Teit, James Alexander National Historic Person
Spences Bridge, British Columbia
Portrait of James Teit, Spences Bridge, BC
© Edward Sapir / Musée canadien de l'histoire | Canadian Museum of History / no. de contrôle 18454 | control no. 18454
Address :
Spences Bridge, British Columbia
Recognition Statute:
Historic Sites and Monuments Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-4)
Designation Date:
1994-11-24
Life Date:
1864 to 1922
Other Name(s):
-
Teit, James Alexander
(Designation Name)
Research Report Number:
1994-049
Importance:
Influential ethnographer of interior Salish tribes
Plaque(s)
Existing plaque: Spences Bridge, British Columbia
James Teit was the leading ethnographer of the Interior Salish of Southern British Columbia. A Shetlander of Norse ancestry, he came to Spences Bridge in 1884, and married into the Nlaka'pamux Nation. Encouraged by Franz Boas, a German-American anthropologist who visited the area in 1894, Teit excelled in recording the oral traditions and mythology of the Salish, and also of the Dene and Kootenay. A hunting guide and champion of Native land rights, he was Special Agent for the Allied Tribes of British Columbia. His works helped preserve an Aboriginal world view for posterity.