The First Lincoln Statue
“It was one of my people, Thle-da, the most skillful carver of all the Thlinget nation, who carved that totem in honor of the great white chief, Abraham Lincoln,” said the Story Teller proudly as he pointed to a lofty totem pole from which the benign face of the great emancipator looked down upon a deserted Indian village.
The setting sun had changed the misty blue of Northern skies into a marvelous canopy of red and gold. It bathed the distant snow-capped mountains in a rosy light and sent a warm golden glow over the quiet waters of Nakat Bay as he told the story of how over fifty years ago his tribe had sought shelter under the Stars and Stripes and been saved from slavery or complete extermination.
“My people are of the Tongass tribe of the Thlingets,” he went on. “They are of the Raven clan. Long before the Pale Faces journeyed to the land which the white man calls Alaska, they were at war with the Kok-wan-tans, who belonged to the Eagle clan of the Thlingets and were always on the war path. They burned our lodges. They carried off our fairest maidens and our young men and made slaves of them.
“At last only a few stalwart braves were left to guard our old men and women and children. They were driven farther and farther away until they found shelter on a low, sandy island a day’s journey from their old hunting grounds near Dixon’s Entrance.
“There their enemies could not fall upon them unawares, for the land was level as the palm of my hand. They built a great fort of logs and slept always with their clubs by their side.
“But the Kok-wan-tans knew that on the island there were no springs of water and little wood for their campfires. So they waited with the watchful patience of the Red Man for the time when no longer the smoke of their campfires should curl upward.
“One day Kayak, a friendly Indian, noiselessly paddled into the [[22]]little cove near the lodge and landed. He told them of a strange ship, like a great bird, that had come from far to the southward. On it were many Pale Faces. They had built a big fort on the island of Kut-tuk-wah and the Red Men were no longer allowed to make war on each other.
“They had been sent, Kayak said, by their chief, Abraham Lincoln. He had freed the Black Men who had been slaves to the Pale Faces for many moons. Now he had sent his soldiers to free the Red Men. The Kok-wan-tans must wash off their war paint and bury their war clubs.
“So,” continued the Story Teller, “my people watched and when their enemies were sleeping they took their canoes and fled to this island, which the white men now call Tongass Island. Here, guarded by the great ship “Lincoln,” Chief Ebbetts and his people built their lodges and again raised their totem poles.