38 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN 1910. 



Upon the occupation of the territory by Americans, the native 

 from a condition of abject misery and want was plunged into a state 

 of affluence of which he knew not how to take advantage. Rival 

 trading companies established stations along the coast where sea 

 otters abounded, and bid eagerly for the furs brought in by the native 

 hunters. But while paying him liberally for the skins, the traders 

 adroitly exposed for sale in the stores articles of sheer luxury to 

 tempt the native's cupidity and encourage him to expend the money 

 received for his skins. During the seventies and eighties the Aleut 

 sea-otter hunter clothed his women in satins and silks of the gaudiest 

 colors; his hut contained a brussels carpet and a parlor organ; his 

 church received large donations; in short, a great deal of his earnings 

 was expended at once for luxuries and he was forced to hypothecate 

 his next year's catch of skins to obtain supplies to support his family 

 during the winter. 



With the commercial disappearance of the sea otter, however, 

 the native again relapsed into a condition of penury bordering 

 on starvation. Whereas in the days of plenty he lived on tinned 

 meats and luxuries from the trader's store, now to sustain life he was 

 driven again to fish and to hunt. Having contracted the vice of 

 drunkenness, even in his poverty he would barter his skins for rum, 

 or for sugar and flour with which to make the Russian strong beer. 

 Disease sapped his vitality and decimated his villages. 



Such practically is the condition to-day of the native on the 

 Aleutian chain- While formerly he had to subsist upon what he 

 could wrest from nature, he was then as free from the vices of civili- 

 zation -as he is now of its saving benefits. His contact with the 

 white race has encouraged appetites of which the native was pre- 

 viously ignorant and has taken away his self-reliance and ability to 

 cope with his surroundings. In his state of poverty, the furs he is 

 still able to gather are the object of desire of small traders, who 

 visit his settlements annually and exchange trade goods for furs. 

 The native has no resource but to part with his furs at such prices 

 as the trader may wish to give. 



Unless the Government takes active measures this interesting race 

 of people will become extinct. And since the Government is trying 

 to save species of the lower animals which are threatened with that 

 calamity, it would seem proper that similar attention should be 

 paid to a race of human beings which is rapidly disappearing. A 

 simple and yet it is believed an effective plan to accomplish this end 

 is offered and earnestly recommended to the attention of the Depart- 

 ment : 



1. The entire Archipelago to be made a special reservation. This 

 can be accomplished without difficulty or friction. There are no 

 vested rights in the entire range of islands, so far as known, except 



