NORTHERN LIGHT
Published monthly by the Unalakleet
-y) Eskimo School |/—
UuidakUt't Alaska.
K. H. Van Ness.Editor
Henry Ivanoff.Business Manager
One Dollar a year
Single Copies Fifteen Cents
EDITORIAL
We are quite sanguine that this
year will be the banner year for our
school thus far. The attendance, of
course,will not Lc as large as it was
two years ago for the village is not as
large as it then was. But at that time
we did not have the apparatus that
we now have,therefore we are expe: t
ing this year to be the very best.
Samuel Anaruk.now the regular
ly appointed primary teacher, is
doing excelently.
.A truant officer is hardly needed
in this village for at the present
time every native child between the
year of 8 and 16 is in school — one
exception. Only a few days ago we
found in the primary room a pupil
so young and small that it could
speak neither English nor Eskimo and
its little chin came only to the desk top
That speaks well for school and par
c its.The little one in question was
urged to wait just a little longer, liow
ever.
Ever since our coming among
the Eskimo we have urged tlietrain
i lg of the native for teachers of their
sc bools. It is encouraging to note
that a native is in charge of the U.S,
school at Diomede Island,Shishmaref
and Rabbelsville.a s .iburb of Shakto.
lik. At this place MissGuerie Benson
who has been in school here since our
arrival five years ago has recently
PRIMITIVE SURGERY
Several years ago in this village
quite a serious and comparatively suc
cessful surgical operation was per
formed by Mr. Rock,a native,upon a
native. Accidently one had stepped
upon the tooth of an iron rake forc
ing it thru the foot. It at once became
a serious wound. Blood poisoning,or
something similar soon set in. The
foot grew worse to such an extent
that Mr. Rock with a razor severed
the foot at the ankle,performing the
operation so successfully that in the
course of time the man was out hunt
ing in his kiak or with the dog team.
But this tax upon his crippled limb
brought 0:1 a severe relapse
which finally caused his death.
\Yc arc glad that fro.n a medical
standpoint things arc now much more
favorable than formerly,still there is
room for improvement.
Kven at this place it requires some
four days to go after and bring the
government docter. There is,how
ever, an army surgeon much nearer
just around the corner sixty miles.
But due to army regulations it is
next to impossible to get other than
a ’vice and medeciue from that
source. And yet this place, figura
tively speaking,is right on a car line
compared to some of the faraway
villages. We are hoping that Congress
will swell the appropriation suffici
ently to do much more in the near
future.
been placed in charge of the kinder
garten and domestic science work.
We all miss her from the high
s.'liool room but we are only too
glad of the advancement she has
made and the responsible position
entrusted to her care by the n. of g.