The Nome nugget., 1904-01-16
!!S!! 4SE c5(pny 5p E. Coke Hill Talks About
 Natives AND THEIR WORK Assistant District Attorney Be. IieveS in Teaching Natives
 to Be Practical.
AND THEIR WORK

Last Tuesday Assistant District At torney E. Coke Hill accompanied Rev. C. F.. Ryberg on visit to the Quartz creek native colony. Mir. Hill speaks of his visit as follows:
 "Going up we met several natives and noticed particularly that those from the mission were clean and their dogs well fed. We met native from Penny river who explained that he was going to Nome to get some flour, and would then move his family to the mission.
 "We reached the mission just at dusk as the children were leaving the school, and word was soon sent out telling the natives that Mir. Ryberg was there. After dinner, all except the very old and sick assembled in the school room to listen to d talk from MT. Ryberg. There were present, counting all but babies, about 50 or 70. and they listened very attentively to Mir. Ryberg's ad- dress, as translated by Ivan, the inter- preter. Then nearly all of the grown natives expressed themselves, but as their speeches and prayers were not interpreted, could only judge by their demeanor as to the seriousness of their sentiments. After the gathering there was a general handshaking, and the natives went home to their igloos.
 "The cleanliness of the natives was especially noticeable. While waiting for the address the children grouped about the charts on the wall and read them to each other. One lad, perhaps 10 years old, read perfectly all the charts in sight. The school is in charge of Miss Hayes, a government teacher. The average attendance is 26, the highest attendance so far being 3l, and the pupils range from children seven years old to those fifteen or sixteen.
 'The school needs more desks and blackboards. The department of the children is surprisingly good and their application remarkable. They are especially bright in writing and have natural aptitude for drawing.
 "We visited each of the IA igloos that have been built about the mission, and found them comfortable and clean. The natives were all busy-some work ing on ivory, some building sleds, some fishing for tomcod, and the women making fur garments. The lgloos are in groups, the farthest group being about mile from the mission building. The natives of one group have system of bells and wires between their iglOOs, so that they can signal each other. Mir. Ryberg told me it was of their own de- vising.
 "The mission is not run wholly as a charity. The natives are given SUD- plies as rewards of merit, as it were, and nothing is given the able-bodied without their having done something. Captain Bayne, the superintendent, makes them pile wood, catch tomcod or seal before they can have anything from the mission. The natives thus get the result of their own work and also provisions if they work. If they do not work they get nothing.
 "It is MT. Ryberg's intention, how ever, to fit up a wing of the mission so that it can be made home for orphans there, taking them in charge as pure- ly charitable proposition, putting them in school and keeping them away from the influences now surrounding them Ia order to do this the mission will have to have lumber and stoves, as the habitable rooms are all in use now.
 "I was surprised at the industry and artistic and mechanical skill of tho na- tives. and at the brightness of tho chil- dren in school. I believe that the so- lution of the Eskimo question will be found in some plan for giving them manual training and teaching them to provide for the future. They are not lacking in brains nor industry. A part at least of this the mission is dolng, and it is working as well as it can, handicapped IS it is by lack of funds to the rest. Certainly it :is g good work, of which MT. Ryberg and Nome may be proud, and in which hs should have all the support we can give him."