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| Pittsburg Dispatch, 1889 |
ogdensburg-advance-1957-october-december - 0062.pdf
Totem pole carving was a centuries - old craft of the American Indians, especially those of the northern Pacific coast. They were invariably carved of logs of red cedar into figures of humans, birds or animals that represented the mythology and history of a particular tribe or clan. The Indians used adzes and knives to cut the logs and carve the poles. They used crude paints—burnt clam shells for white, iron ores for rusty reds—which they mixed with salmon roe, and applied the paint with porcupine hair brushes.
...pictured here. Indian artist Henry Hunt carves model of a Haida totem pole at Thunderbird Park, British Columbia, Canada.
Ogdensburg Advance, December 1957
Indians Win
The U.S. Court of Claims in Washington has decided that a small group of Alaskan Tlingit and Haida Indians is entitled to payment for more than 20 million acres of land taken by white men from their ancestors. Millions of dollars could be involved in payment for the land (shaded area on Newsmap). Included are the Tongass national Forest (18 million acres), appropriated by the government in 1902-1907 and Glacier Bay National Monument (two million acres), taken in 1925, and Annette Island (86,000 acres).
Massena Observer, November 1959
Aboriginal Cremation.
The novel scene of burning the dead was witnessed on Point Hudson, near this city, last Sunday. Some Hydah Indians who were encamped there lost one of their number by death, and in accordance with their peculiar custom when any of the tribe die away from home, they prepared a funeral pyre and performed their rites. One aged klootchman stood near the fire with a bottle of liquid, supposed to be whiskey, from which she filled a glass now and then, and threw the contents on the blaze, after which she would give utterance to the dismal wailing notes of the Hydah death song. The ceremony of burning their dead when traveling around is to keep the bodies from falling into the hands of other tribes.--Port Townsend (W.T.) Argus.
Weekly Kansas Chief, July 9, 1874
Women in Alaska
The lowest point reached by the mercury is 29 deg. below zero, and when the wind is from the southeast the snow drifts on the west side of our house until the building is nearly hidden, the snow being three feet deep on the roof. When the storm is over the natives come with their shovels, made of the shoulder blades of the walrus or the baby whale, and dug us out.
. . .
Mrs. Jones, writing from the native village of Juneau says: "It is difficult to improve the conditions of the natives here. Few take any interest in the civilizing or Christianizing of the people in Juneau save the missionaries, and the tide of immortality is something dreadful.
Kansas City journal., August 08, 1897
Alaskan Natives
The Copper-colored first settlers will stand no nonsense
Suspicious of White men
Slow to anger, but dangerous.
The Saint Paul globe., December 19, 1897
Alaska Indians
"It has been noticed that the natives, both on the American and Asiatic coast, have no religious ideas and no conception of a God."
. . . "among the Alaska Indians there is no idea of future life or future punishment." Those who heard Rev. S. Hall Young's lecture on Alaska will remember something of the doctrines of the natives, as to their belief in the transmigration of souls, so that while they do not have a definite idea of Heaven or hell they do believe that the soul never dies but passes from one being to another through countless ages.
The Daily Astorian., April 29, 1883
The Great Northwest
It is a fact not generally known that a great many of the canoes seen on this part of the coast are made by a tribe of Indians further north, the Hydahs, who have their headquarters at Massett, a picturesque little Indian village above Port Simpson, says the New Westminister Ledger. The Hydahs are known far and near among other tribes for their skill in canoe building, and not only in building the graceful craft are they skilled, but also in their use, in which last they are almost unapproachable.
The Anaconda standard., August 18, 1891
The British Daily Colonist, 1858 - 1910
http://www.britishcolonist.ca/
Massett Leader, 1912-1913
http://historicalnewspapers.library.ubc.ca/list/collection/massett
