The Alaska daily empire., 1917-11-27
NATIVES MAKE GREAT HEADWAY IN EDNCATION Lopp Pleased with Pro- gress and Urges the Indians to Greater
 Efforts. OFF ON ANOTHER TRIP Superintendent Leaves to Visit More ThIinget
 Villages and
 Schools.
OFF ON ANOTHER TRIP

William T. Lopp, chief of the Alas ka division of the United States Blu
 reau of Education, and Chas. w.
 Hawkesworth, superintendent for
 Southeastern Alaska, were scheduled
 to leave this morning on an inspec-
 tion tour of government industrial
 work at Rake, Hoonah and Killisnoo.
 Mir. Lopp has spent the past month
 in Southeastern Alaska, consulting
 with his assistants and getting in
 touch with the most urgent needs
 in each of the thirteen school dis
 tricts under the personal supervis-
 ion of Mr Hawkesworth. He has visited Metlakahtla Hydaburg, Kla- wock and other points. He arrived
 in the capital city in time to attend
 the closing meetings of the Alaska Native Brotherhood then in conven-
 progressive men to discuss the pos
 abilities and promises of the future
 of Alaskan Natives.
 Many of the delegates to that con
 vention, whose clear English and
 polished manners revealed the "out-
 side" touch of instruction and travel,
 showed by their solicitude for the
 welfare of their children and grand
 children a keen estimate of the In dians business relations with the
 white men of today. Other dele
 gates, lacking similar advantages,
 h Ia nd
 alertness in their unqualified de- nunciation of all old-time hindering customs and practices; in demanding
 better educational opportunities for
 their offspring, and in evincing a
 strong desire to attain more wor-
 thy status commercially, politically,
 and socially.
 Lopp Notes General Improvement
 It was but natural for Juneau res
 idents who heard these one-time
 savages debating serious problems in
 intelligent English, with a strict ad-
 herence to parliamentary rules and forum courtesy, to assume that con tact with civilization in this most favored part of Alaska was respon-
 sible for the change and to hazard well-meaning guess that these dele gates were the flower" of the Alas kan race But William T. LOpp
 while ready to admit the superiority
 of the Brotherhood over those un- fortunate victims of illicit liquor ven ders whose names have appeared so frequently in the columns of the daily press, neverthless maintains that other Flowers" of like quality bloom along the shores of the Sew ard Peninsula and Arctic ocean. MT. | Lopp ought to know what he is talking about. Twenty years resi- dence among them and frequent re- turn visits to these human gardens | of the Far North enable him to be
 judge of conditions.
 Native Schools Everywhere
 Territorial Superintendent l.. D. Henderson has greater geograph- cal area under his immediate super vision than any state superintend-
 ent of public instruction in the Unit
 ed States, but Mr. Lopp'ss schools dot the Alaskan coast line for six hundred miles further north there being nine government schools in session at this time north of the | farthest northern white school in | Alaska. How many of our Juneau citizens, who are inclined to look | with contempt upon the work of the government teachers in Alaska, know | that there are about twice as many | schools for Natives as there are for white children, although only about | the same number of actual pupils. In addition to these, MT. Lopp is | superintendent of 90 reindeer sta | tions. comprising over 100000 deer,
 more than 60,000 of which are own | ed by native herders, at value of l $1,500,0 900. Rather large respon- | sibility. when we consider the fact | that MT. Lopp, with the aid of five
 field superintendents, does all the work that usually falls to the lot | of the forty-five or more school ! boards of elected school directors or trustees in Alaska. But that is
 not all A couple of hundred teach
 CTS, physicians and trained nurses,
 in the field service, claim him as
 a personal friend who provides them
 residence quarters as well as sti- 1 pends; it is also well known that he can tell by name thousands of
 native men throughout the length
 and breadth Of this great Territory. Brotherhood Should Spread
 In addressing the Brotherhood at
 their closing meeting last week, MT.
 Lopp said they should have strong
 local camps in every native village,
 and that part of their work should
 be to take care of their sick and
 do charitable humane work among | themselves. Instead of five or six villages sending three delegates | apiece to the annual convention at