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Stick Indian
[see note below; cf. stick2]
B.C. and Northwest
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.
n.
an Indian from the bush country of the interior, originally so called by the Indians of the Pacific Coast.
In the Chinook Jargon, stick meant anything of wood, from a ship's mast to a forest; hence "Stick" Indians were the forest dwellers as opposed to the people of the coast.
Quotations
1887
They are classed with the "Stick Indians," by the coast tribes, and have been assumed to be Tinné, but their language very clearly shows that they are in reality of Thlinkit people.
1913
Coast Indians . . . found their profits from fur trade with the interior, or "Stick Indian" as he was known, because he came from the land of forest. . . .
1958
All along the banks were camped the Stick Indians, dirty, ragged, and sick-looking, smoking salmon and offering to buy or sell everything and anything from those who floated by.
1963
. . . snowshoes are known only as a strange accoutrement of the "Stick Indians," who inhabit the area north from the Blackwater basin, and with whom the Chicotin sometimes come in contact.