4o Alaskan Science Conference 



are literate, to satisfy the requirements for setting up a voting 

 district. Although participating little in Territorial Govern- 

 ment, they do participate actively in their own communities. 

 By 1949, 32 Eskimo villages had organized under the Indian 

 Reorganization Act, had their constitutions and officers, and in 

 most cases were really functioning as civil bodies. 



In 1950, there were 33 community stores, native owned and 

 operated, in the Eskimo area, in a total of 45 community stores 

 for all Alaska. In the little Eskimo villages, often with difficulties 

 of transportation and other commercial disabilities, such stores 

 have been needed more than in the large Indian towns of South- 

 east Alaska that can attract competitive privately-owned stores. 

 To keep them reasonably economical, in 1947 twenty Eskimo 

 and seven Aleut and Indian stores were organized by the Alaska 

 Native Service in a purchasing and merchandising cooperative, 

 with headquarters in Seattle. To get these stores and a few other 

 activities started, a Federal revolving credit fund was started 



in 1939. 



Although the stores have done fairly well, other cooperative 

 economic enterprises, such as reindeer herds and sawmill, have 

 not done so well. Members of an umiak crew will stay together 

 well for whale or walrus hunting, but other productive activities 

 seem to be too individualistic for a quick shift to a modern 

 cooperative enterprise, especially when it is attempted with a 

 technology that also is new. The most successful enterprise (not 

 strictly a cooperative?) has been the Nome Skin Sewers, started 

 during the war to supply fur clothing to the Air Force and other 

 Services. In 1945, it sold $35,504 worth of clothing; in 1946, 

 $32,081 worth. By individual sale to traders and tourists and 

 by sale through the Arts and Crafts Clearing House, run by the 

 A.N.S. as a merchandising organization, Eskimos sell their ivory 

 carvings, baskets, dolls, and a few other craft products. Although 

 it is difficult to judge the volume or value of this trade, it 

 probably is worth at least $100,000. This amount seems large, 

 but even $200,000 a year would provide only $5o-$6o per family 

 per year. And craft work never is well distributed, as only a 



