FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 365 



While all this and much more is true concerning its treatment of the native people, 

 instances are not lacking where it has boycotted and driven away from the islands 

 Government officials who, intent upon the honest, faithful discharge of their duties, 

 have incurred the displeasure or refused to do the bidding of its agents. In fact it 

 possesses the power to compel comi^liance with its every exaction, and wherever it 

 has obtained a foothold neither white man nor native can do more than eke out a 

 miserable existence, save by its sufferance. Without mail communication other than 

 that supplied by the corporation which is their master, the native jjeople of the 

 sections thus dominated are effectually walled in by the great waters which lie be- 

 tween them and the most advanced outskirts of trade and civilization, and in the 

 absence of all competition are forced to sell their furs at whatever rates the agents 

 of the company may be pleased to offer, and accept payment in goods at prices which 

 no community of people not entirely helpless could or would telerate. Its paid agents 

 and lobbyists are kept at the national capita] to oppose any and every effort that 

 may be made to promote the welfare of Alaska through such legislation as will en- 

 courage immigration and the enlistment of capital in the development of the natural 

 wealth hidden away in her forests, streams, and mountains; its every aim and effort 

 is in the direction of prolonging its existence and strengthening its tyrannical hold 

 by a blocking of the wheels of progress ; and to its pernicious influence is due the fact 

 that Alaska is not to-day largely populated «'ith an industrious, enterprising, pros- 

 perous people; that millions, where there are now only hundreds, have not long ere 

 this been invested in the development of her many varied, and, as I honestly believe, 

 incomparably great natural resources. I have positive information of flagrant A'iola- 

 tions of the law and executive orders in relation to the importation and sale of breech- 

 loading fire-arms by its agents; its oppression and robbery of the natives is notori- 

 ous ; the partial responsibility, at least, of the Government for the wrongs to which 

 the inoffensive native people of the Aleutian Islands and the Avhole of northwestern 

 Alaska have been and are still being subjected can not be ignored or denied. 



If it can not legally be rescinded, the lease to and contract with this company 

 ought not to be renewed. It is not, in my opinion, necessary to the preservation of 

 seal life or the seal-fur industry that the islands on which the rookeries are located 

 should be leased to any corporation or individual, but if it be held that I am wrong 

 in that regard, then I do not hesitate to aver that it would be better for Alaska, better 

 for the Government, and, above all, far better for the enslaved Aleuts that every fur 

 seal in Alaskan waters should be exterminated at one fell swoop than that such a 

 blighting monopoly should be perpetuated. It is manifestly the duty of the Govern- 

 ment to protect the weak against the strong, to shield the poor aud helpless from 

 wrong aud oppression ; yet here we have thousands of the latter class, who by solemn 

 treaty stipulation, were guarantied enjoyment of " all the rights, advantages, and 

 immunities of citizens of the United Stales," practically enslaved, and a professedly 

 free and liberal Government not only creating but actually protecting their oppres- 

 sions, and that, too, against a restless spirit of enterprise which, unhindered, would 

 people the best portions of Alaska with a thrifty population, and add untold millions 

 to the wealth of the nation. 



I have said that the leasing of the seal islands is not necessary to the preservation 

 of the industry; neither is it, as so persistently claimed, and as I was at first inclined 

 to believe, essential that a fur-seal monopoly should be maintained in order to secure 

 the largest revenue to the Government. Manifestly, the nativcM of the seal and ad- 

 joining islands have the first and best right to profit by an industry which may truly 

 be said to have come to them by inheritance. They are not Indians, but a peaceful, 

 honest people of much natural intelligence, and capable of transacting business for 

 themselves. They can nearly all read and write in their own or the Russian language, 

 and if most of the younger men and women on St. Paul and St. George are not fairly 

 well educated in English, the fact can only be accounted for on the theory that the 

 Alaskan Commercial Company has not complied faithfully with that provision of its 

 contract which requires it to maintain schools on those islands for at least eight 

 months in each year. 



Instead of practically enslaving them by farming out to others that which is theirs 

 by right of inheritance, it seems to me that the Government should secure to them at 

 least a fair share of the profits, and that its duty is to protect and, if possible, per- 

 petuate the seal fisheries for their benefit, and not in the almost exclusive interest of 

 organized greed and corporate monopoly. To accomplish this it is only necessary 

 that regulations be promulgated by the proper department prohibiting the killing of 

 seals on the islands of St. Panl and St. George by any but natives, prescribing the 

 number that may be killed each year, the mode of killing, and imposing all the other 

 restrictions now in force. It would require no greater number of agents to supervise 

 the killing by natives than are now emi)loyed to watch and guard the interests of the 

 Government, if as many. The skins could then be sold in open market by the natives 

 themselves, in the presence of, or by a Government agent acting in their behalf, and 

 whose duty it should be made to collect from purchasers a Government tax of not less 



