NOTES ON THE NATIVES OF ALASKA. 



(Communicated to tlie late George Gibbs, M. D., in 1862) 



By His Excrli.ency J. Furuhelm, 

 Late Oorernor of the Russian-American Colonies. 



The customs of the different tribes inhabiting the coast from Piiget 

 Sound to Mount Saint Elias, as well as the islands known as the Prince of 

 Wales and King George Archipelagos, resemble eacli other very much. 

 These tribes are collectively called by the Russians "Kalosh", or "Ka- 

 lusliia", the origin of which is now unknown. Generally, it is derived from 

 Kalushka, which is the name of a wooden ornament usually worn by 

 Kalosh women in the under lip. The Kalosh call themselves "T'linkit" — 

 man, to which word they add antuhwan, i. c, an, village; tiihvan, common — 

 that is, man living everywhere, or man belonging to all villages. Besides 

 this general appellation, they also call themselves by the name of the vil- 

 lage in which they live; so, for instance, the Sitka Kaloshes would call 

 themselves Sitlca-kwan. 



The name Eskimo is given by Russian authorities only to those natives 

 who inhabit the peninsula of Aliaska and the coast-line farther north, though 

 it is evident that the Aleuts ought to be included in the list. 



A FEW WORDS ON THE SITKA, PROPERLY CALLED THE 

 SITKA-KWAN DIALECT OF THE T'LINKIT LANGUAGE. 



There are more than thirty letters in this language, if every sound 



were designated by a separate letter. It has the same number of parts of 



speech as every European language, except the articles, for instance, flin'kit, 



a man; fllzin' , strong; tshahnnaJc, one; liat, I; stahhani' , do (imperative); 



utuzini, done; gelce' , well; tshitaJi, of, from; iish, if; a'h, exclamation. 



Most of the root-words are monosyllables, but are usually united with 



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