USA > Alaska > Among the Alaskans > Part 12
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CHAPTER XIV.
BURIAL CUSTOMS OF THE ALASKANS.
S INCE the earliest times, various meth- ods of disposing of the dead have been in vogue among men. These may be briefly divided as earth-burial, aërial burial, water-burial and cremation, or burning. These modes of burial do not have each a separate locale in the various races and tribes, but all the forms may be found to exist in the same race. For instance, our American Indians practice all these meth- ods; and so, from the earliest known date, all the above fashions were used in Asia and in Africa, the religion, the climate or the peculiar circumstances of a country regulating the popularity or the univer- sality of particular fashions.
In dividing as above, earth-burial would include cave-burial and the use of tombs built upon the ground; also in either earth
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or aërial burial mummifying the dead may be included. There are also places where one or two of these modes may be combined, as in Siam, where a body is placed, doubled up, in an urn or a jar, having holes for drainage of all moisture; and after a year, during which the body shrivels in this urn, it is either buried or burned.
In common with other Indians of our country, the Alaskans have several styles of disposing of their dead. We give a brief glance at these.
I. EARTH- BURIAL.
This is probably the oldest form of burial, that practiced by the antediluvians-at least in the line of Seth. We find the elder branch of the Shemites, of which Abraham be- came the representative, using earth-bur- ial. Among Christian nations, with more or less simplicity of religious form, the body is committed to the dust. Where earth- burial survives in heathenism, it is associated with heathen ceremonies and superstitions.
The Alaskan believes that in the next world the dead need those same aids and
LODGE-BURIAL.
BURIAL-CUSTOMS OF THE ALASKANS. 313
comforts of food, clothes and fire that they needed in this. The Hereafter is vague and horrible ; a strange terror broods over the world to come, and upon that mysterious journey from the regions of the known and the finite to the unknown and the infinite.
If a person dies in his house, most of the Alaskan tribes hold that house sacred to the dead and unfit thereafter for the habi- tation of the survivors; so no living foot may cross that threshold which once the dead has passed in his awful silence. Therefore the dying one, instead of be- ing allowed to rest in peace in his last hours, is hastily lifted from his couch and put out of doors by a hole in the rear wall, so that neither house nor threshold may belong in mystic lien to the departed. 'When an earth-burial is made, clothing, weapons, domestic utensils and food are placed in and upon the grave. A fire also is often lighted, and kept burning near the mound for some time, that the spirits may be propitiated and the dead not be cold and without fire with which to cook in the next world. Mr. Willard describes several
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scenes where, bodies having been buried, the friends afterward became distressed as to the state of the dead and insisted upon building large funeral-fires above the graves.
Mr. W. H. Dall states that cave-burial was the most ancient method in Alaska, and describes the caves of Adakh and Amaknak. At Adakh there are also burial-mounds, those so far found being small. It will be strange if large ones are not discovered in Alaska, for mound-burial has been practiced from time immemorial by the Mongolian races and the Ugrians. A line of mounds stretches eastward from ancient Lydia, and runs out even on the Kamtchatka or the Chuckee peninsula. Dall also states that poor and unpopular individuals were in burial wrapped in mat- ting and laid on a bed of moss without carv- ings or offerings near them. We must also remember that slaves, poor widows, young orphans and many others in Alaska are given no burial, but are merely exposed, cast out in the woods or left on the sea- shore for birds, beasts and fishes to devour.
BURIAL-CUSTOMS OF THE ALASKANS. 315
Up to the historic period many Alaskans made mummies of the dead or dried the body in as lifelike a position as possible, putting skin, wooden or clay masks on the faces and ornamenting the wrappings with pictures and totems. On the Aleutian isl- ands bodies are embalmed or dried and kept for a long time. Mothers will retain children's bodies in the house for months, attending to them daily with loving care.
II. AËRIAL BURIAL .*
I. Lodge-Burial .- Captain F. W. Beech- ey in his Narrative of a Voyage describes Alaskan lodge-burial. The example he details is at Cape Espenberg. Here was really a burial-ground, as a number of the mortuary lodges were grouped. A double tent of drift-wood is put loosely together in a conical form. The logs and spars are fastened with sufficient closeness to prevent the depredations of wolves and foxes. A platform of drift-wood is built in the centre of the tent, and on this the body,
* This includes all burial above the surface of the earth not in caves or tombs.
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dressed in skin or feather robes, is laid, well wrapped in matting up to the neck. Over it is then placed a robe of deer- or wolf-skins. Upon the tent-poles or on the ground near are utensils, as trays, paddles, bowls and musical instruments.
An Indian living at Cape Espenberg was asked the reason of this provision. He pointed to the western sky:
" There, where our dead are gone, they eat, drink, dance and sing songs : we pro- vide for their future."
2. Box-Burial .- The Innuits and the Ingaliks practice box-burial. A box of strong planks is made, and the body, dressed, is doubled up and laid within it. The sides of the box are colored with red chalk in designs of lines and circles, the totems of the dead and his favorite animals. Four strong spruce posts are set up and the box held between them, from two to four feet above the ground. On each of the four posts an offering is hung, as a kettle, a kantag, or eating-dish, a pair of snow-shoes and some other fa- vorite article. A pair of paddles and a
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INGALIK GRAVE.
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fishing-spear are also set up over the grave, and even a kyack, or canoe, is left there if the dead man was rich.
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INNUIT GRAVE.
This custom of putting gifts on a grave need not be sought so far off as Alaska. In Greenwood cemetery, in Père la Chaise
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and in many German burial-grounds, one sees graves-especially those of children -covered with toys, either laid exposed upon the grave or protected by a glass case.
In these box-burials the women's graves are known by the utensils of feminine use, the men's by the weapons, placed upon them. If the dead warrior had taken scalps in his battles, these are hung above his last resting-place.
To indicate the period of mourning the Alaskan Indians do not change the fashion of their garments, but cut their hair and abstain from the performance of certain ordinary acts, as hunting birds' eggs or cutting wood. Sometimes, also, they color their faces with dark pigment. The women sit for some time by the dead body, singing mournful chants. At the end of a year they have a feast in honor of the depart- ed, and the mourning-period is considered over. The doubling of the dead bodies causes the coffin of an adult to be short.
3. Scaffold- Burial .- Almost all Amer- ican tribes have practiced burial on scaf-
BURIAL-CUSTOMS OF THE ALASKANS. 321
folds. The reason for this is evident. A people unable to fashion strong wooden or metal coffins would, in a country filled with flesh-eating wild beasts, often find the sepulchres violated. To keep the body from beasts of prey, it could be laid high up on a scaffold, with the ad- ditional advantage that the sun and the wind would soon dry and shrivel it.
In Alaska two or three forms of aerial burial are practiced.
A scaffold from eight to fifteen feet high is made, strongly lashed together, and on this is placed a platform, hung a little lower than the tops of the scaffold-poles. The body is then wrapped either in skins or in matting and laid on the platform. It is covered either by a box of spruce boards or by a skin robe. The poles are then hung with the usual offerings. Under this scaf- fold the mourners keep their watch with fires, songs and prayers or incantations for the dead.
Scaffold-burial is practiced by nations very remote from each other, as the Alas- kan Indians and the native Australians.
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Another form of Alaskan scaffold-burial is in canoes. The canoe-often a very handsome one-of bark, covered with pictures and thirty feet long, is suspend- ed between poles. The dead lies in this canoe, and over the body a smaller canoe is turned, affording protection from birds or from the weather.
These canoe burial-places-in the solemn stillness and darkness of the spruce and cedar woods, and usually on the bank of some wide stream-are picturesque and touching. The bowls, the cups, the weap- ons of the dead one, suggest the occupa- tions of his life, and also the blackness that brooded over his future when he drifted into another world, utterly unknown, that all his life had bounded his horizon with a wall of darkness out of which had never come the word: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things God hath prepared for those that love him."
A fourth form of aërial burial is that of placing a platform in high trees where several branches afford a support for the
CANOE-BURIAL.
BURIAL-CUSTOMS OF THE ALASKANS. 325
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BURIAL-BASKET FOR A BABY.
structure. Sometimes a canoe is put on the platform, sometimes the body is merely
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wrapped in skins; or a canoe is hung in the tree, without platform.
Yet another form of aërial burial is by baskets. This is most used for children, but sometimes for adults. The basket is frequently shaped like the papoose cradle, with a board at the back, a matting or wicker front and a handle at top, by which to suspend it. The body is packed in dried moss or grass.
III. HOUSE-BURIAL.
The Indians sometimes devote one of their houses to the use of their dead. 'This is common where an epidemic has prevailed and several members of the family have died of it. Dall describes coming upon a cluster of houses on the bank of the Yukon, out of which the' few persons left living had departed and the dead kept their state alone. Little flags and fragments of cloth fluttered as offerings above these homes of the lost. The domestic utensils were scattered at their doors; the canoes, drawn up on the bank, rotted in sun and rain. Whole families had here perished as
BURIAL-CUSTOMS OF THE ALASKANS. 327
everywhere the aborigines or Mongolian Americans are perishing, and the dead- houses by the Yukon were but types and precursors of the dwelling-places of that entire race, except those fragments which Christianity is now tardily snatching from destruction.
When the family-dwelling is not used as a tomb, sometimes smaller houses of spruce logs and planks are built for this purpose. At other times the burial-house is a strong skin tent raised on a platform, out of reach of wild animals.
Dall found at several Indian cemeteries for lodge-burials very elaborate carvings, totems and ornaments of great value; also carvings and tracings singularly like those of the Ugrian Cave-Dwellers in France. In all Indian burials the distinctions of caste or of wealth are very particularly marked. Often, in house- or basket-burials, boxes of food are hung up for the use of the dead.
IV. WATER - BURIAL.
This is the form that has been least practiced by our American Indians. An-
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ciently, the custom was not uncommon, especially in the Ugrian stock. That the Ugrians had this fashion in very early days is testified by the legends. We are told that the Hyperboreans-" furthest removed of all the gods "-cast themselves into the sea when they found death near. Baldur the Beautiful, Freya's son, was sent to sea in a burning burial-ship, when, by the machinations of Loki, he had lost his life. Alaric the Goth was buried in the bed of a stream. The dead De Soto was commit- ted to the Mississippi at flood, his body being enclosed in a weighted and hermet- ically-sealed wooden chest.
The Alaskans mostly practice aquatic burial for women, slaves or witches who have been murdered by shamanism, casting their bodies into the sea. Dead babies are also often put into a little canoe, the child's body being also in the cradle or basket en- closure padded with moss in which it passes the first year of its life. This little canoe the poor mother pushes out into the stream, and the stream gives it to the river, the river to the sea. Possibly she dreams that
BURIAL-CUSTOMS OF THE ALASKANS. 329
the gods watch the floating casket and somewhere on the journey receive the child. Knowing her own hard life and the bitter bondage of all her diminishing people, she may consider the little one far better off in early taking its chances of the Un- known.
At all these burials certain rites and ceremonies are common. Clothing, blank- ets, furs, all kinds ofvaluable native property, will be burned or given away. Sacrifices, as of animals, but most often of slaves, are also common. Widows are burned-not quite to death, but flung into the fire and then pulled out and thrown back until insensibil- ity supervenes. Funeral songs, feasts and dances are customary, and certain games are sacred to funerals and supposed to con- duce to the happiness of the spirit.
V. CREMATION.
The last method of disposing of the dead remaining to be noticed is crema- tion. This is one of the most ancient forms among all nations .. Profane history chroni- cles the custom of burning the bodies of
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the dead from a period coincident with the eighth judge of Israel. It probably origi- nated early, among the Fire-Worshipers, and fire- or sun-worship no doubt dates from Babel, or even earlier.
Cremation, in Alaska, seems a coarse, curious, grotesque caricature of the Ro- man ceremony. The Alaskan builds his pyre wide and high. He wraps his dead in his best garments and lays him on the pile ; then upon him are heaped offerings from friends, and the personal and most useful property of the deceased. One after another the gifts accumulate-food, carvings, spoons, bowls, paddles, spears, bows and arrows, blankets, furs, snow- shoes, clothes,-a goodly heap. The sha- man begins his incantations and his dan- cing ; the mourners break into their death- wail and their funeral-chants. As the torch is applied that frenzy which fire inspires in human bosoms takes full possession of the bystanders ; leaps, howls, cries, drinking -orgies of all kinds-break forth. One stirs the fire; another adds fuel; a third flings on further gifts. The yelling sha-
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ANTHONY & BAKER SCE
ALASKAN CREMATION.
BURIAL-CUSTOMS OF THE ALASKANS. 333
man encourages the madness. Often hu- man life is sacrificed ; at all times loss of property, wounds and bruises are the re- sults. This method of disposing of the dead is that most firmly entrenched among the Alaskan tribes. To destroy this cus- tom our missionaries have directed their first efforts, since all the Alaskan super- stitions seem to cluster about that blaz- ing pyre.
" Burn my body! Burn me!" pleaded a dying Alaskan. " I fear the cold. Why should I go shivering through all the ages and the distances of the next world ?"
The renunciation of cremation and the acceptance of Christian burial are among the first marks of the civilizing or the Christianizing process among the native population. "Will you burn or will you bury your dead ?" becomes a test-question. Around the burning cling all the supersti- tions and all the degrading rites of their heathenism.
CHAPTER XV.
INDIAN PROGRESS IN ALASKA.
D R. CORLIES, writing of the feast at Shaaks's house, which has been described in the chapter on Fort Wran- gell, says: "After the feast the tables are removed and the people prepare to enjoy the evening in innocent games, the im- promptu soldiers going through their drill,
etc. Before the amusements commence, however, Shaaks stands up and tells how they have been bound hand and foot by superstition. Pointing to one of the large elaborately-carved pillars which support the house, he says, 'We used to ask that image for advice, and it would speak to us; now I am going to speak to it, and I think it will answer me.' He then ad- dresses it, but of course no answer comes
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INDIAN PROGRESS IN ALASKA.
from its wooden lips. He says, 'It does not speak ; it cannot speak. We for ever put all this foolishness away.' In former times they would bring out a man dressed as a white bear, and this to them was so sacred an occasion that two or three slaves must be sacrificed to appease the bear. Shaaks speaks again : 'A short time ago we would not have dared to bring this bear out without sacrificing a slave, but now we bring him out for the last time, just to show that we put all these things away.' These are some of the results effected by the preaching of the gospel of Christ Jesus among this superstitious and degraded people. To God be all the praise !"
This same chief, George Shaaks, de- livered the following address (August 4, 1879) in a conference at the Rev. Mr. Young's house, in Fort Wrangell :
" Formerly my heart all sick. Tears in my eyes all the time because my people die so fast. Now my heart warm as I see you and hear your good words. Last winter, when I was called Shaaks" (suc-
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ceeded to the chieftainship of the tribe). "only two of my family living. My broth- er took sick, and I did everything I could to make him well. I tried white doctors and Indian medicine-men ; they could not make him well. I very sorry. I wanted to die too. I understand now: God took his breath. I couldn't make him well against God. Sometimes I have one mind toward God, and sometimes another; but now I have one mind. Now I know God is above all. Now I know God is stronger than all.
"After steamboat left" (referring to a previous conference on the Stickeen Riv- er), "I went to the Indian village. All the people asked me what you say. They all say they wanted to be saved. They wanted Mr. Young to tell them about God. They wanted to be Mr. Young's friends.
"After you gone I hurried down the river to see you. I left all my berries and fish, and came all night. I heard that you were three men high among the people- that you were three strong men in the
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INDIAN PROGRESS IN ALASKA.
Church. I didn't know what you wanted to see me, an Indian, for. Now I know you love me and my people, and my heart grows strong in the right way.
"Formerly, Indians very strange. All their ways and habits and customs very different; so that when they heard about God they laughed at him. We did not know any better; now we learned more about him. Formerly we made strange his name; now we love him and want to do as he says."
When the Sheldon Jackson Institute, at Sitka, was burned, some of the boys wrote these following letters. They were boys who had been in school less than two years-some only one year-entering without knowledge of English.
" DEAR MRS. H .: Our house is burnt down. All the boys was sleeping. It began at three o'clock. One boy called out fire, our house is burning. We thought our teacher was burning too. Two boys got up to the teacher. Everything is safty except our flag and orgen. . . . I dont kno
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you yet. Nex stemer I write to you Beter than this time.
"Yrs respectly, " LUKE."
" Sitka, Feb. 9th, 1882.
" DEAR FRIEND: our House is Burnt down we cant find a good House now teacher Said to us that he would find a good nex Summer we didn't know any- thing about it one Boy call out fire Boys our House is burning all the Boys run out we thought our teacher was burning I run up to the teacher & our teacher is good we can't find bter teacher and him. well you please our flag is burnt
"all the Boys was Sorry for you flag the big Stove is Safe jack william got it out
"our School was on fire first fore thise reason we didn't git our flag
" Sand me answe nex Stemmer
"I send my best respect to all boys and to you also
"yours truly
" ned "
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INDIAN PROGRESS IN ALASKA.
" DEAR MRS. H .: Our house is burnt down; all the boys was sleeping. We didn't know anything about it. I think we will have a nice house soon, and when we are living in it I will write to you and let you know. I feel very sorry because our house was burnt down; it was a very nice house, but now we haven't got such a nice house. If you like this letter I'll write to you again next boat. My teacher is very good to me.
"ARCHIE."
A girl from Mrs. McFarland's home- school writes :
" Fort Wrangell, Alaska, " Feb. 13, '82.
" DEAR -: As I think it would be a great disappointment to you to not receive a word from me, I will write now thanking you very much for sending me a pretty card although I have nothing to give in return. I know you would like to hear something about our Christmas, on the forenoon the outside school boys and girls and we home girls were gathered in our school room and had a treat, and pres-
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ents were given to the day scholars, and all left the room with a happy heart, and at about seven o'clock on the eve, only we home girls had our tree in the school room, and two of the larger girls played on the organ, and one of the little girls said a piece to Santa Claus, and after the presents were passed to us, I had eight presents of which two of them I will name, the first was a beautiful bible from our Pas- ter, Mr. Young, and the other a large blue covered scrap-book a present for having the most head marks in my class. After we all had our presents we played in the room till it was time to go to bed, and all went with happy hearts. On New Years morning we had our gifts under our plates, and had a happy New Year. I must tell you that I have a bible class on sundays, all the little girls that can read pretty well, and I am proud of my class too, you asked me how old I am well I am two years older than you, and I have been in the home two years. Good bye for the present.
" From your Friend, " JENNIE M. TAMAREE."
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INDIAN PROGRESS IN ALASKA.
Tillie Paul writes from her Chilcat mis- sion :
" I am so disappointed because the peo- ple makes liquor themselves ; we hope and pray that it may not be a great while befor the stop it. And now while I am writing to you, a dranken woman came in and held my hand, and I run out with my pencil in my hand. Another time the chief drank, and the wife and some other Indians, and we didn't have our dinner all day. I don't know what to do-that makes my heart nearly break to see them drank. I wish I could do anything for these poor ignorant souls, but I pray that God might safe them.
" One thing we need the most, is a large hand Bell. We got a tin-pan, but it's not loud enough. My school are getting on very nicely; the are improving very much. Another thing we need, Sabbath-school papers. We did not have any boards to makes a table; no bedsteads either; just sleep in a cooking house, with 13 persons in one house. And now in haste I close with Christian love.
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"P. S. I would like if there were law to restraint those Indians from making liquor, for there is plenty of it in this place, for it is the root of all evil amongst them. If the liquor was taken from them, the would be peaceable Indians."
The writer of the above letter was educated in Mrs. McFarland's school at Fort Wrangell. She is now stationed with her husband at the most northern mission as yet attempted in Alaska. We have not attempted to correct the letter, but let it be remembered that four years ago she was a heathen child, with no knowledge of letters or of Christianity.
APPENDIX.
CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS IN ALASKA MISSIONS.
1877.
August 10 .- The Rev. Sheldon Jackson and Mrs. A. R. McFarland land at Fort Wrangell and commence Presby- terian missions in Alaska.
December 28 .- Clah (Philip) dies at Fort Wrangell.
1878.
January .- The Rev. John G. Brady is appointed by the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions for service in Alaska.
March 15 .- Mr. Brady arrives at Fort Wrangell.
March 24 .- The first Christian marriages among Alas- kans, by Rev. J. G. Brady.
April 11 .- Rev. J. G. Brady and Miss F. Kellogg reach Sitka.
April 17 .- Miss Kellogg opens school in Sitka.
June .- Rev. J. G. Brady visits the Hoonyah, Hootsnoo and other tribes north and east of Sitka.
August 8 .- Rev. S. H. Young arrives at Fort Wrangell.
October 12 .- " The McFarland Home" started.
December .- Rev. S. H. Young and Miss F. Kellogg married.
December 5 .- Rev. Dr. Jackson and Mrs. J. McNair
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APPENDIX.
Wright issue an appeal for Christmas donations to the building fund for the " McFarland Home."
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