The Wrangell sentinel., 1929-04-11
REDMEN WILL CELEBRATE
 25th ANNIVERSARY OF
 FOUNDING LOCAL LODGE

"aAAo uR anu NnG HUI On tue building, but no inside finishing work had been done at the time the charter members met there to form the lodge.
 Several years ago News from Headquarters, the official organ of the Great Council of the United States of the Improved Order of Redmen, contained a letter from the late J. E. Worden in which the writer threw some interesting side lights on the history of the local tribe. His letter was as follows:
 Wrangell, Alaska,
 June 29, 1921. w. B. Macferran, G. c. of R.,
 Chicago, III.
 Dear Great Chief and Brother:
 Stikine Tribe. No. 5, was organ ized on the 18th Sun, Plant Moon, G. S. D., 413, with 43 charter members. It was the first fraternal and beneficial organization in Wrangell, Alaska, and it has never lost it's prestige as the leading one.
 Wrangell, at that time, had population of about 800, which was about evenly divided between whites and Natives. It took con siderable rustling to get enough timber to organize a lodge and we found that in order to get enough members to secure charter we must admit some who were over age and a special dispensation was asked for.
 The fire of 1906, which destroyed nearly all of the business section oI our town, fortunately did not reach our hall and as the town gradually built up the Red Mems .all became a very important place as the lower room was the only place where the public could be entertained or school entertain ments held.
 h might be of interest to some Jf our Brothers to know how a title handful of lodge members aised the cash to build hall cost ng in the neighborhood of $6,OOO. Yell, we did not raise the money Ut we raised the reputation of be- ng Square" and public spirited eitiZen by the name of Bruno Grief raised the hall and gave it to us at nominal rental of $20.O0 a month with an understanding that if the lodge survived the giver, a deed in escrow should be handed to the Trustees of Stikine Tribe.
 This gave Stikine Tribe a start that never stopped. We have had some difficulties to contend with and at times lost members by some wrong move but our chief difficulty resulted in picking up some unfor- tunate brother who was in our Hunting Grounds, injured or sick, taking care of him and then having his own Tribe refuse to pay even it's share of the expense. We do not offer this as an excuse for not doing our duty by the unfortunate nor did Stikine Tribe regret doing it's duty but it did lose some of our members and what was almost equally as bad, it nearly broke our own Tribe.
 Let me quote few things the Tribe has done for Wrangell outside of furnishing a public hall. when we organized, Wrangell had no burial ground Graves were scat tered all over the country. Cattle roamed at will over the graves or the whites as we'll as the Natives. stikine Tribe saw the necessity or a respectable place for it's members to repose and the first thing 1t dld was to secure a small piece or ground, clear it of timber and each member purchased a lot. AS soon as the place was put in shape ue- mands were made by outsiders TOT lots and from less than three fourths of an acre of ground the Red Mems Cemetery has grown to about acres to date. Remember to clear an acre of heavy timber Tn Alaska means dollars but we stuck to it and in short time the ceme- tery account will strike balance on our books.
 .Don,t think we live in a land or eternal ice or snow, and entirety on the finny tribe. True, most or the eastern people think we are lish and some of them treat us as sucn' hut we are a good deal like other