ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 427 



no other way of reaching the Goveruraent, that I deem it my duty to 

 ask you to endeavor to impress upon the Department the necessity of 

 establishing Government schools on the seal islands, if the children 

 are ever to be lifted out of the present degraded and degrading con- 

 ditions. It is absolutely necessary, too, that water in abundance be 

 brought into the villages on each island, and that a thorough system 

 of drainage be established. 



I respectfully refer you to the plans drawn by J. Stanley-Brown, and 

 accompanying his report to the Secretary of the Treasury for 1892. 



ORPHANS AT SCHOOL AT UNALASKA. 



In September, 1890, 1 sent 6 orphan girls from St. Paul Island to the 

 American school at (Jnalaska and subsequently 4 others have been 

 sent there. I could and should have sent 30 orphan girls when I sent 

 the G had there been room for them in the school, for I was anxious to 

 put them into the hands of a Christian woman, whose heart is in the 

 work of saving such children from a fate that is worse than death, and 

 the result has more than satisfied me and justified the experiment. 



The majority of the children sent to this school were the poorest, 

 lowest, dirtiest, and most ignorant on the islands, and they could not 

 speak a word of the English language; and yet, after a term of two 

 years, every one of them was able to write English as well as the aver- 

 age white school child of similar age. Three of the oldest have mar- 

 ried, and 2 of them are housekeepers on St. Paul Island, where for 

 morality, cleanliness, and good housekeeping they are models of excel- 

 lence. It is for such a school I plead. 



Now I have been informed that the school at Unalaska has been 

 abandoned by the good people whose charity kept it going, and the 

 teacher asked me to issue some food and some clothing out of the Gov- 

 ernment appropriation to the orphans from the seal islands. I asked 

 the general superintendent of the lessees to assist the orphans, and he 

 told me the lessees would keep them as long as they remained on the 

 islands and no longer. I felt that I could not issue food or clothing to 

 orphans dependent on the lessees. 



Now the question, stripped of all disguise, is simply this : Are these 

 girls to be sent back to the islands where nothing better awaits them 

 than a life of shame, or will the Government allow its agents to issue 

 food and clothing to them while they are at school at Unalaska, where 

 they are being educated and civilized and cleaned physically and 

 morally? 



A long residence on the islands has given me an intimate knowledge 

 of the people, their virtues, vices, wickedness, and wants, and my 

 advice is, give the widows and orphans, aged, sick, and indigent the 

 kindly protection of the Government, and if you can not establish good 

 schools on the islands, where a Christian woman can care for the girls, 

 send them to schools where they can have such care, and support them 

 while at school. 



All of which is very respectfully submitted to the Department. 



Joseph Mttrray, 

 Assistant Treasury Agent at the Seal Islands. 



Joseph B. Crowley, 



Agent in Charge of the Seal Islands. 



