Morning journal and courier., 1889-07-30
INnIANs IN ALAsKA.

The Senate Committee on Indian Af-
 fairs Lock Into Their Modes of
 Living and Morals-They Find Gen.
 eraI Contentnaent Hut Rather Lax
 Morals.
 OMAHA, Neb., July 2o.-The correspondent of the Bee at Juneau, Alaska, sends the fol- lowing under date of July 23:
 The Albatross with the Senate committee on Indian affairs arrived here on Sunday af- ternoon. They are on their return to Port Townsend, whence they will go at once to Portland, thence to the Flathead Indian res- ervation in Montana and thence east. At New Metlakat, situated at Port Chester, Alaska, the committee commenced their first inquiries into the charges of MT. Duncan, the English missionary, who has been among this tribe for thirty years. They number about twelve hundred. On account of his very liberal religious teachings he incurred the displeasure of the English church, under whose control he had been, and in order to Indians into the United States territory few years ago. The committee was disap- pointed at finding MT. Duncan away, but they made thorough investigation into the condition of the Indians and found them living in an apparent state of entire content ment, and engag ed in almost all the pursuits of the whites. Their particular grievance is their anxiety to possess land in severalty or to have certain parcels sat aside for them, that they may cultivate and hold by indivd- ual right, and they modestly ask that Graviur Island be given them. The committee found the state of morals of the Indian women at New Metlakat far above the average of Indian women of this territory.
 At Sitka the committee visited the habita- tions of the Indians and learned from per- sonal intercourse of their habits and npds. At this place as well as at the different points visited so far they have failed to learn of single case where an Indian woman or girl has been forcibly taken from her parents and made to submit to the brute passion of men. They have, however, learned that the companionship and virtue of the women is 8 matter of dollars and cents and not difficult to negotiate for. On the night of the arrival of the Albatross 8 DOT ton of the committee were brought ashore under the guidance of Colonel Canaday at 8 late hour. and in the rudely constructed dance hall saw the dusky maidens dancing and drinking with their white partners. Inquir- ing into the titles of real estate disclosed the fact that in this town of a thousand inhabi- tants not foot of land is owned in fee sim- pie, but that buildings and improvements pass from one to another by simply bill of sale, and this is universally regarded as i'll every respect complete and perfect title.
 A meeting was held in the Town hall this morning. It was packed with Indians, and some individual complaints were made as to the cruel treatment received by the male members of the tribe by the white men, but they disclosed no outrages upon the women by force or intimidation. At public meet ing of the citizens no concentrated or defined ideas were expressed upon which all seemed to agree as to their needs, but the extension arguments of committee of citizens urging the extension of the land laws into their ter ritory, and the question of territorial govern ment was discussed and urged as much naadad