524 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. 
after they have been in contact with white men, certainly are extremely 
destructive to animal life. An Indian with a gun will shoot at any- 
thing he sees until his ammunition is gone. They seem to be entirely 
devoid cf 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 scien- 
tific but on sentimental considerations. 
To exempt Indians from the limitation of game laws in a district 
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 district, 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 national domain, because the people of 
the United States as a whole are the ones most interested in its preser- 
vation. 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 
perhaps forests to many districts now stripped of both, but in Alaska 
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 example of the rapid diminution of game under 
state control, where female deer and fawns are now being killed 
under the laws of the State. In Canada, British Columbia prides 
itself on the efficiency of its game laws, but the game is rapidly van- 
ishing there, although in the eastern portion of that province it is 
the Stoney Indians, rather than white hunters, who are the chief 
destroyers. 
From the point of view of game conditions, Alaska is divided into 
two entirely distinct regions. First the coast region, from Portland 
Canal along the base of the mountains northward and then westward 
to and including the Aleutian Islands. The second region comprises 
