644 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



thread among the people woukl certainly be assumed by every mis- 

 sionary in the locality where the Eskimos are found in considerable 

 numbers. In this way about $150 a year would give temporary relief 

 to the most pressing distress until the reindeer have become sufficiently 

 numerous to furnish a livelihood to these ijoor people. It is to be 

 expected that the reindeer will finally solve the problem and become the 

 source of future wealth to all Alaska. 



I would recommend that you appoint a capable physician at the sta- 

 tion. A compliance with this recommendation is of the greatest 

 importance. It is hardly proper to keep fifty persons together here 

 without the least intelligent medical aid or the opportunity of getting 

 to where such can be found in any direction. This matter has often 

 been alluded to by the Lapps when they have been sick. My dear 

 Dr. Jackson, please do what you can to have a physician located here, 

 in order that not only those living here and at the neighboring sta- 

 tions, but also the whole Eskimo jiopulation, may not have to resort to 

 the heathen medicine men — that is to say, to the miserable witches 

 among the Eskimos. These medicine men ought to be punished for 

 their practice and for the bondage in which they keep the whole pop- 

 ulation. Death is frequently the result of their meddling, and they 

 bleed their victims in all directions, so that it is difficult to state which 

 is to be preferred — to die, or to get well and be compelled to feed 

 and maintain one more person in future; that is, the one who saved 

 the life, according to their views. These medicine men never work, 

 but they live in luxury on their victims and among the relatives of 

 their victims. There are a great number of this kind of medicine men, 

 occupying various degrees in their art, and they constitute no small 

 burden in the community in which they live, and they are of no use 

 whatever. 



To quote one example out of many hundred, I may relate that during 

 my journey to Golovin Bay last winter I spent the night in an Eskimo 

 hut where the woman in the house was paralyzed from the hips down. 

 By asking questions and by conversation, it appeared that the family 

 had no boat, and as a reason for this it was stated that the medicine 

 man had forbidden any of the members of the family to own a boat. If 

 a boat should come into the possession of the family the woman would 

 die, for then the medicine man would lose his power over the evil spirit 

 which had taken its abode in the woman's feet, and this spirit would 

 then spread itself over her whole body, and she would die. Fully 

 believing this statement by the medicine man, the family had not had 

 a boat for years of any kind whatever. This was a great disadvantage, 

 as the family were obliged to support themselves by fishing from the 

 bank, and this was very little, since in order to catch this small amount 

 of fish the family had to move far away from their people and live in a 

 place that was very exposed and barren. It was, however, so situated 

 that they were able to get some means of a livelihood. In spite of all 



