The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1896-02-15
Alaska Indians Are Separated into
Two Divisions.
EITHER IN WAR OR IN PEACE
The klootchmau Is the Recognized Bcss
When 1t Comes to Making
Trade.

Thomas A. Wilson, for Is years a res
ident of Alaska the first few years of
which he was deputy collector of GUS
toms. and later a prosperous lumber
manufacturer, was talking with a Sc
attic Times reporter the other day about
Alaska Indians. Perhaps few persons
know more about Alaska Indians than
Mr.. Wilson, for he had every opportun-
ity to study their habits and traits
of character, both of which he has
written articles concerning, but has not
published his writings as yet. Briefly he
outlined his observations as follows:
THE Alaska Indians originally dwelt
in large households with the head of the
family and as high as 40 relatives and
members of the family, but now that is
being done away with. AS a whole
there are two large divisions called the
Wolf and the Raven. A Wolf always
marries a Raven and vice versa, but a
Wolf never marries a Wolf, nor a Ra-
ven one of his division. Such an act
would be regarded as incestuous al
though as we regard ii the parties
might in no way be related. In the
case of tribal wars where the opposing
elements happen to belong to opposite
divisions, the wife always leaves the
husband and goes with her original
tribe and division, taking her children
with her The husband, on the other
hand, fights for his own tribe. When
the children are grown, whether in
war or peace, they are members of her
division; if she is a Raven they are
Ravens, and if she is a Wolf they be-
long to the Wolf division. There are
10 or Is subdivisions but the lines are
upon other points of difference The
grand division is of old establishment.
I'm the customs service l was former
ly inspector afloat' AS such l visited
every tribe that was within reach. 1
had a good opportunity to study their
habits and l made diary notes on eV-
erything / saw The Indians have 9th
er habits which seem quite peculiar to
themselves. The girl at marriage
age has nothing whatever to say of
whom she shall marry She is an article
of merchandise. The young man makes
known to his people who is the young
woman of his choice and through them
a bargain is made with her parents
Then comes the surprising feature. AS
soon rs the marriage is over the klOotch-
man is the boss. The man does his
share of the work, but the woman has
charge of the trades and sale Of their
merchandise in the form of skins, such
as otter and bear. l have seen them
come into a store and the store keeper
would count off the value of the bear
skin. but the man would shake his
head which meant that his klOotchman
must be called in to decide the trade
You can not cheat her. She is sharp
about trading and knows the value of
skins. They are as keen as Jews in
their trades. They know all about the
value of skins and they understand
how to doctor up the defective skins to
make them appear all right. The wo-
men go with the men on hunting ex-
petitions. The men attend to the shoot
ing of game while the women do the
skinning and stretch the hides. While
fishing the men troll for the salmon
and the women do the cleaning and
smoking. The woman takes charge of
her own earnings and of the commun-
ity property. She forces her husband
to give her a share whenever she wants
it, The Indians of Alaska are I'M
doubtedly decreasing with the advance
of civilization. The Stikeen tribe. which
is located near us at Fort Wrangel
was once a large and powerful tribe
but it has now dwindled till it is very
small and weak l have some of the
members working for me and 1 find
them very quick to learn and very
industrious. The latter is from a desire
to make money"