NUSHAGAK, ALASKA, December 13, 1904.
DEAR GOVERNOR:
Since reading your last year's report and noting much that is of deep interest to us in this western part of the
district, it has occurred to me that an account of the conditions and needs of this region of Alaska might be of
interest to you.
Without a doubt the greatest industry of this western country is that of fishing, which industry makes for a short
part of the year regions that otherwise would be almost a desolate waste into active camps or settlements. While,
in a measure, these canneries bring in civilization and foster settlement, yet as a rule the whole establishment,
labor and all, is imported for a very short season and as rapidly exported when the fishing season is over.
There is no doubt that much wealth in fish is exported annually and that the canneries are a good in the land.
Sometimes we think that a good thing may be overdone, especially along the line of catching and canning the salmon.
The perpetuation of such an industry is probably of more benefit than the great catches sought for a short period
and then probably the destruction of the industry by not allowing enough fish to spawn to perpetuate the desired
annual run of fish. The trap is undoubtedly the greatest evil of the fishing industry, for the fish that are too
small to be caught by the nets are sure to be retained in the traps. If the traps could be confined to one bank
of a river, and not allowed to extend more than halfway across the stream, enough fish would pass; or if the traps
were removed, i. e., opened one day in the week, much the same result would be obtained and enough fish would get
to the spawning grounds to perpetuate the industry. Under the present conditions in many of the streams where the
fishing industry is the most fruitful, it is apparent that the industry must decline from a lack of fish getting
to the spawning grounds, and later a lack of fish in the annual run when the fish seek the spawning grounds. At
all the canneries there are left watchmen to care for the canneries over winter. The truth is, that during the
cold months they are not very busy and often find the life lonely and amusements of a desirable nature very scarce.
The canneries, in a business sense, have not found it either desirable or profitable to import men with families
to be watchmen, and so the men residing in the country from year to year constitute a changeable population. Some,
however, who choose this country as a home have desired to build homes and settle. Suitable wives are not imported
by the company and a goodly number have tried the art of civilizing native wives, with varying degrees of success.
However, the diseased condition of the native and almost unavoidable causes have often caused the dissolution of
many homes, leaving often in the land children that are stronger than the pure native children and often less suited
for the privations of the native home. This class is surely one to be reckoned with, for if uneducated and untrained
in some practical manner will prove a restless population, when, if well trained, they would be capable of becoming
steady and valuable members of society.
It seems something extra should be allotted to the training and development of white men's children, who are more
industrious and reliable than the pure native, with all his instincts to the ways of uncivilized parents.
With this also should be mentioned the schooling in general of both the native and white children. In the first
place, compulsory education is to be desired; and in the second place, the education should be more of the manual
training than of the higher studies, for it is a question of how to win the daily bread and clothing by labor that
has some market value.
Turning to the native question of itself as a factor in the land, there is much room for thought and theory. There
is no doubt that the old ways of living must change in a great measure and it would not be well to check this change,
for in the first place game and fish are decreasing and will decrease to such an extent as to make a change necessary
for the native. It is the intermediate stage of change that kills, for in substituting light clothing for furs,
and poorly cooked white man's food for meat and fish, it is but reasonable that the door would be opened for other
maladies of the native as a race. Were it also the custom to quarantine for the disease of consumption or tuberculosis
there would be few homes, indeed, exempted. The natural end of the Indian and Eskimo is consumption, and few there
seem that can escape the disease. The only hope is that of educating them in regard to the contagious nature of
the malady and encouraging them to live in a more hygienic manner.
We notice with pleasure your recommendation for hospitals for the natives in various parts of the district. There
is no doubt that such would be very beneficial and especially so if the physicians in charge were enabled to enforce
sanitary measures in the homes of the diseased as well as in any hospital or institution.
From the early part of this letter you might believe that the only industry worthy of consideration is that of
fishing, but we would only think of that as the most flourishing at this date. All of this western part of Alaska
has places where it would not be incompatible with good reason for home seekers to come. Garden products and farming
possibilities make it possible for any one settling in these parts to raise the most of the fresh goods needed
for a living, and where there are also industries that offer employment there should be, and in time will be, no
reason why many parts can not or will not have a thrifty community of settlers who make Alaska their permanent
home.
There is one region in particular that, if not settled by home seekers, should be reserved from injury, and that
is the Wood River lake country. Surely the region around the Wood River lakes is the Switzerland of Alaska, and
the beautiful banks should not be robbed of the timber that has been growing so long and that can be secured in
regions less noted for beautiful scenery. If the Government makes any park reserves for Alaska surely the Wood
River and its lakes should be set apart as such. To these lakes go all the red salmon of the Nushagak to spawn,
and not to other lakes, and as a natural spawning ground and hatchery these lakes should be reserved. In the mountain
region of these lakes is to be found the moss most suitable to the reindeer, and in time will likely be the home
of many deer. Certainly a more beautiful location can not be found for large deer herds and the home of the herders.
We are wont to yet beg patience while we recount a matter on which much favorable and adverse criticism has been
given, and that is in regard to the domesticated reindeer. Vast herds of caribou have ranged over this western
country and are still to be found in places. These animals are fast becoming extinct and the time is practically
here when they can not be counted upon as a sure article of food. The fact remains that the pasture grounds of
the wild caribou is also good pasture grounds for the tame deer, and the extermination of the one opens the way
for the introduction of the other. The mountain country between the Nushagak and the Kuskokwim rivers is a beautiful
deer country and capable of pasturing many thousands of these animals, and in time will be — as the western plains
of the States are to the East in cattle raising, so will these mountains of Alaska be in deer raising — the source
of much of Alaska's meat and warm clothing. The herd under the care of the Moravian Mission is doing very well
indeed and numbers over 1,100 deer, and now, after sufficient time for a thorough trial, the utility and sound
reason of the enterprise is fully demonstrated to us. To the dismay and derision of those who unknowingly adversely
criticise the deer project the herds steadily increase and the nebulized nonsense thus sprayed on the subject is
rather to the benefit of the deer project than against it. It would be a poor project indeed, unless some calamity
howler, like the wolf on the outside of the herd, did but occasionally raise the wail of disappointed distress.
Trusting you will not weary with these "short (?) and simple annals of the poor,"
I am, very respectfully,
J. H. ROMIG, M. D.