Bella Coola Indians, Vol. 1 and 2

Thomas S. Abler is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Waterloo and the author of A Canadian Indian Bibliography, 1960-1970.

This massive classic in ethnography is a welcome reissue. An
enlightening introduction by John Barker chronicles the fascinating
story of the field work of T.F. McIlwraith and the obstacles that
prevented publication of his findings until a quarter-century after he
completed his investigations.

McIlwraith was hired to study the Bella Coola, the northern-most
Salish-speaking group on the British Columbia coast, by the director of
the anthropology division of the National Museum in Ottawa, Edward Sapir
(a former student of Franz Boas, of Columbia University). Much has been
made of the influence of Boasian anthropology in Canada (through the
agency of Sapir), but McIlwraith’s monograph strongly reflects his own
British education.

The publication of McIlwraith’s completed work was delayed because
some members of Parliament had been shocked by the sexual references in
National Museum publications. A deputy minister decreed in 1929 “the
Canadian government could publish nothing which might offend a
12-year-old school-girl.” References to such things as the drinking of
menstrual blood, or to an elder holding his hand over his
granddaughter’s anus so that the myths he told her would not escape
her memory, resulted in the National Museum’s refusal to publish
McIlwraith’s study. McIlwraith attempted to present material in “the
way which the Bella Coola would regard as logical,” which meant that
controversial references were scattered throughout the monograph,
prohibiting the easy editing of passages offensive to Ottawa
bureaucrats.

The initial puritanical refusal to publish McIlwraith’s manuscript
was followed by the economic constraints of the Depression and World War
II. Thus, this two-volume study did not reach print until 1948. The
essence of Bella Coola culture is found in the first volume. A large
portion (more than 250 pages) of the second volume is devoted to the
Winter Ceremonial, the major event in the Bella Coola calendar. The
second volume also gives consideration to more specialized
topics—songs, traditions of warfare, and folk tales (as distinct from
the myths detailed in the first volume).

McIlwraith’s work may well describe a Bella Coola life that never
existed as he records it. He includes life as he observed it, life as
remembered by the persons he interviewed, and life as it should have
been according to the lessons taught to those with whom he worked. As
such, it has the faults characteristic of the “salvage ethnography”
of the early years of this century. But there is also much of value
here. McIlwraith’s year of field work and nearly 1400 pages of text
reveal the complexities and richness of the Bella Coola way of life.