was shipped from Spences Bridge last week. I notice that the specimens are valued at two hundred dollars on the bill of lading. When I wrote to my brother to ship the box for me, I did not mention the value of the collection, as I did not think this was required when shipping by freight to any-where [sic] in Canada. I trust that the collection will reach Ottawa safely and in good time. I was told that it should not take it over a month. 974 | Postscript

L. J. Teit to Sapir. February 6, 1925. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, Leonie J. (1922–1925), box 635, file 18. Dear Dr. Sapir I have been wondering if the box of ethnological specimens I shipped to you has been received yet. Could you kindly let me know.

Sapir to L. J. Teit. February 12, 1925. CMH, Edward Sapir (1-a-236m), Correspondence folder: Teit, Leonie J. (1922–1925), box 635, file 18.5 Dear Mrs. Teit, In reply to your note of February 6th, I may say that your ethnological specimens were duly received quite some time ago and payment was recommended and approved by the Director and Deputy Minister and that the specimens have all been numbered and put away. I reminded the Accountant about the bill today and he tells me that the cheque is going forward to you at once.

Leonie J. Teit to Boas. November 9, 1930. APS, Franz Boas Papers, Mss.B.b61, text 122268. Dear Dr. Boas I received your letter of Oct 10th and was pleased to hear from you. I also received the book with the report on the Salish Tribes by Mr. Teit, and like it very well. Perhaps I was expecting too much but I am disappointed with the Ethno. Botany of the Thompson Indians which is indexed by Elsie Viault Steedman. I wish to thank you very much for your kindness in doing all this extra work, when you already have so much to do. I appreciate it, and all you have done for us. The children are all well. Three of them are grown up. Erik, the oldest boy, is working on the government road near Spences Bridge. He 5. This is the last recorded letter between Leonie Teit and Sapir, who resigned from the Geological Survey of Canada later in 1925. Homer Sargent was still in touch with Leonie Teit in 1926. “Had a note from Mrs. Teit the past week. She says the children are all well. That Erik has been working in the Bank of Toronto at Merritt since the end of February and that Inga will go into the hospital to start training in about two months” (APS, Boas Papers, Sargent to Boas, May 31, 1926, text 107428; APS, Boas Papers, Sargent to Boas, May 31, 1926, text 107428.)

Postscript | 975

was idle all last winter, and was very discouraged. He has been working steady since [page 2] the beginning of July, but expects to be laid off as soon as it turns colder as the single men are laid off first. There are a lot of unemployed men in BC this fall. Inge graduated as a nurse last year, and is working at Tranquille near Kamloops in the T.B. Sanitarium. She likes her work, but is thinking of leaving there if she can get work elsewhere. She was offered a position in the States, but was afraid she would not be able to get across the line, so she decided it would be best to keep the position she has, as it is hard for nurses to find work. Magnus has been working at the butcher’s shop since he left school. The wages are low, but he has steady work. He is a big boy, measuring 5 ft 11 in, and weighs 180 lbs. Sigurd, who is 15 years old, is in second year high school, and Thorald (11 years old) is in grade six. [page 3] I have been keeping fairly well, except that I am troubled with rheumatism in the cold weather and the altitude here is rather high for me. I hope that you have been enjoying good health, also Mr. Boas and your family. The years are passing. It is eight years since my children lost their father. In some ways it seems much longer than that. Will close for this time hoping you find time to write again. Thanking you for all you have done for us, and wishing yourself and Mrs. Boas a Happy Christmas and New Year . . .

976 | Postscript

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MANUSCRIPTS AND ARCHIVES AMNH. American Museum of Natural History, Division of Anthropology, New York, New York Anthropology Collection. Department of Anthropology Correspondence. North American Ethnographic Collection. Papers of James Teit. T458. “Landmarks of the Stuwix.” James Teit compilation, AMNH, Division of Anthropology, accession 1899–48. APS. American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ACLS. American Council of Learned Societies Committee on Native American Languages Collection MSS.497.3.B63c. Franz Boas Papers. Mss.B.b61. Teit, James A. Field Notes on Thompson and Neighbouring Salish Languages. 1904. ACLS, MSS.497.3.B63c. ATM. Archives of Traditional Music, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana BCA. British Columbia Archives, Victoria, British Columbia Clement F. Cornwall Diaries. MSS0759. E.O.S. Scholefield fonds. MS0491. Hyland and Belfry Correspondence. Provincial Game Warden Records. GR-0446.43.1.2. Newcombe Family Correspondence. MSS1077. Church of England, Mission of St. Mary and St. Paul, Parish Records. I. Nlaka’pamux Nation Tribal Council Archives, Lytton, British Columbia CMH. Canadian Museum of History Archives, Ottawa, Ontario Edward Sapir Correspondence. 1-A-236M. Ethnology Documents. VI-Z-35M. Gateway to Aboriginal Heritage, James Teit Photographs, https://www .historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/tresors/ethno/etf0200e.html, accessed June 1, 2023. Marius Barbeau fonds. COV. City of Vancouver Archives, Vancouver, British Columbia Documentary Art Collection. Fonds AM1562. Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois Gifts of Homer E. Sargent. J. A. Teit, Collector. Accession 1112. GAIA. Glenbow Alberta Institute Archives, Calgary, Alberta A. E. Pickford Fonds. Glen-1858. MSS M3689.

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HBC. Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, Winnipeg, Manitoba Post Records. Kamloops, 1822–1823. LAC. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario Indian Affairs Record Group. RG 10. R. G. McConnell Correspondence. National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC N. A. Forsyth Stereograph Collection. NMAI.AC.343. St. Regis Mission Marriage Records. Foley Center Library, Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington Microfilm NWM 23. UBC. University of British Columbia, Victoria, British Columbia John Davidson Fonds. UOC. University of Calgary Library Digital Collections, Calgary, Alberta T. K. Kilpatrick Fonds.

UNPUBLISHED SOURCES Teit, James A. “Field Notes on Thompson and Neighbouring Salish Languages.” 1904. ACLS, MSS.497.3.B63c.

PUBLISHED WORKS Abraham, Otto, and E. M. von Hornbostel. “Phonographierte Indianermelodien aus British Columbia.” In Boas Anniversary Volume: Anthropological Papers Written in Honor of Franz Boas, edited by Berthold Laufer, 447–74. Presented to Him on the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of His Doctorate, Ninth of August, 1906. New York: G. E. Stechert, 1906. Ackerman, Lillian. Ethnographic Overview and Assessment of the Lake Roosevelt National Recreational Area and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation. Seattle: U.S. National Park Service, 1966. Allied Tribes of British Columbia. Statement of the Allied Tribes of British Columbia for the Government of British Columbia, 5th February, 1919. Vancouver: Cowan and Brookhouse, 1919. American Museum of Natural History. Ethnographical Album of the North Pacific Coasts of America and Asia. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1900. Arrowsmith and Company. Map from Pacific Coast to York Factory. Copy in University of British Columbia Special Collections, G3300.1795.A7, 1824. Baehre, Rainer. “Early Anthropological Discourse on the Inuit and the Influence of Virchow on Boas.” Etudes Inuit/Inuit Studies 32, no. 2 (2008): 13–24. Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of British Columbia. San Francisco: History Company, 1887. Banks, Judith Judd. Comparative Biographies of Two British Columbia Anthropologists, Charles Hill-Tout and James A. Teit. Master’s thesis, University of Hawaii, 1970. Barnes, Michael P. “Jakob Jakobsen and the Norn Language of Shetland.” In Shetland’s Northern Links: Language and History, edited by Doreen J. Waugh, 56–65. Edinburgh: Scottish Society for Northern Studies, University of Edinburgh, 1996. 978 | Bibliography

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Index

Page numbers in italics indicate illustrations

Aaniih (Gros Ventre), 419, 428, 430 Aā’pk în, áᶯapkᴇn, 33, 498 (Nicola Valley Athapaskan; Nlaka’pamux) abalone. See shell Adsit, Aggie (Tahltan), 383n31 Adsit, George, 383–84, 38n31, 527, 730, 810, 825 advocacy, by Teit, 2, 4, 8, 13, 502n33, 678–79, 735, 737, 911, 924, 932n12, 961 Agaidika (Shoshone) people, 422, 422n30, 702, 776 Agassiz, 180, 524, 806n34 agriculture, 63n5, 611, 611n54, 677 Aiyansh BC, 924 alder, 722–23n40 Alexis Creek, 135, 223 Algonkin (Algonquin) culture, 549, 702, 719 Algonkin (Algonquin) language, 615, 641, 642 Alkali Lake (BC), 123, 224–6, 345 Allied Tribes of British Columbia (Brotherhood of North American Indians), 14–15, 544, 544n39, 735n2, 738n9, 739n10, 807n35, 821–22n14, 865n4, 911, 922, 924, 924n1, 927n9, 932n12, 936, 940, 955n6 Almira WA, 371 American Anthropological Association (AAA), 16, 759, 813n7, 935n2 American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 8, 18–19, 22, 25, 500n29 American Folk-Lore Society, 49n62, 235, 253n1

American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), 5–6, 8, 10–11, 30, 44, 46, 70n19, 77n36, 105n59, 125–26n7, 155n26, 176n8, 281n7, 281n9, 315n52, 327n9, 330–31, 485–86n13, 501n32, 514n8, 671n8, 722n40, 724n1, 828n23; Boas’s resignation from, 9–10, 296n4 American Philosophical Society Library, ix, 4 Amó.tkᴇn narrative, 415 “Anahem Bob” (Tsilhqot’in), Chief, 808 Anahim BC, 222, 222n12, 226 Anderson, Rudolph, 460n26, 564, 564n14 Anderson Lake (Smáxen) (BC), 159, 311–12 animal husbandry, 75, 159, 206, 611n54 Anishinaabeg (Anishinabe). See Ojibwa (Anishinaabe) anthropometry, 21–22, 31, 61n1, 61n4, 76, 91–92, 125–26n7, 130, 132, 134n21, 139, 139n28, 159, 171, 220, 268–69, 316, 503, 637, 739–40, 739n11, 741– 43, 742n15, 749, 762, 769–70, 772, 774, 824, 827–30, 831–36, 833n26, 844–45, 893, 954–55, 959 antler, 186, 196, 335, 731 aquaculture, 7, 36, 63n5, 74, 87, 142, 222–23, 280, 307–9, 370, 374, 380, 402–3, 406, 411, 424, 426, 454, 550, 554, 611, 611n54, 708, 730, 750, 881, 910, 924n1, 932 Arapaho, 334, 566 archaeology, 5–6, 24, 95–96, 763, 854n37, 893, 906–8, 935. See also excavation of human remains 997

Ashcroft BC, 127n8, 149, 165, 180, 207, 237, 252, 434, 519, 519n13, 636n11 Ashnola BC, 32, 284n13, 285 Assiniboine, 39, 567, 569, 594, 776 Athapaskan (Dene), xvii, 13, 23, 34, 45, 71n21, 279, 285, 321, 331, 380, 447, 460, 460n26, 464, 493–94, 497– 99, 501–2, 501n31, 502n33, 507n39, 509n2, 515, 515n10, 525, 534–35, 537– 38, 538n33, 540–41, 545, 549, 553–56, 560, 572–74, 575n25, 576, 581, 595, 599, 624, 645, 702, 704, 715, 718, 724, 744, 785–86, 840, 872, 878–79, 904–5n19 Atlanta University (Georgia), 11 Atlin BC, 321, 536, 546, 548, 616, 704 Atlin Lake (BC), 350n28 Attawapiskat region, 655n20 Austin, Hilda (Nlaka’pamux), 608, 608n52 authenticity, 194, 228, 228n26, 250, 272, 302, 374, 461n26, 562, 669 Avery, Frank Fuller, 371, 371n22 bag, 35, 106, 144–46, 175, 187, 187n17, 197, 223, 246n12, 255, 268, 278, 280, 282n10, 361, 374, 376, 379, 402, 408– 9, 415, 420, 427, 429, 432n43, 439, 450, 458, 472–73, 535, 541, 550, 577, 610, 645, 667, 688–89n17, 708, 718, 766, 866, 878–89, 887 bark, 30, 35–36, 76n34, 79, 79n38, 85, 95–96, 106–7, 127, 140, 142, 149, 161– 62, 172, 177, 184, 187, 188n19, 189, 201, 205, 205n32, 221, 224, 226, 247, 250, 275, 300, 316, 321, 329, 333, 335, 338 373n26, 375–77, 380, 391– 92, 400–402, 408–9, 411–14, 420, 425, 427, 436, 439, 472, 545, 549–51, 552n2, 556, 561n8, 593, 607, 622, 651, 718, 722–23n40, 753, 867, 870, 872n9 baseball, 407–8 basket, 7, 30, 44, 65, 95, 107, 127, 144– 45, 148, 153, 159, 162, 168, 201–4, 223, 252, 256, 363–64, 367, 392, 408–9, 998 | Index

432n43, 435–36, 438–39, 455–56, 465, 466n31, 470, 470n39, 472, 478, 483n7, 492, 492n24, 504n35, 507n39, 509n2, 510–11, 510n3, 524, 531–32, 532n29, 549–50, 552, 552n2, 554, 558–59, 556, 563, 574, 577, 579, 584, 591–93, 591n38, 596, 607, 615, 621, 724n1, 747–48n20, 760, 779, 799n28, 811n4, 814n8, 817, 818, 819, 899, 904–5n19. See also basket design basket design, 160, 173n4, 175, 183, 188n19, 205n32, 221–22, 247–48, 247n14, 275, 278, 294n3, 316, 329, 338–39, 351, 364–65, 374, 376, 382, 389–90, 397, 400–401, 404–5, 408, 413–15, 420, 427, 429, 445, 447, 450, 609, 791, 839–43, 865–70, 872n9, 873–75, 876, 878, 880, 880n6, 885– 86, 887, 889–93, 893–95, 895–96, 900–901, 902–4, 908–9 Battle of the Birds narrative, 255 beadwork, 94, 121, 188, 190, 247, 274, 281, 374, 414, 428, 439, 617, 872, 879, 883, 895 Bear Lake Indians, 703, 709, 717, 719 Bear narrative, 119, 121, 228, 239, 562, 566, 569, 570, 573, 594–95, 620 Beaver narrative, 718 Bella Bella BC, 619264 Bella Coola BC, 8, 10, 123, 130, 134n21, 135, 135n23, 240, 619n64, 876, 930, 930n9 belt, 197, 722–23n40, 938 berrying, 370, 403, 408 Beuchat, Henri, 596–97, 596n43, 600– 602, 600–601n49 Beynon, William (Nisg̱a’a), 926n3 Bible story, 228, 624 Big Bar BC, 33, 223, 223n16, 224n20, 225, 344 Big Salmon River (BC), 384 birch, 30, 106–7, 142, 149, 161–62, 184, 189, 201, 224, 226, 329, 400, 402, 408–9, 412–14, 420, 427, 439, 607, 636–37

birth custom, 304 bison. See buffalo bitter-root, 134, 134n20, 405, 449, 611n54, 888 Bitterroot Mountains and Valley, 407, 418, 423, 424, 431 Blackfoot, 396, 407, 418–20, 423–25, 428, 430, 433, 439, 513, 517, 566–67, 569, 581, 586, 615–16, 685, 693, 732, 776, 797 black tree lichen, 143n6 blanket, 35, 100, 132, 134, 202–3, 265, 273, 316, 335, 337, 400, 408, 413, 420, 447–48, 448n16, 471n39, 472, 524, 550, 634–35, 635n10, 642n15, 653, 658, 658n21, 718, 722–23n40, 724, 876 Bleakney, Miss, 781, 781n17 Boas, Helene M., 716–17n38 Bonaparte River (BC), 139, 347, 850n35 bone, 76, 105, 107, 149, 168, 174–75, 177, 184–86, 189 border, American-Canadian, x, 31–32, 284, 284n13, 494–95, 495n26, 634 Boston Bar BC, 155, 155n25, 211, 524, 775 Botani Valley (BC), 642n15, 713n36 boundary, linguistic and tribal, 36–42, 63, 72–75, 210–11, 285, 372, 380, 384, 402, 410, 413, 417, 448n17, 458–65, 468, 486, 494–95, 501, 505n35, 511– 13, 540, 545, 548, 553, 587, 683, 706, 775–76 Branchless horsetails, 189, 189n21 Bridge River Band, Xwisten (nxóísten and skákᴇtl), 313 British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS), 8, 10, 18–19, 22, 25, 44, 125n7, 253n1, 500n29, 833n26 Brock, Reginald, 448–49n17, 484n13, 500–501, 500n29, 509, 526, 610, 654, 655n20, 747–48n20 buffalo, 94, 103, 106–7, 146, 406–10, 418, 511–20, 423, 425, 431, 586, 684, 718, 750 Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE),

16–17, 19, 43–44, 70n19, 460–1n26, 672n10, 700n28, 935n2, 967 burial, 88, 117–18, 124, 178, 680; methods of, 90, 122, 125n7, 127, 132–33, 149, 154–55, 162, 170, 197, 203, 281, 303, 415, 420, 549, 718 Burrell, Martin, 820n13 Cahto (Kato), 515n9 Camsell, Charles, 523, 615n58, 860n2, 865 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 568n18, 596n43, 747–48n20, 824n16 Canadian Customs Division, 426 Canadian Department of Indian Affairs, 23, 672, 672–73n10, 735n2, 739n10, 821n14, 927n8, 933, 967n7 Canadian Museum of History, 125–26n7, 575n25, 658n21, 672–73n10 canoe. See watercraft Canoe Creek (BC), 32, 123, 222–23, 223n18, 224, 224n20, 225, 344–45 cap, 107, 248, 333, 374, 376, 402, 408–9, 413, 420, 429, 472, 550 cape, 333, 335 Carrier, 18, 63n6, 72, 79, 79n37, 91, 123, 206, 223, 226, 228, 268–69, 271, 333, 345, 380, 409, 484, 528, 597, 624, 637, 868, 870, 872–73 Cassiar BC, 295, 317, 320, 349, 374, 383, 473, 473n41, 474, 474n42, 483, 498, 534, 546, 571, 600, 717, 864 Catholicism, 102, 102n57, 271, 366, 366n14, 406, 407, 416, 788 Cayoosh (Cayoose) Creek Bands ͐ ͐ wásməx (Səkʷəl First Nation), 313 Cayuse (Waiilatpuan-speaking people), 38, 206, 351, 369, 410, 421, 776 cedar, 76n34, 106–7, 247, 247n14, 316, 321, 402, 408–9, 413–14, 420, 593, 872, 872n9, 722–23n40 ceremonial dance, 82–83, 116, 160, 202, 225, 227, 251, 259n11, 413, 415–16, 422, 430, 554, 615, 618n63, 669, 761, 762, 763n7, 803 Index | 999

Chamberlain, Alexander, 10, 11, 13, 22, 25, 289, 639n13, 850, 853 Charley Cexpentlam (Charlie Spintlum) (Nlaka’pamux), Chief, 477, 847, 847n32, 852 Chehalis Tribe, 34, 302 440, 451, 454, 455, 457–60, 461–65, 496 Chelan, 373, 392, 405 Cheyenne, 146, 239, 566 childcare, 101, 146, 190, 208, 208n38, 303, 305, 409, 541, 607 Chilcotin River (BC), 123, 221n10, 222n12, 225n22, 342–43n16 Chilcotin (Tsilhqot’in), 8, 10, 32, 72–74, 79, 85, 88, 91, 93, 123, 130, 135, 148, 206, 221n11, 222–3, 224, 225–26, 227– 28, 240, 268, 289, 291, 293, 319, 333, 364, 380, 473, 484, 515, 528, 636, 868, 878–79, 904n19, 932 Chimakum (Agokulo), 450, 459, 464– 65, 470 Chinook (Tsinúk, Columbia River tribe), 19–20, 22, 42, 48n50, 73n23, 130n14, 270n1, 369–70, 379, 417, 419n26, 457– 58, 463, 465, 618n63, 682n14, 776 Chippewa (Anishinaabe), 410, 590 chokecherry, 85 Christian, Alexander (Sinixt), 35, 438n3 Christian, Mary (Sinixt), 426n36, 438n3 Churn Creek (BC), 136, 225n21 circumcision, 554 clan. See kinship Clark, William, 424 Clark University (Massachusetts), 8, 10, 22 Clements, H. S., 672n10 Clemes, Archibald (Arthur), 137, 137n26, 139, 141, 188, 582n31 Clinton BC, 223n16, 226–27, 263 clothing, 66n11, 187n17, 191, 197, 275, 282, 333, 420, 644, 670, 680, 684, 866, 878, 880. See also individual items Coast Salish, 6, 253, 254n3, 259n11, 260n13, 289, 310–11, 450, 488, 528, 591, 724, 734n1 1000 | Index

Coeur d’Alene Reservation ID, 14, 284– 85n14, 371n21, 399, 405 Coeur d’Alene Tribe (Schitsu’umsh), 16, 31, 33, 37–38, 50n109, 284n14, 351, 366–37, 371n21, 372, 375–77, 381, 383, 392, 396, 399, 404, 406–7, 409–13, 415–16, 418–21, 427–28, 431, 433, 439, 472, 491, 496, 497n27, 499, 511, 528, 546, 550, 562, 564, 565, 570, 580, 683–84, 750 Coldwater Reserve BC, 394, 429, 447 Columbia (Sinkiuse-Columbia) (tribal group), 372–73, 375–79, 392–93, 411, 417, 419–20, 431n41, 458, 470, 503 Columbia University, 5, 8–10, 12, 16, 32, 126n7, 296n4, 327n9, 359n11, 362, 387, 441, 443, 452, 461n26, 470n39, 481n3, 514n8, 566n16, 681–82n13, 734n1, 776, 824n16 Colville (Colville Confederated Tribes), xii, 79n37, 371n21, 371n22, 372, 375, 376, 380, 381–82, 393, 396, 400, 402, 412–13, 417, 417n25, 422, 422n32, 424, 432, 453, 495n26 Comox (K’ómoks), 20, 63 construction methods of dwellings, 93– 98, 202, 578, 586 copper, 118, 149, 209, 215, 262, 346, 582, 672, 949; mining of, 127, 127n8, 857 Copper Eskimo (Innuinnait), 568n18, 824 Coquihalla River (BC), 189, 189n23 corn, 408, 688–89n17 cotton, 337 Cowichan (Quw’utsun), 88, 543, 545, 911 Cowlitz, 388n39, 389, 404, 411–12, 440, 451, 456–8, 461–62, 464–65, 477–78, 496, 777 Coyote narrative, 36, 82–83, 82n42, 119, 128, 219, 224, 228, 228n26, 238–39, 252, 291, 346, 348, 414, 569, 624, 631, 666, 730, 744, 797 cradle/carrier, 106–7, 145–46, 224, 226, 253–54, 265, 335, 377, 402, 409, 413, 420, 472, 574, 607, 899 Cree (Néhinaw/Néhiyaw/Nehiyawak),

72, 267, 345, 383–84, 422, 473, 499, 548, 590, 594, 597, 702, 704, 727, 730 Creston BC, 477, 797 Crowhurst, Charles, 135, 135n22, 137 crow (bird), 301n2 Crow (Apsáalooke/Absaroka), 407, 411, 418–19, 424, 430, 498, 685, 864 Cultee, Charles (Tsinúk), 19 Cusick WA, 408 “Dandy Jim” (Tahltan), 542, 705, 708, 731–32n5, 864, 864n2 Dane-zaa (Beaver), 499, 599, 601, 615 Davidson, John, 9, 13, 44, 80n39, 349n27, 535, 713n36, 820, 850, 642n15, 660, 655 Dawson, George, 23–24, 71n21, 72, 78, 84, 124, 125n7, 166, 172, 252n1, 500n29, 527, 533 Dease, Albert (Kaska Dena), 707, 711 Dease, Lucy (Kaska Dena), 937 Dease Lake (BC), 704, 705n34, 717 Dease River (BC), 703, 704, 717 Dene Dene, 44, 79, 269, 269n16, 931 dentalium. See shell De Smet ID, 34 Deutschmann, Charles, 292, 293, 294n2 Dijour, Elizabeth, 16–18, 29 Dillingham Commission, 11–12 disturbed burial, 124–25, 399 Dixon, Roland, 6, 157, 157n29, 158, 161, 169, 171, 835 dog, 127, 153, 157, 174–75, 201, 254, 297, 301, 301n2, 400, 421, 472, 711, 723, 744 Dog Creek (BC), 32, 123, 224, 224n20, 225–27, 344–45 Dominion Exhibition, 316 Dominion Forestry Branch, 713 Dominion Parks Museum, 691 Dorsey, George, 277, 278n6, 671n8 Douglas fir sugar (Skaamếllk), 349, 349n27, 650–51, 660, 826 dream, 69n18, 81, 94, 175, 195, 228, 305, 841–43

Dwamish (Duwamish), 458, 470 dye, 94, 185, 185n14, 197, 247, 249, 274, 287n15, 333, 408, 428–29, 658, 667, 723, 871 editorial method, of Boas, 214n5, 252n19 Elko BC, 509n1, 577n26, 579 embroidery, 94, 175, 272, 333, 337, 427– 30, 866, 876, 878–79, 885, 887, 900 Emmons, George Thornton, 279, 364n13, 384n33, 522–23, 533, 535, 540, 893, 899, 964 ethnobotany, as method, 80n39 ethnography and ethnology, 5, 98n55, 173, 192–93n26, 205n32, 330, 481, 484–85n13, 540, 760, 877 Ethnological Museum (Ethnologisches Museum) (Berlin), 391–92, 392n6, 430 Ethnological Survey of Canada, 905n20 European tale, 13, 622n69 excavation of human remains, 124, 125– 26n7, 149, 154, 178, 180, 182, 382 face casting, 5, 21, 31, 63, 122, 125n7, 129–30, 132, 132n17, 134–36, 142, 503, 505, 739 Farrand, Livingston, 5, 8, 10, 25, 32, 111n4, 129n12, 130, 133, 133n19, 135, 144, 154, 161, 497n27, 637 feather/down, 120–21, 157, 157n32, 254, 333, 415, 667, 693, 715 Fewkes, Walter, 16–17, 905, 935, 946n10 Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago), 451, 452, 688, 773, 922, 942 fieldwork, and writing delays, 12, 110, 123, 127, 134–35, 154, 158, 167, 259– 60, 268, 275, 347, 413, 427, 431, 438n3, 441, 441n7, 444, 455, 471, 484, 487–88, 495, 502, 503, 504–5n35, 516, 521, 523, 525, 535, 537, 542n35, 598, 598n44, 598n45, 602, 605, 606, 634n9, 658, 717, 734n1, 743, 767, 773, 775, 779, 781, 793, 859, 880, 960 fire, in Parliament, 728, 728n2 Index | 1001

Flathead Reservation MT, 34, 412–13, 416, 513, 565–66 Flathead (Flathead Group), 28, 33, 38, 42, 142n2, 326, 340, 351, 395–96, 399–400, 406–7, 409, 411, 413, 417, 419–20, 422–25, 427, 430–31, 432–33, 439, 472, 499, 511–13, 517, 565, 579, 586, 591, 614, 615, 623, 681, 683–85, 746, 750 flood narrative, 35, 40, 42, 464–65, 468, 549, 554, 719 food preparation, 80, 143, 280–81, 401, 450, 550, 871n8 Fort St. John BC, 548, 615 Fountain BC, 159–60, 159n35, 303, 314, 342n16, 417, 775–76, 775n10, 776n11 Fox (Meskwaki), 395, 395n9 Frachtenberg, Leo J., 460–61n26 Francois, (Secwepemc), Chief, 505n36 Fraser, Simon, 257, 300, 341, 621 Fraser River BC, xiv, 22, 24, 35, 43, 61n3, 63n5, 64, 65n8, 66n14, 73n28, 81, 88, 91n50, 102n57, 123, 132, 134–5n21, 150, 154n22, 154n23, 155n25, 190n24, 221n11, 223n18, 225, 228, 234n3, 253– 54, 256, 259, 261, 265, 278, 289, 301, 303, 309–14, 316, 323, 440, 448n16, 480n1, 523, 528, 550, 605, 722n40, 773n8, 776, 806n34, 870, 932n11 fur trade, 72–73, 417, 420, 595, 623–24, 628, 776 game, 254, 316, 335, 541, 574, 669–70, 675, 724, 734n1, 782 gender role, 95, 415, 430, 525 geography, 33, 39, 42, 886, 905 Geological Survey of Canada, 2, 4, 7, 11–13, 23, 30–31, 45, 71, 168, 234n3, 449, 484–85n13, 489, 500, 500n29, 502n33, 509, 509–10n2, 514n8, 531, 537, 552, 568n18, 573, 576, 628n1, 639n12, 654n19, 655n20, 688–89n17, 767n1, 784n19, 818, 820, 855, 860, 906, 925n1, 926, 933, 967, 975 Gibbs, George, 457, 460, 464, 468 1002 | Index

Gidley, James, 281, 281n9 Gitksan (Gitxsan), 63, 703n31, 709, 730, 868n6, 869n17, 873, 873n13, 878–79, 911, 922 Gladstone, Willy (Bella Bella, Waglisla), 20 Glasgow, Robert, 520, 520n15 glass, 121, 188, 281, 428 Goddard, Pliny Earle, 514, 514n8, 518, 548, 553, 599, 601, 614, 856 gold rush, 302, 417, 630n3, 712, 847n32 government, historical mistrust of, 100, 739 Government Land Office, 287 grammar, 43, 87, 372, 467 grass, 35, 84, 98, 103, 121, 158–59, 162, 184, 188, 189, 203, 247, 250, 309n29, 367, 376, 400, 402, 408, 429, 466, 472, 550, 718, 872n91 Gratacap, Louis, 176, 176n8 Gray’s Harbor WA, 451, 460, 461–63 Haeberlin, Herman, 7, 14–15, 41–42, 44, 173n4, 736, 755n27, 760n2; death of, 799n29, 813, 946n10; illness of, 16, 553, 734–35n1, 755, 760n2, 760n3, 811, 813, 813n6 Haida, 21–22, 25, 29, 182, 234, 449, 575, 911, 927n8, 931 hair and fur, 94, 333, 400, 408, 472, 635n10, 718, 722–23n40 hairstyle, 30, 140, 141, 175, 201, 281–82, 617–18, 763n7, 781n16 Hale, Horatio, 21–23, 49 Halkomelem (Halq’eméylemx-speaking people), 259n10, 302 Halliday, William, 618–19n63, 672–73n10 Hamatsa, 10 Hanceville BC, 221n11, 222 handicraft industry, 114, 821n14, 822, 823 Hangman’s Creek WA, 416 Harrison, Charles, 25 Harrison Valley BC, 157n30, 176, 179–80, 254 Hat Creek BC, 226, 229 Hatt, Gudmond, 881

head flattening, 409, 550, 554 hemp, 187, 280, 282, 282n10, 402, 408, 413, 429, 447, 653, 667, 688–89n17, 722–23n40 Hewitt, C. Gordon, 660n24, 783 Heye, George G., 330, 331, 339, 343, 347, 663, 665n3, 671, 672n10, 956n7 Heye Collection, 335, 382 High Bar BC, 225, 345 Highland Valley BC, 127n8, 826, 888, 888n9 Hill-Tout, Charles, 2, 23–24, 44, 80, 80n40, 161, 182, 209, 221, 253, 259, 301–2, 303–12, 332 502, 513n6, 515, 515n10, 522, 523, 525, 566, 612, 621; reaction to Sapir paper by, 516, 519, 672–73n10 “hocus pocus” words, 784, 786, 789–90, 793, 798 Hodge, Frederick Webb, 42, 515, 700–701n28 Holmes, W. H., 29 Hood River OR, 34, 369 Hope BC, 189, 422 horn, 69n18, 86, 97, 106, 121, 177, 189, 196, 205, 211, 224, 273, 556 horse, introduction of, 207, 423–4, 683– 4, 750 Horwood, Mary, 931n10 hot spring, 304, 696 housing and other buildings, 35, 73, 73n23, 76, 95–98, 103, 108, 190, 197, 202, 257, 300, 316, 373–74, 376, 380, 400, 402, 407, 409, 413, 416, 419–20, 422, 435, 465, 469–70, 472, 519, 549, 550, 578, 586, 617, 636, 664, 682, 718, 881, 924 Hrdlička, Aleš, 828n23 Hudson’s Bay Company, 23, 72, 207, 342, 422n32, 448n16, 533n31, 699 Humphreys, John (Coast Salish), 545, 547–48, 551, 568 Humptulips, 454, 462, 464 Hunt, George, 1, 7–8, 10, 20, 22, 25, 29– 30, 47n27, 129n13, 171n2

hunting and trapping, 63n5, 65, 75, 87, 103–4, 154, 218, 219, 321, 402, 403, 408–11, 418–20, 424–25, 511, 523, 611, 611n54, 702, 708, 719, 722–23n40, 731, 731n5, 750, 841, 910, 924n1, 932 Hupa, 514, 516 Hutaulinqua, Yukon, 704 Ignace Jacob (Lillooet), Chief, 505n36, 506n37, 514n7 illiteracy, 582, 583 Indian Act (Canadian statute), 618n63, 125n7, 672–73n10 Indian agent, 23, 71, 101, 447, 611– 12n54, 612, 619, 672–73n10, 682, 693, 739n10 “Indian Johnnie” (Nlaka’pamux), 344 Indian Rights Association, 11, 14, 441, 444, 444n12, 492, 502, 503, 619, 735n2, 738n9, 740, 865n4 “Indian Sam” (Nlaka’pamux), 172 influenza, 173, 608n52, 633, 722, 879, 858, 858–59, 879, 880, 880n5, 888, 936, 963 Inglis, F., 384, 384nn32–33 Inkster, Dick (Tahltan), 937 Inskip, Harry L., 216 Interior Salish, 18–24, 41, 43, 73, 82n42, 98n55, 266, 283n11, 304–6, 344n17, 350, 351, 375, 380, 411, 465, 469, 480n1, 494, 495n26, 501n31, 503, 505, 510, 515, 515n10, 518, 535, 560, 566– 67, 575n25, 611, 611n54, 616, 683–84, 715, 718–19, 724, 735n2, 753, 840, 876 International School of American Archaeology and Ethnology (Mexico), 481n3, 489n18, 507n39 intertribal conflict, 302, 345, 348, 359, 401, 410–11, 414, 418, 421, 423–25, 454, 458, 462–64, 469–70, 512–13, 706, 709, 719 Inuit (Eskimo), 515, 548, 833–34n26, 925 Iroquois, 288, 318, 345, 422, 499, 639n12, 776, 845 Irvine, Katherine, 215 Index | 1003

Itcha Mountains (BC), 136–37 jacket, 107, 191 Jakobsen, Jakob, 289, 289n18, 564, 611, 864, 864n3 James Paul (Xixneʔ) (Nlaka’pamux), Chief of the Spuzzum Band, 33, 80n40, 154n24, 961 James Stager (Lil’wat), Chief, 158n34, 159n35, 309, 311 James (Jimmy) Spence (Nlaka’pamux), Chief, 664n2, 889n11 John Tetlenitsa (Tedlenitsa) (Titlinitsa) (Nlaka’pamux), Chief, 505n36, 506n37, 514n7, 611–12n54, 740, 825, 826, 826n19, 829, 833, 845 John Whistamnitsa (X͇ wī́stamnítsā) (Nlaka’pamux), Chief, 8, 102, 102n56, 105n59, 344n17 Jenness, Diamond, 18, 568n18, 601, 781n17, 824, 952, 956n8 Jesup, Morris K., 70, 77 Jesup North Pacific Expedition, 5, 8, 10, 19, 24–26, 29–31, 47n16, 125–26n7, 129n12, 157n29, 234n3, 237, 315n52, 747–48n20, 828n23, 833n26, 967 jewelry, 76, 106, 118, 121, 142, 281, 333, 334, 447, 872, 879, 886, 886–87, 949 Jocko MT, 416n23, 421–24 Johansen, Frits, 600n47 Jones, William, 395, 395n9, 431, 431n42 juniper, 203 Kainai (Káínawa; Blood Tribe), 439, 578, 581 Kaɬáɬ́ st (Secwepemc), 318 Kalama, Peter (Nisqually), 466–67, 481– 82, 745 Kalispel, 37, 42, 50, 141, 167, 209, 215, 328, 332, 355, 406, 409, 411–4, 416– 25, 430–1, 432, 439n4, 566, 590–1, 776 Kalispel Valley (WA), 412 KamḗExa, Alice (Nlaka’pamux), 608 Kamloops BC, 5, 11, 13, 32, 73n24, 79n37, 102n57, 129–30, 130n14, 180n10, 1004 | Index

182, 226, 230, 271n2, 278n6, 284n13, 288n17, 318n55, 342n16, 417, 441n7, 442, 470n39, 480n1, 482, 499, 504, 506, 512–13, 514n7, 517, 571, 610, 693, 735n2, 797, 840, 854, 932, 976 Kaska (Kaska Dena), 2, 4, 13–15, 18, 45, 527, 531n27, 541, 702, 703–4, 709, 717– 19, 785–86, 870, 878–79, 911, 932, 937 Kaxpítsa (Nlaka’pamux), 76n34, 79n38, 105, 165 Kei.māt́ ko (Theresa) (Nlaka’pamux), 608 Kelly, Peter R. (Haida), 937 Keremeos BC, 73, 88 Kermode, Francis, 560n8, 646 Kilkálus (Nlaka’pamux), 165 kilt, 36, 282, 550 Kinbaskets (Ktunaxa-Secwepemc), 267n15, 484, 499, 504, 511–12 kinship, 99–101, 148, 150, 167, 167n1, 192–93n26, 197–98, 218–19, 225, 267, 288, 302–3, 306, 321, 410–11, 415, 458, 462–63, 468–69, 555–56, 608n52, 618, 618n63, 717–18, 875–76 Kissell, Mary Lois, 722–23n40 Klallam, 455, 589 Klatskanai (Willapa-Clatskanie), 496 Klickitat (Awi-adshi), 35, 79, 365, 370, 379, 388n39, 389, 404–5, 414, 432, 432n43, 457–58, 469, 495, 550, 776, 819 Knowles, Francis Howe Seymour, 31, 484–85n13, 639, 639n12, 739n11; illness of, 770–71, 771n7, 772, 826, 826n18, 883, 884 Koín.tko (Nlaka’pamux), 605 ́ Komakstī́mut narrative, 255 Kootenay (Kutenai, Ktunaxa), 13, 19, 21– 22, 25, 372, 376, 392, 399–401, 401, 402, 410–11, 412, 416, 418–19, 422, 424–25, 433, 482, 484, 491–92, 499, 503, 511–13, 517, 519, 528, 536, 541, 548, 551, 556, 558, 571, 573, 576, 577, 578–79, 580–81, 582, 583, 586–87, 587–88, 591, 614, 615, 617, 630, 639, 682, 739, 943

Kootenay River (BC), 375, 393, 399, 403, 425, 438n3 Kramer, Lucy, 16–17, 465n29 Kroeber, Alfred, 10, 11, 239, 484n13, 515, 697n23 Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw (Kwakiutl), 10, 20, 22–23, 26, 31, 45, 47n19, 222, 234, 330, 480n1, 618–19n63, 672–73n10, 868 ́ Kwᴇskapī́nᴇk narrative, 256 land rights, 502, 910, 920 Larrabee, C. F., 320 Laufer, Berthold, 315, 315n52, 779 Laurier, Wilfrid, 11, 441n7, 470n39, 480n1, 611n54, 735n2, 807n36, 910 legging, 76, 94–95, 105, 121, 203, 282, 316, 439, 473, 718, 746, 938 Legislative Library of British Columbia (Provincial Library), 334 Le Jeune, Jean-Marie Raphaël, 129, 130n14 Lekwungen (Songish, Songhees), 464, 468, 589 Lewis, Meriwether, 424 ́ LexomatĪ́nEk (Nlaka’pamux), 608 Lhaq’temish (Lummi people), 253, 254n2, 259, 440, 450, 467–68, 470, 497, 589 Liard River Bands (Daylu Dena), 384, 547, 717 Liard River (BC), 536, 695, 703–4, 711 Lil’wat, St’at’imc (Lillooet), 32, 87, 91, 124, 124n11, 135, 138, 140, 141, 144, 155, 157n32, 158, 159, 159n35, 160, 170, 178, 206, 220–21n9, 221, 222, 225, 227, 247–48, 250, 252, 300–303, 306, 307, 313, 315–17, 333, 339, 355– 56, 376, 395, 414, 422, 473, 482, 484, 486n15, 505n36, 514n7, 519, 528, 536, 541, 594, 597, 638, 682, 731, 737, 776, 835, 843, 868, 876, 878, 900–901 Lillooet River (BC), 159, 171–72, 302, 309, 310–11 LîkLáḵᴇtᴇn, 207

Little Lillooet Lake (Nonesús) (BC), 310–11 Little Shuswap Lake (BC), 382, 396, 514 loom, 254, 260, 261, 265, 268, 400 lost knowledge and language, 102, 110, 122, 468, 620, 762, 876, 878, 908 Louis, Manuel (Sinixt), 608 Lower Lillooet River (BC) (Nkalátkoᴇm), 311 Lowie, Robert, 11, 33, 36, 39, 45, 569, 681 Lytton BC, xiv, 5, 20, 22, 24, 66n14, 75, 80n40, 102–3n57, 124, 125n7, 129, 133, 168, 199, 204, 205, 256, 351, 393, 395–96, 429, 483, 483n9, 485, 594–95, 608n52, 621–22, 722–23n40, 739n10, 763, 766, 826, 847, 847n32, 908 MacKay, Agnes, 652 Mackay, Alistair, 600, 600n48 MacNeish, June Helm, 18 Makah, 450, 454, 464–65 Mallery, Garrick, 94 manitou (spirit power), 157, 173–5, 198– 99, 202–3, 225, 228, 305–6, 414, 416, 505n36, 554, 616, 626n61, 684, 715, 840–42 marriage. See kinship Marshall, John, 521–22n16, 634n9, 654n19, 686n15, 804n32 Martin, Rudolph, 568n18 mask, 152, 193, 199, 201, 259, 259n11, 673 Mason, John Alden, 481n3, 509n2, 515n19, 537, 537–38n33, 541 Mason, Otis, 24, 145, 146n11, 205n32, 218, 218–19n8, 219, 327, 390, 509–10n2 mat, 76, 105, 106, 127, 152, 162, 175, 194, 199, 253, 338, 373n25 374, 376, 380, 402, 409, 420, 519, 528, 550, 586, 636, 664, 669 Matthews, James Skitt, 907, 918n3 McBride, Richard, 482n4 McConnell, R. G., 655n20, 672n10, 747– 48n20, 768n3, 784n19, 825, 832n25 McCrossan, Thomas, 34, 37, 371, 470n38 Index | 1005

McGuff, Peter (Wishram), 432n43, 490, 543, 547, 681 McInnes, William, 504–5n35, 634n9, 655, 655n20, 794, 897–98, 933 McKay, Joseph, 23, 71n21, 72–73, 72n22, 78, 85, 88, 89, 92–93, 447, 448n16, 642n15 McKenna, J. A. J., 524n19 McKenna-McBride Commission, 524n19, 739n10, 910, 927n8, 932n11 measles, 100 medical treatment, 80, 84, 85, 86, 739 medicine men, 99–101, 103, 111, 157, 160, 173, 175, 181, 193–94, 199, 202–4, 207n34, 251, 271, 303, 415–16, 545, 549, 554–55, 685, 763n7, 841 Mercer, Andrew (Nisg̱a’a), 924, 925n2 Merritt BC, x, xiv, 611–12n54, 885, 931n10, 937, 939, 953, 966, 967, 975 Methow River group, 373 Michel (Nlaka’pamux), Chief, 621 migration narrative, 35, 255, 468, 549, 624, 631 Mi’kmaq (Micmac), 594 Milky Way, 201 mineralogy, 189n22, 857 missionaries, Indigenous attitudes toward, 98–101, 682, 772 moccasin, 66, 76, 105, 143, 153, 213, 213, 226, 268, 274, 410, 439, 472, 616, 617–18, 620, 627, 702, 704, 718 Morice, Adrien-Gabriel, 44, 72n22, 78, 79n37, 98, 166, 269, 269n16, 271, 271n2, 274, 279, 288, 382, 533, 637 mortuary custom/practice, 87–88, 79n37, 124, 125n7, 127, 303–4, 415, 420. See also burial Moses-Columbia (Sinkiuse), 410–11, 470 Muckleshoot, 458 Murray, James, 600, 600n49 Museum of the American Indian, 658n21, 665n3, 672–73n10, 956n7 Museum of the Geological Survey of Canada, 168, 926 Musqueam BC, 260, 260n13, 265, 268, 273 1006 | Index

Naas, Niska (Nisg̱a’a), 484, 682, 706, 730, 740, 911, 920 Nahani Nahani, 548, 695, 717, 730, Nak̠ếltse (Nlaka’pamux), 344, 344n18 Nanaái Nannaáis (Tahltan), 706 Nanaimo BC, 63n6, 259, 273, 937 Nápwa (Lapwai) ID, 367 Naskapi (Innu-Montagnais-Naskapi), 925n2, 952 Naskoten, 706. See also Tahltan Nass River (BC), 61n1, 81, 682, 868n6, 869 Nawáweskᴇt (Nlaka’pamux), 165, 834 Necootimeigh, 503 Neilson, John, 824 Nᴇkutᴇméux, 584 Nelson BC, 398, 399, 403 ́ 372 Nesiḷᴇxtcī́n, Nespelem, 45, 377–8, 564 Nespelem WA, 371n21, 392–94, 396, 453, 470, 470n38 Newcombe, Charles, 9–10, 13, 44, 234– 35n3, 263, 277, 278n6, 447, 448n16, 448–49n17, 543, 551, 642n15, 672– 73n10, 722–3n40, 850n35 Newport BC, 406, 408 New Westminster (provincial penitentiary), 132, 132n17 Nez Perce (Nimiipu), 35–37, 50n109, 79n37, 146, 278, 367, 371, 386, 396, 402, 405–7, 408–11, 418–21, 424, 429, 431, 448, 472, 497n27, 550, 614, 615, 660, 684 Nhoiʹtlexin, 186 Nicola Lake (BC), 71n20, 75n30, 202, 208n37, 210, 246, 250, 295, 316, 318 Nicola River (BC), 32, 63n5, 71n20, 73– 74, 74n26, 102n57, 110n2, 194n28, 284n13, 344n18, 558, 664n1, 775 Niisaachewan Anishinaabe (Dalles), 269 Nisquallie (Nisqually; dxʷsqʷaliʔabš), 458, 464–5, 466, 467, 470–71, 482, 496, 745 Nisutlin River (BC) Nkait (Nacaet Band No. 6) (St’at’imc), 312, 312n42

́ Nkamtcī́nᴇmux͇ , 74–75, 74n26, 91–92, 94, 99, 102–3, 129, 132–33, 136–37, 138, 143, 148, 150–51, 154, 157, 569, 620, 631–32 Nkuatkwa (N’Quatqua Band, Anderson Lake Indian Band), 312, 312n41 Nlaka’pamux (Thompson), x, xi, xiv, 2–11, 15–16, 18–20, 22–24, 27, 29–34, 37–39, 43, 61n3, 63n5, 65n8, 65n9, 66n10, 66n11, 66nn13–14, 69n18, 71n21, 72n22, 73nn23–24, 75nn27– 29, 76n34, 79n37, 80nn39–40, 81n41, 82n42, 90n47, 91n49, 91n50, 95n52, 98n55, 102–3n57, 104n58, 105n59, 125n7, 131n16, 132n17, 134nn20–21, 135n23, 139n27, 140n1, 143nn6–7, 146nn11–12, 154n24, 157n30, 167n1, 173n4, 178n9, 186n15, 187n17, 188n19, 192n26, 193n27, 194–95, 194n28, 204n31, 205n32, 208n37, 212n3, 234– 35n3, 283n11, 307n7, 318n55, 329, 333–34, 335, 337, 338, 344nn17–18, 345–46, 348, 349n27, 352–59, 362, 373, 376–79, 382, 388, 388n39, 389, 396, 396n10, 400, 402, 411, 413, 415, 427, 429, 430, 434, 441n7, 448n16, 458, 465, 468, 470n39, 480n1, 483, 483n7, 483n9, 492, 492n24, 499, 503, 505n36, 510n3, 519, 519n13, 523– 24, 524, 528, 532n29, 552n2, 558n6, 566, 566n17, 569, 572n23, 598n44, 608n52, 611n54, 616n61, 623, 630n3, 763, 773n8, 781n16, 806n34, 847n32, 874, 889n10, 890n12 nomenology. See kinship Nootka (Nuu-cha-nulth), 21–22, 77n35, 182, 470, 567, 672n10 Nootsack (Noxws’áʔaq), 450, 468, 471 North Arm BC, 260, 273 North Bend BC, 88, 102n57, 154n22, 155, 351, 391, 391n5 North Pacific Railroad, 287 Northwest Mounted Police (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), 618–19n63 .ntcu‛wā,́ 590

numeral, 354, 356–58 Nuxalkmc (Bella Coola, Bilqula), 19, 22, 32, 123, 148, 289, 469, 724, 868, 876, 911, 932 Nzaút (Seton Lake), 181, 309, 311, 312 Oberlander, Hr., 374 Ojibwa (Anishinaabe), 555, 590, 707, 925n2 “Old Billy” (Secwepemc), 224 Oliver, Frank, 368n17 O’Meara, Arthur, 442n9 Oregon grape, 722–23n40 origin narrative, 578 orthography, xii, xvii, 324 Ottawa, Canada 12–13, 31, 487, 500–501, 502, 503, 504–5n35, 505n36, 509– 10n2, 611n54, 650, 672–73n10, 735n2, 737 paint, 84, 94–95, 121, 185, 185n14, 287n15, 295, 409, 427, 429, 667, 841 Palouse, 79n37, 406, 410–11, 776 Papago (Tohono O’odham), 722n40 Pásxepó, 410 Paul David (Ktunaxa), Chief, 578, 732, 732n6, 797n27 Peabody Museum (Harvard University), 4, 77n36, 252n20, 671n8, 692n20 Pelly River Indians (Nahani), 321, 548 Pemberton Band (Lil’wat First Nation), 159n35, 183, 302–3, 309–10, 312, 315, 444, 514 Pemberton Meadows (BC), 158–59, 169, 171, 181 Pend d’Oreille, 33, 79n37, 382, 408–10, 412, 417n24, 418–22, 424, 432–33, 511, 565, 586, 615, 685 Pend d’Oreille River (WA), 372, 375, 399, 401, 412–13, 417, 422–23, 431 Penhallow, David Pearce, 253, 253n1 Pentlatch language, 20 Pepper, Mr., 271 Petit Creek (BC), 316 Petre, Joseph Lucius Henry, 216n6, 218 Index | 1007

phonography, 134, 164–65, 483n7, 518, 520, 523, 535, 537–38n33, 561, 564– 65, 708, 930, 951 photographic record, staging of, 30, 519, 535, 610, 618, 640, 643 Pierre (Kinbasket), Chief, 499 Piikáni Piikani (Piegan), 473, 512, 581, 590 Pilpiltko, 889n11, 890, 890n12 Pima basketry, 722n40 pipe, 107, 144, 146, 147, 149, 153, 157, 168, 175, 202, 205, 224, 327, 337, 409, 739, 866 Pirie, Samuel Carson, 245–46n10 plague, 458, 858 plants, Nlaka’pamux: Kaʹluwat, 186; ́ a/yellow pine, 96, 650, 663, kām 753; Kazax̳în, 186; Kôkwêla/Koḱ (hog-fennel), 84, 143, 143n9, wîla 223; Kóna/Konḗlp (false hellebore), 121, 143, 143n7, 300, 429; Koyis/ Kwoes/Kwois (silverberry), 85, 121, 142, 187, 187n17; Laʹḵo, 186; Mak̠á/ Mᴇka (Mountain Death Camas), 84, 186, 196; Nkukaxîmús (buttercup), 79–80; Nx͇ax͇áäp (Drummond’s Rock Cress), 196; Pale Bastard Toadflax (Comandra pallida), 288n16; Pûskaếlp (Hummingbird plant), 84; Skámᴇtc (yellow avalanche lily), 300; Skapiêlp, 85; Skoiélux (narrow-leafed tobacco), 165; Slîx͇iö́ź a (sweetberry, Lonicera caerulea), 84; Sníɬkîn (wild sunflower), 143, 143n5; Sôlôpsếlza (mountain sheep grass), 84; Spatsan (Indian hemp), 187, 187n17; Spîkpîḱ (serviceberry), 84, 157, 472; Spûkxîń shas xalá (Scales of the Raven’s Foot sedge), 84; Stcûkîmṓē, 84; Stcûktcêtsk, 84; Sû́xîm (sunflower), 84; Sxûzîm berry, 85; Tatuîn, 85; Tcáwak (Tiger lily), 143, 143n8; Tciwaksönêlp, 85; Tekaza, 300; Texóztz (Soapberry), 85, 211; Tîktîkaza (Yellow Gromwell), ́ 95; TínEx’/ Tînûx (bearberry), 211;

1008 | Index

Tsáuzᴇtîn (Nlaka’pamux plant), 84; Tsǒʹxsatn/SauʹxsEtn, 186; Wásaselp/ Wáxaselp (mock orange), 342; Xaláux͇ûza (fritillary), 186n15; Xla áza (wild currant), 81, 196, 211; Zôlku (cherry), 85; Zoūʹt, 186 pneumonia, 173, 880, 884, 888 Polson MT, 421–22 poncho, 95, 115, 203 Port Douglas BC (Little Harrison Lake, xáxtsa), 157n30, 172, 310–11 Porter’s Landing BC, 707 Port Essington BC, 65 Port Guichon BC, 273 potlatch, 10, 47n27, 66, 116, 415, 618– 20, 618–19n63, 627–28, 644, 672–74, 672n10, 674–75, 676, 677–78, 679, 680, 718, 763n7, 796 Powell, John Wesley, 10, 20, 70 prayer, 101, 150, 608, 616, 840, 842 prestige item, 77n35 prohibition, 791, 791n25 psychological experiment, 801, 804, 926 puberty rite, 81, 84, 113, 150, 150n15, 195– 98, 415, 525, 533, 718, 840, 842–43 Pueblo languages, 955 Pueblo Tribes, 904 Pugh, Edward William, 483, 483n9 Putnam, Frederic Ward, 8, 77n36, 252, 692 Puyallup Tribe (puyaləpabš), 378, 440, 458 Qế˥amix village, 208 Queets, 446n15, 454, 461, 464 Quileute Tribe, 450, 454, 459, 464–65 quill, 94, 191, 197, 272, 274, 278, 282, 333, 348, 379, 409, 414, 427–29, 444, 447, 450, 473, 645, 718, 876, 878–79 Quinault, 133n19, 440, 446, 451, 454n20, 455, 455n23, 458, 460, 461–62, 464–65 Qwaroˊtus (Koro’tu), Nicodemus, 33, 565, 565n16 Qwayntkwu, Rachel (Nlaka’pamux), 962

Radin, Paul, 481n3, 500, 509n2, 537n33, 737n6 Ravalli MT, 421 Raven narrative, 119, 199, 384, 535, 718, 730, 811 Reichard, Gladys, 16, 18, 48n38, 284n14, 565n16, 755n27 religion, Indigenous relationship with formal, 99, 101–2, 467n32 reservation system, 544, 739n10, 754, 826, 910, 910n25, 924n1, 932n11 residential school, 130, 132n17, 366, 371 Revais, Michel, 33, 37, 47n24, 566, 685 Revelstoke BC, 246, 246n11, 292, 294, 294n2, 403 revivalism, 541, 565 Rivet, Paul, 17 Robert (Nootsack), Chief, 477 Roberts, Helen, 15–16, 552–53n2, 568n18, 717n38, 814–15n8, 824n16, 871n7, 905 robe, 94, 144, 146, 172, 201, 334, 337, 408–9, 415, 447–48, 458, 499, 718, 722–73n40, 724 rock art/painting, 2–3, 9, 94, 109, 113, 114, 117n5, 123, 145, 148, 157, 162, 226, 285, 840–43 Roipellst (Nlaka’pamux), 33, 664, 664n1, 763, 763n7, 833n26 Royal British Columbia Museum (British Columbia Provincial Museum), 4, 234–35n3, 560, 839n28 Royal Ontario Museum, 673 Royal Society of Canada, 22–23, 44, 49n62, 182, 500n29 rush, 187, 189, 203, 321–22, 337, 408, 577 Saanich BC, 273 Saanich (W̱ sánec͐), 468 sage, 76n34, 79, 79n38, 106, 203, 205n32, 275, 367 Sahaptin (Sahaptin-speaking peoples), 38, 94, 131, 206, 284, 340, 373–74, 376–77, 385, 420–21, 497, 623, 702, 866 Salish, 1–2, 18, 41–42, 73–74, 82n42,

98n55, 304–6, 344n17, 370, 373– 74, 376–77, 379–80, 385, 405, 410– 11, 417–21, 417n25, 423–25, 430–31, 433, 465, 480n1, 495n26, 503, 515, 515n10, 517, 523, 560, 567, 575, 577, 586, 608n52, 611n54, 616, 623, 653, 683–85, 702, 715, 718–19, 722n40, 724, 735n2, 753, 755n27, 776–77, 866, 867n5, 876, 878–79, 905 Salmon River BC (Nahatlatch), 148, 154, 154n23, 384, 423, 463, 616, 629 Samahquam (Samahquam First Nation), 312 sandal, 333 Sans Poil / Sanpoil, 45, 399, 412, 417, 431, 497n27, 566, 776 Sapir, Florence (nee Delson), 589n25 Sapir, Herbert Michael, 589n25 Sargent, Homer, 6–7, 9, 11–12, 14–17, 318, 322, 364n13, 368–69n18, 387n36, 394, 452, 470n39, 483n7, 504–5n35, 612–13n56, 658 Saskatoon berries, 143n6 Sastoten, 706, 709, 719 Satsop (Lower Chehalis), 440 Sauk (Skagit), 467–68 Saville, Marshall Howard, 155n26 Scholefield, E. O. S., 341n15 Scott, Duncan Campbell, 611–12n54, 618– 19n63, 672, 739n10, 807n35, 821n14, 927, 932n11 Scott, H. T., 221n10, 222n14 seagull narrative, 256 Seattle WA, 378, 453, 480n1, 734–5n1 Secwepemc (Shuswap), xi, 5–6, 19, 23, 29, 32–33, 39, 66n12, 102n57, 139n27, 160, 223, 223n18, 227, 239, 288n17, 289, 300, 303, 317, 329, 333–34, 345, 441n7, 468, 470n39, 480n1, 482, 484, 499, 503, 505n36, 511–12, 528, 621, 623–24, 682, 685, 732, 775–76, 868, 870, 872–73, 878, 964n1 Sekw’el’wás (Cayoosh Creek Band No. 1), 313 Seler, Eduard, 390, 392n6 Index | 1009

Selkirk Mountains (BC), 262, 724 Semiahmoo, 467 Sᴇmtḗuse, 423–25, 433 setʟ (Lillooet No. 1 Band), 313 Shackan BC (Potato Gardens, Sx̣ix̣nx), 316, 344, 558, 588, 588n6, 608n52 Shaker movement, 466, 467n23, 745 shaman. See medicine men shell, 76, 77n35, 80, 106, 149, 177, 188, 260, 274, 281, 316, 333–34 Shetlandic folklore, 3, 246n13, 781 Shetland Islands, 240, 243n5, 244n7, 289, 782, 792 shirt, 79n38, 105, 121, 172, 177, 213n4, 248, 274, 333, 377, 439, 669, 879, 887 Shíshálh (Shíshálh Nation) (Sechelt), 303, 868, 870 Shoshone, 146, 206, 406–7, 422, 424–25, 567, 615, 623, 702, 776 shumach, 85 Shuswap-Cree Band, 318, 499 Shutt, Frank, 660n24 sign language, 411, 534, 681 Siletz Reservation, 19 Similkameen BC, 614, 744 Similkameen (Smelqmix, Lower Similkameen Indian Band), 31–33, 71–74, 76, 88, 89–90, 92, 124, 189, 284, 565–66, 624 Sinixt (.s.náitcᴇkstᴇx̣, Lake, Lake-Trout People, Kootenay Mouth Band), xvi– xvii, 6, 30–31, 35, 372, 399, 401, 402– 3, 417, 426, 426n36, 438n3, 495n26 Sioux, 334, 407, 419 Sisiū́lâx, 345 Six͇wílixken (Sixwilexken), 224 skin and pelt, 66, 94, 104, 106, 118, 136, 143, 185n14, 201, 333, 408–9, 427, 458, 586, 669, 684, 688, 718, 724, 770, 866, 879. See also hair and fur skirt, 76, 76n34, 879, 887 Skokomish, 458–60, 464–65, 466n31 Skykomish (Sq’ixʷəbš), 471 Skwiāx́ ᴇnᴇmux͇ (Arrow Arm Man) narrative, 255–56 1010 | Index

́ Skwokwá and Tsᴇskī́kik narrative, 257 slate, 316, 335, 731 .slâtéuse, 432–33 Sla ús (Slosh Band No. 5, Seton Lake Band), 313 slavery, 411, 424, 465, 469, 472, 706 smallpox, 71, 89, 100, 289, 396, 421, 512 Smith, Harlan, 5, 24, 80n40, 105n59, 125n7, 416, 484–85n13, 501n32, 617, 821 Smith, Mrs., 161, 322 Smithsonian Institution, 4, 362, 441, 612– 13n56, 629n2, 828n23, 935n2 Snare Indians, 615, 912 ‘S.niálᴇmen, 399, 410–11 Snohomish (Sduhubš), 465, 467–71, 724n1 Snoqualmie (Snoqualmie Indian Tribe, Sdukʷalbixʷ), 458, 467, 469–70 snowshoe, 107, 136, 146, 268, 400, 702, 704, 718 socialism, expressed by Teit, 7, 441, 740, 754, 787n21, 791, 857, 859, 876n15 Soda Creek (BC), 123, 226, 34 Somers MT, 421 song, 30, 33, 105n59, 483n7, 505n36, 506n37, 534–35, 537–38n33, 538, 540–41, 565, 572n23, 611n54, 617, 681, 682, 719, 740, 762, 763 Spallumcheen BC, 32, 66, 226, 267, 284, 402–3, 812n5 speech-making, 78, 111n4, 199, 210, 318, 318n55, 497n27, 675 Spences Bridge BC, 5–6, 8, 10, 13, 17, 27, 30, 61n3, 66, 71n20, 73, 76, 79n37, 90, 91n49, 102n56, 105n59, 110n2, 117, 132n17, 134n21, 168, 188, 207, 295, 344n17, 351, 368, 486n15, 524, 558, 572n23, 598n44, 664n2, 723, 735n2, 838, 858, 889, 889n11, 975 Spier, Gunther, 972n4 Spinden, Herbert, 36, 386, 407, 410, 660 spirit world narrative, 82, 201, 227–82 Spokane tribe, 32, 276, 278, 371–2, 410–1, 413, 421, 528, 568, 776

Spoxanī́calt narrative, 414, 666 Spuzzum BC, 61n3, 80n40, 148–49, 162, 301, 447, 523, 524–25, 635, 722– 23n40, 760, 806 Squamish (Skwxu7mesh), 22, 303, 356, 468, 868, 870, 911 Squaxon (Squaxin), 458 Stalo (Sto:lo; Lower Fraser Salish), 133, 301–2, 304, 519, 523, 524, 528, 682, 732, 775, 911 Steedman, Elsie Viault, 16, 186n15, 856n40, 972n4 Stefansson, Vilhjalmur, 564n14, 568n18, 600, 618 Stein BC, 66n14 Steveston BC, 259, 260n12 St. Ignatius Mission MT, 422, 422n31, 511 Stikine River (BC), 268, 469, 699, 715, 717, 719, 784–85n19, 837 St. Mary’s Mission BC, 102n57, 132n17, 141n2 stone, 30, 68, 76, 79, 95–97, 105–7, 113, 116–17, 118, 121, 149, 152, 170, 175– 76, 176, 184, 185–87, 196, 202, 205, 230, 260, 273, 280–81, 316–17, 335, 399–400, 416, 420, 439, 450, 472, 524, 578, 582, 670, 688, 718, 731, 763, 803, 841, 843, 907, 964 Stoney (Stony) Nakoda, 319, 511, 776 ́ Stuwixamux (Stuwī́x́ Stuwix, Stᴇ‘wī́x, Emux̳) (Nicola Athapaskan), xiii, 22– 23, 33, 71, 71n21, 74–75, 85, 88–90, 93, 456, 493, 493n25, 744, 775 substance use, 467n32 suicide, 68 Swanton, J. R., 37, 289, 672n10 sweat bath, 201–2, 213, 239, 271, 377 Swiwamish (Lower Skagit Lower Skagit), 467 Syilx (Okanagan), xvi, 6, 30, 32, 34, 441n7, 761, 879, 940 syphilis, 100, 798 Tagish (Tagish Khwáan) Yukon, 548, 704, 718

Tahltan, 8, 268–69, 279, 380, 383n31, 384, 448–49n17, 473, 484, 541, 555– 56, 719, 724, 731n5, 744, 870, 879 Tahltan River (BC), 730 Taítnapam (Upper Cowlitz), 411, 457–59 Takelma (Dagelma), 5, 784 Tampico WA, 281 Tana dialect, 452 Tate, Charles Montgomery, 619, 619n64 tattoo, 2, 75, 145, 210–1n2, 251, 260, 295, 306 Taylor, Mr., 206 Tcaléɬ (Tsalalh First Nation) (Mission Band No. 1), 312, 312n43 Tcêkwáxên (Red Shafted Flicker) narrative, 157 Tcuiếska (Nlaka’pamux), 33, 75, 75n32, 78, 89, 212 teeth, 76, 281, 334 Teit, Antko (Nlaka’pamux), 7, 65n9, 105n59, 833n26 Teit, Erik, 693n21, 975, 975n5 Teit, Inga, 693n21, 808, 975n5, 976 Teit, Leonie Josphine (nee Morens), 7, 271n3, 693n21, 968, 970 Teit, Magnus, 693n21, 976 Teit, Rolf, 976n21 Teit, Sigurd, 32, 284n13, 693n21, 976 Tekoa WA, 406n19, 407 Telegraph Creek (BC), 279, 321, 384, 384n32, 695, 701n29, 864n2 Temagami (Tema-Augama Anishnabai) 707 Temiskaming (Timiskaming First Nation), 707 Tᴇmǘx narrative, 198 ́ Tenasī́na, 499 Teslin Lake (BC), 321, 383, 704 The Dalles OR, 369–70, 379, 419, 470, 503, 777 Thibet Creek (BC), 712 Thomas Adolph (Lillooet), Chief, 604, 847 Thompson River (BC), 7–8, 32, 66n14, 72n22, 73n24, 102n56, 134n20,

Index | 1011

Thompson River (BC) (cont.) 162n39, 167, 178n9, 194n28, 218, 231n30, 271n3, 272, 344n18, 378–79, 434, 480n1, 505n36, 563n12, 598n44, 611–12n54, 636n11, 664n1, 730n4, 826n19, 889n11, 890n12, 964n1 Thunder narrative, 157, 229n28, 415, 666 Tîmskôlaxán (Nicola Athapaskan, Nlaka’pamux), 33, 89 Tinné (Dene), 22, 65, 72–75, 79, 89, 94, 182, 249, 284, 744 Tlahus (Klahuse First Nation), 254 Tlakatskaneí-́ a (Tlatskanai Tribe), 456–57 Tlingit, 21, 321, 364n13, 534–5, 556, 703– 4, 703n31, 706, 718, 769, 785–6, 794, 868, 870, 876, 878–79, 904–5n19, 931 Tl’sqox (Tl’esqox, Toosey, Riske Creek Band), 318 Tobacco Plains (BC), 509, 511–12 Tobacco Plains Indian Band (ʔak̓ inkumǂasnuqǂiʔit), 513, 577–78, 633, 693, 732, 732n6 toboggan, 157 tool, 95, 98, 112, 149, 150, 174, 177, 189, 196, 222, 306, 376, 535, 541, 610, 669–70, 677, 702, 704, 731 totem, 160, 301, 304, 306, 555–56, 701n29, 924 Tsamúlaux narrative, 199, 203, 205 Tsᴇntāĺ .ks (Nlaka’pamux), 887 Tsetsāút, 61, 705, 709, 719 Tsêzotḗne Sesotena (Kaska Dena), 717 Tsilighesket (Nlaka’pamux), 33 Tsimshian, 21, 63, 163, 365 Ts’khene (Sekani), 18, 319, 535–6, 703, 709, 718–9, 873 Tsóstko (Emma Drynock) (Nlaka’pamux), 887, 889–90, 889n11 T’Sou-ke (Sooke), 468 Tsq’escen’ (Tsq’escenemc, Canim Lake Band), 230, 319, 329, 347 Tsuntia narrative, 84 Tsuu T’ina (Sarcee), 590 Tulalip WA, 716–17n38, 734–35n1 Tulameen River (BC), 189 1012 | Index

Tunāx́ e (Tunáxe, gutEnāx́ a, Kutnāx́ a), 424–25, 433, 493, 512–13, 517, 578– 79, 797. See also Kootenay (Kutenai, Ktunaxa) Twana, 440, 458–59, 464, 471 two-spirit, 81 typhoid, 13, 616, 636, 639, 640, 641, 771n7 Ululamếllst, Babtiste (Nlaka’pamux), 33, 207n34 Umatilla, 369–70, 410, 421 Umatilla Reserve, 369 University of British Columbia, 80n39, 500n29, 642n15, 654, 930, 936 University of California, 11, 514n8, 697 University of Washington, 5 U.S. Department of Indian Affairs/Bureau of Indian Affairs, 287, 320, 544n39 U.S. Geological Survey, 287, 441n6 U.S. Library of Congress, 334 Ute Tribe, 411 Vahl, Martin, 881 Vancouver BC, x, xiv, 24, 47n19, 77n35, 92n51, 125n7, 133, 260, 260n12, 260n13, 271n2, 294, 444n12, 454, 464, 468, 480n1, 519n14, 534, 543, 545, 601, 619, 658, 692, 722, 740, 767, 806, 812n5, 850n35, 860n2, 865, 918, 930, 932, 937–38, 941, 950n2, 952 Vermillion Band (Tallcree, Anishinabe Tallcree First Nation), 615 Vernon BC, 32, 284n13, 739n10 Victoria BC, 9, 19–21, 28, 208, 234, 234– 35n3, 253, 448n16, 518, 522, 528, 529, 529n23, 563, 574, 596n43, 600, 635, 767, 806, 907, 928n3 Victoria Memorial Museum, 448–49n17, 500n29, 655n20, 658n21, 925n2, 930n10, 933 Vinson, Valient Vivian, 519, 519n14 Vowell, A. W., 72n22 wage, 40, 108, 138, 266, 279, 361, 482, 484, 485, 487–8, 490, 520–21, 525,

527, 542, 558, 686, 731, 791, 849, 851, 855, 911–12, 961, 976 Wakashan, 20 Wall, Dr., 88 Wallawalla (Walawalaɬama), 79, 126–27, 369, 406, 410, 419–21 Wasco, 369–70, 276, 279, 404–5, 495, 661 Waneta BC, 399, 403, 426 war narrative, 219, 220n9, 345–46, 348, 359, 363, 414, 681 watercraft, 95, 127, 132–33, 148, 224, 246, 250, 375, 401, 406, 409–11, 412, 420, 426, 426n36, 426, 469, 556, 683, 843 Waugh, Frederick W., 506n37, 925n2, 954n5 Waxtko (Nlaka’pamux), 9, 33, 105n59 weapon, 69n18, 100, 199, 399, 407, 418, 425, 582, 615, 681, 684 Webster, John McAdams, 371, 371n22 Wᴇlápakotélì, Willapa River tribe, 457 Wenatchee (Wenatchi, šnp͐əšqʷáw͐ šəxʷ/ Np͐əšqʷáw͐ šəxʷ), 373–4, 404–5, 417, 431n41, 468–9, 646 Westminster Exhibition, 611, 611n54 white doctors, Indigenous relationship with, 99–100 white pine, 401 Whitfield, Robert Parr, 281n7 wild celery, 85 wild potato, 85 wild rose, 85 wild strawberry, 84 Willapas (Su‛wál, Su‘wāll) (Kwalhioqua), 34, 457, 459, 460, 463–65, 481, 482, 496, 744 Williams, Bryan, 9, 731, 731n5 Williamson, David J., 216 Willoughby, Charles, 470–71n39, 671n8, 692n20 willow, 97, 408 Wilson, Emeline, 812, 812n5 Winser, John H., 263 Wintemberg, William John, 954, 954n5 Wishram, 378–79, 404–5, 431, 432n43

Wissler, Clark, 36, 39, 46, 296n4, 515n10, 614, 661, 671n8, 683, 685 wolf moss, 722–3n40 wood, 82, 84, 85, 96–97, 115, 121,160, 177, 184, 196, 199, 374, 631–33, 718 Woodward, Anthony, 236 wool, 35, 221, 248, 316, 333, 335, 337, 408, 420, 447, 458, 722–23n40, 724, 882 World’s Columbian Exposition, 8, 278n6, 387n26 World War I, 13, 500n29, 568n18, 644, 644n16, 648, 652, 659n22, 662, 668, 688, 688–89n17, 692, 692n19, 733, 737, 740, 784–85n19, 785, 787–88, 788n22, 789, 789n24, 791, 793, 797, 800, 805, 811, 811n2, 821–22n14, 857, 859–60, 893, 899, 935n2, 964n1 Wrangell AK, 542n34, 712–13 Wyandot Wyandot, Wyandotte, Wendat (Huron), 725 XawólEmux (Nlaka’pamux), 605 Xaxli’p (Fountain Band), 160, 313, 313n51, 776, 776n11 Xa’xtsa (Douglas First Nation), 307, 311–12 x͇ᴇsêltᴇn (Enias Band No. 2), 312 Lillooet Xwéxwa (Martin) and Fisher narratives, 257 Yakama (Yakima), 267, 280, 321–22, 371, 373, 378–79, 405, 411, 419–20, 431, 458, 470, 661, 904n19 Yakama Reservation, 369, 390, 391, 404, 406, 432n43, 490, 544 Yakāúts (Mary Judson), 466 Yakima River, 286, 373, 379 Yale University, 148, 150, 301, 525, 722–23n40 Yukon River, 350n28, 786 Yurok, 642

Index | 1013

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