USA > Alaska > Among the Alaskans > Part 9
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" The Sticks," say the Chilcats, "are our money ; out of them our fathers got rich, and so must we. They are wild; they are not men."
To keep the unlucky Sticks from going to the coast or near the missionaries, the Chilcats told them fearful tales of how they would be killed, and as soon as a Stick In-
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dian entered the village the Chilcats hunted him like a dog. Mr. Willard, on the other hand, watched for the Sticks, caught every one that came, took him to his home, treated him well, gave him some little token of kindness and explained to him the gospel of Jesus Christ. From this the poor creat- ures gained courage, and at last one brought Mr. Willard a fine squirrel-robe, and Mr. Willard paid him for it the same price that he would have given to a Chil- cat. At this the Chilcats became furious and assailed Mr. Willard, declaring that he was their enemy and robbed them by dealing with the Sticks. Mr. Willard, on his part, plainly stated to them the laws of honesty in trade. He accused them of cheating and lying to the Sticks, and showed them how they angered the Lord by striving to injure the Sticks in body and in soul. The doctrine of universal brotherhood and of human equality before God came next, and this was a hard lesson for the Chilcats to learn.
Clanot, the head-man of the village, was very angry at this; he tried to show that
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he was as superior to a Stick as the sun is to a spark. He said he was disappoint- ed in the missionaries; he expected them to make much of him and build him a fine house, and, instead of that, the preacher set him on a par with the Sticks and told him he must have only one wife instead of three. This discourse of Clanot shows the difficulties with which the missionaries must meet in breaking up this fallow ground of hearts that have never had the message of sin, of righteousness and of judgment to come,
April 5th was a white day at Haines. The steamer Favorite came up-the first steamer for five months. Fancy the eager joy, the trembling fear, the thankfulness, with which letters were received after this period of entire seclusion from the outer world. And then with the letters came a handsome flag from Joliet, Illinois, and Mrs. Willard's piano, saved from the Sitka fire, and also the sad news of the catastro- phe. The Indians hurried to the mission- house to see the flag and "to hear the music go."
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The last of April the rivers were free, and a great run of herring came up to Nauk Bay. Of course the Indians set off at once to get their needed food, and the village was almost deserted. The snow still lay on the ground, but the weather was mild, and the snow melted fast. Summer with its vegetation comes here with a leap, like the spring of Harlequin into the ring. "Here I am!" says the man in motley .- " Here I am!" cries Summer in Alaska, and flings in your face a handful of flow- ers that seem to have been gathered from under the snow.
When the missionaries found that the people were all gone, they packed up a few things and followed them to the fish- ing-ground to try to have Sabbath services. Some of the Indians were very glad to see their teachers, but some were very sorry, as it would interfere with Sunday work.
Our Eastern lads would wonder at Chil- cat fishing. Canoes were taken out, with a woman or child to paddle, and in the canoe stood a man with a long pole, the
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end of which was set with sharpened nails. The fisher swept his pole paddle-wise through the water, and after every sweep brought it up with five or six fish sticking to the nails. These he shook off into the canoe, and in a very little while it was half full. On shore the women and children cleaned the piles of fish. The women dug great basins in the beach, cleaned the fish in these, and strung them on willow wands to dry.
Now, on Sunday morning, Mr. Willard hoisted the flag on a cliff over the fishing- station, gathered a few of the school-chil- dren and began singing hymns to open worship. But most of the Indians were bent on herring-catching, so they took eight canoes and went out; and, lo! the fish were all gone. They came back angry, saying that the missionaries had driven off the fish. In revenge for this fancied act of the missionaries, the In- dians all began to work busily, cleaning Saturday's fish, building booths, whittling wands and making fires. Mr. Willard then went down among them and preached
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to them as they worked, telling them how wrong they were and how they could have the blessing of God when they did right. Some of them stopped work; others came in the afternoon to a service.
Mrs. Willard had for some time seen that there must be a home to shelter chil- dren, especially girls. One little orphan had been offered her, but she had no clothes and little space for her, and no authority from home to open such a refuge as the one at Fort Wrangell. But there, on that Sabbath, was this poor little girl, cold, shivering, half naked, frightened, crying over her fish-cleaning, that she believed to be a sin. Mrs. Willard's heart ached for the miserable little mite. She resolved to save her; so she went among the people and offered to take the girl for her own. They said they were "very glad to get rid of her;" so on Monday morning, Mrs. Willard took the child back to the station, and then- The home at Haines had started itself, just as the home at Wrangell and the home at Sitka had done.
A dreadful little girl this was. Her
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long hair was matted ; her skin was filthy ; she had nothing on but a ragged cotton slip which she had worn all winter; and she was thin from being only half fed. Here was more missionary work.
Mrs. Willard put her new girl into a tub of hot water and scoured her from head to foot with carbolic soap, and then cleaned, combed and braided her long soft hair.
I know a great many people who will feel that this work was the greatest of all Mrs. Willard's acts of self-sacrifice. Well, then the little waif, who had had her supper, was put into a clean night-dress and into a clean bed, taught to say a prayer, and for the first time in her life got a kiss for good-night. But there in her nice bed she was such a different little girl-bright, clean, soft, with smooth skin, well-combed hair and a smile on her face. But there were no clothes for her until that kind lady, overworked and half sick, made the little stranger a full suit, with deer-skin shoes.
Here was one little girl safe, but half a dozen more were imploring to be taken; and Mrs. Willard began to write to the
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committee for a home-a home for these homeless ones.
Now came even worse trouble. Mrs. Willard was very ill: it was thought she would die; and while she was so low Mr. Willard hurt his hand severely in digging his garden. Exposure and poor food had weakened his blood; his wound took a malignant type, and, as they had no surgeon and no proper remedies, it seemed that he must die. Hope fled, but faith and prayer remained; and in God's mercy the wound healed, which seemed little short of a mir- acle. Then the little Indian girl and baby Carrie Willard took scarlet fever of a severe type, and there was no one to help. Mr. Willard could hardly stand; Mrs. Willard could not stand; the two children were sick on their beds. For so long had they no proper hot food that they all nearly died of exhaustion. Mr. Dickinson heard of their trouble and came up and cooked for them, and nursed them as well as he could. By the last of June the children were well, and all were better.
In the mean time, two Indian Christian
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teachers had been sent up from Fort Wran- gell to the upper Chilcat village where Shat- erich lived. These were Tillie and Louie Paul, formerly pupils in the Fort Wrangell schools. Tillie was one of the first four girls who received protection from Mrs. McFarland. She is a half-breed or creole. She advanced rapidly, became a good housekeeper and seamstress, and for a year and a half was interpreter and assist- ant teacher at Fort Wrangell, succeeding Mrs. Dickinson in that office. On the 8th of January, 1882, Tillie and Louie were married by Mr. Young, and as soon as spring opened were sent to the upper Chil- cat village, which was named Willard.
Indian teachers do not have the author- ity of, nor meet with the respect accorded to, a white teacher. The Indians are less easily influenced by them, especially if they are alone in their station.
Tillie and Louie Paul had many discour- agements. Their school at once numbered sixty, and they made for themselves a gar- den ; but the Indians came and took away the house given to the mission by Shate-
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rich, and tore it down. Mr. Willard pre- pared to go to the rescue of these teachers the last of June, before he was really recovered from his illness; but, meantime, the young couple came down to Haines to tell their troubles.
Besides all this, the provisions forwarded to the Willards by the Board of Missions had not reached them, and day by day they grew weaker from starvation. And thus ended a year of terrible trial, privation and labor.
Mrs. Willard's health seemed ruined by what she had endured.
If the missionaries had had a boat at their own disposal, many of their sufferings for lack of food, nursing, medical attendance and medicine might have been spared them. Without a boat they were entirely at the mercy of Indians and traders. Dr. Jackson, at his visit in 1882, secured for Mr. Willard a good boat capable of holding thirty people.
But news of the deep afflictions of these devoted servants of the Church had at last reached those who had sent them forth,
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and Christian sympathy awoke in their behalf. The ladies of the Synod of Harris- burg contributed money to build the much- needed home. The bell was sent. In August, 1882, Dr. Jackson set out for another trip to Alaska, and took Miss Bessie Matthews of Monmouth, Illinois, as assistant teacher at the Haines mission.
The ladies of the Presbyterian Church, finding such instant demand for their help, have now begun to send to the station at Haines the indispensable comforts and the clothing requisite for the school. It is to be hoped that the worst trials there are passed.
Early in August the news reached Sitka of the desperate straits to which the Wil- lards were reduced; a small steamer was at once despatched to their relief, and Mrs. Austin accompanied it to take charge of the sick. Upon reaching Haines she was much shocked to see the state of exhaustion to which care, toil, suffering and lack of prop- er nourishment had reduced Mrs. Willard.
She at once removed her to Sitka for medical attendance. The missionaries at
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Sitka greatly feared that here was another valuable life sacrificed to the straitened circumstances to which lack of sufficient home-missionary funds reduce our mission- aries. God has, however, been better than our fears. Mrs. Willard rallied beyond ex- pectation.
On the 13th of September she became the mother of a son, and, cared for and encouraged by her friends, looked forward to returning to her mission-post and open- ing the home which her faithful heart so eagerly desired.
CHAPTER X.
STANDARDS SET UP.
W HEN the industrial home at Fort Wrangell was built, one of the carpenters working upon it was Mr. James E. Chapman, from Ohio. During the visit of Drs. Kendall, Jackson and Linds- ley, when the Presbyterian church was organized, Mr. Chapman united on pro- fession of his faith. He remained in Alas- ka, busy at his trade and helping heartily in mission-work wherever he was, until Dr. Jackson visited there in 1881 and se- cured him to open the mission-work among the Hydahs with a school, at Howkan. Here, Dr. Jackson left him (August 25, 1881), giving him a few Bibles, wall-charts, a flag, a blackboard and a small and in- sufficient equipment of books, primers, pencils, and so on-all that could be
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spared .* The Hydah Indians gave a warm welcome to their teacher, and for the use of the school Chief Skulekah generously offered a house until they could build.
Mr. Chapman's goods and provisions * had been left at Klawack, and on Au- gust 27th he asked some Indians to take him in a canoe to get them. The Indians hesitated, on the score of pay; but Mr. Chapman told them the Lord was able to provide bountiful pay in some man- ner yet unknown. On this showing, they agreed to go and trust the Lord as a paymaster. Not far on in the trip up rose a fine sea-otter, which they pursued and took, and the skin brought them one hundred dollars, making it a very profit- able voyage, to the amazement of the Indians. At Klawack they spent the Sab- bath, having interesting services, which were attended not only by the Indians, but by the white men at that station.
At Klawack are a salmon-canning fac-
* Which suggests that at Sitka we should have a certain stock of such school-materials to draw on in emergency.
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tory, a trading-store and various houses. At Roberts, north of Klawack, are a lumber-mill and a trading-post, where a very admirable location has been pointed out for a mission-village.
Matthew, one of Mr. Young's Indian church-members, was present at Mr. Chap- man's meeting at Klawack, leading in prayer and making an excellent address in Chinook.
The 30th of August, Mr. Chapman re- turned to Jackson, his Hydah station, and, gathering some of his Indian friends, went into the woods for lumber. The Indian house offered for the school had no floor and no partitions ; a floor was laid and a room partitioned off for Mr. Chapman's apartment. When Rev. Dr. Jackson came up in August, he had brought a bell, and in 1882 a saw-mill-donations of individ- uals for this Hydah station.
On the day when Mr. Chapman finished altering his schoolhouse the United States survey ship Hasler came into the bay at Jackson. The ship remained a week, mak- ing surveys and taking soundings, and as-
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certained that the anchorage was excellent and there would be no hindrance to vessels of any size entering the bay. The beach was good, with four streams; an excellent mill-site was at hand.
Mr. Chapman was invited to bring a canoe-load of Indians aboard the Hasler, where they were kindly entertained, the officers playing for them on violin and piano and showing them many curious things.
On the 12th of September school was opened with thirty-five pupils, the number quickly increasing to eighty. The Hydahs, as Mr. Chapman says, " tried, from the first of his coming, to do their very best."
When Christmas came, none of the far- away friends had thought to send any gifts to Jackson for the Hydahs. If only a hundred cards or a four-pound parcel of illuminated paper books, with a supply of work-bags, needlebooks, pocket-pincush- ions and handkerchiefs-things that in the aggregate would not have cost more than five or six dollars-had gone to that lonely station, how happy it would have made
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the recipients ! Thus we miss golden op- portunities for sending treasure on before us into heaven.
Mr. Chapman still kept the Christmas holiday. He trimmed the schoolhouse and the flag with ferns, evergreens and moss. He had some numbers of Harper's Weekly and the Illustrated Christian Weekly, and, cutting out the pictures from these, he decorated the walls ; then, calling his In- dians together, he told them he had noth- ing for them but a warm heart and a little Bible talk on the birth of the Saviour. The Indians said that was quite enough.
As the teacher talked of Christ, who came to Bethlehem, and was ready now to come into every waiting heart, the poor Indians were deeply interested. One, as the wind hurtled by the door, said,
" I hear some one at the door. Perhaps it is the Christ come now to us ; I must go and let him in." So he went, but, finding no one, said sadly, "I did not go fast enough. Who knows but he has gone ?"
In the spring of 1882, Rev. J. L. Gould and wife were commissioned to the Hydahs,
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the station having been named " Jackson," and September 10, 1882, Miss Clara Gould, sister of Mr. Gould, arrived there as assist- ant. Mrs. James M. Ham of Brooklyn raised the money for the purchase of the saw-mill at this station. Mr. Gould writes : " It requires a fabulous amount of manual labor to do something here-more than the home-mission Board can realize : goods carried in canoes, carried ashore, carried up bank, carried as far as needed. And to clear and level even a small plat of ground for mission-buildings is an enor- mous task. ... The villages are deserted from May to September, while we must follow the people to hunting- and fishing grounds. In September the real school- work of the year begins." Mr Gould pays a deserved compliment to Mr. Chapman : "He is indispensable." Says Mr. Gould : " We are in superlative perplexity how to manage about family, church, school, steamer, mail, lumber for the coming winter. Still, we are having a good time, and pro- pose to be equal to coming emergencies."
The missionary-tour of Dr. Jackson in
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1881 is thus described in a Portland paper; " Dr. Sheldon Jackson, who introduced the first Protestant missionaries into South- eastern Alaska, was a passenger down on the steamer Los Angelos. This is the doctor's third trip in that section. On this trip he established new missions among the Hydahs and Hoonyahs, located three mis- sion families, erected substantial buildings at the Chilcat and Hoonyah stations, and fitted up a schoolhouse at Hydah. He visited fifteen Indian villages, and preached in the majority of them. The trip among the villages was mostly made in canoes."
In May, 1882, Rev. Mr. Young went up to the Hydah mission with Rev. Mr. Gould. The Hydahs were already off to their hunting-grounds, but the missionaries fol- lowed them up, held councils, preached and perfected plans for the missions. This was not Mr. Young's first trip to the Hydahs, as he had previously visited them in April, 1880.
The Hydahs had visited Fort Wrangell and attracted attention as an uncommonly fine-looking and intelligent set of Indians.
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They were interrogated as to their families, and, owing to their inability to count in high numbers, the census of the tribe was greatly over-estimated,
As above stated, in April, 1880, Rev. Mr. Young, Rev. Mr. Lyon and certain Chris- tian Indians, with two Hydah chiefs, left Fort Wrangell, and, going south through sounds and straits to Prince of Wales Island, sailing amid scenery of unequaled beauty, came to Kusan, the finest of all the Indian villages of the archipelago. Here were the best Indian houses and the most elaborate totem-poles on all that coast. The village was clean and picturesque, the Hydahs at home seeming as superior to the other tribes as did Hydahs abroad. The Indians were most of them away, but the chief's mother opened his house, which was large, furnished with sash and door, carved and painted, and possessing some furniture and pictures. Roman Catholic priests had visited this village and taken two of the chief's boys to educate in the Catholic school at New Westminster.
In front of one chief's house was a pole
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carved in eagles' heads, white men's faces and scroll-work of rare beauty. This was executed by Kenowan, the finest jewel- worker and native carver on the coast. Mr. and Mrs. Young adopted Kenowan's little daughter, Susy, a very bright girl with some of her father's gifts. Susy looks like a pretty white girl. .
Pushing on, the missionaries found Chief Sanheit, who, though somewhat under Rom- ish influences, talked sensibly and said that only a mission would save his people from extinction, and that he must at once have a school. He promised cordial support to a Protestant missionary. Still passing on among the Hydah villages, they secured a granddaughter of another chief for Mrs. McFarland's home.
At Kusan a council was held. The Hydahs said they had visited Metlahkatlah and wanted just such a mission-an in- dustrial Christian village with church and schools, with "United States homes," saw- mill, boat and agriculture.
" It is impossible," said the Hydah chief, " for our young men to break away from
.
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old customs and old vices so long as they live crowded, many in a one-room house. They live then in dirt and talk and do wrong things. We ask no gifts; we will buy lumber and goods and build a new town. Bring us a saw-mill: the mill shall pay its bringer well."
Now, this was Indian talk-Hydah talk -- and what better, more honest talk could we ask?
Kow, an aged and blind chief, was earn- estly seeking the salvation of his soul. Like a child he sat and listened and questioned, and, says the missionary, "I could not talk long enough about the Saviour to satisfy him."
Still passing on among the Hydahs, the cry was for "saw-mill and school."
" Once," said the Hydahs, "we were strong and many, but white men came ; then came vice, disease, drunkenness, crime, death. One by one we die fast like the leaves."
Then, to their great joy, they saw an- other kind of whites, who brought them word of a good God, and of schools,
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books and help, and by these they should be repaid for the evil.
Mr. Young says the trip was disappoint- ing in only one regard : they found that the Hydahs were less numerous than they had expected. They have died off terri- bly in the last twenty years.
Mr. Young ends the account of his trip to the Hydahs by saying: "The call is loud and urgent. First Chilcat, then Hy- dah, then Hoonyah, and we have control of Southern Alaska." This cry came in uly, 1880. We have seen that one year later missions were well established in Chilcat, Hydah and Hoonyah.
To return to Mr. Gould's work.
Mr. Gould had left his wife at Fort Wrangell while he went down to Jackson, the Hydah station, to prepare a shelter and collect the Indians at the mission. He writes, June 17, 1882: "Old Chief Skuli died last night; he said he was not afraid to die. I cannot tell how much the poor old man understood of God, himself, or the future, but, I trust, enough to be saved. We are making quiet prepara-
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tions for a Christian burial. Young Chief Skuli, his heir, is one of our best men." Before the end of June, Mr. Gould had two funerals and one wedding conducted in religious style-" almost decently and in order," says the encouraged missionary. One Indian here-Skuleka-had for two years kept the body of his young son, waiting for a preacher to come live among them and to bury him. This body was now buried. It is a pathetic tale of waiting.
The absence of all the Indians at hunt- ing and fishing prevented work on the mission-buildings from moving forward properly, and this in its turn disappoints the Indians, who expect, when a teacher arrives, to see mission-premises and "Bos- ton living" rise out of the ground as by magic.
The Hydahs are remarkably zealous for education, but more than any tribe look upon religion in a business light and desire it for the staying of the de- struction of their race and for building * them up in prosperity. All who have
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visited this tribe agree that they are of the finest and most promising of the Alaskans, vigorous, brave, acute, perse- vering, quick to learn. The mission among them is particularly promising.
Mrs. Ham of Brooklyn is one of its warm friends, and united with Mrs. James to send the mission a library, while Miss Wheeler, of the Ladies' Board of Mis- sions, assured Mrs. Gould's support.
We now glance at Hoonyah.
The school at Hoonyah was established November 7, 1881, by Dr. Jackson, who also erected the mission-house. Mr. Walter B. Styles of New York was commissioned as teacher, and is aided by his wife, a younger daughter of Mr. Alonzo B. Aus- tin of Sitka. This lady had been engaged in the school-work at Sitka. The name given to the station was "Boyd," and the station itself is about halfway between Sitka and Haines. At the opening of this school some seventy pupils came, and the attendance has been well maintained. The Hoonyah Indians showed remarkable quickness of intellect. Mr. Styles re-
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ports that during the first five weeks the pupils, besides the progress they made in learning to read-all beginning at the alphabet-committed the Lord's Prayer, two hymns, two commandments, the names and uses of several tools, one hundred and fifty names of objects, how to count one hun- dred, and so on. English in speaking, reading and writing is taught in all these Indian schools. The population of Alaska will come from the United States; these Indians are to be made into American citizens, and they are taught the tongue of their new mother-country. At Hoon- yah, as in the other Alaskan schools, the teaching is largely oral and in object lessons.
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