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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1887)
INDIANS OF ALASKA. 8G9 manner, he accounts for the tradition of a great flood, which seems to be common to nearly all of the older civilizations, by the complete submersion of their native land. He, also, thus accounts for the al most uniform custom among the an cients of these various peoples, of build ing pyramids; also for the many re markable similarities in customs, relig ious belief and hieroglyphic signs. Even the Garden of Eden itself, he interprets to be the fruitful island of Atlantis, where he claims that agriculture was carried to a higher degree of scientific perfection than ever since attained, and where the happy people lived amid per ennial flowers and fruits. It is a strong effort in opposition to the usually ac cepted theory of the manner in which America was peopled, but is equally in adequate to account for the American aborigine, who differs as radically from the Atlantean descendants of Donnelly as from their putative Mongolian ances tors. The land from which the Ameri can Indian came, if, indeed, he be not " indigenous to the soil," is a question for anthropologists yet to decide. There seems little doubt that, what ever may have been the origin of the Aztecs and the Cliff-dwellers of Mexico, or the noble red man of Cooper, somo of the Indians now living on the coast of Alaska and British Columbia, are of Mongolian descent, though probably not of pure blood. The Haidas of Queen Charlotte islands show these character istics more distinctly than other tribes, both in their customs and lighter com plexion, though they also have charac teristics which seem to associate them with the Aztecs, and traditions much similar to the Algonquins and Iroquois of the Atlantic slope. The Indians of the Alaskan coast, though not so ad vanced in mechanics as the Haidas, are far ahead of the Indian tribes with which we have been acquainted for years. Es pecially in the manufacture of clothing, canoes and domestic and cooking utensils, they show a much higher stago of dovcl ment On pages 871 and 872 are repre sented two of these large canoes. Many of them are largo enough to hold twenty warriors, and in them, like the Norse men of old, these tribes used to make predatory excursions along the coast to the southward, terrorizing and plunder ing the natives of Fuget sound. One such invasion, which ended most disastrously to the marauders, occurred in November, 1850. A fleet of these war canoes entered the sound and penetrated as far as Bteilacoom, where a battle oc curred between the invaders and tho res ervation Indians, in which tho former were defeated. They then retreated down the sound, pursued by a United States war vessel, under the command of Cap tain S. Swartwout, accompanied by tho steamer Traveler. Tho pursuers found the northern Indians encamped in force at Fort Gamble, who would not permit a party to land for a " peace talk." Dur ing the night the ship and steamer moved in shore, near tho camp, where their howitzers and field pieces could rako tho camp from two directions, and Lieuten ants Semmes and Forest landed with twenty-nine men, wading waist deep in the water, and carrying a howitzer in their arms. In tho morning, tho Indi ans took shelter behind logs and trees, and fired upon tho party on the beach. Instantly tho guns of both vessels and the attacking party opened on them, and then the marines charged, driving tho Indians into tho woods, where tho dens ity of underbrush and fallen timber ren dered pursuit imiwssiblo. Tho camp and property of tho marauders, includ ing their canoes, wero destroyed, and a steady fire of cannon and musketry into the woods ws maintained. The nxt day, tho Indians begged for mercy. They said they had lost twenty-soven of their