Alaska Hooch - SkepticalThayne

Alaska Hooch
The History of Alcohol in Early Alaska
By Thayne I. Andersen
Library of Congress Catalogue Card 88-71043
© Copyright 1988 and 1999
Produced by
Thayne Andersen
CMR 407, Box 183
APO AE 09098
PREFACE
A close look at the history of our society can dispel some of the stereotypes that
invariably form our impressions. This is particularly true of the subject of alcohol use by
Alaska’s Natives. The problems associated with it have been observed and discussed for
generations to establish a certain, fixed response. Thayne Andersen addresses himself to an
historical overview with useful results.
Mr. Andersen concerns himself primarily with the early period of white- Native impact
from the Russian experience through that of American military, traders, whalers, and others.
His use of an impressive number of published sources gives his work a particular value.
William Hunt
PREFACE
The history of Western development has been heavily influenced by the availability and use of
alcohol. The Puritans set sail for the New World with 14 tons of water, 42 tons of beer, and
10,000 gallons of wine. The gradual movement south along the eastern U.S. coast and into the
West Indies was motivated to some degree by a search for better beverage alcohol
“production” environments. As pioneers moved west and then north, they coped with the harsh
environments as well as their loneliness and frustrations by using alcohol. Drinking, even to
excess, became an accepted part of the “pioneering spirit.”
What makes this book so interesting is not just the relationship it documents between alcohol
and the development of Alaska, but the awareness the book creates of the extent to which
alcohol actually influenced Alaskan history. The establishment of trade, systems of government,
and relationships with the Native People were especially influenced by the trafficking and
importance of alcoholic beverages.
This attitude of excess, sometimes called the “pioneering spirit,” may have been required during
the early years of Alaskan development. This “pioneering spirit” and subsequent risk-taking
behavior remain a part of the Alaskan mystique today. In light of the continuing high rates of
alcohol consumption in this
state, this book, with the added
perspective it provides,
becomes essential reading for
every student of Alaskan
history.
Matthew Felix
Director
Alaska Office of Alcoholism
and Drug Abuse
Native of Kodiak, Alaska (period 1785-1793) Sarychev
FORWARD
This book is NOT about alcoholism. It is about alcohol. Just as not everyone who
drinks alcohol today becomes an alcoholic, the same was true in previous centuries.
My personal interest in Alaska’s alcohol history was inaugurated several years ago
when I attended several meetings with representatives of the Alaska legislature in Juneau while
they debated the possible need for a higher alcohol tax. Somehow, I heard the term, “Bone-Dry
Law,” as it referred to early Alaska. Not having heard of this term before, I asked several
people who worked in the alcoholism field in Alaska what the term, “Bone-Dry Law” referred
to. No one could tell me. When I finally learned about this law, I realized that if so few knew
about Alaska’s alcohol history as recently as 1917, then the years before that were also holding
issues and information that ought to be better known than they apparently are.
This book has been organized to give you a considerable amount of interesting
information about how alcohol was used in early Alaska. Research has been used from
numerous areas. The reader is encouraged to refer readily to the endnotes for they have been
designed to add considerably to the meaning or perspectives you may get as you read this book.
I have organized the material into three sections:
1.
2.
3.
Early Introduction of Alcoholic Drinks
Governmental Reaction to Alcohol
Related U.S. History
In the first chapters, I will give information about early alcohol among the Northwest
Coast Indians, the Russians and the people who came to Alaska after its purchase by the United
States from Russia. I will include information about health and violence, and will deal with
several misconceptions about drinking in early Alaska.
In the next chapters, I will review how those who controlled various governmental and
private organizations dealt with beverage alcohol in the early years and demonstrate the
frustrations and ambiguities that they constantly had to face.
The final section contains one chapter on related U.S. and world history. I have
included this section because Alaskans, to a large extent, were greatly affected by beverage
alcohol issues from other areas. It is impossible to understand issues about the role of the U.S.
Army in Alaska territory in controlling alcohol, for example, without knowing the problems
they faced in the early 1800's in using alcohol themselves while trying to totally eliminate its
use by others during the various Indian Wars that they were involved in.
I wish to thank the faculty of the University of Alaska, Anchorage School of Alcohol
and Addiction Studies for their invaluable assistance. Dr. Dennis Kelso was particularly
encouraging in this work. I need also to mention the help of my wife, Ann, in encouraging me
to continue the research that at times was extremely exciting and at other times at the other end
of the interest continuum. Thanks also needs to be given to the Southeast Alaska Regional
Health Corporation who allowed me to do much of this work while I worked with them in
other capacities. I need, last of all to thank Matt Felix and others in the Alaska State Office of
Alcoholism And Other Drug Abuse for their encouragement and support.
Thayne I. Andersen
Native woman of Kodiak (1785-1793) from Sarychev
CHAPTER #1
INTRODUCTION
The history of alcohol use in Alaska can be traced from the earliest arrival of sailors
from foreign lands in 1741. The first people to introduce alcohol to the indigenous natives of
Alaska were the Russians who sailed to Alaska from Siberia. From all indications, Alaska
Natives did not use alcohol as a valued beverage before these first white settlers from Russia
arrived.
Researching the history of alcohol use in Alaska from the initial white contact until
roughly the time of the national prohibition era, when more historical information becomes
available, is a difficult and time-consuming task. In researching this work, I spent literally
hundreds of hours reviewing references often referred to by other writings on the subject of
alcoholic beverages in Alaska and the Northwest. Often, sources seemed to contradict each
other. Other times, references had to be considered "with a grain of salt" because of ulterior
motives and biased conclusions.
In order to understand alcohol use in Alaska today some commonly-held ideas should
be examined. It is difficult sometimes to read about alcohol with an open mind, even when it
has to do with events that happened well over 100 years ago.
PRECONCEPTIONS SURROUNDING ALASKA'S ALCOHOL HISTORY
Many misunderstandings and preconceptions exist about the impact of the first contacts
between Alaska's Natives and the early miners, trappers, traders, missionaries, government
officials, sailors, army officers and ne'er-do-wells that came to Alaska. The impact of these
contacts is assumed by most of us to have had some effect on the drinking patterns observed
among the descendants of early Alaskans now living in Alaska. A common assumption, for
example, is the "Firewater Myth."
"The firewater myth probably deserves the endurance record for unfounded folklore
about American Indians. According to this myth, Indians are constitutionally prone to develop
an inordinate craving for liquor and to lose control over their own behavior when they drink."1
This and other attitudes still exist about alcohol's effects on Native Americans in Alaska,
even though the origin of learning to drink by many of Alaska's Natives is widely dissimilar
from those of other Native Americans. Alaskan Natives, though combined for convenience to
one term, are actually heterogeneous groups that only recently have been identified collectively.
Some groups of Alaskan Natives are separated by literally thousands of miles of some of the
most rugged terrain on the continent; yet writers of Alaskan history often lump them together
with Indians of the Eastern Atlantic, Midwest and Southwest as far as their supposed
susceptibility to alcohol over-indulgence and learned drinking behavior is concerned.
STEREOTYPES OF EARLY ALASKA AND ALCOHOL DRINKING
Some preconceived notions about early Alaska settlement and drinking behavior exist.
If the average Alaskan were asked about his thoughts on the use and abuse of alcohol in
Alaska's early years, if is probable that one of several stereotypes might be offered.
One historian might have a tendency to claim that Alaska's Natives were "demoralized" by the
liquor brought into the territory by the Russians. A miner might blame Indian drinking
problems on the guilt laid on the Natives by prohibition-minded missionaries. A government
official might lay the "blame" on "bad" white men who cheated the Natives out of their furs
using whiskey. A store-keeper who sells "good whiskey" might blame the liquor problems on
home-brewed liquor that wasn't as good in quality as what he sold. Missionaries who were
strongly against the behavior of the crews of whaling ships might blame liquor problems on the
example set by whaling crews that victimized Alaska's Natives in their opinion.
Comments such as these seem to
be easily accepted by most of us as true.
Alaska is such a large, diversified
state that any or all of these claims may be
true or false to an extent. It depends, in
part, on exactly what groups or villages
are referred to. In Point Barrow, for
example, Natives seldom saw whites
(except a few whalers) until well into the
20th century; while the Athabascan Indians
saw virtually no whites but miners during
the same time. Indians in Southeast
Alaska coastal areas [the Tlingits] had
early contact with Russians, miners,
military officers and government officials
as well as fur traders and "ruff-scruff." Inhabitants of the Pribilof Islands saw virtually only
Russians and other sea-faring hunters who were after the now-extinct Steller's sea cow, walrus
and valuable seal pelts.
MOTIVATION OF AUTHORS
The average reader of Alaska history is likely to be unaware of the background of its
historical authors. Without this information, conclusions reached may be slanted or inaccurate.
One person's perspective is likely to be quite different from another's even when the same thing
is described. Take for example the description of a western saloon by one thirsty visitor:
It was "gleaming, swell, palatial, and luxurious, with clean, sparkling glasses, elaborate
spittoons, efficient and polite bartenders, pretty waitresses and smashingly beautiful female
dancers."
A temperance-minded visitor to the same saloon wrote a very different description of
what he saw.
It was "sleezy[sic], unadorned, stark, with rough tables, mismatched chairs, a splintering
floor, unshaven trailhands with their hats on, dogs on bar and tables, and a few awkward,
gawky, raw-boned, horse-faced women with clumsy, over-sized boots protruding from beneath
their long, dirty calico skirts."2
Such differences of opinion make sorting through information about Alaska Natives'
first alcohol contacts difficult and time-consuming.
EARLY RUSSIAN ALCOHOL HISTORY
The first foreign visitors to the shores of Alaska (other than those by circum-polar
Eskimos) were from Russia. Russians came to Alaska looking for furs and claimed the land by
international law after planting a boundary marker alongside a liquor bottle at the fringes of the
new land. Liquor bottles were commonly used to mark boundaries of land claims by both
American and Russian colonizers. Americans, unlike Russians, however, drank the liquor
before burying the bottle.
The current stereotype of hard-drinking
Russians who love vodka is well known. It is
sometimes amplified by letters about the
Russians in Alaska. For example, a letter
from Governor Baranov to Larinov stated:
"Neither I nor anyone else has any vodka or
balsam left. Enough was shipped with the last
transport but owing to my weakness it was all
used up. At Sitka I used up five bucketsful,
not leaving a drop, expecting that the new
transport would have arrived already or will
arrive this summer. The raspberries are just
beginning to ripen. sometimes we make wine
out of them, to drown our sorrows."3
In another letter, Baranof stated:
"We spent the fall and winter with men of
distinction without boredom, having as you
can guess a supply of vodka. Even if we
drank it only at times we were not very
temperate as to quantity. As the scripture
says: 'one who drinks wine does not keep chastity.'"4
Bering
Few people understand Russian alcohol history beyond the simple, single stereotype quoted
above. Fact and fiction about early Russian alcohol history can be separated only by digging
into the information available about Russia prior to Alaskan contact.
Not-so-distant relatives of Alaska's Eskimos are found in the coastal areas of Russia
nearest to Alaska. As the European Russians worked their way east, their efforts to control
the evils (as well as the benefits) of alcohol went with them. It is true that many Russian
merchants used liquor to take advantage of the Natives they encountered as they moved
eastward to the Kamchatka Peninsula just west of the Aleutian Islands. It is also true that
Russian authorities in no way countenanced these practices.5
“FARMING” ALCOHOL FRANCHISES
The first meaningful efforts to control alcohol in Russia came during the reign of Tzar
Alexis (1645-1676). In addition to introducing the now-famous Russian ballet, he attempted
to control the distribution of alcohol by granting monopolies to the highest bidder.
This concept was known as “farming,” and provided the greatest benefit to the
government in the form of revenue. Farming effectively authorized only the social elite to
control and profit from the drinking habits of everyone else. By 1705, this pattern became well
established. In 1779, liquor license farming brought seven million rubles into the treasury per
year, and by 1811, over 30 million rubles were realized by the government from farming liquor.
The first liquor concessions were occasionally made to Jewish businessmen, but
prejudice against these merchants caused them to be stripped of the concessions for fear they
would soon control more and more resources of Russia.
"...in 1856 the Jews of Russia, while being permitted to reside in villages and hamlets,
were forbidden to live in any house where wine, beer or spirits were sold, or to meddle with
that trade, or possess any distillery or dispose of any liquor in any way."6
It was under the farming system that the first Russians came to the shores of Alaska.
Ivan Larionovich Golikov was entrusted with the alcohol concession monopoly that extended
to Russia's American colonies.
"So respected was he that he had been entrusted with the administration throughout the
province of the government liquor monopoly, a highly profitable assignment."7
It was through Golikov that a man named Grigorii Ivanovich Shelikov was to rise to
the top of the Russian-American Company, and it was through Shelikov that Aleksandr
Andreevich Baranov, a fur trader in the Anadyr country among a group of Indians called the
Chukchi, was recruited for work in the American colonies.
FUR TRADERS IN SIBERIA
Baranov, like other fur traders in the Anadyr country, traded alcohol as well as other
items of general merchandise to get the furs he wanted.
"Like all savages, the Tungus, Iakuts and others were addicted to vodka, and would
willingly dispose of their furs to anyone from whom they could get it."8
The Chukchi were enough dissatisfied with Baranov's trading methods that in 1790 they
burned and plundered his posts, leaving him facing bankruptcy.
This experience caused
Baranov to become very careful to
prevent untrusted Natives from
obtaining liquor and firearms. He
was greatly offended whenever other
traders willingly sold both of these
items of contraband to Natives
within his jurisdiction. This concern
for keeping alcohol and firearms
from Natives was probably not based
upon Baranov's feelings about
improving the Natives' welfare, but
was simply good business sense, selfpreservation and social control.
Baranof’s Castle in Sitka
RUSSIAN-AMERICAN COMPANY POLICY AND ALCOHOL
Taverns and saloons existed in Russia, as they had in Revolutionary America in the
1700s, but it would be wrong to think that the Russian-American Company encouraged
drinking in Russian-Alaska any more than the Americans or the British did in the lands under
their jurisdiction.
As early as 1808, the Russian government lodged protests with the American ConsulGeneral in St. Petersburg against selling guns and alcohol to the Alaskan Indians by American
merchants. The Company set limits on the amount of liquor given their own men as well as to
Natives. In fact, it was the Russian's alcohol rationing that encouraged the British and the
Americans to take advantage of the restrictions to increase their own trade throughout RussianAmerica.9
In the early years of the Company, however, liquor was used to control company
workers' behavior and keep them from making their own liquor or from buying it from
foreigners who often visited the colonies. Article II of their employment contract declared:
"Everyone in the service of the Company is forbidden, under any pretext whatsoever,
to distill liquor from herbs, roots, berries, Company grain, and so forth; or to buy or barter
liquor from visiting foreigners and trade in it on Company premises, to make loans or give
money to each other for drinking purposes, then drink liquor or use it in any way at all."10
This doesn't mean that the company didn't allow its workers to drink alcohol. They
allowed and even encouraged their own workers to drink company-purchased liquor. This is
not much different than any similar
American company might have done in
the same situation. Alcohol was even
sometimes used to get and keep
employees in debt. Baranov admitted:
"Here there is no need of gold, silver, or
precious stones. Among the provisions
there is only one which is more expensive
and more important. . . . Next to articles
of clothing and footwear liquor is dearer
to the workers than anything else in the
world. And if it is a question of getting
people in debt, just send over some [liquor] and have it sold in moderation when necessary,
especially at times when the income is being divided up ['half-share' system], and you will see
how much of the income will be passed out and how many people will get into debt."11
The Russians also allowed their workers to brew virtually all the beer that they wanted
to drink. They made a type of a beer called "quass" or "kvass" which was given freely to
employees. Workers also received a small, regular issue of vodka at Company expense. This
vodka issue was extended to some of the more trusted Aleut hunters at times, particularly at
the end of successful hunts.
CONTROL OF THE ALCOHOL TRADE
Historian Hubert Howe Bancroft, while denouncing Indians for a perceived love of
drink, observed that gains by fur traders who cheated Indians out of furs by using alcohol for
leverage were only a temporary advantage. He pointed out that a drunken hunter neither hunts
very well nor very long. A drunken hunter is also not safe in managing hazardous situations.
"Drink destroyed his energies, absorbed his property, and left him hungry and naked."12
He contended that for this reason, companies that enjoyed a monopoly of trade in any
area not only regulated themselves, but readily formed compacts with their neighbors
prohibiting traffic in alcohol.
"It was only when opposition was rampant that prudential principles were thrown aside,
and the fragrant forest air was thickened with the fumes of vile distillations."
The Russian-American Fur Company only from time to time enjoyed what could
accurately be called a monopoly. This concession was intended to be a monopoly by the
government and those who owned the company, but it didn't work out that way in practice.
Their competition came, not from within their own system, but from the Americans (who hated
monopolies) and the British.13
UNETHICAL CAPITALISTS
By far the worst traders in liquor were the first Americans to come to Alaska. They
travelled along the Pacific northwest coast in large trading ships without Russia's permission
while Russia officially controlled the Alaskan territorial waters. The Americans were trying to
make a profit for their businesses in any way they knew how. They were viewed by the
Russians as not being interested in anything more than turning a quick profit and then sailing
home.
The Russians' situation was worsened by logistical barriers to supplying their outposts
from Russia. They were forced to rely on
ships that all-too-often did not arrive at their
assigned destination. Due to bad weather,
poor navigation or other hardships, ships
regularly disappeared beneath the waves with
valuable resupply cargoes. Russian America's
very existence was threatened by frequent
shipwrecks. By 1819, 18 ships had been lost
at sea.14
American traders enjoyed the benefits of
this uncontrolled trade in alcohol and firearms
until 1824 when the Russian government
entered into the first treaty with the United
States.
None of the traders that exploited the trade along the Alaskan coast were particularly
kind to the aboriginals of Alaska. ". . .For innate wickedness and cold-blooded barbarities in
the treatment of savage or half-civilized nations no people on earth during the past century have
excelled men of Anglo-Saxon origin."15
EFFORTS TO STOP DISASTROUS COMPETITION
The Russian government sought a treaty with the United States because foreign
competition from unscrupulous merchants could cause the collapse of the Russian-American
Fur Company. The United States government was reluctant to interfere with their own
merchants just to make things easier on Russian fur companies.
The Russians were in a predicament. They needed the foreigners to help supply their
posts, but they could do without the cut-throat competition and illegal liquor trade the
foreigners brought. On April 27, 1824, a Russo-American treaty went into effect which
allowed American traders in Russian- American waters, but excluded the use of spirituous
liquors, firearms, powder and munitions of war of all kinds. American trading boats were often
accused of violating this treaty by the Russians. The treaty, however, did not allow the
Russians to seize or even search American vessels suspected of violating the treaty. A similar
treaty with the British went into effect in 1825. The Russian- American ten-year treaty was not
renewed when it expired because American merchants showed no interest in policing their own
trading ships to ensure obedience with the treaty.16
EMPLOYEE LIQUOR RATIONS
The Russians generally adhered to a policy of allowing spirituous liquors only to
Russian workers, creoles (mixed culture individuals) and trusted Natives. Those who were
caught violating this prohibition lost all their earnings and were sometimes exiled to
Okhotsk.17
Russian workers in the colonies were frequently charged with drunkenness. Even
Alexander Baranov, the chief manager, received word of charges made against him. He
defended his drinking habits with the following statement.
"It is not true that we drink vodka all the time. Nobody with the exception of myself
and Izmailov makes it, or at least if the hunters make it too, it is done in such secrecy that I
never hear of it. But when I make it, I do so only once or twice per year: first when I return
from a tour of inspection or a journey and find a barrel or two of raspberry and bilberry juice
prepared for this occasion; and second, on my birthday, I make a bucket of vodka and treat
everyone to it. Sometimes on Christmas and Easter I make a bucket out of snakewood roots,
and this is all. We get so used to living without it, that we do not even think of it. It seems that
the law does not prohibit the manufacture of wine from berries and roots if it is for one's own
use. Besides, it is beyond the Russian boundaries and in a new part of the world. Making wine
with mercury, I have rescued from death many who were perishing from venereal diseases. If
I wanted, I could have plenty, because berries, certain roots, and bracken are very suitable for
making wine. But I never make it more than two or three times per year. And now that I
remember it, when we were laying out and launching a ship in Chugach I made twice a bucket
of vodka out of berries and roots. The second time, I added six puds of the company's flour
in your honor, and we all had drinks and I was drunk. The men drank a glass or two, and some
became intoxicated. If you can call it vice, then it was vice."18
HEALTH AND BEER
The Russians, like the Americans and British, were concerned about their workers'
health, and like them were troubled with scurvy. The British found a successful antidote by
mixing lime juice with their rum earning them the nickname, "Limeys." The Americans and
French often relied on beer made from spruce needles to protect them from scurvy, but the
Russians tried several other kinds of beer trying to hit on the proper scurvy cure:
"The number of sick was increasing every day. I
ordered them given wheat, molasses and beer made from
fir cones. We all drank this beer as an anecdote from
scurvy, and thanks to the Lord, out of forty very sick
Russians, only three died."19
The general manager of the Russian-American Fur
Company was instructed to prepare beer for the workers
to help them maintain a resistance to scurvy.
"See that the seamen from the three ships belonging
to the company have plenty of exercise every day as a
protection from scurvy, and to keep them healthy. They
must go to work and in their spare time play games.
Instead of tea, they must drink a brew made of leaves of
green grass which purifies the blood and improves health."20
The use of much of the early alcohol beverages in Alaska was done often with the
thought by the drinker that he was improving his health by drinking rather than doing the very
opposite.
Footnotes to Chapter #1
1. Leland, Joy Firewater Myths: North American Indian Drinking and Alcohol Addiction,
Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies, New Brunswick, New Jersey (1976), p. 1.
2. Erdoe, Richard Saloons of the Old West, Alfred A. Knopf, New York (1979), p. 54 in
describing a saloon in Dodge City, Kansas.
3. Tikhmenev, P.A. A History of the Russian American Company, Vol.2, Edited by Richard
A. Pierce and Alton S. Donnelly, The Limestone Press, Kingston, Ontario (1979) p. 120-122
Letter from Baranov to Larionov, July 24, 1800.
4. Tikhmenev, P.A. A History of the Russian American Company, Vol.2, Edited by Richard
A. Pierce and Alton S. Donnelly, The Limestone Press, Kingston, Ontario (1979) p. 140-143
Letter from Baranov to Demid Il'ich Kulikalov, Commander of the Andreianov, Rat and Near
Islands Detachment, April 29, 1805. Among the first things that were built the first year after
the battle of Sitka was a brewery. This is really a Russian proverb, as there is no reference in
the scriptures to this phrase.
5. Golovnin, V.M. Around the World on the Kamchatka 1817-1819, Re- published in 1979
by The Hawaiian Historical Society and The University Press of Hawaii, Honolulu, p.xxix.
6. Ibid, p. 144.
7. Chevigny, Hector Russian America: The Great Alaskan Adventure, Binford & Mort (1965),
p. 66.
8. Bancroft, H.H. History of Alaska: 1730-1875, Antiquarian Press, New York (1961) p. 316.
Also see Dmytryshyn, Basil and Crownhart-Vaughan, E.A.P. The End Of Russian-America,
Oregon Historical Society (1979) p. 80, 95.
9. Ibid, p. 97,130; Also see Chevigny, Hector Lost Empire: The Life and Adventures of
Nikolai Rezanov, Binford and Mort (1965), p. 66. Efron, Vera Quarterly Journal of Studies
on Alcohol, "The Tavern And Saloon In Old Russia", Vol 16, 1955, p. 484-502. Gibson James
R. Imperial Russia In Frontier America, New York, Oxford University Press (1976), p. 158,
159, 200.
10. Craig, Melvin Governance of Alaska: Some Aspects, University of Southern California
(1957), p.117.
11. Ibid, p.118.
12. Bancroft, Hubert Howe, History of the Northwest Coast, The Bancroft Company, New
York (1880), p.545, 546.
13.
For more information about alcohol and early Russian-American relations, see
Bolkhovitinov, Nikolai N. The Beginnings of Russian-American Relations, Harvard University
Press, Cambridge (1975), p. 112-113, 171-185.
14. Gibson (1976), p. 67.
15. Bancroft, Hubert Howe History of Alaska: 1730-1885, Antiquarian Press, New York
(1965), p. 248.
16. Ibid, p. 541-542. For a more complete discussion of this treaty, see Hildt, J.C. Early
Diplomatic Negotiations of the United States and Russia, p. 157.
17. Okun, S.B. The Russian-American Company, Harvard University Press (1951), p. 179.
We have no way of knowing if this type of exile was very serious. Certainly, work in RussianAmerica was very difficult in itself and exile to the "Motherland" might have been welcomed
by some. Okhotsk is located on the Okhotsk Sea just east of the Kamchatka Peninsula.
18. Pierce, R.A. and Donnelly, S.A. A History of the Russian-American Company, Vol II,
Limestone Press, Ontario (1979) p. 67-68.
19. Scurvy is a disease that we now know is caused by poor nutrition -- a lack of adequate
vitamin "C". Pierce and Donnelly (1979), p. 175.
20. Tikhmenev, P.A. A History of the Russian American Company, Vol.2, Edited by Richard
A. Pierce and Alton S. Donnelly, The Limestone Press, Kingston, Ontario (1979), p. 11. Also
see Chevigny, Hector (1965), p. 37 The Americans also believed that beer warded off the
effects of scurvy. "Water--flavorless, colorless, proverbially weak--was suspected of diluting
physical vigor and settling cold on the stomach. Beer on each ship that left Bristol, R.I. was
taken in the belief that it helped ward off scurvy." Furnas, J.C. The Life and Times of the Late
Demon Rum, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York (1965), p. 20.
Family Spirits, which will incite men to deeds of riot, robbery and blood, and by doing so
diminish the comfort, augment the expenses, and endanger the welfare of the community."
West, Elliott The Saloon on the Rocky Mountain Frontier, University of Nebraska Press
(1979), p. 70.
CHAPTER #2
FIRST CONTACT
Alcohol use was prevalent in the first contacts between Alaska's aboriginals and the
whites who came north in search of riches, finding oil (whaling), gold, furs and other trade
items. All these newcomers to Alaska used alcoholic beverages for one purpose or another.
This gave the Alaska Natives a bewildering display of drinking behavior that attached meaning
to swallowing liquids containing alcohol.
Before whites came to Alaska, Natives likely displayed friendship by exchanging nonalcoholic gifts of value such as clothing, food and supplies. Afterwards, however, fellowship
was often symbolized by consuming liquor, which was obtained cheaply by whites and could
be used to barter for nearly anything the Indians had.
INTOXICANTS BEFORE THE RUSSIANS
It is generally accepted that North American Indians did not use intoxicating beverages
before white adventurers and settlers arrived. Many Indians who lived in the American
southwest had their own fermented drinks that could cause inebriation. Alaskan Indians,
Eskimos and Aleuts, on the other hand, probably had no intoxicating beverages at all before
white traders introduced them.
"All available evidence seems to concur in placing the native peoples of the Northwest
coast of America among American Indians who in aboriginal times were without knowledge
and techniques for brewing or distilling intoxicating beers or liquors. One exceptional note
comes from reports on the Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island, who made a beverage of elderberry
juice, black chitons, and tobacco, which they claimed, 'made them dizzy.'"1
The Indians of Southeast Alaska, called the Kolosh by the Russians, may have made a
form of intoxicant out of roots. Chewing pitch, also made from roots, was thought to induce
"a form of intoxication."2
Whether or not Alaska Natives had much access to alcohol before the Russians arrived
in their land is not as important as what the act of drinking alcohol meant to them if they used
it. If the Natives had alcohol at all, it could not have carried the same significance as that
attributed to it by the whites.
ALCOHOL EXISTED, BUT NOT IN DRINKABLE FORM
Alcohol was available throughout Alaska before the whites arrived, but it existed in
forms other than in intoxicating beverages. Alcohol is the natural consequence of yeast from
berries and other foods interacting on fermentable materials such as sugars and starches. Yeast
(a necessary ingredient for the production of alcohol) has always naturally existed in the air.
The old sourdough starters used by miners to make pancakes and muffins contained yeast, and,
therefore, contained alcohol. Sourdough starters were used to make beer or mash for distilling
as well as leavening for bread. An early alcoholic drink called "Sourdough" got its name from
sourdough starter.
The consequences of drinking this beverage made from yeast, flour, sugar and
miscellaneous other items were often exaggerated - particularly when talking about its effects
on Natives.
"But a worse and far more injurious method [than straight whiskey] has been introduced
which reduces the Native to the uttermost depths of poverty and human degradation. This is
the "cold whiskey" or "sourdough" beverage, made from flour and sugar fermented, which,
instead of being used for human sustenance, is used for this vile purpose, leaving the Native
totally impoverished. The destitution from this source alone last winter in this [lower Yukon]
region was something dreadful. . . It was toward the abolition of this evil that I concentrated
my efforts during my short trip in the month of June. This beverage, drunk in a half-fermented
state, produces stupefaction and sickness of the stomach simply indescribable."3
It is clear that the necessary raw elements for brewing alcohol were and are easily
obtained throughout Alaska, particularly during the summer months when hillsides teemed with
innumerable berries, even in the Arctic regions. In his book, Alcohol and the Northwest Coast
Indians, Lemert said:
The absence of intoxicants in the Indian cultures of the area under consideration means
that the study of drinking behavior becomes a study of white-Indian contact and acculturation.
The historical data make this preeminently clear. Liquor was introduced into the Aleutian
Islands and the northern coastal cultures sometime after 1741 by the Russian explorers and
colonizers, and later in the south by
the Spanish, English and Americans.
There is evidence that the first
reaction of the aborigines to liquor
were those of distaste and suspicion
of the motives of the persons who
provided the liquor. These definitely
were the reactions of the more
northerly, warlike tribes, the Tlingit,
Tsimpsian and Haida.
In all
likelihood they sprang from the easy
perception of drunkenness as causing
special vulnerability to attacks and
raids by enemies. The common
expectations of encountering surreptition, surprise and trickery in dealings with persons outside
their own tribe led the natives to refuse liquor offered to them lest it "put them in the power
of the Russians."4
FIREWATER COMES TO ALASKA
Some writers have written about the supposed love of drink among North American
Indians. Most of the U.S. military men who came to Alaska had contact with Indians of the
"lower 48," and readily made comparisons between Alaska Natives and their counterparts to
the south. Many stereotypes of Indians in the American southwest were applied to the Alaska
Natives. A representative sample of these comments include the following:
On a side trip to Chilkat by the Lincoln in 1869, General Howard felt that the Indians
were in his words, "saucy and quarrelsome", and seemed to be more interested in whiskey than
in other items aboard the Lincoln. One chief was said to observe, "Talk without whiskey was
nothing; s'pose plenty of whiskey and presents, then talk good."5
Not all the whiskey exchanged by fur traders was furnished by the whites. One trader
who met chief "Shakes" in 1838 claimed that it was the chief (rather than himself) who
produced whiskey and a cup. Of course, the trader claimed that he only "tasted" the drink
while observing that all the others drank heavily.6
"A member of the Vitus Bering expedition in 1741 recorded that an Aleut was offered
a sip of brandy but that he spit it out and left the ship feeling socially insulted."7
"They [Southeast Indians] are very docile and friendly, ingenious, and labor well and
faithfully, but by being brought into contact with unprincipled white men are soon found to
adopt and imitate their manners and ways....They are very fond of coffee, sugar and molasses,
and like all other Indians easily become fond of ardent spirits, to obtain which they will
sometimes sacrifice nearly everything in their possession."8
In spite of the bias by whites toward the Indians' perceived love of drink, some
historians have noted the opposite reaction among some Indian tribes that were offered liquor.
For example, as late as 1839, the Shoshoni Indians in Oregon territory had the reputation of
refusing to indulge in intoxicating drink even though they had free access to it.9
When Captain James Cook offered alcoholic drinks to Indians he met in Nootka Sound
in 1778, the Indians "rejected them as something unnatural and disgusting to the palate."
When Cook's crew offered liquor to some Natives at Unalaska, one of them named
Yermusk "shewed great aversion, giving us to understand by reeling & staggering the effect
it would have upon [him] and he refused even to touch it."10
A Spanish trader who visited Nootka Sound in 1792 also claimed that the Indians he
met were not particularly interested in liquor.
"They had no fermented drink, but satisfied their thirst with water only until they began
to trade with the Europeans."11
"The Tlingit may have refused liquor in very early contacts with the Russians because of an
awareness of the way in which it was used to keep the fur hunters under peonage in the
Aleutian colonies."
The Tlingits of Southeast Alaska had an initial aversion to alcohol that was noted by
Lemert, but as they began seeking some of the high status attached to the whites, they started
accepting the items that conferred white man's high status, "and liquor, scarce and valuable
soon became a prime prestige item."12
In 1805, Langsdorf met some Tlingit Indians and traded with them, of whom he stated:
"Though they would like brandy very much, they reject it because they see the effect
it produces, and are afraid that, if deprived of their senses, they should fall into the power of
the Russians."13
This attitude of being proud of maintaining their senses in the face of perceived enemies
was also found among many Indians of the Columbia River, about whom one writer in 1832
observed:
"They allege that slaves only drink to excess; that drunkenness is degrading to free
men."14
The Aleuts may have taken to alcohol as a form of acculturation and blending of the
Russian and Aleut cultures after decimation by the first Russian conquerors. It is estimated that
only 20 percent of the original population remained following the Russian attack.
Because of Alaska's great size and its inhabitants varied cultural and social
backgrounds, the most accurate way to document the Natives' first contacts with alcohol is to
describe the whites' behavior and motives and the significance of that impact on the Natives.
EXPLORERS AND ADVENTURERS
The first explorers came to the shores of Alaska by ship. They all had dealings with
Native peoples in other areas during their journeys prior to coming to Alaska, and all were
prepared with items of trade and barter to use along the way.
The international "currency" familiar to all cultures served by the crews of the
worldwide trading ships included trinkets, blankets, guns and ammunition, and last but not
least, alcohol.
In addition to bringing enough alcohol to barter with, the traders had alcohol on board
ship for their own use; for their health and happiness and, some would add, to their own
disgrace, for many ships had disastrous experiences while their crew or officers were "in their
cups." In fact, the excessive drinking of sailors during the early years of the United States
caused them to be included with other lower classes whenever disgust about immoderate
drinking was brought up. Sailors were, for example, forbidden credit for alcohol in Virginia
in 1769, because of their tendency to charge to their credit more than was good for them and
their employers.15
Among the Russian ships' crews, many navigators were
notorious for getting drunk. Such was the case, for
example, of Pribilov, a navigator and officer of a RussianAmerican Company ship. While navigating on one trip,
Pribilov veered far off course due to drunkenness. By a
happy coincidence, he came across the out-of-the-way
islands that now bear his name. Had he been sober, these
islands may not have been discovered by the Russians for
many years to come and certainly would now be called by
another's name.
One of three ships sailing for the original founding at
Kodiak --the Saint Michael-- lost her way en route because
of a drinking navigator, Olesov.16
At first, liquor was given by explorers to Indians and
Eskimos in a spirit of hospitality and curiosity. Such was the case during English sailor
Nathaniel Portlock's visit to Southeast Alaska in August of 1787. Portlock Harbor on
Chichagof Island is named in his honor because he stopped there to brew a fresh supply of
spruce beer on one of the inside beaches.
During one of Portlock's encounters with Natives while anchored in Portlock Harbor,
his favorite "black-jack" drinking mug was nearly stolen. The culprit was caught only because
of the stain caused when the beer that remained in it sloshed out.17
Sometimes sailors offered liquor to Indian men to entice them to allow the sailors to
obtain sexual favors of the Native women. Vagabond sailors who had spent long months on
board ship were often very open in their desire to have sexual relations with Native women.
They used alcohol to induce women aboard ship and to get them and their Native men drunk.
Native women were stereotyped by these sexually predatory men as being highly accessible
when intoxicated.
FUR TRADERS AND HUNTERS
It didn't take long for curiosities sharing to develop into an outright trade between
visiting ships and the Alaskan Natives. The Russians had established their right to trade the
Alaska resources for profit, but this didn't stop other traders from profiting as well. Whether
the first non-Russian ship to trade liquor was the French ship LaFlavie or not, it was still a fact
that alcohol became a highly profitable commodity to sell if you could get away with it.18
"It was asserted...that the [Hudson's Bay] Company could export a quart of English
spirits at six pence, mix it with one third water and then exchange it for a beaver skin weighing
a pound and a half, for which they would get at auction nine shillings and a penny, making a
2700 percent profit upon the annual stock in trade after all expenses had been reduced and
about seven and two-thirds percent profit upon their nominal capital of $103.95."19
The French-Canadian fur trade in the east was built on using alcohol to trade for furs
despite a royal decree prohibiting such a practice in 1657.20
Some thought heavy drinking fur hunters were inevitable and that it was a natural result
of the search for profits. The Indians in Albany, New York, issued a complaint in 1710 that
said, "We think you sell it with no other Design than in order to destroy us."21
Others claimed the fur trade itself was the by-product of the bibulous lives of those who
hunted furs.
"When a nation becomes addicted to drinking, it affords a strong presumption that they
will soon become excellent hunters of furs."
It was claimed that the shrewdest traders - those who made the most profit - refused
to trade with a sober Indian. It's also possible that the same principle applied to the Indians.
For example, the Alaskan Indians were said to be very good traders. It's very possible that they
would feign drunkenness to deceive their white trading friends as to their ability to recognize
a fair bargain. It's also possible that they would apply this principle to trading with the whites
and other Indians by refusing to trade until whiskey was produced for all to drink.22
Since there is no historical record from their point of view of these transactions, only
information recorded by the whites can be used. That record claimed it was rather easy to get
the Indians intoxicated. There was no way for the whites to know if the Indians were feigning
drunkenness or not. When the Indians asked for alcohol to be produced before trading
continued, they were branded as being overly fond of drink, but when the whites did the same
thing in identical circumstances they were labeled as shrewd traders.23
"The traders throughout the long history of the fur trade relied upon rum and whiskey
in their dealings with Indians. The unscrupulous trader did not hesitate to debauch the red man
with liquor, in order to cheat him with his furs. And the Indians' revenge more often than not
was taken out indiscriminately upon the settlers close at hand."24
Fur traders were often described as less than Christian in their dealings with the Indians
of North America.
"The fur trade was in the hands of a great number of individuals, many of whom were
lawless, unprincipled and vicious, some of whom were described as 'the scum of the earth.'"25
Not all of these white fur hunters resorted to such poor trade practices, however. Some
actually tried to limit the amount of alcohol brought into Indian country. Alexander Baranof
often complained of the "Bostonians" who brought liquor to the fur trade in Alaska.26
The Americans "came to the North Pacific waters in numbers of neat, fast ships and,
said Baranov, they had uncanny skill in stripping the native population of an island of its furs
in return for anything from trinkets to liquor and firearms; both the latter the Russians dreaded
in native lands."27
The American traders quickly gained notoriety among the Russians because they
marketed alcohol to get anything they could from the Indians.
"After 1800 the only vessels in the maritime trade on the Northwest coast were
American" and so notorious was the fact that they were carrying large stocks of liquor that as
early as 1808 the Russian government complained of their traffic with the native in both
firearms and firewater. The COLUMBIA, of Boston on her second voyage had on board three
hogsheads (311 gallons) of New England Rum, two hogsheads of West Indian rum (225
gallons) and another 451 gallons of rum and a half ton of powder and 200 muskets. The
BOSTON had over 2,000 gallons of liquor on board for trade."28
Alaska Natives were not the first aborigines to become concerned with the importation
of alcohol into their territory. As early as 1642 in the Canadian territory a priest told of the
local Indians' request to stop the fur traders from bringing alcohol. The Indians had told him
to:
"Write to France and tell the captains to send ships here and not to send us any more
poisons that destroy us, that take away our senses and cause us untimely death."29
Some thought alcohol was the main reason that the fur trade was profitable. It was the
liquid lorelei that lured all those within the fur hunting area to their destruction.30
OTHERS WHO HELPED INTRODUCE ALCOHOL TO ALASKA'S NATIVES
It wasn't just whites who came to Alaska seeking financial independence and freedom.
A sizable number of Chinese were imported by businessmen as cheap labor to work the mines
or the fish-packing plants that opened about 1890. The orientals had their own intoxicants and
were not prohibited from using them as the Indians were. It's no surprise that both white
missionaries and white laborers made accusations of the bibulous and un- Christian lives of the
Chinese laborers.
"Nor is it a wonder that they catch the spirit of the immoral, the drink-loving and the
gamblers and imbibe from the Asiatic heathen new vices. It is not strange that when the few
missionaries set up Christian standards, the ignorant Eskimos regard them as very exceptional
men, who are making demands such as the average man considers quite needless. . . . The
Chinese in particular have taught the natives to brew and distill a terrible kind of drink. Graham
flour, brown sugar and water are mixed so as to form a horrid mash, which is first allowed to
ferment and then distilled. I was informed that very few men on the Nushagak can resist the
temptation to concoct this fearful drink."31
Congress was warned that boats marketed their "nefarious trade" all along Alaska's
panhandle in 1899. Not very much was done about it however, since so much lobbying was
done at the same time about prohibition in other territories and states.32
Sometimes there were charges that some canneries were selling lemon extract instead
of liquor to the Indians (presumably to become drunk). This was the case with the Chilkat
Canning Company in Haines.33
Whaling ships were also the targets of moral darts thrown by those who felt that they
carried far too much alcohol aboard for incidental trade with Natives along Alaska's Western
coast. As many as 300 whaling ships were counted by the Russians in one year. They gained
the appellation "Hell-ships," because of their reputation along the coast in trading rot-gut and
syphilis for furs.34
"Any time American newspapers mention whalers they state that such and such a ship,
engaged in whaling in the north, had an unsatisfactory catch but nonetheless found business
very good."35
The only official Indian agent to come to Alaska,(he stayed less than one year) claimed
that Siberian Natives sometimes traded alcohol with the Eskimos north of Kotzebue.
Many whalers cleared American ports with sizable quantities of alcohol on the basis that
they were going to dispose of the liquor to Siberian Natives rather than American Eskimos or
Indians. The American authorities cleared this while ignoring the fact that Russian law
prohibited this kind of action. When Captain C. L. Hooper returned from a trip to the Arctic
as captain of the Corwin, he claimed that most whalers never came "within one hundred miles"
of where they said they were going to take the liquors."36
MINERS AND ALCOHOL
Miners were late in coming onto the Alaskan scene in comparison with whalers and fur
traders. They also brought sizable amounts of alcohol with them and showed Alaskan Natives
by their example how to drink. Miners' meetings were frequently conducted in saloons and
were often the only example of American law in the area. The setting of these meetings "could
certainly affect the course of justice."37
Once in a bootlegging case brought before the meeting by the customs officer, the men
wanted to make sure that the confiscated goods actually consisted of whiskey. Bottles
continued to circulate until all the evidence had disappeared and "case dismissed" was
proclaimed.38
On a different occasion, when the case of a prominent prostitute called, "May," was
brought before a miners' meeting, the jury
was sequestered in the storeroom of the
Pioneer Saloon. After deliberating over the
bottles to be found there, they staggered out
with their well-thought-out verdict: "We the
jury find the amount sued for is excessive
and fine the defendant and assess the costs of
the case to the plaintiff."39
Miners drank hard and were often
accused of being a rather wild and harddrinking bunch of individuals. In 1899 in
Nome there were 20 saloons, four wholesale
liquor stores and a brewery. One year later there were 40 saloons in that thriving metropolis.
One astute drinker in the Hunter Saloon in Nome claimed that one could learn a lot of the
economic activity of a community in a bar room.
"You can tell a camp's development by the price of drinks. Four bits
means recent occupation, unsettled conditions and the presence of 1/2 barrel
which has just come over trail. 2 bits means a regulation boom is on, that the
tenderfeet are plenty and that regular communication with the outside is
established. Next drop is for three for a half. Not a sign of slump but shows
first excitement is passed- the town is getting down to business basis. Fifteen
cents means the business basis reached, court & school are going, claimjumping has become bad form, plug hats are tolerated and faro banks have
moved upstairs. Any further decline, however, is a danger signal. 2 for a
quarter whiskey is a sure sign of deterioration and 5c/ beer means the stampede
has started for the next diggings." 40
The great Alaskan gold rush provided quite an opportunity for increased contact for
whites, Natives and alcohol. Whiskey flowed into Alaska with nearly every boat and pack-train
that came to the Great Land. Ministers followed so close on the heels of miners that they often
held revivals inside saloons. The scow that brought Rev. S. Hall Young to Dawson with the
captain named "Black Sullivan" (the origins of which we can only guess at) or "Whiskey
Sullivan" (the origins of which are evident) from Lake Bennett, was full of whiskey, brandy and
beer. Young claimed in his autobiography that he knew nothing of the cargo till he found his
captain to be somewhat less than safe while "in his cups" due to sampling the cargo.41
Mining towns became known for wide-open saloons during official prohibition and
were known far and wide to draw rowdy, free-wheeling miners. Towns like Juneau, Douglas
and Fairbanks became centers where miners would meet and exchange stories over a few
friendly drinks year round. Prior to the advent of these large towns, miners were itinerants who
only "wintered over" when out of work at towns like Wrangell at the entrance to the Cassiar
gold fields.
Whenever prospectors settled for any duration, a liquor dealer was not far behind to
make money on the "liquid diggins."
PROSTITUTES IN THE GOLD FIELDS
Prostitutes normally were used to sell liquor and thereby increase their income along with
selling their services.
Lottie went to the diggings;
With Lottie we must be just.
didn't shovel tailings-Where did Lottie get her dust?
If she
It was not unknown for a woman's popularity to be measured by the size of the stack
of empty beer bottles outside her bungalow in Iditarod.
Not all the women in early Alaska agreed with
prostitution and drinking.
One thirtiesh spinster in Nome named Susie Bluenose
worked at secretarial work during the day and showed up
at Nellie Page's roadhouse in the evenings to give
temperance lectures. One day, Susie burst into the
roadhouse to see the drinking, dancing and singing that
went on and shouted, "You blackguards, you roistering
scoundrels, you're all going to roast in hell. Do you know
that?" She then turned to Nellie, who was dancing with
one of the male visitors, and said, "Young woman, if this
racket is not stopped at once I'm going to have this den of
iniquity closed immediately. I am going to report you to
the United States Marshal." The music and dancing
stopped. There was deathly silence as Nellie's dancing
partner disengaged himself from Nellie, marched over to Susie, introduced himself as Marshal
Lamont, and while bowing gallantly stated, "I am at your service, Madame. Would you care
to dance?" Susie never again gave her temperance lectures at Nellie Page's roadhouse.
In some of the saloons, men were entertained in private rooms or "boxes" on the balcony of the
saloon. An appropriately placed sign would remind the miner, "Gentlemen in private boxes are
expected to order refreshments." The effort of the girls to sell liquor to those in private boxes
was known as "box-rushing." It was in Skagway that box-rushing reached its greatest
efficiency. Without any invitation from the man who would be expected to pay the tab, the
girls would ring the waiter for wine at twenty dollars or more per pint.
The introduction of alcohol into Alaska took many forms. Some who brought it and made it
in Alaska used it to relax. Others used it for medication, but most used it to escape their
troubles.
Footnotes to Chapter #2
1. Lemert, Edwin M. Alcohol And The Northwest Coast Indians, University Of California
Press, Berkeley (1954), p. 305.
2. DeLugana, Fredrica Under Mt. St. Elias: The History and Culture of the Yakutat Tlingit:
Part One, Smithsonian Institution Press (1972), p. 411. She also includes in her book at least
three Native drinking songs that were probably written after the Russian period. The Indians
of Southeast Alaska were called the "Kolosh" by the Russians.
3. Conn, Stephen Alcohol Control And Native Alaskans -- From The Russians To Statehood:
The Early Years, University of Alaska (1980), p. 29. The spelling of "whiskey" is correct in
America and Ireland, but should be spelled "whisky" in Canada, England and Scotland.
4. Lemert (1954), p. 305.
5. 40th Congress, 2nd Session, House Document #177, p. 208.
6. Journal of Robert Campbell, July 23, 1838.
7. Smith, Becky The Alaska Journal, Vol 3, No 3, "When Alaskans Voted Dry: Prohibition In
Alaska" (Summer, 1973), p. 170. Also in British Columbia Quarterly, VI (July, 1942); Howay,
F.W. "The Introduction of Intoxicating Liquor Amongst the Indians of the Northwest Coast",
p. 157. Originally quoted from Golder, F.A. Bering's Voyages, New York (1922), I., p. 147148. The liquor offered was probably a distillate from a beer made out of grasses prior to
Bering's departure from Kamchatka. Steller's journal identifies the grass as "Sladkaya trana."
8. 40th Congress Senate Executive Document #68 (1869), appendix B.
9. Donnelly, Joseph Peter The Liquor Traffic Among the Aborigines of the New Northwest:
1800-1860, Unpublished dissertation, St. Louis University (1940), p. 20.
10. Cook, Captain James Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, 1776-1780, (Folio Ed.) London
(1784), II., p. 323: Quoted from Howay, F.W. (1942) p. 158. Beaglehole, J.C. The Voyage
of the Resolution and Discovery: 1776-1780, Part Two, Cambridge (1967), p. 1121.
11. Quoted in Howay (1942), p. 158.
12. Lemert (1954), p. 395. Lane, Bobby Dave North of Fifty-Three: The Army, Treasury
Department and Navy Administration of Alaska: 1867-1884, Ph.D. Dissertation (1974),
University of Texas at Austin, p. 158.
13. Quoted in Howay (1942), p. 160.
14. Quoted in Howay (1942), p. 161.
15. Thomann, G. Colonial Liquor Laws, United States Brewers' Association (1887), p. 68.
A similar law in 1712 stated:
"Whereas it appears that several persons keeping victualizing houses or public
houses of entertainment, for lucre and gain, do make it their practice to draw
in and entertain seamen belonging to the several ships, and give them too great
credit, not only to the ruin of them, their wives and children, but also to the
hindrance of the ship's lading whereby the charges of the ships are greatly
augmented and trade in general delayed and discouraged,...etc.", p. 81-82.
16. Chivigny (1965), p. 40, 55.
17. DeArmond, R.N. Early Visitors To Southeastern Alaska, Alaska Northwest Publishing
Company, Anchorage (1978), p. 37-63.
18. Sherwood, Morgan B. "Ardent Spirits: Hooch and the Osprey Affair", Journal of the West,
Vol IV, No 3 (July, 1965), p. 306.
19. Donnelly (1940), p. 27.
20. Donnelly (1940), p. 32.
21. Donnelly (1940), p. 45.
22. Lender, Mark Edward and Martin, James Kirby Drinking In America: A History, The Free
Press (New York, 1982), p. 49.
23. This situation of perceptions between different classes of people is beautifully pointed out
in a modern-day song from the musical, Finnian's Rainbow, "When The Idle Poor Become the
Idle Rich."
24. Prucha, Francis Paul American Indian Policy In the Formative Years: The Indian Trade and
Intercourse Acts, 1790-1834, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln (1962), p. 7. Also see
Moloney, Francis X. The Fur Trade In New England, 1620-1676, Cambridge, Mass. (1931),
p. 102-104.
25. Ibid, p. 10.
26. This is a term denoting American traders from Boston, Massachusetts, a shipping center
noted for its production of alcohol for many years before, during and after the American
Revolution.
27. Chevigny, Hector Lost Empire (1965), p. 66.
28. Howay, F.W. (July, 1942), p. 165.
29. Donnelly, Joseph Peter (1940), p. 32.
30. Gray, James H. BOOZE: The Impact of Whiskey on the Prairie West, Macmillan of
Canada/Toronto (1972), p. 1.
31. Van Stone, James W. Eskimos of the Nushagak River, University of Washington Press,
Seattle (1967), p. 76-77.
32. Congressional Record, 55th Congress 3rd Session, March 2, 1899, p. 2704.
33. Hinckley, Ted Alaskan John G. Brady, Ohio State University Press (1982), p. 153.
34. Chevigny, Hector Russian America (1965), p. 190.
35. Dmytryshyn, Basil and Crownhart-Vaughan (1979), p. 92-93.
36. Ray, Dorothy Jean The Eskimos of the Bering Strait, 1650-1898, University of
Washington Press, Seattle (1975), p. 189. Conn, Stephen (1980), p. 14.
37. Some claim that it was the "only" law in the area at the time, but this is not the case.
Eskimos and Indians all had complex laws that they adhered to that could exact punishments
from fines to the death of a guilty person.
38. Hunt, William R. North of 53o: The Wild Days of the Alaska-Yukon Mining Frontier,
1870-1914, Macmillan Publishing Company (1974), p. 21.
39. Hunt, William R. (1974), p. 21. Also see Heller, Hubert Sourdough Sagas (1966), p. 90.
40. Nome Chronicle, August 11, 1900. Numerous stories of told of miners and saloons in the
early days of the American West. One of the saloon- keepers advertised in a local newspaper
in Boise to try to get new customers in the following way: "Friends and neighbors: Having
just opened a commodious shop for the sale of Liquid Fire, I embrace this opportunity to
inform you that I have commenced the business of making Drunkards, Paupers and Beggars,
for the sober, industrious and respectable portion of the community to support. I shall deal in
Family Spirits, which will incite men to deeds of r
41. Young, S. Hall Hall Young of Alaska, Fleming H. Revel Co., New York (1927), p. 334.
Rev. Young was financed in his trip down the Yukon by Francis Willard, a noted prohibitionist,
who would not have been very pleased to hear of Mr. Young's situation. When Mr. Young
arrived at Dawson, he needed help and went straight to a friend who just happened to be a
saloon-keeper and got the help he needed. When a fire burned down the church that he
preached in, a bartender came to his aid then, too. When he came down with typhoid fever and
was disabled for six weeks and "the doctors had given him up for dead," an Irish saloon-keeper
named, Bill Murtagh refused to give up on him, procured a cow and fed Mr. Young a little milk
at a time out of a beer bottle. (p. 396).
Chapter #3
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF BEER
After the first contacts with the white visitors to Alaska, the Alaskan Natives had to
live with everyday alcohol use by their new neighbors. They were naturally influenced by
how and what the whites drank, ate and valued. Although the emphasis here is on Alaska
Natives, they cannot be understood independently of the whites and how the whites used
alcoholic beverages.
Often a historian, in pointing out the drinking behavior of one group of people to the
exclusion of another, fails to communicate an accurate impression. For example, it is
misleading to point out, as some writers have, that Alaskan Indians became fond of alcohol
to the extent that they would sell anything they had, even the clothes off their backs at times
to get it. The reason this is true is that not only did they have other items of clothing to
wear, but the same accusation has also been made of the whites.1
"Soldier, soldier, will you work?"
"No, indeed, I'll sell my
shirt."2
It was not an Indian, but a white man, who first sang the ditty:
"Back and side go bare, go bare,
belly, God send thee good ale enough,
Both foot and hand go cold;
Whether it be new or old."3
But,
Similarly, it is misleading to say that Alaskan Indians wanted alcohol so bad that
they would sell their slaves to get it, because the same was done by the whites in colonial
South Carolina in 1674 when Governor West approved the capture and sale of Indians to
the West Indies, "receiving rum and molasses in return."4
Perhaps the best example of the interpretation of this assertion is that some could
easily accuse the early Alaskan Natives of loving drink so much that they would even avail
themselves of illegal means of obtaining liquor. This is misleading is because the whites
often made it illegal only for the Indians to obtain liquor. Thus, whenever Indians drank or
obtained liquor, it was by definition by illegal means, but when others did it, since it was
legal for them to do so, it was by legal means.5
PERSPECTIVES OF ALCOHOL PROBLEMS
The information from all of Alaska's history until very recently has come from a nonNative point of view because Alaska Natives didn't have a written language with which to
communicate their opinions and thoughts. It would be extremely helpful to have a
translated recording of what some of Alaska's Indians and Eskimos said as they talked
among themselves about the drinking habits of the Russians, American soldiers, miners,
businessmen or missionaries. Without that perspective, a study of Alaska's alcohol history is
biased and skewed to be a history through the eyes of only one-tenth or so of the early
population of Alaska.
What might the Indians have said when Russian Governor Baranof accepted a gift of
wine from English businessman, John Jacob Astor, when Astor attempted to gain trade
advantage in Russian America? What did they say and think when they heard drunken
crewmen on some of the ships fire cannon far into the night in celebrations?6
"Some of these [lieutenants] sank into drunken rioting and from on board their ships
fired cannon shots all the night as a manner of relieving their weariness at having to spend
the time in the dullness of a frontier port. Others scarcely moved from their quarters, and
were steeped in vodka from one week to the next."7
What might have been written about the soldiers' constant desire for the alcohol not
allowed them by their superior officers? What did they think when they found it was
considered a right of every loyal American citizen to drink alcohol, but it was dangerous for
Indians to do the same?
BEER AND THE ALEUTS
The Aleutian Islands was the first area where alcoholic beverages became wellknown. Along with the base at Kodiak and a few other small communities, the Russians
settled down with Aleut hunters and tried to achieve a semblance of the comfort they had in
Russia. There is evidence that the Russians on the Aleutian Islands welcomed gifts of liquor
from foreign traders in spite of company regulations prohibiting such practices.
During Captain Cook's voyage, he noted that when his men visited the Russians,
they were "always taking with them some Rum and Brandy of which the Russians were
extravagantly fond and which while it lasted kept them in a continual State of Jollity." One
should not get the impression from this that Russians were always drinking, because the
large supply of liquor with which the Russians became jolly came from the English. If the
Russians had a large supply of liquor of their own, they might well have been offering the
English to share what they had rather than the other way around.8
Very few articles have been written about the beginnings of drinking practices
among the Aleuts and Eskimos of Alaska. One article written about the Aleuts, after
quoting one source as to the heavy drinking practices of the Russians, concluded that the
Aleuts were as bad as the Russians, and says the Aleuts adopted their behaviors and drinks
from their Russian tutors.
"'The [Cossack] workers....were given to drink in a way that was an insult to the
human race, and the police did not find itself in a position to put an end to the daily drinking
and rowdyism.' ....The drinking patterns of the present-day Aleuts seems to correspond
closely to those reported of the Russian workers, suggesting the Aleuts adopted the
behaviors associated with drinking along with the liquor itself."9
The trouble with drawing simple analogies like this, even though perhaps obvious, is
that the same was said about virtually every minority group in the early 1800s. It was
common for those who thought themselves superior for whatever reason to accuse those
believed beneath them of being heavy drinkers. It was common practice to exaggerate the
drinking habits of those whom one wished to criticize. For this reason, "virtually all reports
from the early period must be read with a 'grain of salt.'" This is due in part to the fact that
many reports about Alaska Natives' heavy drinking was written by those with ulterior
motives. They may have written their comments to get more missionaries, money, guns,
boats or virtually anything to meet their own self interests.10
Almost all the liquor consumed on some of the Aleutian Islands was a home brew
called "piva", "malt beer" or "quass". This drink certainly came from the Russians. Russian
fur hunters drank prodigious amounts of beer that was supplied at no cost by the
company.11
RUSSIAN PROVERB
The first glass sticks in the throat.
But after the third, they're like tiny little birds.
The second flies down like a hawk,
--Anna Karenina--
When special agent Frederick S. Hall of San Francisco went to his new post at St.
Michael in 1873, he stopped at Unalaska and made inquiries about the Natives in that
district and their drinking habits. His opinion of quass is interesting:
"He reported that during this visit he found no evidence that liquors were being
made, imported, or traded there, with the exception of a beverage called quass. The Native
Aleuts seemed quite fond of this 'beer', which they had learned to make from the Russians.
Hall asserted that quass was not only intoxicating, but, if anything, more potent than
whiskey. He opined that it was fortunate that very little of it was made north of Unalaska.
Hall wrote that both he and the Treasury officials in the territory were dubious as to
whether quass, because of its being a brewed beverage, could be legally confiscated as a
spirituous drink. Despite their addiction to quass, the natives, according to Hall, seemed to
be an orderly group and on very good terms with the whites."12
Fifteen years later, the same complaint was heard; this time it came from the new
governor of Alaska.
"At many stations, the agents sell the natives sugar in sufficient quantities for the
brewing of a villainous kind of beer called 'quass', in consequence of which there is a great
deal of drunkenness, especially among the Aleuts."13
Quass was used by the Russian workers as a sort of fringe benefit of working for the
company. It was freely given by the company to workers virtually upon demand in much
the same way that coffee is now given by some companies to their workers.
Notwithstanding what agent Hall's stated feelings were about the potency of quass, it could
not have been any stronger than beer is today. Offering beer to workers of the RussianAmerican Company should not be viewed as unique to Russia. The same practice was
widespread throughout the world at that time. Beer was the staple of the working man in
England, much to the chagrin of the aristocracy there. "Harvest beer" was commonly used
as a reward for those who helped put in crops at the end of the season throughout the
United States as well.14
A report from Captain Campbell from Sitka in 1875 passes on information he
learned about the brewing of "quoss" in the Kodiak area:
"They tell me a liquor, 'quoss,' made of hops, potatoes, sugar and flour is very
extensively made in that location. It is said to be very intoxicating."15
Beer use among Natives seems to be unique to the Aleutian Islands and those areas
that were influenced by the Russians to a great extent. On the other hand, beer was always
common among the whites who came to Alaska, and almost every mining town and camp
had its own brewery. Sometimes it was cloaked as "for scientific use only" to meet the
strict requirements of the law. This would allow the whites to criticize the Indians who
drank home-brewed beer because it was thought that while whites drank beer for scientific
purposes, the Indians drank only to get drunk.
"Mr. Cohen, brewmaster of Juneau & Sitka Breweries, offers beer 'exclusively for
medicinal, mechanical and scientific purposes,' describes to scientific purposes of seeing
stars, its optical effect in the endowment of doubled visional powers, etc."16
Elsewhere in the United States, beer had not been included with whiskey in the
prohibitions of the early colonies against Indian drinking.
Under penalty of five pounds, the sale of liquor was forbidden; [Connecticut, 1654]
but this prohibition did not include "ordinary howshold beare," for which, if given to an
Indian, "noe recompense" was to be exacted or accepted.17
While Company policy forbade the sale of distilled liquor to Natives, it was common
to share quass with everyone that worked for the company, whether or not they were
Russians, Creoles or Alaska Natives. In fact, the man who refused to drink beer in some
countries was branded as a person typified as being "thin and watery and mentally cranked
in that he repudiates the good creatures of God as found in alcoholic drinks." In other parts
of Alaska, distilled alcohol was generally preferred to beer if it could be obtained easily.18
The Indians of Canada were said to brew a similar beer to that made popular on the
Aleutian Islands, but it may have required an acquired taste to enjoy it.
"The brew itself is a cloudy yellow and exudes a heavy, sour odor. I smelled a
bottle of it but was unable to rise to the heights of scientific sacrifice necessary to sample
it."19
In some areas of Alaska, probably due to the personal preferences of the officials in
charge, Alaskan Natives were, at times, even encouraged to drink beer, because it was
thought to be healthful by those particular officials. The idea that beer is healthful, and even
in some circumstances non-intoxicating, has existed in this country for centuries. One
reason for this belief was that contaminated water throughout the west was the source of
much disease. This was also true of other countries.
"Beer was the water of seventeenth century England, and few were so foolhardy as
to decry its use with meals in place of the untested, unpurified, and wholly distasteful water
supply."20
It wasn't until the strong temperance movement in Alaska took hold late in the 19th
century that water became a viable option to the beer that was made or brought into the
state. This fact, combined with the fear of virtually anything German [most of the popular
beers were German and probably made by a German brewmaster] immediately prior to WW
I, brought about the effort to get good supplies of drinking water in the territory.21
It has always been believed by some (right or wrong) that drinking beer would
decrease the desire and need for liquor. Even in America's early colonies, immediately prior
to the Revolutionary War it was believed that "brewing malt liquors in this colony would
tend to render the consumption of foreign liquors less necessary." Just as the Russian fur
hunters received their daily ration of quass beer, the fledgling U.S. Army received their daily
ration of one quart of spruce beer or cider per day. At the same time, the sailors for
virtually all navies of the world received daily rations of either liquor or beer.22
CHAPTER #4:
VIOLENCE AND ALCOHOL
Violence often goes hand in hand with alcohol drinking. It has been so since
intoxicants were first used. Warriors often gathered courage to go to battle by drinking
liquor or used it to pacify their enemies into a false security just prior to battle. The term,
"dutch courage" describes courage generated by drinking liquor. It should not be
surprising, then, for violence to be a major part of the settlement of Alaska, since liquor was
always present whenever violence erupted.
BOTTLED INDIAN VIOLENCE
Repeatedly, historians and settlers voiced concern about the Natives' alcohol use
because they anticipated violence. The argument was that if Indians got fire-water they
would immediately begin murdering whites, exhibiting violent behavior. It was believed
that when Indians drink, they immediately begin to do wildly violent things against white
people.
This mis-information is generated from false ideas that Alaska Natives were prone to
violence when under the influence of "forty-rod," while whites were less prone than the
Indians to violence after consuming the same beverage.
"If these Indians are permitted to procure all the whiskey they want, the lives of the
government officials, traders and all white persons. . . .[in Southeastern Alaska] will be in
great danger" [William Kapas in 1871, a customs officer (government official) in
Southeastern Alaska.]1
Such stereotypes were also held about other ethnic groups, of course:
"When intoxicated, a Frenchman wants to dance; a German to sing; A Spaniard to
gamble; an Englishman to eat; an Italian to boast; a Russian to be affectionate; an Irishman
to fight; and an American to make a speech."2
Quotations about concern for drunken, violent Alaska Natives give credibility to the
real fear the whites had of potential violence by Indians if they got drunk.
"The prohibition of liquor importation into Alaska has had no other result so far, but
that of changing drunkards of the ordinary stamp, Indians as well as whites and half-breeds,
into actual raving maniacs. . .With the exception of perhaps a dozen people, everybody is
in the habit of getting drunk daily, and as the Indians are roaming at their pleasure all over
the place night and day, the probabilities of some murderous outbreak, ending in a general
massacre, are exceedingly great."3
"The Indians, usually peaceful and well disposed, were resentful under ill treatment,
and proud and jealous of what they considered their rights. When under the influence of
hooch they were simply incarnate devils among themselves. The women seemed to have
the best of it often, for when drunken, they retained their skill with the knife to which they
were trained by skinning animals, and many were the gashes the Army surgeons were called
upon to repair."4
"A hostile attitude may have been fostered by English and American merchantmen
who supplied the Natives with 'intoxicating drink'."5
"At the post on the Stakhin River the Indians were buying liquor and fighting all the
time among themselves just outside the fort. A big hogshead of liquor four feet high was
emptied in one day on the occasion of a feast. There were always four watchmen around, in
the night especially. It was terrible; but they got plenty of beaver skin."6
"Protracted drunken brawls often prevented many from taking advantage of
favorable conditions of ice and wind for seal and bear hunting. At times many were on the
verge of starvation."7
"I learned that under the influence of this passion and drink, an attempt had been
made more than once to kill a white man...."8
"There was perhaps no greater disrupter of peace among the Indians than the white
man's whiskey, which made madmen of the Indians and enabled white traders to cheat them
of their furs. Yet to stanch the flow of the vicious liquor was almost beyond the capabilities
of the government and its agents on the frontier."9
To charge Indians with violence when drinking or drunk carries with it a relative
judgment which implies the Indians were more violent collectively than other ethnic groups
who drink and get drunk. Recent studies indicate there is much variation between Indian
groups in their behavior when drunk, just as there is a great variation among other groups.
It is doubtful that the Indians in Alaska were any more violent while drinking than were the
non-Indians.10
QUALITY OF INDIAN LIQUOR
Some people attributed the so-called quality of the alcohol the Indians consumed to
be somehow responsible for their violent behavior. Home-brewed liquor was especially
suspect because it was believed to be of such poor quality to cause violence. A local
distillate called "Hoochenoo" was thought to have particularly bad effects. Since it was not
made by tested factories in the east or in Washington, it was particularly suspect. One
observer claimed that it "almost kills on sight;" and an Army officer said that its smell was
"certain death to a healthy dog at a hundred yards," and jokingly stated that he was
recommending that the War Department adopt it in place of the Gatling gun.11
It was assumed that the Indians' behavior was the result of the type of bad "likker"
they had in comparison to the better quality the whites had access to. The whites thought
the liquor they had was the best liquor available. Some of the Indians thought otherwise.
"Ours is good liquor. It does not make you fight and think unhappy thoughts. It
only makes you sing." The drink of the white man was described as so bad that, "Men grew
crazy when they drank that whiskey."12
Part of this concern for trying to improve the quality of American Indian alcoholic
beverages was because of known recipes the traders used to get Indians drunk.
Recipe for Indian Whiskey
One barrel of Missouri water.
Two gallons of
raw alcohol.
Two ounces of strychnine to make them crazy.
Three twists of
'baccer to make them sick,
cause Injuns won't believe its good
unless it makes them sick.
Five bars of soap to give it a bead.
1/2 pound of red
pepper to give it a kick.
Boil with sage brush until brown.
Strain through barrel.
Wall, that's yer
Injun whiskey.13
Several ingredients were used to dilute liquor given or sold to Indians on the
Northwest frontier. Some of the ingredients used included: tartaric, citric and sulfuric acids,
fusel oil, ammonia, black bone meal, gun powder, molasses, oak bark, oatmeal, cayenne
pepper, tobacco, snake root, nitre, juniper berries, creosote and turpentine.14
The term "firewater" originated from the practice of throwing some alcohol the
whites tried to palm off on the Indians into the fire to prove that it could make a flame and
to prove that "it warn't jest plain Old Big Muddy water." It is certain white settlers feared
what they thought firewater would do because of the devastation the Indians could bring
upon the whites. In fact, it could be compared to the destruction wrought by uncontrolled
fire.15
"One of the important consequences of the illegal dealing in liquor with the coastal
Indians was the introduction of a wide variety of diluted and adulterated intoxicants and
also noxious chemical substitutes for whiskey and rum. As a matter of fact this began with
the early fur trade when it became a practice to dilute rum with anywhere from three to ten
parts water. After prohibitionary legislation came into effect, solutions of camphor and
tobacco with a little whiskey flavoring quite often were sold as liquor. Mixtures containing
bluestone vitrol, a copper compound, and nitric acid were sold to the natives in the Queen
Charlette Islands. Vanilla extract and Jamaica ginger, as well as Florida water and cologne,
proved popular drinks with natives in some areas."16
Some proudly advertised that their liquors and wines were pure and unadulterated
and did not produce violence and other problems that mixed drinks do. One letter to the
editor in the Alaska Herald claimed:
"The use of spirituous liquors and wines has been condemned in unmeasured terms
by the so-called votaries of temperance; and yet we have the evidence of the judgment of
the entire medical faculty, as well as the consumption of these articles in nine- tenths of the
families of this city to prove that in all cases the moderate use of spirituous beverages is
entirely harmless, and in many cases is absolutely necessary in a sanative point of view. It is
true adulterated compounds, which pass under the names of our popular beverages, have
produced evils, which cry aloud for redress but it is as unfair to impute drunkenness and all
its attendant consequences to the use of a health giving and judicious use of wines and
liquors, as it would be to impute all the evils of life to the abuse of any other blessing, which
proceeds from the giver of all good in the bountiful storehouse of nature." "Our wines and
liquors are pure articles and their use is recommended without hesitation."17
The whites also drank liquor with names that implied violent or unhealthy
consequences. Terms like, REDEYE, which was certainly the result of drinking this brand
of whiskey, were commonly associated with drinking. Other drinks were RED
DYNAMITE -- Guaranteed to blow your head off; BRAVE-MAKER -- Would make a
hummingbird spit in a rattle-snake's eye; SKULL- BENDER -- Got a drinker floored and
frenzied; BLOCK AND TACKLE - Made a man walk a block and tackle anything; JOY
JUICE -A single nip would tempt one to steal his own clothes, two would make him bite off
his own ears, while three instilled in him the desire to save his drowning Mother-In-Law;
TANGLE LEG -- Made of tobacco, molasses, red peppers, and raw alcohol, tied the
imbiber's feet up in knots; and FORTY-ROD -- brought a fellow down at that distance.
Judge Wickersham testified before Congress in 1914 that the Alaska version of
forty-rod whiskey would make "a man climb a telegraph pole backward, run up the side of a
house, [and] spit in the face of a Kodiak bear."18
The whites not only accepted the fact that their own drinking often resulted in
violence, but they were often proud that the predominant outcome of their drinking might
be measured in how much "steam" was released in the fights that were generated.
If the ocean was whiskey and I was a duck
sweet suck.
I'd dive to the bottom and get one
But the ocean ain't whiskey and I ain't a duck,
then we'll get drunk.
So we'll round up the cattle and
Sweet milk when I'm hungry, rye whiskey when I'm dry,
live till I die.
If a tree don't fall on me, I'll
I'll buy my own whiskey, I'll make my own stew;
nothing to you.
-- frontier song --
If I get drunk, madam, it's
During General George Washington's retreat across New Jersey in 1776, one of his
patrols stumbled across a barrel of whiskey. The men claimed they were concerned that
their booty should not fall into enemy hands, so without hesitation they drank down the
whole barrel forthwith. One of the officers later recalled that the result was a bad case of
"barrel fever" among the troops. The symptoms of the fever were the common ones of
"black eyes and bloody noses."19
Some claim that more whites were killed inside saloons than in all the Indian wars
on the plains. Red "likker" was called the "bravemaker" primarily because of the fights that
ensued after consuming this liquid courage. Men delighted in boasting that their town was
the worst in the state. Dodge, Kansas, was referred to by her proud citizens as "The
Beautiful, Bibulous Babylon of the Plains," which "called that day lost whose low
descending sun saw no man killed or other mischief done." Nome, Alaska, was famous for
its Second Class Saloon.20
Perhaps the first miners in Alaska readily identified with the American cowboy's
violent behavior.
Oh, a man there lives on the Western Plains,
With a ton of fight and an
ounce of brains,
Who herds the cows as he robs the trains
And goes by the
name of cowboy.
He laughs at death and scoffs at life;
He fights with a pistol, a rifle, or knife,
He feels unwell unless in some strife.
This reckless, rollicking cowboy.
He shoots out lights in a dancing hall;
He gets shot up in a drunken brawl.
Some coroner's jury then ends it all,
And that's the last of the cowboy.21
Not only the bad men, but also lawmen, were notorious for their drinking habits,
which were probably much worse than those of the Indians of the American west.
"The six-gun heroes usually drank like fish. The consumptive Doc Holliday kept
going with a daily quart of hard stuff. Even the pulp writers glorifying Masterson and Earp
admitted that drinking frequently affected their dignity as law officers and their aim as well.
The great Wild Bill was occasionally found lying in the mud in front of a saloon, totally
soused and oblivious to the world. Some called him Wild Bill Hiccup."22
Many writers have failed to emphasize or totally ignored behavior which does not
reinforce the popular beliefs of Indian drinking. They emphasize the stereotypes of the
"horrendous changes for the worse" that were supposed to characterize the Indians'
behavior under the influence of alcohol. It was a fact that Indian drinking, no matter how
well controlled, was a perpetual source of uneasiness among whites, probably more because
of their own violence while drinking rather than because of what the Indians did while
drunk.23
While some people in early America thought it a little "Turkish" and radical to deny
Indians the creature comforts of good whiskey and other "comforts which God allowed to
man," other whites believed that it was just a waste of good whiskey to allow Indians to
drink it. They succeeded in passing a law in Rhode Island declaring it to "be lawful for any
persons in case they spie an Indian convaying or having of liquors, to seize it for their own
proper use."24
EXAMPLES OF INDIAN VIOLENCE IN EARLY ALASKA
In order to understand the fear the whites had of Indian violence in Alaska, it must
be pointed out that whites often lumped all Indians together as "uncivilized." In terms of the
racist ideas of the 18th and 19th centuries, they were thought of as less developed than the
Anglo races. Whites believed that Indians and blacks were inferior groups and were more
prone to violence whenever their natural instincts were loosened by alcohol. This is an
impossible theory to prove by Alaska history, however, for even when judged by the
records kept by the whites, the Indians were not as violent when drunk as were the whites
who first came to Alaskan shores.
"They believed in the equality of all men, provided they were white."25
Although Baranof blamed the sale of alcohol and firearms to the Tlingits near Sitka
for causing the Sitka uprising in 1802, the facts do not show that the Indians were drunk at
the time. The actual cause of the plundering of New Archangel was more probably the acts
of Captain Henry Barber of the Unicorn. Baranof was probably more upset at the sale of
firearms than alcohol.26
"I have told [the Bostonians] many times that they should not sell firearms and
powder to the barbarians [Indians]. . . .It is true that some had enough shame to hide from
us the fact that they traded in firearms, but the majority shamelessly traded powder, lead,
guns, pistols, and muskets before our eyes. . . .They wondered at our fortitude and
endurance and above all our ability to exist on local food, and to drink only water."27
Since the Indians and Aleuts did not learn the secret of distillation till the Americans
came to Alaska in 1867, the Russians and Americans probably consumed much more
alcohol than the Indians in the early 1800s.
YAKUTAT
The next notable uprising by the Tlingit occurred at Yakutat. Russians had been
stationed there since 1796. It was thought they offered alcohol to the Native inhabitants for
permission to stay and build a fortress. In 1805 the fort inhabitants were surprised by the
Tlingit and were wiped out. Since it is likely that only the Russians had alcohol in Yakutat
at that time, the attack was probably not alcohol related - at least on the Natives part.
THE RUSSIANS
During the same period in the early 1800s, there is much more to be found about
Russian violence associated with drinking than violence among drinking Indians. In a letter
from Nikolai Rezanov to the Directors of the Russian-American Company in 1805, many
references were made about Company officers' violence, but not a word about Alaskan
Natives' drinking and violence.
"It is easy to influence men here, because they are so depraved that for a cup of
vodka they are ready to cut anybody's throat.....Truly in all my life I have never witnessed
such drunkenness and debauch....drinking the way they do and keeping the hunters drunk, I
would not be surprised if some day they would cause the company more ruin than the
Kolosh did....The depravity and wildness of the hunters threaten this country with ruin....I
struggled with them; one day they behave and listen to me, the next they are drunk, curse
without mercy and one night were so drunk they started a fight. I ran to stop them and they
almost shot me and Baranov. We were lucky to snatch the loaded pistols from their
hands....One of the officers had the clerk Kulishov whipped, because he refused to let him
have the company's vodka. The clerk was whipped and the vodka was drunk. The violence
of the officers is unbelievable and I hardly could quiet them down."28
MURDER
The first murder of a Russian by Alaska Natives was not likely caused by drinking,
but rather by a strong dislike of the priest and what he stood for. About 1800, a monk
called Juvenal settled near Lake Iliamna. He baptized the Natives forcibly, married them,
took girls away from some parents and gave them to others, but, "The Americans endured
his rough ways and even beatings for a long time, but finally held council, decided to get rid
of the Reverend and killed him."29
It was not only the Natives who had problems with Father Juvenal. Baranof also
had problems with him and once threatened to throw him to the whales if he continued his
interference.
FORT WRANGELL (1842)
Not much more is heard of the violence of Alaska's Indians until 1842. In this year,
the governor in chief of Rupert's Land, Sir George Simpson, visited Alaska and made a pact
between the Hudson's Bay Company and the Russian-American Company pertaining to the
limitation of alcohol in the fur trade. On the night of April 20th, 1842, while many fur
trappers at the fort were drunk, a fight broke out among the whites. During the mayhem a
Canadian named Urbain Heroux fatally shot John McLoughlin, Jun., the man in charge of
the 22-man post.30
Governor Simpson claimed that his arrival on April 25 probably saved the fort from
the 2,000 "savages" who were assembled around "justly thinking that the place would make
but a feeble resistance" to their attack. He then informed the Natives of his agreement with
the Russians to limit the use of alcohol among them. How the drunken violence could be
laid at the feet of the Indians at Wrangell is impossible to say, since, here again, both the
drinking and the violence were the responsibility of the 22 whites at the post, not the 2,000
Indians outside the post.31
ALASKA BECOMES U.S. TERRITORY
Alaska formally came under United States jurisdiction late in 1867. At that time, an
entire prohibition throughout Alaska was declared as an extension of U.S. Indian policy
dating back to 1834. The prime rationale of this policy was that Indians were dangerous
while drinking (at least they were more dangerous than whites) and to protect the Indian's
health and protect the welfare of whites, that prohibition was a good idea.32
When Alaska became part of the United States, the U.S. Army was sent to enforce
the law in Alaska. The most interesting thing about this state of affairs was the only legallyenforceable laws were prohibitionary laws passed in 1834 which were intended to control
the Indians of the vast American west. The U.S. Army was the only group legally allowed
to have access to alcohol.33
The summer of 1867 brought the first official military expedition to Alaska. Captain
W.A. Howard of the Revenue Marine Service sailed up the coast of Southeast Alaska in the
Revenue Cutter, Lincoln, looking for spots smugglers (of arms and alcohol) might use to
evade customs authorities. He found "quite a number" of small American vessels selling the
forbidden items to the Natives. In his official report to his superiors, he boldly predicted "a
bloody war with the natives, which assuredly will occur if these unprincipled men are
permitted to sell liquor to them."34
The first military commander of Alaska was Brevet Major General Jefferson C.
Davis.35 He noted that the local Tlingit were hostile and insolent and frequently boasted
that they would and could whip the Army troops some day, but no open violence by the
local Indians happened until 1869. In the meantime, the local military and white citizenry
could not be complimented on their record of alcohol-related violence.36
One report claimed that:
"Released convicts would not have been more dangerous to the public security than
were these men whose task it was to enforce the law."37
Before proceeding with the discussion of Indian violence and drinking illegal
alcohol, it should be pointed out that the Army had a few problems of its own in this regard.
VIOLENCE AMONG THE WHITES IN ALASKA AND ALCOHOL
The army had many problems with alcohol in Alaska, as well as elsewhere, at the
end of the Civil War. The army was plagued with desertions of phenomenal rates. The
primary cause, according to some officers, of the alarmingly high rate of desertions was
drunkenness. One reason drunkenness was a problem in the post-Civil War period was
because the Army was made up of a high number of drunkards who would work for very
low wages.38
One surgeon stated about the recruiting of drunkards in the army, "The officers
gravely tell me that we might as well disband the army as to exclude these men."39
The army that came to Alaska in 1867 had a lot to say about the Indians and their
drinking, but according to the their own records, they did not have a very good record
themselves when it came to drunkenness. Payday was often highlighted by drunkenness and
fights.
"... Brawling seemed to be a popular pastime at Fort Laramie, and more often than
not whiskey had a hand in the fighting. Hardly a pay day passed without at least one
drunken encounter. On July 10, 1870, the paymaster visited Fort Laramie, and the Post
Surgeon reported that 'as a necessary consequence' the number of patients in the hospital
immediately increased."40
On the very next payday, he observed that the troops were paid in the afternoon,
and "as a necessary consequence, the number of patients in hospital was at once increased,
with nothing, however, more serious than a broken rib or two, several sprains and bruises,
with a few scalp wounds...payday casualties."
The army records in Alaska generally do not include self- criticism, although over
200 general courts martials were held in the short ten years between 1867 and 1877 that the
Army stayed. Most offenses were due to drinking, including murder, fighting, disrespect to
an officer and falling asleep at their posts. The military reports were persistent in pointing
the finger of blame at the Indian population.
"When under the influence of hooch, [the Indians] were simply incarnate devils
among themselves. The women seemed to have the best of it often, for when drunken, they
retained their skill with the knife to which they were trained by skinning animals, and many
were the gashes the Army surgeons were called upon to repair."41
The navy was not immune to violence under the influence of booze either.
"Last night two sailors from the man-of-war JAMESTOWN were shot by the
sergeant of the Mariner's company during the dance at our former club. The people say the
sergeant was drunk. The shooting occurred in the presence of miners and Kolosh boys and
girls who were dancing." "Such an example of the dangerous behavior of the civilized
white man will make a deep impression on the wild and passionate nature of a savage
aborigine, who will get an insight into the licentious conduct of a white man and his
disrespect for law and order."42
Perhaps the truth at this time in Alaska's history was that alcohol affected everyone
pretty much the same; white merchants, soldiers, politicians and citizens all wanted alcohol
and were affected by its consequences.
"The soldiers will have whiskey, and the Indians are equally fond of it. The free use
of it by both soldiers and Indians, together with the other debaucheries between them,
rapidly demoralizes both, though the whites, having the larger resources, and being better
cared for by the government in homes, clothing, and food, endure the longer."43
The Army did not publish the fact that several suicides of officers and enlisted men
happened at Sitka during the time the Army was there that "demoralized" those who knew
the men involved. The blame for the suicides was laid by the commander at the feet of
"John Barleycorn."44
FIRST CLASHES WITH U.S. ARMY AT SITKA
Nothing substantial happened between the Alaska Natives and the military as far as
clashes go for the first two years of Army occupation, even though the Army feared the
worst. Generally, whenever the Army needed help they were surprised at the helpfulness of
the Native Alaskans. In 1868, as the army tried to begin an outpost on the Kenai peninsula,
the boat carrying troops struck a reef. The captain was drunk. Local Natives aided the
unfortunate soldiers until help came many days later.45
Late in 1869, General Davis had his first (and, for him-his only) problem with the
Indians. The result has been referred to by historians as the "Kake War", but actually, it
could hardly be called a war. Though alcohol was definitely a factor in the events, it could
hardly be blamed for goading drunken Indians to massacre the soldiers.
The trouble started when General Davis invited a chief from Chilkat named
Cholcheka and a minor Sitka chief named "Sitka Jack" to his home for dinner on New
Year's Day, 1869. After treating them to the food and drink available from his own table,
General Davis, apparently desiring to buy the friendship of the chiefs with alcohol,
presented them with two bottles of American whiskey, which they took back to the Indian
village. After crossing through the gate that dividing town from the Indian village, a sentry
kicked Cholcheka soundly. Instead of accepting this treatment meekly from the soldier, he
took the soldier's rifle away from him and went home.46
General Davis ordered the soldier into the Indian village to arrest the chief "and his
party" for stealing the rifle. This was done the next morning, because when the sentry went
into the village with 17 armed guards that evening to arrest the belligerents, shooting broke
out. The guard felt they were surrounded by hostile, armed, intoxicated Indians and beat a
hasty retreat. Two Indians were killed in the fray, three were wounded, and one soldier was
seriously wounded.47
General Davis ordered the guns of the nearby U.S.S. Saginaw and the schooner
Reliance to be trained on the village, and, as an added precaution to prevent the Natives
from securing allies, ordered that no Indians were to leave the rancherie.48 He ordered his
guards to fire on any Indians who tried to escape. The next morning Cholcheka and his
friends were arrested. They were confined for two weeks on bread and water diets in the
military brig.
"In a few days Cholcheka and his party were liberated, and here it was supposed the
matter would end; but, as it proved, this, the first difficulty between the Indians and the
military, was fraught with evil consequences, and all on account of a United States general
making an Indian drunk, and then having two of his people killed. And this from his own
showing; we never hear the other side of these stories."49
A glowing report about the army general's handling of the incident was written to
command headquarters, particularly praising the action of General Davis. It was written
from first- hand knowledge of the incident -- by General Davis himself. Davis's superior
officers, after reading his commendation of himself were "very much pleased," but both
wished privately that Davis had found an excuse to "send the bucks" to San Francisco, or at
least "found a good excuse for hanging Mr. Chilkat and his friend Jack."50
A short time after the Indians were arrested at Sitka, a canoe of Indians from Kake
left their village at Sitka for home. As they passed by a sentry he fired on them killing two
and injuring a Sitka Indian travelling with them.
General Davis refused any kind of settlement with the angry Kake Indians over these
killings. A short time later, a brother of one of those killed avenged the deaths of his
kinsmen by killing two white traders a few miles from the Kake village. In keeping with the
military's idea of punishing all the tribe for the excesses of a few, General Davis burned the
native village of Kake and destroyed several canoes when he could not get his hands
directly on the killers. So ended the Kake War.51
THE BOMBARDMENT OF WRANGELL
The next major incident between the Army and the Indians should also be analyzed
from the standpoint of alcohol and violence. It happened at Wrangell about a year after the
Kake incident. The fact that it started when an Indian who was drunk assaulted a white
lady is clear in all the accounts written by the army, but whether this behavior was typical of
Indians and not of the whites in the area is worth investigating further.
The summary of the cause of the incident normally goes like this:
An Indian named Si-Man bit off a finger of a laundress while he was drunk on the
evening of Christmas Day, 1869. An army detachment went to Si- Man's home to arrest
him. In the home they found four people, all of whom were intoxicated. When a scuffle
broke out, Si-Man was killed and his brother was wounded with by rifle fire as Lt. Loucks
tried to only "stun him" by a saber blow to the head. Early the next morning at 1:00 A.M.,
according to the army, an intoxicated "brave" named Scutd-Doo, attacked a store owner
named Leon Smith, shooting him seventeen times. The following day, Captain Borrowe,
afraid to directly enter the Indian village ordered the village shelled with cannon and rifle
shot. The following day, when Borrowe threatened to take several hostages, including
Scutd-Doo's mother and a chief of his clan, Scutd-Doo surrendered and was hung within
twenty-four hours, after a trial where the judges consisted of four military officers and the
dead trader's partner.52
Lt. Borrowe's report was brief and to the point in summary:
"Report on the result of the late Indian trouble: One (1) white man, Mr. Leon Smith, killed.
One (1) Indian killed. One (1) white woman, company laundress, finger bitten off. One (1)
Indian severely wounded, by gun-shot fracture of the right humerus. One (1) Indian
hung."53
It should be pointed out that Leon Smith may have been selected for revenge
because he had probably been breaking the white man's own laws in selling and consuming
liquor. Smith had sold liquor illegally at his store, and, although he regarded himself as close
to the Indians - even complimenting them on their peacefulness - "I have found them to be
well disposed to the whites" - he had been involved with two "half-drunken discharged
soldiers" in beating and stamping on an Indian from Wrangell about two months earlier.54
Since reports of the incident at Wrangell were written by the military, there were, of
course, no allegations of drunkenness on the part of the military, the dead trader, the
laundress's escort or others involved in the affair, even though the events happened late at
night on the evening of a special holiday - Christmas. There was nothing in the report to
indicate how it was determined the Indian, Scutd-Doo, was intoxicated when he took
revenge for the death of his fellow clan member, or how he managed to put 17 bullet holes
in the unfortunate Mr. Smith by himself in the dark of night with what was probably a
Hudson's Bay musket.55
OTHER EXAMPLES OF SOLDIER'S VIOLENCE & ALCOHOL
In October, 1868 drunken soldiers at Kodiak almost killed a citizen named Panchin
while playing with a gun.56 In Sitka on December 16, 1869, constable J.C. Parker shot and
killed an Indian boy. A board of inquiry was held that determined the shooting was
"unjustifiable and cowardly in the extreme." Parker was confined only a short time and
released. Within a year, he had killed another Indian. He was never punished for the
murders.
The soldiers at Sitka, "consumed large amounts of liquor, caroused until all hours,
and engaged in noisy, drunken brawls which both terrified residents and damaged or
destroyed much of their property. They committed outrages against the nearby Indians and
as a side effect introduced syphilis and alcohol among them."57
This is not to say that soldiers were the only ones who were violent, nor were they
the only ones who got drunk. The Indians got drunk, too. But it is important to note that
drinking, drunkenness and violence are not confined to Indians. The army and the white
citizens were simply more afraid of drunken Indians and so made more comments about it.
When the army finally removed its forces from Alaska in 1877, the townspeople at
Sitka were worried that "the Indians would murder the whites during their drunken revels."
They petitioned the government to send a war vessel, and when it did not come soon
enough for them, they sent a letter to Canada appealing for protection.
One Russian diary in Sitka contained the following entry: "The Americans look
forward impatiently to government protection, but I do not believe it will ever be given,
because, frankly speaking, there is nobody here to protect except the saloonkeepers."58
Perhaps they weren't as afraid as they seemed to be. A San Francisco newspaper
asserted that the outcry for protection came from merchants who wanted back the soldiers-their best customers.59
The arrival of the Oliver Wolcott on March 2, 1879, quieted fears of possible
violence. Captain J. M. Selden of the Oliver Wolcott said after arriving in Sitka that he
thought no violence would occur "unless it is brought on by the effects of rum," the
presence of which he blamed on the Sitka merchants themselves. When the Alaska arrived
in Sitka on April 3, 1879, to keep his men at least partially away from hoochinoo, its captain
induced the local brewer to re-open his brewery to sell beer to the sailors.60
The drunken comportment of the Indians at this time is important to note, for while
there were often fights among themselves while supposedly drunk, they had "not exhibited
the slightest act of hostility toward the whites of this settlement."61
An incident that happened later in Wrangell showed the accuracy of this statement.
Rev. S. Hall Young lived among the Indians at Wrangell when trouble broke out over
visiting Indians. Although he stated that the Indians were intoxicated, he had no fear for his
life, because the Indians would not kill a white man for fear of the consequences.62
Naval commander Lester A. Beardslee came to Sitka in 1879 with the U.S.S.
Jamestown. By all accounts, he understood the Indian code of justice better than the War
or Treasury Departments. He felt that most of the trouble that happened between Indians
and whites stemmed from misunderstandings of that code of justice.63
THE GILLEY AFFAIR
This incident is termed an "affair" by most of those who referred to it, but it was
nothing less than a massacre by those involved with it. In 1878 at Cape Prince of Wales,
some whalers murdered about 20 Eskimos who came to their ship to trade. Here again, we
have virtually only the word of whites, but "all accounts said that the Eskimos were
intoxicated." The whalers on board the whaling brig, William H. Allen, said that the
Eskimos were drunk, but certainly would never have accused themselves of the same
weakness to justify their misdeeds. Seventeen years later, however, when Missionary
Thornton was murdered at Cape Prince of Wales, there was no evidence that this murder
took place during a drunken spree. On the contrary, they were probably sober.64
The commander of the Revenue cutter, Corwin blamed all violent drunken behavior
on Alaska Natives when he asserted:65
"The only trouble that has ever occurred between whites and natives has been when
the latter were under the influence of liquor."
Just the opposite opinion was voiced by another historian about the guilty parties
when trouble arises:
"In the few instances when trouble has occurred between Innuits and white men, it
appears to have been the fault of the latter."66
There were many other instances of alcohol-related violence in Alaska's early
history, both whites and Alaskan Natives would become intoxicated and violence would be
the result. The point is that it was not as prevalent on the Indian and Eskimo side as folk
history would indicate. There was a drunken "row" at Chilkat on Independence Day in
1891 in which a white man and an Indian were killed and several whites and Indians
wounded. Several white men were arrested for selling liquor. There also were reports to
the governor in 1891 that indicated that all the violence was from whites against Natives.67
One researcher commenting on the learned behavior of drunk individuals said:
Drunken Indians could be beaten with impunity, but to beat a sober Indian was
"highly dangerous," and to be "cautiously avoided."68
Still, the stereotype persisted of the dangerous drunken Natives. Even though the
governor's report of 1892 indicated that Natives are "much given to drinking intoxicating
liquors, and when drunk are dangerous," just ten pages further into his report, he discussed
the murder of Charles Edwards by whites, and the murder of two Natives in Kake by a
white whiskey merchant from Douglas; and the tarring and feathering of Dr. J. E. Connett
at Douglas as he tried to get information about the murderer.
MINERS AND VIOLENCE
Miners had their own system of justice. They lived a hard life and when things didn't
work out properly, they knew how to find those liquid items that helped them relax. The
number of saloons, bars and low dives that followed the miners attest to the fact that they
were hard drinkers. Saloons were used for union and other political activities as well. When
Wickersham thought of closing the California Saloon and the Miners' Home Saloon in
Fairbanks, he said that if this were to happen it would take "more than a hundred deputy
marshals to preserve order." He was referring to the political hotbed these saloons
represented.69
Miners often lived and died with violence around them. Only after a town was
settled did lawmen and women (the nice kind) come to a town to declare order. When
missionary S. Hall Young went to Nome in 1899, he presided at seven funerals in ten
days,70 but his acceptance of violence by whites was more flexible than it had been for the
Indians back in Wrangell. He stated in his autobiography, "considering the conditions, there
was remarkably little disturbance."71
Miners ate very poorly and often ended up drinking their meals, which did little for
their attitude. In Sitka on October 8, 1879, after two mining friends had been enjoying
themselves in Mooney's saloon, they began fighting. John "Scotty" Williams shot Edward
Roy five times with a .34 caliber pistol.72 Roy recovered, but Williams escaped lynching
only by hurriedly turning himself in to Captain Beardslee of the Jamestown. He eventually
escaped punishment in Portland when Judge Deady refused to claim jurisdiction over
Alaska.73
Of the miners that came to Alaska, many of the government reports had less good to
say about them than they did about the soldiers.
"Following in the steps of the troops, come the miners, who seem to have emulated
the sons of Mars in the prosecu-tion, performance, and mad riot of the quintessence of
vicious enjoyment."74
The miners that came to Wrangell were also a hell-raising group.
"In 1877 and 1878 several hundred miners from the British mines in the Cassiar
district came down to Fort Wrangell to spend the winter, and spend their earnings of the
summer in intemperance, gambling, and licentiousness. They turned the place into a perfect
pandemonium, debauching the native women. They went one night into a native's house,
made the Indian woman drunk, and then set fire to the house without any effort to rescue
her from the flames; so that she was burned to death."75
The miner's courts were somewhat limited in the verdicts they could give, because
they maintained no jails.
"There were only three punishments for criminal offenses: fines for minor
infractions, banishment for assault and larceny, and hanging for murder."76
Alaskan Eskimos and Indians knew various groups of miners. They associated most
closely with the miners who inter-married with them. It was these men who probably had a
great impact on the drinking ideas prevalent among the miners.
Violence seemed to follow many groups in Alaska. Even today in Alaska, violence
tends to eliminate those who drink heavily before their health can be greatly affected.
Footnotes to Chapter 4
1. Remsberg, Stanley Ray United States Administration Of Alaska, Ph.D. Dissertation,
University of Madison (1976), p. 304.
2. Copeland, Lewis and Faye Jokes, Toasts, and Stories, "Old Saw".
3. 46th Congress, Senate Executive Document #192, p. 2.
4. Andrews, C.L. (1938), p. 135.
5. Sherwood, Morgan B., p. 306.
6. A hogshead normally contains about 55 gallons. Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1960), p. 559.
7. Henderson, Alice Palmer The Rainbow's End: Alaska, Herbert S. Stone & Co., Chicago
(1898), p. 59.
8. 44th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Executive Document #12, p. 3. This is in relation to
an effort to make things even with the whites for the death of Fernadeste, a Wrangell chief
sent south to testify against a white customs officer in 1875.
9. Prucha, Francis Paul The Sword of the Republic: The United States Army on the
Frontier, 1783-1846, The Macmillan Company, London (1969), p. 199.
10. Actions when drunk are sometimes called "drunken comportment." MacAndrew, Craig
and Edgerton (1969).
11. Jocelyn, Stephen (1953), p. 196.
12. MacAndrew, Craig and Edgerton, Robert B. (1969), p. 40. Quoted from Underhill,
R.M. The Autobiography of a Papago Woman, Memoirs of the American Anthropological
Association, No. 46, Menasha, Wis.; American Anthropological Association.
13. Erdos, Richard (1979), p. 98.
14. Ibid, p. 89.
15. Ibid. The term, "gunpowder proof" came from a similar situation. Liquor was said to
be "proofed" if gunpowder would burn with a steady glow when soaked in the liquor. This
is roughly equal to 50% alcohol by volume. Pure alcohol is 200 proof.
16. The idea that mixed and diluted drinks were more harmful that straight whiskey was an
idea that has existed for many, many years, and undoubtedly will continue to last for many
more. Lemert, Edwin M. (1954), p. 307.
17. Alaska Herald, July 15, 1868.
18. Congressional Record, 1914, p. 10898-9.
19. Lender, Mark Edward and Martin, James Kirby (1982), p. 32.
20. Erdoes, Richard (1979), p. 205. "Plures crapula quam gladius" is the term for this in
latin tradition, which translated literally means, "drunkenness kills more than the
sword."The term, "bibulous," refers to someone who is fond of alcoholic drinks. Erdoes
(1979), p. 207.
21. Murders were very common in all mining communities of the early West. San
Francisco had 1200 murders between 1849 and 1851 - much of it in saloons. See Carson,
Gerald American Heritage, "The Saloon". Several reasons were given for the lower rate in
Eastern saloons, among the explanations given included a more effete population, better
whiskey, poor marksmanship, or because Easterners did not keep their guns oiled.
22. Erdoes (1979), p. 216.
23. MacAndrew and Edgarton (1969), p. 100-101. Lender, Mark Edward and Martin,
James Kirby (1982), p. 24.
24. Thomann (1887), p. 113, 179.
25. Erdoe, Richard (1979), p. 82.
26. Chevigny, Hector Russian America: The Great Alaskan Adventure 1741- 1867,
Binford & Mort, Portland (1965), p. 100.
27. Pierce, R.A. and Donnelly, A.S. (1979), p. 113.
28. Pierce, R.A. and Donnelly, A.S. (1979), p. 165-173.
29. Pierce, R.A. and Donnelly, A.S. (1979), p. 167.
30. "That no spiritous liquors shall be sold or given to Indians in barter, as presents, or on
any pretense or consideration whatsoever, by any of the officers or servants belonging or
attached to any of the establishments or vessels belonging to either concern, or by any other
person or persons acting in their behalf on any part of the north-west coast of America to
the northward of latitude 50o unless competition in trade should render it necessary."
Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1861), p. 559. For more information about this agreement, see
Chevigny, Hector; Russian America (1965), p. 211. Some of the Russians are said to have
wept upon receiving the prohibition order.
31. How Governor Simpson could read their minds in this matter was not fully explained.
DeArmond, R.N. (1978), p. 173-174.
32. For more information about how U.S. Indian policy developed with Indians, see
Prucha, Francis Paul (1962).
33. Technically, Alaska did not gain the status of "Territory" till much later, after 1900.
"AAA"; Arms, Ammunition and Ardent spirits. For more information about the U.S.
military in early Alaska and the laws in effect, see: Lain, Bobby Dave (1974): Remsburg,
Stanley Ray; United States Administration of Alaska: The Army Phase, 1867-1877; A
Study in Federal Governance of an Overseas Possession, Ph.D. Dissertation (1976), The
University of Wisconsin, Madison: Stubbs, Valerie; The U. S. Army In Alaska, 1867-77:
An Experiment In Military Government, M.A. dissertation (1956) The American University:
Numerous congressional documents also cover this phase of Alaska history. This was a
state of affairs they were often accused of abusing.
34. Remsburg (1975), p. 47.
35. Not the same Jefferson Davis who was head of the Confederate States of America.
General Davis had shot and killed his commander earlier during an altercation, but was
never brought to trial for the murder.
36. For non-native alcohol-related violence at Sitka, see: Teichmann, Emil A Journey To
Alaska in the Year 1868: Being a Diary of the Late Emil Teichmann, New York, ArgosyAntiquarian, Ltd. (1963), p. 188-189: Sherwood, Morgan B. (July, 1965), p. 301-344.
37. Remsburg (1975), p. 247.
38. Kobler, John ARDENT SPIRITS: THE RISE AND FALL OF PROHIBITION, G.P.
Putnam & Sons, New York (1973), p. 56. According to one source, fully one- third of the
men that enlisted in the U.S. Army between 1867 (the takeover of Alaska) and 1891 left it
illegally as deserters. McDermott, John Dishon; JOURNAL OF THE WEST; VII, 2(April,
1968), p. 246-255, "Crime and Punishment In The United States Army: A Phase of Fort
Laramie History", p. 252.
39. Prucha, Francis Paul (1969), p. 330.
40. McDermott, John Dishon (April, 1968), p. 252, 204.
41. Andrews, C.L. (1938), p. 102.
42. USHIN'S DIARY, Orthodox Church Documents, 03/01/1880.
43. 41st Congress 2nd Session, Senate Executive Doc 68, Letter from the Secretary Of
Interior re Wrangell bombardment of December 26, 1869, p. 6-7.
44. One example of a civilian who shot himself is in ALASKA HERALD, August 15,
1868: One example of an Indian suicide is in The Alaskan, 12/05/1885: The Army suicide
rate according to war department reports, between 1879 and 1888 was 76 suicides per
thousand men, an extremely high rate.
45. Lane, Bobby Dave (1974), p. 34. Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1886), p. 609: also see
Wyeth, W.T.; "Cook' Inlet, Alaska," Overland Monthly, VIII (January 1872), p. 64-69.
46. The Chilkat area is close to Haines, Alaska. Occasionally, the Army allowed Indians to
obtain small quantities of liquor in spite of the orders of the President and the illegality of
doing it. Colonel Dennison, for example, gave permission to several Natives to purchase 5
gallons of liquor each for the installation of a new chief. Sitka chief Annahootz was allowed
to purchase 10 gallons of beer for a funeral celebration. See, Remsburg (1975), p. 650-651.
Davis's official report claimed the it was just "apple toddy" that he provided to the Indians.
47. It is difficult to tell how the guard determined that the Indians were any more
intoxicated than themselves, however. It was a commonly accepted idea of that period of
time that lower-classes of people could not gather in public places without drunkenness and
mischief occurring. See Harrison, Brian; Drink and the Victorians, University of Pittsburgh
Press, Frome (1971), p. 48.
48. The term, "rancherie," "ranch," or "hog ranch" were used as derogatory terms by the
army to denote any settlement close to U.S. army posts with squalid living conditions,
"watered whiskey" and loose women.
49. Bancroft (1886), p. 611.
50. Remsburg (1975), p. 327.
51. It is very possible, that these traders, Ludwig Maager and William Walker, were
illegally selling liquor as a part of their fur trading venture, as were other white traders at
that time. It has been pointed out by several historians that the Thlingit Indian's form of
justice was different than the white's form of justice, in that they could obtain vengeance on
a white man's atrocity by killing someone who had no relation to the crime as long as they
were white. If one were to look at the way this event and others were handled by general
Davis, we would see that, in fact, the whites did the same thing if they could not get their
hands on the Indian they thought responsible for a crime.
52. See 41st Congress 2 Session, Senate Executive Doc #67: Remsburg (1975), p. 333337: Lain (1974), p. 146-148: Stubbs, Valerie K. (1956) p. 177-178.
53. See 41st Congress 2nd Session Senate Executive Doc #67.
54. On one occasion, "a quantity of porter and light wines, ten barrels of ale, and five
barrels of distilled spirits (whiskey, brandy, &c.) were hoisted up from the hold of the
Newbern, marked Leon Smith, post trader at Wrangell." 41st Congress, 2nd Session,
Senate Executive Doc. #68, p. 6. 41 Congress 2nd Session, Senate Executive Doc. #68, p.
5. White soldiers supposedly only get "half-drunk" to do violent acts.
55. It is possible that since there were seventeen bullets in the unfortunate Mr. Smith, that
there was more than one perpetrator of the crime. If this were true, then Scutd-Doo was
chosen by his clan to take the blame for the murder with alcohol being used as an excuse
that may elicit mercy upon him for his actions. It would have been an excuse easily believed
by the army. An Indian version of the event was published in The Wrangell Sentinel on
May 31, 1940. In this version, both Indians and soldiers generously use wine till
"everybody's head is going round and round" prior to the trouble.
56. Remsburg (1975), p. 610.
57. Remsberg (1976), p. 245.
58. Orthodox Church Documents, Ushin's Diary, Alaska History Documents, January 25,
1879.
59. San Francisco Chronicle, September 28, 1877; quoted from Lain (1974), p. 218.
60. Lain (1974), p. 219, 257-258.
61. Lain (1974), p. 254.
62. Muir, John TRAVELS IN ALASKA, Boston & New York (1915).
63. Lain (1974), p. 275.
64. Ray, Dorothy Jean (1975), p. 191.: Also see Hinckley, Ted; The Americanization of
Alaska, Pacific Books, Palo Alto, CA. (1972) p. 83. There is a tendency to look on some
one who has poured his health down his throat that he "asked for it." As one stampeder of
'97 put it when he passed through Skagway unscathed by Soapy Smith's strong men; "If you
don't get drunk, you don't get rolled." Hunt, William R. (1974), p. 42. Montgomery,
Maurice, "The Murder Of Missionary Thornton", Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Vol 54,
Number 4 (October, 1963).
65. Healey claimed that the Eskimo term for the Corwin, was "Oo- mi-ak'-puck pe'-chuck
ton'-i-ka", or "no whiskey ship".
66. Evans, Stephen A.; The United States Coast Guard 1790-1915, The United States
Naval Institute (1949), p. 120.
67. Governor's report of 1892, p. 18-20.
68. MacAndrew, Craig and Edgerton, Robert B. (1969), p. 130.
69. Hunt, William R. (1974), p. 277.
70. Four murders and three suicides.
71. Young, S. Hall (1827), p. 401.
72. Most frontier pistols had six cylinders, but only five bullets. The lack of a safety
mechanism forced the marksman to leave the hammer on an empty cylinder.
73. This was true even though two years earlier, he not only allowed an Indian sent down
for trial for a similar offense to be hung, but dissected as well. 44th Congress 1st Session,
Senate Executive Document #71, "Reports of Captain L.A. Beardslee, U.S. Navy relative
to affairs in Alaska and the operations of the USS Jamestown under his command while in
the waters of that territory"; US Gov't Printing office, 1882. Page 14 refers to the "trial" of
Kot-Ko-Wat. Beardslee added: "This man was hung upon the testimony two of his
enemies; he was in a strange country where he had no friends, and had he not been guilty it
would have been all the same, he could not have proved it." Page 24-27 refers to the
attempted murder of Mr. Roy. Captain Beardslee said of the second state of affairs: "The
accused man probably had committed a crime, and had the Jamestown not been present he
would have been lynched. With the ship to furnish force, the man was saved from his fate
to eventually escape from the clutches of the law."
74. 45th Congress, 3rd Session, Senate Executive Document #59, "Report from the
Customs District, Public Service and Resources of Alaska Territory, 1879", p. 61-63.
75. 47th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Report #457, 04/21/1882
76. Murton, Thomas O'rhelius, The Administration of Criminal Justice in Alaska, 18671902, Ms thesis, University of California, Berkeley (1965), p. 123.
Footnotes for Chapter 3
1. Bancroft, H. H. (1880), p.545. The fact that the white people had trouble also in this
regard is shown by a quote from Thomann, G. (1887), p. 101: In 1658 in New York State,
"for the protection of people of small means and dissolute habits, and in order to curb the
prevalent disposition on the part of soldiers to exchange their uniforms for liquors,
[Governor] Stuyvesant forbade tavern keepers to take anything in pawn for drink, on pain
of forfeiting their licenses to retail intoxicants."
2. In fact, in colonial America, the practice of soldiers and sailors to pawn their arms and/or
clothing for ardent spirits gave rise to the declaration of a law in Maryland on January 24,
1674 outlawing this practice. Thomann, G. (1887), p. 108.
3. Bishop John Still (1543-1608) Gammer Gurton's Needle, Drinking Song.
4. Thomann, G. (1887), p. 188.
5. The behavior of many citizens in the U.S. prohibition era is evidence that when alcohol is
illegal, people will resort to illegal means to obtain it. No cultural stipulations need be
implied.
6. This also happened often in colonial America when American seamen got to drinking to
much of their "wet goods". See: Thomann, G. (1887), p. 21.
7. Andrews, C.L. The Story of Alaska, The Claxton Printers, Ltd., Caldwell, Idaho (1938),
p. 84.
8. Beaglehole, J.C. (1967), p. 1140.
9. For one study done on Canadian Eskimos, however, see Honigman, J.J. & Honigman, I.
"Drinking In An Indian-white Community", Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol Vol 5
(1945), p. 575-619. Berreman, Gerald D. "Drinking Patterns of the Aleuts", Quarterly
Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Vol 17 (1956), p. 505. The author of the quote about the
deplorable Russian drinking habits, S. B. Okun in his book, The Russian-American
Company, Harvard University Press (1951), makes numerous statements about the use of
alcohol by the Company to subdue its own workers. One of his allegations against the
company included the recruitment of new workers for Alaska territory: "A few days before
the ships sailed for America, all the drinking establishments in Okhotsk would be crowded
with promyshlennosty whom the Company entertained lavishly without sparing expenses.
Here in the saloons the recruiting agents would slip the contracts into the hands of the
promyshlennosty for their signature, contracts which would bind them for many years to
come and in which in the guise of advance pay was included the cost to the last penny of the
entertainment at the time of enlistment." (p. 175) In fact, all round the world, sailors and
adventurers were recruited by deceptive means because of the harsh conditions they often
had to face. This practice was not limited to the Russians.
10. "There are two things that will be believed of any man whatsoever, and one of them is
that he is taken to drink." Petersen, LaMar Hearts Made Glad, Salt Lake City (1975), p. 6;
Conn, Stephen (1980), p. 3.
11. Quas, quass and kvass are all variations of the spelling of a beer (not distilled) made
from various fermentable materials.
12. McCoy, Donald R. (November, 1956), p. 361. Hall was sent to Unalaska in an effort
by the Dept. of the Treasury (Board of Indian Commissioners) to prove to the Department
of War (Army) that it could do more to stop liquor in Alaska than the Army did, hence the
concern about alcohol in his reports.
13. Alaska Governor's report (1888), p. 993-994.
14. For more information about the use of beer in England, see Harrison, Brian Drink &
the Victorians, University of Pittsburgh Press (1971). Sparks, Larry Arthur The Failure of
Prohibition in Alaska: 1884-1900, Western Washington State College, Unpublished master's
thesis (June, 1974), p. 24 shows the lengths that Alaskans went through to get the beer they
felt they deserved to have. "Although businesses continued to operate, some saloonkeepers
opened drug stores and sold alcohol by prescription for claimed medicinal, mechanical or
scientific uses. To be perfectly legal, Abraham Cohen advertised in The Alaska Times that
his Sitka and Juneau breweries sold 'pure beer' exclusively for the mentioned purposes."
See Alaska Times, November 7, 1885.
15. 44th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Executive Document #12, p. 11.
16. The Alaskan, 02/06/1886.
17. Thomann, G. (1887) p. 161.
18. Those not of pure blood or either Russian ancestry or Alaska Native. The term,
"Creole" was sometimes used in a derogatory manner, and at other times the term, "Siwash"
served that purpose. Marshall, Jim Swinging Doors, Frank McCaffery Publishers, Seattle
(1949), Dogwood Press, p. 200.
19. Lemert, Edwin M. (1954), p. 309.
20. Albertson, Dean The New England Quarterly, Vol 23 (December 1950), p. 477-490,
"Puritan Liquor In The Planting Of New England", p. 477.
21. In fact, it wasn't till communities began to bring in tax money from the sale of legal
liquor after 1899 that communities had the funds to develop viable water supplies.
22. Baron, Stanley Brewed In America: The History of Beer and Ale in the United States,
Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1962), p. 92, 101. The article quoted from Virginia
Gazette, April 1, 1775. Also see Thomann, G. (1887), p. 108 where they claim that the
ration was a half barrel of beer per seven men per week. Furnas, J.C. (1965); Austin,
Gregory A.; Alcohol in Western Society from Antiquity to 1800: a Chronological History,
ABC-Clio Information Services, Denver (1985).
Chapter #5
Health and Alcohol in Alaska
When Russian and American traders came to the shores of Alaska, they brought
preconceptions about the function of alcohol and its relationship to health. They also had
biases about how alcohol would affect Indians and Eskimos.
Some of them thought that American Indians, Eskimos and other Natives in this land had
a biological weakness for alcohol that affected their metabolism.
It is uncertain how many of these ideas were transferred to the Alaska Natives, but since
they were integral parts of why the whites drank what they did, they should be better
understood.
Different cultures have contrasting ideas about what is safe or nutritious to eat or drink.
People of one culture may think it's perfectly acceptable to eat foods and drink beverages
that disgust people of other cultures.1
It must have been a source of mystery and wonderment to the Russians how the Alaska
Natives avoided the Russian's most dreaded health problem - scurvy. The Aleuts and
Indians of coastal Alaska probably had difficulty understanding why the Russians, Spanish
and Americans brought beer, wine and liquors on their ships and then drank it for what they
felt were health reasons. Had they understood the whites' accusations that the Natives'
health and well-being were being eroded by drinking the same beverages, they might have
been even more confused.
To understand the accusations about the bad effects of alcohol on the health of Alaska
Natives, some history of alcohol as it affected whites and Europeans should be reviewed.
In the 13th century, European chemists were obsessed with finding a single cure for all
diseases. When alcohol was discovered they believed it was the "water of life", and so
named it "aqua vitae":
"Since it is really a water of immortality. It prolongs life, clears away ill-humours,
revives the heart and maintains youth."2
Alcohol was believed to be necessary on ships, in town, during work, play, religion,
courtship and nearly everywhere else imaginable. Until the 1700s, virtually no one raised a
voice against what was widely thought to be God's gift, "to be received with thankfulness."3
Neither Americans nor Europeans of the 1700s and 1800s indulged in refreshing glasses
of water. This was not so much an aversion to this healthy drink, but more likely because
so little of it was clear, sparkling or appetizing. River water had to sit while mud particles
settled to the bottom. During winter, recalled one pioneer, "water had to be thawed." It
was only after towns and villages obtained reliable public water supplies that water became
a substitute for alcohol.4
Water was condemned also on the grounds that it didn't aid digestion or have any food
value. Whiskey, on the other hand, was made of nutritious grains was believed to be healthgiving and strong.5
"Now, just a leetle drop," said Mrs. Mann persuasively. "What is it?" inquired the beadle.
"Why, its what I'm obliged to keep a little of in the house, to put into the blessed infants'
Daffy, when they ain't well, Mr. Bumble," replied Mrs. Mann as she opened the corner
cupboard, and took down a bottle and a glass. "It's gin. I'll not deceive you, Mr. B. It's
gin."6
Whiskey was most valued remedy in the pioneer medicine chest. It was used to treat
everything from stomach aches and menstrual pain to snake bite. On the Klondike trail,
whiskey was about the only medicine available. Not all the illnesses recognized today
would respond to an alcohol treatment as medication, but one, at least was very responsive
to this prescription. Several doctors issued prescriptions to whites who were only suffering
from the uncomfortable diagnosis of "draught."7
SCURVY
The most dangerous health problem that faced early explorers in Alaska was scurvy.
Many symptoms characterized scurvy, including pain in arm and leg joints, gum infection
that caused teeth to fall out, lack of energy and sometimes death. Some of early Russians in
Sitka who did not die of this illness were toothless from its effects.8
Russians believed their beer (quass) was an anti-scorobic that helped them either avoid
getting scurvy or get over its effects.
"I ordered [those sick with scurvy] given wheat, molasses and beer made from fir cones.
We all drank this beer as an anecdote from scurvy, and thanks to the Lord, out of forty very
sick Russians, only three died."9
"The only alcoholic beverage allowed was kvass, which was brewed from grain, fruit, or
anything fermentable and had long been used by the promyshlenniki as a preventative for
scurvy."10
This was also true of the Bostonians and the British.
"Late authorities testify strongly in favor of the benefit to be derived from moderate
indulgence in drink during an arctic sojourn. In looking over a precis of the evidence taken
by a parliamentary committee appointed to inquire into the adequacy of the provision in the
way of food, medicines, and medicinal comports furnished to the Nares Arctic Research
Expedition, we learn that Sir Edmond Perry attributed the greatest antiscorobic effect to
beer; and Dr. Colon, R.N., fleet surgeon (Alert), says that it is the opinion of all the men he
has read about who spoke about beer in the arctic regions. Dr. Barnes believes beer
decidedly antiscorobic and recommends it should be given. Sir George Nares says
abstainers are no better than others as regards scurvy. Captain Markham says he would as
soon take a man of temperate habits on an expedition as an abstainer; the two total
abstainers of his sledge suffered severely, and he himself felt better after he took to drinking
his rum. Sir L. McClintock says there is no advantage to teetotalers; Mr. Alexander Gray,
that there is no advantage in health in abstainers on board whalers, while Dr. A. Envall, who
accompanied Nordenskjld condemns excess, but says he believes spirituous liquors to be of
great use in small and moderate quantities."11
One method navies used to treat and prevent scurvy was daily administration of
something alcoholic to the sailors on board the ships. This daily jolt became known as the
grog ration. The grog ration for the U.S. Navy started in 1655. The Navy tried to switch
from rum to whiskey in 1806 because the best medical evidence held whiskey to be more
healthy to drink. In fact, since it was mixed with citric juices, such as lime juice, the ration
did give the sailors vitamin C and helped prevent scurvy.12
EFFECTS OF BAD WEATHER
Alcoholic beverages were thought to ward off ill effects of rain and miserable weather.
Since Sitka was the seat of early white government in Alaska where inclement weather is
typical, it was felt that alcohol was not only justified, but necessary.
"Under John Marshall the Supreme Court had a rule that it would drink only in rainy
weather-but this rule soon was extended to mean rainy weather anywhere the court had
jurisdiction, which was a considerable stretch of territory, even then. Under the laws of
chance, Justice Marshall held, it probably was raining somewhere in the United States."13
One of treasury department official, William G. Morris, spoke of the need for alcohol for
anyone living in Southeastern Alaska when he said:
"Alaska is not a penal colony; and because one lives in that country it is no reason he
should be punished and deprived of the comforts or necessaries of life. It may seem
paradoxical to classify spirituous liquor as necessary to a man's existence; but it is
sometimes so as a medicinal remedy. As for comfort, let one sojourn for any length of time
in that humid climate, and if his bones all the way up to his throat don't ache to distraction
for a drink, I am no judge of human nature."14
For soldiers who came from the Southwestern United States, the rain was depressing.
"When it rained, which was a good part of the time, there was virtually nothing to do but
drink and gamble. Even in good weather, Alaska offered few other diversions. . . . about
thirty men of the small garrison were always under arrest."15
Alaska's long, cold winters would have given anyone a good excuse to start drinking
heavily. The illusion of warmth obtained by drinking liquor is just that-- an illusion. Many
miners froze to death believing they were protected from the cold by having alcohol antifreeze in their bloodstream.
SUICIDE
Suicide caused from drinking has been a social problem for hundreds of years and
Alaska is no exception.
"When the Indians become crazed with this devilish drink they lose all reason and
become raving maniacs, carouse, indulge in the most lascivious and disgusting immoralities,
frequently ending in death, murder, and suicide."16
"On the 16th of July last at Sitka, a Russian Woman, Liceria Andrew, was plied with
liquor till she died from the effects. Between liquor and other civilizing agents the
population is being thinned out fast."17
"A young Russian, by name Wolkoff, a shoemaker, purchased some whiskey and
afterwards gave a bottle to a young creole or half-breed. For this offense, he was informed
by the sutler and imprisoned by military authority. Feeling his humiliation and disgrace at
being imprisoned, in a moment of mental aberration he put a pistol to his head and blew out
his brains."18
Whites in the army were not exempt from suicide problems. According to war
department reports, the army suicide rate was 76 suicides per 1,000 men between 1879 and
1888. In early Alaska, more soldiers died from suicide than died from any drunken Indian
or Eskimo uprisings.19
The first recorded army suicide was that of Captain Kinney, who shot himself on the
night of December 2, 1868. General Davis reported that the cause of death was probably
intemperance although he was reported to have been drinking very little for six weeks prior
to his death. Davis closed his report on the matter by saying that Captain Kinney was an
"intelligent and good officer, whose drinking seldom interfered with his duties, who was
highly esteemed by his mess-mates and very popular among the citizens."20
LIABILITY FOR ALCOHOL-RELATED INJURY
The person who allows another to drink has only recently been held liable for what his
quests do while under the influence of alcohol. No distinctions were made on the frontier
among those who shared drinks. This caveat emptor policy of buying drinks was expressed
by a visitor to Idaho in 1861:
"It is counted no murder to sell [whiskey] to a man if he survives long enough to get out
of doors."21
This wasn't the case, however, among Indians of Southeast Alaska. Many squabbles
arose over liability when someone was hurt or killed or committed suicide while under the
influence of alcohol provided by others.
Many deaths that were directly blamed on alcohol may have been due to the lack of
nourishment that a regular diet robbed the drinker of rather than alcoholism. Many miners,
Indians and politicians for that matter drank their meals which weakened their resistance to
disease.22
After months of living on liquor and little else, a man might lie down in a hut or a
barroom corner and never wake up. Such alcohol-related deaths were attributed vaguely to
"black tongue disease," congestion of the brain, general dissipation, unknown causes or
"too much whiskey for this altitude."23
There were always those on the frontier who believed that alcohol was so important that
they would do anything for a drink, and it wasn't just the Indians.
One folk song of the West went:
Rye whiskey, rye whiskey,
you don't give me rye whiskey,
folk song---
Rye whiskey, I cry,
I surely will die.
If
---Western
DEMORALIZING ALASKA'S NATIVES
One of the most common claims of the missionaries, miners and others about alcohol
effects on Alaska's Natives was that alcohol was "demoralizing" the Natives. It's difficult to
say just what was meant by this assertion. The exclamation was often made in connection
with the physical health and well-being of the Natives. It wasn't just the Natives, however,
who were "demoralized" by alcohol.
"The government can not keep liquor out [of Alaska]. Even the liquor that is in the
seizure room is taken out and water is put in its place. Some of the officers are now under
inditement for taking liquor out of the seizure room and selling it to the whiskey men. The
collector's office out there has been so demoralized in this matter that if you knew the whole
truth about it you would be sick that government affairs in any department should be in
such a fix."24
The 1905 and 1907 governor's reports recommended that the liquor sale to Indians be a
felony instead of a misdemeanor. It suggested that a solution would be to build "little
homes" for the Natives as an inducement to move away from non-Native towns and away
from where they can "obtain liquor and become demoralized."
The term, "demoralization," was used most often to express the corrupt, idle and
immoral lives that were lived in spite of efforts by missionaries to instill their values in
those they thought were farther from grace than themselves. Sometimes it was only applied
to the effects of homemade alcohol. In Governor Strong's annual report, he claimed :
"In recent years there has been a marked decrease in the making of these liquors, called
in the vernacular, 'hooch,' 'sourdough,' or 'cold' whiskey, 'quass,' or native beer. All are
deadly and demoralizing in their action upon the native, physically and mentally."25
What the reports actually suggested, according to research Stephen Conn, was:
"Alcohol control among the Natives served many purposes. It justified further efforts at
civilizing Natives through the work of missionaries and teachers. It explained the failures of
programs already established."
"Native groups had to be contacted, their numbers drawn
into villages and their 'fallen' culture brought up to the standards of temperance not often
found in the North country."26
Since Alaska Natives did not understand the white's ideas about the healthfulness of
alcoholic drinks or their reported ill effects, they had to develop their own ideas about
alcohol's effects on their health. White values about health would have been important,
since several very important whites became quasi- leaders or role models to some of the
Native groups who wanted to assimilate white culture, language and religion into their
families and clans. Father William Duncan, for example, became the spiritual, moral and
political leader of the Tsimpsians who settled in Metlakatla. S. Hall Young and Sheldon
Jackson served the same purpose in Wrangell and Sitka. John Brady (later to become
governor) was another white leader from whom Southeast Alaska Indians took their values.
Many of these people were outspoken protectors of Alaska Natives and virtually all were
also very much anti-liquor if not prohibitionist.
Other whites became role models of drunken comportment as they guzzled their wages,
asserted freedom to do as they pleased and used every excuse possible to avoid punishment
and chastisement.
ALCOHOL AS MEDICINE
Even when alcohol drinks in saloons were illegal, bottles with generous percentages of
alcohol were available at the local pharmacy in larger white settlements. Numerous
advertisements for these special compounds appeared in early Alaska newspapers attesting
that they were popular consumer items in the early 1900s. Many compounds were known
to be alcoholic and it was forbidden to give or sell them to Indians (not because Indians
didn't need good medications like everyone else). Some of the more popular tonics were
Hostetter's Stomach Bitters (44% alcohol), Faith Whitcombe's Nerve Bitters (20.3%
alcohol), Luther's Temperance Bitters (16.6% alcohol) and Burdock Blood Bitters
(25.2%).27
"As so often happened during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when denied
their usual sources, Alaska drinkers found solace in the array of patent medicines, all of
which had high alcoholic content, so abundantly available on the shelves of nearly every
store and freely importable by the caseloads. 'McMillan and Keysters Essence of Ginger,'
'Kennedy's Medical Discovery,' 'Pere-Davis Pain Killer,' and 'Jamaica Ginger' were the most
popular in Alaska, but numerous other bitters, essences, pain killers, and other kinds of
drugs served the same purpose."28
It's unknown how the Alaskan Indians and Eskimos accepted the idea that alcohol could
actually be good for your health, but it has been pointed out that "while Uncle Sam's
revenuers refrained from taxing the stuff because it was medicine, his Indian service forbade
the sale of it on reservations because it was so easy to get drunk on." Alcohol was certainly
used by the Alaska Natives as a pain-killer. It was common for poor people all over the
world to regard pain as not just a symptom of disease, but the disease itself. Any fluid that
got rid of pain might have been considered a greatly appreciated possession.29
Even the most vocal of prohibition missionaries wouldn't hesitate very long to consume
enough alcohol to alleviate constant or severe pain when other remedies were not easily
available. This happened to S. Hall Young, the most famous Presbyterian missionary in
Wrangell in 1880, when he dislocated both shoulders in a hike with the famous naturalist
John Muir. Before tugging at his arms to re-set the dislocation, Rev. Young consumed a
sizable amount of brandy to kill the pain.30 It also happened when Rev. William Duncan of
Metlakatla pulled from his desk a bottle of liquor to share with an ailing bootlegger named
Baronovich. In a biography of Duncan, the story went as follows:
The captain "asked Mr. Duncan if he had any brandy on hand. Mr. Duncan informed
him that he always kept some in his dispensary for medicinal purposes. 'Oh, my,' said the
captain, 'I wish you would let me take some. Baranovich is on board. He is dying. The
only thing which can keep him alive, till we get to Victoria, is the administration of
stimulants, and I do not want him to die on the way. Would you let me have it?'
"Duncan did. What a sight! The great temperance apostle of the coast, the terror of all
whiskey-sellers, furnishing the most notorious liquor-vendor with the brandy which he
needed to keep him alive on his last journey."31
Alexander Baranov blamed a lot of his drinking on arthritis pain. It was said that, "to
relieve the pain, he was practically living on hot rum."32
HOME-BREW
One thing is certain as far as quality assurance goes, the only liquor the Indians could be
sure would not contain out-and- out poison would have been brews that they made
themselves.33 It's possible that some of stills caused unhealthy side effects the Natives
could not foresee. For example, if gun-barrel stills were used regularly, as some claim, in
the Arctic then lead poisoning might have induced sickness.
"Because of the lack of good grain alcohol, [the Kenai Indians] make their liquor from
flour fermented with sugar in stills made of gasoline tins and distill it through a rusty gun
barrel. The smell of such a drink is repelling."34
"Alcohol caused familiar troubles. Although the Pacific Steam Whaling Company
prohibited its employees from selling or trading whiskey, and despite the fact that most
captains were opposed to the trade, a traffic in alcohol existed, and gun-barrel stills were
erected on shore in native huts by both whalemen and Eskimos. The stills were periodically
destroyed, first by ship's officers and later by policemen and missionaries, but whiskey was
never entirely suppressed. The alcohol, combined with the isolation and idleness created
problems identical to those found today in northern towns from Forbisher to Nome.
Drunkenness, rape, abductions, assaults, murder and suicide all occurred from time to time
at Herschel."35
Lead poisoning was known among whites who used such stills, of course, and was called
the West Indies Dry Gripes. The illness was common until American physician Thomas
Cadwalader found out what caused it and published his results in 1745. Rather than stop
the production of liquor, though, different containers were used.36
Mixed liquor is a true panacea
For ev'ry conceivable ill,
cherish the soothing idea
That somebody else pays the bill!37
MORAL LEADERS
MISSIONARIES
AGAINST
DEMORALIZATION
OF
INDIANS
When you
-
THE
The first Christian missionaries to arrive on Alaska soil were from the Russian Greek
Orthodox Church (in Alaska, commonly referred to as the Russian Orthodox Church).
Although efforts were made to convert Alaska Natives, the Russian missionaries showed
little concern for instilling prohibition from alcoholic beverages on themselves, Russian
workers or Natives they taught their gospel. This was consistent among virtually all
religious leaders in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
In Charles Dicken's Dombey, he tells of "The Reverend" Melchisedeck Howler who got
himself discharged for the grievous sin of "screwing gimlets into the puncheons and
applying his lips to the orifice," whereupon he "announced the destruction of the world for
that day two years, at ten in the morning ... and opened a front parlour for the reception of
ladies and gentlemen of the Ranting persuasion."
In Russia, the United States, England and other countries the temperance movement was
only about to be ignited.
By the time large numbers of Protestant missionaries came to Alaska in the 1880s they
were virtually united in their views that alcohol was not only bad for health, but was also
the incarnation of Satan himself.
"You might as well talk about a pious devil, a virtuous prostitute, or an honest thief as to
talk of a rum-seller ... having a good moral character."38
Had more missionaries come to Alaska 100 years later, after the efforts at enforced
prohibition with the whites had failed, they may have been more lenient about enforcing
prohibition on an unwilling Native population. As it was, they believed it was an essential
component of the gospel message.39
Members of the cloth had also partaken of the fruit of the vine, and were innovators in
new ways to make and use alcoholic beverages.
Rev. Elijah Craig, a Baptist minister, was the first person credited with the "discovery"
of bourbon whiskey.40
Champagne was introduced by monks in the abby of Hautvillers in France in 1670. They
carefully experimented with ways to keep bottles from exploding during fermentation.41
Early in the 1800s, far from Alaska's shores, the battle for the souls of man in relation to
alcohol was being fought in New England. Revivals first used a temperance call to sinners,
but when it came clear that it was too difficult to tell the difference between a temperate
Christian and a temperate heathen, churches gradually moved toward abstinence as an
outward sign of inner grace.
If, as they say, God spanked the town
For being over-frisky,
he burn the churches down
And spare Hotaling's whiskey?
about Chicago's great fire--
Why did
--Poem
Temperance societies sprang up all over the world in the mid 1850s. Generally, they
were spear-headed by clergy of protestant denominations. Tee-total abstinence resolutions
were passed in many churches. Denominations forbid their ministers to drink under the
threat of formal discipline.42 Before, ministers often made their rounds in an alcoholic
daze, being forced by custom to drink with parishioners at every stop on fear of offending
some.
Temperance thought spread the idea that any amount of drinking was harmful to both
body and spirit. The truth was not so sacrosanct that it could not be stretched for a good
cause.
"The habitual use of alcohol so lowers 'the principle of vitality' that the shock of merely
drinking a glass of cold water can kill, that a teetotaling sailor on an arctic expedition
escaped scurvy, whereas all his shipmates who took their grog ration came down with it,
and his name was solemnly recorded, was Adam Ayles."43
The first temperance meetings in Alaska were probably under the supervision and
instigation of Rev. William Duncan. Rev. Duncan moved with a flock of Native followers
from Canada after a falling-out between him and his supervisors over allowing and
encouraging the Tsimpsian Indians to access the higher rites of the Church of England.
These rites would have regularly included wine in routine communion exercises.
"Duncan believed that to introduce the communion service among a people who had too
long before practiced cannibalism would cause great and harmful misunder-standing. His
superiors were just as adamant, declaring that eating the mystical elements, the bread and
wine--Christ's body and blood--was a symbolic act that the sensitive Tsimpsians would
quickly appreciate."44
When Rev. Duncan moved to Metlakatla, he forbade alcohol use in the community.
Thus, Metlakatla became the first local option town in Alaska. This was a feat unequalled
by white communities for another 40 years or so.45
One author claimed that only the Indian villages of Old Metlakatla, Greenville, New
Metlakatla and Hydaburg were able to maintain strict prohibition.
Part of the strategy in converting large numbers of Indians to organized Christian
religions was its importance in teaching Indians for as long as possible in a relatively
protected environment without the influx of whites. This was because many whites often
set a different example from that taught by the missionaries. This hypocritical behavior was
believed to confuse Natives because it communicated attitudes that missionaries violently
opposed. Missionaries learned from years of proselyting in Africa, South America and
other fields that wherever white Christian colonists go, liquor accompanies them.
Eleazar Wheelock was a very pious man;
He went into the wilderness to teach
the Indian,
With a Gradus ad Parnassum, a Bible, and a drum,
And five
hundred gallons of New England rum...
Eleazar was the faculty, and the whole
curriculum
Was five hundred gallons of New England rum.46
It was very frustrating for Protestant missionaries to get the attention of Alaskan Native
communities, teach their doctrines and decry "Demon Rum", when not all Christian
missionaries and whites lived strict teetotalism. A deep rift developed between new
Protestant missionaries and Russian Orthodox Church clergy. Russian clergy refused to
give in to pressure to use water instead of wine in communion services. The Protestants
then accused some Russian clergy of either drinking too much themselves or using alcohol
to keep converts from listening to the Protestant missionaries.47
"The devil must have planted these cursed sea- otters in these out-of-the-way regions,"
said one of the [Russian] sailors; "as far as we can see land up and down the coast, not a
single rum-shop is to be found." "Yes," answered another, "but I remember Father Baranof.
There was a time when a camp-kettle was set out brimming full, and he would shout,
'Drink, children!' and he would join himself in a merry song. Those were better days,"
continued he, with his eyes fixed on the waning land; "but now what times have we! We can
do nothing but work, and when that is done, we promenade or smoke in the barrack. What
a life!" "You see," replied his comrade, "in this country, we all have to join the temperance
society." "What is that?" "I don't know exactly: it is some kind of a sect. I belonged to it
once, but it is so long ago I forget. I can make no reckoning of time when I get no drinks
to count by; but I remember we all had to pay a beaver skin apiece! That is big price to pay
for the privilege of drinking nothing but water. I'll have nothing to do with any such sect.
There was that German Mukolof; he joined the sect, and in a few weeks he was dead. God
knows where he is now"--crossing himself: "I don't think there is much room for Dutchmen
in heaven; so many Russians go there."48
Not all Russian priests drank to excess, but Protestant missionaries were quick to point
out what drinking the priests did do. Protestants tried to lead the Indians away from the
Russian Church. The Protestant ministers had just gone through a 50-year period wherein
they purged their ranks of heavy drinkers. They were not about to allow even one bad
example go unnoticed.
Wel oghte a preest ensample for to yive, by his clennesse, how that his sheep should live.
(Chaucer, "Canterbury Tales, Prologue.")
Much is said about the prudent use of spirits, but we might as well speak of the prudent
use of the plague--of fire handed prudently round among the powder--of poison taken
prudently every day.--Lyman Beecher, temperance minister-No better fuel can you afford the lusts of the flesh than ardent spirits--drunkenness and
lewdness go hand in hand. . . .few who have drunk a gill of ardent spirits can be exposed
to. . . .small temptation without becoming adulterers in the sight of God.
--Dr.
Nathaniel Prime (1911)-The Russians had also heard horror stories about some Protestant missionaries' activities
and alcohol.
"There were cases when [Pastor Roskor, of the Baptist mission at Kodiak] through his
co-laborers, intoxicated the mothers and while they were drunk he took the children and
forced the drunk mothers against their will to sign the papers prepared earlier by him. One
of these mothers, widow Olga Shmakov, whose son was taken by Roskor while she was
drunk, reported to the officer at Kodiak about such an unlawful act of the pastor."49
In fairness to the Orthodox Church, it must be said that they attempted, whenever
possible, to identify priests who drank intemperately and chastise them as needed. There
are also several entries in the Orthodox Church Documents that indicate disgust with the
drinking of other groups they came in contact with, whether they were Indians, Aleuts,
whites or government employees.
"The laws of the United States positively prohibit the brewing of vodka in Alaska, the
chief cause of all evil; yet Storekeeper Ryan and his friends brew vodka, drink and debauch
ceaselessly all winter. Their drinking parties are accompanied by quarrels, fights and
sometimes pistol shooting....Of course they bring vodka to the village and force the people
to drink. If anyone refuses, two persons hold his hands and the vodka is poured into his
mouth. For instance, they did this to our chief, Lavrenty Mishakov. We have asked them
many times not to bring vodka to our village because our priest prohibits our drinking it; if
they wish to drink it themselves we have no objection. But storekeeper Ryan replied by
publicly abusing the priest and telling us that we should not listen to him."50
TEMPERANCE CLUBS
Several temperance societys were organized by and among the Aleuts, Indians and
whites toward the end of the 1800s. These were normally instigated by various ministers
and most continued through the 1920s.
One organization formed in typical Temperance style is active today; the Alaska Native
Brotherhood. Its charter specified that its members were not to drink alcoholic beverages.
It was preceded in 1896 by an organization called the Indian Society at Sitka.
"The Indian Mutual Aid Society of St. Archstrateg Michael was opened at Sitka January
1, 1896. The charter is written in Koloshan and Russian. The members took an oath to
stop drinking, gambling, observing the old customs and games; to avoid quarrels,
calumnies, and revenge; to renounce the belief in shamans and evil spirits; and to
discontinue observing former festivities for the dead. Fee: $4 a year.51
While many, if not most, missionaries believed alcohol consumption among the worst
things that a congregation could do, one priest disagreed. He believed their refusal to listen
attentively to his sermons was the epitome of sin.
"But the most grievous vice to me, and no doubt to God, is their refusal under various
pretexts to listen to my sermons....Those who reject this most effective means for selfimprovement--the Word of God--are hopelessly lost."52
HOME-BREWED ALCOHOL OR "HOOCH"
Throughout Alaska history the word hooch has gained acceptance as depicting an
unhealthy, stinking and poisonous distillate that was made by the Indians. In most modern
dictionaries the origin of the term is credited to a tribe of Alaska Indians called the
"Hoochinoos."53 This is very misleading to the average reader, but since so much early
Alaska folklore surrounds the brewing of this beverage, a few words on this subject are in
order.
Home-made liquor had a very important role in the history of most of the countries.
After leaving the presidency, George Washington operated a distillery at Mt. Vernon. Until
the Revolutionary War, rum was the accepted commercially-produced drink. Rum was
taxed heavily when produced in New England, the profits of which went to England. When
imported, the excise tax on English-made rum was very favorable so as to give English
distilleries a favorable trade advantage over locally produced rum.
In Canada, the same feeling of nationalism prevailed. They felt that "the wines now
obtained from the United States are complained of as profuse in quantity, and deleterious in
quality," while, "the importation from the British Dominions has not yet incurred similar
objections."54
Gin, cursed fiend, with fury fraught,
Makes human race a prey;
enters by a deadly draught,
And steals our life away.
Virtue and Truth, driven to despair,
Its rage compels to fly;
cherishes with hellish care,
Theft, murder, purgery.
It
But
Damned cup that on the vitals preys,
That liquid fire contains;
Which madness to the heart conveys,
And rolls it through the veins.
--James Townley, 1751-As nationalistic feelings grew in America against the tax structure imposed from the east,
Americans began distilling their own grain into a home-made product that by-passed the tax
structure so carefully set up by the British. It also afforded a way to make a living for those
who grew their crops well away from the Eastern seaboard and effectively made corn
farmers, "liquor farmers" instead.
"Erratic supplies and higher prices for rum had encouraged a shift to beer, cider and
whiskey, but rum also suffered from rising nationalism. Imported molasses and rum were
symbols of colonialism and reminders that America was not economically self- sufficient.
Whereas the colonists once had been proud of obtaining such commodities from the British
Empire, independent Americans now believed that having to import these items signified an
economic weakness that could lead to political subjugation. To sell foodstuffs and other
articles to the West Indies was desirable because it was profitable; to buy rum from those
same islands was foolish and unpatriotic because it was harmful to American distillers and
their workmen."55
American farmers were acquainted with distillation to such a high degree that it became
big business. Backyard stills called "limbecs" became so common that when the new
government tried to levy a tax on them, the U.S. Army was called out to enforce the tax.
The resulting military action was called the "Whiskey Rebellion." General George
Washington had to lead his troops to western Pennsylvania to enforce the regulations in
1791.
"Finally, after waiting until even a few Jeffersonians believed that things had gone too far
in Pennsylvania, the president dispatched a strong militia force. Opposition melted in front
of the invading army, and the federal tax measure was sustained along with national
government prestige. But from that date on, 'moonshiners' began dodging revenue agents,
placing America's beloved whiskey at the center of one of the nation's oldest illegal
businesses."56
Virtually everything that could be fermented was used to manufacture the "liquid diet" of
some of entrepreneurs.
If barley be wanting to make into malt,
We must be content and think it no
fault,
For we can make liquor to sweeten our lips,
Of pumpkins, and parsnips,
and walnut-tree chips.
Brewing home-made liquor took care of the needs of the small farmer. It provided an
income when there was very little cash in the economy. It allowed for entertaining guests
and for feeling as important as those who could afford imported wines and brandies. It also
asserted independence from government interventions. It was something to share with
neighbors when they helped with tending crops or building houses. The brand of liquor one
drank expressed feelings about whether he was genuinely patriotic or if he sided with
governments several thousand miles away.
"Whiskey was the answer to the pioneer's prayer...Men waxed lyrical when describing its
mellowness and its satisfying effects upon the human system. It became the settler's cash
crop, their liquid gold. It took the place of coined money, which was rare on the
frontier."57
Many moonshiners took great pride in the quality, strength and purity of their drinks.
The term "The Real McCoy" was coined when a moonshiner named Bill McCoy got a
reputation for bringing in "quality merchandise."58
In the mid-1800s various illegal liquors were distilled all over the country. White
Lightning, Valley Tan, Rot-gut, Taos Lightning, Blue Ruin and others became well-known,
with folklore growing up around each one regarding its strength and potency.59
"Hey! Don't let that stuff drop like that on your boots!" I heard one raftsman say to
another that was passing him a bottle. "I spilt some on my new shore shoes last week and it
ate the uppers down clean to the soles."
"Was them shoes tanned with oqueejum?" asked
the other. "No, sir. That there leather was tanned with the best hemlock bark, and the shoes
cost me $3."
"Now, say, my friend"--gently remonstrative-- "don't you know better than
to buy leather tanned with hemlock? What you want is leather tanned with oqueejum and
then whiskey can't eat it. You see, whiskey and hemlock, they get together on social terms,
same's you and me, and then the whiskey does its deadly work and swallers the leather. But
whiskey and oqueejum's enemies, and when they meet whiskey gets licked every time.
That's why I keep my stomach lined with it."60
When the Civil War broke out, the government imposed excise taxes again on liquors to
help finance war efforts. Those who avoided paying these taxes were eagerly sought out,
because they avoided financing the government and its military actions. At the end of the
war, with government income at an extreme low point, the Treasury Department was
anxious to collect all duties coming to it from all taxable items, particularly those imported
from foreign countries.61
ALASKAN MOONSHINE
All the reasons given until now for the success of the moonshine industry in early
American history applies equally to the success and spread of moonshine in Alaska. Homebrew made a statement about loyalty and allegiance. Washington, D.C., was no farther
from parts of Alaska than the Queen of England was from American colonies. Allowing
Washington to tax everything of value (i.e., blankets and alcohol) was more than even the
whites would allow. For a group of shrewd Indian traders to allow only whites to have
control of intoxicating beverages would forever put money only in the pockets of outsiders
to the exclusion of the locals.
There is ample evidence that whites bought a sizable portion of their "likker" from
Natives. Stills in operation close to town could easily be found and raided, but to raid
Indian villages would be something else entirely. Whites cheered on the missionaries,
however, when their stills located near town were destroyed.
"It was the most villainous and nastiest stuff to taste ever concocted, and the most
vicious in its effect. Whole villages became drunk; mothers lying helpless on the ground
with hungry babies rolling over them;62 murderous quarrels were frequent; and unspeakable
scenes of debauchery and sin were enacted. Of course we were against this great evil. A
number of squaw-men were the chief criminals in the manufacture of the awful stuff. I
could not with any degree of safety or success interfere with the white men, but took it
upon myself to break up the practice of making and selling hooch among the natives.
Colonel Crittenden, although a hard drinker himself, was with me in my attempt to put
down the manufacture of liquor - that was one of his duties as Customs Collector....The
white men who were manufacturing hooch were glad to see me break up the stills of the
natives, as it increased their own chances of profit."63
Just because some Indians, Aleuts or Eskimos brewed a sizable amount of liquor doesn't
mean that it was brewed because of a love of liquor. A government thousands of miles
distant and foreign to the Alaskan Natives wanted them to drink only what that government
dictated. Certainly drinking a beverage of their own making that was not taxed would have
been a sign of independence and self-reliance in 1870 as much as it was to the farmers in
Pennsylvania or Kentucky in 1790.
Various accounts have been advanced as to how the Tlingits learned to distill. One
account claims they learned it from an army deserter. Another states they learned it from a
discharged soldier. The full story has yet to be told, but it is likely that in Southeast Alaska,
it occurred shortly after the United States assumed control of Alaska lands from the
Russians.64
Being shrewd traders, the Tlingits would have used their hooch for all the reasons given
as to why whites drank it: to be sociable, to share wealth, to relieve pain, to comfort the
sick, to seal a bargain, to relieve boredom, to relieve anxiety, to obtain an item that the
whites wanted and to convey status.
On the same basis, many Tlingits did not want alcohol in their midst for the same reasons
given by those whites who were against alcohol: because it caused accidents, allowed
disrespectful behavior towards elders, and indicated a rejection of traditional values.
Footnotes to Chapter 5
1. "Quod cibus est aliis, aliis est venenum", What is food to some is poison to others.
2. Fleming, Alice Alcohol: The Delightful Poison, Dell Publishing Co., New York (1975),
p. 12: Austin, Gregory A (1985), misc..
3. Increase Mather, 1673, a New England minister who tried to get colonists to drink more
temperately. Rorabaugh, W.J. The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition, Oxford
University Press, New York (1975), p. 23.
4. Rorabaugh (1979), p. 96. In early 1915 as Alaskans were contemplating "local option"
as a possibility, the Town of Wrangell had a difficult time deciding what to do since the
town's water supply was financed by revenues from the liquor licenses.
5. Virtually anything alcoholic was often referred to as "whiskey" in the American West.
6. Dickens, Charles Oliver Twist (19--).
7. Disease was often associated with the symptoms, not the underlying causes. Since
whiskey removed many symptoms temporarily, it was thought to be helpful. Hunt, William
R. (1974), p. 49, 33. About 1527, famed surgeon Heironimus Brunswick published a
paper describing aqua-vitae as "the mistress of all medicines." He wrote, "It eases the
coming of the cold. It comforts the heart. It heals all old and new sores on the head. It
causes a good color in a person. . ." Brunswick even claimed that it would restore hair and
would prevent deafness provided one placed a few drops in the ears on retiring every night.
See, Dabney, Joseph Earl Mountain Spirits, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York (1974), p.
33. Furnas, J.C. The Life and Times of the Late Demon Rum, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New
York (1965), p. 171.
8. Chevigny, Hector, Russian America (1965), p. 123. It is very possible that when one
lost one's teeth due to scurvy, that the liquid diet that was then necessary consisted of even
more alcohol than before.
9. Tikhmenev, P.A. (1979) Letter from Rezanov to Board of Directors, February 15, 1806
(secret), p. 175.
10. Chevigny, Hector, Russian America (1965), p. 37.
11. Cruise of the Revenue-Steamer Corwin in Alaska and the N.W. Arctic Ocean In 1881,
U.S. Government Printing Office (1883), p. 19.
12. Their aim may have been adversely affected, however shortly after taking their
"medicine." Mariani, John Motor Boating And Sailing, "Spirits Locker," March (1984),
Vol 153 #3, p. 38 "The Grog Ration". For an idea of the extensive use of citrus juices in
alcoholic mixtures of the day, see Hewett, Edward and Axton, W. F. Convivial Dickens:
The Drinks of Dickens and His Times, Ohio University Press, Athens (1983).
13. Marshall, Jim (1949), p. 232.
14. Actually, Alaska was proposed by some to become a penal colony. See Nordhoff,
Charles Harper's New Monthly Magazine, "What Shall We Do With Scroggs?", Vol XLVII,
Jun-Nov. (1873). Also see Hinckley, Ted C. Pacific Historical Review, "Alaska As An
American Botany Bay", XLII (February 1973), p. 1-19. 45th Congress, 3rd Session,
Senate Executive Document #59, "Report from the Customs District, Public Service and
Resources of Alaska Territory, 1879", p. 59.
15. Remsberg, Stanley Ray (1976), p. 246.
16. 45th Congress, 3rd Session, Senate Executive Document #59, "Report from the
Customs District, Public Service and Resources of Alaska Territory, 1879", p. 61-63. A
discussion of Indian suicide is found in Price, John A. Human Organization, Vol 34, No 1
(Spring, 1975), p. 17-26, "An Applied Analysis Of Narth American Indian Drinking
Patterns."
17. ALASKA HERALD, August 15, 1868, "Death From Liquor."
18. ALASKA HERALD, August 15, 1868.
19. Murton, Thomas O'Rhelius (1965), p. 165.
20. This implies that Captain Kinney may have been a heavy drinker prior to the six weeks
preceding his death during a period of official prohibition. Stubbs, Valerie K. (1956), p. 81.
21. West, Elliott The Saloon on the Rocky Mountain Mining Frontier, University of
Nebraska Press, Lincoln (1979), p. 12.
22. One missionary attributed heavy drinking to Alaska's first governor, John Kinkead,
because of his appearance, for his "bulbous nose" attested to the fact. Mr. Kinkead is said
to have brought his own personal supply of "canned tomatoes" that tasted "exactly like
scotch whiskey and produced the same effect." For more about John Kinkead's drinking,
see Young, S. Hall (1927), p. 275; also see Orthodox Church Documents, "Ushin's Diary",
entries for 05/26/1885 and 07/19/1885.
23. West, Elliott (1979), p. 23.
24. 55Th Congress 3rd Session, Senate Document #122, February 15, 1899.
25. Alaska Governor's Report (1916), p. 28.
26. Conn, Stephen (1980), p. 32.
27. Furnas, J.C. (1965), p. 181.
28. Remsberg, Stanley Ray (1976), p. 408 The situation in Sitka became so bad for the
whites and soldiers to get drunk on patent medicines that one of the army officers tried for a
short time to effect a prohibition on these items by the army starting on September 30,
1875.
29. Furnas, J.C. (1965), p. 184. Harrison, Brian (1971), p. 41.
30. Young, S. Hall Alaska Days With John Muir, Fleming H. Revel Co., New York (1915),
p. 53-54.
31. Arctander, John W. The Apostle of Alaska, Fleming H. Revell Co., London (1909), p.
200.
32. Chevigny, Hector Russian America (1965), p. 133.
33. Most those who drink even sacramental alcoholic beverages have more faith in wines
that come from sources that are reliable and that furnish consistent quality. Who can blame
the Indians or Aleuts for making their own? Even the "Mormons" in 1830 claimed that they
had received instructions to not purchase wine from their enemies. (See Doctrine and
Covenants, Sec 27:3-4, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (1959).)
34. Orthodox Church Documents, Journal of Hieromonk Nikita (Kenai), Box 453,
04/27/1882.
35. Bockstoce, John R., Steam Whaling in the Western Arctic, Old Dartmouth Historical
Society, New Bedford, Massachusetts (1977), p. 43.
36. Rorabaugh, W.J. (1979), p. 39.
37. Gilbert; "The Grand Duke."
38. Furnas, J.C. (1965), p. 94.
39. Winkler, Allan M.; "Drinking On The American Frontier", Quarterly Journal of Studies
on Alcoholism, XXIX (1968), p. 439.
40. Carson, Gerald The Social History of Bourbon, Dodd, Mead & Co., New York (1963),
p. 36.
41. Austin, Gregory A.; Alcohol In Western Society From Antiquity to 1800, ABC-Clio
Information Services, Denver (1985), p. 253.
42. This was not without opposition in some of the churches. Some congregations
excommunicated members who joined temperance societies on the basis that they were
taking away man's free agency. "There is some sneaking Temperance Society movement
about this business." -- Moby Dick, LXXII -43. Furnas, J.C. (1965), p. 192-193.
44. Hinckley, Ted C. (1972), p. 170.
45. The penalty that magistrate Duncan was known to levy prescribe ten years at heavy
labor for violating this prohibition.
46. Hovey, Richard (1864-1900), Dartmouth College Song.
47. 42nd Congress 1st Session, House Exec. Doc. #5, p. 32. Also see Van Stone, James
W. (1967), p. 40.
48. Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1886), p. 570.
49. Orthodox Church Documents, Report of Priest Vladimir Donskoi about Kodiak parish,
November 11, 1893.
50. Orthodox Church Documents, Petition of twenty-three Kenai people to District Judge
Warren Truitt, #64, 1895.
51. Orthodox Church Documents, Box 482-483 "Brotherhoods and Societies", p. 348.
52. Orthodox Church Documents, Travel Journal of Hiermonk Theophil, Nushagak, July
15, 1865.
53. hooch \'hu"ch\ n [short for hoochinoo (a distilled liquor made by the Hoochinoo
Indians, a Tlingit people)] slang (1897): alcoholic liquor esp. when inferior or illicitly made
or obtained. Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, Mirriam Webster, Inc.,
Springfield (1984), p. 580.
54. Oliver, Prof. E.H. The Canadian North-West: Its Early Development and legislative
Records, Government Printing Bureau, Ottawa (1914), p. 97. The article went on to say
that "The native manufacture is not inferior to the importation from the United States, and
is therefore so far worthy of protection."
55. Rorabaugh, W.J. (1979), p. 67.
56. Lender, Mark Edward and Martin, James Kirby (1982), p. 52.
57. Erdoe, Richard (1979), p. 90.
58. Lender (1982), p. 144.
59. One of Soapy Smith's favorite drinks was "giggle soup."
60. Erdoe (1979), p. 86-87.
61. In Alaska, this boiled down to Hudson Bay blankets and liquor brought in from
Canadian ports.
62. This is a description that the missionary took verbatim from the old "gin Plague" of
England that happened about 100 years earlier among the whites.
63. Young, S. Hall (1927), p. 165-167.
64. The first mention of it is about 1868 near Sitka.
Chapter #6
ORGANIZATIONS AND ALCOHOL
Various organizations in early Alaska responded to the introduction and use of alcohol.
Alcoholism is not a common historical term, and, therefore, is not used much in this book.1
Of more concern here is how the government viewed drinking by Natives and non-Natives.
The government and other organizations responded to drinking as a danger to social order
and good health. Once courts were established in Alaska they began to handle alcoholrelated issues. Measures were taken to control what was viewed by missionaries as a serious
threat to the introduction of Christianity in Alaska: the use of alcohol by those about to be
taught about "proper" Christian conduct.
Before discussing how some of the first formal groups reacted to the diverse institutions
that from time to time had influence in early Alaska, some of informal organizations that
Alaska's natives had to deal with should be introduced. In a land as large as Alaska, with
distinct differences among its indigenous peoples, large differences existed in how and
where influences were felt from non-Native newcomers to the territory.
DIVERSITY OF CULTURES AND ORGANIZATIONS
Alaska was a very large territory. Due to its size, it was impossible to discuss how the
impact of one group of non-Natives affected the drinking behavior of the local Natives.
There was large diversity in the way different cultures interacted and affected each other.2
In some areas, such as the Pribilof Islands, the Alaska Commercial Company wielded
great influence on the islanders-- much more than the military ever did.
In Alaska's interior early miners and trappers had their own way until about 1900, when
the first judges made circuit trips to the there. At Nome, the gold stampede made its own
rules free of outside interference for many years.
The construction of the railroad at Anchorage brought with it still other new
organizations to the Natives nearby. Elsewhere in Alaska, the Railroad construction at
Anchorage had virtually no impact on the lives of the local Natives.
Still different from all others were villages that had virtually no outside contact until
missionaries and teachers came to convert and educate the children.
TRIBAL CONTROL OF DEVIANT BEHAVIOR
In any society, the primary means of helping people is the social group in which they
live. As members of a group interact to achieve their individual and collective goals, they
develop shared understandings about what behavior patterns are appropriate within the
group. This process is equally important whether it is applied to members of a large stock
exchange or a clan of Eskimos living along the coast of western Alaska.3
Among all groups of people a system of shared goals develops until, when large enough,
it can be codified into a set of rules called laws. Controls other than laws have no official
punishment affixed to them. These lex non scripta rules are behaviors that are controlled by
methods in society less formalized than laws, but often are as effective in restraining
behavior for the good of the group.
In most of white America for several hundred years, the majority of citizens have looked
increasingly to government and its laws as a means of making social change, particularly
when it comes to addressing what are called "social problems." Even though there are often
bitter complaints about the excesses of big government, nonetheless many people look more
and more to government to solve our problems.4
The use of a formal government was much less pronounced among Indian tribes in
Alaska and groups of Eskimos and Aleuts, than among the Russians or the Americans.5
Due to this fact, the possibility of having a united uprising among Alaska's Natives was very
remote; a possibility that was not understood among military occupiers of Alaska until
Captain Beardslee took the time to try to learn tribal policies in 1880.6
RUSSIAN LAWS
The Russians used a type of law that was more closely related to Alaskan Natives own
legal systems than that of the Americans. The Russian government actually had very little
influence in Alaska. Instead, the Russian-American Fur Company performed virtually all
the normal functions of government in Alaska. The company provided for the needs of its
senior citizens, helped the poor and punished those who caused trouble. It even instituted
the first kind of social security system in Alaska using the profits from alcohol as the
revenue source.
The Company set up, "a pension plan in the form of rewards for long and useful service.
This has given assistance and the means for a new start for those who wish to be listed as
colonial citizens, and gives pensions to those who have large families with young children.
As early as 1802 [the Company] agreed to set aside 1/2% from the net profit each year into
a pension fund for that purpose. During the most recent period in the colonies, for the
same purpose, a ten-ruble tax has been imposed on every vedro of wine, and one ruble for
each pound of tea that is sold to consumers from the colonial warehouses. As a result,
without hurting itself, the Company has forced the consumers to provide protection for the
elderly and the crippled among the company's personnel, and for orphans."7
The Russians seldom resorted to imprisonment for punishment. Instead, pay was
withheld, credit suspended, whipping administered or privileges to the offender were
interrupted.8 Occasionally however, criminals were deported to the Motherland for the
more serious wrongs, such as murder.
TRIBAL LAW
In addition to those of the early Russians, Alaska's Indian tribes were more dependent on
informal sanctions to control those who violated their norms than they were on official
sanctions such as incarceration. This does not mean that the sanctions used among early
Alaskan Natives were less effective than those used among society today; they were merely
of a different nature. Some of the sanctions even required taking the life of a person to
atone for a wrong committed. Many Natives willingly submitted to death to avoid
embarrassment to their clan or family.
When Harrison Thornton was murdered on August 29, 1893 at Cape Prince of Wales, it
was not the authorities of the U.S. Government that dispatched the three accused
murderers. Two were shot immediately by members of the village and had their bodies
thrown to dogs.
"As soon as the Arctic ice sealed Wales off from the rest of the world the third murderer
returned to the village. The natives had no intention of holding him until spring to be
judged for killing the missionary. They could not understand that murder was a crime, for
by their code it was not. They would judge the boy for endangering the village. They led
him up the hill to Thornton's grave and told him to dig a shallow pit next to it. They gave
him a choice of the method of his execution: shooting, strangling or stabbing. He elected to
be shot. He was told to lie down in the pit, and when he had done so, they shot him."9
Some discussion exists comparing Alaskan Natives moral system to lex talionis,10 the
law of the Old Testament. This held the adage "an eye for an eye." Simply put, it meant
that punishments should be equal to the crime and administered in like manner. In certain
situations, a wrong done by one family member to another family would be avenged upon
his own family (not necessarily the perpetrator himself) in like manner. The perpetrator may
not receive punishment at all, but if this were the case, a close relative would surely pay the
prescribed penalty. Formal law in the far reaches of Alaska often took too long to
administer, and, at times, technicalities inhibited the quick punishment of wrongdoing.
Also, since Alaska Natives were not allowed to sit on juries, they were effectively barred
from being judged by their peers in court. The Natives often saw how the law worked with
questionable results and often preferred their own system of law enforcement.
USING ORIGINAL PUNISHMENT
Neither the army nor the navy expected that they would be needed in Alaska for a very
long time. This expectation led them to handle misdemeanors more informally than they
otherwise might have done. Because of this laxity, until 1872 no records were kept of who
was incarcerated in the Sitka guardhouse. Anticipating a local government very soon, and
desiring to rid themselves of minor infractions of the law, the military allowed a small
amount of local government among the whites in Sitka at a very early date. A city
magistrate's court often was held in early Sitka. Accused and convicted individuals were
held in the army's brig simply at the request of this court.11
Those records that were kept had numerous inconsistencies in them. One diarist wrote:
"Isn't it strange that for the purchase of whiskey, and other liquors the people are
arrested and put into jail, though there seems to be no special law requiring such an action,
while the people who sell the liquors are not prosecuted at all, though there is a law and a
special regulation No. 30, proclaimed February 26, 1885, by the Treasury Department,
Customs Bureau signed by the former President Arthur, prohibiting the importation of
liquors into the territory. Saloons multiply and homebrewing progresses. The first of this
month Sam Long transferred his saloon to the other place (formerly Fuller's) for which he
pays $12 rent to M. Haltern. His former place was immediately occupied by soldiers for a
similar saloon. Such is your new civil law!"
Often the U.S. Army and Navy had to resort to informal (and often illegal) solutions to
crimes. The U.S. Army, for example, was reluctant to arrest white civilians because of the
expense and trouble involved in shipping them to Portland or Seattle for trial. The lack of
adequate local jails also limited their power of arrest.12
Even when jails were available, they sometimes were used with ingenuity.
Circle supported 11 saloons in 1896. A sign on the door of the jail ordered prisoners to
report by 9 p.m. or be locked out for the night. During temperatures of 20 to 60 below and
nowhere to escape to there was no danger of a prisoner's trying to avoid the rules.13
One example of a conflict vis a vis "white man's" law and Alaskan Indians' law took
place near Sitka. An Indian caught another committing adultery with his wife and shot him.
The brother of the shot man, as soon after as possible, shot the shooter. When the naval
commander was forced to decide what to do to punish the jailed second murderer, he
realized that according to Indian law, "The two deaths were even; the quarrel had been
settled, and the two corpses buried under one blanket on the same pile." Captain Beardslee
released the prisoner.14
SWIFT JUSTICE OF MINER'S COURTS
Only one type of white man's justice was quick and sure-- that justice meted out by
miners' courts. The miners' courts were informal in that they were of short duration and
met some special need. Sometimes they met to protest taxes, or to organize a brewery; but
most often it was to decide property rights or hang a murderer.
Miners were a rough and tough bunch of men. They were most often single or
separated from their wives and were seldom anxious to submit to anyone's law other than
their own.15 One miner's song went:
I drink my beer among the boys
I sit down with them to play
And sometimes I got it blind
For a whole night and a day
I look a rough
old specimen
And I've had a rough career
Trying to make the riffle
For more than twenty year.16
Miners' courts were occasionally held throughout Alaska. In essence, they were similar
to Native law that had been in effect for centuries. They included a consensus of opinion of
those within a small community as to what should be done, rather than an on-going judicial
system.
"As late as 1893, there was neither a Canadian nor American Customs officer the entire
length of the Yukon River. A miner's meeting at Forty-mile in July of 1896, approved the
sale of liquor to the white men while prohibiting the conveyance of the same to Indians.17
The punishment proscribed was a warning for the first offence and hanging for the second.
The recidivism rate for third offenders was quite low."18
Not all the results of miners' courts were only warnings. On September 18, 1882, the
miners at Juneau passed an ordinance decreeing that any saloon keeper who was found
selling beer to the natives would have his stock confiscated. If he was caught three times,
they would order him out of the country.19
Miners often wanted to maintain the appearance of keeping prohibitionary laws.20 In
the late 1800s, alcohol was legal if used for medicinal purposes. This interpretation of the
law quite often caused an outbreak of "disease" that seemed to strike large numbers of
miners.
"For example, The North American Commercial Company wanted 2,000 gallons of
whiskey for ailing gold miners in the Yukon. Alaska Commercial Company and North
American Transportation & Trading Company also desired permission from collector
Joseph Ivey to land 3,000 gallons of liquors, wines and beer to the communities of Rampart,
Weare, Fort Yukon and Circle City."21
The idea of enforcing a formal legal system was almost overwhelming if considered that,
at times, law had to be imposed in Alaska among roughly 20,000 inhabitants where there
were very few white men. Often Natives were subject to double-jeopardy, because after
being tried by white man's law, they would be turned over to tribal law.22
ENFORCING "WHITE MAN'S" LAWS
When two legal systems are combined to meet everyday needs of a community,
interesting things are bound to happen. Such was the case at Wrangell in the late 1870s.
"On December 29 this little town was greatly agitated over an occurrence as follows.
The hootzenoo manufacturers, having by non- interference become bold and unprincipled,
one John Petelin, a Russian, and distiller of poison, sold to an Indian some of his
manufacture, which caused a drunken row in the ranch and in which several Indians got
seriously hurt. The drunken spree caused a few of the church-going people to fall from
grace, and consequently the church party concluded it was time to make an example of
somebody in order to convince white men that whiskey-selling by them to Indians would be
no longer tolerated. A score of Indians therefore marched to the Russian's house, seized his
'still' and liquor, and with him in custody started for the ranch. Arriving at Toy-ah-att's
residence a council was held, and the decision was that the Russian should be tied to a post
for one hour. This sentence was carried out, and the culprit's 'still' and 'mash-tub', were
placed alongside of him that all passers-by might know why such punishment was inflicted.
A portion of our white population (those who hesitate not in violating the laws of the
country) set up an ignominious howl over the occurrence, claiming that if Indians were
permitted and tolerated to perpetrate acts like this they would become emboldened, and no
white man would be safe. Many talked loudly of marching to the rescue of the Russian
while under sentence, but, as is generally the case, talk was cheap, and none cared to act.
Others, who are possessed with more brass than brains, commenced defining other men's
duties, never once considering that their duties, as law-abiding citizens, demand that they
shall discountenance and endeavor to suppress the liquor traffic in Alaska. And again, there
were a few of another class, of the 'cut and shoot' stamp, who howled loudly of individual
rights and self- protection, asserting what they would do should anyone attempt to enter
their premises in search of liquor. Here was a scene for you, fellow-citizens of this our
great republic. Here, law-makers of Washington, was a scene to be carefully considered by
you. Here were three hundred white men greatly agitated over an act perpetrated by a few
law-abiding Indians, the justness of whose doings we will consider hereafter. Here we
were, all more or less excited, and many under the influence of liquor. Would it have been
strange had anything serious occurred?"23
Actually, in Wrangell under the direction of some missionaries, an all-Indian court was
set up for a time, which included Indian jurors.24
INFORMAL MEDIATORS
Sometimes, when Customs officers or other officials tried to take over the legal
responsibilities that were traditionally reserved for the Native community, they quickly
found out that the duties involved much more than they counted on.
Such was the case of Isaac Dennis in Wrangell, who got "burned out" after only one
year of trying to reconcile all the petty grievances that came before him. He took it upon
himself to be the mediator of all the disputes that came before him instead of allowing
traditional laws to operate.
"I believe I have had before me all the Indians in Alaska during the past thirty days. The
crews of the canoes refused to return and carry through their loads, and I had to make them
do it. To accomplish this I had to make threats of what would be done with them if they
did not do as I say. I became so mad and disgusted that I came near killing two or three
Indians. On top of this trouble came a fight among the Hootzenoo Indians here--friends of
mine. (?) Complaints were made, and I settled the difficulty by telling them to go to ____,
and that if they kicked up any further disturbance I would hang the ringleaders. So much
for the Indians. I am sick and tired of having their troubles come before me, and I want to
get away."25
In his letter of resignation, Dennis added, "no compensation that the government could
offer me would be any inducement for me to act in the capacity of deputy collector another
year."26
Others, at times, tried to assume authority informally (and illegally) over Alaska. Store
owners in remote villages were notorious for making rules of themselves as to what was
allowable and what was not.
Footnotes to Chapter 6
1.For an interesting review of the history of the disease concept of alcoholism, see Lender,
Mark Edward, "Jelinek's Typology Of Alcoholism: Some Historical Antecedents," Journal
of Studies on Alcohol, Vol 40, No. 5 (1979), p. 361-375. Also see Bynum, William F.
Bulletin of the History of Medicine; Vol 42 (1968), "Chronic Alcoholism In The First Half
Of The 19th Century.", p. 160-185.
2.Several theories have been set forth that attribute heavy drinking to a sense of value
confusion that results from cultures that collide and change. The loss of value systems that
have been revered for long periods of time and the resulting value confusion is called
"anomie" by sociologists. For more reading on theories of deviance by sociologist Robert
Merton and his structural theory of deviance, see Levy, Jerrold E. and Kunitz, Stephen J.
Indian Drinking, John Wiley & Sons, New York (1974), p. 13-25, 179-191; Cloward, R.A.,
"Illegitimate Means, Anomie and Deviant Behavior," American Sociological Review, 24
(1959): p. 164-176; May, Philip Alan Alcohol Legalization and Native Americans: A
Sociological Inquiry, University of Montana, Ph.D dissertation (1976), p. 42, 46.
3.This type of group behavior is only quickly summarized here. It is the basis for the
modern study of sociology and social psychology.
4.Poplin, Dennis E. Social Problems, Scott, Foresman and Company, Illinois (1978), p. 41
The use of government to force morality among its members is a subject of debate that
seems to recur regularly.
5.I use the term "Americans" to denote all those who came to Alaska under the auspices of
the government of the United States. Many of these were not citizens of the U.S., but were
immigrants newly arrived from the British Isles, Scandinavia or Germany. The Russians,
during their occupation, often referred to the Alaskan Natives as "Americans."
6.Lain, Bobby Dave (1974), p. 276.
7.Dmytryshyn, Basil and Crownhart-Vaughan, E.A.P. (1979), p. 71.
8.Many of the company rules served more to maintain discipline than govern a free society.
American viewed punishments such as whipping as tyrannical and also wanted nothing to
do with company rules that required Sunday church attendance and mandatory bathing. See
Lain, Bobby Dave (1974), p. 48.
9.Montgomery, Maurice (October, 1963), p. 167-174.
10.Lex talionis, literally translated, means, "the law of retaliation."
11.The local government in Sitka was unique in Alaska's history. It was started within only
a few weeks after the Army arrived in Sitka. The Army was anxious to rid itself of these
types of unwanted duties and incoming officials were likewise eager to create leadership
posts for themselves. "As they saw it, Alaska's prime need was civil governance. They
believed that a representative government providing law and order, schools, churches, and
civil courts to guarantee due process of law and to protect and legitimize what they vainly
hoped were their properly pre-empted land claims were prerequisites to community growth
and the development of a sound, flourishing economy." Remsburg, Stanley Ray (1975), p.
172-173. For information about the treatment of prisoners confined at the request of the
city court, see p. 181 of Remsburg.
12.None of the jails in the late 1800's were anything to be proud of. They were most often
dirty, unventilated and unhealthy. General George A. Custer, for example, when he had to
arrest his men and punish them for drunkenness, dropped them in a large pit dug especially
for that purpose because of the lack of jails. Confinement in the Sitka guardhouse "proved
most unpleasant, although not because of deliberate military mistreatment. Like most
nineteenth century jails, the Sitka guardhouse was small, cramped, and foul-smelling.
Prisoners of all sorts had to be thrown together in common quarters, and all had to follow
the stiff regimen imposed on court-martialed soldiers." Remsberg, Stanley Ray (1976), p.
181. Also see 44th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Executive Document #33, In answer to
the Senate resolution of January 7, 1876, for information relative to military arrests in
Alaska territory during the past five years. March 6, 1876. It wasn't until after the
legalization of alcohol in 1899 (and the Act of June 6, 1900 that provided for the
incorporation of local municipalities) that revenues from liquor licenses were available to
future local governments with enough money to build adequate jails. "Liquor revenue
became the mainstay of public funds and, in fact, continued to be so into the late 1940s."
Conn, Stephen (1980), p. 18.
13.Hunt, William R. (1974), p. 131.
14.47th Congress 1st Session, Executive Document #71, 1882, p. 76-77 "Reports of
Captain L.A. Beardslee, U.S. Navy, Relative to Affairs in Alaska, and the Operations of the
U.S.S. Jamestown, Under his command, While in the Waters of That Territory."
15.An evangelist in Idaho had the following experience with a miner: "One miner welcomed
a missionary to Idaho and assured him that the miners would welcome and need his
preaching to correct their drunkenness. When the missionary observed that the welcoming
miner was himself rather befuddled, the man readily agreed: 'You are right. . . .But don't
you see when the Bishop comes a feller just has to celebrate.' West, Elliott (1979), p. 18.
The behavior of miners was stated in Congressional testimony: "I will state under that
section that in 1877 and 1878 several hundred miners from the British mines in the Cassiar
district came down to fort Wrangell to spend the winter, and spend their earnings of the
summer in intemperance, gambling, and licentiousness. They turned the place into a perfect
pandemonium, debauching the native women. They went one night into a native's house,
made the Indian woman drunk, and then set fire to the house without any effort to rescue
her from the flames; so that she was burned to death." 47th Congress, 1st Session, Senate
Report #457, 04/21/1882, p. 12.
16.West, Elliott (1979), p. 3.
17."Careful examination of old saloon and liquorhouse records of the fifties and sixties
shows that the average miner or cowhand drank about five whiskies a day. There was one
saloon for every 100 inhabitants in most camps." Marshall, Jim (1949), p. 75.
18.Murton, Thomas O'Rhelius (1965), p. 120.
19.Sparks, Larry Arthur (June, 1974), p. 16.
20.When a referendum was taken in Alaska in 1917 to vote "wet" or "dry," the mining
camps voted nearly two to one for the prohibitionary law. Some thought, however, that it
was with the idea that it would never be enforced against the miners, but only against the
Natives and others who needed it. See Conn, Stephen From The Russians To Statehood:
The Early Years, University of Alaska (1980), p. 53.
21.Sparks, Larry Arthur (June, 1974), p. 38.
22.Murton, Thomas O'Rhelius (1965), p. 47 & 157.
23.45th Congress, 3rd Session, Senate Executive Document #59, "Report from the
Customs District, Public Service and Resources of Alaska Territory, 1879."
24.47th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Report #457, 04/21/1882, p. 16.
25.Murton, Thomas O'Rhelius (1965), p. 34.
26.55th Congress 1st Session, House Executive Document No. 92, Seal and Salmon
Fisheries and General Resources of Alaska, pp 123-124, Letter from I.C. Dennis, Deputy
Collector to Secretary of Treasury, June 15, 1878.
Chapter # 7
MILITARY ADMINISTRATION OF ALASKA
The U.S. Army was the first organized American group to influence Natives of Alaska.1
Its men were stationed (generally units of cavalry or artillery) in locations where the
greatest likelihood of trouble between Indians and non-Indians existed. Soldiers seldom
mixed with Indians except for immoral purposes or to purchase goods they couldn't get
from the white merchants.2 Occasionally they tried to get the Indians to provide menial
labor for the troops.
When the U.S. Army first came to Alaska in 1867, it took a law enforcement position
that was supposed to protect the Indians and Eskimos. The army wanted to protect them
from exploitation by whites, prevent bloodshed, enforce the laws of the United States and
protect the rights of its citizens. The army was anxious to keep Alaska from falling under
the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Congress also seemed anxious to avoid
letting the Department of Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to have jurisdiction in
Alaska. They feared that Alaska would become a haven for bureaucrats and spoilsmen
seeking to fatten from the public trough if this came to pass.3
The army was determined to enforce laws pertaining to Alaska, but problems involved in
enforcing the laws were seemingly limitless. Two overwhelming obstacles faced the
military in attempting to punish those who disturbed the peace. Very few laws actually
pertained to the new territory. The only laws that could be legally enforced were those that
the U.S. Congress said it would punish in the courts. Also,the only court of jurisdiction
was roughly 1,000 miles south of Sitka. No provision had been made to pay for witnesses
to travel to testify against accused felons nor was the judge of that court very interested in
making the army's task easier by prosecuting all the civilians that wished to send that way.4
WHAT LAWS COVERED ALASKA?
The army felt that common crimes such as murder, attempted murder, assault, theft and
destruction of property were crimes that deserved punishment. There were, however, no
penalties for these crimes, since Congress didn't pass legislation against them for roughly 17
years after Alaska became U.S. property in 1867.
Congress, in its wisdom, had only allowed for punishment in cases that violated the act
of July 27, 1868, regarding customs, navigation and commerce in Alaska. In a nutshell, it
only allowed for punishment of those who, (1) "introduced" intoxicating liquor, (2) sold
guns and ammunition to Alaska Natives or, (3) brought into the United States (Alaska)
items from foreign governments that had not paid their excise taxes (alcohol and blankets
from Canada). It also prohibited the killing of fur bearing animals. Nothing in the law
addressed personal injury problems -- not even murder.5
DRINKING PROBLEMS WITHIN THE ARMY
The U.S. Army,post-Civil War, consisted of a wide variety of men who were often
immigrants from other countries or were out of other work. While the National Guard
troops called up for service during the Civil War had a relatively good reputation for
personal conduct, the regular enlisted soldier did not.6
Both enlisted men and officers had an inclination toward alcohol. The very first few
years of army administration, in Alaska particularly, seemed to be years wherein allegations
of alcohol abuse were numerous.7
"Excessive consumption of alcohol lay at the heart of most offenses. In theory, garrison
access to drink was rigidly controlled. At each post, the commandant licensed one
merchant to serve as post trader, giving him the sole right to sell drinks to enlisted men.
Orders authorized soldiers to purchase only beer, ale, or other malt beverages, and limited
sales to small quantities during daytime hours except on special written permission from
headquarters. The traders were forbidden to sell any intoxicants to drunken soldiers, on
pain of losing their licenses. Post regulations also forbade other merchants or saloonkeepers to sell drinks to enlisted men, closed all businesses on Sundays, and banned all
drinking after tatoo signalled the end of the military work day. These restrictions, however,
did not prevent the troops from getting all the intoxicants they wanted, and many of them
drank excessively."8
ARMY ATTITUDES TOWARD INDIANS
Generally, the army had relatively good things to say about Alaskan Indians they met,
but their ideas of racial prejudice would not let them equate Natives with whites (no matter
how corrupt the whites were). General Davis, the first military commander in Alaska,
referred to the Aleuts as a "docile, honest and peaceful race" that "nearly" approached a
state of "semicivilization."9
The army had its own idea of what was illegal when it pertained to Indians. In a
nutshell, whatever it SAID was illegal WAS illegal. The army tried occasionally to use the
courts, but generally found that unless Indians were being dealt with, it was highly
dangerous to send citizens south for trial before Judge Deady's court in Portland. The army
was left to itself to try to administer judgment against Alaska Natives and civilians in an
illegal manner by either temporary confinement or by imaginative punishment.
In early May 1868, for example, General Davis had a "half-breed"10 in his jail accused
of the murder of an Indian woman. All of the witnesses to the crime were Aleuts formerly
employed by the Russian American Company who were being sent home. General Davis
talked the commander of the steamer Constantine to take the accused with the witness to
the Aleutian Islands, as it was going that way anyway, since it would be impossible to try
the prisoner without witnesses. He decided that there he could hurt no one but Indians,
who would be expected to deal with him according to their customs without his hearing
more about the case.11
Army attitudes towards non-Indians were not the best, either. Comments made in the
margins of a census done by the army in 1870 in Sitka included comments by the names,
such as "lazy, no account, a thief and a rascal" and "worthless cuss." Thirty-eight of the
170 women in Sitka were formally classified as prostitutes in the same census.
THE ARMY USES THE COURTS
The military commander in Sitka was finally nudged out of his creative application of
law pertaining to murderers after one of his own discharged soldiers shot and killed a wellliked officer of the Revenue Service in a Sitka bar on February 25, 1870. While this case
ended up in the courts of Portland, it was not actually sent there by the military, but, like
others, should have been.12
The first case sent by the military to Portland before a civilian judge was with the intent
of asserting the army's right to control alcohol and arms sales in Alaska.13 It was a case
brought against a Russian-born citizen named Terreuta Seveloff. The charges were for
distilling and selling liquor to Indians.
Even though the evidence against him was overwhelming, Judge Matthew P. Deady in
the U.S. District Court for Oregon on December 10, 1872, six months after Seveloff was
arrested, threw the case out of court. Deady stated that the army could not have
jurisdiction of alcohol introduction in Alaska as "Indian Country" because that designation
applied to "only that portion of the United States or its territories which have been declared
to be such by an act of Congress."14
INDIAN COUNTRY
A major problem with the law arose over the interpretation of what was Indian country.
The difficulty started when the army, through General Halleck, requested that Alaska be
proclaimed "Indian Country." This status officially allowed the army to remove undesired
intruders, regulate the introduction of wines and spirituous liquors and generally supervise
intercourse with Indians to preserve peace.
In response to General Halleck's recommendation, Secretary of State William Seward
said that by "a happy elasticity of expression," Alaska became Indian Country upon the
exchange of ratifications of the treaty of cession. By proclaiming Alaska to be Indian
Country, he felt all of Alaska would fall under laws declared by Congress in the Indian
Intercourse Act of 1834.15 The laws they were primarily concerned about from their
experience and prejudices were those related to keeping alcohol away from America's
Indians.
THE ARMY TRIES ON THE ROLE OF "INDIAN AGENT"
An inspection tour by General O.O. Howard ("The Christian General") in 1875
concluded that the territory "is nearly without law, unless it be governed by an Indian agent
as Indian country. This kind of government is better than none, but it irritates those who
believe themselves entitled to the same rights and privileges as citizens of other neighboring
Territories."16
Meanwhile, the officer in charge of Sitka felt he did not have enough authority over
merchants and opportunists who made and sold liquor in the territory unless he was
appointed "Indian Agent," which gave him the right to require bonds of merchants and to
forcibly eject those traders form the territory who he felt would not follow military authority
in stopping the sale of alcohol.
Captain Joseph B. Campbell was named an official Indian agent.17 He was a 36-yearold career army officer, and was disgusted with the inhabitants of Sitka when he arrived to
take command of the garrison there in August 1874. He later described Sitka as a
"pandemonium of drunkenness" in a "turbulent community of mixed miners and races and
half-breed Indians, ignorant, demoralized, intemperate, and in many cases vicious." He tried
to close bars and saloons on Sunday, regulate the hours they could stay open (not past 10
p.m.), and limit the number of drinks that could be bought at one sitting. He also wanted to
regulate the sale of molasses (with which large quantities of "HOO-CHE-NOO" could be
made) so that merchants would be allowed to sell only three gallons per day to whites.
Indians, interestingly, were not allowed to take more than one pint of molasses outside the
post without Campbell's written orders.18
Campbell tried many ideas to decrease the amount of alcohol consumed within his
jurisdiction. Those authorized to sell alcohol were required to keep accurate records of all
sales, carefully recording the names of all purchasers and the amounts bought. If alcohol
was not drunk on the premises, the purchaser would have to secure a dated receipt from the
seller showing his name, the amount purchased and the kind of beverage bought. The seller
was expected to retain copies of the receipts for possible review by the army.19
THE ARMY "ARRESTS" THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT
Occasionally, the army didn't seem to get along with anyone; not even those who were
supposed to be working with the them in prohibiting alcohol introduction into the territory.
In an all-out effort to stem the tide of illegal alcohol importation alcohol, the army was
finally, after repeated requests, given approval to arrest and send south people they thought
most blatantly responsible for the problem.20
The Seveloff decision (finding that Alaska was really not "Indian Country" and fully
under the Army's control) prompted Congress to pass the first legislation for Alaska since
the creation of the customs district in 1868. In 1873, Congress extended parts of the Indian
Intercourse Act to give the army jurisdiction over trade in arms, ammunition and liquor in
Alaska. The army was anxious to assert its authority by using an open- and-shut case for
starters.21
The next arrests made the second real test of the army's authority to send civilians to
trial. They involved Wrangell Deputy Collector of Customs John A. Carr. Carr, as Deputy
Collector, was supposed to allow only liquor destined for the Canadian mines to pass
through Wrangell. Instead, he illegally diverted large shipments to his friends in Wrangell.
For his doctoring of the liquor records he was paid handsomely. An inspection tour of
Wrangell uncovered large caches of liquor in the possession of four different white traders.
All pointed the finger of blame toward Carr.
On September 25, 1874, an army officer arrested Carr and four white traders accused
with him. They were brought to Sitka for confinement after about a month in a cramped jail
in Wrangell. Lt. Dyer, the arresting officer, referred to Carr as a "notorious, disgraceful
scoundrel" who was guilty of "the most public and scandalous smuggling operations."22
Simultaneously with a personal request to Deady to hear the case, a writ of habeas
corpus to produce Carr for trial was obtained by Carr's friends in Portland. On January 5,
1875, the military arrived in Portland and produced Carr before Judge Deady's court,
roughly three and one-half months after his arrest in Wrangell.
DEPUTY COLLECTOR CARR'S CASE THROWN OUT OF COURT
Carr's case was thrown out of court on a technicality because he had been held by the
military for more than five days before being brought to court, violating a provision of the
Indian Intercourse Act of 1834.
Not only did the army get none of the support it had hoped for; it even had to pay for
transportation of the accused (and, of course, the witnesses) back to Alaska and restore all
the property that had been seized (except the liquor, which had been destroyed).
To cap things off, one of the men arrested with Carr filed a false arrest civil action
against Captain Campbell. After three hearings, Captain Campbell was ordered to pay him
$2,291.85. Several years later, with the support of the War Department, Congress made a
special appropriation to reimburse Captain Campbell, ironically, for doing his duty.23
The army effectively had its total authority undercut. There was no way any civilian
could be delivered to court within five days if he was arrested in Alaska, and the only court
was in Portland. William Grouveneur Morris described the situation this way:
"Let an officer arrest a blackleg for selling ardent spirits and be sued in civil damages by the
card sharp, the jury who will try the case against him will be informed by Judge Deady that,
'He is the peer of any man in his court seeking justice, and his profession as a gambler does
not prevent him from standing upon the same plane as any citizen who has been subjected
to illegal arrest.' This is all very fine, but if I find it necessary ever in Alaska to take any
responsibility for the preservation of life, property, or the prevention of murder, rapine, and
bloodshed, or a wholesale Indian massacre, I am therefore going to give Judge Deady's
court a wide berth."24
From then on, the army looked for an opportunity to get out of Alaska. The opportunity
presented itself in 1877, when a fire destroyed the officer's quarters in Sitka. At the same
time a need arose for troops in the northwest to help in the campaign against the Nez Perce
tribe.
"These failures so convinced Alaskan officers of the courts' unreliability that thereafter
they only occasionally went to the trouble of sending culprits to Portland. Instead, they
relied upon the penalties within their own power to inflict. Smugglers, public drunks,
manufacturers of drink, and those detected giving intoxicants or hooch ingredients to the
Indians faced lengthy terms in the guardhouse, often confined in chains and restricted to
bread and water diets. Officers exiled the chronic drunks, notorious troublemakers, and
those who provided liquor to the natives."25
It should be noted that the sole reason for military presence in Alaska was to administer
Indian Laws pertaining to alcohol and firearms. The only legislation to come from
Congress between 1868 and 1884 was to clarify alcohol-related matters. The primary
reason the army left was because other government agencies seemed to frustrate all they
tried to do.
THE STICKY PROBLEM OF HOOCHINOO
One of the most frustrating issues faced by the military during their ten-year stay in
Alaska was how to handle illegal alcoholic beverages. These seemed to be made
clandestinely by everyone who knew how to do it and had the necessary ingredients,
especially whenever supplies of commercial liquor became short or very expensive in
comparison to the homemade variety.
In other parts of the United States favorite names were affixed to distilled liquor made
behind the barn or in the woods to escape the authorities.26 In Alaska the name attached to
this distillate was, Hoo-che-noo. It was a name that would be referred to so often by the
soldiers and travellers to Alaska that its shortened abbreviation, hooch, became part of the
English language. It is listed in virtually every dictionary as an illicit or inferior liquor made
by the "Hoochinoo Indians" of Alaska.
Although the Indians have been given credit (or blame) for the manufacture of this "vile"
drink, it was really made by nearly everyone. Since the efforts of the government were to
keep alcohol away from the Indians, virtually the only effort made at stopping the
manufacture of hooch was against the Indians. Also, as government policies fluctuated in
popularity, the remote stills seemed least responsive to governmental authority.
WHAT IS HOOCHINOO?
Hoochinoo is made by putting some starchy, fermentable material such as dried fruit,
berries, flour or sourdough starter into a large container with yeast and a sufficient amount
of sucrose (sugar, candy, molasses, etc.) and letting it ferment. After fermenting, the
material is brought to a boil, with the vapor being condensed through tubing of some kind.
The liquid resulting from this distillation is highly alcoholic and can have a considerable kick
to it. If it is not boiled but is simply strained and drunk, it still has the alcohol content of
virtually any beer.27
According to missionaries and those who had acquired their refined tastes for alcohol on
commercial wines and brandies, hoochinoo tasted vile and terrible. It is likely that the term
vile was a moral judgment of the drinker as much as an accurate description of the actual
taste, because "everyone drank it."28
REPUTED STRENGTH OF HOOCHINOO
Whenever reports about the strength of hoochinoo were made, statements almost
impossible to believe came from those who claimed to know to those who didn't know any
better. It was said to be far more powerful than whiskey. One called it a beverage that
"would infallibly kill any ordinary person," and Captain Campbell himself thought that "the
liquor as they make it could not be drunk by anyone else" but Natives.29
"The most important duty of the military in Alaska is to prevent the smuggling and illicit
manufacture of spirituous liquors. None can be brought into or remain in the territory
except by order or authority of the War Department. Indian and lawless white people resort
to every conceivable device to make or smuggle it. Only a few days ago I captured and
destroyed a distillery on a small island ten miles away with eighty gallons of the contraband
fluid. It was operated by Indians in their most primitive manner. They use a coal-oil can for
a still, and for the worm they substitute a long piece of kelp (sea-weed). In this way, out of
molasses, dried apples, beans, potatoes, old stockings and the like, they make hundreds of
gallons of the vile stuff called 'Koutznou,' the odor of which is certain death to a healthy
dog at a hundred yards! I intend recommending its adoption by the War Department in
place of the Gatling gun, which discharges 300 shots per minute, and, prior to the invention
of 'Koutznou,' was the most deadly instrument of warfare known to military science."30
On the powerful qualities of hoochinoo, one man commented that it was so strong that
its devotees "must hold on to the grass to keep from rolling off the ground." Another author
said that hoochinoo "obsesses the consumer with the desire to climb a tree."31
THE ORIGINS OF HOOCHINOO
There are many stories about how this enterprise began in Alaska. The first official
references to the term of hoochinoo were made in 1873 in official reports by military
commanders in Sitka. The Russians had distilled liquor clandestinely 50 years earlier, but
had not allowed the Indians knowledge of how to do it. The thirst of the army for alcohol
and the willingness of other whites to profit from the sale of homemade alcohol changed all
that after Alaska became a U.S. possession.32
When the army and customs officials tried to halt the importation of commercial liquor
(which happened from time to time) and the prices of alcoholic beverages rose, those who
were unemployed would begin producing large amounts of alcohol for the thirsty people in
the larger cities and towns.33
"By the time Campbell arrived, the natives had become the chief suppliers of the whites and
Creoles. They not only made, traded, and consumed large quantities among themselves, but
Indian bootleggers were rapidly driving other liquor suppliers from the field as their cheap
brew became the mainstay of the drinking citizenry."34
THE ECONOMICS OF PROHIBITION
Historically, when a total prohibition has been imposed on an unwilling public, a
lucrative trade has soon developed to supply those who rejected the government's authority
to infringe on their "rights" and pleasures. The economic incentives have become greater
and greater, and the illicit supplier has become very powerful with the riches he makes by
virtue of the prohibition. This has become more and more unacceptable to the general
public as they have observed the economic gain growing among people previously poor and
powerless.35
The desire to put the economic gain of alcohol back into the hands of the white
merchants was eloquently elaborated upon in a letter from a government official in 1877:
"Stop this distillation of hoochenoo, and the fears of an Indian massacre will be greatly
lessened. It is the principle cause of all the trouble and danger to be apprehended.... If the
introduction of spirituous liquor is absolutely prohibitory in Alaska, smuggling from British
Columbia will be extensively resorted to in Indian canoes, and the 'hoochenoo' will be
resorted to.
"It is therefore respectfully submitted that it is far better for the health,
comfort, sobriety, and good morals of these people that the trade in alcoholic stimulants be
encouraged under suitable restrictions. Whoever is charged with this regulation should put
himself also in communication with the American consul at Victoria, Vancouver Island,
who should be instructed not to affix to any shipment of spirituous liquor or vinous liquors
his consumer certificate without first having produced to him the permit for such
exportation duly signed by the proper officer."36
PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH MAKING OF HOOCHINOO
This liquor was made using various ingredients, all of which were available to whites and
Indians in almost unlimited quantities. The most difficult ingredient to obtain, however, was
molasses. Presbyterian missionary (and later Governor of Alaska) John Brady described its
manufacture to Congress as follows:
"I visited Jack and found two of his stills in operation. This drawing will give you a fair
idea of the manner of their making this liquor. The can C is a five-gallon coal oil can, which
is placed on some iron dogs. To this is attached a tin tube, which bends and runs through a
barrel of cold water, B. The liquor is caught in a tin cup, M. They sour the molasses with
yeast, apples, and the like. When they can't buy molasses they purchase sugar, and if they
fail in procuring that they use berries or potatoes for a mash. They were taught this by the
soldiers. I have noticed that when an Indian drinks he stays in the ranch, and does not
venture out in town. In their own quarters they are fighting almost daily."37
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF HOOCHINOO
Although General Davis believed that hoochinoo was "beyond chemical analysis," an
analysis actually was made in 1880 by a physician in Pennsylvania.
"Dr. Marshall reports as regards the analysis of the hoochinoo made by him that the
liquid was slightly yellow in color and contained floating flakes of organic matter tinged
quite yellow with oxide of iron (rust). It had perceptible odors of yeast and New Orleans
molasses, tasted slightly of yeast and left an astringent after-taste. One hundred cubic
centimeters (equal to little more than 1/2 of a pint) evaporated to dryness left 0173 grams
(nearly three grains troy) residue, the greater portion of which consisted of organic matter,
and a fraction of oxide of iron, and did not contain anything of an alkaloidal nature. It
contained 16.3 per cent (by volume) [roughly the alcohol content of wine] of alcohol.
Three hundred cubic centimeters of the liquid were placed in a flask with a condenser
attached and heated until all of the liquor had distilled over. On drinking of the liquid
remaining in the flask nothing was experienced to lead one to believe that it contained
anything of a poisonous nature. Sometime afterward a portion of the alcoholic distillate
was drunk but nothing except the physiological effects ordinarily produced by alcohol was
observed. Emboldened by the negative results of these experiments 400 cubic centimeters
of the hoochinoo itself was now drunk. Nothing, however, was noticed except a condition
of hilarity about equivalent to that which might be produced by an equal quantity of liquor
containing approximately the same percentage of alcohol, such as, for example, 400 cubic
centimeters of sherry. Dr. Marshall's theory conclusively is, after the consideration of the
above facts, that the frenzy exhibited by the natives after imbibing hoochinoo is attributable
not to poisonous substances contained in the liquor, but to the large quantities of alcohol
rapidly absorbed, owing to the fear which they entertain of being discovered by the
government officials, who, as a matter of course, would confiscate all the ardent spirits on
hand. THE ALASKAN agrees with the Doctor in his first supposition that the large
quantities of the vile beverage are rapidly partaken of, but the Indian's immunity from
seizure is well-nigh secure, the officials not being provided by the Government with
adequate means whereby to suppress the clandestine manufacture of the liquor and the
resulting bacchanalia in the native settlements which are sparsely scattered over the islands
and coast of the mainland in S.E. Alaska, many in places unapproachable even by light
draught vessels."38
The ability of Alaskan Indians to quickly learn how to make Hoochinoo was used by one
of their chiefs to show that they could quickly learn how to work in canneries replacing
imported Chinese laborers. In discussing the plea of the local Indians to work at the new
cannery at Hunter's Bay (Old Sitka), "Sitka Jack assured Mr. Hunter that if an Indian could
make a hoochenoo still he could make a can to hold fish."39
ARMY ATTEMPTS TO CONTROL MOLASSES
The military knew it had a responsibility to control the introduction of alcohol into
Alaska. Congress wanted alcohol in Alaska limited. A prohibition party had been
organized in Chicago in 1869 to try to make the whole nation dry. Even when the army
succeeded in stemming the flow of wet goods into Alaska, there was little they could do
about the liquor made in Alaska. The main imported ingredient in hoochinoo was the liquid
syrup called molasses. There was no law making it illegal to sell molasses in Alaska, though
everyone knew what it was going to be used for. The monthly steamer that brought new
troops and customs officials to Alaska to enforce prohibition also regularly brought about
100 barrels of molasses for use in trade.40
"In 1885, Sitka's 1700 inhabitants, under a dry law, used up 110 barrels of molasses a
month making hootch, according to official figures. A customs report on file at Washington
carries a footnote: `Not over a dozen sober people in town.'"41
EVERYONE DID IT, NOT JUST INDIANS
In Alaska, it was the non-Native hoochinoo manufacturers who profited most by the
army's efforts to keep the Indians out of that business.
A diary entry of a Russian clerk living in Sitka was translated to say:
"Free molasses trade contributed to the general disorder: Koloshes bought molasses for
manufacturing a brandy called 'hootzina'. Merchants and others who wanted to make
money busied themselves with making this poisonous drink and selling it through special
agents, such as Charlie Brown, at the springs, on Hootznu Island and everywhere."42
ARMY EFFORTS TO STOP THE SALE OF MOLASSES
Since military commanders knew their legal authority to stop molasses sales was nonexistent, they tried to persuade the local merchants to voluntarily stop the sale of molasses.
They also knew that their first legal opportunity to stop the sale of molasses would be when
they were declared "Indian agents" and by that status could regulate all trade with the
Indians. The first commander with that title was Captain Campbell. When named Indian
agent, he immediately got tough with the white merchants who sold molasses. Captain
Campbell admitted:
"The Indian, from being the consumer and purchaser, has become the manufacturer and
seller. There is no law to punish an Indian for selling liquor, or making it, either, except to
destroy his distilling apparatus and stock if you can catch it." He referred to "houchinan"
[sic] as being a homemade liquor "from the fact that the Indians living at Koutzinon,
Admiralty Island, were the first to make it." He claimed to have prohibited the sale of
molasses in the Sitka area and added, "In this step I have been bitterly opposed and
complained of by the whites, first, because Indians would buy molasses wherewith to make
rum, with more avidity, and in fact to the exclusion of everything else;43 and, second,
because, when the supply of molasses became short, the Indians raised the price of their
liquor, and of course these same people who were the consumers were again affected."44
The army was not very successful at limiting either alcohol or the raw ingredients for
making it. They faced opposition from Indians, white merchants, miners, courts, their own
officers and men and even the customs officers who were supposed to be helping them.
OREGON'S STATUS OF "INDIAN COUNTRY" DIDN'T STICK EITHER
Alaska wasn't alone in its inability to limit alcohol. A similar situation developed a few
years prior to the purchase of Alaska in Oregon territory. The same policy had not worked
for the government in Oregon because, according to one official, there were too many
thirsty white settlers.45
He argued:
"There is a great deal of liquor consumed by the Indians in this District, and I have been
disappointed in my hopes of entirely stopping its consumption. Government having granted
lands upon certain conditions to actual settlers, without reference to the extinction of the
Indian title, settlers are scattered all over this part of Oregon in every direction. They all, of
course, claim the privileges of American citizens, and say, with much truth, that the
government having induced them to emigrate, it did not intend to inflict them with all the
penalties of the law regarding trade and intercourse with the Indians;46 for there is a special
clause in that law prohibiting persons other than Indians residing in the Indian territory.
They contend, therefore, that they have a right to keep liquor for their own use, and to sell
to whites, provided they do not sell or give it to the Indians."47
Since the intent of the law of 1832, in the sight of the whites, was to manage Indians
then, they argued, the government did not intend to keep "the small comforts of the bottle"
away from the whites who just happened to live in Indian Country.
ONLY THE ARMY WAS LEGALLY ALLOWED ALCOHOL
According to the law, the only group allowed to have supplies of liquor in "Indian
Country" for their own use or any other purpose was the enforcement arm of the
government in Indian Country -- The U.S. Army. The army was determined to do all in its
power to keep alcohol out of Alaska -- as long as it had sufficient supplies for its own use
to make administering this almost impossible and thankless task more bearable.48
Even before the official transfer of Alaska to the United States, the Treasury Department
declared a complete prohibition on importing alcohol into Alaska.49 The army was
adamant in its insistence that it was "entitled" to have alcoholic beverages for its own
officers and men. The white citizens, then, clamored for their rights as well. The policy
was soon changed to allow whites their pleasure after "a chorus of complaints from citizens
and troops protesting the stiff Treasury regulations and urging a more lenient, 'more
reasonable,' policy convinced them that the whites and creoles demanded, even needed,
liquor and would secure it illegally if some were not legally available."50
MILITARY SHIPS IN ALASKA
From the first visit to Alaska by Capt. W.A. Howard in the summer prior to the
transfer of Alaska from Russian to U.S. hands, the U.S. Navy has been involved in helping
with management of the liquor traffic in Alaska. The army was tied down on land with guns
facing toward the wilderness, but Naval vessels had shown their great range and firepower
in Canadian waters, and often the army wished they had a vessel or two with which to move
about.
The first US military stint in Alaska from 1867 to 1877 managed a very thankless job.
It controlled the traders, Indians, Eskimos and fortune hunters. As far as stopping the flow
of liquor, it was not very successful, even though this was about the only item it could
legally control. Much of the discipline problems it had within its own ranks were the result
of the use of alcohol by the troops and sailors.
In the following years, various branches of the armed forces seemed to be continually
faced with how to control alcohol in their own ranks as well as among the citizens and
Natives of Alaska.
Footnotes to Chapter 7
1. Admittedly, the impact in ten short years of troops stationed only along the coast of
Alaska was limited. Other groups that came earlier than the soldiers were whalers and fur
traders, but they were not organized for any purpose other than to make profits for their
investors.
2. The Indians of Southeast Alaska were well known as shrewd traders in their own right.
They provided produce, meat, firewood and alcoholic beverages to the whites when these
items were in short supply or when prices rose to the point that it became profitable for
them to do so.
3. Lain, Bobby Dave (1974), p. 22.
4. Due to the difficulty of keeping witnesses available to testify against an accused criminal,
the Army routinely jailed important witnesses till they all could be shipped as a group to the
courts in Portland or Seattle. This certainly contributed to the reluctance of witnesses to
come forward and admit to what they knew about a crime. This was especially true of
Indians who might testify against whites. The length of incarceration might be several
months. One Indian chief who was forcibly sent on a steamer in 1875 to testify against the
former Customs Officer of Wrangell was said to have committed "suicide" before he got to
court. None of the accounts of this "suicide" even question the word of the whites who
reported it. See Lain, Bobby Dave (1974), p. 178.
5. The military commanders were aware of the technical problems they faced in trying to
prosecute any whites for even murder. In releasing a murder named Jacob Risenberger
from jail on May 1, 1869, after only eleven months of jail, General Davis announced that
because there was "no court of civil jurisdiction in this territory competent to investigate
and dispose of prisoner Risenberger" and because there was "no probability of such a court
being organized for some time to come," he deemed it his "duty" to release the prisoner
from further custody. He was much less scrupulous when it came to Indian rights,
however. See Remsburg, Stanley Ray (1975), p. 238-239. Also see Murton, Thomas
O'Rhelius (1965), p. 22.
6. Much of the recruiting of volunteers in various countries for military service was done
inside taverns and bars. "With the volunteer system you must get the men where you can
find them." said the Duke of Cambridge in 1867. Harrison, Brian (1971), p. 332. A Russian
officer visiting Washington in 1861 spoke kindly of the American National Guard troops
"although they are no good as soldiers", but when his thoughts turned to the regular
volunteer soldiers, he said, "The same cannot be said of the American volunteer troops.
They are the riffraff gathered from everywhere, from the factories and workshops, who
have abandoned all pretense of working. They are unskilled laborers from large cities, and
some are just barely out of prison. This free-wheeling enterprise elects its own officers and
does as it pleases, staggering about the taverns from morning until night. These men stop
pedestrians asking for money, and since they all have a revolver or a knife in their belts, it is
understandable that a pedestrian would be foolish to refuse, especially at night on deserted
streets." Golovin, Pavel N. Civil and Savage Encounters: The Worldly Travel Letters of an
Imperial Russian navy Officer, 1860-1861, Portland, The Press of the Oregon Historical
Society (1983), p. 152. Some Civil War soldiers stored their drinks inside their own rifle
barrels to avoid detection during inspections. Connell, Evan S. Son of the Morning Star,
Harper & Row, New York (1984), p. 49.
7. The reader should not think that this was true only in Alaska during this period of time.
Whenever reforms within the Army resulted in difficulty for the troops to get the drinks
they wanted, they drank whatever was available that had alcohol in it, wherever they lived.
At Fort Yates, the post surgeon noted that his men had begun drinking various concoctions
when regular liquor was prohibited, including extracts of vanilla, cinnamon, peppermint,
ginger, lemon, Worcestershire sauce, red pepper sauce, bay rum, cologne, and various
quack nostrums loaded with alcohol. Mrs. Fanny McGillycuddy, wife of the Fort Robinson
doctor, wrote in her diary in 1876, "Outfit all drunk." Connell, Evan S. (1984), p. 154.
8. Remsberg, Stanley Ray (1976), p. 252. The desire of military men for drinks is
thousands of years old. One of the complaints at Valley Forge by George Washington's
troops was, "no pay, no clothes, no provisions, no rum." Krout, John Allen The Origins of
Prohibition Russell & Russell, New York (1925), p. 61. For more information about this
general topic, see Dunbar-Miller, Col. R. A. J. R. Army Med Corps (1984) Vol 130
"Alcohol And The Fighting man--An Historical Review", p. 12-15. One article asked
whether it was possible that the outcome of the American Revolution could have been
determined by the heavy drinking of the British soldiers. Thurn, Roy J. "The Gin Plague",
Minnesota Medicine (April, 1978), p. 241-243.
9. Murton, Thomas O'Rhelius (1965), p. 107. The whites wanted the Natives of Alaska to
give up their tribal customs and adopt the "culture of civilization" before being allowed
citizenship in the United States. A court case in 1911 in Alaska claimed that the right to
drink alcohol was one of the rights of citizenship that would not be permitted Alaska's
Natives. See Conn, Stephen (1980), p. 23.
10. In those days, a person who was half "white" and half Indian or Aleut was still "white"
by law, and was, therefore, a legal citizen with all the protection that the law allowed. He
was allowed to drink alcohol if other whites had that "right" also. One court case in Juneau
declared that since the Metlakatla Indians were not technically from Alaska, (and, therefore,
were not Indians legally) that they were not covered by the Indian Intercourse laws. A nonNative could legally sell liquor to these Simpsian Indians without fear of the law.
11. Stubbs, Valerie (1956), p. 162, quoting from a letter from Davis to Pestchouroff, May
23, 1868. Dept. of Alaska, Letters sent, 1867-70, p. 32 and Department of Alaska Letters
Received, P-4, 1868, p. 166.
12. William A. Byrd, a recently discharged soldier, shot through the door of Sam Militich's
saloon in Sitka, hoping to kill one of his rivals. The bullet instead, hit and killed Lt. Cowan
of the Revenue Service. Byrd, being a civilian, could not immediately be tried by court
martial since he had been discharged dishonorably two months earlier from the service. The
Army held a court martial first to nullify the earlier court martial and get him back into the
Army. They then tried him for murder with the accusing officer (General Davis) convening
the court. By means of a habeas corpus order, Byrd was able to get away from the arms of
the law by going to court in Portland. He was then released there from custody.
13. Several court martials took place during the first ten years the Army was in Alaska.
According to my estimate, after reviewing the court martial records in Washington, D.C.,
there were about 200 general courts martial in this ten year period, about 80% of which
were for alcohol-related crimes by soldiers.
14. At this time, several saloons were operating in Sitka, as was a brewery. President
Andrew Johnson had, by means of an executive order, declared that alcohol was not to be
admitted into Alaska, but this was ignored except as it pertained to Indians. Remsberg,
Stanley Ray (1976), p. 345. Also see United States v. Sheveloff [sic.], 27 Federal Cases
1024, 1022, case no. 16,252 (Dist. Court, Dist. Oregon, December 10, 1872).
15. For more information about the Indian Intercourse Act of 1834 and events leading up
to its passage, including the efforts of the then Secretary of War, (and president of the
United States Congressional Temperance Society), Lewis Cass, see Prucha, Francis Paul
(1962).
16. Murton, Thomas O'Rhelius (1965), p. 21.
Executive Document, # 1 (Sept 1, 1875).
Also see 44th Congress 1st Session,
17. Two years before, the Treasury Department tried to start an Indian Agency in Alaska.
They sent one employee to Unalaska (away from the influence of the Army), but the agent
quit after only one year on duty. See McCoy, Donald R. (November, 1956), p. 246-255.
18. Remsburg (1976), p. 364. Captain Campbell, like General Davis, did not believe in
total prohibition, but only because he did not think that it would work. Davis believed it
would "no doubt lessen the temptation to smuggle," while at the same time it would "enable
those who need . . . [liquor] to get it," if a few trusted men were given a license to sell
liquor. See Remsburg (1976), p. 361. By February 1875, he further tried to stop the sale
of molasses by prohibiting its sale to Indians and stating that he alone would determine who
could sell molasses to "whites."
19. Guardhouse records testify to his vigorous enforcement. Arrests of civilians, Indians
and soldiers occurred almost daily. The guardhouse was often filled to capacity. In fact,
Campbell built a larger and more satisfactory jail to accommodate his frequent "guests."
The number of cells increased from five to fourteen. It was cleaned and whitewashed
throughout and provisions made for better ventilation and light.
20. Army headquarters was well aware of other military officers who had been prosecuted
for false arrest and trespass, and they were reluctant to send another case to Judge Deady,
knowing that he had thrown their last case out of court. See Remsburg, S (1976), p. 63.
The Army has always had a difficult time prosecuting alcohol-related crimes in Indian
Country in the civilian courts. One court held, "It would prove nothing that he should have
witnessed the process of reducing the alcohol in the trader's house, and putting it into casks;
that he should have seen the liquor drawn from these same casks, put into kegs and
delivered to Indians, who conveyed the same to their camps, which, after a few hours
exhibited a scene of the most frightful drunkenness:--he must be able to testify that he has
tasted this liquor, and found it to be spiritous, in order to produce a conviction." See
Prucha, Francis Paul (1962), p. 116-118.
21. For a complete discussion of the effects of the Sevaloff case, see Remsburg (1976), p.
351-365.
22. Remsburg (1976), p. 374.
23. The President finally approved reimbursement to Campbell in February, 1880. See
43rd Congress 2nd Session, Senate Executive Document #24; Remsburg (1976), p. 372384; Stubbs (1956), p. 232-240.
24. 45th Congress 3rd Session, Senate Executive Document #59, "Report from the
Customs District, Public Service and Resources of Alaska Territory, 1879,", p. 60.
25. Remsburg (1976), p. 412.
26. Some of the names given to homebrew liquor elsewhere in the U.S. included: Red
Dynamite; Tiger Spit; Moonshine; Panther Piss; Taos Lightning; Green Whiskey; Valley
Tan; Pass Brandy; Shelby Lemonade - "It's a mixture of alkali water, alcohol, tobacco juice
an' a dash of strychnine--the last to keep the heart going." Whiskey was itself a home-brew
concoction, first gaining its reputation in western Pennsylvania. See Erdoes, Richard
(1979), p. 84-102. For a discussion of the economic history of the manufacture of
homemade alcohol in this country, see Rorabaugh, W.J. (1979), p. 61-92.
27. Actually, alcohol boils at about 187 degrees Fahrenheit, while water boils at 212
degrees. If the mash is brought to just the boiling point of alcohol and held there, there is
much less water vapor condensed in the tubing and the alcoholic content of the runoff is
very high.
28. Remsburg (1976), p. 367. One of the regular dances during the early military
occupation of Alaska in Sitka was the "Hoochinoo Club Hop." Hinckley, Ted (1967), p.
103.
29. Remsburg (1976), p. 367.
30. The Gatling gun was a new weapon in the Army's arsenal. It was considered the most
modern weapon they had, but at this time (1873) it was still somewhat experimental. Gen.
Custer left his Gatling gun behind, because it was too heavy, when he went to fight the
Indians at Little Big Horn. The gun was used against the Alaskan Indians in the
bombardment of Angoon. Jocelyn, Stephen Perry (1953), p. 195.
31. Henderson (1898), p. 16, 59. Underwood, John J., Alaska, An Empire In The Making
(1913), p. 54.
32. For a few of the stories, see Teichmann, Teichmann (1963), p. 113-114; Young, Alaska
Days With John Muir (1915), p. 77, 129; Collis, A Woman's Trip To Alaska, Cassell
Publishing Co., New York (1890), p. 170; Seton-Karr, Heywood Walter, Shores And Alps
of Alaska, S. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, London (1887), p. 53, 166; Henderson
(1898), p. 59; Whymper, Frederick Travel In Alaska (1868), p. 58-59; and Badlam,
Alexander, Wonders Of Alaska, The Bancroft Company, San Francisco (1890), p. 61.
33. This was true in Europe, during U.S. prohibition in the 1920's and 1930's, and was also
true in Alaska in the late 1800's. It is totally false to think that the Indians were the only
ones making homemade liquor. It is also false to characterize them as drunken and thirsty,
since much of what they produced was for sale to the thirsty whites in larger towns.
34. Remsburg (1976), p. 368.
35. This happened historically when the public perceived the Mafia (Italian immigrants) as
taking over prostitution, short term loans and drugs; the Jews (Germans and other
Europeans) as taking over Sunday businesses and retail trades of all types; the Irish as
profiting from smuggling alcohol into London; the Indians in supplying frontier settlements;
the English in controlling all the rum; and the perception of whiskey-drinking Catholics
from the righteous efforts of the prohibition-minded Protestants. After trade would be
perceived as falling into the hands of inferior groups, the next step toward legalization
would incorporate a desire to improve the health and welfare of the general public by
putting the production and distribution back into the hands of those who will make a better
quality of product (i.e., clean prostitutes, quality brandy, beer that uses clean water,
bartenders that are honest, drugs that wouldn't kill a person, liquor not made with wood
alcohol or lead-lined condensing coils, etc.). The last step often emphasizes the value of
locally-produced products over the quality of products produced far away. When one
Army officer discussed hoochenoo, his feelings about alcohol were unconsciously expressed
with the words, "The introduction of good liquor being absolutely prohibited, we will now
proceed to discuss the vile stuff manufactured by the natives, and known as HOOCHENOO
OR HOOTZENOO." 45th Congress, 3rd Session, Senate Executive Document #59,
"Report from the Customs District, Public Service and Resources of Alaska Territory,
1879", p. 63.
36. 45th Congress 3rd Session, Senate Executive Document #59, "Report from the
Customs District, Public Service and Resources of Alaska Territory, 1879," p. 58.
37. 45th Congress, 3rd Session, Senate Executive Document #59, "Report from the
Customs District, Public Service and Resources of Alaska Territory, 1879," p. 80.
38. Murton, Thomas O'Rhelius (1965), p. 88. The Alaskan, 03/05/1880. The original
article was in University Medical Magazine, "Laboratory Notes" (January, 1880), p. 200201.
39. 45th Congress, 3rd Session, Senate Executive Document #59, "Report from the
Customs District, Public Service and Resources of Alaska Territory, 1879," p. 81.
40. For more about the Prohibition Party, see Furnas, J.C. (1965), p. 270-274. The fact
that molasses normally was imported into the United States was another sore point for
nationalistic sentiment. Rum is another drink that used molasses and it was commonly
imported directly from England. Rum, molasses, tea, coffee and other items that were
imported took work away from American workers and businesses. The Americans had to
wonder how loyal the Indians of Southeast Alaska were going to be to the United States
when the items they prized most were bought from Peru or the West Indies via Canada.
Bancroft said that the 1735 English parliament action of raising duties on rum brought
America closer to independence. Thomann, G. (1887), p. 36. In the early American
colonies, it was common for the whites to also make a distillate out of imported molasses.
It was called, "black-strap." Carson, Gerald Rum And Reform In Old New England, Old
Sturbidge Village, Sturbidge, Mass. (1966), p. 5. Josiah Quincy called the recipe of
blackstrap, which was a secret, as something that he hopes now firmly "reposes with the
lost arts." John Quincy Adams once said, "I know not why we should blush to confess that
molasses was an essential ingredient in American independence". Ibid, p. 8.
41. Marshall, Jim (1949), p. 249.
42. Ushin's Diary, Orthodox Church Documents, 06/14/1877, p. 12.
43. There were often, in the literature, comments to the effect that all the Indians and
Eskimos wanted to buy was either molasses or alcohol, the implication being that all they
wanted was alcohol. This is misleading because of the following concepts: 1.United States
currency was scarce. What little was available had to be obtained by either working for the
whites at low wages (i.e., cutting wood) or by selling items to the whites that they wanted
from the Indians (i.e., meat, produce and liquor). 2.The Indians really needed very little
from the whites. They produced their own houses. They caught their own food. They made
their own clothes. They built their own boats. 3.If prices were too high in one area for
goods that the Indians needed, all they had to do was send a trading canoe to the duty-free
cities of Victoria or Prince Rupert and make what little money they had go farther.
4.Indians were not particularly welcome in Sitka businesses. 5.The purchase of molasses
was equivalent to the purchase of a job, where the buyer is his own boss. A great deal of
the molasses was sold right back to the whites at higher prices in a more drinkable form.
44.
44th Congress, 1st Session, House Executive Document #135, "Letter from the
Secretary of War," February 26, 1876, p. 31.
45. It took the settlers only one year to get rid of the "Indian Country" designation in
Oregon, thanks to their access to local courts. The status lasted there only between 1852
and 1853. Alaska had no courts or self-determination for many years. When Alaska did
gain its own courts, among the first issues over which it attempted to assert jurisdiction was
alcohol.
46. Namely, the prohibition to them of alcohol.
47. Donnelly, Joseph Peter (1940), p. 211-212.
48. Will Rogers said that prohibition's only virtue was that it was better than no whiskey at
all.
49. Remsberg, Stanley Ray (1976), p. 308 This happened on June 4, 1867.
50. Ibid, p. 309-310.
Chapter # 8
CHURCHES AND MISSIONARIES
There's naught no doubt so much the spirit cheers, as rum and true religion.1
Whenever frontier boundaries were expanded, missionaries were soon to follow. They
came to Alaska first to serve the whites who were affiliated with their sects and later to
convert the heathen. In most communities in the American west, soon after constructing
the whiskey house or the brewery and the bawdy house, God's house was the next
prominent building constructed. The newly-arrived minister often had no option other than
to begin services in a saloon until the funds and interest could be generated to build a
church.
Alaska was different to the missionaries only because the climate was colder than other
mission fields. The earliest churches in Alaska were constructed by Greek Orthodox
Church priests, often referred to in Alaska as the Russian Orthodox Church. Many unique
and beautiful small chapels built by hard-working Orthodox priests still stand in remote
communities from the Aleutian Islands to Sitka.
Schools were often started in Alaska by missionaries. The basic courses of study
included the standard 4-R's of read'n, write'n, rithmatick and religion. It wasn't until saloons
started to pay taxes (after "high license", imposing a stiff fee by the government to saloons
to become legal) that money was generally available for government-sponsored education.
Prior to that time, missionaries filled dual roles as spiritual leaders and school-masters and
their churches supported the only education there was.
Whenever the white men introduced themselves in a new frontier, bullets, bottles, bacilli
and Bibles soon followed (normally in that order).
THE FIRST MINISTERS OF RELIGION IN ALASKA AND ALCOHOL
The Russian priests who came to Alaska had a difficult time in being assigned to minister
to rough Russian trappers and their families. It was expected that Russian adventurers
would intermarry with the American Natives they met in Alaska. The main duties of priests
were to officiate in baptisms, marriages and christenings. Responsibility went to the
Russian-American Fur Company to set and enforce the rules pertaining to liquor, both to
the Russians and the Natives.
The Russian priests were traditionally celibate. They were sent by their church to farflung Alaska, often without living facilities. They might have been pardoned by occasional
indulgence in liquid spirits if there had not been a spiritual revival that used abstinence from
liquor as evidence of spiritual conversion to Christ.
"Intemperance was attacked in the sonorous language of the pulpit, and those who
signed the pledge or membership rolls were hailed as converts; renunciation of liquor and
acceptance of Jesus became almost one and the same thing... drunkenness was identified
with damnation and abstinence with salvation."2
To Protestant missionaries, who regarded touching a single drop of liquor to be a sign of
false conversion, the occasional use and misuse of alcohol by the Russian Orthodox clergy
must have been horrifying.3 Liquor in any form was to the Protestant ministers who began
arriving in 1880 what pork was to Muslims and Jews. It was the love of liquor, not the love
of gold that was "The root of all evil." The original sin of Adam could not have been worse
had he partaken of the forbidden cup rather than the forbidden fruit. It was as though
partaking of the forbidden fruit was not the sin at all, but converting the fruit into potable
liquor.
"Papa, please don't send me for whiskey today!"4
This is not to admit by any means that early Russian clergy in Alaska were prone to
drink alcohol any more than other clergy of the late 1700s.5 They were just not caught up
in the temperance reformation that brewed and bubbled among protestant ministers in the
United States in the late 1800s. Some were quick to point the finger of accusation at the
Russians. One of army officers (themselves the recipients of allegations of improper
drinking behavior) complained, "The priests of the Greek Church at Sitka, with two
exceptions, were often drunk upon the streets, and were anything but good examples to
their people."6
Two trappers saw a Mormon lady drink water. One of them turned to his companion in
surprise and blurted, "My God, Bill, she's drinking it raw!"7
The Russian clergy were occasionally denounced by their own priests as having
problems with drinking. One letter from a travelling priest complained of another priest in
Kodiak. The letter, dated April 29, 1878, alleges that the Russian priest at Kodiak was
under the influence of liquor "not only on weekdays, but on the Lord's day" and that he
drinks the sacramental wine and substitutes cranberry juice for the parishioners.8
Some of the early Russian clergy were very conscious of the over-use of alcohol among
their flock. One priest at Kenai in 1860 took it upon himself to lock the liquor store at
times when over-indulgence was likely because he feared their souls would be lost if they
were to die suddenly while intoxicated.
"Alas, the Russians, by their drinking and indecent behavior, set bad examples for the
savages. Seeing that each one drank with avidity until he could not control himself and
feeling sorry for the souls of the drunkards in case of their sudden death, I locked the liquor
store and began apportioning the drinks in small amounts. When they sobered they thanked
me for this."9
The Russian Church did not condone drunkenness in any way. If some found it difficult
to drink without being drunken, the same could also be said of early Protestants of all
denominations as well.10
A visit by Russian priest Andrew P. Kashevarov to the old village of Kanikluk in 1896
resulted in the following journal entry in his diary.
"My investigation disclosed that the drinking had progressed more than I expected: fifteen
men had begun to drink, though nobody had started homebrewing yet. To my question,
what forced them to break their [abstinence] promise, they replied that Olsen [the white
manager of the North American Commercial Company store] did it."
"I explained to
them the harm of drinking and the sin of breaking their promise to God and I persuaded
them to give their pledge again to keep away from that vice. The Aleuts, devotedly
kneeling and kissing the icons of the Savior and St. Nicholas, confessed their sin and gave
their promise not to drink any more."11
PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES ARRIVE IN ALASKA
Although the first Protestant church in Alaska was the Finnish Lutheran Church, which
was established prior to the transfer in 1867, the onslaught of missionaries did not really
start till about 1880. Then missionaries at the call of Rev. Sheldon Jackson and others
began to arrive in Alaska and concentrated on converting the Natives to their brand of
Christianity.
The missionaries that came to Alaska had cut their teeth on temperance literature. It
was the movement of the decade of the 1880s to accompany calls for women's suffrage with
calls for closing down saloons. The W.C.T.U. (Women's Christian Temperance Union)
originated only a few years earlier in Hillsboro, Pennsylvania, in December 1873, when
women filed out of a temperance meeting held by Rev. Dioclesian Lewis to pray at the
entrance of the local saloons. By the middle 1880s compulsory subjects in school included
courses in "scientific temperance education."12
The first aggressive missionaries to arrive in Alaska were Presbyterian. The Presbyterian
churches were very active in promoting abstinence in other parts of the country during the
ten years prior to their arrival in Alaska.13
TEMPERANCE ORATOR: "Two years ago I was a broken-down, washed out,
walleyed, drooling, gibbering wreck. What do you suppose has wrought this wonderful
change in me?"
VOICE FROM THE CROWD: "What change?"
The missionaries that came to Alaska in the 1880s, came to convert the Natives to the
gospel of Jesus Christ, not to administer to the needs of whites within Alaska's borders.
They often held services for whites, but generally tried to keep the Indian converts away
from the whites as well as from the unconverted aborigines. The little town of Sitka, for
example, had an Indian Protestant congregation and a white congregation.14
EXPECTATION OF DRUNKENNESS AND IMMORALITY
Missionaries thought drinking liquor was immoral, therefore, those who participated in
such activities, were by definition, immoral.
"No better fuel can you afford the lusts of the flesh than ardent spirits--drunkenness and
lewdness go hand in hand.... few who have drunk a gill of ardent spirits can be exposed
to.... small temptation without becoming adulterers in the sight of God."15
With anticipation and fear that any Indians who drank liquor would forever forfeit their
opportunity to become converted to the gospel, the missionaries fought long and hard to
keep liquor away from their anticipated converts. For this reason, the missionaries would
make allegations of drinking when this was thought to exist among the Indians, but they
would remain silent (or at least be less vocal) when whites did the same. Criticism was
severe and vocal, however, when they thought that the whites were giving or selling liquor
to the Natives. This led to at least one Indian's censure of a missionary by exclaiming:
"Why don't you first Christianize those of your own kind, and then their example would
help us to do right?"16
THE FACTORY SYSTEM OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS
The concept that Indians would accept civilization and God's messengers better if they
were somehow isolated from the whites while missionaries taught them was called the
"factory system" of missions. It was used first to great success by Catholic missionaries and
then copied by the Protestants. This concept worked when missionaries were determined
and successful in keeping white settlers out of communities for a long period of time while
they taught the Natives.
The missionaries expected Alaska Natives to desire liquor. It was often believed that
Indians had a weakness for liquor that was lacking, somehow, in whites. The missionary
boards that funded Alaskan missionaries, of course, saw no difference between Alaska
Indians and Indians anywhere else in North America. It was believed that if liquor were
available, all the Indians nearby would get drunk on it without giving it a second thought.
Informal rules were agreed to that forbade luring Indians into baptismal waters with bribes
and liquor.17
"Souls, as strict Calvinism saw them, were either inevitably saved or inevitably damned
and, though no man could be sure which was which, God knew and always had known.
Similarly, women were either virtuous or lost; and Temperance came to draw a rigid line
between the total abstainer and the person paltering with spirits; he was already a little bit
pregnant, as Temperance saw him, and the swelling consequences would grow ever more
scandalous."18
If the missionaries could not make the majority of the whites cease their drinking, they
were determined to do their utmost to do this with the Indians.19 Part of the reason for this
was due to the power that the missionaries held over the Indians. With the cooperation of
government officials, they hoped to make the Indians as sober as the Biblical Nazarites.20
It is certain that the missionaries taught Indian girls within their schools the same advice
that missionaries all over the United States gave others:
No matter what anyone says,
No matter what anyone thinks,
If you want to be happy
The rest of your life,
Don't marry a man if he
drinks!
--Temperance Song-A QUESTION OF FRIENDS AND HOSPITALITY
The acceptance, consolation and fellowship offered by the missionaries was often in
competition with the same qualities offered by the drinking non-missionaries, but it was
mutually exclusive. Your friends either came from the missionaries or from the drinking
whites. There was virtually no in-between. If an Indian drank, he was feared by
missionaries as dangerous and a bad example.21 Even if he drank moderately, he was likely
to be labeled as drunk. No one would refute the allegation for him. All too many times,
belligerence, frustration, depression and hostility were labeled by the missionaries as
drunken behavior.22
The social life near the saloons and drinking parties served many functions that drew
men close. News of gold strikes were likely first overheard in saloons as liquor loosened
the tongues of newly-arrived miners. The excitement near saloons and drinking parties was
often equal to that of a good revival in making new friends, breaking down social and class
barriers and escaping the tedium of inclement weather.23
Just as American independence had often bubbled in road- houses and saloons, however,
there was fear by those in authority of what might happen if the poor and lower classes
were allowed to drink collectively without proper supervision. To wean Alaska's poor
miners, laborers and Natives from liquor was certainly worthy on humanitarian grounds, but
it was also closer to Victorian principles than true reform.24
Many writers have mentioned the theater of conviviality that is associated with drinking
places. While this is commonly mentioned in relation to saloons, it could apply just as well
to parties held regularly in the home of a miner or Indian on Alaska's frontier.
One of Alaska's most popular writers was Jack London, author of an autobiography
called John Barleycorn. London wrote the book in an effort to administer self-treatment for
his own alcoholism a few years prior to his suicide. In it he described the adventure he
found in drinking:
"Occasionally I got well jingled, but such occasions were rare. It interfered with my
work. I remember ... that I got drunk several times and was mighty wroth with myself
because it interfered with my writing. Yet these very times were because I was out on the
adventure-path where John Barleycorn is always to be found."25
It was not easy to follow the missionaries with their drive to stop all the liquor and
impose their moral code on others. The persecution from within mining camps and Native
communities must have at times been intense against the missionaries and the few who
followed them. One Native policeman from Sitka, just prior to taking his life said, "It
makes no odds now where when or how I die; like Christ my friends have all forsaken [sic]
me and persecute me for standing for the right."26
TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES
A characteristic organization that accompanied missionaries to Alaska was the
temperance society. The origins of the temperance society were to be found prior to 1850
throughout the world. They were tried in several forms, from the Washingtonian model to
making the whole state or region an abstinent group.27
"I prefer Temperance hotels--altho' they sell worse liquor...." (Artemus Ward, 1866)
Temperance organizations thrived in Alaska at about the turn of the century. They were
generally started under the influence and urging of the missionaries.
"Teetotalism signalled more than just a change in the degree of abstention imposed on its
members; it was the start of a new religion, the 'holy cause of teetotalism' as it was called in
one temperance journal. And it appealed to a different social group, viewed by the working
class as a means of raising themselves up the economic and social ladder."28
Some of the temperance organizations in Alaska included various chapters of the
W.C.T.U., The Forth Regiment Drys of Fairbanks, the Petersburg Prohibition Club, the
Sons of Temperance, the Sitka Brotherhood of St. Nicholas (est. 1892), the Indian Mutual
Aid Society of St. Archstrateg Michael (est. 1896) and the Alaska Native Brotherhood.
Other organizations in various parts of the United States also included some with very
interesting names. They were The Sons of Temperance, the Cadets of Temperance, the
Independent Order Of Good Templars, Cadets of Temperance, Daughters of Temperance
and the Independent Order of Rechabites.
"Temperate drinking the downhill road to intemperance." (Motto of the American
Temperance Society)
The influence of American temperance societies was far-ranging. They helped pressure
Congress to support financially the voyages of Revenue Service to the far north.29
"Reports of the Revenue Cutters continued to focus upon the impact of rum trade with
the natives for the edification of the Congress and for the probable edification of
temperance advocates who helped secure appropriations for such voyages."30
Temperance societies generally began meeting by having their members pledge to abide
by the rules of membership including abstinence from alcoholic drinks. Sometimes these
pledges were written for the benefit of the member to remember his promises. The pressure
to always abide by the pledge was strong, but so was the pressure put by non-believers to
turn in the pledge cards for what they felt was a more reasonable course of action.
In some parts of the frontier, "Saloon-keepers took a keen delight in assisting those who
had taken a temperance pledge by offering five or ten free drinks for the pledge card, which
would be nailed on the back of the bar as a trophy."31
Alaskan temperance societies often used some of the vast supply of literature emanating
from their mother organizations to the south. These included song books, school literature,
plays and numerous other tracts on the evils of alcohol.32
Says Jonathan, says he, To-day I will be independent, And so my grog I'll throw away,
And that shall be the end on't. Clear the house, the tarnal stuff, Shan't be here so handy,
Wife has given the winds her snuff, so now here goes my brandy.
Chorus--Clear the house, &c.
And now, says Jonathan, towards rum I'm desperate unforgiving, The tyrant never more
shall come Into the home I live in. Kindred spirits, too, shall in- To utter darkness go forth,
Whiskey, Toddy, Julep, Gin, Brandy, Beer, and so forth.
Chorus--Clear the house, &c.
While this cold water fills my cup, Duns dare not assail me, Sheriffs shall not lock me up,
Nor my neighbor bail me. Lawyers will I never let Choose me as defendant, Till to death I
pay my debt, I will be independent.
Chorus -- Lawyers, &c. (Temperance tune sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle)
Not to be out-done, those who drank also used their creative energies to express their
sentiments with patriotic tunes. One of them, sung to the tune of the Star-Spangled Banner,
went as follows:
I knew by the pole that's so gracefully crown'd
Beyond the old church, that a
tavern was near,
And I said if there's black-strap on earth to be found,
A
man who had credit might hope for it here.
It probably wasn't because those who drank liquor wanted to see more whites or Natives
fall victim to drunkenness. Nor was it that they might stand to gain financially from the sale
of liquor that they fought the missionaries in their quest for prohibition. It was probably
more likely that they believed the missionaries were wrong in their ideas of salvation. They
reasoned that if mankind had any control over his salvation, he could not achieve it unless
he had faced temptation and overcome it. What virtue is it to be virtuous if you are not
allowed by missionaries to be anything else?33
FOLLOWING ON THE HEELS OF THE GOLD RUSH SALOON
Not all missionaries came to Alaska to convert Natives to the gospel. Some came to
work with miners and maybe make a little money themselves in the gold rush. When they
first arrived in the boom towns of Alaska, they found no place to stay nor churches in which
to preach. The logical thing to do was to stay in corners of saloons like others arriving
daily. Ignoring their own counsel never to enter a saloon nor to let the saloon enter them,
some found ready audiences by preaching in the saloons as well. One preacher in Skagway
earned the nick-name of "Holy Joe" by going into the saloons in the evening and bending
the ears of those bending their elbows there.34 When preachers succumbed to preaching in
saloons, they generally sang hymns without accompaniment, considering organs and pianos
as tools of the devil.35
"....a middlin' doctor is a pore thing, and a middlin' lawyer is a pore thing; but keep me
from a middlin' man of God." (Owen Wister, The Virginian)
Saloons seemed to be everywhere during the gold rush, although they weren't legal till
after 1899. Many articles were written about the excessive number of saloons during the
Alaskan Gold Rush. Probably the most saloons per building was claimed by White Pass
City, where it was said there were 17 saloons in the town that had only 16 buildings (one
was "at large").36
Saloons generally closed on the Canadian side on Sundays, allowing patrons an
opportunity to attend whatever church services were available.37
CONFLICT BETWEEN MISSIONARIES AND MINERS
Alaska missionaries never held a high opinion of miners. The feeling was mutual on the
part of miners for the missionaries. In 1892, violence broke out between missionaries and
miners. The missionaries suffered a great deal of verbal abuse, one dead and one tarred and
feathered. In the governor's annual report about the occurrences he said, "Like most of the
crimes and misdemeanors of the foregoing record, they were directly connected with the
sale and use of intoxicating liquors."38
"On the 11th day of January Charles H. Edwards, a government school-teacher, [and
Quaker missionary] located at Hamilton Bay, on Kuprianoff Island, [Kake] with a number
of Indians over whom he had acquired influence in his work there, boarded a sloop lying in
the bay seized and destroyed a small quantity of liquor which they found on board. Mr.
Edwards was detained in a struggle with the captain after the Indians left and was finally
shot, death resulting in a few days. Two of the natives also failed to reach the shore. The
testimony taken in the case tended to prove that they, too, were shot in the water while
swimming to the shore.... [Mr. Edwards] had abundant reason for believing that the vessel
was there to sell intoxicating liquor to the natives with whom he was laboring, and, though
betrayed by his zeal into action not warranted in law, his motive was a high one, and only
his nobleness of character, his devotion to his work, the efficiency of his service, and the
sacrifice of his life in the cause of morality and civilization should be remembered."39
The man who shot Edwards was tried for the deed, but was acquitted by a white grand
jury, notwithstanding the prohibition of liquor in the territory. His convincing argument
was that he was captain of a vessel on the high seas, was accosted by "pirates" in an illegal
manner, and simply resisted their illegal efforts.40
Southeast Alaska missionaries were incensed at the government's lack of evidence
against what they saw as the cold- blooded murder of one of their number by a whiskey
merchant. Another minister went to the assailant's home town to get enough evidence to
bring him to trial at least for making or selling liquor, but failed. While investigating in the
vicinity of the mining town of Douglas, the minister was set upon by masked men and tarred
and feathered for his trouble.41
I stand for prohibition,
The utter demolition
this curse of misery and woe.
Complete extermination;
annihilation;
The saloon must go!
Of all
Entire
CONFLICT BETWEEN MISSIONARIES AND GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
Just as the missionary element had trouble getting along with the miners and merchants
of early Alaska, they also had their troubles with the appointed government officials sent to
Alaska from time to time. Much conflict could be traced, as usual, to liquor.
The military often used their authority to further missionary causes from strong-arming
uncooperative merchants and fining Natives who refused to send their children to
missionary- run schools, to slapping disorderly citizens in jail. Government officials, on the
other hand, were more inclined to favor local control of Alaska, (remember that prohibition
was mandated from 4,000 miles away) popular resource exploitation, profits and political
solutions to conflicts in Alaska. Government officials filled the complete spectrum from
alcoholic degenerates to honest and able men doing their duties.
Alaska's first appointed governors and civil servants included men with a variety of
personal problems with missionaries, as well as with liquor. One of Alaska's most
outspoken missionaries believed one of the reasons prohibition was not working in Alaska
was due to its "drinking officials." Unless Alaska were to get appointed or elected officials
that were prohibitionist and personally abstinent (like he was) then Alaska's problems were
bound to continue. Jackson wrote to President Harrison (himself a devout Presbyterian)
and threatened that unless something were done about government office-holders in Alaska,
that his administration would be known as "the whiskey one."42
Sheldon Jackson was discouraged that so many government officials drank liquor and
set a bad example for his own missionary work. Whenever the opportunity presented itself,
he would rail against officials from the governor to the U.S. Marshall and lesser officials.
In 1889, relations were so strained between missionaries and politicians that at a democratic
meeting in Juneau, the intoxicated chairman bellowed, "Damn Em!" whenever missionaries
were mentioned.
Jackson often castigated Alaska's first District Attorney, E. W. Haskett as "vulgar and
obscene in his conversation, low in his tastes; spending much time in saloons, a gambler and
confirmed drunkard with but little knowledge of the law."43
What the missionaries wanted was enforcement of prohibition laws that were supposed
to be in effect in Alaska, but what were almost totally ignored. Sheldon Jackson lobbied
hard for a good non-drinking official to be named governor in hopes he would enforce
prohibition. When President Harrison finally named one of Jackson's own sunday school
teachers, John Brady, as governor, Jackson thought he would get what he wanted. He was
wrong.44
Brady was more practical than pragmatic. He urged a "High License" law that would
allow the government to control and tax liquor interests rather than make it illegal.
Licensed to do my neighbor harm,
Licensed to nerve the robber's arm,
Licensed to kindle hate and strife,
Licensed to whet the murderer's knife.
The early missionaries to Alaska came here basically from a temperance background.
They decried liquor wherever they found it as the cause of a substantial part of all sin. Their
role in causing the Natives of Alaska to break with the past and with their clan system has
yet to be fully evaluated, but when the final reports do come in, the function of temperance
doctrine will definitely be prominent in its impact on Alaska.
Footnotes to Chapter 8
1. Bridenbaugh, Carl Cities in the Wilderness, The First Century of Urban Life in America,
New York (1960), p. 60.
2. Asbury, Herbert The Great Illusion: An Informal History of Prohibition, Greenwood
Press, Westport, Conn (1968), p. 39. Justin Edwards, in 1830, said, "Ardent spirits destroy
the soul... to use it an immorality, a violation of the will of God... the use of ardent spirit
tends strongly to hinder the moral and spiritual illumination of men; and thus to prevent
their salvation, and bring upon them the horrors of the second death... Great multitudes die
the second death, who, were it not for this, might live forever." Annual Report of the
American Temperance Society, 1832.
3. Charles Dickens' books were banned by many temperance societies because of his
attitude toward drinking and liquor.
4. This is the statement of Hannah Hawkins in the play of 1840, Hannah Hawkins, or, The
Reformed Drundard's Daughter by Rev. John Marsh.
5. In fact, some historical books indicated that Protestant clergy were very heavy drinkers
up till after 1820. See Asbury, Herbert (1968), p. 13 "The autobiographies and other
accounts of ministers who survived the ecclesiastical guzzling to become leaders of the
temperance movement are filled with accounts of gigantic drinking bouts in the homes of
their parishioners, at ordinations, funerals, and other religious exercises in which they
participated, and elsewhere. There were few who didn't drink at every opportunity, and to
excess, while many were engaged in the liquor business, owning interests in distilleries and
taverns."
6. Murton, Thomas O'Rhelius (1965), p. 213. Some point out that there was a general
prejudice against foreigners with their strange language and traditions at this period of time.
It was easy and safe to criticize foreigners for their drinking habits along with minority
groups in our own society. It is somewhat less acceptable to discuss our own habits.
7. Robertson, Frank C. FORT HALL: GATEWAY TO THE OREGON COUNTRY;
Hastings House Publishers, New York (1963), p. 152.
8. Ushin's Diary, Orthodox Church Documents, p. 284.
9. See Ushin's Diary in Orthodox Church Documents.
10. A Russian preacher of the 14th century stated, "Not to drink at all is proscribed. For
the holy fathers did not forbid us to drink and to eat within the law and at a fitting time, but
they rejected overeating and drunkenness. For Satan neither ate nor drank, and he was
fallen, while Paul, the Apostle, ate and drank and he rose to Heaven. And not to drink at all
is an insult to the creation made by God. Drinking is joy for the wise; but for the unwise,
who inebriate themselves often, it cannot be but sin. It is seemly to drink for those who are
able to hide the drink within their belly and to retain bad words within their mouth." See
Jellenick, E.M. (1943), p. 663.
11. Ushin's Diary, Orthodox Church Documents, p. 134.
12. For a history of the origins of the W.C.T.U., see Chidsey, Donald Barr (1969), p. 2730; Lender, Mark Edward and Martin, James Kirby (1982), p. 88-91. Some of the other
subjects advocated by the W.C.T.U. included peace, abolition, the elimination of profanity
and Sabbath-breaking and mental health.
13. The Presbyterians had a long history of anti-drinking sentiment going back at least to
1812, when its official body ordered its ministers to preach against intoxication. In 1835, it
recommended teetotalism to its members. The Methodists generally could trace antidrinking sentiment to 1790 and before. Rorabaugh, W. J. (1979), p. 207-209. The
"Mormons" were temperate from the 1830's, but not abstinent till much later. The
Catholics have never entirely supported total abstinence, but were able to start a temperance
movement in the United States as early as 1840. The Quakers are generally credited with
being the earliest temperance advocates in this country. Some Baptist churches expelled
members who joined prohibition movements. See Bainton, Roland H. (1945).
14. The old community of Cottage Settlement in Sitka was established about a mile from
downtown Sitka, away from both the Whites and the unconverted Natives near where the
Sitka National Historical Park now has its offices. When converted, the Indians would be
invited to join other believers at this small community.
15. Furnas, J.C. (1965), p. 32. Because of this, if the reader were to come across an article
referring to the "immorality" of certain groups, particularly classes of poor, that were
thought to break numerous commandments, you should not assume automatically that the
term refers only to sexual immorality.
16. Hinckley, Ted (1962), p. 154.
17. A Russian in early Sitka wrote: "Furuhjelm says that he could baptize all of [the
Tlingits] at once in the Kolosh River [currently named Indian River] if he could declare that
every baptized man would be given a blanket and two cups of vodka and a dinner."
Golovin, Pavel N. (1983), p. 129.
18. Furnas, J.C. (1965), p. 55.
19. "Could the manufacture of liquor by the Indians be stopped, the church here would
soon have enrolled as members nearly every native. The manufacture of liquor in Alaska by
Indians in my mind can be stopped but by one way, and that is by extending law over their
country and punishing an Indian by fine and imprisonment when convicted of the traffic.
When these Indians here lose their purse their hearts are touched, and imprisonment, as has
been demonstrated, drives terror to their souls. The presence of troops and an occasional
gunboat have no effect toward destroying the traffic in this country; they only foster the
trade by non-interference. But give us gunboats and troops with law attached, or law
without either, and see how long it will take to create reform. Law we must have in order to
protect the Indians from the doings of contemptible white men. There is no necessity of the
whites here asking protection from the Indians, for they (the Indians) have, since the
withdrawal of troops, shown themselves to be the most law-abiding. All they ask is justice
from the hands of all men, and nothing will be done by them that will create disturbance."
45th Congress 3rd Session, Senate Executive Document #59, "Report from the Customs
District, Public Service and Resources of Alaska Territory, 1879", p. 156-157.
20. The term, "Nazarites," comes from the Bible from Numbers 6:2-3 which says, "Speak
unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When either man or woman separate
themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the LORD: He shall
separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar
of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried."
Samson, Samuel and John The Baptist were prominent Nazarites who could not drink wine
or strong drink during the period of their vow.
21. Temperance almost openly hoped he would hurry up and go alcoholic, obvious and
disgusting, and not stand there putting ideas into others' heads. Furnas, J.C. (1965), p. 80.
22. Just when a person is drunk has been at issue for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
In early Alaska there was no such thing as testing blood levels of alcohol to determine if a
person's senses are inhibited by alcohol. For Indians, the label was likely to stick and be
believed simply based on association. If he were to stagger, he might have been charged
with being drunk. There are many examples where God-fearing people have appeared to be
drunk, but were simply dizzy, sick, or under the influence of religious spiritual conversion
rather than liquid spirits. One example is in the Bible when the priest, Eli, accused his wife
of drunkenness when she slurred her speech. (I Samuel 1:9-16). Many people have defined
drunken excess in various ways over the years. "A society, for instance, established about
the sixteenth century, for the promotion of temperance, had its fundamental law constituted
on the principle, that none of its members should drink more than fourteen glasses of wine
daily." Grindrod, Ralph Barnes Bacchus, William Brittain (1843).
23. There was one example near Dawson, when bartender Harry Ash overheard news of a
new gold strike and immediately called for free drinks "on the house" of all the drinks
available. While the would-be miners swallowed their good fortune, the bartender slipped
out the back and got a jump of several hours toward the new claims over those who delayed
their departure to drink the liquor. Hunt, William R. (1974), p. 24-25.
24. In Charles Dickens' novels, he expressed this fear. "Victorians were afraid of gin partly
because they were afraid of the poor, a terror fostered by the French Revolution and its
aftermath, the Terror." Hewett, Edward and Axton, W.F. (1983), p. 91. In Barnaby Rudge
Dickens painted a picture of a mob gathered around a pool of flaming spirits that formed in
the street after ransacking a liquor dealers house, lapping up the liquor even as they burned.
In A Tale of Two Cities a wine cask is broken in the street and the maddened mob of
Parisian poor feverishly try to scoop it up, even trying to chew and suck out the liquid from
the moister fragments of the cask itself.
25. London, Jack John Barleycorn: Alcoholic Memoirs, Robert Bently, Inc., Cambridge
(1964 edition), p. 160.
26. Hinckley, Ted C. (1982), p. 271. The attendance by a Native policeman to dances or
potlatches, drinking or gambling all constituted grounds for losing their employment by the
government.
27. When Maine tried to enact laws for state-wide prohibition, some referred to those
behind the scheme as Maine-acs.
28. Shiman, Lilian Lewis; Conference on The Social History Of Alcohol Drinking,
Berkeley, 1984, "To Promote 'Cheerfulness And Happiness': The Bradford Long Pledged
Teetotal Association", p. 4.
29. To politicians trying to side-step the Anti-Saloon League's propaganda, they referred to
it as "getting hit on the head with a steeple." Chidsey, Donald Barr (1969), p. 58.
30. Conn, Stephen (1980), p. 15.
31. Maxwell, Milton A. "The Washingtonian Movement" Quarterly Journal of Studies on
Alcohol, Vol 2 (1950), p. 410-451.
32. These tracts were specifically directed toward lower-class people. In fact, the whole
temperance movement has been called "an effort of the dominant social group, firmly rooted
in the temperance tradition, to bring an outside group--the urban lower class--to accept the
tenets of the temperance tradition." Conley, Paul and Sorensen, Andrew The Staggering
Steeple: The Story of Alcoholism and the Churches, Pilgrim Press, Philadelphia (1971), p.
50.
33. According to this thought, the churches themselves were responsible for causing
drunkenness, by making those who drink even moderately to drink with guilt. Conley, Paul
and Sorensen, Andrew (1971), p. 6.
34. This was not unique to Alaska. One preacher in Tombstone, Arizona gained a
reputation for being the owner of a saloon there. He preached sermons to his guests in the
saloon and then celebrated with a round of drinks. West, Elliott (1979), p. 78.
35. Cole, Harry Ellsworth Stagecoach And Tavern Tales of the Old Northwest, The Arthur
H. Clark Co., Cleveland (1930), p. 242.
36. Dial, Scott "The Gold Rush Saloon", p. 81.
37. "The average Yukon saloon used up whiskey at the rate of a barrel a night. The regular
price was $1 a drink. The town was unusual in that it shut down tight--except for one
industry--at midnight Saturday and did not open again until midnight Sunday, in obedience
to Canadian law. Probably it was the only mining camp on earth observing Sunday Closing
. . . The one industry that operated was the world's oldest." Marshall, Jim (1949), p. 225.
38. Alaska Governor's Report (1892).
39. Ibid. A brief biography of Mr. Edwards was published in Sitka by the Presbyterian
newspaper The North Star, dated January 25, 1892. A full discussion of the murder was
published in Roberts, Arthur O. Tomorrow Is Growing Old: Stories of Quakers in Alaska,
The Barclay Press, Newberg, Oregon (1978), p. 1-18.
40. In a series of articles during the spring of 1892, the Juneau City Mining Record
published a series of articles defending the killer of Edwards as a "well-known and muchesteemed" wealthy Californian. He was a hunter who happened to have ten gallons of
whiskey on board for himself and his friends, a kindly man who gave the visiting Kakes a
nip of whiskey to ward off the cold. The miners of Juneau and Douglas resented the
missionaries use of Indians to give testimony against whites. In return, the missionaries
accused the "Whiskeyites" of a mockery of justice.
41. Shortly after the tarring and feathering, a saloon-keeper who had attended a few of the
Quaker meetings in Douglas abandoned his business. The testimony of Connett and the
prayers of the children were too much for him, he said.
42. Hinckley, Ted "Sheldon Jackson and Benjamin Harrison: Presbyterians and the
Administration of Alaska" Pacific Northwest Quarterly, 54(2), April 1963, p. 66-74.
43. Hinckley, Ted (1982), p. 94. Haskett later died in an accident while drunk.
44. John Brady was not entirely a teetotaler. He was brought up an orphan on the streets
of New York and hustled money by running errands between saloons. A stalwart
Presbyterian, he would only take liquor when used as a medicine. When Amos Whitford
joined Brady's business in Sitka, he had to promise Brady three things (1) get married to the
mother of his children, (2) never open his store on the Lord's Day, and (3) utterly divest
himself of everything having to do with the liquor traffic. Hinckley, Ted (1982), p. 54.
Chapter # 9
GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS AND CIVIL SERVANTS
Government officials and policies they set have always been an important part of the
story of Alaska. Alaska is a resource-rich area primarily controlled by civilian government
agencies. This was as true in the late 1800s as much or more than it is today.
Some of Alaska's civil servants were elected, others were appointed, but the vast
majority were just hired. They sometimes came to Alaska for fame, sometimes for fortune
and still others came because they couldn't get jobs anywhere else. Almost exclusively they
were male caucasians doing their jobs and supporting their families.
It was normal for civil servants to swear to uphold the laws of the land when they began
their service. They were low-paid government employees, at least during the early years,
compared with government employees elsewhere. Even at that, they were among the
richest and most powerful inhabitants of Alaska. Long service was rare. Most left Alaska
within one or two years, but some stayed for a long time. Rarely did one who retired
continue living in Alaska.1
As government employees, they answered to the citizens of the jurisdiction that paid
their salaries, whether it was on city, territory or federal levels. Basically, this meant they
worked for the whites, and not the Native majority of Alaska's residents because Alaska
Natives did not gain citizen status until well into the twentieth century.
As a group, government officials drank liquor regularly, if not daily. They drank socially
at parties, weddings, dances, funerals, elections and conventions. Many eventually died
from the primary or secondary effects of drinking. They also believed that Alaskan Natives
must be protected and shielded from the same pastimes because of what they felt was a
weakness for liquor among Natives.
CITY GOVERNMENTS
The first record of city government in Alaska was the official formation of the town of
Sitka on November 25, 1867. One of the first actions they did was to license businesses in
Sitka by charging a business license. It was not pure coincidence that among the first
businesses to pay a legalizing fee were the saloons. By officially turning over the
jurisdiction of saloons to civilian control, General Davis was able to abdicate his
responsibility to enforce prohibition throughout the territory. Davis could then concentrate
his efforts on Indian affairs, a group more easily controlled than the white traders.
Even with city control of saloons, there remained a problem with how to get drinkable
liquid refreshment into the tiny community of Sitka where only water was plentiful. The city
had no control over shipping alcohol into the Alexander Archipelago, as this was the
responsibility of the U.S. Treasury Department and the army. The large liquor stocks of
the Russian-American storehouses had been purchased by Hutchison Company and were
soon shipped to San Francisco to be sold at a phenomenal profit.2
John Kinkead was the civilian given rights to sell stocks of liquor to the army. Together
with Frank Louthan, he had a business in Sitka that tried to import liquor for the civilians as
well. He was caught and fined for trying to smuggle liquor in 1868, but probably got the
liquor anyway. His wife, Lizzy Kinkead, was temperance-minded, and is credited by some
historians as being the first to try to start a temperance society in Alaska.3
WHERE THERE'S A WILL, THERE'S A WAY
The saloons in Sitka needed stimulants, and the merchants in Seattle and San Francisco
were more than willing to ship them. Unless the Treasury agent could be bribed (which was
sometimes done) the vigilant Customs officer would confiscate the liquor before it could be
landed. All the Indians could do would be to make their own liquor or import it on their
own canoes from British ports. The whites, had a simpler way. They used government
technicalities to get liquor into Sitka.
If a merchant ordered liquor, the Customs officer had only one chance to stop its
introduction. The rules of the game prohibited liquor's introduction into Alaska. They did
not prohibit possession once the liquor was introduced. If the liquor shipment was landed
successfully at night or by having a ship drop a crate of liquor in some secluded cove to be
later retrieved and brought into town, the Customs officer was powerless to make either
arrests or fines. The saloons could openly display the liquor on the counter with little fear
that it would be confiscated.
On the other hand, assuming the worst happened and the liquor was found and
confiscated, the saloons could still get their booze. Even frugal Treasury Department
regulations forbade destruction of items illegally introduced to an area. Economy minded
bureaucrats reasoned that the salary of the vigilant civil servant should be at least partially
paid by the value of the stock he confiscated. If only the "liquid assets" could be turned into
cash! The solution was an auction of confiscated items at a central market place. Since
confiscated liquor must be sold at auction, Sitka was chosen as the disposal site. To the
delight of local saloon owners, the confiscated liquor was put up for public auction in Sitka,
and after purchase, it was perfectly legal to use, since it was sold by the Treasury
Department.4
"One problem was that Treasury regulations required collectors periodically to sell at
public auctions all liquor they had seized, provided its value did not exceed $500.00. These
sales, which took place every few months, were an important source of cheap alcoholic
beverages to the saloons of Sitka. Technically, successful bidders were to secure permits
from army headquarters before claiming their purchases, but it proved all too easy to evade
that requirement when the customs officers or military authorities wished to favor their
friends among the merchant community."5
By 1877, however, bowing to pressure from temperance groups, the Treasury
Department altered their rules to require the shipment of impounded liquor to Washington
or Oregon for auction instead of selling it in Alaska.6
OTHER CITY GOVERNMENTS
The concept of frustrating federal regulations or laws by passing contradictory local laws
(with local juries and courts) is one that has a long, honorable, tradition in the United
States.
As towns and cities developed, so did the clamor for local government - at least partially
so that local saloons and liquor dealers would run less risk of being convicted by federal
warrants for violating prohibition. It was also an opportunity for towns to begin to support
services that were badly needed, such as sidewalk repair, road maintenance and sanitary
water development. Whenever taxes were considered, saloons and liquor dealers were
among the first to bear the brunt of the new taxes. In Alaska, as well as elsewhere, it could
easily be claimed that liquor financed the towns that developed.
FEDERAL OFFICIALS
The federal employees in Alaska have always had an important impact on other
inhabitants of Alaska. The first federal employees were Treasury Department agents who
were called Customs officers. They were supposed to work closely with the army and other
officials in stopping the introduction of liquor into Alaska. Right from the start, however,
their performance record was attacked.
By 1873 the Treasury Department charged the Alaska customs officer with the fact "that
for a long time past the customs house at this place has been used not so much to prevent
the introduction of liquor into the territory as to facilitate its introduction."7
When the army washed its hands of the whole affair in Alaska, the responsibility to
determine who had legitimate need to have intoxicants fell entirely to the customs agents.
A presidential order prohibited anyone from bringing liquor into Alaska except by permit
from the Treasury Department. These agents were quickly besieged by requests for special
permits. The opportunity to profit from the situation was obvious.
"There [seemed] to be an obvious impropriety in placing the sole discretion of this traffic
in an officer whose duty is to prohibit the illegal introduction."8
This situation led to short terms of service for customs agents who made friends with
traders and companies who gave them favors in return for lax enforcement of liquor
regulations.
An interesting event is recorded when a visiting boat in 1868 passed the customs office
in Wrangell without stopping. When the little boat went by the Wrangell customs office, it
was fired upon by a cannon "no doubt as a signal for us to heave to." The customs officer,
"as shown by the custom's flag flying at the stern of the canoe" then "came on board to
search for dutiable goods and particularly for spirits which it was forbidden to import. He
was greatly surprised at seeing us as we had made his acquaintance at Nanaimo, and
without troubling further about our cargo or papers he accepted an invitation to take a glass
of cognac with us in the cabin." The author admitted that his sailors "carried many kegs of
rum and must have had uneasy consciences, excused their discourtesy by saying that the
wind had prevented them from making for the fort." He also admitted treating the doctor at
Fort Tongass with liquor procured (illegally) at Fort Simpson on the way up to Alaska.9
Sometimes the federal worker who adhered closely to his legal authority rather than
assuming that which he didn't have also did a dis-service. John Boyd, a miner wintering in
Wrangell in 1878, shot and killed another man in a drunken fight over a woman. The
collector in Wrangell claimed he had no authority to hold Boyd in custody. The miners in
Wrangell then held a court, tried Boyd, and hanged him the next day. True to the spirit of
the crime, Boyd was aided in his walk to the gallows with a drink of liquor.10
Often there were charges of intemperance against the collectors, making one wonder if
not quite all of the liquor that was confiscated ended up being auctioned.
TERRITORIAL GOVERNORS
Alaska's first governors were appointed by the president. They had little authority and
few duties other than to make an annual report to the president. They had a difficult time,
nonetheless.11
"A brief recapitulation of the implementation of the government of Alaska provides
some insight into the quality of the administration of criminal justice in the territory. Of the
five Governors appointed to Alaska, two resigned, one was suspended, one was fired and
only one completed his term of office. During this sixteen year period [from 1884-1900],
eight judges were appointed for four year terms each. None of them served a full term.
One just left the country, two resigned and five were fired. Of the twenty-seven U.S.
Commissioners appointed between 1884 and 1900 fifteen resigned, two declined to serve,
one was fired, three completed their term of office and the remaining six just left."12
Alaskans like to take pride in their governors, but the fact is that some had drinking
problems of their own, while, at the same time most included long sections of their annual
report to the drinking problems of Alaska's Natives.
Alaska's first governor was John Kinkead. He was often referred to unkindly when it
came to his own drinking habits.13
The ever-critical diarist, Ushin, in his journal entry of May 26, 1885, said: "The wellknown former store-keeper of the military post at Sitka in the years 1867-1870, J. Kinkead,
who arrived here as governor, is also reported to be sick, probably because of drunkenness
during the last week and because of the bad news he received on the military steamer
PATTERSON: The telegram informed him of his removal from office. Saturday, May 23,
at 7 a.m. I saw him at Long's saloon."
Dr. S. Hall Young, a Presbyterian missionary in Sitka when Kinkead arrived for his
(temporary) appointment as Alaska's first governor wrote that Kinkead brought with him an
immense supply of cases labeled "canned tomatoes." He claimed that Kinkead's "tomatoes"
tasted exactly like Scotch whiskey and produced the same effect.14
At a time when political influence was inversely proportional to physical distance from
the Washington, D.C., early governmental appointees in Alaska would have had little
political influence.15
Alaska's governor John Brady, himself named as a U.S. commissioner in Sitka in 1885,
complained of the civil servants at Sitka in a letter dated June 17, 1885, "The largest saloon
keeper in town told me this very day that the District Attorney owed him a large sum for
drinks at the bar, and that he did not expect to get a cent out of him. Governor Kinkead has
been drunk most of his time, and spends his intervals in cursing Dr. Jackson."
In order to be at least fair to the civilian government employees of early Alaska, it must
be remembered that much criticism of their intemperate habits was written by prohibitionists
who could accuse anyone they wanted to of drunkenness.
Lord, mind this gentleman's deserts,
He drinks, an' swears, an' plays at cartes,
Wi' great an' sma',
Frae God's ain priests the people's hearts
He
steals awa'.16
If saloon friends of those of whom the prohibitionists complained had written equal
testimony, a different viewpoint might have been evident.
God made Man
Love made Trouble.
That Man made Wine
Frail as a bubble;
God made the Vine,
To drown Trouble in?17
God made Love,
Was it a sin
WE NEED MORE MONEY!
If a governor is going to listen at all to his local constituents, even though not popularly
elected, he will attempt to get more money from the federal government.
Included in all of the early governors' reports was a plea for more manpower and money.
Much of the pleas were based on the belief that Alaskan Natives were being "demoralized"
by the liquor sold by the shady whites. Still, much of the frustration in enforcing prohibition
was real. When Governor Swineford, in his first report, grumbled that Alaska was different
from geographical areas familiar to lawmakers in Washington, he claimed that "Alaska's
coastline made [prohibition] enforcement impossible." He pointed out that he was given his
appointment without even a rowboat.
Three years later, he was still using the rowboat theme in his annual reports:
"[My government] is set down upon one of the eleven hundred islands with not even an
Indian canoe, or other conveyance, within its control, with which to move from place to
place."18
Governor Knapp was the last to use the rowboat idea in his reports about liquor law
enforcement. Conditions improved during the next two years, because Knapp's report of
1890 contained only this complaint:
"The temptation for unprincipled men to engage in smuggling intoxicating liquor and
opium into this territory is very great; and yet the collector of customs, upon whom is laid
the duty of preventing it, has been furnished only a single rowboat with which to patrol and
guard 3,000 miles of coastline."19
Ideas generated to use federal money to stem the flow of liquor into Alaska included
hiring more manpower, more Native police agents, Revenue Marine ships, Naval vessels,
building warehouses and imposing stiffer penalties for selling to Indians. The editor of the
Alaska Times exclaimed, however, "It would take the entire fleet of the Revenue Marine
Service and the U.S. Navy to prevent smuggling."20
"PERMITTING" ILLEGAL SALOONS
Prior to 1899, Alaska remained officially "dry" while openly allowing the operation of
saloons, even in the larger towns of Sitka and Juneau. To understand how this state of
affairs came about and what the governors tried to do about it, the permit system must be
understood. Permits were issued from the governor's office regularly.
It should be first noted that Alaska's whites (or citizens, since Indians were not citizens)
felt it was their right to drink what they wanted to drink. They also believed it was their
duty to deny drinking to Alaska's Natives. Even a statement signed by the (to be) first
Presbyterian governor included local control of liquor as one of the rights of citizenship.21
During much of the time between 1884 and 1899, liquor was legal only if it was used for
medicinal, mechanical or scientific purposes. The law did not differentiate between Native
and "white," but the popular perception of the prohibitionary law was that it was for the
benefit of the Indians, not the whites. Virtually no effort was made to prosecute whites for
buying or selling liquor so long as they did not sell the same to Indians, Eskimos or Aleuts.
During this time, three types of official permits were issued to those businesses selling
liquor. They were licenses given to druggists, permits given to saloons and Internal
Revenue tax stamps for liquor manufacturing businesses.
DRUG STORES
Druggists could generally sell liquor as prescription or non-prescription medication. The
size of the prescription and who it was given to became a bone of contention only when
some who were excluded from this wholesale supply of liquor complained to the
authorities.
Druggists were required to give a list of liquor purchasers each month to the governor,
together with a sworn statement that the medication involved was done properly according
to law. There seemed to be constant complaints to the governor about how the druggists
prescribed their most popular medication to the local citizenry.22
One of the complaints was about how accurately the druggist followed the physician's
official prescription. One letter from Governor Knapp to the Department of Interior accused
a Sitka pharmacist of great leeway in selling prescriptions. He specified the following
points of abuse:
1. When a doctor's prescription specified two quarts of rum, the pharmacist sold two
quarts of rum and one quart of brandy.
2. Ten cases were found of substituting another kind of liquor for the one ordered in the
prescription. In one case whiskey was sold when the prescription called for port wine.
3. There were ten cases in which the prescription is given to the keeper of the Chinese
restaurant with directions to be used in cooking food, and terms of similar import.
4. There were several cases in which the physician prescribes for himself with fictitious
directions like "to be used as directed, beaten with egg."23
Once, when a brewmaster had his Income Tax permit revoked by the governor to
manufacture beer in Juneau, he complained that the druggists of Juneau were doing a well
enough business to allow him to sell his beer and avoid their having to import it. He
complained that the Juneau population (of about 600) were "not invalids, by no means," but
they supported four druggists full time in making alcoholic prescriptions. He included
manifests of liquor shipments to Juneau during a two-month period that showed the size of
their business.
Juneau Druggist J.C. Koosher received the following alcohol beverages in October and
December, 1892:
October
December
1 barrel of whiskey
10 gallons of
sherry
2 barrels of beer
2 containers of gin
1 barrel of ale
1 barrel of whiskey
1 barrel of porter
1 barrel of claret
1 barrel of
claret
3 containers of whiskey
20 gallons of brandy
20 gallons of brandy
10 gallons of rum
6 barrels of beer
10 gallons of alcohol
3
containers of ale
10 gallons of port
2 containers of champagne
1 container of alcohol
Some druggists were accused of filling large prescriptions given to owners of Juneau
saloons which they then used to dispense in smaller doses to the ailing whites of that city.25
"Special agent John Linck checked the records at Port Townsend and could hardly
believe that acting inspector W.P. McBride of Sitka had allowed 50 barrels of whiskey, 120
barrels of beer and 75 cases of wine to be imported for medicinal purposes to serve a
population of less than one thousand people."26
Businessmen who applied to the governor for new permits to sell liquor used every
argument they could find, including improving the quality of drinks from inferior foreign
spirits to making a better grade of retail liquor business if healthy competition were allowed.
Sign on some western bars:
"Gentlemen imbibing foreign and alien spirits other than
good American Bourbon and whiskey are required to pay cash."27
CONFUSING THE STATUS OF PROHIBITION
It seemed that levels of government agencies added confusion to the status of Alaska's
prohibition. In 1889, the Treasury Department again issued approval to sell confiscated
liquor at auction in Alaska. This was discontinued six years later. The Internal Revenue
service in 1894 began issuing a special tax stamp to liquor dealers who desired to pay taxes
on their technically-illegal sales. Several dealers applied for and received these stamps so
that if they were ever brought to court for violating the prohibition laws, they could
produce the governor's permit and the tax stamp, whereupon the jury would refuse to find
that this was an illegal business.28
RINGS OF WHISKEY
In 1870, a national scandal broke out called the "Whiskey Ring". Ten years later a
similar scandal called the "Whiskey Trust" also grabbed national attention. It was only a
matter of time till the same terms were to gain Alaskan application.
In 1885, charges were leveled against one of Alaska's better-known steamship captains
as heading an Alaskan whiskey ring. Captain Carroll, of the steamship Idaho29 was
accused by U.S. Commissioner Henry States of bribing officials and illegally importing
liquor in barrels marked "corn beef" and depositing it at various anchorages.30
Though charges were often made against people for introducing liquor, seldom was a
local resident taken to court for violation of the prohibition laws.
"Charges brought against whites are stopped because of the feeling that prohibition of
liquor to whites "is obnoxious to the rights of citizenship."
At a territorial convention on October 8, 1890, a report was issued that openly
challenged the prohibition laws, saying that the "prohibitionary liquor law is so obnoxious
that it commands neither obedience from the citizens nor enforcement by the authorities."31
Charges against some boats that brought large quantities of liquor were taken into
federal courts in Oregon where they had some success in obtaining convictions. Deputy
agent Thomas Luke of Skagway captured the steamer George W. Elder just before high
license went into effect and sent her south to Portland for sale along with 566 gallons, 1,192
quarts and 1,520 pints of intoxicants.32
HIGH LICENSE
The idea of requiring liquor sellers to pay a relatively high license fee to regulate their
trade, obtain needed public funds and decrease, to a limited extent, the public consumption
of alcoholic beverages went back to the 1850s. Every Alaska governor recommended this
course of action instead of territorial prohibition until Governor Brady was appointed at the
urging of Sheldon Jackson.
Though Brady's appointment must have given Jackson some hope that for a change
maybe the prohibition would be enforced against liquor, he was to be disappointed. One of
the first things Brady did was write to influential citizens asking what should be done about
Alaska's prohibition. When only a few responded against a high license proposition
(including Sheldon Jackson and Rev. William Duncan of Metlakatla) he quickly took a trip
to Washington, D.C., to argue for high license.
Governor Brady wanted a $1,000 license put on all liquor dealers claiming that "the
government cannot keep liquor out [of Alaska]. Even the liquor that is in the seizure room
is taken out and water is put in its place. Some of the officers are now under inditement for
taking liquor out of the seizure room and selling it to the whiskey men. The collector's
office out there has been so demoralized in this matter that if you knew the whole truth
about it you would be sick that government affairs in any department should be in such a
fix."33
Brady's efforts to legalize liquor did not go unheeded by the anti-liquor lobby, which, by
1899 had succeeded in making many states and counties in the eastern United States
officially dry.
King Alcohol is quaking,
His throne is crumbling fast,
And all
his petty princes
With terror stand aghast!
"Down East" they have been
routed,
"Up west" we'll rout them too;
From Maine to California,
We'll scout the red-nosed crew;
With the "Maine Law" banner o'er us,
Our hosts are ever true....
-The Maine Law Banner, Anon.
Rev. Wilbur Crafts, Superintendent of the Reform Bureau, testified at the hearings with
a well-prepared and eloquent speech, as did Mrs. M.D. Ellis, Superintendent of Legislation
for the Northwest W.C.T.U.. Crafts said when lawlessness has been rewarded with licenses
there is small reason to expect strict obedience. The license law, as passed by the house,
would allow the local judge to grant a license for a saloon in the very midst of Indians, if a
majority of the three of four white traders in a 2-mile radius so petitioned. The courts have
decided that there are no "Indians," in the legal sense, in Alaska, since the native races come
to us from Russia, not as tribes, but as individual citizens. It is unlikely the courts would
deny to civilized natives, members of the Greek Church, any so-called privilege allowed the
Episcopalian rector who has asked for licensed liquors. For the sake of the native races let
the Senate refuse to consummate this "act," which would prolong our "century of
dishonor."34
Mrs. Ellis was not afraid to get very personal with her testimony.
"I think that Mrs. Brady would have as heavy a heart--I believe that every mother
would have as heavy a heart--if her boy was made drunk on liquor obtained under the
thousand- dollar license bill as if he was made drunk on smuggled liquor. And so today, in
behalf of the homes (for I am a mother of children), in behalf of the women who will take
their little ones and go to Alaska, I ask you not to repeal this prohibitory law. I ask you to
remember the mothers and to remember the homes in Alaska. There is a higher law than
the high-license law, and that is the law of moral righteousness. And may God direct you!"
Brady was successful in coming back to Alaska with a new criminal code, a new means
of taxation for businesses to fund schools and public works, and all of these were due to his
success at getting high license for the saloons and liquor dealers of Alaska.
In the years to follow,legislation would be introduced to reinstate prohibition in Alaska
with the support of the Reform Bureau and other prohibitionist groups, but Alaska was to
have legal liquor for the next 18 years.35
STORIES RELATING TO ALASKA PROHIBITION
Many stories evolved during the last days of official prohibition in Alaska prior to high
license. Some were humorous, but others told of fights, murders and drinking-related
problems.
"Sailors from the Man-O-War Concord and Albatross were on shore last night and had
some great 'jacks,' and some broken noses and black eyes. Rather a curious comment on
'prohibition.' They seem to be able to get whiskey from somewhere."36
Another story told of the men assigned to guard liquor seized by the collector. Some of
the "whiskey men" got him out on the town with one of the "girls." She stole his keys,
passed them out to her co-conspirators and then kept him in her room while they went
down, stole all the whiskey out of the seizure room, then locked it up again. The custom
house men did not discover the theft for several days.37
When the customs officer started to put heat on a German brewmaster in Sitka, the
brewmaster, named Witz appealed to Judge Tuttle. "Chudge, I vaunts to haf some brivate
conversation mit you."
The judge replied, "What is it Witz?"
"You know that tam
stinker Andrews, he shrump on my vagon. I vants a bermit to carry a weapon. Den he
shrump on mine vagon again, I fix him. He gome down tonight mit one big gun strabbed on
him."
After the judge counseled him against getting a gun, he said, "Shrudge, I send you
a dozen bottles of my peer. I hopes I haf not troubled mit you."
The judge replied, "No,
you have not troubled me, but I don't drink beer."
To which the German replied, "you
dond drink beir? Dat ish funny. Americans don't drink beir."
That night deputy
collector Andrews arrested Witz and the entry in Andrew's diary closed with the statement,
"Verily, a deputy collector should be happy."
In an effort to prevent Pribilof Islanders from making quass beer, the treasury agent
wrote a letter to the manager of the company store dated December 9, 1899. In it he says:
"To prevent drunkenness and the making of quass on this island I will thank you to
withdraw from the sale to he natives until further notice the following articles: sugar, milk,
candy, jelly, dried fruits of all kinds, and sweet crackers. Milk will be issued on government
order to those families having little children. Respectfully yours, W.I. Lendkey, Treasury
Agent."38
Within one year of the passage of Alaska's high license law, Carrie Nation began
chopping up of illegal saloons in Kansas. She was frustrated at seeing open violation of the
liquor laws that made Kansas officially dry. Had Alaska not gone legally wet while
continuing to openly operate saloons, it was entirely possible that someone may have
emerged to bash saloons and bars here with the wholehearted support of the missionary
element.39
There was, in fact, one woman in Alaska who gained a small reputation for behaving like
Carrie Nation. A story was told by a visiting W.C.T.U. speaker to Alaska about Mrs.
Dabney (first name unknown) who worked on the Seward to Anchorage railway in 1916.
"All types of men are at mile twenty-three and a half, and last Forth of July twenty-five
of them secured a demijohn of whiskey and several bottles. Mrs. Dabney walked in upon
the company while they were drinking. [Anchorage, at this time was a prohibition town,
notwithstanding high license.] She ordered the owner of the house, her employer, to go to
his room, escorting him there. She told him to go to bed and locked the door. Going back
to the company, she attempted to break the demijohn, but the bottle was too strong. She
then poured out the whiskey, smashed the receptacles, and threw the bottles of whiskey into
Kenai Lake. When one man called her a second Carrie Nation she simply said that she did
not propose to clean up after men who got drunk, that the government rules forbade the use
of liquor and she would see to it that they were enforced, and that no man could come to
her table who had been drinking."40
TINKERING WITH REGULATION
Within one year of high license, saloon numbers decreased by about 80 percent
according to Governor Brady's official report. He was pleased with the initial success of the
new state of affairs.
This was not the end of efforts to dry out Alaska, since feelings throughout the country,
including Alaska, were continuing. Washington was considering prohibition. Idaho was
also considering the same status with a bill that made it so dry that Senator Borah referred
to his legislation as making Idaho "bone dry."
Alaska government revenues beginning to come in from licenses issued to businesses.
About 50 to 80 percent of revenues were from liquor licenses. Judicial districts operating
and court houses and jails were built with liquor money, and schools were operating on
income from the same source.41
An article in Alaska Prospector, dated February 27, 1902, had the following advice to
mushers: "Judge Goodell is authority for the statement that by moistening sugar with
whiskey and feeding it to a dog, the animal will be able to work much harder. We doubt
whether any of the mushers will be willing to indulge in this waste of liquor so long as their
blacksnakes hold out."
Governor Brady thought it amusing to observe the degree that saloons would go to keep
their lucrative licenses. One stipulation required Sunday closing. Another required that
saloons be located no closer to churches than 400 feet.
"It was rather amusing as the 1st of July drew near to find the saloon men out in the
middle of the night with their tapelines measuring the distance from their places of business
to the nearest church to see if they came within the 400-foot limit. To-day there are several
such places marked 'to rent.'"42
In 1909, Congress passed a law making it a felony to sell liquor to Indians,43 but a
judicial finding in Alaska clouded the issue. The court decided that since the Tsimpsian
Indians at Metlakatla were not Indians that were in Alaska at the time of the transfer (1867)
that they were not officially "Indians" as far as the liquor law was concerned. They could
legally buy and sell liquor at will.44
The new territorial legislature, in passing its first legislation to give women to right to
vote, also helped the cause of prohibition. In an article in Alaska-Yukon Magazine in 1910
that advocated giving women the right to vote, it was concluded that:
"Psychologists say that the use of any narcotic or stimulant endangers the nervous
equilibrium and warps the judgment. Women use but a small proportion of the millions
upon millions' worth of tobacco and alcoholic liquors that are consumed in this country
annually. The brains of women are normal on election day."45
LOCAL OPTION
The term, local option has generally been used to refer to localities that vote themselves
dry when others within the state or territory are wet.46 Soon after Alaska came under high
license, efforts were made by some groups to ban liquor in any of a number of
circumstances. Among the strategies used was one called local option.
In the spring of 1915, special elections were held throughout Alaska. At issue was the
requirement that saloons obtain approval of more than half of the voters in the vicinity to
continue the license for the saloon. Those who did not vote were assumed to have voted
against continuing the license.47 Even with this unusual requirement, several saloons won
the right to continue licenses within communities in which they operated.
The U.S. government began construction of a railroad into interior Alaska by 1914, and
the new town of Anchorage, made up mostly of federal employees on the new railroad, was
designated by the federal officials involved with this project as a prohibition town.
To enforce the rules against liquor, it was determined that if a person obtained a
residential lot from the federal government and later was convicted of selling or obtaining
liquor, he would lose title to that property.48
Several newspapers printed arguments about the drinking situation at Anchorage. Some
claimed it was an unfit place to live due to the "drought" that one had to suffer there.
Others, like the Chitina Leader, in an article dated July 6, 1915, claimed that Anchorage had
no saloons, "but plenty of booze."
ALASKA BECOMES DRY, "BONE DRY"
The territorial legislature passed the opportunity for a territory-wide straw vote on
prohibition. The language of the ballots was the briefest of any option ever given to
Alaskan voters. They could vote for either "Wet" or "Dry." There was no in-between.
When this passed by a majority of nearly two to one, Alaska's delegate to congress, James
Wickersham, went to Washington to ask for a return to prohibition.49
One of the arguments against the "Bone Dry" law was that five of the 16 incorporated
towns were entirely dependent upon revenue generated by these licenses. In order to fund
Alaska schools after prohibition again went into effect, a rider to the bill transferred the
"Alaska fund" from Congress to the legislature so that it could be spent on schools and
other services in incorporated towns.
Alaska's "Bone Dry" law went into effect on January 1, 1918. Its enforcement left
something to be desired, since enforcement was left entirely up to agents hired by the
governor, who spent most of their time chasing mostly Indians who drank (rather than
whites).
Enforcement of prohibition throughout the period from 1918 till mid-1935 was mostly
under the laws of Alaska's "Bone Dry" law rather than under the Volstead Act, because the
"Bone Dry" law prohibited possession, as well as sale of liquor. Investigators also had easy
access to private residences without possessing search warrants under the "Bone Dry" law.
Penalties were also much stiffer than those when convictions were made under the Volstead
Act.
Footnotes to Chapter 9
1. Even the advent of the Alaska Longevity Bonus in the 1970's did not reverse this trend.
A study done for the State soon after implementing the "Bonus" claimed that few stayed in
Alaska (except Natives) upon retirement even with the "Bonus" program. Very few of
Alaska's early governmental and religious leaders are buried in Alaska. Modern Alaskans
must go to cemeteries in Seattle, Portland and Phoenix to see the final resting place of
Alaska's early non-Native leaders.
2. In a letter to the Treasury Department in January 16, 1868, Customs Collector Dodge
claimed this included some 30,000 gallons of liquors of various kinds and that none of it
was to be sold in Sitka. See U.S. Treasury Department Alaska File of the Special Agents
Division. 1867-1903.
3. John Kinkead had arrived in Sitka on the same ship on which the first army groups
arrived. He was the purser on that trip. He had left the gold fields of California to seek his
fortune in Alaska, hoping to gain a lucrative government position. Prior to California, he
had a small "gentile" business in the heart of Salt Lake City among the "Mormons". We are
not certain what kinds of goods he sold there, but a hint might come from the fact that
Brigham Young and others condemned the "Mormons" for frequenting the gentile stores on
"Whiskey Street" (currently State Street) on which the store of Livingston and Kinkead
stood. See Arrington, Leonard The Great Basin Kingdom, Harvard University Press,
Cambridge (1958), and The Pioneer (Official organ of the National Society of Sons of the
Pioneers) Vol. 6, Spring 1954, No I p.26 "The Story of a Street". Upon leaving Alaska
when the economy of Sitka ran dry, Louthan opened up a liquor business in Washington.
Kinkead and Louthan tried to protest their $200 annual (semi-high license) fee to the War
Department in 1868, but the War Department refused to become involved. Hinckley, Ted
(1967), p. 43- 44.
4. Murton, Thomas O'rhelius (1965), p. 243; Sparks, Larry Arthur (June, 1974), p. 9.
5. Remsberg, Stanley Ray (1976), p. 317. The Canadian Mounted Police destroyed their
confiscated liquor by pouring it on the ground at a specified place at their posts. Some still
believed it was a concocted destruction by preparation of the ground beforehand so that the
liquor would soak through the ground and a filter made with a horse blanket into a bucket
underneath. See Gray, James H. (1972), p. 30. One unhappy agent in the "lower 48," after
having his liquor confiscated by a sheriff as illegal, only to see it sold at auction by the
sheriff with the profits going to the sheriff, made a citizens arrest of the sheriff for the sale
of illegal liquor -- and he won!
6. 45th Congress, 3rd Session, Senate Executive Document #59, "Report from the
Customs District, Public Service and Resources of Alaska Territory, 1879," p. 18.
7. Remsberg, Stanley Ray (1976), p. 341.
8. Sparks, Larry Arthur (June, 1974), p. 17.
9. Teichmann, Emil (1963), p. 127, 134-135. Among the qualities that were expected of a
customs officer in return for his $125 per month (deputy collectors got $100) included: "He
must be well versed in the whole organic law of the land, as well as those for the collection
of revenue, of sound and discreet judgment, willing, whenever the necessities of the case
demanded, to assume responsibility; in fine, he must be a man equal to the occasion, and,
above all things, neither a ----- or physical coward: if the latter, the Indians, quick witted
and of keen observation, will readily 'twig' it, and his mission is ended." That not many
could fill these qualifications, the author concluded, "There have been since the district was
established, July 27, 1868, no less than seven different collectors who have held office [in
10 years]." 45th Congress 3rd Session Senate Executive Document 59, "Customs Office
Report on Alaska," p. 14-15.
10. Lain, Bobby Dave (1974), p. 226-227.
11. Alaska's governors didn't even have the authority to pardon those convicted of selling
liquor to the Indians. When Patrick O'Neill had a pardon requested by the governor for this
crime, the acting Attorney General to the Department of the Interior wrote an endorsement
at the bottom: "I endorse the above pardon for the reason that it rid the District of a
nuisance who has not a chance to leave it." Interior Department Territorial Papers for
Alaska, Microfilm N430.
12. Murton, Thomas O'Rhelius (1965), p. 161.
13. Mr. Kinkead was Alaska's first postmaster, sutler (army procurement agent) and former
advocate of city government in Alaska.
14. Atwood, Evangeline Frontier Politics: Alaska's James Wickersham, Binford and Mort,
Publishers, Portland (1979), p. 47.
15. Governor Knapp's final report to the president included the conclusion that "in the
apparent estimation of the legislative mind the lives and property rights of human beings
were held in importance in the inverse ratio of the square of the distance" from Washington.
16. Burns, "Holy Willie's Prayer".
17. Herford, "A Plea".
18. Murton, Thomas O'Rhelius (1965), p. 72.
19. Ibid, p. 73. This example is an interesting comment that is still true of those asking
money of the federal government. "If you ask for a rowboat, you may just get a rowboat."
20. Alaska Times, April 26, 1886 and September 22, 1894.
21. The four "rights and privileges of American citizenship" according to the petition
signed in 1897 included:
(1) Homestead rights
(2) An Alaskan delegate to the
House of Representatives
(3) Authority to incorporate our towns and cities
(4)"Repeal of the Prohibitory liquor law and substitution in lieu thereof of a stringent and
well guarded license law." See Hinckley, Ted C. (1982), p. 163.
22. This was the requirement ordered by President Benjamin Harrison in an executive order
dated March 12, 1892. Liquor dealers were also required by this order to post a bond with
the governor in the amount of $500. Sparks, Larry Arthur (June 1974), p. 28-29.
23. Letter from Governor Lyman E. Knapp to John W. Noble, Secretary of Interior,
February 25, 1892, Interior Department Territorial Papers - Alaska, 1869-1911, Roll 111.
24. Letter from John F. Gray to Charles S. Hamlin, first Assistant of the Secretary of
Treasury, December 23, 1892, Interior Department Territorial Papers - Alaska, 1869-1911,
Roll 111.
25. See report from C.S. Johnson, US Attorney to the Attorney General dated March 7,
1894 in Interior Department Territorial Papers - Alaska, 1869-1911, Microcopy 111.
26. Sparks, Larry Arthur (1974), p. 39.
27. Americans almost always referred to liquor coming from Canada as "inferior".
Canadians felt the same of American liquor.
28. The tax stamps were not supposed to be given to any business that did not have a
permit from the governor. This was not a rule intended to limit the number of liquor dealers
as much as it was to make sure that none avoided the $25 permit fee.
29. The Idaho Inlet near Pelican in Southeast Alaska is named in her honor, perhaps
unknowingly marking where stashes of contraband cargo may have been hidden.
30. Hiding liquor in barrels that had been mis-labeled is a time-honored tradition in Alaska.
Various research I have done has uncovered liquor in barrels of sugar (found only after a
shipwreck that dissolved the sugar), stewed tomatoes (found after a rush to buy can
openers), florida water and almost any other name. Barrels that were confiscated and
locked in warehouses on wooden docks were in danger of being drilled into from under the
dock by workers using wood drills, allowing gravity to reward the midnight workers.
Charges against Captain Carrol were first published in Alaska Times, June 12, 1886.
31. Interior Department Territorial Papers - Alaska, 1869-1911, Roll II.
32. Sparks, Larry Arthur (1974), p. 35. Even when liquor was sent south for sale, not all
of it arrived. More often than not, liquor arriving in Portland was reduced in quantity
before unloading.
33. 55th Congress 3rd Session, Senate Document #122, February 15, 1899, p. 3.
34. The Reform Bureau was the 1899's version of the modern day "Moral Majority".
35. 57th Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Document No. 85 "Proposed Restoration of
Prohibition to Alaska, Etc.", January 14, 1903. Most of the testimony in support of the
proposed repeal was from missionaries or former missionaries who felt that their efforts of
converting Alaska's Natives were hindered by "high license."
36. Notebook of C.L. Andrews in the Andrews collection, University of Washington;
Notebook 16, Box 2, under the date of Thursday, September 2, 1897. C.L. Andrews, who
later wrote books about Alaska, was an inspector who arrested many for the introduction of
alcohol into Alaska.
37. Ibid.
38. There are numerous entries in the microfilm rolls relating to Treasury agents in the
Pribilof Islands where the agents take extra-legal authority to punish islanders for drinking
beer.
39. The saloon interests in Kansas had made an effort to change the constitution of the
state, which prohibited the sale and manufacture of liquor. Saloons were omnipresent
throughout Kansas, anyway. See Clark, Norman H. Deliver Us From Evil: The
interpretation of American Prohibition, Norton & Co., New York (1976), p. 81.
40. The Literary Digest, Vol 54:156, January 20, 1917 quoting Mrs. Ella Boole from The
Union Signal.
41. One-half of the revenue from licenses was earmarked for schools.
42. Alaska Governor's report (1899).
43. One of the first issues of the territorial legislature was an effort to reduce this back to a
misdemeanor, since felony convictions against white residents seemed a bit harsh for doing
this. An Attorney General opinion held, however, that the new territorial legislature did not
have this authority. The legislature then decided that if they did not have the authority to
regulate the "sale" of liquor to Indians, they would at least begin to regulate the "receiving"
or "giving" of liquor to Indians.
44. This is particularly ironic, since they initially came to Alaska to avoid partaking of
alcoholic sacraments proffered by the Church of England, and they were the first Indians in
Alaska to hold temperance meetings.
45. Alaska-Yukon Magazine, "Why Women Should Vote", Vol IX, No.3, February, 1910,
p. 177.
46. This has not always been the case. Some states had local option laws that allowed
individual communities to be "wet" while the rest of the state was legally "dry."
47. The requirement was that those within a two-mile radius vote in favor of the license.
This brought pressure on saloons throughout Alaska to lobby hard for a favorable vote and
brought a considerable amount of revenue to newspaper publishers who accepted
advertisements from the "saloon men" and others who wanted to voice their opinion.
48. Several people lost their property under this provision until the courts found it to be
unconstitutional.
49. Judge Wickersham was a quaker, but was not a teetotaler. Although he was accused of
his political enemies of being a puppet of the liquor interests (he once owned property in
Fairbanks that was used as a saloon, notwithstanding the lease that forbade such use) he
refused to return to the state of affairs that existed prior to 1899 in Alaska. If Alaskans
wanted prohibition, he was going to give them a law that was so dry, it would exclude
liquor from the whites as well as the Indians. See Atwood, Evangeline (1979).
Chapter # 10
EARLY AMERICAN AND WORLD ALCOHOL HISTORY
The history of alcohol use by those into the ethnic class of whites goes back
thousands of years. In order to maintain a good perspective about Alaska's history, alcohol
use by whites should be understood.1
WINE IN WORLD HISTORY
Wine and beer have existed as beverages for about 5,000 years. One of the reasons
man ceased being nomadic and to started settling down to agriculture was to reap the
benefits of grain and fruit fermentation.2
Legends grew around the importance of wine and beer. The theologies of many
cultures included references to the gods (i.e., Osiris, Dyonesius, Bacchus, etc.) of wine and
intoxication.
Around 1200 BC, Moses's Hebrews were led out of Egypt. They complained of the
lack of grapes and figs with which to make wine.3 The wine they found in Palestine and
Syria were so potent that they were diluted two-thirds with water and were still found to be
strong.
BIBLICAL ALCOHOL
Many books and publications documented the use of wine, beer, and spirituous
liquor over the centuries. One of the best history books that about the use (and abuse) of
alcohol is the Bible. From the first mention of the prophet Noah's drunkenness to the end of
the New Testament there are numerous references to wine, drinking, making merry and
administering to the sick with alcohol. It is one of the oldest books to praise as well as
condemn alcoholic drinks.4
"Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often
infirmities."-- I Timothy 5:23-"Woe to them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong
drink."-- Isaiah 5:22-"He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he
may bring forth food out of the earth; And wine that maketh glad the heart of man...."
--Psalms 104:13-15-"A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good
behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of
filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;"
--1 Timothy 3:2-3-"Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whoso is deceived thereby is not
wise."
--Proverbs 20:1-By the 4th century, the Christian church emphasized that wine was a gift of God to
man for his enjoyment, and is intrinsically good. To despise wine was considered heresy,5
but it must be used for proper ends. Abstinence among Judaism is rare. As one Rabbi is
quoted:
"If you become holy by abstaining from wine, why not abstain from everything?"6
THE MIDDLE AGES
Alcohol became influential in the every-day lives of people throughout Europe and
the rest of the world. Although some religions forbade alcoholic beverages, Judaism and
Christianity embraced wine as intrinsic parts of their worship.
One legend about early Russia pertained to the grand prince of Kiev, St. Volodimir,
who lived from 978-1015 AD. It held that he rejected conversion to Islam in part because of
its ban on wine drinking. He stated, "drinking is the joy of the Russe. We cannot exist
without that pleasure."7
The secret of distilling wine into brandy and of making of other liquors gradually
spread over Europe. By the mid-16th century it had become very fashionable to drink
liquor.
The concern expressed by church leaders regarding drunkenness was centered over
the irreverence that it produces on Sundays and other holy days rather than due to injury to
the health of the drinker or for other reasons.8
MEDIEVAL BANQUETS AND ALASKAN POTLATCHES COMPARED
Some historians of Alaska have discussed the "whiskey feast" of the early Alaskan
Natives. These were potlatches where the wealth of the person giving the feast was
distributed flagrantly and openly among those attending as a show of power, importance
and often whiskey was consumed in large quantities.
One writer gives 1864 as the date of the first whiskey feast on the northwest coast;
however, whiskey feasts in Alaska were known to have been given at least 25 years before
this and probably were held even earlier. One source reports that in 1840 at the Hudson's
Bay Company post on the "Stakin" River the local Indians (Tsimshian) gave a whiskey feast
in which a hogshead of whiskey four feet high was emptied in one day.9
The Russians had a similar type of feast.
"Some features of the Tsimshian whiskey feast carry more than a hint of Russian
drinking ritual and suggest something of the extent of Russian cultural influences in its
development. Baranoff, the famous leader of the Russian colonies in Alaska, is reported to
have on some occasions filled large iron kettles with liquor and called all of his 'children,'
the promyshleniki (fur hunters), to come and drink from the common source. The Tlingit
around Sitka in the 1870s customarily used the Russian term 'prasnik' for their drinking
carousals."10
Whiskey feasts held in early Alaska had many elements in common with feasts held
across the world by Anglo- Saxons during the Middle Ages.
That this type of drinking feast is similar to the feasts of the Middle Ages in Europe
suggests that feasts with heavy drinking are perhaps characteristic of people all over the
world, and not just behavior that is modeled after certain groups.
This type of "prestige through extravagance" performs many important functions in
winning loyalty and gaining status among small groups. At these feasts, it was the practice
to gain prestige and legitimacy for nobles to expending virtually all their wealth on their
followers. In this way he affirmed his superiority over families and classes less confident in
the future or more careful in providing for it.11
REPUTED HEATH-GIVING QUALITIES OF ALCOHOL BEVERAGES
Alcohol has been taken internally in times past as commonly as orange juice is now
taken in the morning. It was the firm belief of most American colonists who were
concerned about their health that a pre-breakfast jolt of something highly alcoholic warded
off chills and strengthened the blood.12
Periodic intoxication was believed beneficial for the system if not indulged in too
often. One of the most popular medical works of the 15th and 16th centuries was written
by Arnald of Villanova in 1310 AD and titled Liber de vinis. It recommended 49 different
wines in the treatment of illness. One of his recommendations included this comment:
"There is undoubtedly something to be said for intoxication, inasmuch as the results
which usually follow do certainly purge the body of noxious humours. But one should not
do so too often; for a normal man, no more than twice a month."13
An Italian document of the 14th century discusses the health- giving qualities of
spirits when used externally as well as internally and asserted that spirits were good for
treatment of lice, greying hair, general body aches, sterility, gout and deafness.14
Long before it gained the reputation of an evil foreign beverage,i.e., "Demon Rum",
rum was used to give the illusion of warmth to colonists who lacked any other form of
"central heating" while they built their livelihood out of the American wilderness. Even
Carrie Nation's grandfather carefully measured out a hygienic spoonful of liquor to each
family member, firmly believing that he was doing what was in the best interests of the
family.15
RUSSIAN ALCOHOL HISTORY
In early Russia, as in other countries, the production and consumption of alcoholic
beverages were in the hands of independent peasants and farmers. Drinking establishments
were similar to the roadhouse of the early American colonies: places where a traveller could
eat, drink and obtain lodging for the night. In Russia, these were called korchma or
taverns.
In 1543, Tsar Ivan IV [The Great, the Terrible] is said to have instituted the Russian
equivalent of a saloon. It was the kabak, a place where people came for only one activity -to drink.
Gradually, the production of liquor was reserved to state- operated concessions and
peasants were forbidden to brew and distill drinks by 1705. The saloonkeeper was forced
to swear his good faith and just dealings by kissing the cross, therefore, the Russian name
for a saloonkeeper came to be tseloval'nik or one who kisses.16
In 1767, following the recommendation of a commission made to study how to
increase the profitability of the alcohol monopoly to the state, a system of farming out
liquor franchises (otkupa) was established. Those who obtained these franchises were
believed to be "local despots and political bosses," who robbed the poor of Russia.17
By the early 1900s, while temperance organizations flourished in the United States,
temperance societies also sprang up in Russia. It was at this time that Orthodox Russians
began taking a pledge of abstinence from alcohol seriously. The abstinence lasted for
designated periods of time and were administered by the parish priest.18
THE ENGLISH AND ALCOHOL
Numerous British sailors visited the Alaskan coast as early as the 1780s. Before
discussing the offering of alcohol to the Natives of Alaska, it is fair that some history of the
British and alcohol be understood.
In the early 1700s, gin had become so commonplace in England that its effects are,
even now, referred to as the gin plague. Rather bleak pictures have been painted of the
poor of England. For example:
"Every one who now passes thro' the Streets of this great metropolis, and looks into
the Distillers Shops...must see...a Crowd of poor ragged People, cursing and quarreling
with one another, over repeated Glasses of these destructive Liquors....[I]n one place...a
Trader has a large empty Room backward, where as his wretched Guests get intoxicated,
they are laid together in Heaps, promiscuously, Men, Women, and Children, till they
recover their Senses, when they proceed to drink on, or, having spent all they had, go out
and find wherewithal to return to the same dreadful Pursuit."19
The Gin laws of 1736 caused violent Gin Riots when they were enforced.
Widespread bootlegging and smuggling rendered the law unenforceable. Sailors were given
a daily ration of either a pint of wine or a half-pint of rum to replace the gallon of beer they
had been allowed since 1590. This was known as the fatigue ration or the rum ration.20
By 1770, the drinking of highland whiskey had become so popular in Scotland that
folklore grew around this new home-made alcohol beverage.
The Highlanders "regale themselves with whiskey; a malt spirit as strong as geneva,
which they swallow in great quantities, without any signs of inebriation. They are used to it
from the cradle."21
Alcohol was believed important as a medicine and was especially considered
important in damp or cold climates.22 In an age when almost everyone suffers from one
kind of physical pain or another, and no anesthetics are available, alcohol was reported to be
the best pain-killer.23
As early as 1735, a few writers in England began to warn of possible health
problems that could be caused by drinking undiluted wine and distilled liquor.
"Wine it felf, habitually ufed as a common diluter, at Meals, &c. without Water, is
of bad confequence to Health; 'for, fays the fame Author, we fee by daily Experience, that
(as natural Caufes will always produce their proper Effects) their Blood becomes inflamed
into Gouts, Stone and Rheumatifm, raging Fevers, Pleurifies, Small Pox, or Meafles; their
Paffions are inraged into Quarrels, Murder and Blafphemy; their Juices are dried up; and
their Solids fcorched and fhrivelled.'"24
CANADIAN ALCOHOL HISTORY
No history of alcohol in Alaska would be complete without discussing what
happened in Canada - particularly western Canada - as it related to alcohol. Many gold
miners travelled through Canada on the way to the gold fields of interior Alaska. Others
stopped in Dawson to seek their fortune before following the rumors of gold to Nome and
other Alaskan mining boom towns.
Competition between American fur companies and those loyal to England who
traded and trapped their way just north of United States' borders was often intense.25 This
competition was the result of mistrust over what merchants did in out-of-the-way places.
United States fur companies explained their use of liquor in the fur trade as being because
of unethical practices by English traders along the border.
"In 1833 east of the Rocky Mountains it was the custom to deal it out sparingly but
gratuitously [by the Hudson's Bay Fur Company], giving the [Indians] a regale, as they
called it, on his arrival and departure, and the same to the Indian hunter when he brought in
furs to sell. Strange to say, the Chipewyans would not touch the intoxicating drink, and at
one time the Crows would not allow it to be brought into their country. They called it
'fool's water.' Heads of families were sometimes presented a few gallons of whiskey on
Christmas. In 1841 wagon-loads of alcohol in barrels were conveyed openly from the
Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, and sold everywhere, notwithstanding the laws
then in force against the traffic. All the great companies north and south of the Canada line
bewailed the necessity of dealing out alcohol, affirming they would gladly discontinue it but
for their competitors. Later, in 1850 and 1851, the Hudson Bay servants grew lax, for we
find complaints by the Russians on one side, and the American government on the other, of
their lack of good faith in selling alcohol to the natives."26
The most notable Canadian fur magnate was John Jacob Astor of the Hudson's Bay
Fur Company. He secretly included supplies of alcohol on shipments of trading goods to
the Northwest coast and profited from the sale of a large supply of alcohol to Baranof in
1812.27
While the Americans complained of the cheap and inferior quality of liquors
dispensed by the Canadian traders, the same argument was given by traders within the
Hudson's Bay Fur Company when they sought to improve the quality of drink in the
Canadian west by starting a company-owned still in 1861.
"The Governor and Council in imposing differential duties on the importation of
wine and spirits [from the United States] contemplate solely the mitigation of an evil. The
wines and spirits as now obtained from the United States are complained of as profuse in
quantity, and deleterious in quality. The importation from the British Dominions has not as
yet incurred similar objections. Such importation cannot be a monopoly so long as the
bonded vaults of New York are open to capital and enterprise.
"To abolish the
consumption of spirits is unobtainable. The minor benefit is to moderate its quantity and to
protect against the evils of adulteration."28
The Canadian archive records indicate they kept a tight reign on the Hudson's Bay
Fur Company, allowing no private citizen or other company the right to distill liquor but
them. The Company also had to pay the settlement a duty of a shilling per gallon that it
made and sold.29
Missionaries came to western Canada teaching the doctrine of prohibition to the
Indians they converted to the Church of England. After they had established faithful
congregations, the church desired that full membership privileges be allowed the Indian
converts. This included partaking in sacramental wine. At that point, one stubborn
missionary apostatized, took his prohibition-minded congregation with him in a mass
movement to the southern tip of Alaska, settling on Annette Island.30
In the early years and into the 1920s missionaries complained to American
government officials and licensed liquor dealers in Alaska about supposed availability of
liquor from Canadian ports. Liquor that came into Alaska from Canada was untaxed and
benefitted the Canadians rather than American citizens who also marketed refreshing drinks.
IMPORTANCE OF ALCOHOL TO THE ECONOMY AND CULTURE OF USA
Before the American Revolution, rum and molasses (of which rum was made)
accounted for one-fifth the value of all goods imported from Britain and its possessions.
From Philadelphia northward, rum distillation from imported molasses was the leading
manufacturing process.31
Rum was the currency of the age, for it shipped easily, could be warehoused easily,
and with proper handling could increase in value with age. During the Revolution, when
the British blockaded molasses and rum imports, Patrick Henry embarrassed his friends by
serving only beer to his important guests. Even General George Washington, on retiring
from the presidency, settled down to converting his neighbors' grain into a more drinkable
product by means of a distillery in Mt. Vernon.32
The early citizens of the United States joked on gravestones about their propensity
to drink heavily:
Underneath this marble tomb,
In endless shades lies drunken
Tom;
Here safely moor'd, dead as a log,
Who got his death by drinking
grog-- By whiskey grog he lost his breath,
Who would not die so sweet a death.
--Epitaph of Kentuckian Tom Johnson--
New words crept into the language of those who settled on the frontier to describe
the behavior of those who had taken too freely of the liquid spirit. "Boozy, groggy, blue,
damp, tipsy, fuddled, haily gaily, how-come-you-so, half-shaved, swipy, cut in the craw,
three sheets in the wind" and numerous other expressions were applied to the man who
came home leaning a little to one side or the other after going down to the grocery on an
errand for the family and meeting a few friends en route.33
It was these Americans who insisted that they "had only taken a few" and stated that
they were "not either" drunk.
He is not drunk who from the floor
more,
But he is drunk, who prostrate lies,
drink and cannot rise.
Can rise again, and drink once
And cannot
Not being satisfied with the common, garden variety references to whiskey, they
invented new drinks with fancy names. "Tanglefoot, Nokum Stiff, Rotgut, Soda Pop
Moon, Panther sweat, Tiger spit" and "Jersey Lightning" referred to drinks that believed
lethal if drunk if the observer was inclined to join political groups like the W.C.T.U. or the
Prohibition Party.34
SELECTED RELIGIONS BEGIN TO URGE "TEMPERANCE"
It wasn't until about 1830 that the temperance and prohibition forces began to turn
any large groups away from heavy drinking. Even then, the primary audiences were
Congregationalists, Methodists and Quakers. These church-going folk were normally not
opposed to alcoholic beverages so much as just being opposed to the distilled variety of
alcoholic drinks. Records of this period show that many of these men only changed their
drinking patterns from spirituous drinks to beer and wine to wet their whistles.
Water was thought of as weak; a drink fit only for animals and lesser creatures,
certainly not suitable for a species so advanced as man.35 One of the drinking songs
composed by Benjamin Franklin went:
The Antedeluvians were all very sober,
For they had no wine and they
brewed no October;
All wicked, bad livers, on mischief still thinking,
For there can't be good living where there is not good
drinking.Derry Down-Twas honest old Noah first planted the vine,
And mended his morals by drinking its wine;
And thenseforth justly the drinking of
water decried For he knew that all Mankind by drinking it dy'd. Derry Down-- From this
piece of history plainly we find
That water's good neither for body or mind;
That virtue and safety in wine-bibbing's found
While all that
drink water deserve to be drowned.
Derry Down-- So for Safety
and Honesty, put the glass round.36
Some started to insist, however, that bright, sparkling water was the best drink for
mankind as well as for the animals.
O, water for me!
Bright water for me,
And wine for the tremulous debauchee. . .
-McGuffey's New Eclectic Speaker (1858)-By the time of this new awakening about water, alcohol had been used for nearly 50
years along the Alaskan coastal waters by the Russians, American, Indians and British alike.
Residents in Alaska understood little of the forces gearing up in the east over temperance.
By the end of the Civil War (1865), and at about the same time that jurisdiction over
Alaskan waters changed hands, a new, stronger temperance movement was about to
unleash itself upon the hard-drinking Alaskan miners, fur trappers and fortune-hunters -and not least of all, the Alaskan Indians.
This movement was shaped by powerful political and religious forces that converged
far away from "The Great Land." It would give new significance to the drinking behavior
of all those who used liquor, especially those who encouraged the Natives to use and abuse
the "waters of life."
The consumption of some distilled spirituous liquors began to be condemned by an
Evangelical revival known as Methodism, but the consumption of fermented beverages was
still generally considered healthful and likely to improve one's health.37
Some Englishmen were so afraid of following the radical advice of drinking water,
that they resolved to drink water only if fortified or strengthened with whiskey, a mixture
thought to be less dangerous. One Englishman in 1849 claimed that porter beer was as
cheap as any other drink but water and was easier to get than the latter.38
If God had intended man to drink water, He would not have made him with
an elbow
Capable of raising a wine glass.
--Benjamin Franklin--39
In England, America and Russia, as well as throughout the world generally, alcohol
has been used to meet the social, emotional and medicinal needs of society prior to and
during the discovery and colonization of Alaska by those of European and Asian ancestry.
Alaskan Natives had yet to find uses this liquid drink could be put to if one really applied
himself to the task.
"What wonders does not wine! It discloses secrets; ratifies and confirms our hopes;
thrusts the coward forth to battle; eases the anxious mind of its burden; instructs in art.
Whom has not a cheerful glass made eloquent; whom not quite free and easy from pinching
poverty." --Horace--
FROM TEMPERANCE TO PROHIBITION
The first meaningful word of warning about bad effects of drinking distilled alcohol
in this country came in the 1870s by Dr. Benjamin Rush, the Surgeon General of the U.S.
Army during the Revolutionary War. Rush was determined to stop the over use of distilled
liquors. He believed wines and fermented drinks were healthy. He also recommended
opium as an treatment for drunkenness, considering it a less habituating drug. Among the
treatments recommended for intoxicated people, included the following:40
1. Open the drundard's collar
2. Incite vomiting by thrusting a feather down
his throat
3. Wrap the head with a napkin dipped in cold water
4. Plunge the
body in cold water
5. Terrify the drinker
6. Make him angry 7. Administer a
severe whipping
8. Make him sweat 9. bleeding
Most of people in the 1800s believed the reform of drunkards could best be
accomplished by helping the problem drinker sign a pledge or otherwise promise to cease
his course of self-destruction.41 Moderate drinkers were not felt to be any particular
problem. By 1833, however, a movement began that advocated abstinence for everyone,
particularly poor people. This movement separated those who had signed the Old Pledge
(one that allowed alcohol when it was taken occasionally) from those who were in favor of
a new, stricter pledge, one that was total (or T-Total).
Virtually all that was bad in this country was blamed on alcohol, from murders,
poverty, accidents,42 and sickness to the huffy attitude thought to be shown toward whites
by Negroes and Indians.
What became known as "The Women's Crusade" or "Women's War" began in
December 1873 and resulted the next year in the new organization of the Women's Christian
Temperance Organization.43 Other powerful organizations came onto the national political
scene that impacted all legislation coming out of Washington, including the Prohibition
Party, The Anti-Saloon League and others. Lobbying by some of these groups accounted
for a considerable amount of the criticism leveled at Alaskan drinking practices.
Temperance songs were sung in Sunday Schools across the country and poems were
memorized that eulogized clear water as the drink of the future, at the same time decrying
anything with alcohol as of the devil.
Trusting in help from heaven above,
We pledge ourselves to
works of love,
With hearts and hands united stand
To spread a blessing
o'er the land.
And now resolve we will not take, Nor give, nor buy, nor sell, nor
make,
Through all the years of mortal life
Those drinks which cause
pain, woe, and strife-Rum, Brandy, Whiskey, Cordials fine,
Gin, Cider, Porter, Ale, and Wine. (Poem by Thomas Poage Hunt)44
The Great Experiment came to the United States in January, 1920 when the 18th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect. Before then many states and
territories (including Alaska with its own "Bone Dry" law) had already embraced
prohibition.
Footnotes to Chapter 10
1. For a more complete study of the history of alcohol in the United States and the rest of
the world, see Rorabaugh, W.J. (1979); Fleming, Alice (1975); Baron, Stanley (1962);
Furnas, J.C. (1965); Harrison, Brian (1971); Austin, Gregory A. (1985) and numerous
other references.
2. One of the promises of the Rechabites in the Bible in addition to abstaining from wine
was to build no houses nor sow seeds nor to plant vineyards. See Jeremiah35:1-15;
2Kings10:15,23.
3. "And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil
place? It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any
water to drink." Numbers 20:5.
4. We have not seen much of a modern nature to argue the commonly-held view that there
were two types of wine mentioned in the Bible: one being alcoholic and wicked, and the
other being non-intoxicating and wholesome. The debate raged in the late 1800's, however,
and many scholars wrote books (now so far out of print that they are very hard to find)
expressing their points of view on the subject. Some of the publications on this subject that
I have found include: Patton, William Rev. Bible Wines: Laws of Fermentation, recently republished by Sane Press, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Lees, F.R. and Burns, D. The
Temperance Bible Commentary, London (1868); Nott, E. Lectures on Biblical Temperance,
London (1863); Nott, Eliphalet Lectures On Temperance, A.M. Moffatt & Co. (1858);
Lees, Frederic Richard How To Treat The House We Live In, John Moffat Business
College, Urbana, Ohio (1870); Jewett, Edward H. Communion Wine, The Church Review
Association, (1886); Ellis, John A Reply To "The Academy's" Review, New York (1883);
Jewett, Edward H. Communion Wine: A Critical Examination of Scripture Words and
Historic Testimony, The Church Review Association, New York (1886).
5. Austin, Gregory A. (1985), p. 47-48.
6. Dimont, M. Jews, God and History, New York, New American Library (1962), p. 162175.
7. Jellinik, E.M. (1943), p. 663.
8. Austin, Gregory A. (1985), p. 99.
9. Collison, W. H. In The Wake of the War Canoe, E.P. Dutton & Co., New York (1916),
p. 33. Harvey, Elouise, Life of John McLaughlin
10. Lemert, Edwin M. (1954), p. 397.
11. Bloch, M. Feudal Society, Translated by L.A. Manyon, 2 Volumes, Chicago,
University of Chicago Press, Phoenix Books (1964), Vol 2, p. 294- 295.
12. Furnas, J.C. (1965), p. 17.
13. Quoted from Emerson, E.R., Beverages Past and Present, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New
York (1908), V.2, p. 140-141.
14. Patrick, C.H. Alcohol, Culture and Society, Duke University Press (1952), p. 30.
15. Ibid, p. 17.
16. Most of this information is based on an article published in Moscow in 1868 by I. G.
Pryzhov called "A History of Saloons in Russia in Relation to the History of the Russian
People" that was reproduced and evaluated by Evra Efron in "The Tavern and Saloon in
Old Russia" Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Vol 16 (1955) p. 484-514. It is an
interesting observation that those who were punished for bootlegging and violation of
alcohol-related regulations were exiled to Siberia. It was from this very stock of people
that the first Russians were recruited to become fur traders in Alaska.
17. de Madariaga, I. Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great, London, Weidenfeld and
Nicolson (1981), p. 463-464.
18. This practice is still practiced in various rural villages in Alaska, by the way. The
pledge is usually accompanied by a short, private religious service in the local Russian
Orthodox (Greek Orthodox) chapel. The person making the pledge then makes a promise
before the cross, which he then kisses. I believe that this kind of pledge has not yet been
used to the extent that it could be if we would try to institute it for limited periods of time.
For a description of this service and examples, see Pares, Bernard, Russia and Reform,
Hyperion Press, Inc., Westport, Conn. (1907), p. 142-143 also see Jelleneck (1943), p.
663-667.
19. Austin, Gregory A. (1985), p. 307.
20. Ibid, p. 310. The fatigue ration was to be consumed when "fatigued."
21. Ibid, p. 347.
22. Lucia, S. A History of Wine As Therapy, Philadelphia, Lippincott (1963), p. 8. If it is
true that damp and cold climates contribute to the desire for alcohol, then Alaska would
certainly be a candidate for a place where it was perceived that liquor was going to be
needed.
23. Austin (1985), p. 272. Virtually nothing is mentioned in histories I have read about
Alaska about what the Alaskan Natives did to ease pain and suffering when ill or wounded.
If they used alcohol when first introduced to relieve pain or give the perception of warmth
in a cold climate, they must have felt that it was a valuable commodity to own or barter
with.
24. Distilled Spiritous Liquors The Bane of the Nation (1736) London, p. xi.
25. Liquor coming to the United States from Canada came in two sizes, "Imperial quarts"
and "reputed quarts". A "reputed quart" was equivalent to an American "fifth", or roughly
to a 26 ounce Canadian bottle. Gray, James H. (1972), p. 13.
26. Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1880), V.I, p. 547-548.
27. Porter, Kenneth Wiggins John Jacob Astor Business Man, Harvard University Press,
Cambridge (1931) Vol I, p. 513. The name of the ship that contained this alcohol was the
Beaver.
28. Oliver, E.H. (1914), p. 97.
29. Ibid, p. 325.
30. The minister was Rev. William Duncan. Although his band of Indians were allowed to
trade molasses to tribes to the north, they would not allow those to stay on the Island who
refused to follow strict prohibition from alcohol. Collector Morris charged Father Duncan
with selling blankets, arms, ammunition, silk and molasses to Indians in the Chilkat country
near Haines. 45th Congress 3rd Session, Exec. Doc. No. 59, January 7, 1879, p. 31.
31. Rorabaugh, W.J. (1979), p. 61.
32. Ibid, p. 64, 65.
33. Carson, Gerald (1963), p. 7.
34. Ibid, p. 5-43.
35. Furnas (1965), p. 71-73.
36. Kobler, John, p. 34.
37. Ibid, p. 316.
38. Rorabaugh (1975), p. 97. Harrison, Brian (1971), p. 289.
39. Rorabaugh (1975), p. 97.
40. Rush, Benjamin (1943-1944), p. 324-341. Dr. Rush also taught that men exposed for a
long time to wet and cold could ward off fevers by pouring a half a pint of rum into each
boot in addition to pouring some down his throat. See Furnas, J.C. (1965), p. 40.
41. The orchestrator of the Alaska Purchase, William Seward had signed a "pledge" as a
member of the Washingtonian Society, but by the time of the purchase of Alaska he had
been widely accused of being one who always had a ready supply of liquor nearby. p. 86-87
"Seward did not rely on formal persuasion alone. He was a genial and skillful host who
enjoyed good food and drink and saw that his guests were able to as well. What could be
more natural than to argue the case for Alaska over a well-cooked meal and a bottle or two
of the Secretary's favorite Lachryma Christi? Thanks to his position at the department,
Seward had a cellar that would support extended entertainment. The wine came cheaply,
purchased through American representatives abroad and foreign ambassadors in the United
States. The round of dinner parties on Lafayette Square began Saturday night, 30 march,
the evening the treaty was announced, and continued until confirmation ten days later. A
few cabinet members and senators attended each dinner, and in the afterglow of mealtime
listened to their host recite the virtues of the Russian agreement. On Friday and the
following Saturday, as the treaty remained in doubt, Seward pushed ratification over dinner.
'Terrapin and Chateau Marguax will doubtless assist in the elucidation of this already knotty
subject,' joked the New York Herald correspondent." Jensen, Ronald J. The Alaska
Purchase and Russian-American Relations, University of Washington Press, Seattle (1975),
p. 86-87 Seward's personal wine cellar grew so large that when he retired, its
transportation proved a major task. Van Deusen, Glyndon G., William Henry Seward,
Oxford University Press (1967), p. 402.
42. A medical journal noted in 1904 that "inebriate and moderate drinkers are the most
incapable of all persons to drive motor wagons" and recommended that society should
restrict the operation of its new automobiles to "total abstainers." The recognition that
there was a relationship between industrial accidents and alcohol resulted in noted
manufacturers to become ardent prohibitionists, like John D. Rockerfeller, Henry Ford and
William Randolph Hurst. Henry Ford was so adamant about prohibition that he threatened
to halt automobile production if the nation should ever think of repeal of consitutional
prohibition. Lender, Mark Edward and Martin, James Kirby (1982), p. 108.
43. Lender, Mark Edward and Martin, James Kirby (1982), p. 88-91.
44. Kobler, John, p. 69.
Appendix A
BIBLIOGRAPHY
40th Congress, 2nd Session, House Document #177
40th Congress, Senate Executive Document #68, (1869), appendix B
41st Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Executive Doc. #67
41st Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Executive Doc. #68
42nd Congress, 1st Session, House Exec. Doc. #5
43rd Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Executive Document #24
44th Congress, 1st Session, Executive Document, # 1, (Sept 1, 1875)
44th Congress, 1st Session, House Executive Document #135, "Letter from the Secretary
of War," February 26, 1876
44th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Executive Document #12
44th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Executive Document #71
45th Congress, 3rd Session, Senate Executive Document #59, "Report from the Customs
District, Public Service and Resources of Alaska Territory, 1879"
46th Congress, Senate Executive Document #192
47th Congress, 1st Session, Exexutive Document #71, 1882
47th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Report #457, 04/21/1882
55th Congress, 1st Session, House Executive Document No. 92, Seal and Salmon Fisheries
and General Resources of Alaska
55Th Congress, 3rd Session, Senate Document #122, February 15, 1899
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