Present Status of Alaskan Eskimos— Lantis 39 



policy from the standpoint of both Eskimos and the larger White 

 community. If people hang around a large village which cannot 

 offer work to very many and where the surrounding area may 

 have been hunted out or over-grazed by the reindeer, they 

 inevitably will become dependent on relief or will be under- 

 nourished and tubercular. Because of employment offered by 

 the Navy oil-drilling project, Barrow has grown without the 

 usual effects. However, as this project is not a permanent de- 

 velopment of the local economy, it does not change the generali- 

 zation that, as now constituted, the economy of the west coast 

 of Alaska cannot support many villages of even 500 population. 



Tuberculosis has been in the past two generations the scourge 

 of Alaskan Eskimos, not only in the individual tragedies of its 

 victims but in its effects on community life. When mothers of 

 young families, men 30 to 40 years old who are or can become 

 the experienced leaders, and the better-schooled adolescents are 

 killed indiscriminately, community planning probably will be 

 ineffectual. There are three A.N.S. hospitals, three isolation 

 field-stations for terminal TB cases, and about ten field nurses 

 in Eskimo territory, and the area is served in summer by two 

 of the floating health units of the Territorial Department of 

 Health. For special treatment, Eskimos are sent to hospitals 

 outside their area, also. School lunch program, Aid to Depend- 

 ent Children (Social Security), and other welfare programs help 

 combat disease by combating poverty and under-nutrition. The 

 indigenous people are of course eligible for all those Federal 

 Security Agency programs that function in Alaska. 



The Federal Government does not have treaties with the 

 native peoples of Alaska, just as it does not have treaties with 

 separate groups in Puerto Rico. This is quite unlike the situa- 

 tion in the States. Native peoples of Alaska are protected by a 

 Territorial non-discrimination law. They are citizens, eligible 

 to vote, and expected to pay personal property taxes although 

 only a small proportion of Eskimos do vote or pay taxes. Col- 

 lecting the taxes would cost more than the return in many re- 

 mote localities. The principal reason for Eskimos not voting is 

 that their villages are too small, have too few of voting age who 



