The Whale House of the Chilkat

by George Thornton Emmons

The personal names more frequently refer to the Raven, their most honored crest, as they claim to be the first family of this phratry, and it is the more conspicuously displayed on the totemic headdress and ceremonial paraphernalia. They claim and use a great many other emblems as the whale, frog, wood-worm, silver salmon, hawk, owl, moon, starfish, and in their house carvings and painting they illustrate the hero deeds and conquests of their ancestors in their early struggles with mythical animals and supernatural beings.

Facial painting played an important rôle in Tlingit life. The several pigments differently applied in various characters depended upon the purpose and the occasion. As a protection against snowblindness, the glare of the sunshine on the water, the bite of insects and as a cosmetic to preserve and whiten the complexion, a hemlock fungus was charred, powdered, and applied to the face, which had previously been covered with a mixture of melted suet and spruce gum, to which it adhered and hardened, forming a red-black covering impervious to water.

For mourning and anger the face was blackened with charcoal.

When on war parties, the painting was in red or black or both, in fanciful and hideous characters, but if suddenly surprised, they would grab a piece of charcoal from the fire and rub it over the face to disguise their personality and hide any expression of fear.

The most elaborate painting was used in the winter ceremonials and dances. The designs were almost entirely totemic in character even when improvised for the occasion and apparently expressionless. They were either geometric and symbolic in figure, or represented the animal form in profile or some characteristic feature which distinguished it. In the latter case the figure was stamped on the cheek or forehead with a wood die. The primitive colors were black, from powdered charcoal, and red, from pulverized ocher, but after the advent of Europeans, vermilion of commerce took the place of the duller mineral red. Yellow, white, and greenish blue were occasionally used, more particularly by the southern tribes, but seldom, if ever, by the Chilkat.

The most important painting of the face was that of the dead when placed in state awaiting cremation, and this represented the crest of the phratry rather than one of the assumed emblems of the family or subdivisions. Most all of the Raven party, certainly all of the older and more important families, and particularly the Kon-nuh-ta-di used Yehlh-thluou, "Raven's nose," in the form of an isosceles triangle, in black, the apex at the bridge of the nose, the sides enclosing the nose and mouth, the base extending across the chin. This painting seems to have been the right of all of the Raven families and was almost universally used by them, although minor crest figures were sometimes employed, as the Kon-nuh-hut-di of the Southern tribes are said to have painted the starfish figure although I have never seen it so used, although it was a festival decoration.

It was an old custom, but rather a privilege claimed by the chiefs and house masters of the aristocracy, to give names to the communal houses upon the occasion of their dedication, after the walls were up and the roof was on, when those of the opposite phratry who had assisted in the construction were feasted and compensated. Of course, in the evolution of society, men of strong character, successful in war, with wealth and many followers would compel such recognition as would permit them to found a house and give it a name, but in order to do so, the potlatch would have to be of undue proportion. The strongest characteristics of the Tlingit are pride, vanity, and a dread of ridicule, so unless one was absolutely assured of more than a formal acceptance of the act by both his own and the other tribal families he would hesitate to place himself in a false position, subject to criticism. The highest and most honored names thus given, were those of the totemic emblem, or referring to some particular feature of the crest figure, as "Raven house," "Brown bear house," "Eagle nest house," "Killer-whale dorsal fin house," etc. Other names meaning less were those of position, shape, material, etc., as "Point house," "Box house", "Bark house," "Drum house," "Big house," "Lookout house," etc. In any case a name once given survived the mere structure. It was a dedication of the site and without any further ceremony belonged to all future houses built thereon.

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THE OLD WHALE HOUSE.

When I first visited Kluckwan in 1885, the large old communal houses of the Kon-nuh-ta-di were still standing, the principal one of which, that of the hereditary chief, Yough-hit, "Whale house," was in the last stages of decay and uninhabitable, although the interior fittings were intact and it was still used upon festival occasions. It was unquestionably the most widely known and elaborately ornamented house, not only at Chilkat, but in Alaska. It occupied the site of much older houses and it is claimed much larger ones. It is said to have been built by Kate-tsu about or prior to 1835 and stood in the middle of the village. It represented the best type of Tlingit architecture, a broad low structure of heavy hewn spruce timbers, with noticeably high corner posts, that gave it a degree of character wholly wanting in the larger houses of the Vancouver Island people. It faced the river with a frontage of 49 feet 10 inches and a depth of 53 feet which was approximately the proportions of Tlingit houses large and small. The four broad, neatly finished corner posts, and the intermediate ones on the sides and back were mortised in length, to receive the ends of the wall planks of spruce or hemlock that were laid horizontally along the sides and back, while the front was formed by two heavy bed pieces placed one above the other extending across the front, dove-tailed into the corner posts, and reaching to the height of the door sill, cut out along the upper edge to receive the lower ends of the broad vertical planks that extend to the roof, and fitted under corresponding grooves in the cornice cappings that in the rear of the corner posts were notched and grooved to fit in the post. It will thus be seen that the old houses formed a solid structure, the frame and planking supporting each other without the use of spikes. The doorway, that was the only opening in the walls, was approached by two steps over three feet above the ground, it was narrow and low as a defensive measure, so that but one could enter at a time, and then only in a stooping posture equally impossible for attack or defense. The roof covering consisted of a confusion of overlapping spruce boards and slabs of bark that originally had been held down by smaller tree trunks extending the depth of the structure and held in place by heavy boulders at the ends. The smoke hole in the center of the roof which both lighted and ventilated the interior had been protected by a movable shutter balanced on a cross bar resting on two supports so that it could be shifted to either side as desired.