How Protestant Christianity Was First Heard Of At Sitka – Tlingit
A man went south from Sitka and returned after 2 months. When he came ashore he called all the people to a dance and told them that God (Dekî'-anqâ'wo, Distant-chief) had come down from heaven to help them.
Then all the women made bead work for their hair and ears. One evening, when they were through with that, they again began dancing. While the women danced they would fall flat on their backs. When this happened, in accordance with directions the man had received below, they brought up salt water, wet part of each woman's blanket and flapped it against her breast to make her come to. This prevented the smallpox from having any effect upon her. They kept on dancing a whole year.
Footnotes:
79:a it is possible, however, that this was the result of Jesuit teaching on the upper Skeena.
Abstract:
HOW PROTESTANT CHRISTIANITY WAS FIRST HEARD OF AT SITKA
A man returning to Sitka from the south told his people that Dekî'-anqâ'wo (God) had come down from Heaven to help them, and the women dressed up and began dancing. They danced an entire year.
Tlingit Myths and Texts, by John R. Swanton; Smithsonian Institution; Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 39; Washington, Government Printing Office; [1909] and is now in the public domain.
from archives of Blue Panther
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