Archaeological Work in Canada

By Harlan I. Smith

The archaeological work carried on in Manitoba, during the field season of 1912, under the auspices of the Canadian Government, has been confined to reconnaissance. Mr. W. B. Nickerson carried on this work as directed by the Dominion Archaeologist securing specimens, and information regarding sites, getting photographs and addresses of interested persons, establishing local representatives and assisting in the promotion of local museums. No more thorough work of the kind has been done in the province.

The archaealogical work carried on in eastern Ontario, during the field season of 1912, under the auspices of the Canadian Government, has been the largest, most intensive, and most thorough systematic archaeological exploration ever carried on in the province, or for that matter, east of the Rocky Mountains in Canada. Mr. W. J. Wintemberg has been in immediate charge, following the methods prescribed by the Dominion Archaeologist, Mr. Harlan I. Smith. The work has been confined to one village site, but included work in a burial place and a spring on the same site. One hundred and thirty-five boxes of specimens have been sent in to the national collections. Many of these contained artifacts, while the remainder were filled with human skeletons, of which fifty-one were found. It is planned, after reporting upon this work, to make an exhibit of a complete series of evidence in the Victoria Memorial Museum at Ottawa and use the duplicate material, including photographs and labels, to supply other Canadian museums and for exchange elsewhere.

The Canadian national collections in the Victoria Memorial Museum at Ottawa will be the result of efforts to increase knowledge, and the exhibits will be made in a manner to dicuse knowledge. They will not be collections of curios. All Canadians, especially educators, are instruted to make use

of the collections often as well as students. It is hoped that time may dispel rapidly the idea, which unfortunately too many people have, that the place is a store-house for curiosities of abnormal and monstrous things rather than that it is an institution of learning. Some of the staff will always be glad to meet classes or visitors and to give them such assistance as is possible. Pending the completion of the lecture hall, informal talks in the laboratories or offices may occasionally be arranged, especially if a few days' notice is given. As time goes on, the institution will probably be able to loan pictures, lanterns slides, maps, labels, casts, and even specimens for educational purposes.

Wooden Monuments of the Northwest
Coast Indians

Curious Totems and Their Meaning
By Felix J. Koch

N the Bella Coola valley about midway along the British Columbia coast, Smith saw chipped implements, marking the farthest north of the art of chipping stone in British Columbia. Evidences were also found here of the relation of the earlier people to those of the interior. Although the Indians have given up most of their old life, he still found many purely native manufacturers among them. Pictures bruised on some of the rocks by the native Indians were seen near Wrangel. The first stop of any length was at Victoria, a town perhaps more typically English than any other in America. The Indians have been little disturbed, so that even near the city both the southern Salish and the Nootka groups may be studied. Among the interesting photographs and sketches made here were one of an Indian making dugout canoe from a cedar tree, and one of a Nootka man carving a totem pole.

From Victoria the expedition went by steamer to a small island near the northern end of Vancouver Island, where at Alert Bay there is a tribe of the Kwakitul. In spite of the influence of several other races living and working in their midst, the Indians of Alert Bay in many ways keep to their old method of living. For instance, although there has been a missionary here for a long time, he has not been able to stop burial in tree tops, as shown in the tree-grave illustration. The Indians must have practised this custom very recently, as some of the bodies were doubled up in common cheap trunks which can only be bought in the white man's store and are of a sort not made until a few years since. In the older graves the bodies were placed in boxes made from three pieces of wood split from red cedar. One of the pieces served as the bottom, another as the top, and the third was

notched and bent around to form the ends and side of the box. Where the edges of the boards met they were sewed together with the root of the spruce tree. Sometimes the box was painted, and occasionally both painted and carved with characteristic animal pictures of the region.

Some of the Indians bury the dead in the Christian cemetery, but even then show remnants of old customs. Near one of the graves stood a fine bureau in the wind and rain. Perhaps it had been owned and highly regarded by the woman interred, or had been something she longed for, and now that she was dead her relatives were showing the greatness of their grief by sacrificing a valuable piece of property to the elements. The Indians often erect beside the graves curious monuments, such as wooden representatives of "coppers," as shown in the engraving. These coppers are pieces of metal of distinctive shape and markings. They are of no great intrinsic value, but when bought among the Indians they increase to almost fabulous worth. When a copper is transferred there is always a gathering and a feast. The Indians value a copper so highly that the white storekeeper takes the piece of metal as credit and advances groceries and dry goods to the Indians for perhaps a whole year until they are able to go to the cannery and earn money. On coming back from the canneries the Indians redeem their copper securities and use them again, buying and selling them at enhanced values and with special ceremonies.

From Alert Bay the expedition moved northward to Rivers Inlet, where lives another tribe of the Kwakitul Indians, and there a photograph was secured of a perfect specimen of totem pole, reproduced herewith.

The expedition then went to Bella Coola, at the extreme end of Burke Channel, about sixty miles inland beyond the usual course of steamers. There is an Indian village on each side of the river. The one to the north consists of Christianized Indians who have settled here, leaving the pagan Indians on the south side. The houses in the Christianized village are similar to those of the white people of the vicinity. Near the Pagan village, seen in the engraving, dwell Mr. John Clayton and his family. He is the venerable Hudson Bay man who keeps the store and is one of the richest and best known men living on the coast of British Columbia north of Vancouver. In the Christianized village are the

church and the home of the missionary, the Rev. W. H. Gibson. Both Mr. Gibson and Mr. Clayton are instrumental in assisting the scientists to secure totem poles for the museum.

The river at this place is fed from the snow peaks farther to the east and is icy cold. It is very swift and navigated only by long canoes dug out of single tree trunks. These canoes are spoon shaped at each end and are entirely different from the ocean canoes of the coast. They are poled where the river is too swift for paddling. A stranger's best policy is to sit on the bottom of the canoe and leave its management to the Indian owner.

At Bella Coola they found a man carving spoons out of alder wood and an old woman weaving strips of cedar bark into mats. Indians from the interior come to Bella Coola. They look different from those of the coast, are more active and angular. The costumes of both men and women are slightly dicerent from those of the coast. They wear moccasins, which are not used by the Bella Coola or their neighbors, who spend much of their time on the surf and on the beach.

The longest stay was made at Wrangel, in the country of the Tlingit Indians, where are large numbers of totem poles, craved graves posts and mortuary columns.

Kluckwan is a village of the Tlingit Indians on the old Dalton trail to the Klondyke. Here they saw the Tlingit women making Chilcat blankets. This blanket, as is well known, is one of the most remarkable kinds of weaving done in America. It is made from cedar bark and mountain goat wool and decorated with woven designs characteristic of the region. In very ancient times the designs were of a very geometric character, similar to those of the Tlingit blankets, but the blankets which are seen today bear the animal motive common on the carved wooden boxes of these people.

From Kluckwan, Mr. Smith returned to the museum, while Mr. Taylor continued his color studies for two distinct series of pictures in mural decorations planned to show Indian industries and Indian ceremonials, by visiting the Haida at Masset on the northern end of Queen Charlotte Island and the Nootka at villages along the western coast of Vancouver Island.

According to the prominent writers, the typical industry of each tribe serves as a means of commerce and trade among