Douglas Island news., 1901-01-09
KILLIsNoO NEWS.

] 1 life of the different trades and profes-
 sions during the week days-nor the
 different amusements in the evenings,
 as those who live in the city have, to
 pass away the time-yet time seems to
 pass very rapidly here. It seems but a
 few days since tore off the leaf of my
 calendar which read Nov. yet one
 whole month has passed and the old
 calendar of 1900 is of no further use.
 Christmas, which means so much to
 both children and grown people, has
 passed. If it had not been for the In
 diaus coming in several times a day,
 for at least six weeks before Christmas,
 asking us how many days to Christmas,
 we might have forgotten that Christ
 mas came in this part of Alaska. As
 there is no church to attend here on
 that day, nor do they exchange pres
 ents, there is no Sunday school enter
 tainment to take part in or go to, I
 can't for the life of me understand why
 they are so anxious to know when Christmas comes. l hope before an other Christmas to be where I can en. joy the day as 1 once did. Yet am very thankful that my husband and I were perfectly we'll and able to do jus tice to a dinner of roast duck and ven- isou, buttered beets, carrots, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and "Injun" apples tcrab apples) made in jam. The cranberries and apples both grew a short distance from our house. We gathered them aud put them in jars in October. write this to let the readers of the News know that people can have a Christmas dinner even in an Indian village in Alaska; and the vegetables we had were raised only eight miles from our village, while the game was killed only mile from here. Grouse md bear are plentiful, too. The day was an ideal one for any climate and very mild one for Alaska. Several of the Indian boys took a dip in the bay; but that don't mean that the weather was warm enough for a comfortable bath for a white person. The water is ice cold at all seasons of the year. Nev- ertheless they seemed to enjoy their swim, and ran naked from the water up to their shacks, several rods away. This was the bright side of Christmas day. 1 will now tell you about sad affair which took place few days before Christmas that saddened the Indians of the two tribes-Eagles and Whale Killers. Most of the tribe of Whale Killers live at Kilisnoo. The next day after the Cottage City left the Indians had too much whisky and got to quar- reling, and one of the men belonging to the Eagles cut the face of one of the women of the Whale Killers so the cut had to be sewed up and will disfgure her for life. 4 messenger was sent to Killisnoo in great haste and in short time there appeared three large canoes filled with blood-thirsty Whale Killers, each with a knife of some kind, and you only had to look at them to know that they meant to carve the Eagle who had cut the woman's face. The Eagle had taken refuge in one of our large shacks and many of his tribe gathered there and barred the door, while others stood guard upon the outside so that the Killisnoos could not get in at their man. It is we'll for him that they did not for they certainly would have made short work of him. As the Whale Kill CTS could not get at the Eagle, they re- tired from the field to a large shack owned by their tribe, at the other end of the village, to hold council and de- termine what next to do. After coun- selling together they sent a representa- tive to the Eagles to tell them they must settle this by giving blankets, their way of settling such affairs. All that day and the next until o'clock in the afternoon there was great running back and forth from the Eagles house to the Whales. Then an old man from each tribe, dressed in manner peculiar to each tribe, followed by their members, met on the beach. After much talking in the native language they selected three men from each tribe tone of them being the Indian who did the cutting) and carried them to the opposite tribe; and they had to do penance for four days. They had small stone tied around their neeks, and they were for bidden to use their right hands for any thing. An attendant brought them