DCHP-2

Stick Indian [see note below; cf. stick²] B.C. and Northwest DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

• n.

  an Indian from the bush country of the interior, originally so called by the Indians of the Pacific Coast.

  See also: stick ((2))   Stick  stick Indian  

  • 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.

  • 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.