Exceptional stone objects are large obsidian blades like those of northern California, batons of stone and bone carved in repre sentation of animals, looped weight-like stones, and certain strange carved heads of simian aspect, unlike any other carvings in North America.
Lewis H. Morgan and others regarded the Columbia as having a very important place in the ethnic history of North America : that it was a kind of hothouse, the multiplying peoples of which spread out over the south and east ; but no linguistic or other evidence has been adduced in support of this contention.
IX. North-west Coast Area.—As defined by Holmes, this archaeological culture classification area comprises a rather narrow strip of the mainland and the contiguous coastwise islands in British Columbia and Alaska, and extends from Puget Sound northward to Mount St. Elias, a distance of twelve or thirteen hundred miles. The tribes occupying this region as known to history belong to several linguistic stocks. Their material culture embodies many noteworthy features which cause it to stand well apart from all other cultures of the continent, yet it resembles in some respects the material culture of the coast on the south and of the inland to the east. Hunting and especially fishing have always been the chief sources of food, agriculture being unknown. Their territory abounding in splendid forests, the inhabitants developed great skill in woodworking with stone implements, which of course were superseded by tools of metal on the advent of the whites in the i8th century. The dugout canoes, made from trunks of the giant cedar and sometimes nearly a hundred feet long, are marvels of beauty and grace of line, and are probably the world's highest achievement in this direction. Their houses were often built of immense hewn timbers, and their carved and painted totem poles, house and grave posts, storage chests, human and. animal effigies, and many and varied feast and other vessels, utensils, masks, etc., are worthy of the art of any people. While the sculptures of these people have doubtless been accelerated by the acquirement of steel tools, their innate aesthetic ability is shown by their minor works of art in stone, shell, ivory, antler, bone, horn and copper, many of which exceed the more massive productions in beauty and refinement. The smaller objects of stone include hammers and mauls of the highest known types, adzes, mortars, pestles, knives, chisels, clubs, batons, pipes, amulets and ornaments, jade being greatly sought and often laboriously fashioned to suit individual needs. Chipped stone
objects are rare ; pottery is unknown, vessels of wood, bone and horn serving instead. Ornaments and utilitarian articles of bone, ivory, wood and stone were attractively inlaid with iridescent shell. The ancient character of the graphic art of the north-west coast people is suggested by the petroglyphs, numerous in some parts, which display the same peculiar characteristics as the paint ing, engraving and weaving of the historic peoples. Copper has long been worked, and with considerable skill, especially into masks, rattles, whistles, knives and other utensils, ornaments and certain shield-like objects which are highly esteemed as symbols of wealth ; but it is not known whether the copper art was an activity of prehistoric times, although the native metal occurs in surface deposits in the region. Altogether features of the arts of the north-west coast are thought to suggest inspiration from the Pacific islands; but this has not been shown to be the case, although it has been pointed out that if any such influence existed, it may have been exerted exclusively during the long period since modern seagoing vessels began to ply back and forth on the Pacific. Traces of advanced Asiatic art occasionally encountered along the coast are attributable to the stranding of vessels carried oversea by the Japan current rather than to purposeful voyagings in early times.
The peculiar geography of the country, in conjunction with its exceptional vegetable and animal resources, doubtless served to develop the unusual culture of this people. Archaeological research in the region has not been carried far enough to show that the forms of native artifacts are distinct from those that appear to have been in use in historic times, but so far as observation has been possible the culture is a homogeneous one, with only slight trace of antecedent forms of art either lower or higher than the historic. Nothing has been observed in the culture of the people suggesting migrations from the north by way of Bering strait, and no characteristic features that might have arisen within the local environment or from possible intrusions within a few centuries.