214 CONDITION OF THE NATIVES. 



ice in their pretty Greek church with its tastefully arranged interior; 

 they wore the clothing of civilized men and had polish on their boots. 

 All these results are directly traceable to the seal fisheries and. their 

 improved management. 



UNDER AMERICAN CONTROL. — IMPROVEMENT. 



Pages 142 and 143 of The Case. 



During the six years 1 was on the islands the condition of the natives 

 was wonderfully improved. AY hen T came there 

 Sam'l Falconer, p. 162. they were partially dressed in skins, living in 

 filthy, unwholesome turf huts, which were heated 

 by fires with blubber as fuel; they were ignoranl and extremely dirty. 

 When i left they had exchanged their skin garments for well made warm 

 woolen elotlies; they lived in substantial frame houses heated by coal 

 stoves; they had become cleanly, and the children were attending 

 school eight months in the year. They were then as well off as well- 

 to-do workingmen in the United States, and received much larger 

 wages, iso man was compelled to work, but received pay through his 

 chief for the work accomplished by him. A native could at any time 

 leave the islands, but their easy life and love for their home detained 

 them. When I first went there the women did a good share of manual 

 labor, but when I came away all the hard work was done by the men. 

 I do not recall a single instance in history where there has been such 

 a marked change for the better by any people in such a short time as 

 there has been in the Pribilof Islanders since the United States Gov- 

 ernment took control of these islands. 



In the matter of the preservation of the fur-seals these inhabitants 

 [of the Pribilof Islands] should receive some con- 



H. E. Mclntyre,p. 599. sideration. Their ancestors were carried to the 

 Pribilof group more than a century ago, and the 

 majority of the present generation have been born and bred where they 

 now live. They number at present about 350 people, who know no 

 other home, and few of whom have ever seen any other land than the 

 islands on which they live. They are a simple-minded, docile, good- 

 natured people, far above the average aboriginal inhabitant of the 

 country in intelligence, as indeed, might be expected of them in this 

 generation, from the fact that the Aleutian blood in their veins is 

 already very muchmixedwith that of a better quality from Russian and 

 American stock. Very few, if any, thoroughbred Aleuts are to be found 

 in Alaska at the present day. All are devout Christians and earnest 

 believers in the faith of the Greco-Russian Church, observing all its 

 outward forms, and practicing, perhaps, as many of the virtues it incul- 

 cates as the average adherent of orthodox Christianity. 



Very little is known of these people under Russian regime in the 

 early part of this century. If their traditions are to be relied upon 

 they were hardly better off at this time than when in absolute barbar- 

 ism. Their rulers were hard taskmasters and were themselves but 

 meagerly supplied with such articles as would have materially helped 

 the natives if they could have had them. They labored under the dis- 

 advantage of living in a cold, barren, treeless country and having to 

 depend for building material upon the driftwood thrown upon their 

 shores from the rivers emptying into Bering Sea. It was, therefore ? 



