18 WILD LIFE PROTECTION FUND 



This storing of meat led to great evils. They had to go up into 

 the sheep country, and they went with dogs, and many sheep were 

 fed to the dogs. And many fellows had nothing to do, and they would 

 go out prospecting around, and they would take sheep down and store 

 them on the Yukon River for high prices, and the first thing they 

 knew warm weather would come and the sheep would all spoil. It 

 led to a complete disregard of the law, and I venture the assertion 

 that the same is pretty nearly true today. If you have a local com- 

 munity, as Alaska is, and the people are solidly of that point of view, 

 they are going out to kill their meat and it doesn't make any dif- 

 ference what law you put up there. .... 



No. The people up there will not protect the game. The evils that 

 have arisen from the conditions I have described they will not fight. 

 — Hearings on the Sulzer Bill, pp. 18-19. 



Mr. Lundeen (interposing). — Do you favor this particular pro- 

 posed bill? 



Mr. Sheldon. — Absolutely they must have that privilege. If this 

 bill is enacted into law you will create a spirit of co-operation that 

 will assist in carrying out its provisions. If this privilege is not 

 accorded, the people will go in and kill the game anyhow. Hearings, 

 p. 20. 



Mr. Sheldon. — There are a great many people there in comparison 

 with the total population who can not go out and hunt game for meat. 

 The vast majority of people can not engage in that work. They stay 

 there in mining camps and have to buy meat. If they can not get 

 meat for themselves they must pay the prices charged by the beef 

 monopoly, as conditions are now. This plan of providing a greater 

 supply of game meat during the war should help to relieve the beef 

 monopoly situation. 



Mr. Dowell (of the Committee). — This bill opens wide the door 

 for the marketing of game. Whatever restrictions you may have in 

 the bill for an open season, the door is thrown wide open, as I read 

 it, for the marketing of game. 



Mr. Riggs. — The selling of game is a very considerable item in the 

 living expenses of the Indians. The Indians will not work as white 

 men will work. The Indian is a trapper and fisherman. In the fall 

 of the year he goes out and brings it in, irrespective of any law that 

 you might have. This will give us a chance to keep track of the 

 game that is killed by the Indians, and it will also give the Indian a 

 legal right to dispose of his game after the 10th of December. 



Mr. Voigt. — How many Indians are there in Alaska? 



Mr. Riggs. — I think about 25,000. The game country in question is 

 confined, you might say, to the geographical center of Alaska. 



