Valdez daily prospector., 1912-03-25
MONDAY, MARCH 25, 1912.
ALASKA INDIANS DYING.

dianS of Southeastern Alaska is so high that they will be extinct in two or three generations un- less vigorous measures are talk cn to check disease. This is the conclusion reached by Dr.. M. II. Foster, formerly connected with the UniI'd States marine hos pital service, who was sent to Alaska to make survey for the bureau of education. Humanity requires that something be done t0 arrest the progress of disease, particularly tuberculosis. Dr. Foster believes that little can be accomplished by treating the In- dIanS in theIr homes, for they vii not take medicine as prescribed, so his recommendation is that a Sanitarium b" established for cnnSumptivrs. The appropriation of $10,000, which is asked. is not lal gr and We think congress- should readily grant il.
 The problem of tuberculosis among Alaska Indians is not new. Treatment in their homes has been tried, but without much sue cess. Conditions in which they live make inrOadS of the disease easy. and it is a part of the work of the bureau of education to Train them to more sanitary hab- its of living. Meantime, however, the problem is to save life, and Dr. Foster thinks the best way is ,i0 open a sanitarium where In- dians may be treated under con- stant supervision. In addition to the sanitarium for tubercular cases, it is proposed to construct a home for blind, crippled and destitute Indians. There arc numerous blind Indians. dis eases of the eye being common.
 The Indians of Alaska present piiiablr spectacle because they appear to be vanishing race. Before the white man came if is thought they were a more healthy people. They have taken uD with inc injurious habiIS of white men without learning at lhr same lime how iO lake care of lhrm- selves. When Ihrrr was an open ing hi Ihr tops of their houses to let inc smoke out. there was b"tl"r rnIilaIinn and less lu- b"rrulnSiS ihan there iS today With houses fashioned after inc white mans.
 Mortality records for .\Iaska Indians as whole are moi ayaiI- able. Dr. Foster. however. says thr records kept by inc churches at SIlka are accurate and from them h" concludes that the death rair for Inc last five years and seven months has been 85.i a thousand. That is five times as high as the death rate for inc United StaIrS. Plainly, unless the birth rate was very high, ex- tnctIon of the Indians would soon come about. The birth rate has been high 72.3 a thousand. and this works against ryiinc- ton. Estimating the population tributary IO the SiIka churches at zoo. Dr. Poster finds there have bcen 20 more deaths than births In the five years and seven months covered by the church records. If these proportions continued the Indians would be extinct in 60 or 70 years. For all inc Indians of lhc United States. census returns show a decrease of fh per cent. in 10 years and inc rate of decrease among the In- dians at Sitka is about the same.
 Congress should not hesitate 10 appropriate inc S7O,0OO asked. even though the work proposed will Dc of Il more or less cxpcri- mental nature. Something should bc done and done promptly fo save the Indians of Alaska from Inc fate that will bc theirs unless Inc inrOads of disease arc arrest rd.--Tacoma Ledger.
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