XI. 
Territorial Government. 
In 1884, a district government was created by Congress for 
Alaska, with a governor and a district court, which sits alternately 
at Sitka and Wrangel. The laws are those of Oregon. There 
is a land office at Sitka. Commissioner Hermann, of the United 
States General Land Office, on July 31, 1897, stated that the 
mineral-land laws of the United States, the town-site laws (pro¬ 
viding for the incorporation of town sites and acquirement of title 
thereto from the Government to the trustee), and the law providing 
for trade and manufactures, giving each qualified person 160 acres 
of land in a square and compact form, are applicable in Alaska. 
The coal-land regulations and the public-land laws do not extend 
to Alaska, as the Territory is expressly excluded by the laws 
themselves from their operation. 
The following is a list of United States officers in Alaska, fur¬ 
nished by the Department of the Interior, August 7, 1897: 
John G. Brady, governor, Sitka. 
Albert D. Elliot, clerk of the court, and ex officio secretary of 
Alaska, Sitka. 
William L. Distin, surveyor-general, Sitka. 
John W. Dudley, register of the land office, Sitka. 
Ruswell Shelly, receiver of public moneys, Sitka. 
Caldwell W. Tuttle, commissioner at Sitka. 
Kenneth M. Jackson, commissioner at Wrangel. 
Lycurgus R. Woodward, commissioner at Unalaska. 
John Y. Ostrander, commissioner at Juneau City. 
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