34 Sketches of an Excursian to Southern Alaska. 



In my plea for Government aid, I shall. sketch with more detail than is 

 found in this paper, the status of the Tlinkets among the uneducated races, and 

 ttie great encouragement which theii condition gives to labor for their elevation' 

 and to qualify them for future citizenship in Alaska. 



In my next I shall proceed lo give you' a sketch of the work at Wrangel, 

 as you have requested me to look into its departments of both Church and 

 School; with considerations touching the management of missions to be intro- 

 duced in other places. 



A- L. LINDSLEY. 



Portland, Oregon., Sept. 1879. 



REPORT —No. III. 

 Plans for Improving the Natives. 



EXPL.\NATORY NOTE. 



The following report was prepared as a supplement to the two foregoing. It was addressed 

 to the Board of Home Missions, and at the same time incorporated with the annual report of 

 the Executive Committee of the Synod of the Columbia for 1879. Some degree of repeti- 

 tion was requisite, as the essential facts were the same. But these facts are in this report ex- 

 plained more fully, or represented in a new light. The field was fruitful, and a constant 

 restriction was enforced to bring the whole within the limits imposed by the circumstances. 

 This remark holds good in relation to all these Sketches. In preparing this for the press, the 

 repetitions have been avoided as much as possible. A few have been retained in order to pre- 

 serve perspicuity in the narrative, which the intelligent reader will sanction. 



OUR ALASKA WORK. 



Alaska has been spoken of as "outlying territory," as "common ground." 

 .Such a view sets at naught the ordinary precedent governing such cases, which 

 assign* detached territory to the care of the nearest jurisdiction. There is no 

 ground either in precedent or in law for treating Alaska as lying outside of the 

 jurisdiction of this Synod. Furthermore, the organic act by which the Synod 

 of the Columbia exists, embraced Alaska. It was frequently referred to in the 

 General Assembly's discussions of the organic act, as part and parcel of the 

 proposed Synod. Its attachment to the Presbytery of Oregon is equally regu- 

 lar and positive. The enabling act aforesaid assigned Alaska to this Presby- 

 tery as outlying territory not included within the prescribed boundaries of the 

 other Presbyteries. 



THE ALASKA MISSIONS. 



Have been exciting much interest, and the want of accurate information 

 respecting the country and its people seems not to receive the attention which 

 it merits. Opinions respecting it are very diverse. On the one hand it is 

 affirmed that the whole territory is comparatively worthless, and can never be 

 inhaljited by a civilized people; on the other, an extravagant estimate is put 

 upon its climate and resources. A similar diversity exists respecting its 

 population. Some estimate the number as high as from eighty thousand to 

 one hundred thousand; others reduce i I to one-fourth that number, and even 

 lower. The character of the natives is reported also at an extreme of con- 

 trast. 



