The Salish People: Volume IV. Charles Hill-Tout
expenses.”22
“In order to get the material for these reports, Professor Hill-Tout had often to live among the Indians and gather first hand information about them and their past, customs, habits and totemic beliefs. … I recall that upon one occasion a young chief of the Chehalis Indians, who had been recently married, and his wife gave up their bedroom to me and also their bedding while they slept upon the floor of the kitchen for two weeks,' observed the professor. There are eleven linguistic divisions of the Salish stock, and from time to time as the years went by, I visited each of these and gathered all possible information that could be secured from the oldest of the Indians. It is a fact that, if this had not been done at the time, much interesting knowledge about our Indians would have been lost to us, for almost all the elderly people of that period have passed away and the young Indians of today — with a few exceptions — take no interest in their past. … In the matter of language I pointed out the linguistic difference of the various tribes, elaborated their grammar and collected their vocabulary terms. In some instances, over 2000 words were in common use. My method was to write down the stories they told me, phonetically, then give the interlinear literal translation of it, and afterwards a free translation because the literal translation was too brief and bald, as so much of the significance of their language lay in the tone of voice and gesticulation. I lived among the Indians in order to gain their confidence and goodwill and I found them willing to impart the information I desired" (University of British Columbia typescript).
In the period 1902–06, Hill-Tout did field work among the Chehalis, Scowlitz, Lillooet, the Lekwungen of Victoria, the Island Halkomelem (Cowichan), and the Okanagan. These reports, with the Sechelt, constitute the five major contributions published by the Royal Anthropological Institute (see items #22, 23, 24, 27, 29 below). As the letter from E. Sidney Hartland (printed below) indicates, Hill-Tout was not in good health at this time; and the Okanagan proved to be his last field work (1906). The report was written up for the Winnipeg meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1909) and finally published in 1911.
In the midst of all this, Hill-Tout was appointed Justice of the Peace in Abbotsford on 20 April 1903 (certificate in Vancouver Museum).
This period of intense ethnological activity was capped by three major items of public recognition: (1) Hill-Tout was invited to give a paper at the meeting of the American Anthropological Association in San Francisco on 29 August 1905, subsequently published in the American Anthropologist (item #25); (2) he was invited to contribute the article on the Coast Salish in the ethnological survey of all Canada, edited by Franz Boas for the Ontario Ministry of Education (see item #26); and (3) Constable & Co. of London commissioned him to write one of their series on The Native Races of the British Empire (see item #28). In addition, he was made a fellow of the American Ethnological Society on 9 November 1908.
1909–1925
“As a lecturer upon Anthropology and cognate subjects Professor Hill-Tout has been in frequent demand for many years past, and his lecture tours have carried him to many parts of the American continent. He possesses the happy faculty of being able to appeal in a popular way to a general audience, no matter how complicated and scientific his subjects. This is notably apparent in his lecture upon The Origin and History of our Alphabets.' His musical and cultured voice and admirable choice of words have added to his popular appeal. One of his most successful lectures was delivered on May 27th 1915, to an audience of 500 people in the ballroom of the Chateau Laurier, Ottawa, when the Duke of Connaught, then Governor-General of Canada, was one of the audience. His subject was The Antiquity of Man in the Light of Modern Discoveries.' Upon that occasion an Ottawa newspaper in the course of its report observed, The lecturer dealt fascinatingly with his subject and proved that sometimes a study which is popularly supposed to be “dry” can be made exceedingly absorbing.' One of his most popular lectures is that upon the buried city of Quirigua in Central America. He is one of the leading authorities upon Totemism' and was quoted several times by Frazer in the latter’s monumental work upon that subject. Occasionally he has broken away in his lecturing from his scientific subjects, as in his lecture ‘Shakespeare, the Age, the Man and the Poet’" (University of British Columbia typescript).
In this period of public exposure, Hill-Tout’s major lectures and/or publications are as follows:
(a) February 1910, lecture to Vancouver Art, Historical and Scientific Society on “History of Totemism.”
(b) Lecture at the meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in Pittsburgh, 27–29 December 1911 (for abstract, see item #30); elected Vice-President of the Institute’s Canadian Department.
(c) March 1912, lecture to Vancouver Art, Historical and Scientific Society on “Antiquity of Man — Recent Archaeological Researches.”
(d) Lecture tour for the Archaeological Institute of America, Western Circuit, March 21 to April 17, 1913 in San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Denver, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle. Subject: “The Hieroglyphic Writings of the Ancients” or “Have We Found the Source of the Phoenician Alphabet?” (Illustrated with stereopticon).
(e) Lecture in Edmonton, reported in Edmonton Journal 1 July 1913.
(f) Read paper at Ottawa meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association 5 September 1913 on “Government Aid to Agriculture” (see item #31 below).
(g) Newspaper interview 24 May 1914 Daily News-Advertizer “Totems and Their Significance.”
(h) Contribution to a international symposium on Totemism announced in Anthropos 9 (1914) p. 287 – cancelled because of the war.
(i) March 1915, lecture to Vancouver Art, Historical and Scientific Society on “Totemism and Totem Poles.”
(j) Delivered the “Popular Lecture” at the meeting of the Royal Society of Canada, Ottawa, May 1915, “The Antiquity of Man in the Light of Modern Discoveries.”
(k) January 1916, lecture to the Art, Historical and Scientific Society (Vancouver) on “Romance of Archaeology.”
(l) Elected Vice-President of Section II of the Royal Society of Canada at May 1921 meeting (having been a member since June 1913), and gave an address: “The Phylogeny of Man from a New Angle,” published in the Transactions (item #35 below).
(m) Presided at Section II of the Royal Society of Canada May 1922 meeting; elected President.
(n) Two lectures at the Progressive Business Men’s Club, Portland, Oregon, 10,31 May 1923.
(o) Presidential Address, Section II of the Royal Society of Canada, May 1923, Ottawa; published in Transactions (item #36 below).
(p) “New Trends in Anthropology” — address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting, 7 August 1924; reported in Science 60 (1924) p. xii of Supplement.
(q) Series of articles in the New Westminster Columbian [not checked] is apparently the material from which Hill-Tout compiled his book, Man and his Ancestors in the Light of Organic Evolution (1925-item #37 below).
Hill-Tout at Excavation of a Cairn near Harmon Mills, 1932.
“With the advent of the Great War, several of the Professor’s sons went overseas with the Canadian forces, and he himself enlisted … and managed to get as far as Montreal, when his age was discovered and he was not permitted to go on further. So he returned to Vancouver and the farm, which he ran during the war.”23
1926–1944
“I am a Vancouverite myself. I contribute to your revenues both directly and indirectly. I have seen this city, of which we are all so justly proud, grow from a village to her present leading position. My faith in her future has never wavered. I believe she is destined to play a great and important part in the future of this province and the Dominion" (Hill-Tout quoted in the University of British Columbia typescript).
In a six-year period Hill-Tout