Books: Metlakahtla and the North Pacific Mission
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METLAKAHTLA
THE NORTH PACIFIC MISSION
OF THE
CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY
WITH A MAP
"If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of
the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me and Thy right hand shall hold
me"--Ps. cxxxix 9, 10
Shores of the utmost West
Ye that have waited long
Unvisited noblest,
Break forth to swelling song
High raise the note that Jesus died
Yet lives and reigns the Crucified
NOTE
The third, fourth, and fifth chapters of this little book are
substantially a reprint of parts of a pamphlet entitled, "Metlakahtla,
or Ten Years' Work among the Tsimshean Indians," published by the Church
Missionary Society in 1868. Almost all the rest, or three-fourths of the
whole, is new matter--new, that is, in a separate form, for the greater
part has appeared at various times in the Society's periodicals. One or
two facts are taken from the Rev. J. J. Halcombe's excellent book,
"Stranger than Fiction," which has done so much to make the Metlakahtla
Mission known. For much valuable information I am indebted to Admiral
Prevost.
E. S.
CONTENTS.
CHAP
I. THE FIELD OF LABOUR
II. THE CALL, AND THE MAN
III. BEGINNING WORK
IV. FIRST-FRUITS
V. THE NEW SETTLEMENT
VI. METLAKAHTLA--SPIRITUAL RESULTS
VII. " MATERIAL PROGRESS AND MORAL INFLUENCE
VIII. " TWO CHRISTMAS-SEASONS
IX. OUTLYING MISSIONS--KINCOLITH.
X. " QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S ISLANDS
XI. " FORT RUPERT
XII. LORD DUFFERIN AT METLAKAHTLA
XII. ADMIRAL PREVOST AT METLAKAHTLA
XIV. THE DIOCESE OF CALEDONIA
METLAKAHTLA
AND
THE NORTH PACIFIC MISSION.
I.
THE FIELD OF LABOUR
British Columbia, now forming part of "The Dominion of Canada,"
includes within its limits several islands, of which Vancouver's is the
principal, and that part of the continent of North America, west of the
Rocky Mountains and east of Alaska, which is included between the 49 deg.
and the 60 deg. parallels of north latitude.
English connection with this part of the world may be said to date
from an exploratory voyage made by Captain Cook in 1776, when he landed
at Friendly Cove and Nootka Sound, and took possession of them in the
name of his sovereign. He supposed at the time that these places were
on the mainland, and it was not until Captain Vancouver, an officer in
the English Navy, was despatched in 1792 to the Pacific, that he
discovered that Nootka and Friendly Cove were on the west side of the
island which now bears his name, and which is sometimes spoken of as
the gem of the Pacific.
In 1793, Alexander Mackenzie, one of the most enterprising pioneers in
the employment of the North-West Fur Company, who had already
discovered the mighty river since named after him, crossed the Rocky
Mountains, and pushed his way westward, until he stood on the shores of
the Pacific. Some years later, in 1806, Mr. Simon Frazer, another
_employe_ of the same Company, gave his name to the great river
that drains British Columbia, and established the first trading post in
those parts. After the amalgamation of this Company with the Hudson's
Bay Company, other posts were established, such as Fort Rupert, on
Vancouver's Island, and Fort Simpson, on the borders of Alaska, then
belonging to Russia, but subsequently sold by her to the United States.
In 1858, the discovery of gold in the basin of the Fraser river, on
the mainland, attracted a large number of gold-diggers from California,
and among them a considerable body of Chinese. To maintain order among
a motley population of lawless habits, British Columbia was formed into
a colony, with its capital at Victoria, on Vancouver's Island.
Official returns, made a few years ago, gave the number of Indians in
British Columbia as 31,520, distributed over the islands and mainland.
They belong to several distinct families or nations, speaking distinct
languages, subdivided into a multitude of tribes speaking different
dialects of their own. Thus the Hydahs of Queen Charlotte's Islands are
altogether distinct from the Indians of Vancouver's Island, where,
indeed, those on the east coast are distinct from those on the west.
Again, on the mainland, the Indians on the sea-board are distinct from
the Indians of the interior, from whom they are divided by the Cascade
range of mountains. These inland Indians are of more robust and
athletic frame, and are altogether a more vigorous race.
Among the coast tribes, however, there are great differences, those to
the north being far superior to those in the south. Those who know the
Indians well declare that it would be impossible to find anywhere finer
looking men than the Hydahs, Tsimsheans, and some of the Alaskan
tribes. "They are," writes one, "a manly, tall, handsome people, and
comparatively fair in their complexion."
The Indians on the sea-board of the mainland, and those on the east
coast of Vancouver's Island who have affinity with one another, have
been grouped into three principal families or nations. The first of
these is met with at Victoria and on the Fraser river, and may be
called the Chinook Indians, from the language which is principally in
use. In the second division may be comprised the tribes between Nanaimo
on the east coast, and Fort Rupert at the extreme north of Vancouver's
Island, and the Indians on the mainland between the same points. The
Tsimsheans, a third family, cluster round Fort Simpson, and occupy a
line of coast extending from the Skeena river to the borders of Alaska.
On his arrival at Fort Simpson, on the 1st of October, 1857, Mr.
Duncan found located there, to quote his own words in a recent official
report, "Nine tribes, numbering (for I counted them) about 2,300 souls.
These proved to be just one-third of the tribes speaking the Tsimshean
language. Of the other eighteen tribes, five were scattered over 100
miles of the coast south of Fort Simpson, other five occupied the Naas
river, and the remaining eight tribes lived on the Skeena river--the
whole of the twenty-seven tribes numbering then not over 8,000 souls,
though I at first set them down at 10,000. In addition to the Tsimshean
tribes which I have mentioned, I found that Indians of other two
distinct languages frequented the Fort for trade. These were the Alaska
Coast Indians, whose nearest village was only some fifteen miles north
of Fort Simpson, and the Hydahs from Queen Charlotte's Islands."
The tribal arrangements among the Tsimsheans are very much the same as
among other Indian clans. Each tribe has from three to five chiefs, one
of whom is the acknowledged head. Among the head chiefs of the various
tribes one again takes preeminence. At feasts and in council the chiefs
are seated according to their rank. As an outward mark, to distinguish
the rank of a chief, a pole is erected in front of his house. The
greater the chief the higher the pole. The Indians are very jealous in
regard to this distinction.
Every Indian family has a distinguishing crest, or "totem," as it is
called in some places. This crest is usually some bird, or fish, or
animal; particularly the eagle, the raven, the finback whale, the
grisly bear, the wolf, and the frog. Among the Tsimsheans and their
neighbours, the Hydahs, great importance is attached to this heraldry,
and their crests are often elaborately engraved on large copper plates
from three to five feet in length, and about two in breadth. These
plates are very highly valued, and are often heir-looms in families. No
Indian would think of killing the animal which had been taken for his
crest. While two members of the same tribe are allowed to intermarry,
those of the same crest are prohibited from doing so under any
circumstances. The child always takes the mother's crest: if she
belonged to a family whose crest was the eagle, thru all her children
take the eagle for their crest.
The most influential men in a tribe--not excluding the chiefs--are the
medicine men. Captain Mayne, R.N., thus speaks of them:--[Footnote:
_Four Years in British Columbia, and Vancouver Island_, p. 260
(Murray, 1862).]
"Their initiation into the mysteries of their calling is one of the
most disgusting ceremonies imaginable. At a certain season, the Indian
who is selected for the office retires into the woods for several days,
and fasts, holding intercourse, it is supposed, with the spirits who
are to teach him the healing art. He then suddenly reappears in the
village, and, in a sort of religious frenzy, attacks the first person
he meets and bites a piece out of his arm or shoulder. He will then
rush at a dog, and tear him limb from limb, running about with a leg or
some part of the animal all bleeding in his hand, and tearing it with
his teeth. This mad fit lasts some time, usually during the whole day
of his reappearance. At its close he crawls into his tent, or falling
down exhausted is carried there by those who are watching him. A series
of ceremonials, observances, and long incantations follows, lasting for
two or three days, and he then assumes the functions and privileges of
his office. I have seen three or four medicine men made at a time among
the Indians near Victoria, while twenty or thirty others stood, with
loaded muskets, keeping guard all round the place to prevent them doing
any mischief. Although a clever medicine man becomes of great
importance in his tribe, his post is no sinecure either before or after
his initiation. If he should be seen by anyone while he is communing
with the spirits in the woods, he is killed or commits suicide, while
if he fails in the cure of any man he is liable to be put to death, on
the assumption that he did not wish to cure his patient. This penalty
is not always inflicted, but, if he fails in his first attempt, the
life of a medicine man is not, as a rule, worth much. The people who
are bitten by these maniacs when they come in from the woods consider
themselves highly favoured."
Mr. Duncan, in 1857, gave the following painfully curious description
of the medicine men--
"The superstitions connected with this fearful system are deeply
rooted here, and it is the admitting and initiating of fresh pupils
into these arts that employ numbers, and excite and interest all,
during the winter months. This year I think there must have been eight
or ten parties of them, but each party seldom has more than one pupil
at once. In relating their proceedings I can give but a faint
conception of the system as a whole, but still a little will show the
dense darkness that rests on this place.
"I may mention that each party has some characteristics peculiar to
itself, but, in a more general sense, their divisions are but three,
viz, those who eat human bodies, the dog eaters, and those who have no
custom of the kind. Early in the morning the pupils would be out on,
the beach, or on the rocks, in a state of nudity. Each had a place in
front of his own tribe, nor did intense cold interfere in the slightest
degree. After the poor creature had crept about, jerking his head and
screaming for some time, a party of men would rush out, and, after
surrounding him, would commence singing. The dog eating party
occasionally carried a dead dog to their pupil, who forthwith commenced
to tear it in the most dog like manner. The party of attendants kept up
a low growling noise, or a whoop, which was seconded by a screeching
noise made from an instrument which they believe to be the abode of a
spirit. In a little time the naked youth would start up again, and
proceed a few more yards in a crouching posture, with his arms pushed
out behind him, and tossing his flowing black hair. All the while he is
earnestly watched by the group about him, and when he pleases to sit
down they again surround him and commence singing. This kind of thing
goes on, with several different additions, for some time. Before the
prodigy finally retires, he takes a turn into every house belonging to
his tribe, and is followed by his train. When this is done, in some
cases he has a ramble on the tops of the same houses, during which he
is anxiously watched by his attendants, as if they expected his flight.
By-and-bye he condescends to come down, and they then follow him to his
den, which is marked by a rope made of red bark being hung over the
doorway, so as to prevent any person from ignorantly violating its
precincts. None are allowed to enter that house but those connected
with the art; all I know, therefore, of their further proceedings is,
that they keep up a furious hammering, singing, and screeching for
hours during the day.
"Of all these parties, none are so much dreaded as the cannibals. One
morning I was called to witness a stir in the camp which had been
caused by this set. When I reached the gallery I saw hundreds of
Tsimsheans sitting in their canoes, which they had just pushed away
from the beach. I was told that the cannibal party were in search of a
body to devour, and if they failed to find a dead one, it was probable
they would seize the first living one that came in their way; so that
all the people living near to the cannibals' house had taken to their
canoes to escape being torn to pieces. It is the custom among these
Indians to burn their dead; but I suppose for these occasions they take
care to deposit a corpse somewhere, in order to satisfy these inhuman
wretches.
"These, then, are some of the things and scenes which occur in the day
during the winter months, while the nights are taken up with amusements
--singing and dancing. Occasionally the medicine parties invite people
to their several houses, and exhibit tricks before them of various
kinds. Some of the actors appear as bears, while others wear masks, the
parts of which are moved by strings. The great feature in their
proceedings is to pretend to murder, and then to restore to life, and
so forth. The cannibal, on such occasions, is generally supplied with
two, three, or four human bodies, which he tears to pieces before his
audience. Several persons, either from bravado or as a charm, present
their arms for him to bite. I have seen several whom he has thus
bitten, and I hear two have died from the effects."
One of the most curious and characteristic customs of the the Indians
of British Columbia is the _giving away of property_ at feasts.
Mr. Duncan gives the following account of it:--
"These feasts are generally connected with the giving away of
property. As an instance, I will relate the last occurrence of the
kind. The person who sent the aforementioned invitations is a chief who
has just completed building a house. After feasting, I heard he was to
give away property to the amount of four hundred and eighty blankets
(worth as many pounds to him), of which one hundred and eighty were his
own property and the three hundred were to be subscribed by his people.
On the first day of the feast, as much as possible of the property to
be given him was exhibited in the camp. Hundreds of yards of cotton
were flapping in the breeze, hung from house to house, or on lines put
up for the occasion. Furs, too, were nailed up on the fronts of houses.
Those who were going to give away blankets or elk-skins managed to get
a bearer for every one, and exhibited them by making the persons walk
in single file to the house of the chief. On the next day the cotton
which had been hung out was now brought on the beach, at a good
distance from the chief's house, and then run out at full length, and a
number of bearers, about three yards apart, bore it triumphantly away
from the giver to the receiver. I suppose that about six hundred to
eight hundred yards were thus disposed of.
"After all the property the chief is to receive has thus been openly
handed to him, a day or two is taken up in apportioning it for fresh
owners. When this is done, all the chiefs and their families are called
together, and each receives according to his or her portion. Thus do
the chiefs and their people go on reducing themselves to poverty. In
the case of the chiefs, however, this poverty lasts but a short time;
they are soon replenished from the next giving away, but the people
only grow rich again according to their industry. One cannot but pity
them, while one laments their folly.
"All the pleasure these poor Indians seem to have in their property is
in hoarding it up for such an occasion as I have described. They never
think of appropriating what they gather to enhance their comforts, but
are satisfied if they can make a display like this now and then; so
that the man possessing but one blanket seems to be as well off as the
one who possesses twenty; and thus it is that there is a vast amount of
dead stock accumulated in the camp doomed never to be used, but only
now and then to be transferred from hand to hand for the mere vanity of
the thing.
"There is another way, however, in which property is disposed of even
more foolishly. If a person be insulted, or meet with an accident, or
in any way suffer an injury, real or supposed, either of mind or body,
property must at once be sacrificed to avoid disgrace. A number of
blankets, shirts, or cotton, according to the rank of the person, are
torn, into small pieces and carried off."
The religion of the Tsimsheans is thus described:--
"The Tsimsheans, I find, believe in two states after death: the one
good, and the other, bad; the morally good are translated to the one,
and the morally bad are doomed to the other. The locality of the former
they think to be above, and that of the latter is somewhere beneath.
The enjoyment of heaven and the privations of hell they understand to
be carnal. They do not suppose the wicked to be destitute of food any
more than they were here, but they are treated as slaves and are badly
clothed.
"The idea they entertain of God is that He is a great chief. They call
Him by the same term as they do their chiefs, only adding the word for
above--thus, 'shimanyet' is chief, and 'lakkah' above: and hence the
name of God with them is Shimanyet Lakkah. They believe that the
Supreme Being never dies: that He takes great notice of what is going
on amongst men, and is frequently angry, and punishes offenders. They
do not know who is the author of the universe, nor do they expect that
God is the author of their own being. They have no fixed ideas about
these things, I fully believe; still they frequently appeal to God in
trouble; they ask for pity and deliverance. In great extremities of
sickness they address God, saying it is not good for them to die.
"Sometimes, when calamities are prolonged or thicken, they get enraged
against God, and vent their anger against Him, raising their eyes and
hands in savage anger to Heaven, and stamping their feet on the ground.
They will reiterate language which means 'You are a great slave!'"
A very curious tradition respecting the first appearance of white men
on the coast was related some years ago to Mr. Duncan by an old chief:--
"A large canoe of Indians were busy catching halibut in one of these
channels. A thick mist enveloped them. Suddenly they heard a noise as
if a large animal was striking through the water. Immediately they
concluded that a monster from the deep was in pursuit of them. With all
speed they hauled up their fishing lines, seized the paddles, and
strained every nerve to reach the shore. Still the plunging noise came
nearer. Every minute they expected to be engulfed within the jaws of
some huge creature. However, they reached the land, jumped on shore,
and turned round in breathless anxiety to watch the approach of the
monster. Soon a boat, filled with strange-looking men, emerged from the
mist The pulling of the oars had caused the strange noise. Though
somewhat relieved of fear, the Indians stood spell bound with
amazement. The strangers landed, and beckoned the Indians to come to
them and bring them some fish. One of them had over his shoulder what
was supposed only to be a stick, presently he pointed it to a bird that
was flying past, a violent poo went forth, down came the bird to the
ground. The Indians died. As they revived again they questioned each
other as to their state, whether they were dead, and what each had
felt. The whites then made signs for a fire to be lighted. The Indians
proceeded at once, according to their usual tedious fashion of rubbing
two sticks together. The strangers laughed, and one of them, snatching
up a handful of dry grass, struck a spark into a little powder placed
under it. Instantly flashed another poo and a blaze. The Indians died.
After this the new comers wanted some fish boiling. The Indians
therefore put the fish and water into one of their square wooden
buckets, and set some stones in the fire, intending when they were hot,
to cast them into the vessel, and thus boil the food The whites were
not satisfied with this way. One of them fetched a tin kettle out of
the boat, put the fish and the water into it, and then, strange to say,
set it on the fire. The Indians looked on with astonishment. However,
the kettle did not consume, the water did not run into the fire Then,
again, the Indians died. When the fish was eaten, the strangers put a
kettle of rice on the fire. The Indians looked at each other and
whispered, 'Akshahn, akshahn,' or 'Maggots, maggots.' The rice being
cooked, some molasses were produced and mixed with it. The Indians
stared, and said, 'Coutzee um tsakah ahket,' or 'The grease of dead
people.' The whites then tendered the rice and molasses to the Indians,
but they only shrank away in disgust. Seeing this, to prove their
integrity, they sat down and enjoyed it themselves. The sight stunned
the Indians, and again they all died. Some other similar wonders were
worked, and the profound stupor which the Indians felt each time come
over them they termed death. The Indians' turn had now come to make the
white strangers die. They dressed their heads and painted their faces A
nok nok, or wonder working spirit possessed them. They came slowly, and
solemnly seated themselves before the whites, then suddenly lifted up
their heads and stared. Their reddened eyes had the desired effect. The
whites died."
Among the Indians of British, Columbia no Protestant Missionary had
laboured prior to 1857. Some Roman Catholic priests, however, had been
in the country, and of them Captain Mayne writes:--[Footnote: "_Four
Years in British Columbia_," p. 305.]
"If the opinion of the Hudson's Bay people of the interior is to be
relied upon, the Roman Catholic priests effected no real change in the
condition of the natives. The sole result of their residence among them
was, that the Indians who had been brought under their influence had
imbibed some notions of the Deity, almost as vague as their own
traditions, and a superstitious respect for the priests themselves,
which they showed by crossing themselves devoutly whenever they met
one. Occasionally, too, might be seen in their lodges, pictures
purporting to represent the roads to Heaven and to Hell, in which there
was no single suggestion of the danger of vice and crime, but a great
deal of the peril of Protestantism. These coloured prints were
certainly curious in their way, and worth a passing notice. They were
large, and gave a pictorial history of the human race, from the time
when Adam and Eve wandered in the garden together, down to the
Reformation. Here the one broad road was split into two, whose courses
diverged more and more painfully. By one way the Roman Catholic portion
of the world were seen trooping to bliss; the other ended in a steep
bottomless precipice over which the Protestants might be seen falling.
[Footnote: A fac-simile of a similar picture appeared in the _Church
Missionary Gleaner_, of March, 1880.] Upon the more sensible and
advanced of the Indians, teaching such as this had little effect. I
remember the chief of the Shuswap tribe, at Kamloops, pointing out to
me such an illustration hanging on his wall, and laughingly saying, in
a tone that showed quite plainly how little credence he attached to it,
'There are you and your people,' putting his finger as he spoke on the
figures tumbling into the pit."
"Of such kind was the only instruction that the Indiana had received
prior to 1857. Its influence was illustrated in that year at Victoria,
where a Roman Catholic Bishop and several priests had been resident for
some time, and were known to have exerted themselves among the Songhie
Indians who reside there. A cross had been raised in their village, and
some of them had been baptized; but when these were called before the
bishop for confirmation, they refused to come unless a greater present
of blankets was made to them than had been given at their baptism. The
bishop was said to have been very angry with the priests when this came
to his knowledge; he having very possibly been deceived by them as to
the condition of the Indians. I am informed that he had a large heart
painted upon canvas, through which be drew a blanket, and represented
it to the Indians as symbolical of their condition."
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