Ten'a texts and tales from Anvik, Alaska / by John W. Chapman, with vocabulary by Pliny Earle Goddard.

  • Chapman, John W. (John Wight), 1858-1939
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Ten'a texts and tales from Anvik, Alaska / by John W. Chapman, with vocabulary by Pliny Earle Goddard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/248 page 3
    A few (general remarks ma)’ help to a better ap])re- ciation ot the character of these lei^'encls. Incomplete as the collection is, it represents fairly well the character of the ben’a traditions of this religion, so far as 1 am able to judge. The people have no history, in the proper sense of the term. The identity of the father is sunk in that of the child, and no account is to be heard among them of deeds of valor performed by their ancestors. Xo names of famous men appear to have been handed down among them. The small-pox epidemic of 1S39, and the appear- ance of the first steamboat on the Yukon, in 1869, furnish dates by which the ages of the older generation may be ascertained, brom this it appears that the oldest indi- vidual at Anvik, and jirobably in any of the villages within a radius of fifty miles from Anvik, is seventy-one years old. This is a woman. Fortunately, her memory is clear, and her mentalitv above the averatre. The arrival of the Russians, and subsequently of the Americans, the traditions of one or two famines, and the account of an Eskimo raid or two, comprise nearly all the historical events with which they are acquainted. As to their former condition and manner of life, they always represent themselves as far more numerous in ancient times than at present, and they point to the vestiges of their old villages as evidence of this fact; but this does not signify much, for they are always moving around, and especially when their places are visited by sickness. It seems probable, however, that their numbers have somewhat diminished since the great epidemic of 1839. l'he\’ speak of the abundance of game In former times, before the introduction of fire-arms, and of driving the caribou Into corrals and catching them with snares or shooting them with the bow and arrow. They also tell
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3