The Downfall of Temlaham by Marius Barbeau (review)

360 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW In addition Professor Logan might have shownus more distinctly the relation betweentrade-union organizationand the ebb and flow of industrialprosperity. He doesnot by any meansneglectthisaspect of the subject,but a fuller treatmentandmoreboldness in interpretation would have made the matter more illuminating. Admirable enough in hisworksofar ashegoes, wecanonlywishthat hehadgone further. ALSXAN•)ER Brot•)¾ The Downfall of Temlaham. By MARIUSBARBEAU.Toronto: The Macmillan Companyof Canada. 1928. Pp. xii, 253; illustrations in colour. To the Indians of North America the coming of Europeans was a cataclysm; eagerto obtaintradegoods theyneglected their usualtasks in order to hunt skinsfor the white man; metal toolsand utensilsreplacedtheir own laborioushandiwork;tribal landswere occupied by the new-comers; authority waned as chiefsfound themselves in the presence of thosegreaterthan themselves; newdiseases decimated the population,and new beliefs,disturbingalike to religiousand social customs, dislocatedthe delicateequilibriumof society. Whole tribes did not know in which direction to turn, and the disruption of communal rites handeddownfrom dim antiquity left individualsrudderless at a time when changedconditionsdemandedthe greateststability of character. The white man may belittle the culture of the Indians, but to them it was a proud heritage,hallowedby the preceptsof their ancestors, and its disappearance has beena deep and soul-revealing tragedy. It is of this tragedythat Mr. Barbeauwrites,as it appearedto the Gitksanof the upperSkeenariver,in northernBritish Columbia, some fortyyearsago. He weaves hisstory--theincidents havebeencollected from the older people--arounda young Indian couple;the husband wishes toadoptthewhite man'sways;thewife,conservative, regards his failuretofollowtribal customs asimpious, andhisunwillingness to obtain a chieftain'sposition for their youngsonascontemptible.Sheprevails; the lad is ceremonially inducted,but a jealousrival casts a spellandhe dies--withmanyothers--inan epidemic of measles.The heart-broken motherblamesthe spell-thrower andgoads herhusband into murdering him in revenge. A vendettaisbarelyavertedby the elderson payment of muchblood-money, and the excitement haspracticallyabatedwhen a worthless white man, eagerfor a little authority, persuades the government that the Indianshave rebelledby failing to appealto Canadian law. Newsoftheimpending punitiveexpedition reopens theoldwounds; REVIEWS Or BOOKS 361 those who have acceptedpresentsfrom the murderer return them in dreadof beingimplicated,and hehimself,thoughstill yearningto follow the newways,fleesto the interior. Believingthat a white judge would regardhiscrimeasjustifiable,he later returnsto give himselfup, but is shotdownby a callousspecialconstable. The Gitksan,seething,discuss a raid on the nearestwhite post but are pacifiedby a promisethat the over-zealous official shall be punished. The account ends with the acquittal of the prisoner,leavingthe uncomprehending Indians to brood over what they regardasa brokenpromiseand a miscarriage of justice. It is a simplestory, the kind of thing that must have happenedrepeatedly in all parts of the continent but has remained undescribedby Indian and contemporaryauthor alike; by the former, through inability to write, by the latter, throughignoranceof the native point of view. In connectionwith this seriesof events, the author has been able to describe muchof the richceremoniallife of the coastalpeoples of British Columbia. The masks, the dancing, the singing, the all-important influence of ancestralprerogatives areapparent,anddiscursivedialogues illustrate the long-windedand grandiloquentoratory of the chiefs,while myths--historicalaccounts to the Gitksan--are representedby three typical legends. The distinctiveart of the peopleis indicated in paintings of Skeenascenes by well-knownartists, their works, beautifully reproducedin colour, adding to the attractivenessof the book. The volume shouldappeal to the generalpublic, while anthropologistsand historianswill look forward to the author's scientificreport for details of the practicesto which he here referscasually. T. F. MClLWRAXTI{ ThePeople oftheTwilight. By DIAMOND JENNESS. With anintroduction by FRIDTJOF NANSEN. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1928. Pp. xii, 247; illustrations;maps. LxFEamong primitive peoplesbelongsto the realm of boyhoodfiction for most of us, or at least to tales of adventure of byegonedays in lands far away. In this prosaiccentury it soundsunreal for an author to say (p. 31): Light [awoman'sname]wascharmingasa hostess.Shelickedmy plate before eachmealthat I might eat from a cleandish,and whenhandingme boiledseal meatfromhersteaming potshesqueezed it tenderlybetween thumbandforefinger that no surplusjuice mightdrip on my clothing. Lackingcandy,sheshowered on me the national substitute, delicate cubesof oily seal-blubber;but, lacking the nationaltaste, I slippedmostof them surreptitiously to the dogs. Yet this took placein Canada, and no earlier than 1914. Jenness, asethnologistto fhe CanadianArctic Expeditionof 1913-18, ...