34 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN 1910. 



In 1808 seal killing began again, with accessions of laborers mainly 

 from Unalaska and adjacent villages. On St. Paul Island the natives 

 were drawn together and huddled into one settlement at Halfway 

 Point. About 1825, for convenience in handling cargo, the village 

 was again changed to its present site. 



On St. George Island several settlements existed originally, but 

 were consolidated at the present site about 1830-1835. 



Under the Russian regime, especially under the management of the 

 Russian American Company, which provided the machinery of govern- 

 ment for the territory during the tenure of its privilege, the natives were 

 mere slaves. They had no redress for any injury or insolence which 

 their masters might see fit to inflict upon them. Their habitations 

 were large communal dwellings of earth, half underground, cold, and 

 filthy. Here they lived and died unnoticed and uncared for. They 

 subsisted on fish and the flesh of seals, with the addition of roots and 

 a very little flour. 



In 1835, Veniaminof states, the natives worked at whatever was 

 found and whatever they were directed to do. Payment was not 

 established by the day or year, but for each skin taken by them or for 

 what was placed to their credit. They received no specific wage, 

 though they were not all of equal ability, there being usually three or 

 four classes. In these classes the sick and old workmen were counted, 

 although they were only burdens, and therefore received the smallest 

 shares, about 150 rubles, and the other and better classes 220 to 250 

 rubles a year. Those who were zealous were rewarded by a present 

 of 50 to 100 rubles. The wives of the Aleuts, who worked only at seal 

 killing, received from 25 to 35 rubles. These rubles were scrip cur- 

 rency, made of leather, equal in value to a franc, or about 20 cents. 



In 1868, at the time of the purchase of Alaska by the United States, 

 the natives were living in semisubterranean houses built of turf 

 and such pieces of driftwood and whalebone as they were able to 

 secure on the beach. Their food was seal meat and a few articles 

 furnished in meager quantity by the Russian company. They had 

 no fuel except driftwood and blubber, and depended for heat upon 

 crowding together in the sod houses, sleeping upon the dried grasses 

 secured upon the islands. 



In 1870 the Alaska Commercial Company took charge of the islands 

 under a lease. It at once built neat frame dwellings for the natives, 

 and paid them 40 cents apiece for each sealskin taken. As 100,000 

 were taken annually this gave the natives about $40,000 each 

 year, enough to support them. in qualified comfort. While this 

 sum was divided on a communal basis, some natives by thrift and 

 economy were able to save sums amounting to perhaps $2,500 each. 

 No interference with the expenditure of their earnings was made by 

 the agents of the government. 



