SCHOOLS IN ALASKA. The following report of the general agent of education in Alaska is inserted as a part of this report, in order that the latest information about this interesting subject may be promptly communicated to the friends of education: Hon. N. H. R. DAWSON, GENERAL AGENT OF EDUCATION IN ALASKA, United States Commissioner of Education. Sitka, Alaska, May 2, 1887. SIR: The work of education in Alaska for 1886-'87 was greatly hindered by the delay of Congress in making the appropriation. Until it was definitely known how much would be appropriated for education no plan of work could be arranged. Until the appropriation was actually made the Office was left in doubt whether it would be able to enlarge the work, or merely continue existing schools, or disband them. The appropriation was not made until August, 1886. In the mean time the trading vessels that sail from San Francisco to Behring's Sea in the spring and return in the fall had all sailed, and with them the only regular opportunity of sending teachers and school supplies to Western Alaska. To wait until the following spring would involve the delay of another year in establishing the schools. Under the circumstances there was no alternative but to charter a vessel for the work of the Bureau. This, in addition to meeting a necessity, enabled the Commissioner to secure reliable information concerning the educational needs of the principal centres of population among the civilized Russians, Aleuts, and Eskimo of Southern and Southwestern Alaska. With the commencement of the public agitation, which resulted in securing schools for Alaska, the Commissioner had sought diligently for reliable and explicit information concerning that unknown region. When, in 1885, the responsibility of establishing schools in that section was placed upon him he more than ever felt the need of the information that was necessary for intelligent action in the school work. An application was then made to the honorable the Secretary of the Navy, and he issued instructions to the commanding officer of the United States steamship Pinta, then in Alaskan waters, to take the general agent of education in Alaska on a tour of inspection along the coast. A combination of circumstances prevented the ship from making the trip. The necessity which arose in the fall of 1886 of sending the teachers furnished the long-desired opportunity of securing the needed information. The schooner Leo, of Sitka, was chartered, because the terms were lowest, and because the vessel had auxiliary steam-power, which enabled it to get in and out of harbors and through the narrow channels between the islands, where, without this auxiliary power, we would have been delayed weeks. The cruise proved a stormy one, consuming 104 days. Passing through the equinoctial storms, we encountered the early winter gales of that high latitude. We lost two sails, were stranded on a reef of rocks, nearly lost a sailor overboard, while repeatedly great seas washed completely over us. Laying our course for Atkha, one of the Aleutian group of islands, the storms finally landed us, September 21, at Kadiak, 900 miles to the eastward of our destination. Kadiak Island is the western limit of forests along the southern coast of Alaska. It is also near the eastern limit of the Innuit, or civilized Eskimo population. The first European or Russian settlement on this island was made by Gregory Shelikoff in 1781; and soon after a school (the first in Alaska) was organized for the children of the Russians. Also the first church building in Alaska was erected on this island. For a long time it was the Russian capital and the chief seat of their operations in America. A tombstone in the Russian cemetery bears the date 1791. The village has a pleasant look, and consists of 43 log houses, 23 rough-board houses, and 12 painted ones. It has a Russian creole population of 303, of whom 143 are children. There are 20 white men in the settlement The Russian school has been extinct for more than a quarter of a century, and for years the people had been looking for another. It was a great satisfaction to be permitted to give them a good school. Prof. W. E. Roscoe, an experienced teacher from California, with his wife and baby, was stationed at this place, and received from the people a very warm welHe had been landed but a few hours when a delegation of adults waited upon him and asked that a night school for instruction in English might be established for the married people. come. Mr. Benjamin McIntyre, the efficient general agent of the Alaska Commercial Company, furnished a school-room free of rent and in many ways gave important help to the teacher. Valuable assistance was also received from Mr. Ivan Petroff, deputy collector of customs. Opposite Kadiak is Wood Island, with 50 bright children. The patriarch of the village gathered them into a room and then made a touching appeal for a school. It was with a heavy heart that I said to them, as subsequently I was compelled to say to many others, "I would be glad to give you a school, but I cannot." The meagre appropriation by Congress of $15,000 for the education of the ten or twelve thousand children of Alaska necessarily deprives the majority of them of any school. To the north of Wood Island is Spruce Island, where a Russian monk, at his own expense, kept up a school for thirty consecutive years. He died, and his school was discontinued. To their entreaties for a school we had to turn a deaf ear. They are a well-to-do people, with humble but pleasant homes. They have a number of cows, make butter and cheese, and raise potatoes. The men are mostly hunters of the seaotter. Still further north is Afognak Island, with 146 school children. A school was established among them, with Prof. James A. Wirth in charge. While superintending the unloading of the school supplies through the breakers we were invited by one of the villagers to a lunch of rice, fried chicken, potatoes, eggs, bread, and sweet, fresh butter, cakes, home-made preserves, and Russian tea served in glass tumblers. From Afognak we visited Karluk, with its 118 children; Akhiok, 48; Ayakhabalik, 72; and Kagniak, 45. All of these groups of bright-eyed, rosy-cheeked, and healthy children had to be refused schools for want of funds. At some of these villages the ladies of our party were the first white women ever seen. From the Kadiak group of islands nine days' battling with the waves brought us to Unalashka, in Behring Sea. This is the commercial port of Western Alaska, and contains a population of 340, 132 of whom are minors under twenty-one years of age. Mr. S. Mack, agent of the Alaska Commercial Company, Dr. Call, the company physician, Collector Barry, and Commissioner Johnston did all in their power to make our visit pleasant. At this village a school of 24 pupils was in operation under the control of the Russian-Greek Church. The teacher, Tsikoores, was born in Greece and partly educated in San Francisco. The Greek Church has during the year 16 general holidays and 200 minor ones, which are celebrated more or less by the Alaska churches. One of the holidays observed while we were at Unalashka was in commemoration of the Virgin Mary appearing to the Greek army one thousand years ago and leading them to victory. American citizens who have never heard a prayer for the President of the United States, or of the Fourth of July, or the name of the capital of the nation are taught to pray for the Emperor of Russia, celebrate his birthday, and commemorate the victories of ancient Greece. Upon one occasion, trying to inform them that we had come from the seat of Government at Washington to open the way for the establishment of schools, we found that the only American city they had ever heard of was San Francisco. After laboring with them one man was found who had somehow heard of Chicago. Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington were unknown regions. In the mountains back of Unalashka a volcano was in active eruption. From Unalashka we sailed to Unga, the centre of the cod fisheries of the North Pacific. Unga has 174 children. At this point we left Mr. and Mrs John H. Carr to establish a school. On this trip a complete census was taken of the population from Kadiak, westward, to Attu, and in a total population of 3,810 I numbered 1,619 children. These are children of a civilized people who, by the terms of article 3 of the treaty of 1867, between Russia and the United States, are declared to be citizens, and are guaranteed all the "rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United States;" and yet, after nineteen years of total neglect, the United States Government only gives them three teachers. YUKON VALLEY. On June 29, 1886, Rev. Octavius Parker, who had been appointed teacher for the Yukon Valley, with his family, reached St. Michael, Alaska. The original contract between the Commissioner of Education and the Protestant Episcopal Board of Missions called for the establishment and maintenance of a good school in the Yukon Valley. On account of the difficulty of perfecting arrangements and transporting supplies in time the secretary of the mission society requested permission for the teacher to locate the first year at St. Michael, on the seaboard. In order to secure a commencement of school work in that distant section the Commissioner consented to the change, although it was known that there were but few children at the place. This past winter the Episcopal Board of Missions has commissioned Rev. John W. Chapman to establish a school at some suitable village in the Yukon Valley. Mr. Chapman is now en route to that northernmost school in the United States. BETHEL. The Moravian party, who were sent in the spring of 1885 from Pennsylvania to establish a school in the valley of the Kuskokwim River, sailed from San Francisco on the 18th of May and reached their destination on the 13 of July. The materials for their dwelling were not all received until about the 12th of August. A small frame building, 12 by 14 feet, was begun, and so far completed that they were able to move into it on the 10th of October, at which time the arctic winter of that region had set in with its usual severity. On December 29 the thermometer registered 50.6 degrees below zero. This was the coldest of the season. In January the thermometer registered 40 degrees above zero. Failing to secure a school-room, they were unable to hold regular sessions of school. However, they were visited by hundreds of Eskimo, who remained with them a longer or a shorter time, according to circumstances. These received, as far as possible, special instructions, the livingroom of the house being used as a school-room. During the summer of 1886 a school-house was erected, and regular instruction is being given. NUSHAGAK. In the spring of 1886 Mr. Frank E. Wolff was sent to Behring Sea to erect a schoolhouse and residence at Nushagak. He reached there August 21, erected and enclosed a frame building, 24 by 38 feet, with an addition of 12 feet, and returned to Pennsylvania for the winter. Last month (April, 1887) Mr. and Mrs. Wolff and two children and Miss Mary Huber left for Nushagak to open the school. KLAWACK. About midway between the north and south ends of Prince of Wales Island, on the west coast, is an important fishery at Klawack. The fishery and a saw-mill connected with it have drawn around them a large native population. For several years past their leading men have asked for a school. This place was supplied with a school last fall, and Prof, L. W. Currie, of North Carolina, who has had many years' experience in teaching among Indians, was placed in charge. The progress of the school has been greatly retarded by the want of a suitable and comfortable schoolroom. Last fall, when it became time to open the school, the teacher at Haines announced her resignation, and it was January before I was able to secure another teacher. At that time Mr. Salmon Ripinsky, who taught last year at Unalashka, was appointed teacher. The schools at Juneau, Hoonah, Killisnoo, Sitka, Wrangell, and Jackson were continued under the former teachers, and have been doing a good work. They all lack suitable school buildings. In September last Prof. Asa Saxman, an experienced teacher from Pennsylvania, was sent to Loring. At this point a fishery had been established, and it was hoped that the opening industry would at once attract and concentrate at that point the scattered natives of Southeastern Alaska. This expectation not being realized, Professor Saxman was removed in November to Port Tongass. In December last, in company with Mr. Louis Paul, a native missionary, he took a canoe and started out to find a better location for the school. Failing to return in due time, two search parties were sent out, who found the canoe wrecked. No trace was found of the bodies. In the drowning of Professor Saxman the schools in Alaska jost one of their ablest teachers. The following statistics for the school year 1886-'87 are compiled from the monthly reports of the schools as far as they have been received: As near as I can gather from the reports now in and my knowledge of the schools from which reports are not yet received, there are at least 1,250 children in the Alaska schools. The great need of the schools is suitable school-houses. These will require a larger appropriation. Fifty thousand dollars for education in Alaska is the smallest amount that should be asked of Congress for the year 1887-'88. Thanking you for the interest you have taken in the work, I remain, with great respect, Yours truly, SHELDON JACKSON, |