128 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Another element in game protection is the relation of the 

 Indian to the wild game. This problem is not as serious in 

 Alaska as it is in parts of British Columbia and the Canadian 

 Northwest, and is settling itself by the rapid decline of the Indian 

 population. Indians, after they have been in contact with white 

 men, certainly are extremely destructive to animal life. An 

 Indian with a gun will shoot at anything he sees until his ammu- 

 nition is gone. They seem to be entirely devoid of any idea of 

 economy in slaughtering, even though they know that they are 

 certain to suffer from starvation as a result of their indiscriminate 

 waste of game. Any legislation, therefore, that gives Indians 

 privileges superior to the whites is not based on scientific, but on 

 sentimental considerations. 



To exempt Indians from the limitation of game laws in a dis- 

 trict partly inhabited by white men, simply puts the white hunter 

 at a disadvantage, and always results in a contempt for the law 

 on the part of the latter. If an Indian is allowed to hunt freely 

 during the closed season, he is usually employed by whites for 

 market hunting. The game he kills finds its way to the white 

 man's market rather than to the teepees of the tribe, or is used 

 as food by the Indian's dogs, with the ultimate result that the 

 food supply of the entire tribe is killed off for the benefit of a 

 few hunters. 



The Indians of Alaska have, in the abundance of salmon, a 

 food supply which is available throughout the most of the dis- 

 trict, and are consequently not entitled to any special privileges. 

 Alaska is, and for a long time should remain, the ward of the 

 Federal Government — however distasteful such a course may be 

 to some of its inhabitants. It is peculiarly the duty of the Federal 

 Government to preserve and control the wild game of this na- 

 tional domain, because the people of the United States as a whole 

 are the ones most interested in its preservation. It is to Congress, 

 rather than to the residents of Alaska, that we must look for 

 the enactment and enforcement of suitable laws, and to avail of 

 the last great opportunity to preserve our native fauna on a large 

 scale. We no doubt in the future shall restore game and per- 

 haps forests to many districts now stripped of both, but in y\laska 

 we have our last chance to preserve and protect rather than to 

 restore. 



The claim made by many western communities, that local state 

 laws are sufficient, is being daily disproved by the inability of 

 several states to control the small game supply left within their 

 own borders. Colorado is a notable examj^le of the rapid diminu- 



