The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-07-08
New Native Arrivals.

beaches whose gravels embrace a fabu-
lous wealth of gold-a wealth so easily
acquired that had they but known they
might all have easily become millionaires
and purchased comfort and luxury. But
that fate was not theirs. The gold be-
meath their feet means rather destruction
than beneft to them. Should they be
clever enough to grasp the situation they
could lay by numerous nuggets against
hard times and old age, but ii is not likely
they will.
For while the EskmOs, or Innuits, who
make up the native population of Cape
Nome are a clever people in adapting
themselves to circumstances, they are
slaves, like some whites, to whisky, and
are always OH the alert to purchase it,
so that with the advent of great
mining population. when whisky will
be readily obtained, in spite of
laws to the contrary, we may ex-
pect to see the Eskimo fade away
till in a few years little OF their Ian
guage only win remin 10 recall the story
of their long battle with their fearful en-
vironment. King Alcohol will doubtless
speedily accomplish the determination of
a people that for ages has successfully de-
fled the Frost King in his most terrible
manifestations. Then the rudy faced
Eskimo clad in beautiful furs and cleav-
ing the Arctic waters in his light skin ca
noes will have passed forever from Cape
Nome and, if TO be found at all, il will
be on the other side of the Forbidden
Oceans gate; beyond the Boring Strait
Even then the Eskimo will be in danger.
for, as gold is evidently scattered literally
over the entire northern portion Of Alas
ka the miner will soon be established in
its bleakest corners, and the native will
fall before his march. Heretofore they
have possessed these tundra -barrens and
ice-strewn beaches alone.
Before Gold Was Found.
Neither Indian nor white cared for the
treeless land, and the Eskimo pitched his
tupik, or summer tent, wherever IL plea sed
his fancy, and his earth-and-
winter home was located with equal free
DOM. At Cape Nome now all is changed,
and similarly at other points even fur
Their north The Eskimo sees the lands he
considered his own claimed and occupied
by others, who i'm a few days extract more
wealth from the earth than the whole Es-
kimo tribe has possessed in all its centu-
ries of existence. And the Eskimo gath
ers driftwood to sell TO the newcomers; the
women with their customary laxity SELL
ing themselves to the desires of the min
ers on such terms as these have they
become a part Of the population Of Nome
City.
While their original life was terribly
hard amidst their awful surroundings,
dependency had little place in their COM
position and for them the long night of
winter, when only the stars beam on the
icy air, held no terrors provided they were
able to secure an abundance of seal and
walrus. Songs and dances and other SO
cial amusements passed the time happily
fffna of ia ~
greatly. and mothers would leave their
little ones sometimes out in the snow to
die Hunger is a cruel thing and in the
barren snowland is more to be dreaded
and feared than anywhere else. The Es
klmos have always been the most norther-
" people on the continent and I'm forcing
the frozen land to grant them subsistence
and shelter they have shown an ingenuity
that is extraordinary. From skins and
bones and chance bits OF wood they have
made excellent boats. sledges, utensils and
numerous useful articles, while the very
cold itself has brought into being houses
that for ingenuity Of construction stand
unrivaled in all the world.
Habitauons OF snow are not the only
reliance of the Cape Nome Eskimo for the
reason that the Alaska shores furnis h
considerable driftwood especially below
Berlng Strait. from which, with grass and
earth, a substantial winter house or iglu
Is made. Sticks of driftwood or whale
ribs are set up and combined so as to form
q frame similar in shape to an ordinary
cabin. All over this frame smaller sticks
are laid. and upon these grass and finally
earth In the colder regions subterr1-
mean entrance is made which leads 10 q
trap door in the floor and thus the thrush
of cold air IL checked. When an iglu of
this kind can not be built. blocks Of snow
are used to form walls about as high "a n
mans head, over which canvas Is spread