Douglas Island news., 1919-04-04
.ESKIMOS ADOPT
 MANY ORPHANS
Natives of the Kobuk Country Will Take Children of Influenza
 Victims

In tho land from Cape Prince of Wales, on the North. to Nome. St. Michael and Point Dall, on the south, where between 200 and 25O Eskimo children have been left or phans by the recent influenza cpi- dcmic.
 But it does not seem that they will be long without homes. So will ling are the Northern Eskimos Of the Kobuk River district to adopt these children that many have vol untccrcd to come at once for them through biting winds and across some 200 or 25O miles Of snow. rather than wait the opening of nav igation, when each little Eskimo can be delivered right at the door by government agents.
 Not only that, but the old Eskimo mothers, and fathers, too. for that matter, have been planning for weeks on the number of orphans they can take care of. and long list has been forwarded from Moor yik, on the Kobuk River. to W. T. Lopp, chief of he Alaska Bureau of Education, with offices in the l.. C. smith Building, Seattle. Noorvik asks for l21 orphans. seventy boys and fifty-one girls.
 "The Eskimos are very fond of children and the adopting Of or phans has been a practice among them for twenty years" said Mir. Lopp "As a rule they do not have large families They believe that it is not we'll for a couple To be with out children in their old age.
 Adopted children are as well cared for, as a rule, as their own children and they grow up with the same family ties as the others.
 "The Eskimos probably are the dndest 10 children of any race. Cor poraI punishment is seldom used and in the better types of families thl children are respectful and obcdicnt.
 "The family work is well organ izcd. The children do their part mol as drudgcry or task. but willingly. The women are not the drudges that many of the Indian women are. They have their proportion of outdoor work which gets them out of the confinement Of the house. The Es- kimo wife is the real partner of the husband and holds the same posi- tion in the family as a white woman
 "In the more northern tribes the women skin the seals. The men come in exhausted after a hard days work on the ice and the seals are turned over to the women"
 The plan to establish orphanagcs at Nome and various points has been suggested by white residents of Nome, but does not meet with gen cral approval
 |What we want is to make better Eskimos and not children who. when they arc grown, will not be fitted by training for the community in which they will have to live" continued Mir. Lopp. "The adoption of chil- drcn by the Eskimos will assure them of home life to which they are accustomed while i'm the orphan ages they would receive training under semi-military conditions. The change of teachers would make it impossible for the same affection to exist in orphanages as in the homes" |"
 Change in Mode of Living
 To the children of Nome, life on the Kobuk river will be a wonderful change. It will be a transition from wind-swept. barren beaches to wooded section, filled with berries in the summer, bountiful with sal mon, reindeer and other foods with which the Eskimos are familiar. lt will be a change from the canned foods of the white man to dishes prepared in true Eskimo style.
 The mode of living in the north will be different. The Eskimos Of Nome live in modified igloos poorly ventilated and in every way about as poor an excuse for house as could be invented.
 The Eskimos on the Kobuk River live in the ordinary log cabin Of the trapper or pioneer in the early days Of the West.
 As an example of the adopted Es- kimo, Dr. Lopp cites split-the-wind, winner of the marathon at Nome and member of the Etephansson ex- petition, who was born on Kotze- bue Sound and was adopted by an Eskimo family at Cape Prince of Wales. On being paid on at Nome on the return of the StefansCon ex- petition split-the-Wind received S5,OOO in wages. which he invested in Canadian government bonds. He died in the recent influenza cpi- demic at Nome.
 Noorvik. the first point at which the distribution of orphans will be made. is on the Kobuk River. north of the Arctic Circle. It has popu- lation of $50 persons. The houses are located in the shelter of trees.