The Native Races of British North America
9781465669353
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
The “Old World” was startled in 1493 by the great navigator Columbus, who returned with wonderful narratives concerning the “New World” of North America, whose native population he called “Indians” because, strange as it may seem to us, he thought that by sailing west he must come to the land of India. At the present day scientists are at a loss to account for the origin of Eskimo and North American Indian tribes; sometimes the former are connected with the European cave dwellers, who did such beautiful work in bone and ivory toward the end of the old Stone Age. Whatever may have been the origin of countless numbers of Indians, comprising hundreds of tribes, we may be certain that they had inhabited the continent from a very remote period, for in very deep old layers of soil one may find stone axes and arrowheads, which are side by side with human remains and the bones of extinct species of the horse. Not one little book, but many large ones, would be required in order to give an account of all the Eskimo and Indian tribes of British North America, to say nothing of the vast numbers of tribes watched over by the United States. So we shall have to content ourselves with a glimpse at the lives of a few tribes inhabiting country which lies between the extreme north of North America and a boundary line passing from the south of Vancouver Island through the Great Lakes, to the south of the St. Lawrence estuary. Eskimo tribes on the west coast of Greenland are under Danish rule, while Eskimo and Indian people of Alaska are subject to control by the U.S.A. Hence we shall concern ourselves chiefly with the “Central” Eskimo of Hudson Bay, Baffin Land, Davis Strait, and Labrador; while with regard to Indian tribes we may select just a few of those which lie wholly, or to some great extent, within British territory. Although Eskimo tribes are to be found from Behring Strait to Greenland, and Indians anywhere between Vancouver Island and Newfoundland, the appearance of peoples in widely separated tribes is very much the same. All the Eskimo are short of stature (average height 5 ft. 2 in.), well built and sturdy, while the skin colour is a dark yellowish brown, not unlike the shade that characterises the Southern European. In some respects the Eskimo is not unlike an inhabitant of Mongolia, for at once a traveller would notice the broad face, high cheek bones, straight black hair, and oblique eyes. The head of an Eskimo is long in proportion to the breadth, and the very high vault enables a student to pick out an Eskimo skull from a great number of those belonging to other races. The North American Indians, too, are very uniform in appearance, and a native taken from one place could easily be mistaken for an inhabitant of some region far away; for in almost all cases there is the broad face, long well-shaped nose, and pointed chin. To speak of a “Red” Indian gives quite a wrong impression, for the skin is of a coppery brown, with a kind of underlying red tinge. The hair is usually long, straight, and black, but in British Columbia, and amongst the Déné, a reddish shade of hair is not uncommon, while among Salish tribes of the Pacific Coast the hair may be wavy or slightly curled. Of all the native tribes of British North America the Eskimo have by far the hardest and most unpleasant life, because they have no vegetable foods, cannot practise agriculture, and are entirely dependent on the products of hunting expeditions, which for nine months out of twelve are undertaken in bitterly cold weather, and among dreary wastes of snow. Indians such as the “Haida” of Queen Charlotte Islands, the “Kwakiutl” of Vancouver, and some of the “Salish” and “Déné” tribes of British Columbia, are most fortunate on account of a warm temperate climate and an abundant supply of various animal and vegetable foods.
