After 32 years of work, Dan Henry presented his book “Across the Shaman’s River” about John Muir, Tlingit history and how the two are connected at the Chilkat Center Tuesday.
Henry spent two and a half hours telling stories from the book to a full audience of Haines residents and visitors from the Chilkoot Indian Association transportation conference.
Henry said as a young debater, and now as a professor of rhetoric, debate and communications at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon, he has always been interested in rhetoric and persuasion. He first came to Haines in 1983 and while teaching high school here, he met the Tlingit community and took interest in John Muir’s influence over the Chilkat and Chilkoot people.
“This book was really a joy,” Henry said. He said he gained the trust of the Native community by truly listening to their stories. When asked why the book took over three decades to write, Henry said he had to navigate sensitive topics like clan feuds, alcoholism and difficult times between Native and white people.
“John Muir converted over 2,000 Tlingits to Christianity,” Henry said. Muir, who is best known as the father of national parks, was also largely responsible for the introduction of white people to the upper Lynn Canal in the late 1800s. In his book, Henry said, he explores, “What was it that Muir said that made people change?”
Henry said in a lot of books about Muir, he is depicted as a hero for wilderness. “I try to show people as human beings,” which includes Muir’s “irritating, reckless or racist” actions.
When asked what Muir would have thought about the University of Alaska’s proposed timber sale in the Chilkat Valley, Henry said Muir wasn’t totally against logging, but would have wanted to protect important wildlife habitat.
While writing the book, Henry said he was most interested in three things: Muir’s public speaking skills, his religion and his relationship with Native Americans.
Henry said he spoke to 16 Native elders for the book, joining their stories with the journals and writings of white men to get both sides of history. He said oftentimes the elders would “supply the punchline” that changed the perspective of the white man’s story.
In his research, Henry said he discovered that unlike how Muir treated Native people in the Lower 48, Muir treated the Tlingit people with respect and gained their trust. He visited the Chilkat people in October 1879 when he was invited to accompany missionaries north. He described the Chilkats as “culturally and ecologically intact” and thought highly of how they treated their children, despite Presbyterian missionaries believing that the Chilkat people were “the last dark spot in America.” Muir’s speech to the Tlingit people on the last day of his stay modeled a Native speech, which captivated and resonated with the audience.
Muir called Native and white people “brothers.” A Native elder told Henry that it was the first time an “Indian and white man were on the same side of the river.” White people came to the area because of Muir’s influence.
Henry said he is writing a follow-up book about Louis Shotridge, a controversial historical figure who sold Chilkat cultural items to museums. He was an expert on Tlingit traditions born in Klukwan in 1882. Copies of “Across the Shaman’s River” are available at the Babbling Book and Dragon’s Nook or online.