IN GREEN ALASKA 



METLAKAHTLA 



We were not really in iVlaskan waters until the next 

 day, June 4th. This was Sunday, and we spent most 

 of the day visiting Metlakahtla, the Indian Mission 

 settlement on Annette Island, where we saw one of 

 the best object lessons to be found on the coast, 

 showing what can be done with the Alaska Indians. 

 Here were a hundred or more comfortable frame 

 houses, some of them of two stories, many of them 

 painted, all of them substantial and in good taste, 

 a large and imposing wooden church, a large school- 

 house, a town hall, and extensive canning estab- 

 lishments, all owned and occupied by seven or 

 eight hundred Tlinkit Indians, who, under the won- 

 derful tutelage of William Duncan, a Scotch mis- 

 sionary, had been brought from a low state of 

 savagery to a really fair state of industrial civiliza- 

 tion. The town is only twelve years old, and is 

 situated on a broad expanse of nearly level land 

 at the foot of the mountains. The large stumps 

 and logs on the surface between the houses show 

 how recently the land has been cleared. The earth 

 was covered with a coat of peat, the accumulation 

 of ages of a thick growth of moss. Beneath this 

 the soil was red and friable. We strolled about 

 the numerous streets on broad plank walks that 

 reached from side to side above the rocks and 

 stumps. Many of the houses had gardens where were 



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