KWAWKEWLTIL and QuAuot.Til I. A group or confederacy of tribes of strongly differentiated Wakashan stock (q.v.), living in intimate asso ciation with the closely cognate Hailtzuk on both sides of Queen Charlotte lsland, at the upper end of Vancouver Island, and on the opposite shore of British Columbia. Among more than twenty sub-tribes the best known are the Kwakiutl proper, near Fort P,upert, Nimkish, Koskimo, Mamalilikulla. Tsawatienuk, and Tanaktut. They are distinguished for devotion to the custom of potlatch (q.v.), which is by some believed to have originated with them, and for their peculiar social organization, according to which the whole active government is under the control of secret societies. They have the gentile or clan system, but with the descent in the male line. There are three social ranks—the hereditary chiefs, the middle estate or burgesses. and the third, who are chiefly slaves and their descendants. The middle class is made up of the members of the secret societies, and the ,greater the number of such societies to which a man belongs the greater is his standing and influence. The third or low est class consists of those who are not members of any secret society, and who are in consequence shut out from any part in councils or other State affairs. The candidate for initiation must
submit to severe vigil, fasting, and torture, and distribute numerous presents to each one taking part in the ceremony. The greatest of all is the hamatsa, or cannibal society, to which no one can be admitted until he has been a member of a lower society for eight years. Women may become members, and have also their own socie ties. The dead are embalmed.
Having an unlimited food-supply of fish. veni son. seal-meat, and berries, and being comfort ably housed after the manner of the Northwest coast tribes generally, and moreover regarded by all their neighbors as the guardians of the ancient priestly rites, the Kwakiutl are strongly conservative and opposed to all the methods and religion of the white man. although they are very law-abiding. Our principal knowledge concern ing the Kwakiutl is derived from Dr. Franz Boas, in the reports of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and Report of the U. S. National Museum (Washington, 1895). They number now about 1300.