Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1883-09-12
Glimpses OF Alaska.


with steep mountain sides and bold rocks
reflected In clear waters, cascades dashlng
down between the zine trees, and lofty
snow peaks taking on the delicate glow
and flush of the late sunset light. The
midnight skies had been dyed with the
flames of the aurora, and the early sunrise
was dream of faint and misty colorng
just before we rounded the point Of a
green island one morning and saw the
town and totem poles of Fort Wrangell
before US. Next to Kodiak and Sitka,
Wraugell is one of the Oldest settleI.ehts
In Alaska, and for eighty years has been a
Hudson Bay Company and the Russian
Government had forts and stations here.
and for few years after the purchase OF
Alaska a garrison of United States troops
was maintained at Fort Wrangell. As
different counsels prevailed at head
quarters, the troops were withdrawn and
then returned, and after small fortune
had been expended in this abandonment
and restoration Of the military, the soldiers
took final leave twelve years ago, and
the block house. stOckade, and the log
quarters were given ever TO picturesque
ness and decay.
As point of departure for the Casiar
mines on the Stickeen river, Wrangell has
maintained Its Importance even after the
Withdrawal of troops, and the miners and
prospectors Of the gold region make 1t
base OF supplies in all seasons, and place
for social Information when the snow and
ice drive them down from their mountain
retreats A few trading stores strsggle
up the main street that runs parallel with
the beach. At one end this thoroughfare
Is guarded by the stockade and sally-port
Of the old fort, while al the other II gradu-
ally changes into rambling Indian
village, set with totem posts and frlnged
along the water front with long cedar
canoes. The Indian houses front directly
on the beach, and behind them are the
grass-grown ruins Of the old Russian tort
and its outlying graveyard. The houses
are low and square, built of rough hewn
cedar pleaks, with few attempts at paint
and outer decorations besides the tall
totems that guard the doorways of the
chiefs and the other great men. These
totems are the shrlnes and show places of
Wrangell, and the ordinary tourist can
something of the great interest
that ethnologists have taken in them. A
pair of especially fine totems were taken
from here In 1876 aud sent to the Centen.
NAL Exposition, and since then they have
occupied place in the great hall of the
Smithsonian institute.
The totems of Wrangell are ancient and
weather worn, spotted with moss and
lichens and bearing tufts of grass and
waving bushes in the crevices, and the
heraldic Carving and coloring is wonder
fully improved by this tonIng and soft
ening OF the elements. The totems by the
doorwsys stand forty and sixty feet high;
carved from base to crown with huge,
grotesque faces of men and animals, the
bear, the whale, the wolf, and the raven
as most prominent among the
heraidIc beasts that represent the great |
families of the Thlinkets. Each one OF |
these faces has significance equivalent to
the quarterings on the shield of a noble |
family. and a mans ancestors and able |
ances are to be read on his totem posts by |
all who run. The carving and painting |
of the symbolic heads is work of savage |
skill, and the cJst of these poles Is aston
lshing even In this day of extravagarce in
decorative art. The noble TblInket must
first fell his tall cedars and set the artist to
work, and then comes the grand cere-
mony of erecting the posts before his
home. A feast is given of all the deli
cscles the Alaska market can afford, and
potlsch or gifts of blankets and calico
are gwen away so generously that the
Totem party often costs as high as 81, 900
and o., 900. A mans rank and riches are
considered greater the more he gives away,
and as the blanket is the unit of value, his
wealth and standing increases according as
be tears and distributes blankets on the
occasion of his house-warming and pole
raising parties. Totens are also erected
over the square-box houses in which they
deposit the ashes of their cremated dead,
and the town abounds in picturesque little
.ombs niched in between the houses OF the
living. Surmounted by fox or whale
,nce painted in brilliant colors, but now
oned down by the moses, the ferns,
rallers, and rank vegetation that rapidly
.feeps over and conceals everything IN
his moist, temperate climate, the houses
If the dead are more picturesque than
hose Of the living.