NORTHLAND HAD EARLY PROTOTYPE OF "TROJAN HELEN11; ELOPEMENT STARTED ’VAR WHICH
LASTED ALMOST A HUNDRED YEARS BETWEEN WRANGELL AND SITKA NATIVES.
In 1337 (according to Father Veniaminoff, a Russian priest whose writings
constitute the most authoritative source of history for the Alaska of that per
iod) or in 1825 (according to Native tradition) a man by the name of Nan came
to Sitka from Wrangell. Upon his return to his home village, he stole the wife
of Taku Sam (whose Indian name was Tu-u-tich) and took her to Wrangell with him.-*
Apparently the woman went willingly, for Wan 11 put the witch on her.'1 The Ka'g
-wan-tans (which means "Burnt House People") a part of the great Wolf phratryr
were very angry at the offense against Tu-u-tich, who was one of their number^
but at first they did not make trouble. Tu-u-tich went to Wrangell after his
wife. The Natives o? Wrangell recognised his claim and gave him back his mate.
He started on his return trip to Sitka, but the first night camped on an island
at the mouth of the Stickine river. Here Wan surprised him, having followed him
from Ikaggell, and killed him, taking back to his home the northern "Helen, of
Troy", who was known to the white* 3 a3 Kate Sutler# Her native name is unknow n.
iu-u-tich* s frienas, on nearing of his death, determine a to avenge it, and
a large war canoe was dispatched from Sitka. Arriving at /rangell, this war
party killed V/an. Acting on the old law of "an eye for an eye" (with interest)
the v/rangell people then went to ^itka"by a secret way" and killed a nan called
Hon-du-ash, chopped hin up with an axe and left him on the beach tp "put shame
on the Ka'g-wan-tans.
The Kaf g-wan-tans now became very angry, and put to sea in ten large war
canoes, with many slaves at the paddles, They again landed for the night at
an island at the mouth of the otickine which must have been fatal for the Sitka
people, for here the Jrangells (who had been on one look-out) surprised them
and killed all the male ka*g-wan-tans except two men and a boy, who hid under
a large flat rock. The ViTrangells took all the slaves and property and returned
with it to their own village. The two men and the boy who escaped made their
way to Sitka. In these fights the old flint lock muskeos were used.
k
The hostilities of the two tribes then seemed i,o xanguisu
the Ka* g-wan-tans gave a feast and invited to Wrangell s to attend it* *ien, women
and children cane in many canoes to iiitka for the potlatch* .fnen ohe dance wa
at its height, Yackv/an, chief of the Ka*gv/antans, ana /scuta (vntMe pnotograph
taken years later is preserved in the Alaska Museum) cane into the dance
behind the unarmed Sitka natives* Yealth had his spear ready and drove it
through two Wrangells at one stroke* lien, women and children were ruthlessly
slaughtered; /aw: not a one escaped* One named Tanach was scalped at this
massacre, and this scalp was buried some years later in the grave of Chief *ack
wan. The corpses of all the V/rangells were loaded into canoes and taken out to
Japansky Island and thrown on the beach, where they were devoured by sea-gulls,
crows, eagles, and the beasts of the island* This ended the trouble for nine
or ten years, at he end of which tine some of the Y/r-angells net a canoe load
of Sitka people in Sergius Narrows and killed a nan and his wife and baby, and
also one II a’ida woman and baby, for which mistake the Eagles were paid ^273.
I « A - * -I — Jim a m m A "I A A V % I
ihe faud, witn riuraer ana re^axiaoion, wcnu un w«^*w*jr ----
1899 when Rueben Albertson, proprietor of a hotel and butcher shop in Sitka,
obtained a phonograph, then little known in Alaska# Wnile in Nrangell he cause
Chief Shakes, sovereign of the Natives there, to make a record proposing a laB
ing peace between the two tribes# Ihe record and phonograph were brought back
to Sitka, and there played for Chief Annahootz, head of the Ka*g-wan-tan# Anna
hootz was so impressed by Shakes* eloquence, and the supernatural manner in ^
which the message was delivered from a box, that he agreed# An embassy of Ka g*
wan-tans was sent to Wrangell and a permanent peace was negotiated* In 1919,
however, it was feared that a renewal of general hositilitbs night break out
and the Juneau Native Brotherhood intervened.