The Wrangell sentinel., 1947-06-06
THROUGH THE SENTINEL TELESCOPE

snowshoe rabbits and bluber. From the far north came cries of an guish; labor pains were setting in. The Indian Office was going To coop" the Arctic and the private traders, like Custer, were making what they interpreted to be their last stand. In village after village, native cooperative stores were springing up, suecored by money from Uncle sam The local trader was looking at his hole card. He'd gotten his the hard way root lit tie hog or die. Now it was differ ent. His government was going in-I to competition across the gulch and he realized the days of tneI old freebooter were about over. He didn't have a chance of eom- peting and existing against hisI Uncle and he knew it.
 Built on the theory of the farm el co-ops in the States, Indian O. flee, or Alaska Native Service, toI be utterly correct, was selling tbeI Eskimos of the north on the idea that if they had their own stores they would get better money for their furs, cheaper price on their groceries. The old trader, said tue ANS, had bee rocking them. Fighting for survival, the traders painted their own picture. Said they: Haven't We carried these people from year to year when tue season was poor? Don't we still carry them when they haven't got the money? Didn't we pioneer the country so that the native people have things today they never had befOre2 Are we to be squeezed out by the very government We support and are loyal to?
 The argument was hot ana heavy, but the coop stores, con. trolIed and managed by the ANS were going in. If the policy con~ tinued there wouldn't be a private trader north of the. Endicotts il two or three years. How the stores would pan out was anybody's guess. The Indian Office had taken over the reindeer herds, too, some years ago and it hadn't worked out so we'll The herds are badly de- pleted. There are left less than half of the reindeer originally taken over by the Indian Office.
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 The Haines Cutoff road will be open for the summer season, end :. would maintain it. Secretary Of State George C. Marshall advised the Secretary of Alaska this week that the Canadian Army is ar ranging to maintain it for the sea- son. A great many people have come into the Territory via the AL aska highway in recent weeks, some of them planning to come to Southeast Alaska via the cutoff, only to find on arrival that it is not open. It is expected now that it will be available for traffic some time this month There is no indication it will be anything but a summer road as maintenance in the winter time would be prohib- itive and the Canadian Government has stated it would be unable to keep up the expense.
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 Trailers may become a familial sight in Alaska. Many of the peo- pie coming north over the high way bring their trailers for a place to live. Some are not finding jobs as readily as they expected. Oth CTS just don't like the country. The other day in Fairbanks trav- eler drove into town with a swark new trailer which was being ad mired by some of the local citizen ry. Said one: "Id like to have tn | trailer; what'll you take for it?"
 Said the owner: 'What'll yoE give?"
 The Fairbanks man offered $500 and the owner, who had come to discover Alaska, sold on the spot Said he was fed up with the Ter ritory and wanted to go back t. the States as fast as he could ger there. Enough trailers might help solve the Alaska housing problem
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 Trollers' dispute in, Ketchikan was still unsettled this week, ac cording to word from Myron Dean Alaska representative of the Inter national Fishermen and Allied Workers of America. Mike Haas, representing the U. S. Department of Labor, went down from Juneau Wednesday to the First City to as- sist in trying to effect settle ment.
 A "scenic strip" in case you hauan,t hnard ic n ctrin of 1ann