old-established mission of the Society at the mouth of the Kobuk desired
to plant two hundred miles or so up the river, and had come out and had
plunged at once into his task. So here he was, some six or seven months
installed, teacher, preacher, trader in a small way, and indefatigable
worker in general. Pedagogical training or knowledge of "methods" he had
none at all, but the root of the matter was in him, and surely never was
such an insatiable school-teacher. Morning, noon, and night he was
teaching. While he was cooking he was hearing lessons; while he was
washing the dishes and cleaning the house he was correcting exercises in
simple addition. In the schoolroom he was full of a genial enthusiasm
that seemed to impart instruction by sheer dynamic force. "Boot," the
lesson book said. There was no boot in the schoolroom, all were shod in
mukluks. He dives into his dwelling-house attachment and comes back
holding up a boot. "Boot," he says, and "boot" they all repeat.
Presently the word "tooth" was introduced in the lesson. Withdrawing a
loose artificial tooth of the "pivot" variety from his upper jaw, he
holds it aloft and "tooth!" he cries out, and "toot!" they all cry, and
he claps it back into his head again.
We were present on Sunday at the services. There was hearty singing of
"Pentecostal" hymns with catchy refrains, but we were compelled to
notice again what we had noticed amongst the little bands of these
people on the Koyukuk when we set them to singing, that the English was
unintelligible; and since it conveyed no meaning to us could have had
little for them. This is the inevitable result of ignoring the native
tongue and adopting the easy expedient of teaching the singing of hymns
and the recitation of formulas like the commandments in English. For a
generation or two, at least, the English learned, save by children at a
boarding-school, where nothing but English is spoken, is fragmentary and
of doubtful import in all except the commonest matters of speech. And at
such boarding-schools there is danger of the real misfortune and
drawback of natives growing up to live their lives amongst natives,
ignorant of the native tongue. There is no quick and easy way of
stamping out a language, thank God; there is no quick and easy way of
imparting instruction in a foreign language. By and by all the Alaskan
natives will be more or less bilingual, but the intimate speech and the
most clearly understood speech will still be the mother tongue. The
singing done, there was preaching through an interpreter, and then each
individual present "gave testimony," which consisted for the most part
in the recitation of a text of Scripture. Then there were individual
prayers by one and another of the congregation, and then some more
singing. The only hymn I could find in the book that I knew was the fine
old hymn, "How Firm a Foundation," and that was sung heartily to the
"Adeste Fideles." They are naturally a musical race, picking up airs
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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