CHAPTER XV.

POLAR NATIVES ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO-POWERFUL TRIBES THE WARRIOR CHIEFS-WAR AND BLOODSHED LIKE THE FOUNDERS OF ROME -STEALING WOMEN-FIERCE BATTLE BETWEEN THE KOYUKUKS AND NOATAKS-FATE OF THE NOATAKS-LONG AND BLOODY WAR BETWEEN KOWAKS AND KOYUKUKS-THE KOYUKUKS DEFEATED WAR SCARE OF 1899-WANING OF THE WAR SPIRIT-Decline oF THE CHIEFS' POWERS -UNDERGROUND VILLAGES THE PRIEST PHYSICIANS SUPERSTITIONS AND TRADITIONS OF THE KOWAKS.

One hundred years ago the natives of the Kowak, Noatak, Koyukuk, Selawick and Allashook rivers were powerful tribes, each tribe numbering many thousands. The many old, deserted villages along these streams and the bones of the dead scattered by thousands along the rivers, as well as the traditions of the people themselves, testify to their great number in former years.

They were skillful and practiced in primitive methods of warfare and could muster great armies on short notice.

Their chiefs were then "clothed in purple and fine linen," or rather in the best and richest apparel of which they had knowledge, and were reverently regarded and implicitly obeyed by the people. As is usually true among aboriginal tribes, the authority of the chiefs was a necessity because of their warlike habits. Their chiefs, who were natural warriors themselves at least when occasion required, and occasions. were not wanting-were the commanders and pos

sessed almost discretionary power.

Among the Kowaks, the grave of their last great warrior-chief is still faithfully preserved, and to a stranger who secures their good will is pointed out with pride as one of the links which bind them to the past.

The five tribes mentioned inhabit the valleys of the five rivers, which have taken their respective names. The most eastern are the Allashook natives, called also Mountain Men and these and the Koyukuks, next to them on the west and south, appear to have been in the past the fiercest warriors of them all-at least they have given more occasion for war and bloodshed than any of the others.

In one respect they were like the founders of Rome. Their predatory instincts, however, seem to have been confined, unlike the Romans', almost exclusively to the capturing of the women of neighboring tribes, and the aggressors usually began hostilities by directing a raid against another tribe for the sole purpose of carrying to their own homes the latter's wives and daughters. This propensity caused innumerable conflicts between the tribes, some of which were so severe and bloody as to become a part of their tradition. For this cause, the Koyukuk and Noatak natives, about eighty years ago, engaged in a long and bloody battle from which only three of the Noatak men escaped with their lives. The Koyukuks were especially troublesome neighbors in this regard, and after their great victory over the Noataks continued to carry things with a high hand, until overtaken at last by the penalty which is denounced even against the civilized transgressor in this respect.

The Kowaks, being especially favored in women, were particularly subject to these raids of the other tribes, and the Koyukuks were of course the chief of

fenders. The latter persisted in their course of stealing Kowak women, and this finally led to a war of extermination between the two tribes, the ferocity of which is one of the few events of the past that is indelibly impressed upon the Kowak mind. In this fierce contest, which occurred about seventy-five years ago, ten desperate battles were fought, and the Koyukuks, numbering several thousand, were practically exterminated; the Kowaks also lost heavily. The bow and arrow were the principal weapons. Scalping or other mutilation of the bodies of the enemy seems. never to have been practiced.

The fate of the Koyukuks inspired the other tribes with a wholesome dread of Kowak prowess, and this tribe was thereafter left comparatively unmolested. About this time the martial spirit began to decline among all the tribes, although the Kowaks to this day hate the Koyukuks with a bitter hatred and will have no friendly intercourse with them. "War scares," however, are by no means altogether of Within

the past.
the time of the pres-

ent generation several severe fights have occurred between the Kowaks. and their old enemies the few remaining Koyukuks. The trouble still arises from the old cause, the latter's hereditary predilection for other people's women; and

even while the writer and his companions were on the river, in the winter of 1898-99, a scare of no mean proportions was stirred up over a report that a distant tribe had taken the warpath and was coming over to clean out both the natives and the white men in our vicinity. But this war cloud passed with no more serious results than a few excited Kowaks and the hastily gathering together by the prospectors of as motly a collection of war paraphernalia as any set of savages ever saw.

The limitation of their resources, due both to natural causes and the inroads made by the white man upon their means of subsistence, as well as the weakness of reduced numbers, have all had their part in the waning of the war spirit among the natives, until it is now almost extinct.

The frequent wars and raids of former days led to a remarkable feature in the construction of the native houses. Among the Kowak natives at least, the dwellings in whole villages were connected with underground passageways or tunnels. In some places hundreds of houses, located one hundred feet or more apart were all provided with this means of underground communication. This was a war measure. If a hostile tribe would come down on them when they were not prepared to give battle, taking their families with them they would elude the enemy by escaping through the tunnels until they were either effectually concealed from danger or had had time to collect their forces. They could travel for miles in this way under ground, and evade the enemy. If there were a sufficient number of men at home to cope with the assailants, having collected together their forces in concealment they would suddenly issue forth at an unexpected point and fall upon their surprised foe.

If