LARGE STATURE — THE TO-TOOK — ORNAMENTS — BAIDARRES — UNDERGROUND HOUSES — MALEMUTE DANCE — CHIEF ALEUYANUK — INGELETES — HOUSES — HONESTY — CO-YUKONS — DRESS — MOURNING FOR THE DEAD — WAKE — DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD — APPEARANCE OF THE WOMEN — AFFECTION FOR CHILDREN — COMMUNITY OF GOODS — CHARACTER.
The United States Government having recently purchased the territory of Alaska, this work will be increased in value to the American public, by including some account of the uncivilized tribes which are its most numerous inhabitants.
At the mouth of the Unalachleet River is the most northern settlement on the coast, a Russian trading post. To the northwest of this post Mr. Whymper found a large village of Malemute and Kaveak Indians. They resemble the Esquimaux, except that they are a tall and stout race. It is not unusual to find men among them six feet in height, and some even taller than this. The men shave the crown of the head, and are fond of an ornament called the To-took. It is made by pieces of bone run through holes on either side of the face just below the mouth. The ornaments of the women, who are stout and good-humored, are a tattoo on the chin, beads hanging from their hair, and also leaden or iron bracelets. Both sexes wear skin clothing. The coat has a hood almost always, which is generally of wolf skin. Men and women alike wear pantaloons of seal or reindeer skin, the women having the socks attached and in one piece. The “baidarres” of these natives, similar to the Esquimaux kajak, are admirably made. The frames are light and strong, the skin covering being sewed with sinew, and the seams made water-tight by fat rubbed into them.
Their houses are usually underground, and have a tunnel, through which one must crawl to enter them. A hole in the roof—which is just above the surface of the ground—lets out the smoke. When there is no fire, this aperture is closely covered with a skin.
Mr. Whymper gives the following account of a dance to which he and his party were invited:—
“On arriving at the doorway, we found a subterranean passage, two and a half feet high, crawling through which we at last reached the room,—dimly lighted by blubber lamps. The Indians who were to take part in the dance, chiefly young men, were nude to the waist, and wore seal, deerskin or cotton pantaloons, with tails of wolves or dogs hanging behind, and feathers round their heads. The elders sat on a bench or shelf, running round the entire building, and looked on approvingly, while they consumed their own smoke, like the Tchuktchis, by swallowing it, and getting partially intoxicated thereby. The women brought in berries and fish in large ‘contogs,’ or wooden bowls.
“The performance commenced by the actors ranging themselves in a square, and raising these dishes of provisions to the four cardinal points successively, and once to the skies, with a sudden noise like ‘swish!’ or the flight of a rocket.
“Then came the feast; and that over, a monotonous chorus, with an accompaniment of gongs, was started. The words of the song commenced, ‘Yung i ya, i ya, i ya!’ and continued throughout, ‘Yung i ya!’ Then a boy sprang out on the floor; he was joined by a second, then a third, till a circle of twenty was formed. Now they appeared violently attracted together, and now as much repelled; now they were horrified at one another’s conduct, and held up their arms in warning gestures, and again all were friends and made pantomime of their happiness. In this performance there was nearly as much done by arms and bodies, as with feet. When there was a lull in the entertainment, small presents were given to all the strangers invited.”
The Malemutes and Kaveaks, though intermingling, and having similar habits, manners, and customs, yet speak different dialects and inhabit different parts of the territory. They are considered as superior to the other Indian tribes of that region. The Malemute chief “Aleuyanuk,” whom Mr. Whymper saw, “was a fine-looking old man, erect and soldierly, and, wearing a mustache and imperial, his manners would not have disgraced a civilized assembly.”
The Ingeletes speak a dialect entirely different from that of the Malemutes,—one nearly allied to the Co-yukon. They are a stout, noble-looking race, good-natured, and having considerable intelligence.
Polygamy, though allowed, is not very common, and marriage is a permanent relation, except occasionally, when the wife is barren or has too many daughters. Female children not being prized so highly as sons, in such instances the wife is sometimes dismissed. They live in underground houses, such as have been described, and in mild, wet weather, the passage-way is nothing but a sewer. The entrance being covered with a skin, the mixture of foul smells inside, arising from stale fish and meat, old skins, dogs, dirt and smoke, is sickening and unendurable by any but an Indian. Mr. Whymper testifies to the good temper of the children and the honesty of the people. “At their villages our goods lay unguarded in our absence, and I cannot recall a single case of proved dishonesty among them, although we found them becoming more greedy in their demands for payment.”
The Co-yukons are an interior tribe, and the largest on the Yukon, which is the great river of the north, being 2,000 miles long, and navigable 1,000 miles. They may be found on the banks of the Co-yukuk, and other interior rivers. These Indians resemble the Ingeletes, already mentioned, but have a more ferocious countenance. Their dress is a double-tailed coat, one tail before, the other behind, and this style, with some modifications, prevails for a thousand miles on the Yukon.
The dress of the women is cut more squarely, and they wear an ornament of Hy-a-qua shells on the nose, which runs through a hole made in the cartilage between the nostrils. It is a singular fact that higher up the river it is the men only who wear this ornament.
Among these tribes the period of mourning for the dead is one year, the women during this time often gathering to talk and cry over the deceased. At the end of the year, they have a feast or “wake,” which is generally a queer compound of jollity and grief. One such scene, to commemorate the death of a child, was witnessed by Mr. Whymper at Nulato. “The poor old mother and some of her friends wept bitterly, while the guests were gayly dancing round a painted pole, on which strings of beads and some magnificent wolf skins were hung. They kept up singing and dancing to a fashionable hour of the morning, and one little savage, who had been shouting at the top of his lungs for hours, got up the next day without any voice at all, a case of righteous retribution. The decorations of the pole were divided among those who took part in the ‘wake.’”
Their method of disposing of the dead is not interment, but enclosure in oblong boxes, raised on posts. These are sometimes ornamented with strips of skin, and the possessions of the deceased, as the canoe, paddles, &c., are placed on the top of the box. Smaller articles are placed within the box. This four-post coffin is a custom also among the coast tribes already described. The women are quite prepossessing in appearance, are affectionate toward their children, and especially fond of their first-born. They are good-natured and playful, snowballing and rolling each other in the snow, sliding down hill on sledges or snow-shoes, with the enthusiasm of children.
There are other tribes, the names of which need only be mentioned, viz: the Kotch-a-Kutchins (or lowland people), the Au Kutchins, the Tatauchok Kutchins, Birch River and Rat River Indians. The Zanana Indians (or knoll people), Mr. Whymper thinks are the most unsophisticated of all the Indian tribes of the present day. Those he saw “were gay with painted faces, feathers in their long hair, patches of red clay at the back of their heads, covered with small fluffy feathers, double-tailed coats and pantaloons of buckskin, much adorned with fringes and beads, and elaborately worked fire-bags and belts.” Many of them, as in other Indian tribes, wore through the nose the Hy-a-qua shell as an ornament. The women of the upper tribes wear less ornament than the men, and are compelled to do more drudgery than those of the lower Yukon and coast of Alaska.
Among the coast tribes, and especially on the Yukon, there is, to some extent, a community of goods, the industrious hunter supplying the village crowd. This is a custom so much practised that the hunter gets no praise for his service. Some of the chiefs maintain their position by frequent distributions of their effects, and the game which they, being good hunters, have been able to take. “These chiefs are often the worst clothed and worst fed of all the tribe. Such generosity is expected as a matter of course. No man, woman, or child among them goes unfed, unhoused, or unwarmed, if there be food, dwelling, or fire in the settlement.”
Among the tribes of Alaska, a system of slavery exists that can hardly be surpassed for barbarism. They all buy and sell slaves. “Parents will sell their children for three or four blankets or a few dollars, and have no compunction of conscience for the use they may be put to in the future. When one tribe goes to war with another, all the prisoners taken by either tribe are called and used as slaves. When a chief or any of his family dies, it is the custom to kill one or more of these slaves, so that the chief or his deceased relative may have a servant in the other world to wait on him. In 1868 an old chief of the Sitka tribe died, and a few days before his death, when his relatives were satisfied that he could live but a short time, they selected as a victim for sacrifice a young, healthy, good-looking warrior, whom the Sitka tribe had taken prisoner while at war with one of the tribes down near Queen Charlotte’s Sound. The slave had been tied up two days about the time the old chief died, and by some means some of his friends were apprised of his condition, and immediately notified Gen. Davis that the Indian slave was liable to be killed at any moment. Gen. Davis had one of the chiefs brought before him, and after a long conversation about the foolishness of such sacrifices, he agreed to let the slave go free; and lest they might attempt to put into execution their original idea of killing him, the General permitted the Indian to remain in the city, where he would be protected.
“Recently one of the chiefs tried hard to get hold of a half-breed, named Evanoff, to sacrifice him. For the two preceding weeks this chief would go up every day to Gen. Davis, stating that he had a slave in the city, and wanting to know if he could not get him into Indiantown. The General, supposing the chief wanted one of his Indians, told him to go and get him, but it was not until the day in question that the effort was made to get this man. It seems that Evanoff’s mother was an Indian woman, but his father was a Russian, and when he was but three years of age a lady named Bengeman adopted and brought him up. The chief who claimed him had a child that was expected to die, and afterward did die. Having no slave but his claim on Evanoff, he made this effort to sacrifice him that he might be a servant for his child in the spirit world. When the general saw whom the chief claimed, in a very few well-timed words he taught him and several of his warriors more about civilization than ever they knew before. He asked the chief what he wanted with this man. Pointing to Evanoff, the Indian told him his child was sick, and he only wanted him for three hours, and then he would let him go free. The General told him that the best thing he could do was to look on Evanoff as a free man already, and warned the Indian if in the future he should ever attempt to trouble Evanoff again, he would put him in the guard-house and keep him there. The Indian went off well pleased, and stated that he would be a good Indian thereafter.
“The slaves are put to death as follows. As soon as a chief dies, the slave is compelled to wash the body of the corpse; and is then taken out and thrown flat on his back and held there, when a stick of wood is placed across his throat, and two Indians sit down on each end of it, and in this way strangle him to death. His body is then placed inside a large pile of wood and burned to ashes. It is customary when a big chief dies to put to death two or more slaves. All slaves taken in war have to act as servants for the chiefs who own them.”—(Sitka Times of Nov. 27, 1869.)
The Indian population of the whole territory of Alaska is estimated at about 30,000. They are peaceful and quite capable, learning quickly, and exhibiting considerable skill in their utensils and weapons.