New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1891-08-12
PETTIcoAT RULE INDEED.
Tho Women Of Alaska Run Things Pret.
ty Much as They Please.

Eg g S
Tho Women Of Alaska Run Things Pref.
ty Much as They Please.
The Alaskan man, according to Kate
Fields Washington, never dares make
bargain without his wife's consent, be-
cause she is the better trader.
So clever are the womenin prepar-
ing the fish and berries for the winter.
collecting the roots, plating the mats
and baskets out of rushes, and weaving
the precious Chilkat blanket, that they
are valuable members OF society, their
Judgment and opinions are respected,
and their advice is followed.
1t is the husband who collects the
wood and makes the fire, cleans the
fish, and constructs the wooden uten-
sils for the household. III
When the Thlinket woman has COM
pany drop in unexpectedly to dinner,
or makes feast to pay off her social
Indebtedness, is it she who stands
heated and tired over the great fire
where the huge joints are roasting?
Not at ALL, The husband cooks and
serves the meats. -
When young and handsome woman
adds to her value by presenting her
husband with sons and daughters, does
she renounce her active outdoor life.
excitement of the fishing, the staining
and weaving of her mats and baskets,
or leaves the gathering of the winters
rations to the husband, while she de-
votes her valuable skill to grooming
lullabies and walking the house with
teething and screaming babies? Not
in the least? Her baby is not the
spoiled tyrart of pampered civilization.
He is bound into his cradle and kept
there until he can walk. His mother
takes him out about once week for
bath, puts him back in his cradle.
hangs him up on a tree, perches him
on wall, or lays him down in some
out OF the way corner wherever it is
most convenient, and serenely pursues
the even tenor of her way as if he did
not exist, exactly as his father does.
Howling does not change a baby's con-
dltlon, as he presently discovers, and
so there is little crying, and, in conse-
quence, babies are not such nuisances
as they are when permitted to have
wills OF their own before possessing
brains enough to guide those wills dis
creetly.
The pride Of the Thlinket housewife
is in her mats OF black, red, yellow
and blue dyed and woven precisely as
her great-grandmother fashioned mats
before her. She weaves squatting up-
on the ground, but she sews lying fiat
upon her stomach and leaning upon
her elbows. Doubtless there are few
rOund-shOuldered women among them.
but how they manage TO work under
such apparently adverse circumstances
is difficult to understand.
Their finest art in weaving is the
Chilkat blanket made by each woman,
assisted by her children if she has anv,
of the wool of the mountain sheep,
in highly decorative art and worn on
ceremonial occasions only. A woman
working alone occupies two months in
making one Of these blankets, and
works from eight to ten hours a day.
The weaving and plating is never
commenced until the severity of the
weather drives the women indoors.
A little incident Illustrative of the
absolute authority of these women is
told by Il captain who witnessed it at
Cape Cross. One of the chiefs acct
dentally prevented a woman in her
canoe from approaching tho ship,
| whereupon she seized paddle and
struck him on the head so violently as
almost to disable him from defending
| himself from the blows which followed.
This unequal combat continued half an
| hour, in spite of the captains firing a
gun over their heads to brighten them,
and finally this sweet child of nature
| stepped into the mans canoe. whipped
! knife from her dress, and cut her
| victim once across the thigh, being
prevented from continuing her little
pleasantly only by the forcible inter-
ference OF the captain men. During
the whole engagement not a man
among tho natives dared interfere. It
would be an interesting discussion for
the women's clubs-the reason of such
a state of submission to feminine con-
troll, which is said to depend not upon
the virtues OF the husbands, but be-
cause of the utility of the women, who
IN all the industries OF the nation are
equally skillful with the men.