The Alaskan’s Habit of Gambling.—Extraordinary Domestic Carvings.—Silver
Bracelets.—Prevailing Superstitions.—Disposal of the Dead.—The Native
“Potlatch.”—Cannibalism.—Ambitions of Preferment.—Human Sacrifices.—
The Tribes slowly decreasing in Numbers.—Influence of the Women.—
Witchcraft.—Fetich Worship.—The Native Canoes.—Eskimo Skin Boats.
The aborigines of Alaska are slow in their movements, and in this
respect resemble the Lapps of Scandinavia, having also a drawling manner
of speech entirely in consonance with their bodily movements. They are
as inveterate gamblers as the Chinese, often passing whole days and
nights absorbed in the occupation, the result of which is in no way
contingent upon intelligence or skill, until finally one of the party
walks off winner of all the stakes. Their principal gambling game is
played with a handful of small sticks of different colors, which are
called by various names, such as the crab, the whale, the duck, and so
on. The player shuffles all the sticks together, then counting out a
certain number he places them under cover of bunches of moss. The object
seems to be to guess in which pile is the whale, and in which the crab,
or the duck. Individuals often lose at this seemingly trifling game all
their worldly possessions. We were told of instances where, spurred on
by excitement, a native risks his wife and children, and if he loses,
they become the recognized property of the winner, nor would any one
think of interfering with such a settlement. These extreme cases, of
course, are rare.
It is impossible to see the aborigines eagerly absorbed in the game
without recalling Dr. Johnson’s characteristic definition of gambling,
namely, “A mode of transferring property without producing any
intermediate good.”
Inside of the rude native houses one finds many hideous carvings,
representing impossible animals and strange objects of all sorts, after
the style of the totem-poles, of which we shall have occasion to speak.
Many of their small domestic utensils are made from the horns of the
mountain goats, and are also curiously carved with nightmare objects, as
evil to look upon as African idols. Yet some of these articles show
considerable skill and infinite patience in execution. We have seen
specimens that it was difficult to believe were executed by the hand of
an uncultured savage. Before the Russians introduced iron and steel
knives, the aborigines seem to have carved only with copper and stone
implements, producing remarkable results under the circumstances. The
young women wear silver bracelets, pounded out of American dollar
pieces, some of which are an inch broad, and are covered elaborately
after civilized models, others bear native heraldic devices of birds,
beasts, and fishes, which are said to represent the arms of the wearer’s
family, it being customary for each tribe and person to adopt some
distinctive seal or crest. They much prefer silver ornaments to those of
gold or other material; though they are not slow to realize intrinsic
values, probably they choose the less expensive metal because it is
Alaska fashion.
In spite of all the missionary effort which is made to enlighten these
natives, they are still slaves to the most debasing superstitions.
Scarcely a month passes in which the civil authorities are not called
upon to interfere with the people for cruelty. We were told of one
instance which lately occurred at Juneau. A native was seriously ill,
and the medicine-man, having failed to relieve him by his noisy
incantations, charged an old member of the tribe with having bewitched
the invalid. He was consequently seized, tied up, and whipped until
nearly insensible, being left for three days without food. By chance the
authorities heard of the case and released the old man. The two
principal natives who had been guilty of the maltreatment were tried and
fined twenty dollars each. The very next day the old man was missing,
and it was found that he had again been tied up and whipped. The two
culprits admitted repeating their cruelty, saying they had paid for the
right to whip out the witch from the old man, and it must be done before
the invalid would recover. These ignorant creatures entertained no
malice towards the old native; it was only a matter of duty, as they
thought, to exorcise the evil one which had possessed the invalid. This
is a fair sample of the superstition of the average Alaskans.
When a member of the family dies, the body is not removed for final
disposal by the door which the living are accustomed to use, but a plank
is torn from the side or back of the dwelling, through which the corpse
is passed, after which the place is at once carefully made whole. This,
they say, is to prevent the spirit of the defunct from finding its way
back again, and thus bringing ill luck upon the living. A still more
superstitious and savage custom prevails among some of these ignorant
natives.
If a person dies in a cabin, it is held that the place becomes sacred to
his spirit, and therefore is unfit for the living. To avoid this
difficulty the dying are passed out of the domicile through some
temporary hole into the open air to breathe their last, so that neither
the house nor the threshold may be sacrificed to the spirit of the dead.
Slaves, besides poor widows and orphans, when they die, are often
disposed of in the most summary and unfeeling manner, being exposed in
the woods, or cast into the sea as food for the fishes. In this
connection we remember that the highly civilized and rich Parsees of
Bombay do not hesitate to give the dead bodies of their cherished ones
to the vultures, in those terrible Towers of Silence on Malabar Hill.
The ceremonies which follow all funerals among these aborigines are
peculiar affairs, and for the carrying out of which each person saves
more or less of his worldly effects to leave after death. As soon as the
body of the deceased is disposed of, then commences what is here called
a “potlatch,” signifying a “big feast,” conducted very much after the
style of the New Zealanders on a similar occasion. Everybody is invited
and a free spread or feast provided, the same being kept up for several
days and nights, so long, indeed, as the purchasing power lasts. Whiskey
is freely dispensed, when it can be had, but if not obtainable, as it is
a contraband article, then “hoochenoo,” made from flour and molasses
well fermented, takes its place, being equally intoxicating and
maddening. Dancing, wailing, singing, fighting, and grave indecencies
follow each other, until the means to keep up the potlatch left by the
deceased are exhausted, and his surviving family oftentimes
impoverished.
Cremation is the Thlinkit’s favorite mode of disposing of his dead. The
bodies of slaves and “witches” are disposed of with great secrecy. They
are not considered worth burial, and are sometimes cast into the sea,
but water burial is infrequent. The bodies of chiefs lie in state
several days; the people observe certain rites; then the body is
cremated and the ashes are encased in the base of a totem erected to his
memory. Shamans (doctors) are never cremated. After lying in state four
days, one day in each corner of the cabin, the body is taken out of the
house through the smokestack, or some opening other than the door, and
conveyed some distance to a deadhouse built for this particular
occupant. There in its last resting-place the body is seated in an
upright position. The paraphernalia of his rank and office, some
blankets and household effects to add to his comfort in the spirit-land,
are entombed with the remains.
Another occasion for indulging in the potlatch is when some one is
desirous of securing extraordinary influence in his tribe, generally a
chief seeking to establish superior position or popularity over some
rival. Natives have been known to save their means for years, augmenting
them by industry and self-denial, in order finally to give a grand and
unequaled feast of this character. When the time arrives not only are
all the host’s own tribe invited, but those of the next nearest tribes
not akin to his own. Such a festival often lasts for a whole week, until
the last blanket of the giver is sacrificed. These strange festivals, we
were told, are fast passing into disuse, at least among those tribes
brought most in contact with the whites, though on a smaller scale they
do still exist all over the southern region of Alaska.
There is, perhaps, no positive evidence that cannibalism ever prevailed
among the Indians of this region, yet it is gravely hinted that it did
on the occasion of these funeral potlatches years ago. To sacrifice the
life of one or more of the slaves of the deceased we know was common,
and if their bodies were not barbecued and eaten, then these natives of
the North Pacific were entirely different in this respect from those who
lived in the South Pacific. The medicine-men, even to-day, devour
portions of corpses, believing that they acquire control of the spirit
of the deceased thereby, and gain influence over demon spirits in the
other sphere. Such practices are, however, rare, though Mr. Duncan of
Metla-katla tells us he has witnessed the repulsive performance. The
places near each hamlet where the dead are finally placed often number
many more graves, or square boxes containing the bodies, than there are
present inhabitants in the settlement. All this region was formerly many
times more populous than it is to-day. Here, as in Africa, New Zealand,
California, and Australia, where the white man appears permanently, the
black man slowly but surely vanishes. The progress of civilization, as
we call it, is fatal to native, savage races all over the world. Catlin,
who lived among and wrote so well about our Western Indians, summed up
the matter thus: “White man—whiskey—tomahawks—scalping-knives—guns,
powder and ball—smallpox, debauchery—extermination.” But it is not alone
gunpowder, rum, and lasciviousness which are the active agents to this
end; there is also a subtle influence which is not clearly understood,
and which it is difficult to define, but which is as potent, if not more
so, than the agencies above suggested. The destiny which heaven decrees
for a people will surely come to them. This has been clearly exemplified
in the instance of the North American Indians, as well as among the
South Sea Islanders in Australia and the Hawaiian Islands. Of an entire
and intelligent people, the aborigines who once occupied Tasmania, there
is not to-day a living representative! The land is solely possessed and
occupied by white Europeans, before whom the natives have steadily
vanished like dew before the sun.
Mr. Frederick Whymper, who wrote about the Northwest some twenty years
ago, speaking upon this subject, refers to the experience of a Mr.
Sproat, a resident of the region near Puget Sound, who employed large
numbers of natives as well as whites in manufacturing lumber. Mr. Sproat
conducted his large business and the place where it was established on
temperance principles; no violence or oppression of any sort was
permitted towards the natives. They were in fact better fed, better
clothed, and better taught than they had ever been before. It was only
after a considerable time that any symptom of a change was observed
among the Indians. By and by a listlessness seemed to creep over them,
and they “brooded over silent thoughts.” At first they were surprised
and bewildered by the presence of the white men, and the machinery and
steam vessels which they brought with them. They seemed slowly to
acquire a distrust of themselves, and abandoned their old practices and
tribal habits, until at last it was discovered that a higher death-rate
was prevailing among them. “No one molested them,” says Mr. Sproat;
“they had ample sustenance and shelter for the support of life, yet the
people decayed. The steady brightness of civilized life seemed to dim
and extinguish the flickering light of savageism, as the rays of the sun
put out a common fire.”
Upon the same subject and people, H. W. Elliott says: “These savages
were created for the wild surroundings of their existence; expressly
fitted for it, and they live happily in it; change the order of their
life, and at once they disappear, as do the indigenous herbs and game
before the cultivation of the soil and the domestication of animals.” We
shall not comment upon these remarks, though to us it is an extremely
interesting subject; the reader must draw his own inference.
The men of these native tribes are strong and vigorous; the women are,
however, forced to perform most of the domestic labor, and all of the
drudgery, yet it was observed that they held the purse strings. That is
to say, a native buck always defers to his wife in any matter of trade
as to the price either to ask or to pay. The women of Alaska are
certainly in a better condition and are better treated than those
belonging to any of our Western Indian tribes, with whom we are
acquainted. Though they are called upon to do much menial work, they do
not seem to be actually abused. The male Alaskan performs a certain
liberal share of domestic duties, but not so with the Indian of our
Western reservations. The latter makes his wife a beast of burden. They
are generally clothed in the garments of civilization, though of coarse
material and of the cheapest manufacture. The ready-made clothing store
has reached even the islands of the North Pacific. Polygamy is common
among the aborigines, chastity is little heeded, and young girls are
sold by their mothers for a few blankets, she and not the father having
the acknowledged right of disposing of them. Dr. Sheldon Jackson writes
most feelingly as follows: “Despised by their fathers, sold by their
mothers, imposed upon by their brothers, and ill-treated by their
husbands, cast out in their widowhood, living lives of toil and low
sensual pleasure, untaught and uncared for, with no true enjoyment in
this world and no hope for the world to come, crushed by a cruel
heathenism, it is no wonder that many of them end their misery and
wretchedness by suicide.”
It was found on inquiry that the ratio of births among the Alaskan shore
tribes was considerably greater than among civilized communities, but
the death-rate is, on the other hand, excessive. The wretched ignorance
of the mothers as to the observance of the simplest sanitary laws, as
well as the gross exposure of their infants, is the principal cause of
this needless mortality.
The aborigines, where not brought in contact with the government schools
and missionaries, still retain their system of fetich worship, being
very much under control of their medicine-men, who pretend to influence
the demons of the spirit world, so feared by the average savage. Their
moral degradation is extreme, and their practices in too many instances
are terrible to relate. Slaves are sacrificed, as already stated, at the
owner’s death, that they may go before and prepare for his arrival in
the future state. Vile witchcraft is still believed in among most of the
tribes, and murderous consequences follow in many cases. All kinds of
barbarity are inflicted upon women, children, and slaves. We are told by
Dr. Sheldon Jackson that it was surprising to see how quickly these
savage practices yielded to the power of Christian teachings, and how
rapidly they faded away before the influence of association with a few
intelligent, conscientious white teachers. What these people need is
education and Christian influence, which will work a great and rapid
reform among them in a single generation.
The canoes of the tribes about the Alexander Archipelago are dug out of
well-chosen cedar logs, and are given the really fine lines for which
they are remarkable by means of hot water and steam, together with the
use of cunningly devised braces and clamps. The wood being once
thoroughly dried in the desired shape, will retain it. Wondering how the
exquisite smoothness was produced in forming their boats without a
carpenter’s plane, it was found by inquiry that the natives dry the
coarse skin of the dogfish and use it as we do sandpaper. The time spent
upon the construction and ornamentation of these canoes is apparently of
no consideration to the native, and the market value of the best will
average one hundred dollars. It is the Alaskan’s most necessary and most
prized piece of property. Some which we saw were eighty feet in length,
and capable of holding one hundred men. It must be remembered that
almost the entire population live on the coast or river banks in a
country where there are no roads. These canoes have no seats in them;
the rower places himself on the bottom, and thus situated uses his
paddles with great dexterity. They are quite unmanageable by a white man
who is not accustomed to them, as much so at least as a birch canoe,
such as the Eastern Indians build on the coast of Maine. But the Alaskan
boat is far superior to the birch-bark canoe in every respect. We saw
one paddled by a boy at Pyramid Harbor, neat and new, which the lad, say
twelve years of age, had dug out of a spruce log with his own hands,
quite unaided. Its lines were admirable, and the finish was excellent.
When the sun beats down upon these boats, the owner splashes water upon
the sides about him to prevent their warping, and for this purpose
carries a thin wooden scoop. When not in use they are carefully covered
up to shelter them from the sun’s rays. Some tribes use a double paddle,
that is, an oar with a blade at each end, which they dip on one side and
the other alternately; other tribes use the single-bladed paddle. Each
one of the males among the natives has his canoe, for the water is his
only highway, and without his boat he would be as helpless as one of our
Western Indians on the plains without his pony. When the “dug-outs” are
drawn up upon the shore in scores, they present a curious appearance,
packed with grass and covered with matting to keep them from being
cracked and warped by the sun. The bows and stern of many of them are
elaborately carved totem-fashion, and also painted in strange designs
with a black pigment. The fore part of the boat rises with an upward
sheer, and is higher at the prow than at the stern. There is another
form of boat used by the Eskimos and natives of the outlying islands,
being a simple frame of wood, covered with sea-lion skin from which the
hair has been removed. These boats are covered over the tops as well as
the bottoms, being almost level with the sea, leaving only a hole for
the occupant to sit in, thus making them absolutely water-tight, a
life-boat, in fact, which will float in any water so long as they will
hold together. The waves may dash over them but cannot enter them. These
skin-covered boats, admirably adapted to their legitimate purpose, are
known on the coast as “bidarkas,” in the management of which the natives
evince great skill, making long journeys in them, and braving all sorts
of weather. Like the Madras surf-boats, no nails are used in their
construction, either in the skeleton frame or in putting on the
covering, the several parts being lashed and sewed together in the most
artistic fashion with sinews and leather thongs, which enables them to
bear a greater strain than if they were held together by any other
means. The thongs admit of a certain degree of flexibility when it is
required, an effect which cannot be got with nail fastenings.
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