f
(Continued from Pas* One)
Uon of schools and health worl
is now transferred to the Indiai
Service.
“Today, the office of educatioi
maintains in Alaska 93 school,
ior natives employing 95 teacher:
and enrolling 3,900 pupils wit!
an average attendance of littli
more than 3,000. To care for th<
health of natives in this far
:lung Territory there are sever
hospitals, nine doctors and 3]
nurses.
“It is a huge task that is be
ing transferred from one agencs
of government to another. The
enormous distances to be cover
ed, the remoteness of the sta
tions, the low temperature and
:he darkness that prevails thru
the long winters of the Arctic
are difficult to cope with the
Aleutian peninsular and island.
l*or example, these islands stretch
Professional Cards
Dr. A. D. Haverstock
PHYSICIAN and SURGEON
Seward General Hospital
roa FIKK INSURANCE
Curtis R. M or ford
Dr. A. R. Roberts
DBNTIST
Pfcowe MAitinon 10»—Tecfctewbecg Bldg.
Donohoe & Dimoni
ATTORNEYS AT LAW
OffiCM
VALURZ »nd CORDOVA
F. W. Williamson
U. S. DEPUTY MINERAL
SURVEYOR
U. S. LAND SURVEYOR
GENERAL SURVEYOR
Seward* Alaska
Inquire Seward Gateway
The
PANHANDLE
Tobaccos
Candies
Cards
Soft Drinks
Crist Larsen — Ed Mattie
Proprietors
out to the West from the main
land for 1,000 miles, bare and
sparsely populated by a strange,
mixed race. There is a school here
and there. North from this arm
: of American along the Bering
I Sea and the Arctic Ocean is
another stretch of 1,000 miles
\ of three miles coasts which slopes
* in the darkness beneath the snow
5 through the greater part of the
| area and breaks into sudden ver
|! due in the brief but long-dayed
'; summer. This is the realm of the
i Eskimo, far into the Interior,
II where reach the Yukon, the Por
cupine and the Koyukuk rivers
“Here, live the Athabascans,
the most isolated of all human
beings on this continent. It is
probable that there are groups
of Americans at these headwaters
who have never been seen by
white men and who do not \now
that a world beyond exists.
“Down that fringe of Alaska
that reaches further south where
the climate is warmer and there
are to be found the Thlingets,
the Hydas and the Metlakatlans,
not unlike the Indians of the
Northwestern States, in villages
that range in population from 30
to 400. These people who live in
each village are largely a unir
unto itself.
“Already many Eskimos have
replaced their igloo homes, which
were dirty and unsanitary, with
houses built largely under the
direction of American school
teachers. They are coming to
live as do civilized people. The
young Eskimos all speak English
and read arid write. They have
been taught ventilation, sanita
tion, persbnal cleanliness, and in
to these, communities go Ameri
can teachers.
“A man and his wife may be
stationed at a point far . out
on the Aleutians; a zealous young
woman may go alone to a native
village, far inland, hunderds of
miles from the nearest railroad,
and there remain for years and
snowed in for months at a time.
A venturesome youth may take
i a place in the Arctic apd find in
the molding of a human commun
ity out of a plastic race, a task!
so fascinating tljat he lingers
longs in working out his exper
iments in the Alaskan native
community
“The school is the center of
all activity, social, industrial and
civic. The teacher is guide, leader [
f Elk’s Purple Bubble Ball
I* O. O. F. Hall
FRIDAY, MARCH 20th, 1931
auspices
Seward Bills’ Club-B. P. O. E.
Ladies free Gentlemen $1.00
and much else in the community
may demand. To be teacfcer in
the narrow schoolroom sense, is
the least of his duties. In Alaska
he must often be physician, nurse,
postmaster, business manager,
wireless operator and community
builder. There are comfortable
school buildings, all of the built |
of jWood.
“In all the populous villages I
there are industrial boarding
schools for natives. The school
buildings likely to contain in ad- i
dition to the recitation rooms,!
quarters for the teacher and a
laundry and bath for the use
of the natives in the community.
.“Sixteen stations are maintain
to which trained nurses are at
tached. In most of the settlements
the nurse lives in quarters pro
vided for the teaching staff who
meet the people in their own
homes; study their problems
and become their adviser- Most
unique among the enterprises
of the government in reaching
the Alaska native with medical
care, Is a little gasoline launch,
25-feet long. It’s tiny bunker,
stocked with medicine and surgi
cal implements and supplies,
which every summer goes on a
long cruise from village to vil
lage up the Yukon river.
“The medical officer, who is
skipper for this launch, thus
makes an annual call at each of
the scores of native villages and
offers to those suffering infir
mities, whatever relief medicine
6r surgery, under the circumstan
ces, may bring.
“The Indian Service has long
been responsible for the Educa
tion and health of more than
200,000 members of. the Vidian
race. It has maintained a sys
tem of day schools on the res
ervations supplemented by board
ing schools scattered throughout
the West. It has a staff which has
been administering may hospitals
and looking after the half of
these native Americans over a
large area.
“Its task, as to both education
and health of the natives within |
Continental United States, is
very similar to the problems in
Alaska and the present reorgan
ization is due to the belief that
these functions more properly
belong to the Indian Service than
I to a research agency such as the
j office of education.”
j
New Spring Hart Schaffner &
| Marx Suit Samples at Greatly
i Reduced Prices. Urbach & Valade
“The Patsy”
To be presented at the Liberty theater on the
evening of April 9 under the auspices of the
Little Theater Club of Seward
AN EXHILARATING 3-ACT COMEDY
(Home talent)
Mrs. P. C. McMullen, Director
E. Reisner, Stage Manager
E. L. Sweek, Business Manager
Did you ever stop to think?
THAT the financial assets of a community measure
its prosperity.
Spending money in the home city does much to in
crease these assets, thereby increasing its prosperity.
Money spent away from home decreases the assets
of the home community and shrinks its prosperity.
If you are looking for bargains, read the ads in
the Gateway.
At certain seasons stores needing shelf room for
new styles make attractive prices to move stocks.
KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN—WATCH THE ADS!
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