USA > Alaska > History of Alaska : 1730-1885 > Part 59
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"When the territory was transferred to the United States," writes Bryant, "the natives had no knowl- edge of the people with whom they were to deal; and having been prejudiced by the parties then residing among them, some of the more warlike chiefs were in favor of driving out the 'Boston men,' as they termed us." 37 The discontent arose, not from any antagonism to the Americans, but from the fact that the territory had been sold without their consent, and that they had received none of the proceeds of the sale. The Russians, they argued, had been allowed to occupy the territory partly for mutual benefit, but their fore- fathers had dwelt in Alaska long before any white man had set foot in America. Why had not the $7,200,000 been paid to them instead of to the Rus- sians?
But long before the purchase, as the reader will remember, the natives received better prices for their peltry from the Americans than from the Russians, and when it was found, after the transfer, that still higher rates and greater variety of products could be obtained, their antipathy rapidly disappeared. Thus for a time there was no difficulty; Aleut and Thlin- keet became friends of the 'Boston men,'38 and so it might have continued but for an untoward incident.
On New-Year's day, 1869, a Chilkat chief,39 Chol-
37 Bryant's Rept., 14.
38 The U. S. military force sent to Cook Inlet in 1868 was instructed to ' beware of the northern Indians as savage, treacherous, and warlike.' That character the natives of Cook Inlet do not deserve. The troops found them truthful, by no means warlike though good hunters, and thieves only under great temptation. When the soldiers were shipwrecked and at their mercy, they did not steal from them, but caught fish for their subsistence. Wythe's Cook Inlet, 65.
39 The Chilkats are a Thlinkeet tribe. HIST. ALASKA. 39
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cheka by name, was invited to dinner by General Davis, then in command of the district. After doing ample justice to the general's hospitality, he was pre- sented with two bottles of American whiskey, and on taking his leave, felt that he was not only every inch a chief, but as good and great a man as any who claimed possession of his country. On reaching the foot of the castle stairs, attired in a cast-off army uni- form, and with bottles in hand, he stalked majesti- cally across the part of the parade-ground reserved for officers, and was challenged by the sentry. Ignor- ing such paltry presence, Cholcheka went on his way toward the stockade, at the gate of which was a second sentry, and refusing to turn back, he received a kick as he passed out. Now a kick to a Chilkat chief, and especially to one who dons the United States uniform, has just dined with the general in command, and has a bottle of whiskey in each hand, is a sore indignity. With the aid of one Sitka Jack, then a well known character among the townsfolk, he wrested the rifle from the soldier's grasp, and entered the Indian village close at hand.
The guard was at once turned out, and "ordered," writes Davis in his report of January 5, 1869, "to follow him into the village, and arrest him and his party. He resisted by opening a fire upon the guard. The guard returned it, but finding the Indians too strong for them, retreated back into the garrison. As the chief himself was reported probably killed in the mêlée, and the whole tribe of Sitkas, among whom he was staying, was thrown into a great state of excite- ment, I thought it prudent to order a strong guard out for the night, and to take no further action until morning, as the night was very dark, thus giving them time to reflect.
"I called the principal Sitka chiefs together, and they disclaimed any participation in the affair, and said they did not desire to fight either the troops or the Chilkahts, and that they had already hoisted white
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CHOLCHEKA'S WRONGS.
flags over their cabins. I then demanded the surren- der of the Chilkaht chief, who, after considerable delay and some show of fight on the part of about fifty of his warriors, came in and gave himself up. A few minutes' talk with him sufficed to convince me that he was bent on war, and I would have had to fight but for the Sitkas refusing to join in his design. I con- fined him and his principal confederates in the guard- house, where he still remains."40
In a few days Cholcheka and his party were lib- erated, and here it was supposed the matter would end; but, as it proved, this, the first difficulty between the Indians and the military, was fraught with evil consequences, and all on account of a United States general making an Indian drunk, and then having two of his people killed. And this from his own showing; we never hear the other side of these stories. "On the 25th of December last," continues Davis, in a report dated March 9, 1869, "a couple of white men, named Maager and Walker, left Sitka in a small boat on a trading expedition in Chatham Straits. About one week after their departure the difficulty between the Chilcot chief and a few of his fol- lowers occurred at this place, as heretofore reported. It appears that during this difficulty a party of eight Kake Indians were at the Sitka village, and one of them was shot by a sentinel while attempting to escape from the village in a canoe, contrary to or- ders and an understanding with the peaceable portion of the Indians. The parties thus attempting to escape were run down by small boats from the Saginaw and the revenue cutter Reliance, and brought back. As they were unarmed, they were permitted to go about their business. They remained some days among the Sitkas, and after the Chilcot chief was restored to
40 Sec. Interior, Rept., 41st Cong. 2d Sess., 1028. In his letter to Vincent Colyer, dated Nov. 10, 1869, Dodge says that the kicking was witnessed by a little Russian girl. Id., 1031. Two Indians were killed in the fray, and one soldier severely wounded.
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liberty, it is reported they tried to get him to join them in a general fight against the whites. From the best information I can get, he declined to do so. They then left for their homes, and en route murdered Maager and Walker in the most brutal manner." 41
It was not yet known to the military authorities, or, if it were, the fact was ignored, that among the Thlinkeet tribes, when a member has suffered death or injury from violence, his comrades require payment in money or goods, and in default of it, never fail to retaliate. The present of a few blankets or other articles to the relatives of those who fell in the émeute at Sitka would probably have prevented the troubles that ensued. 42 It is certain that it would at least have prevented the mutilation and murder of Maager and Walker.
Davis had now, as he thought, no alternative. He sailed for Kou Island, the territory of the Kakes, on board the Saginaw, intending to obtain the surrender of the murderers, or to seize some of their chiefs as hostages. On his arrival he found that the whole tribe had disappeared, dreading the ven- geance that might overtake them; whereupon he or- dered their villages to be razed to the ground and all their property to be destroyed.
Henceforth troubles with the Indians continued throughout and after the military occupation.43 On
11 Army and Navy Jour., March 1, 1869. A copy of Gen. Davis' report was furnished to this publication from the headquarters of the military division of the Pacific.
42 Five months after the émeute occurred, a party of Chilkats boarded a vessel, and demanded money or life. Guaranty was given for payment, and on the refusal of the commander at Sitka to furnish the sum agreed on, it was paid by the owner, Frank K. Louthan, a Sitka merchant, who says, in a letter to Vincent Colyer, in 1869: 'My own experience has taught me that an immediate settlement for any mortal or other injury inflicted is the most judicious course to pursue with the Kolosh Indians.' Rept. Ind. Affairs, Alaska, in Rept. Ind. Comm., 1869, p. 573.
43 Professor Davidson of the coast survey went to the Chilkat River to observe the solar eclipse on August 9, 1869. He was warned that the Chil- kat Indians had just been provoked to hostility, but did not heed the warn- ing, and the party returned safe. The observation was made near a populous village, and when it took place the Indians gradually disappeared and fled into the woods in silent dismay. They had not believed Davidson's predic-
613
KILLING OF LOWAN.
Christmas night of 1869 it was reported to the officer in command at Fort Wrangell that a Stikeen named Lowan, or Siwau,44 had bitten off the finger of the wife of the quartermaster sergeant. A detachment was sent to arrest him, in charge of Lieutenant Loucks, who states that he entered the Indian's house with twelve men, eight being posted outside, and instruc- tions given to fire at a given signal. "I tapped Siwau on the shoulder," reports the lieutenant, " say- ing that I wanted him to come with me. He arose from his sitting posture and said he would put on his vest; after that he wished to get his coat. Feeling convinced that this was merely to gain time, and that he wished to trifle with me, I began to be more urgent. Siwau appeared less and less inclined to come away with me, and in this the latter part of the parley he became impudent and menacing in raising his hands as if to strike me. I admonished him against such actions, and tried my utmost to avoid extreme meas- ures in arresting him. About this time Esteen, probably apprehending danger to his brother, Siwau, rushed forward in front of the detachment, extending his arms theatrically, and exclaiming, as I supposed under the circumstances, 'Shoot; kill me; I am not afraid.' Siwau, seeing this, also rushed upon the detachment, endeavoring to snatch a musket away from one of the men on the right of the detachment. Still wishing to avoid loss of life if possible, I tried to give him two or three sabre-cuts over the head to stun without killing him. In doing this I had given the preconcerted signal, by raising my hand, to fire. I should judge about six or eight shots were fired during the mêlée, and only ceasing by the Indian Siwau fall- ing at the feet of the detachment dead."
The officer returned to his quarters and dismissed his men, supposing that no further trouble would
tion the day before, and its fulfilment probably caused the safety of the party. Rept. Coast Survey, 1869, 177-9.
44 Both names are used in the official reports on this matter.
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occur; but an hour later shots were heard from the direction of the store of the post-trader, and taking with him a single private, Loucks ran toward the spot. On his way he stumbled across an object near the plank walk laid between the store and the garri- son quarters. It was the post-trader's partner, Leon Smith, lying on his breast with arms extended, a re- volver near his right hand, fourteeen bullet wounds in his left side just below the heart, and three in the left wrist. A few hours later he died an ex- tremely painful death, and it was ascertained that the murder had been committed by an Indian named Scutdoo.
Immediately after reveillé Loucks was sent with twenty men to demand the surrender of the mur- derer; to summon the chiefs of the tribe to the post, and to state that if the culprit were not delivered up at mid-day at latest, fire would be opened on the Ind- ian village outside the stockade. At noon there were no indications that the demand would be complied with, but there were very strong indications that the Ind- ians intended to fight.45 After consulting with his fellow-officers and waiting for two hours more, in the hope that the natives would change their determina- tion, Lieutenant Borrowe of the second artillery, then in command, ordered his battery to open with solid shot on the murderer's house. Several shot passed through the building, but the Indians maintained their posi- tion and returned the fire. Later a fusillade was opened by the Indians from the hills in rear of the post, but being answered with canister, they quickly dispersed.
Firing was continued on both sides until dark. "The next morning, just at daybreak," reports Borrowe, "they opened on the garrison from the ranch with musketry, which was immediately replied to, and see- ing that they were determined not only to resist, but
45 Some of them were observed carrying away their goods to a place of safety. Lieutenant Borrowe's Rept. in Sen. Ex. Doc., 41st Cong. 2d Sess., no. 67.
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BORROWE'S ACHIEVEMENTS.
had become the assailants, I resolved to shell them, but having only solid shot for the six-pounder, and the distance being too great for canister, I still continued the fire from that gun with shot and from the moun- tain howitzer with shell."
During the afternoon messengers were sent under a flag of truce to request a parley. The reply was, that until the murderer was surrendered " talk was useless." " Soon after," continues Borrowe, "the chiefs were seen coming over, and a party behind them with the murderer, who was easily recognized by his dress. Just as they were leaving the ranch a scuffle, ev- idently prearranged, took place, and the prisoner es- caped, and was seen making for the bush, no attempt to rearrest him being made." On arriving at the post the chiefs were informed that if Scutdoo were not de- livered up before six o'clock the next evening their village and its occupants would be destroyed. At nine P. M. on the 26th the murderer was surrendered; on the 28th he was tried by court-martial, and at noon on the following day he was hanged.46
The prompt action of Lieutenant Borrowe was ap- proved by General Davis, but it would appear that the matter might have been settled without the murder of an Indian, a white man, and the bombardment of an Indian village, especially as the general admits that Siwau was drunk when he bit off the woman's finger. This skilful and gentlemanly performance of the lieutenant, who with twenty armed men could not arrest a drunken and defenceless Indian without first cutting him on the head with a sabre, and then allowing him to be shot, was a fitting supplement to that of his general. The killing of Siwau was no less a murder than was the assassination of the white man. For that murder vengeance must be taken, in accordance with Indian notions of justice, and the post-trader's assassi-
46 A full report of the affair at Fort Wrangell is contained in Id., the re- port of Lieutenant Loucks which follows, and the proceedings of the court- martial which are appended.
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nation was the act of vengeance as inflicted by Scutdoo. After listening with perfect calmness to his sentence, the prisoner exclaimed, "Very well," and said that " he would see Mr Smith in the other world, and, as it were, explain to him how it all happened; that he did not intend to kill him particularly; had it been any one else, it would have been all the same."
There is abundant testimony as to the peaceful character of the Indians at Fort Wrangell. Leon Smith himself says, in a letter to Vincent Colyer, written about three months before his death, "I have found them to be quiet, and they seem well disposed toward the whites;" and in the same letter remarks that "the Stick (Stikeen)# tribe are a very honest tribe, and partial to the whites." These statements are indorsed by others. Moreover, from the reports of several reliable witnesses it appears that the Wrangell Indians were far more industrious, if not more intel- ligent, than the United States soldiers. 49
From the official reports of the officers in command at Sitka and Fort Wrangell, it will be seen that the conduct of the troops was sufficiently atrocious, and of course they put the matter in its most favorable light. "If," writes the Christian missionary society's superintendent of Indian missions 50 to Vincent Colyer, in 1870, "the United States government did but know half, I am sure they would shrink from being identified with such abominations, and the cause of so much misery. I hope and pray that in God's good providence the soldiers will be moved away from Fort
*
47 See report of proceedings of court-martial. Scutdoo admitted that he was the murderer, and was identified by the chiefs.
48 A Thlinkeet tribe. The word is variously spelled. For the location of the tribe, see my Native Races, i. 96, 143.
49' The majority of these Indians are very industrious, and are always anxious to get employment,' writes W. Wall, interpreter at Wrangell. 'They are of a very superior intelligence,' says William S. Dodge, collector of cus- toms. Colyer's Rept., app. D.
50 The Rev. W. Duncan, superintendent in British Columbia, near the boundary line of Alaska. Id., p. 10.
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OUTRAGES.
Tongas and Fort Wrangel, where there are no whites to protect." 51
It is unnecessary to relate in detail all the outrages that called forth this well deserved remark and justi- fied it in later years. I will mention only three instances. At Sitka, a Chilkat was deliberately shot dead by a civilian in 1869 for breaking the glass of a show-case;52 three were wounded in 1872 by United States soldiers in an affray caused by the
51 The superintendent is wrong on this point. There was a small number of white people at each of these posts.
52 Probably by James C. Parker, an employee of the post-trader. Parker was tried by a court-martial. The finding of the court was, that 'after a careful examination of the witnesses who have been called before the board, the board has not been able to determine, further than through the inferences of circumstantial evidence, who shot the Chilkat Indian. The circumstan- tial evidence points to an employee of the post-trader, Mr Parker, as the person who did the shooting; the breaking of a show-case for the purpose of stealing being, as far as the board can determine, the circumstance which led to the shooting, and the board is of the opinion that if there were no more reasons for shooting than those brought out in evidence, the act was not justifiable.' The evidence was at least such as would have endangered Par- ker's neck if he had been living in British Columbia. Colonel W. H. Den- mison, then in command of the post, testified: 'I was in the sutler's [post- trader's] store at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Mr Parker, who is em- ployed in the store, came in very much excited, and asked Mr Southan [the sutler] where his rifle was. Mr Southan asked Mr Parker to the purport as to whether he had seen the Indian. Mr Parker replied that he had. While Mr Parker was looking around for the rifle and changing his shoes, Mr Southan told him two or three times not to take the rifle. Some one else sitting by the stove told Mr Parker to take the pistol instead of the rifle. Mr Parker said the pistol was not sure enough; "I am going to take the rifle to bring the Indian back." He took the Henry rifle, went out of the front door, and walked up toward the Indian market-house, and came back in about ten min- utes. Mr Southan asked him if he had gotten the Indian. Mr Parker replied that "that was a very hard question to ask a man."' When asked whether, as commanding officer, he had taken any action in the case, the colonel answered: 'I took none more than to investigate and satisfy myself that no soldier of my command was engaged in the shooting.' Southan stated that the damage to the show-case was trifling, and that Parker asked for the rifle, saying that lie was in pursuit of the Indian who had broken the show-case window. Private John Mckenzie testified that there was no one with Parker at the time, private Alonzo Ramsey, that he saw Parker chase the Indian, return to the store for the rifle, go outside the stockade, and disappear behind a neighboring hill near the Greek church. A few minutes later Ramsey heard three shots fired, and from the direction of the smoke supposed that Parker had discharged his gun. Immediately after the shooting the Indian stated to his brother that the shots were fired at him by Parker in rear of the Greek church, on the hill near the stockade. Sec. Interior Rept., 41st Cong. 2d Sess., app. R, 1047. A few weeks before this incident, Lieutenant Cowan of the revenue service was shot dead in a saloon by a discharged soldier. The bullet was intended for Colonel Dennison, who was with Cowan at the time.
1
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ALASKA AS A UNITED STATES COLONY.
accidental breaking of an egg,53 and an Indian chief, being sent on board a steamer from Fort Wrangell in 1875, as a witness against some military prisoners, met with such ill usage that he cut his throat, his servant afterward attempting to blow up the steamer by throwing a large can of powder into one of the fur- naces, and his tribe threatening war on hearing of their chief's suicide.
After the withdrawal of the troops there was no power or authority in the land to punish wrong-doers, and a serious outbreak was of course anticipated; but none occurred. In August 1877 there were at most but fifteen American citizens and five Russians re- maining at Sitka, with their wives and families, at the mercy of the hundreds of Kolosh who inhabited the adjoining village. They were in hourly fear of their lives, as they saw drunken men staggering past their residences at all hours of the day and night; but that for two years at least, the Indians caused further trouble, apart from being noisy, boisterous, sometimes insolent, sometimes guilty of petty theft, and always drunk when they could obtain liquor, there is no evidence. Much indignation was expressed by the newspapers of the Pacific coast as to the indifference with which a handful of loafers and office-seeking poli- ticians-American citizens they were called-were abandoned to their fate.54 In a San Francisco pub- lication issued November 2, 1877, it is even stated that the timely arrival of a revenue cutter alone saved Sitka from demolition and the white population from
53 Two soldiers were bargaining with an Indian woman for a basket of eggs, and broke one of them, for which the woman demanded payment. A scuffle followed, and soon the tribe gathered in the parade-ground. One of them shot at the sentry, whereupon the troops were put under arms. Alaska Her., July 24, 1872; Portland Bull., July 15, 1872; S. F. Bulletin, August 1, 1872.
5+ Among others, see the S. F. Bulletin, Sept. 24, 1877, Oct. 30, 1877, Jan. 22, 1878; Chronicle, Oct. 31, 1877, Jan. 26, 1878; Call, Jan. 23, 1878. In the San Francisco Post, October 31, 1877, it is justly remarked that ' the clamor for troops to hold the Indians in check is a shallow pretext, prompted by a dozen contractors, and the agents of a steamship line that has lost its traffic.'
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OFFICIAL REPORTS.
slaughter; but now let us hear the official reports of the revenue officers themselves on this matter.
Captain White of the Corwin, ordered to Sitka soon after the withdrawal of the military, writes, on August 12, 1877: "After diligent inquiries and care- ful observation since our arrival here, I have not dis- covered any breach of the public peace, nor has my attention been called to any. particular act, save a few petty trespasses committed by the Indians, half- breeds, and white men as well."55
In September of this year there was much needless alarm at Sitka. It was reported that Sitka Jack, then the chief of his tribe, had invited a large number of the Kolosh from the districts north of the capital to be present at a grand festival which was to com- mence on the 1st of October. Liquor would of course flow plentifully, and it was feared that the festival
55 Morris's Rept., 127. The vessel was sent at the request of Major Berry, collector of customs, and William Gouverneur Morris, special agent of the treasury department, and author of the report. The cruise of the Corwin in Alaska and the N. W. Arctic in 1881, as related, House Ex. Doc. (published in separate form, Washington, 1883), is too well known to the reader to require cominent. Mention of this cruise is made in the S. F. Bulletin, Sept. 26-29 and Oct. 22, 1881. On August 12th of this year, Capt. Hooper of the Cor- win succeeded, after much difficulty, in reaching Wrangell Land. The island was christened New Columbia, the American flag hoisted, a record of the Corwin's visit and a copy of the New York Herald were placed in a bottle and secured to the flag-pole, and the flag saluted. The decision of the court of inquiry held at Washington, as to the members of the Jeanette expedition, is published in Id., Feb. 19, 1883. During her cruise the Corwin destroyed the Indian village of Hootchenoo on the Alaska coast, two miles from North Port. The incident is thus described in Id., Nov. 13, 1882: 'The tribe had seized and held two white men and a steam-launch, which had been sent out with a tug after whales. The launch was provided with a bomb-gun, upon firing which an explosion occurred, and an Indian chief who was assisted on board the launch was killed. The tribe surrounded and captured the launch with two white men, and nearly succeeded in getting possession of the tug. The latter, however, got away and steamed to Sitka. The Corwin, with Capt. Merriman and sixty sailors and marines, was despatched to Hoochenoo. Capt. Merriman demanded the surrender of the launch and prisoners, and the Indians demanded 200 blankets in compensation for the death of the chief. Captain Merriman put in a counterclaim for 400 blankets as compensation for the seizure of the launch and men. The Indians refused, and the next morn- ing a Gatling gun was played on the Indian canoes on the beach. A force was afterward landed, which destroyed all of them. The Indians afterward fled to the woods and the village was shelled, the huts remaining standing after the shelling, being looted and burned to the ground.' The cruise of the United States relief steamer Rodgers is mentioned in Id., Nov. 9, 14, 17, 18SI, and the wreck of the Vigilant in Id., Aug. 15, 1881.
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