B46 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



kuown, but I hear ou good authority that the bulk consists of water flavored and 

 colored with grain whiskey in the smallest possible quantities. Its strength proceeds 

 wholly from the blue-stone, vitriol, and nitric acid which the manufacturers largely 

 infuse into it. The consequence is that when the Indians imbibe this drink freely — 

 and they always do so whenever they can get it — their naturally iiery temperaments 

 are wrought up into a state of savagery so intense as to leave no white man's life safe 

 in their presence while they remain under its influence. ' 



The orgies and debauchery of the Indians up to recent years have 

 been something to shock even the most hardened trader. Liquor being 

 obtained in quantities, either by the distillation of sugar or molasses or 

 purchased from the traders, a systematic plan of getting drunk in de- 

 tachments was practised and is to-day in certain regions when they can 

 get the liquor. It is the duty of those sober about the village to look 

 out for the drunk and tend to the various household duties, look after 

 the canoes, children, etc. When the first detachment has sobered up 

 the others sometimes take their turn. Pandemonium reigns, and it often 

 takes the intervention of the whites to get things going smoothly again. 

 Unfortunately the women are worse drunkards than the men, and it 

 is in their demoralization that the Indians have suffered most. The 

 hoochinoo, which they make themselves, is not a native invention, as the 

 process has been picked up from the whites. It has flourished amongst 

 the Tlingit since our acquisition of Alaska in 1867, and common report 

 credits its introduction to American officials. Hoochinoo is simply a 

 distillation from potatoes. The still generally consists of a square tin 

 kerosene can, with a worm, made either of tin pipe or the stems of the 

 giant kelp. The worm is either packed with snow or placed in a stream 

 of fresh water. The mash is made from potatoes, which are cooked, 

 dumped into a tub, and allowed to ferment, a little sugar or very cheap 

 molasses being added to produce the alcohol. It suffers only one dis- 

 tillation, and the horrible product is taken in its raw state, the effect 

 being to almost instantly rob an Indian of his senses. Largely through 

 the influence and authority exerted by the commanding officers of our 

 men-of-war before the establishment of the civil government in Alaska 

 the practice of distilling lioocliinoo has been greatly broken up and de- 

 cidedly discouraged, t 



Immorality.— The chief demoralization in this region has been amongst 

 the women, brought about by the independent position they occupy in 

 the social organization of the tribe, by the peculiar laws or customs re- 

 lating to marriage by purchase, and by the right to return a female to 

 her people in case she proves unsatisfactory or undesirable. Through 

 the influx of whites, due to the establishment of industries, the pros- 

 ecution of trade, and the development of mineral resources, the Indians 

 have been brought in close contact with most unrefined elements of our 

 civilization. Money earned in the summer months by these adventurous 



* Poole, Queen Charlotte Islands, p. 313. 



t Notes on the distillation of hoochinoo were kindly furnished the writer by Lieut. 

 N. K. Usher, U. S, Navy. 



