Amounts appropriated, growth, and results of introduction of reindeer among natives of Alaska. Valuation of 56,045 reindeer owned by natives in 1916, at $25 each $1, 401, 125 Total income of natives from reindeer, 1893–1916_. 470, 837 Valuation of 26,106 reindeer owned by missions, Laplanders, and other whites, and Government, 1916___ 652, 650 Total income of missions and Laplanders and other whites from reindeer, 1893-1916_. 146, 926 Total valuation and income____ Total Government appropriations, 1833-1916--- 2, 671, 538 312, 000 Gain (756 per cent) 2, 359, 538 PART II.—DETAILED REPORTS. SECTION 1.-REPORTS BY SUPERINTENDENTS. REPORT OF WALTER C. SHIELDS, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS IN THE NORTHWESTERN DISTRICT. Inspection. My trips of inspection during the year totaled 5,086 miles, 3,779 by water and 1,307. by land. I was away from home on these trips 135 days. The winter was a very severe one. We had one bad storm after another and it was very cold. In addition, it was a hard winter on reindeer, great areas of snow being covered with ice, which made it difficult for deer to obtain food. The consequence was that sled deer all over the country were in poor condition, which rendered travel by deer very trying. This closes my fifth year of winter journeying. While such travel affords opportunity to accomplish real work, and I would not abandon it, yet it is only fair to myself and the others who have undertaken it and are doing it, for me to say that it is frequently arduous and trying in the extreme. It is a heavy drain on a man's physical, mental, and nervous make-up, and the outlook for the future is not encouraging. Men in the military service are cared for by pensions, but those of us who face year after year possibly equally hazardous duty are cared for by no such provision. Once more I must express my appreciation of the assistance so freely rendered me by the Coast Guard cutter Bear, through the courtesy of Capt. C. S. Cochran and his officers. Without the Bear our work in this district, if not quite impossible, would be difficult and unsafe. I feel under personal obligation for the courtesy extended me at every opportunity by Capt. Cochran and his officers. Since I have come to Alaska I have seen and heard so much of the danger of travel on the small coast boats that I am very thankful that it is possible for me to make by trips on the Bear. In my personal work I am placing more and more emphasis on the development of a real pride of race among the Eskimos and in the development of leaders from their own number. At the stations this result is being secured mainly through the spread of the village government idea, and the stress that is being placed by the teachers on doing their village work largely through leading men and women of the village. The reindeer fairs have been of the greatest importance in solidifying sentiment among the natives and in the development of Eskimo leadership. These fairs bring the Eskimo together from a large extent of country in such a way that they are forced to spend a week thinking and talking about improving their condition. After only two years of such gatherings, strong leaders are springing up who are recognized by the Eskimos themselves. I wish to emphasize the fact that the development of Eskimo leaders and the encouragement of race pride are the ideals we should seek to realize. The education, sanitation, and commercial development of the natives will come soon enough; but without the development of their own leaders and the existence of a united sentiment the Eskimos will never be able to get the full benefits of these things. Teachers and salaries.-I desire to commend the loyalty and devotion of the teachers to their work. The new teachers have brought to their labors increased adaptability to their environment and higher standards of professional ability. I believe there should be some regular scale of salaries based on both experience and location. Each year that a teacher stays in the service there should be an increase. In any case, in this district, some hope should be held out that transportation to the States would be allowed after a certain term of service. Natives-general conditions.-With the exception that the prices paid for all skins (excepting mink) were higher than last year, the same general conditions exist as those covered in last year's report. The catch this year was small in comparison with those of three and four years ago. I believe there was less lack of white man's food than last year. In a general study of the economic situation one fact looms up. The Eskimo has not yet developed as a wage worker. I am convinced that up to the present time our education has not succeeded in making the Eskimo a laborer. He still remains a trader above all things. Most of the criticism of the Eskimos and of work for them by white people is based on this fact. The Eskimo must see direct results to himself from his work. His labor gets him a seal or some other kind of animal, or it procures him meat or fur that he can sell; he turns out a piece of carved ivory that he can dispose of for profit. As a reindeer man his work results in a larger herd from which he can sell meat. On the other hand his labor for a white man accomplishes nothing for himself directly. He appears to take little pride in the small jobs he does for others, and he has no interest at all in his part of a big job. The fact that he gets so many dollars for his work does not appeal to him as it does to a white man. He prefers to get his money by selling the product of his work, not his work alone. A prominent official recently told me that the Eskimos would never really count among civilized people until they learned the virtue of hard work. I pointed out that few men work as hard as an Eskimo works on his own job. He is still a child as far as civilization goes, and he has not learned to be a wage slave. This indicates that all our plans for the Eskimo's economic development must be along the lines of making things to sell, not in turning out industrially trained young people who can do housework or job work by the day or hour. It will be some time before the Eskimo will be a success along that line. Industrially, the reindeer business has been our great success, and we have nothing else to compare with it. But it probably now has its most trying period before it-its commercial development. The cooperative store at St. Lawrence Island has been extremely successful, but it depends upon furs for its existence. When the white foxes are gone or their number greatly diminished it will be hard for these stores to do business. The store that is planned for Wainwright must meet the same situation in the future. At present the only native products in this district that are valuable enough to support a native store are furs and reindeer products. But the supply of furs is limited. At first thought it would seem that the apparently unlimited number of seals and walrus would offer some marketable product. But a seal skin is worth only 50 cents at most, and the natives use all the walrus skins they get. This is the difficult problem that we have to face in connection with the outlook for such coast settlements as Wales. After all, we have to fall back upon the reindeer industry as the most reliable means of support for the Eskimo. In discussing commercial developments, fostered by our service, we should not fail to draw attention to the success of F. M. Sickler in getting the Shungnak natives to raise large gardens. year his natives sold over a ton of vegetables on the Kobuk. This Medical work.-At Kotzebue the efficiency of the medical service was affected by the loss of Mrs. Nichols, the nurse, whose place was not filled. Otherwise the same work was conducted as last year. To bring this service to its highest degree of efficiency there should be two nurses in addition to the doctor, one to take charge of the hospital during the doctor's absence and the other to visit the villages to do work among the women especially. I recommend that the hospital at Kotzebue, in the name of the Friends' Mission, be purchased by the Government. I again recommend that the entire medical service in this district be placed under the supervision of Dr. D. S. Neuman. Without supervision by a doctor it is impossible to expect the work to be properly conducted. I recommend that as far as the funds permit the bureau avail itself of the services of each physician in the district outside of Nome. This can be done by contract or by some form of monthly appointment, which would cover Council and Candle. I recommend a contract, at a comparatively low rate, with Dr. Spence, the medical missionary at Point Barrow; also a nurse for this place. I recommend that the bureau as soon as possible undertake to provide some kind of a sanatorium for incurables in some suitable timbered locality like Noorvik, Hot Springs (near Igloo), or White Mountain. At Nome we have taken the only steps that I know of to segregate incurable tubercular patients. We have a cabin on the Sand Spit which has been occupied during the past year by two tubercular cases, the Government furnishing food and fuel. We have thus been able to provide for these patients more economically than if they had been sent to the hospital, and in addition we have kept them from spreading the infection. This last feature should be emphasized especially. The reindeer service.—I have visited 24 of the 49 camps in this district, some of them two and three times. All of the camps not visited have come under my supervision through personal conferences with the herders either at the villages or at the fairs. In addition, a very extensive correspondence was carried on with many of the herders. The supervision of the reindeer industry involves upon the superintendent and upon the teachers an amount of work which can be appreciated only by those of us who have direct knowledge of it. It is this close personal supervision on the part of superintendents and teachers in the past that has made the industry what it is. I intend to instruct all teachers in my district to spend not to exceed five school days twice during the school year in inspecting the herds under their local supervision. More than ever before, on account of the impetus given by the fairs, we are laying much stress upon the technique of the industry. It is absolutely necessary that teachers become thoroughly acquainted with this part of the work, which can only be done by regular visits to the camps. This winter my average distance traveled per day has been less than usual, due largely to extremely bad weather and the use of deer that were in poor condition on account of the difficulty of feeding through the frozen snow. There is one achievement of which Tautuk, my guide, and I are proud. We crossed Kotzebue Sound on the ice from Kotzebue village to Cape Espenberg. It is seldom that reindeer teams are able to cross here on account of ice conditions. Our crossing was the first made with deer since 1897, when Mr. Lopp took the deer across from Espenberg to Krusenstern at the time of the Point Barrow relief expedition. Our arrival at the little village of Topkok, near Cape Espenberg, created quite a stir, as it was the first time they had ever seen deer come up off the ice. |