46 Alaskan Science Conference 



good, but indirectly these and similar developments provide 

 jobs. It is in the opportunity to supply skilled and semi-skilled 

 labor that Eskimos have the best chance to be integrated into 

 a growing and changing culture. 



The Eskimos have been threatened with the fate of other 

 ethnic minorities from unindustrialized areas who were quickly 

 absorbed into a modern economy, for example Negro domestic 

 servants and field labor in the United States, Negro mine labor 

 in South Africa, plantation labor in New Guinea, Mexican field 

 labor in the U. S., and Hindu servants for the British in India. 

 Some of these have moved on into trade and skilled labor. 

 Others have been held static, except that their dissatisfaction has 

 increased. To keep from becoming handy-men, dishwashers, 

 and unskilled laborers around the airfields and on the construc- 

 tion projects, Eskimos need technical training. The apprentice- 

 training program of the U. S. Department of Labor is being 

 extended to Alaska now for the first time. Eskimos should be 

 fully incorporated into this program, as they have a good back- 

 ground for technical work and constitute a very valuable labor 

 resource, already adapted to the country. 



In south and southeast Alaska, power can come from hydro- 

 electric plants. In the summer of 1950, a $20,000,000 hydro- 

 electric plant was authorized for the Anchorage area, to have a 

 capacity of 30,000 kilowatts. This will increase Alaska's total 

 non-military generating capacity by 40% or more. The Federal 

 Power Commission has estimated that Alaska will use in i960 

 nearly seven times as much electric power as in 1947 when a 

 survey was made. Expansion of power production and of trans- 

 portation indirectly creates many jobs. The local people should 

 not be ignored and submerged by a wave of immigrants from 

 the States, immigrants who settle down and become year-round 

 competitors for jobs, unlike the men who work gold dredges in 

 the summer and live in Seattle in the winter. (Some men from 

 the dredges do become trappers or move to Fairbanks in the 

 winter.) 



For northwest Alaska, the most promising source of heat and 

 power is coal. Among minerals, coal production was second 



