OCR Text |
Show no BASIS OF AMERICAN HISTORY [ 1900 culture of this extensive collection of tribes and stocks, but simply that the similarities are far more conspicuous than the differences. xThe leading tribes of this area are the Tlingit of Alaska; the Haida of Queen Charlotte Islands; the Tsimshian and Bella Coola of British Columbia; and the Heiltsuk group, of which the Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island is possibly the most important tribe. Even physically these Indians are not homogeneous. Compared with those living east of the Rocky Mountains, they are shorter and have lighter skins. As was hinted above^ ki the most northern of this group of tribes we find certain superficial resemblances to the Eskimo type: the face is very broad but short, and the nose is straight or concave and is but slightly elevated, which gives the features a Mongoloid cast. ^ The eyes are not^ however, except in a few cases, noticeably oblique. Among the more southerly tribes of the group in the neighborhood of Vancouver Island the face is very long and the nose is high and prominent, which changes the entire appearance. 1 Being, like the Eskimo, essentially a maritime people, the arts and industries of the coast Indians which are connected with the sea are particularly well developed; but with a relatively waim and -^ fit climate instead of an arctic environment, the line of evolution has been quite different. \ The 1 Boas, in British Assoc. Advancement of Science, Twelfth Report on the Northwestern Tribes of Canada, 1898. |