The school at Wainwright, on the shore of the Arctic Ocean__. The school at Kivalina, a coast village north of Bering Strait_ The school at Igloo, on Seward Peninsula_---- The school at Klukwan, in southeastern Alaska. Section 3. Extracts from reports on health conditions_ From the report of Dr. L. H. French, Kanakanak___. From the report of Dr. J. W. Reed, Bethel__. From the report of Mrs. Corinne Call, Nushagak From the report of Mrs. I. A. Gilman, Seldovia. From the report of Mrs. Carrie W. Jordan, St. Michael_. From the report of Mrs. Louise M. Nichols, Kotzebue____ From the report of Miss Esther Gibson, southeastern district_-_ 3 ILLUSTRATIONS. Page. Plate 1. A, United States public school, Kivalina; B, Hauling ice for 8 2. A, Eskimo women and children, Kivalina; B, Village council- 8 3. A, Carpentry class, Eskimo school; B, Sewing class, Eskimo 8 4. A, United States public school, Wales; B, Eskimos returning 8 5. A, United States public school, Noatak; B, Teacher and pupils, 16 16 16 6. A, United States public school, St. Michael; B, Teacher's resi- 7. A, United States public school, Atka; B, Aleuts, Atka village__ 9. A, Yakutat village, southeastern Alaska; B, Natives of Yakutat_ 11. A, Reindeer slaughtered for sale in Nome; B, Eskimos in cloth- 12. A, The superintendent of the northwestern school district trav- 13. A, Instruction in bandaging; B, Clinic in schoolroom, adults__ 17. A, United States hospital, Nulato; B, Summer fishing camp__. Map of Alaska. 4 REPORT ON THE WORK OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION FOR THE NATIVES OF ALASKA, 1913-14. PART I.-GENERAL SUMMARY. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1914, the field force of the Bureau of Education in Alaska consisted of 5 superintendents, 1 assistant superintendent, 106 teachers, 11 physicians, 11 nurses, and 3 hospital attendants. Seventy-one schools were maintained, with an enrollment of 3,666 and an average attendance of 1,991. In addition to performing the various duties included in the routine of their work, the employees of the Bureau of Education in Alaska must sometimes meet emergencies that do not confront school superintendents and teachers in the United States. This was especially the case during the fiscal year 1913-14. On October 5 and 6, 1913, the town of Nome, with its adjacent coast, was visited by a severe storm that resulted in destruction of property and loss of life. Immediate action for the relief of the stricken natives was taken by Mr. Walter C. Shields, superintendent of schools in the northwestern district, assisted by the teachers. Subsequently a congressional resolution placed at the disposal of the Secretary of the Interior for the relief of those thus rendered destitute the sum of $2,455.52, the balance remaining of an appropriation made in 1912 to relieve suffering caused by the eruption of Mount Katmai, a volcano in southwestern Alaska. Of the sum thus appropriated, $1,500 was set aside for the relief of Eskimos and $955.52 for the relief of white persons, to be expended through the special disbursing agent of the Bureau of Education at Nome, under the direction of the superintendent of the northwestern district. In November, 1913, information was received of the prevalence of an epidemic of measles and of consequent destitution among the natives of Kodiak Island, Afognak Island, and of the Cook Inlet region, in southwestern Alaska. At the request of the Interior Department, the Treasury Department sent the revenue cutter Tahoma from Seattle to the stricken district, carrying an officer of the Public Health Service, medicines, disinfectants, and about 2 tons of food supplies furnished by the American Red Cross upon the request of the Bureau of Education. Dr. L. W. Jenkins, of the Public Health Service, and Dr. H. O. Schaleben, superintendent of schools in the southwestern district, visited the villages in which the disease prevailed, and, with the cooperation of the teachers, extended medical relief to the sufferers, and after the outbreak had been checked fumigated all infected places. Owing to these vigorous measures the deaths were kept down to about 80. The effects of the epidemic were especially felt in the village of Seldovia, where it was necessary for the teacher to distribute food to the famishing people for some weeks after the disease had disappeared. During the winter of 1913-14 an outbreak of infantile paralysis occurred at Tanana and its vicinity, also at Crossjacket, in the upper Yukon district. In the absence of a physician of the Bureau of Education, the commanding officer at Fort Gibbon kindly allowed one of the nurses of the Hospital Corps of the Army to assist Mr. George E. Boulter, superintendent of schools in the upper Yukon district, in maintaining quarantine and in taking other action necessary for the suppression of the disease. This epidemic was the cause of many deaths among the natives, and left several natives incurably paralyzed. In the spring of 1914 the breaking up of the ice in the Yukon River caused a serious flood at Circle City, which inundated the native village and did considerable damage to the school building. Tuberculosis, pneumonia, rheumatism, and venereal diseases prevail to an alarming extent in many of the native villages. Investigations conducted by Passed Asst. Surg. Emil Krulish, detailed for service in Alaska, show that at least 15 per cent of the native population of Alaska is infected with tuberculosis in its varying forms, both active and latent, while in 7 per cent it is present in its active stages. As knowledge of health conditions among the natives of Alaska becomes more definite, the need for larger funds for medical relief becomes more urgent. The endeavors of the bureau to secure from Congress a specific appropriation for the support of an adequate medical service in Alaska have not yet met with success. In order to meet the imperative demands of the medical work, it has been necessary from time to time to increase the amount taken from the education fund. To provide the additional money demanded by the medical work, six of the schools in the smaller villages, with a population of approximately 800, had to be closed at the beginning of the fiscal year. With the sole uplifting agency thus removed there is danger that these villages will drift back to the deplorable conditions that prevailed before the schools were established. Of the appropriation for the education of natives of Alaska for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1914, more than $35,000 was used in employing 11 physicians and 11 nurses; in maintaining improvised hospitals at Nulato, Kotzebue, and Kanakanak; in payments under contracts with St. Ann's Hospital at Juneau, with the Good Samaritan Hospital at Valdez, with the Holy Cross Hospital at Nome, with the Fairhaven Hospital at Candle, and with the Children's Orthopedic Hospital at Seattle, for the treatment of natives who are destitute; also, as heretofore, in furnishing the teachers of the United States public schools with medicines and medical books in order to enable them to treat minor ailments. The act of May 17, 1884, providing a civil government for Alaska, stipulated that the natives should not be disturbed in the possession of any land used or occupied by them. However, with the influx of white men the village sites, hunting grounds, and fishing waters frequented by the natives from time immemorial have often been invaded, native settlements exploited by unscrupulous traders, and the pristine health and vigor of the natives sapped by the white man's diseases and by the white man's liquor. To protect the natives the Bureau of Education has adopted the policy of requesting the reservation by Executive order, now, before Alaska becomes more thickly settled by white immigrants, of carefully selected tracts to which large numbers of natives can be attracted, and within which, secure from the intrusions of unscrupulous white men, the natives can obtain fish and game and conduct their own industrial and commercial enterprises. To the humanitarian reasons supporting this policy are added the practical considerations that within such reservations the Bureau of Education can concentrate its work and more effectively and economically influence a larger number of natives than it can reach in the small and widely separated villages. Such reservations have been made of Annette Island, of St. Lawrence Island, and of tracts of land at Hydaburg, Klawock, Fort Yukon, Klukwan, Port Gravina, Fish Bay, Long Bay, and on the banks of the Kobuk River. Formerly it was possible for the Eskimos on the shores of Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean and in other remote regions of Alaska to dispose of their valuable furs, ivory, and whalebone only to the local traders, with the result that the natives usually received low prices for their commodities and were constantly in debt to the local traders. Availing themselves of the parcel-post service and of the increased opportunities to send freight, many Eskimos who have been educated in the schools now forward packages of fox, lynx, and mink skins, and ivory and whalebone to the office of the Alaska division in Seattle, which, through the Seattle Fur Sales Agency, sells the furs |