248 
BULLETIN OF THE UNTTED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
during the summer and finding life rather eas} r during the winter. These people l 
have organized themselves into an association under the name of the Brotherhood of 
Afognak Pioneers and have taken upon themselves the regulation of municipal affairs. 
In the salmon inspector’s report for 1899, page 47, there is an appeal addressed 
to the inspector to the effect that, as the streams of Afognak are closed, they are 
“ unable to obtain a living” and request the “permission of the Treasury Department 
to fish the streams of Afognak Islands.” This appeal has 23 names, the nationality 
of which may easily be recognized. Inquiry was made in reference to the signers, 
and it was learned that they all belonged to the brotherhood. One is dead ; 1 was 
injured while hunting, but does some work; 2 are Russian residents; 3 are store- 
keepers and well-to-do, and the remaining 10 are employed in the canneries and fish- 
eries, some in leading positions, such as master of cannery steamer, foreman of 
working gang, watchman, etc. Further comment is unnecessary, as it is evident the 
white population desire to have the exclusive use of the Afognak streams, so they 
may sell fish to the canneries. 
In concluding these remarks on the conditions at Afognak as they appeared tome, 
it is my desire to say that my sympathies are entirely with the natives, and were it 
possible to make any recommendations for their benefit, such would be made; it can 
only be asked that whatever legislation is effected a fair balance may be cast in their 
favor. We should not ask too much from a people who have for centuries lived on 
the resources which nature alone has offered and who now emerge upon a destructive 
civilization which holds them probably in a worse condition than in former times 
when they were a more primitive people. The rich furs which they formerly poured 
into the. laps of the traders, and for which they received food and a few necessities, 
are gone, and the fur-trader is also going, for lie can no longer fill his coffers with 
the catch of the grub-staked hunter. The first stage of the native’s life here is over; 
he is now upon the second, marked on the one hand by the influence of vicious white 
men and on the other by the kind and gentle teachings and example of a people who 
sacrifice themselves for the native interests, but whom they usually do not understand. 
If he survives these two directly opposite influences, he may become a good citizen. 
It has been my experience, however, that in all parts of the world among primitive 
people the second stage is deadly, and that what might be called a refined civilization 
thrust upon a native race kills as many as the more vicious condition. 
From Afognak the Albatross went directly to Southeast Alaska, to continue the 
stream and lake investigations commenced in 1897. 
