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Department of the Interior
District of Alaska
Office of the Executive

Sitka, Alaska, February 6, 1904.

Hon. John G. Brady,
Governor of Alaska.
Ketchikan, Alaska.

My dear Governor Brady:

The enclosed letter I sent to you at Seattle with a special delivery stamp upon it on the 20th ultimo and received it back today for which I am very sorry as I was especially anxious for you to get this while you were in Seattle. I again send it out in hopes that you will get it as soon as possible because I have quoted so much of Secretary Ryan's letter in it which you should have. I hope you have had a communication from him and have the matter of the native builders attended to. I wrote Mr. Fales and received his reply that he had seen you on the way down. Secretary Ryan also writes that the Department is not authorized to guaranty for valuable loans but that through its representatives the government will take special care of valuable specimens and do everything possible to return them to their owners.

Mr. Reeves writes by this mail that the late interior exhibits can be placed in the building as they realize the existing conditions/

Rampart is anxious to do something but realize that it will be late in the season and this decision will help them as well as Fair banks.

The Santa Ana passed through yesterday and I inquired whether they had the oil but learned that it was not aboard. I do hope it can be secured.

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We were pleased to learn today of how much you had accomplished. If you succeeded in getting the Pioneer exhibit in addition to the one it will be worth taking the trip for even if you had not succeeded in anything else.

Mrs. Brady suggested that you make arrangements to have some spruce made into pulp for the exhibit. That would add another to our exhibit of undeveloped resources.

Mr. Hanson of Yakutat was here today. He came to take the oath of office as commissioner for Yakutat. He is originally from the state of Washington but has been about three years in Yakutat and is a Norwegian speaking broken English. He brought letters from Mr. Johnson and Daniel Benson.

Mr. D. B. Mills, Mayor of Eagle is in California just received his card of statements in reply to his notice of appointment as World's Fair Commissioner. It is unfortunate that so many of these mayors are spending the winter in the states as this exhibit needs that attention.

Yours truly,

Private Secretary.

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Sitka, Alaska, February 10, 1904.

Mr. Fleischman,
Rampart, Alaska.

Sir:

It seems from letters received at this office that you are
one of the leaders of your town and take and interest in public
matters. I now write you in behalf of the Alaska exhibit at
St. Louis.

It is unfortunate that we are so far behind in our work.
This has been caused by starting in late after the law was passed
allowing us $50,000 and then getting into a wrangle over an
executive commissioner. We have finally got things hammered
into shape and no doubt shall have a fair showing.

I should like to have an exhibit showing your section. If
your people will take an interest in it call a meeting and get a
committee to gather up such things as would tell a truth of the
country of which Rampart is the center.

The exposition opens on the 30th of April and all the exhib-
its are supposed to be installed by that time and I suppose that
the management will hold up to that rule pretty stiffly. However
I believe that under the circumstances they will allow us to add
to our exhibit in our own building those things which come from
the utmost limits of Alaska even though they do not reach St. Lou-
is before July. In making your collection bear in mind that the
transportation charges overland would be very great but if it
could be sent down the river the steamship companies are carrying
to Seattle free of charge.

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Sitka, Alaska, February 19, 1904.

Mr. J. F. Arnold,
Kinnundy, Ill.

My dear Sir:

I am in recipt of yours of February 2nd. I assure
you that you have my deepest sympathy in your distress over the
loss of your son.

I have young sons of my own and I know how awfully harrowed
I should be if any such harm should befall one of them.

I know General A. W. Greely, chief of the signal corps, and
I am quite sure he will leave no stone unturned to find out the
truth in regard to your son. The army is well prepared to run
down anything of the kind in Alaska.

In the meantime I shall send your letter to the U. S. Dist-
RICT Attorney, Mr. Harlan, of the Third Division requesting him
that he give this his earnest attention and that he communicate
with the Second Division which has jurisdiction, I believe, over
the district in which Nulato is situated.

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Department of the Interior

District of Alaska

Office of the Executive

Sitka, Alaska, February 20, 1904,

Mr. John B. Hamlin,
416 Burke Building,
Seattle, Wash.

My dear Sir:

It is a little strange that after receiving yours of
December 30th and after being told by your brother in the bank
that you wanted to see me that I should have failed to do so. I
was in your building too to see Mr. Farrell's secretary.

Suppose you send those vouchers on with a letter of explana-
tion to Secretary Ryan and no doubt it will be paid.

I hear that Gen. Distin is a candidate for the governorship.
I wonder if he would rattle out an annual report like we did.

You got into a hotbed of politics at Juneau.

Governor of Alaska.

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Department of the Interior
District of Alaska
---
Office of the Executive

Sitka, Alaska, February 23, 1904.

Rampart Chamber of Commerce,

Rampart, Alaska.

Gentlemen:

I beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of your communi-
cation of December 14th in regard to seeking government aid in
building a road from Rampart to Glen Gulch, a distance of thirty
miles.

If Senate Bill 3728, which was introduced by Senator Nelson
on January 22nd, becomes a law Section Second of said law will
provide themanner and means of securing roads in Alaska.

You should become acquainted with this and be ready to enjoy
its benefits if it should pass. Enclosed you will find the
provisions of the bill relating to roads.

I am sorry that we have not had more time to confer with the
people of Rampart about our exhibit for the Alaska building at
St. Louis. I believe that you might still make an exhibit and
have it ready to come out by the first boat and it would reach
there the latter part of July.

Yours respectfully,
John E. Brady
Governor of Alaska.

135

Rev. T. N. Cashkoosky,

The North American Ecclesiastical Consistory,
1715 Powell Street, San Francisco, Cal.

Sir:

I beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 13th ultimo conveying the information that Rt. Rev. Innocent has been appointed "Bishop of Alaska"

I hope ere long to have the pleasure of meeting him upon his arrival here to assume his duties.

It has been many years since Sitka has had a bishop to reside here, and as this is the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the town we are hoping that we are entering upon a new era.

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Sitka, Alaska, February 24, 1904.

The Honorable

The Secretary of the Interior,
Washington, D. C.

Sir:

Under date of January 29th you referred to me for consideration and report H. R. 10435 as to the advisability of the legislation contemplated.

I have been absent on business connected with our exhibit at St Louis and returned only a few days ago. This is my excuse for not replying sooner.

The weakness of the legislation which is proposed in S. 3728 and H. R. 10435 is in its foundation namely the "Alaska Fund". This is uncertain and may at any time shift and almost disappear.

The greatest amount of money which is now collected outside of incorporated towns comes from the canneries. The communities which are settling around the canneries are liable to incorporate and thus control their own fund as do the people at the Treadwell mines; and again if the government takes charge of the salmon hatcheries and taxes the canneries for the support of the same it is probable that the present license rate will be lowered, for the salmon people have contended that it is now too high. Again the pack of each season depends upon the market and upon the run of fish. No one can foretell these with any certainty.

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natives in Alaska to classify them as Indians. This word carries
with it a great many pictures and ideas which belong to the people
of the plains but not to these native Alaskans.

Nearly all who have reported anything of these people say
that they are self supporting. Then in the main there is no
Indian or native problem to solve. We want to keep them at
this self-supporting notch. Bearing this in mind it will be nee-
essary to pursue different methods with the people in the different
sections.

The Thlingits, Haidahs, and Tsimsheans who inhabit the land
from 54° 40' to Prince William Sound are ready for the boon of
citizenship. They are willing and splendid workers and are each
year becoming more reliable. They are employed in the canneries
mills, mines and logging camps. They have permanent homes are
remarkably kind to their wives and children. Two sawmills are
owned and operated near Ketchikan by Tsimsheans. Last season
some Haidahs owned and ran their own stemm tug in connection with
the cannery at Hunter's Bay. Very many of the natives pay the
government license for conducting small stores as far north as
Yakutat. We hold them strictly amenable to our laws and they are
now rapidly giving up their own customs. They are acquisitive
and almost scientific traders.

The young men are especially anxious to become full American
citizens. In my opinion there should be no "Indian problem" in
S. E. Alaska. But I must state that there is much prejudice
against these people in the breasts of many of the whites, a
considerable number of whom came here from the western plains

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with the idea often reiterated that "A dead Indian is the best Indian". This feeling will have to be respected for a number of years, and separate schools must be provided. More light and contact will show the unreasonableness of this feeling and it will I am sure die out. I deprecate any legislation that will introduce strong lines of cleavage in the population of Alaska. Those who are now giving their attention to these natives for the first time can hardly realize what wonderful progress they have made within the period of two decades. I agree with Judge Witten that they should be taught the laws of sanitation. We are trying to teach ourselves "not to spit upon floors and platforms". If they were taught more the danger of indiscriminate expectoration there would be fewer cases of tuberculosis. It would be a kindly and helpful act for the government to establish a hospital for the treatment of consumption and other severe ailments.

Now when you take up the people from Prince William Sound along the southern coast and the islands to our farthest limit we find the people living under different circumstances. Aleuts are a gentle and modest race and I fear are very much underrated by reason of their retiring disposition. Since their first contact with the whites they have had a hard struggle. The Russian traders took their women and Christianized them with a high hand. Vodka was brought to them in liberal quantities. Sea-otters and animals of the chase were abundant and hardly anything was attempted by the natives outside of actual hunting. During our occupation they have been kept well to the wall by traders and white hunters for there has been a common understanding that an

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Aleut must pay more for his goods and obtain less for his skins and labor than a white man. Nearly all are devout members of the Greco-Russian Orthodox Church. It may have been thought at the time of the purchase that this church would in time withdraw from Alaska, but such has not been the case. Their missionaries are supported from the income of a permanent fund which has grown since the days of good Bishop Innocent, Alaska's first prelate.

For a long period the conduct of many of the priests who were sent from Russia was low and demoralizing, But of late years a change has been wrought and a very much better class of men are now in the work. Recently a new bishop has been set aside for Alaska alone and he is to reside in Sitka. Orphanages have been established at Sitka, Kodiak and Unalaska. Their St Michael Society of Sitka has done a good work within the past two years among the worst class of the natives many of whose ancestors massacred the Russians in 1802. A new zeal has been stirred up and I am satisfied that a great work can be accomplished for the Aleuts if these leaders will strive to obtain the work in the canneries which they can learn to do well. They can no longer make a living by hunting. We should teach them to raise potatoes and other vegetables which grow well and should start them in stock raising with cattle and sheep somewhat after the manner of teaching the Eskimos the use and care of reindeer. The Aleut is a very much better class of man than is the prevailing opinion and our best policy is to assist him to preserve his manhood and independence by teaching him how to get his living out of the earth by gardening and stock raising, and by his labor in the canneries

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Eskimos - that Frederick Funston, Brigadier General, U. S. A. has said concerning these people in his report to the Adjutant General dated October 21st 1903 is read with scorn by nearly all who have studied these interesting people. Let me quote from said report "People who are acquainted with the eskimos differ among themselves as to the advisability of artificially bolstering up and trying to perpetuate the existence of a race which has more in common with the lower animals than with civilized beings. The eskimo is of a very low order of intellect entirely shameless in his sexual relations, indolent and gross and filthy beyond description in his personal habits. This does not in any way apply to the Alaskan Indian who is vastly superior" i. e. to the native of the Porcupine concerning whom he has some personal knowledge. Again "They are good-natured, stupid and lazy animals, devoid of what civilized people call morals, and of an extremely low order of intellect". These and much else in the report are the flippant generalizations of a man who has but little more than passed thru the country of these people and has thrown them off with all the assurance of a dashing reporter of one of our live dailies.

The facts in regard to the eskimo should convince any reasonable man of the very high order of intellect of these people. Where on this Mother Earth of ours do we find a people surrounded by such hard conditions adapting themselves any better to their environment? Step into any of our museums and examine his kayak, his ooniak, his various tools, his clothing, his means of transportation, his hunting gear and his means of entertainment and see if they are not all stamped with a very high order of human in-