Arizona weekly citizen., 1892-05-14

lcrldlly dSSlSleu us III our IurCner eA-
 plorations. Our original plan, in fact,
 had contemplated that our real ex-
 plorati would begin at or near
 this point and bear from here towards
 the southwest. X straight line fro Tn
 here to previous explorations on the
 Copper would probab bly give the long
 est that could be laid down on this
 continent wholly through unexplored
 country. Mir. Harper was gone for the
 summer down the river disposing of his
 furs and the station was in charge of q
 Takudh Indian, who introduced him.
 self as Sam" He understood micro
 scopic amount of English. so his inter
 pretation was often quite aggravating
 to us, but it was the best we could do.
 There were also two Indian boys.
 These were all the Indians in sight, so the chances of getting about dozen to act as packers for us to the Copper river did not seem hattering. Where
 others could be found was not so ap-
 parent, either. l induced the boys
 to drum me up recruits from
 the region around about, and have
 them come to confer with me and have feast. I had no faith in the conference as an inducement, but 1
 hHcN IIlCN NOuli COilIC III iiuN- sons bay on crutches for the feast. The boys got away the afternoon of June 27, so there was nothing to do but await developments. Next afternoon
 "Sam'' informed me that a raft could be seen floating out of
 the Pelly river, and he believed it held some Indians that had probably
 been sent in by our messengers. They t,,-.,,.aH 4n ha two thalT- selves. They said they found a camp on the Pelly but it contained only squaws. Some other Indians had been seen and they had sent in word they would not miss any feast. They had killed moose and did not want to
 pack. l did not see any relevancy be- tween the two, but they evidently did.
 About an hour after another raft was seen floating out. It had aboard half dozen Indians who with a vast number of dogs were soon alongside. There was not man among them fit for packing and they looked more like an ambulance load destined for hospital than working party. And sure enough
 their greatest demand was for medicine, and it never ceased while we were with them. The best we could spare readily, carbolated vaseline, we dole3 out in
 homeopathic quantities for everything from corns to consumption and from badness to bunions; all of which it cured. l never saw better example of faith cure in all my vast bacllwoods medical practice.
 There was a great deal of free advice offered, but very few applicants for work: maps by the score were fur nished as to the trail. but not whisper uttered as to packing.
 One curious piece of information arose, partially as a result of imperfect interpretation and partly from the di- rection we desired to go-that is to the Copper river. It was that these na- tives knew of copper deposit some where near this river. Every time we spoke of Copper river they Giverged off to the copper deposit. They seemed so persistent and as l finally believed the two places were so near each other, I gave up any other idea except that of the latter, reasoning that if it could be attained the other would be close at hand as result There was one hardened old sinner among them call- ing himself Jackson who professed to know all about the region and the Copper river Chief, Nicolai (Scolai he called him. He said it was eighteen sleeps to the copper and one from there to Nicolai's: but he varied as to the number of sleeps with each map he drew and he was Geographically very energetic. The variations as to the copper could be reconciled by assuming an equal mum Der of scattered deposits, but it was hard to believe that NicOlai was so ubiquitous or had such large number of houses as were needed to fulfill the other discrepancies in dis tances. There was no doubt about l there being copper deposit somewhere l near by. which was visited occasionally | bp these people, for we found among them copper bullets, arrow-heads, a i long spatuls for digging marrow out ot moose and caribou bones and bau of 1 ....-.S r"uerSu a1:r;Se e blue carbonate of copper. The latter 1 was used by ths ladies for tattooing | their cheeks and clins, a custom that l | think is dying out little faster than | the tribe They allege that if one of | them strikes boulder Of copper with ! an ax or other instrumnnt he will die | soon after In some mysterious way | they seem impressed with the idea | there was bodily danger Asked at the | copper mine 1 knew there was inan- | cial danger in fooling around any sort | of a mine, but had never heard this | specific charge before. Next morning | jackson" volunteered to drum up some Indians fer me in exchange for l 'hard-tack'' he took along, but re- 1 turned in the evening reporting he had | been following fresh moose trail all | day and had forgotten everything about the Indians. He evidently | wanted some meat to go with | his bread. 1 got the two boys out again that evening. however, for the prospects were dismal. Some sug- gested squaws if necessary to i'll out quota. Among most Indians the women are practically slaves doing all the work, but the coast Indians of Alaska, however, are conspicuous exception. their women ruling the property, the regal descent and in many other ways have rights unknown elsewhere. These inland natives among whom we found ourselves. leaned more towards