SHUSH'WAP (properly Sfiq-apmuq). An interesting tribe of Salishan stock (q.v.) occu pying an extensive territory extending from the main divide of the Rocky Mountains to Fraser River and from Quesnelle to Shushwap Lake, Southern British Columbia. They are divided into several local bands or village communities, and their houses were circular dugouts set about four feet below the surface of the ground and roofed with logs and thatch covered with earth. Their dress was of furs or buckskin and tattooing was practiced by both sexes, together with the wearing of nose pendants. They excelled in the making of beautiful basketry from split pine roots and mats woven from rushes. The Shushwap hunted deer with dogs and snowshoes. They used sea-shells and copper bracelets as currency medi um, obtaining copper by trade or from a digging within their own territory. Food was boiled in baskets of water heated by means of hot stones, and roots were steamed or baked in pits in the ground. The tribe did not have the clan system. Inheritance was in the male line, and there was an order of hereditary chiefs, who regulated the divi sion of labor, decided the time for the salmon-fish ing and parceled out the fish And berry harvest.
but did not lead in war, that duty falling upon elective war captains. Their weapons were the bow, lance, stone chub, and a sort of bone sword, besides which they had body armor of quilted elk skin or strips of wood. In times of danger they sometimes took refuge in stockades. Slaves were held by war and purchase and were frequently killed by the grave of their owner, usually being buried alive with the corpse. The mourning period lasted for a year, ending with a feast at the grave, on which occasion the son adopted his dead father's name. There were many pecu liar marriage, puberty, and hunting ceremonies and tabus. With the exception of a few families all are now civilized and Christianized by the effort of Catholic missionaries, and are reported by their agent to be generally industrious, law abiding, progressive, healthy, and increasing in numbers. They numbered, in 1903. from 1200 to 1500.