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MORAINES.
deposits somewhat evenly spread over the country, but ending in extremely attenuated borders, and the theory of a continuous ridge of glacial accumulations was abandoned and has not since been seriously asserted. It is on the south-east coast of Massachu- setts that the true moraine of the glacier is most noticeable on the American continent, and the most easily traced. Prof. Wright holds that Nantucket, Tuckernuck, Chappaquiddick, Martha's Vineyard, No Man's Land and Block Island, on that coast, are but portions of a terminal moraine, whose back in places emerges from the water, appearing as islands. This authority cites many other instances on the Massachusetts coast of prominent places that are "made land," dumped as a moraine by the gla- cier's mammoth wheelbarrow. The same writer also disposes of the illusion that the Pilgrim Fathers landed upon a "rock-bound shore." He says that the supposed rock-bound coast is composed merely of "morainic accumulations of glacial margins," and that the three hundred and sixty lakes of Plymouth township are nothing else than a cluster of kettle holes caused by glacial action. The Professor destroys a good deal of Puritan tradition when he makes the rock-bound shore of Massachusetts noth- ing but an accumulation of sand and boulders, and incurs the danger of real New England wrath when he calls the Plymouth lakes nothing but kettle holes. But he is a clear observer, and has made glacial phil- osophy a close and earnest study.
As to this moraine theory, moraine lines are so plainly marked wherever glaciers exist, or are known or assumed to have existed, that the moraine simply stands as a proof of the pre-existence of glaciers,
55
MORAINES.
great or small, as marked by the debris. That all over the world are these moraines marking the spots where glaciers now extinct once existed, makes the presence of great, living and visible glaciers and their attendant icebergs in Alaska and other portions of the west coast of North America, the more inter- esting from a geological and otherwise scientific standpoint, and, if we accept the theory-which has every semblance of reason-that the movement of the earth is constantly to the northward, at a rapid rate, considering the size of the planet, the time may come when even these great phenomena of Nature shall have been dissipated and their track only marked by the moraine which they themselves created. It does not follow from this that the present generation, if it wishes to see a real live glacier, must pack its valise and start for Alaska at once; but delays are danger- ous, and the person who waits a few thousand years before visiting Alaska will be very liable to miss one of the grandest, most interesting and thrilling natural sights ever vouchsafed to human vision.
04.14- 860
1
CHAPTER V.
THE NATIVE RACES.
PRE-HISTORIC THEORIES. - ALASKA'S PROGRESS. - DIVISIONS OF THE NATIONS, TRIBES AND CLANS. - HYPERBOREAN GROUP .- THE ESKIMO OF THE NORTH .- CANNIBALISTIC KONIAGAS .- THE ALEUTS AND INTERMIXTURES OF THE ALEUTIAN CHAIN .- THE SAVAGE TINNEH .- THE FIERCE AND WAR- LIKE THLINKETS .- HABITS, CUSTOMS, SUPERSTI- TIONS AND MORALS OF THE TRIBES.
HEOLOGY has not, and science with its profound research and investigation certainly has not solved the mystery of how the world was peopled. The two principal hypotheses advanced as to the origin of mankind have found advocates in the thinking minds for ages. The first theory presents the idea of the descent of man- kind from a single pair and is advocated by theolog- ians and accepted by the vast majority of Christendom. Another division of this school are the dissenters from this fundamental idea and advocated by such scholars as Agassis and Gliddon who support the theory of the separate races with their peculiarities. Darwin and Huxley support the third hypothesis, which is based on the principal of evolution. There have risen, possibly from the three schools, but more
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THE HYPERBOREAN GROUP.
likely from the first-as they cannot grant the evolu- tion or the separate creation hypotheses-theorizers in plenty who have not been backward in their spec- ulations as the descent of the aborigines of the American continent. These savants, many of them, have found in these northern tribes a connecting link between the inhabitants of the New and the Old World. On this subject much energy has been expended, much good paper wasted, and we are left page upon page of dubious analogies and volumes of cosmographical, etnological and etymological hypo- theses. It is not impossible, nor yet improbable, that at some time people from Asia might have reached these shores in numbers, but I can find no authentic trace of them, and I can advance no theory of a pre-historic arrival.
With this brief introduction, and without further touching upon the origin of the races, I will take up the discussion of this Hyperborean group whose southern limits some authorities accept as the fifty- fifth parallel, while others include under this head the Indians of the Columbia River. The scope of this chapter is too limited to permit taking up in detail the various nations of Alaska, or of treating separately the various tribes into which they are divided; but to the Thlinkets, they being the people with whom tourists come in contact, I will give par- ticular attention, presenting to the reader the most salient points wherein they differ from the more northern nations. As every ethnologist segregates these people according to his own idea, I adopt the plan which is better suited to the purposes of this work. Accordingly, the first of the group is the Eskimo in the north, who inhabits the shores of the
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THLINKET CHARACTERISTICS.
Arctic Ocean; the Koniagas inhabiting the extreme western coast, bordering on the Behring Sea and the Pacific Ocean and the Koniagan Islands; the Aleuts who people the Aleutian Archipelago; the tribes of the Tinneh who occupy the vast territory between the land of the Eskimos and that of the Thlinkets from the Hudson Bay west of the Koniagas country; and fifth, the Thlinkets who inhabit the coast and islands from the Copper River south.
In the Thlinkets we find a . greater development, physically and mentally, than exists among the inhabitants of more northern sections. While the nobler qualities of the man are brought to the sur- face, the savage nature is intensified, and while cruelty and stoicism are reduced to a science that would rival the Indians of the plains, industry, some idea of modesty and conjugal fidelity appear among these people, and they are spoken of as brave, shewd, intelligent and possessing a respect for women and the aged not to be found elsewhere among savage races. They are a more warlike nation than their northern neighbors. They employ the usual Indian cunning and trickery in their warfare, and their male prisoners were killed by torture and the women doomed to slavery. This system is, however, almost entirely done away with. The Thlinkets were long antagonistic to the Russians, and the fiercest of the nation, the Chilkat and Chilkoot tribes, have, until late years, been hostile to all whites. Other marked characteristics of the Thlinkets is their ingenuity in the manufacture of domestic utensils and implements of warfare and working in metals in which they ex- cel. They have a love for art and music, and exhibit some skill in the former in their carving and metal
AUK INDIANS, NEAR JUNEAU. From photograph 7850, by PARTRIDGE, Portland, Ore.
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PERSONAL ADORNMENT.
work. Not so in their personal adornment however, for, in common with other Alaskans, they are given to the barbaric practice of embellishing nature and far surpass their neighbors in their models of hideous beauty. The ears and nose of the men are pierced, and from them are hung rings and devices in shell, bone, wood and copper, and the head is variegated with greasy colors. Tattoeing is practiced by draw- ing a colored thread under the skin. The women also pierce the nose and ears, introducing such weights as to draw the features out of place. But the acme of Thlinket loveliness is attained in the lip-button. To insert this, the lip is cut, at an early age, in a slit parallel with the mouth and about half way between it and the chin; a wire or stick is in- serted which is gradually enlarged, thus keeping a constant strain upon the aperture which increases in size and assumes the appearance of a second mouth.
Upon the maiden arriving at maturity a large wooden button, rather the shape of the bowl of a spoon, is inserted, and as the button is enlarged with age, in proportion is the dignity and importance of the matron augmented. Writers give the dimensions of the button variously at from one to three inches in length and a quarter of an inch in width. I saw some very large ones, and I think this diversity is accounted for by the various sizes worn according to the age of the wearer; but generally they were about the size of a large button.
The Thlinket marriage is somewhat peculiar for having more show of form than is deemed essential with most Hyperboreans. Upon presenting what valuables he can afford to the maiden's parents, the young brave arrives, his friends gather, and in feast-
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MARRIAGE CUSTOMS.
ing and dancing rejoice for him-not with him, as he and his affianced take no part in this rite. To insure felicity in after life, a four days' fast is en- tered upon and continued with but a single break after the second day; in four weeks the couple come together as man and wife. Pologamy is common, but as the woman brings no material profit to the common household fund, and as tribal taxes are levied in proportion to the number of wives, a plur- ality of wives comes high and is a luxury to be indulged in only by the wealthy. The natives of this Sitkan region formerly burned their dead and the ashes were gathered into a basket and swung between two poles near the water. The personal belongings of the deceased were burned with him, together with such things as were deemed needful for his comfort in the future state; but in the present condition of civilization the dead are generally accorded a Christian burial.
A more distinct caste or clanship is found among them than exists in other Hyperborean nations. There exist individuals of long pedigree who are noted for their hereditary wealth and their prowess, and from these their chiefs are chosen; the choice generally being elective, but in some cases the chief- tainship has been inherited for many generations. The authority of these chiefs is nominal, but they possess much influence. As is general with the Hyperboreans, each family has its own regulations and the head of the house is the supreme authority thereof, while the chief can do nothing without the consent of the several families of the hamlet over which he presides. Hunting aud fishing grounds are staked out and handed from generation to gener-
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GOVERNMENT AND INDUSTRIES.
ation, while they have a custom of renting their lands at a percentage of the products. The bound- aries are zealously guarded, and poaching within the domains of. another receives the severest penalty visited upon theft. These observations on the gov- ernment of the Thlinkets will hold good, in the main, for the Hyperborean group. Nowhere is the authority of the chiefs arbitrary, but, as in every community, there is a ruling spirit, so the Indian, by a show of superior ability, a display of uncommon wisdom, can gain much influence over his less gifted brethren. It is from such that their chiefs are chosen, and in this particular they are very democratic.
The Thlinkets spin and make blankets from the white wool of the goat, baskets and mats from grasses, and pipes and other utensils from clay. In trade they are cunning and resort to many sharp practices to dispense with their wares, while every article they receive in return undergoes the closest scrutiny. They are thievish and given to lying, and, while theft among their own people has met with punish- ment by death, the wrong, when perpetrated against a member of another clan, is readily attoned for by the payment of a few blankets or furs, and to steal from the whites is a sin only in the discovery as reflecting upon their skill. The Thlinket is prone to drunkenness, and they had a fermented beverage of their own before the advent of the trader and his whisky. The northern tribes, on the contrary, are a sober people-with the exception, perhaps, of the Aleuts, who have been long under the influence of the trader.
Cleanliness is not a virtue with the northern fam- , ily, and the Thlinket is no exception to the rule.
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HYPERBOREAN HABITS.
They seldom apply water to the person, and for some emotion, frequently smear themselves with grease and rub it off with a bark brush. They also employ a steam or sweat bath by closing their houses and pouring water on hot stones, and rolling themselves in their blankets to enjoy the natural results. About their hamlets they are even less abstersive, having no conception of sanitary laws.
The chief characteristics and peculiarities, mental and physical, of a savage people are formed by the advantages or disadvantages under which they labor for their mere existence, and the conditions of their being are ordered according to their needs in their struggle for life. Thus the Thlinket village is sit- uated in a sheltered place on the coast, handy to land the canoes and near the best halibut and salmon runs, as these fish form their staple food; the Eskimo hamlet is convenient to some cove of sufficient depth to float a whale, which is towed in by the hunters, and the Tinneh, being essentially an inland people, gather their huts together in the best game regions and sometimes build them as strong stockades. And so with each; according to his needs and as nature has placed him, man conforms.
Then, their occupations and the various climates show in the man. The Alaskan Eskimo is of the same stock as those of Greenland and of which latter ethnologists agree upon as being of American con- tinental origin. They are of medium height, mus- cular and active, short in the legs and with small feet and hands, broad face, high cheek bones, light complexion and teeth nearly worn to stumps by the practice of chewing hides in tanning. The Koniagas inhabit a wild, rugged territory, and tradition records
63
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT.
an early immigration from the north and a blending with the south whereby the two characters under- went a marked change. They are a hardy people who once numbered many thousand, but were sadly depopulated by the cruel severity of Russian rule. In this respect the Aleuts too have greatly suffered. Reduced by the invaders to slavery and subjected to the most barbarous treatment, their numbers soon decreased, and long contact and intermixtures with the Russians have effaced many originalities. They are sluggish by nature, but strong of body and of great endurance, with strong passions that lie dor- mant, but when aroused render them capable of any extreme. As I have said, the Tinneh are essen- tially an inland people. They spread over the great area of central Alaska, for the most part unknown, and extend into British territory in the east. Many petty tribes go to make up a nation of tall, brawny and sturdy hunters, who are described as being an inferior race-at least lacking in appearance. The Tinneh character is variously described, but the best testimony goes to give them a reputation for probity and sobriety while calling them vagrant and indo- lent. When more southern climes and more con- genial surroundings are reached, a finer race of man is found, and greater beauty in the physical type. This is exemplified in the Thlinkets. They are more graceful in their proportions than the inen of the north, but as the Thlinket seldom moves, save in his canoe, his upper limbs and body are overly developed in proportion to his lower extremities.
I have thus outlined the marked characteristics of the races of the north. Look now at some of the
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CONSTRUCTION OF HOUSES.
manners and customs prevailing more or less throughout the class or group.
The Hyperborean palate is anything but delicate, though taste may be a degree more refined among the Thlinkets. They will eat absolutely anything digestible, while cooking is not a necessity with them, nor am I positive that it is deemed a luxury .. They are less nomadic than the Indians of the plains, living in hamlets the greater part of the time and migrating at such times as is, in their several regions, most propitious, in quest of winter stores. At such times they construct temporary abodes on or near their fields of industry. Their houses are very similarly constructed, the primary idea being one large room below the surface of the ground and roofed over from a ridge-pole with hides or bark, leaving in the center a large smoke hole. Even the Eskimos erect their houses so, using ice and snow for a covering. Many houses have a store-room, and among some people, several nooks are constructed for separate sleeping apartments. The entrance to the house is through underground passages, vari- ously protected against the inclemency of the weather and fresh air, so that the only ventilation of the room is through the smoke-hole, and from three to six families call this home.
The superficial marriage ceremonies of the Hyper- reans, too shallow to be so called, consist in some parts of taking a wife at pleasure-to be dispensed with as readily-while in other sections the father must be compensated, more or less liberally. Poly- gamy is universal with them, the number of a man's wives being limited only by his ability to support them. Among some of the tribes the women are
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BARBARIC STOICISM.
entitled to more than one husband. Modesty is said to exist in a measure among the Thlinkets, but cer- tainly nowhere in the north has it reached the par- excellence of the civilized conception of the term. Nor is morality a quality that carries with. it much weight, while virtue is variously " praised but is not cherished." The Hyperborean vice is gambling. A lesson, early instilled in the young mind, is the doctrine of the inferiority of women, and the young brave seldom deviates from the course so early mapped out for him.
In the finish of their barbaric stoicism, they ap- proach the American Indian proper. To toughen themselves the better to withstand the rigidity of the climate, the young man will emerge from his vapor bath, nude, and plunge into the nearest stream, oftentimes having to break the ice, and then, after rolling in the snow, return to his hut, laboring under the impression that he has had a nice time. Mothers subject their infants to this severe treatment with the same object in view. In theirimprovements upon nature they submit to many tortures in tattooing and cutting the flesh, most of which is done while they are very young, and, where shamanism thrives most, cruelty is reduced to its most exquisite art.
Superstitious the Alaskan aborigine can hardly be called. That is, he does not allow himself to be governed by the natural phenomenon, which in such a measure surrounds him, nor will he be swayed by the appearance of the weather, sun, moon or stars, but will fish, hunt or perform any duty he may be called upon to execute under any conditions whatso- ever. The one phenomena productive of awe in these tawny sons of nature is the miracle of volcanic
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RELIGIOUS FRAUDS.
action which he is so often called upon to witness, and of their several extinct craters there exist myths bearing upon the population of the world, and many others.
The northern Indians are extremely credulous, and are thus easily played upon by the scheming shaman. It is said that many of this gentry believe in them- selves, which is easy of credence when it is remem- bered how given human nature is to come to an absolute faith in its own fabrications, while others- undoubtedly those new to the business-know that they are young frauds. In keeping his hold upon less enlightened brethren, the shaman performs many feats of jugglery in which he is very shrewd and accomplishes many truly wonderful miracles, such as burning at the stake to appear later among his good people, and short trips to the moon to replenish the forests with game and the streams with the finny tribes in times of scarcity.
Outside of Sitka and other mission towns, the dead are not put underground, but where they are not cremated, the remains are raised upon poles or swung from the trees. Some tribes of the Tinneh let their dead remain where they fall to be devoured by wild beasts, while others of the same nation, place the bodies in a low stone enclosure where they come to the same end. With the tribes who burn their dead, savage cruelty outdoes itself. When the man dies his wives must gather about his pyre to attest their devotion to the deceased. They must keep alive the fire, meanwhile casting themselves upon the body, uttering cries and lamentations, which I imagine to be sincere, and they then come out of the ordeal more dead than alive. The shaman is pre-
INDIAN FUNERAL AT FORT WRANGELL. From photograph by PARTRIDGE, Portland, Ore.
/
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INDIAN BELIEFS.
served upon his death in a wooden sarcophagus, and the body of a slave is thrown into the water anywhere. A custom which I believe to be nearly obsolete was the murder of a slave upon the master's grave that he might make his entree into the unknown state worthily attended.
The Indian's conception of the hereafter, where any belief or thought is harbored, is based upon his surroundings in this sphere, and whose, indeed, is not? To a greater or less degree the peoples of the world conceive of their surroundings in the world to come in the light of greatly exaggerated grandeurs of the things of this world as they know them, and accord- ing to their various natures judge the happiness of their future existence. So the Indian builds in his imagination, a mighty forest stored with an end- less supply of game, in the pursuit of which is attained the height of savage happiness, and being a lazy mortal, he looks forward to a time of perfect rest and plenty of servants, if his relations are thoughtful enough to forward them, in the cycle of immortality.
Some of the tribes of Alaska believe in the future punishment of the wicked and imagine two paths leading to eternity, both watery, but over one of which the brave's canoe glides on a smooth flowing current, while through the other passage the journey is made in darkness amongst rocks, whirlpools and perils indescribable. Where this latter route ends I do not know. What constitutes wickedness among a people who have no moral laws and no deity to whom to render an account or to limit their desires, absolutely no ruling or guiding power, I fail to conceive.
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. CAVE BURIAL.
A mode of burial quite peculiar to now exist- ing forms seems to have been, in the times of its. practice, at an almost pre-historic date, confined ex- clusively to the people of the Aleutian chain. The practice went into disuse with the arrival of the Rus- sians, from which we deduct that this was one of the many habits revolutionized in these islands by the Russian advent.
The custom of embalming and cave burial was obsolete beyond the recollection of the oldest inhabit- ant, and it is upon the evidences of the caves and their relics-the sole existing records of those ages- that history and science have to rely for the unravel- ing of the mysteries. Numerous legends attach to these caves and the once mortal remains therein con- tained, but they mostly partake of the wierd, and are little to be depended upon. The deductions that have been arrived at as to methods and customs are as follows:
Wrapped in their best clothes and mats, and with- out weapons or other goods, contrary to the usual custom, the poor were placed in a sheltered place and, sometimes, heaped with stones and driftwood. In all cases a mask without eyes was placed over the face, that the dead might not look upon the spirits he was to meet in the mystic spheres.
The remains of wealthy or distinguished person- ages were treated with more ceremony. The bodies were carefully prepared and placed in running water for some time to remove the fatty matter. The knees were drawn close to the chest, and the bones of the limbs ofttimes fractured that they might be gotten into a more compact form. The remains were carefully dried, wrapped in furs and bound with seal
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69
LEGEND OF KAGAMIL.
skin, that the whole might be water tight, and this ponderous bundle was suspended in a cave or some rocky shelter.
Numerous burial caves have been discovered or reported, and many explored and rifled. In 1874, the Alaska Commercial Company explored the largest known of these caves, and bringing away the contents donated the relics to the Smithsonian Insti- tute and to the California Academy of Sciences. The picture herewith presented is from a photograph of a mummy in the Company's museum. The cave thus explored is situated in the Island of Kagamil, one of the group known as the Islands of the Four Craters. Besides the incased remains of eight adults and three infants, there were found in this cave nun- erous weapons, implements and utensils of all sorts, beads and furs and the remains of canoes.
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