THE SALMON AND SALMON FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 
43 
RELATIONS BETWEEN THE SALMON FISHERIES AND THE INDIANS. 
Whenever the Albatross anchored near any locality either xierinanently or teinxio- 
rarily inhabited by natives, a delegation of the older men or chiefs came on board 
and requested an audience. The jiowwows which followed invariably took the form 
of relating the oxipression of the white man. At Klinkwau, Chacon, Klakas, Klawak, 
Metlakahtla, Kasaan, Karta Bay, and, in fact, everywhere, the Indians were greatly 
exercised over their condition, and notwithstanding tliat they were repeatedly 
informed that the Pish Commission party had nothing to do with the execution of the 
law and was merely in the country for the parx^ose of examining the tlsheries, they 
insisted that, as we were Government officers, we must hear them. 
The xiermanent Indian villages during the sxiriug and summer months are xiracti- 
cally deserted except by a few old people, the young men and women being away, 
living in camps and curing their winter suxix>ly during the sxiring, and when the can- 
neries open, tishing for them or doing work about them. The canneries at Klawak 
and Metlakahtla are oxierated by Indians, the former drawing quite a number from 
Howkau and Klinkwau. At Chacon the Indians from Kasaan were curing halibut, 
and they were again met at Hunter Bay, where they had come for cannery work. 
It is only during the winter that the permanent villages are fully iuliabited. 
They are essentially fish-eating Indians, depending upon the streams of the country 
for a large amount of food suxiply- These streams, under their own administration, 
for centuries have belonged to certain families or clans settled in the vicinity, and 
their rights in these streams have never been infringed uxion until the advent of 
the whites. Ko Indians would fish in a strea,m not their own except by invitation, 
and they can not understand how those of a higher civilization should be — as they 
regard it — less honorable than their own savage kind. They claim the white man is 
crowding them from their homes, robbing them of their ancestral rights, taking away 
their fish by shixdoads ; that their streams must soon become exhausted ; that the Indian 
will have no suxixdy to maintain himself and family, and that starvation must follow. 
The natives urge that the law xu'ohibiting them from owning mining claims is 
very hard to endure; that they wear the same clothes, eat the same food, obey the 
same laws as the white man, and are far more orderly than the white communities, and 
that they should have the same rights. They acknowledge the white man’s superior- 
ity; all they want is suitable encouragement to imitate him. The Prince of Wales 
Indians also comxilaiued against the Metlakahtla community, stating that the latter 
are foreigners and come to their island, cut out the best timber, and carry it to their 
sawmill at Metlakahtla. While acknowledging the Metlakahtlans as superior in 
intelligence, they say that they would gladly embrace the same opxiortunities. 
From the Indians’ standpoint, their complaints are undoubtedly well founded, but 
history will no doubt repeat itself here, as in other xiortions of our country, where the 
aborigines have come in contact with the civilizing influence of the white man, where 
rum, disease, and mercenary dealings have slowly but surely exterminated them. My 
own sympathy is with the Indian, and I would gladly recommend, if the way were 
clear, the establishment of ownership in streams; but it is imxiracticable, and I can 
only ask for him a consideration of his claim and, whatever law is framed, that a 
liberal balance be thrown in his favor. 
