The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-19
BARBARITY IN ALASKA.
What the Natives suffer from Whale
and scaI-Catching Companies.
New York Eyening Post.

and SeaI-Catching Companies.
New York Evening Post.
If DR.. Lincoln Cothran, who writes the
leading article in the Overland Monthly for
September Is a credible witness, the gov
eminent Of the United States, in its zeal
Tor the protection of the seals, has been al
lowing the natives of Alaska to be deVoured
by the white men who have obtained mo-
nopoly of the trade of the country. The Es-
quimaux Of western Alaska, he tells US
(and he writes from personal observatory;
are a simple, trustful, honest, moral, and
truth-telling people. They are never so
happy as when giving succor to white
man in danger who, in return, browbeats,
swindles, and endeayors TO contaminate
them, and even strikes down the hand
whose skill, perhaps, has saved him from
death in the treacherOuS rivers, maybe
from starvation, or guided him through the
trackleSS snow to shelter and life. These
simple, homeless, and industrious people,
Or. Cothran tells us, have been made the
prey of three soulless corporations. The
doctor continues his narrative thus:
The saddest feature in the life of this
cherries people is their extreme desttu-
ton. Their raiment is tattered skins. Their
food, little better than carrion, is SO scarce
that many of them perish every winter
from starvation. 1t is not because they are
slothful, INDECENT or improvident Twenty
years ago their industry in hunting and
nShlng yielded them an abundance of skins
for clothing and food suitable to this icy
cline. The Hfe-blood of the ESquimaux
with their independence and manhood has
been swallowed up by three great corpora
tons whose heads are in San Francisco.
About fifty men have grown enormously
5lch TO the utter degradation and impover-
lshment of virtuous and self-reliant race.
AN important food and industrial supply,
the VIII ale. has been dynamited out of Alas
kan waters by the steam schooners of the
racine Whaling Company. The seals and
other fur-bearing animals have been prac-
tcaliy annihilated on both land and sea by
the Alaska Fur and Commercial Company.
This company has wrought ITS purposes in
Alaska by fixing a bondage on the natives
more CALLING and detestable than outright
slavery because it disclaims responsibility
or care for it's wrtched serfs
Under the guise of preserving the game
from quick destruction, and to prevent up
risings of the natives against the company
traders at the various posts (they line the
mainland and peninsula from Sitka to Ber-
ing straits and extend up the many large
rivers), a law was caused to be enacted at
Washington prohibiting the SAFE OF retett-
ing arms to the natives or Alaska. MS
was ruse to keep outside parties away,
and to enable the traders themselves 10
supply arms at unheard-of and almost rap
ulous prices The native was not SLOW In
approaching the superiority of firearms
over bows and arrows In hunting pears ana
seals. The method of exchange was as LOl-
lows: The rifle was set upright on Inc
ground, stock down, and the natives pllSu
skins upon one another natWlSe until me
stack reached to the muzzle. Thus, OFTEN,
more than eight or nine hundred uolldIs
worth of fine furs were obtained ior d ten
dollar gun. -, -,
which gave opportunity to perpetrale lniS
shameful robbery. In spite OF It's ostehslpIe
purpose the fur-bearing animals nave oe-
come almost extinct. The natives nave eA,
hibited the greatest forbearance, nho
looked on in all humility at the devastation
this company has made. so Tar from < "a
uprising against the traders lwIIu gii, IN
knows. they ought to have annlnllateul },
there has been but one native houllcluS ~
thirty years among popuiatlsoh u 4ha au ths
thousa rds and in spite of the fact tnat tiie
company's traders themselves Suppleu, lne
Esouimaux with guns better to equip theln
as hunters The law referred 10 mas Desn
only a f1msy mosquito-bar 70 cover tsiS as IL,
hIushiug extortion practiced by thG AldSha
Fur and Commercial Company, Inns aal IA
iouitous law ought to be instantly repea tbo.
then the natives can BUY guns AiOlAA
parties for what they are worth. 10
THESE trading posts also supply tn nso 10
tiyes with cheap-John tea, TOBACCO caaS M
ers calico and worthless geWgaWSs sucll es
fin crucifixes and brass rings. Inc posol,
hungry, half-naked native IN ms SiaS5n5
for tea and tobacco they care y, nol a,,s' ~,
him with whisky for fear he Will turn upon
themC has thus been made the instrument
of his own undoing. 49, -,
Independence and plenty have been e ea
changed for serfdom and squalor py the u9-
strl1ction of the animals OF this laEQ' ~
the summer the country is covered WIZ
high grass and flowers. Unless you 20 IA
AWAY in the interior you VIII TIRE youisell
wandering over the tundras ana through
the forests, and never see VeStlge Oh NE
except, very rarely, frightened
And vet innumerable millions OF dollaTs
worth of furs have been taken mere. moi
long ago the sea, the river banks, the lakes.
tundras, and mountains sWarlleu VIII
seals offers foxes, mink, bears, lynx mar
tens beavers, wolverines and wild reindeer;
1T is only matter of a few years until
the last food source OF tne Salmon NOM
canneries, which are now under the control
of another big corporation called the
Alaska Packers Association.
Secretary Stewards purchase of Alaska in
1861 for $1,000 oOO has never benefited the
common citizens of the United States, who
were taxed to pay for It, one one iota. Il mas
three gigantic corporations, who have lite
rally skinned the land of most of it's natural
wealth, and left nothing in return that
could in any way aid its development.
These corporations are guilty. OF reducing
a happy and prosperous people to an eX-
tremiry of restitution and misery unpa-
rallied on this planet.
All the legislation concerning Alaska has
been at the behest of the various CONNER
cial companies, not from any recognition of
the welfare or necessities of the native in
habitants. The Congress at Washington
has been too careless and credul ous in lis
tening to the siren tongues of attorneys
sent by the corporations whose commerce
with the natives had been carried on at the
expense of nakedness, hunger and human
I wish to make a plea in behalf of those
who are helpless. whose natural rights have
been outraged, and whose happiness and
prosperity the government of the United
States is in honor bound to employ all its
power to protect and promote. The many
exclusive and monopolistic privileges grant
ed TO the companies that have so fiagrantly
abused them ought TO be annulled The
federal government ought not TO abandon
its Esuuimaux proteges to the sordid and
unrestrained rapacity of these companies.
Owing to the difficulty of communication,
the territorial government of Sitka on Ro-
manoff island at the extreme southern
boundary knows no more of what is taking
place in the great mainland of Alaska north
of the peninsula than do the inhabitants of
Vermont Under the policy of the past
twenty years, more than half of the Esqui-
mau population have persisted from cold
and starvation. In this article ! have only
hinted here and there at the rapine that has
characterized government" by the trading
companies.
Should President Mckinley appoint q
competent commission to investigate things
i'm northern Alaska, their report would be
the blacklist and most sorrowful record that
has been written in modern times. At the
end of a long tale of unspeakable wrong
and outrage they would tell of the decay
ing vestiges of hundreds of formerly pros
porous villages, deserted now, and marked
only by Greek Catholic crosses above the
graves.
Let our government fulfil the moral OBJ
legation to extend its sheltering and pro-
tecting arms over these wild but beautiful
natured people.
Remarkable Rat story.