USA > Alaska > Among the Alaskans > Part 13
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1879.
June 23 .- Rev. W. H. R. Corlies and family reach Fort Wrangell.
July 14 .- The Rev. Drs. Kendall, Jackson and Lindsley, with ladies, arrive.
August 3 .- Church organized at Fort Wrangell.
August 12 .- Dr. Jackson starts on a canoe-trip of two hundred and fifty miles, and holds councils with the chiefs of the Hydah, Tongass, Tsimpsean and Chilcat tribes.
September 14 .- Mr. A. E. Austin opens the Russian school in Sitka.
October 5 .- Church-building at Fort Wrangell occupied. Rev. S. H. Young, with four Indians, makes a canoe-trip among the tribes north to the Chilcats.
1880.
March 25 .- Miss Linnie Austin reaches Sitka.
April-Revs. S. H. Young and G. W. Lyon make a ca- noe-trip among the Hydah villages.
May .- Rev. G. W. Lyon and wife reach Sitka.
August .- Mrs. Dickinson first native Alaskan teacher among the Chilcats.
November .- " The Sheldon Jackson Institute," an in- dustrial training-school for boys, opened at Sitka.
1881.
March 25 .- The Rev. E. S. Willard is appointed to labor for the Chilcats, and Mr. A. E. Austin for Sitka.
May 30 .- The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church attaches Alaska to the Synod of the Columbia.
July 18 .- Rev. E. S. Willard and wife, accompanied by Dr. Jackson, reach Portage Bay, and establish the Chilcat mission at Haines.
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July 20 .- No house or schoolroom is ready for the Wil- lards, and no funds have been provided for erecting these buildings. The missionaries being shelterless, Dr. Jack- son borrows money and puts up a house and schoolhouse. When Dr. Jackson returns to New York, the Woman's Ex- ecutive Committee assumes the responsibility and repays the outlay.
August 5 .- Accompanied by Dr. W. H. Corlies, Dr. Jackson goes to the villages of the Hoonyah tribe and locates the mission to the Hoonyahs, naming the station " Boyd " and providing for buildings.
August 15 .- Mr. W. B. Styles and Miss Ettie Austin married at Sitka.
November 7 .- Walter B. Styles and wife open school at Boyd with sixty Indian pupils.
August 22 .- Drs. Corlies and Jackson and Mr. J. E. Chapman set out on a canoe-trip of five hundred miles to the Hydah villages on Prince of Wales Island. A mission, named by the missionaries "Jackson," located near the Indian village of Howkan.
September 12 .- Mr. Chapman opens the mission-school at Jackson.
November 22 .- Rev. J. L. Gould is commissioned to the Hydahs at Jackson, and Mrs. A. E. Austin is appointed matron at " The Sheldon Jackson Institute," Sitka.
December .- Mr. and Mrs. W. B. Styles are commis- sioned teachers to the Hoonyahs at Boyd, Mr. J. E. Chapman to the Hydahs at Jackson, and the Rev. John W. McFarland as medical missionary to Fort Wrangell.
1882.
January 24 .- " The Sheldon Jackson Institute " burned at Sitka.
February 4 .- Post-office secured by Dr. Jackson for Rob- erts, on Fontaine Bay, Klawack, Jackson and Haines.
March 11 .- Rev. J. W. McFarland, nephew of Mrs. R. A. McFarland, arrives at Fort Wrangell.
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March 13 .- Rev. J. W. McFarland and Miss Dunbar married at Fort Wrangell.
May .- Rev. J. L. Gould reaches Jackson.
June .- Rev. Dr. Corlies opens mission to Takoos at Juneau.
August 1 .- Dr. Jackson concludes the raising of five thousand dollars for rebuilding "The Sheldon Jackson Institute," at Sitka.
September 10 .- Saw-mill, purchased with funds raised by Dr. Jackson and Mrs. J. M. Ham, is landed at Jackson. Miss C. F. Gould, missionary-teacher, reaches Jackson.
September 12 .- Rev. Dr. Jackson arrives at Sitka, with Miss B. L. Matthews, missionary-teacher to the Chilcats.
September 13 .- The Rev. J. G. Brady presents the mis- sion at Sitka with one hundred and sixty acres of land, upon which Dr. Jackson erects the new mission-buildings.
December .- A girls' department is added to the Sheldon Jackson Institute.
1883.
February 9 .- The McFarland Home, at Fort Wrangell, is burned, with all furniture, clothing, stores, etc.
March .- Dr. Jackson receives a contract from the United States Post-Office Department to supply the stations at Haines, Roberts, Klawack and Jackson with a monthly mail, to be carried by Indians in canoes.
June .- Mr. W. Donald McLeod is sent to Jackson to erect the saw-mill and teach the natives how to use it.
INDIAN RACES.
Retzius and Humboldt find the Pacific coast Indians "related to the Mongols, and that their skulls bear strong resemblance to the Mongol Kalmucks."
Sir John Richardson calls "the Finns, Lapps and Es- quimaux littoral peoples."
William H. Dall, denying that these Esquimaux came from Asia, gathers their strongly-marked tribes into the term " Orarian peoples."
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Morton says : "The race of the circumpolar regions, Eu- ropean, Asian and American, is a distinct people."
Foster remarks: "The Lapps, Finns and Esquimaux have not shown a desire to penetrate : they are a race that retreat before the advance of civilization."
Dr. Sheldon Jackson, having studied the Alaskan tribes in their own homes, pronounces them, in mental traits, ar- tistic ideas and methods of labor, singularly like the Mon- golian Japanese.
William H. Dall says that many of the abodes of his Orarians are identical with those of the Cave-Dwellers of Central and Southern Europe, and their drawings are sin- gularly analogous to those found in the caves of Dordogne, France.
Lately (1882), British Columbian miners found in Indian graves, etc., near Alaska, Chinese coins, which were pro- nounced by intelligent Chinese to belong to some of the oldest coinage of the empire.
Catlin's investigations led him to the same result, find- ing, especially among the Indians of the Pacific coast, strongly-marked traces of Mongolian origin.
ON THE FORMATION OF HOME-MISSION BANDS.
Every Presbyterian church should have its mission- bands for young people. No matter how small or how poor the church organization may be, it will be capable, rightly directed, of doing some missionary work; and that church thrives best that has the most missionary spirit. Nothing so harmonizes and enlightens and liberalizes a church as to have its elements drawn together in some common missionary enterprise.
Some have objected that it was difficult to have boys' mission-bands, because there was little work that the boys could do, and little to occupy them at their meetings. Boys too have complained, with some justice, that " all the folks did with them in mission-work was to tell them to bring their money."
If missionary news is brightly and graphically given, boys
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will be interested in it; and the leader of a band should give time to collecting and arranging such news, in order to make it attractive. The boys can themselves read at their meetings missionary items, tales or letters and speak mis- sionary pieces. A band should also be put in correspond- ence with a missionary, members of the band in turn writ ing the letters. Boys interested in the support of a boy in some of our. Indian schools will find great satisfaction in securing their funds by gardening, poultry-raising or doing such work as they can obtain. Boys make excellent col- lectors of band funds. Where there are " working-meet- ings" of a band, the boys need not be idle ; hundreds of pretty fancy advertisement cards can be collected ; and hymns, texts and verses can be neatly glued over the adver- tisement, making beautiful and highly-valued cards for mission-schools. Picture-books, durable and of light weight, can be made of leaves cut from various-colored paper cambrics, the edges carefully pointed with scissors, and pictures and verses pasted on, the leaves then sewn loosely together and fastened with a bow of ribbon.
Parcels of clothing, Christmas presents, books, cards, etc., can be sent by mail to any mission-station in the United States, each bundle containing not over four pounds. No bottles of liquids and no confections are allowed by the mail laws in such packages.
A band can have meetings at regular times, to suit con- venience ; they can have membership fees and regular contributions, or not ; they can raise their funds by their own subscriptions, by making collections, by having con- certs, fairs or suppers. All these arrangements must be left to the good judgment of band-leaders, and be governed by the circumstances in which the band finds itself. The one grand affair is to have the band on some terms. Wherever there is a church without such an organization for the training and utilizing of the young, any Christian woman in that church should resolutely make up her mind that she and her church shall not die of dry-rot, as they certainly will if apathy in Christian work continues.
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But " How shall we start a band ?" comes the cry from all quarters. And we issue in answer the very simplest in- structions.
Christian sister, when this burden is laid on you, do not feel that you must spend weeks discussing it with the whole community. Mention it to those whom you can who may help you, but begin-begin ! Find a place for a meeting. Open your own dining-room or sitting-room, or beg some neighbor's room, or get the use of the Sabbath-school room. Give out a notice in church and Sabbath-school that "all the young people," "the girls" or "the boys," or "the boys and the girls," just as you have decided is best, will meet you at such a time and place to hear something of interest. In the days that remain before the meeting speak to every one you meet or can see, or send out notes, or get one or two of your young folks to go out, urging the desired par -. ties to attend. When they come together, be sure you have made your plan beforehand, and have something to propose clearly and do not daze the beginners with indefi- niteness. Your own judgment will have taught you wheth- er your society will be able to maintain a teacher or a pupil or to send packages of clothing to one of the homes or schools. Lay this plan before your little meeting; make it look just as pleasant as you can ; get them interested ; se- cure an expression of opinions; let them tell how they will do their part; make some of them officers; and hold the reins yourself-the more skillfully and easily, the better.
Where there are any girls to be got together, it is always best to have a regular sewing-meeting-don't make it a neighborhood terror by including tea-for if girls meet to sew for any object, they will become more steadily inter- ested. Give your society or your band a name ; let them select it themselves, and let them choose a motto-text, and be sure you get missionary literature, leaflets, tracts, papers, and distribute among them. Show them missionary pict- ures and read them missionary letters. I have encour- aged many small workers to faithful effort by promising:
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when they had completed a garment, to pin to it a paper with the maker's name and age.
One earnest-minded woman can start a society in most unpromising fields if she have executive ability; and if she lacks in this, let her cultivate it. Let us suppose, my dear woman, that you have a large dining- or other room that you can open on Saturdays from two o'clock until five. Suppose you have a little money to lay out and consider- able ingenuity in using your material. Keep this society and its work always before you. When you shop, keep your eyes open for good bargains and for remnants sold at reduced rates. Think of your society, if only to take out the spare pennies of change in spools of thread, in buttons, needles, pins, for it. Have the society sewing-box always handy to receive sewing-implements, the odd buttons, spools, remnants of tape, and so on. Have the society basket near at hand for the bits of flannel for needle-book flies ; the scraps of velvet for pocket pincushions ; the scraps of silk for boys' ties ; the scraps of calico to cut patchwork to send to that Alaskan sewing-school; the squares of plaid or cretonne or silk or bright cashmere for work-bags ; the remnants of flannel that will make hoods or skirts; the odds and ends of worsted to crochet into scarfs; the odd yards of shirting left over that will make aprons and shirt- waists; the gingham for skirts and dresses. Dun your friends : you can be a great means of grace to stingy peo- ple by making them give something. Take your spare hours for cutting and work; ask a friend or some skillful miss to tea to help cut and baste. Buy your dolls by the dozen, with light bodies, when you go into the city; keep your girls at work Saturday after Saturday, and the year will show many garments sent to the homes, and more than one Christmas tree hanging full of gifts.
If there is no one woman with leisure, room and means -and, really, it does not take many dollars yearly to keep such a society going-let two or three get together and club their resources. If they cannot, unaided, meet the express or postage charges, make collections to that end.
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APPENDIX.
Where the members of a band are able, let them bring their own material. A band can always secure a child to dress, having its measurements sent by the teacher, if they write to one of our Indian schools. Often it is more con- venient to cut out garments of all kinds and sizes as one has material and proper workers to make them up, and send underclothes, shirts, night-dresses, aprons, gowns, hoods, socks, scarfs, mittens, ruffles, handkerchiefs, hose, boys' wear, skirts, neckties, caps, just as they can be made ready-and children will be found to fit them.
TABLE OF DISTANCES.
MILES.
San Francisco to Portland . 746
Portland to Port Townsend (by sea) 361
Port Townsend to Fort Wrangell
San Francisco to Fort Wrangell. 817
Fort Wrangell to Sitka (via Sumner Strait) 190
1700
Fort Wrangell to Sitka (via Peril Strait) 230
Sitka to Juneau (viâ Peril Strait) 180
Sitka to Haines 195
Juneau to Haines 100
Sitka to Jackson (outside passage) . 225
Jackson to Fort Wrangell (viâ Klawack and Roberts) 195
Fort Wrangell to Metlakatla . 195
Metlakatla to Port Townsend 725
The above are not air-line distances, but approximate sailing distances in statute miles.
THE END.
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