FUR SEALS AND OTHER LIFE, PRIBILOF ISLANDS, I914. 133 



To this company was given the exclusive right to take sealskins on the Pribilofs for a 

 period of 20 years. The lease was framed with due regard to the moral rights of the 

 native inhabitants. By its terms the Alaska Commercial Co. was required to furnish 

 annually to the natives, free of charge, 25,000 dried salmon and salt and barrels for 

 preserving a supply of meat; a school was to be maintained for eight months of the 

 year on each island, and furnishing any spirituous liquor to the natives was forbidden. 

 By further regulations the natives were to be employed in the work of sealing and 

 were to receive 40 cents for each skin taken, the rate of wages for other work done to 

 be agreed upon between the company and the natives; all provisions and merchandise 

 were to be furnished at prices not higher than retail prices in San Francisco ; the natives 

 were to receive free the necessary fuel and oil; all widows and orphans were to be sup- 

 ported; free transportation to the Aleutian Islands was allowed; medicine and the 

 services of a physician were to be supplied free of cost; dwelling houses were to be 

 furnished rent free; no interference in their social or domestic relations or in their reli- 

 gious ceremonies would be allowed, and they were to be accorded kind treatment and 

 aided by precept and example to appreciate the advantages to be gained by proper 

 conduct. 



An annual rental of $55,000, an internal-revenue tax of $2 for each sealskin taken, 

 and certain other minor taxes were required of the sealing company. To keep a proper 

 check on the operations of the company and to safeguard in all ways the interests of 

 the Government and the rights of the natives, agents of the United States Treasury 

 were stationed on each island. 



Thus raised from a life of degradation and misery to a condition of comparative 

 comfort, the natives responded in a manner which is highly creditable to them. Already 

 expert in sealing, the advantages of better food and shelter were soon apparent. The 

 company was able to take its annual quota of 100,000 seals in from 40 to 50 working' 

 days. At the same time the natives acquired a taste for many imported foods hitherto 

 unknown to them and adopted the manner of dress of the white inhabitants and grad- 

 ually began to lose many of the more useful of their primitive habits and handicrafts. 



On the expiration of the lease of the Alaska Commercial Co. in 1890 a similar lease 

 was given to the North American Commercial Co. for a further period of 20 years. Its 

 provisions, as far as the privileges accorded the natives are concerned, were substan- 

 tially the same as those of the previous arrangement, but the rate of compensation for 

 the sealing and other work which the natives were fitted to perform was to be fixed by 

 the Secretary of the Treasury. For several years following the advent of the new 

 company comparatively few seals were killed and the natives were called upon to per- 

 form a correspondingly small amount of labor. During the incumbency of the leasing 

 companies a system of compensating the natives was developed which is now impos- 

 sible of operation, but which has become so ingrained into the minds and customs of 

 the people that it is difficult for them to accept or understand any other. The total 

 sum due the natives for performing the work of sealing was divided into a certain num- 

 ber of shares, a number considerably larger than the number of laborers. The work- 

 men were divided by agreement among themselves, and supposedly according to their 

 ability, into several classes, and from time to time received what was due them accord- 

 ing to this arrangement. Some shares went to the church, others to the priest, and 

 others to the widows and orphans. This arrangement did very well under the leasing 



