CHAPTER II. 



THE NATIVES OR PEOPLE OF ALASKA—THEIR 



CONDITION. 



THEIR LIFE IN THE PAST, IN THE PRESENT, AJJD PROSPECTS 

 FOR THE FUTURE. 



In taking the subject of the condition of the people of Alaska 

 into consideration, the character of the country in which they 

 live should always be kept in mind, for the life of any i^eople 

 is insensibly but surely molded by the climate and land in 

 which they are found : under favorable and genial influences 

 of soil and climate, a rude race may be raised from barbarism, 

 pass into civilization, and be sustained by these favoi;ing sup- 

 ports. 



The inhabitants of the Territory are divided into two decidedly 

 distinct races, widely different in habits and disposition j one of 

 these two classes consists of the Christian Aleuts, who live 

 npon the Aleutian Islands, the Seal Islands, the Peninsula of 

 Alaska, the adjacent Islands, and Kodiak -, the Indians, occupy- 

 ing all the rest of the inhabited country, constitute the other. It 

 will be seen by a Russian table which I submit in connection 

 with this subject that quite a large number, in 18G3, of the 

 natives, outside of the district above specified, are claimed as 

 Christians, but I cannot recognize the claim to-day; they have 

 worn off what little Christianity they may have possessed ten 

 years ago, and there is no Christian influence, properly speaking, 

 in the Territory, outside of the Aleutians and the people of 

 Kodiak ; these people are naturally fitted for the reception of 

 the principles of Christianity, or otherwise they would have 

 remained Indians, as the others, who are savages, have done. 

 The Russian Greek Catholic priests spared no effort in their 

 attempts to convert the Koloshians of Sitka and those of 

 kindred stock elsewhere in the Territory, but met with i)artial 

 failure in every instance. 



The fact that among all the savage races found on the north- 

 west coast by Christian pioneers and teachers the Aleutians 

 are the only practical converts to Christianity, goes far, in my 



