LandBack 1899: The Right to Kick
When the Alaska Packers Association seized another salmon stream in 1899, Tlingit leaders from Fort Wrangel wrote a letter in protest, and passed the torch to a new generation.
Photo: “Blind Aaron in Wrangell, Alaska, ca. 1899” (source: Wikipedia Commons)
“Blind Aaron and wife at home in Wrangell, Alaska, ca. 1899” (photo credit: Seattle Public Library)
First Converts
In the late 1870s, the Tlingit of Fort Wrangel welcomed missionaries with open arms. Many Tlingit converted to Christianity and sent children to missionary schools. Clan leaders like George Shakes of the Naan.yaa.ayí clan and John Kadashan of the Kaasx’agweidí converted to Christianity and brought others with them. A small group of Christian Tlingit organized the “Indian police,” of which three members—T’owyaat, Kitch-gow-ish, and Moses—were shot dead in 1880 while attempting to break up liquor manufacturing in Fort Wrangel. For survivors of this conflict like Andrew Klakwetz, Jake Johnson, Lot Tyeen, and Moses’ brother, Aaron, the tragedy was a turning point.
Claims Denied
The Tlingit showed they were willing to make sacrifices to become American, but when private canneries began taking over their salmon streams, America was indifferent. Determined to fight back, George Shakes and a group of Tlingit fishermen hired attorney Willoughby Clark in 1890 to write to President Benjamin Harrison on their behalf. Since none of them could read or write, they depended on Clark to explain their case. Clark wrote the letter in his own voice, from his own perspective, in a tone that was often fawning and deferential to the government. He did not receive a response.
With no intervention from the government, the cannery business grew. In the summer of 1898, Fort Wrangel’s Alaska Packers Association (APA) cannery produced nearly 50,000 cases of canned salmon, over three-thousand cases more than the year before. In December 1898, Kaasx’agweidí headman John Kadashan confronted Governor John G. Brady to his face about stolen streams, but Brady dismissed their claims, stating that the Tlingit could claim to own land when “by his labor makes fence, improves ground and builds a house, it is the duty of every official to see that he is undisturbed.”
1899 Cannery Season
In April 1899, APA superintendent Jacob Babler returned to Fort Wrangel to prepare for another cannery season. He arrived amid the boom of the Klondike Gold Rush, which tipped the population in Fort Wrangel, making the Tlingit the minority. Babler made no secret about taking Tlingit streams with names like Kah-Sheets, Anan, and Totem Bay. One stream in particular, Aw-Aw, was also known as Old Village, and was owned by Aaron, brother of the late Moses. Weeks after arriving in Fort Wrangel, Jacob Babler ordered men to knock down Aaron’s fence and take over his stream.
Governor Brady’s claim about respecting fences proved hollow. Many of the Tlingit in Fort Wrangel recalled when Brady first came to Alaska to be their minister in March 1878. Brady performed a double wedding for T’owyaat and his wife, and for Moses and his wife. Though Reverend Brady’s time in Fort Wrangel was short, he had been an important part of their lives. But as Governor Brady, he was detached and dismissive.
Letter to Brady
With the canning season in full swing, eleven Tlingit men signed a letter to Governor Brady in June 1899.
Nine of them signed their names with an X: George Shakes (55), T’owyaat, John Kadashan (52), Andrew Klaquits (56), Sha Ke Naigh (34), Jake Johnson (57), Aaron Kohwow, Jacob Wan Kun, and Lott Ty Een (65). Most of these men had been around longer than the United States in Alaska, and most of them held clan leadership positions.
Only two of the signatories could read and write: James Hadley (31) and William H. Lewis (34). They were part of an emerging generation of Tlingit leaders educated at schools like Forest Grove Indian Training School in Oregon. Instead of relying on an educated white man to represent them, these literate Tlingit could tell their own stories, in their own words, from their own perspective. This is their letter.
The Letter of June 30, 1899
“DEAR SIR:
We, the undersigned, natives of Wrangell, Alaska, have come together to write you this letter. This being the first time we ever asked you, Governor, to help us in our trouble. We each one look to you, Governor, as our chief. We only ask for justice according to the laws of the United States. We are very thankful that the Government of the United States has such a law as to protect us with our lands and salmon streams, especially salmon creeks and hunting grounds. And so if the white man takes the salmon creeks away from us, where do you suppose, Governor, we Indians would make our living–we old Indians, such as old Aaron Kohwow and lots other Indians that can not talk a word of English or not able to work for white man for wages due?
They simply have to starve or else look to the Government for support; if not we will have to take it in our own hands to keep such bad white man off our salmon streams. And then suppose the Government then will look into it right away, and we Indians will have to get punished for everything we do. So, to avoid the troubles, we, the undersigned, ask you this favor, you being governor of our land and a good friend of Indians, besides you being well acquainted with our ways and what we own.
Now we will tell you, Governor, that one of our friend, Aaron Kohwow–we suppose you know him, one of the old Christians that was with David Towyatt and Moses Lewis–Aaron and Moses Lewis own a place call Au-Aw, which means “Town of all Towns,” known as one of the oldest towns, where old Aaron’s family used to go to dry salmon ever since God created us, and it went from one family up to Aaron, which he now has it in his hands for over twenty-four years, til few years ago, when the cannery was built here. Two years afterwards the superintendent, J. Babler, send men over to the place to fish every year, about ten days every year, while Aaron stays on it every about seven or eight months, hunting, fish, and tend to other things; and now J. Babler claims he owns the place and want to keep the other Indians away from there. He, J. Babler, have keeped us away from there already. J. Babler tried to buy it from Aaron, provided Aaron keep all the other Indians away from the salmon creek; that Aaron would not do so, the trouble comes in. J. Babler break and saw down Aaron’s fence and got in on Aaron’s garden, using it for camp ground. So Aaron made complaint, but the trial is put off till the Queen’s return.
All we ask you is to see the United States district attorney and give us a fair show and justice. We Indians of Wrangell can say this much, that we never tried to keep any white man away from fishing in the creeks; they have always fished every place; but when they tried to keep us out and try to take the ground away from us, we think we have right to kick.
This is the third creek that white man tries to take away from us. There are three good creeks where we all used to fish; now one white man has it all in his possession and puts a fence across each creek every year, and we Indians left out. Now such things ought to be looked after. This have been going on every year for over seven years. So if we lose this case we will have to be keeped away from this creek by one white man. Let us have the creeks where we get our living and hunting grounds; that is all we ask of the Government.
This letter represents all the natives of Wrangell and others near by. Let us hear from you on return boat. We remain your humble servants,
George Shakes
Towyatt
John Kadishan
Andrew Klawquitz
Sha Ke Naigh
Jake Johnson
Aaron Kohwow
Jacob Wan Kun
Lott Ty Een
James Hadley
William H. Lewis
The leading men of Wrangell”
The caption on the back of this photo reads, “William Lewis and Family, a Native family at Wrangell. Mr. Lewis has for years been elected a member of the town council by white votes.” From Mike Lewis: Jennie Mae Fletcher (Chief Seattle’s Granddaughter) and William H. Lewis are pictured with Children: David, Fred, Mathilda, Clarence, Anna, Florence and William. The man to the far right is William Fletcher (Jennie’s Brother) a prominent boat builder. (image source: Alaska’s Digital Archives)
The Next Generation
The letter of 1899 marked a passing of the torch from one generation to the next. Within a year, Aaron and Lot Tyeen would be dead. Others who signed the letter would gradually pass away in the first two decades of the new century.
While little information is available in the historic record about James Hadley, the legacy of William H. Lewis is long and highly influential.
William Henry Lewis
According to a profile by the Wrangell Sentinel, William Henry Lewis was born on “the shores of Anan creek” around 1865. Two censuses identified him as mixed-race, with a mother from Alaska and a father of unknown birthplace.
William H. Lewis grew up in Ḵaachx̱ana.áakʼw during the time when the United States Army established Fort Wrangel in 1868 and Christian missionaries arrived in the late 1870s. The Reverend S. Hall Young recalled a boy named Lewis as one “who had lived with the whites, talked passable trade English and had even begun to learn to read.” According to the Presbyterian mission’s Northern Light bulletin, “Moses was as a father” to William H. Lewis. Like William H. Lewis, Moses was also mixed race.
In his late teens, William H. Lewis attended Forest Grove Indian School. When the school shut down in 1885, he transferred to Chemawa, where he learned carpentry by constructing buildings for the new school and was part of the first graduating class. There he met Jane Fletcher, a great-granddaughter of Chief Seattle. The couple married and eventually had six children.
The Fight For Fisheries
By the turn of the century, William H. Lewis and his family were back in Fort Wrangel. Like Moses, William H. Lewis worked as an Indian policeman. When Moses’ brother, Aaron, had his salmon streams taken by the APA in 1899, William H. Lewis and his fellow Tlingit organized to write their grievances to governor John G. Brady.
The same week that they signed their letter, a new minister came to Fort Wrangel’s Presbyterian mission: Harry Prosper Corser. Corser confronted a church split in two after white members broke away to create their own congregation. William H. Lewis translated sermons for the Tlingit congregation. Corser became a fervent supporter of his Tlingit congregants and embraced their land claims. Corser led a walk-out of the Presbyterian mission in 1903, resulting in the creation of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church.
Around this time, the City of Wrangell officially incorporated. William H. Lewis, already a member of the Chamber of Commerce, was popularly elected to several terms on the town council. He operated the Thlinget Trading Company and the Rink Theater.
William H. Lewis transcended the typical racial boundaries of his day, serving as a member of the whites-only Improved Order of the Redmen as well as leader in the Alaska Native Brotherhood. When he died in 1928 at the age of 64, he had just been elected president of Wrangell’s chapter of the Alaska Native Brotherhood.
Just as the torch had been passed to him, William H. Lewis passed the torch to a younger generation of Tlingit leaders, including a relative who bore his name: William Lewis Paul.
William H. Lewis’ letter of 1899 foreshadowed his lifelong dedication to his community and the survival of the fisheries. As he told the Wrangell Sentinel in April 1913, “Protect the salmon in small creeks or there will be no small fishes for the future.”