44 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
In operating the canneries, the Indian sees the value of the fish; lie sees a means 
for obtaining money, the purchasing power of which he knows as well as does the 
white man, and if he conld jmssess all the fish wliich he believes are his by right of 
inheritance, he would have plenty of money. In some instances canneries recog- 
nize well-establislied Indian rights to salmon streams by paying the chiefs a certain 
amount per year for the privilege of fishing, but in many cases unscrupulous white 
men have gone among them with promises, only to break them when iiayment was due. 
It can not be denied, however, that the Indian is better situated now than he was 
before the canneries were established, or than he would be if the canneries were moved 
out of the country or abandoned. So far as his fish supply is concerned, it has not 
been seriously curtailed for his own use and can not be in the future, for long before 
salmon become extinct the canneries will be abandoned as unprofitable. It probably 
takes a little more work to get his winter supply now, but the money which the 
canneries bring him permits a purchase of various foods, and so a large supply of fish 
Catch of halibut ou deck of steamer Albatross, near Killisnoo. 
is not as necessary as formerly. The canneries bring the Indian ready money, far more 
than he can earn by labor in any other way, and if he is at all industrious he can earn 
sufficient during a canning season to support himself and his family during the winter. 
The canneries will most willingly pay for all the fish he brings them, or they will give 
him work at the cannery if he can be depended upon. Here, of course, is the chief 
difficulty. The cannery season is short, and men must be employed who are willing 
to give their labor at all times, and the Indian tires of his work very quickly. In the 
midst of it he is often seized with a desire to leave; he must hunt, or he must get 
fish for his family, although his wages for a day will purchase more fish than he can 
catch in a week; still he must go, and he goes. As a result, canneries do not want 
his labor. 
