The San Francisco call., 1899-04-01
MASSACRED BY
ALASKA INDIANS
Probable Fate of Six
teen Kentuckians.
PARTY MISSING FOR MONTHS
soUAW REPORTS THAT ALL
WE'RE SLAIN.
The Interior Department at Washing
ton Is Notified and Will Insti-
tute an Investigation of
the Matter.
PARTY MISSING FOR MONTHS
sQUAW REPORTS THAT ALL
WE'RE SLAIN.
BY HAL HOFFMAN.
Special Correspondence of The Can.

JUNEAU, Alaska, March q (by
steamship Al-Kf to Port Townsend,
March 3D.-A wholesale murder OF
goldseekers by Indians has in all prob
ability been committed near the mouth
of the Kuskokwin, one of the largest
rivers Of Alaska. The Kuskokwim drains
a watershed Immediately south of the
lower Yukon River and empties into
Bering Sea about 100 miles southeast OF
Etolin Straits. Last spring sixteen men
from Kentucky fitted out small
steamship, which they named the Jes-
sic, and sailed from San Francisco Tor
the mouth of the KuSkOkW1n. Ihere the
Jessie was wrecked in a storm, but the
crew and passengers got ashore, saw
ing the most of the cargo of provisions
and mining outfits. No particulars are
known here yet, but the report Is tnat
the entire party was attacked Wnlle
asleep by a band of natives and killed
for the property they had. The men
have been missing for months and not
a word has been heard from any OF
them. The Kuskokwim is generally be-
lieved-and even so far down IN SOUTH
eastern Alaska as this-to flow through
a country rich in minerals. 1t has never
been explored by white men.
The news of the massacre or the Ken
lucky party reached civilization, ana
eventually the Interior Department at
Washington, D. c., which has taken
the matter up. Living at Kweegausute.
on NuniVak Island, about lt9 miles
northwest of the mouth OF the huskoK-
vim, and to the westward OF Etohn
Straits. is a white trader who has an
Indian wife. Last summer While they
were in the KuskokWim country she
overheard several natives quarrellng
over the division of some property ana
was told the story of the killing OF a
party of whites who had come ashore
from a small steamer which had been
wrecked.
This news eventually reached Seattle.
Congressm4n Ellis of Owensboro, KY,
laid the affair before the Interior De-
partment and asked for an inVest1ga-
ton The Interior Department, by Act
ing Secretary Ryan, who officiated in
the interim before the appointment or
the. successor of Secretary Bliss, wrote
to Governor John G. Brady Of Alaska
for information. AS Governor Brady
was then in Washington laboring IN
behalf of Alaskan legislation, the cor
respondence went into the hands of A.
D. Elliott, secretary Of the District or
Alaska and acting Governor
He has written the department IN re-
pIy. stating that there is so much ice
in and off the mouth of the Kuskek-
win at this season as to make trip
thither very hazardous, but suggesting
enue cutter or gunboat be sent with
one of the Commissioners for Alaska,
a Deputy United States Marshal and a
sufficient force TO Investigate the re-
port and punish the natives.
Acting Governor Elliott is now here.
He did not bring the correspondence
from the Interior Department along
with him, and the names of the muir
dered Kentuckians he cannot call to
memory. They are said to be promi-
nent people.
Mr.. Elliott has promised to send the
names to me when he returns to Sitka
on the next steamer, but in the mean
time they, and perhaps additional par
ticulars, are on file in the Interior De-
partment.
Prospectors in from the Porcupine re-
port that there is absolutely no truth in
the report of a fight between American
and Canadian miners there. Relations
are still somewhat strained, but there
has been no armed conflict.