The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-02-11
GE-7ERALDS WEEKLY CALENDAR OF ORGANIZED LABOR

ested enough in these totems to live
 here?" Old Kasaan was built by In-
 dans of the Haidi tribe, and at one
 time several hundred people lived
 here. But when the salmon canneries
 were started a little further down
 the coast the white men thought Old
 Kasaan a poor location for. a can
 nery and at the same time they of
 fered employment to the Indians. At
 first the Indians tried going from
 Old kasaan in canoes to the can
 neries, but finally 1t was to their ad-
 vantage to live where the canneries
 are, and they moved in body, talk
 lng what was necessary for every
 day life. They left many of their
 ancestral belongings in their huts,
 and it is to the shame of the white
 man that most of these carved and
 decorated utensils of wood. bone and
 shell used in Indian feasts were
 stolen. Worse than this some excur-
 siontsts from a large city in the
 states-before Old Kasaan became
 national monument-actually dug up
 one totem pole and floated it down
 to Puget Sound. The matter was
 later taken up by the Indians and
 tne governor of Alaska saw to it
 that the Indians were paid for their
 loss Money, however, cannot pay an
 indians for the loss of his totem pole.
 one reason why it is desirable to
 save the wooden huts of Kasaan is
 because of their peculiar construe-
 ton. They were built before the
 white man came and put together
 with joints and beams and notches
 and grooves. The Indians had not
 seen nails or hammer in those days yet the huts were erected with n1ath- ematical precision. The monument at
 Titka covers a large area of ground so that the remains of these huts
 could be carried there and a small vil-
 ble replica of Old Kasaan. The
 totems could be placed before the
 1age constructed as nearly as possi- huts. facing the sea, and one house could hold any relics that remain. A replica of the graveyard could adtoin the village.
 Sitlxa Monument.
 The Sitka monument is about a mile from Sitka and all the exhibits from Kasaan would make remark able outdoor museum. The Sftka monument covers a beautiful spot
 and seats are placed at various places so visitors can get a view of the In- dian river. which runs through it, Sitka harbor with it's many green islands, the ocean, and the extinct volcano of Mt. Edgecomb which looms up in the background. So far as known the Alaskan totem poles are the best of their kind. Though totemism Is found among tribes of Indians in Africa, Samoa and other countries, there seems to be no such elaborate expressions of
 family pride as in Alaska. Ethnolo- gists tell us that Alaska was the first home of the prehistoric ancestors of the American Indians, and this may account for some of their legends which pertain to family caste. It is difficult for the white man to under
 stand these totems. It is known they are not worshipped. The Indians say there are four large tribes in Alaska and each tribe has one or more ami mals for totems. All Indians whose
 animals or heraIdic symbols are the
 same are counted as blood relations
 and this holds good even though they
 may be thousands of miles apart. The Indians tell of a flood which sepa-
 rated their families but they retain the symbols which distinguished the families before the flood. The totems divide tribes into social clans, and it | is the ambition of each clean to rep resent rank by carving or painting heraldic symbols of their belongings on totem poles erected years ago when any distinguished member of their house died. The crests on the totems defind bonds of consankuinity and persons having the same crest cannot marry: that is frog cannot
 marry a frog, nor a whale marry 8 whale. Another peculiar thing Is that all children take their mothers
 crest nor do they regard their fath-
 CTS family as relations. This makes
 an Indians heir not his own son, but his sisters son.