Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/272

256 for the purpose of enslavement. Within the limits of their territory no person having a flattened head was ever held as a slave. If any of these people should be so held by any outside tribe, no flathead would purchase him unless it was to ransom him that he might be given his liberty. This mark identified them rather as one people. Although several of these tribes speak an entirely different and distinct language from any of the others, and are classed by scientific writers as belonging to different stock, yet I believe that for centuries past they were one people. Their custom of intermarriages would unavoidably lead to this.

The men of the different tribes, to a large extent, especially from the principal families, sought wives from the various tribes other than their own. For instance, a Tillamook man would seek a wife from the Chinook or Chehalis (Indian, Tseh-hay-lis) tribe, and this compliment would be reciprocated by the men of these tribes going after wives from the Tillamook, or some other clan not their own, and in like manner of all the other tribes; and this process has been going on for ages, until these people have really become of one type.

They are very similar in facial contour, size, and form of body. Some writers seem to believe that the flattening of the heads of these people has had the effect of blunting their intellects. The facts in the case, I think, hardly warrant this conclusion. They certainly compare favorably with any of the other Indians inhabiting the old Oregon country in things pertaining to the affairs of this life. They constructed better houses for their habitations than the tepees used by those east of the Cascade Mountains. Their canoes for beauty of model, finish of workmanship, and for utility, were far superior to anything in that line made by the inland people; their methods of catching fish with the seine were ahead of any of the other