INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 191 



people, these natives will not be obliged to entertain their Siberian 

 cousins longer for the purpose of trade, and then the latter ought to 

 be kept by our Government from further persecuting these people. 



Wealth is not evenly distributed ajnong them. Of course some of 

 them are more. skillful in hunting, or at all events secure more game, 

 and so have the advantage of their fellows. Some are skillful in carv- 

 ing on ivory, or in making souvenirs of the island from wood, and 

 trade these successfully. Others have inherited property from their 

 parents. Primogeniture holds here to a considerable extent; the house 

 invariably passes, at the death of the father, to the oldest son, and this 

 is the largest possible legacy in view of the scarcity of wood — drift- 

 wood (nearly rotten) being found in only small quantities. The richest 

 man owns live houses, four of which he rents to others. The more 

 prosperous natives, numbering al)out a dozen, possess whaleboats for 

 which they traded bone; they employ their dependent relatives and 

 friends to form their hunting crews, remunerating them for their 

 services. 



Eskimo dogs constitute a part of the wealth of every householder, 

 each head of a famil}^ requiring at least a half dozen to draw him on a 

 sled to the distant hunting resorts during the winter. 



Rifles, shotguns, ammunition, and fish lines are also essential In^re, 

 and are to be found in every house. 



The prol)lem of economics here is not an abstruse one by any means. 

 One may almost say that it is reduced here to its lowest terms. With 

 the influx of prospectors or with a change of residence on the part of 

 the natives, on account of the decreasing supply of food here, the 

 conditions will of course be materially altered. To one like myself, 

 who has lived among them, the sociological problem is inviting, and 

 perhaps, after all, not so very "difficult of solution. The perpetuity of 

 the people, at the least, and their advancement in Christian civiliza- 

 tion, at the most, are to be sought after by all who feel a sense of 

 humanity for a threatened race, and who are prompted by philan- 

 thropy to rescue them. Dr. Sheldon Jackson's plan of locating a herd 

 of deer upon this island and gradually turning it over to the natives in 

 payment for services in herding, is un([uestionably the most impor- 

 tant scheme in solving the riddle. If several years must elapse l)efore 

 the natives are permitted to come into possession of the herd, then 

 Government aid in developing the cod fishing or Government trading 

 with the natives (sacrificing profit) may be of service to prevent dis- 

 aster in times of famine. The natives, if possible, had better be 

 induced to remain on the island and aided here rather than urged or 

 assisted to depart to the mainland of Alaska, where their ignorance 

 of the English tongue and of all or most things that could in com- 

 petition with white men bring them an adequate recompense would 

 render them hopelessly discouraged. 



