This made five schools at Sitka: two for the children of the lower class, two for the higher class, and one seminary.

On Spruce Island a Russian monk kept a school for thirty consecutive years for giving instruction in the rudimentary arts and agricultural industries.

In 1860 a school was reported on Amlia Island, with 30 in attendance. All these schools have been discontinued. A school house was erected on the lower Yukon, but never used. The result of these schools, especially among the Aleuts, is thus summed up by Hon. W. S. Dodge, of Sitka:

Nearly all of them read and write. Around their homes, in their churches and schools, are seen many if not all the concomitants of ordinary American homes. Many among them are highly educated, even in the classics. The administration of the Fur Company often reposed great confidence in them. One of their best physicians was an Aleutian; one of their best navigators was an Aleutian; their best traders and accountants were Aleutians.

When, in 1867, Alaska passed from Russia to the United States, some of the inhabitants are reported to have asked Major-General Rousseau, who was the representative of the United States Government in the transfer, what would become of their schools, he replied, in substance, that the public school system of the United States was far in advance of Russia, and that our Government would provide them better schools. The teachers supported by the Russian Government were withdrawn, and the people, naturally and properly, look to the United States for a continuation of the schools.

Again, the citizens of Alaska have no power to levy taxes for school or other purposes. Like the District of Columbia, they are governed by Congress, and must necessarily look to Congress for the support of their schools.

Further, the conditions of the country are such that for a long time to come it will receive but a small emigration from other sections of the country. The population that will remain permanently in that land and develop its many resources and cause it to assist in advancing the national prosperity are the native inhabitants. This makes it of national importance that those native inhabitants should be educated and civilized.

The present population of Alaska largely speak in foreign tongues, and it is a wise policy for the General Government to unify their language and raise up English-speaking citizens through good schools taught in English.

A large part of the civilized population of Alaska is Russian in its customs and sympathies.

While Washington's birthday and the Fourth of July are uncelebrated and unknown among them, the Russian Emperor's birthday and all the national holidays of Russia are celebrated with great enthusiasm. Yet these people are by the terms of the treaty United States citizens. Therefore it is the duty of the Government, through the public schools, 3536-No. 3-13

to educate them into an appreciation of the privileges of their citizenship. An important object lesson in every Alaska school would be the "Stars and Stripes." Let every school be furnished with a flag.

The Government receives from Alaska into its treasury at Washington an annual revenue of about $317,500, and it is just that a portion of this revenue should be returned to that country for education.

These and other reasons were brought to bear on Congress, and in May, 1884, was passed the act providing a civil government for Alaska. Section 13 of that law reads:

That the Secretary of the Interior shall make needful and proper provision for the education of the children of school age in the Territory of Alaska, without reference to race, until such time as permanent provision shall be made for the same, and the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated for this purpose.

Establishment of public schools.-On the 2d day of March, 1885, the honorable the Secretary of the Interior assigned the work of making provision for the education of the children in Alaska to the Bureau of . Education.

It was a work of great magnitude, on a new and untried field, and with unknown difficulties. It was a work so unlike any other, that the experience of the past in other departments could not be the sole guide. It was a problem peculiar to itself, and must be worked out by and for itself. It covered an area of one-sixth of the United States. The schools to be established would be from 4,000 to 6,000 miles from headquarters at Washington, and from 100 to 1,000 miles from one another, and that in an inaccessible country, only one small corner of which has any public means of intercommunication. The teachers of five schools in Southeastern Alaska will be able to receive a monthly mail; the larger number of the others can only receive a chance mail two or three times a year, and still others only one annually.

It was to establish English schools among a people the larger portion of whom do not speak or understand the English language, the diffi. culties of which will be better appreciated if you conceive of an attempt being made to instruct the children of New York or Georgia in arithmetic, geography, and other common school branches through the medium of Chinese teachers and text-books. Of the 36,000 people in Alaska, not over 2,000 speak the English tongue, and they are mainly in three settlements.

It was to instruct a people, the greater portion of whom are uncivilized, who need to be taught sanitary regulations, the laws of health, improvement of dwellings, better methods of housekeeping, cooking, and dressing, more remunerative forms of labor, honesty, chastity, the sacredness of the marriage relation, and everything that elevates man. So that, side by side with the usual school drill in reading, writing, and arithmetic, there is need of instruction for the girls in housekeeping, cooking, and gardening, in cutting, sewing, and mending; and for the boys in carpentering and other forms of wood-working, boot and shoemaking, and the various trades of civilization.

It was to furnish educational advantages to a people, large classes of whom are too ignorant to appreciate them, and who require some form of pressure to oblige them to keep their children in school regularly. It was a system of schools among a people who, while in the main only partially civilized, yet have a future before them as American citizens.

It was the establishment of schools in a region where not only the school house but also the teacher's residence must be erected, and where a portion of the material must be transported from 1,500 to 4,500 miles, necessitating a corresponding increase in the school expenditure. It was the finding of properly qualified teachers, who, for a moderate salary, would be willing to exile themselves from all society, and some of them settle down in regions of arctic winters where they can hear from the outside world only once a year.

To the magnitude of the work, and the special difficulties environing it, is still further added the complication arising from the lack of sufficient funds to carry it on, there being appropriated only $25,000 with which to commence it.

Schools in Southeastern Alaska.-In Southeastern Alaska the establishment of schools, in comparison with the difficulties met in other sections of this land, was easy, as four of the seven schools can be reached monthly by the mail steamer. Further, schools had been kept at all these points but two for several years by teachers in the employ of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church. This missionary organization was the first of the American churches to enter that neglected land. Finding no schools, they established them side by side with their missions, proposing to furnish educational advantages until the General Government should be ready to do it. Therefore last fall, wherever the Government was ready to undertake the work in any village occupied by the Presbyterians they have turned over their schools to the Government. As the Presbyterians had a body of efficient teachers already on the ground, acclimated, experienced in the work, more or less acquainted with the native language, and possessing the confidence of the people, it was both more economical to the Government and for the best interests of the schools that they should, as far as possible, be re-employed, which was done.

Yukon River.-For years the Church Missionary Society of England has had mission stations at Fort McPherson and La Pierre House, bordering on Northeastern Alaska, and its missionaries have made occasional trips on the Upper Yukon and its tributaries.

Among the capable and energetic young men in its employ, Rev. Vincent C. Sims manifested so much interest in the people, such endurance of hardship, and such adaptation to the work, that application was made to the Board of Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church to secure him as teacher of a Government school on the Yukon River. The society responded favorably, and selected as teachers Mr. Sims and Mr. Kirby, a young man born in that region, the son of Archdeacon

W. W. Kirby, an English missionary. Before the news of his appointment reached him, Mr. Sims died. The Rev. Octavius Parker, an Episcopal clergyman, of Oregon, was selected to succeed Mr. Sims. Mr. Parker and family removed to Saint Michael, Alaska, in 1886. This spring Rev. John H. Chapman, of the same church, has been appointed to join Mr. Parker. The school will be removed from Saint Michael, on the coast, to the valley of the Yukon.

Bethel.-During the summer of 1884 the American branch of the Moravian Church sent a commission, consisting of Rev. A. Hartman and Mr. William H. Weinland, to visit the western section of Alaska in search of a suitable location for a mission to the Eskimo.

They left San Francisco May 3, 1884, reaching the mouth of the Kuskokwim River, 4,479 miles, on the 12th of June. Leaving the steamer and hiring two three-holed bidarkas* (sea-lion skin canoes), with four natives to manage them, they ascended the river to Napaimute, 300 miles, visiting every village by the way. On the 9th of July they commenced their return to Fort Alexander, 600 miles distant, which they reached August 8, having been eight weeks in the uncomfortable boat. From Fort Alexander they returned to Unalashka by schooner, and from thence to San Francisco by steamer. The result of their exploration was the locating of a mission station 150 miles up the Kuskokwim River, near the native village of Mumtrekhlagamute. The new station was named Bethel. It was found necessary to have a special boat made for use on the river, also to purchase in San Francisco the lumber, sashes, doors, hardware, furniture, &c., for the mission buildings, to lay in a year's supply of provisions, medicines, and other necessaries, and charter a schooner to take the supplies to the mouth of the river. On the 18th day of May, 1885, the party, consisting of Rev. William H. Weinland and Rev. J. H. Killbuck (Delaware Indian), and their wives, with Mr. John Torgersen, mechanic and lay assistant, sailed from San Francisco, reaching the mouth of the Kuskokwim on the 19th of June. They at once set about the transporting of the building materials and supplies to Bethel in their small boat.

On the 10th of August the mission met with a great loss in the accidental drowning of Mr. Torgersen, who, passing aft on the deck of their little boat, slipped and fell into the river. Ropes and planks were immediately thrown to him, but, being heavily clothed, the swift current swept him under.

Rev. W. H. Weinland was appointed teacher of the Government school. He was also commissioned by the Government to establish and maintain a Signal Service station at that point.

Nushagak River.-A contract has been entered into with the Moravians for the establishment of a school at Nushagak. The teachers selected are Mr. and Mrs. F. E. Wolff and Miss Mary Huber. The buildings were erected in 1886, and the teachers are now en route to their destination.

* See illustration.