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About The Chemawa American (Chemawa, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 8, 1930)
Printed at Chemaua, Oregon, and Devoted to the Interests of Indian Education Wednesday, Oct. 8, 1930 Vol. XXXII A GUEST FROM THE NORTH Last week Supt. and Mrs. Lipps had as a guest Mrs. Matilda W. Minthorn, aunt of President Hoover. Dr. Minthorn, deceased husband of the guest above mentioned, was one of the first superintendents of this school and was in charge during a period when our institution was located at Forest Grove. For some years Mrs. Minthorn has lived in Metlakatla, Alaska, where she has been engaged in missionary work among the native people of the north. She is a staunch supporter of these people and is in every sense proud of them and their achievements. She was in Oregon on a vacation and shortly after her visit to Chemawa she returned to Metlakatla. While in Portland she was interviewed by a staff writer on The Oregonian and in that paper of the date of September 29th the followihg most interesting ar ticle appeared: Now when the storms sweep down the indented coast of Alaska back of Prince of Wales Island to Metlakatla, tiny fishing vill ige, the Indian inhabitants no longer shiver and pray to strange gods in their frail shelters; thev listen in comfort in neat wooden houses to symphony concerts in New York and Philadelphia, jazz music from San Francisco, elaborate programs from Portland and keep in touch with the world’s events by radio. The picture of the new life of an Indian of Metlakat la, founded in 1896by William Duncan, was sketched Saturday by Mrs. Matilda W. Minthorn, aunt of Pres ident Hoover who has been in charge of the religious work there for the past seven years. For 13 years she has been stationed at Metiakatla where the late Dr. Herbert J. Minthorn was physician under William Duncan and later head of the mission work. Even William Duncan who founded the mission near Fort Simpson in British Columbia in 1857, after Admiral Prevost had praised the Indians to mission ary groups in London, and who brought the tribes out of savagery in his teaching of three generations, would probably be surprised at what his followers are doing, she said. No longer do they dry berries as was the custom of their ancestors of centuries before them, because they can them effectively by the cold-pack method; no long er do they smoke fish, for they can it now; no longer do they go without fruit, for they pack peaches and pears in from Ketchikan to preserve as do housewives No. 5 here; no longer do they rely on the outside world for many things, because they build or make them with the skill they have aquired in the years under William Duncan. Some remnants j>f their former life they have pre served, however, including the spoken language, in which they give sermons and make long speeches about the glories of their tribes, their love of feasting and their childlike geniality and freedom. Governors of Alaska have described them as the most highly civilized and Christianized Indians in North America. Admiral Prevost noted their exceptionally intelligent faces when he made his trips in the ’50s and his observations have since been proved. Stocky, healthy, bright, genial, they took quickly to the teachings of William Duncan, whose memory they revere. For 12 years they have held the basket ball championship of southeastern Alaska; they man their own sawmills, build their own houses, construct their own boats and carry on energetically their fish ing industry. Five hundred Indians out of 1000— for some of them have drifted away to neighboring cities—remain at Metlakatla, sincerely proud that they are independent and happy. Seventy years ago, before the coming of William Duncan, these Indians were living in savagery be tween Nass and the Skeena rivers, warring with other tribes in northern British Columbia. They are known as the Tshimpsian people, nine of the 12 tribes of which are represented now at Metlakatla. William Duncan learned their language—which is said to be more expressive than other Indian tongues—preached to them eloquently in it and literally led them out of savagery to civilization. His was a romantic story; one which Mrs. Minthorn, his successor, told feelingly last night. When William Duncan moved the mis sion to Metlakatla in 1896, his followers—828 by act ual count—went with him. The high light of their history came on July 8, 1924, when President Harding—the only president ever to visit Alaska—raised a huge flag on a 60-foot flagpole which they had brought out of the forest. Assiduously they work and as quickly do they spend the proceeds on parties, feasts and’good times. Music attracts them—which accounts for the popularity of the radio—and they have a brass band, a 12 piece or chestra, a choir of 40 voices, a choral society of 100 (Continued on page 4)
