Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-12-13
RELIEF FOR MINERS
Secretary Alger Reports to the Sem
ate Upon Its Need.
MANY ARE ABSOLUTELY DESTITUTE
No Supplies Can Be Bought a,
Dawson.
EMPLOYMENT OF REINDEER

Secretary Alger today made a report to
the Senate in response to a resolution of
that body calling on him for information
concerning the lack of sufficient food SUM-
plies among American citizens in the Yukon
districts of Alaska, and whether, in his
judgment, there is danger of actual suffer-
ing from want of such supplies unless re-
| lief is afforded by public or private contri-
| button
Secretary Alger says:
"Confiicting reports in the early summer
having been received by the War Depart
ment as to the condition of affairs in
Alaska, especially relative to actual and
| threatening lawlessness the department de-
cided to send an officer of the army to as
certain the real conditions and report at
the earliest possible date the facts. Capt
P. H. Ray, Sth United States Infantry, with
| an assistant, Lieut. w. P. Richardson. was
therefore directed to proceed to Alaska for
this purpose"
The order of August is given in FULL and
the Secretary continues:
Capt. Ray arrived at ST. MichaeIs on
the 18th of August, and submitted two re-
ports, dated August % and ~ from that
place, copies CT which are transmitted He
also submitted a brief dispatch en- route
to Circle City, September q, together with
two subsequent reports dated September
Is and IL, at Fort Yukon, the last being the
latest Information the department has re-
ceived from him. although it is informed
that he arrived at Circle City, where he was
to make his headquarters, on September -.
From these reports it will be seen that as
early as the 1st of September, and while en-
route up the Yukon. Capt. Ray was in re-
ceipt of information to the effect that unless
some relief expedition was sent to the mill
ing district starvation, or at least great
prlvation would be inevitable.
Many Absolutely Destitute.
From other sources, including dispatches
from the chambers Of commerce of Port
land and Tacoma, which, while unofficial,
the department believes to be thoroughly
reliable, it is 4scertained that since the 1.th
of August but 165 tons of provisions have
reached Dawson City by river. and that
the beats of the two transportation COM
ranes, with 900 tons of supplies for that
place, were obliged to discharge their
freight at FCrt Yukon, 400 miles north of
Dawson City, ewing to the lowness Of the
river between these two points. 1t is also
learned from three Independent sources
that the population of Dawson and vicinity,
in October of this year, was estimated to
be not less than 5000, and probably was
much in excess of that number. and that
of the population of Dawson City and in
the country tributary thereto large num-
Der of American citizens are reported to
have insufficient food to last them through
the winter, and that many are absolutely
destitute.
when it was ascertained at Dawson, by
special messenger sent from Fort YUKON,
about September 13, that no more supplies
could reach the mining districts before next
summer via the Yukon, seven or eight
hundred people are reported to have gone
$50 miles down the river in boats to Fort
Yukon, a journey requiring from twenty
three to twenty-eisht days travel, where
1t is estimated there are about TOO tons of
provisions cached; and that at Munock
creek, about 600 miles from Dawson City,
and Fort Hamlin, 80 miles from that
place, down the river, the two trading COM
panies upon whom the miners depend Who'll
ly for their winters supply were COM
PEELED, owing to the lOwness of the river,
to unload respectively. 40 and 300 tons of
provisions from their six boats bound from
St. MichaeIs for Dawson.
No Supplies for Sale.
"The latest information from the mining
district bears date of October II, when. it
is reported, there was not on sale in the
stores of Dawson or those accessible to the
mining region a single pound of bacon,
beans or flour, and that those miners who
had been in the territory contiguous to
Dawson, depending on the stores there for
their usual winters supply, found 1t i'm
possible to purchase any supplies what
ever. except in rare instances from friends
or individuals who thought they had a sur
plus, and the cost of food for the bare
necessities of life even under these circum-
stances was eXhorbitant and almost pro-
hibitory. J0-pound sacks of flour selling at
500 to $12J
Use of Reindeer Recommended.
although there are many tons of sup
plies at Fort st. Michaels, about Ito miles
from Dawson City, down the Yukon, 1t will
be impossible to get any food from that
point before next summer. The only posi-
bic routes by which supplies can be trans
ported into the mining district at the pres
sent season would be either by the Chilkoot
or White Pass, through Lakes Linderman
and Bennett, and down the Lewis and Yu-
kOn rivers over the ice, or through the Chill
kat Pass and over Dalton's trail, approx
mately 700 miles and $50 miles. respective
ly, from Juneau. requiring from thirty to
thirty-f1ve days travel from Juneau
most hazardous and perhaps impossible
trip, although 1t is believed 1t can be ac-
complished. From the best information
that can be obtained it is believed that the
use Of reindeer will be the means by which
these supplies can be gotten through, II at
all. 1t is therefore, Recommended that
reindeer be purchased in Lapland to the
number tf 500 and permission granted to
bring reindeer drivers from that country:
this upon the information that it requires
much skill to manage these animals
1t Is believed that supplies taken into
That country need not. to any great extent
he furnished as gratuity, but that many
OF the miners will be able to pay the cost
of such supplies