The aborigines of Alaska are slow in their movements, and in this respect resemble the Lapps of Scandinavia, having also a drawling manner of speech entirely in consonance with their bodily movements. They are as inveterate gamblers as the Chinese, often passing whole days and nights absorbed in the occupation, the result of which is in no way contingent upon intelligence or skill, until finally one of the party walks off winner of all the stakes. Their principal gambling game is played with a handful of small sticks of different colors, which are called by various names, such as the crab, the whale, the duck, and so on. The player shuffles all the sticks together, then counting out a certain number he places them under cover of bunches of moss. The object seems to be to guess in which pile is the whale, and in which the crab, or the duck. Individuals often lose at this seemingly trifling game all their worldly possessions. We were told of instances where, spurred on by excitement, a native risks his wife and children, and if he loses, they become the recognized property of the winner, nor would any one think of interfering with such a settlement. These extreme cases, of course, are rare.
It is impossible to see the aborigines eagerly absorbed in the game without recalling Dr. Johnson’s characteristic definition of gambling, namely, “A mode of transferring property without producing any intermediate good.”
Inside of the rude native houses one finds many hideous carvings, representing impossible animals and strange objects of all sorts, after the style of the totem-poles, of which we shall have occasion to speak. Many of their small domestic utensils are made from the horns of the mountain goats, and are also curiously carved with nightmare objects, as evil to look upon as African idols. Yet some of these articles show considerable skill and infinite patience in execution. We have seen specimens that it was difficult to believe were executed by the hand of an uncultured savage. Before the Russians introduced iron and steel knives, the aborigines seem to have carved only with copper and stone implements, producing remarkable results under the circumstances. The young women wear silver bracelets, pounded out of American dollar pieces, some of which are an inch broad, and are covered elaborately after civilized models, others bear native heraldic devices of birds, beasts, and fishes, which are said to represent the arms of the wearer’s family, it being customary for each tribe and person to adopt some distinctive seal or crest. They much prefer silver ornaments to those of gold or other material; though they are not slow to realize intrinsic values, probably they choose the less expensive metal because it is Alaska fashion.
In spite of all the missionary effort which is made to enlighten these natives, they are still slaves to the most debasing superstitions. Scarcely a month passes in which the civil authorities are not called upon to interfere with the people for cruelty. We were told of one instance which lately occurred at Juneau. A native was seriously ill, and the medicine-man, having failed to relieve him by his noisy incantations, charged an old member of the tribe with having bewitched the invalid. He was consequently seized, tied up, and whipped until nearly insensible, being left for three days without food. By chance the authorities heard of the case and released the old man. The two principal natives who had been guilty of the maltreatment were tried and fined twenty dollars each. The very next day the old man was missing, and it was found that he had again been tied up and whipped. The two culprits admitted repeating their cruelty, saying they had paid for the right to whip out the witch from the old man, and it must be done before the invalid would recover. These ignorant creatures entertained no malice towards the old native; it was only a matter of duty, as they thought, to exorcise the evil one which had possessed the invalid. This is a fair sample of the superstition of the average Alaskans.
When a member of the family dies, the body is not removed for final disposal by the door which the living are accustomed to use, but a plank is torn from the side or back of the dwelling, through which the corpse is passed, after which the place is at once carefully made whole. This, they say, is to prevent the spirit of the defunct from finding its way back again, and thus bringing ill luck upon the living. A still more superstitious and savage custom prevails among some of these ignorant natives.
If a person dies in a cabin, it is held that the place becomes sacred to his spirit, and therefore is unfit for the living. To avoid this difficulty the dying are passed out of the domicile through some temporary hole into the open air to breathe their last, so that neither the house nor the threshold may be sacrificed to the spirit of the dead. Slaves, besides poor widows and orphans, when they die, are often disposed of in the most summary and unfeeling manner, being exposed in the woods, or cast into the sea as food for the fishes. In this connection we remember that the highly civilized and rich Parsees of Bombay do not hesitate to give the dead bodies of their cherished ones to the vultures, in those terrible Towers of Silence on Malabar Hill.
The ceremonies which follow all funerals among these aborigines are peculiar affairs, and for the carrying out of which each person saves more or less of his worldly effects to leave after death. As soon as the body of the deceased is disposed of, then commences what is here called a “potlatch,” signifying a “big feast,” conducted very much after the style of the New Zealanders on a similar occasion. Everybody is invited and a free spread or feast provided, the same being kept up for several days and nights, so long, indeed, as the purchasing power lasts. Whiskey is freely dispensed, when it can be had, but if not obtainable, as it is a contraband article, then “hoochenoo,” made from flour and molasses well fermented, takes its place, being equally intoxicating and maddening. Dancing, wailing, singing, fighting, and grave indecencies follow each other, until the means to keep up the potlatch left by the deceased are exhausted, and his surviving family oftentimes impoverished.
Cremation is the Thlinkit’s favorite mode of disposing of his dead. The bodies of slaves and “witches” are disposed of with great secrecy. They are not considered worth burial, and are sometimes cast into the sea, but water burial is infrequent. The bodies of chiefs lie in state several days; the people observe certain rites; then the body is cremated and the ashes are encased in the base of a totem erected to his memory. Shamans (doctors) are never cremated. After lying in state four days, one day in each corner of the cabin, the body is taken out of the house through the smokestack, or some opening other than the door, and conveyed some distance to a deadhouse built for this particular occupant. There in its last resting-place the body is seated in an upright position. The paraphernalia of his rank and office, some blankets and household effects to add to his comfort in the spirit-land, are entombed with the remains.
Another occasion for indulging in the potlatch is when some one is desirous of securing extraordinary influence in his tribe, generally a chief seeking to establish superior position or popularity over some rival. Natives have been known to save their means for years, augmenting them by industry and self-denial, in order finally to give a grand and unequaled feast of this character. When the time arrives not only are all the host’s own tribe invited, but those of the next nearest tribes not akin to his own. Such a festival often lasts for a whole week, until the last blanket of the giver is sacrificed. These strange festivals, we were told, are fast passing into disuse, at least among those tribes brought most in contact with the whites, though on a smaller scale they do still exist all over the southern region of Alaska.
There is, perhaps, no positive evidence that cannibalism ever prevailed among the Indians of this region, yet it is gravely hinted that it did on the occasion of these funeral potlatches years ago. To sacrifice the life of one or more of the slaves of the deceased we know was common, and if their bodies were not barbecued and eaten, then these natives of the North Pacific were entirely different in this respect from those who lived in the South Pacific. The medicine-men, even to-day, devour portions of corpses, believing that they acquire control of the spirit of the deceased thereby, and gain influence over demon spirits in the other sphere. Such practices are, however, rare, though Mr. Duncan of Metla-katla tells us he has witnessed the repulsive performance. The places near each hamlet where the dead are finally placed often number many more graves, or square boxes containing the bodies, than there are present inhabitants in the settlement. All this region was formerly many times more populous than it is to-day. Here, as in Africa, New Zealand, California, and Australia, where the white man appears permanently, the black man slowly but surely vanishes. The progress of civilization, as we call it, is fatal to native, savage races all over the world. Catlin, who lived among and wrote so well about our Western Indians, summed up the matter thus: “White man—whiskey—tomahawks—scalping-knives—guns, powder and ball—smallpox, debauchery—extermination.” But it is not alone gunpowder, rum, and lasciviousness which are the active agents to this end; there is also a subtle influence which is not clearly understood, and which it is difficult to define, but which is as potent, if not more so, than the agencies above suggested. The destiny which heaven decrees for a people will surely come to them. This has been clearly exemplified in the instance of the North American Indians, as well as among the South Sea Islanders in Australia and the Hawaiian Islands. Of an entire and intelligent people, the aborigines who once occupied Tasmania, there is not to-day a living representative! The land is solely possessed and occupied by white Europeans, before whom the natives have steadily vanished like dew before the sun.