Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-10-07
The Tahltan. Indians Are a Pretty
Shrewd Lot of People.
FAMILY LIFE is OF A Low ORDER
But When 1t Comes to Business
They Are All Right.
HONEST IN THEIR WAY

| Tahltan Indians. A small creek pourS
| through the rocky defiles of the mountains
| into the Stikine at this point. There is not
| a telegraph line In loo miles. The name,
! however. recalls the enterprise of connect
| ing the old world with the new by a cahla
| across the Boring sea. Work was actually
! begun on strnging the overland wire
| through this region. and great coils of rust
! eaten wire still lie on the banks OF the
| Stikine, precisely where they were dropped
| when the successful laying Of the Atlantic
| cable killed the western project.
! The Tahltan Indians about Telegraph
creek speak Chinook and understand some
| of the most ordinary English words or
speech of Boston men" The rich AMI
IN, istocratic. whose fortunes We're laid in
| rne packing industry twenty years before
| IN the days OF the old Cassiar gold excite
| nent. live in comfortable log raucheries
near the waters edge. The unthrifty, OWL
ing neither cabins ponies, live back in
| Wlckiups or novels of poverty.
| Social lines are strictly drawn. The
ownership of log cabin marks class divis-
| lens Another badge of distinction lay in
| the possession of gaiiy beribboned straw
| hats. These hats had been taken into the
| country the previous autumn by the Hud-
| sens Bay Company. Any young buck who
aspired to be anything at all contrived to
wear straw hat last winter. Preference
ran to Princeton colors. The Klooch.s. OF
women of the tribe, had a passion for gay
| colored dress. and We're especially fond of
dancing.
| Low Order of Family Life.
| The family life of the Tahltans is Of 4
| low order These people have not emerged
| from state of polyandry Paternity being
| a matter of doubt and maternity a matter
of fact, the tracing of relationship among
| them is confined rather closely to the fe-
male line OF course this has a direct in
iiuence upon property rights. Among In
| dams of the same tribe of the Tahltan river
the institution of ''mutter recht' or moth
| er-in-law is clearly defined. The children
| OF marriage belong To the mothers fami-
| ~. 1t is said that in rare cases "a child is
transferred to the fathers side of the
house through formal adoption for a brief
period by the fathers sister In the mat
| ter of inheritance, it is the sisters son who
| takes precedence over the wife mans
natural heir, though when man dies his
| friends take over pretty much all his port
| able property. The wife, however, receives
some compensation in the distribution of
! presents at the next potlatch memorial
festival at which the deceased is honored.
A trace of eXogamy and of marriage by
capture still exists in the feigned pursuit
of bride by the intended husband. The
hostile demonstrations against the captor
made by the friends of the bride are sig
| niticant only of mock anger, being a relic
of the archaic usage of hurting real wea-
rons in actual wrath at the retreating
bridegroom.
Our own civilization has advanced a step
farther. Rice and old slippers thrown
at bridal couples without even the anecta-
| ton of wrath.
Recognize Property Rights.
| One would expect from their crude ideas
| of marriage to find a condition of club law
or of lawlessness among the Tahltans. This
| is not true. They have scrupulous respect
for rights of person and property. OF the
Of 1aft 5aJ
along the trail VIC did not hear of a single
case of theft by hungry Indians Prices,
too, were high ia the region of Telegraph
creek before the breakup of the ice and
arrival of river steamboats,. Flour and
be con sold for fifty cents per pound, and
one ton of hay could have been sold for
$500
There is some novelty In the method by
which the Tahltans dispose of their dead.
After the flesh has been burned from the
bones on funeral pyre, with the favorite
weapons and ornaments of the deceased.
they are packed in small Uncovered trunks
furnished by American traders. The trunks
are then placed in neatly constructed cab
ms with glass windows.
The cabins or the dead perched upon
Mameloose hill, 2o0 feet above the river.
can be seen for three miles down the
stream. One little trunk, scarcely larger
than a physicians medicine chest, was
housed under a dinlnutve canvas tent.
Few of the living Tahltans possess glass
windows in their cabins, but these lux
urious accessories are furnished the dead.
whose spirits, with proverbial Indian curl
osity, are supposed to be on the lookout for
interesting phenomena in the village below.
And since the world began was there ever
SO much to thrill the Imagination of those
simple folk of the forest as the phenomena
provided by the goldseekerS last spring!
Leave Mining Alone.
Gold hunting has no fascination tor the
natives Of these regions, and they have
never worked the old placer grounds in the
vicinity in search of It. 1t must have
seemed to them that all white men had
suddenly gone mad. The sudden Eruption
into the solitudes of far country of hum
dreds Of sWarthy men, with horses, bull
locks, goats dogs and impedimenta by the
ton, amused the simple natives in much
the same way children pleased at
the antics Of a menagerie of performing
animals. All day long the bucks, wrapped
in IIudson's Bay Company blankets, SAT
stolidly upon piles of lodge poles on the
bank. absorbed in the contemplation Of the
busy scenes on the river. They were
amazed ut the prodigious quantity of sup
plies; they marveled at the energy which
had braved the SHOWS of the river, but all
shook their heads discouragingly at the
project of taking the heavy outfits over the
mountain trail into the Interior. From be-
ing objects for the satisfaction of curiosity
merely, the strangers became objects for
the qualification of ayarice.
Shrewd Business Methods.
These untutored savages are shrewd and
Shylockish in their keenness after a bar
gain. The prices the noble red men put
upon their wares their services were
perfectly ridiculous. Ten dollars for pair
of moccasins and $40 for days labor at
packing We're gravely demanded of the
strangers. Prices were finally scaled down
to basis of $3.50 per ton for packing to the
first summit of nine miles. At this rate
an Indian, with his pony, could earn from
$15 to SIS per day. The Indians suffered
economically as well morally through
their fondness for strong drink. Much bad
whisky was quietly exchanged for their
services. Our cook fixed up a decoction OF
lemon extract and dark water In which tea
leaves had been STEPPED. Brown sugar and
a dash Of pepper were added to the mix
ture. The stuff was put up in old bottles
and slyly traded to the Klooches in ex-
change for moccasins and leggins as a
highly priced brand of American wine.
Twenty Uses for Corn.
From the California yineyardist.
The Indian corn propaganda at the Paris
exposition and the conventions recently
held in the west in the interest of corn pro-
ducers have brought out the fact that over
twenty important products ara now man.