gets tired. It catches fish in storms
or in calm. If one measly humpy*
is swimming quietly to its spawning
grounds, it gets caught. Fish can
not hide from a trap. There is no
use talking about our channels be
ing seven or ten miles wide. Fish
swim along the shore at some stage
of their trip, and that is where the
trap is placed—where it will catch
all the fish. If you could talk to
real fishermen, instead of the ex
pert canners who would starve if
they had to fish for a living, you
would learn why our fisheries are
disappearing.”
We’ll say that our interview was
a draw, Mr. Hoover did not change
his mind, and we did not change
ours. Mr. Hoover is what he has
been from the first, a special interest
man whose friends are among the
packers not because he is bad or
corrupt but because he belongs to
their class; he thinks as they do, he
likes them. He cannot understand us,
the little fellow who has never been
able to earn more than a couple of
thousand dollars a year. He under
stands money, millions of it, power,
plenty of it. He cannot see the
little, small man, struggling to sap
port his family, hungry, while the
canneryman through his trap system
grinds out 50 per cent.
He can see no reason why the Bu
reau of Fisheries, who admit- their
failure to cope with the question dur
ing the past 16 years, should not
be entrusted further with this prob
lem. If the Bureau of Fisheries
were to handle some of Mr. Hoover’s
mining enterprises disastrously for
16 years, and when called to account
should say, “The law is inadequate,
Mr. Hoover,” and yet could not show
by a single line an effort to get a
good law, Mr. Hoover would be the
first to fire the bunch.
We can do better. We cannot do
worse.
There is a lot of talk going- around
but some people think it is too
early to start the campaign. That
is too bad because those who will
really represent the people are poor
and cannot afford to campaign. That
is the very reason why they should
begin early. Another difficulty is
that those who really represent the
people are not supported by them.
It is different with the interests.
These special interests reward their
servants just as a matter of good
business. They have “tax collectors”
and others who work all the time.
The School Tax
SHALL THE INDIAN PAY?
We are asked constantly about the
school tax so we print our position
in order that all may read. We are
not surprised tho that the Indian is
perplexed. One day he is a mere
ward of the 'government, and the
next day he is a citizen depending
on how much money or what advant
age can be secured. On April 25,
1922, L. M. Churchill of Wrangell,
sitting as election judge refused to
let George Mason vote because he
said George was an Indian and con
sequently a ward of the government.
On April 26th, 1922, the same L. M.
Churchill, now disguised as a school
tax collector, approached the same
George Mason and demanded the
school tax of $5. (of which Church
ill was to get $1) and threatened
him with the strong arm of the law.
George was bewildered, but paid to
save trouble.
The following letter comes from
Klukwan, strictly an Indian commun
ity where Indians pay the territorial
school tax but get no returns.
Alaska Native Brotherhood
Mr. Wm. L. Paul,
Dear Brother: Bunch of us work
ing* on road this summer and a man
try to get school tax from us. What
shall we do? Pay him or not? Please
give us advise over that. Please an
swer immediately.
Yours truly,
JOHN D. WARD,
Secretary, Klukwan Camp.
July 10, 1923.
John D. Ward,
Klukwan, Alaska.
Dear Brother:
This is the first chance I have had
to answer your question about the
school tax. My advice is to pay the
tax. We take the position that wo
are full citizens and so we must
carry our burdens like any other
citizen. The /strongest argument
which you can make that you are a
full citizen is that you pay taxes.
That marks the difference between
the ward of the government and the
citizen.
Yours faithfully,
WM. L. PAUL,
Grand Secretary.
Hoonah School
Troubles
Hoonah, situated about sixty miles
from Juneau, is a large Indian Com
munity where there is one pure
white child—a few months old. This
town needs a large school with at
least four teachers and a school sys
tem that takes in eight grades.
Gradually, the Bureau of Educa
tion has been extending its plans
there to bring its standard up to
this mark. But certain individuals
there married to Indian women but
ashamed of the race into which they
have married, do not wish their
children to go to school with “dirty’
Indians and so have petitioned the
Territory for a school.
We were told that their first pe
tition was not in conformity with
the law, and Mr. Henderson, Super
intendent of Schools, turned them
down. So another petition was
written, and by the simple device of
cutting off the signatures from the
faulty petition and pasting it onta
the new one, Mr. Henderson finds
(?) that the law compels him to
open a territorial school there even
though they already have a federal
school that is rapidly meeting the
requirements. On this petition, our
informer tells us, you will find the
names of Indians who died after
signing the original petition but be
fore the new one was invented. But
to please the white men married to
Indian women in Hoonah, a new
school is opened by Mr. Henderson.
Now we have a real race question,
to-wit: a federal school conducted
for Indians versus a territorial school
opened by a purported petition on
which you will find the names of
Indians (to make up the required
number under the law) who now
discovei that they cannot get their
children into the very school which
was created by their signatures ( ?).
Our advice to them is to get to
gether when the time comes for
electing the school directors and
elect their own men or men in sym
pathy with that worthy document
which says that “all men are created
free and equal,” and the Fifteenth
Amendment which says that there
shall be “no discrimination on ac
count of race, color or previous con
dition of servitude.”
Do not be afraid, Hoonah, you
have the votes and therefore you
have the power.