THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
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leaves all to his wife, and the inscription reads thus: “ Let all that read know that I am a friend of the whites. Let no one molest this house. In case of my death it belongs to my wife.” Another reads: “Jake is a good boy, a working man, a friend of the whites and demands protection.”
The Alaskan Indians are migratory in their habits. They spend much time in visiting their tribes and in the fall are off for the salmon-fisheries, or maybe all the family are crowded into the cedar canoe with the blankets and cooking utensil. I say utensil,for the woman has only one large pot for hot water, the meat or fish are put into a woven basket, dropped into the boiling water, thus constituting the meal. The family once loaded into the canoe, they are ready for a journey of two or three months, for it is eleven hundred miles down to the hop fields of Washington or Oregon, We saw hundreds of them wending their way down the channel, hugging the shore, the mother with a pappoose in her arm often helping the master to paddle the canoe. The women and children are paid good wages for picking hops, but the men are addicted to gambling, seldom saving any money, leaving the mother to look after the supplies for the winter.
The tenth day we arrived at Sitka. No place except Muir Glacier created so much interest. It is a gala day always when the semi-monthly steamer arrives there. The whole population turn out and give themselves up to the entertainment of the visitors. The wharf is crowded with a motley throng. The best society Sitka affords may be looking for faces of friends among the arrivals, the humblest seeking a buyer for her wares, and a general confusion prevails while the ship unloads her mail and freight. Scattered along the streets for a few blocks, women were sitting on the ground, beside them the stock in trade of all kinds—horn spoons and silver spoons, wooden totem-polls and faun-skins. They were typical epitomes of the fashions. One young woman had on a pair of rubber boots, a gentleman’s linen shirt open in the back, and a red plush skirt. She looked a grotesque figure, indeed, as she sat on a log and drank her coffee from a blue china cup. Some of the women are quite good looking, but most of them are very homely, and, when in mourning, are positively hideous. In mourning they smear the face with soot mixed with grease, leaving only the eyes visible.
The Sitkan Indians and those at Juneau are the best educated of any of the tribes. Their houses are modern cottages of frame or hewn logs, with doors and windows. I noticed many were numbered. They are comfortably furnished, especially that of the chief. We were greatly disappointed in not seeing Princess Thom, the greatest personage of all the tribes, the chiefs and medicine men all yielding to her authority. She has a very comfortable house, is rich in blankets and bracelets, wearing thirty gold bracelets, each made of a twenty-dollar gold piece. Her wealth is estimated at $10,000. This princess is about forty years old, is said to have had seventeen husbands, and still not considered a flirt. Some of these husbands have been cremated, some discharged, most of them are scattered around loose. She has been Christianized, and lives at present with her last, a very young man. When she sees a gentleman Indian whom she fancies, she trades blankets and bracelets for him; if he has a wife who can not be bought over, she takes her beautiful white yacht, invites the wife to take a sail, spreads the white wings, and floats out to sea. It is needless to say the wife is never heard of again. This princess is an exception to the general rule; it is usually the chief who has more than one wife. When he dies his wives fall to his heir—grandson or nephew, whoever he may be—and if the heir refuse to accept the legacy, his clans unite in rebellion and compel him to submit, though the relicts may buy their freedom if they desire. Miss Scidmore, in her history, remarks: “ Curiously, with this subjection of the women, it is they who are the family autocrats and tyrants, giving the casting vote in domestic counsels, and overriding the male decisions in the most high-handed manner. The woman’s rights and her sphere and influence have reached a development among the Sitkans that would astonish the suffrage leaders of Wyoming and Washington Territories.”