J/acts JI^out JI^aska 
 
 ITS PEOPLE, 
 
 VILLAGES, 
 
 MISSIONS, 
 
 SCHOOLS. 
 
 SHELDON JACKSON, D.D., 
 
 U. S. GENERAL AGT. OF ED. IN ALASKA. 
 
 WOMAN'S EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF HOME MISSIONS 
 OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 
 Box L, STATION D, New York City, N. Y. 
 
FACTS ABOUT ALASKA 
 
 ITS PEOPLE, VILLAGES, MISSIONS AND SCHOOLS. 
 
 By Rev. SHELDON JACKSON, D.D. 
 
 SCATTERED over this vast North-land, in clusters of small settlementa, is a 
 population composed approximately of 15,000 Innuit, or Eskimo, 2,145 
 Aleuts, 1,756 Creoles, 5,100 Tinneh, 3,000 Thlingets, 788 Hydah, and 
 2,000 whites, making a total of 33,623.* 
 
 THE INNUIT. 
 
 The Innuit occupy the entire coast line of Alaska, with the outlying islands 
 along the Arctic coast to Bering Strait ; thence southward to the Aliaska 
 Peninsula, over the peninsula and eastward and northward along the Pacific 
 coast to Mount Saint Elias, with the exception of a small territory on Cook's 
 Inlet and at the mouth of Copper River, where the Tinnah from the interior 
 have forced their way to the coast. Occupying the coast line, they are bold 
 navigators and skilled fishermen and sea hunters. 
 
 The term "Innuit" is the native word for " people, " and is the name used 
 by themselves, signifying " our people." The term " Eskimo" is one of reproach, 
 given them by their neighbors, meaning " raw-fish eaters." The Innuit of Alaska 
 are a much finer race physically than their brethren of Greenland and Labrador. 
 They are tall and muscular, many of them being six feet and over in height. 
 They have small black eyes, high cheek bones, large mouth, thick lips, coarse 
 brown hair, and fresh yellow complexions. In many instances the men have full 
 beards and moustaches. In some sections the men wear a labret under each 
 corner of the mouth, in a hole cut through the lower lip for the purpose. 
 
 They are a good-natured people, always smiling when spoken to. They are 
 fond of dancing, running, jumping, and all athletic sports. While they speak a 
 common language from the Arctic to the Pacific, each locality has its 
 own dialect. 
 
 The native dress is the parkas, made of the skins of animals and some- 
 times of the breasts of birds and skins of fishes. However, where they have 
 access to the stores of traders the more progressive buy ready-made clothing. 
 
 Their residences have the outward appearance of a circular moiind of earth 
 covered with grass, with a small opening at the top for the escape of smoke. 
 The entrance is a small and narrow hallway to the main room, which is from 12 
 to 20 feet in diamater, and is without light or ventilation. Those of the Kadiak 
 district have one or two small bed rooms opening into the main room. 
 
 The diet consists of the meat of the moose, reindeer, bear and smaller 
 fur bearing animals ; also of fish, the white whale, the walrus, seal, and 
 various water fowl. In the northern section they have a great aversion to salt. 
 While they will eat with great relish decayed fish or putrid oil, they will spit out 
 with a wry face a mouthful of choice corned beef. 
 
 Men, women and children are inveterate smokers. 
 
 While they travel continually in the summer, they have permanent 
 winter homes. 
 
 Their religious belief is quite indefinite. In a general way they believe in 
 a power that rewards the good and punishes the bad, by sending them to differ- 
 
 * These ftarures are only approximate, as from a combination of causes the census of i8qo 
 of that section is unreliable and incomplete. 
 
ent places after death. They are barbarians, and, with the exception of those in 
 Southern Alaska, have not had civilizing, educational, or religious advantages. 
 
 From the boundary line to Bering Strait, along the bleak Arctic coast, villages 
 are placed here and there, wherever there is a sheltered harbor with good hunting 
 or fishing; the population of these aggregates 3,000. 
 
 At Point Barrow, the most northern portion of land on the continent, there 
 is a village (Nuwuk) of 31 families and 150 people. They inhabit houses or 
 tupecs that are built partly under ground for warmth. The upper portion is 
 roofed over with dirt, supported by rafters of whale jaws and ribs. Eight or ten 
 miles south of Nuwuk is Oot-ke-ah-ve, with a population of 300 to 400. 
 
 This is one of the villages selected by the United States Bureau of Educa- 
 tion for the establishment of a school, the contract for which was given to the 
 Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church for the Woman's Executive 
 Committee of Home Missions. The money necessary for its establishment was 
 generously contributed by Mrs. Elliott F. Shepard, of New York. The first 
 teacher was Prof. L. M. Stevenson, of Versailles, Ohio, who reached the place 
 on July 30, i8go. 
 
 In 1892 Mr. Stevenson was appointed by the Government, Keeper of the 
 Refuge Station. This station is next Upernavik, Greenland, the northernmost 
 mission in the world. Mr. Stevenson reports it very interesting to see their 
 black eyes flash and their dusky counter ances brighten as they learn a new word 
 or a new combination of figures. They seem to pride themselves on knowing 
 English, but manifest little desire to speak it, as that would be breaking off from 
 their traditions, and their Im-ut-koots (doctors) would let the evil one take full 
 possession of them for thus abandoning the style of former days. 
 
 The attendance for the most part was very irregular, owing to the trips 
 that had to be made out to the caches where the deer was stored, and which 
 they brought in for food, as required, and for the catching of seals for both 
 food and fuel. 
 
 After the age of four is reached, no parent is able to tell the age of his 
 children, and they are not positively certain beyond three years, so that the 
 classification by ages in school is mere guess work. Knowledge of the past is 
 summed up in the single word "I-pan-ee," which may be yesterday or ten thou- 
 sand years ago, or any indefinite period. 
 
 Five seems to be the basis and almost the extent of their mathematical 
 comprehension, and beyond the limit of 15 the best of them become fconfused, 
 and cut off further count by a single word, " Am-a-lok-tuk," which may be any- 
 thing, from one upwards. It seems to mean plenty. If there is enough for the 
 present meal it is "Am-a-lok-tuk." 
 
 The coldest weather reported was 42^ degrees below zero. The long, 
 dark (for the night extends from November ig to January 23) Arctic winter wore 
 away until April 14, when the report of "whales seen in the lead" set every one 
 wild with excitement, nearly breaking up the school. All the pupils large 
 enough left immediately to hunt whales, and a few weeks later the remaining 
 boys and girls left to drive the dog teams that were transporting the whale- 
 bone and meat to the village from the edge of the ice, from 12 to 20 miles 
 out to sea. 
 
 At this village is also located the Government refuge station for ship- 
 wrecked whalers. Within the past ten years some 2,000 sailors have been 
 wrecked on this Arctic coast. So far they have been fortunate in finding vessels 
 within reach to carry them south to civilization, but the occasion is liable to come 
 any season when they will be compelled to winter here. To a large body of men 
 this means slow starvation and death. They could not subsist on the country, 
 and there is no adequate provision within 1,500 or 2,000 miles; and when the 
 long Arctic winter sets in no power on earth could reach them with help. To 
 provide against any such horrible tragedy Capt. M. A. Healy, U. S. R. M. saw the 
 need of having an ample supply of provisions stored at some central place in the 
 Arctic region. The plan grew and took shape in his own mind. He enlisted his 
 friends and the men interested in the whaling industry, particularly in New Bed- 
 ford and San Francisco, and finally, after many vexatious delays that would have 
 
 4 
 
discouraged a less persistent man, Congress voted the money for erecting the 
 buildings and procuring the provisions. 
 
 In 1889 Capt. Healy brought up the materials and erected the main build- 
 ing, which is a low one-story structure, 30 by 48 feet in size. The walls, roof and 
 floor are made double, as a protection against the intense cold of this high north- 
 ern latitude in winter. It will accommodate 50 men comfortably ; it can shelter 
 100 if necessary. The house has provisions for 100 men 12 months, and is ad- 
 mirably adapted for its purpose. 
 
 Three hundred and ten miles south of Point Barrow on the Arctic coast, is 
 Point Hope, with a population of 300. At this village is a successful mis- 
 sion and school, conducted by Mr. John B. Driggs, M. D., under the auspices of 
 the Protestant Episcopal Society. During the winter of i8go-i the attendance at 
 school numbered 68. 
 
 The school was .opened on the : st of October, 1 8go. The day brought with it 
 a blizzard and snow storm that lasted for nine days. During the morning the 
 teacher occupied the schoolroom alone, but as time wore on and no pupils came 
 he put on his furs and started for the village to hunt up the children. Upon 
 going outside the house he found a boy walking the beach. Taking him into the 
 schoolroom, he commenced school. At the close of the afternoon he presented 
 his pupil with a couple of pan-cakes left from his own breakfast. The effect was 
 equal to any reward of merit. That boy proved one of the most regular in 
 attendance during the entire winter season. The next morning four presented 
 themselves, and from that the school grew to 68. A mixture of flour, molasses, 
 and water made a sort of cake, a little of which was given to the pupils each 
 evening, proving not only a very cheap and efficient method of securing regular 
 attendance, and promoting discipline, as they had to be both present and perfect 
 in their deportment and recitations to be entitled to cake. The scholars usually 
 arrived from six to seven in the morning and remained all day. The sun disap- 
 peared on the loth of December and returned on the 3d of January, giving them 
 a night of twenty-four days. Lamps were required in the schoolroom from 
 November 12 to February 9. The thermometer varied in the coldest weather 
 from 27 to 31 degrees below zero, the average of the winter being probably about 
 15 degrees below zero. During February and a portion of March a series of bliz- 
 zards set in that were beyond description. The ice was solid across the ocean to 
 Cape Prince of Wales, 200 miles distant. The effect of the gales was such that at 
 tim<is it seemed as if the schoolhouse must be blown away. Snow flew in perfect 
 sheets. The schoolhouse was located two miles from the village, and yet, notwith- 
 standing the storms and distance, the attendance was good. For a few days the 
 teacher hired men to see the little ones safely home through the storm (the two 
 miles distance), but soon found that the precaution was unnecessary ; that they 
 were accustomed to take care of themselves. 
 
 Two hundred and twenty miles south of Point Hope is situated the vil- 
 lage of Cape Prince of Wales on the American side of Bering Straits. It con- 
 tains a population of 539 Eskimos. In i8go the American Missionary Association 
 (Congregational) established a station at this place, with Messrs. W. T. Lopp and 
 H. R. Thornton, teachers; School was opened on the i8th of August, 1890, with 
 only about one-fourth of the population returned to the village from their sum- 
 mer's hunt. 
 
 The school being established among a wild people who had known no re- 
 straints, and who could not comprehend the purposes or language of the teach- 
 ers in coming to them, at first, through misapprehension there was a good deal of 
 trouble. On the 19th of September Elignak, one of the wealthiest men of the 
 village, and one of his wives, both in a state of beastly intoxication, tried to force 
 their way into the house. On the 23d of September some of the students became 
 so boisterous and unruly in the schoolroom that they also had to be excluded 
 from the house. And again, in November, drunken parties tried to break in and 
 make a disturbance, so that, for two months the teachers taught, ate, worked 
 and slept with loaded arms at hand, not knowing at what moment they might 
 have to defend the property committed to them, and their lives. They were con- 
 stantly harassed with questions as to when resistance should begin and how far 
 
 6 
 
it would be justifiable, debating in their own minds whether it would be better to 
 allow themselves to be robbed or murdered without resistance, or through resist- 
 ance make the savages respect their manhood. 
 
 The danger to the station was greatly increased by an epidemic of the grip, 
 which carried away 26 people in two months. This was by the superstitions of 
 the people attributed to the presence of the white men among them. However, 
 through tact and good management and the providence of God, hostilities were 
 prevented, and'by January the strained situation was greatly relieved. Mutual 
 confidence sprang up between the natives and the teachers. Having heard, be- 
 fore going to the place, of the bad reputation of the people (which, however, it 
 was found they did not deserve), and feeling that a people who knew nothing of 
 schools would not endiire for any length of time the restraints of a schoolroom, 
 and the cost of building being very great (all lumber and material being 
 sent from San Francisco, 3,000 miles), the schoolhouse was built to hold 
 about 50 pupils, and it was thought that i£ 50 pupils couid be obtained 
 among such a people, under such circumstances, it would be a very great 
 success. But to the astonishment of the teachers themselves and to the aston- 
 ishment of the friends of education interested in these Arctic schools, it was 
 found that the total enrollment for the first year was 304 pupils, out of a popula- 
 lation of 539 people. The average daily attendance for the last seven months 
 of the school was 146, and the average daily attendance for the whole session of 
 nine months was 105. As the schoolroom would hold only about 50 at a time, the 
 teachers were compelled to divide the pupils into three classes, and holding morn- 
 ing, afternoon, and evening sessions of school. And then, to prevent the chil- 
 dren who belonged to the afternoon or evening school from smuggling them- 
 selves nnto the morning session, or the morning children from remaining to the 
 afternoon or evening session, it was found necessary to build two parallel snow 
 walls some distance from the schoolroom door, and when the bell stopped ring- 
 ing for school the teachers ranged themselves on either side, in order to sift the 
 children that were trying to get into the schoolroom. It was with great difficulty 
 that the pupils were made to understand that it was not proper to talk andlaugh 
 and jump over the benches in the schoolroom during school as much as they 
 pleased; nor could they understand why 30 or 40 visitors could not lounge about 
 the room which was needed for those who desired to study ; so that upon several 
 occasions it became necessary to exclude certain parties from the schoolroom, but 
 this exclusion of a few days- was all that was necessary. It was considered a great 
 punishment not to be able to come to school. During the epidemic a number of 
 slates of the children that they had been allowed to take home at night were re- 
 turned by order of the medicine men, who ascribed that much of the sickness was 
 due to the slates and the pictures which the children made upon them — they were 
 "bad medicine." 
 
 The teachers began their school work by learning the Eskimo names of the 
 most important objects in daily use and training their pupils in the English 
 equivalents. From words they proceeded to phrases, and from phrases to sen- 
 tences, teaching them to translate the Eskimo into English and vice uersa. They 
 gradually added English letters and numbers, together with some elementary 
 geography and arithmetic. Although they had had a combined experience of 
 thirteen years in the schoolroom in the States, the teachers declare that they 
 never had more quick-witted, intelligent pupils than these wild Eskimo children. 
 At the beginning of the school year only a few could count ten in a blundering 
 fashion, and nine-tenths of the pupils knew practically no English whatever. At 
 the close of the first school year they had a good working vocabulary, knew some- 
 thing of geography and map-drawing,, understood thoroughly the decimal basis 
 of our numbers, could count up to one thousand, work examples in simple addi- 
 tion, write and read simple English words, and carry on a conversation in Eng- 
 lish on everyday practical matters. The pupils showed a remarkable desire to 
 learn for learning's sake. During 1891-2 the average daily attendance was 106, 
 and during 1892-3, 160. 
 
 In the summer of 1893 Mr. W. T. Lopp was appointed Superintendent of 
 the Reindeer Station at I'ort Clarence, and with his wife removed to that place, 
 
 7 
 
leaving Mr. and Mrs. 11. R. Thornton in charge of the mission. On the 19th of 
 August, 1893, Mr. Thornton was assassinated by two young men, whom he had 
 expelled from school for disorderly conduct. The community at once showed 
 their horror at the act by summarily killing both the murderers. 
 
 After the death of her husband Mrs. Thornton returned to her parents in 
 Maine, and the mission was closed for the season of 1893-4. 
 
 This mission is an important point from which to carry the gospel across 
 to the tribes of Siberia, 46 miles distant. 
 
 In the narrow strait, separating Asia from America, is a small group of 
 islands called the Diomede. On these islands are three hundred Innuit. 
 
 The largest of the Diomede Lslands belongs to Russia and the smaller one 
 to the United States. They are both inhabited, and at this point the inhabitants 
 of Russia and the United States are only separated by a channel two miles wide. 
 
 The Eskimo of the Diomedes with those at Cape Prince of Wales, are the 
 great smugglers of the north. Launching their walrus-skin boats (umniak) they 
 boldly cross to and from Siberia, trading the deer-skins, sinew and wooden ware 
 of Alaska for the walrus, ivory, skins of tame reindeer, whale blubber of Siberia, 
 fire-arms and whiskey. 
 
 Nearly midway between Cape Prince of Wales and Point Hope is Kotze- 
 bue Sound, around which are a number of villages of the Arctic Eskimo. Some 
 of the hills surrounding this sound rise to the height of a thousand feet, and are 
 covered with a species of wild cotton, that in its season gives the appearance 
 of snow. 
 
 The Noatak and Kowak Rivers, both large streams, and also the Salawick, 
 empty into the sound. This is one of the places where the people come in July 
 from all sections of the country for the purposes of trade and barter. The Innuit 
 of the coast bring their oil, walrus hides, and seal skins ; the Tinneh their furs 
 from the interior, and the Chuckchees their reindeer-skins, fire-arms and whiskey 
 from Asia. 
 
 Sixty miles east of Cape Prince of Wales is Port Clarence. At the head of 
 this bay I located for the Government the central station and main distributing 
 point for the domesticated reindeer, which are being introduced into Alaska. 
 In i8go, when I first visited arctic Alaska for the purpose of establishing schools 
 and missions among the Eskimos, I found them in a starving condition. The 
 persistent pursuit of the whale by American whalers had so far killed or driven 
 off that animal, that the natives could no longer secure them for food. It was at 
 once seen that something had to be done or in a few years there would be no 
 people left, and, that while we offer them the gospel with one hand, we must 
 offer them food with the other. In conference with Captain Healy, commanding 
 the Revenue Cutter on which I was travelling, it was concluded to make the 
 attempt to introduce the tame reindeer of Siberia into Alaska, and teaching the 
 Eskimos their care and management, so that they could become herders, and live 
 off their herds of reindeers, as the New Mexican lives off his flock of sheep. This 
 enterprise I have successfully commenced, and in the fall of 1893 there were 348 
 reindeer in the herd at Port Clarence. 
 
 On King's Island, south of Cape Prince of Wales, is a village of the cave 
 dwellers, numbering 200. This is one of the most remarkable settlements in 
 America. The island is a great mass of besalt rock, about a mile in length, ris- 
 ing from the sea with perpendicular sides from 700 to 1,000 feet above the water. 
 On the south side the wall is broken down by a ravine rising at an angle of 45 
 degrees, and is filled with loose rock. A great permanent snow bank fills the 
 ravine from the bottom to the top of the mountain. - On the west side of the 
 snow is the village of Ouk-ivak, which consists of some 40 dwellings or under- 
 ground houses, partly excavated in the side of the hill, and built up with stone 
 walls. Across the top of these walls are large poles made from the driftwood 
 that is caught floating around the island. Upon these are placed hides and 
 grass, which are in turn covered with dirt. A low t'annel or dirt-covered hall- 
 way, 10 to 15 feet long, leads directly under the center of the dwelling. This is 
 so low that it is necessary to stoop and often creep in entering. At the end of 
 
 8 
 
king's island. 
 
the hall directly overhead is a hole about i8 inches in diameter. This is the en- 
 trance to the dwelling above. 
 
 Frequently in summer, these caves become too damp to live in. The people 
 then erect a summer house upon the top of the winter one. The summer house 
 consists of walrus hides, stretched over a wooden frame, making a room from 
 lo to 15 feet square. These summer houses are guyed to rocks with rawhide 
 ropes, to prevent them from being blown off into the sea. The entrance is an 
 oval hole in the walrus hide, about two feet above the floor. Outside of the door is 
 a narrow platform about two feet wide, leading back to the side of the hill. Some 
 of these platforms are from 1 5 to 20 feet above the roofs of the huts below them. 
 Across the ravine from the village, at the base of the perpendicular sides of the 
 island is & cave, into the mouth of which the surf dashes and roars. At the back 
 of the cave is a large bank of perpetual snow. This cave is the storehouse of the 
 whole village. Walrus and seal meat is stored away in rooms excavated in the 
 snow. As the temperature in the cave never rises above freezing point, meat so 
 stored soon freezes solid and keeps indefinitely. 
 
 South of King's Island is that of St. Lawrence, the largest island in Be- 
 ring Sea. On the extreme northwest corner is the village of Chib-u-Chak, with 21 
 houses, containing a population of 270, of whom 125 are under 21 years of age. 
 The houses are from 20 to 50 feet in size. For a distance of five or six feet above 
 the ground the walls are built of driftwood, whalebone, or timbers and planks 
 from shipwrecked vessels. These are placed on end, side by side, forming an 
 inclosure in a circular or oblong form. The cracks between these planks are 
 stuffed with moss. The rafters are covered with walrus and seal skins, form- 
 ing the roof. Some roofs are in the shape of a cone and others of a dome. The 
 interior is partitioned off around the sides with deer skin curtains, forming 
 sleeping apartments. All around, inside and outside, are filth, dirt, sleds, 
 spears, snowshoes and household utensils. The houses and tents are located 
 with no reference to order or street lines. The sleds are shod with bone. On a 
 few small ones, the whole runner was made of a walrus tusk. 
 
 If the building is a very large one there is a row of supporting poles on 
 each side, midway between the center and sides. Over the rafter poles are 
 stretched walrus hides. These are held in position by rawhide ropes, attached 
 to which and hanging down the sides of the building are the vertebrse of whales, 
 large stones, and old iron from shipwrecked vessels. This anchorage both 
 stretches the skins and prevents them from being blown off. These skins 
 being translucent let in a great deal of light. There are no windows in the house, 
 and but a small opening, about two and a half feet above the ground, for a door. 
 Fire, when they have any, is made on the dirt floor in the center of the room. 
 Each building is occupied i)y several families. Near the house is a scaffold, made 
 of posts of the jaw bones of the whale. These are seven to ten feet high and 10 
 feet wide. On these are placed the skin boats, harness of the dogs, meat, etc., 
 so as to be out of the reach of dogs. Upon one of these, attached to the whale- 
 bone cross beam, was a child's swing, made of walrus rope. 
 
 I saw several excavations where underground houses had once been, and 
 one such house still standing with the roof partially fallen in. The sides were 
 composed of walrus skulls laid up like a stone wall. In this house were some 
 corpses, together with the spear, arrowheads and personal belongings of the dead. 
 
 Passing from house to house I was followed by a crowd of dirty but 
 -bright-looking children. From the eldest tothe child which was just able to talk 
 they asked for tobacco, which is used by both sexes and all ages down to the 
 nursing child. Five little girls, from four to ten years of age, gave a native dance. 
 They commenced with a swinging motion of the body from side to side, throwing 
 their weight alternately upon each foot. This was accompanied by an explos- 
 ive grunt or squeak, as if the air was being violently expelled from the lungs. As 
 they warmed up they whirled around, writhed and twisted their bodies and dis- 
 torted their faces into all manner of shapes and expressions, until they would 
 fall down with dizziness. 
 
 In i8gi I erected a good schoolhouse and teachers' residence at the village, 
 but up to the winter of 1893-4 no suitable missionary and his wife have been 
 
 10 
 
found for the place. This building, through the liberality of two ladies, is the 
 property of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, and there is a fair 
 prospect that a missionary will be sent this season. 
 
 In 1878 the island was the scene of a great tragedy. Starvation and pesti- 
 lence carried away over 400 of the people. When the revenue cutter visited the 
 island in 1880, in four villages not a man, woman or child was left to tell the tale; 
 the corpses of the population alone were found. All the villages on the island, 
 with the single exception of Chib-u Chak, had been swept out of existence. 
 
 In 1884 Captain Healy reports, "At the villages along the north shore no 
 sign of living beings could be found, but the still decaying bodies of the unfortu- 
 nate Eskimo were lying in and about the falling houses." 
 
 From Bering .Strait around the shores of Norton Sound are a number of 
 villages, aggregating a population of 633. 
 
 On the northern side of Norton Sound is Golovin Bay. At the Golovin 
 village the Swedish Evangelical Mission Union erected a building and estab- 
 lished a mission in the summer of 1893. Eighty -five miles east of Golovin Bay, 
 on the east coast of Norton Sound is the village of Unalaklik. A mission station 
 was established at Unalaklik in 1886 by the Swedish Evangelical Mission Union, 
 with Rev. Axel E. Karlson in charge. 
 
 In 1893 he was assisted by the Rev. August Anderson, the Rev. David 
 Johnson, N. U. Hultburg, Miss Malvena Johnson and Miss Hannah Swenson. 
 During the past winter a number of Eskimo were' baptized and admitted into 
 the church. They have a home school with 47 pupils. 
 
 Some of the pupils came from distant villages, one family coming 300 miles 
 across country from the Arctic region. During the long winter evenings the 
 children are taught various kinds of industrial work, and a number of the boys 
 as well as the girls take lessons in sewing. Invitations have been received by 
 the teachers for the establishment of branch schools in distant villages. 
 
 Forty miles south of Unalaklik is Saint Michael, a trading post, originally 
 founded by the Russians in 1835. The place consists of a few log houses, in- 
 closed by a stockade, the property of the Alaska Commercial Company, and a 
 chapel of the Russo-Greek Church, with an occasional service by a priest from 
 Ikogmute. This is the point where the ocean-going steamers transfer freight 
 with the small steamers that ply on the Yukon River. To this point the furs col- 
 lected at the trading posts of the interior, some of them 2,000 miles distant, are 
 brought forreshipment to San Francisco This is also the dividing line between 
 the Innuit of the Arctic and the Pacific. Half a mile from the trading post is a 
 native village of 30 houses and one dance-house or town hall. 
 
 On July, 1886, an agreement was entered into between the Commissioner 
 of Education and the Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church for 
 the establishment of a school in the great Yukon Valley. Owing to the impossibil- 
 ity of getting the supplies into that inaccessible region, the school was maintained 
 for 1886-87 at St. Michael, on the coast, by the Rev. and Mrs. Octavius Parker. 
 In the summer of 1887 the Rev. John H. Chapman was added to the mission, and 
 the station was removed to Anvik. 
 
 In the summer of 1889 the Rev. Mr. Parker retired from the mission on ac- 
 count of the health of his family. In 1890 Mr. Marcus O. Cherry was commis- 
 sioned to Anvik, remaining two years. 
 
 In the summer of 1891 the Rev. Jules L. Prevost was sent out to take 
 charge of St. James Mission, near the junction of the Yukon and Tanana Rivers, 
 which had been previously estabhshed by the Rev. and Mrs. T. H. Canham, of 
 the Church of England. 
 
 Around the head waters of the Yukon River the Church Missionary So- 
 ciety of London has established three missions on the borders of Alaska, one at 
 Rampart House, on the Porcupine River; another at Buxton, near the mouth of 
 " Forty Mile Creek," and the third at Harper's Trading Station. The latter is 
 occupied by Rev. and Mrs. T. H. Canham. Mrs. Canham was the first white 
 woman to cross the Rocky Mountains on snow shoes north of the Arctic circle in 
 midwinter. 
 
 II 
 
Buxton is the headquarters of Bishop Bompas, the mission school being 
 taught by Miss Susan Mellett. 
 
 Rampart House was the field of the Rev. G. C. Wallis, who in 1893 re- 
 turned to England on account of his wife's health. 
 
 In 1886-87 the Roman Catholics entered the Yukon Valley and established 
 missions and schools at Nulato, Kosoriifsky, and Cape Vancouver. 
 
 At Kosoriifsky they have 73 pupils in the home school. Their missions are 
 in charge of four or five priests and nine sisters of the order of St. Ann. 
 
 In 1892 they opened a mission in the valley of the Kuskokwim. 
 
 South of the Yukon River and running parallel with it are the valleys of 
 the Kuskokwim and Nushegak Rivers, occupied by the Moravian missionaries. 
 
 In the spring of 1885 the Rev. and Mrs. W. H. Weinland and the Rev. and 
 Mrs. J. H. Kilbuck and Mr. Hans Torgerson were sent to the Kuskokwim River 
 as the first missionaries to the Eskimo of Alaska. 
 
 That fall Mr. Torgerson, the carpenter, was accidentajly drowned, and 
 Messrs. Weinland and Kilbuck were left alone to erect the mission buildings as 
 best they could before the arctic winter set in. 
 
 In the winter of 1886-87 Mr. Weinland's ht alth so far failed that he with 
 his family left the station and iii the summer of 1887 returned to California, 
 where he has been doing valuable service among the Mission Indians. 
 
 During the winter of 1887-88 the Rev. and Mrs. Kilbuck alone bravely 
 held the fort. In spite of the 30 degrees below zero and perils of storm and hos- 
 tile shamans, Mr. Kilbuck would walk twenty-five miles on snow shoes to preach 
 at a neighboring village. It was a long dark winter, but the dawn was at hand. 
 On Good Friday preaching on the crucifixion and explaining that Christ died on 
 the cross to take away the guilt of sin, some of the older men exclaimed, 
 " Kou-ja-nah! [thank.s]. We, too, desire to have our badness taken away by 
 that blood." 
 
 Mrs. Kilbuck's health becoming impaired vmder the great hardships which 
 she was heroically enduring, in the summer of 1889 Mrs. Bachman, wife of Bishop 
 Henry T. Bachman, volunteered to give a year at Bethel. She was accompanied 
 by Miss Carrie Detterer who went out as a permanent laborer. In 1890 the mis- 
 sion force was again increased by the arrival of Miss Lydia Lebeus, and in 1892 
 by Miss Mary Mack and in 1893 by Mr. and Mrs. B. Helmich and Miss P. C. King. 
 
 In 1893, in addition to the six American missionaries, there were two native 
 helpers and twenty-six native commun,icants. 
 
 At the native villages of Kikichtagamute and Akaigamute, the Christians, 
 owing to the persecutions of the shamans, are preparing to leave their homes 
 and establish a Christian village. 
 
 At Ongavigamute, the uppermost preaching station on the Kuskokwim 
 River, a log mission-house, 18x20 feet, has been erected. This station is being 
 cared for by the Rev. and Mrs. Weber. Another station has been established at 
 Quinehaha, at the mouth of the Kuskokwin. 
 
 In the summer of 1886 the Moravians located and erected a mission station 
 at the mouth of the Nushagak River. The mission was formerly opened in the 
 summer of 1887 with the arrival of the Rev. and Mrs Wolfi: and Miss Mary Huber. 
 
 In 1889 the new station at Carmel was strengthened by the arrival of the 
 Rev. John Herman Schoechert, and in 1890 by Miss Emma Huber. 
 
 At Carmel is an industrial home, with eighteen pupils, and a church, 
 with seventeen communicants. 
 
 In 1893 a saw mill was erected near Bethel. 
 
 A short portage across the Aliaska Peninsula brings us to the settlements of 
 the civilized Innuit and Creoles. 
 
 In 1784, Gregory ShelikoflF formed a settlement on Kadiak Island and com- 
 menced the subjugation and civilization of the people. Soon after he organized 
 a school, which was the first in Alaska. The first church building in Alaska was 
 also erected on this island. For a long time it was the Russian capital, the chief 
 seat of their power and operations. A tombstone in the Russian cemetery bears 
 date of 1791. The present village of Kadiak (Saint Paul) numbers 323 people. 
 They have a few cattle, and cultivate small gardens. They have a large church 
 
 12 
 
and a resident priest; also stores of the Alaska, Commercial Company; a deputy 
 collector of customs and a register of the tides. Kadiak is the headquarters of 
 the Alaska Commercial Company for the district comprising Cook's Inlet and 
 Prince William's Sound. 
 
 The Russian school has been extinct for more than a quarter of a century, 
 and for years the people have been anxiously looking for another. 
 
 It was therefore with peculiar pleasure that on the 22d of September, iS?6, 
 an experienced teacher, was landed with the necessary school books, etc. 
 
 Prof. W. E. Roscoe, with his wife and baby, received a warm welcome from 
 the people. He was not in the village twelve hours before a delegation of 
 the citizens waited upon him to know if a night school could not be established 
 for the married people to learn English. A trader loo miles away reading in a 
 San Francisco paper that the Government would open a school at Kadiak, sent 
 his wife and two half grown daughters to attend the school. In their eager- 
 ness not to lose a day, they reached Kadiak six months in advance of the 
 teacher. 
 
 Opposite Kadiak is Wood Island, with 125 people, of whom 50 are children. 
 In 1893 a large, substantial building was erected on Wood Island by the Ameri- 
 can Baptist's "Woman's Home Mission Society, as a' Mission for Orphans, 
 Waifs and other children of that region. 
 
 Prof. Roscoe, of Kadiak, writes, under date of September 29, 1S90: " In 
 every settlement through this part of the country may be found poor, defenseless 
 children, clothed only in rags, with no one to provide suitable food or clothing, 
 and living entirely on such charity as may be found among a heathen people. 
 There are many destitute children, made so by the drunkenness and the vaga- 
 bond character of their parents. In addition to a kind of beer which the natives 
 themselves make from sugar and graham flour, they succeed in buying large 
 quantities of whiskey from sailors and the more reckless class of traders. The 
 salmon canneries are, generallj' speaking, a curse to the natives. The Chinese 
 employes bring, or rather smuggle, immense quantities of " samshu " into the 
 country, and peddle it out to the natives. In the Aleut settlement of Afognak, 
 the natives have sold the bedding from their huts to obtain the vile stuff. 
 The winter is upon them, and until recently they have been so demora- 
 lized with liquor that they had not laid in the usual winter's supply of dried fish, 
 their main subsistence. Without money and provisions and clothing, what mis- 
 ery and want will there be in that village this winter, all because of intoxi- 
 cating liquors. 
 
 " White hunters, recently arrived from the westward, tell me it is the same 
 out there. The natives are demoralized by drink. Now, the future of this race 
 is that, practically, they will perish from off the face of the globe unless they are 
 Christianized, and that soon. It is a fact that the children do not generally 
 show this terrible craving for strong drink. The pupils of my school are ashamed 
 of their parents' drinking, and we never see them drink any. It seems, there- 
 fore, to be rather an acquired habit than an inherited appetite. It is only right 
 and just that our Government take orphan children and inebriates' children and 
 put them in a good industrial school under religious teachers, who, in addition, 
 to moral and intellectual training, will teach them the cultivation of soil, the 
 rearing of cattle, sheep, hogs and poultry, the elements of some of the mechani- 
 cal arts ; and the girls the art of sewing and cooking." 
 
 Just north of Wood Island is Spruce Island, where a Russian monk kept a 
 small school for thirty consecutive years, giving instruction in the rudimental 
 arts and agricultural industries. The monk is dead and the school discontinued. 
 
 Near by are the two villages of Afognak, with a population of 321, of whom 
 146 are children. These cultivate 100 acres in potatoes and turnips. They have 
 a large Greek church. 
 
 Sept. 25th, 1886, I landed school desks and supplies for a school through 
 the breakers. 
 
 In 1890 a comfortable school building and teacher's residence were erected 
 by the Government. In 1891 the teacher reported that while the people were 
 quiet and inoffensive, yet a hundred years of misrule has broken their spirit and 
 
 13 
 
left them without hope or courage to better their condition; intemperance is 
 very rife among them, and many of the pupils of the school, during the winter, 
 were on the verge of starvation because their parents had wasted nearly all their 
 living on intoxicatmg liquors. On visiting his pupils at their homes, he often 
 found both parents dead drunk and the hungry children shivering with cold. 
 Until some efficient means can be employed to prevent the introduction of 
 liquors among them, the school work will be carried on under very great dis- 
 advantages. 
 
 At Karluk a comfortable teacher's residence and school building have been 
 erected. The chief industry is canning salmon, which gives employment to 
 children as well as adults, so that during the run of the salmon in summer school 
 is suspended. It is an important center for a school, and it is hoped that much 
 can be accomplished in the future. 
 
 ALEUTS AND CREOLES. 
 
 From the Innuit we pass to the consideration of the Aleuts. The origin of 
 the word "Aleut" is not known. They designate themselves by the term 
 " Unung-un," the native word for " our people." 
 
 They occupy the Aleutian chain of islands and portions of the Aliaska 
 peninsula, from tlie Shumagin Islands, 1,650 miles westward to Attu. 
 
 The average height of the men js about 5 feet 6 inches. They have coarse 
 black hair, small eyes, high cheek bones, flat noses, thick lips, large mouths, 
 broad faces, and light yellowish-brown complexions, with a strong resemblance 
 to the Japanese. 
 
 The marriage relation is respected, and as a rule each family has its own 
 house, with two to three rooms. They use in their houses a small cast-iron cook- 
 stove or neat wrought-iron cooking range, granite-ware kettles, white crockery- 
 ware dishes, pewter or silver-plated ware, and feather beds covered with colored 
 spreads. Their walls are adorned with colored pictures, and their houses lighted 
 with kerosene in glass lamps. Many homes possess an accordion, a 
 hand-organ, or music-box, some of the latter costing as high as $200. They 
 dress in American garments, and their women study with great interest the 
 fashion plates and some try to imitate the latest styles. 
 
 The village of Unalaska has a population of 60 white men and 5 white 
 women and 251 Aleuts and Creoles, of whom 132 are children. They have a 
 church, priest's residence, the stores residences, warehouses and wharves of the 
 Alaska Commercial Company, 18 frame residences and 50 barrabaras. It is the 
 most important settlement in Western Alaska, and the commercial center of all 
 trade now in that region or that shall develop in the future. It is the natural 
 outfitting station for vessels passing between the Pacific and Arctic Oceans. In 
 the mountains back of the village is a volcano in eruption. 
 
 In September, i88g, Mr. John A. Tuck reached the village and opened a 
 day school. The following season a few girls were taken into his family and a 
 mission home opened under the auspices of the Methodist Woman's Home Mis- 
 sion Society. The Home family has increased until in 1893, 26 girls en- 
 joyed its advantages. 
 
 Two hundred and twenty-two miles north of Unalaska are the celebrated 
 Pribiloff, or, as they are more popularly called, Sea Islands. 
 
 The village of Saint Paul, on an island of the same name, is laid out in 
 regular streets like an American village, and has 64 houses, and a priest's resi- 
 dence. The population is 18 white men, four white women and 222 Aleuts. 
 
 Twenty-seven miles to the southeast is the companion island of Saint 
 George with eight white men and 85 Aleuts. They have a church and school. 
 These islands are leased by the United States Government to the North Ameri- 
 can Commercial Company. 
 
 The revenue of these islands since 1870 has returned to the Government 
 the entire sum paid to Russia for the whole country. 
 
 From these two islands come nearly all the seal skins of commerce. There 
 is a small school on each island supported at the expense of the company, with 
 98 per cent, of the children in attendance. 
 
 14 
 
In the immediate vicinity of tlie Unalashka, on the island of Spirkin, is 
 Borka. This village is noted for its cleanliness. With their white scrubbed and 
 neatly sanded floors, their clear, clean windows, neat bedding, tidy rooms and 
 abundance of wild flower bouquets on tables and window-sills, they may properly 
 be called the Hollanders of Alaska. 
 
 To the eastward, near the southern end of the Aliaska Peninsula, is Bel- 
 koffski, with a population of 185. In addition to the buildings of the great trad- 
 ing firms, the village has 30 frame houses and 27 barrabaras. 
 
 In 1880 they raised among themselves $7,000 for the erection of a church. 
 One half of them can read and write in the Aleutian language, and they support 
 a small school. West of the village is the magnificent volcano Shilhaldin in ac- 
 tive eruption, and to the north Pavloff volcano is throwing out smoke like the 
 smoke stack of an ocean steamer. 
 
 At Unga, with its 74 children, I established a school October 20th, 1886. 
 Prof. John H. Carr (the teacher) and his wife belonging to the Methodist 
 church. 
 
 The Methodist Woman's Home Mission Society have erected a teacher's 
 residence and named it "The Martha Ellen Stevens' Cottage," in memory of 
 Mrs. Carr, who died there. 
 
 For the southern coast of Alaska between Sitka and Unalashka there is a 
 monthly mail during the seven summer months of the year. To the north of the 
 Aleutian Islands there is only one mail a year. 
 
 In the Aleutian district are 1,890 Aleuts and 479 Creoles. 
 
 TINNEH. 
 
 "Tinneh" is the native word for " people." The Tinneh of Alaska are 
 tall, well-formed, strong and courageous, with great powers of endurance. They 
 are great hunters and fishers. Polygamy prevails among them, the men fre- 
 quently having more than one, but seldom more than three wives. Wives are 
 taken and discarded at pleasure. Among some of them female infanticide is 
 occasionally practiced. The bodies of the dead are buried in boxes above ground. 
 Shamanism and witchcraft, with all their attendant barbarities, prevail. They 
 also believe in a multitude of spirits, good and bad. 
 
 On the lower course of the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers, and in the great 
 range of country north and south bordering on the Innuit of the coast, are the 
 western Tinneh, the Ingalik of the Russians, numbering in three bands 
 about 1,800. 
 
 From the junction of the Yukon and the Tanana Rivers, westward to the 
 British line, from the Innuit on the Arctic shore almost to the Lynn Canal on the 
 south, is the home of the Kutchin families. They number, with the Ah-tena, on 
 Copper River, about 3,300. Some of these people have been taught to read by 
 the missionaries of the Church Missionary Society of England. 
 
 For years the Church Missionary Society of England has had stations at 
 Fort McPherson and La Pierre House, bordering on Northeastern Alaska, and 
 their missionaries have made occasional trips on the Upper Yukon and its 
 tributaries. 
 
 THLINGET. 
 
 The Thlinget, composed of 10 clans, occupy the islands of the Alexander 
 Archipelago and coasts adjacent. They number 5,834. 
 
 Immediately associated with these are 788 Hydah, occupying the southern 
 end of Prince of Wales Island. 
 
 The Thlinget are a hardy, self-reliant, industrious, self-supporting, well- 
 to-do, warlike, superstitious race, whose very name is a terror to the civilized 
 Aleuts to the west as well as to the savage Tinnah to the north of them. 
 
 At the base of Mount St. Elias is Yakutat. This is a station of the Swed- 
 ish Evangelical Union with Rev. and Mrs. Albin Johnson, Rev, K. J. Hendrick- 
 son and Miss Selma Peterson, teachers. Mrs. Johnson (Agnes Wallin) was from 
 Jankaping, Sweden, and made a journey of 9,000 miles to join Rev. Mr. Johnson, 
 
 IS 
 
to whom she was married upon her arrival at the mission, on the i8th of May, - 
 1891. A large, substantial boarding-house, 35 by 14 feet in size, and two and a 
 half stories high, erected in 1891, was burned in the winter of 1892-3. A new 
 building was at once commenced. 
 
 CHILKAT. 
 
 Occupying the extreme northern section of Lynn Canal and the valleys of 
 the Chilkat andChilkoot Rivers, is the Chilkat tribe, numbering 988. They are 
 great traders, being the "middle men" of their region, carrying the goads of 
 commerce to the interior and exchanging them for furs, which are brought to the 
 
 KLINGET GIKLS GAFFING SALMON. 
 
 coast, and in turn exchanged for more merchandise. Their country is 0:1 ihe 
 highway of the gold-seekers to the interior. 
 
 In the summer of 1880, a trading post having been established among 
 them, I arranged for a school to be taught by the wife of the trader, Mrs. Sarah 
 Dickinson, native. 
 
 The mission proper, however, commenced July 18, 1881, with the arrival 
 of Rev. Eugene S. Willard and family. 
 
 In 1882 Miss Bessie M. Mathews, of Monmouth, 111., was sent out to take 
 charge of a boarding department, which was opened in 1883. The station is 
 called Haines. Thirty miles up the Chilkat River, for a time, a school was 
 taught by Louis and Tillie Paul, both natives. 
 
 During 1885-6 Mr. Willard and family returned East to regain their health, 
 injured by exposure and hardships, and the mission was closed. It was reopened 
 
 16 
 
again in 1887 by Mr. and Mrs. F. F. White, who remained two years. In i8gi 
 Rev. W. W. Warne and wife were sent to Haines and the work resumed. In 
 1893 the converts asked to be organized into a church. 
 
 HOONAH. 
 
 One hundred miles southwest are the Hoonahs, occupying both sides of 
 Cross Sound, and numbering 908. In 1881 I erected a schoel-house and teachers' 
 residence at their principal village, on Chichagoff Island, and placed Mr. and 
 Mrs. Walter B. Styles, of New York City, in charge. In 1884 Rev. and Mrs. 
 John W. McFarland were sent from Wrangell to Hoonah, and are now in charge 
 of the school. 
 
 One of the peculiarities and discouragements of this, and several other 
 stations in Alaska, is that in summer the people all leave their houses in search 
 of work and provisions. Dr. and Mrs. McFarland partially overcame this diffi- 
 culty by taking a canoe and following their people to their hunting and fish- 
 ing camp. 
 
 There as elsewhere faithful work bears fruit, and in 1893 Mr. McFarland 
 reported a church of 161 native communicants redeemed from heathenism. 
 
 AUKE. 
 
 A few miles to the eastward, on the Admiralty Island, are the Aukes, 
 numbering 640. In that region valuable gold mines have been opened and an 
 American mining village established in Juneau. A summer school was taught 
 by Mrs. W. H. R. Corlies during 1882 and 1883. 
 
 In the spring of 1886 the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian 
 Church commissioned Rev. Joseph P. White, missionary to the whites at Juneau, 
 and Rev. E. S. Willard to the natives. 
 
 During that season Mr. Willard took down the mission premises at Tsek- 
 nuk-Sauk'-y, removed them to Juneau, and from the materials erected a neat 
 church for the natives. 
 
 A small house (which has since been replaced by a commodious building) 
 was erected adjacent to the Church for a Mission Home for Native Children. 
 Assisted by Mrs. Willard, Miss Elizabeth Matthews and Miss Margaret Dunbar, 
 Mr. Willard has built up a church of 52 native communicants (1893), and a 
 flourishing Mission Home, from which a number have been sent to the training 
 school at Sitka. 
 
 TAKU. 
 
 A few miles to the south, on the mainland, is the Taku tribe, numbering 
 269. A summer school was held among them in 1880, by Rev. and Mrs. W. H. 
 R. Corlies, of Philadelphia. In 1882, pressed by the importunities of the leading 
 men of the tribe, he took up his abode among them, and erected school and 
 residence buildings at Tsek-nuk-Sauk'-y. 
 
 In 1884 circumstances required their return to Philadelphia. The people 
 in the meantime having removed to Juneau. In 1886 the mission buildings were 
 taken there by Mr. Willard. 
 
 HOOCHINOO. 
 
 On the southwestern side of Admiralty Island are the Hoochinoo, num- 
 bering 656. The main village is at Killisnoo, where the North West Trading Co. 
 has established a large fish-oil manufactory. In the neighborhood are extensive 
 coal fields and valuable gold mines. I established a public school in this place in 
 January, 1886. 
 
 In 1892 Rev. L. F. Jones and wife were placed in charge of the school, and 
 in 1894 there was a call for a church organization. 
 
 17 
 
KAKE. 
 
 To tlie south, on Kuiu and Kupreanoffi Islands, are the Kake, nunibering 568. 
 In the winter of i892-'g3 a school was opened for the Kakes, with Charles 
 H. Edwards in charge. A few months afterwards Mr. Edwards being shot by 
 whiskey smugglers the school was closed and has not yet been resumed. 
 
 STIKINE. 
 
 Eastward, around the mouth and lower course of the Stikine River, are 
 theStikine. They number 317. Their principal village is at Fort Wrangell, on 
 an island of the same place. 
 
 In the Fall of 1877 I opened for the Presbyterian Boa,rd of Home Missions 
 a mission school, with Mrs. A. R. McFarland in charge. In 1878 Rev. S. Hall 
 Young, of West Virginia, was sent out. The same season a boarding depart- 
 ment for girls was established by Mrs. A. R. McFarland. In 1879 Miss Maggie 
 A. Dunbar, of Steubenville, Ohio, was added to the teaching force. The same 
 year the erection of a suitable building was commenced, which was finished and 
 occupied the following year. Also the same year Rev. W. H. R. Corlies and 
 family arrived from Philadelphia. Mrs. Corlies opened a school on the beach 
 for visiting natives, and her husband a night school for adults. He also served 
 as missionary physician to the place until his removal to the Taku. 
 
 In 1882 Rev. John W. McFarland and Miss Kate A. Rankin were added 
 to the missionary force. In the Fall of 1884 the Girls' Home was removed to 
 Sitka, together with Mrs. A. R. McFarland and Miss Rankin. Mr. J. W. 
 McFarland and his wife (nee Dunbar) were given charge of the mission at 
 Hoonah. 
 
 In 1888 the Rev. S. Hale Young was succeeded by Rev. Allan McKay, 
 and in 1872 he in turn was followed by Rev. Clarence Thwing. Under the 
 labors of Rev. and Mrs. Thwing the old church is regaining its former prosperity. 
 
 METLAKAHTLA. 
 
 In the Spring of 1S87 the Tesimpeans who had been civilized and Christian- 
 ized by Mr. William Duncan at Metlakahtla, British Columbia, becoming 
 alarmed at the encroachments of the Colonial government and the arbitrary 
 measures of the church of England, gave up their comfortable homes, aban- 
 doned their improvements and property, that they could not carry with them, 
 and empty handed went out into the unbroken wilderness for conscience sake. 
 Crossing the international boundary line into Alaska they settled upon Annette 
 island, sixty miles north of their former home. 
 
 On the 7th of August Mr. William Duncan arrived, and amid general 
 rejoicing and the firing of guns, the " stars and stripes " were floated over this 
 people, that thus publicly transferred their allegiance from Canada to the 
 United States. 
 
 During the first season the heavy forest was felled and over a hundred 
 log houses were erected for a temporary shelter of the inhabitants. 
 
 Through the pecuniary assistance of friends in New York, Boston, 
 Portland and elsewhere, a sawmill, salmon cannery and other industries have 
 been established. A church, school houses, and other public buildings erected, 
 and the old log dwellings are rapidly being replaced by comfortable painted 
 frame dwellings. 
 
 The Census of 1890 gives this model village a population of 828. 
 
 TONGASS. 
 
 Two hundred miles south of Fort Wrangell are the Tongass, numbering 
 273. Some of these cross over to British Columbia, and find school privileges at 
 Port Simpson, a station of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Canada. In 1884 
 a school was established among them, with Louis and Tillie Paul as teachers. 
 
 In December, 1886, Prof. S. A. Saxman was placed in charge of the public 
 school. Mr. Saxman and Mr. Paul being drowned a few months after, the school 
 and mission were discontinued. 
 
 18 
 
HYDAH. 
 
 West of the Tongass, on the southern half of the Prince of Wales Island, 
 are the Hydah, numbering 788. They are a large, well formed, and handsome 
 race, with light complexion, and have long been noted for their bravery and fe- 
 rocity in war. Terrorizing all the neighboring tribes, they were known as the 
 " Bulldogs" of the North Pacific. Years ago they did not hesitate to attack and 
 plunder English and American vessels. In 1854 they held the captain and crew 
 of an American vessel in captivity until ransomed by the Hudson Bay Fur Com- 
 pany. Their villages are remarkable for the number of totem sticks These are 
 carved logs from one to two feet in diameter, and from twenty to sixty feet high. 
 Some of them contain hollow cavities, in which are placed the ashes of cremated 
 dead chiefs ; others are heraldic and represent the family totem or orders. In 
 some cases a large oval opening through one of these sticks forms the entrance 
 to the house ; in others the pole is at one side of the entrance. The house is a 
 large, low, plank building, from forty to fifty feet square, with a fireplace in the 
 center of the floor, and a large opening in the roof for the escape of the smoke. 
 Some have inserted windows and doors in their buildings, and procured bed- 
 steads, tables, stoves, dishes and other appliances of civilized life. 
 
 Their food consists largely of fish, dried or fresh, according to the season. 
 Wild berries and deer are plentiful. The berries are preserved in fish oil for 
 winter use. Their coast also abounds with good clams. They raise large quan- 
 tities of potatoes. 
 
 The Hydah are noted for their skill in carving wood, bone, gold, silver and 
 stone. The finest of the great cedar canoes of the northwest coast are manufac- 
 tured by them. They practice polygamy and hold slaves. The husband buys 
 his wife, frequently while a mere girl, from her parents. If she does not suit, she 
 can be returned and the price refunded. They are inveterate gamblers. 
 
 On the 22d of August, 1881, a mission was established among them in con- 
 nection with the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, at the village of Howkan, 
 with Mr. James E. Chapman in charge as a teacher. The station was called 
 Jackson by the missionaries. In the spring of 1882 Rev. J. Loomis Gould and 
 family, of West Virginia, were sent to the Hydah. The same year some ladies 
 in Brooklyn, N. Y. , provided a saw-mill for the station ; and in the fall of that 
 year Miss Clara A. Gould was added to the teaching force. 
 
 In September, 1885, the mission day school was changed into a public 
 school, Miss Gould continuing the teacher. In 1886 Mrs. A. R. McFarland re- 
 moved from Sitka and established a home for girls, with Miss C. Baker as assistant. 
 Mr. Gould has gathered around him a native church of fifty-four communicants. 
 
 HANEGAH. 
 
 In the northern portion of Prince of Wales Island are the Hanegah, num- 
 bering 587. Their winter village isTuxikan. In summer they congregate at the 
 salmon cannery and saw-mill at Klawack. 
 
 In November, i88g, I left at Tuxikan Rev. L. W. Currie, of Texas, to es- 
 tablish a public school. Mr. Currie was a minister of the Southern Presbyterian 
 Church, with a large experience among the Indians of the Indian Territory and 
 of Texas. As no white man had ever lived in their village, there was no com- 
 fortable house to be had, and the mission family were compelled to go into a 
 native house. 
 
 It was a large building, 80 x 37 feet in size, with plank sides and a rotten 
 bark roof. On the inside of the building a raised platform^ about eight feet wide 
 extended around the four sides of the room. Enclosed by this platform and three 
 feet below it was the main floor, forming a pit 21 x 22 feet in size. In the centre 
 of the pit a space eight feet square was left unfloored and covered with gravel. 
 This was the fireplace. The smoke, circling around the room, passed out of a 
 hole six feet square, which was left in the roof for that purpose. The hole that 
 permitted the escape of the smoke allowed the free descent of the rain. The 
 south side of the house extended on piles over the tide. Into this building 
 which an Eastern farmer would consider unfit for his cattle, a choice Christian 
 
 19 
 
family moved without a murmur. A partition of sheeting was erected along 
 the edge of the platform, forming a partition between them and the pit. The 
 pit was set apart for the school and church rooms, and the platforms on two sides 
 divided into rooms for the teacher's family. On the other two platforms lived 
 the native who owned the house. He had a family of six. 
 
 In 1887 Mr. Currie removed to Klawack a.nd erected a school and residence 
 building. Dying in 1887, his wife returned to Texas. 
 
 For a couple of years the mission was continued by Mr. H. C. Wilson, a 
 layman, but in 1893 is unsupplied. 
 
 SITKAS. 
 
 To the north, on the western coast of BaranofE, are the Sitkas, numbering 
 721. Their chief village is at Sitka, the old capital of the Russian possessions in 
 America. It was their political, commercial, religious and educational center. 
 As early as 1805 a school was opened at Sitka. It held a very precarious exist- 
 ence, however, until 1820, when it came under the charge of a naval officer, who 
 kept a good school for thirteen years. In 1833 this school came under the direc- 
 tion of Etolin, who still further increased its efficiency. Etolin was a Creole, 
 who by force of ability and merit, raised himself to the highest position in the 
 country, that of chief director of the fur company and governor of the colony. 
 He was a Lutheran, the patron of schools and churches. While governor, he 
 erected a Protestant church at Sitka and presented it with a small pipe organ, 
 which is still in use. 
 
 In 1840', beside the colonial school at Sitka, was one for orphan boys and 
 sons of workmen and subaltern employes of the fur company, in which were 
 taught reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, mechanical trades and religion. 
 
 In 1839 agirls' school of a similar character was established, and the num- 
 ber of boarders limited to forty. 
 
 In 1841 a theological school was established at Sitka, which in 1849 was ad- 
 vanced to the grade of a seminary. 
 
 This made five schools at Sitka — two for the children of the lower class, 
 two for the higher class, and one seminary. 
 
 About the time of the transfer of the country the teachers were recalled to 
 Russia and the schools suspended. 
 
 But with the change of government came a new people. The majority of 
 the Russians left the country and their places were taken by Americans. Many 
 came in from California, and on the 8th of November, 1867, less than a month 
 from the time that the country passed tinder the United States flag, the citizens 
 called a meeting and formed a temporary local government, and on the i8th of 
 December, 1867, a petition, formed by forty-nine persons, two of whom "made 
 their mark," was presented to the common council, asking that a citizens' meet- 
 ing might be called to empower the council to establish a school. On the 20th of 
 March, 1868, the council adopted some school regulations and appointed three 
 trustees, who exercised a joint control with a committee of officers from the mili- 
 tary post at Sitka. During the winter of 1868-69 a school building was pur- 
 chased. The annual reports of the trustees have disappeared, and there is noth- 
 ing to' show the time when teaching commenced. In October, 1869, the council 
 voted that the salary of the teacher should be $75 per month in coin, and on 
 March i, 1871, it was ordered to be $25 per month, which evidently means 
 that at the latter period the post commander withdrew the $50 per month which 
 had been paid from the army funds. On the 12th of August, 1871, permission 
 was given the Bishop of the Greek Church to teach the Russian language one 
 hour each day in the public school. During 1873 the school seems to have died 
 out. 
 
 In 1879 and 1880 an attempt was made to establish a school for Russian 
 children, which was taught by Mr. Alonzo E. Austin and Miss Etta Austin. 
 
 In the winter of 1877 and 1878 Rev. John G. Brady was appointed to 
 Sitka, and in April, 1878, a school was opened by Mr. Brady and Miss Fanny 
 E. Kellogg. In December, through a combination of circumstances, it was dis- 
 continued. In the spring of 1880 Miss Olinda Austin was sent out from New 
 
 20 
 
York city, and commenced school April 5 in one of the guardhouses with 103 
 children present. This number increased to 130. Then some of the parents ap- 
 plied for admission, but could not be received, as the room would not accommo- 
 date any more. 
 
 In November some of the boys applied to the teacher for permission to live 
 in the schoolhouse. At home, they alleged, there was so much drinking, talking 
 and carousing that they could not study. The teacher replied that she had no 
 accommodations, bedding or food for them. But they were so much in earnest 
 that they said they would provide for themselves. Upon receiving permission, 
 seven native boys, thirteen and fourteen years of age, bringing a blanket each, 
 voluntarily left their homes and took up their abode in a vacant room of one of 
 the Government buildings. Thus commenced the boarding department of the 
 Sitka school. Soon other boys joined them. Captain Henry Glass, who suc- 
 ceeded Captain Beardslee in the command of the U. S. S. Jamestown, from the 
 first, with his officers, especially Lieutenant F. M. Symonds, U. S. N., took a deep 
 interest in the school. As he had opportunity he secured boys from distant 
 tribes and placed them in the institution, until there were 27 boys in the boarding 
 department. 
 
 In the winter of 1882 the school house was burned, and the boys took 
 refuge in an abandoned Government stable, which was fitted up for them. In 
 the fall of 1882, after consultation with the collector of customs, the commander 
 of the United States man-of-war, and the leading citizens, I selected a new loca- 
 tion for the school outside of village limits and erected a two-and-a-half story 
 building, 100 x 50 feet in size. 
 
 This location was donated to the Board of Home Missions by the Rev. 
 JohnG. Brady. 
 
 In the spring of 1884 the faithful labors of Rev. Alonzo E. Austin and 
 teachers bore fruit. The Holy Spirit was poured out and nearly all the adult 
 pupils were brought to Christ. The work extended to the native village, and 
 many of the parents accepted Jesus as a personal Saviour. 
 
 On the 12th of August, 1884, I took charge of the Mission and School, and 
 in connection with Mr. Austin on the 7th of September organized a church of 
 forty-four native and five white communicants. The church has since grown to 
 over 341 members. 
 
 On September 14th to i6th the Presbytery of Alaska organized at Sitka 
 and held its first meeting. During the same month Mrs. A. R. McParland and 
 her Home for Girls were removed from Fort Wrangell to Sitka, and the united 
 schools made a Government contract Industrial and^Training School. 
 
 To meet the growth of the school a second large building, 130x50 feet in 
 size and two and one-half stories high, was erected and so far finished that it 
 was occupied January ist, 1885. 
 
 In the spring of 1885, on my being appointed United States General Agent 
 of Education in Alaska, Professor A. J. Davis, of Pennsylvania, was appointed 
 superintendent of the school. Family matters requiring his return east, he was 
 succeeded by Mr. Wm. A. Kelly, of Pennsylvania. 
 
 As the school grew, the steam laundry, boys' and girls' hospital wards, 
 two industrial buildings, church, library and museum, eight model cottages and 
 other buildings were erected. 
 
 In i8go Professor Kelly reported concerning the 164 pupils in the school: 
 
 "Our school is distinctively co-educational. The boys and girls recite in 
 the same classes, dine together in the same dining-room, and, under wholesome 
 restraint, have opportunities for social intercourse. 
 
 "A few years of sedulous training have developed in some of our oldest 
 pupils a spirit of emulation, a sense of personal responsibility, self-respect, self- 
 reliance, and self-helpfulness, which command respect. Most of our large boys, 
 advanced far enough to read intelligently in the second reader, are learning 
 a trade (all being in school half of each day and at work half a day), and the dili- 
 gence with which they pursue their studies, the zest with which they enter upon 
 industrial work day after day is most praiseworthy of them and encouraging to 
 their instructors. 
 
 21 
 
' ' All of the shoes for the pupils of our school are hand-made in our shop, 
 under the direction of a competent foreman. Considerable custom work is also 
 done. 
 
 " Our supply of barrels and half-barrels far exceeds the demand, yet we 
 consider coopering an excellent trade for our young men. Owing to high freight, 
 barrels are usually made at the fishing station, where needed, and coopers are in 
 demand at those places. 
 
 " We are always pressed with work in carpentry. The variety and scope 
 of work have proved a most valuable source of instruction to the boys, most of 
 whom are aptly adapted to mechanical industry. The boys have made com- 
 mendable progress. Young men who can do carpenter work fairly well can 
 find opportunity to ply their trade in any of the villages of Alaska. 
 
 "We have eight model cottages, six of which are occupied by yoting mar- 
 ried couples fi'om the school. These young folks have been thrown entirely upon 
 their own responsibility and resources, and they are doing well in earning a live- 
 lihood, while their houses are kept clean, neat and homelike. The environments 
 of family life among the young folk, in contradistinction to that in vogue among 
 the natives, tend to create new conditions and inspire new impulses among their 
 own people. > 
 
 " The girls are trained in every department of household industry, kitchen, 
 dining-room, teachers' room, etc. The matron and her assistants give each girl 
 individual care in the details of. housekeeping, thus gradually inculcating and 
 developing a sense of personal responsibility. 
 
 " Our boys do the bread baking for the school, while the girls in turn are 
 taught how to bake and cook for a family. They are also trained to wait upon 
 the table, and they serve the teachers and guests with grace and manners. Our 
 young boys are also trained in our school, kitchen and dining-room. 
 
 " Our pupils, from the children to the adults, sing with a spirit and under- 
 standing that outrivals many of the public schools. 
 
 " Our brass band of 20 members dispenses music for the school and for the 
 town on public occasions. 
 
 "We have a military company of 35 members. The guns were kindlj' 
 loaned us by the Governor of the Territory. 
 
 "Lessons in patriotism are constantly inculcated. The Alaskans are a 
 loyal, patriotic people. Rev. A. E. Austin, the veteran missionary of the school, 
 has charge of the religious and devotional exercises." 
 
 In 1891 Mr. Kelly resigning in order to secure needed rest, he was succeeded 
 by Mr. Alfred Docking, and he a few months later by Rev. A. E. Austin, who 
 in his long service at Sitka has built up a native church of 341 communicants. 
 
 The mission force in 1893 consisted of Rev. A. E. Austin, Mr. R. A. 
 Clark, Mrs. A. E. Austin, Mrs. M. C. Wade, Miss A. R. Kelsey, Mrs. M. D. 
 Clark, Miss F. H. Willard (Native), Mrs. A. T. Simpson, Mrs. T. K. Eaul 
 (Native), Mr. J. A. Shields, Mr. A. T. Simson, Mr. J. E. Gamble, and Mr. W. 
 Wells (Native). 
 
 In addition to the Training School, the Greek and Papal churches each 
 have a school and the Government two schools at Sitka. 
 
 But of all the schools at Sitka, the Presbyterian Training School is the 
 " City of Refuge" for those fleeing from death — the " House of Hope" to those 
 sitting in the habitations of cruelty — the "House of Help" to the starving, home- 
 less, friendless waif — an asylum to the escaped slave — the protector of help- 
 less girlhood. 
 
 A few years ago a little girl was accused of witchcraft. The tribe bound 
 her with a rope. A stalwart chief, holding one end of the rope, walked in ad- 
 vance, dragging the child after him, while another came behind holding the other 
 end of the rope. These men were the admiration of the tribe for their bravery 
 in holding between them a puny, starved girl of ten. She was rescued by Prof. 
 Austin, who was in charge of the school, and given a home. 
 
 A girl of fourteen, when about to be sold into a life of sin, for the benefit 
 of a distant relative, escaped from her grandmother who was guarding her. and 
 found a refuge in the school. 
 
 22 
 
Another, a girl of about seventeen, was being sold for similar purposes by 
 her stepmother and aunt. The two women, quarreling over the division of the 
 money, came to settle the dispute before the clerk of the court, who took the girl 
 from her unnatural protectors and placed her in the school. 
 
 Another was the slave of a prominent chief. After his death his two 
 widows treated her so cruelly that she ran away, and was found hidden under a 
 house. She was taken into the school and furnished protection and a home. A 
 man that married one of the widows claimed her as his property, and tried to get 
 possession of her, but in vain. The school was her protector. 
 
 Another, to prevent being married to her stepfather and l^ecoming a plural 
 wife with her own mother, ran away and came to the school. For a long time 
 she did not dare visit her mother, and when at length she ventured to visit home, 
 they locked her up in a room to keep her. After some days she again escaped 
 and returned to the school for shelter. 
 
 Another girl, of fifteen, and her sister ten years of age, were picked up on 
 the beach at a mining camp. They were without friends or home, almost with- 
 out clothing, and in a starving condition. Through neglect and cruel treatment 
 the younger one was almost blind. These orphan sisters were taken into the 
 school, fed, clothed, and kindly cared for. Medical attendance was provided, 
 and the blind one restored to sight. 
 
 Among the boys, one had been sold as a slave twice before he was brought 
 to the school. Another had been shot as a slave and a bullet sent crushing 
 through his shoulder. Another had been tied up as a witch and kept four days 
 without food, when he was rescued. Another when born, was about to be 
 killed by his parents to save the trouble of taking care of him. A neighboring- 
 woman took pity on the baby and removed him to her own house. When the 
 school commenced he was placed in it. Many others have come under the pro- 
 tection of the school through trials and dangers. 
 
 And all along the coast if a child is to be sold into slavery, or is in danger 
 of being tortured to death as a witch, or forced into a life of sin, they 
 know that if they can escape and reach the Presbyterian Mission School at Sitka 
 they are safe. 
 
 The school is doing a great work — a woi-k much greater than the denomi- 
 nation realizes. But it needs more teachers and more funds. Any individual, 
 Sabbath school or society, desirous to aid this work, should address Woman's 
 Executive Committee, Box L, Station D, New York, N. Y. 
 
 Thus, at points hundreds of miles apart, a few central stations have been 
 established, from which the story of the Cross can be told to the people of those 
 far away regions. 
 
 While communication is made with the outside world by means of steamer 
 twice a month at some of the more importan t stations in Southeastern Alaska, 
 the stations in Arctic and Central Alaska are cut off almost entirely from the 
 great busy outside world. Once a year the curtain lifts, and they receive their 
 supplies of provisions, clothes, letters, papers, etc. , and then it shuts down and 
 they are closed in for another twelve months. 
 
 Surely, the heroic men and women who thus voluntarily shut themselves 
 out of the world and calmly face year after year a polar winter, with its long 
 depressing night (which hardy men in arctic explorations get enough of in two 
 years) who brave alike the fanaticism and superstition of ignorant and barbarous 
 people and treat with diseases as deadly and dangerous as leprosy — who do all 
 this gladly, that they may carry to those dark, wretched, and cruel northern 
 homes the light and joy of the Gospel, deserve and should have the daily re- 
 membrance at the Throne of Grace of all of God's people. For them unceas- 
 ing prayer should be made, that life and health and reason be preserved, and 
 that their message should be accompanied with divine power for the salvation 
 of the people among whom they labor. 
 
 1894. 
 
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