“POLYGAMY PRACTICED
BY ALASKA INDIANS”
Interview by Miss Marie Falldine.
We are giving; attention to the
interview given by Miss Falldine to
the New York Times and reprinted
by Stroller’s Weekly, in order to
show how little some good people
can learn after being several years
in the Territory. The informed res
idents of Alaska will readily see how
badly Miss Falldine misunderstands
the people among whom she has
done some work. Perhaps we should
say at this time that we had a
high regard for the lady, and ac
knowledge the enthusiasm with
which she works for all classes who
need the services of a Red Cross
nurse.
She is reported to have said:
“Alaska Indians in some instances
still have two wives, an elder one
to do the work and a younger one
to bear the children. I he practice
of having two wives is no longer
common, but is an old-fashioned cus
tom and is done under cover. rl he
residual effects are seen in the fact
that the Alaskan native generally
marries a woman older than him
self.” Miss Falldine entirely misun
derstands the reason for the prac
tice which formerly obtained. In
the olden days when a man died his
heir under Indian common law was
his sister’s son, the unmarried eldest
of whom would assume the leader
ship of the family vacated by the
deceased. The uncle’s widow would
be married to his nephew, who, by
this ceremony, because the uncle’s
heir. Of course, the widow would
nearly always be much older than
the nephew. And as time wer.t on
the old lady would select from her
immediate family a young woman to
be the wife of her young husband.
In a sense this is polygamy. But
in another sense it was a provision
by a primitive people to take care
of their old people.
The practice above referred to has
not been followed during the last
sixty years. As missionaries have
come into the Territory and worked
among these people they have per
suaded all such couples to separate
and allow the man to select the
wife that he would marry, which
would be done legally.
Referring to her further state
ment, as follows: “Alaskan natives
in the southeastern part of the Ter
ritory live in villages of huts rudely
built, and in many cases in tribal
huts,” Miss Falldine has no com
prehension of what a tribal hut is,
nor has she seen a tribal hut in
Southeastern Alaska at any time.
Some Indians live in more or less
crude houses, in a sense that they
are not elaborate. But these houses
are not any more of a hut than
are used by any person, white or
otherwise, holding the same station
in society. Among the finest resi
dences in Sitka you will find sev
eral belonging to so-called illiterate
Indians, but actually owned by
graduates of the Sheldon Jackson
School. And so it goes.
She says: “In the region where
I have been working the tribal mar
riage customs are very strict. No
member can marry a woman in his
own tribe. An Eagle may marry
a Raven or a Bear, but he is for
bidden to mate with an Eagle.”
Miss Falldine has not learned that
tlie Eagle and the Bear belong to
the same phratres, to use the
Smithsonian phrase. Perhaps the
term “clan” is just as good and
better understood. This law, how
ever, was a very strict one. The
children in a family take the clan
of the mother. No intermarriages
are allowed, for the reason that the
Indian considered such a marriage
was interbreeding and a marriage
between blood relatives. They are
getting over that idea, however, and
oon we expect to see them follow
the practice occasionally seen among
the civilized races of cousins marry
ing cousins.
She said further: “The Alaska
native is stoical and almost morose.
The natives are notably kind to their
children, however, and discipline
them so little that the task of the
teacher in the native school is a dif
ficult one.” Miss Falldine touches
upon a truth that is well known
among the natives. Their realization
of this fact led them in former
times to take away from the parent
all the boys as they reached the age
of twelve years and give the child
to the brother of the mother, who
raised him with truly Spartan se
verity in order that “he might not
bring disgrace upon the name.”
Speaking of their language she
says, “They have no negatives in their
speech.” It is impossible to know
where Miss Falldine could get such
information, for the language of the
Indians in Southeastern Alaska is
a language that is almost as well
developed as the Latin language. It
- nore highly developed than the
English language, having declensions
and conjugations that are unknown
to the English tongue, making it
possible to express ideas that would
be impossible even to such a cul
tured lady as Miss Falldine.
Another thing that should be told
is the fact that, even though the
grammar of the Thlinget tribes of
Alaska is much more complicated
in modes and tenses and other in
flections than the English language
is, no adult person among these
Thlingets ever uses his grammar
incorrectly. The mother tongue is
perfect.
We suspect that when the New
York Times reporter interviewed
Miss Falldine she fell into the mis
take that many Alaskans make in
this; she hated to reveal to the re
porter her ignorance of a thing that
is really interesting to the Eastern
people, namely: The history, the old
customs, and the transition from
such customs to the new civilization
by the aborigines of Alaska. Rather
than say “I do not know,” she made
an answer which only shows how
superficial her study of the Indian
people has been. We have suspected
as much for a long time, but it re
mained for her to travel to New
York City to prove the case.
“RICH ALASKA”
In a recent issue of one of the
papers of Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
there was contained a report on
“Rich Alaska,” made by Roy Soren
son when he returned to that city.
This article excited the wrath of an
Alaskan pioneer sojourning' in Mil
waukee. He complained that what
we need are boosters for Alaska. It
seems to us that Roy Sorenson has
hit the nail on the head, and has
rendered Alaska real service by tell
ii g the truth. He speaks of Valdez
“looming like a ghost on the shore.”
He mentions canneries whose “work
ers flock back to the states when
winter nears, taking with them their
money, while the towns, snowed in,
half deserted, listen over the radio
to the world outside.” He speaks of
fhe Fairbanks College with its
“twenty-three students” that com
mands its biennial appropriation of
one hundred thousand dollars or
more. The article follows:
“RICH ALASKA CRIES FOR MEN
“Alaska, land of magic contrasts,
where peaks rise to stern, forbidding
heights, where petals of flowers push
through the white blanket 1 of the
snows to startle with their beauty,
where people welcome chance visitors
from the world outside!
“Alaska! Huge, blundering giant
that holds forth gold in its hands,
and is starving!”
These are the impressions of Roy
Sorenson, Y. M. C. A. boys’ work
secretary, who just returned from
Alaskan. “A wonderful country,”
said Sorenson yesterday, “a most
wonderful country. But with hopes
so slender, so tragic, its people
eking out existence at the edge of
the world.”
Settlers in Demand
“Consider, if you will, a land ten
times larger than Wisconsin. Place
in it one-tenth of the people in Mil
waukee alone. And remember that
half of these are dull, stodgy na
tives. There, you have your answer!