North Cascades Ethnography of The North Cascades

The ethnographic and ethnohistorical data relating specifically to the Chilliwack are very limited. Accordingly the data compiled in this chapter are of two kinds. They include such ethnographic and ethnohistorical materials on the Chilliwack as are available and, to supplement these, data on the linguistically and culturally related tribes of the Upper Stalo cluster (see Figure 2-1).

The ethnographic information relating to the Chilliwack is drawn principally from Wilson Duff (1952) who in 1949 and 1950 gathered a small amount of traditional life-pattern data from Chilliwack informants. Some additional Chilliwack information comes from Franz Boas (1894) who carried out a brief period of field research among the neighboring Chehalis in 1890, from Charles Hill-Tout (1903, 1978a) who worked with Upper Stalo groups, including the Chilliwack, in the 1890s and early 1900s; and from Marian Smith (1941, 1946, 1947, 1950a, 1950b, 1952, 1955, 1956) who in the 1930s and 1940s studied the Chilliwack and nearby Upper Stalo tribes. Nevertheless, our knowledge of the aboriginal and early postcontact life style of the Chilliwack is singularly meager.

Because the Upper Stalo tribal cluster as a whole is considered by Duff to have possessed a fundamentally similar life mode, whatever the variations in detail, it appears legitimate to generalize with caution to the Chilliwack, where information concerning this group is lacking or seemingly faulty, from other Upper Stalo groups. Here of particular value are Duff's (1952) much more comprehensive and detailed field-derived materials on the native lifeways of the Tail in particular, the uprivermost of the Upper Stalo tribes. Limited information to check and complement Duff's data are provided by Boas' (1894) Chehalis study.

The ethnohistorical data are taken primarily from Charles Wilson (1866, 1970) who, as a member of the British Boundary Commission, lived for some months in 1859 in the Chilliwack country and nearby. Specific data on the Chilliwack and on the natural history of their area -- including their river, Chilliwack Lake, and Cultus Lake -- are included in Wilson's field records. These data represent, so far as I am aware, the earliest documentation relating to the tribe. Information relating to several Upper Stalo villages -- but to none of the Chilliwack -- is reported in the journal of Simon Fraser (1889, 1960), who with his exploring party paddled down the Fraser River and then back up in the summer of 1808. Additional bits of Upper Stalo cultural data are also drawn from several minor sources as indicated in the pages that follow.

As revealed at various points in this chapter, this procedure of placing the Chilliwack data, however limited, in the larger Upper Stalo cultural context yields one special reward: it provides strong, though palpably incomplete, evidence that the Chilliwack were in some ways an atypical Upper Stalo people. In part, these divergent lifeways were plainly the consequence of the group's unique, pre- and early postcontact, side-valley geographical location. In part, they may have been a residue of a pre-White history that differed importantly from that of their Upper Stalo neighbors.

In this section are briefly discussed the early postcontact history of the Chilliwack, the terms used in the past to designate the tribe, the territory it claimed and over which its members roamed in the pursuit of their life plan, its linguistic and cultural affiliations, the meager demographic data available for the group, and the physical characteristics of the people as these are known.

Early Chilliwack History

The Fraser Valley in the neighborhood of the Chilliwack homeland was first explored by Simon Fraser's party in late May and early June, 1808. It is reasonable to assume that early White and métis fur trappers and traders followed Fraser in the main valley and probably moved up the Chilliwack River in their search for pelts.

Data to support this assumption, however, have yet to be located. In 1827 Fort Langley was established by the Hudson's Bay Company on the south bank of the Fraser about halfway between the Chilliwack River and the mouth of the Fraser to serve as the trading center for the area. In 1828 George Simpson of the Company ran the Fraser River from the Thompson River mouth to the sea, only to discover that this was too dangerous a route for the fur trade. Regrettably his detailed account of this journey remains unpublished. December of this same year found a party from the fort ascending the Fraser and entering "the Chul-Whoo-Yook [Chilliwack]," but, after about 10 miles on the stream, having to turn back because of the strong current. It reported seeing cached canoes but no natives. (Duff 1952:44, 1964:54, 56; Fraser 1889, 1960; Phillips 1961 2:441; Rich 1967:275; Wilson 1970:36 fn. 18)

Although at least the more downriver Upper Stalo already "knew the sign of the cross and a few simple hymns," the first organized missionary activity in the region was undertaken in the early 1840s by Roman Catholic priests using Fort Langley as their base (Duff 1964:89-90; Lempfrit 1985:35). The extent to which members of the Chilliwack tribe were contacted is uncertain. In May, 1846, a Fort Langley group went up the Fraser to the Chilliwack to establish a salmon fishery on its banks, a fact that argues for the importance of the Chilliwack as a salmon stream. (Nelson 1927:17; Duff 1964:89-90; Lempfrit 1985:35)

Fort Yale was established in 1848 by the Hudson's Bay Company and a few months later Fort Hope. Their presence in Upper Stalo country initiated extensive contact between the native groups of this area and Whites, a contact in which the Chilliwack must have participated to some degree. (Smith 1955:104)

The summer of 1858 saw a rush of gold prospectors and miners ascending the Fraser to the newly discovered fields on the riverbanks and bars between Forts Hope and Yale and even into the region above the canyon. Attracted by the lure of gold, many Indians turned to hunting the metal and, neglecting to store fish and roots, starved during the following winter. By mid-winter the gold fever had largely subsided owing to the intense cold and the lack of supplies. While the Chilliwack and their territory were evidently not directly involved in these activities, they could hardly have wholly escaped their effects. (Mayne 1862:50, 55-56, 66; Smith 1955:104)

In 1858-1859 the British Boundary Commission surveyed the international border in the Chilliwack territory and its vicinity. Its various supply and surveying parties that camped through the period in the Chilliwack region and constantly criss-crossed it during these years employed local Indians in various humble capacities, surely Chilliwack among them. (Wilson 1866, 1970) These very close contacts must have influenced the native life style, in some cases on a permanent basis, but the records are silent on these points.

Owing to time constraints, no effort has been made to review historical material after 1860 for whatever ethnographic scraps it may contain bearing on traditional Chilliwack life patterns.

Ethnonymy

To the degree that the Chilliwack have been distinguished in the ethnographic and historic literature from the other Halkomelem (Cowichan) tribes, they have, with one single exception so far as I am aware, been referred to as the Chilliwack or some obvious variant thereof. The only alternative designation is that recorded by Wilson in his phrase "the 'Chilukweyuk,' or 'Squahalitch' . . ., on the Chilukweyuk River." (Boas 1894:460; Hill-Tout 1903:355; Hodge 1912 1:268; Mayne 1862:295; Smith 1950a:340; Wilson 1866:278)

Tribal Territory

To understand the Chilliwack data as well as references to Sumas Lake, Chilliwack River, and Vedder River in the material that follows, a few geographic facts, drawn from Duff (1952) and other sources, must be comprehended.

(a) In late precontact and perhaps very early historic times, the Chilliwack River, exiting from its canyon, flowed westward into Sumas Lake and thence northward to the Fraser River. A low bog lay between the Chilliwack and the Fraser, though it gradually grew firmer as time passed. (Duff 1952:43; Fraser 1960:101-103)

(b) Sometime before 1830, the Chilliwack altered its lower course and, having emerged from the canyon mouth near Vedder Crossing, turned sharply to the north. Meandering across the low plain, it reached the Fraser just west of the present city of Chilliwack. The water from Sumas Lake found its way to the Fraser by its own small stream. (Duff 1952:14, 44)

(c) In the late 1880s a downriver log jam caused the Chilliwack River to flow westward again from the Chilliwack canyon mouth, breaking through to Vedder Creek. Now called Vedder River from this point, it ran to Sumas Lake and once more north to the Fraser. (Duff 1952:44; DEMR Hope quadrangle 1970)

(d) In the 1920s Sumas Lake was intentionally drained. The lower Chilliwack, still termed Vedder River, was directed through the new Vedder Canal to the lower Sumas River and the Fraser. (Duff 1952:44)

These data reveal how essential it is to note the time period in question when the ethnographic and especially historical data refer to the lower Chilliwack River and to the people and villages along it.

The borders of the traditional Chilliwack home country were defined in the Indians' mind with considerable precision, reflecting a relatively highly developed concept of territorial ownership not present among all Upper Stalo tribes. According to Duff (1952:21):

The [Chilliwack] tribe held a small stretch of the south side of the Fraser between the mouth of the Chilliwack River and lxwe, a village half-way between Chilliwack and Sumas Mountains. From here the boundary ran due south, skirting the east side of Sumas Lake, to Maple Falls on the Nooksack, thence east along the north fork of the Nooksack and across the mountains to Chilliwack Lake. From the lake it ran west again to encompass the valley of the Chilliwack and that part of the Fraser Valley south of a line joining Elk Creek falls with the mouth of the Chilliwack River. (Figure 2-1).

Figure 2-1. Traditional territory of Chilliwack and neighboring groups as defined by Duff (1952: map 1, modified). Chilliwack River course is shown approximately as in pre-1830 and late 1800 periods. I differentiate between the Stalo group and nearby non-Stalo tribes; also between Upper and Lower Stalo as somewhat fuzzily distinguished by Duff. I label Chilliwack and Cultus Lakes, locate Maple Falls, identify area east of Chilliwack Lake as traditional (Lower) Thompson country, and designate approximate western limit of North Cascades National Park to indicate extent of Chilliwack occupation.

These boundaries are, in most respects, as close to the facts as we are likely to get. When they are drawn slightly differently by other ethnographers, this is largely because, without special interest in them, they plot them more loosely. Still Duff's data call for several comments.

• The westward course of the Chilliwack River from the mouth of the Sweltzer River, which drains Cultus Lake, to Sumas Lake and then northward plots the late precontact and perhaps early historic situation. But the western Chilliwack boundary along the east side of Sumas Lake can only be that of the 1830s or later. Only then, after the bog filled in and Fort Langley provided protection from downriver raiders, did the Chilliwack leave their old homeland in the canyon above Vedder Crossing and settle out on the Fraser plain and make important subsistence use of its resources. Only then did they extend their border to Sumas Lake. (Boas 1894:455-456; Duff 1952:43)
• In precontact and possibly early historic times Cultus Lake, its source streams, and its outlet river were the territory of the Cultus Lake people, not the Chilliwack. (Duff 1952:38; Hill-Tout 1903:267-268; Smith 1950a:340-341)
• Duff's plotting of the southwestern Chilliwack border fails to carry the line "due south" from Sumas Lake to Maple Falls as the description above defines that boundary.

Most important for the present study is the fact that Duff's southeastern tribal line places the northwesternmost corner of the North Cascades Park squarely within old Chilliwack territory.

Linguistic and Cultural Affiliation

To comprehend their cultural position in relation to their tribal neighbors and the ways in which they were similar to and different from them in their life patterns, the Chilliwack must be viewed in the context of the larger lower Fraser region. In this segment of the Pacific Northwest linguistic and cultural relationships were intimately intertwined. It is convenient, therefore, to discuss the two together.

Careful linguistic reconstruction indicates that some time in the distant past the language family now known as Salishan developed in a riverine, forested valley environment west of the Cascades, perhaps even in the lower Fraser country itself or not far away. About 3,000 years ago it spread up the Fraser Valley and over the Cascades into the Plateau. This movement, in time, split the family into its two major units, a Coastal and an Interior division. The Coastal group (and, of course, Interior likewise) carried forward the normal process of language change through time when speakers are isolated to some extent by distance or other contact barriers. It continued to divide, ultimately to produce in the Strait of Georgia area of southeastern Vancouver Island, the nearby Fraser Valley, and the islands in-between, the language now customarily termed Halkomelem, though Cowichan, Nanaimo-group, and still other designations have been used for this unit.

As time passed, Halkomelem spread up the Fraser River to the mouth of Fraser Canyon, gradually separating into a number of mutually intelligible dialects that in the late prehistoric and postcontact period clustered into three dialect groups: Nanaimo and Cowichan, both on the southeastern corner of Vancouver Island, and Stalo in the lower Fraser Valley from Yale downstream to the river delta and a small area about the Fraser mouth (Figure 2-2). Chilliwack is one of the several Stalo tribes, all possessing a common language and cultural base but not a political unity. (Boas 1894:454; Duff 1952:11-12; Dyen 1962:156; Elmendorf and Suttles 1960:1; Fraser 1960:99; Hill-Tout 1903:355, 369; Mayne 1862:242, 295, 296; Smith 1950a:332-335, 338, 339; Suttles 1957:168; Suttles and Elmendorf 1963:48-49; Swadesh 1950:163, 164, 166-167, 1952:247; Teit 1900:168; Thompson 1979:693)

Figure 2-2. Principal mainland Halkomelem dialect communities and neighboring non-Halkomelem Salishan languages (Elmendorf and Suttles 1960:2, slightly modified). Shown are Halkomelem boundaries with Skagit and (Lower) Thompson, tribes also considered in this report. Boundaries are approximate. Chilliwack Lake, the British Columbia-Washington boundary, and northwestern border of North Cascades National Park have been added.

These Fraser River tribes -- the Stalo -- formed a single dialect chain, each population entity differing somewhat in speech -- apparently also to some degree in culture -- from its neighbors above and below in the river valley, with those at the upstream and downriver ends of the chain being notably different. In spite of this linguistic and cultural chain structure, one sharper than normal break occurred in this Stalo sequence. This break was across the Fraser Valley either just below the Chilliwack and Sumas or possibly a bit farther downriver. The six small tribes above this line are termed by Duff the "Upper Stalo" -- as opposed to the "Lower Stalo" below -- a useful designation that will be followed in this present study. (Duff 1952:11-12,19-23; Elmendorf and Suttles 1960:1-3, 17)

Among the various Coastal Salishan languages known at the time of first White contact, which were most closely related to Halkomelem? Although there have been slightly differing formulations by linguists in the past, the kinship seems to be particularly close with Squamish, Nooksack, and Straits Salish (Lkungen, Lkungeneng), this last group including Lummi, Songish, Samish, KIallam, and other coastal and island dialects south of the Fraser delta and on the southeastern point of Vancouver Island. (Dyen 1962:159, 160; Elmendorf and Suttles 1960:3; Swadesh 1950:163,1952:232)

In linguistic terms, the Chilliwack are especially intriguing as a Stalo tribe. There is some evidence that as recently as the late 1700s the group (and perhaps also the Cultus Lake people) may have spoken a different dialect, even a different language than that of more recent years. Perhaps it was most akin to Nooksack of the upper Nooksack Valley, though here the evidence is not fully convincing. Such a kinship, however, would not be out of the question since the Nooksack territory was contiguous to that of the Chilliwack on the southwest (Figures 2-1, 2-2), the groups evidently saw a good deal of each other, and both were upriver peoples sharing rather similar wooded valley econiches. It has already been noted that, although unintelligible to Stalo, Nooksack was among those Coastal Salishan languages most closely related to Halkomelem. (Boas 1894:455; Duff 1952:11, 12, 39, 43; Hill-Tout 1903:355, 357, 1978b:135; Smith 1950a:334-335, 341; Suttles 1957:167; Swadesh 1950:159, 160, 1952:233 fn. 3)

Demography

The size of the Chilliwack population in late protohistoric times is unknown, although, as Hill-Tout (1903:355) remarks, they appear never to have been "a populous tribe."

In 1839, in a Stalo-wide census by Hudson's Bay traders at Fort Langley, the "Chilsonook" were counted at 151 persons. About 1860 the Chilliwack population was estimated by Wilson (1866:278) at 200. While characterizing the 1839 Fort Langley head-count for the various Fraser River tribelets as in general "quite remarkable in its accuracy and detail," Duff (1952:28) believes its Chilliwack figure to be too low, "especially since the 1879 census sets the Chilliwack population at 296." Duff may here be correct, for, because of the early steady depopulation, the 1839 census should have shown a larger person count than the 200 figure of about 1860. On the other hand, as Duff (1952:28,129-130) likewise remarks, probably some of the apparent increase reported in 1879 is the consequence of "the inclusion of some Pilalt," the tribelet immediately upriver from the Chilliwack.

Before the 1830s and especially prior to 1780, the Chilliwack numbers must have been appreciably greater, for a terrible smallpox scourge ravaged the region about 1800, killing, according to Jenness (n.d., MS), "about three-quarters of the Indians." Still other epidemics surely also reached the Chilliwack, and Fraser River Indians more generally, prior to the 1839 headcount, including the 1782 smallpox epidemic and the "fever" epidemic of 1830. (Duff 1952:28, 41)

One of the old Chilliwack villages carried in its native designation a reference to the severity of an epidemic that devastated it: it was translated by Hill-Tout's (1903:356) informant as "melting away" and by Duff's (1952:38) as "to dissolve." Contagious illnesses were, however, not the sole cause of major population reductions: another village was known as "wiped out by a slide" (Duff 1952:39).

Inasmuch as this chapter is concerned with the Chilliwack and their lifeways only in the protohistoric and early historic periods, the details of the continued decrease in the tribal population from 1839 to about 1915 and then the rapid increase in their numbers and the causes thereof fall outside its interest focus.

Physical Attributes

The earliest descriptions of the physical characteristics of the Upper Stalo are those of Simon Fraser (1960:100, 101), who included them in his journal of his travels down the Fraser in late June, 1808. He encountered his first Indians with a coastal cultural orientation -- several settlements of Tait -- in the Yale sector of the river. "Both sexes," he notes, "are stoutly made, and some of the men are handsome," although he could not "say so much for the women." On reaching the Tait village near Hope, he adds further details: 'The Indians in this quarter are fairer than those in the interior. Their heads and faces are extremely flat; their skin and hair of a reddish cast -- but this cast, I suppose, is owing to the ingredients with which they besmear their bodies."

A half-century later Charles Wilson, a member of the British Boundary Commission survey group, provides additional details. According to Wilson, who was in close field contact with the Halkomelem for many months in the 1858-1859 period, these tribes resembled "each other greatly in appearance and habits, such differences as exist[ed] being principally due to locality and the means by which they obtain their living,..." The Chilliwack, however, were a "noticeable" exception because they hunted "a great deal on foot, and, from constant exercise,... [were] much more robust in appearance, and more manly and open-hearted in manner, than their brethren of Vancouver Island." Inasmuch as specific Chilliwack data are lacking and their basic physical traits are unlikely to have varied much from those of their Fraser River neighbors and since careful descriptive information of this kind for this early time level is uncommon, the following general Halkomelem data are worthy of notice.

The stature of the Cowitchans [Halkomelem] is diminutive, ranging from 5 ft. to 5 ft. 6 in., and occasionally to 5 ft. 7 in., or 5 ft. 8 in. amongst the more inland tribes; the women are from 5 in. to 6 in. shorter. The hair is either black or very dark brown, coarse, straight, and allowed to grow to its full length, either falling in one large mass over the neck and shoulders, or plaited and done up in tresses round the head. The faces of both sexes are generally broad, the forehead low, the eyes black, bright, and piercing, though generally small, and set in the head obliquely like the Tartar or Chinese, the nose broad and thick with large nostrils, the cheek bones high and prominent, the mouth large and wide, with thick lips, especially the under one, and the teeth large and of a pearly white when young, but soon discolored and worn down by the hard service they have to go through, masticating the tough dry salmon, which constitutes their principal food; ... most of the old women met with had their teeth worn down to a level with the gum. (Wilson 1866:278-279)

Unlike the canoe people of Vancouver Island with their broad shoulders and good chests but small, crooked, weak legs, the consequence of spending the greater part of their lives squatting in a canoe, the Chilliwack had "straight well formed legs, the result of their more active life, and excursions into the mountains in search of bear and mountain goat." Usually all facial and body hair is removed by both sexes, though men occasionally encourage a small chin tuft. The skin color is dark olive, deepened to dark brown on the face through exposure. People age very rapidly, especially women. As they grow older, they are "much troubled with rheumatism and pulmonary complaints." In 1862 smallpox began its ravages and venereal disease had recently "increased to a fearful extent." (Wilson 1866:279)

Intentional flattening of the forehead extended up the Fraser only as far as Fort Langley in Wilson's day. Indeed, he saw no evidence of the practice even among the older people above the fort area. (Wilson 1966:278)

So much for the unusually rich and detailed ethnohistorical data, presenting, of course, primarily nontechnical observational information. What have anthropologists to say about the physical characteristics of the Middle Fraser people?

Near the close of the last century Boas (1892, 1895) recognized and documented a unique physical type in the Harrison Lake area on the basis of 15 measurements supplemented by a number of phenotypic observations. The type was characterized by a very short stature, a very round head, a flat nose with a low bridge, and a face that was very short vertically and in relation to its height very wide, all in comparison with other Indian types in the Northwest and even in North America in general.

Also recognized by Boas was a lower Fraser River type distinct from but closely related to the Harrison Lake type. This was slightly taller and rather less extreme in those other measurements involved in the several Harrison Lake biotraits mentioned above. Inasmuch as these middle Fraser data demonstrated a gradual change in type along the river, Boas (1895:549) concluded that these tribes "must have occupied these regions for very long times, and that the population has been very stable." (Codere 1949:176-181)

The Upper Stalo surely exploited fully their fish, game, and edible plant resources. Beyond the fact that fish -- notably anadromous types -- were exceedingly important, little is to be found in the ethnographic literature, however, to suggest the relative importance of these three principal food sources and how these proportions differed among the various tribal groups. As noted below, people who had no or few fishing locations within their own territory along the Fraser were accustomed to join relatives in other groups at their more favorable fishing sites.

From a few scattered notes it is clear that the old Chilliwack, in their aboriginal canyon and mountain country back from the Fraser Valley, had access to salmonids, perhaps in considerable numbers, in the Chilliwack River. We are not informed as to the degree to which they joined other Upper Stalo peoples farther upriver at their extremely rich salmon fisheries on the main Fraser. One surmises, however, that there could not have been much of this, for the tribe seems to have been a surprisingly isolated group in their back country. Consequently, it appears safe to conclude that the Chilliwack depended somewhat less on fish -- at least anadromous types -- and rather more on game than did other Upper Stalo groups.

The use of plant foods -- especially roots and berries -- is hardly mentioned in the published Upper Stalo ethnographic studies. Probably in comparison with nearby non-Halkomelem groups with limited salmonid supplies, their exploitation of these vegetable products was more restricted, if for no other reason than because the seasonal occurrence of salmonids and of roots and berries in large part coincided, and principal attention was paid to fishing rather than to plant collecting.

Though no dietary data exist, to my knowledge, concerning the variety, amounts, and nutritional characteristics of the typical Chilliwack food intake, Rivera (1949:19-36) provides generalized information for the Northwest Coast peoples. In considerable measure this must likewise apply to the traditional Chilliwack, with sea products largely deleted and the inclusion of more game and inland vegetable foods. Chilliwack mainstays were certainly fish (probably especially salmon even for this lateral-stream group), meat, root crops, bulbs, tubers, and berries, all eaten both seasonally and prepared for storage. By preference, both dried and fresh foods and both flesh and plant foods were eaten year-round.

Under normal conditions, Rivera reports for the entire coastal area but surely no less for the Chilliwack specifically, proteins were abundant in the foods consumed. The situation in regard to fats is less clear, but the availability of both fish (particularly salmon) and game fat presumably furnished dietarily adequate amounts: at least on the coast fat fish were preferred for roasting and the drippings were saved for consumption. Since among the Chilliwack salmon were not far from the sea, they doubtless arrived in good condition, not fatless and beaten as at the headwaters of very long salmon rivers like the Columbia (Smith 1984:136-140). As an upriver tribe in their back valley with its river prairies and nearby hillsides, wild roots, bulbs, and tubers were clearly available to the Chilliwack to add the essential carbohydrate component to their diet. Sugar was largely provided by fresh and dried berries and other fruits.

In the domain of vitamins far less was known to Rivera. Further the situation is complicated by the critical importance of understanding not only their availability in traditional Chilliwack fresh-eaten foods but, far more importantly, their availability in foods that were processed in various ways before being eaten. Vitamin C, however, is known to have been secured in fresh fruit and vegetables (especially green sprouts) and in the blood of freshly killed fish and animals, many of even these plant foods obtainable throughout much of the year. Salmon was a good source of both vitamin A and vitamin D.

Even less was known in her day, Rivera observes, about dietary minerals. Those that are soluble were, of course, ordinarily leached out of boiled foods with the containing water, yet they were not lost as food, for the coastal groups -- again plainly including the Chilliwack -- customarily used this liquid in stews and soups. Dried serviceberries, which seem to have been available to the Chilliwack to some degree though they grew more prolifically in the interior of the Province (Turner 1978:180-182), contained unusually high amounts of iron and copper and were likewise high in manganese, all necessary for human health.

In short, to the degree that the native Chilliwack diet is understood, it appears to have been more than adequate in its quantities and its nutritional properties.

Fishing

Concerning fishing and its importance Duff's summary paragraph cannot be improved upon:

To the Stalo, with their great wealth of fish resources, fishing was the most important economic activity. In the main [Fraser] river or its tributaries they caught the five species of salmon, as well as sturgeon, eulachons, trout, and other river-fish. They used many methods and devices -- dip-nets, bag-nets, harpoons, weirs, traps, hooks. Although fresh fish was procurable the year around, they dried or smoked large amounts during late summer for winter use. (Duff 1952:62)

All Upper Stalo men were fishermen. The more proficient became in a sense specialists. (Duff 1952:72)

Salmon

The five salmon species of the Upper Stalo country were:

• Oncorhynchus tshawytscha: chinook, king, or spring salmon.
• O. nerka: sockeye salmon, silver trout, silvers.
• O. gorbuscha: pink or humpback salmon.
• O. keta: chum or dog salmon.
• O. kisutch: coho (cohoe) salmon. (Duff 1952:62; Wydoski and Whitney 1979:54-64)

Not surprisingly, all five were recognized by the Chilliwack as different fish and were referred to by different terms, as distinct, too, from steelhead and trout (Hill-Tout 1903:389). Unfortunately, I know of no ethnographic data or recent natural history information reporting how many of these five salmon species ascended the Chilliwack River and, it they entered the stream, how far upriver they swam. That some salmon, at least of the chinook variety, entered and made their way up the Chilliwack, however, is indicated by several fragments of evidence.

• A Pilalt myth, recorded by Hill-Tout (1903:402), that purports to explain how salmon were first brought to the Fraser River tribelets (see later mythology section), concludes with this relevant statement: "From this time onwards the salmon have visited annually the streams mentioned; ... [In some streams, however, they are not good fish; in others, they die in great numbers.] In the Chilliwack, on the contrary, they are good and fine, and are easily dried and cured."
• As noted below, the only salmon run specifically mentioned ethnographically for the Chilliwack River in a non-mythic context is a chinook run of mid-summer (Duff 1952:62). Hill-Tout (1903:390), however, states that "autumn ... was marked among the Tcil'Qe 'uk [Chilliwack] by the departure of the salmon." It seems probable that Hill-Tout speaks here of salmon in the Chilliwack and not the Fraser, on which the Chilliwack maintained no salmon fishing camps in pre-White days. If so, the salmon remained in the stream for a longer period than Duff's data imply.
• In late 1846, a salmon fishery was established on the banks of the Chilliwack River by a party from Fort Langley, sent upriver specifically for this purpose (Nelson 1927:17). Unhappily we do not know the location of this site nor the success of the venture, but presumably the traders must have seen good evidence in the stream of salmon in numbers.
• In Charles Wilson's journal of 1859 occur three entries that attest to salmon of some variety or varieties in the Chilliwack at least up as far as Chilliwack Lake. On June 16 of that year, when encamped at "Chilukweyuk Prairie" close to the Chilliwack River a short distance below the Chilliwack Canyon, he reports being told by Indians of salmon abounding in Chilliwack Lake. In the same sentence he adds that "a reconnoitring party sent forward give glowing accounts of the fishing" in the lake, salmon being presumably alluded to. (Wilson 1970:49)
  
  On July 27, 1859, traveling along the Chilliwack River trom his Fraser prairie headquarters to Chilliwack Lake, he camped that night close to an Indian group (surely Chilliwack), just upstream from the Chilliwack Canyon mouth. These people, who were fishing nearby, gave him "a splendid salmon" after he had talked and smoked with them for a time. (Wilson 1970:63)
  
  Finally, Wilson (1970:73) appears to be commenting on the Chilliwack River and its side streams -- note that he uses the phrase "the river" in the singular -- when he composed his diary entry on October 9, 1859: "One curious thing at this season of the year is the quantity of dead salmon on the banks of the river; in some of the smaller streams the quantities are so numerous that it produces a most intolerable smell & renders the water anything but pleasant for drinking purposes." When he wrote this note, he had been encamped on the lower Chilliwack River, below the canyon, for almost a full month, ample time for him to observe the phenomenon.

From the above data it must be concluded that salmon occurred at least as far up the Chilliwack Valley as the head of Chilliwack Lake. If they managed to make their way to this point, they may well have climbed the upper Chilliwack River into the North Cascades Park complex, the northern boundary of which is no more than a mile or two above the lake. But for this I have as yet no proof.

In Upper Stalo territory generally, salmon were easily taken in prodigious numbers at favorable locations along the Fraser and its tributaries and were easily dried for later provisions. These fish and the landform and climatic conditions of the country, working hand in hand, provided the people with "a storehouse of food unexcelled by that of any other Indian tribe." (Duff 1952:62)

Our earliest historical records -- the 1808 journal of Simon Fraser -- confirm Duff's assessment of the importance of salmon to the Upper Stalo. At least in late June ot that year, the salmon tisheries in their territory were evidently more productive than those farther down the Fraser. Fraser's party of exploration received salmon -- generally "in plenty"- -- from them, beginning with the first Upper Stalo people encountered. (Fraser 1960:98-101)

Of the five species, the chinook and sockeye were economically by far the most important to the Upper Stalo. To aid in comprehending what these enormous salmon resources meant to these tribes, a few details concerning the five types seem worthwhile:

• The chinook variety was the finest of the five species to the Tait tribe and the variety for which the first salmon ceremony was celebrated. According to Duff (1952:62) and his informants, soon after the ice broke in the Fraser, small, fat chinook began to ascend the river. In July a small run, too fat to keep well, passed up the Chilliwack River. The main runs in the Fraser appeared after mid-July, when the high water had subsided. During August and early September they passed upriver in large quantities; these were large chinook, lean and easy to dry. By the middle of September the Fraser run declined, although even larger fish then commenced to run up some of the tributaries.
  
  In terms of the special interests of this study, the Chilliwack statement is particularly noteworthy. Whether the mentioned July run was the sole one up the Chilliwack during the salmon season is not made clear.
• Sockeye salmon began their upriver run in mid-June, reached their peak in August, and fell off by the close of September. Very fat early in the season, they became leaner until late August, when they were in perfect condition for drying. Less favored as food than chinooks, most were used for oil. (Duff 1952:62)
• Pink salmon appeared in late August and spawned for about a month. Large runs occurred only every second year. (Duff 1952:62)
• Chum arrived in mid-September and remained into December. (Duff 1952:52)
• Coho salmon "spawned in the small streams during late fall and winter." (Duff 1952:62)

Salmon were taken by the Upper Stalo with dip, gill, and bag nets, were harpooned, and were caught in weirs. How many of these techniques were in use among the Chilliwack we are not told.

Chinook and sockeye were dip-netted by thousands of Upper Stalo Indians from family-owned rocky banks or platforms over the water. The device consisted of an Indian hemp net attached to a vine maple hoop with a long cedar or fir handle. It was either moved slowly back and forth in an eddy or moved up and down in the water. Gill nets with wooden floats and stone bottom-weights were used from canoes. Bag nets were stretched between two poles held vertically from canoes. (Duff 1952:62-63, 69; Fraser 1960:101, 114)

Upper Stalo harpoons, of medium dimensions, were made with a fir or cedar shaft, a serviceberry or spiraea foreshaft, and a one- or three-piece toggle-type head. The head was of bone, charred wood, flat slate ground into shape, or elk antler hardened by heating and oiling. The retrieving line was of Indian hemp. Fraser seems to refer to just such a device when in a Tait village in 1808. Chinook were harpooned in early spring in the Fraser; cohos in the tributaries. In winter bottom-lying salmon were taken with these devices from canoes by firelight. (Duff 1952:60-61, 67; Fraser 1960:101)

Weirs, some with traps and some without, were widely used by the Upper Stalo in taking salmon. The fisherman speared the fish by thrusting straight downward with a three-pronged leister or by slipping over their head a noose hanging from a pole. The Chilliwack caught most of their salmon with brush weirs, supported by a row ot pole tripods set across their stream: according to an old myth, the method of construction and use of this device was taught the tribal ancestors by Wren. After the 1830s and the movement of the Chilliwack from their traditional canyon home out onto the Fraser plain, salmon weirs were placed in the various meandering mouths of the Chilliwack River. (Duff 1952:37, 38, 67; Hill-Tout 1903:367)

Salmon intended for storage were cut up for drying by Upper Stalo women, using in the old days a ground-slate knife. The head was removed and the fish allowed to bleed thoroughly. Then the fish was cut down each side of the backbone to the interior cavity, leaving the flanks and belly in one piece and the backbone and other bones attached to the tail. After being scored, the two sections were hung over a pole to dry. The summer weather in Upper Stalo country provided ideal conditions for drying fish: it was warm and dry and the breeze blew upriver constantly. The large chinooks caught late in the season when the drying weather was less dependable were cut thinner to promote proper preservation. (Duff 1952:62, 63, 64 Plate II, 66-67)

Among the Upper Stalo not all salmon were dried. From mid-July to mid-August when three kinds of egg-laying flies plagued the area, it was best to smoke fish. In the fall many fish were smoked by preference. The process was carried out over alderwood fires in the smoke house. Among the Chilliwack fish were sometimes cured by being smoked at intervals instead of continuously. This imparted to them a peculiar salty taste. (Duff 1952:66-67; Hill-Tout 1903:396)

Salmon heads were split, cleaned, and dried on a rack for later use in soups. Chinook roe was hung in similar fashion to dry, later to be soaked or boiled for eating. Or it was placed over the winter "in a deep hole about 4 feet in diameter lined with several inches of maple-leaves," perforated to allow the oil to drain through. Then the roe was covered with more maple leaves and finally with earth. Cheese-like in its consistency when removed, it was eaten raw, boiled into soup, or applied to sores as a poultice. (Duff 1952:66)

Once dried, the fish were placed in an elevated storehouse where they could be protected from moisture and rodents for winter consumption. If completely dry, they were stored in boxes; otherwise they were hung up to dry further. (Duff 1952:67)

Chinooks were the only salmon that were dried. Sockeyes were caught for their oil, used "for everything, like we use lard." To extract the oil the entire fish was placed in a wooden trough or stone bowl in the sun and the oil was separated out as it seeped to the bottom as the fish decomposed. Clear, light red, and viscous even in cold weather, the oil was stored in bladders(?) of deer, bear, or mountain goats. Twice on their 1808 downriver journey of exploration of the Fraser River, Fraser and his party were served oil in "plenty" as a part of meals received at Upper Stalo settlements. (Duff 1952:66; Fraser 1960:101)

Sturgeon

White sturgeon, said to have weighed up to 1,800 pounds, were caught by the Upper Stalo year-round in the Fraser and its larger sloughs and tributaries. In winter they were harpooned in the deepest part of the river.

In mid-summer, when spawning in shallower water, they were taken with bag nets, harpooned, and caught with hook and line. In the outlet of Sumas Lake they were even taken in a very large weir. Fraser's exploring party was welcomed in late June, 1808, with a sturgeon meal in a village near Hope. (Duff 1952:67-68; Fraser 1960:101)

When conducting field research among the Chehalis (Figure 2-1) in the 1890s, Boas (1894:460) was informed that the Chilliwack caught no sturgeon. Other data gathered for this present study clearly contradict this statement: e.g., the Chilliwack were said to have eaten a particular moth during the sturgeon season to bring them good fishing fortune (Wilson 1866:285).

The large sturgeon harpoon was a complicated device. It consisted of two long, symmetrical foreshafts, their points about one foot apart and their other ends brought together in socket form to receive the end of the shaft, sometimes as much as 60 feet long. Each foreshaft was armed with a three-piece point, a central ground-slate blade flanked with two barbed side pieces of antler or mountain goat horn. Each was tied to its foreshaft with a cord, and the foreshafts, in turn, to the handle. The device was thrust into the bottom-swimming fish by a man in the stern of a canoe, as the craft drifted with the current. Struck, the sturgeon was played with a long line, tied to the harpoon handle and kept coiled in the canoe. (Duff 1952:60, 67, 68; Wilson 1866:284-285)

In shallow water sturgeon were captured in bag nets dragged behind two canoes. The net was either attached to two poles or, fitted with cedar floats and stone weights, was pulled with two main ropes, one attached to each upper net corner. Fraser, in July of 1808, observed just such a net in use when passing through Tait country. Bag nets of some variety were employed by the Chilliwack in sturgeon fishing. (Duff 1952:68-69, 115)

To a lesser extent sturgeon were also taken by the Upper Stalo with hook and line. Fishing in this manner was carried out throughout the summer, most successfully at night, when the line was tied to a long pole buoy anchored to a heavy rock. In a Chilliwack historical narrative, angling for this fish is mentioned as a central element in the story. (Duff 1952:69,115; Wilson 1866:284)

The sturgeon weir erected by the Sumas people at the outlet of Sumas Lake appears to have been an unusual, if not unique, fishing contrivance among the Upper Stalo. A 200-foot fence of some sort was held in place against a series of two-pole supports pushed into the shallow clay stream-bottom. Horizontal poles ran across the stream, resting on the apexes of these crossed pole pairs. When a fish was observed in the clear water resting against the weir, it was noosed and harpooned from these horizontal, connecting poles. (Duff 1952:68, 69, 70)

Sturgeon flesh was usually cut into slabs and, held open with sticks, smoked in a smokehouse. The head and tail were cooked and eaten fresh. From along the backbone valuable glue was obtained. (Duff 1952:70)

Trout

Trout -- -steelhead, char, cutthroat, and smaller trout -- were taken by the Upper Stalo by the same methods as used for larger fish. They were caught at night by torchlight with salmon harpoons or in Fraser tributaries -- including the Chilliwack -- -with smaller harpoons, single or triple pronged. Fine-meshed bag nets, attached to two poles, were often employed from drifting canoes, a method known to have been used by the Chilliwack Weirs with a variety of trap designs were constructed along small streams. The Chilliwack are reported to have had one with two long conical traps, one facing upstream and the other down. Trout were also taken with small hooks fashioned of thorns or of bone and wood. (Duff 1952:69-70)

Trout were usually eaten fresh. An Upper Stalo fisherman with a good catch kept "only what he needed and gave the rest away." (Duff 1952:70)

Other Fish

In May the eulachon ascended the Fraser as far as the Chilliwack River to spawn. They were scooped in huge numbers into canoes with dip nets. The Chilliwack, as well as upriver people who thronged down to meet these fish, participated in this simple and highly productive fishing. These fish, strung on sticks, were hung from racks under a bough roof to smoke over an alder fire. Eulachon oil was not extracted by the Upper Stalo as it was on the coast. (Duff 1952:70-71)

Suckers, graylings, and other fresh-water fish were caught by the same techniques as served to take larger fish. Fresh-water mussels from lakes in Upper Stalo country were eaten to some degree. (Duff 1952:70, 71)

Hunting

Very little information concerning Upper Stalo hunting is provided by Duff and virtually none, more's the pity, specific to the Chilliwack. This is particularly a shame, for Duff (1952:71) reports: "The fauna of the Stalo area was abundant and varied, and though not as important as fishing, hunting was a well-developed and important economic activity." It might be suspected that this was especially the case for the Chilliwack while they resided along the Chilliwack River above Vedder Crossing with no claim to a Fraser bank sector.

Used for food were the following mammals and birds, according to one of Duff's Tait informants: black bear, the favorite meat; mountain goat, rated second as meat; deer, much used but considered a dry meat; elk and grizzly bear, used less because difficult to secure; groundhog and beaver, popular meats; raccoon, wildcat, squirrel, and marten, sometimes eaten; ducks, geese, grouse, and eagles, much sought after; fish cranes, robins, bluejays, and crows, sometimes eaten. (Duff 1952:71)

Not regarded as proper food were dogs, wolves, coyotes, cougars, seals, weasels, mink, rats, and mice; likewise loons, owls, and woodpeckers. (Duff 1952:71)

As noted above, very little information on animals utilized as food by the Chilliwack is available, but such a list could hardly differ much, if at all, from the preceding Upper Stalo catalog, which is itself obviously incomplete. For what it may be worth, the animals casually mentioned in 1859 by Wilson, of the British Boundary Commission, as having been seen in the Chilliwack country include black bear (numerous and widely occurring), beaver, deer (numerous on the Chilliwack Prairie), marmot (numerous in Chilliwack Lake and Cultus Lake areas), marten (abound in Chilliwack Lake country), and rabbits (many in Cultus Lake sector). A flat stretch beside the Chilliwack River between Sleese and Tamihi Creeks, formerly the river bed, was termed "Grizzly Flat" by Wilson and his Commission parties. Cougar tracks were seen by Wilson in the December snow in the mountains, but whether these animals were avoided as food -- as, it is said, among the Upper Stalo in general -- is not known. (Wilson 1970:49, 50, 60, 65, 66, 67, 68-69, 79)

All Upper Stalo men were expected to become capable hunters. Some, however, became specialists, spending a good part of their time in pursuing game and leading "the fall expeditions to the mountains after goats." Typically they received their "greater knowledge of animal habits and hunting methods" from their fathers and were likely to transmit this information to their sons. A successful hunter might possess guardian spirits for hunting, but this was not essential for hunting prowess. (Duff 1952:72)

Because, as the following facts demonstrate, the Chilliwack and their mountain territory were clearly deeply involved in hunting pursuits, Duff's all too brief summary of Upper Stalo hunting patterns deserves quotation rather than the usual reworking and compression.

Most of the hunting was done in the fall, when the animals were fat. During the summer months, little hunting was done. The fact that the animals were thin, the abundance of fish, and . . . [perhaps] a restriction on hunting animals which were bearing their young, kept hunting to a minimum. After salmon-drying season was over, the hunters led expeditions into the mountains to hunt mountain-goats. There were apparently no sharply delinated hunting territories, but the hunters knew of mountains where there were many animals, some as far away as Chilliwack Lake or beyond. If they met hunting-parties of other tribes, there was no conflict (though. . . [one Tait informant] thought the Thompsons and Skagits fought when they met). These expeditions sometimes lasted several weeks. The party would set up hunting camps, and the hunters would operate out of these. Other men, women, and older children stayed in camp to cut up and dry the meat, gather firewood, etc. The meat was cut into slabs about an inch thick and smoked on a rack 4 or 5 feet high. The dry meat was quite light; one man could pack the meat of two or three goats. When enough had been obtained, the party started for home. The meat was tied up in packs, which were large envelopes of deer-hide carried by means of tump-lines over the forehead. (Duff 1952:72-73)

The Upper Stalo killed game "with bows and arrows, thrusting-spears and clubs, and caught them in pitfalls, deadfalls, snares, and nets," and used trained dogs in their hunts (Duff 1952:71).

Traps of four different types, each with its distinctive native name, are listed by Hill-Tout (1903:399) as Chilliwack devices for taking animals: (a) "fall" traps, which I take to mean deadfalls; (b) pit traps, always constructed with a V-shaped bottom to pin the legs of the animal together and prevent it from leaping out; (c) "noose" traps, which I gather were stationary set snares; and (d) spring traps "made by bending a sapling."

Deer were taken in numbers by the Upper Stalo. In the valleys they were chased by dogs into the river where hunters awaited them in canoes. In the mountains they were pursued by dogs, while the men attempted to get close enough for a bow and arrow shot. Deer were caught in pitfalls in game trails. A hole five feet deep was dug and fitted with two crutched sticks or several sharpened stakes, each long enough to hold the trapped animal off the ground. The hole was covered with cross-sticks, cedar-bark, and earth, which gave way under the animal's weight. (Duff 1952:71)

According to Simon Fraser (1960:98), the Tait captured deer and other large animals in nets. One net of this tribe that he examined in June, 1808, was "made of thread of the size of cod lines, the meshes were 16 inches wide, and the net 8 fathoms long." Presumably other Upper Stalo tribelets, including the Chilliwack, took game with the same or similar nets, but the evidence for this is lacking.

Black bears were driven by dogs until they tired and either turned to fight or climbed trees. They were then killed with bows and arrows or with spears. Bears were likewise taken in pitfalls of the type described for deer, and in deadfalls. Hibernating bears, too sleepy in their dens to be dangerous, were speared. (Duff 1952:71)

The Chilliwack River and Lake country was evidently excellent black bear country. During June and August of 1859 when camping in the area, Wilson (1970:50, 66, 67, 68-69) reports several bear sightings. On August 26 he notes: "bears are thick around us one or two have been killed by the men whilst on their way from one place to the other & the bear's meat... is not at all bad." Pitfalls were sometimes used by the Chilliwack to take these animals (Wilson 1866:282).

Grizzly bears, against which dogs possessed little merit, were taken by hunters. How this was normally accomplished is not described by Duff. But he reports as an Upper Stalo practice the very special, daring bone-in-mouth method recorded from informants in neighboring Plateau groups. A bone, about 1.5 inches in diameter and 8 to 10 inches long, was sharpened at one end, fashioned with a fork at the other, and provided with a leather band around the middle as a grip. When the bear, approached by the hunter, reared to fight with his paws and claws, the hunter, staying just out of reach, danced from side to side until the frustrated and angered bear advanced to attack with his mouth open. Then the hunter thrust the bone, point up, into the animal's mouth. Closing strongly on the bone, the bear drove the point through the roof of his mouth and the two prongs into the soft under surface of his jaw. As the animal fought the painful bone, the hunter speared it in the neck. (Duff 1952:72)

Mountain goats, hunted without the aid of dogs, were stalked with bow and arrow. In another method two hunters approached a group of goats from opposite sides. While one waited, pressing himself against the steep mountain side, along the animals' trail, the other alarmed the goats. When they retreated past the first man, he pushed them over the side with a stick. (Duff 1952:71-72)

That the Chilliwack were among the Upper Stalo tribes which hunted wild goats in postcontact days is indicated by a historical note from Duff's (1952:115) Chilliwack informant. He knew an old man who "had a hunter's magical formula written down in a memorandum book. One day the old man was hunting mountain-oats without success. He took out the book, read the . . . [incantation] and found six goats around the next rock." Doubtless the only post-White element in this simple narrative is the use of the written spell instead of one carried in the hunter's memory -- and presumably the use of firearms.

Small fur-bearing animals were caught in deadfalls by the Upper Stalo (Duff 1952:71). On one occasion in the Cultus Lake country of the Chilliwack, an Indian -- not necessarily a Chilliwack, however -- accompanying a British Boundary Commission field party killed a rabbit with a stone (Wilson 1970:60).

Ducks and geese, when migrating south in November, were netted by the Upper Stalo from canoes at night. The net was stretched flat on a square frame of four poles. One man was in the canoe bow; the other in the stern. Between the two a pitch fire was kindled on boards across the gunwales. While the canoes drifted downriver, one man held the net, threw it over the birds that were attracted by the light, pulled them in, and wrung their necks. Low-flying ducks were also brought down by loud shouts, a contention also made by several Gulf of Georgia tribes. (Duff 1952:67, 72)

Birds were also shot with arrows, blunt-headed ones for small birds. Hummingbirds, used in ornamenting hats and other articles, "were caught alive with special arrows, the ends of which were shredded so that they brushed out in flight." Birds were also snared. (Duff 1952:72)

The preparation, by the Upper Stalo, of meat for immediate consumption and for storage is not described in the ethnographic sources. However, we have two information fragments applying explicitly to the Chilliwack:

• Marrow was extracted from animal bones and eaten. When the Chilliwack saw their first Western candles, they mistook them for sticks of marrow and attempted to eat them. (Hill-Tout 1903:391)
• When birds were roasted by the Chilliwack immediately after being killed, they were considered to have had a salty flavor (Hill-Tout 1903:396).

Plant Collecting

Information regarding the plant foods collected and eaten by the Upper Stalo is fragmentary and none of what little exists is related specifically to the Chilliwack.

Roots

The following root plants are reported to have been used as food.

• Bracken fern. The most important local root. The long rhizomes were dug by women with hardwood digging sticks, cooked, and stored. (Duff 1952:73)
• "Wild potato." Found locally in patches on low foothills and mountain slopes. A composite bulb like onion or garlic with a 2 foot stalk and a blue flower "something like a tiger lily." (Duff 1952:73)
• "Wild potato." Not found in Upper Stalo territory; imported from the Lower Stalo. Boiled or roasted in hot ashes before eating. Duff (1952:73) believes this to be the true camas.
• "Wild onion." A bulb that grew close to the river; eaten raw. (Duff 1952:73)

Three dried roots, surely used for food but not remarked upon by Duff's informants, were collected in 1913 in Tait country: Lilium columbianum, Balsamorhiza sp., and Lomatium sp. (Duff 1952:73)

Omitted in Duff's brief root roster is the common arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia = Chinook jargon wapato [Suttles 1951:277]). The Fort Langley Journal of October 5, 1828, observes that this root was then being collected by many Indians in Lower Stalo country, and that, dug under water in pools and marshes, these roots were held "in great estimation as an article of food" (Duff 1952:73). It is not clear whether they were also available in the upriver country of the Upper Stalo.

One very early historical reference to undoubted Upper Stalo use of roots is worth noting. When, in late June of 1808, Simon Fraser and his party traveled down the Fraser River, they were provided meals which included roots of some variety at two Tait villages (Fraser 1960:101). In the first case the meal consisted of salmon, oil, raspberries, and roots; in the second, of sturgeon, oil, and roots.

Women and their children, at least sometimes without men, went in groups to the root grounds to collect these foods. On occasion, they remained overnight. One of Duff's (1952:119) aged Tait informants recalled one time long ago when six women and their offspring left their village at the present site of Agassiz, camped at the foot of a mountain to dig roots, and were visited just at dark by a ssxa (sasquatch) which came into the firelight of their camp and attacked them.

Southern Vancouver Island and Puget Sound tribes and groups immediately inland from the Sound tended certain native roots to some degree and even replanted them: e.g., camas seeds, Indian or wild carrots, and tiger lily stems (Collins 1974a:55; Smith 1950a:336-337; Stern 1934:42-43; Suttles 1951:282, 1957:163-164, 164 fn. 23). Suttles believes that this primitive method of encouraging wild root growth was widespread in the area. But I have seen nothing to suggest that the practice extended north into the Fraser drainage. If it had, one might suppose that the Chilliwack, with their unusual back-country subsistence focus for a Fraser River people, would surely have been one of the groups most likely to have followed the pattern. In any event, it is in my mind an open question as to whether wild root tending was an aboriginal practice or a very early post-White borrowing, transferred quickly to local roots.

Berries and Other Fruit

Most berries preserved for winter consumption were gathered in late summer by parties of women and a few men who went into the mountains for a few days. The most important mountain berries to the Upper Stalo were four huckleberry (Vaccinium sp.) varieties: sweet blue huckleberries, found only at higher elevations; gray huckleberries, that grew on low bushes at higher elevations; blue huckleberries, similar to the sweet blue kind but less sweet and found on lower slopes; and red huckleberries, which grew on lower slopes. Generally dried immediately after being picked, they were piled an inch or two thick on a cedar-bark mat spread on a wooden rack about 4 feet above the ground. They dried in two or three days. Sometimes berry patches "were burned to improve their future yield." (Duff 1952:73)

A red, bitter berry that "looks like wild-rose-hips" and grows only at the upper elevations was mixed half and half with sweet blue huckleberries and the two mashed together. (Duff 1952:73)

The following berries were collected during the summer and either eaten fresh or dried for winter eating:

• Salmonberries. Eaten fresh.
• Thimbleberries. Eaten fresh.
• Wild trailing blackberries. Dried by being spread on mats in the sun.
• Blackcaps. Dried like the blackberries.
• Salal berries. Dried like the blackberries.
• June berries. Placed in a backet or small woden bowl and crushed with a small stone hammer. Spread to dry on maple leaves in the sun or covered with more leaves and hot ashes. Stored in the form of flat cakes.
• Elderberries. Crushed, dried, and stored as June berries were treated.
• Oregon grape berries. Eaten fresh, "either right off the bush or smashed to a pulp and mixed with water."
• Wild crab apples were common and were gathered and eaten fresh when ripe in late fall (Duff 1952:73-74).

I have uncovered only a single reference to Upper Stalo use of berries as food in the very early historical records. On his early summer journey of exploration of the Fraser River in 1808, Fraser (1960:101) and his party received raspberries from the people of a village near Hope, in Tait tribal territory, as a part of the meal served them.

For the Chilliwack specifically we have little berry information. But Charles Wilson of the British Boundary Commission mentions incidentally several berries which grew abundantly in some localities within the boundaries of traditional Chilliwack territory where he spent several summer and fall months in 1859. These, which were greatly to his taste, included:

• Black currants. When ascending the Chilliwack River on July 29, Wilson (1970:64) was shown by his Chilliwack guide "a first rate fruit garden"- -- wild, of course -- in the open valley upstream from Sleese Creek. Here were black currants "in profusion." On August 28 in a protected basin close by several glaciers in the high mountains along Sleese Creek near the international boundary, Wilson (1970:70) found these same black currants "in great profusion."
• Raspberries. Raspberries in abundance grew with the black currants in the berry patch visited by Wilson on July 29 (see above); indeed, "one species of raspberry, a large yellow one, was unequalled in flavour even by the best in the garden at home." Likewise near the Upper Sleese glaciers Wilson discovered raspberries in great numbers on August 28 (see above).
• Strawberries. On June 16 the prairie below the Chilliwack Canyon was "covered with ... strawberries," providing Wilson on the 19th with "a feast" as he walked over the area. High up the Sleese, strawberries were growing "in great profusion" on August 28 (see "black currants" above). (Wilson 1970:49, 51, 70)
• A "beautiful red berry which grew abundantly on a shrub" was also enjoyed by Wilson (1970:64), who found them in the "berry patch" beside the Chilliwack River on July 29 (see "black currants" above).

It cannot be doubted that all of these fruit were eaten by the Chilliwack.

A number of berries scarce or unknown in Upper Stalo territory were secured through trade. The following belong in this category:

• Serviceberries (Saskatoon berries). Scarce in Upper Stalo country. Obtained dried from the Thompson Indians. In general used as a sweetener and as such added to soups. (Duff 1952:74)
• Soopolallie berries (buffalo berries, foamberries). Obtained from the Thompson tribe. Beaten up to a foam for eating, with serviceberries added to sweeten the product. (Duff 1952:74; Clark 1976:324; Turner 1978:138)
• Cranberries. Grew near the Fraser River mouth. Obtained in late fall on visits or by trade. (Duff 1952:74, 76)

Minor Plant Foods

Green shoots were collected by the Upper Stalo and eaten raw in the spring. Among these foods were the shoots of salmonberries and of thimbleberries and round cow-parsnip stalks. (Duff 1952:74)

Of nuts, only hazelnuts were gathered. They were obtained in mid-September, put away to ripen, and later eaten uncooked (Duff 1952:74).

"Beard moss" (i.e., black tree lichen, Alectoria fremontii, I am sure) was secured "hanging from certain trees high up in the mountains." It was "boiled black" and dried as cakes, the so-called "moss bread." (Duff 1952:74; Turner 1978:35)

Meal Patterns and Preparation

Certain details of the preparation of fish and meat have already been presented. The following data are supplementary to those facts.

The Upper Stalo prepared food for consumption in three ways: by stone-boiling, roasting, and steam-roasting in earth ovens. Boiling was done in a basket or wooden trough. Roasting involved pinching the meat or fish in the split end of a fir stick and thrusting the pointed end into the ground near an open fire. The flesh was held open with twigs. Birds were kept turning to roast evenly all around. Details of the earth oven and of what foods were prepared in it are not reported. (Duff 1952:74)

Soups, made of fish, meat, roots, and berries, were a common Upper Stalo food. Certain conventions regarding the preparation and consumption of soups were observed: e.g., meat and fish were never mixed; the young were not allowed soup, because too much fluid made them become heavy. (Duff 1952:74)

The Chilliwack obtained a brownish salt from Cheam Peak and used it sparingly (Duff 1952:74). This peak is on the western end of Cheam Ridge, east and north of the mouth of Sleese Creek, and was just outside the Chilliwack boundary as plotted by Duff (Figure 2-1).

We have no information concerning the foods served in the typical Upper Stalo (much less Chilliwack) meal by time of day, season, condition of the food supply, and social status. This is, however, a matter of considerable importance, for this information represents part of the data base necessary for assessing the nutritional intake of the group under traditional subsistence conditions and the degree to which the minimum daily dietary requirements in proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals were met in the normal meal pattern.

Such data as are available for the Upper Stalo in general and the Chilliwack in particular on their methods of preparing foods for storage and subsequent consumption are discussed above. Here we are concerned with the preparation of foods for immediate eating and the serving of these as meals. Unfortunately, there are very few data.

Among the Upper Stalo food was ordinarily cooked, when boiled, in box-like baskets or wooden troughs, these latter sometimes more than 4 feet long and 10 inches deep. The water was heated with hot stones carried with "two pieces of wood with flattened, shovel-shaped ends." While salmon, at any rate those to be eaten in the annual first salmon ceremony, were sometimes boiled in a basket, they were on occasion boiled in a large stone bowl or a hole in a rock, the water heated as usual by hot stones, or they were roasted over an open fire. (Duff 1952:58,120)

Partially confirmatory evidence for the cooking of salmon comes from the early historical records. When exploring the lower Fraser River in late June, 1808, Simon Fraser and his party were served fresh salmon on several occasions as they passed through Upper Stalo country. The fish were either roasted or boiled with heated stones in wooden vessels (Fraser 1960:98, 99,115; see also 101,114). It is frequently reported that fish were cooked surprisingly quickly by this stone boiling method. Fraser (1960:115), however, makes a point that must be taken into consideration in estimating total meal preparation time. When, on his return journey upstream, he stopped at a Tait village in the Yale area, the villagers "spread mats for us, and put stones in the fire to heat in order to prepare us a meal. But this operation required more time than our situation would permit us to spare, and we took our leave."

No data are known to me describing Upper Stalo -- or, more specifically, Chilliwack -- methods by which game, roots, and berries were prepared for immediate eating, except as seemingly implied by Duff's very general boiling statement above.

Upper Stalo dishes were dugout vessels smaller than the boiling troughs and were made in various shapes. The Simon Fraser data agree at the general level: when, on June 28, 1808, he and his party reached the uppermost Upper Stalo village, they received from the villagers "plenty of Salmon served in wooden dishes." Upper Stalo spoons, with as much as a ten-inch bowl, were generally fashioned of a curved vine maple branch; their handles were sometimes carved by way of ornamentation. Mountain goat horn spoons were not in use. (Duff 1952:58, 59; Fraser 1960:98)

While apparently the same or essentially identical in material and form to those of the other Upper Stalo tribelets, some Chilliwack utensils were uniquely large examples of their types. According to Hill-Tout (1903:360-361, 394, 397), all persons of a single community ate their meals together. Consequently, the food for all villagers and for all meals was prepared and served together. The cooking and eating objects specifically mentioned for the Chilliwack are as follows: enormous "cedar troughs, 10 or more feet long and 2 or 3 feet wide"; wooden and basketry "kettles"; wooden bowls; big (i.e., ordinary) and small wooden platters; large maple dishes; wooden dippers or spoons; and horn ladles or spoons, known by a different native term from the preceding.

Food Ceremonalism

Although the data are scanty and to some degree contradictory, the result, in part, of the early adoption of certain Christian beliefs and practices, it appears that among the Upper Stalo the "first fruits" rituals were practiced for the first berries of the season, the first roots gathered, and the first salmon caught. (Duff 1952:98, 119, 120-121; Hill-Tout 1903:358)

The first fish, in some groups chinook and in others (including the Chilliwack) the sockeye, was harpooned by a single fisherman, wrapped in brush, taken to the big house where all persons had assembled, and boiled in a basket, boiled in a large stone bowl or hole in a rock, or roasted over an open fire according to the tribal custom. The fish -- in recent decades the deity or maker of the world -- was thanked by the chief, the fisherman who had taken the first fish, or the oldest man. The cooked salmon was divided among all present, each receiving a very small piece. Depending on the group, the bones were either returned to the water immediately or, wrapped in cedar bark, hidden for several years in the dwelling. The Chilliwack roasted their first sockeye over an open fire, as did the Lower Stalo. (Duff 1952:102, 119,120)

In this rather general section are collected data relating to objects and processes that either fail to fit naturally into other sections, as fishing implements do, or importantly involve two or more cultural complexes, as do the bow and arrow that were employed both in hunting and in warfare. The data are obviously far from comprehensive: many items of material culture and their attendant fabricating techniques and uses are not described or even marginally alluded to in the published literature.

Fire was kindled with a drill of vine maple or crabapple and a hearth of dry cottonwood root. The sparks were caught in dry moss. To start a fire quickly, glowing coals were transported in large clam shells. Torches were commonly made of fir pitch; sometimes sockeye heads were burned for this purpose. (Duff 1952:61)

Artifacts of Fibers, Hide, Wood, Stone, and Anter/Horn

The basketry of the Upper Stalo and their neighbors was highly distinctive for its water-tight coiled variety and for its imbricated designs that sometimes covered and strengthened the entire basket. Coiling is a basketry construction technique in which a long element is coiled spirally from bottom to rim to build up the basket wall, being constantly sewed as the coiling proceeds to that part of the element that lies immediately below. Imbrication is a method by which an ornamenting element is applied horizontally to the exterior surface of the basket as the coil is carried around and is doubled over and pinched in place by the coil sewing element (see Figure 2-3). (Smith in Smith and Leadbeater 1949:112,125)

Figure 2-3. Techinque of ornamenting the coiled basket by imbrication. A. Method, showing warp (a), sewing element (b), and imbricating element (c). B. Appearance of completed basket. Design pattern is visible only on exterior surface. (After Underhill 1945:104)

Upper Stalo baskets were woven by this process, the circling elements being either round coils of cedar-root splints or flat coils of cedar slats. Water-tight baskets were invariably made with the round coils; those for which this property was not essential were often woven of the flat elements. Chilliwack baskets were in all cases manufactured of split roots of young cedar trees. (Duff 1952:57-58; Hill-Tout 1903:360; Smith and Leadbeater 1949:124)

Owing to the structural requirements of the weaving process, the ornamentation of the entire basket through design and color repetition had to be visualized and planned by the weaver before beginning the basket construction. Traditional design elements among the Upper Stalo were generally geometric, nonrepresenta tional, and non-symbolic. By imbrication, white, red, and black patterns were produced. A marked preference was shown for a continuous design structure: the figures on all basket surfaces were skillfully related by their arrangement and/or color properties whether the basket was round or cornered like a tour-sided box. Individual designs were named, but were not owned as elsewhere in the coastal area. (Duff 1952:57; Smith 1949:115, 116; Smith and Leadbeater 1949:121-122, 124,131,132)

"Baskets among the Upper Stalo were of many types and had many uses." Large storage containers, usually of the round coil variety, held clothes and other valuables. Burden baskets, all water-tight, were made in many sizes. Round-mouth baskets served as work containers for weavers and others. (Duff 1952:57)

Woven mats, doubtless of different plant materials and fashioned by different weaving techniques, were used by the Upper Stalo in various ways, but the ethnographic data are very scanty. It is of interest that Fraser (1960:98, 115), when exploring the lower Fraser River in late June and early July of 1808, found mats being spread for his party on the floor -- presumably to sit upon -- when being given meals at Upper Stalo villages. The Chilliwack are specifically reported to have used mats for beds and for floor and seat coverings, the two forms being designated by different terms (Hill-Tout 1903:395).

Yarn was made by the Chilliwack from mountain goat wool and was woven into blankets (Hill-Tout 1903:400).

Nets of many types were used by the Upper Stalo -- dip and bag affairs in fishing, others in entangling ducks and snaring deer, and many other varieties (Duff 1952:58). Specific data for the Chilliwack are lacking, but there is no obvious reason for assuming that nets were of significantly lesser importance to them than to other Upper Stalo tribelets. Nor is there any evidence for believing that any of the net varieties mentioned above were not Chilliwack artifacts, though whether the dip and bag fishing nets were as important to them in early years, when they were back in their canyon, as among the Fraser River groups may be questioned.

Most nets were woven of Indian hemp fiber, generally secured in trade from the Thompson either coiled in its raw state or as finished twine, since little hemp was to be found in Stalo territory. The inner bark was twisted between hand and thigh into strands which, generally in pairs, were then twisted together to create a twine varying in thickness from thread to pencil-diameter. Netting shuttles, usually of maple and about 1 inch wide and 8 inches long, and rectangular maple mesh-measures with a center hole for the hand were used in the netting process. (Duff 1952:58)

"Rope was used to tie up drying-racks, tie on house planks, as anchor-lines, and for other uses." The best was fabricated of Indian hemp. However, long, green hazel sprouts and cedar withes were likewise fashioned into rope. In this process the bark was removed; the sprouts or withes were twisted and worked until soft and pliable; then three of these elements were laid side by side, the ends tied, and the three strands twisted together into a rope. (Duff 1952:58)

The ethnographic documentation contributes little to our knowledge of traditional Upper Stalo -- artifacts of hide. On the other hand, Simon Fraser (1960:99), descending the Fraser River in the early summer of 1808, entered into his journal a very perceptive observation regarding the use of hides by the Upper Stalo folk. Coming into their country and stopping overnight at the Tait village in the Yale neighborhood, he noticed that the people had "scarcely any leather, so that large animals must be scarce." Fraser was almost surely correct in sensing a reduced utilization of hides in comparison to what he had just seen in Lower Thompson territory. And he may even be right in assuming that the Tait, in their environment, had a more limited access to large game than the Thompson on the Plateau upriver. On the other hand, these Tait folk, with their uncommon wealth in salmon and a distinctly lower Fraser River focus, may simply have been less hunting-oriented and so may have taken less advantage of such animals as were within their reach. In short, Fraser was moving in the from-Spuzzum-to-Yale sector from a hunting, hide-using Plateau culture to a predominantly fishing, fiber-using one with strong links to the coastal peoples.

Among the Upper Stalo many items of material culture were fabricated of wood. The plank dwellings, mortuary structures, and canoes were among the larger items. In addition, a large number of smaller objects -- cooking and eating utensils, bows and arrows and other weapons, fishing gear including harpoons, combs, and so on -- were made ot wood. Ethnographic descriptions of these objects -- save for the weapons, for which see below -- may be found in the various contexts of their primary uses. Whether wooden boxes of general coastal style were made by the Upper Stalo is uncertain. (Duff 1952:59)

Figure 2-3. Technique of ornamenting the coiled basket by imbrication. A. Method, showing warp (a), sewing element (b), and imbricating element (C). B. Appearance ot completed basket. Design pattern is visible only on exterior surface. (After Underhill 1945:104)

Woodworking adzes were used by the Upper Stalo in carrying out all fine work on canoes, paddles, house planks, etc. The handles were of wood, shaped like a "D" with a center hole for the hand, and were often carved to represent bird or animal figures. The blade was presumably of stone. (Duff 1952:61)

The ethnographic data are silent on the general skill-level of the Upper Stalo worker in wood. There is, however, in Simon Fraser's (1960:99) journal one brief observation recorded on June 28, 1808, when his party reached their first Upper Stalo village on their journey down the Fraser River. He writes: ". . . from their workmanship in wood they must be possessed of good tools at least for that purpose," although he saw "few or no christian goods among them."

In earlier times Upper Stalo baskets were also fashioned of birch bark. The seams were pitched and sewn with cedar-root splints and the rim strengthened with a cedar-root hoop sewn in place. (Duff 1952:57)

Stone bowls, carved in animal and human figures, are found archaeologically in the Upper Stalo region. Poison was said by Duff's informant to have been mixed in them and pigment to have been ground and mixed with fish oil. But no interpretation of the carved figures was attempted. Large stone bowls were sometimes used in ethnographic times to cook salmon, at least for the annual first salmon ceremony. (Duff 1952:61,120)

Shells, evidently largely if not wholly traded in from the coast, were used by Upper Stalo in Fraser's time. When on June 28,1808, Fraser arrived at their village in the vicinity of Yale, he noted "ornaments . . . of . . . shells of different kinds, [and] shell beads." In this same camp posts of a newly erected mortuary structure were covered with shining shells. (Fraser 1960:99-100)

Upper Stalo artifacts of horn or antler included harpoon and spear points and wood-working wedges. Fraser (1960:99, 100, 101) saw among the Tait "horn Powmagans" (clubs), "horn bracelets," and "spears [apparently harpoons] . . . of horn" with long wooden handles. Quite obviously, horn/antler was a useful material where integral strength, weight, and sharp points were at a premium.

Weapons

Bows among the Upper Stalo were of yew or vine maple, constricted in the center for the hand-hold and with recurved tips. A fairly large bow is said to have measured 4.5 feet in length and 2 inches in width. Some were strengthened with a layer of sinew from a deer's back: the sinew was dried, trimmed, affixed with sturgeon glue to the convex side of the bow, and sometimes covered with bullsnake skin. Bows were often decorated, as with painted animal figures. They were strung with a two-strand Indian hemp string. (Duff 1952:59)

Arrow shafts were of serviceberry wood, either a small round sprout or, for hunting, a larger, tougher stem split into quarters and rounded. Most were pointed by merely charring and sharpening the end. Some hunting arrows, however, were fixed with ground slate or possibly bone points. War arrows may have been tipped with "flint" points, fashioned by placing the blank on edge in a groove in a piece of wood and flaking it bilaterally by indirect percussion with a nephrite "pencil" and hammer. War points were said to have been "poisoned" by being dipped in human brain. Arrows were feathered with two whole mallard or woodpecker tail feathers, bound in place with deer sinew. They were "laid on tangentially opposite each other," quill end toward the arrow butt. Occasionally they were "given a half-twist to impart a rotary motion ... in flight." (Duff 1952:59)

Quivers were made of beaver skin, sewn into a bag with an awl and with sinew or Indian hemp thread. They were carried over the shoulder with a woven Indian hemp tumpline, sometimes ornamented with wefts of colored mountain goat wool. (Duff 1952:60)

Twice while descending the Fraser River in June, 1808, through the Upper Stalo territory, Fraser (1960:99) records seeing bows and arrows in the settlements visited. Those at the first village he came to, still within the lowest reaches of the canyon above Yale, were "very neat." And in another camp a short distance downriver bows and arrows were observed among the village weaponry.

In shooting, the bow was held horizontally by the Upper Stalo, wrist up, whenever possible, with the arrow feathers up and down so as to pass between the index and second finger of the bow hand. It was drawn with the right hand by grasping the arrow butt between the thumb and the second joint of the index finger. (Duff 1952:60)

Slings, used in Upper Stalo warfare, "consisted of an elongated diamond-shaped piece of skin with a smaller hole of similar shape cut in the centre to hold the stone." Indian hemp cords were tied to the two ends through small holes. The end of one cord had a loop for the forefinger; the other, a knot which was grasped by the fingers and suddenly released at the appropriate moment as the weapon was swung around the head. The projectile was a round stone, sometimes as much as 4 inches in diameter. (Duff 1952:60)

Hunters were accustomed to carry a strong pole, 6 or 8 feet long and 2 inches in diameter, "to assist them in negotiating difficult terrain." This was quickly converted to a spear for defence by slipping over one end a stone point, mounted on a socket, that hunters also carried. Thrusting spears, with long points of elk antler or mountain goat horn or with long, bilaterally barbed bone points, may have been used for bear. (Duff 1952:60) In his short list of the "arms" seen at a village in the Yale sector, Fraser (1960:99) mentions their spears.

Standard war weapons, clubs were mostly of wood, sometimes of stone. Wooden clubs were fashioned much like sturgeon clubs or like baseball bats, up to 5 feet long, often with points carved all over the enlarged end. Stone clubs, generally about 2 feet in length, had broad, flat blades, sometimes with one sharpened edge, and a long, round handle, perforated for a carrying thong, that was grasped by both hands. Clubs were given a special ceremonial importance, for they "were brought out only at 'big times,' and their histories were told." (Duff 1952:60)

Horn (antler?) clubs were evidently likewise in use among the Upper Stalo. During his journey of explora tion, Fraser twice mentions horn or antler clubs. At the village in the Yale vicinity, he observed "clubs, or horn Powmagans," and on July 4, when heading back upriver but not quite yet within Upper Stalo country, he describes the leader of a pursuing party as "brandishing his horn club." (Fraser 1960:99, 109)

Clothing and Ornamentation

Not much is reported in the ethnographic literature concerning the traditional clothing of the Upper Stalo and nothing, so far as I have discovered, specifically relating to that of the Chilliwack.

Dress was fashioned both of woven cedar bark -- as was widely the case among the coast -- and sewn of tanned buckskin -- as common among northern and eastern Plateau tribes. Short aprons, presumably woven, were the garment of everyday wear for both sexes. Less commonly worn were skirts and capes of woven cedar bark, robes of groundhog, rabbit, or bear skins sewed together; and blankets woven of mountain goat wool or woolly dog hair. Robes were exclusively clothing, while blankets answered the dual purpose of clothing and bedding. Robes of strips of skin woven together appear to have been unknown to the Upper Stalo. (Duff 1952:53, 57)

In June, 1808, Simon Fraser (1960:99,101) noted among the Upper Stalo "rugs made from the wool of . . . wild goat, and from Dog's hair, which . . . [were] equally as good as those found in Canada. We observed that the dogs were laterly shorn." In a village later seen, apparently below Hope, these dog's hair "rugs" had "stripes of different colours crossing at right angles resembling at a distance Highland plaid."

In fashioning the blankets, mountain goat pelts were soaked until the wool was loose and could be pulled off. The hair of dogs was either cut or plucked in the spring. These materials -- wool or hair -- were spun on large spindles, the dog hair apparently not being mixed with feathers or fireweed cotton as among certain non-Stalo peoples. From this coarse yarn the blankets -- worn as clothing, used as bed covers, or distributed at potlatches -- were woven on a boom. (Duff 1952:53, 57)

A considerable amount of buckskin clothing was also worn, according to the ethnographic data but not to Fraser, at least by the uppermost Upper Stalo. This included breechclouts, shirts and dresses, leggings, and moccasins. Moccasins were seldom used, however, except by hunters and invariably when traveling on snowshoes. Buckskin mittens protected the hands of hunters in cold weather. (Duff 1952:53, 57)

Deerskin among the Upper Stalo was prepared by being soaked in water for several days and then, draped over a log, by being scraped to remove the hair witha drawknife-like tool having a center blade of bone, stone, or wood. Stripped of its hair, the skin, laced tightly on a square wooden frame, was pounded with a wooden club to stretch it, rubbed with deer brains, and, still on the frame, smoked over an alder fire. (Duff 1952:53)

The headgear and personal ornaments of the Upper Stalo seem not to be described in the ethnographic literature. In late June, 1808, Fraser (1960:99-100), however, made the following brief journal entries relating to the people of the camp in the Yale area. "Their hats, which are made of wattap [split roots], have broad rims and diminish gradually to the top. Some [persons] make use of cedar bark, painted in various colours, resembling ribbands which they fix around their heads." And concerning their adornment: "Their ornaments are ... shells of different kinds, shell beads, brass made into pipes hanging from the neck, or across the shoulders, bracelets of large brass wire, and some bracelets of horn."

At least in Fraser's day, facial and body painting was practiced among the Upper Stalo, evidently by entire groups at the same time.

• After having come down the Fraser to a point below Hope and having visited by this time a number of Upper Stalo villages, Fraser (1960:101) comments upon the physical characteristics of the "Indians in this quarter . . . [in comparison with] those in the interior." Included is the statement that "their skin and hair . . . [have] a reddish cast -- but this cast, I suppose, is owing to the ingredients with which they besmear their bodies."
• Later Fraser (1960:103) arrived at a large village where the "Indians .. appeared at first view to be fair, but afterwards we discovered that they made use of white paint to alter their appearance." If my positioning of this village is correct, this village may have been a Sumas or Nicoman settlement. It is apparent that even nearby communities did not necessarily paint with the same colors.

The function of this body coloring is not explained. It is possible that the colors were in some measure symbolic, that the two sets of villagers actually painted with the same color for the same reason, and that the color difference is explicable in terms of different circumstances.

Here is reported such information as is available on the Upper Stalo settlement in general and the Chilliwack in particular: on dwelling types and ancillary structures, on specific village and camp locations, and on the spatial arrangements of structures within the settlement perimeters.

Structures

These consisted of dwellings and shelters of three types; of drying racks, smokehouses, and storage shelters; and of the sweat lodge, puberty hut, and grave structure.

Semisubterranean Dwelling

The Chilliwack, like the Stalo tribelets up the Fraser and the groups in the neighboring Plateau, made use of the pit house as a winter dwelling, either occasionally (Hill-Tout 1903:360) or as their ordinary cold weather residence (Duff 1952:46). According to Duff, dwellings of this type seem to have been but seldom constructed downriver from the Chilliwack: they were, in fact, something of a luxury, the usual winter shelter being the plank house. Among these lower Fraser people, they were said to have been occupied only by wealthy families in some groups and, among the Sumas, by families desiring to get away from mosquitoes. This latter rationale for their use, it seems to me, cannot be discounted out of hand, for Wilson (1970:49) of the British Boundary Commission remarks on June 16, 1859, while at Chilukweyuk Prairie: ". . . the mosquitoes are something fearful, but . . . their regular season comes on next month & the month after when the water falls, when they are so bad that even the Indians clear out." The extent to which these insects later harassed his field parties, men and horses, and the Indians nearby is almost unbelievable, If semisubterranean dwellings were favored by the Sumas as a means of evading these tormentors, these dwellings must have been warm season shelters as well as -- not likely instead of -- winter structures, a point of considerable interest.

There are, however, other possible explanations for the upriver occurrence of the pit house and the lower Fraser distribution of the plank dwelling. The former may correlate with relatively heavy snowfall and the latter with lighter snow precipitation. Or with higher, firmer ground in the first instance, and in the second with lower ground where moisture would have tended to seep into the structure. This latter explanation seems eminently reasonable, yet two Chilliwack villages of the post-1830 period were located out on the Fraser plain, one at the Chilliwack River mouth and the other about halfway between its union with the Fraser and Vedder Crossing. In both of these population centers Duff, in 1949-1950, discovered depressions which he interpreted as semisubterranean dwelling locations. (Duff 1952:17, 37-38, 43, 46) Possibly by the 1830s the earlier bogier surface of this area had become firmer to the point where in some spots pit structures were feasible.

In their traditional upriver, canyon homeland, the Chilliwack made extensive use of these semisubterranean houses. Fortunately we have rather good descriptions of the construction details of these dwellings. The pit was circular, up to 30 and perhaps even 40 feet in diameter. The peak entrance was 10 to 20 feet above the floor, a considerably greater height than among other Upper Stalo tribes. There were no posts out in the floor area to support the roof: the roof was borne by four main posts set vertically against the pit wall. Their tops, notched to receive the principal rafters, reached upward to just below ground level. The upper ends of these rafters were lashed to a square hatchway, one rafter secured at each corner. From supplementary posts other lesser rafters ran from the ground to the hatchway. The roof was pyramidal and only 4 to 4.5 feet above ground level. The center entrance was reached from the floor by a notched pole ladder. In better houses, these posts and rafters were smoothed; the former were carved above the bed platform and the latter were often painted. Sleeping platforms, six feet wide, were built four feet above the floor and were screened at their sides by partitions. Each dwelling was a multifamily structure, although only one cooking fire, under the overhead entrance, was provided for all. (Duff 1952:43, 46, 47; Smith 1947:257, 264)

These Chilliwack semisubterranean structures -- those of the Nooksack are reported to have been very like them -- differed notably from those of the Upper Stalo groups upriver from the Chilliwack, from the Thompson structures reported by Teit (1900:192-195), and from the various types described by Ray (1939:132-137) for the tribal groups in the northern and central Plateau (Smith 1947:365-366).

Plank Dwellings

Traditionally, houses constructed of planks were occupied by the Chilliwack during the warm months, being abandoned in favor of the pit dwellings when winter arrived. There were three types of plank structures in use in the general Chilliwack sector of the Fraser Valley. Presumably all three were found among the Chilliwack themselves, but the ethnographic data are somewhat less precise on this point than one would like.

(a) A small, shed-roofed, detached house. If like the Tait structure as seems to have been the case, this dwelling measured on the order of 25 by 25 feet to perhaps 30 by 50 feet. It had its high wall in front and a door in the middle or corner. The walls were lined with plank beds. In the center of the dirt floor was located the single fire. (Duff 1952:46-47)

Apparently a very similar structure was observed by Fraser in late June, 1808. Very near the upper border of Upper Stalo country, he came to a settlement consisting of a single dwelling on one side of the river and "a considerable village" with similar houses on the other side.The one structure on his river bank was "an excellent house 46 by 23 feet, and constructed like American frame houses. The planks are 3 or 4 inches thick, each passing the adjoining one a couple of inches. The posts, which are very strong, and rudely carved, receive the beam across. The walls are 11 feet high, and covered with a slanting roof." (Fraser 1960:99)

(b) A large, shed-roofed dwelling. As Hill-Tout (1908:360) describes this structure, it had a single-slope roof, the front and higher side "rising to 25 or 30 feet." Commonly there were only two doors, one at each end. The interior was divided, by hanging mats or screens of grass or reeds, into sections for individual families, each about 50 feet square. Beds were "reed mats laid one upon the another, the head-rests or pillows being rolls of the same." Over these mats wealthier families spread dressed skins and blankets of mountain goat wool. The tribal head -- as well as, it may be supposed, the leader of each village -- invariably occupied the central section of the dwelling. His brothers were located next to him on either side, the oldest closest. Then came the lesser "chiefs and notables, and beyond these again the common folk." This arrangement of families provided the tribal and community leadership with maximum security from possible hostile raiders. In early years when the tribe was more populous and villages were larger, the houses were placed end-to-end "in an unbroken line for several hundred feet." In such cases, the structure housing the leadership and important people was positioned, again for defence, in the center of the row of dwellings. On festive occasions (e.g., during the winter dances), the internal divisions of the house were removed, thus opening the interior into one large space. (A slightly varying description of this dwelling is given by Duff [1952:46-49].)

That dwellings of this type were in use by the Chilliwack in the mid-1800s is made clear by Wilson (1866:287) who saw them on the Chilliwack River in 1859. They were constructed "much more substantially" than the dwellings among the other lower Fraser peoples.

[Their] uprights and ridges . . . [were] of solid timber, of great weight and size, roughly squared, and the sheeting of the ends and sides of thick planks of split cedar. With the slight means and rude implements possessed by the builders, the erection of one of these houses is a work of great labour and time. The houses vary greatly in size, some being as much as 60 or 70 feet long by 20 to 25 feet broad.

About 1860 only these Chilliwack dwellings and those at Fort Langley, among all the groups seen by Wilson, were ornamented in any manner. Those of the Chilliwack were adorned with "grotesque carvings, apparently representing tortoises, large snakes, and some animal of the crocodile type." (Wilson 1866:287-288)

(c) A large, gable-roofed structure, apparently used as a year-round dwelling. Perhaps this style was a "fairly recent development" among the Chilliwack "coincident with a growth in size and elaboration of ceremonial and social functions," including potlatches and winter dances. (Duff 1952:47-49)

Temporary Summer Shelter

Mat lodges must have been used as temporary summer shelters (Duff 1952:50), though there are no ethnographic data concerning them.

A special summer shelter of importance to the neighboring Sumas deserves mention, both because of its unusual location and construction and because the Chilliwack evidently did not make use of it, demonstrating the hazards of extrapolating ethnographic data from one lower Fraser River tribelet to the next. In his journal entry of July 18, 1859, Charles Wilson (1970:61) of the British Boundary Commission writes:

Haig came down from Schweltya [Cultus Lake] & we went out to an Indian hut built in the middle of the lake upon piles. The old chief was very civil & after smoking no end of pipes of peace, we had a good sleep, though the place was not what one would have chosen for a night's lodging; there being some dozen men, women, children & dogs besides the remains of one of our dead horses & a lot of fish hung up to dry, a fire & ourselves all compressed into a place hardly large enough for half a dozen human beings, still there were very few mosquitoes which made amends for everything.

This lake was Sumas Lake, a remarkably shallow, lowland body of water even in summer flood time and one in the midst of horrible mosquito country. I take it that the "hut" was both a fishing locus and a refuge from the tormenting mosquitoes, which the local Indians wished to escape no less than the Whites (Wilson 1970:49).

That this dwelling was not the sole one on Sumas Lake is demonstrated by Wilson's (1970:62) observation of July 23, 1859: "Old Low (my servant) & myself had a delightful sail across the lake to [Sumas] Headquarters, in one of our boats, much to the astonishment of the Indians on the lake, between whose houses we passed with a slashing breeze."

It is informative to note that on July 23, the day after his pleasant sail, Wilson (1970:62) and his companions took to the lake: "Having had no sleep last night, we all rowed out into the middle of the lake where we were soon fast asleep & did not wake till near sun set."

Evidently lake dwellings on piles were not in use among the Chilliwack. Two reasons for this are immedi ately apparent. Both Chilliwack Lake and Cultus Lake, the only two lakes of consequence in traditional Chilliwack territory, were mountain bodies of water surrounded by steep mountains (Wilson 1970:58, 65) and so presumably generally deep and hardly the environment for pile structures out from the shore. Further Chilliwack Lake was free of mosquitoes and at Cultus Lake these tormenting insects were "not quite so bad as down on the low ground" (Wilson 1970:60, 61, 65).

Subsistence-Related Structures

Fish drying racks were erected by the Upper Stalo on the highest available rocky points to catch the breeze. They consisted of a pole frame, tied together with willow-withe or cedar-withe ropes, supporting a roof of cedar planks or layers of brush to keep both rain and direct sunlight off the fish. In the deep shade under this roof were suspended horizontally parallel poles over which the fish were hung. The drying process required no more than one week if the salmon flanks were made thin; about three weeks if they were thicker. (Duff 1952:65 Plate III, 66)

Storehouses for the dried salmon were essential for their preservation to and through the winter. These structures, 5 to 8 feet square, were constructed of split boards and either tied in the branches of a large tree, reached by a notched pole, or less commonly elevated on poles. In any event, they were well above ground to keep the fish from moisture and safe from rodents. Sometimes a family's salmon caches were at some considerable distance from its winter village. (Duff 1952:67, 89)

Salmon smokehouses were constructed of cedar planks and were tightly walled and roofed. The smoking was accomplished over fires of alderwood. (Duff 1952:50, 67)

Sweat Lodge

Chilliwack sweat houses, constructed near a stream, were of two types. The common one was dome-shaped and large enough for only a single person. A frame of long vine-maple saplings with both ends thrust into the ground was covered with fir or balsam boughs. The inside was sometimes lined with maple leaves wedged between the framing sticks. When moistened by the steam, these leaves stuck together, making "an air-tight wall." The floor was covered with fir or balsam branches, except for the small hole dug into it to hold the hot rocks. The doorway was closed with mats or boughs. The rocks were heated in a fire just outside and carried inside with two sticks with flattened shovel-shaped ends. (Duff 1952:50)

The second variety was more permanent and larger, intended for two or more persons. Their shape and framing structure are not reported in the ethnographic literature. However, they were provided with cedar-bark roofs and were sometimes covered with earth. (Duff 1952:50)

Sweating was the practice with both men and women, the latter as often as the former. It is said that the sweating period lasted about 15 or 20 minutes and was routinely followed by a plunge into the nearby stream. (Duff 1952:50)

Sweating was engaged in by adults both for ceremonial purification and, sometimes two or three times weekly, as a cure for minor ailments such as colds or body pains. Among the Upper Stalo in general, "in spring, feeling poorly after a long winter, nearly everybody sweat-bathed." (Duff 1952:60)

Puberty Hut

A small brush hut, very like the sweat lodge, was used by Upper Stalo girls -- presumably including the Chilliwack -- for four days during their first menses. It was located not far from the village and was close to a similar hut in which an older woman stayed during this four day period. (Duff 1952:50) The point is not made, but the implication is that this woman served as the pubescent girl's mentor.

As among nearby coastal peoples and unlike the Plateau groups of the region, Chilliwack women were not isolated during later menstrual periods. (Duff 1952:50)

Grave Structures

The Upper Stalo constructed family vaults or special boxes to receive the corpses of family members. The vaults were gable-roofed structures of poles or cedar planks, raised on posts about 4 feet above the ground. The grave boxes were fabricated of separate pieces of wood, not of a single long piece kerfed and bent as boxes were fashioned on the coast. (Duff 1952:49-50, 59, 94) On these receptacles were carved or painted representations of the guardian spirits of the members of the family that owned them (Hill-Tout 1903:363). Bodies were apparently individually wrapped in blankets. They were then placed within these wooden structures, in the cedar box of the person's family or laid in the section of the structure assigned to the family (Duff 1952:49-50)

In Upper Stalo country "roughly carved effigies," anthropomorphic and usually life-sized or larger, were sometimes erected near the burial box or house in honor of respected persons and were thought to be likenesses of the deceased (Duff 1952:49-50, 51). These sepulchers were in use among the Chilliwack, according to Hill-Tout (1903:363, 364-365). The large box which received the body of a person belonging to a family of the middle rank was ornamented on its exterior surface with painted or carved family crests, called "dream objects," depicting, for example, bears, mountain goats, and beaver. Boxes belonging to families of rank and wealth were placed in boat-like receptacles. Those of "meaner" families were nothing more than rough rectangular boxes. Human effigies, roughly carved in wood, were sometimes placed nearby.

To this point, only one early historic reference to grave structures among the Upper Stalo tribelets has been located. At the Tait village in the neighborhood of Yale, Fraser (1960:100) in late June of 1808 saw a new "tomb." It was "supported on carved posts about two feet from the ground. The sculpture . . . [was] rudely finished, and the posts . . . [were] covered all over with bright shells, which . . . [shone] like mercury."

Residential and Task Sites

(omitted from the on-line edition)

Village and Camp Arrangement

There is virtually nothing in the ethnographic and ethnohistorical literature describing how the typical Upper Stalo village and task camp (by task, season, and geographical location) were physically organized: what types of structures comprised the unit and how these were positioned areally. The scraps that follow represent the total data known to me.

With reference to the Halkomelem tribes in general -- not the smaller Upper Stalo group, much less the Chilliwack in particular -- villages were composed of several substantial wooden houses or -- up the Fraser River -- of one or more semisubterranean dwellings. They were "always placed close to water, on some harbour or river, where the inmates . . . [had] only to walk a few yards to launch their canoes, which when not in use . . . [were] carefully drawn up on the bank, and covered with bushes to protect them from the rays of the sun. The outside of a village . . . [was] the very acme of filth, . . . for all refuse . . . [was] thrown just outside the house, soon forming a large accumulation of shells, old mats, rags, and the putrid entrails of salmon." (Wilson 1866:287)

At Sumass, in Wilson's orthography, and various locations on the Fraser River, the village was "enclosed by a stout palisading of young firs, some fifteen feet high, fixed firmly into the ground," as protection against the ravages of northern coastal Indians (Wilson 1866:286).

The corpse boxes were usually but a short distance from the village (Wilson 1866:286).

The extent to which these data apply to the Chilliwack is uncertain. However, because their old settlements were exclusively on the Chilliwack River and Lake, it seems safe to assume that they beached their canoes near their villages. Further, because of their remote side canyon homeland, it is doubtful that their communities required palisade protection.

Domestic and Tamed Animals

For the Upper Stalo as a group, no clear and reliable ethnographic or ethnohistorical information relating to domestic animals or to wild forms kept in the village as tamed animals has yet been located. Duff (1952:71) reports only that the early dogs were not well or consistently described by his informants: they were like wolves, smaller than wolves, or in the case of bear dogs (very questionably it seems to me) like St. Bernards.

For individual tribelets within the Upper Stalo group, we have no more than the following two references, the second of special interest. Neither, however, describes the physical traits of the animals.

• On June 28, 1808, Fraser (1960:99), then at the uppermost village of the Tait on the Fraser River, observed that their dogs had recently been shorn to yield the hair that was woven into "rugs." The use of dog hair for this purpose was later noted by Fraser (1960:101) at another Tait camp between Hope and Seabird Island.
• The Chilliwack, Hill-Tout (1903:388) reports, bred a native species of dog for its hair, which was woven into blankets.

Residential and Task Sites

Leaving Chilliwack Lake, the Chilliwack River flows swiftly westward through the Cascade Mountains to where Vedder Crossing now stands. From this point its short journey to the Fraser followed rather different courses through time. As already described (see Tribal Territory section), the river, according to tradition, at one time continued straight westward to Sumas Lake, a shallow body of water which, via Sumas River, drained northward into the Fraser. Then somewhat before 1830 it turned strongly northward at Vedder Crossing to wind, in changing channels from time to time, across the broad, marshy Fraser plain to the south bank of this major stream. In the late 1880s, leaving this line of flow, it broke through from the Crossing area to the upper end of Vedder Creek and flowed via this former creek course westward once more. After Sumas Lake was drained in the 1920s, the Chilliwack was carried by Vedder Canal to the lower Sumas River and the Fraser. (Duff 1952:14, 15, 43; Smith 1950a:339-341)

In early days -- well before the 1830s -- while the Chilliwack River was still moving across the low area to the Sumas River, the villages of the Chilliwack were located entirely along the steep-sided valley of the Chilliwack River between Chilliwack Lake and Vedder Crossing, not beside the river below the canyon mouth (Boas 1894:460; Duff 1952:43; Hill-Tout 1903:356; Smith 1950a:339-341). On the high rocky ridge at Vedder Crossing, the tribe maintained a tower of poles "with a platform on top, from which one could see westward down the river to Sumas Lake and give warning of approaching visitors or raiding-parties" (Duff 1952:43).

Why at this time were the Chilliwack without villages below the canyon along the Chilliwack River to Sumas Lake and from that lake north to the Fraser? Three possible reasons occur to me: (1) the tribe was still a notable upper river and mountain group, to whom open prairie living failed to appeal; (2) the area was still actively claimed and utilized by other tribes, the Cultus Lake-Sweltzer Creek people immediately below the Chilliwack Canyon mouth and the Sumas around their lake, its headwaters, and its river outlet down to the Fraser; and (3) the open country below the canyon was thought to be too exposed to occasional raids by Lower Fraser and coastal war parties.

And why were the Chilliwack with no villages in the low country between the lower Chilliwack River and the Fraser and on the Fraser bank defining the northern rim of this level expanse? Possible explanations (1) and (3) above apply to this region no less than to the Chilliwack River-side locations. In addition, this sector was typically one of bogs, marshes, and swamps (Duff 1952:43) and one in mid-summer bedeviled by incredible hordes of vicious mosquitoes.

Sometime prior to 1830 the Chilliwack River shifted its course to pass north from the present Vedder Crossing locality over the previously wet, spongy terrain, now filling in naturally to become a prairie. Only after this filling-in occurred, probably following the founding of Fort Langley in 1827, and, through the efforts of the Langlie traders, after the dangers of hostile raids by distant peoples had been significantly reduced, did the Chilliwack move their main villages downstream and closer to Vedder Crossing. Then, abandoning their canyon isolation as the bogs grew firmer and giant cedars grew in the area, they began more and more to establish villages out "along the lower reaches of the [Chilliwack] river, even venturing out on to the Fraser to fish. (Smith 1950a:339; Duff 1952:14, 16, 21, 43, 44) Smith (1947:266) places at "only three generations back" the first of these Chilliwack villages along the Chilliwack after it ran sharply northward from the canyon mouth across the former swamp and water areas.

Charles Wilson (1960:48ff) of the British Boundary Commission presents a vivid and unquestionably accurate picture of this lower Chilliwack River country as he saw it in the summer of 1859. In the interests of space, I omit my extended summary of this engaging and informative description. He speaks of the area's thick brush and tree belts, widespread mid-summer flooding, absolutely unendurable mosquitoes, snakes and sandflies, and roasting days and cold night air from the mountains. Also of its grass to the waist, flower cover, fine strawberries, and splendid views. Considering especially the general flooding and mosquito hordes, it is no wonder that the traditional Chilliwack had no summer settlements in this lowland Fraser plain.

It is less certain why in earlier years it was also avoided in siting winter villages. Perhaps it was too exposed to downriver raiders. Or it was too far from the mountains for the tribe to be comfortable. Or it was too distant from subsistence caches and sources, since the group had no Fraser River salmon fisheries. Or the water table was too high even in winter for the use of the favored semisubterranean dwellings. Or the open plain was more exposed to cutting winter winds and biting cold than the tribe's mountain-flanked canyon. Whatever the explanation, the Fraser River lowlands within the Chilliwack drainage region were evidently not favored as winter village locations when the river path ran westward to the Sumas country.

Of much greater interest to this present study is Wilson's journey up the Chilliwack River from the canyon mouth to Chilliwack Lake in this same 1859 mid-summer time period. The contrast between this country, the old Chilliwack homeland, and the lower Chilliwack swamps, floods, and clouds of savage mosquitoes is very striking.

On July 27, Wilson left the mouth of Chilliwack River on his first and only journey to Chilliwack Lake. His pertinent journal entries are worth quoting at some length.

7/27. Wilson writes:

Got on horseback early in the morning . . . [to] be out of mosquitoes for some time whilst . . . on the [Chilliwack] lake. The greater portion of this day's journey was through low land, very thickly timbered, the soil to judge from magnificent Indian potato fields I passed through excellent; at last, after going over a very high hill, I descended to the valley below & found our first halting place by the side of the Chilukweyuk river, which here assumed the character of a mountain torrent & was glad to find the mosquitoes were not very numerous . . . . [I must mention] the kindness of an Indian chief & his family who were fishing near our halt. . . . [H]aving tied my horse went to have a chat with them; the old chief's wife took compassion on my wretched state [from mosquito bites] & having asked my permission, they brought out the paint bag & painted my face & hands with vermilion & certainly the relief was very great; you would have laughed to have seen me painted up like an Indian; after the operation a pipe was lighted & passed round the circle, everybody, women included taking 3 or 4 puffs. Then I took my leave, with a present of a splendid salmon & the chief's son, 'Charley', who is going to accompany me. . . . I am now leaving the mosquito country, . . . (Wilson 1970:62-63)

Where Wilson stopped for the night is not well described. It was probably just above the canyon mouth since he camped as soon as he had descended the high hill to the river side.

7/28. Wilson's journal reads in its relevant parts:

[The journey on up the valley] was very hilly, nothing but up & down over the spurs of the mountains, at one time toiling up then crossing the bed of a mountain torrent or going down an almost precipitous descent by a zigzag trail. Our halt [of the evening] was close by the river in a beautiful spot; the squitoes growing gradually less. (Wilson 1970:63-64)

His camping place of this night is uncertain, though it must have been somewhere between Tamihi (Tamahi on some Canadian maps; Tomyhoi on USGS Concrete quadrangle 1955) Creek and Sleese (Silesia on USGS Concrete quadrangle 1955) Creek.

7/29. Leaving the train behind, Wilson pushed on to the lake, covering the mules' two-day trek in one day.

After about 5 miles the road became very bad, steep hills covered with loose stones which were rolling down under the horse's feet & winding round the edge of a cliff with the foaming Chilukweyuk beneath; after this the valley opened out & I had a level ride for about 14 miles. In one place Charley . . . showed me some berries, so . . . I got off & found myself in the midst of . . . black currents & raspberries in profusion & a beautiful red berry which grew abundantly on a shrub; one species of raspberry, a large yellow one, was unequalled in flavour even by the best in the garden at home. We also passed through a large fire. Luckily there was no wind, or we should not have been able to pass, the smoke was very thick and stifling; the fire extended right across the valley & up the mountains. . . . Nothing could exceed the dismal aspect of the country for the six miles to the lake over which the fire had gone, . . . When I got to the lake . . . I crossed over . . . to Haig's camp in a boat constructed by our men, a distance of 5 miles, . . .

Here ends Wilson's narrative of his three-day journey to Chilliwack Lake.

This narrative is of some special interest because of its description of the valley topography, of the Indian -- surely Chilliwack -- salmon fishing camp and its occupants, and of the wild berry field, known to his Chilliwack guide. My detailed geographic analysis of this ride may be omitted from this report, but the Indian camp and related matters deserve comment.

It is notable that Wilson speaks of meeting Indians at only one location during his three-day ride: i.e., when he was already in the canyon but still close to its exit. Since he was uncommonly comfortable with Indians, it may be supposed that he would have remarked upon any further encounters with native groups, especially since he had a guide from the one camp he mentions. This apparent absence of summer camps is perplexing, since Wilson implies that salmon fishing was underway at the one camp he encountered. Perhaps the canyon population had by 1859 become gravely reduced by disease or by mass movement to the Fraser prairie, although this area was customarily abandoned in mid-summer owing to the mosquito infestation as Wilson (1970:49) indicates was the practice of those otherwise on the plain. Perhaps there were Chilliwack who were for most of the year canyon residents but were, in the central summer months, off in the mountains, carrying out their normal seasonal food search. Or possibly the Chilliwack were in 1859 largely employed by the British and American boundary parties -- at least we are told that some were assisting the British surveyers (Wilson 1970:49, 51, 54, 63, 64, 77) -- and so were pulled away in 1859 from their customary summer camps.

With this very incomplete sketch of the Chilliwack Valley between the canyon mouth and Chilliwack Lake, as seen by Wilson in the summer of 1859, before us, we may now turn to his observations regarding Chilliwack Lake. This lake was known to Wilson by reputation at least six weeks before he had an opportunity to view it himself. On June 16, 1859, less than two weeks after establishing a Commission depot at the Chilliwack River mouth, he entered the following observation in his journal, writing at his Chilliwack Prairie headquarters a short distance below the canyon narrows:

The Chilukweyuk . . . rises in the far recesses of the Cascade mountains & by its valley we penetrate the mountain range later on in the season. The Indians give a wonderful account of a lake near the summit, where bears, marten, marmot & salmon abound; a reconnoitring party sent forward give glowing accounts of the fishing. (Wilson 1970:49)

Hearing that there were no mosquitoes at Chilliwack Lake, he closed his Chilliwack depot on July 16 and sent the nearly mutinous men of the camp to the lake (Wilson 1970:61). Partly to seek relief from these insects, he himself left the Fraser plain for the lake on July 27, as already noted, and was pleased to find them decreasing in numbers as he ascended the river valley (Wilson 1970:63, 64).

On reaching the lake on July 29, at the close of his ride up the canyon as precised above, Wilson recorded his impressions as follows:

[Chilliwack] lake is very beautiful in the middle of the Cascade mountains between 3 or 4000 feet above the sea, lofty snowy peaks, glaciers close above our heads, the snow in some places within a few feet; the scenery is however small, the valleys being very contracted & the glaciers not of any very great extent. (Wilson 1970:65)

On July 31, he paddled a canoe over the lake to see more of it and wrote:

Some of the peaks are I should say about 6000 feet above the sea. It was a lovely day, not a breath of wind, the only sounds which broke the silence being the whistle of a marmot or the rumbling of falling trees or snow in the mountains. (Wilson 1970:65)

His encounter with the lake on August 5 contrasted sharply with his earlier pleasant paddle. While crossing the lake with a companion:

. . . one of the sudden mountain storms came on & caught me in the canoe; luckily it blew in the right direction, as nothing could be done but go right before it. I was steering and precious hard work it was; to let the canoe get broadside on in the least would have been an instantaneous upset & the water was so cold there would have been no chance of swimming; besides, we had to work away with the paddles to keep up with the wind or we should have been swamped by the water coming over the stern. The canoe literally flew through the water with the rain and spray flying past us. (Wilson 1970:66)

How sharply the mountains rise from the lake shores and how high they climb in a short horizontal distance -- from a 2,000-foot lake surface level to as much as 7,300 feet in 2 miles to Macdonald Peak -- is clearly shown on the DEMN Skagit River quadrangle (1975).

The Chilliwack River above the lake was not visited by Wilson. Its course was followed, however, for at least some distance by two of the Commission cutting and surveying parties (those of Roche and Haig) on their journeys to the Skagit Valley (Wilson 1970:65, 73). But Wilson includes in his journal no topographic or other data concerning this upper valley area based on reports from these field teams.

The early location of the Chilliwack focus in the narrow valley back from the Fraser is of special interest, since it seems not to have been true of any of the other Upper Stalo tribelets (cf. Duff 1952:30-45). It is particularly notable inasmuch as the Fraser was so important to Upper Stalo life in general. As Duff (1952:16) explains:

The . . . [Fraser River in Stalo country] was their main source of food the year around. It was their highway, which invited travel in the two dominant directions of their lives, up-river and down-river, and which brought to their villages visitors, new ideas, sometimes raiding parties . . . . Up-river, the way was barred by the Fraser canyon, with its surging broken torrent which was almost impossible to negotiate by canoe. Below lived the salt-water Indians, some of whom were friendly and familiar, but some of whom were hostile.

Travel was predominantly by canoe.

This suggests that in this early period the Chilliwack were somewhat out of the mainstream of Fraser River and Upper Stalo life. If so, this would be consistent with the native view that their speech was then "somewhat different from that of the Fraser Valley Indians," perhaps more like Nooksack but, according to one informant, "not the same as Nooksack." While Chilliwack settlements were in these early times confined to the narrow valley of the Chilliwack above Vedder Crossing, their principal village was at the lower end of the river stretch, about 2 miles above the Crossing. (Duff 1952:43)

Figure 2-4. Territorial limits of Chilliwack near Fraser River and location of Chilliwack settlements (Duff 1952:36-39, 43-44, 36 map 3 slightly modified). Villages 1-12 were established after about 1830. Apparently villages 13-15 were early postcontact communities. Villages 16-21 (and 22 off map to right) were old Chilliwack settlements. Dotted stream courses plot Chilliwack River channels to Fraser in 1830-1880 period, before river assumed its Vedder River path.

Twenty-two Chilliwack village sites are identified by Duff (1952:36 map 3, 37-39, 43-44) (Figure 2-4). Of this number, twelve were on the south bank of the Fraser, on sloughs connected with that river, or on a channel of the Chilliwack River below the canyon outlet. All of these were first occupied after about 1830 when the lower Chilliwack River changed its westerly course away from Sumas Lake and began to flow directly north from the canyon mouth. Because these twelve were postcontact settlements and were, of all Chilliwack villages, those most distant from the North Cascades region and so least relevant to this study, they are not considered further.

The remaining ten villages, situated in the narrow canyon above Vedder Crossing, were apparently either precontact or very early postcontact settlements. They lay on the direct Chilliwack River route from the Fraser River to the northwestern corner of the Park. Moreover, they were not distant from the Park boundary: the farthest (13) was about 33 miles along the Chilliwack River from its limits and the nearest (22) was only approximately 11 miles. For these reasons the available data on these ten villages, obtained by Duff (1952:36-39) from a knowledgeable, elderly informant, are summarized in Table 2-1. It is significant that all of these ten settlements except for 13, a late but still pre-1830 community, are confirmed by other ethnographers as noted below. In addition to these village-level population aggregates, a few dwellings, Duff (1952:39) indicates, were scattered from Centre Creek "up to Chilliwack Lake ... and around the lake," an ethnographic fragment of particular relevance to this study.

Table 2-1. Chilliwack Villages along the Chilliwack River at and above Vedder Crossing, according to Duff (1952: 36-39, 43-44)

Village No.	Village Name	Locationa	Other Ethnographic Village Referencesb	Descriptive Data
13	qaqa'tll	On a flat just above Vedder Crossing		One of the early main villages. Its establishment from a location somewhat upriver initiated the move down the canyon and out onto the plains.
14	cuw'li, "dissolve"	On Sweltzer Creek which flows from Cultus Lake to Chilliwack River just above the canyon mouth.	Boas 1; Hill-Tout 8; Smith 5	Although Cultus Lake is of precontact date, it was said by Duff's Chilliwack informant not to have existed in "old times" (Duff 1952:43). The creek is obviously old and at this village site. Duff observed 6 housepits in 1949-1950.
15	'a''mals	On a small flat a short distance above Vedder Crossing	Smith 2	Plank houses here; ground too rocky for pit dwellings.
16	xe'ls, "slide"	On N. bank of river 1 or 2 miles above Crossing.	Boas 2; Smith 3	Main headquarters of tribe long ago when Chilliwack River flowed to Sumas Lake (Duff 1952:43)
17	lay'mn, "water swirling out in gushers"	At mouth of Lihumitson [Liumchen] Creek.	Smith 8	Large villages and one of the main Chilliwack villages.
18	?	On small flat at mouth of Ryder Creek.	Smith 9
19	t'miha'y, "hermaphrodite"	At mouth of Tamihi Creek.	Smith 10
20	i'a'yl	A little above Anderson Flat, between Tamihi and Sleese Creeks.	Smith 11	A good fishery.
21	sli'si	At mouth of Sleese Creek.	Smith 12	On both sides of Chilliwack River.
22	?	Below Centre Creek.	Smith 13	Wiped out by slide.

^aFor geographic plotting of village locations, see Figure 2-4.
^bSee paragraphs (2) Hill-Tout and (3) Marian Smith, page 85.

Three earlier ethnographic sources furnish Chilliwack village information:

(1) Boas (1894:454) mentions only two villages, both above Vedder Crossing, equating with Duff's villages 14 and 16 (Table 2-1). He provides no locational, demographic, or other data beyond recording the name of the mythical founder of each.

(2) Hill-Tout (1903:356) lists 12 Chilliwack villages. Eight were still occupied in the 1890s, not one located by Hill-Tout. Of these, seven can be matched against Duff's village roster, and so on this evidence were sited out on the Fraser plain and were of post-1830 date. The eighth is sw'l village 14 in Duff's roster, which Hill-Tout describes as "the former headquarters of the tribe," and as having acquired its Chilliwack name, "melting away," in reference to the fact that the people here once died in great numbers. Evidently it was located on Sweltzer River immediately above the Chilliwack Canyon exit, for this is where Duff (1952:38) positions his village 14. Five of the twelve, sw'l and four others, were old "settlements on the upper reaches of the Chilliwack River." These latter four are described as having been "contiguous to Sw'l," but cannot be otherwise located from Hill-Tout's information, nor can they be matched with certainty with Duff's villages. Unless these prove somehow to be identical, under different native names, to old settlements in Duff's roster, they give us four additional villages on the Chilliwack River between the western canyon opening and the Chilliwack Lake area.

(3) Marian Smith (1950a:334 fn. 14,339-341,340 Figure 1) lists 14 Chilliwack villages, the general locations of which are shown on Figure 2-5. Of these 14, only a single settlement (1) was sited below Vedder Crossing, explicable, she observes, by the fact already noted that "the lower course of the Chilliwack River was once marsh" and by the circumstance that "the Chilliwack had no old villages along the Fraser." Because this community was a late one and outside the early Chilliwack Canyon homeland, it is without central interest in this study.

Figure 2-5. Location of 14 Chilliwack villages as plotted by Smith (1950a:339-341), based on her own field data. Nooksack villages on Nooksack River and lower end of "Old course of the Nooksack" are designated by letters. Villages F and G appear to fall within Chilliwack boundary as this is plotted by Duff (see Figure 2-1).

Villages 5-7 in Smith's Chilliwack settlement catalog are identified by her with the Cultus Lake group, settlement 7 having been their "home" village where "they had been ... a long time." If they were in fact affiliated with the Cultus Lake people, they should not appear in her Chilliwack settlement list. Duff (1952:38), incidentally, includes village 5 in his roster as Chilliwack settlement 14, saying nothing about its inhabitants having been members of the tribe that occupied the Cultus Lake sector.

In contrast with village 1, Smith's settlements 2-13 were all on the Chilliwack River upstream from Vedder Crossing, though this is not clear from her distribution map (Figure 2-5) which is inaccurate in several respects. Villages 2-7 were regarded by the Chilliwack, Smith (1950a:240) states, as their old "head villages," with 2 and 3 the most important of the six. These six were "not more than a quarter of a mile apart." Evidently there was a tight community cluster just above the canyon mouth, for Hill-Tout speaks of a group of five villages in this same area and Duff's villages 13-16 (Table 2-1) were all in this same locality.

The data provided by Smith (1950a:340-341) regarding these 14 villages is compiled in Table 2-2.

Table 2-2. Old Chilliwack Villages and Old Cultus Settlements (starred) above Vedder Crossing according to the Field Data of Smith (1950a:340-341)

Village No.	Village Name	Location	Other Ethnographic Village References	Descriptive Data
2	tstsmaus (t'átmaus)	Less than 0.5 mile above Vedder Crossing bridge where small creek entered Chilliwack from the north.	Duff 15	Location of a famous dwelling called "watery eaves."
3	xéls	Here a small creek reached Chilliwack from north. Nearby a rockslide and steep hill.	Boas 2; Duff 16
4	siyéqu	Just above Vedder Crossing.		Name = "burnt over".
5	*s'wé'li		Boas 1; Hill-Tout 8; Duff 14	Village of Cultus Lake people.
6	*?	At mouth of Soowahlie [Sweltzer] Creek, where a creek enters from the south.		Two dwellings of Cultus Lake people and another .25 mile up the small creek.
7	*?	On a flat beside Soowahlie Creek near its mouth and a large rock ("those blow flies")		Four or five large dwellings. Home village of Cultus Lake people.
8	layúms	Near Lihumitson [Liumchen] Creek.	Duff 17
9	t'pt'óp	On a flat 1 mile above 8.	Duff 18	A large settlement.
10	t'mmiáx'	At mouth of Tomyhoi [Tamihi] Creek.	Duff 19	Name = "deformed".
11	iáia	On Chilliwack 6 miles above 10.	Duff 20	River very deep at this place.
12	?	Opposite mouth of Sleese Creek.	Duff 21	Quite a large settlement.
13	?	On a mountain side just above Sleese Creek, 9 or 10 miles below Chilliwack Lake.	Duff 22	Two or three houses. Landslide once destroyed the houses, killing all but one family.
14	?	Several dwellings at head of Chilliwack River and on Chilliwack Lake.		Houses were "some distance from each other."

With these four field data records before us and with Hill-Tout, Smith, and Duff each listing one or more villages not found in either of the other two accounts, it is worthwhile to compile a master list of traditional Chilliwack settlements above the Vedder Crossing area (Table 2-3). An effort has been made, on the basis of the available information, to list these sites in an upriver order, divided into a Vedder Crossing cluster, a Sweltzer River group (originally occupied by Cultus Lake people but later taken over by the Chilliwack), and a Chilliwack River string from just above Vedder Crossing upstream to Chilliwack Lake. In addition, both Smith and Duff mention single dwellings or very small villages on the Chilliwack River close to Chilliwack Lake and around the shores of the lake.

Viewed from the perspective of this study, these data are of immediate interest in several ways. At least within the "tribal" memory of Chilliwack ethnographic informants, the Chilliwack population concentration was near or at the mouth of the river canyon. The degree to which the villages thinned out as the Chilliwack River was ascended is well demonstrated by the data plotted in Figures 2-4 and 2-5. And indicated also by the fact that only an occasional small settlement was located between Centre Creek and Chilliwack Lake, a distance of about 4 miles, and around the shores of the lake itself. This downriver concentration appears to have increased somewhat before 1830 as villages shifted their locus slightly closer to the canyon exit. Soon the population flowed out onto the alluvial plain along the various mouths of the Chilliwack River in its northward course. This movement must have drawn people from the canyon strip, particularly in view of the general tribal population decrease immediately prior to and during this time period.

One may wonder whether Chilliwack villages extended along the lower Chilliwack River "long ago" while, emerging from the canyon above the present Vedder Crossing, it flowed straight west to and into Sumas Lake according to native informants. Apparently this was not the case, for Duff (1952:43) reports: "At that time the Chilliwack tribe lived in several villages along the steep valley of the river up as far as Chilliwack Lake" and had their main headquarters at xe'ls (village 16, Table 2-1) in the lower canyon. Indeed, "another group of Indians lived at the present location of Cultus Lake . . . . These the Chilliwacks called swi'a, and they spoke a language 'a little different' from Chilliwack (Duff 1952:43). And, in fact, the village of cuw'li (14, Table 2-1), located on Sweltzer Creek just upstream from its junction with Chilliwack River, was at this time largely, if not wholly, a swi'a community (Duff 1952:43).

There is a strong implication that in protohistoric and early historic years the Chilliwack, owing to prevalent intertribal hostilities, were uncomfortable beyond the shelter of their canyon. Indeed, they maintained a high platform lookout against enemy raiders near their downrivermost village (Duff 1952:43). The area was also unsuitable for occupation because of its marshy surface and other particularly summer conditions to which reference has been made. Possibly, too, the district was held by the Cultus Lake people or the Sumas or, unlikely, some now forgotten tribelet.

Assuming that no Chilliwack settlements were located on this early, lower western river reach, it appears very probable that in the 1700s, prior to the appearance of the first known epidemics from Western sources, a substantially larger Chilliwack population inhabited the Chilliwack canyon above Vedder Crossing than in post-1830 years. Were these canyon villages larger or inhabited more consistently year after year? Were there additional settlements, especially in upriver sectors, perhaps around Chilliwack Lake, and even along the river above the lake? Evidently only archaeological investigation can answer these questions. But these are issues of major importance for an understanding of the traditional native utilization of the North Cascades Park area. For the upper, southern end of the present Chilliwack Lake is no more than 1 mile from the Park boundary.

It is of interest that extensive, periodic village splits and population movements to new localities were recalled for the protohistoric period by informants of the Tait group (Duff 1952:30-34, 44). Some involved single families, others parts of villages or even entire communities. Some were to nearby sites as roots, game, and firewood became scare. Others were of a more major nature as when groups attempted to reduce exposure to raiders from other tribes, affecting as much as half the Tait tribelet and taking the people some distance to a new segment of the Tait territory. It may be that this internal mobility was made easier by the unusual absence among the Tait of any feeling of internal unity, such that their status as a single tribelet may be questioned. And it may have been encouraged by the Tait control of an important segment of the Fraser River and their possession of numerous excellent salmon fishing rapids, rocks, and ledges. Certain of these were naturally more productive than others and, moreover, it may be assumed that the productivity of individual sites varied somewhat with the season and year. The Chilliwack case is obviously different, at least in the sense that they evidently saw themselves as comprising an ethnic entity, were rather less exposed in their canyon home to extratribal raids, and were not the possessors of a rich and varied major river sector. But it is still plain from the above data that village relocation was by no means unfamiliar to the Chilliwack. This is not an insignificant point for an understanding of the utilization of the northwestern corner of the Park, particularly when coupled with the downriver population press mentioned above. These facts again raise the possibility that the small settlements along the upper Chilliwack River and around Chilliwack Lake to which Duff's informant alluded may have been larger villages at an earlier time as well as the possibility that other communities beyondthose remembered by the informant may have existed both on the upper and middle Chilliwack.

Table 2-3. Composite Roster of Chilliwack Villages at and above Vedder Crossing and of Early Cultus Lake Villages Compiled from Tables 2-1 and 2-2.

A. Vedder Crossing Cluster

(a) Duff 13
(b) Duff 15, Smith 2
(c) Duff 16, Boas 2, Smith 3
(d) Smith 4
(e) Hill-Tout^a
(f) Hill-Tout^a
(g) Hill-Tout^a
(h) Hill-Tout^a

B. Sweltzer River Cluster^b

(i) Duff 14, Boas 1, Hill-Tout 8, Smith 5
(j) Smith 6
(k) Smith 7

C. Chilliwack River String (from Cluster A to Chilliwack Lake)

(I) Duff 17, Smith 8
(m) Duff 18, Smith 9
(n) Duff 19, Smith 10
(o) Duff 20, Smith 11
(p) Duff 21, Smith 12
(q) Duff 22, Smith 13

^a Perhaps a member of Sweltzer River Cluster.

^b Evidently early Cultus Lake villages, later taken over by the Chilliwack.

The Upper Stalo made and used three or possibly four types of dugout canoes (Duff 1952:51-53; Smith 1955:101-102). The area of these tribes seems, in fact, to have been a center of skillful canoe fabrication and out-trade. In most cases it is not perfectly clear, unfortunately, whether the descriptions apply to the precontact or post-White situation or both.

The following are the canoe types reported by Duff and Smith:

• The "Nootka or Chinook type." This was a large canoe, as much as 40 or even 60 feet in length and a fathom wide, "with high projecting bow and vertical stern-post carved as separate pieces." A large cedar tree was felled with stone chisels and hammers and a slab split off the log.
  

  The log was turned over, and the ends were shaped with hammer, chisel and adze. Upturned again, it was hollowed by means of fire controlled by water, and the sides were adzed to the proper thickness, measured by a small stick through holes bored at intervals. It was then placed upright on two blocks, one under each end, for spreading. This was done by filling the canoe with water, putting in hot stones, then, when the wood softened, forcing many bent green saplings in crosswise, which, as they straightened, spread the sides of the canoe. The permanent cross-pieces were then sewn in place: a wide "captain's" seat at the stern and several smaller cross-pieces, one behind each paddler's seat. Bow and stern pieces were also sewn in place. The outside of the canoe was finished by smoking it with fir-pitch, which hardened the surface so that it would not crack in the sun. (Duff 1952:51)

  This craft was used on the Fraser River itself up to the canyon above Yale and to make trips down to the salt water.
  
  Because of the generally large size of these canoes, it may be reasonably doubted that the Chilliwack owned such large dugouts, at least until early in the nineteenth century. For until then the tribelet was generally restricted to the middle and upper Chilliwack River, holding no section of the Fraser River as their country.
• The most common and most typical canoe was an all-purpose craft which varied from about 15 to 30 feet in length and carried as many as 10 persons. Hollowed out of half a cedar log, it had a low, projecting bow with
  

  . . . a mouth-like notch carved at the front. The bow meets the water with a sharp vertical cut-water, above which it flares widely to give lift in rough water. Flatly rounded in cross-section for most of its length, the canoe tapers gently to a point at the stern. The bottom as it approaches the stern becomes V-shaped, almost keeled, and slopes gently up to the projecting stern. (Duff 1952:52)

  In view of the characteristics of the water areas of the aboriginal and early postcontact Chilliwack country, it seems probable that craft of this widespread Upper Stalo variety were found also among the Chilliwack.
• A long, narrow, shallow "shovel-nosed" canoe was fashioned of a half cedar log.
  

  The bow and stern were the same -- wide, flat, cut square across, and projecting far out over the water. The bottom was flat with no cut-water, or merely a suggestion of one. Often as much as 25 or 30 feet long, it was very low and narrow. Although ideal for gliding over the swift cross-currents of the Harrison, Chilliwack, and other tributaries, it was not constructed to take much wind or rough water, and its usefulness on the main river was limited. It was usually poled rather than paddled. (Duff 1952:52)

  This shovel-nosed watercraft was able to turn quickly and was especially useful in rough water where it could "glide right across a cross current" (Smith 1955:102).
  
  Here we have a canoe form that is definitely assigned to the Chilliwack (Duff 1952:52), one that must have met their limited water needs admirably.
• A fourth variety which may have been in use among the middle Fraser people appears to have been fitted with a vertical, heavy prow piece. The smallest held 12 men; a large one, 20 to 22 men. Three or four of these craft were said to have been available in each middle Fraser group to carry all the adult males in raids against coastal groups, when "travelling up-river to the Yale fishing grounds in summer," and in transporting people to "gatherings." (Smith 1955:102)
  
  Assuming that craft of this variety were actually in use on the middle Fraser, it would appear unlikely that it was a Chilliwack canoe in early days, given their wholly side-river homeland, their apparent atypical Upper Stalo culture, their evident isolation, and their self-contained riverine-mountain orientation.

A fifth water craft type, according to Smith (1955:102), on the middle Fraser was a bark canoe, used for lake travel and also on creeks where it could be back-carried from stream to stream. It was fashioned of cedar, spruce, or even fir bark, and was, according to one informant, about 8 feet long and "quite wide."

Bark canoes were not in use among the Chilliwack, Smith (1955:103) reports. This is difficult for me to understand, however, for bark must have been available and there surely must have been segments of the Chilliwack River during some seasons when these craft would have furnished convenient transportation. They might also have been used to advantage on Chilliwack Lake and later on Cultus Lake, after it became Chilliwack territory. Perhaps it might have seen service on the upper reaches of the Chilliwack River above the lake, if it was not everywhere altogether too swift and dangerous a mountain stream.

In view of the importance of Indian watercraft to the early White travelers in Upper Stalo country along the lower Fraser and the reported skill of the natives in manipulating cedar canoes in fast water and swift currents, it is surprising how little information regarding these craft as artifacts is to be found in the historical records.

• On his journey down the Fraser in June, 1808, and then back up in July, Simon Fraser (1960:98-102, 109-116) had ample opportunity to examine Upper Stalo canoes by the dozens, his party being dependent on negotiated or enforced loans of watercraft from the native groups they encountered. Unfortunately, however, he fails to describe their form and construction. He reports, in fact, only that at the village just below Yale, a Tait community, he "saw a number of new . . . [canoes], which seemed to have been hollowed with fire, and then polished" (Fraser 1960:99).
• Charles Wilson (1970) provides even less information. While serving with the British Boundary Commission in Upper Stalo territory in 1858-1859, he moved about by Indian canoe on many occasions. Not once, however, to my knowledge did he describe the Upper Stalo craft in artifactual terms.

Paddles were of maple with crutch or cross handles, those used by women being smaller than those favored by men. Steering paddles differed to some extent, but precisely how is not described. Poles, 10 to 15 feet long and of fir or occasionally cedar, were carried in all canoes for pushing the craft in shallow water. Bailers were of folded cedar bark with cross handles. (Duff 1952:53, Figure 1a-c)

Coarsely woven, cedar bark mats and occasionally blankets were said to have been used as canoe sails by the Upper Stalo in precontact times (Duff 1952:53). Their pre-1800 occurrence among the Stalo may well be accurate, the sails having diffused up the Fraser from nearby coastal groups before the appearance of Whites in Upper Stalo country. But the ultimate source of the sail among the maritime native peoples appears to be still an open question: whether the idea derived from viewing early Euroamerican sailing vessels or long ago from seeing some wrecked ship from the Orient (Underhill 1945:91). How useful sails would have been as canoe adjuncts to the Chilliwack in their canyon country -- as opposed to the tribelets along the open Fraser Valley -- is unclear.

"Snowshoes were worn for land travel during the winter." The frame of vine maple was oval in shape with the front end turned up and with a webbing of deerskin strips. (Duff 1952:57)

Trails

Travel by the Upper Stalo was mainly by canoe with pole and paddle, except during the coldest months of the year when the river became covered with chunks of floating ice. Journeying up and down the valley through Upper and Lower Stalo country was easy via the river, the Stalo "highway" concerning which every turn, shallow, pool, snag, rapid, and beach were well known. (Duff 1952:16,17-18)

Major land trails and water routes in the central segments of great river country -- as opposed to small side trails -- normally do not terminate within the area, but rather extend through it. So it was with the Upper Stalo Fraser River trails. This was no less true in prehistoric periods than in more recent ethnographic times. Thus an old, semirealistic art style with religious associations is believed to have originated in the classic Northwest Coast cultures and to have diffused, as one line of flow, up the Fraser, over to the Middle Columbia, and down that river to its lower reaches (Smith 1950b:26-27). Surely we are dealing here with a principal land-water route between the coast and the interior, with the Upper Stalo area as an important intermediate link.

But it is difficult to describe ethnographically such routes with their forkings this way and that. Consequently in the descriptions that follow the trails are treated as though they originated in Upper Stalo territory and fanned outward in various directions to the country of the tribal entities in the vicinity.

From just above Yale, the northeasternmost border of Upper Stalo territory and southern end of Lower Thompson country, upriver to Spuzzum the Fraser poured through a fearful canyon. Difficult and dangerous though this river reach was, it was sometimes possible to navigate it during low water seasons. Indeed, the Stalo occasionally took cedar canoes up this narrow canyon to Spuzzum for sale.

These canoes . . . were larger than the Thompsons could make with the cedars they had available, and hence in great demand, as fairly large canoes were necessary in the rough waters of that region. (Duff 1952:16)

But "the usual method of travel to Thompson country was by foot, over steep and tortuous trails," with ingenious ladder constructions as travel aids. The difficulties of this route "were such as to keep cultural contacts with the Thompsons at a minimum." (Duff 1952:16)

To how great a degree the Chilliwack participated in these Fraser River trade and travel patterns is not reported. Assuming Duff's early Chilliwack River orientation for the tribelet as accurate, the group is unlikely to have been nearly as involved in the "old days" as were the other Upper Stalo peoples with their Fraser bank locations. On the other hand, the Chilliwack encountered Thompson parties -- at least of the lower division of that group -- in the mountains of the upper Chilliwack and perhaps of the upper Skagit.

Apparently no trails -- at any rate, no horse trails of significance -- led eastward from the Upper Stalo area over the mountains through Lower Thompson country to the Sinkaietk (=Southern Okanagan) or southern part of the Okanagan (= Northern Okanagan) territory. Though not without some ambiguity, McClellan (1855:197), a member of the Stevens' expedition, seems to be reporting as much when he records information received at Fort Okanagan at the Okanogan River mouth in late September, 1853:

Mr. Lafleur [who had charge of the fort] informed me that there was no pass between Mt. Baker and the Hudson's Bay Company's trail from [Fort] Okinakane to [Fort] Langley. This our subsequent examination verified. The information received here confirmed me in my previous intention of examining the Methow river, for they told me there was a good foot trail leading up that valley and over to the sound.

Evidently, to rephrase McClellan's statements, the Hudson's Bay personnel were unaware of any direct cross-mountain route suitable for pack trains between the Mt. Baker area, southeast of Langley on the lower Fraser, and the lower Okanogan River. Such a path would have taken parties roughly eastward over the high mountains to intersect at some point either with the Simillkameen segment of the Company's Okanagan-Langley route or directly with the Okanogan River end of that route. This latter Similkameen-confluence to Okanagan mouth stretch was also the southern terminus of the highly important north-south Old Okanagan Trail that linked Fort Okanagan and the company's establishment at Kamloops.

To view the matter from an Upper Stalo perspective, the customary route of Hudson's Bay travelers between the lower Fraser area and the Okanogan Valley plainly followed a series of low river valleys, crossing only one short, low watershed and avoiding altogether the mountains and their passes. Specifically, it was a roundabout path that ran from Langley up the Fraser, up the Coquihalla to its headwaters, overland to the Tulameen, down it and then the Similkameen, and finally down the Okanogan Valley to Fort Okanagan (Brown 1914:24, 29). This path was termed the "Fort Hope Trail" by Fort Okanagan and other Plateau traders (Brown 1914:29), since it reached the Fraser at Hope, where the Coquihalla empties into the Fraser, an area well within Upper Stalo territory.

Presumably it is to this circuitous trail that Brown (1914:12) alludes when writing in the following note of the Similkameen route:

[The] Okanogans and their neighboring tribes used to frequently visit the coast in the vicinity of the mouth of the Fraser, going thence sometimes by the Methow route and sometimes by the Similkameen route.

That this Similkameen trail was used by the Okanagan rather heavily in post-horse times is attested to by Teit's (1930b:250) ethnographic field information. On the other hand, this cross-country route from the Okanogan River to the Thompson River via the Similkameen and Nicola is dismissed as unimportant by Teit (1930b:250, 252) as a prehorse travel and trading route. His field data suggest that material items of Okanagan and more eastern and southern provenience appear to have reached the Lower Fraser tribes rather less by this trail than by way of Okanagan Lake to the Thompson River and Thompson tribe. (For further details see Lower Thompson chapter.)

Perhaps it was this trail that may have been involved in prehistoric times in cultural trait and complex diffusion between the middle Fraser and middle Columbia. For example, in her discussion of the rock art of the Fraser drainage, Puget Sound, and The Dalles area of the Columbia River, Marian Smith speaks of two possible paths by which petroglyphic artistic styles might have spread southward from the Northwest Coast. One of these was down the coast to the Fraser mouth, up the Fraser to its upper drainage, and them over to and down the Columbia, this route carrying the dot-and-circle design. Of the two paths, Smith suspected this one via the Fraser and middle Columbia to be the older. (Smith 1946:309, 316, 320)

The trail between Fort Langley (and Fort Hope) and Fort Colvile followed this same Fraser, Coquihalla, Tulameen, Simillkameen path to the Okanogan and them led eastward overland to Kettle Falls (Palmer in Brown 1914:29, 34-35).

The Methow line of travel commented upon by Brown would have brought Plateau Indians over the Cascades into the Skagit area and then to the Fraser Valley somewhere below Chilliwack country. For this reason it is discussed in the Skagit section of this report. It was this Methow trail that Alexander Ross (1956:37) attempted to follow in 1814, with Southern Okanagan guides, in his futile effort to journey from the lower Okanogan River over the Cascades to the salt water. It is not without relevance that this trail was so disused by 1814 and so poorly known to Ross' guides that its precise lime of travel was lost about as soon as the party left the Methow River mouth.

Having said this much about the high-altitude Methow fur trader and Indian trail, it is of interest to note a possibly relevant ethnographic observation by Teit (1930b:250) presented from the Okanagan perspective: "In some places a few people [of the Okanagan group] occasionally made special trading trips across mountain ranges and through uninhabited country to distant neighbors. After horses had come into use these trips developed into important affairs, undertaken regularly by large parties." Whether the ranges alluded to were in part the high ones of the Cascades is not made clear and further, if so, whether these lofty trails led to the Upper Stalo country is in doubt. But as the trade data to follow make clear, Okanagan parties are known to have negotiated some trails to the lower Fraser.

Whether the Chilliwack on occasion made their way eastward to visit and trade with the Plateau Okanagan and Sinkaietk and perhaps with even more eastern groups like the Colville is unclear. If so, they may have gone via the roundabout Fraser-Coquihalla-Similkameen trail noted above. But since the tribe, exceptionally for an Upper Stalo people, traveled widely in their own high territory in exploiting their unique environment and special subsistence resources, Chilliwack parties may sometimes have made their way over the towering mountains to the upper Skagit River in Lower Thompson country and then through the passes to the Similkameen and ultimately to the Okanogan Valley. The Chilliwack, however, were traditionally on rather bad terms with the Lower Thompson, whose country bounded the Chilliwack homeland -- and, in fact, all Upper Stalo country -- on the east. This social circumstance may in itself have discouraged eastward travel both by the longer, less onorous Fort Hope Trail and by some more direct, mountain pass route.

Travel north to the Lillooet homeland was not difficult so far as the terrain was concerned, for Harrison River and Lake were easily navigable. In fact, a trail, the "Harrison-Lillooet" (=Cayoosh or Cayoush) trail first "discovered" by Anderson, a chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, led north from the Fraser up Harrison River, by Harrison Lake, up the Lillooet River to Lillooet Lake and then to Anderson Lake, across to Seton Lake and down to the Fraser River where the present community of Lillooet is sited. This trail was "cut" by Company men, but was still impassable to mule trains until 1859. Because of its circling route, it avoided the worst of the dangerous obstacles of the Fraser Canyon sector (Mayne 1862:43, 50, 56, 93, 129-138). I presume that this path followed a series of old Indian trails from the country of the Scowlitz and Chehalis, both Upper Stalo groups, north to the Lillooet and then east to the Shuswap. Nevertheless, because Upper Stalo relations with the Lillooet were generally hostile, at least in historic times, most Upper Stalo tribelets saw little of the Lillooet. (Duff 1952:16)

To travel southward the Upper Stalo moved on foot. Evidently this north-south contact was of some importance in recent traditional times. According to Smith (1950a:331), one or more trails led from the Fraser River via the Chilliwack River and then with several short portages down to the Nooksack country. Presumably this has reference to the early period when the Chilliwack River still flowed west to the vicinity of Sumas Lake and then north to the Fraser. If so, one route probably moved up the lowest segment of the Chilliwack, passed Sumas Lake, ascended upper Sumas River, and passed over to the Nooksack Valley. Or, of course, from Sumas Lake ascended Nooksack River during the period when, blocked from its customary westward channel, its outlet to the sea was via Sumas Lake and the Fraser (cf. Duff 1952:16). It was by this route that in "aboriginal times" grass used in fishnet weaving moved from the Thompson Indians to the Nooksack and sturgeon glue for sinew-backed bows was carried from the Fraser River to the Nooksack (Smith 1950a:332). Whether overland from the headwaters of the Sumas to the Nooksack Valley or via the diverted, north-flowing Nooksack River, the trail would have lain to the west of traditional Chilliwack territory. Hence the extent to which the Chilliwack made use of it is an open question. Still, in light of their relatively short distance from Sumas River and Lake and especially of their possible Nooksack-like speech and apparently rather aberrant Fraser River, Nooksack-like culture, it would be surprising if the tribe failed in early days to travel this route to the southwest to some extent.

With the establishment of Fort Langley and Fort Yale of the Hudson's Bay Company on the lower and middle Fraser respectively, this Chilliwack-Nooksack-Lummi route became very important as the shortest trail between Fort Yale and northern Puget Sound.

Concerning Chilliwack trails in particular we have very little information and this wholly, at present, from the journal of Charles Wilson, a member of the British Boundary Commission. In his record for 1859, he records several land journeys he and his colleagues made to various points in and through the area which is assigned ethnographically to the Chilliwack. But he states that most of the trails that he and his surveying field parties followed were their own paths, not old Indian trails (Wilson 1970:58). The remainder were surely traditional Chilliwack routes, such as that (probably those, one on each river bank) which led up the Chilliwack Valley from its lower end to Chilliwack Lake (Wilson 1970:49, 62-65), linking the various Chilliwack villages in early times and permitting access to resources bellow the canyon mouth and especially upstream into the Cascades high country. And such as, too, those up the small tributaries of the Chilliwack, like Tamihi Creek and Sleese Creek that brought resource-searching parties in traditional times into the mountains south of the Chilliwack. Unable in other instances to distinguish between surveying party routes and established Indian trails, I report here only one other "track," that which followed the upper Chilliwack River -- above the lake -- an unspecified distance and led ultimately to the Skagit country.

Regarding this route, Wilson writes on several occasions:

(a) On July 30,1859: "One of Roche's men came in from the Skagit valley beyond the Cascades & told us that a fearful fire was raging there. He had great difficulty in passing it. (Wilson 1970:65)

(b) On August 2: "Haig left with a party of men for the Skagit valley" (Wilson 1970:65).

(c) On October 9: "I was getting rather anxious about Haig & was glad when I heard he had got down to the [Chilliwack] Lake; he only just got in in time & passed over nearly 2 feet of snow on the summit of the pass across the Cascades & to add to his other misfortunes, the provisions cached or hidden for him on the mountains has been plundered by bears or something or other,..." (Wilson 1970:73)

It is a pity that Wilson is not more explicit in regard to this route, but he was no geographer. It seems probable that Roche and Haig were not following the easiest trail to the Skagit Valley, but were cutting their way along the 49th parallel to the Skagit, it being their task to survey and mark this difficult line. In this case, they were obviously not following an old Indian path. The simplest Chilliwack to Skagit track south of Chilliwack Lake appears to have been that which moved up the Chilliwack River, by Bear and Indian Creeks, about 8.5 miles above the lake to the mouth of Brush Creek, ascended this stream to Whatcom Pass, and then followed Little Beaver Creek down to the Skagit River, now the west shore of Ross Lake. (Just such a trail is marked on the Green Trails, Mt. Challenger map.) From this point a ride of approximately 6.5 miles north up the Skagit Valley would have brought the surveying parties back to the border.

In relation to Chilliwack country trails in general, Wilson (1970:70) makes the interesting observation regarding forest fires and their influence on trail use, at least with mule trains and presumably likewise by humans alone:

These fires are great drawbacks to us & sometimes stop up the trails for days. The dry moss catches from the least thing, a flash of lightning or a spark from a pipe may kindle a fire which will run for miles and miles; it is a grand & awful sight to see the power of the flames over the enormous trees. (Wilson 1970:70)

Trade

Trade -- and, I conclude, travel -- among the Upper Stalo had a distinct upriver-downriver orientation. Upstream, it was with the Thompson Indians. To them they took dried salmon, rush mats, and goat-wool blankets and in low water dugout canoes, these generally to their relatives and friends. In return the Upper Stalo acquired "soopalalie-oil," dried saskatoon-berries (i.e., serviceberries), and Indian hemp. (Duff 1952:95; Smith 1955:102,103; Suttles 1957:169 fn. 39)

Reference to "soopalalie-oil" requires brief comment. Soopolallie (the more common current spelling of this Chinook jargon term) is the soapberry (Shepherdia canadensis; also called russet buffalo-berry and foamberry). Its orange-red, sour-bitter berries were widely eaten as a confection by the native groups in southern British Columbia. They were consumed either fresh or boiled, made into cakes, and dried for later use. Sometimes the juice obtained from them in the cooking process was collected and poured over the drying cakes. Fresh or dried, the berries, with the addition of cold water, were beaten to a froth, now often termed "Indian ice-cream." "Throughout... [British Columbia, dried] soapberries have been a major item of trade" among Indian peoples. (Turner 1978:138-141; see also Hitchcock and Cronquist 1981:302 and Clark 1976:324) I am not sure at this point what Duff means by the "oil" of the "soopalalie" and how it was used; but I suspect that it is a slightly confounded reference to these dried berries or their cakes and to their value as a luxury food.

To the downriver people near the Fraser River mouth the Upper Stalo took dried salmon in particular, for which they secured fish, "wild potatoes" (see "roots" section), dried and occasionally even fresh clams, and sometimes sealskins. Shells, too, evidently flowed up the Fraser River as trade items.

• In his journal of June 28, 1808, Simon Fraser (1960:99-100), when in the Tait village at Yale, observed ornaments of "shells of different kinds" and shell beads as well as shells in great numbers attached to the exterior of a newly erected mortuary structure. These shells and perhaps the shell ornaments already fabricated almost certainly had a coastal provenience.
  
  Likewise indicative of coastal trade were items of Western origin noted by Fraser among the Upper Stalo.
• Fraser (1960:99) "saw few or no christian goods" among the people at the first village of the Stalo he encountered, this in the canyon. In the village in the Yale vicinity, however, he saw 'brass" wire bracelets and "brass" pipes (Fraser 1960:100). If truly brass rather than copper, these objects or at least their materials were certainly non-Indian trade items probably from the coast. Still further downriver, at a village in what I take to have been the upper end of the Hope to Seabird Island reach, Fraser (1960:101) saw "a large copper kettle shaped like a jar, and a large English hatchet."

Duff implies that most of the trading was carried out as merely one component of the frequent visits made by the Upper Stalo to the tribes in these upriver and downriver directions. (Duff 1952:95)

Without probing the archaeological data in any depth since the present study is ethnographic in nature, it is still of historical interest that as early as 1907, Harlan Smith (1907:439) saw in the prehistoric artifacts of the lower and middle Fraser Valley evidences of early river-route trade. For example, ground stone and bone projectile points, ground-slate fish knives, bone harpoon points, beaver-teeth dice, and a carving style in bone occurred both on the coast and up the Fraser River. This fact, he held, attests to the proposition that interior Fraser people were influenced by nearby coastal tribes. Similarly, the inland presence of whale bone, dentalia, olivella shells, and shell pendants from the Pacific shores "proves the existence of intertribal trade" up the Fraser River (Smith 1907:439).

On the other hand, "it is probable," Smith (1907:439) writes, that:

at an early time a migration took place from the interior to the coast and to Vancouver Island. This migration carried the art of stone chipping, the use of tubular pipes, and geometric decorative art, to the coast, and in later times the custom of depositing artifacts with the dead.

Whether right in migration as against culture flow through trade and other intertribal social links and whether correct in specific artifact details as known from later archaeological research, these data suggest the degree to which in early precontact times the Fraser River brought artifacts and cultural knowledge into the Upper Stalo area from both inland and the maritime shores.

Some trade items flowed to the Upper Stalo from Plateau tribes whose country lay east and southeast of the Thompson. Even in prehorse days some came from the Okanagan and via the Okanagan from sources both down the Columbia and from Salishan tribes off to the east. In early times they appear to have moved northward in group-to-group exchange and to have flowed predominantly from the lower Okanogan River area by Okanagan Lake and the trail to Kamloops on the Thompson River, a journey made mainly by canoe, and finally down the Thompson and Fraser. Later, following the introduction of the horse, the more direct overland trail up the Similkameen, over to the Hope region of the Fraser, and down that river was the more commonly used. The use of this more direct route was also encouraged in early post-horse years by the disappearance as a tribal entity of the Athapascan Nicola, whose territory lay in the Nicola Valley and the upper Similkameen and who, traditionally hostile to the Okanagan, comprised a barrier to Okanagan trade movement west and northwest via these stream valleys. Larger parties became involved; trips were made more frequently; and more and heavier trade items were transported by the individual parties. (Teit 1930b:250-255)

Evidently in both the prehorse and posthorse periods many more Okanagan trading groups made the journey to the Fraser than Upper Stalo parties traveled to Okanagan country. Perhaps, in fact, the upriver Halkomelem never undertook this trip. Teit (1930b:254, 255) reports:

In July and August, when the route was open, Similkameen and Okanagon sometimes crossed the Cascade Mountains and visited the people of Hope on Lower Fraser River. After horses became common this trade became important and was followed annually. ... The Coast Indians never carried goods inland, as they did in Alaska and in the north,...

The Upper Stalo gave their Similkameen and Okanagan visitors packs of the best kinds of dried salmon, salmon oil, and dentalia and other shells. In return they secured Indian hemp-bark and twine, dried serviceberries, and dressed buckskin. In later years they even sold these interior trading parties salted salmon. (Teit 1930b:254)

According to Walters' (in Spier 1938:77) Southern Okanagan informants, "coast people" traded to their Southern Okanagan visitors for one buckskin enough dentalia or other sea shells to trim one dress. Before being exchanged, the shells were sorted by size and color to make each bundle uniform. All bead sizes, however, were of equal value. Whether these coast folk were Upper Stalo or groups at the western terminus of the Okanogan-Methow-Skagit trail is uncertain. Yet Teit's data above attesting to Upper Stalo involvement in bead bartering suggest the probable applicability of Walters' information to the inland Halkomelem, whatever her specific population reference.

Intertribal Relations

The prehistory of the Chilliwack and the Chilliwack area lies beyond the general scope of this report. But concerning the protohistoric period it is relevant to note that Hill-Tout (1903:406; 1904:311) viewed the Coquitlam near the Fraser mouth and the Chehalis of the Harrison Lake region as remnants of a former population (Duff 1952:12). Further, Hill-Tout (1903:355) believed that in the not too distant past the entire Fraser Valley below the Yale-Spuzzum sector was peopled by non-Halkomelem groups. For this view his argument runs thus:

"... intercourse between the different tribes [in the lower Fraser country], as far as can be gathered from themselves, was never very free or extended, the nature of the country forbidding this." This argues for a relatively recent spread of the Halkomelem up into the Fraser area. For given their relative isolation from one another as a consequence of traveling difficulties, the speech of the individual groups from the Cowichan and Nanaimo on Vancouver Island to the Tait high up the Fraser River would have diverged to a point of mutual intelligibility, as was not the case, if they had been long residents in the region.

These reconstructive propositions require brief examination. Unquestionably group isolation contributes importantly to linguistic drift and divergence. But it is difficult to understand Hill-Tout's explanation of the group isolation to which he alludes in the simple environmental terms which he proposes. All of the relevant data of Duff, summarized at various points in his report, suggest that the Fraser River "highway" between the upper most Halkomelem group (the Tait) and those tribelets at the river mouth was relatively easily navigated in canoes under most weather conditions.

If isolation there was among these Halkomelem groups, a substantially more telling argument, it seems to me, could be made for such as the result of intertribal conflict both among the Halkomelem peoples and between them and their neighbors in early times, a situation to which Duff's ethnographic data and the Fort Langley documents amply attest. Only after the establishment of the Fort in 1827 and after the traders and missionaries had an opportunity to exert their influence were these traditional enmities relaxed.

Is there any explicit support for Hill-Tout's thesis of a fairly recent movement of Halkomelem-speaking groups up the Fraser Valley? Duff's (1952:12) field research a half-century later than Hill-Tout's revealed no migration memories among the Upper Stalo. Accordingly, Duff doubts any relatively recent population flow up the Fraser. But neither Hill-Tout nor Duff appear to consider the possibility of language diffusion unaccompanied by any significant population movement. Evidence exists for just such comparatively late speech shifts among groups immediately south of the Fraser River. Hence it seems that, modifying somewhat Hill-Tout's central proposition, the notion of a relatively recent spread of the Halkomelem language up the Fraser -- not necessarily associated with an actual migration of people -- is in fact a theoretical possibility, in spite of some intergroup enmity.

Of particular relevance in this context is Smith's (1950a:334) conclusion that"... a Halkomelem-speaking culture has recently displaced a Nooksack-speaking 'Middle Fraser' culture in the area around Chilliwack Duff (1952:12) clearly interprets Smith's postulation as involving an actual population displacement, for he comments that his informants knew of no traditions of migrations or of earlier populations in the middle reaches of the Fraser. That Halkomelem speech has in fact spread in the general area is, however, indicated by the fact that the Nooksack have within relatively recent memory abandoned their own, unique Coast Salish language and adopted the Stalo dialect of Chilliwack (Elmendorf and Suttles 1960:1).

Any consideration of the cultural position of the Chilliwack vis-a-vis their neighbors must take note of Marian Smith's (1941, 1947:266; 1950a:335-338; 1950b; 1952:83-85, 89, 90; 1955; 1956) pre- and protohistoric reconstructions of an old "Foothill Cultural Province," a later "Middle Fraser Culture," and a short sequence of Bone and Stone Cultures, and more especially of her views of the Chilliwack in relation to these early postulated, areally-limited cultural configurations. These data are not easily presented in summary form because of certain real or apparent changes in her formulations through time, because of the largely speculative quality of her formulations, because of the fact that a detailed, coherent listing of the material and social traits that characterized these cultural subareas is rarely provided, and because of a certain lack of clarity in presentation. Yet not to mention briefly these postulations and the subsequent criticisms of them would be to neglect a significant chapter in the development of the anthropology of the Upper Stalo area and the Chilliwack position within it.

According to Smith (1941:198), the Coast Salish on the eastern side of Puget Sound considered the ethnic groups in their region as falling into three distinct divisions on the basis of location and overall lifeway pattern and distinguished these tribal groups by separate terms. These were (a) the "inland" groups that "ranged about the source waters of the rivers in the foothills of the Cascades"; (b) the "river" groups in villages "situated above the tides on the lower reaches of the large streams"; and (c) the "salt water" people of "the Sound and its various arms." The first of these categories included the peoples whose country lay in the upper reaches of the rivers between the Puyallup and Nooksack. Unfortunately, Smith fails to present lists of cultural traits distinctive of each of these three tribal categories. Still, if accurate, these observations indicate that these "inland" peoples and cultures west of the Cascade crest represent in some measure a separate string of tribes, the distinctiveness of which in the protohistoric period was recognized by the local Indians themselves. Surely the Chilliwack must be placed in this group, though Smith limits her review to tribes south of the international border.

Analyzing the ethnographic data, Smith (1941:203-206; see also 1940:31-32, 44-47; 1950a:336-337) herself proposed a somewhat different alignment of these tribes. She found them to be divisible into (a) an Inland Puget Sound group of tribes distinct from the coastal, (b) Northern Puget Sound, (c) Central Puget Sound, and (d) Puyallup-Nisqually groups. The Inland group, along the western foothills of the Cascades, consisted of the Skagit east of (b), of the Snoqualmie upriver from (c), and of the Muckleshoot upstream from (d). The Skagit shared cultural traits with the downriver Swinomish, as the other inland people did with the coastal groups with which they were paired. But the Skagit possessed as well important non-coastal traits in common with the other two members of its Inland group. A number of these latter cultural elements were environmentally related: clams, seals, and other salt water products provided a negligible component of their diet; hunting was almost as important as fishing; cross-country travel by land was important and, being more difficult than canoe movement among the coastal groups, contributed to the absence among them of the large social gatherings of potlatch proportions that occurred in the salt water tribes. Other common inland traits appear to have had no special or immediate ecological root: class distinctions were based on behavior rather than on inheritance; kin lines were socially insignificant in a formal sense; guardian spirit power dances were individualized, not systematized. At this early stage of Smith's thinking, the Chilliwack are not mentioned as a member of this "Inland" tribal string, but they undoubtedly belong with the group.

Relying largely on limited ethnographic data, bolstered by some linguistic and archaeological information, and interpreting these data from a time perspective, Smith (1950a:336; 1952:84) believed that the inland, upriver, or foothill culture was in place "by approximately 2,500 years ago." It extended from The Dalles northward on both forested faces of the Cascades and Coast Ranges to the upper Lillooet area and via the interior river systems to and including the Bella Coola of coastal British Columbia. This culture comprised the western periphery of the Plateau area from the Carrier of British Columbia to the Klamath of southern Oregon, as recognized by Ray (1939:145, 147), and the mountainous eastern fringe of the adjacent Coastal area. The only cultural items indicated by Smith in 1952 as particular to this Province are stone carvings in a special (undefined) style, a pacifistic orientation, and "the slight importance given to rank" (Smith 1952:84).

The ancestral Chilliwack -- or more properly the population of the Chilliwack Valley at the time, an important point not noted by Smith -- are considered to have been one of the component groups within this Province. Two conclusions appear to follow from the above interpretations of the data: (1) these old Chilliwack had their primary cultural affinities with groups to the north and south of them on both flanks of the Cascades, not with the coastal peoples as in more recent periods; and (2) the environmental similarities of the two sides of the mountains were then a more powerful cultural molding force than the high Cascade mountain masses were a barrier to group contact and cultural diffusion. These conclusions may have in them some element of truth.

Still, as Suttles (1957:169-170, 178), has pointed out, Smith's larger postulate of a Foothill Culture Province rests on very insecure ground. Most damaging to her proposition is the fact that she fails to provide the extended catalog of cultural traits and complexes required to establish it as a separate culture subarea.

Further, again as Suttles (1957:170) has observed, Smith's north-south line on the eastern face of the Cascades fails to conform to tribal lines as drawn by Ray (1939), whose westernmost longitudinal Plateau subarea Smith purports to embrace within her newly created Province. I suspect that she is intending to split these western Plateau tribal units into two segments, a Columbia River salmon component and a backcountry, more balanced hunting, gathering, and fishing for smaller fish component, only the latter being incorporated into her Province. This would parallel her separation of the west-of-the-Cascades groups into salt-water peoples and inland, riparian peoples, a division to which reference has been made above. The important difference between these eastern and western tribal clusters is that on the Coast these divisions were made by the Indians themselves, while this was not so on the eastern flank of the Cascades. In this latter region, individual tribes "owned" and made extensive subsistence use of both riverine and back-hill regions. If this division within individual Plateau tribes is her intent, it is a shame that she does not say as much.

The "Middle Fraser Culture" of Smith (1941:205-206; 1947:258; 1950a:336-339; 1950b:35; 1952:83, 95; 1956:272; see also Codere 1948), a later development in prehistoric times as one of several small, regional cultural types, may have evolved from the life patterns of the earlier Foothill Province. It was a unique cultural manifestation "peripheral" to and geographically intermediate between the cultural composites of the Gulf of Georgia on the west and the Upper Fraser on the east. The few cultural traits itemized by Smith at various times as especially associated with this cultural nexus include "elaborate attention to wild-root crops as a source of subsistence"; a divided riverine/salt water subsistence orientation, utilizing the marine territorial resources of other tribes; the manufacture and use of both flaked and ground-polished stone tools; the use of elaborate semisubterranean dwellings as well as plank structures; a certain uniqueness in mythology; speech of the Nooksack or closely related variety; and a special physical type. This cultural mode, "more complex than [the] surrounding and intruding cultures," survived in residue form into the late protohistoric lifeways of the Nooksack, Chilliwack, Fraser River groups from Mission upstream to Yale, and people of southern Harrison Lake (the Scowlitz and Chehalis [Figure 2-1]). In late prehistoric or protohistoric times, the more northern of these peoples came under the cultural and linguistic influence of the Halkomelem folk, with their coastal traits, who spread up the Fraser Valley to add a coastal veneer to the "Middle Fraser" substratum. Nooksack was the only "Middle Fraser" survivor into the full historic period; the Chilliwack retained this earlier life style "until the time of intensive European contact."

This posited Middle Fraser formulation requires some comment. As already noted, Smith (1950a:336-337) earlier described the Nooksack and Chilliwack as having had a strong inland, riverine orientation without a significant salt-water component. Whatever the Nooksack case, irrelevant to this present study, her own Chilliwack information and that of others strongly imply that in adding here to the Chilliwack life style an important salt-water resources use, she fails to distinguish between the traditional culture of pre-and protohistoric times and that in the postcontact period. Her documentation of Chilliwack travel to the sea with the Nooksack appears, in fact, to be limited to the post-midnineteenth century time level. The general ethnographic information summarized in this present Chilliwack chapter strongly suggests that journeys to the coast of any frequency as an aspect of the subsistence quest would have been out of Chilliwack character in pre-Fort Langley days (i.e., ante 1827), though it might have been a less dangerous trip with the Nooksack than straight down the Fraser to the Strait where hostilities were often possible. As in this instance, Smith is at many points unfortunately loose with her ethnographic time control. This frequently makes it difficult (sometimes impossible) to ascertain in her statements, reconstructions, and postulations whether she is describing the prehistoric life of a group, its ethnographic traditional, protohistoric and immediately postcontact culture, or some phase of its rapidly changing post-White lifeways.

In carefully reviewing Smith's Middle Fraser argument, Suttles (1957:162-164) agrees that the Nooksack were probably somewhat closer linguistically to the Stalo tribes on the Fraser than to the other groups in the vicinity. Following his lexicostatistical approach, Swadesh (1950:159 Table 1) found that Nooksack held in common a higher percentage of vocabulary items (out of his selected 165 items) with the Stalo dialects than with their other linguistic neighbors, the Halkomelem dialects of Vancouver Island being a near second. Suttles (1957:163) own limited Nooksack linguistic findings show that Nooksack and Halkomelem were also "closer to each other" in their sound system than either was to other nearby dialects and languages. And he agrees: "It is probable that the strongest cultural ties, like the strongest linguistic ties, . . . [were] with the Chilliwack and other tribes on the Fraser." Still these Nooksack-Stalo linguistic and Nooksack-Stalo-Lillooet cultural similarities were not so great -- and their differences from their neighbors not so great -- as to warrant viewing them as comprising a unique Middle Fraser subareal complex.

It is not the task of this study to review such archaeological data and interpretations as contribute to an understanding of the early cultural development of the Fraser drainage. Accordingly, only brief and summary attention is given to three of Smith's somewhat tangled and highly speculative attempts to synthesize the meager archaeological findings available in her day relating to the middle Fraser region -- and to a largely unknown degree to the people of the Chilliwack Valley -- and to the pre-White cultural interaction of the area with the Plateau and Northwest Coast.

In the late 1940s Smith (1950b) attempted to reconstruct four precontact cultural manifestations: an Early Bone Culture, a Late Bone Culture, an Eastern Stone Culture, and a Coastal Stone Culture. In the Fraser country from Yale "westward to the open sea," the Early Bone lifestyle seems to have either developed into or continued through some aspects of the Eastern Stone Culture. The movement south of the classic traits of Northwest Coast life began toward the close of the Late Bone period and continued into the protohistoric, following the coast southward and up the Fraser on east to introduce traits into the Eastern Stone Culture. The latter, turn about, spread from its place of origin down the Fraser to the coast. Smith concludes, with Kroeber, that "the lower Fraser drainage [was] a main, if not the main, early cultural focus of the Northwest Coast," and sees the Early Bone, with its equal adaptation to riverine and marine life, as the culture involved.

In the mid-1950s Smith (1956), again using the "meager and unsatisfactory" archaeological data supplemented by ethnographic information, reviewed the prehistory of the area in terms of both her Bone-Stone reconstructions and her hypothesized ancient Foothill Culture Province, the latter with "the western longitudinal subarea of the Plateau, Inland Puget Sound, and middle Fraser" as its nucleus. Among other efforts she constructs tentative culture-development sequences for the Columbia-Fraser region from an ancient, wide spread, assumed North Pacific Rim substratum to the ethnographic cultures of this large area.

Her major attempt at archaeological reconstruction, however, involves a longer time span and considerably broader geographical area. To consider only those aspects germane to the particular interests of this report, Arctic influences, Smith (1956:286-287) contends, moved down the coast roughly 2,500 years ago and filtered up the Fraser into the Plateau without any large, sudden migrations. This early southward flow was not repeated until ethnographic times, when slate-grinding and the Halkomelem language diffused up the Fraser from the coast. Smith (1956:282-284, Charts II and III sees her Interior or Foothill Culture as having contributed to both the later Puget Sound and Middle Columbia cultural developments. Through a merging of this Interior-Foothill life pattern and coastal traits, the Fraser Climax was born in the lower and middle Fraser areas.

This climax culture is equivalent to her Early Bone Culture, with an approximate 1,500-2,000 years ago date. The remarkable stone sculpture of the Fraser was clearly associated with this climax. This stone-carving complex, however, extended beyond the up-river sector of the lower and middle reaches of the Fraser River: it occurred also in the lower and middle sections of the Columbia River. While representing a single discontinuous trait distribution, the two Fraser and Columbia areas may have been connected by the wood sculptures of the Puget Sound regions. At any rate, they were trail-linked by a communication line from the Middle Fraser and Nooksack valleys via Snoqualmie and other nearby passes to the Yakima-Vantage region and hence to the Columbia downstream, all within the Foothill area.

Much of the trait assemblage of this rich early culture is thought to have been perpetuated in the Late Bone, Eastern Stone, and Coastal Stone cultural composites, the three covering the entire Columbia-Fraser region. The Middle Fraser culture is seen by Smith as a daughter culture of this Fraser Climax (Smith 1956:284, Chart III). During this later time span cultural traits flowed down the Fraser Valley from the interior to the coastal shores and local cultural variations developed. In its later Middle Fraser development the Fraser Climax, Smith contends, persisted into the historic period only among the Nooksack, although retained into very recent times by the Chilliwack.

All of this reconstruction is, of course, now dated by more recent and more technically proficient archaeological research, and so is largely of historical interest. But it illustrates the extent to which in this middle anthropological time level, between the very early work of Boas, Harlan Smith, and others and the more contemporary research of Borden and his successors, attention was paid to cultural movements up and down the Fraser through what has been in late times Upper Stalo territory and the possible contribution of the area's peoples over a very considerable time span to the cultural development of a much wider region.

So much for Marian Smith's various archaeological and ethnographic reconstructions, as best I can trace and comprehend them. One cannot but applaud these early efforts toward a synthesis of the limited data of her time and attempt to unravel her presentations since they frequently relate directly or indirectly to the Upper Stalo region and the Chilliwack. There are, however, substantial problems both in understanding and accepting her postulations: to me her papers exhibit a persistent lack of clarity and a bothersome failure to interrelate the different reconstructive formulations presented from year to year. There are other difficulties also, some having already been noted.

An intensive and extensive critique of her manipulation of the basic information, particularly the ethnographic, and of her time-tied cultural reconstructions has been undertaken by Suttles (1957). In this excellent point-by-point review, Suttles produces convincing evidence that Smith's data and formulations based on them lack credibility in many respects bearing on the Upper Stalo in general and Chilliwack in particular.

Her formulations demonstrate a fragmentary and often quite faulty and simplistic understanding of the relevant archaeological, linguistic, and ethnographic data available in her day and consequently a critical misapprehension concerning their implications. She draws hasty conclusions regarding the diffusion of cultures and movements of tribes. In Suttles carefully documented judgment, no convincing evidence of any sort exists for either the Foothill Culture Province along the Cascades flanks or the postulated later Middle Fraser Culture in the Mission to Yale sector of the river. The Province is nothing more than a typical case of culture overlap on the boundary of two long-recognized culture areas: the interior Plateau and the Northwest Coast, both in their Fraser River manifestations. The Middle Fraser Culture, in turn, rests on no persuasive data differentiating her proposed member groups culturally from their neighbors. Suttles soundly based and well-argued weighing of Smith's data, point by point, and of her conclusions seems thoroughly reasonable. Hence the several papers of Smith in the 1940s and 1950s are of significance for what she attempts rather than for any lasting contribution to our comprehension of the linguistic and cultural history of the downriver segment of the Fraser Valley.

In principle, Marian Smith's Foothill concept has some appeal, even if her arguments for its existence as a culture area in itself or at least a major subarea are singularly poorly documented. A life mode with a special twist might conceivably have developed in prehistoric times as a regional response to the upriver, high altitude lake, lofty-rugged mountain, and heavy forest environment (especially on the west side) of the below tree-line Cascades. This would have been different in important ways from the strongly salmon-focused culture of the nearby Columbia and Fraser Valleys and from the maritime, littoral configuration of the Coast. In a way this would have paralleled, for example, the cultural similarity that Suttles (1957:173-174, 175) notes between the Bella Coola of British Columbia and the Puget Sound Salish, the consequence of adaptation to very similar geobioenvironments. This issue comes close to one central in this present North Cascades study: to how great an extent (if at all) were the traditional cultures of the Upper Skagit, Chilliwack, Lower Thompson, and Chelan -- or at least one facet of them -- similar owing to their exploitation of the Park resources, even though each tribe approached this ecological base from a somewhat different total-culture orientation?

We now move from the ethnoarchaeological reconstruction domain to the protohistoric and early postcontact ethnographic period. The Lower Stalo saw much of nearby coastal groups like the Cowichan, Nanaimo, Saanich, and Squamish who commonly entered their Fraser River territory in summer to fish for salmon. But even the upstream Upper Stalo frequently encountered downriver Stalo and nearby coastal parties when these folk passed in their canoes heading up to the very fast water above Yale, in uprivermost Stalo country, to fish and dry their catch for winter. There in the lower end of the Fraser Canyon was the finest salmon fishery on the river. (Duff 1972:11,14, 17, 25)

Despite the above close downriver intertribal relationships of the Upper Stalo described by Duff, Simon Fraser's journal raises the possibility of a somewhat different situation in the early postcontact period. When Fraser (1960:100-103) and his party descended the Fraser River, they found it virtually impossible, once they reached the navigable stream below Yale, to persuade Indians, however friendly to them, to furnish canoe transportation beyond the very next village. Whether this reluctance rested on a fear of possible hostilities -- such a fear of downriver people certainly existed once they entered Lower Stalo country (cf. Fraser 1960:104) -- or had some other basis is unclear from Fraser's account. But the point is that these data could be taken to mean that the normal downriver range of intertribal relationships of any one Upper Stalo group was not great.

It must be assumed that the Chilliwack, in their canyon backcountry without fisheries of their own on the Fraser and apparently without customarily joining other Upper Stalo groups at their salmon fishing stations, could hardly have seen as much of the downriver people as their neighboring upper tribes.

While, according to Duff as noted above, relationships between Stalo groups were close, Stalo contacts with the Plateau tribes to their north and northeast -- with the Lillooet in the Lillooet Valley and the Thompson of the Fraser country above Yale and of the Thompson River area -- were significantly less frequent and less uniformly cordial. Duff (1952:11) summarizes the situation thus:

Inland, the direct contacts of the Stalo were limited to trade and intermarriage with the Lower Lillooet and Lower Thompson. Warlike raids by the Lillooet and Thompson also occurred; sometimes even provoking the normally peaceful Stalo to undertake retaliatory raids. Difficulties of travel, however, prevented cultural contacts in this direction from being as important as those with the Coast ... . As a result, a man from Yale commonly rubbed shoulders at the fishery with [Lower Stalo] men... but he seldom met his Thompson neighbours from a dozen miles up-river.

The uneasy Upper Stalo-Lower Thompson relationship pattern described above may well have generally prevailed, but on June 26, 1808, Simon Fraser (1960:97) found "some men of a neighbouring nation called achinrow" at a Lower Thompson village a few miles above Spuzzum, clearly within Lower Thompson country by Fraser's (1960:97) own journal testimony. These "achinrow" or "ackinroe" as the group's designation is more commonly spelled by Fraser were either the Tait individually or the Tait together with other (perhaps all) Upper Stalo tribelets. At least these particular Lower Thompson and Tait individuals were on a friendly basis when encountered by Fraser.

It would appear -- as from Wilson's (1970) 1859 record -- that the Chilliwack were friendly with the Halkomelem Sumas, who bordered them on their downriver flank. Chilliwack-Sumas links appear not to be addressed in the scanty ethnographic record.

If the data of Smith (1947:256-257) can be followed, the Chilliwack had an especially close and amicable relationship with the Nooksack whose aboriginal territory abutted theirs on the southwest (Figure 2-1). This relationship was maintained and cemented by frequent intermarriage and was encouraged by the apparent fact that the Chilliwack until about contact times spoke what is said to have been a Nooksack-resemblant language. As previously mentioned, at some earlier but not particularly distant time the Nooksack River evidently flowed northward to Sumas Lake just west of the Chilliwack country and then down to the Fraser River. This would have made comparatively easy the canoe journey to the Nooksack homeland. Even without this linking watercourse, the route from the Sumas over the hardly perceptible divide to the Nooksack Valley could not have offered difficult travel problems.

According to Smith (1950a:337), the Chilliwack traveled together with the Nooksack to sea-fish off Point Roberts, beyond the western limits of Nooksack country and "fully eighty miles" from the Chilliwack homeland (Figure 2-1). While Smith fails to report explicitly a beginning time-line for this practice, her documentary data plainly reveal it to be a postcontact pattern, indeed a post mid-nineteenth century one. This would be wholly in keeping with the ethnographic information which describes the traditional Chilliwack as basically a home- oriented, Chilliwack River and high country people.

Because of the generally uneasy relationship between the Upper Stalo and the Lillooet and because of the intervening Fraser River and the country of other Upper Stalo tribelets, the Chilliwack surely saw little of that group. But they are said to have encountered Thompson and Skagit Indians, with whom their relations. were unfriendly at beast at times. One of Duff's downriver Tait informants reported:

... Ohamil [Tait] hunting-parties formerly went back into the mountains, several days' travel east of the river. Often they would meet Thompson or Skagit hunting-parties, but there was no conflict. He had heard of conflicts between these groups and the Chilliwacks, however. (Duff 1952:21)

I interpret this statement as signifying that Chilliwack hunters also worked back into the country some distance east of their village area below Chilliwack Lake, presumably into the upper reaches of the Chilliwack River and perhaps beyond. And there they came upon Thompson and Skagit hunting groups with which they sometimes contended.

I have yet to uncover ethnographic data indicating much unequivocally direct contact between the Upper Stalo and Plateau groups east of the Thompson. The Lower Fraser tribes as a group were known, however, to the Okanagan (Teit 1930b:202; Walters in Spier 1938:78), to the Sanpoil-Nespelem (Ray 1932:11), to the Columbia of the Columbia Basin (Teit 1928:93), and even to the distant Flathead of western Montana (Teit 1930a:300), and were named by each of these tribes. These data bespeak some measure of contact between the Upper Stalo and the more eastern and southern Plateau tribes, although the degree to which this relation ship was direct or indirect is an open issue. It is worth passing note that all of the names are obvious variants of a single underlying form.

Whether such direct contact as may have existed at an early time was generated by Upper Stalo as the traveling groups, or by the Plateau peoples, or by both sides in some measure is not described in the ethnographic literature. In one specific instance, however, one that may have transpired in the early 1800s, the visiting party was a Similkameen (Northern Okanagan) man who journeyed to Tait country to trade (see Intertribal Marriage section below) (Teit 1930b:216).

In summary, the social links of the Chilliwack were primarily with their immediate Upper Stalo neighbors, to a lesser degree with the Lower Stalo tribelets and the inland non-Stalo tribes to the south and southwest, to a still lesser extent with the nearby maritime peoples down the Fraser and on the shores immediately to the south of the Fraser mouth, and least of all with the Plateau groups on the north and northeast. Given the distinct Plateau-like slant of a good many elements in Chilliwack culture, the tribe's minimal contact with Plateau peoples in the ethnographic past is, it seems to me, especially noteworthy.

Intertribal Marriage

Most marriages among the Upper Stalo were with persons outside their own community yet with those in nearby villages. However, people living near their own tribal boundary often found spouses in adjacent tribes. High status families, irrespective of their residence, frequently outmarried with persons from even quite distant tribes. The Tait, for example, remembered marriages with the Thompson of Spuzzum, Nooksack, and Skagit as well as with a number of salt-water groups. (Duff 1952:95-96)

Occasional Upper Stalo marriages evidently occurred with Plateau tribes more distant than the Thompson, although how common this was in precontact days -- if it took place at all -- is unclear. One such instance was reported to Teit (1930b:216-217) in the early 1900s, that of a young Tait woman from Hope who married a Similkameen (i.e., Northern Okanagan) man, while he was on a trading journey to Hope. "The following year he took her back because she was unacquainted with the mode of life of his tribe and quite unable to adapt herself to it." When this event occurred is not stated, but Teit's context might be interpreted as placing it early in the 1800s. This is an interesting case from another perspective: it plainly documents the very substantial differences that existed between the life patterns of the middle Fraser people and their nearby Plateau neighbors.

So far as the Chilliwack specifically are concerned, we are told little, as far as I am aware, regarding intermarriage with other Stalo tribes. It has been contended, however, that the spread of the Halkomelem language into the Nooksack-like speaking Chilliwack group was the consequence of intermarriage with persons of nearby tribes with Halkomelem speech, the gradual growth of bilingual villages even into the early 1800s, and finally the near total loss of their earlier language (Smith 1950a:335).

The Chilliwack are known to have married members of the Nooksack tribe (Smith 1950a:331). Likewise they "sometimes intermarried with Thompson, although usually they would not move up to Thompson country" (Duff 1952:95). This antipathy toward relocating in Plateau country is of a piece with the case of the Tait Similkameen union noted immediately above.

Warfare

Duff (1952:96) summarizes the Upper Stalo situation thus: "Basically a pacific people, the Upper Stalo fought little amongst themselves, but they were frequently attacked for slaves and loot by surrounding tribes, and sometimes were provoked to make revenge raids." The Tait regarded the Lower Lillooet as their enemies, for they were raided by them from time to time. They were "on fairly good terms" with the Lower Thompson, "except for some friction over fishing-stations on the river." In 1949-1950 the Chilliwack, however, clearly remembered one raid by Lower Thompson which resulted in the burning and booting of their large dwelling at a village on the Chilliwack River on the lowlands between Vedder Crossing and the Fraser River. (Duff 1952:96)

The really dreaded raiders, however, came from the Coast. These were the southernmost Kwakiutl who occasionally penetrated up the Fraser as far as the Tait (Duff 1952:96), even up to Yale where they terrorized the local residents (Smith 1950a:334, 1955:102). In the late 1820s the fur traders at Fort Langley complained of the frequent raids on the Stalo in their home area by "powerful tribes from Vancouver's Island," including the Halkomelem-speaking Cowichan. They were so serious that the local Indians were forced to devote all their attention and energies to the protection of their families, and even in this they were not wholly successful. (Duff 1952:96)

Maritime raiders likewise moved up the Chilliwack River to attack the Chilliwack. According to Duff's (1952:96) Chilliwack informant,

they ascended the Chilliwack as far as Vedder Crossing, pulling their large doubleended canoes over the log-jams. On one occasion their canoes proved their undoing. Returning down the Chilliwack after a raid, they were forced out of their canoes at a sharp bend and attacked by Chilliwacks from the banks.

This is an instructive statement, for it suggests that the Chilliwack villages along the Chilliwack River in the narrow valley upstream from Vedder Crossing (i.e., all the really old-time communities) may have been comparatively safe from these coastal raiding parties. And that perhaps it was the protection by the Fort Langley traders as much as -- or more than -- a change in the course of the Chilliwack River to flow northward from Vedder Crossing directly to the Fraser River that encouraged the Chilliwack to expand out of their protohistoric canyon home and onto the plain to the Fraser south bank.

These damaging raids from salt-water country did not go entirely unresponded to, however. One famous Sumas warrior, accompanied by fighting men from all the upriver tribes, successfully carried out a reprisal raid against the Kwakiutl, breaking into a fortified house and killing all the men (Duff 1952:96). And the Chilliwack also, according to Hill-Tout (1903:358), occasionally mounted raids for slaves and plunder on settlements of other tribes down the Fraser. While their village and tribal leaders attempted to discourage such raids, they were unable to control "some restless, venturesome spirits, and these would from time to time persuade others less warlike than themselves to join them, by tempting them with visions and promises of the rich spoils they would secure and bring home." (Hill-Tout 1903:358)

Relations of the Upper Stalo with the more inland Salishan tribes were not entirely amicable. Fighting parties evidently reached over the Cascades at least to the lower Okanogan Valley, for Walters' (in Spier 1938:78) Sinkaietk (Southern Okangan) informants reported:

The Lower Fraser Salish. . . were bad raiders. They usually set fire to the camps attacked and ran. For this they were considered cowards, not brave enough to stay and fight. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Sinkaietk and Lower Fraser people became friends and traded.

To some degree, hostilities also occurred within the Upper Stalo peoples themselves. Chilliwack traditions report "quarrels and contests" with the Pilalt, their neighbors to the north just over the western end of the Skagit Range (DEMR, Hope quadrangle 1970). Generally these were generated by "one tribe overrunning the hunting-grounds of the other," the Chilliwack apparently having been mostly at fault since they often hunted in Pilalt territory. This is an interesting bit of information in Chilliwack subsistence terms, since it clearly attests to the special importance of game as a food resource among this group in traditional times.

Kinship Bonds

Kinship links were important to the Upper Stalo. Relatives were traced "in all directions for several generations": through both father and mother, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters and both lineally and collaterally. Children were taught who their relatives were, real known kin as opposed to fictive relations. They were told to respect them and to feel certain that they could count on them as friends. Owing to the high degree of intergroup contact that prevailed, any person was sure to have relatives in other tribelets. The Chilliwack were bonded to other Upper Stalo peoples by just such kin links: one Tait woman, for example, reported relatives through a grandfather among the Chilliwack, Sumas, Nooksack, and Skagit. (Duff 1952:76) Apart from the Chilliwack point, these data are of particular interest since they demonstrate that relationship ties, at least in the early historic period, were not limited to Fraser River groups but left that stream and, following the west flank of the Cascades, reached the Nooksack and Skagit basins and two tribes of special concern to this study.

One of the prevailing social patterns of the Upper Stalo was that of visiting relatives in other areas, "usually during the slack period in bate fall." At times, for example, they journeyed downriver as far as the saltwater Musqueam above the Fraser River mouth and there picked cranberries with their relatives. "These visits sometimes lengthened into winter-bong stays or even permanent changes of residence." (Duff 1952:76)

The Upper Stalo had within the tribe no socio-political units of the clan type, social descent and property- owing groups comprised of relatives, real and fictive, who were considered descendants of a single ancestor. (Duff 1952:76)

Kinship Structure

How kinsmen are recognized and classified in a society are fussy and often complicated matters. The details of the Stalo system are of little interest in a broad cultural survey of this present kind. Nevertheless, its general outlines seem worth noting. Kin terms were actually few in comparison to the situation in many other Indian groups. As in our Anglo-American system, no terminological distinction was made between paternal and maternal relatives, although the Salishan peoples east of the Cascades commonly distinguished father's and mother's uncles, aunts, and grandparents by different words. Similarly, also unlike the interior groups, "father's father" and a "man's son's child- -- and like relationships -- were not designated by a single reciprocal term, although such generation-reciprocal words were employed in terming more distant ascending and descending generations. For persons of grandparental and grandchild generations as well as of more distant generations, the sex of the person referred to, of the linking relative, and of the speaker were all irrelevant in the Stalo system: e.g., "grandfather" and "grandmother" were referred to by one word; "father's father" and "mother's father" by a single term; and "man's father" and "woman's father" by one word. But sex of the person referred to was expressed in differentiating "father" from "mother," yet not even in distinguishing siblings and cousins. The duty of identifying the kinsman's sex was allocated instead to the modifying article which had to be used with every noun. Differing from our system, too, the word for "parent's sibling" when the parent was alive differed from the term for that sibling when the linking parent was deceased, and separate words were used when addressing certain kin and when merely referring to them. (cf. Duff 1952:75-76; Elmendorf 1961b; Suttles 1965)

Names and Naming

"Each [Upper Stalo] family line owned a stock of personal names," varying in importance and prestige. Most infants were given one of these names, from the block of either parent, as its first name within the first two years of life. It might be that of an earlier relative, a recently deceased kinsman, or even a living relative. In this last situation the living person was not required to give up the name in the process: indeed, an older kinsman might elect to share his or her name with a child to which he or she took a particular fancy. Among the Chilliwack this name was announced at a potlatch or at least a special ceremony.

In later life a person "could be given other and more important [family] names," probably accompanied by a potlatch or similar ceremony though for this Duff had no informant confirmation. To avoid diminishing the importance and prestige of a name, its recipient was selected with great care by the older person then carrying the name or by family members in consultation. There was evidently a clear opinion that names should be passed down to descendants with personal characteristics and presumably abilities similar to those of the persons who had earlier borne the name. Usually this was a son, grandson, or nephew, who not only possessed the appropriate basic nature for holding the name but who had also been trained by the man himself in those particular qualifications that would enable him to assume the name and attendant rank without sullying it and diminishing its aura. Some people acquired several family names of esteem in this manner. Frequently the names were so old that their meanings were obscure, the people having "lost the high words in ... [their] language." (Duff 1952:76-77, 82)

In the Chilliwack tribelet, the personal names of the dead could not be mentioned in the hearing of their survivors. They were not freely used, in fact, until they were given to certain family members in name feasts at some later time. (Hill-Tout 1903:366)

Property and Inheritance

Among the Upper Stalo, resource areas were typically not regarded as the exclusive property of the tribe or village, much less the individual. Thus sturgeon sloughs, berry patches, and hunting grounds were used freely by all nearby groups. "An apparent exception," Duff (1952:77) reports, "is the case of the Chilliwack, who were said to shoot intruders on their hunting-grounds." This seems at odds with Duff's (1952:72-73) statement noted above (see Hunting section) that if Upper Stalo "met hunting parties of other tribes, there was no conflict." Yet it would not be an unreasonable exception to the general Upper Stalo free-use pattern. For as we have noted, the Chilliwack could not have had in early traditional times Fraser River fisheries. Moreover, they seem to have spoken a tongue that set them apart from the Fraser River Halkomelem-speaking groups, which may possibly have had the effect of restricting the welcome at the salmon fishing rocks of the Tait below Fraser Canyon which was extended other Halkomelem tribes. Whatever may have been the cause, it appears probable that the Chilliwack were significantly more a mountain hunting people and less a salmon fishing tribelet than was the case for the Upper Stalo groups along the Fraser, who, Duff reports, exercised no real control over their hunting grounds.

Where an appearance of ownership existed, it "grew out of customary use rather than claims of exclusive right.... Large weirs like the sturgeon weir across Sumas River were built and owned by the community, but outsiders were also allowed free use." As an exception to this pattern were the salmon dip-netting stations that were family-owned, most on the Fraser in the upper end of Tait country. In general, dip-netting sites were owned by families belonging to the village closeby. The family head was considered the titular owner, but all "his descendants could claim the right to use it" and only a very mean-spirited man would prevent anyone, relative or not, from reasonable use of his station. In any event, at least in recent times, "practicably everybody who wanted to fish could claim the right through kinship to use at beast one station." (Duff (1952:77)

In general, the "owner" and his sons and younger brothers used the fishery together. As a group they built, rebuilt, and repaired the drying rack that went with the station, each having a number of rack poles from which to hang his fish to dry. The dip-net, however, was usually made and owned by the fishery "owner," but was left on the river bank for all to use. Because there was ordinarily room for only one man to fish at a time, the men took turns, the wife to each cutting up and hanging to dry the fish that he caught. So plentiful were salmon in early days that a man could take in one hour all the fish his wife could process in a day. If the "owner" were too old or otherwise enfeebled to fish himself, others shared their dried salmon with him. (Duff 1952:77-78)

Dwellings "were built and occupied by the members of extended families." As with the dip-net fisheries, the title to the house rested nominally with the family head, who could not dispose of it outside the family group. (Duff 1952:78)

A man's canoes, weapons, implements, and the like were his own to dispose of as he chose. Dying, he could give or will anything to anyone, as to a son who had been caring for him. When he died, the property was disposed of in various ways. That which had been willed was taken as the deceased had wished. A few favorite belongings were first burned in a "burning feast" four days after the funeral. The remainder could be taken by anyone prior to the second, ritual fire, with the first choice going to the person who had conducted the funeral ceremony and the relatives who had helped most with the rites. Then others could take what they desired. The remainder was destroyed in this final burning. (Duff 1952:78)

The Upper Stalo had very little inheritable non-material property: no special privileges, social positions or offices, or guardian spirits or guardian spirit songs. The two exceptions were the sxwaixwe mask and important personal names. The use of the mask, costume, and ritual "were obtained from either parent and passed on to all children (exactly like the right to use a fishing-station)." Apparently myths, even the origin myth associated with the mask, were not inherited, at beast in the sense that they could be narrated only by certain persons. (Duff 1972:78)

The important names, already mentioned in the naming section of this study, were family property, but the person who was using the name "usually had the right to choose his successor. If this was not done, all the relatives were involved in the choice. While all younger siblings, children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces, and so on were possible successors, both primogeniture and a sterling character that would not "spoil" the name were important criteria in the decision. In general and under these constraints, a name went to a young person as close as possible to the direct line of descent. (Duff 1952:78)

In addition to the masks and associated elements and to the valuable family names, spells and certain other supernatural powers could be passed on. Yet these differed from the masks and names to the degree that "instruction and training were more important than heredity, which merely suggested the most logical recipients." (Duff 1952:78-79)

Regarding property and attitudes toward it on the part of the Chilliwack specifically, only two ethnographic observations have been identified. One, already reported, is the group's concern about their hunting territory and their efforts to protect it against interlopers. The other is a note by Hill-Tout (1903:359) stating that the tribe "held their possessions more in common" than was the case among their neighbors. In support of this generalization, however, only a single illustration is provided, the village food sharing pattern (see Village section below).

Hospitality and the Potlatch

One of the notable cultural traits of the Upper Stalo was the generous hospitality extended to others. Simon Fraser was received graciously at every village with neat mats spread and plenty of salmon in wooden dishes. This kindness toward others -- especially evident in the matter of food -- was rebated to the general pattern of frequent intervillage visiting by well-biked, even remote kinsfolk and was made possible by the Upper Stalo abundance of food resources. (Duff 1952:89-90)

The potlatch that was so well and complexly developed among the coastal peoples was likewise an Upper Stalo practice though in a much diluted form. Duff (1952:87) writes:

Every important social event ... was signalized by a public ceremony. Bestowing an import ant name, building a new plank house, renewing a grave-house or the blankets holding the dead, a funeral -- all required a public gathering where important persons could be "hired" to "do the work" and where the assembled people could witness the event.

The host and his family provided the guests' food, paid the officials and workers they hired, like the food preparers and servers, and accumulated the piles of goods for general distribution, largely to those to whom they were in debt for past favors. But occasionally at the close of the main potlatch, a scramble was arranged, in which the host threw out a stick representing a horse, canoe, or other valuable. (Duff 1952:87-89)

Only the richest families could finance such a complete potlatch at the time. Others, being forced to accept food loans and defer payments, announced at the ceremony when they would give a "paying off" potlatch. Sometimes such a deferred payment ceremony was held decades later, by which time the necessary property had been accumulated. It is apparent that "high-rank people gave the most numerous and impressive pot- batches, and that they could not attain or hold a high status without doing so." (Duff 1952:88)

Potlatches were entirely social events in the sense that the possessed no religious component. Occasion ally, however, competitive potlatches were held; in these one tribe or wealthy family tried to embarrass another by conducting a ceremony so expensive that the other group simply could not match it. If possible, they took place in the summer or fall when the weather was pleasant and firewood needs were less severe. Some, however, were held in winter, coupled with -- but not part of -- spirit dancing. And occasionally a family took advantage of a large dance gathering to announce a family status change -- e.g., a new name for some member -- and to distribute gifts. (Duff 1952:88-89)

A hypothetical "paying off" potlatch is described by Duff (1952:88-89) substantially as his Chilliwack informant presented the information. It fits the pattern outlined above but offers several illuminating details. Moreover, it deals explicitly with the Chilliwack and consequently deserves special notice in this study.

[Paraphrased quote] The man who organized the ceremony was old and had incurred debts over the years not yet repaid: to speakers who had announced the family names of his children; to people who had bathed the bodies of family members and prepared them for burial; to those who contributed food, blankets, and so on for the funerals; to persons hired from time to time to change the blankets of the corpses or to make a new grave box; to those who had helped in building a new dwelling; to people who had honored him with gifts of blankets or canoes or the like at their potlatches; to those who had at some time brought food gifts to long-past dinners he had given.

The ceremony is held in the largest house around -- for a payment to the owner -- and attended by old and young, not only those to be compensated for past kindnesses or services performed. It begins with the announcement of a new name for a grandson or granddaughter, with several chosen, prominent witnesses paid on the spot and the statement that the potlatch is being "given" by the young person, for whom persons had been hired to act as spokesmen during the ceremony. Then payments with interest are made for all the old man's still unsettled obligations in order of their occurrence. In each case a speaker announces the name of the person, the services performed, and the amount paid. The objects are given by the speaker to a runner who takes them to the person named, or, in the case of a rich potlatch recipient, to a prominent person or two appointed by the recipient to bring the payments to him in return for a small share of the property received. (Duff 1952:88)

Finally, from a barge platform in the house, "the host or speaker throws things down so that anybody present can scramble for it." Very long blankets -- sometimes 15 yards long -- might be tossed into the crowd. Everyone who can seizes a piece; a man comes around with a knife and cuts off each person's section; the recipient takes his piece home, unravels it, and reweaves it. This event might be followed by a scramble from the river edge or from a canoe out in the stream, the people scrambling for the objects by swimming or from canoes. (Duff 1952:88-89)

A potlatch of this kind might last three or four days, the sponsors feeding the people twice daily from long platters sent to where the people were encamped. (Duff 1952:89)

Evidently a similar potlatch or part of one was witnessed by Wilson, a member of the British Boundary Commission, on October 23, 1859. He was encamped at the time on the lower Chilliwack River, either at the Commission's depot close to the river confluence with the Fraser or, less likely, at its sometime Chilliwack headquarters near the Chilliwack River not far below its canyon mouth. He writes:

We had a grand festival amongst the Indians, several tribes coming to a feast here. These festivals are annual; held at different places & the chiefs give away presents; he who can give the most being considered the greatest. Some gave away between 3 & 400 blankets besides guns & other things, absolutely reducing themselves to poverty; the chiefs were seated on high scaffolds & threw blankets to the crowd beneath who were armed with long poles on which they tried to catch the blankets & then a regular scramble ensued, some of the blankets were quite torn to pieces by the scramblers. It was a very exciting scene. ... (Wilson 1970:74)

Apparently for all the rather special environmental and cultural aspects that seem to have set the Chilliwack apart from the rest of the Upper Stalo, the Chilliwack participated in the potlatch ceremony with full vigor. It might be supposed that, without direct access to their own Fraser River salmon fisheries in the old days, they would have been a "poor," rustic people. But these narrative data seem to suggest that this was not necessarily the case. Could their immediate access to the special resources of their upriver mountainous homeland and their apparent extensive exploitation of the resources of the area have provided them with raw and prepared or fashioned materials in wide demand among the neighboring, more river oriented peoples?

Socioterritorial Units

Three bevels of socio-political units existed, according to Duff (1952:84), among the Upper Stalo: the extended family, village, and "tribe." Nothing is said about the nuclear family as a functional unit and component of the extended family.

Extended Family

The Upper Stalo extended family was both a kinship entity and a local social unit. Comprised of "a nucleus of males -- a man, his brothers, their sons, grandsons, etc. -- with their wives, children, and other dependants," it was the largest -- evidently Duff would say "only" -- functioning kin group, though kinship bonds stretched far beyond the extended family and were important links in various practical ways. It was sometimes quite large in numbers, especially if it also included multiple wives and many children owing to high wife fecundity. And if the family head was of sufficiently high status to attract nephews, sons-in-law, and even more distant relatives. (Duff 1952:84)

Functionally, the extended family "was the most important and closely knit economic and social unit. It was the largest unit which was strictly exogamous. In it the children grew up, receiving their education from the grandparents." (Duff 1952:85)

The extended family was likewise the smallest local unit. Each Upper Stalo village had as its core one or more extended families. (Duff 1952:84)

Village

Winter villages -- as opposed to camps occupied in most cases during the rest of the year -- consisted of one or more extended families. They were local units and, when comprised of only a single extended family, were kinship units as well. Even where made up of several extended families, they tended to be a loose kin entity, for the constituent families were typically rebated in some manner. (Duff 1952:84-85)

In pre-White times, few Upper Stalo villages could have had populations of more than 50 persons. In the Chilliwack case fewer than 300 persons "claimed more than twenty village-sites, and even though they probably occupied only a few sites at a time, the average village size must have been very small." The Upper Stalo tribelets spent much of the year away from their winter villages, often at fishing camps "which must have been much larger than the winter villages." (Duff 1952:85) Presumably in the earlier, protohistoric period before the introduction of Western diseases, the population was greater, but whether the individual winter villages were larger on the average, or more villages were occupied at any one time, or -- more likely -- both situations prevailed, I do not know.

Among the Upper Stalo tribes, according to Hill-Tout (1903:359), the Chilliwack village was unique in its food sharing pattern: residents ate together as a single family. One "person" (i.e., evidently one family) was appointed each day by the "chief" to provide meals for all villagers, thus, among other ends, caring for the sick and aged. But in the food distribution distinctions were made according to social rank. Food-stores were always separated into three kinds and "packed away separately on the house shelves over the beds." The choicest portions, placed at the back of the stores where they were best protected from injury, dust, and smoke, were given the village head (and presumably his family). The second best food, stored in the middle, was for the family of the house owner, their friends, and others of their social rank. Inferior food, placed in the very front, was served to common folk. Since in the Chilliwack view this last group was at this low social level because they were lazy and poor providers, they received what they deserved and were not encouraged to continue their thriftless ways by sharing in the better foods of their more industrious and foresighted covillagers.

In speculating on the functioning of this singular sharing system, it is worth noting that the eight Chilliwack villages occupied in Hill-Tout's day were all very small, as, we have seen, Duff noted was generally characteristic of Upper Stalo villages in wholly traditional times. The population of the largest consisted of 12 adult males and the smallest of but one (Hill-Tout 1903:356). The average size of the eight was six males of adult status. While Hill-Tout's description of this community eating arrangement within the Chilliwack village might be questioned on the grounds of its highly unusual nature, it is conceivable that his account is essentially accurate, that the practice was made possible, even fostered, by the very small population of each settlement, by the kinship links that generally bound together the resident families, and by the absence among the Chilliwack of individual and family ownership of natural resources within the tribal limits.

The population of most Upper Stalo villages, Duff reports, was apparently quite fluid. Families moved individually from village to village, even into other tribes, permanently as well as for shorter periods, as when remaining with relatives for the winter. Villages as wholes sometimes shifted their location to then uninhabited places. As a consequence, nearly all favorable sites were occupied at one time or another. At times families and entire villages sought richer resources of food and firewood or simply a change of scene. Families also moved when interfamily friction occurred, or when for other reasons, they determined it advantageous to divide. However, a few villages at especially desirable locations were permanent in the sense that people had wintered in them year after year for as bong as men could remember. (Duff 1952:85) None of these are mentioned by Duff for the Chilliwack.

On the other hand, according to Smith (1941:201), the individual family units of the typical Upper Stalo village were considerably less independently mobile through the year than among Puget Sound groups. They tended to remain together in their food quest.

In.. . the ethnic groups.. . [of] the Fraser River, food gathering was confined to the territory of the group. Drying racks were built at temporary camping sites and no outside social contacts seem to have compared with those within the group itself. (Smith 1941:201)

That the village is the "group" Smith has in mind in the above quote seems plain from her description of the contrasting pattern among the Sound tribes. Among these peoples the local units (i.e., villages) erected their combination dwelling-smoke houses near important salmon fisheries, where they could remain year-round if their salmon supply allowed it. But when these local units

dispersed, families went in opposite directions and at clamming grounds and berry and root fields often joined families from units which belonged to other extended villages. Sociably, these people who met during the summer were as closely knit as were those of the contiguous winter quarters of the extended village. (Smith 1941:201)

Smith does not mention the Chilliwack specifically -- or any other Fraser group by name -- as following this generic Fraser River pattern. But given the cohesiveness of the Chilliwack village as revealed by their unusual commensality already remarked upon, a maintenance of the social integrity of the community through the entire subsistence cycle seems credible. Still, the Nooksack surprisingly, Smith (1941:202) reports from her own field findings, followed here the Puget Sound dispersal pattern. Accordingly, considering Smith's frequent emphasis on the cultural similarity of the Chilliwack and Nooksack, it is possible that the former likewise followed the Puget Sound pattern, though it would be out of character with such other social data as we possess.

Because Upper Stalo villages were small and all residents were generally rebated in some way, the villages were usually exogamous by necessity. But in the case of larger villages, it was possible for men to obtain wives from different family lines within the same village. (Duff 1972:85-87)

Unlike Lower Stalo villages and those of neighboring maritime tribes, the winter villages of the Upper Stalo lacked traditions of descent from mythical human or animal ancestors. (Boas [1894:454] differs on this point.) Accordingly, when families changes their village residence and entire villages as units shifted their locus, they possessed no powerful mythological unity with their earlier covillagers in the first instance and in both cases no mystical attachment to a time-distant ancestral locality. It may be supposed that the absence of such strong traditions contributed to the impermanence of the Upper Stalo winter village and its resident population, and to the meagerly developed concept of land ownership, essentially limited to extended family possession of fisheries. As already noted, "ownership of names and privileges rested in non-local kinship lines rather than in local 'kinship' units." (Duff 1952:85-86)

Tribe

In general, "the concept of a tribal unit [among the Upper Stalo] was neither clearly defined nor important in the native mind." Typically it was little more than a named social unit consisting of several winter villages or clusters of villages. These settlements were linked only loosely on the basis of close

kinship among the male nucleus of population, common environment and economic activities, common history, awareness of common traditions, political unity based on a recognition of a main leader and tribal boundaries. . .. As social and political units, the tribes seldom, if ever, had important functions. (Duff 1952:84, 86-87)

Tribal membership appears to have played little role in the selection of marriage partners.

So reports Duff. And yet Boas (1894:454), writing on the basis of his brief period of field research among the Chehalis in 1890, states that each Halkomelem tribe was thought to be descended from a single "mythical ancestor." He provides a roster of fourteen "tribes," and of the ultimate ancestor of each. This suggest, at the cognitive level at beast, something more than the loose and ill-defined social unit to which Duff alludes. According to the Chilliwack, its founding ancestor was Te'qulatca.

In a very few instances, these village groupings -- tribes -- were so small, possessed a cultural history so distinct, and occupied a geographical area so special and removed as to lead to a greater social and political unity and to a more functional entity. Such was the case, it appears, with the Chilliwack.

The Chilliwack. . . are said to have recognized one main leader of the tribe and to have clearly defined and actively defended their tribal territories. The facts that the Chilliwack formerly lived in a fairly isolated cluster of villages and spoke a separate and distinct dialect have no doubt contributed to the formation of their concept of tribal unity. (Duff 1952:87)

The above circumstances of Chilliwack life -- plus others bike the tribe's occasional fights with raiding parties from lower Fraser groups and with intruding hunters from neighboring tribelets -- may have led to a further cultural consequence: according to Hill-Tout (1903:359), the Chilliwack were "originally endogamous." By this he really means, I conjecture, that there was a strong tendency -- perhaps even a formalized preference -- for Chilliwack to marry within their tribe. Assuming this to have been informant-driven data and not merely a supposition based on an evolutionary model, current in his time, supporting an endogamous primacy, an early in-group marriage pattern would not be altogether surprising, given the geographical and cultural features mentioned above.

Later, Hill-Tout (1903:359) avers, "closer contact with the neighbouring tribes made a strict observance of this rule impolitic, and led to the taking of wives from other communities." One might doubt that in this early period the mate-flow was as unidirectional as his statement implies: i.e., wholly into Chilliwack families. Indeed, it would be expected that more Chilliwack women married into other tribes and then remained outside with their husbands than women from other groups entered Chilliwack villages as wives of Chilliwack men. For it is difficult not to project at least an informal group-ranking ladder within the Upper Stalo region in which the Chilliwack, located off the main river with its limited salmonid resources and away from the river thoroughfare, occupied a relatively low status. Under such conditions the greater flow of women -- and even occasionally of men -- would have tended theoretically to have been out of the Chilliwack communities, there having been relatively little, on the average, to attract women and men from more central and richer tribelets into Chilliwack country on its small side-stream.

Social Rank

In Upper Stalo tribes, there were two ways of acquiring high social status: by birth and by achievement. High birth gave one a great advantage to attaining esteem but it failed to guarantee this. And a person of superior character and attainment could gain great respect on his own even though bow-born. In short, "individuals and families differed in social rank because they differed in the degree to which they possessed the qualities which were admired and respected." (Duff 1952:80)

What personal traits were respected? They were wisdom and the age that brought wisdom; ability; industry and the wealth in the form of a barge dwelling, many wives, barge and frequent feasts, potlatches, spirit dances, and so on that came about through industry; generosity; humility; pacificm; and supernatural powers. Skill in persuading people to do right, in settling rows, and in hunting and fishing skillfully and in getting others to be industrious in these activities were all important in generating respect. It is obvious from these valued attributes that respect was not limited to the high-born, nor necessarily withheld from them. Similarly, that "individual effort and ability could overcome the disadvantage of low birth." And also that more than one person of high prestige could be found in a single village. (Duff 1952:80)

Nevertheless, to be born "into a high-ranking family constituted a tremendous advantage. It brought control of wealth, access to respected names, and the opportunity for training for a position of high respect." Children of such families were thought to inherit the superior qualities of their family and were taught the proper attitudes and responsibilities of their position. The members of such a family were "talked up to." (Duff 1952:80)

High ranking people were expected to act humbly and, in fact, customarily did so, claiming no special honors, moving down from places of honor at gatherings, avoiding boasting, and the bike. Evidently, however, these self-depreciating behavioral patterns were in part the consequence of a fear of the envy of some hostile shaman of low birth. Nonetheless, everyone knew that high-ranking people possessed superior abilities and everyone knew who they were. Children, in fact, were "taught who were their social equals, who were their inferiors." Interestingly, people of high rank wore nose and ear pendants and some had their foreheads flattened. (Duff 1952:80) Plainly, high ranked persons could, in a way, afford to be humble, for their rank was made obvious to all by these distinctive cultural traits. Yet inherited privilege in the form of the sxwaixwe mask (see Dance section below) and the rights it granted figured prominently in Upper Stalo social functions (Smith 1941:202).

Families of high status "sought marriage partners in families of equal or higher rank, often at considerable distances." Such marriages were prestigious, possessed social and economic advantages, and involved the beast danger of "spoiling" the family by producing offspring with undesirable social characteristics. (Duff 1952:81)

"To a certain extent, then, the Upper Stalo lived in a hereditary class society." But the situation was more complex than indicated above. For depending on differences in prestige bevel, high-class families in multi-family villages were loosely ranked in esteem at any given time and doubtless so also were families outside of the high-rank group. Beyond this, persons of esteem in different villages and even different tribes were ranked against one another in social, only incidentally political terms. (Duff 1952:81)

Though the high-rank/low rank distinction was based largely on heredity, this social rank system was not a closed system. A person of low class birth could rise to become a respected -- i.e., high class -- person by fulfilling the expectations and developing the superior personal qualities described above and so could establish a family of high prestige. In reverse, a high-class family could see itself "spoiled" by improper actions, wrong- headed attitudes, and injudicious marriages.

Perhaps viewing the Chilliwack class structure through conventional coastal eyes, Hill-Tout's (1903:357- 359) characterization of the tribe's status levels seems on the surface overly rigid: "the people," he writes, "were divided into the usual threefold division of chiefs, notables, and base folk." (Evidently slaves [see next section] were seen by Hill-Tout as outside this class system.) To belong to the chiefly class a person had to be related to the village leader by consanguineal ties. The head of this class possessed a special personal name and title, the batter carrying the significance of wealth, in addition to his other names. The distinction between notables and common people was less firm. Like the chiefly group, the nobles were likewise rich, but they were also necessarily ambitious and intelligent, traits necessary for maintaining their high status. Any free person could become a noble by acquiring and generously distributing property and so by being recognized by common consent as belonging to the class. Commoners were such because they were "lazy, thriftless, [and] unambitious," and consequently poor. Hence the noble and commoner groups were not castes, for upward and downward movement occurred between the two bevels. All things considered, this class structure, as Hill-Tout describes it, is not altogether far from Duff's fuller and more behaviorally oriented Upper Stalo account.

Slavery

The Upper Stalo took and owned a few slaves, even though the practice ran counter to their essentially democratic patterns. Some were purchased. Others, if I read Duff correctly, were members of Coastal raiding parties who somehow had been left behind and been captured when their mates fled home. Some were taken by Upper Stalo warriors (a disliked group) on raids of their own. (Duff 1952:82-84)

In his journal entry of June 28, 1808, Fraser (1960:100) records an observation that might be taken as evidence for institutionalized slavery among the Upper Stalo. Witnessing a dance by villagers -- surely of a Tait community -- just below the foot of the Fraser Canyon and the bong stretch of dangerous rapids, he writes, according to the Lamb version of his narrative: "... . the women ... seem to be slaves, for, in the course of their dances, I remarked that the men were pillaging them from one another." But then he adds: "Our Little Fellow [an Upper Thompson Indian accompanying the expedition (Fraser 1960:89)], on one of these occasions, was presented with another man's wife for a bed fellow." The two sentences together suggest that the "pillage" may have been only a form of sociably patterned wife sharing or exchange, promoted by husbands in Fraser's eyes, and not evidence for the institution of slavery. For what it is worth, Masson, in editing Fraser's (1889:194) observations, has the explorer report: ... the women... seem to be their husbands' slaves, for, in the course of their dances, I remarked that the men were in the habit of pillaging them from one another [emphasis added]. Our Little Fellow was presented with another man's wife." This makes explicit what might be considered to be the implication of Lamb's version. It is possible, of course, that each woman involved in Fraser's observed arrangement was both a slave and a wife. At any rate, Fraser's account in the Lamb writing (almost surely following here the field journal more closely than Masson's statements), is very uncertain proof of slavery among the Tait in 1808, and, as edited by Masson, offers slavery no support whatever.

In general, slaves were not mistreated among the Upper Stalo, especially if good workers, although this depended on their owners. Indeed, the adoption of a slave girl as a family daughter was not unknown. Typically, however, "their hair was cut short, and they had to perform whatever menial tasks they were told to do. Worst of all was the social stigma attached to slavery, which [except under special circumstances] was passed on to the offspring." They were permitted to marry among themselves. Marriage between a free man and a slave woman was strongly discouraged, but when it occurred -- against vigorous family opposition -- the stigma could be "washed away" by a potlatch, the special circumstances alluded to above; the wife became free and the children were so on birth, both wife and offspring, in fact, assuming the rank of the husband. (Duff 1952:82-84)

Upper Stalo slaves were allowed to seek spirit power. When they died, they were usually given a proper funeral and were buried in the family grave-box or perhaps in a special box in the graveyard. As Duff observes, slavery, as among the Thompson Indians, was fundamentally "not congenial to the orientations of the [Upper Stalo] culture as a whole." (Duff 1952:82-84)

Coastal parties constantly entered Upper Stalo country on slave raids and sold their captives to other tribes. These raiding groups came even from the Lower Stalo tribelets, as well as from the Cowichan and non-Halkomelem-speaking maritime tribes. They came also from nearby northern Plateau peoples. (Duff 1952:83-84; Ray 1939:34)

According to Duff's informant, the Chilliwack neither kept nor took slaves from other peoples. Earlier contradictory evidence exists. Hill-Tout was informed that wealthy Chilliwack possessed several slaves of both sexes. Most were captives taken in warfare or by Chilliwack raiding parties who went out for them to distant settlements and, back home, sold them "to the more timid and less adventurous of the tribe." Slaves were not killed at the death of their masters, although they were sometimes sold to raise the property required for an appropriate mortuary feast. (Duff 1952:83, 84; Hill-Tout 1903:358-360, 366)

That the Chilliwack in fact held slaves is confirmed by the historical records. While, as a member of the British Boundary Commission, Wilson in 1858-1859 spent some time in the Chilliwack country, slavery was still an active institution. He reports: "A Chilukweyuk Indian, whose slave was employed for several months by the Commission, pocketed a barge sum... [from this employment]; the money was of course paid to the slave, but his master was always near at hand on pay-day to book after the dollars." (Wilson 1866:290)

Duff's informant also reported that the Chilliwack, while not keeping slaves themselves, were raided for slaves by other groups. Here we have convincing historical data from the Fort Langley Journal. It reports that a slave-capturing expedition against the Chilliwack, by a force of about 70 Cowichan and Musqueam men,

occurred in October of 1827 and resulted in the capture of "several [Chilliwack] women and children as slaves. A few days later a Chilliwack man went down in a canoe loaded with goods to ransom back his wife." (Duff 1952:83, 84)

Secret Societies

Secret Societies, so characteristic of the British Columbia coast groups, were absent among the Upper Stalo (Smith 1941:202). Surely this was specifically the case among the Chilliwack, though I know of no ethnographic statement to this effect.

Birth and Infancy

Large families were desired by the Upper Stalo. Nevertheless, an attempt was made to space children two or three years apart, best the infants be sickly. A single copious drink of tea brewed of crab apple bark, drunk soon after the birth of a child, was thought to prevent another conception for the period. There appears to have been no sex preference in regard to children. (Duff 1952:90)

During the birth process only the midwife was allowed in the house; the husband left for a walk in the hills. The parturient woman drank an infusion of certain herbs and leaves prepared by the midwife. (Duff 1952:90)

Soon after the birth the newborn infant's "legs were bandaged 'to make them straight'; his 'nose was fixed to make it straight'; and his face was massaged." It was placed in a cradle, of birchbark in earlier times and more recently of basketwork woven by the coiling process, and bound in place. In the back of the cradle be was a shredded cedar-bark mattress. With diapers of cedar bark often mixed with down, the baby, hands at its sides, was laced in position to its neck. A hollow elderberry tube, extending through a hole in the cradle, kept the cradle dry. When carried by the mother on her back with a carrying strap over her chest, the cradle was placed in a roughly horizontal position -- not vertically as was the case farther up the Fraser River. If the mother was right-handed, the infant's head was put to her right side, so it could easily be swung around to nurse. (Duff 1952:57, 90)

The Upper Stalo baby was removed from its cradle only for its daily bath -- in warm water for the first few days and then in cold -- and sometimes to be nursed. "If the young mother had no milk at first, milkweed was heated with boiling water and applied to the breasts." (The association of the white, milky latex of this plant with the woman's urgent need is apparent, though not commented upon by Duff.) Nursing continued for a year, or even for two if no later child was on the way. When the baby grew to the point where it could crawl, it was removed from the cradle but returned to it to sleep or to travel. It really left it only when it could at last walk away from it. (Duff 1952:90)

Twins were apparently neither feared nor especially welcomed. But to keep the two babies from dying owing to the proximity of people, families had to move and live by themselves. Twins, however, were thought to be powerful in affecting the weather. (Duff 1952:91)

Intentional frontal flattening of the Upper Stalo infant's head was practiced, according to Duff (1952:90), with a padded wooden board, but less frequently than among the coastal tribes. Yet Duff also reports that a coastal man with such a deformed head who moved to Tait country was laughed at. And Wilson observes in 1858 and 1859 that the custom of frontal flattening was not practiced then among those groups that we define here as Upper Stalo. (Duff 1952:91) I conclude that, if Duff's generalization is correct, it must rebate to early, perhaps even precontact times. "Ears were pierced at the age of 8 or 9, and a string was put through the perforations to keep them open. High-rank persons also had their noses pierced." (Duff 1952:91)

At the birth of a child, most Chilliwack parents attempted to secure the services of one or more members of the sqoi'aqi (see Dance section below) to perform their dance. This provided powerful supernatural protection for the infant and gave it social status, including the right later in life to be ranked among the tribal notables. The ceremony included a formal washing of the child by the sqoi'aqi, a birth-feast during which its ears were pierced, and the first application of the cranium deforming pads. The ear piercing was carried out not by the sqoi'aqi but always by skilled persons, paid for their services with blankets, who performed the operation with a pointed piece of pitch-pine. To prevent the hole from closing, the piece was left in the wound. (Hill-Tout 1903:366)

At the very few points where the above Chilliwack account intersects with Duff's Upper Stalo data, it coincides in a general way, except for the timing of the ear piercing action. It adds the new dimension of the sqoi'aqi robe in the birth ritual pattern.

Youth and Puberty

Among the Upper Stalo the oldest male member of the local extended family, usually the paternal grandfather, was primarily responsible for advising, teaching, and disciplining a boy; the grandmother for a girl.

Young children may, in fact, have spent more time with grandparents than with parents, for they were left with them when the latter went hunting, berry-gathering, or visiting. (Duff 1952:91)

Every morning before dawn and again in the evening, a grandfather made his grandsons swim and dive in the river to ensure that they became "well-to-do" when they grew up. During the day he taught them fishing, hunting, and other skills, and how to behave, work, and become a good person. During long evenings, he instructed them in social matters until they dropped off to sleep: who their relatives were; how they should act, by relating stories with a moral content; whom they should not marry because of their connections with families known over a long past for their mean or bad behavior. He likewise trained them for shamanistic and other spirit power, sometimes with the assistance of an old shaman. (Duff 1952:91)

From time to time the grandfather, using spruce boughs, whipped the boys, all relatives together but one by one, in the center of the dwelling "to teach them fortitude and courage." The lads were expected to receive this whipping without flinching. Sometimes older women did the same to their granddaughters. (Duff 1952:91)

Puberty among the Upper Stalo was recognized as an especially critical time for children. When their voice changed, boys were made to be particularly active in order to develop a life-bong pattern of industry and endurance: they were, for example, forced to run bong distances. (Duff 1952:92)

The Chilliwack data of Hill-Tout (1903:366) are no fuller than the preceding notes of Duff for the Upper Stalo in general. We are told only that "youths on reaching manhood.. . went apart by themselves for a longer or shorter time, and fasted, and bathed and exercised their bodies till they had acquired their . .. [guardian spirits]."

For Upper Stalo girls at the time of their first menses, the observance was much more formal and patterned. Duff (1952:92) summarizes the typical ritual thus:

At this time she was secluded in a hut of boughs for the duration of the [menstrual] period. She was constantly attended by her grandmother or any other old female relative. She ate sparingly, mostly of soup, and drank just sufficient water through a hollow straw or bird-bone tube. She took emetics and laxatives, took sweat-baths and then plunged into cold water. But most of all she had to learn to work, to be industrious, because if she didn't learn it now, she never would. Her grandmother made her practise weaving or basketry, "training the fingers."

Reaching puberty, a Chilliwack girl underwent four days of seclusion.

For the first two days she must abstain from food of any kind; after this she might eat a little dried salmon, but no fresh meat or roots. After the fourth day the girl's face was painted, and she was permitted to walk abroad for a little distance in charge of some woman. On her return four ...["soothsayers"] would meet her and dance round her, each holding a salmon of different species in his hand. When this ceremony was over, she was taken to a bake and made to undergo a ceremonial washing and cleansing. She was never allowed to enter a stream frequented by salmon, or they would shun the stream thereafter. Throughout the four days of her seclusion she was kept busy in making yarn. .. . (Hill-Tout 1903:366)

At subsequent menstrual periods, an Upper Stalo woman was apparently not secluded but she was expected to observe certain activity restrictions: she "could not butcher salmon nor cut fresh meat"; she observed certain food tabus; she could not go into the woods best, in her special condition, she be attacked by bears. (Duff 1952:92) Speaking of the Chilliwack alone, Hill-Tout (1903:366) reports that menstruating women were never permitted to eat hot or fresh foods.

Among the Lower Stalo, families of high rank celebrated a daughter's puberty with a potlatch with two masked dancers and the distribution of blankets and other property (Duff 1952:92). But I gather that these potlatches were not the custom with the Upper Stalo, for they are not mentioned by Duff (1952:87-89) in his discussion of the circumstances that gave rise to their potlatches.

Marriage

Among the Upper Stalo it was expected that eventually every person would marry. One or two bachelors were recalled by Duff's informants and were considered very odd. No unmarried women of marriageable age were remembered, though one female who wore men's clothing, was a good hunter, fisherman, and spirit dancer, and was married to a woman was recollected. (Duff 1952:79)

Monogamy was the rule, but polygyny was rather common among wealthy men who could afford several wives. An Upper Stalo instance of as many as 20 wives was remembered, most having been stolen by the man, a warrior and bully, from their husbands when they were visiting in the brawler's area. (I am not certain that these were all simultaneous wives.) A case of eight wives was recalled for the Tait. And an instance among the Chilliwack of nine wives -- perhaps, however, not simultaneous spouses -- was recollected, some of these women, at beast, being from neighboring tribes and the result of marriages made to establish fruitful intertribal links. (Duff 1952:79) Confirmatory data for the Chilliwack specifically comes from Hill-Tout (1903:359): "Polygamy [i.e., polygyny in contemporary terminology] was common among the Tcil'Qe'uk, a man having sometimes as many as ten wives. The number of a man's wives was ordered, as a rube, partly by his inclinations and partly by his ability to support them."

Occasionally a man who traveled a lot had wives in several places. (This arrangement is instructive since it demonstrates that the Upper Stalo must have had ways of providing a woman and her children with the services normally rendered by an in-resident husband. It must have been the woman's own extended family that somehow assumed these responsibilities.) (Duff 1952:79)

Polyandry appears to have been unknown among the Upper Stalo tribes (Duff 1952:79). The possibility of an early Chilliwack pattern of tribal endogamy -- or at least a strong in-marriage tendency -- has been discussed above.

"Girls married young, usually soon after their puberty observances." Boys were generally a few years older. Unmarried girls of high rank families were constantly chaperoned by a grandmother, mother, or other female relative. Girls of lower status families were not so rigidly monitored. (Duff 1952:92)

Marriage to first and second cousins was prohibited; otherwise there were no formal barriers of relation ship. Yet in small villages -- and even small tribelets -- this proscription resulted in de facto village -- and tribelet -- exogamy. Neither the boy nor the girl had much say under normal conditions in marriage. The matter was determined by the family in conference, considering such matters as rank -- high rank families required marriage with a spouse of equal rank -- and the character and wealth of the other person and of his or her extended family. (Duff 1952:85, 87, 92)

At beast three forms of marriage arrangements were current among the Upper Stalo.

(a) In wealthy families the union was formalized with gift exchanges and much ceremony. The boy's grand parents, parents, and other kin together with the village leader carried gifts to the girl's village for her family. The leader first explained the group's mission; then the grandparents and parents spoke in turn. The boy was expected to remain silent. The girl's grandfather and then her parents replied. If both parties agreed to the union, it was publicly announced to all the people. The girl's family gave some return presents, and the bride returned with the boy's party to their village. At a later time, generally during the bate autumn slack period, the bride's family, the leader of her village, and most of her villagers made a return visit to the groom's village and distributed return gifts to the husband's people. (Duff 1952:81, 92-93)

From a Chilliwack informant Duff (1952:93) received a description of a typical marriage ceremony that varied in certain details from the above pattern. Inasmuch as Duff believes that the variations reported are recent innovations, they are not commented upon here.

(b) Ordinary villagers followed a different marriage form, as did orphans, other boys with no one to talk for them, and widowers. Usually in this case, the man had the girl's blessing. Early in the morning he went to the girl's dwelling and sat silently beside the doorway. Ignored by her family and tested during the day by being splashed "accidentally" with water being brought into the house, covered with dust and floor sweepings, or scraped by firewood being taken in, he bore this unwelcome reception all day. Finally he himself carried firewood inside, only to have it thrown back out. This same ritual took place for several days to test his fortitude, until, if he persisted and the girl's family agreed to the marriage, he was led inside by the father or grandfather, seated on a new mat, and given food. The girl joined him on the mat, witnessed by all in the dwelling. Then the people, joined by the boy's people, danced and had a grand time. (Duff 1952:93)

(c) In the case of low-class people with little pride, the boy crept inside the girl's house some night when her parents were away and spent the night. Thereupon the two were considered man and wife. (Duff 1952:93)

In addition to these three marriage patterns, the Chilliwack, though perhaps no other Upper Stalo people, held a marriage dance every few years in which young people could select their own mates. To the accompaniment of song, they formed pairs on the dance floor, witnessed by all present. The couples were then regarded as being married. (Duff 1952:93)

The newly married couple usually established their residence with the extended family of the groom -- i.e., patrilocally. On the other hand, the actual situation might indicate the advantage of residing with the wife's people: her parents might have no sons,

or might be of higher rank, or might need someone to care for them, or, as in the case of some Chilliwack women who married Thompson hunters, the woman might be reluctant to move far away from her home.

A married couple of commoner status sometimes moved around fairly frequently. "Among high-rank families, however, especially where a man had more than one wife, residence was more strictly patrilocal." (Duff 1952:79)

Marriages between high rank people were considered permanent, divorces theoretically not having been allowed. If a bride left her husband, her people returned her unless she was being mistreated. In the case of commoners, however, separation and divorce seems to have been quite frequent. If a commoner man could not get along with his wife, he simply took her home and left her there. In one actual instance, a man kept trying different women as wives, until the ninth one was found to be congenial. Most separations occurred early in the marriage, before the arrival of children, and to have been the consequence of incompatibility. (Duff 1952:79)

It is probable that virtually all men and women whose spouse had died remarried, unless already so old as to be cared for by their children. In theory, high rank people, however, were not supposed to remarry out of respect for the deceased partner, but apparently this proscription was not often honored. The length of the mourning period varied according to rank, age, and special circumstances. Widows tended to remarry after a somewhat longer period than widowers: "a widow was felt to be different, even dangerous, because she was spiritually more powerful, and it was considered dangerous to marry her too soon" (Duff 1952:79). Duff may have phrased this matter correctly, but I wonder if the delay was not the result of a greater fear of a jealous dead husband than of any spirit power of the woman herself. In any event, as Duff (1952:79) explains, practical considerations -- such as the need for child care -- came close to governing remarriage. It seems obvious that, among the Upper Stalo, the complementary division of labor by sex almost mandated remarriage sooner or later, even when the marriage was childless and in spite of one's membership in an extended family and the pattern of sharing within the family.

Remarriage often took the following form:

[A] deceased woman's sister, knowing and feeling sorry for the bereaved husband and children, would often move in and take her sister's place. A man would similarly take over the care of a dead brother's family. In this way... the children kept the same grandparents .. . and their education went on without interruption. (Duff 1952:79-80)

Old Age

The elderly in Upper Stalo tribes were highly respected for their knowledge and wisdom. When they offered advice or criticized a person for his behavior, they were never answered back.

At large gatherings, the old people made speeches, giving advice to the young. At feasts, old men were served first, and the old people were given the choicest parts of the fish or game: the fattest part of the fish near the head, and the hind quarters of meat. Old people lived with whichever son or daughter was convenient. (Duff 1952:93-94)

Old people were in great demand as story-tellers, taking "turns in the evenings telling folk-tales and stories about specific people, and pointing moral lessions." Some elderly men traveled around, staying in one house for one or several nights and then moving on. They slept during the day and, for their food and lodging, told stories at night -- even all night. They rebated their war experiences if they had in the past been out on hostile expeditions and told tales of the transformer and other mythical personages. They talked until their auditors were all asleep, with no one left to respond from time to time with the listener's encouraging formula i?ay. (Duff 1952:94)

Death, Burial, and Mourning

Among the Upper Stalo the preparation of the corpse and the funeral ceremonies were supervised by a shaman. The body was washed and wrapped in blankets by friends. Sometimes, at the direction of the shaman, it was removed from the dwelling through a hole in the wall "so the ghost couldn't find his way back into the house." The body outside, the shaman swept the whole structure and the immediate family with cedar boughs "to keep the ghost away and make him forget" the near relatives he left behind, since it was not unknown for a ghost to take the soul of a loved one with him.

The body was carried to the family grave-box or grave house, usually by visitors who were not close kin and who were compensated for their services. Often people came from a great distance to attend the rites. The funeral was followed by a feast for all who attended, furnished by relatives and close friends. All who had a role in the funeral were paid, either at the time if the expense could be covered by the family or at a later potlatch. (Duff 1952:94, 117)

Among the Chilliwack, as soon as a person died, the body was carried outside by one or more "sooth- sayers, the theory being that the longer it remained within the dwelling, the more difficult it became to drive the hostile ghost away and rid the surviving relatives of its inimical influence. The corpse was washed by these functionaries and painted all over with red coloring, doubled up and bound in a mat or blanket, and finally carried

to the family's large mortuary box, if it was not yet midday. When a death occurred after noon, the body was laid off "by itself some little distance from the house till sunrise next morning." This was regarded as the most propitious time of day for a funeral, since by then all ghosts had departed to their own country. The corpse was placed in the box beside the remains of earlier family members, which were lying side by side within it. The construction details of these sepulchers have already been described. The edges or selvage of blankets and mats given to a deceased person -- for, it was believed, the use of that person in his new, nonnatural state -- were routinely torn off. This was done "to ensure the safety of the surviving relatives and break the power or influence of the . . . [ghost]." (Hill-Tout 1903:365)

When the body had been taken from the house, the "soothsayer" spread quantities of bullrush down all over the bed on which the deceased person had lain. He "set fire to it, and beat the bed and walls and surviving relatives with . . . [spruce branches] to drive away the sickness and ghost of the dead." All who had taken part in the death ceremonies were given "medicine" by the soothsayer "to protect them from the evil influence of the corpse." People were warned to avoid burial sites, especially after a recent death, lest they be harmed by the ghost of the dead person. (Hill-Tout 1903:364, 365)

In the mortuary rites of the Chilliwack there was, at a simple level, a Northwest Coast-bike potlatch element:

All but the relatives of the deceased were paid for their attendance and service by blankets. If the immediate relatives of the deceased were persons of wealth, a feast would be held on the return of the party from the burial-grounds. If they were poor, this would be held at a later date. It was customary among the . . . [Chilliwack] for friends of the mourning family to bring blankets and lay them on the dead body. When the mortuary feast was given, all those who had thus made presents were paid double of what they had given. (Hill-Tout 1903:365).

Among the Chilliwack, slaves were never killed at the death of their owners. Sometimes, however, as previously noted, they were sold to defray the expenses of the mortuary feast. (Hill-Tout 1903:366)

Four days later among the Upper Stalo groups a property-burning ceremony and feast were held. The disposal of the dead person's possessions was under the direction of one person, usually a shaman. Some objects that were most treasured by the deceased -- his favorite clothing, gun, and other items he was thought to need -- were first burned. From what remained his relatives and friends took what they wished and the rest were then destroyed by burning. (Duff 1952:94, 117)

The Chilliwack data describing the rituals occurring four days after the disposal of the corpse fail to mention this property-burning feature. In view of the paucity of information, this omission should not necessarily be interpreted as indicating its absence. According to Hill-Tout (1903:365), however, four days following the interment all who had participated in the ceremony bathed themselves and, with the exception of the husband or wife of the deceased, cut their side hair "as far back as, and on a level with, the ears" and beyond this point only the hair ends. These hair fragments were buried at "some spot where Nature was full of life." This locational vigor magically transferred to the persons, making them safe from the potential ill effects of their role in the burial procedure. (These hair fragments were never burned by Chilliwack as they were among the neighboring Pilalt, in the belief that burned objects lost their "spirit" component, causing their former owner to die.)

This four-day ritual among the Upper Stalo tribelets was followed "at daybreak or at dark, when souls and ghosts travel about," with a feast for the ghosts of the deceased, of his dead relatives, and of others. In a typical feast of this kind, dishes of food were set out for the dead person, for each of his parents, and so on for several past generations. Four portions of each food were placed on each plate. The official could "see" and name aloud each family ghost when it arrived to enjoy the meal and several stranger ghosts as well which chose to attend. He then burned two portions from each plate, one for the relative's ghost and one for a stranger ghost. When the ghosts had "eaten," the living guests ate the other two portions on each plate. (Duff 1952:94)

"Mortuary sacrifices," Hill-Tout (1903:365) reports, were cabled for "at certain times" by Chilliwack shamans, almost certainly referring to the same ceremony as Duff describes above although the details differ. "They were always conducted at sunrise." Everyone who had buried a relative or friend (surely "recently" is implied) assembled, bringing a quantity of choice food and other gifts. The shaman placed them on a circular platform erected to receive them. A short distance from this table, a barge fire was kindled. In the intervening space, the shaman stood, while the bereaved formed a circle around the platform and fire. When all was ready, the shaman entered the ring, and taking portions of the offerings, threw them into the fire, presenting them to the spirits of the departed. Food and objects remaining after the offerings were completed were distributed among the people.

Commonly in Upper Stalo groups the blankets around the corpse were changed every few years. Each such event was marked with a potlatch. (Duff 1952:94-95)

While every effort was made by the Upper Stalo to return to his home the body of one who had died away, this sometimes proved impossible. In such instances, the body was buried in the ground, the bones being sometimes later exhumed and carried home. (Duff 1952:95)

Recently bereaved persons, male and female, in Upper Stalo groups observed certain restrictions on their behavior, some of brief duration and others much longer. At the funeral feast, they sat facing the corner of the dwelling as they ate. For about a year they were expected to eat with no other people and to eat no meat or fern roots. For a year also, they, together with immediate family members, wore buckskin bands tied around their wrists. They cut their hair to shoulder length and burned the trimmed ends to prevent hostile shamans from collecting and using the material for witchcraft. (Duff 1952:95)

Mourning among the Chilliwack and the ritual acts associated with this condition are briefly described by Hill-Tout (1903:365). After his wife's death, a man was expected to wash his entire body to prevent his next wife from dying shortly. In carrying out his ceremonial washings, he avoided bathing in a salmon stream, best these sensitive fish shun the stream ever after. Following his bereavement, a man abstained

from all foods for at Ieast a day, and ate sparingly, with his face turned away from everyone else, for a further period of ten or twelve days. His food for the first four days was mainly 'medicine' made from herbs, &c. (Hill-Tout 1903:365)

A surviving wife was expected to observe similar behavioral restrictions. For example, she bound her wrists and ankles with wool bands. Other activities were tabued to both husbands and wives: e.g., they were not to utter the name of their deceased spouse while biting off and chewing pieces of fish, for otherwise they would soon die. Likewise, other tribal members observed certain proprieties in the company of persons who had lost close relatives. They, for example, never mentioned the names of the deceased in the latter's hearing. In effect, this tabu applied until, some time later, the avoided names were given to living family members at name feasts. (Hill-Tout 1903:365, 366)

Upper Stalo widows and widowers had a greater than normal chance of securing guardian spirit power and were thought to possess the power to kill plants by stepping over them. As mentioned above, immediate remarriage was thought to be dangerous to the new spouse. (Duff 1952:95)

Leadership

Among the Upper Stalo there were no chiefs, hereditary or otherwise, in the sense of a formally designated village leader, let along a leader of a larger geographic area and population cluster. No one who had the authority to direct others. Leadership was entirely informal, based on respect. Such leaders as existed did not -- could not -- order others, but were followed by other persons and families owing to the esteem in which they were held. Accordingly, leaders in most affairs were high-ranked persons as defined above. They were the heads of their own extended family groups, those who made the day-by-day decisions regarding the management of family matters. In villages of more than one extended family, the family head who stood above the others in esteem held the greatest sway over the village as a whole; he was the village leader by consensus. When he spoke, the others listened; when he suggested or exhorted, the others took action. While this was particularly true of his own extended family, the members of unrelated families in his community also heard him and responded because of his personal reputation for wisdom in leadership. In intervillage relations, too, he naturally assumed the leader's robe.

Without village chiefs in the proper sense, succession was not an issue among the Upper Stalo. The respected men, however, generally selected their successors, the ones to whom they passed their family name. In most cases it was a son, grandson, or nephew. Since these persons, to qualify for the name honor, had to be upright, good, wise men, possessing as well all of the other qualifications for the name and high status, they also necessarily had the qualifications that more often than not led them to succeed their name predecessor as village leader, if the predecessor had been one. But this was not a foregone conclusion, for no leader owned his office and so none could, in the native mind, pass it on as he did his respected name and often enough his family responsibilities. (Duff 1952:82)

In addition to this informal social leadership within the village, "most [Upper Stalo] villages of any size had at least one fighting man who assumed leadership of village defence or of war-parties." Typically he was not a high prestige, upper rank person, for pacifism was one of the qualities that brought high standing in the community. The fighting was left to the few men, typically aggressive, hot-headed persons, who had been trained and had received supernatural powers for warfare. Though these men were not truly respected in the ranking sense, they were considered a necessary component of the village for its protection. Sometimes in serious intervillage squabbles, one such fighting man of one village and another from the contending community fought it out, with the decision determining the outcome of the hostilities. (Duff 1952:81-82)

The above leadership structure was that which prevailed among the Tait and presumably the Upper Stalo in general. Apparently the Chilliwack had "a slightly more formalized pattern of tribal leadership" (Duff 1952:82).

Because of our commanding interest in the Chilliwack among all of the Upper Stalo, I quote Duff's brief description:

Each village had a head man, and the tribe had one main leader, . . . Everything that happened in the tribe had to be reported to the main leader. The main leadier was expected to take command in wars, although there were other war leaders who could undertake raids. He was expected to be of good character and friendly with everybody. Succession was from father to son, provided that the son had the necessary personal attributes, which he nearly always had because of his training. If the leader had no sons, his position went to the best-qualified younger brother or nephew. (Duff 1952:82)

It is instructive to compare the preceding brief statement with the somewhat more expansive description of the Chilliwack leadership pattern as presented by Hill-Tout (1903:356-358) at the turn of the century. Each village, he observes, had its own leader, the head of the most important community serving also as the tribal leader. The former at least were still functioning in 1900, for he records a schedule of the then existing settlements with their individual heads. The tribal leadership -- and surely therefore likewise the village "chieftainship" -- "was practicably hereditary," the office generally moving from father to son, occasionally to a brother or cousin. A man, however, could be "deposed" if considered to have failed in discharging his responsibilities. These consisted in overseeing the secular affairs and general welfare of the group as would a father: he was expected, for example, to appoint "times for salmon-fishing, root-gathering, and berry-picking," and to be generous and kind-hearted. They also included leading community prayers and religious observances. Selfishness and neglect of his duties were regarded as just cause for a leadership change. The decision was made by the elders and "nobles -- the principal men of the group -- meeting to consider the matter and it was they who notified the head of the termination of his leadership duties. Such a decision was said to have been characteristically uncontested. Deposition, however, occurred very rarely, since leaders took their responsibilities seriously. In fact, Chilliwack tradition, according to Hill-Tout, recorded in his time only one such deposition event.

The other tribal leader, Hill-Tout states, was the "war chief." Rarely, if ever, did the secular leader "act in a military capacity"; typically he attempted to discourage men contemplating raiding forays from carrying their plans forward. Rather the fighting leader was generally selected from "among the fighting-men of the tribe of account of his superior prowess . . . in warfare." The "warriors" were men who were "fond of fighting." Others engaged in hostilities only on those rare occasions when their settlements were attacked. Faced with the urgent need for such defensive action, all men -- and sometimes women -- took to arms.

To the degree that these two Chilliwack descriptions, both informant-based but secured fifty years apart, intersect, they are reassuringly in substantial agreement. They differ really in only one respect: Duff states that the tribal leader expected to receive reports of significant events within the tribe and that he himself guided fighters in hostilities. Hill-Tout offers no information on the first point and expressly remarks that the tribal and war leaderships were assigned to different men. As he observes, Duff pictures a leadership arrangement that was rather more tightly structured than that presented by Hill-Tout and that placed broader responsibilities in the hands of one person. Hill-Tout's characterization, in contrast, positions the Chilliwack generally within the Upper Stalo mold as outlined by Duff. Whether in these differences one is correct and the other inaccurate or both are essentially right for different time periods is uncertain. If the batter, Hill-Tout's summary, based on field information antedating Duff's by a half-century, would presumably be the earlier. In this instance it would be interesting -- but probably unproductive at this juncture -- to speculate on the changes in the underlying social context that gave rise to these leadership shifts: the population movement from the dispersed villages in the Chilliwack Canyon to the more nucleated villages on the Fraser plain, increased contact with other Upper Stalo peoples (and with Whites), augmented salmon fishing at specific tribal sites as opposed to a more general use of the subsistence resources of their earlier valley country, a sharp reduction in intertribal hostilities making specialized "war" leadership largely redundant, and so on. But these data, however sketchy, suggest the possible insights that may be gained by comparing primary reports from different ethnographic sources, different time bevels, and different neighboring groups, even though the information may be too fragmentary to permit extended interpretation. There is always the prospect that additional information, ethnographic and ethnohistorical, may sharpen our understanding in such situations where the questions are perceived.

Transgression and Punishment

Troublemakers were exiled, deserted, or even in extreme cases killed. Large groups could never avoid some interpersonal difficulties: "there were always one or two persons causing trouble, especially women." Sometimes two families with members who could not get along moved away to different locations: "that is how the people came to live in little bunches all over the place." Or everyone would move, leaving only the troublemaker behind. When killing was considered the only, final recourse, as when a man continued to murder others for trivial reasons, the punishment was not uncommonly accomplished with the connivance and tacit permission of his relatives, who had themselves become outraged over his unconscionable conduct. (Duff 1952:89)

The relationship between people and the supernatural world was essentially a very personal one. In aboriginal times there were no deities or spirits that were concerned, either hostilely or in a protective stance, with the welfare of groups -- even of single extended families. Similarly, there were no clusters of persons that paid homage to any supernatural. The concept of a supreme deity reported for the Stalo is surely a borrowing from Western theology, one that was probably introduced in the first half of the nineteenth century. This was early enough to be partially integrated into the native culture before it felt the disintegrating influence of White contact and to convince contemporary Upper Stalo that it was an aboriginal concept. (Duff 1952:97-98, 119-120)

"The most immediate supernatural beings, the most rewarding sources of supernatural experiences and powers were the individual guardian spirits," sulia (Duff 1952:97). An understanding of the native guardian spirit world is the key to a comprehension of the traditional beliefs and religious practices of the Upper Stalo.

Guardian Spirits

No roster of individual guardian spirits among the Upper Stalo or even of guardian spirit classes is recorded by Duff. Nevertheless, from his informant narratives it is plain that they were often animals (e.g., deer, grizzly bear, wolf, mink) and at beast sometimes birds (e.g., owl, boon, raven), fish (e.g., sucker), reptiles (e.g., double-headed snake), insects (e.g., moth, mosquito), other invertebrates (e.g., beech), and natural phenomena (e.g., thunder, fire) (Duff 1952:99-101, 103,104,106,113). These data suggest that the number and range of these supernatural beings must have been quite barge.

Speaking of the Chilliwack in particular, every Chilliwack, according to Hill-Tout (1903:361-362), had one or more guardian spirits. Presumably this was true of women as well as men, though this is not clearly stated. These "helpers" were required as protection against the supernatural powers, capricious and generally malevolent, with which the people endowed "every object and agency in their environment." Through a dream or vision, these guardian supernaturals could be derived, it appears, from any "bird, beast, fish, [inanimate] object, or element," or, rarely, even from parts of these beings and objects.

Among the Upper Stalo guardian spirits were acquired in two distinctly different ways.

(a) Through a bong, rigorous quest and a dream or vision of a spirit which granted a specific power that could be used at any time. Among these tribes this was the unusual method of developing a supernatural relation ship, not the common procedure as in the nearby Plateau. It was, in fact, limited to prospective shamans and in a few cases to hunters, warriors, gamblers, and the bike. Important powers -- like healing powers -- were acquired in this manner, indeed power in practically every significant field: apparently the person experiencing the dream or vision might request a specific kind of power. Nevertheless, except for shamans and those to become the greatest warriors, very few people attempted to secure powers via this vision/dream route; the rigorous training was too much trouble, particularly since supernatural power was not necessary to become excellent hunters, fishermen, gamblers, and perhaps even warriors. Guardian spirits secured in this manner were thought to be "constant spirit partners," in the sense of being available to assist at any time during the year. (Duff 1952:97, 98,100,102-103,109)

A Chilliwack tradition (Hill-Tout 1903:367-368) tells of the remarkable experiences of a Chilliwack man who went to Cultus Lake to secure his "spirit helper," an encounter with underwater "unnatural beings" which led to his becoming an important shaman. (See Myths section below for this tale.)

The physiographic features of the bake and its immediate surroundings that made it a natural arena for serious guardian spirit quests, especially for those that earned unusual and extraordinary spiritual results, are briefly described by Wilson (1970:57-58) in his journal entry of July 2,1859. On that occasion he rode through the "forest and prairie" and then over the high ridge that separated his Chilliwack headquarters from the "Schweltya" (now Sweltzer) River and on to the northern end of the Cultus Lake. From there he crossed to the Boundary Commission base by boat. "The lake," he wrote, "is about 3 miles long, the mountains coming straight down, the water beautifully clear and intensely cold like all other mountain bakes; . . . We found Haig [the Commission man in charge in the area] encamped on the edge of the bake. . ." In his report of March 28,1859, Colonel Hawkins (also of the Commission) explained that Haig's camp was "at the south end of Cultus Lake, owing to 'the rocky and precipitous character of the sides of the lake"' (Stanley in Wilson 1970:57 fn. 44), thus, reasonably, placing the base for surveying and marking the international line at the closest lake point to the border and explaining why Wilson required a watercraft to reach the camp. This brief Hawkins' statement also confirms Wilson's description of the mountainous faces of the lake shore. But the essential point in this present context is that it is not surprising that guardian spirits of exceptional power were acquired among these surroundings.

(b) Through an encounter with a guardian spirit without any quest and receiving from the spirit only a specific dance and song to be performed at the winter spirit dances. No other powers were given in such unsought encounters. This was the usual method of securing a guardian spirit link: in fact, almost everyone received at least one spirit dance-song constellation during his lifetime. These winter dance spirits were considered to be present only in winter, and gave powers that were substantially weaker than those granted to persons who underwent the rigorous guardian spirit quest. (Duff 1952:97, 103-106, 109, 111)

The guardian spirits were thought to be the same in either case, merely granting different kinds of power depending on the circumstances of the person-spirit encounter. Under these conditions, it is not surprising that in the Upper Stalo view guardian spirits could not be inherited. (Duff 1952:97, 101,109)

Shamanism

Upper Stalo shamans (sxwele'm) -- as with a few warriors and others as exceptions -- secured their special guardian spirit powers through a long, arduous quest. Although theoretically obtainable at any age, success was more probable on quests undertaken soon after the death of one's spouse. Still more promising were quests carried out during childhood, the time, apparently, when most shamans began their search for a dream or vision and the resulting supernatural powers. Children were carefully watched for an interest in this direction and for good character, and were encouraged to go out on quests if they appeared promising. Their training was supervised by a father or grandfather if either was a shaman or, if not, by an old shaman who was paid for his assistance. (Duff 1952:97, 98, 121)

Duff's (1952:98) description of a typical Upper Stalo quest is so succinct and comprehensive that it deserves to be quoted in full.

At first the young boy would go out with the shaman, or with a brother or small group of aspirants. By the time he was about 12, however, he was expected to go out alone and train. He might go out on successive overnight vigils, returning home at dawn, or he might stay away from home several days at a time, going increasingly farther from home on each successive vigil. Coming to a lake, a stream, a waterfall, he would stay for several days, fasting the whole time. He would make himself thoroughly clean by chewing laxative bark and by tickling his throat with a stick to induce vomiting, by sweating in a sweat-house, by frequent bathing and swimming, and by rubbing his body with boughs. All night long he would sing and dance. He would sleep only when exhausted, and then try to dream of the power he wanted. When he did go home, he would observe strict continence, and would avoid everything that was impure.

Certain localities offered better chances of a successful quest than others. Lakes were particularly favored, especially those thought to be inhabited by strange, unnatural creatures (slalakums). One could request supernatural power from any such being he chanced to encounter. Some questers even climbed into grave-boxes to await a power experience. (Duff 1952:98-99)

Each quest was expected to be long and generally unsuccessful -- even unsuccessful every time. It was customary, in fact, for the searcher to see nothing on his lonely trips until he was 25 or 30 years old, sometimes not before he was 40. If a boy should receive some power in his teens, he kept the fact secret, continuing to undertake periodic quests for more and different powers. In any event, he normally did not use his powers until about 30 years old. (Duff 1952:99)

Few girls, at least among the Tait tribelet, trained for shamanistic powers: according to Duff's informants, they could not because they were not allowed to be alone before marriage and after marriage were "unclean" and too busy (Duff 1952:99). This, however, seems to me to be no more than a partial explanation, for, unless the shamanistic quest was restricted to high-rank families, commoner girls, less carefully chaperoned, should have had opportunities for power searches and, one might think, an even higher motivation for obtaining power and the success that it brought. Among the Chilliwack and other Upper Stalo groups, Duff notes, "some negligent parents allowed girls out alone; perhaps they could train." In any event, it is certain that there were very few female shamans among even the Chilliwack. Duff hypothesizes that most women shamans probably acquired "their power in less usual ways; for example, a quest later in life, through illness, or by inheritance." (Duff 1952:99)

The culmination of the power quest was a true dream, a vision when wide awake, or a "supernatural experience of fixed form. The guardian spirit appeared in human guise, instructed the individual, then revealed its true identity [by turning into its proper form as a bear, sucker, or whatever] and departed." (Duff 1952:99)

A shaman was able to secure additional power by meeting a slalakum, the unnatural but non-supernatural creature already mentioned. While encountering such a being caused serious illness in a lay person, a shaman could request power from it. If it consented, it assumed human form, talked to the shaman, and then reassumed its actual shape as it departed. (Duff 1952:99)

Occasionally shamanistic power was acquired in a strictly happenstance meeting with supernaturals in their visible guise: e.g., as an animal. Or by becoming very sick, the details of which are not described by Duff. Or when, badly hurt by a wounded grizzly, the bear appeared to him when unconscious and granted him power. Or when after a period of training, a boy received power (without its accompanying guardian spirit) from a shaman father who "blew" his power into him. (Duff 1952:100)

With the Upper Stalo guardian-spirit quest pattern described and Duff's few casual remarks relating to the Chilliwack before us, such specific Chilliwack data as Hill-Tout (1903:361) provides may be reviewed. To acquire his powers, a Chilliwack shaman, invariably a man,

... usually underwent a long and secluded training in some lonely spot in the forest or on the margin of some lake. This training consisted in prolonged fasts, trances, body washing and exercises, accompanied by invocations of the Mysteries. His 'medicine,' or 'power,' it is believed, was bestowed upon him by his guiding spirit or spirits, who appear to him and instruct him in dreams and visions. . . .

Not only the shamans, but every other [Chilliwack] Indian, had one or more guiding or protecting 'spirits.'

These fragmentary data suggest no appreciable difference from the general Upper Stalo quest pattern except at two points:

(a) Hill-Tout indicates that Chilliwack women never undertook the search for shamanistic power and so never became shamans. Duff's information relating specifically to the Chilliwack is in mild disagreement.

(b) Hill-Tout might be understood to suggest that persons not destined for a shaman's role secured their guardian powers in the same manner as did the shaman. Duff indicates that this was not the case.

Without additional pertinent data, it is impossible to judge between these two data sets regarding these two information matters.

Powers acquired by the Upper Stalo in the spirit quest were usually quite specific and related in some way to the characteristics of the guardian spirit in tangible form. Curing powers, for example, were not broadly such, but were narrowly limited in their scope: e.g., to the curing of illness by sucking, a skill awarded by sucker and leech.

During their training quests shamans also secured secondary sidepowers. To illustrate, the ability to see and converse with souls and ghosts, which made shamans the logical ones to supervise funeral ceremonies. Or the power to see what was transpiring in distant places and to foretell the future as the size of coming salmon runs or berry harvests. (Duff 1952:97, 100-101)

Shamans kept secret the identity of their guardian spirits and their supernatural powers until they began practicing. Then there was little point in attempting to protect these hitherto concealed facts, for people could easily guess them from the shaman's professional actions, as their method of curing. Shamans were felt to maintain some vague personal relationship with their guardian spirits, in some cases restricting their own behavior and in others providing them with a certain leverage over the actions of the spirit. Shamans appear to have been prohibited from -- or at least cautious about -- killing their spirit animal. And to some degree they were thought to be able to summon or persuade their guardian spirit to do their bidding: to get, for instance, a grizzly to attack a specific person or thunder to produce a thunder-storm to someone's disadvantage. (Duff 1952:101)

Guardian spirits were generally not represented in paintings or carvings, although Duff's informants recalled one case of such a carving on a house post and another in which ancient, small human figures carved of stone in the round were thought to contain some of a shaman's power. (Duff 1952:101)

Shamanistic contests in which their powers were set to fighting one another occurred but evidently infrequently. In Chilliwack country these sometimes took the form of friendly competitions between two shamans attempting the same task, as sucking a painted red spot through a tree trunk from one side to the other. (Duff 1952:101)

Status and Role of the Shaman

Owing to their special supernatural powers, Upper Stalo shamans typically became important and respected.

Their abilities to cause and cure disease, to act an intermediaries between men and ghosts, to tell what was happening in distant places and what was to happen in the future, and to help out in wars brought them high respect as well as more tangible wealth. Most shamans were successful fisherman and hunters; most obtained several winter-dance spirit songs; and their general excellence in these fields was considered to be largely a result of their familiarity with spirit matters. Shamans were likely to be wealthy men, and wealth had implications of high status. (Duff 1952:101-102)

In addition to curing illnesses of supernatural generation, Chilliwack shamans conducted the mortuary rites. (Hill-Tout 1903:361)

There was, however, among the Upper Stalo, no class or grouping of shamans; rather they operated as individuals and saw themselves as such. They were, however, not the leaders in all religious ceremonies. Nor were they accorded any special consideration in their funerals, normally given a special burial, or particularly feared after death though they might be in life. (Duff 1952:102)

Illness and Curing

Among the Upper Stalo, illness associated with the supernatural domain came about in two quite different ways: by soul loss and by object intrusion. These ailments were cured -- or at least attended to -- by shamans. In addition, wounds and illnesses resulted from obvious natural causes. These health problems were addressed both by shamans and through home, lay remedies. (Duff 1952:97, 112-114)

Chilliwack shamans, Hill-Tout (1903:361) reports, were concerned only with inner, concealed ailments resulting from spells or "enchantment" generated by "maleficent and mysterious agencies." They were not treaters of wounds and similar natural bodily injuries. This latter information is in obvious conflict with the above general Upper Stalo data of Duff.

Shamans in the Upper Stalo tribes were paid for their services. "Good" shamans worked first and were paid when their efforts were completed whatever a person or family believed appropriate. However, some shamans -- by implication less honorable and less well thought-of by the community -- refused to expend their efforts and exert their skills until a satisfactory fee had been agreed upon. (Duff 1952:114)

The three forms of illness and their associated curing procedures may now be examined:

(a) Illness through Soul Loss. Among the Upper Stalo, a person's soul might abandon his body when he was visiting some strange, "bad," or unnatural locality and remain there. Or it might be "shocked out of him" by a sudden, frightening encounter with an unnatural being (slalakum), rendering him unconscious for some hours. Or it might be stolen by a shaman either to cause illness or to compel the person to do the shaman's bidding. In light of Elmendorf's (1952:110, fn. 15) finding that soul theft by the dead as an illness cause was present from the Northwest Coast (including the Gulf of Georgia tribes) south to Oregon and likewise in the Plateau (e.g., among the Thompson, Lillooet, and Shuswap), it is surprising that Duff's field research failed to pick this up as an additional soul "disease" cause among the Upper Stalo. In any event, to prevent death it had to be recovered by a shaman and restored to the person without much delay. (Duff 1952:97, 112)

In recapturing an errant soul, the shaman, summoned for the purpose, first informed the ill person of the circumstances of his soul loss. He then covered his head with a basket or cloth, and danced and sang his personal power song, accompanied by the spectators who drummed as well as sang his song with him. Through this song he called his curing spirit to him and presumably dispatched it after the missing soul though Duff omits this detail. According to Elmendorf's (1952:112) ethnographic data, the recovery was probably sometimes on the trail to the dead, which was the belief elsewhere in the southern Northwest Coast and in the northern Plateau, or in the land of the dead itself, which was the theory in Gulf of Georgia area, in part of Western Washington, and in the Plateau section of the Fraser River. In any case, to return to Duff's information, the shaman seized the returning soul between his palms and blew it back into the owner's head. Sometimes to complete the treatment, the restoration of the soul was followed by the administering of plant medicines by the family. (Duff 1952:101,112-113)

Chilliwack shamans, Hill-Tout (1903:361) reports, had the power to recover a lost soul or spirit, which, leaving the body, caused "sickness and fainting, and, if not restored in time, death." Curing was achieved by the shaman going "apart by himself," crouching down, covering his head and shoulders with a mat, and going into a trance. During this trance his own soul was thought to leave his body and go in search of the patient's absent soul or spirit. In its essentials, these data closely parallel Duff's general information for the Upper Stalo group and clarify the point about the shaman dispatching his personal soul in the search concerning which Duff is silent.

(b) Illness through Intrusion. A person in an Upper Stalo tribelet could be made ill by a hostile shaman either for some reason of his own or for hire. By some method not described by Duff, he bestowed "power" to a bit of stick, bird's beak, little bell, short thread, "or anything" and "shot" it into the person to be harmed. A cure was affected by another shaman -- one, for example, who had obtained his power from a sucker fish -- who removed the foreign object or objects. Typically, after bringing his power close to him by his song, he advised the patient of the cause of his ailment, sucked blood from him, and finally the illness-causing agent itself, all without breaking the skin, leaving a mark, or hurting the patient. Extracted, the object was cut up and burned to prevent it from flying back to the malignant shaman. (Duff 1952:97, 113)

Concerning ailments of this type among the Chilliwack, it is only reported that their shamans had the ability to drive "out a disease caused by a magic spell or by witchcraft." To effect this, they beat a stick or board, sang, and danced around the patient. (Hill-Tout 1903:361)

If the Upper Stalo recognized an intrusive unfriendly spirit as a possible sickness agent, as was the case among nearby groups both on the coast and in the Plateau, Duff's (1952:114) informants failed to mention this fact.

(c) Illness of Natural or Uncertain Causation. Wounds, even serious abdominal openings, were cured by some Upper Stalo shamans magically with the assistance of their guardian spirits. Other injuries -- as a crushed chest with blood filling the cavity -- and the accidental ingestion of harmful things, as sharp objects caught in the throat -- were treated by shamans sucking the blood or foreign object out. Localized ailments of uncertain genesis were cured by shamans blowing their spirit power into the person, which drove the sickness away. (Duff 1952:113)

"Minor indispositions" were relieved in the Upper Stalo tribes not by shamans but by recourse to the native materia medica of herbs, bark, roots, and the like, concerning which some persons were especially knowledgeable. Colds and other minor infirmities were treated by sweating in the sweat lodge. "Bad blood" was caused to escape by shallow-stroke lancing with a flint blade set in a cleft-stick handle so it barely protruded. (Duff 1952:114)

It has been observed already that, according to Hill-Tout (1903:361), Chilliwack shamans were not involved, as were those of Upper Stalo groups in general, in treating these ailments of natural or indefinite causation. An historical instance of relieving a very bad case of mosquito bites in a nonshamanistic manner is reported by Charles Wilson, who, like other members of the British Boundary Commission, was terribly afflicted by these insects in late July of 1859. After weeks on the lower Chilliwack River and being all but terrorized by the mosquitoes day and night, he left for Chilliwack Lake in part to seek deliverance from them in this high mountain environment. On July 27, heading up to the lake, he encamped along the Chilliwack River just upstream from the canyon mouth, finding the mosquitoes already reduced in numbers. But his "mosquito bites had turned into boils & riding was excessively painful. I must ... [mention] the kindness of an Indian chief & his family who were fishing near our halt. I . . . went to have a chat with them; the old chief's wife took compassion on my wretched state & having asked my permission, they brought out the paint bag & painted my face & hands with vermilion & certainly the relief was very great (Wilson 1970:63)

Guardian Spirit Song and Dance

Spirit song and dance complexes could be obtained by anyone irrespective of sex, age, wealth, and status. Most old persons had them. Shamans, too, possessed these song-dance pairs as well as their personal curing songs, demonstrating that the two systems were separate and distinct. (Duff 1952:106)

The song and dance of supernatural origin could be secured in four different ways, none involving the onerous spirit quest.

(a) A song and dance pair was given a person in a unsolicited seizure during the winter dancing season, the pair having to be fully learned in a set of follow-up procedures. This was probably the most common method of acquiring a winter song and dance. Indeed, anyone wishing to secure a set could expect to obtain one in this way.

The spirit came to the person in a dream or, it was believed, actually entered him causing a seizure. It taught him a song and dance, which the person evidently performed in his dream or possessed state. This encounter was usually followed by a training or initiation "run" in the woods, accompanied by two persons of the same sex. During this "run" he received still another song or the complete version of that which he had heard during his dream or seizure. (Duff 1952:103-104)

This stereotypic Upper Stalo pattern apparently varied somewhat among the Chilliwack. To abbreviate Duff's detailed account received from a Chilliwack informant, it typically took the following form:

[This is a paraphrased quote] -- The person dreamed his first song and sang it in his sleep. Hearing him, others were aware of what was happening. During the following four days he received very little food and water, the water in a cup with holes in the bottom or in a vessel from which he was compelled to drink through a bird wing-bone "straw." From time to time during these four days he sang his song in a choked and almost unintelligible manner; listening, other people attempted to learn it too.

On the fourth day he was dressed, painted red or black depending on his song, and tied in the middle of a long strap. With two men -- or women if the person was a female -- grasping the two ends of the strap, he was led into the forest on his "run" to receive the rest of his song or another different song. Guided by his two companions, to keep him from barging into trees, he moved at a run, then a walk and finally, nearing the tree, rock bluff, or stream where he was to receive his complete or new song, on weak and rubbery legs. Standing before the place, he at last sang his song, while his companions listened and learned it also.

Led back to his village, he visited each dwelling, still guided by his two "handlers," and received something from each house. He was then taken to the structure where -- I take it -- the winter dance was in progress. As he approached, the people started to drum. He entered backward, made four counter-clockwise turns around the room, still being held by the strap, and sat down. He was given a five-foot cane with four strings of deer hoofs and several goat wool strands tied near the top. (I assume from other evidence that his spirit was thought to enter this cane, which likewise served as a rattle.) He sang his new song, helped by those who "ran" with him and gradually by the entire audience. With cedar bark strips tied by his aides around his ankles, his legs just below his knees, and his waist and with a crown of this same material, he began to perform his dance. For eight days he had to eat alone, facing the wall. (Duff 1952:74, 103-104, 105)

Even persons not wanting this supernatural attention occasionally experienced it. Sometimes such people resisted it, at times successfully. Because it relates to the Chilliwack, a case of this kind, which happened to Duff's informant, seems worth noting.

[This is a paraphrased quote] -- One winter night a few days after the death of his sister's small son, he heard a scratching along the corner of his house. He looked out into the moonlight and saw a huge manlike creature standing in the snow about 10 yards away. It was a se'sxac (giant [Sasquatch]) covered with long bushy hair. He closed the door. When he did, he began to hear songs, but he fought them off.

The following night his brother felt his house shake. "The door opened and this creature came into the lighted kitchen. My brother had a fit in which a song came to him." Apparently he acquired a song and dance from this being which he later performed as though they had been guardian spirit derived.

Once a person has one song and dance pair, he might obtain others during later winter dancing seasons, even as many as two or three in one season. (Duff 1952:104-105)

(b) Spirit songs and dances were given persons by old dancers. Sometimes these were bestowed in generosity when a man, for some reason, failed to obtain supernatural power on his own. But generally, apparently, they were forced on a person against his will, sometimes via a seizure, as punishment for a slight, a mocking, or some other untoward action to which the old man took offense. Among the Chilliwack, at any rate, the affronted individual at times used his power rattle-stick as a club to force acceptance of the song. If the person so much as grunted or whimpered, he had lost, had acquired the song-dance complex against his will, and was compelled to commence the four-day training period. (Duff 1952:103,105)

(c) A song and dance pair was acquired in a dream at any time of the year. In this dream one "saw" a person -- actually a supernatural -- singing and dancing and then, on leaving, turning into his nonspiritual shape: e.g., a moth in one case. In this way a person learned his guardian spirit song and dance and acquired the dream-being as his supernatural helper. (Duff 1952:103,105)

(d) A song and dance complex was sometimes secured, at any season of the year, by a person walking alone in the forest. He heard a song coming from a tree or other natural object, learned it, and used it at the winter dance ceremony. It is unclear whether this spirit experience included a visual component. (Duff 1952:103, 105)

The Upper Stalo classified these encounters with the supernatural world into two categories that were evidently clear to them: into guardian spirit (sulia) experiences and into those that lacked this component. Sulia encounters included dreams or visions culminating a shaman's quest, song-dance dreams in which a spirit was viewed in human shape, performing a song and dance until the person learned them, and seizures during the winter dancing season in which a person received his song. While people attempted, at least theoretically, to keep concealed the identity of their spirit helpers from whom they had gained their songs and dances, this could not be done for long: the facts were too evident from the words of the songs and the miming actions in the dances. On the other hand, non-sulia experiences, in which guardian spirits were secured in only a very limited sense, included those in which power was acquired from an unnatural being (slalakum) or a song and dance from an old dancer, a spirit song while out on a "run," or a song from a forest tree or other natural object. In these last two situations, supernaturals were plainly involved as the causitive agent. (Duff 1952:105-106)

Apparently, then, to be a sulia occasion, a spirit in the shape of a "human" had to appear to a person, perform a song and dance until learned by him, and finally change into an animal or some other non-human form as it departed. It had, in short, to be actually "seen." In the non-sulia experiences there appears to have been no visual encounter and no power secured other than the possession of the song and dance. (Duff 1952:103,106)

Little is known concerning the details of these spirit songs and dances, for they were no longer part of the living Upper Stalo culture for some decades before Duff's time. They were said, however, to have been all different. Moreover, all songs, some of which had words however few and repetitive, were all owned. While the owner was alive, no one else could sing it, except when accompanying him. This exclusive right of performance was protected, at least on occasion, by hiring a shaman to make the offender pay by falling ill. The owner sang his song not only in a religious or ceremonial context -- during the winter spirit dances -- but often in summer just for pleasure. Songs could not be given to others nor inherited by others. After the owner's death, on the other hand, they became public property and could be sung by anyone for pleasure. (Duff 1952:106)

Winter Spirit Ceremony

The most important public religious ceremony of the Upper Stalo was the winter spirit ritual when people performed their individual guardian spirit song and dance. This season lasted about three months, beginning and closing earlier among the upstream Upper Stalo than farther down the river. During this season spirit dances occurred almost continually in one village or another. (Duff 1952:103, 107)

The dance costumes evidently were not particularly elaborate and varied somewhat among the several tribelets. In some, a mountain-goat wool blanket was worn and deer hoof rattles on ankles, knees, and wrists. Among the Chilliwack, dancers were not allowed to wear the hoof rattles, four on ankles and knees, until they had danced for four years, and, in fact, may not have used them at all until quite recently, when they may have been borrowed from the salt-water Cowichan. (Duff 1952:107)

Some dances were small gatherings of relatives and friends in a family's semisubterranean lodge -- in an above-ground cedar lodge among groups below the Chilliwack -- with those in attendance helping the man sing his song and drumming as he danced. The host supplied the food and sometimes even paid them for their attendance and assistance. Another man might invite the group to a ceremony in his dwelling the following night. And so on. (Duff 1952:107)

Larger meetings occurred in large cedar-plank longhouses, which were used as well for potlatches and summer dwellings. In this case, a man and his family hunted and fished for several months before hosting such a large dance, since he had to accumulate food, often with contributions from his friends. From nearby villages he invited as many people as his food resources would allow. In large gatherings people sat around the house, separated according to their village. "One person became possessed and danced at a time, but everybody helped by singing and drumming." Generally in performing they took their turn in order around the room; but occasionally a person became inspired out of seating sequence, being stimulated by a song resembling his own. It must be in this context that Duff (1952:107) reports that, when a power entered a person, he was forced to dance wherever he was at the time, under penalty of serious illness or, if the spirit was a strong one, even death. For Duff intimates that supernatural possession, followed by singing and dancing, was restricted to the winter dance season.

Often the dance host and others distributed presents in honor of some family member as a part of the winter dance. This, however, was not considered to be a potlatch inasmuch as, in general, no return gifts were expected. The closest approximation of a true potlatch occurred when on uncommon occasions valuables were given to a specific person with the understanding of a later return gift. On the other hand, a true potlatch was sometimes held -- possibly only among Lower Stalo groups -- in conjunction with -- though not as a part of -- a winter spirit dance. In these events food was prepared and served by hired people, not by the host and his family and friends. (Duff 1952:87-88, 97, 108)

Clairvoyants

The term "clairvoyant" seems a bit closer to the mark for the Upper Stalo se'uwa than Duff's term "fortune-teller," for it covers a broader range of their activities. Yet it is not perfect as the following ghost data reveal.

The se'uwa of the Upper Stalo -- the Pilalt specifically -- had supernatural powers, but these were inborn, not acquired through quests, training, or inheritance. They could see ghosts better than shamans, find drowned bodies and lost articles, see events taking place far off, and foresee future events and prophesy their occurrence. Most of these persons were women. They are specifically reported by Duff as having been present among the Chilliwack. (Duff 1952:97, 100,114)

These Chilliwack "sorcerers" (yeu'wa, as Hill-Tout [1903:361, 364, 401] writes the term), both men and women, had a broad range of functions, as their counterparts had among the Pilalt. They were thought to have a "mystic language of their own." They were paid with gifts of blankets to injure an enemy. To achieve this objective, they washed their hands in water at sundown, repeating meanwhile the name of the person to be harmed. If the animosity were of moderate intensity, the victim fell into fits and had black spots appear on his body; if great, the person probably drowned or hanged himself. In an alternative procedure, "sorcerers" secured some bit of clothing or other belonging of the person to be damaged and uttered "mystic words over it." Again with blanket gifts, they were "commonly employed by the relatives of a deceased person" to persuade ghosts to leave and not trouble the survivors further.

They were present at the ceremonial bathing of the relatives and friends of the deceased on the fourth day after burial, and when the mourners were bathing they would go through their ceremonies, such as washing their hands and blowing water from their mouths. They did this to drive the sickness of the deceased away from the village and to send the ghost of the dead to some unfriendly settlement to cause the death of their enemies there.

Among the Pilalt, these "sorcerers" were still actively functioning as late as 1900, though whether this was likewise true of the Chilliwack is not stated by Hill-Tout.

Controllers of Magical Formulae

Spells (siwi'l) were memorized incantations or occasionally songs with words in a strange, unknown language which, if managed properly and repeated verbatim, could magically cause good or ill by their own power alone. Thus they belonged to the supernatural world, but spirits, whether favorably disposed or other wise, were not involved in any manner. No training was required to receive these formulae, inasmuch as they were obtained through inheritance. Nevertheless, a certain amount of training and level of purity were thought necessary to use them.

There appear to have been considerable differences in their form and typical uses among the various Upper Stalo tribelets and perhaps among persons possessing them within a single group. For example, one person might have several different spells with different functions; or a single formula with minor variations for different uses; or one spell with two parts, a good and an evil.

Although all of Duff's narrative examples involved males as active users of these formulae, it is plain that women, at least sometimes, were likewise the owners and employers of their own magical incantations. (Duff 1952:97, 115, 116)

Spells could be used in innumerable ways. To illustrate with Duff's specific cases. They could:

• Make very large, fighting sturgeon give up their struggle.
• Make a specific little plant bring success to a fisherman when it was tied to his nets or even cure sickness.
• Bring success to a hunter, even kill animals outright. In one case an old Chilliwack man, hunting mountain goats without luck, spoke his spell and at once "found six goats around the next rock."
• Be used to affect humans both for good and for evil: to cure certain sicknesses or, on the other hand, to cause incurable illnesses, as for revenge or in war.
• Be employed, for a fee, to part married couples, to bring estranged husbands and wives together again, or to make a person irresistibly attractive to another.
• Make a young man or a horse run swiftly in races. (Duff 1952:102, 115)

In many cases -- possibly in all though Duff does not say so -- the outward expression of a formula was accompanied by the necessary use of some object, as in certain of the above instances, and by some behavioral act, as in a four-time bathing in the young man racer instance. These points are made clear in a specific Chilliwack case in which an old Chilliwack man, bag-netting sturgeon from a canoe unsuccessfully in spite of his spell, changed his fortune by landing, bathing and massaging himself with conifer boughs, acts which were thought to purify him. (Duff 1952:115)

A spell was kept secret until its owner was about to die. Then he selected one child in the family who, he believed, could be trusted to use it for good and taught it carefully to him. The recipient employed it only after he became at least 30 years old. He found it gaining power as he grew older, even until very late in life -- contrary to the experience of shamans with their power -- and so his use of it in the service of others in increasing demand. (Duff 1952:115, 116)

Owing to their power to bring practical results in so many of life's domains, these formulae supplemented or were an alternative to seeking guardian spirit power among the Upper Stalo. Supernatural spirit power, which was atypical among the Upper Stalo peoples, was both more restrictive and in one form much more onerous to secure among the Stalo than in other tribal groups of the general region. As Duff (1952:116) puts the matter: "A man who owned a siwi'l which ensured good hunting had no need to train for a guardian spirit which would make him a good hunter. All he needed a spirit for was to give him a spirit song [for use in the winter ceremonial]."

Prophets

In Duff's view, prophets probably existed among the Upper Stalo in precontact times, "perhaps individuals with the ability to see and hear what was going on in distant places, to perform miracles and cure." If so, they possessed, it seems to me, at least some of the powers of the traditional clairvoyant and shaman. The fact that the Stalo had a native term for this group (a'lia) different from those for clairvoyant (se'uwa) and shaman (sxwele'in) suggests to me that, as Duff proposes, prophets were in fact part of the pre-White culture base and that they were in early days distinguished from clairvoyant and shaman. (Duff 1952:119,121-122)

Among the Chilliwack, "soothsayers" (o'lia), to use Hill-Tout's (1903:361, 364) term, were invariably men. They treated wounds and similar visible injuries, these being of natural and comprehended causation rather than of supernatural genesis. More important were their functions of interpreting dreams and visions and of reading omens. They alone prepared the dead for burial and protected the living from the ghosts of the dead, which nightly haunted cemeteries and with which they alone could communicate. They likewise played a part "in the puberty and other social customs of the tribe."

These data are generally consistent with the preceding generalized Upper Stalo summary of Duff and detail additional functions, at least for the Chilliwack, not noted by Duff.

With the appearance of the first Christian influence, Upper Stalo prophets adopted some elements of the new religion, fusing them with certain features of the traditional religion, and became proselytizers of their new doctrines. Two such persons are recalled for the Upper Stalo, neither, however, Chilliwack. These had visions. In one case it was of persons representing God who instructed him in details of a new worship structure- kneeling, praying, making the sign of the cross, and so on -- and informing him of the imminent arrival of domestic animals and religious figures dressed in black. (Duff 1952:98,121-122) In Upper Stalo belief, these prophets and their visions occurred in precontact times. Duff, to the contrary, believes that the first of the two prophets recalled by the people experienced his vision about 1840. Certain it is that the Upper Stalo were rapidly converted to Christianity through contact with the Hudson's Bay personnel at Fort Langley and with Catholic missionaries who entered the area in 1841. (Duff 1952:121-122)

Souls and Ghosts

Every Upper Stalo person possessed a single soul. In sleep it might leave the body temporarily without ill effect, wandering around, "seeing other places and meeting other souls and ghosts of other people, resulting in dreams." But if it left the body when awake and failed to return (or, I presume, failed to come back before a dreaming person awoke), sickness resulted. Then, if not recovered through the offices of a shaman, who could "recognize and converse with the soul, catch it in his hands, and return it to the owner's body through the head," eventual death was the inevitable consequence. Leaving the body permanently at death, the soul became a ghost. The treatment of the ghost of a person immediately after his demise and in the mourning ceremonies that followed has already been described (see Death, Burial, and Mourning section). (Duff 1952:97, 112, 116, 117)

In Upper Stalo belief, according to Duff's informants, there was no land of the dead to which souls or ghosts went. For a time after death, the ghost traveled around by night and returned to the corpse at dawn. It was this nightime activity pattern that allowed those shamans and clairvoyants who had the power to see and converse with ghosts and to locate missing bodies of drowned or murdered people; sometimes they merely watched where the ghost went toward dawn. (Duff 1952:97, 112-113,116-117)

On rare occasions laymen saw ghosts, especially those of dead troublemakers. Seeing them did the person no harm but actually touching them was thought to cause paralysis, at least in that part of the body which had made the contact. Ghosts could be driven away from a dwelling by lighting cedar boughs and brushing and slapping the walls with these. (Duff 1952:117)

Ghosts were also sometimes seen by Upper Stalo shamans in training, the sight rendering them unconscious for a time. Occasionally, however, they were able to shoot them with an arrow or strike them with a cane before losing their senses. In such cases they found, on awaking, a human bone -- e.g., a shoulder blade or rib -- lying where the ghost had been. (Duff 1952:117)

Concerning the spiritual entities associated with a living person, Hill-Tout (1903:364 fn. 2) was able to learn very little from the Chilliwack and what he heard was confusing, perhaps, as he himself observes, because the people themselves had no clear and uniform ideas about this matter. As he understood the situation, each individual was thought to have a spiritual being that was visible only to "soothsayers" (o'lia). This was fond of earth-life and, on the death of the person, continued to be attracted to the latter's former possessions -- clothing, utensils, etc. -- which explained to Hill-Tout why these objects were placed with or about the corpse on burial. The person's spirit, on the other hand, was the concern of the shaman and, on death, went to the hereafter.

Unnatural Beings

"Up in the mountains, deep in the forests, and in certain bodies of water, lived all manner of strange unnatural creatures" (slalakum). While anything very unusual and unnatural that might be seen was referred to by this term, it was also employed to refer to a number of specific creatures with definite form and characteristics. "In former days the sight of one of these powerful supernatural creatures was apt to cause soul-loss sickness, unconsciousness, and an upset stomach." (Duff 1952:97, 117-118)

"Certain places, usually bodies of water, were known to be the homes of slalakums or to have . . . [generalized evil powers] of their own." In one lake, for example, strange men were seen paddling canoes only to disappear, "water-spouts and large waves were frequent, and sometimes the sound of beating hoofs was heard." Of the specific lakes mentioned by Duff, only Cultus Lake, immediately south of Vedder Crossing, and one other noted below were in or near the traditional Chilliwack territory. Because of their awesome properties, these localities were favorable places for shamans to train. (Duff 1952:99, 118)

The best known of these strange creatures in Upper Stalo country were the following, each with its own name, a generic term where more than a single being was known:

• The lake-dwelling, double-headed, snake-like creature. Because it describes lust such a frightful being within the Chilliwack borders, the following Chilliwack account is particularly interesting in its detail:
  

  [A two-headed snake-like animal] comes to the surface of small lakes and shoots a head out each end. Its body is a black sphere about 4 feet in diameter. The heads are round, about 6 inches in diameter, with round ears and red circles on the top. The farther out it sticks its heads, the smaller the central body part gets. It makes a noise like a duck, but much louder. One was seen in lali'c, a little lake on Lihumitson [Liumchen] Creek (a tributary of the Chilliwack River). If you saw that animal in the water, you daren't turn around, because if you did you'd keep twisting until you were dead. (Duff 1952:97, 117-118)

• A cannibal woman, short and stout, who lived in a cave in Tait country. She gathered up children, pitched their eyes closed, carried them home in a big basket, and ate them. (Duff 1952:97, 117-118)
• An underwater bear that lived in a bay of the Fraser River in Tait territory. Seeing it caused sickness and even death. (Duff 1952:117-118)
• Huge serpents that lived near small lakes. (Duff 1952:117-118)
• Hairy giants (se'sxac: sasquatch), "men covered with dark fur, more than 8 feet tall, who leave footprints about 20 inches long." These awesome beings, usually sighted singly, are said to have been seen repeatedly in the early days, then not for a time, and finally began to be sighted once more about 1935. Typically, they were seen on moonlight nights, but were known to steal women as wives in broad daylight, as when, unprotected, they were out picking berries. What were reported as actual sighting experiences -- even of women who, stolen, managed to escape at the price of being abnormal in some manner for some time afterward -- were told to Duff by an informant, aged about 50 in 1949-1950, who had a friend whose grandmother experienced such a capture. If the person avoided falling unconscious -- a frequent response -- and fled, the creature followed, walking and yet keeping pace, for some distance. Usually in old times even seeing a se'sxac resulted in an illness of some kind. Sometimes these being raided storehouses for the dried fish; at other times, when carrying women away from a village, they killed them. (Duff 1952:97, 117-119)

Creatures similar or even identical to the above slalakum are reported ethnographically to have been widely seen among other Northwest Coast tribes. (Duff 1952:117-119)

Art

There are next to no ethnographic data relating to forms of graphic and plastic art among the Upper Stalo. Geometric designs, however, were woven onto the exterior surface of baskets by the uncommon technique of imbrication (see Technology section) (Duff 1952:57). And representations of a man's guardian spirit were painted or carved on the posts of his dwelling, on his family's corpse box, and on his personal belongings (Hill-Tout 1903:363).

Carved representations on mortuary structures were noted by Simon Fraser on his journey of exploration down the Fraser in late June, 1808. He first saw them at the downrivermost village of the Lower Thompson, located at the mouth of Spuzzum Creek, and then saw them again at the Upper Stalo (i.e., Tait) camp in the vicinity of Yale. Because it helps to clarify his later brief Upper Stalo observation, Fraser's description of the Lower Thompson carvings is included here, though out of proper tribal context.

[The Thompson] tombs [are] of a curious construction. . . . [They] are superior to any thing of the kind I ever saw among the savages. They are about fifteen feet long and of the form of a chest of drawers. Upon the boards and posts are carved beasts and birds, in a curious but rude manner, yet pretty well proportioned. These monuments must have cost the workmen much time and labour, as they were destitute of proper tools for the execution of such a performance. (Fraser 1960:97-98)

Concerning the carvings at the Upper Stalo camp of 150 persons, Fraser (1960:100) comments that the posts of a newly constructed "tomb" were carved with "rudely finished" -- in Masson's (Fraser 1889:194) edition, "neatly finished" -- sculptures. These were presumably more or less like those he had seen the previous day further upstream, but this is not made explicit. In this instance, however, the supporting "posts ... [evidently including the sculptures were] covered all over with bright shells. . . .

The Chilliwack also painted and carved "family crests" on the outside of their mortuary boxes, figures representing bears, mountain goats, beaver, and the like. Near these sepulchers human figures, roughly carved in wood, were sometimes placed. (Hill-Tout 1903:363, 364-365)

The customary representational painting style of the large grave figures and house posts of the upper (i.e., middle) Fraser area, according to Wingert (1949a:77, 86-89), extended downriver to the Gulf of Georgia. This style was executed in historical days in monochromatic red or black, though it may have been in some cases polychromatic in earlier times. It was related to the traditional painting in the Puget Sound sector rather than to the art of the coastal regions farther north (Wingert 1949a:77, 86-89). Wingert (1949a:89-91), in fact, sees the upper (middle) Fraser area as having exerted an important influence on the development of at least one art style of both the Gulf of Georgia region and the lower Columbia, in this latter case via the inland route down the Columbia.

In his survey of the wood carving art of the Salishan-speaking groups of the Fraser drainage and of the coastal strip from Vancouver Island and adjacent mainland south to the Columbia River, Wingert (1949a, 1949b) studied all of the ethnographic specimens from the region identifiable in museum and other collections. On the basis of this research he characterized these Salishan tribes as having developed a less complicated and diversified wood carving style than that of the coastal groups farther north in British Columbia and Alaska but one that differed significantly from the classic sculptural art of those people. It evolved from a fine Salishan tradition of woodwork in cedar, using shell, stone, and bone tools. (Wingert 1949b:1, 2, 4)

Among these Salishan groups, Wingert recognizes five "major art areas." One of these, that of interest in this present study, was the "Straits of Georgia area," comprised of the coastal area at the mouth of the Fraser and of the lower and middle Fraser Valley up to and including the Yale sector. The art of this region was, he holds, stylistically distinct from that of Western Washington, Puget Sound, Vancouver Island, and the Upper Fraser River, the other four of his carving art provinces. (Wingert 1949b:2, 63, 85-91)

An important art object -- art at least from a Western cultural perspective -- among the groups of the middle and lower Fraser was the sxwaixwe mask, the use of which was a hereditary right. As described by Wingert (1949a:87-88), they "were elaborately carved, with protruding eyes, pendant tongues, and surmounting bird or animal heads; and are profusely painted in red, black, white, and, sometimes, blue." According to Marian Smith's Chilliwack informant, masks were "painted with one's own paint" which "made the mask one's own" (in Wingert 1949b:15, fn. 39).

To his above description Wingert elsewhere adds more impressionistically:

Largeness of scale and treatment dominates the handling of [the] parts [of these masks]; while the expression results from the organization of the separately carved elements into an active, dynamic design. All of these elements correspond to objects in nature, although the masks are not realistic. In general, the style is elaborate, emotional, dynamic. (Wingert 1949b:106-107)

The carved and painted designs expressed a personal encounter with a supernatural being, which conferred some measure of supernatural protection and the right to fashion and use the mask. Typically, they were, however, prestige, not religious, objects, worn on social occasions as at marriages, potlatches, and when receiving visitors. The extent to which these and other more special functions were served in their wearing is outlined more specifically in the section that follows.

The above brief descriptions by Wingert of lower and middle Fraser sculptural painting and mask carvings appear detailed and factual. But are they? The answer is to be found in his American Indian Sculpture (1949b) volume. The problem relates directly to the tribal or areal affiliation of the corpus of sculptures he had at his disposal for study and from which he derived his generalizations and interareal conclusions. He remarks:

The specimens of wood carvings collected from this [large] Salish [coastal] area [from Vancouver Island to the Columbia River mouth] provide more than adequate material for . . . [this] study. . . . For the present paper, all available examples were examined, and from them those specimens were selected for illustrations which would present all of the various types and styles of carving. (Wingert 1949b:4)

But he had, in fact, only seven carvings, all cedar, from his Straits of Georgia art area, and not a single example surely from tribes in the Fraser River stretch from just upstream from the Musqueam at the delta to the Lillooet above mid-Harrison Lake and the Thompson above Yale. Of these seven the only carving of "known" tribal provenience was a chief's coffin from the Musqueam in the Vancouver area. (Wingert 1949b:86-91, 135-136, Plates 29, 32, 33, 34, 36, 38)

From these data it is obvious that Wingert had no certain Upper Stalo specimens available for analysis. This being so, it seems pointless to summarize his descriptions of the seven carvings and the generalizations he derives from them, all of which he regards as typifying the sculpture of his Straits of Georgia -- including the middle and lower Fraser -- art area. Further, in his discussion of the three sxwaixwe masks he follows closely the very questionable "power" and "crest" concepts generated by Codere (1948), more of which immediately below. It appears, in short, that we know nothing about the Upper Stalo and more explicitly Chilliwack sculptural traditions beyond the meager ethnohistorical and ethnographic information already noted.

Associated with the sxwaixwe mask was a myth narrating its origin. Versions of this in its Middle Fraser form have been recorded by Hill-Tout (1903:403-404) before 1902 from an informant at Chilliwack Landing, by Marian Smith in 1938 from a man at Sardis in old Chilliwack territory, and by Codere in 1945 from a Tait woman. These three versions all tie the myth's origin to localities in the Yale to Hope sector -- old Tait country. They appear to constitute a single localized myth, as Codere's careful element tabulation reveals. But she also contends that they display a unique, enriched, integrated merging of two quite different concepts: (a) the private guardian spirit "power" idea important in similar myths of the Puget Sound Salish and (b) the totemic inherited "crest" concept of the Kwakiutl involving interest in ancestors, in masks, dances, dance paraphernalia, house posts and dishes, names, and formal privileges, and also in publicly living up to the requirements of one's status and thus maintaining hereditary rights and privileges.

Codere's example of the Kwakiutl sxwaixwe myth, recorded by Boas, is certainly heavy in the "crest" motif while that of the Skagit, collected by Haeberlin, is clearly "power" focused. But her analysis of the three conflated middle Fraser versions of the origin of the mask in terms of these two conceptual elements is far from convincing (Codere 1948:Table II). As Suttles (1947:161-162) has argued, her assignment of individual mythic elements into these two conceptual categories frequently seems artificial, impressionistic, and arbitrary when viewed in a larger ethnographic context. In Suttles opinion, which I share, there is little convincing evidence to document the unique integration that Codere propounds.

Reconstructing the prehistory of the sculptural styles of the Coast and Fraser Salishan groups through an analysis of their apparent relationships, Wingert (1949b:118-119) concludes that it is much more probable that "the center of point of origin of Salish sculptural art was . . . up the rivers with the coastal art developing later under inland influences." But "upriver" in this context Wingert means simply on the upper reaches of the short coastal rivers on the east side of Puget Sound. But there may have been, he observes, a second separate center of origin up the Fraser, an opinion of special interest to this North Cascades study. Wingert (1949b:118 fn. 12) was aware of the published Boasian and Kroeberian views as to early Salishan movements up and down the Fraser Valley: how much, if at all, he may have been influenced in his own judgments by these earlier discussions is uncertain. At any rate he summarizes the stylistic evidence that leads him to his inland center hypothesis: e.g., (a) "the relative isolation or remoteness of the up-river points from the strong northern influences apparently made it possible for . . . [these upstream peoples] to preserve more successfully the older character of their style"; (b) "the boldness and surety of their approach to problems of design and expression . . . [show] that they were working within an old tradition These reconstructive arguments are not wholly persuasive, since, as Wingert seems to be aware, they may likewise be turned against an inland origin hypothesis. Whatever the conclusion regarding the sculptural font issue, Salish sculpture," Wingert (1949b:122) contends, "represents an older southern tradition on the Northwest Coast which differs from the northern later and more richly elaborate style of wood carving." The correctness or otherwise of this proposition, like the validity of the other reconstructive conclusions based on the manipulation of his ethnographic style data, can only be settled, in my opinion, by archaeological research and to the degree that this research is fortunate in recovering the essential, perishable artifacts from the earlier cultural periods.

Others also have assumed, according to Suttles (1957:175-176), a relationship between the stone sculpture of the Fraser and Columbia Rivers, but convincing proof of this kinship remains to be demonstrated. In fact, in his study of the precontact stone sculpture of the Pacific Northwest, Wingert (1952:22, 24) describes the "sculpture from the two areas ... [as differing] strikingly in style." What similarities there are between the Fraser and Columbia lie in techniques and principally in pestle and mortar types. The differences occur in the frequency of other types of objects and in style.

A word now regarding prehistoric rock art, though being of a nonethnographic time level it falls properly beyond the scope of this North Cascades report. In 1946 Marian Smith published an article entitled "Petroglyph Complexes in the History of the Columbia-Fraser Region." Only one site was known to her from the "Middle Fraser" area, a rock figure on the western shore near the upper end of Harrison Lake. In the context of this Park study, this creates two serious problems. First, according to Teit (1900:166 map), this area was not in Halkomelem country at all but in Lower Lillooet territory, so the sculpture is of no direct Middle Fraser interest. Second, the artistic style of this single example is tacitly assumed to have been representative of the petroglyphs of the entire valley below Yale, an area from which none were known to Smith. Owing to these two facts, there seems to be little profit in discussing this Harrison Lake figure and the comparison Smith makes of its stylistic traits with those of Puget Sound and The Dalles.

Nothing seems to be known from ethnographic sources concerning stone sculpture, either in the round or as etchings, in the middle Fraser area. For this reason, and an exception to the exclusion of prehistoric data from this present study, I summarize here certain of the early archaeological findings in the region that possess what might be considered the characteristics of art objects. This is particularly important since frequent reference is seen in the literature to the stone art of the Fraser River region, with high praise for its "technical proficiency and . . . [its] strong, often astounding aesthetic qualities" (Wingert 1952:9).

Both hard and soft stone was used in creating the sculptures. The material was reduced to the desired shape by hammering and pecking, with a chisel-like tool in some cases to produce design details, and then sometimes by grinding with a coarse hard stone or with sand and water to yield a smooth final surface. There is some evidence for the painting of the completed form. The art of stone sculpture disappeared from the Fraser Valley during the prehistoric period, but the time and circumstances of its disappearance remain unknown. (Wingert 1952:10, 25)

Several types of sculptured objects fashioned of stone are of special note:

• Mortars and dishes carved in animal form. The example in Figure 2-7, found near Yale in old Tait territory, evidently represents a human with bent arms and legs. The sculptured dish (Figure 2-8), likewise discovered near Yale, is also in this style: clearly visible is the large head at one end with the forefeet, but the intent of the remainder of the carving is less obvious. Simpler carved bowls (Figure 2-9) were in use in the middle Fraser region: (a), of volcanic rock, is from the Chilliwack River; (b) also of volcanic rock, and (c), of steatite, are both from the vicinity of Yale. (Smith 1907:426-428)

• Bird representations of unknown use (figure 2-10). All those in this figure are from the neighborhood of Yale. Example (c) seems to be a recent carving and either imported from the Northwest Coast or fashioned in imitation of the coastal style. (Smith 1907:428-429)

Figure 2-10. Stone sculptures from Yale vicinity (Smith 1907:429 Figure 193).

• Small steatite carvings that "may represent charms or amulets. In a very simplified style, full or half-length human figures are depicted. . . . The expression is animated and in some ribs are indicated by incised lines. This may have been a unique up-river style." While it is not precisely clear what river segment Wingert intends by his 'up-river" comment, the area evidently included the Upper Stalo country. For one example of this style is a seated figure, fashioned of steatite, that was discovered on the Fraser near Yale. (Wingert 1952:23, 34)

Various utilitarian objects -- pestles, pounders, clubs, etc. -- were also decorated by carving portions, like handles, into animal or human form (Wingert 1952:24).

Prehistoric objects in the Fraser Valley from the canyon downstream have been found with etched geometric ornamental patterns. These designs are more varied than are the etched designs on the North Pacific coast. (Smith 1907:352)

There were interesting similarities -- in addition to technology -- between the prehistoric Fraser River-Puget Sound stone art and that of the middle and especially lower Columbia Valley, as already noted. These include like eye-forms (concentric circles and concentric ovals with pointed outer corners), a triangular forehead with the point at the nasal bridge, a partly open mouth, and conspicuous ribs. Yet there were striking differences also. As a whole, the local and regional style variations appear less diversified and marked on the Fraser than on the Columbia. The Fraser art also seems "less imaginative in its handling of life forms and more rigidly bound by the dictates of a firm and widespread tradition." (Wingert 1952:11, 22, 24)

Dance

Little is to be found in the ethnographic literature concerning traditional Upper Stalo dances. It is known, however, that their religious dances were closely linked to the possession of personal guardian spirits and the powers derived from them (Smith 1941:202). The only hard information available relates to the fairly elaborate sxwaixwe mask dance discussed below.

Nor is there, it appears, much to be found in the early historical records regarding Upper Stalo dance forms and the occasions that called for dance performances. Simon Fraser, however, mentions dances that were held in three villages -- all probably within Tait territory -- to entertain his party when it was passing along the Fraser River in the summer of 1808. Specifically:

• When at a village in the Yale district, Fraser (1960:100) witnessed, evidently in the evening, certain dances concerning which we are told only that during them "the men . . . [pillaged the women] from one another."
• Farther downstream near Hope at another Upper Stalo camp, Fraser (1960:101) and his party were "amused . . . with dancing," on this occasion during an afternoon traveling break. None of the activities are described.
• On his upriver, return journey in early July, Fraser (1960:115-116) witnessed "a variety of songs, dances, &c. during the evening" when encamped at a village which was either at the very northern end of the Upper Stalo country or just within the southern limits of Lower Thompson territory.

The sxwaixwe mask dance, on the other hand, has attracted some considerable ethnographic interest. The mask itself has been described in the preceding section. Through an analysis of its forms and functions and the traditions relating to it among the Upper Stalo and various lower Fraser and coastal tribes, Duff concludes that the mask was a Tait creation, probably about 1780. Still, this could hardly have been without inspiration in some form and by some route from the highly ritualized and artistic coastal societies, for both the artistic conception of the mask and costume and the function of the dancers were foreign to Upper Stalo culture.

The characteristics of the mask were altered as it diffused down the Fraser from Tait country and then among the nearby maritime tribes, as were its meaning, its uses, and the traditions recounting its supposed origin. In its earliest form, it is believed to have been given a Tait man by underwater lake people, whom he visited when, driven from his village because of a foul disease he had contracted, he tumbled into the lake by accident. Fashioned of wood and brightly painted, it had a human-like face, save for protruding tongue and peg-like eyes, and surmounting eagle plumes. The wearer of the mask wore a swan-down costume with a mountain-goat cape and deer-hoof rattles. (Duff 1952:123-125)

The Chilliwack acquired the mask and accompanying dance from the Tait through intermarriage and proceeded to make copies of the mask. From the Chilliwack and nearby Sumas it is said to have spread downriver to the coast. Among the Chilliwack, the functions of the mask and associated dance were primarily social. It was used, however, at funerals when, to honor the dead person, sxwaixwe dancers were

hired to dance around the coffin shaking their rattles and singing their song. Another was for a wedding; two sxwaixwes danced, then took part in the ceremony by joining the bride and groom's hands together. They were paid immediately. On the occasion of girl's puberty potlatch, one or more sxwaixwes might be employed to dance around with the girl "to show that she is . . . [of high status]." (Duff 1952:126)

These sxwaixwe likewise played an important role in the birth feast of the Chilliwack for those families who could secure their services (Hill-Tout 1903:366).

In other Upper Stalo tribelets, the masked figures took part in a social way "in the initiation ceremonies of a new spirit dancer. . . . [T]he person being honoured was dressed in a sxwaixwe costume and danced with other sxwaixwes." Involving these functionaries in a ceremony made it very expensive and conferred on the family no right to use the mask again. (Duff 1952:126)

Sxwaixwe dances among the Upper Stalo tribelets were normally held outdoors, though occasionally in a large house. They were accompanied by much ritual, which surely added to the expense. Unfortunately, little of this ritual has been described. However, we are told that the dancers dressed within a temporary enclosure of blankets.

At a signal, the waiting drummers began to drum, and the dancers came out, backwards, after three incomplete attempts. When the dance was over, they returned to the enclosure after three unsuccessful attempts and entered, again backwards. While dancing, they made a high squeaking noise like the note caused by blowing on the edge of a stretched blade of grass. (Duff 1952:126)

The right to perform this masked dance was inherited by all Upper Stalo children of owner families. A woman rarely exercised this right herself, but either allowed her husband to use it or saved it for her sons. "Apparently no religious quest or initiation was required to become a sxwaixwe dancer." (Duff 1952:126)

It has been noted above that, according to both Hill-Tout and Duff, the Chilliwack possessed this sxwaixwe mask and dance. In confirming their presence among this tribe, the former (Hill-Tout 1903:358) understood that the sxwaixwe comprised a secret society. He learned, too, that the tribe possessed other "fraternities" that owned their own particular dances. But he was unable to secure any informant data concerning these esoteric social units and their activities and functions. Perhaps in the 50 years between his field experience and that of Duff, these groups and their rituals lost much of their religious associations and secrecy, allowing Duff to gather the data that came to him.

Apart from these groups with their dances and other rituals, the Chilliwack engaged in both religious and social dances (Hill-Tout 1903:358).

Music

The earliest effort by trained ethnomusiocologists to record and analyze Chilliwack music seems to have been that of Frances Densmore, who in 1926 recorded ten melodies (Herzog 1949:95). These few are obviously not a proper sample of the tribe's traditional musical repertory. With a no better -- and generally a worse -- collection from nearby middle Fraser groups, similarities and differences between the traditional styles of the Chilliwack and those of their neighbors remain uncertain (Herzog 1949:95,106).

Nevertheless, the data are sufficient to allow Herzog (1949:95, 96), using published materials including his own, to see traditional Chilliwack music as having shared the general musical traditions of the Salishan tribes of British Columbia and coastal Washington. The music of these peoples possessed the following characteristics in common with much of North American Indian music:

• Instrumental music was rare. Percussion instruments, used exclusively for accompaniment, predominated.
• Singing without instrumental accompaniment was rare.
• Many song texts consisted wholly or partly of meaningless syllables, often repeated.
• The singing technique was characterized by strong vocal cord tension, "intermittently relaxed and tensed anew for almost every tone," resulting in sharp accents, voice pulsations, and strong glides. (Herzog 1949:96)

In addition, the music of the area possessed a number of features that varied from North American Indian music in general in being either notably more or less widespread. Among these the following are worth noting:

• The total range within the typical song was limited.
• The melodic movement was often level or undulating and less commonly balanced between rising and falling, rather than primarily descending as in North American Indian music in general.
• In melodies of wider range, broad jumps were fairly frequent.
• Pentatonic scales were less common and small, half-tone steps more frequent.
• A consistent dominating rhythmic measure and rhythms based on three were more frequent; those based on five and seven were moderately common.
• The relationship of the rhythmic accompaniment to the voice rhythms was at times intricate, not simply coordinated.
• The skin-covered drum, sometimes square rather than the usual round shape, was less important and raffles and beating on planks, striking sticks together, and the use of other rigid percussion instruments more common.
• Structurally, individual melodies were more loosely, less sharply organized, as into contrasting phrases and minimally varied repeated phrases: i.e., more internal variation was permitted.
• Incipient harmonic part-singing of the drone type apparently occurred, a rare feature in North American Indian music.
• Women appear to have been almost as active as musicians and composers as the men. (Herzog 1949:96-98, 105, 106)

The detailed analyses by Herzog (1949:98-103) of his small corpus of Chilliwack songs is too technical for me to fully comprehend and for summary here. Further these songs may be somewhat tainted: they may contain "heavy and recent borrowings from non-Salish groups," since Chilliwack has been for years a center for the gathering of members of many tribes for hop picking" (Herzog 1949:101). Still, as already noted, Herzog considers the list of musical traits itemized above as properly descriptive of old Chilliwack music as a part of the general areal musical culture. From a broader perspective he concludes that the Salish songs of the Fraser and neighboring coastal areas as a whole, while representing "a somewhat specialized development of ... [their] own," had a "good deal in common" with the music of the Northwest Coast (Herzog 1949:101-105, 106-109).

By ethnographers we are told next to nothing concerning Upper Stalo music and musical instruments. Rattles of two kinds were in use. One variety consisted of deer hoof devices attached by cords to a person's wrists, knees, and ankles or to a wand (Duff 1952:104, 105,107,124). The other was made of a bighorn-sheep horn, "split and shaped, with stones inside," attached to a stick (Duff 1952:105). Both types were used in dances involving the spirit world and in such a way as to suggest that the rattles themselves -- or the wands with rattles attached in that instance -- possessed some measure of spirit power. It would seem, therefore, these rattles were not, in our conventional Western sense, musical instruments and nothing more.

Drums are mentioned for the Upper Stalo as rhythm-producing instruments but are not described. Like the rattles, these were widely used in connection with spirit dances, curing rituals, and so on (Duff 1952:104,105), but whether also on more secular occasions is not reported. The Chilliwack are said to have had both the board and stick drum and the tambourine-like skin drum. Hill-Tout (1903:392) offers no comment on the relative antiquity of these drum forms, but both may be presumed to have been part of Chilliwack precontact culture.

No other sound-generating devices that might qualify as musical artifacts -- e.g., flutes -- are referred to in the Upper Stalo ethnographic accounts. However, speaking of the Fraser River and nearby coastal Salish people in general, Herzog (1949:105) mentions whistles that may have diffused to them from the more complex Northwest Coast cultures to the north.

Did the Upper Stalo themselves classify their songs into categories or types, marked perhaps by special names, and, if so, on what basis was this done? We have two sets of data that hint at partial answers to these interesting questions bearing on one very minor segment of what must have been a rich middle Fraser cognitive world.

The Salish songs described by Herzog (1949:101-103, 106) are divided into: (a) power songs associated with doctoring, curing, and guardian spirit beliefs; (b) dance songs of more than one type, some serving also as power songs; (c) bone gambling songs, some likewise possessing religious power associations; and (d) lyrical songs, particularly love songs of apparently late date. Presumably these categories reflect in some measure the native song classification structure. There is, however, no statement to this effect, and it seems possible that Herzog's categories merely reflect the social contexts in which songs were said to have been primarily performed. Because the Upper Stalo as a whole are represented in Herzog's study sample by only the few Chilliwack songs, one may question how accurately the above song categories reflect the musical conceptual framework of the other Upper Stalo tribes, assuming that they achieve this goal for the Chilliwack. The same may be said for the generalizations that follow. But for what they are worth, lacking more precise data:

• According to the premise that archaic styles "tend to be characterized by a restricted tonal range," Salish myth songs and "doctoring," curing, and guardian spirit melodies have best preserved their archaic character and simplicity, and bone-gambling and lyrical songs and to some extent dancing melodies less so.
• Considerable intertribal borrowing of gambling and dance songs occurred in the area.

The fragmentary ethnographic data come from Duff (1952:127-128). The Upper Stalo, he reports, had songs of various types, some spirit songs and a great variety for pleasure alone. Some of the latter were even composed on the spur of the moment to suit an occasion or a mood. Unfortunately, none are discussed at any length by Duff. But it is at least clear that the Stalo had their own system by which they classified their songs into types. For Duff speaks incidentally of:

siwe'l: spirit songs

ste'lem: ordinary songs sung for pleasure. Possibly within this class may be placed the:

sewe'lak: lively songs accompanying dances.

ti-u slow songs. (Duff (1952:127)

How many other types of songs were recognized natively and the underlying conceptual basis for the distinctions made, save as suggested by the meager data above, have not, to my knowledge, been reported. Nor is it clear how this patently partial but fortunately native classification structure meshes with that presented by Herzog above. Perhaps Duff's spirit songs, ordinary songs, and lively songs equate with Herzog's power, lyrical, and dance songs respectively, but this is by no means certain.

Many of the non-spirit songs were love songs, composed and sung by both sexes, but others were nostalgic or even humorous. Duff provides a translation of one Tait song composed by a woman on "going back to her childhood home and seeing the path she had formerly walked along." This seems to be of particular interest because it expresses a deep emotion with which native Americans are rarely credited in the popular Western mind.

"Oh my tracks are still there, where I used to walk, Oh my trail is still nice, I nearly cried when I saw my tracks." (Duff 1952:127-128)

Games

A number of athletic games -- undoubtedly only a very partial list -- are reported for the Upper Stalo. Shinny, played by males, involved carrying, throwing, and catching two small balls of wood, tied about 10 inches apart, with four-foot vine-maple sticks with a curve at the end. The field of play was a sand bar or cleared area with a goal at each end. The sides were always of the same number of players, who played until exhausted. (Duff 1952:127)

Other athletic contests included a reverse tug-of-war in which two teams of men pushed a long pole, not pulled a rope as with us. A hoop and dart game, played inside the winter house, consisted of throwing darts at a rolling hoop. Foot- and canoe-racing and wrestling, in which the opponents grasped each other's head and hair and attempted to throw the other, were also popular. (Duff 1952:127)

Gambling games were widely played, but little is known of most of them. However, it is said that the stick or bone game, in which one attempted to guess the hand that held the proper bone, was a favorite. Some gamblers sought the aid of their guardian spirit in guessing the correct hand; others watched the eyes of their opponents, who often tried to avoid revealing facial signs while they held the bones by keeping their eyes down. Each tribe -- sometimes even individual players -- owned gambling songs with which, when they had the bones, they attempted to confuse their opponents. Another gambling game was played with beaver-tooth "dice." (Duff 1952:127)

Smoking

Elbow pipes, considered aboriginal by Duff's informants, were made from soapstone obtained in Tait country. Straight pipes, though found archaeologically in Upper Stalo territory, were unknown to the Tait and Chilliwack with whom Duff consulted. (Duff 1952:61) There are two early historical references to Upper Stalo pipes and smoking that are worth passing note:

• In his daily record of his canoe and foot journey down the Fraser River to the coast in the early summer of 1808, Fraser (1960:100) states that at a camp in the Yale area -- obviously a Tait community -- the villagers had pipes fashioned of "brass" hanging from the neck or across the shoulders. He considered these a form of ornamentation, as doubtless they were, but these artifacts were surely put to more practical use on occasion.
• Smoking by Chilliwack (at least Indians of the fishing camp on the Chilliwack River just upstream from the canyon mouth) is reported in Wilson's (1970:63) journal of July 27,1859: "after... [the Indians had alleviated his discomfort from his numerous mosquito bites] a pipe was lighted & passed round the circle, everybody, women included taking 3 or 4 puffs." Who furnished the pipe and tobacco remains unstated, but one may suspect that they were Wilson's, partly in return for the Indian aid in relieving his pain. Nor do we know that this mid-nineteenth century practice -- by both sexes -- is a perpetuation of precontact cultural behavior.

Time and Distance Units

The Upper Stalo calendar was moon-based, each month bearing a descriptive name. Most of these month names appear to have been forgotten by the late 1940s. But the one reported -- that for about March -- translates into "glowing coal carried in ashes in a clam-shell." (Duff 1952:128) This month term seems unusual to me in that it has no obvious reference to the procession of natural, seasonal events or to cultural associations with them.

Each season was also named. Years were recorded by knots in a ball of string, one knot per year. In the Upper Stalo view, this was a traditional, pre-White method of keeping track of time. If so, it was early put to use in recording days so that each seventh day could be recognized for worship. (Duff 1952:128)

We know nothing about traditional measurement units among the Upper Stalo tribelets as a whole, and very little concerning them for the Chilliwack. Among the Chilliwack, the fathom and fractions of this measurement were recognized as standard lengths. One fathom was the span between the tips of the second fingers of the outstretched arms of the average man. Three-quarters of a fathom was the distance from the elbow of one arm bent over the chest to the tip of the second finger of the other arm outstretched. One-half a fathom was measured from one hand in the center of the chest to the second finger tip as above. (Hill-Tout 1903:360 fn. 1, 394)

Astronomy

How extensively among the Upper Stalo the stars were individually recognized by native terms and grouped into named star clusters similar to our constellations, we do not know. The Chilliwack, however, identified the Pleiades as one such grouping and designated it by a specific term. The Great Bear (Ursa Major) was called "elk": it was seen as always wandering around in the same circle, allowing people to determine the hour of the night by its position. (Hill-Tout 1903:396, 399)

Myths, Legends, and Tales

The Chilliwack, Hill-Tout (1903:369) wrote about 1900, "seem to possess but few folk-tales, or else they have forgotten them." From his several informants, he was able to collect only the very limited examples that follow. It is barely conceivable that, as he suggests, the people in his day, through strong missionary influence and general culture degradation, had lost memory of most of their mythology and traditions. Without question, however, they had a rich body of folklore in early postcontact times, for they were surrounded by groups that are known to have had very extensive corpora of oral literature. It seems probable that for some reason Hill-Tout's informants were reluctant to relate to him such of their folklore as they recalled.

The Chilliwack mythical transformer and "wonder-monger" was called QEQa'ls. Concerning his activities Hill-Tout (1903:366-367) learned little. Apparently, however, he was invoked in prayer at times. Hill-Tout's informants recalled a large stone statue in human form, reportedly weighing more than a ton, that was believed to have been the work of QEQa'ls. One day, passing that way, he saw "a man and his wife, who in some way displeased him, and were in consequence transformed into stone statues." It was owned by a Chilliwack family, was taken to the nearby Sumas tribe by a Chilliwack woman when she married into that group, and was later sold and carried south of the international border.

Another tribal tradition concerning Qals, the great transformer and principal deity, and his transforming activities is reported by Boas (1894:454, 463). That the Chilliwack believed in a mythical ancestor has already been mentioned (see Tribe above). This ancestor, like similar ancestors among other Halkomelem tribelets, is said to have met Qals and to have been transformed. Some of these group ancestors were changed into plants and animals that abounded near the main tribal winter village, and others into rocks of remarkable shape or size that occurred not far from the village. The Chilliwack forefather experienced this same change, but his precise fate in terms of his new shape is not related by Boas.

The following tales relate to mythic times and mythic personalities.

(a) The ancestors of the Chilliwack long ago were taught to fashion salmon weirs by Wren (Hill-Tout 1903:367). (For details of the barrier construction, see earlier section on salmon weirs.)

(b) The Upper Stalo myth narrating the supposed underwater source of the sxwaixwe mask and dance (see Dance section above) appears among the Chilliwack in a somewhat different guise than in the Tait case already alluded to. In the Chilliwack version, recorded in considerable detail by Hill-Tout (1903:367-368), a youth on his vision quest visited Cultus Lake, at the bottom of which lived slalakum (see Unnatural Beings section above). He pierced a strong buckskin with many pointed bones, fastened it around him, and, holding a large stone, jumped into the lake. Sinking to the bottom, he landed on the roof of the slalakum dwelling. He found some of these people sick from his spitting into the lake and from the ashes of his fire dropping down on them. He cured them by wiping away these foreign substances. In return, he was given an object shaped like a long, stout icicle. Returning home, he found all the people taking sick at the sight of him. With his magical object he cured them and became a great shaman with special powers to cure people ill through contact with an "unnatural being." When a man from a neighboring tribe, hearing of the Chilliwack man's great power and the way in which he had received it, attempted to obtain the same power for himself at Cultus Lake, he rose to the surface only after a considerable time and as a skeleton, his flesh having been devoured by fish.

(c) Long ago the Chilliwack were suffering from a great famine. The men went down the Chilliwack River looking for salmon, fashioned a weir, and caught a few. Selfishly the men decided to keep the news from their wives and children back home. A boy bound some salmon roe to his leg with bark and fled, pretending to chase butterflies. Reaching home, he gave the news to his mother, who informed the other women. Greatly angered, the women beat their husbands' beds with pieces of bark. (Hill-Tout was unable to discover the magical import of this act.) Taking the blankets, paint containers, and painting-feathers of the men, they started out to find them. When they neared their husbands' camp, they beat the blankets with sticks and shouted to QEQa'ls to transform their men. The men heard them, saw their painting feathers floating in the air, and called the painter to paint them hurriedly. He painted them individually as different birds in color and then, in haste, the rest in black and white. When the women arrived, QEQa'ls, answering their prayer, turned all the men into birds. As birds, they assembled again on the Fraser River where they encountered Beaver, learned from him of the Salmon country, and were told by him that he would secure salmon for them so they could make peace with their wives.

At this point Hill-Tout (1903:369) discontinues his narrative, remarking that the remainder closely paralleled the myth of the Pilalt which he had recorded elsewhere. The following outlines the principal elements of this Pilalt myth:

Long ago there were no salmon in the Fraser, only steelhead. To secure salmon, Beaver led an expedition of 'Bull-head' Fish, Woodpecker, and an unidentified bird. Arriving at the Salmon village, Beaver and Mouse crept toward the dwellings to steal the chief's baby. Beaver feigned death on the path, while Mouse gnawed holes in the Salmon canoes and weakened vital points in their paddles. At dawn, a Salmon woman, fetching water, saw Beaver and called all to view this strange animal. Steelhead recognized him as a sly being that he had earlier met up the Fraser. When they were about to cut Beaver open, Woodpecker and the other bird flew by and the Salmon abandoned Beaver to catch the birds, who feigned lameness. Beaver entered the chief's house and stole the baby, hanging from the swing-pole, and rushed to the river. The expedition paddled off. The Salmon pursued, but most broke their paddles and were slowed by their canoes filling with water. In canoes and with paddles missed by Mouse, a few gained on the fleeing party, which was, in ignorance, paddling with the edge of their paddles. Snail, on the bank watching the chase, shouted to them to flat-paddle. Now the expedition pulled away from the Salmon people, who, abandoning their sound canoes, swam upriver after the four. As the party passed, they threw soiled baby's underclothes into the Coquitlam River, making the salmon there henceforth bad and difficult to dry. At the Chilliwack River they threw in a clean garment, so there the salmon were good and fine, easily dried and cured. At the Harrison River, they dropped more the child's clothing: there, later, something killed the salmon, causing them to die in great numbers. At the lower side of the fish weir at Yale they threw the baby itself in the water, making it rage and boil. The expedition then separated and became supernatural "unnatural beings." (Hill-Tout 1903:401-403)

According to tribal tradition, the Chilliwack have always occupied their Chilliwack River country above the Fraser plains. Indeed, one of their legends recounts the original springing of the river from its Chilliwack Lake source, a marvellous event produced by a young man with guardian spirit power gained at the lake. With the assistance of his supernatural helper, he broke open the lake outlet, permitting the river for the first time to flood down the valley. (Hill-Tout 1903:356-357)

Miscellaneous Beliefs

Thunder was thought by the Upper Stalo to be caused by a bird, larger than an eagle, that lived on a little bare peak near Harrison Lake, and lightning by the bird opening its eyes. "The splinters of a tree which has been struck by lightning were dangerous and should not be touched." One of Duff's Tait informants reported that he has once burned some, and had discovered that "they gave off 'a different kind of heat' that caused little scratches on the skin to swell up and made him sick and feverish." (Duff 1952:128)

The Chilliwack conception of the afterlife was based on information concerning that supernatural world brought back by the spirits of individual shamans that had visited the region. As a consequence varying views of its character prevailed. (Hill-Tout 1903:361)

The sound of a crow's caw resembled the Chilliwack term for 'brother,' skak. It was believed that in crying "skak, skak!" the bird tried to claim its relationship with the people. (Hill-Tout 1903:388)

There is little in the published literature so far as I am aware explicitly demonstrating traditional Chilliwack visits to the northwest corner of the Park area and their use of the resources of the region. And yet circumstantial evidence of several forms testify to the fact that the area must have been extensively visited and utilized by the group in their subsistence quest and in other ways.

Subsistence Use

The region of the upper Chilliwack River above Chilliwack Lake and the nearby mountains lay within the traditional tribal boundaries of the Chilliwack, terrain wholly within the limits of the Park. That this high country was claimed by the Chilliwack testifies in itself to the fact that the natural resources of the region were utilized by the Chilliwack. For it is axiomatic that native peoples in the Pacific Northwest laid no claim to areas unused by them. Indeed, such a claim would be pointless, given the absence among them of any concept of land ownership for its own sake. Further, in the eyes of neighboring tribes, a group validated its claim to real estate only through extensive and continual use of its resources.

If it is concluded from these territorial-claim data that the Chilliwack must have used the upper Chilliwack drainage and its mountains within the Park borders, even though explicit descriptive support for this conclusion is lacking, are there circumstantial data to argue for this belief? In my opinion, there are. This is the information describing general Chilliwack use of mountainous country, some of which must certainly have taken place in high elevation areas within the Park. More than this, inasmuch as the natural route to the high country from the Chilliwack River villages below the lake lay up the stream first to the lake and then on up the river valley, it seems reasonable to assume that of all the high altitude areas within the Chilliwack boundaries, the mountainous surfaces inside the Park were probably particularly frequented and their resources exploited. Indeed, the uppermost of the Chilliwack small camps -- perhaps villages -- around Chilliwack Lake in early traditional times may have been no more than a mile or two outside the Park perimeter. Further, the fact that Chilliwack hunting parties met Thompson and Upper Skagit out on similar mountain ventures is of relevance here, for the areas of overlap between the country borders of these three groups fell in part within the Park limits.

Unlike virtually all other Upper Stalo tribes, the Chilliwack were not a Fraser River and Valley people. Within their own territory they were restricted in pre-White days to the narrow, canyon-like valley of the Chilliwack River before it emerges onto the Fraser River plain. They had no great salmon fisheries comparable to those on the Fraser itself. Still salmon swam in the Chilliwack River, even many according to a bit of historical evidence, and upstream at least as far as Chilliwack Lake. One actual fishing locality within the old Chilliwack homeland -- in the lower canyon area and plainly a salmon site -- is reported in an 1859, casual remark of a member of the British Boundary Commission. It cannot yet be demonstrated that salmon ascended the Chilliwack River above the lake and into the Park region, but maps fail to suggest the presence of formidable falls or other barriers to spawning fish.

At any rate, the mountains and their forested slopes surely furnished a substantially larger part of the subsistence and other resources for the Chilliwack than for most (perhaps all) other Upper Stalo tribes. This is consistent with Marian Smith's definition of the prehistoric and protohistoric Chilliwack life pattern as a foothills one, rather than a strongly river-oriented pattern, a view with which, perhaps somewhat unwisely, Duff takes strong exception. The special importance to them of their mountainous terrain is also underscored by the fact that the Chilliwack, unlike other Upper Stalo peoples with their Fraser River orientation, possessed a relatively highly developed concept of territorial ownership and seemingly a sharper vision of territorial boundaries. To members of the Chilliwack tribe, however, the resource areas -- hunting grounds, berry patches, and so on -- were open to all.

High country use is likewise especially convincingly argued for by the fact that Chilliwack hunting parties, encountering Thompson or Upper Skagit hunters back in the mountains, sometimes fought them, which was generally not the case when other Upper Stalo met hunting groups from these two tribes. The Thompson must have been met, at least in part, in the Park area on the east where the Chilliwack-Thompson territorial claims were in contest; the Skagit were encountered on the southeast, again doubtless partly within the present Park boundaries. Finally, inasmuch as Chilliwack relations with the Nooksack, also an inland-oriented people, were close and friendly, and because Chilliwack territory extended to the Chilliwack River-Nooksack River watershed and even down into the Nooksack Valley at one point, the high terrain between the two drainage basins, the easternmost end of which stretched a short distance into the Park, must certainly have been frequented by Chilliwack parties. In summary, except for the Chilliwack Valley itself, the traditional country of the Chilliwack was mountainous and most of the central and largest segment of this high elevation area was inside the northwestern boundary of the Park.

We now turn to the Chilliwack use of mountainous land as described or implied in the ethnographic and early historical accounts, assuming that unless otherwise specifically localized, they apply to the Park region at least as much as to the tribal high altitude areas outside the Park limits. Furthermore, included in the following summary is general Upper Stalo information concerning the utilization of mountain land forms on the grounds that, as noted above, these areas were of particular importance to the Chilliwack and so, again unless special negative local conditions prevailed, the information most probably applies to the Chilliwack no less, at least, than to other Upper Stalo peoples.

No organized ethnographic consideration exists detailing the importance of hunting and the various methods of game pursuit employed by the Chilliwack, or even the Upper Stalo in general. But there are hints as to the extent to which animals were taken by these Upper peoples for various purposes. Given the lesser importance of salmon fishing among the Chilliwack and therefore surely the greater utilization of mountain country in their subsistence economy, data describing Upper Stalo hunting and use of animal products can be presumed to apply broadly to the Chilliwack. In the animal tally below, only the mountain goat is mentioned specifically for the Chilliwack; the remainder are described for the Upper Stalo tribes in general or for some tribelet other than the Chilliwack, but not in such a way as to exclude the Chilliwack from their use.

• Black bear. The favorite meat. Skin used for robes. Bladder(?) used for storing salmon oil.
• Grizzly bear. Little used as meat because difficult to obtain.
• Mountain goat. Rated second as meat. Horn used in making points of hunting spears and fish harpoons. Wool used in weaving blankets and in ornamenting quiver tumpline and magical spirit canes. Bladder(?) used in storing salmon oil.
• Bighorn sheep. Horn made into rattles with stones inside.
• Deer. Much used for meat but considered dry. Hide used for breechclouts, shirts and dresses, leggings, moccasins, mittens. Brains rubbed on skins in the tanning process. Sinew used for bow strings and in attaching feathers to arrows. Antler used in making large sturgeon and smaller harpoon points. Hoofs used in fashioning rattles. Bladder(?) used for storage of salmon oil. Hide used to wrap dried meat in packing it from mountain hunting camps back to the village.
• Elk. Meat eaten but not much used since difficult to secure. Antler used in fashioning points for hunting spears and both large sturgeon harpoon points and smaller harpoon points.
• Raccoon. Sometimes eaten.
• Wildcat. Sometimes eaten.
• Beaver. A popular meat. Skin used in making arrow quiver. Teeth used as dice.
• Rabbit. Skins used in making robes.
• Groundhog. A popular meat. Skin used in making robes.
• Squirrel. Sometimes eaten.
• Martin. Sometimes eaten.

Among the birds the following are mentioned as having been actively sought by the Upper Stalo and so, it may be supposed, also by the Chilliwack.

• Ducks. Considered good food. Tail feathers of mallards used in feathering arrows.
• Geese. Much sought as food.
• Swans. Skins, with feathers plucked to leave only down, used in making sxwaixwe costume. Balls of down used in ornamenting sxwaixwe mask.
• Grouse. Much sought as food.
• Woodpecker. Not eaten. Tail feathers used in fletching arrows.
• Eagle. Feathers attached to sturgeon harpoons to allow harpooner to feel stream bottom. Feathers used in ornamenting sxwaixwe mask.

The data presented in the subsistence section describing Upper Stalo hunting and hunting methods need not be repeated here. It is sufficient to underscore what must have been the special importance of hunting to the Chilliwack. With fishing sites on Chilliwack River limited in number and productivity, it seems necessary to assume that more Chilliwack men must have been active hunters and that these must have devoted more of their time through the year to hunting activities and to scouring the small lateral valleys and the many mountain slopes of their country for animals -- and for eagles and grouse among the birds -- for food and their other useful products. The only animals specifically mentioned ethnographically as having been pursued by Chilliwack hunters are the mountain goat, one reference relating to the efficacy of magical formulae in taking the animal and the other noted in the paragraph that follows.

Hunting was carried out particularly in the fall when the fishing season was over and the animals were fat. Mountain goats appear to have been especially sought by these autumn parties which went to "Chilliwack Lake or beyond": this is to say, specifically into the high sectors of the North Cascades Park, where particular mountains were known as fine goat areas. These parties of entire families sometimes extended to several weeks, the women and children and even some men remaining in the base camps to butcher and smoke-dry the meat on racks and to maintain the camps. A man could pack the dried meat of two or three goats from his hunting camp to his permanent village.

Deer were also hunted by the Upper Stalo in the mountains, pursued by hunters with their bows and arrows and sometimes with their trained dogs. Since both black bear and grizzlies were hunted, the former occasionally with dogs, surely some of these hunts were carried out in appropriate seasons in high altitude areas. Indeed, grizzlies were particular frequenters of the high country (Post in Spier 1928:11, 22). How many of the other hunting techniques -- pitfalls, deadfalls, snares, and nets -- were employed in the high country is not reported.

Of the very few food roots noted as having been obtained by the Upper Stalo, only the tiger lily, the balsamroot, and certain species of Lomatium grew in the higher elevations. The tiger lily (Lilium columbianum) was found upwards to subalpine elevations; balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata) up the hillsides "to moderate elevations in the mountains"; and the Lomatium likewise up to moderate elevations in the mountains (Turner 1978:87, 102, 108, 116). Inasmuch as the Upper Stalo are said to have used these roots for food, it appears relatively safe to suppose that the Chilliwack were among the groups that dug them in their own high country.

In late summer, parties of Upper Stalo women -- and so without doubt of Chilliwack women -- accompanied by a few men, went to the mountains for a few days to gather berries and dry them on cedar bark mats spread on racks. Of huckleberries, the most important berries, two varieties grew at higher elevations and two on lower slopes. Sometimes patches of the higher altitude berries were burned to improve future yields. Another berry, red and bitter but so far botanically unidentified by me, also grew at upper elevations and was collected by these field parties. Of the other berries certified by Duff as Upper Stalo foods, only elderberries, it appears, were found in the mountains "to moderate elevations" (Turner 1978:132) and so may well have been collected by Chilliwack berrying parties within the Park borders. Black tree lichen, for boiling into "moss cakes," was also gathered from "certain trees high up in the mountains." Plants and plant parts -- and doubtless other natural products and substances -- were collected by the women on these journeys for technological uses (e.g., grass required in imbricating baskets [Teit 1930b:223]), to serve later medicinal needs, and for other purposes.

The Chilliwack secured a "brownish salt" from a peak that lay somewhat outside the Park perimeter. It is conceivable that other mountain sources of this food additive were available and exploited inside the Park boundary.

Village/Camp Use

Except perhaps for the Chilliwack River immediately above Chilliwack Lake -- and hence just within the Park's northwesternmost boundary -- the Chilliwack could have maintained few, if any, winter villages within the Park limits. The terrain and environmental conditions in general were simply too unfavorable. On the other hand, temporary open-season, small camps must have been scattered widely through the mountains and high valleys of the Park. These were occupied by parties for a day or sometimes up to several weeks while hunting, berrying, and perhaps gathering roots in the vicinity. On occasion other camps must have been in use while the Chilliwack collected, for instance, plant materials for technological use, mineral pigments, and stone for fabricating utensils and weapons. To illustrate, red paints were needed to color the sxwaixwe masks and to apply to persons on their ritual forest "run" in acquiring a guardian spirit song and dance; pieces of slate were required in fashioning harpoon points. The sources of these raw materials are not specified in the ethnographic literature, but surely the Chilliwack must have looked to the mountain slopes of the Park area for some of these important materials.

Trail Use

The mountains of the Park were evidently criss-crossed by trails, some leading to the food and materials resource areas and others followed by parties en route now and again to visit other tribes. Obviously, the Chilliwack made use of the former travel paths. How frequently they made their way along the intertribal routes is less certain. Such data as we possess uniformly point toward a somewhat greater isolation on the part of the Chilliwack than for the other Upper Stalo tribelets ranged along the Fraser River. So far as Chilliwack-Thompson relations were concerned, Chilliwack still living in 1949-1950 recalled when, apparently somewhat after 1837, one of their villages on the Fraser plain was looted and destroyed by a Lower Thompson party. Further, the Chilliwack, quite atypically for an Upper Stalo tribelet, even fought their Thompson and Upper Skagit neighbors when they believed that they were encroaching on their hunting grounds. But it is doubtful that they engaged in hostilities on every such meeting and it is stated, moreover, that Chilliwack intermarriage with Thompson was not unknown. In addition, the Upper Stalo tribes traded mountain-goat wool blankets to the Thompson. Though the Chilliwack are not specifically mentioned as partners in such exchanges, the importance of mountain hunting to the Chilliwack would have made them logically a natural source of these blankets for the Thompson.

Precisely where these trails ran into and through those Park higher elevations that fell within old Chilliwack country is, unfortunately, not described in ethnographic contexts. But wherever they led, there must have been overnight camps here and there along them in especially favorable locations.

Other Uses

Still another circumstance attracted Upper Stalo -- and obviously Chilliwack among them -- to the mountains: the guardian spirit vision quest pursued by aspiring shamans, some men hopeful of becoming warriors of special prowess, and even a few others. In these searches for supernatural power, youths as they grew older journeyed continually deeper into the mountains to isolated lakes (particularly those noted for their resident monsters), streams, and waterfalls, where a spirit vision or dream might be experienced. At such a place they might remain for several days, performing various ritual acts -- including sweating in a sweat lodge -- to encourage a spirit encounter.

Though we are not informed of localities in Chilliwack territory within the Park circumference where dangerous, unnatural creatures existed, it would be most surprising if there were thought to be none, for these strange beings were varied in their forms and believed to be widely dispersed through more remote sectors of Upper Stalo country. These included lake-dwelling snakes with two heads, cave dwelling cannibal women, underwater bears, and huge serpents that lived near small lakes. Only the fur-covered giants -- the sasquatch -- on rare occasions left their back-country homes to come face to face with people berry picking and even to approach human habitations. In light of the particular interests of this report, it is a shame that we know nothing concerning traditional Chilliwack convictions regarding such abnormal, terrifying creatures in the mountains of the Park.