HELPING ESKIMOS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 January 1940, Page 9

HELPING ESKIMOS

PURCHASE OF REINDEER “NEW DEAL’’ IN ALASKA. ACTION BY UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT. NEW YORK, December 6. The United States Government intends to purchase 200,000 reindeer, owned by white ranchers in Alaska, to provide the masis of a long-term plan to improve the economic condition of the Eskimos in that territory, who are reported to be impoverished and discouraged. The story of the Eskimo, like that of the Indian, is one of a native race whose contact with the white man has had unfortunate results. In their early history they were happy and prosperous. For food there were myriads of water-fowl in summer, and the Arctic Ocean was alive with whale, walrus and seal. From time immemorial the Eskimo stalked the whale on the edge of the shore ice. Considerable secrecy and mystic signsand rites were associated with the hunt. The Dance of the Whales was a colourful ceremony. The white whalers came. In big sailing ships, numbering hundreds in the middle of last century, they exacted heavy toll. In one year. 1876. 13 ships were lost. Before the end of the century the whale and walrus were nearly extinct. The caribou also were depleted. White trappers stripped the Arctic of fur-bearing animals. The Eskimos knew starvation and misery. The tide turned in their favour in 1890, with the coming of Dr. Sheldon Jackson. Holding the position of General Agent of Education, he visited Alaska to open schools for the Eskimo, j Their condition and outlook were so poor that he introduced domestic rein-, deer and herders from Siberia. Missions were given small herds, for distribution among their charges. Soon native-owned herds were established from Point Barrow to the Aleutians. The Eskimo prospered anew. Once again the white man drove him out. Here was a unique industry that would bring wealth to the operators. The natives were gradually dispossessed of their herds, and the remainder were scattered by open herding and mixing. Lack of protection enabled wolves to make big inroads on the herds. Mistaken methods of management added to the havoc. The reindeer returned to their primeval wild state. Once again the Government intervenes on behalf of its quaint wards, who smile at misfortune and misery. The wild herds are to be recovered and reduced in size. Natives are to be instructed in how to deal with wolves; , herders must stay by their charges, day and night. The methods followed in Swedish Lapland, where reindeer management has been notably successful, are to be copied. An industry on the verge of ruin is to be revived. The Eskimo is to get a New Deal.