Name/Title
Letter from H.B. Ferguson to Harry GeorgeEntry/Object ID
Q1430.634.143EDescription
A two-page handwritten letter from H.B. Ferguson to Harry George discussing obtaining information from the Native community and a whaling outfit. Vol 1 P. 143E
Dear Sir:
The Indian woman replied in person to my card and brought with her an Indian man and wife. She said she was not versed in Cedar bark treatment but she would interpret for this couple. Before beginning, however, they wished to be paid for their knowledge. They are Indians who camp on the tidelands and have put themselves in comfortable circumstances by acting as selling agent for B. C. members of their tribe, new to the city and city ways. I have purchased small wares like baskets, totems and bows and arrows every week for several years from them.
I was so provoked at their demand that I refused to parley with them and sent them out of the store. Mrs. Youngblood said her mother softened in water and while wet separated the thickness with thumb and finger; she never saw her mother take bark from bark but from the tree after course bark was removed. I have always thought this to be the whole treatment and was also a reason for refusing to be held up.
I finally obtained a price on the whaling outfit after much writing and threatening to sever all diplomatic relations.
I can deliver to you f.o.b. Seattle for one hundred dollars. The owners consider or considered, it worth one hundred fifty. There is much rope, old time spear points in steel as well as bow and mussel shell a very large, flat basket of cedar bark, numerous small things and a yew wood pole fifteen feet long valued at one dollar per foot.
If you come west this fall I have no doubt it will be here for your inspection. Only a collector will buy and they are not numerous.
Don't start that tracer too soon - it is unreasonable to expect express time on a freight shipment.
Sincerely,Subject
H. B. Ferguson
Seattle, Washington
Alaska Curio Shop
Outfit -- WhalingSubject Person/Organization
Harry L. George Collection
