Chapter III: ABORIGINAL LIFE OF THE SITKANS pp. 36-66

The White Man and the Indian Trading.—The Shrewdness and Avarice of
the Savage.—Small Value of the entire Land Fur Trade of Alaska.—The
Futile Effort of the Greek Catholic Church to Influence the Sitkan
Indians.—The Reason why Missionary Work in Alaska has been and is
Impotent.—The Difference between the Fish-eating Indian of Alaska and
the Meat-eating Savage of the Plains.—Simply One of Physique.—The
Haidahs the Best Indians of Alaska.—Deep Chests and Bandy Legs
from Canoe-travel.—Living in Fixed Settlements because Obliged
To.—Large “Rancheries” or Houses Built by the Haidahs.—Communistic
Families.—Great Gamblers.—Indian “House-Raising Bees.”—Grotesque
Totem Posts.—Indian Doctors “Kill or Cure.”—Dismal Interior of an
Indian “Rancherie.”—The Toilet and Dress of Alaskan Siwashes.—The
Unwritten Law of the Indian Village.—What Constitutes a Chief.—The
Tribal Boundaries and their Scrupulous Regard.—Fish the Main
Support of Sitkan Indians.—The Running of the Salmon.—Indians Eat
Everything.—Their Salads and Sauces.—Their Wooden Dishes and Cups,
and Spoons of Horn.—The Family Chests.—The Indian Woman a Household
Drudge.—She has no Washing to Do, However.—Sitkan Indians not Great
Hunters.—They are Unrivalled Canoe-builders.—Small-pox and Measles
have Reduced the Indians of the Sitkan Archipelago to a Scanty
Number.—Abandoned Settlements of these Savages Common.—The Debauchery
of Rum among these People.—The White Man to Blame for This.