The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1872-02-09
Our 100000 Neighbors-How They

The village contains forty or fifty
houses. The population consists of 200
Indians and 1000 dogs. OF the dogs.
all but one are of the same sharp cared,
wolfish type seen among the Indians of
the plains. The exception was handy.
legged. lop-eared cur of civilized breed,
the only one among the 1000 that
showed a lack of civility by barking at
our heels. The houses much more re-
semble the semi-subterranean abodes of
the Laplanders and Esquimaux than
the wiewams of American Indians.
Like the oak described by the American
poet, they extended as far into the
earth as above it. Some of them are
from twenty to thirty feet square, and
built of very wide cedar planks, many
of them more than four feet across,
worked by these rude people
We entered several. Creeping through
apertures, both square and round, not
more than three feet in diameter, we
descended flights of steps into the large
sins gle ROOM In the centre Of each a
fire was built on the ground, and in the
centre of each roof hole, out of which
passed small portion of the smoke,
the most of it remaining for the benefit
of the salmon hanging over our heads
and to make sore eyes for the inmates.
The whole inside is floored. except the
fireplace, in the middle. On both sides
are the sleeping places. covered with
skins and blankets. and in some in
stances separated by small partitions.
In the rear and on the shelves below
the dormitories, were stored potatoes
and dried salmon in small bales, covered
with mating. Their largest potatoes
are the size of hulled walnut.
The women were either cooking op
working small baskets and other utenl
sils of dried grass, in the manufacture
of which they are surprisingly skillful.
The men were building canoes outside,
or carving odd images Of wood or wal
rus ivory, for sale to curious voyagers,
one of whom is your correspondent.
This was indicated by his many pur-
chases of queer pipes, little skin boats,
bows and barbed arrows for the slaugh-
ter of fur seals, and other articles OF
vertu but of no especial utility. AS time
is of no value to these people, they be-
stow great labor for small rewards. A
grass mat or basket, or an ivory carving
that has occupied several days in its
construction, can be bought for two or
three bits, and a dressed deer skin.
tanned as only they can do it, over
which some hours Of many days have
been spent, may be purchased for a
trife.
Their canoe building is worthy of
note. Out Of a huge spruce or cedar
tree they work vessel of perfect SYM
metry that will carry from five to ten
tons. after roughly hewing it in the
forest, they tow and drag it to their
homes, which are always near the shore,
to be finished at leisure. An Indian
does not like to be hurried, and espe-
cially by such men as Sheridan and
Crook. / saw many Of these canoes in
process of construction. The most c'j-
rious operation is that of stretcl :;
them apart. when reduced to the proper
thinness of an inch or more. Before
stretching they may be four feet deep
and only two feet wide at the top. After
making the width four feet. TO accom-
plish this the hollow is filed with water,
which is raised to the boiling point with
heated stones. 1t is then covered with
mats until thoroughly steamed, when
the stretching begins. The sides are
kept apart by cross pieces, which serve
afterward as seats for paddlers. But
few of them have yet learned the labor
saving capacity of oars. They use no
nails, but fasten their woods with roots
and wythes.
They make spoons and other useful
articles from the horns of the argali
and the tusks of the walrus. They
burn the dead, and deposit the ashes
in little outdoor structures that look
like cross between an old-fashioned
beehive and small hen.coop. They
build square, hollow pile of logs and,
after getting them we'll ablaze. thrust
the body in head foremost, whereby the
mourning relatives are consoled with
the savory odors of roast Indian.
The ladies beautify their compilations
with SCOT and red paint, and still fur
Their enhance their charms by wearing
bone through the under lip, the size
of which it increased from year 10 year,
until, in some old ones, it attains a
width of two inches. An Indian lady
thus adorned. with her coarse. black,
uncombed locks hanging in matted
profusion around her beautiful pig eyes
anu Top cars, Is TeSlStlDle only 10 UnOSe
whose affections are thoroughly pre-
occupied. The delights of courtshp
must be doubled by the pleasant aroma
of salmon which pervades the premises,
and, as have heard, their persons.
Among them the crow and the raven
are held sacred, and fit around their
lodges undisturbed. They live mainly
on fish, and have monopoly of the
trapping. There is but one white trap
per in the country, and he is at Cooks 4
Inlet, 600 miles w. n. w.
ii. CPS Ride.
Old Pacific coasters will remember
the jolly ride Hank Monk gave Horace
Greeley over the Placerville road, at the
time the white-hatted philosopher made
his celebrated overland trip to Califor-
MIA, some twelve years ago. The Carson
Register, in describing beautiful land
scape painting, says: In the fore
ground is a stage headed for Placer
vile, and drawn by six horses under
full trot, with Hank Monk on the box,
Il i