IMPRESSION ALL WRONG ‘
By C. O. Parks, in The Alaskan
-x
Among newspapers published
in the Territory of Alaska, it is
to be expected that we should
hnd varying shades oi editoi iai
sentiment. Some there are with
vision enough and faith enougn
to look beyond the sordidness
and pettiness of the struggle
with organized greed and aver
ice and injustice which has fac
ed each of the new territories
in turn, to a time when right
and justice and equity shah
have been recognized and fairly
established. They hope to see
in Alaska a commonwealth oi
itascnably peaceable, somehow
contented, and fairly prosper
ous citizens. Others have brand
ed themselves with the mark of
Cain, and Ananias, and made
themselves the unwitting (and
witting) puppets of those who
care naught for the future of
Alaska except that they may
wring dividends from her re
sources and her people. They
use such weapons as they hold,
to betray, to brow-beat, to mur
der, for arson, and the blood of
the weak and defenseless cries
forth from the ground. And then
it seems, alas, there are some,
who, like nobody and nothing
else on earth, they appear to
give aid and comfort to both
sides and then betray both sides.
In their editorial efforts, they
build little forts of sand and
then kick them down again.
The Seward Gateway, in a re
cent editorial under the caption
“Impression All Wrong,” for no
reason at all and apparently
without justification, attacks the
Alaska Indian and his econom
ic position. We have tried to
read between the lines some pos
sible excuse for the Gateway’s
attack, but finding none, we
must analyze some of the state
ments at their face value, in the
hope of placing our esteemed
contemporary again on the main
track and facing it toward
Utopia.
“Faced by cold facts,” says the
Gateway, “the Alaska Indian is
a darn sight better oil' than the
majority of white folk. We don’t
begrudge them this but it does
make one sick and tired to con
ii uahy listen to the reams of
sobs in behalf of Alaska’s “red -
men.” * * * One hears of the al
leged terrible condition of the
natives in Bristol Bay and thru
out the Westward in genera .
Pure bunk! Where else in this
wide world can one find a place
where they can make sufficient
of the socalled “filthy lucre” in
one or two months to suffice lor
the remainder of the year?”
Where else in this wide world
is there a people forced to exist
an entire year on two months
earnings? Once the fishin ;
season lasted much longer. The
reason why it does not last tv. »
months longer now, should be
apparent to the Gateway. In the
First Division in 1930 most of the
fish were actually caught in the
last two weeks of the season, b it
the fishermen spent other weeks,
much gasoline and grub, looking
for salmon where, there, none.
And after the. fishing season,
what can the average native do
to make a dollar?. And for that
matter, what can the white fish
erman do to make a dollar? Once
he could get through the winter
by trapping furs.. Now the op
en season is cut. (why?) to a
bare thirty days during the most
Cr
inclement and severe part of the
year, and those days are set for
a time when no furbearers are
moving; and at a time when it
*s v/'-l! nigh impossible to. keep
any kind of trap free of frost. . .
“Where cannery men carry
them on their books for years,
if need arises when fishing has
been poor.”
If they can make sufficient in
two months time to suffice for a
year, why need the cannery ear
ly them on their books for years?
And why has fishing been poor?
Was it the Indian with a dory
and giilnet who depleted the
salmon runs? The Indians have
always lived by fishing but the
operation of fish traps is a game
for rich companies only. The
Indian who must be carried on
books irom year to year obvious
ly cannot invest twenty or thirty
thousand dollars in a trap. And
‘i they could get the trap, they
would not be permitted to op
erate. . Their traps would be
found s o “interfere” with cer
tain traps which for some reason
must be favored. And is it only
the Indian who suffers? Is it
only the eanneryman who car
ries the Indian and white fisher
men on the books? How about
the independent merchant? If
* THWAIT’S PHOTO SHOP
£ KODAK FINISHING
£ COPYING—ENLARGING
X Ketchikan