taken muck pleasure iu reading the
daily papers. He is resuming his regu
lar hours for sleep and his appetite
{is normal, as is likewise his diet. He
is very desirous of returning to his
work.”—Skagway Alaskan.
His condition is not, however, ap
parently, such as to justify a renewal
of the attempt to learn what he is able
to tell about the assault.
Before he could speak, some one at
his bedside took pencil and paper and
wrote: “Who struck you?”
Guptil took the paper and the pencil
and wrote underneath: “Who struck
you?” From that day to this, it seems,
no effort has been made to get a state
ment from him.
NATIVE CUSTOMS STILL PREVAIL
Tlic report of Miss Louise McConnel,
teacher of sanitation in the southeast
ern Alaska district for the United
States bureau of education, gives a
very fair idea of the extent to which
native customs still prevail among the
Alaska Indians. Miss McConnel says:
•The native and tribal customs of the
Alaskan native may appear an irrele
vant subject in a report of this kind,
vet when a social worker or teacher is
compelled to use drastic measures in
order to secure the burial of a child
dead for a fortnight, or for clearing
out a multitude of kinsmen gathered
around a sick man for the purpose of
exorcising the wicked spirits that are
the cause of the malady more than the
annoying and deleterious companion
ship of kinspeople actuated by a de
sire to cure by witchcraft, or by, per
haps the stronger desire to secure a
distribution of the blankets and family
and tribal relics of great native value,
it will be apparent that effective work
is secured more certainly when the
worker undersands the significance of
hideous and savage ceremony and per
haps finds something of social value in
what would otherwise have no meaning
to one who did not realize that, for in
stance, even the use of an Indian doc
tor’s rattle is an evidence of the crude
but strong desire of the native to f
fect a cure.
That the native people are very
much more strongly bouipl to their na
tive customs than appears in the sur
face seems to be the concensus of opin
ion of workers among them. They
have learned to conceal them cleverly
or to give them the external semblance
of white man’s customs.
Witchcraft is still practiced in many
villages. The very children at school
accuse one another, or are accused by
the older people, of casting an evil
eye upon one another. This was given
as the excuse for the nonattendance of
one little girl at Killisnoo.
A native woman who is rather bet
ter educated than the average, took the
United States history and turned to the
account of the burning of the witches
at Salem to prove that the white peo
ple believed in witchcraft. Th's same
woman also read the Bible to show that
possession by evil spirits and demons in
biblical times was related to witch
craft.
As a matter ot tact, witchcraft is
still a powerful influence with the Al
aska native, and within two years mur
der has been committed because of it,
and there is no doubt the crime
will occur again.
Frequently when children are
brought for medical attention one
reads, in the frantic anxiety of the
parents, their fear that medical aid
can not overcome the influence of the
witch. The creed that teaches illness
is sent by the Almighty as a punish
ment or to chasten the spirit, rather
than as the result of indifference to or
disregard of nature’s laws, is not far
in advance of the natives’ belief in
witchcraft.
The native people have a supersti
tious dislike to handle a dead body,
and hence, when life is despaired of,
the patient is dressed for burial before
life is extinct. Sometimes when I have
been working over a patient and have
found it necessary Jto leave the house
to procure further remidies, on my re
turn I have found my patient dressed
for burial, and I have been requested
to do no more. As they can not judge
of the possibility of recovery, refusal
to allow us to foster the tiny spark
of life often means a death which we
had hoped to avert.
They are very glad to have medical
attention up to the point where they
themselves lose hope, but after that
they resent any struggle to maintain
life. Frequently the patient recovers
in spite of this cessation of medical
care, and we are often told by the old
people, somewhat proudly, of the num
ber of times they have been dressed
for burial yet recovered.
If a patient dies, the duty of the
village worker is not ended. It is the
custom among the Indians to prolong
the period before burial sometimes for
many days, during this time the fam
ily and relatives eating, drinking and
sleeping in the same room with the
dead, and perhaps with other sick
■members of the family. This custom
according to the natives, indicates the
respect that they hold for the dead, a
respect claimed by them not entertain
ed by white people for their own dead,
who by their haste in burial show a
wretched want of respect.
In Douglas an Indian woman, well
educated, who had become addicted to
the excessive use of whiskey, a mother
of three children, apparently stricken
with remorse after a drunken spree on
whiskey secured from some white boot
legger, hung herself by the neck until
dead, in the family woodshed. For
nine days the body lay in “state” in
'the house while the husband and father
lay sick in bed surrounded by his child
ren, members of the family, and rela
tives who in this case attributed this
disgrace of suicide among Alaskan na
tives entirely to the innocent husband.
To expiate his offense the husband,
sick as he was, for nine days went
without food, according to the natives,
under orders from the chief. The ex
tent to which pride in this case con
trolled the punishment of the husband
by the tribe, if such it was, is due to a
clannish or tribal honor analogous to
the family pride among the civilized
people. In this particular case the
husband himself is au Indian of edu
cation and intelligence much above the
average, yet he bow^d his will to the
force of tribal custom.
The difficulty as well as the necessity
will be apparent of showing the Alas
kan native the danger of his alleg
iance to tribal customs in the matter
of the keeping of the dead for extend
ed periods before burial, and how diffi
cult it is to instill into his mind the
duty that he owes to the living as well
as to the dead.
Another old custom which has a bad
physical effect on the Alaskan native is
the practice of giving feasts or “feeds’
The native expend in this way large
sums of money and much illness re
sults from it. It is a native point of
etiquette never to leave anything on
the table, and they often eat for sev
eral hours and then take with them to
their homes the remaining portion.
Each one attempts to outdo the giver
of the previous feast, in quantity at
least.
At these feasts the food consists
chiefly of canned fruits, jams and cr
chiefly of canned fruits, jams and
crackers, and business men make it the
occasin of selling large stocks of these
supplies. Although the missionaries
and village workers can observe the in
jurious effects of overeating on these
occasions, and the waste of money that
might be well spent in other ways, it
can not be expected that the traders
will tell the natives that he ought 'o
spend his money buying woolens, con
venient household utensils, or any
household sanitary improvements—a
less profitable expenditure.
Native ideas of surgery and medicine
are peculiar, and yet in many cases,
although crude in their application, the
growth of a more or less definite prin
ciple. Medicine consists of various
herbs always joined in one brew, al
ways taken internally—“drink medi
cine,” as it is termed. Excepting
withcraft methods, no medicine is of
value unless it can be taken internally.
This makes it extremely difficult for
the worker to use preventive measures.
Anything that the native can not get
into his stomach has no curative value,
according to their belief.
His method of surgery are likewise
crude, and yet at times appear to be
the expression of some idea or prin
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