The Nome nugget., 1903-11-07

 will here refer the reader to some suggestions and statements made by "Early Settler" and will state that some of them are contradictory and all are erroneous and misleading He first says, ''when white settlers commenced to flock to this part of Alaska, in 1898, the Eskimos living all along this coast in small settlements, contain ing from twelve to thirty people," and he also states that this scattering was necessary on ac count of their three staple articles of food seal salmon and tomcod-not being found in sufficient numbers in any one place to support a large col ony anywhere Further on he writes: ''Whte men do not hunt the seal, and the amount of tom cod and salmon that caught by the white sett lers is drop in the ocean compared with the schools that visit this coast, which is contradic tory to his former statement, for let me tell the reader, that as regular the seasons come and gO those vast schools of fish come and go, and when came on this coast, upwards of 30 years ago, there would be from 800 to 1000 in those set dement's. Those people then had d large variety of game. Whales and WalruS were then plentiful and immense herds of reindeer roamed on the tun dra and in the hills and mountains back from the coast From those herds of reindeer the Eskimo obtained their clothing and their choicest food supply.
 The early settler, the miner came in 1898 and found degenerate remnant of those old tribes and also families from distant and remote tribes who had come to exchange their belts and cu1ios for new rifle and asupply of ammunition. When they arrive here they exchange their belts and curos for silver, the silver being exchanged for s'hOotch:" later on the native sells his boat, dogs and sledge and the proceeds also go for ''hOOtch. He then makes his home in d tent or q white mans shack, or any old place, except deserted native igloo. This he will not enter; cold and hunger he will suffer and resist before he would enter deserted igloo village as he believes that would be sure death
 In the '50s the whalers entered Boring sea in quest of whales, any animal that yielded oil The whales and walrus soon became shy and wild and only under the most favorable conditions could the natives capture those animals With their rude implements and skin boats. And now only in few favored places can this game be captured by the native with modern implements In the late eos and early 70s came the trader, bringing all kinds of useful articles, including breech load ing rifles and rum. Then began the downfall of those tribes. The breech- loading rifle has driven away and extermnated his main food supply the deer) and his clothing, well. Yet he found d better material by exchanging his pelts to the Siberian native for domestic reindeer skins. wherewith to clOthe himself and family The early settlers of 1898 began to purchase those skins, whaleships and small traders bring ing them to Nome every spring in hundreds where they were bought by the merchants and traders of Nome and soon converted into clothing for those early settlers a large number of whom can be the streets of Nome all winter clothed with high priced skins, while many na- tives can be seen shivering and hungry, wearing cast-off clothing. They have exchanged their belts and curiOs for food and silver, and the si- yer, in almost every case, has ben exchanged for ''hootch''
 Besides, in one regard, the increasing num- Der of white men is boon to the natives" says "Early Settler.' Reader the facts and cond- tions don't show it. The fact is, that since the influx of miners into this country in 1898 the Esl- mos are gradually forgetting their old frugal careful habits, have little by little acquired taste for the white mans luxuries and forgotten to pro- vide for their winter Sustenance The nm scrupuOus white man, the parasite, seeing their ignorant simplicity and goodnature, seems to have taken a delight in teaching them all the white mans vices in full. And, poor ignorant souls. they have adopted them, vice and luxury being the only two benefits @ they have acquired from our civilization But where can the reader or anyone else, find us man who has done aught to teach any Of our virtues up to the present No One
 Until Rev Ryberg formed his comprehensive plan of gathering them together and teaching them to live useful lives under these new con- ditons, no one, say, has hitherto done work on any large scale to help them. Let not anyone imagine that they can be made to return strictly