Work of the Bureau of Education for the Natives of Alaska, 1917-18. Bulletin, 1919, No. 40
Author: Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education (ED)
Date: 1919-00-00
Type: Historical Materials
Subjects: Eskimos,Animals,Foreign Countries,Superintendents,Earth Science,School Buildings,Physicians,Alaska Natives,Land Settlement,Food,Business,Forestry,Teacher Leadership,Animal Husbandry,Housing,Gardening,Nurses,Migration,Enrollment,Access to Education

During the year the field force of the Bureau of Education in Alaska consisted of 5 superintendents, 1 assistant superintendent, 116 teachers, 9 physicians, and 11 nurses. Sixty-nine schools were maintained with an enrollment of 3,635. School buildings were erected at White Mountain, whither the Eskimos had migrated from Council; at Elim, within a tract on Norton Sound which had been reserved by Executive order for the use of the Eskimos formerly inhabiting the village of Golovin; at Fort Yukon, to replace the school building which the erosion of the river bank had rendered unsafe; and at Tyonek, where the small log building hitherto used for school purposes had proved to be inadequate; at Metlakatla a residence was erected for occupancy by the principal teacher. The wisdom of the policy of setting aside selected tracts within which the natives can readily obtain fish and game and advantageously conduct their own enterprises has again been demonstrated by the success of the colony at Noorvik in Arctic Alaska. With their advancement in civilization, the Eskimos living at Deering on the bleak sea coast, craved a new home. Lack of timber compelled them to live in the semiunderground hovels of their ancestors, while the killing off of the game animals made it increasingly difficult for them to obtain food. An uninhabited tract on the bank of the Kobuk River, 15 miles square, abounding in game, fish, and timber, was reserved by Executive order for these Eskimos, and thither they migrated with their household goods and herds of reindeer. On this tract in the Arctic wilderness, the colonists under the leadership of the teachers, within two years have built a village with well laid-out streets, neat single-family houses, gardens, a mercantile company, a sawmill, an electric light plant, and a wireless telegraph station, which keeps them in touch with the outside world. Affairs at Metlakatla, on Annette Island, have made satisfactory progress. The legality of the Annette Island Fishery Reserve has been established by the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States, December 9, 1918, and plans for the development of the colony can now confidently be carried into effect. By a lease dated April 30, 1917, the Secretary of the Interior, on behalf of the Metlakatlans, granted to the Annette Island Packing Co., of Seattle, fish-trapping privileges within the reserved waters adjacent to Annette Island and permission to erect and operate a cannery on Annette Island. For these privileges the lessee guaranteed the payment of not less than $4,000 during the season of 1917 and of not less than $6,000 per annum for five years beginning with 1918. It is expected that the revenues accruing from this lease will enable the Secretary of the Interior to take over, for the Metlakatlans, the property of the lessee within the reserve and to arrange for the operation of the cannery by the natives themselves. Lapps and Reindeer in Sweden and Norway is appended. (Contains 8 plates.) [Best copy available has been provided.]