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Show TATTOO MARKS OF THE HAIDA INDIANS OF QUEEN CHARIiOTTE ISLANDS, B. C., AND THE PRINCE OF WALES ARCHIPELAGO, ALASKA. By JAMES G. SWAN. H. H. Bancroft, 4n~ fc&-" Native Races, Pacific States," Vol. I,^ r « 57 includes in the Haida family the nations occupying the coast and islands from the southern extremity of Prince of Wales Archipelago to the Bentinck Arms in about 52° N. Their territory is bounded on the north and east by the Tblinkeet and Carrier nations of the Hyperboreans, and on the south by the Nootka family of the Columbians. Its chief nations, or, more correctly speaking, bands, whose boundaries, however, can rarely be fixed with precision, are the Massets, Skidde-gates, Cumshawas, Laskeets, and the Skringwai, of Queen Charlotte Islands: the Kaigani, Howkan, Klemakoan, and Kazan, of Prince of Wales Archipelago; the Chimsyans, about Fort Simpson and on Chatham Sound; the Nass and the Skenas, on the rivers of the same name; the Sebasses, on Pitt Archipelago and the shores of Gardiner Channel, and the Millbank Sound Indians, including the Hailtzas, Bella Bella, Bella Coola, etc. Among all the tribes or bands belonging to the Haida family, the practice of tattooing the person in some manner is common; but the most marked are the Haidas proper, or those living on Queen Charlotte Islauds, and the Kaiganis, of Prince of Wales Archipelago, Alaska. - Of- tfee Haida tribe, H. H. Bancroft says ( Works 1882, Vol. I, pr-^ ftfc-u Besides the regular lip piece, ornaments various in shape and material, of shell, bone, wood, or metal, are worn, stuck in the lips, nose, aud ears, apparently according to the caprice or taste of the wearer, the skin being sometimes, though more rarely, tattooed to correspond," - The authors quoted by Bancroft for this information are Mayne's British Columbia, p. 282 j Barrett- Lennard's Travels, pp. 45, 46; Poole's Queen Charlotte Islands, pp. 75- 311; Dunn's Oregon, pp. 279, 2S5raad- Reed, wbo says, il The men habitually go naked, but when they go off on a journey they wear a blauket." • How this latter writer, presuming he speaks from personal experience, could have seen naked Haida men without noticing tattoo marks, I cannot understand. On page 182 of the same volume of Bancroft, footnote, is the following: " ' The habit of tattooing the legs and arms is common to all the women of Vancouver's Island; the men do not adopt it' Grant, in Lond. Geog. Soc. Jour., Vol. XXVII, p. 307. ' No 66 |