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These boxes have the papers I told you about, the letters and journals from my great-uncle’s 1885 expedition across Alaska.
The objective is to map the interior of the Territory and document information regarding the native tribes
party should arrive at the well-mapped Yukon River before winter, where the men might board a steamboat to the coast.
Colonel Forrester will then arrange transportation of himself and his men aboard a revenue cutter.
go only as far as Sitka and will return to the barracks the end of February;
I go because I long to see this wild place for myself.
Sitka is on the southern-most arm of the Alaska
Ah, and this is the trouble with a diary. We are allowed to stand too long before its mirror and gaze at ourselves, where we unavoidably find vanity and fault.
More than two dozen Indians, three dogs, and the four of us, packed into
hovel the size of a small woodshed.
He goes not in search of obstacles, only the paths around them. Anything seems possible.
board the mail steamer “Idaho” on its February 3rd stopover in Portland.
do hope I am so fortunate as to see the puffin bird.
In light of Gen. Forrester’s stature in the Boston community, it does not come as a surprise that his son’s wedding
The newly wedded couple leaves next week for Vancouver Barracks in the remote Washington Territory where the Colonel is to be stationed.
it seems that our wish has been granted sooner than we dared to hope. A child!
then had to tell him my one great disappointment. I will not go to Alaska.
this frozen Wolverine River Valley yet belongs to the Indians, as they are the only ones who claim it. That will change if white men find use for it.
Will it truly be months, even a year before I hear word of him again?
Attention Mr. Josh Sloan Alpine Historical Museum Alpine, Alaska
Kings Glacier is a wall of ice with a vertical reach of at least 300 feet.
“Oh, I don’t care about that. They just make me squeamish, the way they scurry about and never meet your eye. I’d rather have an Irish girl like you have.” Why do I find it impossible to speak my mind in these instances? I am always hopeful that I have misheard or misunderstood, and then I am held by anger and indecision—if I say anything at all, I fear a torrent of emotion will burst forth that will cause embarrassment. I worry too much about offending or rousing conflict.
Instead, the raven kept to the air, flew over the tops of the trees, and continued on his way. Flew away! With my lovely comb!
Dear Son, Your mother has informed me of your intention to study toward joining the Corps of Topographical Engineers.
no longer take the opium, as I cannot imagine it is any more wholesome for my child than it is for me, and the surgeon has agreed only because the bleeding has stopped.
There is a mythical element to our childhood, it seems, that stays with us always.
Much of the work falls to the women, who travel with heavy loads on their backs even as they care for children and manage the half-wild dogs they use for packing.
An Indian traveling alone through another tribe’s territory is likely to be taken as a slave.
One of them carried an Indian baby in his coat.
Mount Hood revealed in all its snowy glory, the Columbia River Valley spread before me in greens and blues,
—Tell him the United States of America now owns this land. We bought it from the Russians.
June 2 For now, our party upriver consists of myself, Sgt. Tillman, Lieut. Pruitt, Ceeth Hwya, Nat’aaggi, & the dog. Samuelson & Boyd will continue with us for the next week or so to scout prospecting sites.
We estimate we have traveled approximately 340 miles from the mouth of the Wolverine River.
all continues according to plan, we should pass through the mountains within the month and begin our journey down the river system to the western coast of the territory.
know of him. He died before I was born, but he is a hugely important figure here in Alaska. He helped organize the first Tanana Chiefs Conference in 1915.
meeting was one of the first times Native leaders spoke up in defense of their land rights, and even though it wasn’t settled until nearly 60 years later, Moses Picea saw it happen in his lifetime. Instead of reservations in Alaska, Natives were given land and money to set up their own corporations.
He helped translate the Bible into the Wolverine River dialect, and he wrote stories and poetry in both languages.
All this time, I did nothing. Still I can remember the cold, rough ground beneath my bare feet, and the terrible heat from the fire,
This far north & into summer, we travel through the night if we choose, as true darkness never comes.
we will travel through the mountains & continue on to the Tanana & Yukon Rivers.
We were still several boat lengths behind the others when the creature struck our vessel again. We were overturned, both of us thrown into the cold water.
When the creature rose to attack him, for a brief moment I saw its head. A prehistoric beast, with a wide, flat skull & a bill-like mouth.
cannot describe the relief of being pulled from that lake. Two Indians helped me aboard their vessel, as those in the other canoe were at the ready with bows & arrows.
the jaw to be nearly three feet wide.
June 19 Such a disappointment! More than two dozen photographs from the expedition are lost. Not only are the plates cracked and broken, but it looks as if someone stripped them out of their protective slides and exposed them.
At first I thought all were destroyed, but I have discovered just nine that were spared.
have never met this Indian or seen his countenance before, yet I sensed a familiarity in his appearance that took me some time to pinpoint, and then it occurred to me. His shadowy form, with
lame leg and odd tilt of the head, recall the raven that plagued me in the spring. All this was unnerving enough, but then I recalled that I had not found any notation on the plate itself, and I went in search of the sleeve from which it came. There I found it: “Man Who Flies on Black Wings, Wolverine River.”
diaries from Kulgadzi Lake. It’s interesting because I remember my mom telling me that when she was a little girl, all the kids believed a monster lived in its deepest water.
their children were sent off to government schools. But until 1924, the only way Alaska Natives could earn citizenship and the right to vote was to “sever all tribal relationships” and “adopt the habits of civilized life.”
