CONDITION OF THE NATIVES. 141 



from tlie manaoremeiit of these islands under the 

 system adopted m 1870 by the Congress of the 

 United States. 



When the United States Government assumed . ^nfier the Rns- 



siau Company. 



control of the territory of Alaska the condition 

 of these natives was Avretched in the extreme, 

 the Russian American Company having neglected 

 their welfare and forced them into practical 

 slavery. Capt. Bryant, who had an opportunity 

 to ol^serve their condition prior to active occupa- 

 tion of the islands by the United States, de- 

 scribes and compares the situation of the natives 

 under Russian management and under the system 

 inaugurated by the United States. His testi- 

 mony on this point is as follows : 



''When I first visited the seal islands, in 1869, 

 the natives were livino- in semisubterranean 

 houses built of turf and such pieces of driftwood 

 and whalebones as they were able to secure on 

 the beach. Their food had been prior to that 

 time insufficient in variety and was comprised of 

 seal meat and a few other articles furnished in 

 meager quantity by the Russian Fur Company. 

 They had no fuel and depended for heat upon 

 the crowding together in their turf houses, sleep- 

 ing in the dried grasses secured upon the islands. 



''Forced to live under these conditions, they 



