Charles Hill-Tout

Career

Charles Hill-Tout studied theology before he moved from England to Canada. After immigrating to Canada, he became headmaster of a boys' school in Vancouver in 1891. He bought land in the Fraser Valley and eventually moved out to farm it and carry on field studies with Indigenous peoples. Hill-Tout became perhaps one of Canada's most important amateur anthropologists largely through his friendships with Salish peoples (see also Interior Salish; Coast Salish; Central Coast Salish; Northern Coast Salish). He became president of the anthropological section of the Royal Society of Canada, to which he was elected in 1913. He was also a fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain. He published The Native Races of British North America: The Far West (1907), but his most important work appears in the field reports collected by Ralph Maud in the 4-vol The Salish People (1978).