FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 373 



"Q. Are there auy otber dcMiomiiiiitioiiH? — A. No, .sir. 



" Q. There is no interference by yonr eoinptmy with their religious views ? — A. No, 

 sir; we do not interfere with their religious ceremonies or teachings at all ; Ave have 

 never attempted to change them or influence them in their religion. We have en- 

 couraged the church in every possible way. We have assisted them in building the 

 churches there. 



" Q. You say you have established schools there ; are those schools taught in En- 

 glish ? — A. Yes, sir. 



" Q. Do the natives readily send their children to those schools ? — A. At first they 

 did, but they do not now. They have got an idea that by learning English they will 

 lose the Russian ; that is to say, they will not be able to perform the rites and cere- 

 monies of their church. They are an intensely religious people, it is their«who!e life ; 

 and the ceremonies of the church are in the Russian language, and the older people 

 are rather opposing the teaching of English on the islands for that reason, that it 

 interferes with the performance of the church ceremonies; hut a good many of them 

 go to school, and some of them are learning something. But it is a hard job, our 

 people say, to teach them anything. We have tried very hard. In one of those 

 schools there was a Mrs. Fish teaching school ; she was the wife of an ofticer of the 

 Signal-Service Bureau; she is a very intelligent lady, highly educated, and we put 

 the school in her charge. She tried it on this kindergarten system, which was found 

 to be very good with the smaller children. We have done everything we could to 

 make progress, I am informed." (Report No. 623, H. R., Forty-fourth Congress, first 

 session, pp. 29-31.) 



Mr. Ivan Petroff, the special agent of the Government, before referred to, who vis- 

 ited the islands in 1880 and 1881, makes the following statement as to the manner in 

 ■which the natives are treated by the Alaska Commercial Company : 



"The people now classed as natives of the islands are in xeality natives and de- 

 scendants of natives of the various islands of the Aleutian division, a majority hav- 

 ing sprung from Athka and Ooualaska. When the Russian navigator Fribylov dis- 

 covered the islands, toward the end of the last century, he found them uninhabited, 

 and in order to slay and skin the vast numbers of seals and sea-otters then found 

 there it was necessary to import laborers from the more populous districts. Uuder 

 the Russian rdgime, when these sealers were lodged in wretched subterranean hovels 

 and were fed upon seal meat and blubber the year round, it was considered a hardship 

 to be stationed there, and the managers of the fur company found it necessary to relieve 

 their force from time to time. Since the islands have fallen under the direct manage- 

 ment of the United States Government the condition of the people has been Improved 

 to such an extent as to stop all applications for removal from the islands, and to create 

 a great demand on the part of the people of other islands to be transplanted there. 

 Under the terms of the lease the lessees have erected comfortable cottages for all 

 the families, and provide them throughout the year with fuel and an abundant supply 

 of salted salmon free of charge. In addition to this, each family derives from the 

 compensation paid by the lessees for the labor of killing and skinning the seals, which 

 is done upon a co-operative plan devised by the natives themselves, a cash income of 

 from $330 to $450. 



"Many other opportunities arise at various times during the year for adding to 

 their income by labor of various kinds at a good rate of wages. Whatever necessaries, 

 comforts, and luxuries the sealers may desire to procure from the stores are sold to 

 them at very reasonable rates. Were it not for the strong propensity for gambliug 

 existing among them every sealer would have his bank account, but even now there 

 is quite a respectable list of names upon the books of the company of those who draw 

 annually interest from deposits in the saving banks of San Francisco. A school on each 

 island, maintained by the lessees, under direct supervision of the special agents of the 

 Treasury Department stationed on the islands, exerts its beneflcial influence among 

 the younger members of these isolated communities. Many of the boys and girls can 

 exhibit quite respectable specimens of penmanship, and even composition, in the En- 

 glish language. These were produced at school, and under great i)ressure ; but if the 

 visitor attempts to address one of these youngsters in English the reply will be a grin 

 and a shake ot the head. They have not thus far learned to apply the knowledge 

 acquired. The average attendance at the school on St. Paul is 69, and at that on 

 St. George 23, out of a total population of 390." (Petroff's Report, pp. 22, 23.) 



We aflirm positively that what General Miller said in 1876, and what Mr. Petroff 

 said in 1882, is true as of to-day, and has been true during the whole interval of time 

 since 1876. Our treatment of the natives has been uniform and consistent up to the 

 present time, and the history of one year is the history of each other year. 



Capt. Charles Bryant, the Treasury agent before referred to, who went to the islands 

 in 1869 and remained until after 1876, in which latter year he testified before the 

 Congressional committee, states in his testimony that it came directly within the 

 line of his duty to observe the treatment which the natives received from the com- 

 pany ; that the latter observed to the fullest extent its obligations to the natives ; 



