San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-03-22
ARE THEY AMERICANS?

Up in Alaska there are villages of
Eskimos. These native inhabitants of
the land of ice and snow subsist largely
by fishing and hunting and by breeding
reindeer. Their chief diet however is
blubber and smoked fish. They are not
an agricultural race and since the white
man came among them, they are dying
race. They suffer from tuberculosis to
an alarming degree and an ordinary cold
which was practically unknown among
them until the white man came, is often
fatal now. They also are subject TO
pneumonia and as they live under in
sanitary conditions, they have many
handicaps in their fight for life.
These people are nomadic Indians.
They travel about, especially during the
summer months when the ice breaks up
and there are stretches OF open water
for their boats. They also travel much
by snow and ice with dog teams at
tached to their sleds. They clothc them
selves against the bitter cold in furs and
they do not thrive when transplanted
to a more salubrious climate. A few
brought to the states, died or became
i'll and had to be sent home.
But with the governments announced
intention OF developing the vast re-
sources of Alaska, the Eskimo pre-
sents a new problem. Under existing
conditions, Alaska is a territory and as
such is governed from Washington.
Such citizenship rs exists there is only
local so far as suffrage goes. The gov
ernor Of Alaska is named in Washington
and is subject to Washington. He is
not answerable to the people over whose
destinies he presides but is answcrable
only to the President and Senate of the
United States.
It is however, only a question of time
when such conditions will have to
change. The territorial form or gov
eminent never has been adequate Tor
the needs of American citizens. AS
American farmers and mechanics and
woodsmen are settled in Alaska for the
process of development, they are going
to begin almost Immediately knocking
at the doors of Congress for admission
TO statehood. When that suspicious oc.
casion arrives ard Alaska becomes Z
state, what is going TO become OF tho
Eskimo? Is the Eskimo an Ameri
can? Being nomadic, the Ekimc
moves about quite a bit: There are
Eskimo tribes that are Asiatic in racia
characteristics and there are Eskimo
tribes that have lived 50 far as anyone
knows, within the jurisdiction Of thu
British or Canadian government. They
get their law in so far as they have
adopted the white mans law, from III,
Northwest Mounted Police of the Can
adam government.
But i'll that area controlled Nv tn
United States are other Eskimos VIII,
undoubtedly are Americans. They hav
been there since no one knows when
Their ancestors probably were huntin,
the seal and whale and white bear OF
the ice flocs of the north when Columbu
Z discovered the West Indies. The ques
. ton naturally arises as to their statu,
/, They can not be confined to a rcscrva
ton because they will starve. The
can not justly be excluded from an
: portion of Alaska wherein they see
+, to'wander because at one time they wer
F, the owners in fee simple, of all the vas
(. wastes of snow and ice.
:, The probabilities arc that they wi
I. be accorded full American citizenshi
with all the rights and tribulations ii