While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Alaska Indian Chiefs: Fernandeste, Sitka Jack
and Anahootz
Alaska means great land, and, as you
can all see on the map, it is a great land far west of Canada and north of the United
States. It was discovered in 1728 by Vitus Bering, a Danish sailor in the Russian service,
and it belonged to Russia till 1867, when the United States bought it for $7,200,000. This
country is so very far north that I am sure if I asked you who lived there you would say
that the people must all be Eskimos, and you are quite right, for Eskimos do live there,
but besides the Eskimos there are Indians who live there, too. They are not as wild and
warlike as the redmen further south, and are so willing to live as white men do that we
have not needed to put them on reservations. Indeed, they would have given Uncle Sam no
trouble at all but for the bad traders who would sell the Indians whisky, and no Indian is
much good when he begins to like "fire water" better than anything else.
It was in 1875 that one of these Alaskan Indian chiefs,
Fernandeste, was seized by some white men, made prisoner on board a steamer, and taken to
Portland, Oregon. Some of the white men could talk Stickeen, the Indian language, and they
frightened Fernandeste so much because he thought he would forever disgrace his people
that he died before the ship reached land. Now the Indians loved this chief very much, and
when the news came back his family was overcome with grief. All the Indians said they must
make the white men give them a great present for this bad treatment of Fernandeste or they
would be cowards, and whatever happened his body must be brought back to Alaska.
Now at this time Uncle Sam had sent me, with a portion of the
United States Army, to take care of the northwestern part of our country, so when I heard
the story of Fernandeste I decided to go to Alaska and tell his friends how sorry I was
and try to make them happy. It was vacation time, so my wife and children went along for a
trip.
From Tacoma, on Puget Sound, we sailed to Victoria, the capital
of British Columbia, and there went on board the steamer California for Alaska. What a
glorious trip it was, sailing between rough-faced mountain sides, 3000 feet high, some
snow-capped, some covered with feathery trees. Such a strange country, too, for the sun
stayed up all night and at ten o'clock I could read as well as at noon. My children didn't want to go to bed at all, and I
remember what queer things we hung up at the windows to darken the rooms so the children
could sleep.
At last one morning we anchored in a bay near an island and on
that island was an army post called Fort Wrangel. There was a stockade around it made of
the trunks of trees fifteen feet high, and there were heavy double gates made of logs
fastened together. The commanding officer of the fort and Kalemste, sub-chief of the
Wrangel Indians, came to meet us, and with them we went to the stockade. All the buildings
of the fort were inside the stockade, and the officers and soldiers felt very safe when
the gates were shut. Now some soldiers opened the gates for us to pass in. Kalemste and
two other Indians were, allowed to enter, but all the others turned back to their homes on
the other end of the island.
These Wrangel Indians do not live in tepees and wigwams as the
Indians further south, but in long houses made of immense planks split from large trees. A
whole family-children, parents, grandparents, uncles, and aunts, and even some few friends
live in one house. There is room enough in the middle on the ground to build fires and a
small hole in the roof to let out some of the smoke. But the strangest things of all
were the totem poles. In front of each house was a pole ten to thirty feet
high. Animals were carved on the top and sides of the poles, sometimes a bird, a bear, or
a fox. These totems are the signs of a tribe or family-just as we have the United States
eagle, the English lion, the Scotch thistle, or French lily, but they certainly do look
very funny standing in front of all the houses. One totem pole belonged to the chief,
Fernandeste, and showed the tribe he belonged to among the Stickeen Indians, and
the carvings gave a short
history of his tribe. There were
groves where the Indians danced
together, and places where they
worked when
tanning and
decorating the skins of animals,
and where the children practiced with bows and arrows, and it was all very different from
any Indian villages I had seen before.
After we had our lunch at the fort, chairs were taken out in
front of the stockade and the Indians gathered for a council. Kalemste stepped out in
front of the Indians while his people crouched ready to listen. He told us the story of
Fernandeste and how he had been invited on the steamer where some dreadful white men, who
were prisoners being taken to Portland, Oregon, for selling liquor to the Indians at
Wrangel, kept with the chief and frightened him so greatly that he died; and how his
people wanted a potlash or present, so that the other Indians would not call them cowards.
I asked what would satisfy them and he replied, one hundred good blankets, only they must
have their dead chief back again. Now a good warning had come to me before I started, and
I was ready with permission from Uncle Sam. At a word the soldiers went into the stockade
and then slowly returned bearing the body of Fernandeste back to those who loved him, and
a hundred army blankets for the tribe. A sudden change came over the faces of the Indians,
and taking the body from the soldiers they returned to their homes satisfied.
But Kalemste and a few of the leading men remained and asked if
the chief of the white men would stay long enough to let him come early in the evening and
give us a play. Indeed, we were all curious to see an Indian play, and as the captain of
the ship could wait for us, I said yes.
In the evening we came together. The star light was very bright
and it was all still except for the washing of the sea on the shore.
The Indians came quietly, and without ado built a fire on the
ground for a big torch to light us. The men were dressed fantastically, no two alike, and
their arms and legs were painted. They gave first a dance of joy, which lasted over an
hour. Then they showed in a rude way without speaking a word, simply by signs and motions,
how Fernandeste went to the steamer, how he died, the crossing of the bar on the Columbia
River, how his body was buried and taken again from the ground, and the return of it by
the steamer to Wrangel; then our coming, our lunch and the council, but all so plainly
shown that everybody knew what it meant and clapped their hands in applause for this fine
acting.
Then Kalemste begged me to send them a teacher. He said the
officers and soldiers had taught them a little, but they wanted a real teacher. I
promised, and the evening entertainment being over, we went on board our steamer and were
soon sound asleep while the captain and crew watched and took us swiftly northward to
Sitka.
When Alaska belonged to Russia they
called Sitka New Arkangel, after a city in Russia, but we have called it by the Indian
name Sitka. There were two bands of Indians here, one under Sitka Jack, the other under
Anahootz. Anahootz came to see me in a soldier's coat and hat with a bright handkerchief
about it. My boys were much amused at his appearance, but he was as dignified as a king,
and presented to me a number of well-folded sheets of paper on each of which was the statement that Anahootz was a
good Indian, a friend of the white men and the Indians, and told the truth. I went to see
him in his home and he sat on a bench and gave me his only arm-chair. He told me he had
thought much and spent many a night wide awake thinking what would be good for the
Indians. Now he understood. He wanted peace between white men and Indians, under a good
commander such as Major Campbell, the military governor. I told him his people seemed
poor, but I thought if they would make baskets and belts and moccasins visitors would buy
them. This pleased him, but he told me that most of all he wanted me to promise to send a
teacher to them; that if I sent a good teacher his Indians would build a house, better
than his own, for him. Of course I promised, and once more we boarded the California and
started north to the mouth of Chilcat Creek.
The Chilcat Indians lived much like those at Sitka and Wrangel,
but they had seen few white men. Here we found a stone four or five feet long and three
feet thick, which the Indians said came from the moon. I suppose it was a meteorite, but
the Indians said a great white man had asked them to protect and keep it till he came
again, which they were glad to do.
Just as we were returning to the steamer we met Sitka Jack.
He was the most famous chieftain
in this region. Now he was in a
long canoe filled with men,
every man having a paddle in his
hand, and eight or ten on each
side. Sitka Jack with eagle
feathers in his hat and a belt
crammed full of pistols round
his waist sat in the stern
steering, a small United States
flag in his hand. He was a very
bright man, and after a little
encouragement we had a good talk
together. He told me that not
many miles inland, if you went
through Sitka Pass northward,
there was a good level country
where everything would grow and
where there were very many
people.
This was long ago, but since then many of our people have found
their way to this great land of Alaska and have given riches to the United States in gold
found in the Klondike and Yukon country. Men and women have taken the long journey to
teach the Indian children, and under the shadow of the totem poles now are many men and
women who were boys and girls when I first went to Alaska to tell those Indians that Uncle Sam was
their friend.
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their historical value only and are not the
opinions of the Webmasters of the site.
