ANB Official Hopes for
Unity Through Tundra Times
Grand Camp
Alaska Native Brotherhood
Sitka. Alaska
November 27, 1962
Dear Editor:
Just came across a copy of your
fine paper mailed to radio station
KIFW, in Sitka, o£ which I am an
employee.
May I congratulate you on your
fine publication.
The scope you cover is indeed a
credit to your efforts.
I am submitting an article that
I hope you will have room for in
one of your future editions. It deals
with the newly elected officers of
the Alaska Native Brotherhood and
I am sure will be of interest to
some of your readers.
It is well that such a publication
as your is now available to the
general public. The Alaska Native
Brotherhood once had a newspaper
published in Petersburg, but at that
time discrimination was rampant
in Alaska and the obstacles placed
before each native venture was
great indeed and eventually the
publication became bankrupt.
Conditions have improved a great
deal in the past several years —
Borne of the credit is due the work
of the ANB. Education of both our
white brethren and our native
people has contributed to the im
proved relationship.
I hope your publication will serve
to cement our people together. We,
in Southeast Alaska, have had the
good fortune of uniting our efforts
through the Alaska Native Bro
therhood and gained many of the
goals set by our early leaders.
We would like to be of assist
ance to our brothers to the north,
but to date, have not had too much
success. This mainly, because of
lack of finances.
From time to time we have bud
geted a sum of money to acquaint
ourselves with our northern bro
| thers and their problems, only to
fall short of our goals.
At times we have had Camps or
ganized, but have failed to follow
through with a program to keep
their interest. Perhaps through the
pages of your wonderful paper we
will be of more help. I hope this
will develop.
Again congratulations on a won
derful publication.
Sincerely,
John Hope,
Grand President.
Alaska Native Brother
hood
CHRISTMAS TREE INDUSTRY—Dan R. Rowley, of Alaska Arctic
Resources, Inc., sprays small Alaska spruce trees with preservative
chemicals preparatory to their being placed on sale and exhibition
in Fairbanks. Rowley forecasts the Christmas tree industry to be a
potential million-dollar industry that could give employment to many
Alaskans and provide backhaul for Alaska carriers.—Staff Photo
I
Christmas Tree Industry Possible,..
(Continued from Page 1)
potential for a Christmas tree in
dustry in Alaska.”
He said there is an abundance of
black spruce in Interior Alaska
end available to manpower to har
vest them.
“With the right promotion Alaska
Christmas trees could be known and
bought all over the lower states,”
he said.
As Waldhaus. Rowley, and others
pointed out the slow-growing black
spruse of Alaska is superior to any
other Christmas tree on the market
today.
Roy Halvorson, of Duluth. Minn.,
has built a tremendous industry in
black spruce Christmas trees. He
Bells over a million of them a year.
Ancient Trees
But Halvorson's trees --
TC 12* years old, while the trees
now being sold in Fairbanks are
from ICO to 300 years old. The older
the tree the fuller it becomes with
a more compact, better shape and,
of course, larger number of cones.
Black spruce sold now in the
lower states usually have only a
few cones. Each of the Alaska trees
fcas hundreds of cones.
k Ska Alaska tress compact easily
and will he comparatively easy to
ship to the lower states. A thou
sand of them were shipped this
fall 60 miles to Fairbanks in one
truck.
They were frozen and stored and
recently were thawed out and spray
ed with coloring, fireproofing, and
chemical preservative that prevents
the needles on the trees from fall
ing off for considrable periods.
Luxury Item
According to Rowley, several chain
stores and buyers from as far away
as Hawaii and New York are in
terested in handling the Alaska
tree as a luxury item.
“Our problem is raising the capi
tal that is necessary to expand our
operations next year to begin fill
ing orders”, y saId/ “
The corporation was formed about
three years ago by Rowley, George
C. Economou. and Ross Miller, for
mer manager of the Fairbanks
Chamber of Commerce and now
with the BIA in Juneau. Up to this
time there has been participation
by only a handful of individuals.
2 Million Acres
Through cooperation of the Alas
ka delegation, the corporation has
secured a lease to harvest the black
Young Huskies Create Knotty Problems
By Howard Rock
Times Editor
If one has well-disiciplined life,
he had better think twice before
trying to train a litter of young
huskies for a dogteam.
But huskies, especially a litter of
I them because they work more har
[ moniously, have to be trained to
make a good team — a great ne
cessity in Arctic country.
A good trained leader is the most
needed requirement. The second re
quirement is patience on the part of
til trainer, lots of patience that will
be tried to the limit.
The trainer must remind himself
that young untrained huskies are
not quite a year old. Out of fair
ness of heart, he must try to for
give them for multiple mistakes
they make in learning to pull a
sled.
% iolent Reactions
When the pups become too big to
run loose, one ties them to posts.
There, one can observe their re
actions, usually violent.
As is the case with their distant
cousins, the wolves, the huskies'
first instinct is to be free. They
pull violently on their chains and
collars, in some cases, almost chok
ing themselves to death.
Learning to be tied, in itself, is
a type of initial training for bud
ding huskies to which they become
Santa Came
Anyway
When children in the Arctic coun
try first came to know about Santa
Claus, they were distressed when
they found that Santa came down
chimneys.
Wanting Santa to come to their
house, as children would, they wor
ried greatly because they didn't
have fireplaces and chimneys. They
just couldn't imagine Santa coming
down the little stove pipe and into
the little square stove made from
[ a 55 gallon oil drum.
But, somehow, to their happy
amazement, Santa came to the house
and brought presents.
Book Published
Acording to Northern Lights,
Point Hope day school paper, a new
book has been published.
Northern Lights commented:
“Many people are reading a book
by James VanStone entitled, Point
Hope: An Eskimo Village In Transi
tion, published by University of
Washington Press, Seattle.
“Boarding school students should
ask their librarian if it can be
ordered for their library.
“James VanStone lived in Point
Hope for one year about seven years
ago.”
spruce on 2 million acres of public
domain land, and has arrangements
with the state to harvest the trees
on state owned land.
L. L. Brice, an experienced Lum
ber manufacturer, says the Christ
mas tree industry in Alaska has a
wonderful potential.
He said he had traveled a lot of
Alaska and could say the resources
was practically unlimited.
Al Fleetwood, of the Alaska State
Bank, said he saw great potential
in the Christmas tree industry in
Alaska. The bank is decorated with
seven of the black spruce which he
said is “the kind of tr*'
... tnai norists
-n mg lower states like to get hold
of.”
Dream Tree
Not only are the trees fairly uni
form in shape, with dense foilage
and loaded with ocnes, but they
are also compact and favored by
apartment dwellers, Fleetwood
said.
He said he felt many people in
the lower states would also buy
Christmas trees from Alaska be
cause of the romance of having a
tree from Santa’s own land.
accustomed in comparatively short
time.
Aping Elders
The day finally comes when one
has to train the fledglings. One
takes his bundled harnesses out of
storage. At once, at the sight of
harnesses, the trained huskies of
the regular team noisily yip and
bark as do the young huskies. The
young ones are just aping their eld
ers.
The first thing the trainer does is
hitch the leader of the regular
team. A good leader will stand his
ground and keep some semblance
of order. Otherwise, the young dogs
will create a remarkable jumble of I
confusion. They will create enough
confusion anyway, even with a
good leader.
For almost a year a trainer should
observe and decide which one of
the new crop has a more steady na
ture. Accordingly, he should hitch
up first the most reliable one be
hind the seasoned, trained leader.
Wild But Playful
It is usually with considerable ef
fort a trainer manages to put on
the harness on the reliable one
who, most likely, is also very play
ful. He'll jump up and take a huge
swipe with his wet tongue across
the trainer's face to show him how
much he loves him. One has to be
rather firm at such times with the
half-grown husky because he is
squirming and jumping all the time.
For a moment, the trainer watches
the dog's reactions. He must re
member that this is the very first
time the “reliable one" has ever
had on a harness.
Almost Berserk
The feeling of the harness on the
dog results in squirms, gyrations,
twists, rolling in the snow, jumping,
biting the harness, yipping at the
leader, running in circles, tangling
I with unhitched harnesses. By this
time the trainer may well be on the
point of going berserk but he should
remain calm.
He should remind himself he has
five or more less reliable young
huskies to harness.
Somehow, the trainer must fin
ish harnessing the other pups and
for all intents and purposes, get
ready to go on a drive. He then
lets the anchor line loose.
Slow Start
Ordinarily, with his regular team,
he goes forward with a fast start;
but with a very young team, he’s
lucky to go forward five feet. Each
young husky wants to go in his own
direction.
Wild Melee
One will turn about face and
start to play with the ones behind
him. If the team does go forward,
at least one pup wilL drag and brace
all four feet against the motion. An
other will nip at the hind legs of
the one in front. The nipped one
will whip around and start a fight.
In a moment, the trainer has a
wild melee of young huskies fight
ing furiously.
The trainer has considerable trou
ble in stopping the fight too. Young
huskies are avid fighters and will
battle to the end if given a chance.
When the trainer finally gets the
young pups calmed down, he finds
a hopless tangle of dogs and har
nesses. To get them untangled, he
has to unsnap tracers, resnap them,
pull dogs through loops.
Show Promise
Then for another trial run. In
about an hour, to his surprise, the
trainer finds the young dogs act
ing something like a dogteam. In
another hour, they are doing quite
well but beginning to tire. It’s time
to call it aday.
In spite of knotty problems, a
stout-hearted trainer will unravel
his nerves and begin to feel kindly
toward his young huskies. They
hove shown promiso of a fine dog
team. He can envision the day when
he will go sailing over the tundra,
over trails of hard-packed snow in
the Arctic country.
ALL AMERICAN TOBACCO & PAWN SHOP
412 3rd Ave. — Fairbanks
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