Present Status of Alaskan Eskimos— Lantis 45 



fected the Eskimo economy relatively little. The 1950 Census 

 shows the following percentage increase in population in the 

 preceding ten years: 



% 

 1st Division 9.2 



2nd Division 5.9 



3rd Division 202.1 



4th Division 75.0 



These figures do not include military personnel assigned to 

 Alaska. In the 3rd Division is the Anchorage-Matanuska-Kenai 

 development. In the 4th Division is the Fairbanks metropolitan 

 development. The 2nd Division, which has the highest propor- 

 tion of natives— 86% of the total population according to the 

 1940 Census— has shown the smallest increase. Most of the Eski- 

 mos live in this 2nd Division. The 3rd and 4th have boomed 

 largely on military construction and the servicing of military 

 establishments, it is true, but not solely on these, fortunately. 

 With their agriculture, tourist business, and other develop- 

 ments, a genuine beginning of a broad and balanced economy 

 has been made. Otherwise, such an influx of people would look 

 like just another stampede, with an impending collapse. 



The economy of Alaska has been based until recently almost 

 exclusively on exploitation of natural resources: fur-bearing and 

 oil-bearing animals, fish, minerals, and, to a very small extent, 

 timber. With the exception of fish, virtually all products were 

 shipped out unprocessed. Furs, for example, were not tanned, 

 dyed, glazed, and mounted in Alaska. After the end of the 

 whaling industry, there was not even the rendering of whale oil. 

 Since Alaskan economy is getting its new start by means of a 

 construction boom and will have many construction needs for 

 a long time, as any rapidly developing area does, the first re- 

 quirement is for 1) local processing plants to provide construc- 

 tion materials, 2) power to run the plants and run the transpor- 

 tation, and 3) development of local skilled labor. In 1949, for 

 example, the first plant in Alaska to produce oxygen and acety- 

 lene started operating, similarly the first plant to produce bulk 

 cement, both in the Railbelt. These do the Eskimos no direct 



