Present Status of Alaskan Eskimos— Lantis 47 



only to gold in 1949 in value of product. Coal production 

 reached a new peak that year: 440,000 tons. Coal has been 

 produced in three new locations in 1950 although total pro- 

 duction has decreased slightly. Cost of transportation from the 

 Meade River mine in the Barrow area, the principal mine in 

 northwest Alaska, makes the coal expensive. The Eskimos now 

 need encouragement in locating and mining coal in more ac- 

 cessible places. In 1951, a coal analysis laboratory will be 

 opened at the University of Alaska, to help the growing industry. 

 If Eskimos can develop this industry themselves on a seasonal 

 basis, they can avoid becoming the Arctic equivalent of South 

 African mine labor. 



Oil-drilling by the Navy near Pt. Barrow has produced the 

 only boom in Eskimo territory since the gold rush, but even 

 though this project is extended beyond 1951, it is not a reliable 

 basis for a regional economy. Several base metals are currently 

 needed and priced high (copper, lead, zinc, tin, antimony, mer- 

 cury, tungsten, and especially uranium minerals which are 

 found in the Haycock area in Seward Peninsula) but until re- 

 cently did not receive a high enough price to justify mining, 

 apparently. Although the defense production demand may 

 encourage more mining— Seward Peninsula Eskimos are most 

 likely to be affected since some of them already are miners— still 

 nothing looks so promising for a long-term development as the 

 mining and transportation of coal. Even better is the develop- 

 ment of a range of skills so that the people can change and adapt 

 if future technological changes or depletion of natural resources 

 end some of the local industries. 



Talk of development of such industries does not presuppose 

 that Eskimos will entirely abandon hunting and fishing. As 

 pointed out in "Wildlife in the Economy of Alaska Natives," 

 a paper given at the 16th North American Wildlife Conference, 

 March 1951, native families may continue to depend on wild- 

 life resources for much of their food and clothing, using cash 

 income for such things as boats and fuel oil, ammunition and 

 hardware. Most Alaskan Eskimos are in a far better situation 

 than the Aleuts or the Athabascan Indians of the Interior, nei- 



