was later followed by the present Sheldon
Jackson Mission School. George Kostromitinoff, afterward known as Father
Sergius, was the interpreter. The opening of the school was a great
event for Sitka and nearly everyone in the town attended. Annahootz, the
friendly Kokwantan war chief, made a speech. Mr. Cohen, the brewer,
hunted up another interpreter to assist. Hymns were sung and the events
were auspicious. The Indians stole in one at a time, some with their
faces blackened, all in blankets, but they squatted by the wall and
listened attentively. The school was continued until December, when it
was given up, but in the spring of 1880 Miss Olinda Austin, from New
York City, reopened it on April 5th, in one of the rooms of the
guardhouse, with an attendance of 103 children. The school thus
established was the beginning of the present Sheldon Jackson Training
School. The support of the naval officers at the station was such that
the missionary teacher was moved to say: "It is not often that the
Government sends out a missionary, but they have sent one in this young
commander and his lieutenant, Mr. F. M. Symonds," in referring to
Captain Glass, who succeeded Captain Beardslee.

Some form of local government giving the residents a right to regulate
their civil affairs was favored by the Commander, who had not even a
code under which to act. A meeting was called, ordinances were drafted,
a magistrate and councilmen elected for a town government. But all were
not agreed upon these acts and opposition arose against it from the very
inception of the movement. One of the traders of the town, Caplin, said:
"De Captain may go to ---- wid his tam government; I'll bay no daxes."
And from Silver Bay where he was mining, Geo. E. Pilz sent in a protest
against the proceeding. The dealers who traded molasses to the Indians,
from which the villainous liquor called "hoochinoo" or "Hooch," was
distilled, objected to the ordinances restricting the trade. Finally an
English miner named Roy was shot by his partner, "Scotty," and the
inability of the self-made government to try the offender brought a
crisis. The next day a notice appeared stating the organization had been
dissolved, and the second attempt at self-government by the people in
Alaska passed into oblivion.

Scotty was sent to Oregon for trial and was discharged because of lack
of a law to punish a man for assault with a dangerous weapon in Alaska.

But the dawn of a better day