NORTHERN LIGHT
Published monthly by the Unalakleet
—V Eskimo School [/—
«• rw
Unalakleet Alaska
K E.Van Ness.Editor
Guerie A. .I'ensoa Business Manager
One Dollar per )ear
EDITORIAL
FOLKLORE
This issue is re voted largely to
folklore. Ar.d why not? Here we
have a people whose origin is hidden
’neith the snows of a t h o u s a n d
winters .Over and over from father
to son stories have come down to ns
from the misty past. Mm y of the m
founded on facts,others purely myth
ical. From now on \vc shall give
special space to tire sul ject. We shall
welcome material of this kind from
every village.
A SAD ACCIDENT
While reaching for his arrow which
had fallen into the river, Kermit Reel*,
slipped into the chilling water a n cl
drowned May 20th. His body was
foand some thirty minutes late:*.
Kind and willing friends worked un
ceasingly hoping that lie might he
resuscitated. At the end of three hours
no signs of life being uoticable it was
sorrowfully given up.
He was one of our best pupils.
A shadow rests over the school this
morning. Teachers and pupils ex
tend to the bereaved parents,brothers
and sisters he irt felt sympathy.
Kermit Rock being young and in
nocent we can unhesitatingly encour
age the sorrowing ones to loo!: unto
iii.n, who said, “Riessed are they that
mourn: for they shall becomfo ted.”
JUST DCGS
Of all tlie domestic animals in our
land of snow,the dog no doubt,is the
most valuable.Our letters, vv h i c h
come over the hundreds of miles, are
brought to us by the faithful dog.
lie looks like a dog. Works like a
a dog. And worst of all treated asa dog
Not long ago we made a trip. A native
girl was the driver. It was her team.
I said, “where is your whip?’'-Most
drivers of dogs carry a whip.- Her
reply was that they of eyed.That she
neve.* whipped them. I further said,
for I was getting interested, “ what
if they go to fighting? “ “ Oh " she
replied, “ I just go to them and call
t! em by name and they come to me. ’ ’
“ I r.ever carry a whip. “
What a contrast to the treatment
often accorded the poor dumb brutes
by some owners. I once saw a dog
grab another in regular fighting style.
And then the owner grabbed a club
fully as heavy as a hickory ax handle
and separated the fighters and, with
his temper well tuned, continued to
be' t the brute over the head and on
its face until in mercy the poor thing
crouch.ed at the master’s feet and
begged. There arc times when drastic
measures have to lx? applied to dogs,
perhaps,but this was one case where
pure undefiled temper was at the
bottom of an uncalled foraclminister
ation of inhuman beastly treatment.
It is:io uncomon tiling to see a bur
ley driver le p upon the poor dog and
with his heels crush, nearly the life
from the poor brute that carries our
letters,brings us our magazines, and
in many other ways helps to brighten
life in this far off land.
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