m NOME NUGGET
_OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_
62nd Year No. 68 NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, JUNE 9, 1961_Per Copy 15^
BARROW ESKIMOS DEFY FWS .. .
SHOTGUNS STILL BLASTING AWAY
BARROW, Alaska UFl — Eskimo
shotguns were still rattling along
Alaska’s desolate Arctic Coast to
day as a tense battle of nerves,
pitting age-old practice against
government regulation, continued.
At issue is the right of natives
in Northern Alaska to take mi
gratory waterfowl for food, at any
time of the year, as they have
done for centuries.
The U. S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, moving in to crack down
on illegal duck hunting by natives
in Alaska’s northern regions, ar
rested two Barrow natives late'
last month for killing ducks and j
geese out of season.
The waterfowl in the posses
sion of Tom Pikok and John Nu
sunginya were confiscated, and
so were their shotguns.
Two days later, 138 Barrow Es
kimos filed into the Barrow Hotel
where two FWS agents were stay
ing.
Each of the natives carried a
dead eider duck.
Each signed a stateuent saying
the ducks were taken out of sea
son.
Each was charged with illegal
possession of waterfowl.
600 Pounds of Ducks
The FWS agents packed up the
ducks, some 600 pounds of them,
and shipped the birds to Fair
banks for cold storage, to be used
as evidence.
Asst. U. S. Atty. Jerry Shortell
of Fairbanks referred the entire
question to Washington, D. C.,
for a decision.
There the matter stands, with
140 men of this Arctic Coast vil
lage charged with illegal pos
session of migratory waterfowl.
No other action has been taken
against them.
And while they wait for the
government to move, they are con
tinuing to shoot ducks and geese
for food, as they warned they
planned to do.
The Fish and Wildlife Service
claims it has no alternative but
to enforce its migratory bird reg
ulations because they are based
in part on a 1916 treaty between
the United States, Canada and
Mexico which forbids migratory
waterfowl hunting on the North
American continent between
March 10 and Sept. 1.
On May 30, the Barrow Eski
mos sent a petition to President
Kennedy asking him to give them
relief or to seek immediate
changes in the treaty which would
give them the right to hunt ducks
and geese for food at any time
of the year. ^
Cuban Property in the
U.S. Up For Grabs Today
MIAMI, Fla. UPi — Cuban prop
erty in the United States was up
for grabs today by Americans
whose holdings in Cuba were con
fiscated by Fidel Castro.
Circuit Judge Hal P. Delke
Thursday ruled that any Cuban
property in this country can be
attached. He found in favor of
Terry Kane, who contended that
the Cubans confiscated $22,500
worth of farm equipment in his
tractor agency.
Dekle’s ruling skirts the so
called Foreign Acts Doctrine un
der which the U. S. Supreme
Court since 1897 has held that the
courts of one country will not
judge the acts of a foreign state
within that country’s own terri
tory.
Birds Go South in July
The northward migration of
waterfowl doesn’t come until
April and May. The birds start
south again in July and by the
time Sept. 1 approaches, the mi
gration is virtually complete, with
no waterfowl remaining in the
Arctic, when the hunting sea
son opens there.
“The government won’t let the
natives take ducks and geese while
the ducks and geese are- in the
arctic, but after the birds go south,
where they are killed by
thousands of white sportsmen, the
government says to the hungry
native, ‘now you can hunt,’ ” the
Rev. John Chambers, Presbyter
ian missionary at Barrow, said.
Sam Taalak, president of the
Barrow V'llage Council, says it
is absolutely necessary that the
natives be permitted to take
ducks for food.
“The whales are already gone.
The caribou are not here yet.
Rotting ice makes seal hunting
extremely dangerous.”
Taalak said only two whales
were taken by villagers this year,
“less than enough for four meals
for each family.”
Ducks and geese remain the sole
easily obtainable meat supply for
the Eskimos, whose diet is 90
per cent meat. They eat meat for
breakfast, lunch and supper.
The Eskimos are particularly
puzzled by the sudden enforce
ment of waterfowl seasons in the
Arctic, where they have seldom
been enforced in the past.
Fish and Wildlife Service offi
cials in Alaska have maintained
tight-lipped silence, leaving the
whole question up to Washington.
And Washington hasn’t comment
ed.
“Waterfowl mean the differ
ence between health and sickness,
full stomachs or hunger,” the
petition to President Kennedy
says: “Under these circustances,
this law is the equivalent of mak
ing it unlawful for citizens who
live in the developed areas to
buy groceries at their market.”
The Eskimos view their stand
not as defiance but rather as an
assertion of aboriginal rights.
And the banging of the shot
guns continue.
Willie Foster Resigns Post
Director of Air Commerce
JUNEAU UP) — The resignation
of Neal W. Foster as State Direc
tor of Air Commerce, effective
July 1, was announced today by
State Commerce Commissioner A.
H. Romick.
Foster, who maintains his head
quarters in Anchorage, was ap
pointed to the post last Dec. 1.
He was the state’s first Director
of Air Commerce.
Romick said Foster gave no rea
son for the resignation.
No successor has been named to
replace Foster, who served two
terms as a member of the Terri
torial Senate from the Second
Division in 1955 and 1957.
FOUR-LEAF CLOVER . . .
DARTMOUTH, Nova Scotia UP)
—Mrs. Stephen Hayes found a
four-leaf clover in her lawn Mon
day. A few minutes later her
husband’s parked car was struck
by another vehicle, causing dam
age estimated at $500. Tuesday
a five-ton truck loaded with
cement rolled over and demolish
ed the Hayes’ picket fence.
Rep. Rivers Urges
FWS to Disregard
Shooting of Birds
WASHINGTON (Special) —
Rep. Ralph Rivers today urged
that agents of the U. S. Fish and
Wildlife Service be disengaged
in regard to their controversy
with the Eskimos of Alaska over
the shooting of migratory birds
pending such time as the migra
tory bird treaty can be modified
“to embody a realistic recogni
tion of the historical right of
the Eskimo people to utilize an
essential item of their livelihood
upon which they have depended
since time immemorial.”
In a letter to Secretary of In
terior Stewart Udall, Rivers ob
I served that ‘‘presumably the lack
of enforcement against the Alas
ka Eskimos since the treaty was
effectuated in 1916 has been
founded on the premise that they
did have an underlying ancient
or tribal right or equity to take
such birds as one of the fruits
of their aborginal economy.” He
reasoned that the continuance of
such tolerance for so many years
also took into account that Es
kimo hunters are so few in num
ber as to do no appreciable harm
to the migratory bird resource
which has not been diminished ir
recent years although such bird:
j have been killed by the tens o]
j thousands each year by licensed
j hunters in Canada, the Unitec
! States and Mexico.
Rivers also pointed out to the
Secretary of the Interior thal
aside from the concept of histori
cal rights the language of the Mi
gratory Bird Treaty Act, Title
16 United States Code, Section
704, suggest an avenue which
might be a basis for appropriate
action to resolve the present dif
ficulties. Under provisions of that
section, the Secretary of Interior
is “authorized and directed, from
time to time, having due regard
... to the distribution, abun
dance, economic value, breeding
habits ... to determine when . . .
and by what means ... to allow
hunting, taking, capture, killing,
possession of any such birds . . .”
In concluding Mr. Rivers said,
“my urgence in behalf of the Es
kimos is made within the con
text of their reliance upon basic
aborginal rights and pertinent
statutory provisions, and not an
affront to the well warranted
regulations to North America as
a whole.”
CASTRO ANNOUNCES
"EAT LESS MEAT" CAMPAIGN
TORONTO UP) — Fidel Castro’s
Cuba has announced an “eat less
meat” campaign, apparently the
result of an acute shortage caused
by indiscriminate killing of the
country’s nationalized cattle herds.
Canadian press correspondent
Jack Best reported from Havana
that the government is promoting
what it calls a “well-balanced
diet” — black beans, white rice,
roast bananas, lettuce and car
rots, bread or crackers and cus
tard.
SENATE CONFIRMS
PAUTZKE'S NOMINATION
WASHINGTON The nomi
nation of Clarence F. Pautzke to
be U. S. Commissioner of Fish
and Wildlife was confirmed by
the Senate Thursday.
Pautzke, of Auburn, Wash., had
spent 30 years with the Washing
ton State Department of Fish and
game. Recently he was with the
Alaska Department of Fisheries.
Tractors are Ready
J
For Delivery on
Prisoner Exchange
DETROIT UP — The Tractors
for Freedom Committee is ready
to send Fidel Castro the 500 trac
tors he asks in exchange for 1,200
invasion prisoners as well as a
team of experts to negotiate the
deal. The next move is up to him.
The committee cabled the Cu
ban Prime Minister Thursday
1 night that “we are prepared to
move with dispatch and ship the
first consignment of 100 tractors
not later than two weeks from
today, to be followed by addition
al consignments of tractors in lots
of 100 until the total of 500 are
delivered.”
It cautioned Castro, however,
that “we trust you are equally
prepared to move with dispatch
to release the prisoners. We re
mind you of our insistence that
you make available to us without
further delay a complete list of
the 1,214 prisoners involved so
that we can develop satisfactory
| procedures for verifying the iden
| tity of those released.
“We recommend that the In
I ternational Red Cross be asked
to handle the details relating to
the release of the prisoners.”
The proposed trade, which has
been controversial, got more
criticism meanwhile.
Sen. Barry Goldwater, appear
ing on the Jack Paar show Thurs
day night, said “a government has
to be dealt with by a government
—not a group of citizens, how
ever well-intentioned.”
The committee, formed after
Castro made his trade offer May
17, said it would not send one of
its more prominent members to
Havana to negotiate as Castro had
' asked but would send a six-mem
I ber technical committee of agri
| cultural and tractor experts.
It said that if Castro approved
j of the offer the team of experts
would arrive in Havana next
Monday. It urged Castro to re
ply as soon as possible.
Director of Prisons Says
TV Shows Have Bearing
On Juvenile Delinquency
WASHINGTON Ufi — James V.
Bennett, director of the Bureau
of Prisons, said today he thinks
there is a definite causal rela
tionship between juvenile delin
quency and television shows deal
ing with crime and violence.
At a hearing by the Senate Ju
diciary subcommittee on juvenile
delinquency, Bennett likened tele
vision to “the old-fashioned street
corner pitchman who attracted
and entertained his audience with
card tricks and magic while he
sold them snake-oil remedies.”
In his prepared statement,
Bennett added “modern television
attracts its audience with crime
and violence while they sell soap
and deodorants.”
Bennett complained that some
television programs depict law
enforcement officers as “gauche,
stupid and in fact venal at times.”
He said this hinders the recruit
ment of officers and damages the
morale of those already in service.
There is strong evidence, Ben
nett said, that “exposure to the
viewing of crime, mayhem and
conflict as a means of entertain
ment has a deleterious emotional
impact on youth and creates the
risk of triggering deliquent be
havior.”
Petition Circulates in
Fairbanks to Revert Back
To Territorial Status
FAIRBANKS UP — It has be
come increasingly apparent that
everyone isn’t satisfied with
Statehood, but like the weather
nothing has been done about it
up until now.
But this has all been changed.
A Territorial Committee, whose
address is Box 7, Fairbanks, has
been circulating a petition around
the city for the Second and
Fourth Judicial Divisions (Fair
banks and Nome) to secede from
the rest of Alaska and to revert
back to Territorial status.
The petition calls for Congress
to release this area “from the
mutual compact entered into with
the United States of America”
and again become a Territory.
The petitioners state that since
the Second and Fourth Judicial
Divisions include a major portion
j of the area and a minimum part
of the population of the state, and
j that since these two areas have
the shortest seasonal activities
conducted under the highest
costs, and with the most difficult
of transportation problems and
since the principal industry is the
expenditure of the federal gov
ernment that the advent of State
hood will actually retard and
hazard the future growth of Alas
ka.
It is not known exactly who the
Territorial Committee is, but it is
thought that a homesteader and
a miner are the guiding light be
hind the actions.
The homesteader is out of town
and when the miner delivered his
petition to one cocktail lounge
Wednesday, he said, “get this filled
out and I’ll pick it up when I
j get back from the mine in Sep
| tember.”
I So apparently, the Second and
j Fourth Judicial Divisions will re
I main in the state, at least until
I fall.
Anchorage Asks Ship Raw
Cottonwood Logs to Japan
JUNEAU UP> — The Port of An
chorage has asked the state to
waive its primary manufacture
policy and permit the port to ship
raw cottonwood logs to Japan,
Natural Resources Commissioner
Phil Holdsworth said today.
Under the primary manufac
ture policy adopted by the state,
raw logs from state lands cannot
be shipped out of Alaska without
the express consent of the Depart
ment of Natural Resources.
Holdsworth said the Port of
Anchorage had received specific
inquiries from Japanese sources
about the possibility of obtaining
raw cottonwood logs from Alaska.
Holdsworth’s office has the au
thority to waive the primary
manufacture policy if (1) It can.
be shown there is a market for
a particular specie of wood for
export as logs and (21 The export
of the logs would not upset an
existing state industry using the
same specie of wood.
The Natural Resources Commis
sioner said there are substantial
stands of cottonwood in the rail
belt area which could be logged
rather easily for export. He said
the state does not have an in
ventory of its cottonw’ood, how
ever.
“Cottonwood is a fast-growing
I specie,” Holdsworth said, “and,
| properly seasoned, it takes on al
I most character of a hardwood.”