Charles Hill-Tout

Charles Hill-Tout

Charles Hill-Tout, anthropologist (b at Buckland, Eng 28 Sept 1858; d at Vancouver 30 June 1944). After studying theology, Hill-Tout immigrated to Canada and in 1891 became headmaster of a boys' school in Vancouver. He bought land in the Fraser Valley and eventually moved out to farm it and carry on field studies among the natives. Hill-Tout became perhaps Canada's most important amateur anthropologist, largely through his friendships with the Salish people. He became president of the anthropological section of the Royal Society of Canada, to which he was elected in 1913, and 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).