Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-06-23
An ASatIc Utopia.

Prof. Owen nor Mr.. Thomas Hughes
ever heard of Chukch. In their :gn0-
rance, therefore, they constructed an
ideal republic, laid out Utopia, founded
q New Harmony and established Rug
by, heroically if blindly trying to fashion
an ideal society and to teach men the
way to true happiness; and all the while
the Chukch has been wandering in his
seal wraps over northeastern Asia, the
ideal citizen of the world, except in so
far as soap must play a trivial part in
the life of the ideal citizen. 1t was left
for the greatest navigator of o.n time to
find people without kings or priests,
without preachers or politicians, without
laws or the necessity of laws. The
Chukches are the men. They are the
real Utopians, the equitable communists,
the unselfish socialists, the ideal repub-
licans for whom we have been looking
so long. Their society plus soap is the
fulfillment of the grandest dream of the
Europeans. A knowledge of this anom-
alous society is one of the most startling
results of Nordenskiold's circumnaviga-
ton Of the Old World. After sailing
along coast of several thousand miles
that is a literal desert, and of course
uninhabited, the Vega found, as soon aS
northeastern Asia begins IT, slope down
toward Behring's Straits, that the ma
tiveS were So much pleased ~ the sight
of Il steamer that they gave everywhere
the most earnest invitations to land.
The Vega spent the ten months of the
polar winter of 1859 on the Chukch
nd lar hn hn
first European to get Il sufficiently eX-
tensive knowledge of these people to
explain their society. The men of the
Vega learnfd d their inflectionless jirgon,
visited their tents, kept them from
starving and came to know the ChukcheS
better than they know themselves. They
are not tribe of ESkimos, rs it has
been supposed. They have 4 different
origin, in Ill probability, from the Eski-
mos; their language is not by any
means the same, nor is their civil life
greatly like the life of the American
polar races. They are not rs ugly Us
the Eskimos, nor as the tribes of West
ern Polar Asia. They possess an ex-
tensive territory for their wandering,
but do not number in all more than
5000 people. They are of two kinds,
Coast-C ChukcheS and Reindeer-C -Chukchcs
a difference, however, that is a differ
ence wholly in occupation. One class
are fishermen, the other herdsmen.
They are not divided into tribes.
They have no government and religious
organization, indeed no institution ev-
cspt the family and the village. and the
last is determined rather by accident
and circumstances than 10y des;yn.
Every man is the equal of his neighbor,
every woman of her husband. They
never quarrel, except when drunk, and
are never drunk except when they hap.
pen to meet traders who have liquor.
They have no system of punishments, no
civil nor religious law, no military or
ganizatiOn, no ecclesiastical code. In
deed, it is u life of primitive innocence.
This is anomalous enough; but stranger
than all, in such u society the family il
quite as sacredly regarded rs in Chris
tan countries. A Chukch has but one
wife, to whom he is generally faithful
and who is faithful to him. Yet there
are no penalties, social or legal, to suf.
fer for unfaithfulnpss. They are honest,
and yet it would not he disgraccful to
steal. They seem never to have 8
thought of government, OF unchastity,oi
theft. Their life lacks ambition and
passion, and is less like other savage
life than like civilized life.
They are not as ugly rs the Eskimos,
but equally as filthy. In winter they dc
not bathe at all and thc snow is left tC
do the only work of cleansing the body
when it falls on their bare heads. The
whole family sleep and eat in a single
tent. They have no knives nor forks
and their few vessels are put TO ts(
greatest diversity of uses. The children
are regarded with affection and pride
and reared healthful and robust in thu
ancestral filth. The women are no
slaves, although they do much of th'
heavy work, such as Harvesting dogs
building tents, cooking, fishing an,
moving, but they are regarded by th'
men as their equals in every particular
The women plait their hair and the mer
cut theirs close, except in front, an'
there they have "bangs." The who'll
household furniture of family consist
Of a lamp or two, made of iron Witl
moss wicks, in which train oil is burned
an axe, reindeer skins, iire-drill.
comb, medley of old tools and cook
ing utensils. What they cOvet most i
such things as large needles, pots, knives
axes, saws, wooden shirts, tobacco, su
gar, liquors-which they call ram-an'
matches. For these things they will sci
almost anything. One of their mos
striking characteristics is their love o
everything rcd For red shirt or fo
tun a Chukch will sell anything but
drum or a reindeer's head. The drum
has certain superstitiOns associated wit
it and is more nearly than any other in
strument or utensil a sacred thing. A
long intervals the women comb thei
hair on drum, from which they gathe
up the animal life that falls there ant
eat it. Yet these women love thei
children. They are the most improvi
dent of savages, and during a sever
winter they almost starve. Yet the
will not steal, although they are tn
most persistent beggars outside of Italy
When they capture seals or walruse
they eat an incredible amount OF blut
ber and blood, and can fast afterwar
almost as long as an eagle.
Whence they came is difficult que:
ton, philologically and ethnolog ically
They have no recOllections or tradition
of war. but they have always been indie
pendent. Their language seems to hay
no dialect and few foreign words hay
been admitted into its vocabulary. A
though it is probable that within the Ia;
200 years they have doubled in numbci
Nordenskiold is inclined to believe tbs
they are the remnants of race and reG
resent q decadencc and not a grow;l
They were probably driven east OF mort
centuries ago, and changed by climat
and occupation into their present col
dition. There are traditions of anothe
race which once held this territory, {
which the Old mariners have give
meager accounts and of which archDl
logical evidences can yet be found.
Two children were found who coul
count ten in English, although no on
knew y word of Russian, and two coppt
cents and an American tivc-cent rie(
were seen by Nordenskiold's compal