The Cordova daily times., 1921-04-16

l Alaska's economic, educational, and religious history After graduation I from Union he went to Princeton | Theological seminary and later un- detook work among the Indians of the west, After years of mission ary work among the Indians of the | Rocky Mountain region he reached out to Alaska, to carry christianity to the Indian tribes of the far north i It was said of him that he labored "out wonder on the edge of things where Gods most friendless children turn towards you the eyes of pathos and hope" AS showing the breadth I the wide sympathies of this son of old Union, he realized that true christianity was not confined to dogmas, that he must save the bodies and minds as we'll as the souls of the Alaska Indians. And so fom the beginning he started schools throughout Alaska for the natives and followed this up by prevailing upon the government to import reindeer from Siberia to keep the Eskimo from starvation.
 | Last August it was my good for tune to visit the Sheldon Jackson school for Indians at Sitka Alaska. The school has a beautiful setting on the shores of the bay at Sitka, the site selected by Dr. Jackson himself
 Sitka is perhaps the prettiest and most interesting town in all Alaska
 It was called by the Russians Novo Arkangelsk, or New Archangel It | has what most Alaskan towns lack, an historical background, for here was the old Russian capital, and here the majesty and the might of the emperor of all the Russias was yisibly displayed in the new world. The old records and the old tales tell of much magnificence, of a gay and ceremonious life during the days of ] the Russian occupation. Governor | General BaranOf was the CZar's per sOnal representative and his castle" was the scene of much splendor, even l in that day, for an outpost of the czar's dominions. Today there is not much left of the Russian occupation, the Russian church, the old Russian jail, and some of the old log build ings, the Russian names to the. streets, and some old paintings in 1 the governors house at Juneau The Russian priests still hold services in the Greek Orthodox faith and the ikons still glisten in corners of the | church.
 In Sitka are also located the gov ernment agricultural experiment sta 1 tion, the U. s. naval magnetic ob- l servatoTy, the Alaska Pioneers Home, and near the Sheldon Jackson school, the beautiful and unique Sitka park with it's wonderful collection of In dian totem poles. Sitka's harbOr is dotted with many little wooded isl lands, while back of the town towers
 Mount Verstovaya to thousands of 1 feet in height; while across the bay on Kruzof Island, the old volcano
 Mount Edgecumbe looms up. Some day these islands will be dotted
 with summer homes and the harbor with yachts, for here is an ideal Summer resort for Americans, who
 have no need to go to Norway or
 other European countries to find mag
 nificent scenery or to find things
 cut of the ordinary.
 On the outskirts of the town and
 along the shores of the circular bay
 is located the group of buildings of
 the Sheldon Jackson school, where
 some one hundred and fifty Indian boys and girls are being given a prac-
 tical and industrial training. The plant includes four large dormi- tories, a school building with gym
 nasium, a heating plant with steam
 laundry, shop building with ma
 chine and wood working shops, an
 electrical power plant, a new model
 cottage and three cottages for mar
 ried workers, and the Sheldon Jack son museum, in which are stored
 a wonderful collection of Alaska curios gathered by Jackson. There is a teaching force of eight, with
 total force of nineteen, since a
 boarding school is run in connection
 with the school. All of the students
 are natives of southeast Alaska, many of them full-blooded Indians
 though there are some half-breeds.
 There are all of the eight grades of regular graded schools and this year has been added the first and fourth
 year high school work
 The school was founded in 1878 as a day mission school by Rev. John G.