3-011-687 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches in British Columbia: Indian village, Douglas Lake, 1864. Village '...inhabited by 200 or 300 people of the Quit-Squaws tribe, who, like all those to be met with on this route, are peaceable, intelligent, and industrious, often rendering great assistance to the traveller by carrying his baggage over the land portages. During certain seasons of the year many of these Indians are employed to convey freight up the Lilloett river, which for twenty-nine miles runs parallel with the Douglas waggon-road. Its navigation would be extremely dangerous, but the Indian, having from infancy been trained to steer his beautiful clipper-shaped canoe amidst snags, boulders and eddies, very rarely meets with a mishap. Their dwellings are of the rudest construction, built of posts and rough cedar-slabs, scarcely wind or water tight...The people are sociable in their habits, and, having lately been converted to Christianity, very strict in their observance of the Sabbath. The clothing of the old folks consist chiefly of Hudson's Bay blankets, or the skins of wild animals found on the mountains; but the younger ones have long since adopted white people's attire, generally choosing the most showy colours'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.