Coast Salish Ethnography: The Sechelt, by Charles Hill-Tout Ethnography and Sociology The tribe, as at present constituted, numbers some three hundred and twenty-five souls, between sixty and seventy of whom are adult males. It is a very difficult matter to get to the exact number of any Indian settlement. Census-taking is something entirely foreign to the native mind, and no inhabitant of a native village, even when it contains less than a score of souls, can tell one offhand the number of adult males living in it. When questioned upon the point, they have to count them off by name upon their fingers, and are then as likely to overlook some as to give an accurate total. The Sechelt are obviously a mixed people. The facial types among them would make this quite clear, even if we had no evidence of the fact in their traditions and their genealogies. At the time when the late Bishop Durieu first came among them in the early sixties of the last century, they were divided into four septs or sub-tribes, each having its own settlement and fishing and hunting grounds. These were in the neighbourhood of Sechelt peninsula, the neck of which commences about twenty or thirty miles above the entrance to Howe Sound, the waters of the neighbouring Squamish. The present Mission, or headquarters of the united tribe, situated on Trail Bay on the outer side of the neck of the peninsula, is of modern origin, dating only from Bishop Durieu's time. Prior to that, though a most desirable and sheltered spot, fear of the blood-thirsty, marauding Yukeltas [Euclataws] (a Kwakiutl subdivision) prevented them from making a permanent settlement here. Known to them by the name of Tcateletc 'outside water,' it formed a temporary halting place and general rendezvous for the tribe. Here the different septs sometimes met for a common hunt. The neck at this point formed also a portage to the subdivisions living on the inner waters, and made a short cut for them to the Gulf, being only eleven hundred yards wide at this point. The following are the names and settlements of the old divisions of the tribe: (1) Qunetcin, at the head of Queen's Reach; (2) Tsonai, at Deserted Bay, the junction of Queen's Reach and Princess Royal Reach; (3) Tuwanekq, at head of Narrow's Arm; (4) Sqaiaqos, many settlements but no fixed abode. Of the four above subdivisions, the two former are said to be of extraneous origin, being founded by men of Kwakiutl lineage. The two latter represent the true Sechelt. Regarding these septs separately, the Tsonai now number about forty souls. I gathered from the chief and his brother all that is now known of their ancestry and past. They have a genealogical table, extending back to the sixth generation, that is, to their topiyuk. The genealogical lists of all Sechelt divisions stop at this point. They have no memories or traditions of anything beyond. The topiyuk is always with them the "first-man." … Socially, the Sechelt people were divided into three castes or classes, as in the other Salish tribes examined, viz. chiefs, nobles, and base folk. We have seen how the first are constituted; the second were composed of the heads of families of standing, and, generally, of the wealthy. The last were made up of the thriftless, the indolent, and the slaves of the tribe. I made special and repeated inquiries with regard to secret societies and brotherhoods, and induced my informants and helpers to question in my presence the old men and women on these points; but all were unanimous in declaring that nothing resembling the modern secret societies of the Kwakiutl, of which they have some knowledge, had any place among the old-time Sechelt. The nearest approach to anything of the kind was the initiation of the pupils, or disciples of the siyaikwetl (medicine man) or the siwin (seer), who were accustomed to attach a few followers to themselves after the manner of apprentices. The war-like division of the Kwakiutl stock which ruled the waters of the Strait, and kept the Sechelt isolated from other influences, effectually hindered the acquisition of foreign ideas or conceptions from those quarters; and the large influx of Lillooet blood in the present Sechelt suggests close relations with that tribe, if not original descent from it. Of the two dozen photographs which I obtained among the Sechelt, a preponderating number are those of individuals with Lillooet blood in them. Another thing which points to that relationship, or at any rate close contact, with the interior Salish, is the fact that they formerly practised that peculiar custom of secluding certain of their children, a custom which my collection of Thompson folklore shows to have been at one time prevalent among the Thompson, the neighbours of the Lillooet tribes. A propos of this practice, I learned from Charlie Roberts that the object of this seclusion was, in the case of male children, to make great hunters of them; great, that is, in the sense of securing by some occult means large quantities of game. They are said to have been quite white in appearance, much lighter than the average settler, from their long seclusion. They were shut up in box-like receptacles, and never allowed out of them, or the house, save at night, when they could not be seen. Another peculiarity was that their hair must never be cut. These individuals aroused much curiosity in the other members of the tribe, and all kinds of schemes were resorted to in order to get a sight of them. In the case of youths, when it became known that one was about to set out on a hunting expedition, the young women would do their best to get a glimpse of him, and if possible would waylay him, and induce him to break his celibacy in the hope of securing him for a husband. For, if a young man lay with a maid, she became ipso facto his wife. On leaving the house, they were always covered up with blankets, and were conducted by some near relative to the forest, until beyond the gaze of the curious and prying. They were supposed to possess supernatural powers of some sort. It is recorded of one that he went out fishing with his brother, and while they were engaged in their work, a young female seal popped up its head at a little distance from the canoe. When the youth saw it he cried out: "Oh what a nice young woman; how I should like her for a wife." The seal dived down, and his brother warned him to beware of uttering such wishes when so near a seal colony. But the youth took no notice of the advice, and make the remark again when the seal came up a second time near the canoe. Again it dived, but presently came up close to the canoe and assuming the form of a maiden, invited him to descend with her to the seal village below. He readily accepted the invitation, and dived down with her. After a little while he returned to the surface and bade his brother go home without him, saying that he intended to stay with the seal people. His brother urged him to change his mind, and accompany him, but in the end was obliged to return home without him; and his people never saw him again. Back to Hill-Tout introduction