II.

Indian Tribes of Alaska.

For some years after the cession of Alaska to the United States, there was trouble among the Indian tribes, and a man-of-war was stationed in Sitka Harbor. There has been no recent disturbance. The natives of Alaska, according to Mr. Petroff, are divided into four principal families: The Eskimo or Innuit, the Aleut (Oonagan), the Thlinket, and the Athabaskan (or Tinneh). There are numerous subdivisions. The Eskimos occupy almost the whole coast line of Alaska west of the one hundred and fortyfifth meridian. The Aleuts inhabit parts of Aliaska Peninsula, the Shumagin Islands, and the Aleutian chain. The Athabaskans include a large number of tribes generally classed as "North American Indians," extending from the mouth of the Mackenzie River in the north to the borders of Mexico in the south. The northern tribes extend west nearly to Bering Sea, touching the coast only in the northern part of Cook Inlet. At every other point they are separated from the ocean by a belt of Eskimo. The Thlinket inhabit the coast and islands from the intersection of the one hundred and forty-first meridian to the southern boundary of Alaska. Detailed descriptions of the tribes are given in Petroff's Population, Industries, and Resources of Alaska; by Dall, in "Alaska and its Resources," and by Lieutenant Schwatka (Military Reconnoissance in Alaska).

The report of Governor Knapp for 1892 says: The Athabascans and Eskimos have come less under the influences of contact with white people than the other tribes, and therefore retain more

of their original customs and peculiarities. They occupy the interior and the coast of the Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea. The Eskimos are a comparatively gentle and inoffensive people, living mostly upon fish, walrus, whale, and other game to be found near the shores and in the water, though they also make long excursions into the interior, hunting reindeer, moose, and other large animals. The interior Indians (Athabascans) live mostly by hunting and fishing in the rivers. A few mission stations along the coast and on the Yukon River have had a little influence upon a very small number of the people. The mining camps on the upper Yukon

have also come in contact with the natives to some extent in the way of trade, but they have not in any large degree acted as civilizing agencies. It is said the natives of the upper Yukon region have been very little demoralized by the use of intoxicating liquor, perhaps on account of the difficulty of packing it across the divide. Mr. Chapman, of Anvik, writes that "liquor has not troubled the natives speaking the group of dialects found around Anvik; but almost everywhere else in the Yukon country it has made more or less trouble." The dialects referred to arise from the interrelations of Eskimos and Athabascans at the point of contact. The Eskimos and interior Indians find it necessary to exercise the utmost of their energies and of their ingenuity to secure a bare subsistence, and their ideas have not risen much above the level of animal existence. Physically, they are strong and comparatively healthy; mentally, they lack vigor; morally, they substitute expediency for right. They are comparatively honest, because it is the best policy to be so. They see no moral quality in abstaining from the use of intoxicating liquors, tobacco, or other hurtful things, or in restraints in the relations of the sexes.

Except as their ideas are modified by relations and intercourse with white people, they have no religion, unless certain indefinite superstitions having no connection with any idea of a supreme spiritual being can be called religion.

The Aleuts have become thoroughly Russianized. They talk Russian, belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, shade off into Russian blood, features, and complexion, and affect Russian ideas. They are rapidly fading away. Their physical condition is far from being satisfactory, and their moral condition is worse. They are an easy-going, gentle, and kindly disposed people, somewhat lacking in force of character. They secure a comfortable living with their sea-otter hunting and fishing, and have little forethought as to the future.

The Thlingkets, Tsimpseans, and Hydas live in southeastern Alaska and are very similar in character and habits, though their languages are different. Their contact with white people has very much modified them in many respects, and many of them now converse freely in the English language, while a few of them read and write.

III.

Geography and Topography.

Alaska may be conveniently divided, says Special Agent Ivan Petroff, in his report on the Population, Industries, and Resources of Alaska, 1884, into six geographical sections:

1. The southeastern, containing 29,980 square miles, and comprising the coast from Mount St. Elias in the north, to Portland Canal, in latitude 54° 40′ in the south, together with the islands of the Alexander Archipelago between Cross Sound and Cape Fox. This region differs from the bulk of Alaska, resembling British Columbia and the adjoining islands. It is densely wooded and exceedingly mountainous in its formation, the coast is deeply indented with bays and fiords, and for two-thirds of its length is sheltered by the islands of the archipelago. Coal has been discovered on many of the islands and on the mainland, but no practical use has thus far been made of the discoveries. Discoveries of gold-bearing quartz were made on Baranof Island, but the ledges are not worked. Gold was also discovered on the peninsula between Taku and Chilkat inlets and on Douglas Island. The natives are chiefly engaged in the fur trade and fisheries. There are numerous glaciers, and the mountains range from 2,000 feet in height to 18,100 (Mount St. Elias). The chief river is the Stikine (see “River system”).

2. The Kadiak division, containing 14,610 square miles, comprises the south coast of the Aliaska Peninsula down to Zakharof Bay, with the adjacent islands, the Kadiak group, Cook Inlet, the Kenai Peninsula, and Prince William Sound. This country is

also very mountainous. Steep ridges and peaks rise to the height of sometimes 12,000 feet, intersected by glaciers. Coal has been found on the peninsula opposite Kadiak Island, and coal and gold on Cook Inlet. The principal rivers are the Shushitna and the Copper.

3. The Aleutian division contains 14,610 square miles, and comprises the western part of the Aliaska Peninsula and the chain of islands from the Shumagin group in the east to Attu in the west, including the Pribilof Islands. The islands appear to be a continuation of the main Alaskan range of mountain groups. There are many volcanic peaks, and slight shocks of earthquake are common. The entire division is treeless, dwarfed specimens of creeping willow being the nearest approach to timber found. Grass grows in abundance.

4. The Kuskokwim division contains 114,975 square miles, and is bounded on the north by the Yukon division and on the east by the mountain range between the Kuskokwim and Tanana rivers. The head waters of this river have not been explored, but the ground on the shores is low and marshy. The interior of Alaska is less elevated, and contains extensive plains. The country is poor in natural products, although salmon abounds in the river.

5. The Yukon division contains 176,715 square miles, and comprises the valley of the Yukon River, as far as it lies within our boundaries, with its tributaries. The division is bounded by the Arctic division on the north, the one hundred and forty-fifth meridian on the east, and Bering Sea on the west. The southern boundary lies along a line indicating the water shed between the Yukon and the Kuskokwim, Sushitna, and Copper rivers. This section, as well as the Kuskokwim division, are more fully described under the heading "River system."

6. The Arctic division covers 125,245 square miles, and comprises that portion of the continent between the one hundred and forty-fifth meridian on the east and Bering Strait on the west, the