Anthropology of Southeastern Alaska— Laughlin 81 



were employed on Kodiak Island but seem to have been absent 

 from the Aleutians where there were few or no games of chance. 

 The Aleuts possessed the game of tossing a person on a hide as 

 do many other Eskimos, but the distribution and the internal 

 meaning of it are unknown. In the field of social organization 

 the Aleuts were characterized by the leadership of "strong 

 men" or "owners" who dominated their villages by physical 

 strength and wisdom, but again the extent of this among the 

 other southern Eskimos has yet to be determined. 



In summary it must be emphasized that many of the older 

 native speakers are still alive and that in a number of cases they 

 can write their own language, Aleut or Koniag, using the 

 alphabet and script provided them by the Russians. The people 

 are friendly and knowledgeable so that ethnological studies can 

 be carried out with good success. 



Applied Anthropology 



The immediate problems of the Eskimos, Aleuts and to a 

 lesser extent, the Indians are serious and in need of detailed 

 attention. Perhaps the first and most objective criterion is that 

 of the decline of population, resulting largely from disease and 

 starvation. Where the village of Nikolski had some 120 in- 

 habitants at the turn of the century, and 89 in 1938, it has only 

 59 at present. Destruction of the original economy based on 

 the hunting of sea-mammals and on fishing, has provoked a 

 number of cultural and biological problems. Three of the most 

 important problems which are amenable to the anthropological 

 approach are: 



1. Education. Most of these people have a very poor knowledge of 

 English. In the village of Nikolski there is one competent English 

 speaker. The Aleuts have expressed a desire to have an interpreter 

 to explain government directives and they are also anxious to ac- 

 quire a more adequate knowledge of the English language. Methods 

 similar to those employed by the Russians and by the Danish Gov- 

 ernment in Greenland which have succeeded in bilingual instruc- 

 tion for the Eskimos would appear to be preferable to the system 

 which ignores the linguistic problems and provides no preparation 

 of the teacher for the particular people among whom he is to work. 



