Nome Nutlet
Published Monday, Wednesday
and Friday by The
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125
• P. O. Box 618
$1.50 PER MONTH
$18.00 A YEAR
BOUCHER..EditorPublisher
EMILY BOUCHER..Society Editor
Second Class Application MadeJn
Nome Post Office
MONDAY, Nov. 20, 1944.
ABORIGINAL RIGHS
Seattle Times')
Residents of Alaska can’t
vote for president, because
thpv live in a +prritorv and
are disenfranchised in nat
ional ejections. But thpre
is a groun in Juneau which
is so aroused against the
New Deal, oarticularlv Sec
retarv of the Interior Har
old Tckes. that they are car
rying on a campaign by
mail against the present
national administration.
“We know, perhaps bet
ter than you, how badly
Alaska needs a change of
administration, needs Dew
ey and Bricker to run our
nation,” they wrote in a
form letter to friends in
the United States who can
vote.
‘‘No state, no country,
is worse bureau ridden
than Alaska. No bureau
crat is more bureaucratic
than Ickes. For twelve
long years FDR has ‘kept
Ickes in power.
The minerals of the
western states and of Alas
ka were developed under
the United States mining
laws. Ickes wants all A
laska minerals under a per
mit system. Ickes wants
control over every Alaskan
prospector and miner. Con
trol, means political power,
and Ickes wants that pow
er.
“Settlers, homesteaders,
farmers and miners now
can use waters of Alaskan
streams just as our pioneer
forefathers used creek wat
ers in the states. Ickes
doesn’ tlike that American
way, Ickes wants to con
trol every Alaskan river,
stream, creek, even the riv
ulets.
“Then Ickes can dictate
when and how, and to
what extent the miner, far
mer, homesteader, settler
can use the water flowin
past his door. Control
means political ptower.
Ickes wants that power.”
Those are the general
| trends which have aroused
I the Alaskans. But more
[specifically they are fight
ing against a move attrib
uted to Ickes to take vast
rights in Southeastern Al
aska from the whites and
give them to the Indians.
* * *
Behind that move is an
intriguing history of Amer
ica’s “foreign” relations as
it pertains to Alaskan In
dian tribes. Technically,
the United States is at war
with those Indians. There
is no actual fighting, but
still a state of war exists
on paper.
Historians recall that
when Russians moved into
Alaska they made no treat
ies with the Indians, such
as were made in the United
States proper.
The apparent reason be
hind the Russian’s failure
to negotiate a treaty was
the fact that the Alaskan
Indians had no tribal org
anizations with which to
deal. They were divided
into family groups, with
an arrangement for joint
family action in case of
hostilities, but in peace
timethey reverted to their
famly independence. No
government; no taxes'’ no
bureaus; no Ickes.
% sjc sfc
So Russia had no organ-,
ized group with which to
negotiate a treaty, and
neither did the United
States when it purchased I
the territory. The Indians
were technically at war
with Russia, so our counr
try inherited the war. If
there had been a treaty,
the present dispute would
not have come up. The
question would have been
settled as it was with the
various tribes in the States.
At least that’s the way
the story goes. It’s prob
ably true, coming from a
reputable Alaskan author
ity.
* * *
The Alaskans would
like either to attain state
1 hood, so they could have
! something to say about
their government, or re
vert to the Indian custom
of “no Ickes.”
_
TANK TRAPS _ »
THE DOVE
IN WARTIME
The first message the pigeon
family delivered was one of
peace. The dove, in bringing
the olive branch to Noah’s Ark,
signified that the flood had end
ed and the Lord no longer was
angry.
The Chinese attached small
bamboo or reed whistles of dif
ferent keys to all pigeons in a
flock to produce a pleasing mel
ody as they flew and to keep
off birds of prey.
Brutus, besieged in a city by
Mark Antony, sent a pigeon mes
senger to the consuls for help.
During the Crusades, Saracens
used pigeons until the Christians
set hawks and falcons upon the
smaller birds.
William the Silent sent mes
sages by pigeons during the
siege of Haarlem in 1573.
French use of the birds in the
1870 siege of Paris was so effec
I tive that the Germans had to
use hawks against them.
Daniel Craig, first Associated
I Press correspondent to pick up
European news from newly ar
rived packets in Halifax Harbor,
used carrier pigeons to fly his
most important messages ashore.
MRS. RANK
NOW AT HOME
I ... . ... j
Mrs. Ken Rank returned home
after spending quite some time in
: the hospital. She is feeling much
| better.
CHARLIE
THE MALAMUTE
1
*
j
Charlie Eager has been working
in and around Nome this past sea
1 son. He is a real sourdough,
; having been born some 60 years
ago near Latouche, Alaska, and
, : ivli J/IUil J
- •
spent most of his life in Valdez.
Mr. Eager has continued to go
north instead of south and has
never been to the States. He
says he is better known to Alas
kans in the Valdez district as
Charlie the Malamute.
I READ THE AD$ I *
Alonp Vr;tb ' fNw*
r
CHIEF | USTICE—chief Justice Harlan F. Stone, 72, sits
at the desk in the library at his home in Washington, D. C.,
shortly after returning from a vacation in Maine.