The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-03-11
Their Tribal Emblems Or Coats of Arms Are Inter
 esting Specimens
WHAT THE FAMOUS
 TOTEM POLES MEAN
Thlingets Have Unique Story of the Flood and Creation-Queer Marriage Customs Are in
 Vogue Among Them
By FRANK C. CARPENTER


 The Indians of Alaska are fast passing away Alcohol tuberculosis and others of the evils brought in by the white man, have decimated them and they grow fewer and fewer. They are changing their customs, and, ethnologically speak ing. within a short time they will be It, tle more than memory. I have already written of the natives of the Yukon val ! ley. and later I shall describe the Eski- mos who live on Seward peninsula and along the shores of the Arctic ocean and Boring sea. I shall also visit the Aleuts who inhabit the long chain of islands that reaches from the end of the Alaskan peninsula almost to Asia This letter deals with the Indians of southeastern Alaska and those that skirt the coast as far north as the terminus of our new railroad at Seward. It has to do with the Totem Indians, and more especially with the Thlingets. who are far different from the Indians of the United States proper western hemisphere.
 The Indians of Alaska look far more
 
 the red men farther south. They have yellowish or light brown complexions. Their eyes are trifle slanting, and their cheekbones are as high as those of the Mongols, or the inhabitants of Tibet. When dressed in European clothes it Is difficult to tell them from the Japanese who come north to work in the fish can neries, and it Is a question whether they did not originally come from Asia, cross 4.-~ U ~-,,t,o kTr@ 1ns,- fr. the Aleutian Islands and gradually mak- ing their way to the Alexander archipel- ago, which they largely inhabit.
 Boring strait Is only 50 or 60 miles wide, and there are two islands in the midst of it, so that 1t would be easy for the Chuckchi and other Mongolian tribes to cross over from Asia to the mainland of this continent and it may be that the Thlingets made their first migration that way. There Is no doubt that they have many of the traits of the MongoIs, and in some ways they are like the Japanese. They are great imitators, skilled In carv- ing, and naturally bright and quick witted. Some of their customs are the same as those that prevailed in Japan before 1t adopted the western civilizations; and 1t is not hard to imagine that these customs may have come down from their Morgoiian ancestors. For instance. when first visited Japan, now almost 30 years ago, every widow shaved her head as smooth as billiard ball in order to show that she was mourning for her husband. She also stained her teeth black in or der to make herself unattractive. The widows of the Thlingets shaved their heads the same way until the mission aries taught them better, and they even painted their faces black as a sign of mourning. The black used was a water color, and If this were streaked with tears it was sign of emotion and brought the widow respect through her grief for her dead husband. .
 Cremation is common in Japan. It was for years common in Alaska Many of these Indians burned their dead, and they had hollow poles in which they deposited the ashes. Some of the tribes took the ashes and pieces of bones that were left and put them in sack, which was kept in the family dead house, the bones of