The Alaska sourdough., 1911-09-08
THREE NATIVES CREMATED
 IN SAVAGE STYLE

in Juneau years ago, the item below is reprinted. The story is under date of November ?, 1893. It says:
 'HThe Raven and Wolf Clans of the Aux and Taku tribes of Indians held
 high cremation ceremonies on the point below the Aux Indian village last Tues day. A parsonage of some persimmons, who belonged to the Raven family, had been gathered to his happy hunting ground two weeks ago, and in state his body had lain in the rude temple of the dead The bodies of Shaw Juak, fifty years old, and his two relatives Ya.Heen-Nuk, seventeen years old, and an infant boy named Yea Yak Su, were burned into bones and ashes amid the flames of funeral pyres. The ashes and bones of the departed were then gathered into camphorated boxes and deposited in the family vault In the evening the wife of the aged chief tain presented the director of the flu neral $l00 in cash, and about $400 worth of blankets and cloth was distri- buted among friends and relatives of the cremation officials
 0n Wednesday, the Wolf Clan in conn memoration of tie iIlustrious dead held a potlatch and there was some high kicking by the Indian maidens, whose agility would put to shame the noted danseuse, Carmencita
 z Yesterday the funeral rejoicings were brought to an end by a smallsiz- ed Potlatch. The picture presented by the fifty Indians, chanting around two immense bonfres of logs, while the bodies were being consumed to ashes, was grotesque, wierd and withholding. The pyres were formed by logs cut six feet long and scrubbed and the bodies, enyeIoped in blankets, were placed in the ground. The relatives, with sticks in their hands, chanted guttural lin go, and at intervals raised their sticks in unison. A central figure at times raised his voice and launched out in an invocation, concerning the virtues of the dead. He was the chief.
 The native women being in charge ot tho cremation, wore black handker- chiefs over their raven dresses. They fed the fire and turned over the bodies ta the licking flames It took about four hours to do the burning
 The child s body was deposited in a burial house last August, the relatives waiting for one of the kin to die, So that they could be buried together TlHs is cremation with defberation. Several of the guests at the Occidental hote visited the, bonfres to witness the strange spectacle.
 The Chilkat Indians are on the war- path and their moon is covered with blood. They have girded up their loins with hitehingpos strap. stuck feath- CTS in their headgear and donned the warpant, and ali on Account of an an- eestral, old-fashionel hat Ex-Presi dent Benjamin Harrison E hat was new cr in it with this ona Auk Johnson, the son of a chioftain of the Raven elan, an ezpoliceman and general utiI- ity individual in his tribe, indulged tao freely with the flowing bowl last summer. Not satisfied with getting bis Nlfe drunk, he filed his aged mother in-laN with lemon essence and Florida water, until she keeled ovef and turn od har toes to tile daisies Th9 Chil laat relatives came over furious over the flair, and thereupon Stole the hat with a carved raven perchad upon t Johnson secured 1t again from tha I'm dians by appealing to the white mems laws The Chlhat Indians proposed .te settle the difcuIty bv their old cns- toms and tribal laws, and hence the le- gal interference only incensed them the more Seventy-fiye of them in their