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Web posted Thursday, September 16, 1999

SE Native relic returned

By ANN CHANDONNET
THE JUNEAU EMPIRE

A canoe can save a village.

That's the truism behind the return of a relic central to Tlingit history. The relic, a ship's figurehead in the form of a crouching beaver, was found in January in New York City, and admired Wednesday in Juneau.

The three-dimensional prow figure is 32 inches long, ornamented with abalone and painted red. About 90 years ago, it was fastened to the prow of a dugout canoe owned by John Paul, Kaa Saw Utch of the Deisheetaan Clan of Angoon. For the Deisheetaan, the carving is "at.oow,'' a highly revered object.

At Wednesday's welcoming ceremony at the Alaska State Museum, more than 100 people stood rapt for more than two hours. Energy seemed to flow from the totemic figure to Angoon elders, who spoke of their mixed emotions of joy, anguish and hope.

Dean George, chairman of the board of Kootznoowoo Corp., introduced dignitaries such as Angoon elder Mark Jacobs, Lt. Gov. Fran Ulmer and 76-year-old Matilda Gamble, youngest of the nine children of John Paul. Gamble was accompanied by her daughter, H. Jean Hogue, and her granddaughter, Valerie Gamble Houston, both in red-and-black button blankets.

George said the welcome was intended to bring subsistence issues to the attention of the public; to welcome the prow as "a provider figure'' with status equal to a father, uncle or older brother; and to "once again ask the United States government and the U.S. Navy for a formal apology.''

The tale of the beaver prow and the beaver canoe to which it was originally attached circles back 117 years.

In 1882, Tlith Klane, a Tlingit shaman working on a whaling boat, was killed when a whaling gun exploded. Angoon Tlingits stopped work to mourn and prepare for his funeral. They requested a payment of 200 blankets as compensation for his death.

E.C. Merriman, who had just taken over command of the USS Adams, decided he had an insurrection on his hands. Merriman brought the tug Favorite and the revenue cutter Corwin, both equipped with guns, to Angoon. On Oct. 24, Merriman made a counter-demand: 400 blankets.

The villagers were to turn over payment by noon the following day. By noon, the villagers had assembled 120 blankets. Merriman shelled a few houses as an example. He also raised his demand to 800 blankets. The residents could not comply. So, on Oct. 26, 1882 - following the precedent set by the Army's shelling of Wrangell in 1869 - Merriman bombarded the village.

"The Tlingit sailors on (the Favorite and Corwin) boats used large megaphones to warn the people,'' said Jacobs, who helped repatriate the carving. " `Head for the woods. Your village is going to be bombarded.' So the village hastily gathered up valuables and ran.''

A sailor under Merriman's command, Frank Clark, wrote a letter soon afterward describing the bombardment: "After firing 30 or 40 shells into the town he sent the sailors and marines and burned about 40 houses . . . and only left five houses standing. Besides the dwellings there were a large number of storehouses filled with smoked salmon and other winter supplies. All this was burned too.'' Clark estimated a population of 800 in the village (then called Hoochenoo).

Ulmer said, "You can't read (Clark's) letter without feeling a sense of outrage. So I am writing a letter to President Clinton asking him to ask the Navy to apologize to your people.''

Six children were killed in the bombardment. Sailors also came ashore and hacked up all the canoes pulled up on the beach, Jacobs said.

The only reason the village survived the winter was that the beaver canoe was elsewhere during the bombardment. When it returned, villagers used it to fish and haul firewood.

"There were no grocery stores at that time, so it was very important to have a canoe,'' Jacobs said.

Angoon culture bearer Matthew Fred Sr., 75, heard the tale of the Naval bombardment from his uncle Billy Jones, who was 13 in 1882.

Fred believes women suffered most during the winter of 1882-83.

"I wept for those women,'' he said. "Food was rationed. They gave some of their own food to their children.''

"We were punished for a crime we did not commit,'' Fred said, "and our neighbors in Kilisnoo were not allowed to help us. The Navy told them, if they lifted a hand to help us, they would be punished. I wept for them because they suffered, too.''

Jacobs said the prow figure was detached and put in front of the clan house screen when the canoe was used for gathering.

"Somehow the carving disappeared about 1910,'' he said, his voice rising and falling with emotion.

Jacobs told the canoe story over and over to his son Harold. "It was such important canoe, it could it be forgotten.''

The beaver prow figure from the canoe reappeared in 1911 as part of a George Emmons collection acquired by the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and was shelved in the stacks with artifacts whose origins the museum "unidentified.'' Emmons served under Merriman.

The carving lay fallow in the museum until January, when it seemed to call from its shelf to Harold Jacobs, repatriation specialist for the Tlingit-Haida Central Council, who was part of a team examining museum artifacts.

"Harold had this strong tugging feeling,'' said Marlene Zuboff, executive director of the Angoon Community Association. "He tried to walk away three times. He could just see the nose just sticking out. Finally he went to look at it and let out a yell. He knew immediately what it was.''

The prow figure is only one of many items taken from Angoon. Final arrangements for a museum in Angoon where the figure and other cultural icons will be displayed will be determined by clan leaders and the Kootznoowoo Cultural and Educational Foundation board, with input from the Angoon Community Association, the City of Angoon and Kootznoowoo Inc.

"The time is at hand to revisit the issue'' of expanding the existing Angoon museum, said Peter Metcalfe, Kootznoowoo spokesman. Meanwhile, the state museum will act as a repository.

Zuboff believes some Tlingit objects may be in the hands of the Navy.

"We have a petition with the Department of Defense asking for all items pilfered at Angoon to be returned,'' she said.

History preserved: Framed by the doorway of the plank house display at the Alaska State Museum, Angoon elder Mark Jacobs passes a beaver canoe prow figure that was returned this week to the Tlingit community. MICHAEL PENN / THE JUNEAU EMPIRE.