Fort Wrangel, a village of 100 houses, is on the north-western coast of Wrangel island, at the mouth of the Stickine river. Owing to the extensive gold mines at Cassair, on the Stickine river, it has become the chief business center of A. The Cassair mines employ about 2000 men, who create considerable trade. For this trade Wrangel is at the end of ocean and commencement of river navigation. Five ocean vessels run between Portland and Wrangel, and Victoria and Wrangel, and four small river steamers run on the Stick hip river between Wrangel and the mines. The coast of Wrangel and the mouth of Stikine river were first visited by the American ship Atalivalpa, of Boston, in 1802, three years before Lewis and Clark descended the Columbia. The permanent pop. is about 100 whites and Russians and 500 Indians. Besides these there is a large winter pop. of miners, and a floating Indian pop. of from 500 to 700 more, sometimes being from 2000 to 3000 Indians in the place. It is on the great highway of the Indians to and from the mines, also to their hunting and fishing. This makes it a central point for the establish ment of a mission to the Indians, as parties from several large tribes are almost always in the village. The mission has a beautiful situation, overlooking the bay, the islands, and the Indian portion of the village, with its dwellings, its graves, and its emblems of heathenism. On the southern sweep of the shorcof the bay stands the Indian portion of the village.
The native races in A. number about 25,000; Russians, 300 or 400; Americans and others, 500. The Indians can be divided into three great classes: the Innuit of Yukon district; the Aleutian and the Tuski of the Sitka district. And these again are divided into tribes, settlements, and families. These are largely in a condition of degraded super stition, and liable to all thb horrible cruelties of heathenism. The old, sick, and useless are put to death, with various cruelties and disgusting rites. The Indians are again sub divided into various families, each of which has its family badge. The badges are the whale, the porpoise, the eagle, the coon, the wolf, and the frog. These crests extend through different tribes, and their members have a closer relation to one another than the tribal connection. For instance, members of the same tribe may marry, but not mem bers of the same badge. Thus, a wolf may not marry into the wolf family, hut may into that of the whale. Upon all public occasions they are seated according to their rank. This rank is distinguished by the height of a pole erected in front of their houses. The greater the chief, the higher his pole. Some of Iliac 'poles are over 100 ft. high.
The missionary relates how, upon one occasion, a head chief of the Nasse river Indians put up a_pole higher than his rank would allow. The friends of the chief whose head he would thus step over made tight with guns, and the over-ambitious chief was shot in the arm, which led him to quickly shorten his stick. Their houses are from 2,5 to 40 ft. square, without a window, the only openings being a small door for entrance, and a hole in the roof for the escape of smoke. The door is 3 or 4 ft, above the ground level, and opens on the inside upon a broad platform, which extends around the four sides. This platform contains their rolls of blankets, bedding, and other stores. Some of the houses have a second platform inside the first, and a few steps lower. Then a few more steps down brings to the inside square on the ground floor, which is also planked, with the exception of about four ft. square in the center, where the fire is built on the ground. Some few have a small inside room, looking as if it were a portion of the cabin of a wrecked vessel. The walls, and frequently roofs, are made of cypress plank, from 2 to 5 ft. wide, and 2 to 3 in. thick. These planks are made by first splitting the trees into great planks, then smoothing down the planks with a small adze. In front. of their lead ing houses and at their burial places are sometimes immense timbers covered with carv ings. These are the genealogical records of the family. The child usually takes the totem of the mother. For instance, at the bottom of the post may be the carving of a whale, over that a fox, a porpoise, and an eagle—signifying that the great-grandfather of the present occupant of the house, on his mother's side, belonged to the whale family, the grandfather to the fox family, the father to the porpoise, itnd be himself to the eagle family. These standards are from 2 to 5 it. in diameter, and often over 60 ft. in height,
and sometimes cost from t1000 to $2000. Formerly the entrance to the house was a hole through this standard, but latterly they are commencing to have regular doors hung on hinges. Among the Stickine.s these badge trees or totems arc usually at one side of the door.
A. is celebrated for its canoes. Some of the largest of these canoes are from CO to 75 ft. long and 8 to 10 ft.wide, and will carry 100 people. The operation of making them is thus described: " Having selected a sound tree, and cut it the desired length, the out side is first shaped. then the tree is hollowed out till the shell is of proper thickness; this is done with a tool resembling a grubbing-hoe, or narrow adze with a short handle. It is then filled with water, which is heated by throwing in hot stones. The canoe is then covered with a canvas to keep time steam in. This softens the timber, and the sides are distended by cross-sticks to the desired breadth at the center, and tapering towards the ends in lines of beautiful symmetry. It is finished off with a highly ornamental figure head, and the bulwarks strengthened by a fancy covering board. ' Polygamy, with all its attendant evils, is common among the Kaviaks. Their wives are often sisters. Sometimes a man's own mother or daughter is among his wives. If a man's wife bears him only daughters, he continues to take other wives until he has sons. One of the Nasse chiefs is said to have had forty wives. After marriage, women are practically slaves of their husbands. Sometimes they are traded off by the husband for something he may desire. In some sections all the work but hunting and fighting falls upon the women—even the boys transferring their loads and work to their sisters. As though their ordinary condition were not bad enough, the majority of the slaves are women. The men captured in war are usually killed, or reserved for torture; but the women are kept as beasts of burden, and often treated with great inhumanity. The master's power over them is unlimited. He can torture or put them to death at will. Sometimes, upon the death of the master, one or more of them are put to death, that he may have some one to wait upon him in the next world. The bodies of the dead are disjointed and burned. Dead slaves are cast into the sea. They believe in the transmi gration of souls from one body to another, but not to animals. whose bodies are burned are supposed to be warm in the next world, and the others cold. If slaves arc sacrificed at their burial it is thought that the owners are relieved from work in the next world. Among the Nehaunes and Talcolins, when a man dies, his widow is compelled to ascend the burning funeral pile, throw herself upon the body, and remain there until the hair is burned from her head, and she is almost suffocated. She is then allowed to stagger from the pile, but must frequently thrust her hand through the flames and place it upon his bosom, to show her continued devotion. Finally the ashes are gathered up and placed in a little sack, which the widow carries on her person for two years. During this period of mourning she is clothed in rags, and treated as a slave. Among the Chuekees the old and feeble are sometimes killed. This is done by placing a rope around the neck, and dragging them over the stones. If this does not kill, then the body is stoned, or speared, and left to be eaten by the clop. Occasionally the old ask to be killed. Then they are taken, stupefied with drugs, and, in the midst of various incantations, bled to death. In some sections where is scarce, the bodies of women are not consid ered worth the wood that would be consumed in the burning; and they are either cast out, to be consumed by the dogs, foxes, and crows, or cast into the sea as food for fishes. A summary cure for crying babies is to take them to the sea-shore and hold them in the water until they cease crying. As soon as they can walk, children are bathed in the sea daily, and they learn to swim as soon as they do to walk.