Title: Indian Legends from the land of Al-ay-ek-sa
Author: Rossiter, Harriet, Howard, E. C.
Language: English
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                             INDIAN LEGENDS
                      From the Land of AL-AY-EK-SA


                              Published by
                     HARRIET ROSSITER—E. C. HOWARD
                         Copywrited, July 1925
                           Ketchikan, Alaska



                          Al-ay-ek-sa, where once the Red Men bold
                          Roamed the forests and fished in the streams,
                          And around their campfires told and retold
                          Strange legends a thousand years old.



INDIAN LEGENDS

FROM THE LAND OF AL-AY-EK-SA


“Many, many moons ago, long before the Pale Faces invaded the land
which the Indians called Al-ay-ek-sa (Alaska, “Big Country”), the Great
Spirit caused the waters to rise and blot out all the land, even to the
tops of the highest mountains.”

So runs an ancient Indian legend.

“At that time there was a mighty roaring like the pounding of the waves
upon a rocky shore, and suddenly death and destruction were upon the
people. Some of the terror-stricken natives fled to the mountains, but
the water overtook them and they were drowned. Only a very few escaped
in their canoes. These drifted around until the water went down and
their canoes grated and came to rest on dry land. There they settled
and built their lodges and continued to follow the customs of their
people.

“This is how blood relations became so widely separated. So a stranger
in an Indian village may enter any lodge before which stands a totem
surmounted by the crest of his family. He is given food and shelter and
may take freely that which he needs.

“In the days when slaves were as plentiful as the salmon berries that
grow by the running water an Indian chief would free all his prisoners
whose crest was the crest of his clan, even if their tongue was unknown
to him and sounded hostile in his ears.

“But a member of the Raven clan may not marry a raven or an eagle an
eagle. They belong to the same family and are forbidden to marry.”



In that long ago time when every Indian village had its honored Story
Teller, this and many other tales were told around the campfire while
the smoke curled upward and the moon crept over the mountain. The old
men grunted assent and the young men kept silent, listening. For upon
them must fall the task of handing down the legends and customs of
their people.

But since the coming of the white man these Story Tellers are passing
away. Only a few remain and they are very old. The youths and maidens
listen not to the tales of their ancestors, and soon there shall be no
one to keep alive the traditions of their people who journeyed long ago
to the cold land of the North.

So we have set down some of the legends told by the Red Men to their
children in the Land of the Midnight Sun, where sometimes in the
heavens are seen long, gorgeous-hued fingers of light flashing here and
there—“Spirits of departed warriors returned to dance once more their
war dances.”

Would you know the legend of the Sun, Moon, Star and Rainbow Houses?
Then read the tale as it was told by one of the last great Indian Story
Tellers.



THE GIFT OF “TSOW”


Farther back than the memory of the oldest Red Man there once lived an
old woman named Cowoh. She was very proud for she was the daughter of a
great chief. She had three sons and one daughter. They lived in the
village of Naha, which was built along one side of a creek. On the
other side, the length of twenty canoes away, was the village of
Tee-hi-ton (Cedar Bark).

Now in the time of falling leaves, as was their custom, the three sons
went up on the mountain to hunt groundhogs. Each of the young men had
his own lodge and a fine hunting ground in the valley. They set their
traps and three days later the two younger brothers found their traps
full, but those of the eldest brother, Koot-da-nah, were empty. This
continued for as many days as there are fingers on both hands.

Then the hearts of the two young men were heavy and in sorrow for their
brother they proposed that they should give up hunting groundhogs and
hunt beavers instead.

So the next morning they went down to a nearby lake where the beavers
had made a big dam with a great tree to keep it from breaking.

Koot-da-nah said, “I shall knock down the tree and you boys stand ready
to club the animals when the water breaks and forces them out.”

His brothers were fearful and warned him to be careful, but as the tree
fell Koot-da-nah caught his foot in its roots and, pitching forward
into the lake, was drowned.

Atch-koog-tdoo-cha shook-ka (he-who-swims-like-a-fish) found the body
face downward on the bottom of the lake. Sorrowfully the brothers
carried it to their lodge.

Then Too-ke-tni-ka (the-fearless-one) said, “Some evil has fallen upon
my brother’s family in his absence and caused his death. I shall go
down to the village and find out what has happened.”

So that night Too-ke-tni-ka stole down to the village and, unseen,
crept into his mother’s house.

When Cowoh heard that her eldest son was drowned, she was full of
trouble and said, “Koshu, son of Chief Yee-khoo, from the village of
Tee-hi-ton has looked with evil eyes upon the wife of Koot-da-nah while
he has been absent and has visited her every night.”

Then Too-ke-tni-ka said, “I shall kill this man. Do not tell anyone I
am here. I shall hide in the forest and tomorrow I shall come limping
into the village as if my leg were broken. I shall lie down beside the
fire. Tell everyone I am suffering so they will go to bed early.”

The next day when the shadows lay short on the grass Too-ke-tni-ka
appeared in the village with his leg bound about with the bark of the
cedar tree and went to his mother’s lodge.

That night, when everyone was asleep, he wrapped himself in his blanket
and waited with his eyes fixed on the door of the lodge.

Long after darkness like a black curtain had settled down over the
village Too-ke-tni-ka crouched by the dying coals and his eyes were red
in the darkness and his ears were like the ears of the deer in the
forest.

At last there was a faint sound like the far-off cry of the night hawk
in the woods. The door of the lodge was pushed open and a dark shadow
stole across and entered the room of Kah-ook-too-ni, the Beautiful One.

Too-ke-tni-ka’s heart beat fast with anger. He listened long and then
rose and crept noiselessly into the room of his brother’s wife. By the
light of his beechwood stick he saw that indeed it was the chief’s son
who lay sleeping by the side of Kah-ook-too-ni. Then he drew his
hunting knife and cut off the head of the wicked one and taking it with
him sped like the wind through the sleeping-village to the hunting
lodge in the mountains where his brother awaited him.

Now Kah-ook-too-ni was awakened by the trickling of the warm blood
across her hand. When she saw what had happened she was afraid. Knowing
that when the chief’s son did not come home there would be a great
outcry and searching parties would be sent out, she rose and in great
haste dug a grave beneath the bed and buried the body.

Meanwhile, after Too-ke-tni-ka had told his brother all that had
happened, the two young men went down to the village and placed the
head of the chief’s son over the door of their lodge facing inside.

In the village of Tee-hi-ton there was much loud talking and angry
looks directed toward Naha when the tidings spread that Koshu, the son
of their chief, was missing. Searching parties were sent out, but as
the waves wash out footsteps in the sand, so had disappeared Koshu, the
fleet-footed.

Then Chief Yee-khoo called a council of his people. It was decided that
Wook-ya-koots (he-of-the-sharp-eyes) should be sent to Naha to get a
fire and see if he could discover what had become of Koshu.

Wook-ya-koots walked boldly across the frozen creek and entered the
lodge of Too-ke-tni-ka. As he bent over the fire to light his stick, he
looked stealthily around but saw nothing. But as he paused by the door
on his way out he felt the drip, drip of something on his feet. He went
outside, and, stooping, touched it with his finger.

It was blood!

Pretending to stumble, he put out his fire and again returned to the
lodge. As he bent over the coals with his hair falling over his eyes,
he looked and saw the head of the chief’s son over the door.

Then he made great haste back to his village and told what he had seen.
Chief Yee-khoo called all his braves together. They put on their war
paint and brandishing their war clubs, rushed across the creek and fell
upon the village, killing everyone in it and setting fire to their
lodges.

Only Cowoh and her daughter, who had hid under their lodge, were saved.
When at last the wild chant of the savage war dance of their enemies
ceased, they stole like black shadows through the forest to the lodge
in the mountains.

But after a time Cowoh’s heart was troubled.

“Who now will marry my daughter?” she asked herself. “There is no man
of my people left for her to wed.”

One day as she walked in the forest with her daughter, At-ku-dakt
(modest-little-one) she cried aloud, “Who now will marry my daughter?”

At once a little red bird came flying down and said: “I will marry your
daughter.”

But Cowoh heeded him not.

Then a squirrel ran down from a tree, a rabbit came out of the woods, a
deer paused in his flight, and each in turn said, “I will marry your
daughter.”

But Cowoh would have none of them.

Then Hoots, the great brown bear, came and said, “I can pull up huge
trees by the roots. I can tear a man’s head and body apart. I shall
marry your daughter.”

At-ku-dakh was terrified and hid behind her mother. Then the earth
began to tremble and the lightning flashed, and in the midst of it
appeared a handsome youth who said, “I shall marry your daughter and
take her up to my father, the Almighty One. You, Cowoh, I shall take
under one arm and At-ku-dakh under the other. Look not out or evil may
come upon you.”

Cowoh heeded not the warning. When they were passing a cloud she heard
a sound like the roaring of a waterfall and stuck out her head.

As quickly as thunder follows the lightning, they found themselves
again upon the earth. The stranger was angry, and, pulling out one of
the branches of a tree, put Cowoh in the hole, saying, “Here you shall
stay as long as the world shall last. People shall always hear you
crying in the wind.”



Taking the young girl, the youth flew up to heaven where the Almighty
One welcomed her as his son’s wife.

When the first son was born, the grandfather, the Great Spirit,
baptized him with water so he would have magic power. Then he put his
feet on the feet of the child. Immediately the baby grew and grew until
he was tall and straight like a young pine tree that grows on the
hillside. He named the child Left-Handed.

Four boys and two girls were born and in the same way the grandfather
endowed them each with magic power. He taught the boys how to use the
spear and bow and arrow and the girls how to nurse the sick. He taught
Left-Handed how to stick gamble until his skill was so great that none
could equal him.

Then the grandfather built in the heavens a Sun House which he gave to
Left-Handed. He built a Star House for the second boy. For the third
boy he built a Rainbow House and for the fourth boy a Sky House. Each
house had a round door. Within were blankets and food and rich robes of
fur.

Calling his four grandsons to him the Almighty One gave them a small
box “tsow” saying, “The time shall come when you will have to fight the
wicked, worldly people of the earth. Then take this box, open one end
of it and they will at once become as the dry leaves in autumn when the
wind crumbles them into dust.”

The Almighty One took the Sun House with the eldest boy and his sister
and dropped it upon the earth in the center of the deserted village of
Naha. Then he took the Moon, Star and Rainbow Houses and dropped them
down beside the Sun House.

In Tee-hi-ton the people heard a loud noise like a clap of thunder.
This they heard as many times as there are fingers on one hand.

The young people began to jeer, but the elders made them keep silent.
“It is nothing,” they said. “It is only Skanson the thunder bird
singing his war song.” So they wrapped themselves in their blankets and
went to sleep.

The next morning a thick fog hung over the creek so they could not see
the length of their canoe in front of them. But when the mist lifted
they shouted in amazement, for there among the ruins of the deserted
village were four houses, painted with strange figures such as they had
never seen before.

As they watched they saw young men and maidens going in and out of the
houses. Then they crowded together, asking each other fearfully, “Are
these the spirits of our enemies returned to punish us?”

After many days Wook-ya-koots, the keen-eyed, said, “I, Wook-ya-koots,
shall go alone to Naha to speak with the strangers and learn from
whence comes these lodges which glimmer in the dusk like the water when
we paddle idly along in the moonlight.”

The people waited eagerly for Wook-ya-koots’ return, but the sun was
high overhead before he appeared. Showing them a piece of meat he said,
“Look, this is real meat. The strangers are not spirits. They gave me
dried fish, the meat of the mountain sheep and berries to eat. They are
lonely and invite you to a great feast tonight.”



The feast lasted until the moon hid her face and the stars began to
fade from the sky. The next night Chief Yee-khoo and his braves came
again and for many nights after.

Then Left-Handed said, “Are there any stick gamblers among you?
Tomorrow you shall teach me how to stick gamble.”

The sun was slipping down behind the mountains when Chief Yee-khoo and
his people arrived, for in those days the salmon might leap in the
streams and the beavers build their dams unheeded while the Red Men
gambled away their blankets and food and even their canoes.



THE GAMBLE STICK GAME


A great fire chased away the black shadows of night as the Red Men
began the gamble stick chant. First low, then louder and faster, while
they beat on drums made of logs.

There were six Indian braves on each side. On the ground in front of
each were ten sticks, small and straight, made of cedar. Three long
sticks lay beside them. These were to show how many times each side
won. There were two gamble sticks the length of a man’s finger. The
bark had been peeled from one leaving it smooth and round, while the
other had a ring of bark around the middle.

Then Wook-ya-koots took the two gamble sticks, one in each hand, and
while swinging them back and forth in front of him, changed them from
one hand to the other so quickly that no eye could follow. But at last
Left-Handed made a motion toward the hand he thought held the ring
stick. The wild chanting stopped. Wook-ya-koots opened wide his hands
and showed the sticks. Left-Handed had lost and threw one of the short
sticks of cedar across to the other side. Wook-ya-koots took it and
stuck it in the ground.

Then the Red Men again began the gamble stick chant. This time
Left-Handed guessed the hand that held the gamble stick and
Wook-ya-koots threw over a count stick and also the gamble sticks.
Chief Yee-khoo and his braves became the guessers.

So the game went on until Chief Yee-khoo’s side had ten count sticks
stuck in the ground before them. Then they took them all down and put
up one large count stick. When Chief Yee-khoo’s men had three of these
large count sticks the game ended and he and his braves carried off all
the rich robes and food and blankets which they had gambled for. This
they did the next night and for many nights after. Each night
Left-Handed and his brothers and sisters made a great feast for them.

Always Left-Handed and his brothers lost until Chief Yee-khoo and his
men had won everything they possessed except one small club made of
bone.

Left-Handed took this and said, “This is the only thing we have left.
It is worth many blankets, for with it we can kill our enemies. We
shall gamble for this and this time we may be lucky and win.”

Chief Yee-khoo and his braves began to jeer and ask, “How can a bone
you can cover with one hand kill anyone?”

At last Left-Handed said, “If you do not believe me I shall show you.”

He raised the little bone club and slew Chief Yee-khoo and one after
another all of his men except one who made his escape and aroused the
people of Tee-hi-ton. They rushed across the creek and fell upon
Left-Handed and his brothers and sisters with such fury that they were
almost overpowered.

Then Left-Handed remembered the little box “tsow” which his
grandfather, the Almighty One, had given them. He took the box and
opened one end. At once the worldly people were as the “dry leaves in
autumn when a puff of wind crumbles them into dust.”

“And,” concluded the Story Teller, as we paddled lazily along, drinking
in the mystic beauty of a starlit Northern night, “to me and my people
the Sun, Moon, Sky and Rainbow are emblems the Almighty One has put in
the heavens to show that the Red Men shall increase and prosper and
people the earth for as long as the sun and moon shall shine.”



THE GREAT PEACE DANCE


A spring day in Alaska! Since early dawn we had paddled swiftly along
in a world wrapped in a blue haze. On our right tall fir trees rose
mistily from the shore. On our left the faint line of lofty mountain
ranges melted into the blue grey of a cloudless sky. The seagulls
spiraled high overhead, then, swooping low, were lost in the
white-capped waves. The tang of the sea filled our nostrils and the
rising wind whipped the spray in our faces and sent the blood tingling
through our veins.

We rounded a jutting point and came in sight of the deserted village of
Kasaan. Lofty totem poles were etched against the sky. Some leaned
drunkenly toward decaying lodges half buried in underbrush.

“Here was fought the last great battle between the Tsimpseans and
Hydahs,” said the Story Teller. “My mother has many times told me the
tale as it was told to her by her grandfather, who took a Hydah maiden
for his wife. She was a blood relation of Chief Skowel, he who was
greatest of all the Hydah chiefs.”

The rain had begun to fall, so we landed and as we cooked our breakfast
over the campfire he told me the story.

“You must know that some of my people came from far to the southward
and settled near the Stikine River many, many moons ago. There the
Hydahs came seeking safety from their enemies, the Tsimpseans. The
streams were full of fish. There were deer in the forest and game was
plentiful. They settled there and became rich and had many elaidi
(slaves).

“See how the totem poles in front of Chief Skowel’s lodge rise high
above all the others! That tells how big a chief he was. In his lodge
was danced the great peace dance which ended the long war between the
Hydahs and the Tsimpseans.

“Farther back than my grandfather’s father can remember the Hydahs and
the Tsimpseans had made war upon each other. They made raids at night
and the maidens and young braves taken prisoners were treated as
slaves. Every time a chief became sick or died, a totem pole was
raised, or a potlatch given, some of these slaves were killed and their
bodies thrown on the beach to be eaten by the crows. The number of
holes in the ears of a chief told how many potlatches he had given.

“One day the Hydahs looked and saw that the water was black with
canoes. The Tsimpseans were coming to make war upon them. Twenty young
Hydah braves got into two big canoes and went to meet them. They
offered to make peace with them. But the Tsimpseans had long looked
with longing eyes on their rich hunting grounds, and refused.

“The Tsimpseans had seven canoes and over a hundred men. But the Hydahs
had two guns which they had traded many furs for from the Pale Faces
far to the Northward at Sheet-kah (Sitka). They shot off the guns and
the noise was like the roar of thunder. Their enemies leaped backward
in terror. Their canoes were overturned and so many were killed that
the water was red with blood.

“They called upon Sha-nung-et-lag-e-das (God) but he heard them not.

“So the Tsimpseans surrendered and Chief Skowel gave a great peace
dance. The two tribes were drawn up facing each other. Then a young
brave from each side advanced and choosing one of his former foes
carried him off to his side. He was not allowed to walk throughout the
long ceremony and was treated with the greatest honor. This was to show
that they would now treat each other as brothers and freely visit each
other’s camp fires.

“If you will visit my lodge in Ketchikan, a day’s journey to the
northward,” concluded the Story Teller, “I shall show you one of the
guns used in that last big fight. It was given to me by my grandmother,
she who was a blood relation of Chief Skowel. She told me it was made
in Sheet-kah (Sitka) in the days when the Russians made many guns and
cannons and built great ships to send over the Big Water. It is a flint
lock and made fine and strong. Many come to see it and offer me plenty
furs or bags of the white man’s money for it.”



THE BATTLE WITH THE SAND FLEAS


The rain had ceased and the sun had swept aside the veil of mist
disclosing a glorious panorama of sea and sky. We stepped into our
canoe and turned its nose northward.

The sun was setting in a riot of gorgeous colors as we rounded Pinnoch
Island and saw the thriving little city of Ketchikan stretching for
miles along the waterfront. “Ketch-kaw” the Indians named it, meaning
wedged in between two mountains. The harbor was crowded with ships.
Great concrete buildings rose against the sky. One by one lights began
to flash out from pretty homes crowding hillside and waterfront and
were reflected in the waters of Tongass Narrows. As lovely a scene as
any famed Venice can boast.

Then the Story Teller broke the long silence.

“It was here that the Thlingets fought and conquered the Tsimpseans. It
ended the war that began so long ago that no one can remember. One,
two, perhaps three hundred years ago.

“Before that time the Thlingets and the Tsimpseans were brothers. They
visited and feasted and danced together. So it happened that two
Thlinget princes looked with favor upon a fair Tsimpsean maiden. They
quarreled. Their blood relations took up the quarrel. There were angry
looks and loud words and much fighting. In one of these fights one of
the Thlinget princes was killed.

“Then the Thlingets hated the Tsimpseans with a fierce hatred because
one of their maidens had brought this evil upon them. In those days the
Indian believed in an eye for an eye, a life for a life. So they fell
upon the Tsimpseans and slew one of the sons of their chief. Then for
many, many moons they made war upon each other.

“The Thlingets made a big camp at Ketch-kah. They built three great log
forts. One was where Chief Johnson’s lodge now stands.

“The Thlingets called the Tsimpseans Klah-neets (sand fleas) because
they would pop up and shoot at them, then disappear in the sand and
underbrush, or would steal into their camp and carry off their young
men and maidens and make slaves of them. They came noiselessly and were
gone, leaving no footprints.

“The Tsimpseans had one small cannon. They had gotten it from the
Hudson Bay Company, far to the southward, in exchange for furs. While
their enemies slept, they carried the cannon to the top of the hill and
fired on the fort. Then a terrible battle was fought. The Thlingets
seized their war clubs and fell upon the Tsimpseans with such fury that
almost all of them were either killed or taken prisoner. Then the
Tsimpsean tribe laid down their war clubs and again lived in peace with
the Thlingets.

“But,” said the Story Teller, “my people were still at war with a
Thlinget clan that made their camp at Sheet-kah. It started longer,
much longer ago than the war with the Tsimpseans. They fought with bows
and arrows and with clubs made of bone.

“This was the way the big fight started. Every year my people would
take plenty salmon over to Pinnock Island and hang it there to dry for
their winter food.

“The Sheet-kah Indians had fine big canoes. They made them of rotten
spruce logs, which they hollowed out with sharp stones. Some of them
held thirty or forty people. In them they would paddle as far south as
Dixon’s Entrance fishing and trading. Once they landed on Pinnock
Island and carried off all the salmon they found there.

“That winter was long and cold and there was very little food. The old
and many young children died. Then the hearts of my people grew hot
with anger. There was a big fight and Chief Nah-goot was killed by
Schook-klatch, chief of the Sheet-kah tribe. Then they fight, fight,
all the time fight until Captain Cook came. He was the first Pale Face
my people had ever seen. Soon the Red Men began trading furs for guns
with which to fight each other.

“But at last the great white chief in Washington sent his soldiers to
tell the Red Men that they must live in peace with each other. There
must be no more fighting.

“Now,” said the Store Teller proudly, “my people live like their white
brothers. Our children go to school. We have fine big fishing boats.
Our lodges are like the white men’s lodges.

“There,” pointing to where half a mile away a long pier extended far
out from the little village of Saxman, “I hope some day to see an
Indian village like the white men’s villages, where my people will be
able to do all that my white brothers do. Its harbor will be crowded
with fishing boats. There shall be canneries and sawmills so our
children need not seek work in the villages of the white men. The
Indian will no longer be a child. He will be a man.

“But,” the Story Teller ended sadly, “the young look not with the eyes
of the old. I dream, but my dreams may not come true.”



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 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.

“For many years they lived in peace and prospered.

“But the Red Man forgets not. The Tongass Indians were grateful to
their white brothers. They listened when Chief Sewrard visited them and
told them of the great white chief who loved the Red Man.

“‘We are thankful,’ they said. ‘Our hearts salute him. No longer need
we fear lest we be made slaves and buried beneath the totem poles of
our enemies.’

“One day Chief Ebbetts summoned his sub-chief Tsa-kad and said, ‘I am
weary. Soon I shall sleep the long sleep of the old. But my heart turns
to my brother, the great white chief Abraham Lincoln, for what he has
done for my people. We shall make a lofty totem pole and above the
Raven, the crest of our tribe, we shall carve a statue of Chief
Lincoln.’

“So Thle-da, my father’s brother—he who could talk so marvelously with
his fingers—was given a picture of Chief Lincoln from which to carve
the statue. He worked while others slept and in the moon of nesting
birds it was finished.

“Then Chief Ebbetts gave a big potlatch to which all the people in the
village were invited. The great totem pole was erected and for many
days there was dancing and feasting. Around the camp fire the elders
again told how Abraham Lincoln had stretched out his hands to them and
saved them.

“But,” and the Story Teller shook his head mournfully, “the ancient
village of my people is now deserted. Their lodges are overgrown with
weeds. Even our Abraham Lincoln totem is crumbling away.

“In these days when men fly like birds and the voice travels swifter
than an arrow to its mark, surely Alaska is no longer thought a
shak-nah-ahm (foreign) country, and our white chief in Washington will
listen and grant the wish of his children that this island with the
first statue ever erected to Abraham Lincoln be cared for so we may
bring our children’s children to look upon it.”



A NATIVE ALASKAN ARTIST


France has its Millet, Italy its Raphael, and the natives of Alaska
look with almost equal pride upon their Tsimpsean artist, Henry S.
Haldane. He does not know when he was born. It was long before Father
Duncan brought his gift of the gospel to the Alaskan Indians. But no
one can view the paintings of this self-taught native without feeling
that—with proper training—the divine spark implanted in him would have
brought rich fruitage.

On the wall of Father Duncan’s church in Metlakatla hangs a picture of
an open Bible. So perfect is it that you will have to look closely to
see that it is painted on canvas. It is the work of this artist,
painted over thirty years ago. A hundred years from now it will be
preserved in our national museum as one of the most valuable of early
Alaskan art treasures.

“Christ’s Agony in Gethsemane” was recently painted by Haldane for the
new Salvation Army Hall in Metlakatla, although he is now almost blind.
The paintings of the Sun, Star, Moon and Rainbow Houses reproduced in
this book are his work.

The first native photographer in Alaska, unassisted, he acquired a
knowledge of photography that for a time opened up to him an
interesting field of work. But six years ago unkind Fate dealt him a
cruel blow. Born blind in one eye, an accident made him almost blind in
the other eye. While chopping wood a chip struck the eyeball,
hopelessly injuring it.

Still the urge to create is strong within him. With amazing perfection
of detail and color he paints pictures and carves the totem poles which
portray so vividly the history and legends of the Alaskan Indians.


                                THE END



DISTANCES FROM KETCHIKAN


                                SOUTH

                                                Miles
                    San Diego, California        1841
                    Los Angeles, California      1775
                    San Francisco, California    1359
                    Portland, Oregon              917
                    Seattle, Washington           662
                    Tacoma, Washington            687
                    Port Townsend, Washington     624
                    Vancouver, B. C.              528
                    Victoria, B. C.               590


                                NORTH

                                                Miles
                    Nome, Alaska                 2620
                    Unalaska, Alaska             1687
                    Unga, Alaska                 1387
                    Kadiak, Alaska                937
                    Dawson, Y. T.                 922
                    Valdez, Alaska                664
                    Whitehorse, Y. T.             449
                    Lituya Bay, Alaska            390
                    Porcupine City, Alaska        365
                    Skagway, Alaska               337
                    Haines, Alaska                325
                    Berners Bay, Alaska           299
                    Sitka, Alaska                 280
                    Juneau, Alaska                237
                    Treadwell, Alaska             224
                    Petersburg, Alaska            135
                    Wrangell, Alaska               90


                DISTANCES TO POINTS IN THE KETCHIKAN
                  MINING DISTRICT BY MAIL STEAMER

                                                Miles
                    Coronation Island (Mining)    150
                    Klawak (Cannery)              140
                    Shakan (Marble Quarry)         92
                    Copper Mountain (Mining)       92
                    (By portage)                   52
                    Sulzer (Mining; by portage)    46
                    Wales Island (Cannery)         62
                    Unuk River (Mining)            60
                    Lincoln Rock (Lighthouse)      58
                    Hunter’s Bay (Cannery)         79
                    Bell Island Hot Springs        40
                    Boca de Quadra (Cannery)       40
                    Tree Point (Light House)       42
                    Yes Bay (Cannery)              40
                    Hollis (Mining)                39
                    Tolstoi Bay (Mining)           37
                    Karta Bay (Mining)             30
                    Niblack (Mining)               30





*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Indian Legends from the land of Al-ay-ek-sa" ***

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