The Whale House of the Chilkat

by George Thornton Emmons

Fig. 2. An Old House, Kluckwan.

Under the Russian régime, beyond the mere claim of sovereignty, no jurisdiction was exercised over this people except the distribution of national flags and Imperial medals. All trading was guardedly carried on from the decks of armed vessels, and long after the American occupation they were permitted to live unmolested, until their country became the highway of travel to the interior.

The Tlingit were a canoe people and might be termed semi-nomadic, as they were on their hunting grounds in the early spring and late fall, while the summer season was spent in the fishing camps by the salmon streams, but notwithstanding these long absences they built substantial villages where, except for social activities, they spent the winter in comparative idleness.

Fig. 3. Con-nuh-ta-di Grave Houses, Kluckwan.

As they looked to the sea for their principal food supply, their villages were directly on the shore just above the high water mark, in sheltered coves where they could land and launch their canoes in any weather and at any stage of the tide. But the Chilkat, differing from all of the other Tlingit, lived just beyond the open water, in a rather restricted territory, on rivers that were veritable storehouses of food, bringing their abundance of fish life to their very doors, and so permitting them to remain at home throughout the year, except when on their trading trips to the interior, which gave their habitations a more permanent character, and contributed to the unity of communal life.

Of the four principal old villages, all of which have survived the ravages of constant strife and the still more deadly by-products of civilization—liquor and disease—Kluckwan (mother town) has always held the first place in size, wealth, and the character of its people. It retained its supremacy long after the larger of the more southern coast villages had gone to decay, as its more interior and isolated position and the independent and aggressive reputation of its population kept white traders at a distance. The discovery of gold near Juneau and the establishment of the several salmon canneries at the mouth of the river drew away its people, and communal life in the large old houses, that was dependent upon the united efforts of the whole household was made impossible by the absence of many, and the want of coöperation of others who elected to live by themselves. With the introduction of schools and the efforts of missionaries to break up the old customs, the village has undergone a complete change and the old houses have disappeared or have been modernized.

The village lies at the edge of a gradual slope on the north bank of the Chilkat, twenty miles from its mouth, where the swift current concentrated in a single channel forms a strong eddy that permits the landing of canoes at any stage of the river. The houses in a single and double row follow the trend of the shore for upwards of three-quarters of a mile, but far enough back to allow for the smoke houses, fish drying frames, and canoe shelters, and in the rear are the grave houses (Fig. 3) and the now disused cremation grounds strewn with charred logs and partly burnt funeral pyres. Just beyond the village at either end, in the cottonwood groves, hidden in the underbrush and covered with moss, are the crumbling remains of the shaman's dead houses, guarded by elaborately carved spirit figures and decayed canoes.

The houses of each of the four resident totemic families are grouped about that of the chief for mutual protection, giving the appearance of three separate villages, as the two centrally located families through increase of numbers, have been brought into closer union. In each group the houses of the aristocracy and those of the poorer classes are of like construction, differing however in size, strength of material, interior appointments, and ornamentation.