USA > Alaska > The wonders of Alaska > Part 6
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By Prof. Dall's computation, the age of these relics would now be one hundred and thirty-four years. Writing in 1876, he says:
" I was informed in 1871, by several of the more in- telligent natives, that they fixed the date of the earli- est interment in the following manner: It occurred in the autumn or winter. During the following spring the first Russians that were ever seen by the natives of the Four Craters, arrived in the vicinity. These may have been Trapesnikoff's party, which left Kamchatka in 1758, but did not reach Umnak until 1760; or they may have been that of the infam- ous Pushkareff; or possibly of Maxim Lazeroff; but, in any case, they can hardly have been the expedi- tion of Behring. In 1757 Ivan Nikiferoff sailed as far east as Umnak, being the first Russian to do so, except those of Behring's expedition, who did not
:
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LEGEND OF KAGAMIL.
land on any of the Andreanoff group, though in 1741 they saw the shores of numerous indeterminate islands from a distance. The earliest date therefore, which we can assign to these remains would be 1756, making the oldest of them about one hundred and twenty years old."
Among the numerous traditions of the burial places is the following
LEGEND OF KAGAMIL.
On the island of Kagamil lived a distinguished toyon, Kat-haya-Koochak by name. He was a very sınall man but, being very strong and active, he was much respected and even feared by the natives of the adjacent region. Between the people of a neighbor- ing island and Kat-haya-Koochak's clan, had existed a long-standing feud. But a bold young warrior, called Yakaga, had just risen to the chieftainship of these unfriendly islanders, and by the marriage of Yakaga with Kat-haya-Koochak's only daughter, the enmity between these people was laid aside.
Now the pride of old Kat-haya-Koochak was his son Zampa, a youth just coming into manhood, in whom the old chief saw promises of an able successor to himself. He built for his son a fine bidarka, and when it had been decked out as befitted the son of a mighty chief, the boy gained his father's permission to try the boat upon the open sea. After having enjoined him not to venture too far from shore, the father, from a pinnacle of rock, watched with admir- ation the bold young seaman as he set out in pursuit of a diving bird, shooting at it with his arrows. But . soon the father became alarmed. Zampa did not hear his father shout to him to return, but, intent
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MUMMY FROM KAGAMIL. Photographed from orig nal in possession of Lovis SLoss & Co.
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LEGEND OF KAGAMIL.
on getting the duck, which dove under to rise again at some distance, the boy got further and further from the shore. Finally he discovered that, in the dusk, he could not distinguish the land from which he came. He made for the nearest shore and soon found himself in his brother-in-law's village. Ya- kaga was away, having gone to visit his wife, for according to the Aleut custom, the husband did not take his wife to his own island, but went often to visit her, but the boy was recognized as Yakaga's brother-in-law and made welcome by the hospitable islanders. After feasting and merry-making, and when the whole village was about to retire, in accord- ance with the Aleutian custom of hospitality, Zampa was given the companionship of Kitt-a-youx, the daughter of Yakaga's first chief, and without a doubt the belle of the village.
Next day Zampa showed no inclination to return home, nor yet the next, and it was rumored that he was enamored of the great chief's daughter. Such was the fact, for on the third day he made an offer for Kitt-a-youx' hand, and when his suit was rejected by the chief, Zampa left the barrabora in a towering rage. Now Kitt-a-youx favored this bold youth and they laid plans to steal away that night and seek the protection of Zampa's father, the mighty Kat-haya- Koochak. A dark November night came on and all went well. With Kitt-a-youx in his canoe, Zampa pulled a strong stroke for home. Suddenly he heard some one coming after him. Though he redoubled his exertions, his pursuer gained on him, and soon began to throw arrows at him. Kitt-a-youx urged him to his utmost, and he was straining every nerve when an arrow struck his paddle and he, losing his
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LEGEND OF KAGAMIL.
balance, the canoe was overturned. Zampa's pur- suer came up and taking the half dead girl into his boat, tried to right Zampa's canoe, but was unsuc- cessful and the boy was drowned. When the man dragged the body to the surface, he uttered a pierc- ing shriek. He was no other than Yakaga, who, returning from his visit to his wife, had left his father-in-law in a state of fear for the safety of his son, and having seen a bidarka with a woman in the stern heading from his island, had started on the pursuit, which ended in the drowning of his brother- in-law. Yakaga wept over the boy, but fearing the anger of his father did not dare return with the body to the village, so he towed it with the overturned canoe to the shore and, leaving it in the kelp, returned with Kitt-a-youx to his own island.
Next day the body was found and wild was the lamentation of Kat-haya-Koochak for his son. He called together his clan that they might mourn after the manner of the Aleuts, and that they might bury his son with honor. Swift was the vengeance of the spirits visited upon him who caused Zampa's death, as we shall see. At the proper time and with much lamentation and song the body was borne to the burial place. Among the mourners was Zampa's sister, Yakaga's wife, and she was with child. Across the path of the procession lay a stone which all had to pass. The ground was slippery with melting snow and in carelessly stepping on the stone, the sister slipped and was thrown on her back, being prematurely delivered and dying soon after. Kat-haya-Koochak was distracted. He had come to bury one, and instead had three to bury. The procession returned to his barrabora and he gave
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LEGEND OF KAGAMIL.
orders for the funeral of his daughter and grandson, but was perplexed as to where to dispose of them. Then he bethought him of the cave near the village, in which he stored his furs and other goods and gave orders that this should be converted into a mauso- leum for the whole family, and there he had his dead placed, and with them he placed the little canoe, the paddles, arrows and many valuables. Then he gave orders that he should be placed there himself, and soon after the chief died of grief for his children and was placed in this cave as he had desired, with all his wealth, household goods and weapons. And this was the end of the distinguished chief Kat-haya- Koochak and his family, and the orgin of the great burial cave of Kagamil.
But our story is not done. Kitt-a-youx lived to mourn her betrothed. Cast off by her father and sold to a neighboring toyon, looked upon with little pity by her people, her life was miserable and all but slavery. But her husband seldom came near her, and for this she was thankful. Soon Zampa's child was born, and the young mother was comforted. Still her outward persecution was continued, or rather was increased, making life unbearable for the young girl. She saw but misery in life for herself and child, a girl, and took a resolve so common with the women of her time and condition; she would end the existence so miserable for her and her little one, and leave the rest to the Great Unknown Spirit. Stealing away in a canoe one night she headed for Kagamil. Putting forth her best exertion to be away from her own island, and chanting to the stars as she paddled, her canoe dragged in the sea-weed ere she realized how far she had journeyed. She rose
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LEGEND OF KAGAMIL.
f
and looked about her. The morning was breaking and she knew where she was. With a relieved sigh she stooped, took up the sleeping child and bound it with her blanket to her breast. Then with one glance about her and calling to her Zampa, she sprang into the chilly water. The kelp gathered about her and she rose no more, while the canoe, released of its burden, drifted out to sea. Some days later the remains of inother and child were found washed up on the beach near where they picked up poor Zampa. The story of the ill-fated runaway had reached the Kagamil Islanders soon after the old chief's death, though no suspicion was attached to Yakaga. Therefore, when poor Kitt-a-youx' body was found it was tenderly cared for by the people, and with much ceremony placed in the mausoleum which the distinguished toyon, Kat-haya-Koochak had consecrated, and at last poor Katt-a-youx rested with her Zampa and her child.
And since these happenings has the island of Kagamil been deserted by the living.
WK BRISSE/SO
CHAPTER VI. TOTEMS AND SHAMANS.
THE TOTEM POLE; ITS EMBLEMATIC SIGNIFICANCE AND USE .- GROTESQUE CARVINGS AND BARBARIC CONCEPTIONS. -- WONDERFUL CANOES .- GRAVES AND BURIAL CUSTOMS. - PRIMITIVE RELIGIONS .- WITCHCRAFT AMONG OTHER PEOPLES AND IN EARLY HISTORY .- THE POTLACH. - OFFERING OF THE CONSCIENCE-STRICKEN INDIANS .- A SYSTEM NOT FOUND AMONG MORE ENLIGHTENED PEOPLE.
HE Indians of Alaska are, as I have said, divided into five principal nations, which are segregated into tribes. These, in turn, are subdivided into, families, each having a dis- tinctive name, and each mem- ber being provided with a Totem. This Totem is a dis- tinguishing badge representing the family, or, rather the caste, of its owner. These emblems consist of some representative of animal nature, such as a fish, a bird or a mammal, and are marked on the houses, the canoes and clothing, and are sometimes worn as personal ornaments. These totems give to the Indians a rather peculiar connection and carry some strange inhibitions. Members of the same tribe or tribal family may intermarry, but not members of the same badge. A bear may marry into the salmon
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CASTE BADGES.
badge, but a bear may not marry a bear, a wolf a wolf, nor a crow a crow. Though the totem may appear merely an evidence of barbaric superstition, there nevertheless seems to be some method in the workings of the system. The prevention of inter- marriage which it imposes necessarily keeps down clannishness and consequently averts tribal and family wars. The Indians of some parts of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia follow a method somewhat similar to the totem, each being provided with some emblem significant of caste in his tribe. It also serves as a sort of lucky charm, just as the negroes of the south carry amulets as a protection against evil spirits or to secure good fortune. While the Alaskan aborigines attach some significance of this nature to the totem, its chief use seems to be as a kind of genealogical record. At their burial places and in the front of the leading houses in each village are erected tall totem poles, on which are carved representations of birds, beasts and fishes. These constitute the "Family Bible " of the particular fam- ily. Strange to say, for a barbaric people, to whom money is but a comparatively recent revelation, these totem poles are sometimes very expensive, often reaching a cost as high as two thousand dollars, or an equivalent in blankets and furs. They will range from two to five feet in diameter and to one hun- dred feet in height. Small totemic carvings, in all sorts of grotesque forms, are made by the Indians and sold to travelers in the towns and at the various trading posts. Some of them are very unique and display considerable handicraft in a rude, artistic way, and some of the more elaborate command high prices from visiting whites. Human nature is
BEAR TOTEMS AT FORT WRANGELL. From photograph 43a, by WINTER PHOTO Co., Eugene, Ore.
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INDIAN CARVINGS.
human nature the world over, from the native sav- age to the king upon his throne, and these untutored sons of Nature will barter that which, to them, is sacred for the glittering coin that rules the world from "Greenland's icy mountains to India's coral strand." The making and erection of totem poles is not frequent since the whites have increased in the country, as the enterprising white man has in many instances managed to secure them for museum pur- poses in the "States " or in Europe, but those that are still standing are religiously guarded and care- fully preserved. Totems are also often carved on the walls of the houses. The natives of Alaska seem to be possessed of a passion for carving. They whittle and gouge figures and canoes out of every material the country affords that will take a tool. Bone, wood, horn and ivory of animals, fish-bone and sinew and even skins of animals, are formed into crude figures of everything in and out of nature such as they can see in their country, or that comes within the scope of Indian imagination, from a grasshopper to a bear, from a minnow to a whale, a sea-gull to an eagle, or a swaddled infant to an exaggerated idol, that would scare into devoted- ness the most hardened sinner on running across it unawares.
Remarkable, in connection with their carving, is the construction of the Indian's canoe. It is called a "dug-out," being hewn and shaped from a single log or trunk of a tree. After the canoe is excavated and outwardly formed, the shell is made pliable by steam, which is generated by filling the excavation with water and then throwing into the water red hot stones. Having produced pliability, and the
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CANOE BUILDING.
shell having been shaped to the lines required by the savage naval architect, it is left to season for a time. All canoes are built upon the same model, in grace- ful, clipper lines, a carved stern and sharp prow which projects gracefully out over the water, the latter usually surmounted with the family badge- withall wonderful and beautiful specimens of savage naval architecture. A common canoe is fifty feet long, and one much longer is not a rarity, accommo- dating from ten to twenty paddles a side. A Haidah canoe exhibited at the Centennial was eighty feet long and five feet deep, constructed without a joint, and propelled, when sculled by her full complement, by forty paddles a side.
The almost invariable custom of the Indians in putting away their dead is to make the tomb close to a river bank. Among some the body is bent so that the knees will touch the breast, and is put in a rough box of hewn boards which may be covered with gaudy paintings or carvings in totemic designs, or may be left plain. This box is placed upon four supports, of a height varying with different people, which will then be enclosed with a rough fence, or over which will be built a substantial hut. Over these tombs is planted a pole from which streams a rag, and near by is another pole, of about twenty-five feet in height, to which is attached a totem, carved in the shape of some animal-object, representative of that particular family or sub-clan to which the deceased belonged. The fence posts and grave coverings are also adorned with these grotesque emblems. Some of the Chris- tianized Indians build crude houses over the graves and surmount them with the Greek cross; others more civilized, enclose the graves in neat picket or
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SHAMANISM.
latticed fences, but in each and every case the totem is present. .
If the aborigines of Alaska have any religion at all it can only be defined under the name of "Shamanism," and as a matter of fact, Shamanism can scarcely be properly defined as a religion. Of course I do not in this connection refer to the Indians who have been converted to Christianity by mission- ary and other white influences. A few of these are devotees in Christianity; many have a sort of remote idea of what a living Deity means, and others are Christians only because they have been baptized by All, however, have either a ling- a Russian priest.
ering or a positive belief in Shamanism. This term is not in itself Alaskan. It represents a sort of Fetchism common in western Asia, in India, Siberia
and Alaska. The Shamanist is a believer in witch- craft, and the shaman, the high priest of witchcraft, is a witch, who is supposed to be in communication with unseen powers, which enables him either by intercession or denunciation to settle the fate of a friend or a foe, to regulate his or her success or fail- ure in all undertakings, and to heal the sick or cause death by certain incantations.
By various modes the shaman' is selected to fulfill his office, but in no case is he an ordinary personage. With some tribes a child with any abnormity, from a cast in the eye to a humpback, is consecrated to the office. Among others, a young man has a dream which he thinks, or makes his people think, has come to pass, and enters upon a long fast from which he emerges a full-fledged shaman. The Thlinkets once had a much longer and more laborious rite of install- ing a shaman, but with them Shamanism is almost of
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POWER OF SHAMANS.
the past. From what I could learn from questioning numerous natives, this Shamanism is a sort of spir- itualistic belief, with the shaman as the medium. Those who are the strictest adherents to the super- stition are very reticent in giving information to the whites as to the origin, rites and mysteries of the belief, if belief it can be called, while many of the younger element, having partly drawn away from it, ridicule and defy the shamans, and are ignorant of the history and rites of Shamanism. The shaman rules with an iron hand and exacts the most exhor- bitant tribute from his devotees, who are comprised mostly of the aged, sick and unfortunate In many senses the shaman occupies a similar position toward his adherents as that of the "medicine-man " of the wild Indian tribes of other portions of the American continent. His methods of healing are, like the medicine-man's, by incantation; he has a rough knowledge of a few medicinal herbs and roots; he contorts himself into a sort of epilepsy when invok- ing the spirits and works upon the superstitious fears of his people. The medicine-man, unlike the shaman, however, exacts no fee. If he cure the patient, he is "heap big medicine "; if the patient die, the doctor is often stoned to death; then some other unfortunate is selected to take his place. Gen- erally some very old man is selected as the medi- cine-man, some poor wretch broken down by age and disease; and I have been answered by the Indians, when I asked why they selected their old and decrepit men for their medicine-men, that it was because they were too old to be good for anything else, and that, as they were a burden on the tribe, if they did not soon die in natural course, the time was
PHOTO-ENGLa KY
INDIAN GRAVES AT FORT WRANGELL. THE WOLF AND WHALE From photograph No. 7876, by PARTRIDGE, Portland, Ore.
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DIVERGENCE IN CODES.
not long off when they would incur the usual pen- alty by losing a patient.
In Alaska Shamanism, all birds, beasts and fishes are supposed to be inhabited by either good or evil spirits, with whom only the shaman is on speaking terms, and all elemental disturbances are supposed to be manifestations of the good will or wrath of the spirits, only to be interpreted by the shaman, for a fee. Each tribe and family has its own peculiar set of spiritual legends and its own set of bugaboos, of whom the shaman is the embassador. Where the shaman has devout followers, he is the most over- bearing and exacting, frequently, by threats of spiritualistic vengeance, demanding and receiving everything of value possessed by his devotee. Many of the natives who hover about the trading posts have acquired a sort of notion as to what Christianity means, but have not abandoned their fetishistic ideas, nor have they gained much in morality by the teachings inculcated through contact with the whites. Shamanism is confined more particularly to the Indians, who look upon the Innuits, Eskimo and Aleuts as sorcerers, and yet these latter tribes also believe in sorcery and witchcraft and have their totems and shamans the same as the Indians, only in different forms, while the principle is the same. The Indian name for sorcerer is Uskeemi, and the Innuit name for Shaman temples, Kaguskcemi, and it is from the root of these words that Eskimo comes: Among the Innuits, the totem system differs from the other systems in Alaska. A boy when arrived at puberty selects some living object as his patron, and the spirit which inhabits that particular bird, fish or beast is his guardian through life. If bad
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PHILOLOGY OF SHAMANISM.
luck pursues him, he has the right of secession from his guardian and can choose another, and if he feels like it can eat his former patron; that is, if his totem is a duck, he may eat duck. This is not permissi- ble in the totemic code of other tribes. Deer, seal, salmon and badger are regarded by all with special veneration, as they form the food supply, but while these animals are worshipped, it is not forbidden to eat them.
The philology of the word "Shaman " is some- thing difficult to trace, but its intent and the word itself, runs through a certain theology in both civil- ized and barbaric literature for ages. Persia had its shamans and its believers in Shamanism, and even the Parsees with their beautiful and, in its day, enlightened theology, were largely shamanistic. Shamanism simply means witchcraft, and from the day when Shaman Satan tempted Eve in the Garden up to the highest civilization of to-day, there have been, and still are, shamans and Shamanites. The newspapers of every large city contain advertise- ments by fortune-tellers-otherwise witches-and many an intelligent, refined and educated man or woman consults these oracles, though they would hardly acknowledge their superstition to themselves. The Roman Empire, at the very height of its civili- zation and culture, had its Augurs, who were merely shamans. Joseph, who engineered a grain deal when in captivity in Egypt, and dreamed of the seven lean kine and the seven fat kine, was a shaman; and King David was a Shamanite. Moses, when he led the children of Israel out of captivity and into the wilderness, was a shaman when he smote the rock and drew forth water; Aaron was a shaman when,
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SHAMANITES.
while Moses was prospecting the summit of Mt. Sinai, he induced the ladies of the excursion to make a potlach of their jewelry to form a golden calf for all to worship. It is not necessary to multiply instances of a belief in witchcraft and witches. Even among the Pilgrim Fathers and the earliest settlers of New England-rugged, sturdy, brainy, and wor- shippers of the Christian God, sincere, honest and pious-Shamanism prevailed, and to-day there are millions of intelligent people who sincerely believe that Christ drove the devil out of the swine, and accept the story literally. When we have these numerous examples among an enlightened people, dating from the dawn of civilization to our own time; when the Bible records sacrifices made on the altar of the Diety, and which are even carried out in form if not in effect, to-day by various sects of civilized religion, who shall ridicule the Innuit, the Aleut, the Eskimo, the native races of all climes on which civilization has not shed its light, for being Sham- anites? The very forces of Nature are something to inspire awe, not only in the untutored, but in the tutored mind; and the foundation for this is the mystery surrounding those forces, especially to those whose only communication with Nature is, not in book knowledge, science or philosophy, but in the mountain and vale, the thunders and lightnings, the sun, moon, stars, sky, flood, storm, glacier, or other natural powers of phenomena.
The native Alaskans do not stand alone among the native races of the American continent as Sham- anites. There never was a tribe or sub-tribe of Indians on this continent that did not have its shaman, or "medicine-man." To a great extent,
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MEDICINE-MEN.
the word medicine-man is a misnomer; for, in many tribes of Indians the functionary so-called is not looked upon as a physian, but only as an incantor. The "Diggers " of California at certain seasons of the year go down on all fours and eat vegetation as medicine, and the only function of the "medicine- man " in case of the sickness of a member of the tribe is to frighten off evil spirits by incantation. The same rule applies among the Piutes, Shoshones, Washoes and Goshutes of Nevada, and, in fact, among all the Indian tribes of the entire country from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. It is civilization that has made the real medicine-man among the aborigines, and it is civilization that has put upon them the diseases which have made drugs and doctors necessary to them. When once an Indian begins to learn that a white man is a doctor, -" heap big medicine "-he becomes a hypochon- driac and the slighest twinge or ache is to him a disease requiring medical treatment, and he is the more ready for this because it is seldom that a reputable physician charges an Indian for advice or treatment, and, if there is one characteristic in an Indian that is predominant, it is the laudable desire to get some- thing for nothing, from a dose of cathartic pills to a pair of worn-out pantaloons. A friend of the author once related to him an anecdote about an Indian who, having some slight ailment, applied at the camp of some white men for "heap medicine." One of the party, with more cruelty than brains, gave him a dose of a dozen purgative pills. The pills were sugar-coated, and, as all Indians like sweets, the victim swallowed them with avidity, and went to his wickiup. The man's companions rebuked
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