The Wrangell sentinel., 1944-11-17

denee proclaimed all men to be free and equal al a time when human slavery still existed. and continued 10 exist in the United States for nearly 90 years. You here, the Ilingit people, had slaves. The Am eilcan people had slaves until sIav- cry was abolished by President Lin eoln's Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 in the course of our Civil War But fortunately slavery under the Stars and Stripes has long since been abolished and we are now en- gagged in a world war to prevent the effort of dictatorshlps to re-estab- fish slavery on earth
 l mention these well-known facts because they make us realize that even under our American way of life we constantly fall short of our ideals, and our task must ever be to make liberty and equality a Iiv- ing fact, a true condition of our daily lives.
 Leaving the matter of political participation for the moment. would like to turn to the important question Of the native economy. Inn proving this economy is matter of vital importance. It is important not only for you. for the native peo- pie. IL is important for all Alaskans and for all Alaska. No country. no region, can prosper fully unless all component parts of it prosper. Our Territory certainly cannot prosper fully, if large portions of our popu- lation lag behind. And since the native people, as l pointed out to you last year, live in Alaska twelve months of the year, earn all their livelihood in Alaska, expend all their earnings here, their prosperity is indispensable to the prosperity of Alaska. Problems surrounding the natives economy have been thrown into high relief by the recent hear ings and resulting discussions con corning aboriginal rights" l trust that the extent and validity of these rights will be determined as speedily as possible, and, il estab- llshed, be promptly settled by pay ment to the respective communities of adequate compensation With this compensation it should be pos sible for the communities compen- sated to acquire the economic fac tors which they need to assure good livelihood. They should have cannery, fish trap, machine shops, and other means for d secure livelihood. As far as reservations are concerned, l wish to state my own personal view that they are most undesirable here. I feel that any effort to put the Tlingit people on reservations would be a step backward for them There have never been reservations in south eastern Alaska with the exception of the Annette Island reservation, and this can scarcely be considered q valid example. It was established over 50 years ago when conditions were vastly different from what they are now and the development of the Alaska fishing industry was Tn it's infancy. The prosperity of Metlakahtlans, which naturally is a desirable goal to achieve, Is in my View due not to the fact ol An nette Islands being e reservation but to other facts, namely that the MetlakahtIans own cannery of their own, fish traps, anu Lhere- fore a sufficient supply of .-sn $, that the cannery may opera,e sue cessfully. In addition to th.. the Metlakahtlans have d san IIi.I. q machine shop, their own power and light plant, good boats, ali of which are important factors in their economy, to say nothing of the fact that they received wonderful training in self-reliance, thrift and other good habits under Father Duncan. 1 question whether the Annette Island reservation is a ma terial factor in the prosperity of the Metlakahtlans but even if it is. It should be pointed out that the fact that the Metlakahtlans came from British Columbia perhaps indicated the desirability of defining at the time of their coming what their area of settlement would be.
 l think l have made clear my be- lief that in our democratic Ameri- ca, there is no proper place for dis elimination, that we should not have more than one class or caste of citizens, and that America, if it means anything, means equality of opportunity. We have learned in re-
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