The Nome nugget., 1931-05-09

rcharei from RuSSla In lHbI to 1884 the United States Govern ment virtually ignored educational needs in the area leaving them to missionary schools. In 1$Si Con gress made it's first appropriation for education n Alasha and Henry { M Teller. then Secretary of the Interior, assigned the work to the | Commissioner of Educatiun. The | development of schools that would accomOdate a scattered population ! in this wide and inaccessible area proved to be an administrative ! task which led the Office of Edu- cation into many strange compli- cations. There was. for instance. the introduction of reindeer into Alaska in 1891, and the growth of herds largely in the ownership of the natives until they have come 1 to number hundreds of thousands. This work was developed on the theory that the principal chasm be ttween barbarism and civilization may be bridged by converting q hunter into a herder. The result was. however. that the Office of Education. in Wash;neton. became 1 the strange guardian of vast rein 1 deer herds in Alaska. It was re | lieved of this responsibility two years ago by the transfer of the ernor of the Territory. just as the administration of schools and heal'h work is now transferred 10 the Indian Service.
 Today the Office of Edura,lon maintains in Alaska 93 srhOo!S for natives. employing 195 teach CTS. and enrolling 3,900 pupils with an average attendance of q little more than 5000. To care for the health of natives in this f,r flung territory there are seven , hospitals, nine doctors, and Fl nurses.
 It is huge task that Is here being transferred from one agency of government to another. The ! enormous distances to be covered the remoteness of the stations, the low temperature. and the dark ness that prevails through the long winters of the Arctic are diff frult 10 cope with. The Aleutian Peninsula and Islands. for exam pie, stretch out to the west from the mainland for 1ooo miles. bare and sparsely populated by q strange, mixed race. There is d school here and there. North from this arm of America along Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean. is an otGer stretch of 1.0o0 miles ut treeless coast which sleeps in the darkness beneath the snow thrn the greater part of the year and breaks into sudden verdure in the brief but long dayed summer. This is the realm of the Eskimo.
 Far into the Interior where reach the Yuukon, the PorcupinH and Koyukuk rivers, live the Ata- bascans. most isolated of all hu- man beings on this continent. It i is probable that there are groups 1 of Americans at these headwaterS who have never been seen by white men and who do not know that world beyond exists. Down that fringe of Alaska that reaches i furthest south where the climate IS warmer. are 10 be found the 1 Thlingets. the Hydas. and the Metlakatlans, not unlike the In dians of the Northwestern States. In villages that range in popula- ton from 30 to 400, these people live, each village largely unit unto itself.
 Already many Eskimos have re placed their igloo homes. which were dirty and insa nitary, with houses built largely under the d- rection of American school teach CTS. They are coming to live as do civilized people. The young Eskimos all speak English and read and write They have been taught ventilation, sanitation, per sOnal cleanliness.
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