The Daily Alaska empire., 1940-03-31
Half of the People of Alaska Are Natives


 as pre-school activities, social vel fare work hygiene and sanitation and first aid Teachers travel to the summer camps by means of mo- tor boat, taking their camping equipment along to establish tenn porary headquarters. Valuable in struction in gardening and food conservation is possible by means of these summer schools.
 Medical Division
 The medical work of the Office of Indian Affairs n Alaska has steadily expanded from year to year. Its real beginning was made l by the Bureau of Education in 1914 when Dr. Emil Krulish of the Public Health Service was assigned to AL aska for the purpose of organizing a medical service.
 The first hospital was establish ed in Juneau in 1916, the original building forming the main part of the present hospital Following that the Service grew very slowly until | 1881 with the establishment, one after another, of four other small hospitals at Akiak, Kanakanak, Kot- zebue. and Panama. Also number of field nurses were employed
 In 1881 the work among the na- tives was taken over by the Office of Indian Affairs and since that time the expansion of medical work has been much more rapid.
 Eight Hospitals
 There are now eight hospitals sit uated at Barrow, Bethel, Juneau, Kanakanak, KotZebue, M Il n n Village. Panama, and UnalaSka. The Barrow hospital was completed in February, 1889 as the first unit of the new hospital construction pro- gram. The second unit at Bethel was constructed during the past year and opened in January, 1940 During the coming summer new hospitals are to be constructed at Kanakanak and Panama. These will double the capacity of the buildings which they replace and which are no longer structurally fit for use | in addition to never having been really suitable for hospital purposes. l However, even this will fall far short of furnishing adequate hospital fla cilities and the general construc- tion program includes plans for ad- ditional or more adequate hospitals at other points of need throughout the Territory. which will be built as rapidly as funds are available. In this connection, the fact that tu- berculosis is the most serious health problem among the natives of Alas ka has not been lost sight of, and it is intended that many of the new beds will be available for this disease and will be used to remove as many of the sources of infection as pos sible from contact with the general population thus providing an addi- tional aid to the intensive efforts now being carried on to combat this greatest menace to the Native health.
 Field Work
 To supplement this hospital work, an effort is made to furnish health service that reaches as many of the natives as possible in their homes throughout the many scattered vll- lages. For this purpose, t.ere are, in addition to the hospital physi- clans who make visits to the villages in their vicinity, three field physi- clans, six part-time physicians in the larger towns, and 30 trained pub lie health or field nurses so located as to provide at least partial medi- cal care and health supervision to as many of the scattered villages as possible, A few of these nurses on account of distance or difficult ties of transportation have to con- fine their activities to single vll- lages, two others are located at the vocational schools, but the majority travel over large districts visiting numerous villages. This is type of work which requires a maximum amount of physical energy and re- sourcefulness and frequently sub jects them to great hardships as well as actual danger, since they have to travel by any means avail able and accommodate themselves tc conditions in the native villages.
 Dental care is provided for schoo children in as many villages as pos sihle. This is principally done by contracts with practicing dentists . throughout the Territory, most ot whom travel to numerous villages , in their district in addition to work , ing in the towns where their office: are located. But there still remain many villages which are not reached f and constant effort is being made l to extend this work.
 s Still the Medicine Man ? The general administration ant $ supervision of this work is carried on by a Medical Director, a Super : vising Dentist, and Supervisor o ], Nurses with headquarters at Ju l neau but all of whom spend much o e their time in the field directing tn l work of the various units.
 l The native people have beel quick to appreciate the value c
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