Chapter 7, part 2:
"The Deal," from
"Legacy of the Chief"
In front of a lodge at Taral --NPS photo
But Nicolai understood that far more was at stake. Here he was, in the position
of those east-coast Indians of so long ago who had been asked to trade a piece
of land for a few trinkets. Nicolai did not want to be known forever as the
Indian who traded away his land for a few trinkets. He did not understand the
white concept of ownership, but he suspected that land was the real issue. There
was no way for Nicolai to understand the true value of the copper, but there was
no doubt that the white men wanted it badly. He knew that if the white men
wanted it that much, there must be something to it, though he did not understand
what it was. But it all came down to the land. It was not a good sign. He was no
longer in a position to worry about whether some was engii. He had to act.
Nicolai had prepared himself for this moment ever since the Tonsina incident.
Now he would use his finest bargaining skills. Doc Billum was known to be a
natural trader. Nicolai would have to do better than the Doc. He had known that
someday they would come to him, expecting him to simply grant what they asked
for very little in return.
“I know that you are here to stay and that you will not go away. Nor will we go
away. We have always been here and we will always be here. One day, you may
leave, but we will not. This is the only home we have known. Our ancestors are
buried here. This land is our life. It has always provided for us.” “It has failed you.”
“Only because you white people have driven out the game and trapped
the fish at the mouth of the great river, leaving little for us.”
“How would you know that?”
“I am a sleep-doctor. No one told me, but I know.
“You want the tsedi. We have interest in your cache.
“So we have much to discuss. Sit around the fire in the lodge with me, and we
will talk. Hanagita, Skilly and Eskilida are inside, as is my son Goodlataw.”
Ed Gates spoke for the group.
“We know that your people need food. We have brought our own which we will leave
with you as a gift. James spotted the moose downriver, which Art shot. Out dogs
dragged the carcass in on the sled.”
Nicolai and his band welcomed the fresh moose meat, which had become a rare
treat under these tough circumstances. Better yet, Ed Gates had packed rice and
tea. Tonight all would enjoy a truly great feast--the
first one like it in months.
“My women still live by my word. They have not yet begun to talk back to the men
and tell us to fix our own meals. After my son cuts up the meat, my women will
prepare the feast while we talk. We accept your gift, but we would have been
prepared to share what food we have with you because you have shown up at my
camp.”
Ed Gates appreciated the genuine hospitality and complete lack of hostility of
his host, the tyone.
“You have taught us all that we must work together if we are to survive. We
thank you for welcoming us into your lodge on so cold a night.”
He signaled to a younger member of his party, who pulled something out of one of
packs which had accompanied the McClellan party.
“We will
show you our location if you show us yours. We want the entire cache.”
--Chief Nicolai to Edward Gates
It had been a rough trek from the mouth of the Bremner River to Taral. The river
ice had helped, but there were several open areas on the river as well as some
very treacherous overflows. The chief’s lodge was a welcome sight indeed. It was
warm and comfortable, and the hosts were friendly.
Udzisyu brought the men tea. She smiled at all of the men as she poured. The
woman was pleased to have so much meat, rice, and tea to prepare. She wanted to
honor these men who had taken considerable effort and risk to arrive here in
midwinter.
“While the meal is being prepared, I have also brought some tobacco which is our
gift to you.”
It was appropriate. The chief had a pipe. It was time to pass the pipe. These
men had come to discuss monumental business. The discussions went on through the
night. Although the chief soon realized that the men had only the cache at
Bremner to offer, he would make the most of the situation. Nothing quite like
this would probably ever happen again.
Nicolai picked up his tea, as did his brothers and son, who had returned from
his job of carving up the moose meat. All of them raised their cups in a salute
to the tyone.
These
men are polite and considerate, just as was the young
lieutenant when we feasted with his party way back then.
(Nicolai thinking to himself)
“Your people have brought us diseases and
whiskey, which is like a disease. We did not have these afflictions before you
came. Someday you will build your own town nearby across the great river. We
will need
your help. We want your word that the white man will build a place to save us
from those diseases. Our medicine is not for the white man diseases. I am sick
in my heart for all the people we have already lost.
“If you fail, we will come to remind you. We will stay at edge of your camps and
your town until you agree to help. We will not threaten you. But we will not
leave you alone. You will not be able to ignore us. In the end, you will agree
just to get rid of us. It is better to agree now. Then follow your words.”
Gates was not expecting this. He did not represent any government agency and
could not speak for them. But it was clear that the chief had long considered
this. It was understandable, when he gave it some thought.
“I am not a government agent. I can not commit them to anything. But I will do
my best to convince them to build an Indian clinic. We will even volunteer our
help to build it. It will be up to the government to provide the doctor or the
nurse.”
Nicolai had Gate’s word. There was nothing more to be said about that matter.
All he wanted was the word of the white men. He nodded his head in approval and
went on.
“We will show you our location if you show us yours. We want the entire
cache.”
Once again Gates was taken by surprise. The simplicity and obvious equality of
this proposal had a certain appeal. But it left him and his party without any
assured food for the remainder of the winter. He tried to talk the chief into a
split of the cache, but on this matter the chief would not budge.
In the end, the appeal of all that copper, possibly an entire mountain of it,
won out. Gates would find his own food or take the chance of starvation in
return for access to this legendary source of copper--Nicolai lode, soon to be
the Nicolai Prospect.
Ed Gates drew a map on the sandy floor of the lodge which showed the location of
the cache. Not only was the cache located exactly as Gates had drawn, but it
contained a generous measure of tea, coffee, salt, sugar and tobacco as well as
other useful supplies, including two rifles with ammunition and several cooking
utensils. Nicolai and his small group at Taral would have enough to survive the
winter.
In return, the chief sent the Gates party off to headwaters of Nicolai Creek.
His oldest brother Hanagita was the man who would take the honor. This was truly
Hanagita’s country. Hanagita preferred to live the life of a solitary Native
trapper. He spent almost all his time following the trails of the upper Chitina
and Nizina Rivers. This would be the last time anyone ever heard of Hanagita. He
had served his purpose and drifted off to an unknown fate. No white man ever set
eyes on Hanagita after 1899.
Kennecott
engineers' maps showing the Nicolai Lode claims and workings
Ed Gates staked the Nicolai Lode, Siwash Jack Lode, Wonder Lode, Surprise Lode,
Side Partner Lode, Red Rover Lode and the Last Lode, under the company name of
the Chittyna Exploration Company. This is the
entity which holds these claims to this very day. The claims were patented in
1904, but that was it.
The prospect remained just that. It never became a productive mine. The Gates
party had taken a gamble and they lost. But in the process Nicolai and Gates set
into motion events which could not be stopped. Like
Hanagita, this prospect drifted off into oblivion. It became a place of dashed
hopes. As an isolated old camp high in the remote hills at the end of a long
goat trail, it became one of the first of many deserted white man failed
prospects.
Nicolai had made his best deal under the most difficult of circumstances. He and
everyone else would have to live with it. In the end, after considerable
pestering, the whites built the clinic for the Indians at the new town of
Chitina, though the chief never lived to see it. The Native clinic that was
finally built in 1932 was the last unfulfilled part of the process that
culminated in the greatest high-grade copper mine of all time.
Nicolai had chosen the path for his people. He extracted a small but significant
commitment from the whites. Over the years, the Nicolai Prospect would become
confused with the great Bonanza outcropping. Some
people have come to believe that Nicolai gave away the Bonanza lode. He did not.
It no longer matters. The name of Nicolai, tyone of Taral, would live on long
after the names of the other chiefs were long forgotten because his name was
forever linked with the tsedi. The spirit of Nicolai would never fade away, for
he truly was the last great tyone of the Ahtnas.
Nicolai had
prepared himself for this moment ever since the Tonsina incident. Now he
would use his finest bargaining skills. Doc Billum was known to be a
natural trader. Nicolai would have to do better than the Doc. He had
known that someday they would come to him, expecting him to simply grant
what they asked for very little in return. --Johnny Gakona
