St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-08-04
OUR ALASKAN TRIBES.
The Senate Committee on the
Subject Pays st. Paul
a Visit.
Senator Dawes Talks Inter-
estingly on the Condition
Of Alaska.
Sensational RumorS Of Low
State Of Morals Really
Untrue.
The Indians Sharp and Indus
trious and Willing to Be-
come Civilized.


Alaska. The committee as appointed
consisted of Senator Dawes, of Massa-
ehusetts; Senator f. r. Stockbridge, of
Michigan; Senator Jones, of Arkansas,
and Senator Henderson, of Nebraska.
These gentlemen, accompanied by IL.
Nj. DIN, of Massachusetts, as committee
clerk; ]. II. Marshall, of Massachu-
sets, Thomas H. Cavanaugh.. of Wash
ington, ID. c., as executive clerks;
w. o. Comerday and N. Parker and
Mrs. Senator Dawes left Chicago July
for the jungles and hills of Alaska,
there to look into the states and cOndi-
ton of the Indians and determine upon
recommendation to congress which
would assist the red man and better his
condition and civilization. On Friday
evening at :45 o'clock, the party az
rived in st. Paul over the Northern Pa
cific road, having dropped Senator Man
derson at Tacoma, WE, and Senator
Jones at Helena, where he expects to
meet the senate committee on irriga
ton. of which he. is member. Early
yesterday morning, Senator Dawes
alert to the attractive features
of our city. Shortly after
breakfast, the gentlemen were gratified
in their desires. when Senator G. K.
Davis. of Minnesota, rolled up in his
carriage and extended to them his es-
cOrt over st. Paul and Minneapolis. OF
this generous proffer the the visiting
senators and members of their party
availed themselves, and the morning
wore away in seeing the sights, of ST.
Paul and listening to Senator Davis
fluent description, while the afternoon
was devoted to Minneapolis, where sew
eral prominent men joined the party
and added to the interest of the COM
pany. At O'Clock last evening the
party returned to the Ryan, took sup
per, and left on the 7:45 train for Chi
cagO. Both the senators were percep-
tibly fatigued last night, and were
not 10th to announce their condition in
an open declaration. They have had a
busting time of it, and the constant
WEAKNESS of travel in that far-off re-
gion has tired them considerably. The
intrusion of a GLOBE reporter was most
cordially INDUCED, and both gentlemen
spoke generously of the work they
WE'RE ABOUT TO REPORT UPON.
"We penetrated as far as. Chilcat
Peak, explored about Pyramid Harbor,
and made Juneau our headquarters for
several days. Killisnoo, Sitka and Fort
Wrangel were visited and viewed in the
return. AT Sitka we learned a great
deal which was pertinent to our
work and interesting to the m
dertaking. Our mission was to
take liberal ana practical view
of the Indian, as we found him in that
region. We believe them collectively
to be the most thrifty and frugal of
their race, and capable of a high state
of civilization and education. When
we came upon the first colony of about
500 men, who were brought over from
British Columbia by DR.. Duncan, who
has done so much for that race, we met
a most intelligent community. There
they were, in habit, virtually. primitive,
but in occupation they were superseding
the white in many particulars. They
virtually live on fish and oil. They fol-
low the salmon schools and migrate in
bands and clans. They are good and
Industrious fishermen, and supply the
300 cannerieS which are now doing 5usi-
| ness in the territory. They catch the
hair seal and extract the oil. put it up
in boxes of their own rude making and
| sell it to the canneries. When we called
| them to council and asked them what
| the government of the United States
COULD DO FOR THEM,
| they replied that it could do nothing,
save loan them a fund from which to
| erect a cannery, saw mill and tin fac
! tory OF their own.
"What would you say if the govern
ment gave You $4,000 or $50, 000?'. was
| asked by one OF our committee.
"'We do not want it. We are indie
pendent, and we would thrive and
| prosper with little aid; but we do not
want it as a gift. We would like very
much to borrow $4,000 with which to
| equip ourselves and put up more school
houses and churches, and as we make
money we want to pay it back-princi-
| pal and interest," l~'4' 80.
''ThiS shows the prevailing spirit
| among them. They are, as rule. hon
| est, courageous, sharp and full of com
mercial and trading tact. They can
| give few pointers in making trades,
and the incidents of their intercourse
with tourists are nothing short, some
times, of wonderfully clever tricks in
trade. Most of their furS go to the
| Hudson Bay and Northwest companies,
who watch them closely and buy all
good furs. e.,
"rheir domestic life is homely. They
eat all sorts of dirty food, and are never
| so happy as when baud holds banquet
over the gamy dish of salmon heads and
entrails which have been buried fer
| three months and become so decom-
| posed as to smell to Europe. This is their
delicacy, and they pride themselves on
successful preparation of the mess.
| All along our travels we noticed little
mounds under which. the natives ex-
| planned, were buried the heads and en-
trails of the fish. Their dress is scant
and unclean, but their huts are in many
instances models of crude architecture.
Before the white man mingled with and
taught them how to construct log huts,
they had houses, caves and hutS which
| were
SNUG, COSY AND COMFORTABLE.
Some of their houses are 30X40 feet in
the clear. In the center is aplaster
In the dome or center of the roof is an
opening, like an Indian tepee's, covered
by leaning weather-board. A
hollow flue running along the
fiat of the altar and under
the fire draws the smoke
up and through the opening in the roof
Around the fire place the Indians live,
sometimes six or seven families. in a
hut, divided off in partitions, like stalls.
Out side of every hut stands, deeply i'm,
beded in the ground. the 'clan pole"
or family tree. You know, they live
in ''clans," and this pole or tree de-
notes to which they belong, and, in
fact it is a complete exhibit of their
genealogy. There is the Bear tribe OF
clan, the Wolf, Fox, Skunk. Eel, Snake.
etc. On some of the poles we could
trace down All Indian lords ancestry
100 years back. The Wolf intermarried
with the Bear, to whom so many chill
dren were born, and so on. The symbols
are all rude attempts at carving the
heads of the animals emblematic
of the clan. Probably the greatest sur
prise we met with in this feature of the
Indian custom was when we came
upon pole, OH which the head of a
Yankee, wearing a plug hat, was
carved. After inquiring into the mean
ing of the curious association of the
white on the family tree of the red, we
were Informed that a squaw of the
Wolf clan had married a white settler
from which. the issue. was the hall
| hrnpd to whom we were then SOeakinp