Friend of the Eskimo
Otto William Geist Dies
In Germany After Illness
By Howard Rock
Times Editor
Otto William Geisl, a great friend
of the Eskimos of the Arctic coast,
passed away in Munich, Germany,
on August 3, 1963. For years, ar
chaeological sites in northern Alas
ka had been his stamping grounds.
Surprisingly enough, Otto had ne
ver been to Point Hope until July,
1961. He became attached to it at
once.
“Oh my. Point Hope is so differ
ent. It has an atmosphere of its
own. You can feel the oldness of
it; the antiquity of it. You know,
iny friend, it would not be a bad
place to live in,” said Otto, in his
pleasant, low, German accented way
of talking.
Otto William Geist. paleontolo
gist, naturalist, and archaeologist,
was in his element of being on the
grounds of antiquity where he lov
ed to work. As he walked around in
the old ruins of ancient Tiqiqahq.
better known as Point Hope, he was
enjoying himself immensely.
We walked around the diggings
Of Tiqiqahq artifact hunters and
he gloried in things the diggers had
discarded. What were they? Caved
in polar bear skulls, dog skulls, ani
mal leg bones. Picking up a polar
bear skull, he said, “It's a shame
his jawbones are missing and if they
had the fangs on them, what fine
specimens they would make. This
one lived a long time ago too.”
After exploring for a lengthy
period, we became hungry. We
walked to Point Hope Lodge for
dinner loaded down with old ani
mal skulls and bones. We ate a
hearty meal of caribou stew. "My,
this is good. Can I have another
helping?” Otto asked Frances, cook
and wife of Allen Fiock, owner of
the lodge. He ate the second bowl
with relish. He had a wonderful
appetite.
When he finished his second
bowl of stew, Frances said in Eski
mo to a young lady who waited
on us, "You better ask your ataata
(grandfather) whether he wants a
piece of pie.”
“No, no, I don’t want any. I'm
too full now,” Otto protested. Fran
ces and the girl were so startled
they asked in Eskimo, “How did
he know?” They looked at each
other and broke into a hale of
laughter.
“Yes, I knew what you were
talking about. I liked the grand
father part especially.” Otto beam
ed. During his many years of con
tact with the Eskimos he had learn
ed the language and could under
stand it well, much to the delight
of the Eskimos.
Otto came from a large family.
He was one of 15 children born to
Mr. and Mrs. Franz Antone Geist
of Kircheiselfing, Bavaria. He was
born on December 27, 1838. As a
young man he served in the Ger
man Army for two years and later
emigrated to America. Hhe also
served in the American Army under
General John J. Pershing on the
Mexican front and served with the
expeditionary force in Europe dur
ing the first World War. Eventually.
Otto wound up in Alaska in 1924.
He worked on riverboats and
Worked at mines.
During this time he became inter
ested in Eskimo artifacts. He met
Alaus Murie, naturalist, through
whom Otto Geist met Charles Bun
nell, president of the young Uni
versity of Alaska. He studied under
Bunnell which equipped him for
his career of paleontology and ar
chaeology.
He began to go on expeditions
Into the Arctic. He amassed great
quantities of archaeological collec
tions and natural history specimens,
*11 of which he gave to his beloved
Institution. He was vitally instru
. Mental in the present high status at
foment 44 the University of Alaska
museum which has one of the
largest Eskimo archaeological col
lections in the world. Much of this
collection came from St. Lawrence
Island where Otto directed exca
vations for some nine years. During
this time, Otto Geist became inti
mately interested in the Eskimo
life. He lived with the people, ate
with them and hunted with them.
He learned to like native foods.
During the first few days at Point
Hope, Otto asked casually, “When
am I going to have some native
food?" I had taken it as a joke but
then he repeated the same question
couple more times. At his last
query I said, “You mean you want
some muktuk and saal oil and
things?” “Why yes. Did you think
I’ve been joking all this time?" he
asked.
Before lunch time one day, I
told Frances that we would like
some muktuk and seal oil and
whale meat) for lunch. She had
the look on her face that said,
“Now, I’ve heard everything!" How
ever, she served our requests and
Otto and I began to eat. As we pro
gressed I could see Frances and
other people present take apprehen
sive glances at Otto. Soon they were
interested and began to smile and
said the equivalent in Eskimo of,
“Well, I’ll be darned!"
After the initial meal, Otto ate
with the rest of us when we had
oogruk meat, puniqtuk (dried seal
meat in seal oil), qorq, muktuk.
Muktuk was his favorite. Frances
and her helpers immensely enjoyed
i serving native food to Otto and the
meals became light-hearted and
happy occasions.
Yes, Otto William Geist was a
humanist. In being so, he gained
complete respect of the natives and
he, in turn, respected them. The
result was an unreserved good fel
lowship. And, too. he had keen in
terest in their problems.
Otto was a vastly interested spec
tator during a meeting of the Point
Hopers w'ith high officials of the
Atomic Energy Commission in July.
1961, regarding the then proposed
Project Chariot. The meeting was
intense during which the villagers
asked highly penetrating questions.
An advance notice had informed
the village that the duration of the
meeting would be about an hour
and a half. The meeting lasted four
and a half hours. During the pro
ceedings, an old man said, “I do
not matter much. I’m an old man
now and will not live too long, but
I'm concerned about the children
of Tiqiqahq who will live in the
future.” A woman asked. “What
would happen to our babies and
would it affect our husbands?”
After the meeting was finally
over, Otto, visibly moved by the
intensity of it, said, “Who said the
Eskimos do not stand up for their
rights?”
Otto Wiliam Geist was a real
friend of the natives. He lived with
them and he enjoyed being with
them. The natives of Point Hope
greatly impressed him with their
obvious connections with antiquity
— the ancient traditions they still
retain to this day.
One day we walked east a mile
of the village to the great ruins of
an old settlement site, the Ipiutak,
where some 800 ruins of sod igloos
have been counted. The site is lo
cated up the incline of land from
the beaches of a large lagoon and
a small one that is toward the vil
lage of Point Hope.
Otto projected his imagination
into the past, “There must have
been great activity in this old vil
lage; men hunting, women cutting
meat, people everywhere. Can you
imagine children playing around
the lagoons and having the time
of their lives?”
Otto William Geist wa* a mate at
deep understanding.
Alfred Widmark, ANB Official, Urges
Northern Natives to Hold On to Land
By Thomas Snapp
Times Staff Writer
Alfred Widmark, a member of
the executive committee of the
Alaska Native Brotherhood, in Fair
banks Wednesday urged Eskimos
and Indians of interior and north
ern Alaska to hold on to their land
and not lose it.
Describing how Southeast Alaska
natives lost almost all their land,
he went on to urge that northern
Alaska villages not make the same
mistake—that they “make known
to the world" the land they claim
by aboriginal inheritance.
For a great number of years after
the Tlingit-Haida people were
driven from their land, Widmark
in an exclusive interview with Tun
dra Times said his people had
fought a legal battle for compen
sation of the extinguishment of their
property rights.
An Act of Congress had to be
passed to allow natives to sue the
goverment, he said. Finally, a
panel of five judges unanimously
ruled that the Tlingit-Haida peo
ple had original Indian title to the
principal parts of Southeast Alaska
and that the government extin
guished that title by creating the
Tongass National Forest, by creat
ing the Annette Island reservation
for the Tsimpshian Indians of Can
ada, and by other means.
Big Questions
The big questions now remaining
in regard to the Tlingit-Haida claim,
according to Widmark. are these:
To how much compensation are they
entitled? How will it be distributed?
The amount has been estimated
from a low of $30 million to a high
of $100 million.
Regarding the distribution of the
claim compensation. Widmark said
that the Tlingit-Haida people would
have to come up with a plan that
would be acceptable to Congress.
Tribal Roll
A tribal roll is being drawn up.
he said, and that his people were
studying how claim compensation
had been distributed in other
places.
When enabling legislation was be- J
ing proposed. Widmark said it was j
stressed “that a bill had to be in
troduced which Congress would go !
for" and a stipulation was written
into it that compensation would be j
used for business improvement and
community development.
Opinion Changes
“The idea was good at the time,” |
Widmark said, but he indicated j
that there had been many changes j
BIA to Expend
$400,000 for
Barrow Streets
Bureau of Indian Affairs has ad
vised Senator Bartlett, that plans to
spend an estimated $400,000 for
street improvements at Barrow, in
cluding expenditures of $80,000 for
moving approximately 80 houses
onto lots next winter.
Street work will be performed in
the summer of 1964, following com
pletion by Bureau of Land Manage
ment of townsite survey now under
way. Survey plans include sixty
foot rights of way to permit drain
age.
“I am gratified that work is pro
ceeding so well. Senator Bartlett
stated. “The need for action at Bar
row was underscored following pas
sage last year of my bill permitting
the drilling of additional oil well
to bring natural gas to Barrow resi
dents and Representative Rivers
bill signed into law, making possible
Burrow tewaaite survey.’’
in the last several years that had
caused many leaders to change
their minds.
Formerly villages were well pop
ulated and federal permits were
given so that the people were un
disturbed in their hunting and fish
ing economy. Then, he said, laws
were passed requiring licenses of
which the people were not accus
tomed and that the subsistence
economy waned.
City Influx
“Many cf our people moved from
the villages to Ketchikan, Juneau,
Seattle and the metropolitan areas
seeking better chances at employ
ment. Today there are only one
half or one third of our people still
living in the villages.
Because of the changes that have
come about since the inception of
the enabling legislation, Widmark
said that many leaders now felt that
a “per capita” distribution of the
claim money would be most equi
table way. Also under considera
tion, he said, was a “family plan.”
and other means.
“At present our leaders have dif
fering opinions and it will take us
perhaps a year or two to finalize
our position and come up with a
good plan.”
“Thirty years ago when we started
our claims case, public opinion was
against us. No Alaska attorney
would take our case and we had to
go to a big law firm back east.
When we got an Alaska attorney.
Jim Curry, he was crucified and lit
erally put through the mill," Wid
mark said.
"Today I think the situation, has
changed, public opinion will not be
! so much against you. In fact, you
j may have a generous amount on
I your side.”
Dedication Required
“In protecting your rights, your
leaders will have to be dedicated.
You will meet with opposition and
discouragement and you may even j
he threatened. Our people were in
the early days.”
Widmark. of Kluwak. has been
elected president of the ANB for
four terms, in 1945-46, 58-59. 59-60.
and 61-62. The ANB is believed to
be the oldest continuous Indian or*
ganization in the country.
Widmark, of Klawok. has been
pleased at the report of Steven V.
Hotch. ANB vice president, of the
Tanana Indian Conference held in
June and he believed that much
could be done by the affiliation and
close cooperation among the native
organizations in the state.
He indicated he felt the different
organizations should delegate pow
ers to representatives to meet and
v/ork on common problems.
A Real Problem
‘‘I am particularly impressed with
the proposed Rampart Dam,” ha
said. “I believe it poses a real prob
lem for the Athabascan people of
the Interior.” He said he felt that
the ANB meeting in convention
would favorably consider and pass
a resolution drafted by Interior In
dians concerning the clam.
Lauds Bennett
Widmark praised Robert L. Ben
nett as the best BIA area director
for Alaska since Claude M. Hirst.
“Although we may not get every
thing we expect from him, he has
an understanding of our people
that other directors did not have
because of not being an Indian."
Widmark said Southeast Alaska
natives had supported, such develoo
ments as the ferry system, road
building, were requesting mere law
enforcement, and that they still
faced a big problem in education.
Advanced Training
“Our elementary and high school
needs have been taken care of pret
ty well but we need advanced train
ing in order to get a bigger share
I of employment to which we think
I we are entitled."
Although there are many areas '
where he said individual native
' organizations should work alone,
Widmark said he felt there were
many areas where the leaders of the
different native groups should join
hands and work together.
After graduation from Oregon
State College in 1935. Widmark was
for a while a pharmacist, then a
school teacher, and now is an air
line agent and in the general mer
chandise business in Klawok.
DELEGATES TO REHABILITATION CONFERENCE _ Delegates
from three Alaska native organizations were present at the Gov- I
ernor's Institute on Vocational Rehabilitation held August 12-14 at
the University of Alaska. From left to right, Howard Rock, executive
secretary of the Inupiat Paitot, Eskimo organization; Alfred Ketzler, j
chairman. Dena Nena Henash, Interior Indian organization; and Al-j
fred Wtdmark, past president and member of the Executive Com*
ndtte* of the Alaska Native Brotherhood. —Tundra Times Photo 4