Evening star., 1900-07-07
NATIVES OF NOME
Battling for Existence With Untold
Wealth at Their Feet.
ARE A MOST INGENIOUS PEOPLE
Some Of Their Customs and the
Curious Houses They Build.
THEIRS Is A HARD LIFE

Copyright, 1900, by F. 9. Delentaugh)
Written for The Evening Star
Never, probably, has the irony of fate
been more distinctly exemplified than in
the now famous Cape Nome mining district
and the contiguous regions from which
for centuries the natives have with great
difficulty extracted precarious living. In
deed the traveller accustomed to lands
abounding in food plants and game, and
timber bows to these people with kind Of
reverence as his eye ranges across the vast
desolation. and his senses realize the diff
culties which they have SO bravely sur
mounted. At first glance 1t appears to be
an impossbility to sustain life there even in
summer, and the thought OF the long, dark
winter with its frozen seas and drifting
SHOWS and lack of fuel Is appalling.
Yet these natives live and are merry.
Their hard-won pelts they have traded to
the casual whaler for coveted steel articles
made far away in sunlands of which they
have no conception, and for cartridges with
which to continue their ardouS seal and
walrus hunting; and. alas, also for bad
whisky to add further terrors to the many
OF the cruel winter-and all the time these
poor people have been living, or starving
and dying, upon the sea beaches whose
gravels embrace a fabulous wealth of gold
"a wealth so easily acquired that had they
but known they might all have easily be-
and luxury. But that fate was not theirs
The gold beneath their feet means rather
destruction than benefit to them Should
they be clever enough to grasp the situa-
ton they could lay by numerous nuggets
against hard times and old age, but It is not
likely that they will.
Slaves to Alcohol
For. while the Eskimos 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 on the alert to purchase 1t,
so that with the advent of a great mining
population. when whisky will be readily
obtained, in spite of laws to the contrary
we may expect to see the Eskimo fade
away TIL in a few years a little of their
language only will remain to recall the
story Of their long battle with their fear
full environment. King Alcohol will. doubt
less speedily accomplish the determination
Of people that for ages have successfully
defied the Frost King in his most terrible
manifestations
Then the ruddy-faced Eskimo clad in
beautiful furs and cleaving the arctic
waters in his light skin canoes will have
passed forever from Cape Nome, and il
to be found at all. it will be on the other
side of the forbidden oceans gate; beyond
the Bering strait. Even then the Eskimo
will be in danger. for as gold is evidently
scattered literally over the entire northern
portion OF AlaSkd, tN6 miner Will soon De
established in its b,eakest corners and the
native will fall before his march. Here
tofore 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 1t pleased
his fancy, and his earth-and- -drftwood win
ter home was located with equal freedom.
At Cape Nome now all is changed. and SIM
ilarly at other points even further north.
The Eskimo sees the lands he considered
his own claimed and occupied by others.
who in few days extract more wealth
from the earth than the whole Eskimo
tribe has possessed in all its centuries of
existence. And the Eskimo gathers drift
wood to sell to the newcomers: the women.
with their customary ,laxity. selling them
selves to the desires of the miners 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, despond-
ency had little place In their composition,
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 social amuse-
ments passed the time happily away. AT
times Of famine they suffered greatly, and
mothers would leave their little ones some
times out in the snow to die. Hunger is
more to be dreaded and feared than any
where else.
The Eskimos have always been the most
northerly people on the continent. and in
forcing the frozen land to grant them sub
sistence and shelter they have shown
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.
Houses of Driftwood.
Habitations Of snow are not the only re-
lance of the Cape Nome Eskimo. for the
reason that the Alaska shores furnish con-
siderable driftwood. especially below Ber-
ing 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 to form a
frame similar in shape to ordinary
cabin. All over this frame smaller sticks
are laid, and upon these grass and finally
earth. In the colder regions subterranean
entrance is made, which leads to trap
door in the floor, and thus the thrush Of
cold air Is checked. When an iglu Of this
kind cannot be built, blocks of snow are
used to form walls about as high as a
mans head, over which a canvas is spread
on beams or sticks of driftwood, or the
poles of the summer tupik.
The room thus formed is reached Trough
a snow-covered passageway some ten feet
long, entrance being had by low door and
light being admitted by window above 1t
closed with membrane taken from the in
testines of seals, which is translucent, and
in appearance resembles the parafine paper
that Is wrapped around caramels and other
sweets. Even the fireplace, when there Is
one, is formed in the passageway of snow
slabs, and is about two and q half feet
mi ovxyffh fio1r Cos