54 OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



are fearless and brave, j^et they know no open, fair fight — taught to 

 get his Hving by stratagem when fishing or hunting, so the Kolosh 

 advances in capturing his human enemies, just as all other Indians 

 have done and do. 



Each village has a well-recognized head man, or chief, who, though 

 possessing much influence, still never has had, and does not now 

 enjoy, that absolute rule which is attributed to such Indians. He 

 is really a presiding elder over the several families in the hamlet, 

 and, without their consent, his decisions are futile or carry no 

 weight. He has no power to compel other members of the tribe 

 to work, hunt, or fish for him, and if he builds a house, or a canoe, 

 he has to hire them to labor by making the customary "potlatch," 

 just as any other man of the tribe would do — only he must give a 

 little more. The social rules which exist among these savages show 

 many strange features, for though every rancherie has its freely- 

 acknowledged chief, yet they are divided into as many or more 

 families than there are houses, each one of which has its own regu- 

 lations, and a subordinate authority of its own governing it, and it 

 alone.* 



The Sitkan Indians trouble themselves very little about the inte- 

 rior country ; but the coast line, and especially the margins of 

 rivers and streams, are duly divided up among the different fami- 

 lies. These tracts are regarded as strictly private property, just as 

 we would regard them if fenced in as farms and cattle ranches — 

 and they are passed from one generation to the other in the line of 

 savage inheritance ; they may be sold, or even rented by one family 

 desiring to fish, to gather berries, to cut timber, or to hunt on the 

 domain of another. So settled and so strict are these ideas of pro- 

 prietary and vested rights in the soil, that, on some parts of the 

 coast, corner-stones and stakes may be seen to-day set up there to 

 define the limits of such properties between savages, by savages ; 



* There are naturally in every clan certain individuals of hereditary Indian 

 wealth and a long pedigree, who speak in better language, who have a fine 

 physical presence, a more dignified bearing, and the self-possession and pride 

 of incarnate egotism. From these men the chiefs are selected, and although 

 the chieftainship is not necessarily hereditary, yet it is often retained in this 

 manner for many generations in one family. The covers of this volume, 

 however, cannot be expanded wide enough to permit the further discussion 

 and enumeration of a thousand and one singular points in this connection 

 wliich rise in the author's mind. 



