Southeastern Alaskan Indian Research— Garfield 27 



friendly to the whites and that he could find no warlike ten- 

 dencies among them. 



From the date of purchase scientific expeditions were sent to 

 investigate resources, survey coastlines and harbors and collect 

 data that would serve in the economic development of Alaska. 

 Nearly all of these reports contain some data on the native 

 people however brief. One of the best reports is that of Ensign 

 A. P. Niblack who gathered information in the summers of 

 1885, 1886 and 1887 in the course of a survey of the coast. He 

 also took excellent photographs of Haida towns, but did not 

 reach northern Tlingit settlements. Niblack urged that a de- 

 tailed ethnographic study be made during the winter when 

 Indians were at home and could be interviewed. His book 

 includes illustrations and descriptions of Northwest Coast 

 Indian manufactures in the United States National Museum. 

 This was the earliest systematic attempt on the part of an 

 American to describe the cultures of the Tlingit and Haida 

 Indians. However, other men sent by the government on 

 scientific missions in the latter part of the nineteenth century 

 added measurably to existing knowledge of coastal tribes. 

 Notable contributions were made by Dall (1870), Schwatka 

 (1885), Abercrombie (1884) and Petrof (1881 to 1890). These 

 and other papers were collected and published in Washington 

 in 1900. 3 They form a valuable source of data, including census 

 reports for Alaska for the years 1880 and 1890. Publications 

 of the Harriman scientific expedition in the summer of 1899, 

 privately sponsored, include a chapter on the Tlingit and 

 drawings and photographs of towns and sculpture (28). 



Missionization of Canadian coastal Indians by the English 

 began with the arrival of a missionary at Fort Simpson in 1856. 

 He trained Indian lay workers and sent them and white mis- 

 sionaries up and down the coast and into Alaska territory. The 

 first American mission and school in southeastern Alaska was 

 established at Wrangell in 1877, followed by one at Sitka to 

 take the place of the Russian school for native children. The 



s Under the title Compilation of Narratives of Explorations in Alaska. Wash- 

 ington, 1900. 



