Indian Church and Mission House at Nanaimo 42 Indian Houses, with Group of Heathen Natives 48 “I could see two wild, savage-looking men,” etc. 74 “The great big fellow danced up and down,” etc. 78 Two Flathead Centenarians 86 “One day I slipped in and found the old fellow rattling over him” 122 Witch Doctor and his Wife--“Coal Tyee”--Crosby teaching Indian Chief 128 “We were bailing out as hard as we could” 146 First Protestant Church in the Chilliwack Valley 172 Coqualeetza Indian Institute 192 Group of Students, Coqualeetza Institute 198 Amos Cushan--Sarah Shee-at-ston--David Sallosalton--Captain John Su-a-lis 208 Skowkale Church--Skowkale Mission People 232 The Transformed Bar-room, Victoria 236 [Illustration: FLATHEAD WOMAN AND CHILD (Showing method in use among these Indians for flattening the heads of the infant children.)] * * * * * AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS. CHAPTER I. _THE FLATHEADS AND THE “BOOK OF HEAVEN.”_ “They may not want you, but they need you.” “Far, far away, in heathen darkness dwelling, Millions of souls forever may be lost. Who, who will go, Salvation’s story telling, Looking to Jesus, counting not the cost?” The An-ko-me-nums, as they call themselves, are a branch of the great Salish or Flathead family of Indians, whose territory is that part of the Pacific Coast now known as Northern Oregon, Washington, and Southern British Columbia. The Flatheads derive the name from their custom of compressing the skull in childhood until the whole front of the head is flattened and broadened. They live along the great arteries of travel, the Columbia River in the south, the Fraser River in the north, and their tributaries, as well as on the shores of those inland waters of the West known as Puget Sound and the Gulf of Georgia. Unlike the great nations of the East and of the plains, who possess something of national unity, they are composed of a number of branches, speaking languages bearing scarcely any resemblance to each other--the Chinooks, the Cayuses and the Sinahomish in the south; the Shuswaps and the Okanagans in the interior of British Columbia; and the An-ko-me-nums, known under such names as the Cowichans--after tribes on Vancouver Island, which some believe to be the parent stock--and the Stawlo, which literally means the River Indians.