356 FUR-SEAL FISHEEIES OF ALASKA. 



in securing their quota of fine skins in thirty-nine working clays— an average of 2,564 

 per clay. 



The time has come when in my judgment the lessees should be authorized by the 

 Secretary of the Treasury to employ additional natives, and teach them the business 

 of sealing in all its branches, as death has played sad havoc with the sealers of the 

 islands, as shown by a statement I herewith inclose, marked C, compiled from the 

 records by the Alaska Commercial Company's general agent, Dr. H. H. Mclntyre. 

 From this list you will see the mortality among the men since 1870 has been fearful, 

 and the smallness of the effective force of able men and boys in 1887 to do the work of 

 taking 85,000 seal skins on St. Paul Island during the time allowed by law is insuffi- 

 cient. Were it not for the fact that one-half the work pertaining to the taking, salt- 

 ing, bundling, etc., of the skins is done by Oonalaska natives, brought up by the lessees 

 for the sealing season and returned to their homes at the close of the season's business, 

 and eight white men, employes of the lessees, the work would not be done on St. Paul 

 Island without continuing the killing in the fall. About forty natives of Oonalaska, 

 the same tribe of people who inhabit the fur-seal islands, are brought annually to the 

 islands and paid by the lessees for salting, booking, bundling, etc., in order to ad- 

 vance the work. 



The island natives receiving the full sum of 40 cents per skin ; it would be entirely 

 just to take this extra expense from the sum total of the native fund and distribute 

 the remainder to the sealers, as the work performed by the extra help is a part of the 

 duty imposed on the island natives under the contract and in consideration of the 40 

 cents per skin paid them. Experience has demonstrated that the system of payment 

 to the natives is not the best for their own interest, for the reason that when the 

 season's sealing ends, and they each get their proportion of the community fund en- 

 tered up to their credit iu their pass-books, they feel the year's work is ended. If 

 called upon to work on a road over which they travel and wheel their water, meat, 

 and fuel, or asked to launch a boat to board the vessel in the spring, they are paid 

 by the hour; or when called out by the Treasury agent in the spring to clean up the 

 filth they have accumulated during the winter round their houses they are paid for 

 their labor. They earn their year's salary or pay in six weeks, and for the remainder 

 of the year feel they are free. If called on to do any work, even though it may be 

 as much for the benefit of the natives as the lessees, they must be paid by the hour 

 for it. The system of payment by the piece or skin was adopted immediately after 

 the transfer of the country as an inducement for the natives to secure the skins, rival 

 companies occupying the islands sealing at the time. In my opinion it is not the best 

 way to compensate the island natives, and is very unjust to their brothers who are 

 brought from Oonalaska to help them. The average pay of the St. Paul native seal- 

 er this year is a little over $5U0, whilst the Ooualaskans receive on an average $80 

 each. This small sum is the main support of their families for the year, whilst the 

 St. Paul man has, besides his $500 cash, all the fresh seal meat he can eat, and salt, 

 fuel, fish, house, medicines, physician, and schooling /ree. 



It would be a simple act of justice to place the natives of Oonalaska employed to 

 assist in sealing on the same footing with the St. Paul natives in the distribution of 

 the sum earned, as one set of men are just as essential to the work as the other. I 

 would suggest as a much better plan the payment of a sum equal to 40 cents per skin 

 divided into annual salaries in proportion to the value of each man and boy's labor, 

 payable weekly or mculhly, with the understanding that in consideration of this 

 salary their time and labor was subject to the orders of the lessees and Treasury agents 

 at avij and all times. For nine mouths or more every year the lessees have nothing 

 for them to do, but the system of payment, as suggested, I am sure would prove more 

 beneficial to the natives, and make no difference whatever to the lessees, except it 

 would subject the natives to their orders at all times for anj ^vork necessary to be 

 done. 



I would respectfully recommend that any additional force of natives you may see 

 proper to authorize to assist in sealing be j>aid by the year and not by the skin, and such 

 sum so paid be deducted from the community funds of 40 cents per skin before the division 

 is made, and the remainder divided as heretofore among the old sealers, provided that 

 none of the lessee's agents or white employ6s are paid out of th<) native funds. It is 

 evident the rapid decrease of native adult males on the islands will necessitate an 

 increase in the outside force of natives, or the quota of 100,000 skins per annum can 

 not be taken. 



The Ooualaskan is paid hy the lessees for doing the work which under tneir contract 

 the islanders are bound to do, and whilst the wages paid them by the Alaska Com- 

 mercial Company ($40 per month) is very good, the time employed (two months) is 

 very short, lasting only through the killing season. 



In view of the facts stated, it would seem but just that some more equitable di- 

 vision of the funds be made among those natives who do the work, as they are all of 

 one tribe, the fnr-seal islands having been first peopled a hundred years ago by trans* 

 planting Aleuts from Oonalaska, 



