USA > Alaska > Among the Alaskans > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13
5
66
AMONG THE ALASKANS.
then more gifts, and yet more, until he has exhausted the resources of his patient. He then declares the cause of the illness to be witchcraft, and after howls, dances and mad uproar points out some poor family, some defenceless woman, some aged person or little child, as the one in whom the spirit of the witch is supposed to be lodged. Once accused, the unhappy victims are seized, tortured, beaten, starved, burnt, until they confess or die-or more often confess and die.
To become a shaman, iht or medicine- man, the Alaskan boy passes through much such a probation as his sister undergoes for no object at all. The youth is shut up in a hut and starved, exposed to privations and tortures, wrought up to frenzies which must result in a species of epilepsy, if he is to be a proper iht. He is then fed on raw dog and human flesh, and at last becomes one of the favored order of shamans-an arbiter to his people, an incarnate demon whom no one dares dispute, a vampire living on the very life-blood of his tribe, their terror in health, their master in dis-
67
A NEW VIEW.
ease, the disposer of their souls and of their bodies when they are dead. There is a strong similarity between the shamanism of Alaska and the fetichism of Africa.
We make a few notes concerning the re- ligious belief of the Tlinkets.
Religious traditions are orally preserved with great care by the Alaskan Indians, and the main myths are invariable from age to age. To these have been added other legends and episodes, arising from a desire to deify after his death some favorite chief, or to celebrate certain localities in their territory, or as the ihts have taken pride in inventing new tales and having them embodied in song by local bards. Each tribe had one family set apart to learn and rehearse the mythology, and at all gatherings, great or small, some part of it was recited. The Tlinkets believe in a personal god, eternal, self-existing, imma- terial, infinite in power and wisdom. This god they think exists in two persons-first, the judge, rewarder or chastiser of souls, ac- cording to their deeds. This person had but one visible manifestation, as a white
68
AMONG THE ALASKANS.
bird. The second person of this one god is the preserver, providence, sustaining all things, aiding those who cry to him, feed- ing man and beast. To this ancient, orig- inal belief in one god the Tlinkets have added recognition of a group of demigods gross and grotesque. These gods control especial forces of nature.
In some minds the one great god is ethe- realized into an essence, a pervading influ- ence, a grand bodiless Pan, inspiring all nature, but the lesser gods are coarse, cunning, cruel, animal. Of these gods the tide-spirit was first. Yeatt, the crow, has a strong likeness to Loki of the Scandinavian myths. The misconduct of Yeatt caused the tide-god once to rise and drown the world, sweeping sea-shells to mountain- tops, where they lie to this day. Yeatt made man out of moss and earth-out of moss, to give him reproductive power; of earth, that he might be perishable. He
gave men fire and taught them arts. The tide-god sent a flood to drown all men, and Yeatt put them in a canoe and towed them to a high mountain.
A CANOE-BURIAL.
71
A NEW VIEW.
None of these lesser gods are objects of worship. Demons and witches are also believed to exist, having knowledge of the future and malign power over men.
Such being the life of the Alaskan, what is the manner of his death? With little skill in medicine or surgery and no knowl- edge of nursing, he falls a ready prey to physical disasters. The " shaman " haunts his closing hours and arbitrates the disposal of his body. The iht, having performed his incantations, reveals that the man will die. His gathered relatives surround him until the last breath is drawn, and then break into loud songs to waft the soul to spiritual habitations. Among some tribes the body is doubled up, wrapped in skins and placed in a canoe hung on poles, where it remains until body and burial-place alike crumble into ruin.
Cremation is, however, a favorite meth- od of disposing of a corpse. A pile of logs is made; the body, wrapped in mats or skins and covered with resinous wood, is placed on the pyre, and, the heap being set on fire, in about two hours the whole is
72
AMONG THE ALASKANS.
reduced to ashes. The ashes of the body and the few bones that may remain are put in boxes and placed in a hut. Slaves when they die are flung into the sea to feed fishes or left in the woods for birds and wild beasts to devour.
Among the Southern Alaskans cremation is universal .*
Among the Kaviaks and their kindred tribes polygamy is common. Among the Nehennes and Talcolins widows are com- pelled to burn themselves at the funeral pile of their husbands, though they are not burned to death.
Slavery exists in most of the tribes.
Murders and malicious injuries are to be atoned for by lives from the offending family, in number proportioned to the so- cial importance of the injured party.
The Alaskan does not forget his kindred after the hour of their death. The heathen seldom fall to a state of mental degrada- tion which denies the existence of angel and spirit-of a world to come, of future
* Of this matter of burial we will speak more fully in a chapter yet to come.
73
A NEW VIEW.
reward and penalty. These are of the in- visible things of God originally impressed on the human race. Around the corpse the family chant their sacred song, handed down to them long ago from the spirit-land, and on its eight sections wildly sung the soul of the dead floats out of the circle of the liv- ing and begins its long journey to the Unseen.
Through dark forests filled with under- brush, each shrub of which is a demon seeking to hold the spirit back from a bet- ter land, he goes, aided by the songs of his family. Next, howling dogs bound at him, seeking to transform him to their own likeness; but, helped by the song-prayer, he reaches the beach of a lake, beyond which lies the city of the happy dead. A canoe waits to ferry him over.
These Indians, for uncounted generations cut off in Alaska from other races of men, have myths that strongly remind us of their most distant brethren in Japheth, the Latins and Greeks. Cerberus, Styx, Elysium,-how the likeness of the early traditions hints of the ancient unity of the race !
Arrived at Stickagow, the blessed city,
74
AMONG THE ALASKANS.
the soul cannot share its joys until the body left behind is burned. Even then, until food and clothing have been burned for his comfort in Stickagow, he cannot fully enter into its peace. This idea is very like that of his Chinese brethren, who al- ways burn paper and tinsel roba for the use of the soul. In former times slaves were slaughtered at their master's funeral, so that he might be well served in Sticka- gow. If the spirit wearies of Stickagow, it may return. Going back along the way by which it came, it hovers round its old home until a child is born; then, entering into the babe's body, the returned spirit has a second existence.
Stickagow is the city for those who die in their beds; Kema is a nobler place, a fourth heaven of joy, kept for those who die in battle. There, on the topmost steps of glory, shines a golden gate, and, called by name, the warrior ascends a shining ladder and enters a land of glorious beau- ty. The soul of the dead hero needs no aiding-song, no pyre, no burnt food, clothes or slaves. His ghost has gone before his
75
A NEW VIEW.
spirit to herald its coming, and all things in Kema wait to do him honor.
But for the drowned there is a third home, Hayse. As the last struggles are over and the breath goes up in fine bub- bles the feet touch firm ground. Here is a land of beauty. A house ready built for him, fish and game plenty, sandy beach, flashing streams, fruit dropping in perpet- ual ripeness, salmon leaping in the sun,- he needs nothing, because he possesses everything .*
All this blessedness of the future is for man; woman has no inheritance in this life nor in the life to come. Slavery, vice, misery,-in these is an Alaskan woman's portion. She expects nothing else ; hope is dead; even for her child she expects nothing: she murders her daughter or sells her in early girlhood for a few blankets.
But, furnished with a conscience and with this small traditional light on the future, the soul of the Alaskan is not at rest. He fears the yakes, or demons ; he
* The European Finns have, embodied in a song, this tradition.
76
AMONG THE ALASKANS.
fears greatly a dim, awful, overshadowing, unknown God, who, being offended, aban- dons him to the yakes. Like a bitter sea, " the bad that is in him " sweeps over him ; the promises of Stickagow, Kema and Hayse fail to comfort, for he knows he is unworthy of such blest abodes. With murder of all varieties, theft, vice, incest, polygamy, witchcraft, slavery, every pos- sible vice, unchained, our new fellow-coun- trymen seem bad enough. One who has lived among them says: "These pictures are not strong enough. You would blush that the human family could fall so low."
Where, then, is our hope for such a nation as this ?
Our hope is in as intense and agonizing a cry for light as has ever burst from any human souls. Suddenly on the dulled ears of the American churches broke this in- sistent wail: "Light, light! We die ! Bring us light!"
CHAPTER IV.
THE ALASKA OF THE FUTURE.
H AVING now had a brief view of Alaska, its extent, soil, climate and productions ; having learned the number of its native population, with their habits of thought and life,-we come to the questions, What are the possibilities and the prospects of this land ? What can we do with the place and the people ? Shall Alaska be left as a waste, neglected, stony, weed-grown field in the demesne of the United States ?
Wise farmers have no such fields; the model farmer keeps clean even fence-cor- ners, and that for the sake of the other portions of his freehold. Political economy teaches us to admit at once that no part of our territory must be abandoned to vice, ignorance, lawlessness, because, thus
77
78
AMONG THE ALASKANS.
left, it becomes a drain on the national resources and a corrupter of national life. For the sake of the country as a whole, Alaska needs, and must have, law, order, cultivation and education.
Moreover, once purchased, Alaska and its people became as truly a portion of the United States as is New York, Ken- tucky or Vermont. All that those States and their people could claim from the gen- eral government Alaska could claim with equal justice. All that which was a right in Idaho or Arizona, as flowing from the parent government to its Territories, was a right in Alaska. Schools, protection, laws, sanitary legislation,-these Alaska could demand in that one word of Chris- tian civilization : " Justice !"
But, aside from all this, will labor and outlay in Alaska pay ? Is the land worth reclaiming from the wilderness state in which we find it? Can we create there a true civilization ? Have these people such qualities as render it possible for them to be fashioned into useful citizens ? Let us consider this.
79
THE ALASKA OF THE FUTURE.
Here is, as Secretary Seward said, ter- ritory enough to make several States. Thirty thousand natives, even with their natural increase under good sanitary con- ditions, will not afford a population co- extensive with this territory. If Alaska is to make good its name and be in any political sense "a great land," a population must be provided by immigration. Will it invite and justify immigration ?
Men have been found willing to dare the insalubrious exhalations of the Isth- mus of Panama, to live in the jungles of India, to endure the blazing suns of Africa, to tempt death upon the Gold Coast. When man will thus, in his need or wish for change, brave destruction in the most disastrous climates, it is not to be doubted that he will be ready to enter a country unusually favorable to health, and one where the death-rate is remarkably small.
In 1877 three hundred and nineteen deaths were recorded in Alaska. Of these deaths, ten were of persons over seventy, seven over eighty, two between
80
AMONG THE ALASKANS.
eighty-five and ninety, according to the statistics of the Greek priest in Sitka. It is evident that there is nothing in the climate inimical to health and longevity.
Concerning immigration an eloquent orator and author has written: "What are the signs and guarantees of the com- ing of this future population ? This ques- tion, with all its minute and searching in- terrogations, has been asked by the pio- neers of every State and Territory of which the American Union is now com- posed, and the history of those States and Territories has furnished the conclu- sive and satisfactory answer. Emigrants go to every infant State and Territory in obedience to the great natural law that obliges needy men to seek subsistence, and invites adventurous men to seek for- tune, where it is most easily obtained ; and this is always in new and unculti- vated regions. They go from every State and Territory and from every foreign na- tion in America, Europe and Asia, be- cause no established and populous State or nation can guarantee subsistence and
8 [
THE ALASKA OF THE FUTURE.
fortune to all who demand them among its inhabitants."
Alaska is peculiarly fitted to answer the demands of people searching for new homes.
To a large extent, Europe, Asia and the well-populated parts of America have de- pleted their forests and their fisheries. These, like the fields, need seasons of ly- ing, in a measure, fallow, for recuperation. Alaska offers mountains of iron, vast fields of coal, wells of oil, springs of sulphur, minerals of many kinds in abundance, and lumber which seems to destine it to be- come a ship-yard for the world.
California long lay in semi-tropical lux- uriance upon our Pacific coast, ignored, neglected, too distant to be visited. But gold was found in California. Gold ! It was the word of power, and by it a nation rose in a day. Gold was the spell that evoked inhabitants as if from the dust of the earth. Need brought California near. Where men are resolved on going they make paths for their feet. Telegraph-lines and railroads flash now across those weary
6
82
AMONG THE ALASKANS.
distances where the overland travelers toiled tedious months at peril of their lives. Panama ceased to be an obstacle. Twenty-five years ago California was much farther off, in point of time and difficulty, than is Alaska to-day. And this magician at whose charms California sprang into importance-Gold-is present in Alaska. British miners swarm in British Columbia, and it is not to be doubted that Alaska has more gold than British Columbia. Ten years from now gold-miners by the thou- sand will be living in Alaska, and they will have their families with them, because they will find transportation for those families easy and subsistence cheap.
When iron can be dug in illimitable quantities out of a mountain, and at the very base of that mountain can be got in- calculable tons of coal of the most in- flammable quality, it is not to be doubted that in a decade furnaces will be burning and roaring, and iron-masters getting rich, and foreign miners and iron-workers pour- ing into Alaska. Iron is always worth more to a country than is gold; it is a surer foun-
83
THE ALASKA OF THE FUTURE.
dation of commercial and manufacturing prosperity.
Alaska has wood, limestone and mar- ble for her own architecture; she has iron with which to build her roads, and coal with which to feed her factory-fires; she can cut her own telegraph-poles and rail- road-ties, and build her own ships; she has her own safe harbors in vast number. Here are guarantees of her early and sure prosperity, if moral development keeps pace with physical.
Other guarantees are to be found in the fact that California, lying near Alaska, is almost as magnificant a centre of. civiliza- tion as is New York. Oregon is develop- ing in all its vast resources ; railroads and telegraph-lines leap from the Atlantic to the Pacific-not by one path, but by many. The distant is brought near : commerce has no longer to employ the fickle wings of the wind, but the fleeter feet of steam. All these facts assure the near and magnifi- cent expansion of the wealth of Alaska.
When once this country is opened up and provides accommodations for tourists,
84
AMONG THE ALASKANS.
a great stream of travel from Europe and America will be turned thither. Here is a region of glaciers that surpass those of Switzerland, and of snow-capped moun- tains that outvie the Alps, the Apennines, the Pyrenees and the High Rockies. Along the coast lie crowded island-chains that exceed in beauty that island-fringed shore of Norway which yearly attracts thou- sands of lovers of nature. Here, too, as well as in Norway, can be found a land of the midnight sun. The traveler may here reach a day when there is no night. He will behold the marvel at which King Alfred doubted :
" The days grew longer and longer, Till they became as one ; And southward through the haze I saw the sullen blaze Of the red midnight sun.
" Four days I steered to the eastward- Four days without a night ; Round in a fiery ring Went the great sun, O King ! With red and lurid light."
Then with this host of wonder- and pleas- ure-seekers will throng the host of invalids
VILLAGE ON THE LOWER YUKON RIVER DURING THE FISHING-SEASON (BY W. H. DALI.).
87
THE ALASKA OF THE FUTURE.
and valetudinarians seeking help from Alaska's hundred mineral and thermal springs.
The initiative of emigration to Alaska may be briefly noted.
The seal and other fur-fisheries had been the great interest of Alaska from the time of its entrance by white people. To the Russian fur company succeeded the Alas- ka Commercial Company, with its fisheries, trading-stations and employés. American troops were sent to protect the white in- habitants, and United States vessels, on exploring, revenue and sanitary service, followed. The salmon- and cod-fisheries came next, with drying and canning es- tablishments, bringing traders, capitalists and their employés. The lumber and mining interests becoming known, new emigrants appeared, and quartz-mills were built, and vessels and steam-launches went farther inland ; more vessels came up from California and Oregon, and postal service increased. On the principle that "to him that hath shall be given," the more emi- grants that go to Alaska, the more will
88
AMONG THE ALASKANS.
follow them. The more traders, the more trade will be developed.
Thus much for the white men, their position and prospects in Alaska. What of the Indians ?
Strictly speaking, the Indians, though we have viewed them as citizens, are not really citizens : they are the material of which we must make citizens. What is the promise of this material ?
Secretary Seward, after visiting the vari- ous tribes, declared that they are "a peo- ple gifted by nature, vigorous, energetic, docile, gentle." They are a people ambi- tious to learn and capable of rapid pro- gress. We find them house- and boat- builders, living in villages and exercising certain arts. Here is a good starting- point. They are imitative, carefully ob- servant of white men and swift to follow their example. A little incident amusing- ly illustrates this: At a religious meeting of whites and Indians the Indians silently observed that the white men carried their children on their arms, while among the Indians the women carried the little ones.
89
THE ALASKA OF THE FUTURE.
The next Sabbath the Indian men came carrying their infants.
Several of the pupils received into the Presbyterian mission-schools have shown a good degree of musical talent, and some draw very well. They learn the English language-reading and spelling and writ- ing-very rapidly. Letters and composi- tions written in English, by children and youth who three or four years ago were absolute heathen, show a great natural ability. It has been said of them, "They are mad after education." These Indians are prompt to adopt "white" ways of living, dressing and eating. . They are eager to build houses with numerous rooms, to get their women dresses "like white ladies ;" they want saw-mills, and learn gardening industriously. These tribes will travel for miles and miles to get within reach of schools, teachers and Sabbath services.
An English missionary long acquainted with these people writes: "They are so open to the gospel that, from the ex- perience of the past, the Christianizing
90
AMONG THE ALASKANS.
of them is, with God's blessing, a mere matter of men and money: they are like fields white to the harvest." In their zeal for instruction people and chiefs have fre- quently given houses of their best build- ing for schools and churches; they also subscribe blankets, furs and the money laboriously earned by fishing, by work in the salmon-factories and by sale of dried fruits and berries, to procure books and teachers.
"I am sorry," said one chief to certain merchants and missionaries who were his guests, " to ask you to sit in this old-fash- ioned house ; when you come again, I will have a new American house for you to sit in."
Another promising trait in these Indians is the amount of loyal feeling to the United States which they exhibit. They love the starred-and-striped flag with a veritable enthusiasm, and have the highest idea of the potency of their "father in Washing- ton." Certain handkerchiefs given them by a United States officer-common cot- ton kerchiefs with pictures of Washington
91
THE ALASKA OF THE FUTURE.
and Lincoln-were received as rarest treas- ures ; they call themselves "Boston Si- washes," or Boston Indians, meaning Unit- ed States Indians, and showing their swift- ness of comprehension in having already imbibed the idea that Boston is the centre of the United States, if not of creation !
But, above all, the promise for the future of these natives lies in their religious ten- derness and susceptibility. With wonder- ful readiness they receive religious instruc- tion. Burdened beyond any known tribe by an overpowering sense of sin, by "the bad that is in them," they accept with ardor the preaching of the gospel. They travel hundreds of miles for instruction.
An Indian way-worn with travel entered a Sitka store.
"Tell me," he demanded, going up to the counter: "do you know Jesus Christ? I have heard that he came from the skies to save me from the bad that is in me."
The story of " God's boy that came down from heaven to save and make good the people of earth" has fallen on their ears and reached their hearts as a tale beyond
92
AMONG THE ALASKANS.
all the traditions of their fathers. Gifted with a natural eloquence and simple force of speech that seems peculiar to Indian races, they repeat the evangel to each other in the heartiest terms, and, readily accepting its provisions, abandon their . heathenism and strive to live in accordance with the divine command. It has been a true delight to carry the good news to a people so marvelously prepared to re- ceive it.
In the path of all these fair possibilities and goodly promises lie certain dangers and stumbling-blocks. One hardly knows which to place first, for all are equally important.
These Indians must have instruction, schools and domestic education. Without these they cannot reach citizenship, live in fair sanitary conditions, compete in any wise with their white neighbors or save themselves from the encroachments of un- scrupulous white men.
The Territory must be provided with law and government, as the other Territories are. Thus far, there is neither order nor authority. The Indians at Wrangell held a
93
THE ALASKA OF THE FUTURE.
constitutional convention, appointed certain officers and bound themselves by certain laws. Officers of United States men-of- war have acted as wise and merciful dicta- tors, but a government is the instant need of Alaska.
Intemperance has proved a horrible scourge to Alaska. Taught to make liquor out of molasses and fruit of all kinds, these Indians, like other Indians, have gone mad in excess of intoxication. Their orgies are horrible beyond description ; fire, murder, theft, disease, death, have been there a le- gion of devils unchained by the great de- mon of Intemperance.
Ignorance, lawlessness, intemperance,- these are the three foul harpies feeding on the vitals of our newly-acquired Territory. Unless these unclean spirits are success- fully laid, the fair future of Alaska will dis- appear under a pall of darkness, her hoped- for day will suddenly go down in blood. The advancement of the white race will be indefinitely retarded and the Indian race will be exterminated unless for Alaska we secure law, education, temperance, religion.
CHAPTER V.
BEHOLD! MORNING!
O VER the intense darkness of this our most western Territory lifted slowly the faint light of dawn It broke, as do all daysprings, from the east.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.