USA > Alaska > Among the Alaskans > Part 6
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The year closed with many encourage- ments. By this time the Alaska mission and the " McFarland Industrial Home " had become of the dearest interests of the Church. Boxes of clothing and domestic utensils for the home came ; the girls were comfortably dressed and abundantly cared for ; gifts for Christmas were sent-enough for the whole number of the mission In- dians. They came together as a happy, thankful family, without jealousy at the varied values of their gifts. The mis- sionaries had Christmas trees for the schools; Mr. Young made an address ; carols were sung, and the story of the Babe born in Bethlehem was told and re- told. All seemed bright and hopeful.
Over this joy came a cloud of shame and sorrow. It rose where rise so many evils of the present day-in whisky. The holidays were always, in Wrangell, a time for abounding drunkenness. Mr. Dennis had appointed the most reliable Indians as policemen, giving them authority, under United States revenue customs laws, to seize and destroy the hoochinoos or whisky-
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stills. The Stickeens resident at Wrangell had become quite temperate, but during the holidays numbers of Hoochinoo Indians -chief makers of the liquor-crowded to Fort Wrangell, and when their stills were seized defended them, giving Aaron, one of the police, a black eye. Aaron was a Christian Indian, but his warlike blood resented this insult. The Stickeens, his tribe-friends, urged him to resent it, and, indeed, thirty of them went up to the Hoo- chinoos, but unarmed, and, demanding rep- aration, were attacked. In the fight many Stickeens were bruised and wounded. Dr. Corlies dressed their wounds, and he and Mr. Young persuaded them to patience. The Stickeens agreed to forgive, but the Hoochinoos drank all night, and in the morning, armed and in war-paint, appeared amongst the Stickeens and defied them. Mr. Young rushed between the contend- ing parties and drew off the Stickeens. The drunken Hoochinoos next sacked the house of Moses, a Christian Stickeen, and, as the Stickeens rallied to protect them- selves, Moses and Toy-a-att, two of the
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Christians, were shot dead. Toy-a-att's brother was next killed, and seven Stick- eens were wounded; two of the Hoo- chinoos were killed and several wounded. The white men, by this time armed, parted the Indians, broke up the stills and estab- lished a patrol-guard. The steamer Cali- fornia came from Sitka, bringing some marines of the Jamestown, and the fight was not resumed.
Commander Beardslee, of the James- town, seized six white men, makers and sellers of hoochinoo in Wrangell and Sitka, and sent them to Portland, Oregon, where they were lodged in the peniten- tiary.
After the dead were buried and the wounded healed, a deep feeling of re- pentance entered into the little church of Indians. Aaron, who had been carried away by his anger, publicly professed his sorrow, and the after-effect of the out- break seemed to be a great turning and overturning on the part of the principal Stickeens, showing them the evil and the danger of their own ways, and commending
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the peaceable fruits of the gospel. The mission began to prosper with unusual rapidity, Katy and Minnie, two of the home-girls, united with the church; Dr. Jackson and Captain Wilkinson secured the admission of some of the children to Forest Grove training-school : the Wrangell schools were full.
In the spring of 1880 the home-building was completed, and the school took glad possession of it. Among the pupils in this home one or two deaths occurred- deaths of peace and Christian triumph, in their testimonies ample compensation for all that the Church has done for Alas- ka. Who can estimate the worth of a soul ?
In November, 1880, the home was vis- ited by a number of miners from the Stickeen mines, who, surprised and de- lighted at the improvement of the chil- dren and the completeness of the build- ing, presented Mrs. McFarland with fifty- one dollars and a half as a contribution to her work. In this month, also, means were provided for the purchase of a canoe
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for the use of the home. The Indian girls all know how to manage such a craft, and, the home being on an island, it was often needed and could be rowed by the girls. Besides, rowing is one of the necessary accomplishments of an Indian woman, and by its education the home should not make the girls in any respect less useful wives. Where there are no railroads, stages, pub- lic roads nor steamers, the Indian girl or the Indian woman must know how to pad- dle her canoe along the everywhere-abound- ing streams, to make needful journeys. The canoe was a great comfort, and the miners' gift built for it a boat-house.
Mr. Young was visited by a Mr. Ballen tine, from the mines, who gave him enough gold-dust to buy lamps for the schoolroom. The Presbyterians of Troy early in 1881 sent a good bell to the church; and thus, in one way and another, the Lord provid- ed for the needs of the mission.
In December, 1880, old Shustaks, long an enemy to the mission, died, and his heir was Lot, one of the church-members. Shustaks died as he had lived, insisting
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that his body should be burned lest he be cold in Stickagow, and that cabbages should also be burned, so that he might have food in the world to come. Mr. Young carefully instructed him in relig- ious things, but fruitlessly ; he still insisted that " he was always afraid of cold, and he should be cold in Stickagow."
The great need that in 1881 pressed upon the Fort Wrangell missionaries-and one that is common to all the Alaskan sta- tions-was that of a hospital. The sick, especially the old, poor, orphans and wid- ows, lie in the most terrible destitution and suffering. Medical attention can do little in the face of cold, filth, hunger and gen- eral neglect. Mrs. Young wrote in Pres- byterian Home Missions, in October, 1881, a pressing appeal for a well-equipped hos- pital at Fort Wrangell; her description of the state of four sick Indian women, as given in this earnest appeal, is most harrowing. She says: "They have rested on my heart so heavily that at night I have been unable to sleep." We hope, when such needs are before the Church, the
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Church will be unable to sleep night or day until they are provided.
On the 31 st of December, 1881, Shaaks in- vited all the missionaries and all the Stick- eens to a feast; the canoe sent for the missionaries carried United States flags. Shaaks had a house thirty-five by forty feet, with four large glass windows and a half-glass door. The house is provided with wooden seats and a kitchen curtained from the rest. Shaaks had hired a cook, and had Indian waiters properly provided with white aprons. The table had a white cloth, china and glass dishes neatly ar- ranged, and the food was abundant, good and well cooked. All was clean and order- ly. The Indians, formerly dirty and clad in furs and blankets, were now clean and all in citizens' dress. Many of them can speak English, and a large number of them can read; they are industrious and self-supporting; they are freed from their superstitions, with their accompanying cru- elties. Shaaks stood up and made a speech which will be given elsewhere, in our speci- mens of Indian eloquence.
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" Four years ago," says Dr. Corlies, writ- ing of this scene, " the Alaska Indians, dressed in skins with dog- or wolf-tails hanging down, danced around a feast of berries cooked with fish and grease." He then describes Shaaks's feast in honor of the coming of 1882, and adds: "These are some of the results effected by the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ among this superstitious and degraded people."
CHAPTER VIII.
THE MISSION AT SITKA.
W ILLIAM H. DALL, in closing his account of two years in Alaska, remarks that he was astonished at the storm of reprobation which followed the purchase-reprobation coming from the descendants of men who two hundred years ago entered cheerfully into Maine and Massachusetts, territories of much less promise than is Russian America. When the chilly forests of Maine and Massachusetts have given way to a mag- nificent civilization, we may expect as much within a century from Alaska.
At the time of the purchase Alaska pos- sessed one town of some three thousand inhabitants-its capital, New Archangel- on the island of Sitka. The climate of Sitka is moist and mild; the bay is one of
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SITKA, ALASKA, FROM THE WEST.
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THE MISSION AT SITKA.
the finest in the world, as regards both its commercial possibilities and its splendid scenery ; it is sheltered by a chain of low green islands and dominated by the snowy top of Mount Edgecumbe, an extinct vol- cano.
Sitka, from 1832, was the centre of Rus- sian power in Alaska. At that time Baron Wrangell transferred the capital from St. Paul's, on Kadiak Island, to New Archan- gel, now restored to its native name of Sitka.
Sitka was founded in 1799; refounded, having been destroyed by Indians, in 1804. Shipbuilding was its principal interest, and as early as 1810 it was visited by ships of John Jacob Astor's fur company. In 1810 a Greek priest was settled in the town, and in 1820 a resident Russian physician arrived. In 1834, Veniaminoff was made its bishop. The Russians built a castle for the governor, also officers' quarters, bar- racks and a club-house; a Greek church, or cathedral, was also erected, with a bish- op's house, a schoolhouse, a seminary building and a hospital. These, with the
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homes of traders, shipbuilders and fishers, gave the town an animated and imposing appearance. As early as 1837 the United States sent to Sitka its first steam-engine, and its first cargo of whisky and rum. For the latter fatal gift reparation has yet to be made.
At the time of the purchase the schools of Sitka were in a rather flourishing con- dition, the pupils being mostly whites or creoles. These schools were closed when the Russians withdrew, and for eleven years there was no school, also no preach- ing except that of the Greek Church priest. As English had been taught with Russian in the Greek Church schools, many of the people fluently spoke English. Fifty Rus- sian ships and nearly nine hundred men, employed by the Russian fur company, withdrew from Sitka at the time of its oc- cupation by the United States ; their place was filled by the American traders. Many families settled at Sitka, as there is little snow or ice in winter, and vegetables and small fruits thrive in the gardens, making it easy to obtain a comfortable living.
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THE MISSION AT SITKA.
When, in 1877, Dr. Jackson left Mrs. McFarland at Fort Wrangell and returned home to plead for workers, it was deemed of instant importance to establish a mis- sion at the capital, and therefore the first missionaries who were commissioned to Alaska by the Presbyterian Board were directed to proceed to Sitka. These mis- sionaries were Rev. John G. Brady of New York and Miss Fanny E. Kellogg They of North Granville, New York. reached Sitka on the 11th of April. Mr. Brady at once secured the use of the " cas- tle," the former Russian governor's resi- dence, for church services, and of the old Russian barracks for a schoolroom. These buildings were in a dilapidated con- dition, having been stripped of everything on the departure of the Russians.
Over a thousand Indians were living in Sitka when the missionaries arrived there. Some of the chiefs owned houses and were worth several thousand dollars in blankets, furs and other like commodities. They were a thrifty and industrious class, economical and ingenious, though too many
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of their people were given to drinking, with the attendant rioting and fighting. They carved all sorts of toys and made jewelry and trinkets for sale to the traders. One Indian was even trying to make a watch. Dall mentions the wonderful skill in carv- ing that these Innuit tribes exhibit. Food was abundant; work in the salmon-preserv- ing establishment was plenty; the Indians were healthy, hardy, thoughtful. Such a class of heathens did Mr. Brady call to- gether at the castle for his first Sabbath service.
A number of the white men of the town came in when the service opened, and as the singing of "Moody-and-Sankey" hymns was heard the Indians stole in one by one, until about a hundred and fifty were seated on the floor: they were painted in black and red, and, except the leading chiefs, had their feet bare and blankets wrapped about their shoulders. A few wore soldier-caps and naval officers' old suits, and were further ornamented with military buttons and shoul- der-straps, gathered from officers who had visited the coast. " Sitka Jack" was the
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leading orator-chief, and Annahootz the war-chief. The Indians spoke almost no English. Mr. Cohen, a Hebrew trader, had kindly found for Mr. Brady two in- terpreters. Mr. Brady spoke in English, which the first interpreter turned into Rus- sian, and the second into Indian. The peo- ple listened very attentively, but it was slow work going over the same speech three times, and eventually the oratorical fervor of Sitka Jack began to boil over, and he bubbled into ardent, gesticulating speech. He explained the evil state of his people -their drinking, their fighting and their killing one another; their unfortunate state of ignorance, which left them so much lower than the whites. Now that a teacher and preacher had arrived to help them, Sitka Jack seemed to antici- pate an immediate millennium for his long- neglected race. Then Annahootz took the floor, and approved all that the missionary had spoken. Mr. Brady next discoursed, declaring all wisdom and morals to be based on the Bible, and explaining that they must go to school and learn to read
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and study this book of God. Jack next asked the Indians if they found that style of talk satisfactory, and they said that they did. They explained that only few Indians were present because numbers had gone off to hunt, but would return in "two moons." After prayer and singing, the meeting closed. They had only one ser- vice that day. No wonder, for it had last- ed several hours.
Some of the traders remained to assure Mr. Brady of his hopeful prospects. They said the Indians were evidently heartily in- terested, and were a very reliable, straight- forward set of people. These men, who had known the Alaska Indians for years, said they were a superior set of natives, self-supporting, hard-working, quick to learn and faithful in keeping contracts. Witchcraft and whisky were their two evil genii.
The next day Mr. Brady hired some Indians and began to get the barracks ready for school and church. A Mr. Whit- ford had bought all that the Russians had sold, and from him Mr. Brady purchased
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twenty benches, a stove, two tables, two brooms and a box of chalk. The Greek priest kindly lent an old warped black- board. Wood was purchased and cut, and all was ready for opening the school. The missionaries took an inventory of their "stock on hand," and found only six primers. This lack of apparatus for immediate and pressing work can be ex- plained only by the fact that there was so much to be thought of and provided, and that where the field was so entirely new they had yet to learn what material could not be procured on the spot.
On Wednesday, April 17th, the school opened with fifty pupils. It was a suc- cess from the start. The church services sometimes had three hundred Indians present. Miss Kellogg had the advan- tage of being a good musician, and pos- sessed " the genius for teaching," so sadly lacked by many who attempt to teach, who possess, but cannot communicate, knowl- edge. There was no "parrot-learning" in this school. Much of the instruction was oral, and much was by blackboard.
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Miss Kellogg explained the meaning of every word learned, and the progress was solid. The Indians showed good intellects, and in a month twenty-five knew their let- ters and thirteen had begun to read in the primer. They also made progress in Eng- lish. Object-teaching was much used.
As might be expected from such a class of pupils, they were irregular and tardy in attendance. Miss Kellogg discovered that they were all eager to learn to write, and also apt in this branch of study, ex- hibiting the Mongolian imitativeness so largely developed in the Chinese. Writ- ing was therefore made the first morning lesson, and there was no more tardiness.
The method used was about this : Ob- ject-words were put on the board, as " knife," " fish," " hand." The object was either shown or drawn, and the scholars spelled the words aloud, letter by letter, several times. Then the Indian equiva- lents were given, and thus the pupils learned in English what they were say- ing and the teacher learned Indian. Then they wrote, carefully copying, a dozen lines,
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overlooked and aided by the teacher. The one who did the best work was then al- lowed a drawing-lesson as a reward. Some of the young men showed great aptitude for arithmetic.
On Friday evenings they had a singing- school, and whistling in tune was allowed.
On the Sabbath, in addition to the ser- mon, they were taught hymns, and texts of Scripture were given them, by con- stant repetition, to memmorize in English, and were explained in Indian.
Like the Wrangell Indians, these in Sitka wished to be married and buried in "United States fashion." Captain Jack, having been married by Mr. Brady, declared that the ceremony had made him a Christian: his notion of Christianity was to cease being "a whisky-Indian." Miss Kellogg expound- ed to him the evils of intemperance and the virtues of a pledge. Jack could write his own name, and after he had received careful instruction he signed the pledge. His sobriety secured him plenty of work and good wages at the salmon-cannery, and. a large part of his earnings he
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lavished in dressing his wife, of whom he was very proud.
Whisky and hoochinoo were the grand opponents of successful work; and Mr. Brady made every effort to stop the manu- facture, the merchants agreeing to bring no more hogsheads of molasses for use in dis- tilling. The Indian exposition of the case was: "Plenty molasses, plenty hoochinoo, plenty drunk; no molasses, hoochinoo two dollars bottle : no drunk."
From Sitka, during the summer, Mr. Brady made a missionary-tour by canoe to the Hoonyahs and the Kootsnoos. He took with him an interpreter and a magic- lantern with pictures of Scripture scenes, and also some fine views of the Holy Land. The Indians were much delighted with the exhibitions, and listened attentively to very plain talk against witchcraft, whisky, gam- bling and other vices in which they freely indulged. They earnestly begged for a school and a preacher, offering to help build a schoolhouse. The Hoonyahs oc- cupy what will be a mining region.
In December, 1878, Miss Kellogg was
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THE MISSION AT SITKA.
married to the Rev. Mr. Young of Fort Wrangell, and at her departure the school of Sitka was closed, as no teacher was commissioned to take her place. This school had been very popular, and the citizens deeply regretted its close. As no teacher was found by the Board of Missions after several months' waiting, the citizens invited Mr. Alonzo E. Austin of New York to come as teacher. He ar- rived in the autumn of 1879, and at once opened a school with better appliances and sixty pupils.
At this time Mr. Brady had withdrawn from his connection with the Board of Home Missions, and in January, 1880, Rev. G. W. Lyons was commissioned as missionary to Sitka, and Miss Olinda Aus- tin was sent as teacher, to join her father in the school.
In the spring of 1880 the publication of Dr. Jackson's book on Alaska added much to the already deep interest of the Church in missions on the North Pacific coast. If the Church can only be plainly shown the need, amount, prospects and
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methods of work in any given field, a vital interest will at once arise in that field, and money for it will not be lack- ing. The missionary columns in our re- ligious papers do not supply the informa- tion needed fully to set our missions before the Church : our home-mission work needs to be "written up." The foreign field has found a large increase of interest in its labors from the numerous books that have been written-interestingly written-giving descriptions of the work, the countries where the missionaries toil, and the lives of the missionaries themselves; the Pueblo, the Mormon and the American-Indian work should be similarly brought before the Church. A book gives a compact, united view of a subject; the same view, given monthly or weekly in the columns of periodicals, loses much of its force, and, moreover, is much less likely to meet the notice of the young. A hearty missionary spirit will be had in our Church only when we furnish our youth with more books on missionary themes.
To return to Sitka. Mr. Austin's school
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had been for creoles, for Russians and for other white youth of Sitka. Miss Austin's work was to reorganize the former school of Miss Kellogg, and it was thought best to leave the Indians to request the reopen- ing of this and to pledge their attendance. On the first Sabbath after her arrival, while Mr. Austin was conducting his Russian school, some sixty Indians came in and asked Miss Austin to be their teacher. Miss Austin took half of these Indians to one side of the room, before a black- board, and by means of an interpreter began to teach them. . She wrote the
Lord's Prayer on the board, clearly, sen- tence by sentence, and explained it to them. Mr. Brady took charge of the other thirty Indians, and taught them in the same fashion.
The next day Miss Austin set out to visit the two tribes of Indians living in the village, and to tell them that the school would be opened on the 5th of April. Cap- tain Beardslee, of the United States steam- er lying at Sitka, took a hearty interest in this project, accompanied Miss Austin in
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her visits, and warned the Indians to use soap and water freely before they came to school. Thanks to this suggestion, they were very tidy when they made their ap- pearance. Most of these Indians were still dressed in blankets.
The school opened with one hundred and three boys and girls. The older peo- ple demanded admission, and, as the teach- er was really unable to attend to more than a hundred pupils at once and alone, she was put in the very painful position of refusing instruction to people eager to receive it. This so distressed her that she made her plans to give the grown Indians an hour or two of especial teach- ing each week.
Miss Austin heard of an English-speak- ing Indian woman married to a white man, and, going to her, she explained her work and asked her to be her assistant in teach- ing the Indians "to speak English, read, sew and be good." The woman was de- lighted at the project, and readily agreed. Captain Beardslee offered to pay her a salary, which she refused to take, saying
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THE MISSION AT SITKA.
"she was happy to do good." A delega- tion of squaws came to Miss Austin for instructions as to when and how they should appear at the Sabbath services, and after that eighty were constant at- tendants. They were pretty well dressed, but their children were nearly naked.
The wives of United States officers at Sitka took a deep interest in Miss Austin's work, and prepared aprons for the children to wear in the schoolroom, putting them on when they came in in the morning. The officers of the United States ship came on Sabbath forenoons and helped with the singing. Too much cannot be said in commendation of the admirable way in which nearly all the United States officers in Sitka have aided the school-work.
When Mr. and Mrs. Lyons and Miss Austin arrived in Sitka the majority of the Indians were away, hunting and fishing. Captain Beardslee and his wife interested themselves in procuring a place for services and secured an old Russian guardhouse building, which the marines cleaned and whitewashed. They then fitted up two
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washrooms, one for boys and one for girls. Benches, tables, glass for windows, an organ, pictures, books and Sabbath- school papers were among the things greatly needed, but with all their might the missionaries pushed on the work with the material at hand, meanwhile sending home for help. Their appeals reached the public (generally through the columns of the Rocky Mountain Presbyterian) and entered the warm hearts of the ladies of our home-missionary societies. At this time how many hands of ladies and young girls, and even of children, were busy pre- paring clothing, Christmas gifts and re- ward-cards for the Alaska schools, and col- lecting funds for scholarships, books, school- room appliances, organs, bells-all the par- aphernalia needed for efficient work !
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