Kalitan, Our Little Alaskan CousinNixon-Roulet, Mary F.
General
Kalitan, Our Little Alaskan Cousin
Nixon-Roulet, Mary F.
Children -- Alaska -- Juvenile literature
but who should be educated here to make the best of their talents in
their home surroundings.
"That is one crying shame to our government, that they have neglected
the Alaskan citizens. Forty years have been wasted, but we are beginning
to wake up now, and twenty years more will see the Indians of Kalitan's
generation industrious men and women, not only clever hunters and
fishermen, but lumbermen, coopers, furniture makers, farmers, miners,
and stock-raisers."
At this moment their quiet conversation was interrupted by a wild shout
from the shore, and, springing to their feet, they saw Chetwoof
gesticulating wildly and shouting to the Tyee, who had been mending his
canoe by the river-bank. Kalitan dropped everything and ran without a
word, scudding like the arrow from which he took his name. Before Ted
could follow or ask what was the matter, from the ocean a huge body rose
ten feet out of the water, spouting jets of spray twenty feet into the
air, the sun striking his sides and turning them to glistening silver.
Then it fell back, the waters churning into frothy foam for a mile
around.
"It's a whale, Ted, sure as you live. Luck certainly is coming your
way," said his father; but, at the word "whale," Ted had started after
Kalitan, losing no time in getting to the scene of action as fast as
possible.
"Watch the Tyee!" called Kalitan over his shoulder, as both boys ran
down to the water's edge.
The old chief was launching his _kiak_ into the seething waters, and to
Ted it seemed incredible that he meant to go in that frail bark in
pursuit of the mighty monster. The old man's face, however, was as calm
as though starting on a pleasure-trip in peaceful waters, and Ted
watched in breathless admiration to see what would happen next.
Klake paddled swiftly out to sea, drawing as near as he dared to where
the huge monster splashed idly up and down like a great puppy at play.
He stopped the _kiak_ and watched; then poised his spear and threw it,
and so swift and graceful was his gesture that Ted exclaimed in
amazement.
"Tyee Klake best harpoon-thrower of all the Thlinkits," said Kalitan,
proudly. "Watch!"
Ted needed no such instructions. His keen eyes passed from fish to man
and back again, and no movement of the Tyee escaped him.
The instant the harpoon was thrown, the Tyee paddled furiously away, for
when a harpoon strikes a whale, he is likely to lash violently with his
tail, and may destroy his enemy, and this is a moment of terrible danger
to the harpooner. But the whale was too much astonished to fight, and,
with a terrific splash, he dived deep, deep into the water, to get rid
of that stinging thing in his side, in the cold green waters below.
[Illustration: "AWAY WENT ANOTHER STINGING LANCE."]
The Tyee waited, his grim face tense and earnest. It might have been
fifteen minutes, for whales often stay under water for twenty minutes
before coming to the surface to breathe, but to Kalitan and Ted it
seemed an hour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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