60" Sketches of an Excursion to Southern Alaska. 



doo, Chinese and Japanese, which reached a dead level, and were thenceforth 

 transfixed and immovable. The Alaskans never reached the same point in 

 manual arts, because their staples and materials were less abundant, their soil 

 and climate less genial, their incentives fewer, their trade was very limited, and 

 they were destitute of the iron tool and the recording pen. 



There are Ethnological reasons* for the supposition that the ancestors of the 

 Native Races which occupy the coast from the Columbia River to the Aleutian 

 Isles, came from Japan. Differing in many respects, yet some existing resem- 

 blances are striking and characteristic. Each shows the same desire for im- 

 provement, and invites foreign teachers. Although the Japanese excels the 

 "American" in variety and elaborateness of manufactures, yet the latter par- 

 takes of the ingenuity and skill of the former, and is anxious to adopt new 

 styles and customs. This attitude of the people seems to be universal. If 

 there be an exception it is found among the chiefs, who might be expected to 

 oppose changes through fear of thereby losing their power. Nevertheless, some 

 chiefs are fully impressed with the necessity of education in order to save them- 

 selves and people. 



Our plan contemplates both secular and religious training. The opinion is 

 current, that a religion, in order to find favor in the eyes of the aborigines, 

 must first meet some of their material requirements. If it is good, it will 

 clothe them better, and feed them better, for these to them are the chiefest 

 good in life. 



This opinion prevails among persons who take a secular view of all religions, 

 and give little weight, or none at all, to the spiritual nature of any religion. 

 Taking this view of it, religion should be introduced as a measure of state 

 policy or expediency; for by promoting cleanliness, industry and economy, it 

 promotes health, plenty and all the comforts of life. In a similar degree, 

 the secular influence of religion is sustained by the principles of Political Econ- 

 omy, and should be introduced and advocated on this ground, also. 



Its introduction cannot be consistently opposed by those who take a material- 

 istic view of modern progress. It is sometimes confidently asserted that much 

 of the civilization of this age is materialistic ; that a large proportion of the 

 workers in the manual arts, are materialists; that many engaged in scientific 

 pursuits, as well as a considerable number of the " advanced thinkers " in 

 literature and philosophy, are the disciples of Comte and Spencer and Mill. 



We would fain attract their support as the magnet attracts iron, to the scheme 

 of civilizing the people of Southern Alaska ; fur it contemplates the erection 

 of a visible and palpable structure upon a substantial and permanent foundation 

 of material good. The countenance of persons who take the most practical 

 and even utilitarian views is confidently invited upon their own principles to 

 this plan for civilizing these people ; for it promotes the development of the 

 Country's Resources, and adds to the Wealth of the Nation, and increases the 

 numbers of its intelligent defenders, by the very act of training up a numerous 



'Vide Bancroft, " Native Races:" and Prwell, in "Smithsonian" Publications. 



