Identifier: alaskanaoralaska00jame (find matches)
Title: Alaskana, or, Alaska in descriptive and legendary poems; picture captioned "Group of native Alaskan Women"
Year: 1892 (1890s)
Authors: James, Bushrod Washington, 1836-1903
Subjects: Alaska
Publisher: Philadelphia : Porter & Coates
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
varied plumage ;Ducks and swans and noisy goslings SITKA. 39 Splash and dive, and wake the welkinWith their loud, discordant clamor,And the partridge calls and scurriesThrouorh the leaves with startlino^ rustle.So with land so fair and verdant,With rich food supplies abundant,And with ofold and silver veininp;Rocky heights and sandy shallows,Holdinor out a orlorious harvestToward those brave enough to seek it,—Sitka must not sink foreverOut of sight, of mind, and being ! ALASKAN NATIVE TRIBES. A ND this land so fraught with promise—Teeming full of grandest beauty—■ Bearinof untold stores of fortuneUnderneath its varied surface—Long has held its hidden millionsFor its own poor heathen natives.Some, alas, how few the number!Ages back received and cherished.And they still hold fast the doctrinesWhich the old Greek Church bestowed them ;More, with souls all warped by witchcraftAnd with threatening demon-worship,Live like hunted beasts, in terrorOf some lurking danger waiting(40)
Text Appearing After Image:
ALASKAN NATIVE TRIBES. 4I To destroy them or to clog tbiemWith persistent, vengeful venom !Others, taking life more gayly,Trust to spirits, good or evil.Who with fateful power will bear themTo some place beyond lifes border,When or where they do not question.Yet these soul-warped people everLive to rules firm set and guarded,By which tribes and subdivisionsKnow and hold the land assigned them,Certain that the bold encroacherPays most sadly for his folly.The Orarians take precedence,Classed as Esquimaux or Innuits,Dark Creoles, and sturdy Aleuts—These hold close along the seaboard,Claiming nearly all the coast-lineAnd the islands near adjoining ;—Save where here and there the IndiansHave and hold small coast possessions,Which tliey won by force or cunning.— 42 ALASKANA. Livinor close beside the ocean, These brave tribes fear not its racfing-, But they face its foaming billows Coolly daring, using mostly Boats their own skilled hands have fashioned From the skins of great sea-lion

Note About Images