I 



104 REPORT OF ALASKA INVESTIGATIONS. 



In some localities I observed that the Indian was willing and anxious to earn the $5 to $8 a day often 

 paid him during the fishing season; but his mind was filled with discontent by agitators, who not only 

 demanded his money for the support of their unwise doctrines, but used their bad influences in suggesting 

 to the men, who at heart wanted to work, that they were being treated unjustly by the white men, and 

 pleaded with them not to work for the cannery men. 



This season there were about 4,000 Indians and Aleuts employed in the canning and fishing industry 

 of Alaska. This is about one-third of the total number of natives living on the coast of Alaska, or about 

 one-eighth of the entire number in the whole Territory. 



EDUCATION OF NATIVES. 



I can not speak too highly of the work done by the Bureau of Education of the Interior Department. 

 The men who have charge of this work in Alaska are to be commended. I had the opportunity to become 

 well acquainted with some of those in charge, and with much of their work, which undoubtedly is along 

 right lines. If the natives could all have a certain amount of education, not necessarily from books, they 

 would become better citizens of this country, and their condition of mind and body would be much im- 

 proved. It seems to me, however, that it is to matters of health and sanitation that attention should be 

 directed primarily, at least at present, rather than to more academic phases. 



The lack of money for this purpose is unfortunate, and the Government could well afford to appro- 

 priate more each year than the $200,000 at present appropriated, which is insufficient. 



POLLUTION. 



Owing to the fact that Alaska is sparsely settled and the settlements are relatively small, the question 

 of sanitation has not yet appealed with much force to the various communities. I was disappointed to 

 find that in the majority of the towns in southeastern Alaska practically no attention was paid to cleanliness 

 or to the presence of debris and offal and the effect upon the community. In one town I noticed two 

 conspicuous signs: 



WARNING! Any person or persons who shall throw, deposit or leave any garbage, rubbish or any other substance in or around 

 his or her dwelling or premises under their control, which is calculated to or likely to or which may endanger the public health; or who 

 shall refuse or neglect to remove the same, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall upon conviction thereof before the muni- 

 cipal magistrate be punished by a fine of not less than one dollar nor more than fifty dollars. By order of the City Council. 



HELP ! ! ! Help make a clean and healthy city by observing the following " don'ts. " 



Don't spit on floors or sidewalks. To do so spreads disease. 



Don't throw out your garbage. Burn it. Garbage breeds flies and rats, and flics and rats breed disease. 



This is a step in the right direction, but it came to me as a matter for comment that a municipality 

 should pass an ordinance making it a misdemeanor for residents to allow refuse or garbage to remain around 

 their premises, yet not only sewage and other matter was permitted to run directly under the houses and 

 be deposited within the town, but canneries were allowed to dump all their refuse underneath the docks, 

 which really are part of the town. In fact, some of the towns are built in part on planking over the water. 

 1 spoke of this to a number of residents of the place and their comment to me was, "Well, we can not 

 hurt the canneries; they dominate the town." Yet some poor fellow who was guilty of a lesser offense 

 might be brought before a municipal magistrate and fined from $i to $50. The effect of this wholesale 

 dumping of refuse into the water is not only insanitary but criminal. At low tide a black muck is exposed, 

 and during these hours the stench is sickening, and I know from actual observation that even the upper 

 works of a vessel tied to one of these docks at low tide is in a few hours covered with a dark coating, a 

 collection from the fumes rising from this mass. Climatic conditions alone save these towns from a scourge 

 or an epidemic. With the increasing population and the congestion that is already showing itself in some 

 sections, it seems that nothing short of an object lesson will teach the harmfulness of the existing conditions. 



Another form of pollution is from the mills that deposit all their sawdust and refuse in the waters 

 of Alaska. While this is a well-known injury to young fish and is a direct violation of the Territorial law 

 which forbids the dumping of sawdust into the waters of the Territory, it is being done in some of the 

 towns and under the very eyes of the local officials. 



At every cannery in Alaska the refuse is dumped off or under the docks. The mass of decaying and 

 decayed fish is both an eyesore and the cause of most unhealthful, insanitary, and unpleasant conditions. 



