out the least qualifications and hold
a balance of power politically has
aroused a deep resentment and pro
duced an urgent demand for a lit
eracy test law to preserve the in
tegrity of the ballot. It is con
tended that in exercising the right
of citizenship the Indians auto
matically forfeit the special priv
ileges of the killing of game out of
season for food and the catching of
seal, accorded them as wards of the
nation, and place themselves on the
same footing with the whites and
become subject to taxation, but this
phase of the burning issue has not
been judicially passed upon. Enlight
ened Indians in considerable number,
in order to reinforce their claims to
citizenship, voluntarily pay the Ter
ritorial school tax.
Father Duncan’s Colony
Metlakatla, founded nearly forty
years ago by the celebrated mission
ary, William Duncan, on Annette
Island, near Ketchikan—where Presi
dent Harding first landed on Alaskan
soil, July 8th, 1923—set the original
example of Indian progress and has
fairly kept pace with the later colon
ies, although a deplorable religious
division, following “Father” Dun
can’s death, has tended to retard
community effort. The use and oc
cupancy of Annette Island by his
followers, British Columbian Indians,
the Tsimsheans, was granted by act
of Congress in 1891, and under his
wise leadership—at times somewhat
despotic—the colony thrived amaz
ingly upon a co-operation basis, and
became one of the missionary
achievements of history. The largest
and most imposing church edifice in
Alaska stands out in the foreground
of the picturesque village as a monu
ment to his memory and he rests in
the church-yard adjacent. By the
terms of his will a cash estate of
some $150,000, accumulated for tne
colony, was bequeathed to perpetuate
his work, but this nas not been turn
ed to any use because of ensuing
factionalism. A Government school
building, the best of its class in the
Territory, is successfully maintained
at Metlakatla, and another mission
church has been established. The
village now has 500 or 000 souls, a
decreased population due to the ten
dency of the younger element to seek
larger fields. The Meflakatlans are
justly asking that they may be
made secure in property rights ac
quired on the island and the required
legislation, limited to the town-site,
should equitably be enacted. Annette
Island as a whole is not used or oc
cupied by the colony and should be
opened to prospecting and develop
ment as it is believed to contain
mineral deposits. As the Tsimsheans
are of British origin and descent,
their status is unique in that they
are unable to qualify for citizenship
and they look to Congress to recog
nize and define them as Americans.
Eskimos Not Dying Out
The Eskimos, whose habitat is in
the far north and along the Yukon
and Kuskokwim river, are not a
fast vanishing or dying race as
popularly supposed, but still number
approximately 10,000 in spite of the
toll taken by the influenza epidemic
of a few years ago. The reindeer
industry has contributed to their
well-being. Eskimo youth are train
ed as herders and, while serving
their apprenticeship, simultaneously
are taught to read and write. In
notable instances young Eskimos
have acquired herds of their own
and prospered in a small way. Com
mercially the industry has made
slow headway, but obstacles to its
development are gradually being
overcome and its future is bright
with promise. Within a decade the
herds have multiplied eight to ten
fold and are now estimated at
300,000.
As in the case of Indians the con
dition of Eskimos who live in iso
lated sections is pitiable in the ex
treme. Tuberculosis and other dis
eases are prevalent and medical at
tention and relief lacking, save
through missions which, although
inadequately equipped, exist in out
of-the-way places and render a
splendid humane service to these
primitive people. On the entire
stretch of the Yukon from Tanana
to St. Michael, a distance of 1200
miles, there is but one physi
cian and no dentist. Towns along
the coast and line of The Al
aska Railroad have hospitals and
are amply supplied with medical
skill, but the practice of the doctor
in the vast interior or the far north
ern country embraces a domain as
large as the average state. Often a
sufferer must endure a trying jour
ney for days to gain relief. Agents
of the Red Cross who made recent
surveys and administered to the af
flicted, found distress in many lo
calities and an urgent need of addi
tional hospitals and nurses. The
steamer Boxer, of the Bureau of Ed
ucation, which has just completed its
second cruise ot Point Barrow, car
rying supplies to the schools and
hospitals, is proving most service
able, but its annual visit to remote
ports does not reach or touch the
needs of many regions. But for the
missions on the Yukon and Kuskok
wim and on Kodiak and the Aleu
tian Islands the situation would be
all the more acute and distressing.
In Southeastern Alaska at intervals
a contract dentist of the Bureau of
Education visits Indian communities
to render needed service and public
health officers attached to the Coast
Guard Service likewise treat the sick
and perform surgical operations. A
Ketchikan physician on such a mis
sion removed the tonsils of a score
of native children in one day, assist
ed by a government nurse.
Unlike the Indians the Eskimos
have shown no desire for the ballot
or disposition to qualify for citizen
ship. They are docile and contented
with their lot, but an apprehension
is sometimes voiced that they, too,
under designing leadership, may ul
timately become a factor in Terri
torial politics.
Co-ordination Lacking
While the government is doing
much for the natives, both Indians
and Eskimos, its work lacks co-ordi
nation and should, in greater meas
ure, be centralized in Alaska to pro
mote efficiency. Under the existing
system the education and care of
the natives is directed largely from
outside of Alaska, and long range
administration is never satisfactory.
Cases of destitution among the
whites are quickly relieved through
Territorial agencies, but delay is
the rule in similar cases among the
natives. Often in an emergency the
Territory extends aid, although lit
erally the use of its relief funds is
confined to the white population
The sending of dependent native
children to institutions outside of
the Territory for training at govern
ment expense is of doubtful wisdom.
Experience teaches that they fare
better in the mission schools, al
though, as a rule, these are inade
quately equipped. The need of a
large training school in Alaska for
the native youth has long been mani
fest, and additional hospital facili
ties are most urgent. To promote
the efficiency of the native 'schools
closer supervision is necessary, with
the directing head located in Alaska
The administration of the Territorial
public school system for white chil
dren affords a model worthy of gov
ernmental emulation.
Thriving Communities
Although the population of the
Territory as a whole has shown
scant growth, if not an actual de
crease, since the census of 1920,
communities along the Southeastern
and Southwestern coasts, on the
steamship routes, are making nota
ble progress. Development is marked
at Ketchikan, which has had an ex
ceptionally prosperous year, and, in
substantial degree, this is true of
Wrangell. Petersburg, Juneau, feitka,
Cordova, Seward and Kodiak. Thanks
to improved transportation service—
the best in the history of Alaska,
with regular and frequent sailings—
these communities have been brought
into closer touch and their common
interests conserved. Anchorage, at
the head of Cook Inlet, the con
struction base of the government
railroad project, was temporarily af
fected in some measure by the com
pletion of the work and the transfer
from a construction to an operating
basis, but it is the center of a coun
try of promising mineral and agri
cultural resources and is readily re
adjusting itself to the changed sit
uation. Fairbanks, the northern ter
minus of the railroad, has been stim
ulated by mining activities, with the
access of new capital, and its future
seems assured. All the towns named
shared in the increasing tourist
travel. Nome, in the far north, a
closed port in the Winter season, is
profiting by renewed mining opera
tions which are of benefit to the
entire Seward Peninsula.
The vast stretch of country con
tiguous to the interior waterway, the
Yukon, from Tanana to St. Michael,
shows the least immediate promise.
It is an unpeopled country, with
abandoned mining camps bearing pa
thetic evidence of affluent days now
gone, and steamers that once plied
up and down the river beached at St.
Michael and long out of commission.
But for the boat service from Nenana
to Holy Cross, provided by The
Aiaska Railroad, this Yukon coun
try would be wholly cut off from
settled Alaska and the outside world.
(Continued on Page 6)