Conditions obtaining in central and western Alaska and in the interior are not so satisfactory as in the southeastern region. Nevertheless, it may be stated that, according to reports received by this office, they are making slow progress in moral and material improvement. The salmon catch of the present season has been far below the average in most sections, and reports have been received from some of the remote localities to the effect that there may be a distinct shortage of food. One of these localities is on the Upper Copper River, where the supply of salmon, upon which the natives there depend mainly for their sustenance, has been an almost complete failure, and therefore some provision must be made to relieve their wants. This matter has been brought to the attention of the department through correspondence, and it is hoped that action will be taken before a famine arises.

Slowly the Indians of the Pacific coast section of Alaska and the interior are learning to prepare gardens and raise vegetables for their needs. In this work they have received instruction and encouragement from the teachers of the schools maintained among them; and, although progress is noted in this line, much still remains to be done before the natives will secure any considerable part of their subsistence from the soil. In a few of the native villages on the Yukon River last year the Indians raised a sufficient quantity of vegetables (potatoes, cabbage, turnips, carrots, etc.) to last them through the winter. But they need careful instruction and supervision in the work of cultivating and preparing the soil for planting and in taking care of the product thereafter, for it must be confessed that they do not take kindly to farm and garden work. In some of the districts of southeastern Alaska Indians have applied for, and have been granted, land allotments and are making conscientious efforts to till the soil and become farmers, realizing as they do that, if they are to achieve the fullest benefits conferred by progressive civilization, they must forego their dependence for sustenance upon fishing and hunting, and become permanently attached to the soil. If it were possible to give these natives a thorough course of instruction in agricultural work much good would be accomplished, and a long step forward would be made in transforming them into active and intelligent citizens.

Few epidemics have been reported among the native population during the year, although there is nearly always more or less sickness of various kinds, especially in the more remote villages, where usually there is an utter lack of sanitation, and personal hygiene is unknown. Tubercular diseases are common, as well as trachoma, and various other diseases of the eye. These are particularly noticeable among the natives of the interior, and especially among those inhabiting the reaches of the lower Yukon. With an appropriation of only $25,000 for the fiscal year, two hospitals for natives were constructed, and the physicians of the Bureau of Education have done excellent work in alleviating suffering among the natives wherever these physicians have been stationed. An excellently equipped hospital was erected at Juneau during the year, and it is proving a boon to many sick and destitute natives who come hither for treatment from many places along the southern coast. Many more hospitals are needed not only in coastal Alaska, but at points in the interior. These hospitals could not only relieve suffering but many natives not afflicted with fatal maladies could be cured and not be doomed, as many are at present, to lingering deaths. Preventive treatment is as much needed among the Indians as among the whites, and perhaps more so.

For the fiscal year 1916 Congress appropriated $200,000 for the maintenance of native schools in Alaska; a further appropriation of $25,000 was made for hospitals and medical attention. This sum is notoriously inadequate to meet

existing needs, but nevertheless it has been extremely helpful and excellent results have been obtained.

It seems that the aboriginal races of most countries readily acquire a thirst for intoxicating liquors, probably not attained until after the advent of the white man. Whatever may be the case among the native peoples elsewhere it is recorded that the Alaska natives were a sober people until after the advent of the Russians, from whom they learned the use of intoxicants, and with a keenness of imitation, having acquired the taste, when they could not secure the white man's liquor set about themselves to brew a liquor that would produce the desired state of intoxication. There are different kinds of these native brews, but alike in one result-that all produce drunkenness and debauchery. In recent years there has been a marked decrease in the making of these liquors, called in the vernacular “ hootch," "sourdough," or cold" whisky, “quass,” or native beer. All are deadly and demoralizing in their action upon the native, physically and mentally. The native, as a rule, only resorts to the manufacture of this poison when he is unable to secure the whisky or beer of commerce, the chief offenders being the denizens of remote villages of the interior, western, and northwestern Alaska.

66

Notwithstanding the continuous activity of the special agents employed by the Government under the direction of the department and this office for the suppression of the liquor traffic among the natives, there are still to be found worthless white men and even some proprietors of saloons who are always ready to take the native's money in exchange for bad whisky. While these violations of the law are found in various towns, the most frequent infractions occur in the remoter sections; but in all places a marked decrease in the consumption of liquor by natives is noted. This is not wholly due to the operations of the preventive agents, although their work is efficient, but another cause is found in the fact that as education spreads among the Indian tribes they are enabled to see that the use of intoxicating liquors is the bane of their people, and some of the strongest advocates of temperance and sobriety are found among them, and the example set by those earnest men is having a most salutary effect.

The introduction of reindeer among the Eskimos of the Bering Sea and Arctic coasts and in western Alaska has done much to preserve the lives of that people and insure them against starvation or want, which prior to the introduction of reindeer was of frequent occurrence there. The keynote to the welfare and conservation of the native peoples of Alaska is to be found in industrial or vocational education, in teaching them the laws of hygiene and sanitation, and then seeing that the laws are strictly observed, and in giving them the medical attention and care that are frequently necessary, and added to these, industrial opportunity. There used to be a somewhat brutal saying in the West that “a good Indian is a dead Indian”; but happily that period of ill feeling, not to say hatred, of the aborigine by the white men has passed, and he is beginning to be looked upon as having a place in the economic scheme of things, notwithstanding the old doctrine of the survival of the flttest. The Indian is entitled to his place in the sun, and it is the bounden duty of the dominant race to lead him to it gently, if possible; firmly, if necessary, but at all times patiently.

In the report of this office for the fiscal year 1915 the condition of the natives inhabiting the wide stretch of country known as the delta of the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers was described at length, the result of investigations conducted by the Government special employee for the suppression of the liquor traffic in the second judicial division. On his second visit the present year he found a great improvement over the preceding year. United States

Commissioner Charles J. Koen, of St. Michael, in a general report upon conditions in his precinct, states that the natives of the Yukon Delta are now fairly prosperous, the work of the special agent in the country adjoining the lower Yukon having been of great benefit to the natives in breaking up the "hootch" makers. Mr. Koen adds:

"One arrest and conviction in this precinct has had a salutary effect on them, as the news of the conviction was carried the whole length of the river, and it was the means of making a lot of natives who did nothing else than brew this deadly liquor find new residences. A special agent should be kept on the lower river at all times, and every assistance given him in making arrests and in securing convictions, as this is the only way to break up the practice. This lower river country is an asylum for medicine men and "hootch" peddlers, and a law should be enacted for the prosecution of the medicine men, who levy tribute on the other natives through fear, but who can not be reached under existing law. A jail sentence is torture to a native, as he can not stand confinement."

Potlatching, or the making of gifts by the more opulent natives to their less fortunate brothers, but who invariably expected an ample return of their benefactions, once prevalent, is rapidly passing, although the potlatch is still found in some of the less civilized communities. It usually takes place at the close of the fishing season or the beginning of winter, and it is at this time that the natives gather at a central point and spend many days in feasting, dancing, giving and receiving gifts, the hilarity of the event being greatly accentuated if a supply of whisky or "hootch" can be had. It is safe to predict that a few more years will witness the final passing of the potlatch. In remote localities, too, as noted above, the medicine man or witch doctor may be found, who, whenever occasion offers, is ready to practice his incantations for exorcising evil spirits and the cure of the sick, but he is almost entirely discredited wherever education has made any progress.

Native schools in Alaska.-During the year the Bureau of Education maintained 70 schools for the natives of Alaska, having an enrollment of approximately 4,000. In addition to a curriculum embracing elementary subjects, emphasis was laid upon manual training, domestic science, and subjects of a practical nature, by which the natives might secure immediately material results. Besides actual teaching, the employees of the Bureau of Education devoted a large part of their time to the adult population of their respective villages. Sanitation and hygiene are taught them, together with any other subjects which might help to bring their daily lives to a higher plane. The natives are gradually coming to realize that they must reconstruct their modes of living if they ever wish to hold their own.

By an act of the last Territorial legislature the political status of the natives was defined and the method of procedure outlined by which they may become citizens. Another act of the legislature provided for the organization of native villages to be governed locally by natives. Several villages have already or ganized under this act.

With a view toward protecting the interests of the natives, the Bureau of Education has adopted the policy of establishing reserves, through Executive order, of certain tracts desirable for use by natives. By this method the bureau is able to work out its plans for the improvement of the natives, unhindered by outside influences. It is the plan of the bureau to attract natives to reserves already established through the introduction of such industries as will make the natives self-supporting and independent. It should be noted that Alaska reserves differ from the Indian reservations in the United States in that the natives of Alaska are as free to come and go as they were before the reserves

were established. Residence on the reserves is entirely optional with the individual native.

Health conditions.-The health conditions among the natives of Alaska during the past year were approximately the same as the previous fiscal year. With the limited funds at its command the Bureau of Education continued to do what it could to alleviate the suffering of the native population along medical lines. Approximately $19,000 of the educational fund was used for medical work among the natives, which, together with the special appropriation of $25,000, granted for the first time by Congress for the medical relief of the natives of Alaska, made a total of $44,000 with which to cope with the medical needs of the natives. Besides furnishing a medicine chest for each school, from which the teacher in charge attended to the minor ailments of the natives in the vicinity, small hospitals in charge of physicians were maintained in Kotzebue, Nulato, and Kanakanak. In addition, physicians were maintained at Mountain Village on the lower Yukon at Nome, Seward, and Sitka. The appropriation of $25,000 made it possible for the Bureau of Education to erect at Juneau the only hospital in the service really worthy of the name. The building was completed in December, 1915, and by the following spring had been fully equipped and made ready for occupancy. The hospital was opened by Dr. Douglas Brown, physician in charge, on May 9. The staff consists of three nurses, matron, cook, and janitor. The building is two stories, and accommodates 20 patients, leaving quarters for the staff. The hospital serves all of southeastern Alaska and fills a long-felt need, and will go far toward relieving surgical and noncontagious cases among the natives.

Plans are now being made for the erection of a 10-bed hospital on the Kuskokwim River. This has been made possible by an increase of the medical appropriation through a Senate amendment. The 1917 appropriation for this purpose is $50,000. The district served by the Juneau hospital and that which will be reached by the proposed Kuskokwim hospital forms but a small part of the Territory that needs to be reached. The difficulties encountered in reaching even a small percentage of the population can be appreciated when one considers the vast territory over which the native population is scattered, in groups rarely exceeding 200 in number. When this fact is borne in mind and the unquestioned, imperative need of medical relief is considered, the bureau's estimate of an annual appropriation of $125,000 seems modest. Numerous and repeated investigations and voluminous reports have shown, without a shadow of doubt, that the need for an adequate appropriation for the relief of the natives is imperative. It is to be hoped that Congress will grant the necessary appropriation without delay, for the cause of the natives is not hopeless if provision be made at once.

The Bureau of Education, with the aid and cooperation of the United States Public Health Service, has established an excellent hospital, and has demonstrated its ability to economically care for the natives' needs, and it is to be hoped that Congress will make it possible for the bureau to establish similar institutions in the other sections of Alaska where the needs are equal if not more imperative. Tubercular sanitariums are especially needed, as tuberculosis is one of the most prevalent of the diseases from which the natives suffer.

The reindeer industry.-The year 1892 saw the beginning of a constructive and beneficial policy, inaugurated by the Federal Government in Alaska, when the importation of reindeer began from Siberia to this Territory. This importation continued for 10 years, at the end of which time 1,200 had been brought over. From this nucleus the present Alaska reindeer service grew.