SURVEY NATIVE CONDITIONS
BY PROFESSOR ANDERSON
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Professor and Mrs. H. D. An
derson, members of the Stan
ford University staff, are com
pleting a survey of native In
dian conditions for the Office o'
Education in Alaska. This is
their second and final year of
investigation.
They went to cover the West
ward districts, spending three
days in each village for their
tests.
Appearing before the last ses
sion of the Legislature, Ander
son declared the Indians of Alas
ka to be dumbheads and nitwits
with less than average intelli
gence. He condemned tne Bu
reau school system as antiquat
ed and unworthy the name of
school system.
As far as school equipment
teaching force preparation, etc,;
Mr. Anderson told Alaskans
nothing more than that for
which we have been called “bol -
sheviks,” “radicals” and even
“anarchists” for declaring the
Bureau schools below average
and demanding a co-educational
opportunity for Indian youth.
The result of the effort of the
Alaska Native Brotherhood has
teen beyond the conception of
the average Alaskan for this or
ganization did not only fight for
better schools, equipment and
teaching force, but they pulled
the schools and adult population
lip by bootstraps as it were.
The system in the First Divi
sion is several hundred per cent
better than it was in 1918 when
the writer declared, “If it were
within my power to dynamite
every Bureau school where wo
have the dual school system, 1
would do so.”
As to the tests being used by
Professor Anderson, question is
raised whether they have any
real worth in securing an esti
mate as to tbe intelligence of
the Alaskan native. We have
seen Stanford Achievement tests
used on men of character and
high intelligence, and those
tests showed the examined to be
mentally dumb and morons and
we have seen the same tests ap
plied to the lower mentality and
character fibre only to show a
high intelligence. And such a
test in the hands cf a theorist,
cut to write his thesis for a
master’s degree, unless properly
given in a sympathetic, under
standing way, will be adverse
frem beginning to end. An in
complete survey will not permit
of correct conclusions.
And the bad feature of the en
tile investigation is that while
the investigation is limited to
the Westward and Interor sec
tions. the summary includes, to
the uninitiated, the Southeast
Alaska Thlingets, Haidas and
Tsimpsheans who, with their
1'mited opportunities, compare
well with other races.
X
RYAN LOOKED OVER INDIAN
WORK
.Fairbanks Daily-News. Miner.
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To acquaint himself with the
work being clone in Alaska by
the Bureau of Indian Affairs,
Dr. W. Carson Rvan, Jr., direct
or of education for the bureau,
is now in the Interior. He ar
rived at Fairbanks on yester
dav’s train and will be in this
section for eight oi ten days.
It was his intention to make
a trio to Fort Yukon by airplane
today and tomorrow, leave for
letlin by the same mode of
travel. He is to be accompanied
to the upper Tan ana bv Dr. J. A
Sutherland. They will come
down the river by boat.
This is Dr. Ryan’s first trip to
Alaska and he wants to learn
as much as possible about the
work being carried on as the
limited time at his disposal will
allow, he will fly to Nome and to
Kotzebue before leaving for the
south.
The bureau is not only inter
ested in education of natives but
their economic rehabilitation
and their health, said Dr. Ryan.
“Activities in Alaska are of par
ticular interest from our point
of view,” he continued. “Work
done previously by the office ol
Education has attracted muca
attention in educational circles,
it is said.
In the States much of the
training for Indians has been
centered around the boarding
schools, while in Alaska day
schools have been the rule. Dr.
Ryan is inclined fo believe the
latter system is better.
“Good work has been done
here,” said Dr. Ryan, “and the
manner in which teachers are
charged with additional duties
and practically have the task of
administering for the entire na
tive villages is extremely inter
esting.”
Before becoming director of
education for the Indian Bureau
a year ago, Dr. Ryan had for
ten years been professor of edu
cation at Swarthmore College.
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CHICAGO WANTS ALASKA
INDIANS
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Professor K. Oberg of Chicago
University is in Juneau to make
a study of the Alaska Thlinget.
A group of about 16 Thlingets
are desired for the World’s Fair
in Chicago in 1933.
“To you the Alaska Indian
may be nothing but a Siwasli,
but to the student of the East
he is a member of a race pos
sessing the second highest cul
ture of the early inhabitants of
America,” he declared.
For a long time ethnologists
have recognized tins fact he de
clared and it is in the hope of
collecting data along this line
that Professor Ober is in Alaska,