30 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOITS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8o 



Salishan — Continued 1780 1906 



Amount brought forward 81,800 22,210 



Lillooet or Stlatlumq (incl. Anderson Lake, Bridge 



River, Cayoosh Creek Nos. i and 2, Fountain, Kenim 



Lake, Lillooet Nos. i and 2, Seton Lake (Mission, 



Enias, Schloss, Necait), of Williams Lake Agency, 



Douglas, Pemberton Aleadows, Skookumchuck, Sa- 



mahquam, of Eraser River Agency) 4,000 1,228 



Nomadic Indians, " about 3280," unclassified, probably 



includes nearly 1200 Sikani, Nahane, Chilcotin and 



Strongbow, already noted. Deducting these leaves 



unclassified and unattached about 2,150 



85,800 25,588 

 ALASKA 



Alaska v^as discovered by the Russians under Fedorov in 1732 and 

 the first permanent settlement was made in 1745, which may be taken 

 as the date of the earliest disturbance of the coast population. Through 

 the cruelties of the soldiers and irresponsible Russian traders it was 

 estimated that within about 20 years of the Russian advent the Aleuts 

 had been reduced at least one-half, and when the Russian government 

 interfered for the protection of the natives about 1795-1800 it was 

 said, although probably with exaggeration, that the Aleuts had then 

 been reduced to one-tenth of the original number. Dall thinks they 

 may have numbered originally 25,000. The same causes tended, in 

 less degree, to reduce the Tlingit. 



The Eskimo tribes, farther north, were not greatly disturbed until 

 about 1848 when whalers began to frequent the arctic coasts, intro- 

 ducing whisky and disease, and destroying the native food supply. 

 In the winter of 1878-9, some 400 natives of St. Lawrence Island 

 starved to death in consequence of the introduction of a cargo of 

 whisky in the preceding summer, causing them to neglect their hunt- 

 ing through continuous drunkenness. 



The interior (Athapascan) tribes have probably suffered less in 

 proportion, but have 'been reduced by epidemics of smallpox and fever, 

 usually entering from the coast. The first recorded smallpox visitation 

 occurred in 1775 among the Tlingit. It is not known whether the 

 great epidemic of 1781-2, which ravaged the Plains and Columbian 

 region, reached Alaska. In 1836 or 1837, ^^d continuing four years, 

 smallpox introduced from the south ravaged the whole coast north- 

 ward to include the Aleutian Islands and spread eastward among 

 the interior tribes, everywhere with desolating effect. It is said 

 to have killed from 3,000 to 4,000 of the Tlingit and to have been 

 of almost equally fatal consequence along the Eskimo coast and 



