FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 343 



^he Chairman. The subject of permitting tbe Aleutes to marry ? 



The Witness. Yes ; and what might be their condition in the future. 

 Mr, Wilbams very ably and properly, 1 think, presented the matter; but 

 I would bke to add a few suggestions. The income of the people on the 

 fur seal islands of St. George and St. Paul is sufficiently large to sup- 

 port an additional population. They have an accumulation of their 

 earnings on deposit with the Alaska Commercial Company — a consider- 

 able amount — which shows there is a surplus beyond what is required 

 for their maintenance. Now. they are all Aleuts. They were brought 

 originally from Oonalaska and others of the Aleutian chain of islands. 

 They are all the same people upon these islands that are now sparsely 

 inhabited; where the sea otter hunting has ceased to aftbrd them a liv- 

 ing otters are no more to be found, and the people live on fish and what 

 the fur company bring them. I think these people — the best of the 

 men— should be taken to the fnr seal islands and allowed to marry the 

 surplus women we have upon the fur seal islands and become sealers. 



The population of the islands is very rapidly decreasing. Some of 

 our best sealers die oft" every spring. Of course their places, to some 

 extent, are taken by the young boys growing up, but there is a very 

 perceptible decrease of the good working force ui)on the islands. It is 

 absolutely necessary that additional help should be placed upon those 

 Islands, and the question is, where shall it come from ? I think from 

 Attoo, and a great many islands where the people are very poor and 

 get a poor living. We could furnish the seal islands with a very con- 

 siderable addition to the population without doing any injury whatever 

 to the present citizens of those islands. They have enough and to spare. 

 We do not propose to decrease their income, but when you decrease the 

 numbers the income of the families left increases every year. As a mat- 

 ter of fact, 20 cents a skin would furnish these natives a maintenance; 

 whereas the amount they receive annually is 40 cents a skin. Now, why 

 not increase the population from these poorer communities in Oona- 

 laska district, put them upon the fur seal islands, and make sealers of 

 them ? If you do not do that they will ultimately become a charge upon 

 the Government, or starve; because I do not believe there is any cor- 

 poration or company in the world that is going to continue to maintain 

 a lot of natives on remote islands when they do not get some return 

 from them. There is meat — the seal meat — which would furnish food 

 for thousands of them, for that matter, and at the present time this 

 company operating the islands pack off in their vessels every year a 

 thousand seal carcasses and carry them to Oonalaska, and from that 

 point distribute them to the natives along the Aleutian chain gratui- 

 tously. 



Q. Do you know any authority of law to prevent women on St. Paul 

 and St. George Islands marrying whom they wish ?— A. No, sir. It is 

 only the regulation of the Greek Church. 



Q. They are permitted now to marry as they please, are they not, 

 by the laws of the United States f — A. Certainly. 



Q. There is no restraint by law or regulation of the Treasury De- 

 partment; what is it that interferes with these marriages that you 

 speak of? — A. That regulation of the Department which prohibits any- 

 one else going in there : natives or any other person landing on the 

 islands, participating in that work, and becoming a citizen. I think it is 

 clearly within the power of the Secretary of the Treasury under the law 

 to regulate the matter by his order or Department regulations. 



Q. Which would relieve them in regard to the matter you speak of? — 

 A. Yes. sir. 



