INVESTIGATION" OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 109 



EXHIBIT D. 



The condition of the natives' houses, and natives on St. Georges 

 and St. Pauls Islands. Season of 1913. Inspected July 17-22, 

 by Henry W. Elliott, Andrew F. Gallagher, agents of the House 

 Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce. 



THE CONDITION OF THE HOUSES OF THE NATIVES OF THE SEAL ISL- 

 ANDS, IN THE VILLAGES OF ST. GEORGE AND ST. PAUL, JULY 



17-22, 1913. 



During the progress of the testimony given to the House Com- 

 mittee on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce and Labor 

 (hearing No. 3, pp. 144, 145, 146, and 162) the question below was 

 raised and answered (House Committee on Expenditures in the Depart- 

 ment of Commerce and Labor) : 



The Chairman. One moment, please; I will ask you some questions, and then 

 you can make your statement. I had information that was gathered from the cor- 

 respondence and the terms of the lease under which the Commercial Co. operated, 

 that on June 30, 1910. there was paid out by the Government $23,960 for houses for 

 the natives up there, and if my conclusions are correct the leasees should have paid 

 that instead of the Government. W hat do you know about that? 



Mr. Elliott. Your conclusions are correct. These houses belonged to the natives 

 when the old lease expired: then when the new lease was invited the condition 

 was imposed by the Secretary of the Treasury that whoever got that lease should 

 do as much for the natives as the old lessees had done: that is. chey should house 

 these people, put tiiem into the dwellings, and pay for it themselves. The North 

 American Commercial Co. by the terms of its lease entered into that covenant with 

 the United States on March 12, 1890, and agreed to do as much for the natives as 

 the old lessee? had done: they had to give them these houses free from any recourse 

 on the United States as part of the obligation of their own in getting the lease. 



The Chairman. Then I understand that the natives are entitled to the houses? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes. sir: the houses were giyen to them in 1878 and 1880. 



The Chairman. I am more particularly interested in the question of this payment 

 of the sum of $23,960. 



Mr. Elliott. The North American Co. assumed that obligation for the old lessees. 

 The old lessees never entered into that obligation with the United States; that was a 

 matter of their own gift to the natives in 1872 and 1874-1878. 



The Chairman. But the Government appears to have paid it in the end? 



Mr. Elliott. The Government bought nothing, either from the old lessees or the 

 new lessees; but the new lessees were obligated to buy these houses or else build 

 new ones and to turn them over free from any recourse on the United States Govern- 

 ment; that is, to give them to these natives. 



Mr. Young. The lease was made on the 1st of May, 1890? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes, sir; but the preliminaries were agreed upon on March 12, 1890. 



Mr. Young. This seems to be the language of the contract: 



: 'That it will also furnish the said inhabitants a sufficient number of comfortable 

 dwellings in which said native inhabitants may reside, and will keep said dwellings 

 in proper repair, and will also provide and keep in repair such suitable schoolhouses 

 as may be necessary, and will establish and maintain during eight months of each 

 year proper schools for the education of the children of said islands. * * * All 

 of which foregoing agreement will be done and performed by the said company free 

 of all costs and charges to said native inhabitants of said islands or to the United 

 States." # 



Now, is not that lease subject to this construction: That while the lease was in 

 operation it was the duty of these lessees to furnish and repair these houses for the 

 natives, but at the termination of that lease, is it not a fact that the houses built by 

 these lessees became their own property? 



Mr. Elliott. No, sir; because in 1872 and 1874 the first of these houses was vol- 

 i ntarily built and given to these natives by the old lessees. By 1881 they were all 

 housed free of any charge by the old lessees, as a gift to them in which the Govern- 

 ment had nothing to do, either of suggestion or action. That agreement between the 

 old lessees and the natives as to these houses was not thought of at the time that that 



