On October 30 we visited a camp of Hoonas at the mouth of a
salmon-chuck. We had seen some of them before, and they received us
kindly. Here we learned that peace reigned in Chilcat. The reports
that we had previously heard were, as usual in such cases, wildly
exaggerated. The little camp hut of these Indians was crowded with
the food-supplies they had gathered - chiefly salmon, dried and tied
in bunches of convenient size for handling and transporting to their
villages, bags of salmon-roe, boxes of fish-oil, a lot of
mountain-goat mutton, and a few porcupines. They presented us with
some dried salmon and potatoes, for which we gave them tobacco and
rice. About 3 P.M. we reached their village, and in the best house,
that of a chief, we found the family busily engaged in making
whiskey. The still and mash were speedily removed and hidden away
with apparent shame as soon as we came in sight. When we entered and
passed the regular greetings, the usual apologies as to being unable
to furnish Boston food for us and inquiries whether we could eat
Indian food were gravely made. Toward six or seven o'clock Mr. Young
explained the object of his visit and held a short service. The chief
replied with grave deliberation, saying that he would be heartily
glad to have a teacher sent to his poor ignorant people, upon whom he
now hoped the light of a better day was beginning to break. Hereafter
he would gladly do whatever the white teachers told him to do and
would have no will of his own. This under the whiskey circumstances
seemed too good to be quite true. He thanked us over and over again
for coming so far to see him, and complained that Port Simpson
Indians, sent out on a missionary tour by Mr. Crosby, after making a
good-luck board for him and nailing it over his door, now wanted to
take it away. Mr. Young promised to make him a new one, should this
threat be executed, and remarked that since he had offered to do his
bidding he hoped he would make no more whiskey. To this the chief
replied with fresh complaints concerning the threatened loss of his
precious board, saying that he thought the Port Simpson Indians were
very mean in seeking to take it away, but that now he would tell them
to take it as soon as they liked for he was going to get a better one
at Wrangell. But no effort of the missionary could bring him to
notice or discuss the whiskey business. The luck board nailed over
the door was about two feet long and had the following inscription:
"The Lord will bless those who do his will. When you rise in the
morning, and when you retire at night, give him thanks. Heccla Hockla
Popla."
This chief promised to pray like a white man every morning, and to
bury the dead as the whites do.
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