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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



tive days, and after the advent of 

 Europeans the increased demand for 

 furs, and their greater value, made this 

 trade even more lucrati\e. 



The Tlingit were a canoe people and 

 might be termed semi-nomadic, as they 

 were on their hunting grounds in the 

 early spring and late fall, while the 

 summer season was spent in the fishing 

 camps by the salmon streams; but not- 

 withstanding these long absences they 

 built substantial villages, where, except 

 for social activities, they spent the winter 

 in comparative idleness. 



As they looked to the sea for their 

 principal food supply, their villages 

 were directly on the shore just above the 

 high-water mark, in sheltered coves 

 where they could launch their canoes 

 and land in any weather and at any 

 stage of the tide. But the Chilkat, 

 differing from all of the other Tlingit, 

 lived just beyond the open water in a 

 rather restricted territory on rivers 

 that were veritable storehouses of food, 

 bringing abundance of fish life to their 

 very doors and so permitting them to 

 remain at home throughout the year, 

 except when on their trading trips to the 

 interior, which gave their habitations a 

 more permanent character, and contri- 

 buted to the unity of communal life. 



Of the four principal old villages, all of 

 which have survived the ravages of 

 constant strife and the still more deadly 

 by-products of civilization — liquor and 

 disease — Klukwan (mother town) has 

 always held the first place in size, 

 wealth, and the character of its people. 

 It retained its supremacy long after the 

 larger of the more southern coast vil- 

 lages had gone to decay, as its more 

 interior and isolated position, and the 

 independent and aggressive reputation 

 of its population, kept white traders at a 

 distance. Klukwan lies at the edge of a 

 gradual slope on the north bank of the 



Chilkat, twenty miles from its mouth, 

 where the swift current concentrated 

 in a single channel forms a strong eddy 

 that permits the landing of canoes at 

 any stage of the river. 



Of the five totemic families that form 

 the Chilkat-kwan, four are resident here. 

 Of these, the Kon-nuh-ta-di, the sole 

 representative of the Ra^'en party, is 

 the one with which this paper deals. 

 Their legendary history, so imaginary 

 and interesting, is closely associated with 

 the wanderings and antics of "Yehlh," 

 the Raven creator, while the earliest 

 family traditions are centered about the 

 south and west coasts of the Prince of 

 Wales and contiguous islands, where, at 

 an early period, they must have lived. 



Their personal names frequently refer 

 to the Raven, their most honored crest, 

 as they claim to be the first family of 

 this phratry, and it is conspicuously dis- 

 played on the totemic headdress and 

 ceremonial paraphernalia. They claim 

 and use a great many other emblems as 

 the whale, frog, woodworm, silver sal- 

 mon, hawk, owl, moon, and starfish. In 

 their house carvings and paintings they 

 illustrate the hero deeds and conquests 

 of their ancestors in early struggles with 

 mythical animals and supernatural be- 

 ings. 



When I first visited Klukwan in 1885, 

 the large old communal houses of the 

 Kon-nuh-ta-di were still standing, the 

 principal one of which, that of the heredi- 

 tary chief, "Yough-hit," (Whale house), 

 was in the last stages of decay and un- 

 inhabitable, although the interior fittings 

 were intact and it was still used upon 

 festival occasions. It was unquestion- 

 ably the most widely known and elabo- 

 rately ornamented house, not only at 

 Chilkat, l)ut in Alaska. It occupied the 

 site of much older houses and, it is 

 claimed, much larger ones. It is said 

 to have be>en built by Kate-tsu about. 



