The Sitka Mission and Industrial School was established by the Presbyterian board in 1878.[104] There are now enrolled5 sixty-four boys and forty-six girls. School continues nine months of the year. The boys and girls occupy separate buildings. The forenoon the pupils spend in the school rooms and the afternoons the girls spend in the sewing room and the boys in the shops. The superintendent6 called a bright boy about twelve years of age and asked him if he could show me about the grounds and through the workshops while he conducted a larger party in a different direction. “Yes sir,” and with a touch of his cap to me, led the way to the carpenter shop. Two young men busy at work at a long bench touched their caps and a “Good afternoon, madam,” greeted me. “Yes madam, I am a carpenter,” proudly replied one of the young men to my question. He was about eighteen years old, while his companion was only sixteen. In this shop the pupils make tables, chairs and all sorts of furniture. I was next conducted to the tin shop, where besides pots and pans, stoves are made out of sheet iron and scraps7 of any old thing that is left over. All of the stoves in the school buildings are made in this way. My young Indian guide next conducted me to the shoe shop.
The schools are having vacation now, so the[105] shops are not running a full number of pupils. The conductor and two pupils were at work, the former on fine shoes and the latter on heavy Klondike boots. Each boy has his own cobbler’s bench and a full set of tools. A third boy was sauntering about the room making himself familiar with his surroundings. The conductor of the shop told me that this lad had chosen the shoe maker’s trade and was to begin work on the following morning.
The boys all greeted me with a smile of welcome when I entered and bade me good-by when I departed. My guide said that the paint shop was closed, but he explained to me the object of the shop and the work done there. When I asked him if he had chosen his trade he politely explained that he had only been in the school a year and that he had not decided8 what he would like. The pupils enter for five years, the parents or guardian9 signing a contract to that effect. My guide conducted me to the gate, where I thanked him for his kindness. He gracefully10 touched his cap and said: “Good-by madam, I was glad to show you about.”
All of the dormitories, play rooms and school rooms are models of neatness. In the[106] girls’ building the bread was just being taken out of the bake oven. Thirty loaves was the day’s baking. The boys make the bread and put it to rise. The girls mould it out and bake it. The Indians are very proud of the school and come of their own accord seeking admission for their children. This school is making these Indians self-supporting and consequently prosperous. One sees many bright faces among them and the younger people are happy and contented11, with nothing in their dress or manner to distinguish them from young white Americans of the same age. In an old blockhouse located on a rocky prominence12 overlooking the sea some of the boys of the school spend the evening hours in band practice. They played until eleven o’clock on the parade ground without a light, reading their music by twilight13. The selections were choice and well rendered. They played “Star Spangled Banner” as an opening piece. Sitka is rightfully proud of her Indian band. The Indian is given his chance in this land of the midnight sun and he is making the most of his opportunities.
Opposite the Mission on the bank of the Indian River is a large square rock called the[107] Blarney-stone, which dowers the kisser with a magic tongue, but never a four leafed shamrock in all the merry dell with which to weave a magic spell.
Two brothers, twins, lived in paradise. One of them ate a sea cucumber. It was the one forbidden fruit. The paradise became a wilderness15. The brothers were starving when a band of roving Stickines came that way one day and pitying them left them wives to care for them.
From one of these pairs sprang all the Kaksatti, the Crow clan16. From the other descended17 all the Kokwantons, the Wolf clan.
The legends of these Indians as well as all other tribes in this country, contain a full account of the landing of Columbus. The news was carried overland from post to post and tribe to tribe by runners. The history of the tribe at Sitka runs back five hundred years. Beyond that period they have no record and frankly18 say that they have no authentic19 account of their origin.
Their stature20, their industry, their faith in the shaman, their belief in transmigration of[108] souls, all point to Asiatic origin. Their word for water is agua, much like the Latin aqua.
The Mission and Training schools have transformed these savages21, whose ancestors murdered the intrepid22 Muscovites, into frontier fishermen, boatmen and loggers.
An Indian never willingly consents to have his photograph taken, because, when you have a picture of him, he firmly believes that you have power over his soul. The educated Indian, however, is fearless of the camera.
The Kletwantans and the Klukwahuttes, two branches of the Frog clan, are at variance23 over the erection of a totem pole and have gone into court to settle the matter. The Klukwahuttes are the true aristocrats24 of Indian society in Sitka. The Kletwantons are the wealthy members of the real Indian four hundred, but having made their money in fish and oil, are considered upstarts by their more aristocratic brothers. The Kletwantons decided to build a new home for the chief and to set up an elaborately carved and decorated totem pole. The eyes of the frog which was to surmount25 this wonderful pole were to be twenty-dollar gold pieces. A grand potlatch was to be held when the pole was ready to set up. All of the Indians up and down the[109] coast, from Juneau, Killisnoo, Skagway, Ft. Wrangel and Bella Bella, were invited, but the aristocratic Klukwahuttes were left out. Did they sit down and quietly ignore this insult? No indeed. They told their wealthy brothers in true American style what they thought of such conduct, and the matter would, no doubt, have been dropped here had not the wealthy fish oil makers26 denied that the Klukwahuttes belonged to the Frog clan at all. Upon this things grew so warm that the missionary27 appealed to the district attorney to aid him in making the Indians keep the peace. Then the disgusted Klukwahuttes went to him asking for an injunction to keep the pretended Frogs from holding the potlatch and setting up the pole. He replied to them that he would take the case upon them paying him a retainer of five hundred dollars, feeling sure that would end the matter, well knowing that they could not raise the money. Petitioned again he reduced his fee to two hundred and fifty dollars, feeling quite sure that they could not raise even that amount. But he reckoned without his host. In less than two hours the leading men of the Klukwahuttes filed into his office, carrying goat skin bags and pouches28 filled with money and[110] counted out the two hundred and fifty dollars in small coins, no coin being larger than a fifty-cent piece. The attorney was obliged to keep his word and take the case. The injunction was issued restraining the oil makers from building the house and setting up the totem pole. The potlatch, however, was held.
When the Juneau Indians arrived in their canoes off the shore the chief stood up and chanted their traditions to prove that they belonged to the Frog clan and were rightfully invited. When he had finished the leaders of the Klukwahuttes, who were standing29 on the beach, recited their traditions to prove that they and not the Kletwantans were the true Frogs. The Klukwahuttes, however, made no disturbance30 during the feast. Later the Kletwantans employed a young Boston lawyer who was stopping at Sitka and sued the Klukwahuttes for damages. Not wishing to be outdone by the aristocratic Klukwahuttes, they at once paid their lawyer a retainer of two hundred and fifty dollars. There the case rests. The lawyers are trying to settle it out of court.
On an eminence31 which commands a fine view of the harbor and the town, stood the Baranhoff castle, which was burned a few years ago. It[111] did not in the least resemble a castle. The picture makes it look like an old country inn. The ruins are still visible and the two flights of steps leading to it still exist. Around this historic ground cluster the scenes and incidents of the past century. The castle, like the island on which it stood, took its name from the Russian governor, Baranhoff, who in the early part of the century ruled the people with an iron hand, beginning with the knout and ending with the ax.
Not one of the intrepid Muscovites who landed here in 1741 were left to tell the tale of their capture and execution by the native Sitkans. In 1800 another party arrived and placed themselves under the protection of the Archangel Gabriel instead of trusting to the power of gunpowder32 and stockades33. They too were massacred and their homes destroyed by fire. Baranhoff was at once sent out by the Russian government. He erected35 the castle and stockade34, withdrew the town from the protection of Gabriel and placed it under the protection of the Archangel Michael.
This old castle was once the home of nobility and the scene of grand festivities. Here princes and princesses of the blood royal ate[112] their caviare, quaffed36 their vodka and measured a minuet. It was in this old castle that Lady Franklin spent three weeks twenty-five years ago when in search of her husband, Sir John. It was here that W. H. Seward spent several days when on a trip to Alaska after its purchase from Russia, through the sagacity of himself and Charles Sumner. At one of the windows sat the beautiful Princess Maksoutoff weeping bitter tears as the Russian flag was lowered for the last time. On the 18th of October, 1867, three United States warships37 lay at anchor in the bay. They were the Ossipee, Resaca and Jamestown, commanded by Captains Emmons, Bradford and McDougal. Each vessel38 was dressed in the national colors, while the Russian soldiers, citizens and Indians assembled upon the open space at the foot of the castle carrying aloft the eagle of the czar of all the Russias. At a given signal the American navy fired a salute39 in honor of the Russian flag, which was lowered from the staff on the castle. After a national salute from the Russian garrison40 in honor of our flag, the stars and stripes were hoisted41 to the top of the old flag staff.
The Russian parade ground has been converted[113] into a base ball ground, where Indian and white teams contest for honors.
The native races of Alaska are slowly dying out. The bright light of civilization is always the death doom42 of savagism.
The most beautiful natural park in the world lies just above Sitka, on the banks of the Indian River, which rises in the valley between the mountains and winding43 down, empties into the sea.
Here are the greenest of pines, cedars44 and firs. The grasses and mosses45 are the brilliant green of the tropics. A neat suspension foot bridge swings clear of the water from buttress47 to buttress. The shallow, murmuring, sparkling water bathes the brown roots of shrubs48 and trees. Great cedars lie prostrate49, covered with short green moss46. Giant firs are draped with a delicate sea green moss, which hangs in festoons and pendants from branch, limb and trunk. The pine tops sigh softly the music of the seas.
Sunny banks are yellow with the familiar cinquefoil, the blossoms of which are five or six times as large as they are at home. In open glades50 the ground is white with cornells, and tiny dogwood shrubs growing from two to five inches high. The wild purple geranium[114] brightens sunny glades, while the mountain spiraea, the most beautiful of all spiraeas, bends and sways in the breeze.
Thickets51 of salmon52 berry and wonderful mazes53 of strange ferns meet one at every turn. One of the handsomest bushes in the park is the magnificent Devil’s Club. There are great thickets of them twenty feet high casting an enticing54 but dangerous shade. The dainty green leaves, as large as dinner plates, rear their heads aloft, umbrella-like. The stems, limbs, and trunk are covered with thousands of tiny poisonous prickles, which work deep into the flesh, making ugly sores.
Down on the beach are the graves of Lisiansky’s men, who were killed by ambuscaded Indians while taking water for their ship, in 1804.
Friday evening we weighed anchor and steamed out of the harbor. The beautiful bay, with its beautiful islands, slowly receded55 from view and we bade farewell to the historic old town of Sitka.
Hamerton, in his charming work on Landscape, says: “There are, I believe, four new experiences for which no description ever adequately prepares us, the first sight of the sea, the first journey in the desert, the sight of flowing[115] molten lava56, and a walk on a great glacier57. We feel in each case that the strange thing is pure nature, as much nature as a familiar English moor58, yet so extraordinary that we might be in another planet.”
I would add a fifth, sunset at sea. Earth holds nothing more fair, nothing more beautiful than sunshine.
A little while ago the sky was blue, flaked59 with fleecy white clouds, the snows on the coast range lay sparkling like diamonds in the sun, the forest lay dark and green on the mountainside, the sea gray and blue by turns; but now a change comes over nature’s moods, the clouds glow, the snows take on brilliant hues60, the dark old forest grows darker, the sea shimmers61 and sparkles, a flaming molten mass.
The imperial sunset throws its red flame afar, ’till the land, the sea, the mountains, the sky, the very air it incarnadines in one grand flame of scarlet62. Long, long will the beholder63 remember that glorious sunset at Sitka.
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1
wharf
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| n.码头，停泊处 | |
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adorn
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| vt.使美化，装饰 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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sanctuary
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| n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区 | |
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enrolled
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| adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起 | |
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superintendent
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| n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长 | |
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scraps
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| 油渣 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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prominence
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| n.突出；显著；杰出；重要 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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mythical
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| adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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clan
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| n.氏族，部落，宗族，家族，宗派 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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authentic
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| a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的 | |
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stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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intrepid
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| adj.无畏的，刚毅的 | |
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variance
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| n.矛盾，不同 | |
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aristocrats
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| n.贵族( aristocrat的名词复数 ) | |
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surmount
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| vt.克服；置于…顶上 | |
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makers
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| n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式） | |
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missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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pouches
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| n.（放在衣袋里或连在腰带上的）小袋( pouch的名词复数 )；（袋鼠等的）育儿袋；邮袋；（某些动物贮存食物的）颊袋 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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gunpowder
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| n.火药 | |
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stockades
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| n.（防御用的）栅栏，围桩( stockade的名词复数 ) | |
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stockade
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| n.栅栏，围栏；v.用栅栏防护 | |
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ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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quaffed
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| v.痛饮( quaff的过去式和过去分词 )；畅饮；大口大口将…喝干；一饮而尽 | |
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warships
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| 军舰，战舰( warship的名词复数 )； 舰只 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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salute
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| vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮 | |
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garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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hoisted
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| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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44
cedars
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| 雪松，西洋杉( cedar的名词复数 ) | |
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45
mosses
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| n. 藓类, 苔藓植物 名词moss的复数形式 | |
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moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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buttress
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| n.支撑物；v.支持 | |
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48
shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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glades
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| n.林中空地( glade的名词复数 ) | |
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51
thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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salmon
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| n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的 | |
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53
mazes
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| 迷宫( maze的名词复数 )； 纷繁复杂的规则； 复杂难懂的细节； 迷宫图 | |
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enticing
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| adj.迷人的；诱人的 | |
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receded
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| v.逐渐远离( recede的过去式和过去分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
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56
lava
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| n.熔岩，火山岩 | |
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glacier
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| n.冰川，冰河 | |
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moor
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| n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊 | |
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flaked
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| 精疲力竭的，失去知觉的，睡去的 | |
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hues
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| 色彩( hue的名词复数 )； 色调； 信仰； 观点 | |
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shimmers
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| n.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的名词复数 )v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的第三人称单数 ) | |
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scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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beholder
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| n.观看者，旁观者 | |
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