. Administration of Wildlife Resources— Elkins 277 



Establishment and the Fish and Wildlife Service, including 

 indoctrination with the rudiments of conservation of Alaska- 

 bound troops, is the best answer to the military part of the 

 problem. For those transients who can be interested in active 

 participation in the Izaak Walton League or other conserva- 

 tion clubs the battle is half won. For the remainder a vigorous 

 enforcement program is the only answer. 



The second great problem concerns the native people: Eski- 

 mo, Aleut and Indian, and their dependence on wildlife for a 

 living. This is a subject that will undoubtedly be described in 

 more detail by other speakers. We can narrow the problem in 

 order to get at the critical portions of it. In southeastern Alaska, 

 at Kodiak and at Bristol Bay, commercial fishing provides a 

 livelihood for most of the natives as well as whites. Hunting 

 and trapping are important but are not the basic resource. In 

 these areas and in parts of the Interior, the native people have 

 left the primitive way of life and have come to the white man's 

 ways. 



Along the Arctic coast, on parts of the Bering sea coast, on 

 the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta, and in the interior villages such 

 as Christian, Stevens, Arctic Village, Shungnak, and Noatak, 

 the primitive life is still lived. These people must live by 

 fur, fish and game; the alternatives are charity, the dole or 

 starvation. 



Pressing problems of wildlife resource administration and the 

 native are of several types: 



1. Should the native and the white be bound by the same 

 hunting and trapping regulations? Generally speaking, except 

 for the license requirement, that is now the situation and the 

 recently liberalized regulations in the Arctic apply to all. 



2. What can Alaska learn from Canada's experience? In the 

 Northwest Territories preserves are set aside where only natives 

 may hunt and trap, and in the unorganized portions of some 

 of the provinces special provisions apply to natives. Recogniz- 

 ing that the training and environment of the Eskimo requires 

 living off the land some special provision may be necessary but 

 the reservation idea is a doubtful solution. At present there 



