Charles Hill-Tout

Born in England and educated at Oxford University, Charles Hill-Tout was a pioneer settler at Abbotsford in the Fraser Valley, 70 kilometers east of Vancouver. He devoted many years to ethnographic and anthropological field work among the Salish people of the west coast recording their customs, stories and art. His scholarly articles were published in the periodicals of the day and he also spent time popularizing the stories and information he amassed in a way that only a local resident ethnographer could do. He was at one time president of the Anthropological section of The Royal Society of Canada and was a fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Britain. The Salish People is a four volume collection of all the field work done by Charles Hill-Tout in the period 1895-1911, divided by specific geographical and cultural areas: The Salish People Volume I: The Thompson and the Okanagan, The Salish People Volume II: The Squamish and the Lillooet, The Salish People Volume III: The Mainland Halkomelem, The Salish People Volume IV: The Sechelt and the South Eastern Tribes of Vancouver Island.