II. 



Indian Tribes of Alaska. 



For some years after the cession of Alaska to the United States, 

 there was trouble among the Indian tribes, and a man-of-war 

 was stationed in Sitka Harbor. There has been no recent dis- 

 turbance. The natives of Alaska, according to Mr. Petroff, are 

 divided into four principal families: The Eskimo or Innuit, the 

 Aleut (Oonagan), the Thlinket, and the Athabaskan (or Tinneh). 

 There are numerous subdivisions. The Eskimos occupy almost 

 the whole coast line of Alaska west of the one hundred and forty- 

 fifth meridian. The Aleuts inhabit parts of Aliaska Peninsula, 

 the Shumagin Islands, and the Aleutian chain. The Athabaskans 

 include a large number of tribes generally classed as "North 

 American Indians," extending from the mouth of the Mackenzie 

 River in the north to the borders of Mexico in the south. The 

 northern tribes extend west nearly to Bering Sea, touching the 

 coast only in the northern part of Cook Inlet. At every other 

 point they are separated from the ocean by a belt of Eskimo. 

 The Thlinket inhabit the coast and islands from the intersection 

 of the one hundred and forty-first meridian to the southern bound- 

 ary of Alaska. Detailed descriptions of the tribes are given in 

 PetrofF's Population, Industries, and Resources of Alaska; by 

 Dall, in "Alaska and its Resources," and by Lieutenant Schwatka 

 (Military Reconnoissance in Alaska). 



The report of Governor Knapp for 1892 says: The Athabas- 

 cans and Eskimos have come less under the influences of contact 

 with white people than the other tribes, and therefore retain more 



