The Wrangell sentinel., 1937-02-05
MISERY AT HOME

manifest the spirit of generosity characteristic of Alaskans and it's contribution in the past ten days of $500 to the Red Cross for relief of the Ohio valley flood victims was in keeping with the response that always can be expected here to pleas for those in need or distress.
 It is right that We do our bit to help alleviate the woe and misery which follows a major disaster, but our efforts should not end there. we need to turn our attention now 10 the plight of two little Indian waifs in our midst. Buddy and Jim my Hooker, twelve and thirteen years of age.
 Deprived of their mother seven years ago when she succumbed to the raYages of tuberculosis, they were fully orphaned three years la ter when thelr father died of the same disease. Two weeks ago Billy, the older brother, lacking but few weeks of being sixteen years old, was buried beside his parents. He had been two years dying of tuber- Lulosis. Their older half brother Pninp Hooker died a year ago in the tuberculosis annex of the gov ernment hospital in Juneau where he had been a patient for several years.
 After their mothers death the grandmother took the children home to her cabin. Later she sold that property and moved into the Hooker house were in the little three-room structure so many have died of tu- berculosis. Two years ago the two little Hooker girls were given into the charge of a man and wife in Klawock, much to the grief and dis tress of the grandmother. who want ed to keep all of her daughters children although she is old and in ill health and quite incapable of giving them adequate care.
 Last fall Buddy and Jimmy were dismissed from school after the an- nual examination of school children by a physician. They are in the ear ly stages of tuberculosis and the disease could be arrested with the proper sanitarium care. Both are ambitious youngsters willing to work if given a chance, but there Is little they can do and for years they have subsisted mainly on the bounty of others. They trudge up and down the streets through the rain and snow, wet from head to foot, selling newspapers. Little fel- lows that need sanitarium care for tuberculosis!
 The community has not been un- mindful of the children. Long eff fort has been made individually and through the local Red Cross to get them into different surroundings, but without avail. Salvation Army officers have been deeply concerned and have rendered aid as far as possible. All channels have seemed closed to these little orphans. The Children's Board of Home Guardians refused to accept them because they were full blood Indians. The Indian Bureau has never refused to help but it has done little for them. When Billie Hooker became ill he was looked after by a government nurse, during the alternate months she spent in Wrangell. The Indian Bureau honored all bills she submit ted for special food, medicines and things for his comfort. These bills ran up to eight and nine dollars a month,
 But to save the little fellows from the fate of the rest of their family the Bureau has been seeming Iy unconcerned. They are promised hospitalization in the T. B. annex at Juneau whenever there is a vacancy which many interpret to mean when enough patients now in the annex and on the waiting list have died. Not a cheerful outlook for child.
 There are several T. B. sanitar- iums in the states conducted by the Indian Bureau. The one at Fort Lapwai in Idaho is ideal for the Wrangell boys. It is a 300-bed in stitution for children and youths up to IS years of age.
 SchooI IS conducted In the open air and all the latest methods of treatment are provided. To secure a transfer from Alaska to hospitali zation there for Buddy and Jimmy is the objective for which the WrangeIl Red Cross is now working. If the boys can just keep from getting any worse and can hold on indefinitely it may be that some time that ob- jectiVe may be realized.