i2 4 REPORT OF ALASKA INVESTIGATIONS. 



the season to get his foxes because there was no available means for transporting them, and as the permit 

 expires March i, 1915, it is useless to him now. 



If the Department of Commerce is to have jurisdiction over all fur-bearing animals in Alaska, with 

 the exception of the Aleutian Islands Reservation, and if there the authority is to be divided, then I would 

 recommend that the Executive order establishing it be rescinded. 



Few people, unless personally acquainted with the region, have any idea of how little the natives 

 really have to live on and to do with. Fishing and a little trapping are practically all that is afforded as a 

 means of livelihood. It is natural to assume that the United States Government will make regulations to 

 help these people, but so far as I have observed what it has offered on this reservation has proved in a 

 large measure injurious. I thoroughly believe that if a native on any island desires to establish a fox 

 farm and asks the privilege of trapping wild stock from any other island with which to stock his farm 

 (especially when the island on which he lives is devoid of wild stock, as is the case on many islands) he 

 should be allowed to do so, and furthermore he should be advised and encouraged in every possible manner. 



One native came to me and suggested going into the muskrat business, asking if a half dozen pairs 

 of muskrats could be shipped him from Kenai Peninsula. I wired this request to the Secretary of Commerce 

 and in a few days the native received his permit by wire. The muskrats were shipped out there, and he now 

 has an occupation which will no doubt mean an income to him and which is a step toward self-respect and 

 independence. 



The third article of the regulations provides that residents of the reservation desiring to engage in 

 commercial fishing must first secure a permit to do so. The enforcement of this regulation is left to the 

 Department of Commerce. Two natives came in from one of the extreme western islands (some 700 miles) 

 to talk over the situation and to tell me their woes. They said they understood that the United States Gov- 

 ernment had made a regulation which forbade them to put up a few barrels of fish each year for disposal to 

 sailing vessels that might stop at their island in the course of the year. They had just heard of the matter 

 and wanted to know if they would be arrested if they should sell some fish. As this provision of the regu- 

 lations now reads these natives and all others residing on the reservation, whether they live in Unalaska 

 or 800 miles from there, with no possible way of reaching a post office except by means of the Revenue- 

 Cutter Service, must secure from Washington a permit if they wish to sell even a barrel of fish. The chances 

 are that they would get their permit the following year, as it would take, with the uncertain mail facilities 

 in that section, perhaps a month for a letter to go from Attu Island to Unalaska and perhaps another 

 month to go from Unalaska to Washington, and by the time the answer reached Unalaska there would 

 probably be no steamers back to where the sender lives until the following spring. 



The granting of permits to nonresidents to carry on fishing operations within the reservation should 

 be done with care, and the first question should be what benefit the resident Aleut will derive from the 

 granting of such privileges. Care should be exercised to protect the interests of these natives, and no 

 permission should be given to anyone to carry on any phase of the fishery industry within the reservation 

 without providing that all work pertaining to the same shall be done by them. 



NEED OF A WARDEN. 



A fisheries warden should be assigned to this reservation, with headquarters at Unalaska. He should 

 be empowered to take official action upon all minor and routine matters pertaining to the administration 

 of the reservation. Any rational plan for accomplishing the objects for which the reservation was estab- 

 lished must include an arrangement of this kind. An adjustment of this Executive order is imperative . 



PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



There is probably no part of Alaska concerning which more interest is manifested than the Pribilof 

 Islands, in Bering Sea. The fact that they are the breeding ground of the largest rookeries of fur seals 

 in the world makes them not only of great interest but a valuable asset to the United States Government. 



When leaving Washington my intentions were to visit the Pribilofs, to look carefully into the adminis- 

 trative work of the islands and the condition of the natives, to study the fox herds, but to give attention 

 to the seal herds only in a general way, inasmuch as the Department had appointed three special investi- 

 gators to make a comprehensive study of those herds, including the taking of a census of the seals. While at 

 Seward I received instructions to proceed at once to those islands to investigate irregularities in regard 



