USA > Alaska > Among the Alaskans > Part 11
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The Presbyterian Church, through the action of her missionary agent, whose acts the Church has not repudiated, finds herself with Alaska on her hands. It is too late now to question whether we had
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better cultivate the Alaskan field. The question before us is, "How well will we do it?" knowing that in whatever we do we give future ages a specimen of Pres- byterian work.
KUTCHIN LODGE ON THE UPPER YUKON RIVER, ALASKA.
CHAPTER XII.
BOATS AND SAW-MILLS.
N behalf of our Alaskan mission-field certain requests, to some people very astonishing, have been made. The workers at the station, and Dr. Jackson after his yearly tours, have stated wants that have . excited some wonderment. As we have said in our chapter on "homes," our missionaries sent to Alaska are people of piety and common sense and have the full confidence of the Church. Therefore, when these missionaries assert that certain things are needed in the prosecution of their duties, we might as well take this as a plain state- ment of important facts and meet it in a spirit of liberality. Some of these extra- ordinary, as not every-day, requests are for- I
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BELLS, FLAGS,
CANOES, SAW-MILLS, STEAM-LAUNCHES.
We shall presently add a few others, which, as being of a personal nature, our missionaries have been too modest to mention.
We will begin by saying that our Alaskan missions are not the only missions that have made these demands. Our own churches have sent one or two boats to Africa, and did well in sending them. A Scotch mis- sionary in New Guinea wanted a steam- boat. The " directors " did not know how they could consistently give a steamboat : they hoped the missionary could get on without such an unusual appliance for gospel-preaching. However, he found a wealthy lady to listen to his plea, and she brought light to the eyes of the directors by a cheque large enough to buy and equip a neat little steamer. Many letters from the New-Guinea mission would not have
THE HARBOR OF SITKA, WITH OUTLYING ISLANDS.
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BOATS AND SAW-MILLS.
accomplished so much as did that slip of paper with a good name on it, and now the steamboat Ellengowan is opening up New Guinea to the gospel.
When Mr. Duncan began his work at Metlahkatlah he found that he needed a schooner, and he soon had the boat; then he found that he must secure a saw-mill, and he presently had the mill; and both vessel and mill have helped in the wonder- ful results obtained at Metlahkatlah.
To begin with the saw-mill. In Alaska there is lumber enough to house the people comfortably, if it can be cut properly for use. So long as only axes are to be had for felling and shaping timber, the diffi- culty of putting up new houses or partition- ing or improving old ones will be great. We have already shown that the present Alaskan house is not an abode conducive to health or to decency. The missionaries are encouraging the Indians to build houses with rooms, chimneys and windows. Now, these are humble and needful requirements in a house, and civilization cannot be secured without them. The Indians are anxious for
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better-or, as they say, " United-States "- houses. They are willing to cut down the trees, to convey them to the mill and to pay for the sawing of their lumber. The mis- sion-premises-the dwelling-house, church, schoolhouse and industrial home-can be put up much more cheaply, quickly and commodiously if a saw-mill is within a reasonable distance. The mills will soon become valuable property, because emi- grants will go in increasing numbers to Alaska, and will need lumber for their houses.
As has already been stated, the Alaskan tribes are small-generally from three hun- dred to nine hundred. These families live in from two to five little villages lying from five to thirty miles apart. The missionary cannot be in all these places ; his visiting- tours will not be as effective as could be wished, because it will be difficult to find a shelter for himself or a building fit for services. That the church and the school may exert their full influence, and that the Indians may be encouraged to preserve order and to keep the Sabbath, it is desir-
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able that many of the families may be persuaded to live near the station. To do this they must build houses at the station; and that the houses may be comfortable and the difficulties of the removal not over- whelming, saw-mills should be within a certain number of miles.
The missionary to the Hydahs writes : " Do your very best to get a saw-mill; it is absolutely essential to the highest suc- cess of the mission to the Hydahs-almost a sine qua non. With a live missionary, a saw-mill and a Christian trader at the store, we can make the model-mission of Alaska." This saw-mill at Hydah would prepare lum- ber for Haines if there were means of trans- porting it to that place, and that the trans- portation is abundantly easy we shall soon show.
In regard to the value of saw-mills to the missions in Alaska the Rev. Mr. Brady says: "The first step in the material work in Alaska is a saw-mill. However anxious the Christian natives may be to have sepa- rate homes for their families, it is almost im- possible for them to procure the necessary
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lumber for the erection of their houses. Several times leading Indians have said to the missionaries, 'We would not ask you to give us lumber, but would gladly pay for it if there was a mill here to make it.' It is a common remark of the people when urged to better lives: 'How can we do better, and how can we keep our girls pure, while several families are compelled to live and sleep in the same room ?' If these people are to be separated into fami- lies, each of one man with his wife and chil- dren, they must be assisted by the mission- ary society or the government. A saw- mill will aid them most. And they should be required to pay for what they get."
Dr. Jackson, with full knowledge of the field, says : "It becomes, then, a part of the mission-work to create material industries as well as give gospel privileges. If any church or individuals will give two thou- sand dollars to purchase and erect a saw- mill in Alaska, they will provide some of the natives with employment, and at a rea- sonable rate furnish the materials with which they can erect homes for themselves."
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These saw-mills, put up at suitable sites where they would be accessible to the greatest number of villages, would be both useful and profitable.
Next to the saw-mill in importance comes the steam-launch. And before any one has time to grow a well-sized prejudice in the soil of this suggestion, let us explain that it is full of the seed of common-sense. If one or two steam-launches are provid- ed, then the lumber cut at our mills can be carried or pushed in rafts, as on the Ohio River, to the localities where it is needed. And let us respectfully suggest that just now Alaska has no roads.
Again : all the smaller boats plying the Alaskan waters belong to traders. They, of course, are governed by the traders' ideas of profit; they go and come to suit him, and not to suit the public. Now, this is natural and not to be complained of ; but on this account our missionaries are frequently deprived of mails, of stores, of freight, of things needful to their very ex- istence, as in case of Mr. and Mrs. Willard. If Mr. Willard had had a steam-launch at
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his disposal, he could have readily made the seventy-five miles down the open inlet and procured the food, medicine and medi- cal aid which his family and the Indians needed, and many Indians' lives would have been saved; but on snow-shoes he could not traverse more than a hundred miles by land over an unknown country lying eight feet under snow.
The steam-launch needs but a very small crew, and Indians are quick to learn and very careful in execution; two Indians, with one white man, would be all the hands needed. Indeed, a monthly trip would not take too much time for the mis- sionary to run his boat himself, giving op- portunity for visiting villages on the route, preaching and gathering up pupils for the schools.
A grand advantage of the steam-launch owned by the mission would be in helping to destroy the whisky-trade. The mission- boat could carry freight at low rates, and so monopolize trade, to a degree, by a craft that carried no whisky, and no mo- lasses for hoochinoo purposes. Now the
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boats carry up liquor and institute a reign of death.
The canoe is the next great want. Every station should have a canoe. Remember, there are no roads. The mission-tours must be made in canoes. Exercise must be had and errands done by canoe. Ex- peditions to visit the sick or to bury the dead must be by canoe. The hire of a canoe is from five to ten dollars for each trip; the canoe itself would cost from fifty to one hundred dollars. In busy fish- ing-seasons the Indians will not rent their canoes for any price. The home-pupils need the canoe for exercise, for practice and for fishing-excursions to bring in food for their home. We have seen how much Mrs. McFarland felt the need of a canoe- so much that she and Miss Dunbar, from their small means, subscribed ten dollars each for the purchase of one. The canoe is not a luxury, but a necessity.
The bell is absolutely needed at each sta- tion to call the people to school and to church. The people have no way of tell- ing time ; and if regularity and punctuality
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are worth anything in schools or in churches, we must, in Alaska, have a bell to secure them. At the Takoo mines, when the bell sent by Mrs. Langdon was being shipped from one steamer to another, some young fellows, long exiled from the familiar Sab- bath sound, set it up on the wharf and rang it-the first Protestant church-bell that ever rang in Alaska. As its notes swelled in the air Indians and miners flocked to the wharf demanding a church service. At once a choir was arranged, an interpreter called and the gospel preached. Many white people within range of the stations will attend church if they hear the long-ago familiar sound of a bell. The bell calls to the emigrant with the voice of the past.
The American flag is also needed at all our stations. These Indians have a nat- ural genius for patriotism, and their love for the United States should be fostered. If such love had been fostered in all our aborigines, many kindly eyes would be looking forth where now are empty sock- ets in skulls bleaching on Western plains.
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The flag is also needed to tell when Sunday comes. As yet, the tribes find it hard to keep the days of the week and rightly to place the holy day. The flag, unfurled at sunrise, would warn them to lay aside labor for the Sabbath and prepare to go to church when the bell called the hour.
And now, to be plain with the good sisters of the Church, no lady should have been sent out, as Mrs. Willard was, to a station out of reach of all help and all white people, without sending with her a Christian servant-woman. This would have been mere humane common sense. It is not impossible to find deeply-pious, kind- ly and plainly-educated working-women who will gladly go on such a mission, not only helping the missionary in the house- hold, but taking a class in the Sabbath- school, and going, as time served, from house to house teaching the Indian women good ways of working. There are many
such women, whose daily presence would be a help and a comfort, who would be the mainstay of the mission-home. If Mrs. Willard had had such a one-cheerful in
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trial and ready in emergency-she need not have come near dying for want of warm food, nor need she, unable to stand, have nursed her sick child as she sat bol- stered up in her chair. Why send out a lady to a life of unusual labor and trial, and send her deprived of the manual help to which she has all her life been accus- tomed ? Because she submits to suffering and privation for Christ's sake, is it any reason that we should add to her suffering and privation by neglecting to supply her needs ? We have enough plain duties with- out weaving martyr-crowns for other people.
Akin to such provision for the daily needs of our missionaries, it will be well often to send out to the stations a married pair, of missionary spirit and assured piety, who, being able to give some aid in the Sab- bath-school and the prayer-meetings, shall particularly devote themselves to secular duties and instruction. A man who could cultivate the mission-land, teach the In- dians agriculture, know something of car- pentry and be able to work at launch or saw-mill, where these belonged to the mis-
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sion, would be invaluable at the station, and would set the missionary free for the higher work of gospel-instructing. We should not send the missionary to a station with a civil suggestion that he perform the work done by some five men at home.
The wife of this lay-missionary might be competent to have an especial part in a daily or tri-weekly sewing class-one who could teach the Indian women baking and laundry-work, who would be ready to aid the missionary's wife in visiting and nurs- ing the sick and in giving the Indian women lessons in these duties and in the care of young children. Such lay-missionaries are well known in German stations. Such helpers as these could also, in a manner, supply the place of the missionaries in time of sickness or when they went now and then, as they should surely do, to visit the other stations, compare methods and success of work and get needed rest.
Let those who are liberal and wise- hearted ponder these things, for all these needs must be supplied by individual and especial benevolence.
CHAPTER XIII.
EDUCATION IN ALASKA.
T HE tribe of Alaskan Indians with whom the Russians came most in con- tact was the Aleuts. Many of the Russian employés of the fur company intermarried with this tribe, and their creole children were trained with some care in the Russian schools. These creoles rose frequently to high positions under the fur company or the Russian goverment: in their numbers we find officers, sea-captains, priests of the Greek Church, traders, directors of the company. Etolin, who by force of his merit and talent raised himself to the first position in the colony-that of governor and chief director of the fur company-was a creole. When an Aleut full-blood Indian entered the schools and showed ability, no hindrance was placed in the way of his advancement ;
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occasionally he became the favorite of some Russian officer and was helped rapidly forward. Many Indians, in these circum- stances, exhibited the capacity of their race for acquiring knowledge and making prog- ress in letters. Several of them had a good degree of attainment in the classics. One of the best physicians during the Rus- sian occupation was an Aleutian; another Aleut was the best navigator ever in the company's service; several were distin- guished as accountants and merchants.
The palmy days of schools in Alaska were from 1859 to 1867, when five insti- tutions of learning were open in Sitka. After the purchase, all these, with the ex- ception of two small ones taught by Rus- sian priests and having an average attend- ance of ten each, were abandoned. Schools were again opened in Alaska, as we have seen, at Wrangell, Sitka and other stations, as the Presbyterian Church sent out mis- sionaries, and at all the stations the most vigorous work has been done in the school, young and old being encouraged to attend. The officers of the United States men-of-
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war who have been stationed in Alaskan waters have shown a most noble and en- lightened spirit in regard to these schools ; they have aided the teachers in securing the attendance of the Indians, have given liberally of their private means, and have done their utmost to make the institutions popular.
When the Rev. Drs. Kendall and Jackson made their visit to Alaska, they were offici- ally requested by the government at Wash- ington to collect information concerning the status of the Indian population, with a view to furnishing the natives education under au- thority of Congress, as has been done among · other Indian tribes in various parts of our country. Not only in Alaska, but among the churches and before the congressional committees, has Dr. Jackson pressed the course of education in Alaska as the basis of all the work of civilization to be there accomplished.
No form of government so depends for efficiency and perpetuity on the general edu- cation of the citizens as does the republican. A republic will inevitably fall if its people
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are uneducated. The life of a republic is a perpetual struggle against ignorance. The strength of any nation is in the ratio of the acquaintance of the people with the alphabet and their obedience to the ten commandments. France fell before Prussia, not on the question of guns, but on that of spelling-books. An army that could read demolished an army that could not read. France herself recognized this, and almost her first effort at reform was sending schoolmasters into the army and opening communal schools.
Many of the finest thinkers in America are convinced that there should be an edu- cational limit to the franchise; our ablest men are among those who see the ne- cessity of compulsory education. One of the reports from the United States De- partment of Superintendence of Educa- tion says: "An ignorant voter is a peril to the perpetuity and prosperity of our free institutions." Elections by the illiter- ate are a farce or a tragedy; they often begin in one, and end in the other. Whisky and money rule the polls where there come
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to vote men who cannot read their ballot and who have not read the newspaper. Lord Sherburne calls the ballot, in the hands of the man who does not know his letters, "the apotheosis of brute force."
Our general government has come to realize the fruitlessness of trying to com- pose our Indian difficulties with either bot- tles, bullets or bullocks. Books are the only true civilizers; and so at Carlisle, at Hampden, at Albuquerque and at Forest Grove we have now gathered hundreds of Indian youth-material for citizens. In the beginning of our governmental relations with Alaska it is well to deal with the Indian question there on the basis of the school.
Since the opening of our missions in Alaska the importance of establishing common schools has been urged upon our congressional committees. At Wash- ington, at New York, at Asbury Park, at Chautauqua and at other places, Dr. Jackson has within two years addressed large educational assemblies on the topic,
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"The Neglect of Education in Alaska." As a result of these efforts, a request for an appropriation of fifty thousand dollars by Congress was made by President Ar- thur on behalf of education in Alaska.
When the school-building at Sitka burned down, a request, strongly endorsed by Sec- retary Folger, was before the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, that the hospital-building occupied by the boys' boarding-school of Sitka should be pre- sented to a board of three trustees, to hold for the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church, on condition of the premises being repaired and kept open, on proper footing, as a school for Indian boys.
For some years it was the plan of the government to assign to the different re- ligious denominations of the country cer- tain tribes of Indians, in certain specified localities, for the establishment of schools among them. At these schools certain expenses-as the salary of teachers-were paid by the government, and the church provided the other funds needed. If such a plan could be worked out in Alaska, it
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would greatly help the natives of the Ter- ritory, the government affording support for the teacher, on the ground of a public- school system, and the Church seeing that the teacher was one competent to give religious as well as secular training to the young. The Presbyterian Church has already sent out a number of teachers and established, at large outlay, boarding- and day-schools, with various buildings.
Alaska is the only section of our country where the government has not furnished aid for schools, unless it be in places where local civil aid was sufficient. The friends of education everywhere, in the name of common justice, should press Congress for a school fund for Alaska. The ignor- ance there is a sore on the body politic ; and "if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it."
The National Bureau of Education (Feb- ruary 15, 1882) transmitted to Congress a special message, endorsed by the Secretary of the Interior, asking for fifty thousand dollars for educational purposes in Alaska.
Report of Alaskan schools, March, 1882 :
EDUCATION IN ALASKA. 305
FORT WRANGELL.
I. The Industrial Home : Mrs. McFarland. Pupils, 30.
II. The Day-School : Miss Dunbar and two assistants. Pu- pils, 100+.
III. The Beach School : Mrs. Corlies. Attendance, large, but variable ; of visiting tribes.
IV. The Night-School for Adults : Messrs. Young and Corlies.
SITKA.
I. The Boarding-School for Boys : Inmates, 30.
II. The Day-School : Mr. Alonzo Austin, Miss Austin ; Ma- tron, Mrs. Austin. Pupils, 250+.
III. Russian School at Sitka : Mrs. Zechard. Pupils, 50.
TAKOO.
Summer School : Dr. and Mrs. Corlies.
WILLARD. Day-School : Louie and Tillie Paul (natives). Pupils, 60.
HAINES. Day-School : Rev. E. S. Willard. Pupils, 70.
BOYD. Day-School : Mr. and Mrs. W. B. Styles. Pupils, 80.
JACKSON. Day-School : Mr. J. E. Chapman. Pupils, 63.
UNALASHKA. Russian School : Greek priest. Pupils, 15.
BELKOFSKY. Russian School : Greek priest. Pupils, 17.
SEAL ISLANDS. Two Schools : Under care of the Alaskan Commercial Com- pany. Attendance, moderate.
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The above represent all the educational privileges of Alaska in 1882, leaving a population of twenty thousand entirely unprovided with schools or teachers. All the institutions above enumerated are on the coast islands, or closely upon the coast, while the interior is as yet entirely destitute. The tribes reached are the Aleuts, the Stickeens, the Takoos, the Hoonyahs, the Chilcats, the Hydahs and the Sitkas. Other tribes are appealing for schools and teach- ers.
A large field is yet to be reached; for this men and money in no small quantities are called for. It is only fair that to the support of the ordinary day-schools, which are giving instruction in the simplest branches of education and fitting a large population to be useful and self-supporting citizens, government should lend its aid.
But, while philanthropists and friends of education everywhere claim this aid, the Church does not expect to fall back upon it as lessening her own donations, ever increasingly needed in the Sabbath- and boarding-schools and for the sending and
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maintaining of missionaries. We look hopefully forward to a day when the faith- ful toilers in the work in Alaska will see the reward of their heroic and self-sacrificing labors in an enlightened and thriving popu- lation, and will joyfully reflect that they have rescued from extinction these interesting branches of the human family. It has been mentioned that at the recommenda- tion of the Hon. Vincent Colger, in 1870 a request was made from the Board of Indian Commissioners that Congress should appro- priate one hundred thousand dollars for the education and civilization of Indians in Alaska. The Secretary of the Interior in April, 1870, urged this request upon the United States Senate. The Hon. Felix R. Brunot, chairman of the Board of Indian Commissioners, also urged this appropria- tion. Finally, a bill was passed appropriating fifty thousand dollars for the establishment of schools for the Alaskan Indians, and placing these tribes under the care of the Depart- ment of the Interior. But, though this bill was passed, nothing was done, and for years such men as Brunot, Farwell, Dodge,
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Stuart, Bishop and others pleaded hard for government schools and the use of the specified funds. Absolutely nothing was done until 1877, when Mrs. McFarland began her work at Fort Wrangell. The fifty thousand dollars appropriated in 1870 have proved a vox præterea nihil ; it is to be hoped that the fifty thousand dollars called for in 1881 will have a more substantial exist- ence. Alaska must have common schools and a government. At present there is absolutely no law but revenue law. When that is infringed, the culprits, if they can be secured, are sent to Portland, Oregon, for trial. For several winters the need of Territorial government for Alaska has been urged upon members of Congress; without this, neither life nor property is safe, nor has business any protection in the Territory.
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