Chapter 4, Pt 2: The Russian C'eyigge' , from
"Legacy of the Chief"
The tyone was well aware of the recent history of the U.S. Cavalry
regarding the harsh treatment of the Native inhabitants of the western
United States. He was already coming to realize that everything he was
trying to achieve was in danger of being ultimately lost. If nothing
else, he sought to buy as much time as possible for his people to adjust
to a different future than they had every known. Their continued
existence as Ahtnas had to be assured. At some point into the
conversation (with Lieutenant Henry Allen) it had dawned on Nicolai that
the world of his ancestors would probably be buried with him.
Doc Billum
and his Family at Lower Tonsina, circa 1910. --AMHA,
B71.14.25
It may well have been the lure of the copper was the deciding factor in the
lieutenant’s decision to alter his planned route at additional risk to his small
expedition. After the party had time to recuperate, they left their cache at
Taral. Skilly led Lieutenant Allen’s group through the mountainous pathway which
followed the Hanagita Valley, heading east toward the high glacier country along
a difficult trail which finally ended at Nicolai’s village of C’ena’Tsedi.
When he finally arrived at Nicolai’s winter camp near the Chitistone River, the
lieutenant, who was a relatively young man himself, must have been quite
startled to realize that the tyone was only eighteen years old. Nicolai was
enormously relieved when he saw that he was facing a representative of the U.S.
Army rather than of the Russian imperial navy--a party Nicolai would have been
obliged to kill on the spot.
Lieutenant Allen, acting on instructions to determine whether peace could be
made with the interior Indians, soon realized that he chose correctly by
following Skilly to this remote place. The lieutenant soon had little doubt in
his mind that Nicolai was the man who spoke for the people of the Copper River
valley--’Atna’tuuTs’itu’.
Nicolai was determined to maintain the upper hand. For several hours he
pretended to be unable to understand the lieutenant. Yet he understood English
reasonably well, thanks to the presence of prospector John Bremner, who had
stayed at Taral several months in the last year.
The lieutenant was in an unusually unique position because he had some
familiarity with the Apache language. He was the first white man to recognize
that the Apache and Athabascan languages were related.
He was anxious to make an accommodation with the chief, having been instructed
to try to pave the way toward peaceful relations between the Native leaders and
the U.S. Army. Lieutenant Allen had an earnest quality which Nicolai soon
recognized. The tyone ultimately accepted his sincerity. At the same time,
Nicolai was acutely aware that the lieutenant could only be the point man for
some vast unknown and possibly deadly power.
Nicolai and his wives from "An Expedition to the Copper, Tanana and
Koyukuk River in 1885, Lt. Henry Allen
Skilly witnessed the event. He believed that the lieutenant was suitably
impressed by our young chief. Lieutenant Allen drew a simple sketch of the chief
and some of his women and children at the camp. The drawing has survived to this
day and is well known. Upon seeing this drawing, the chief was impressed and
flattered. He finally began to talk with Lieutenant Allen in the English
language.
The lieutenant wanted three things. He needed a fresh supply of food so he could
return to his own cache at Taral. His provisions had already run low. Beyond
that he wanted access to additional provisions for the longer trip up the Copper
River. Nicolai had already greeted the party in the traditional way as honored
guests. They held a great feast which demonstrated the chief’s recognition of
Lieutenant Allen as an official representative of high standing. The Lieutenant
found that he was treated far better than he had reason to expect.
The tyone alone understood that the 1885 Allen Expedition was only the
beginning . . .He was plagued with nightmares over the Great Change.
Just as the chiefs before him had waited for the vengeful return of the
Russians, the tyone awaited the return of the Americans with their lust
for gold, or worse--the mountain of copper. Fifteen years later
Uk'eledi erupted one final time. This occurred the summer following the
winter when Nicolai revealed the location of the Nicolai Prospect to
Edward Gates.
Eskilida
fish camp at CRNW mile 125 sites on the west bank of the Copper River in
view of Mt. Wrangell. --UAF,
E.B. Schrock, 84-80-51
A close view
of Eskilida camp looking east across the Copper River --Simpson Files
The second request was that the chief personally accompany the lieutenant’s
party up the Copper River. Nicolai was reluctant to return with Lieutenant Allen
to Taral only to guide the party up the Copper River. At first he would not
agree, but he contemplated the possibilities for trade and the implications of a
U.S. Army official expedition entering his territory. Ultimately he recognized
that it was the role the tyone of Taral to guide the party through his country.
He did not agree to go beyond Taral, however, until after the party had already
returned to that encampment.
His presence proved to be crucial to the expedition. It guaranteed that the
party would be able to proceed through the valley in peace and with a good
supply of food. Everywhere they went there was a welcoming feast honoring the
tyone and his personal guests. Although Nicolai only guided the expedition as
far as Tazlina, the Indians far up river, particularly the war-like Mendaesde,
understood that Lieutenant Allen was to be recognized as the honored guest of
the chief.
With successive chiefs at each village, Lieutenant Allen had to negotiate for
provisions, using what he brought from the coast for trading stock. Fortunately
the expedition still had the full cache it had left at Taral. Their supplies
included tea, tobacco and other highly valued items the lieutenant would need to
trade with the various chiefs. None of the village leaders would deal with the
lieutenant without first consulting Nicolai. The tyone ensured that the party
paid dearly for their supply of food and his continued support in the Copper
River valley. Undoubtedly Lieutenant Allen was relieved when Nicolai finally
turned back at Tazlina. He felt as though he had been taken by a very cunning
young chief. It had been an expensive trip.
Most important and far-reaching of his three requests was the last one.
Lieutenant Allen wanted the chief to reveal or at least confirm that there
really was a rich source of the legendary copper. Although Nicolai refused to
show the U.S. Army party the location of his tsedi, Nicolai confirmed that
native copper existed everywhere. The presence of copper at the camp was readily
apparent anyway, mainly due to the large number of copper gun shells. The
lieutenant also saw several pieces of copper which could only have been taken
from a rich vein. When he asked Nicolai to point out the direction of the
richest of the tsedi, the tyone turned toward the northwest, to the ridges which
extend from K’als’i Tl’aadi. He pointed in the direction of the Nicolai
Prospect.
Skilly related to us that the small group of white men in the party turned
silent. The tyone said nothing. He simply pointed. But there was something in
the manner in which he did this which gave the party the impression that they
had just learned of a sacred place. The lieutenant, the sergeant, the private
and the prospector all sat in stunned silence after Nicolai waved his arm toward
the mountain ridge. Until then, the only known copper existed in the occasional
nuggets which were revealed by the many small streams in the area. The tyone had
just pointed in the direction of the true mother lode which all white men
sought. They were certain of it. Every one of them sensed the historic impact of
the moment.
It was the beginning of the end for the old Ahtna ways. The white man finally
had something resembling official confirmation that the legendary copper lode
really existed in the Wrangells. It was only a matter of finding a way to the
source and a means to transport it to the coast. That would come soon enough.
The men had many things to discuss. Grandfather asked the lieutenant about the
Russians. This was when the lieutenant assured Nicolai that the dreaded and
hated Russians were long gone, never to return. The lieutenant inquired about
the massacres, but Nicolai had very little to say. He did not want to discuss
the matter. Better to keep silent about it.
When Lieutenant Allen mistakenly said that the American government had purchased
Alaska from the Russians, he received a long, thoughtful stare from the chief.
Nicolai, after an uncomfortable silence, finally asked how the Russians could
sell this land when the Russians themselves had never successfully laid claim to
it. Indeed the Mendaesde slaughtered the Russians at Batzulnetas close to the
headwaters of the Copper River many years before. The Russians never returned.
They had no claim.
The tyone wanted to know how any man could believe he might own land in the same
way that he owned his weapons or his clothes--or his wives. Men would be born
and then they would die, but the land would always be there. The lieutenant
never attempted to explain the western concept of land ownership and the chief
did not want to hear it.
Nicolai then told Henry Allen that he considered the lieutenant and his party to
be guests of his Ahtna hosts, in a land which had always been and always would
be that of the ‘Atna’tuuTs’itu’. No other men had been known to live in this
remote, rugged, mountainous country in the extreme north end of North America.
Nicolai did not mention that we had ancient tales of other men who had been here
at the time of the Atna’ Ben --an enormous lake said to have once covered all
but the highest points of land which were themselves covered by glaciers.
The tyone was aware of the recent history of the U.S. Cavalry regarding the
harsh treatment of the native inhabitants of the western United States. He was
already coming to realize that everything he was trying to achieve was in danger
of being ultimately lost. If nothing else, he wanted to buy as much time as
possible for his people to adjust to a very different future. Their continued
existence as Ahtnas had to be assured. At some point into the conversation it
had dawned on Nicolai that the world of his ancestors would probably be buried
with him.
Nicolai’s deep concerns not lost on Lieutenant Allen. He politely listened to
the chief and thoughtfully considered what he had said. He reassured his host
that he was not the lead man in a massive military invasion. The Army did not
have the resources to accomplish that, in any case. The lieutenant failed to add
that instead the incursion would come gradually. At first, nothing would happen
at all.
Neither man held any illusions. They were acutely aware that they had just
become significant pawns in an enormous twist of history. Neither wanted to
dishonor the other, for there was nothing to be gained. Both made the best of
what each man suspected to be the inevitable. The lieutenant now held the door
open with the foot of the American government. In time the railroad would come
and the door would be opened wide. The Indians saved the cavalry only to be
sideswiped by the coming freight train.
The Indians saved the cavalry only to be sideswiped by the coming
freight train.
Blasting the railbed in Woods
Canyon - 1910 --John R. Van Cleve Collection
Copper River Natives, including
Horse Creek Mary, Anchorage Museum of History & Art, B62.1A.138
