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THE CHURCH AWAKES.
son had a hearing before several com- mittees of Congress in behalf of laws, government and schools for Alaska, and commenced an agitation which will event- ually result in securing these objects. In the mean time, single-handed and almost entirely unprovided with appliances for work, Mrs. McFarland entered heartily into her task, her own zeal and that of her pupils supplying the lack of ordinary means and methods. The Indians ex- hibited great readiness in learning and were quick in acquiring English.
One evening two girls were observed walking on the beach and loudly repeat- ing something. It was found that, lacking books and resolved to learn to spell, they had secured a bit of old newspaper and were committing to memory the words found on it. Again, two boys in a canoe were noticed alternately declaiming some- thing. One of them was orally teaching the other the Lord's Prayer. Sentence by sentence he gave it loudly, as Philip delivered it to the school, and the other boy repeated it, until he was able to say
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AMONG THE ALASKANS.
it through to the end. Thus the lack of books was in a measure made up.
Dr. Jackson left Alaska in September. The military force had been withdrawn from Fort Wrangell previous to the ar- rival of Mrs. McFarland, thus depriving her of any protection which their presence afforded. She was left with a few whites and one thousand Indians in a place with- out law, order or government.
CHAPTER VII.
PROGRESS AT FORT WRANGELL.
I T would take a much more voluminous work than the present to detail the opening of each of our mission stations in Alaska, the methods pursued and the resulting success. Our principle must be ex uno disce omnes : we choose several work- centres and describe a portion of their experiences-Fort Wrangell, as the prim- ary point, where all was to be experiment- ed; Sitka, as the capital ; Haines, as provi- dentially the scene of unusual hardships and unusual heroism even where so much was heroic. Other missions we shall also more briefly note, while feeling assured that what is left untold is quite as mar- velous, interesting and soul-stirring as that which is told-that the missionaries whose path of labor is not minutely followed have
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worked as admirably and successfully and self-sacrificingly as those whose steps we trace.
On the 28th of August, 1877, Mrs. McFarland opened her school in Wran- gell with about thirty pupils. Philip and Sarah Dickinson studied together in the forenoon-reading, spelling, writing and geography. In them Mrs. McFarland was striving to prepare future helpers and teachers. As there were almost no books, oral instruction was largely used ; thus, Bible-texts, commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and also the multiplication table, were laboriously taught by repetition. Singing the Indians delight in, learning tunes readily.
Philip taught the afternoon school and preached, using the Tsimpsean dialect, Sarah Dickinson translating it into Stickeen. Mrs. McFarland naïvely remarks concerning his preaching that he was most fluent in Chi- nook, "but the people did not seem to understand his sermons in it." No doubt they did not, for the jargon is not a vehicle suited to conveying religious ideas.
FORT WRANGELL, ALASKA.
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PROGRESS AT FORT WRANGELL.
Philip sent for his wife and hired a little house, devoting himself with great assi- duity to his work; but already a fatal dis- ease was making rapid inroads on his strength.
On the 15th of September the dance- house was taken for its original purposes and the school turned out; an old log house, at the exorbitant price of twenty dollars a month, was all that could be secured. Mrs. McFarland rented a little house for herself, and devoted her woman- ly ingenuity to making it home-like. She had no sooner moved into this dwelling than one or two Indian girls requested to be permitted to live with her. She had neither room nor furnishings to accommo- date them, and reluctantly declined to keep them. To her horror, in a few days she found that the brightest of these girls- only a little past childhood-had been carried off to live with one of the law- less white men of the neighborhood. At once it was made clear to the missionary that she must have a house prepared for a home of refuge for these homeless girls,
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AMONG THIE ALASKANS.
where they could live in safety and do right. Then arose her first earnest and insistent demand on the Church for a home-school-a demand which she never ceased pressing until she secured the need- ed boon.
With this need of a home was shortly presented another need-that of a min- ister or magistrate to perform the mar- riage ceremony. Even the Christian In- dians and their so-called wives had never been married. Separations had been com- mon among these people, and as they be- came more enlightened these unfortunate domestic relations troubled them. They referred all difficulties to their missionary ; and Mrs. McFarland, while judging among them with admirable good sense, redoubled her entreaties, sent through the columns of the Rocky Mountain Presbyterian to the Church at home, that an ordained minis- ter should be speedily sent to Alaska.
About the Ist of October, Mrs. McFar- land opened a sewing-school in the after- noons for the women and the larger girls ; in this school there was an excellent com-
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PROGRESS AT FORT WRANGELL.
bining of moral and religious instruction with sewing-lessons. A verse of Scripture was taken, and as they worked the pupils memorized it by constant repetitions after their teacher. Mrs. McFarland gave them plain practical instruction about their moral and domestic duties, and closed the meet- ing with singing and prayer. She found that so much home-teaching was needed to civilize the people and inculcate any- thing like morality and decency of living that she entreated that a teacher might be sent to the school, and she herself be free to go among the families, teaching them cleanliness, nursing, the care of children and the amenities of domestic life.
On the 15th of October a great mis- fortune befell the struggling mission : Phil- ip had a severe hemorrhage, and was never again able to share in the labors he loved. Three young men had come from Fort Simpson and entered the school; one of these, Andrew, was a Methodist exhorter, and he endeavored to fill Clah's place. A number of cases of sickness occurred, and Mrs. McFarland was chief nurse and doc-
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tor, performing the work of four or five people. Sarah Dickinson, the interpreter, was ill; and when the steamer came up, the Indians crowded to the dock to see "if a white preacher had come," and went away sorrowful because no one had appeared.
On the Ioth of November a Hydah Indian came into the school; at forty-five years of age he had come to learn to read, so that he might teach his people. Here was courage. The next day, with tears running down his face, another fine-look- ing middle-aged Indian came to the school and said,
" Me much sick at heart. My people all dark heart; nobody tell them that Jesus died. By and by my people all die and go down. Dark, dark!"
Still no help came from the East, and the missionary could only comfort these pleaders with promises, which they were beginning to disbelieve.
In this pressure of work, care and dis- appointment Mrs. McFarland was much comforted by the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt.
PROGRESS AT FORT WRANGELL. 129
Christmas was darkened by the shadow of death. On the 28th of December, Philip died, at the age of thirty. His
SARAH DICKINSON, THE INTERPRETER.
Indian friends contributed money for his coffin and conveyed his remains back to Fort Simpson, among his own tribe, where he was buried beside his mother and his three brothers. His last wish was that his wife should be cared for by the Ameri- can Church. It was nearly three years before this dying wish met any response.
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AMONG THE ALASKANS.
In spite of the sadness occasioned by Philip's low state, there was an effort to celebrate Christmas. Early in the morn . ing some sixty Indians came before Mrs. McFarland's house and sang two hymns. About nine o'clock a procession was formed, and, having no United States flag, the lead- er carried a British ensign; the standard- bearer was much decorated with flowers and tinsel. The procession shook hands with their teacher and wished her a " Mer- ry Christmas," leaving her with hope and gratitude in her heart, and a resolve that next Christmas she would have a celebra- tion for them.
The holidays, however, were dangerous and uproarious from drunkenness; great quantities of whisky had been made in private stills, and the lower class of the whites and the " whisky-Indians" kept up horrible orgies. Finally, Mr. Dennis, port collector of customs, selected a posse of men and made a raid on suspected places, finding and breaking up eight new dis- tilleries. Eighteen in all were destroyed within a short time.
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PROGRESS AT FORT WRANGELL.
In the utter lawlessness of the country the increasing liquor evils demanded re- dress, and in January, 1878, the Christian Indians requested some form of govern- ment. The military had been withdrawn, life and property were without protection and grievances had no remedy. Matthew, Moses and Toy-a-att were the leaders among the Christian Indians. Shustaks was the leader of the heathen Indians, and was hostile to the missionary.
The Christian Indians appointed the above-named chiefs as a police, and for a time their authority was respected ; but Shustaks raised opposition to them, and to secure an expression of popular opinion a meeting was called in the schoolhouse. Mrs. McFarland was invited to preside, and Mr. Dennis was requested to be pres- ent. Both of these argued with Shustaks, and Toy-a-att preached him a telling ser- mon; but Shustaks left the meeting in anger. The Indians signed a few rules or laws written for them by Mrs. McFar- land. Shustaks continued his hostility, but was prevented from overt acts of opposi-
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AMONG THE ALASKANS.
tion by the arrival of a revenue-cutter in the bay. Mr. Vanderbilt had now secured the dance-house.to the school.
The need of a home-school for girls was more and more evident. As soon as Mrs. McFarland's instructions had secured the personal improvement of the young girls, making them bright in manner and tidy in dress and person, their superior ap- pearance attracted the attention of scoun- drels who at once tried to buy them of their heathen parents, and thus again and again promising pupils were carried off for vice and misery. But now two of these girls disappeared from the school, and word was brought Mrs. McFarland that they had been accused of witchcraft and were being tortured. In agony of mind she set out to release them. The school implored her not to go :
"They are having a devil-dance, and will kill you."
Shustaks had threatened her life, and would now take it. Sarah Dickinson threw her arms around her, and, weeping, de- clared she was going to her death.
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PROGRESS AT FORT WRANGELL.
The converted Indians, at other times so bold, shrank from intermeddling with the madness of a devil-dance, and warned her to desist from a hopeless errand; but
ALASKAN GIRL, TATTOOED.
up the beach, alone, hurried that Christian teacher to where her two poor girls were bound hand and foot, stripped naked, in the centre of fifty dancing and frantic fiends, who with yells cut the victims with
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AMONG THE ALASKANS.
knives and tore out pieces of their flesh. Forcing her way to the side of the captives, in spite of threats and execrations, Mrs. McFarland stood warning and pleading, and threatening them with the wrath of the United States, and after hours of daunt- less persistency cowed the wretches and took off the half-dead girls. During the night one of them was recaptured and killed. To rescue helpless young women from such atrocities a home must be provided.
The Ist of March, Bishop Bombas, of the Episcopal Church, passed through Fort Wrangell, approved heartily of the plan for a home, and left a small donation- the first contribution to that admirable work.
On the 15th of March arrived Mr. Brady, commissioned to Sitka. Mr. Brady made a short stay at Wrangell, preaching and visiting the school. He also, on Sabbath morning, at the church service, married Toy-a-att and Moses, two of the Christian Indians, to their respective wives. On Monday these two couples had a wed-
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PROGRESS AT FORT WRANGELL.
ding-feast in very respectable style, a num- ber of chiefs of other tribes being present,
AI ASKAN WOMAN : TATTOOING INDICATIVE OF HIGH RANK.
and earnest requests were made for more missionaries. Also, on Monday, Mr. Brady was sent for to conduct a funeral. The family stated that they had meant to burn the body with heathen ceremonies, but now, as they "had a 'white missionary- man' among them, they should make a
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hole in the ground and bury their dead as white folks did." In the evening an Indian dance was exhibited, after which Toy-a-att declared that they had all danced their last dance: from henceforth they would be Christian Indians and serve God.
In June, Shaaks, the head-chief, died, and was laid out in state. After a con- ference as to whether they should bury or burn the body, they agreed to bury, if Mrs. McFarland would conduct the funeral. To this she consented. Shaaks's successor promised to join the Christian Indians.
The steamer California, coming up June 13th, brought no missionary, and the In- dians, gathering about Mrs. McFarland- herself sadly disappointed-cried,
" How many moons now till the preacher shall come? Sick! sick at heart am I ! By and by all Indians dead! Sick! sick at heart !"
Sure that the longed-for preacher would arrive by the July steamer, the school- girls cleaned up the house and the men
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PROGRESS AT FORT WRANGELL.
and boys trimmed it beautifully with ever- greens. They had expected to have a church built that season, and it was grow- ing late. The steamer came, but no mis- sionary.
"No use!" cried the Indians; "we will do no more. No one is coming at all ! no one cares for us !"
To supply all this lack of service, Mrs. McFarland had been since spring con- ducting two schools, one for the wild na- tives up the beach, who would not enter the town. Sixty attended this school, in an old log building, and were taught from the blackboard. These Indians soon asked for Sabbath-afternoon services, which Mrs. McFarland held.
Making a trip by steamer to Sitka, Mrs. McFarland found the mission there pro- gressing happily, and all along the route was met by the same urgent appeal :
" Why cannot we have a teacher and a preacher ?"
The August steamer brought happiness to Fort Wrangell. The Rev. S. Hall Young of Parkersburg, West Virginia, commis-
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sioned by the Home Mission Board of the Presbyterian Church, arrived to take charge of the Fort Wrangell work.
Mr. Vanderbilt provided for Mrs. McFar- land an old building which had been a Rus- sian hospital, with a view to' her starting her home for girls. The miners would soon be back in town for the winter, and the pur- chase of the girls from their heathen friends would begin. There was not a particle of furniture or bedding for the proposed refuge, nor, indeed, money for provisions ; there was neither clothing nor ineans to buy clothing.
Mr. Young preached to the white people every Sunday afternoon, taught the school during the week, collected funds for a church, buried the dead, instructed an adult class, performed marriages among the Christian Indians and maintained the battle with "witchcraft," one of the forms of their heathenism hardest to be eradi- cated. Mrs. McFarland devoted herself to the girls, to sewing-school, to domestic instruction and to visitation from house to house.
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PROGRESS AT FORT WRANGELL.
Dr. Jackson, on his part, was imploring of the Church in the United States money for the home, and more teachers. As another result of his labors, in September the good news reached Mrs. McFarland that Miss Dunbar, from Steubenville, Ohio, would soon arrive at Fort Wrangell to aid in the school.
Meantime, we may say that the home- school started itself.
Katy, a bright girl of fourteen, who had been for a year in school, had a heathen mother. This mother, as Mrs. Dickinson learned, intended to take the girl up the river and sell her. Mrs. McFarland, by hours of earnest entreaty, secured, as she supposed, the abandonment of this mon- strous plan ; but the very next week the mother endeavored to force the despairing girl into the canoe that would carry her to ruin. The child fled to the woods, but in the night found her way to Mrs. McFar- land's little abode and threw herself on her protection. She had come to stay ! Three other girls at once claimed the shelter which their schoolmate had found. The home
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AMONG THE ALASKANS.
was begun. Its inmates slept in their
blankets on the bare floor. They had not a change of clothing. Like the birds, they had neither barn nor storehouse, and yet said they were happy.
While work was thus multiplying for Mrs. McFarland, Mr. Young found him- self, at the outset of his mission, con- fronted by witchcraft demonstrations in an aggravated form. The Indians of the North Pacific coast are victims of a belief in witchcraft. Dall says they do not be- lieve in a god, but in demoniacal spirits. Bancroft writes : "Thick black clouds, por- tentous of evil, hang threateningly over the savage during his entire life." All misfor- tunes, all sickness, all death, the Indians look . upon as the result of witchcraft. None of these things have, to them, nat- ural causes. The witchcraft being ac- cepted as a fact, the first proceeding is to point out the witch. Here friendship, good character, helplessness-any circum- stances proving innocence-are absolutely without weight against the bare assertion of the shaman. The accusation is virtual
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PROGRESS AT FORT WRANGELL.
condemnation : the finger of suspicion pointed is the sentence of death, and that by some aggravated form of torture. Envy, jealousy, revenge-all the worst passions-can gratify themselves in this fury of witchcraft. The shaman has only to dislike one or to be bribed by some wretch to proceed against the object of his secret enmity, and that unhappy creat- ure is doomed. Against these enormities of witchcraft the American government has issued no laws and offered no pro- tection. Americans have cried loudly against Great Britain that she formerly permitted infanticide, suttees and self-tor- ture to pass unrebuked in India for a long period of years; but we, as a na- tion, are permitting these very crimes in a territory much nearer the seat of gov- ernment and a thousand times easier to control than is India.
No sooner had a large body of Indians made some progress in civilization, at- tended schools and professed themselves Christians than the witchcraft excitement broke forth with redoubled fury. The
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Christians were to be accused of causing all sickness or death that occurred. We have seen how two of the schoolgirls were seized and tortured. Frequently, accused persons commit suicide to es- cape from torments and a lingering death. This. diabolism of witchcraft Mr. Young resolved boldly to face.
Old Shustaks's wife fell ill, and Shustaks accused a Christian Indian of being " bad medicine " to her. They caught this man, carried him to Shustaks, stripped and bound him and crowded him into a hole in the ground. Mr. Young and Mr. Dennis went to Shustaks, firmly insisted on the release of the victim, and warned the Indians that no one must be tied up as a witch without first accusing him before Mr. Young and Mr. Dennis. Securing this, they could prevent secret and hasty torture.
The Indians, encouraged by finding a defender in their new missionary, went eagerly to work, and out of their poverty raised nearly six hundred dollars for be- ginning the new church-building.
In December, Mr. Young was married
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PROGRESS AT FORT WRANGELL.
to Miss Kellogg, of the Sitka mission, and thus one more was added to the little band at Wrangell. Immediately after this came Christmas, celebrated as on the pre- ceding: year, and within a few days the Indians had several marriages " in United States fashion," with church ceremonies and wedding-feasts. Mrs. Young's friends in the East sent her large boxes of gifts for a Christmas tree, which was set up for the school Indians, and each one got a present, though the guests came by hundreds.
At this time the columns of the Rocky Mountain Presbyterian, and also those of many other Presbyterian papers, were filled with urgent representations of the needs of the industrial home at Fort Wrangell. Money began to come in freely for the work, and in February several well-filled boxes arrived at Wrangell, with clothes, bedding and other necessaries for the institution. Then an organ safely reached them, and in March letters announcing that the money required was furnished, and that the Rev. Dr. Henry Kendall,
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secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, and a missionary teach- er, would be in Wrangell in June and the new building should be commenced. But, however fast the gifts came for the home, the girls came faster with their pitiful tales and their terrible needs, and still they were taken in, before food or clothes, or even shelter, could be assured.
In June, 1879, the mission was rein- forced by the arrival of Dr. Corlies of Philadelphia, with his wife and child. In- dependent of societies, this devoted couple had gone forth to establish a mission at their own charges in the place that seemed to be in the most need. It was decided that Dr. Corlies should remain at Wran- gell as a missionary physician. Mrs. Cor- lies opened a school, which, in spite of many disadvantages, has proved largely useful. She chose to work amongst the "visiting Indians," or tribes who came from the interior to trade. spending only a small portion of her time in Fort Wrangell. The disadvantage in this form of work was that she had a constantly-
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PROGRESS AT FORT WRANGELL.
changing succession of pupils. The school was always full, as visiting Indians were plenty at every season of the year, but each pupil was present but a short time. The advantage gained, however, compen- sated for this difficulty: the visiting In- dians came from far; they learned some- thing at the school, got some view of the cross and the love of Christ, and, return- ing home, the school and its teachings were the chief wonders they had to re- late of Fort Wrangell. Thus a way has been prepared for the spread of the gos- pel in the most distant tribes; requests for teachers have come; missionaries have been welcomed, and have found hearts prepared for their work through the in- fluence of Mrs. Corlies's school for the transients.
On the 14th of July, 1879, Dr. and Mrs. Kendall, Dr. and Mrs. Jackson, Dr. and Mrs. Lindsley of Portland, Oregon, and Miss Dunbar, arrived at Fort Wrangell and made a white day in its mission-story. Miss Dunbar " came to stay ;" Dr. Jackson brought the money he had raised for the
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AMONG THE ALASKANS.
erection of the home. Dr. Kendall won the hearts of the Indians, and the various chiefs called on him as a "great chief." Dr. Lindsley found his interest in Alaska fully justified by the extent and promise of the field and by the results already harvested.
On the 3d of August a church was or- ganized. Eighteen Indians were received on profession of their faith after a close examination, which was a monument of God's blessing on the faithful labors of the missionaries. A special benediction seemed to rest on the home from its very founda- tion ; two of the carpenters who were em- ployed in building it were received into the newly-organized church upon profession of faith.
The church-building was completed, so as to be occupied for worship, October 5, 1879.
The missionaries were very busy. Two hours a day were devoted to studying the Indian tongue with Mrs. Dickinson ; school for the Indians was held five hours daily. On Friday afternoon the entire school be-
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AND MCFARLAND HOME, FORT WRANGELL, ALASKA.
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PROGRESS AT FORT WRANGELL.
came an industrial class: the boys sawed the wood for the coming week; the girls were taught sewing and knitting; and a singing lesson was given to all.
The Indians were now crowding in from the fishing- and the hunting-grounds, and parents accompanied their children to school and entered classes with them. At the home were twenty girls, who, besides attending day-school, were taught domes- tic labors. They learned to wash, iron, cook and bake, and showed great aptitude for housework.
: Dall mentions that many of the Indian women had naturally dignified and lady- like manners, and we find that these girls at the home, who had never before eaten at a table nor slept in a decent bed, made rapid advancement in the manners of civ- ilized life. They learned to sweep, dust, make beds, clean, scrub, wash dishes and set and clear off a table, and were in all things instructed to conduct a household with decency and economy. Mrs. McFar- land was in them building up the future home-life of Alaska.
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