I >na!aklf!et. Alaska, Nov 23r<I.
Clinton In^alU,
Sheldon. 1II
Ih-ar New Friend:
I am answering this letter of
yo.irs. o.irteaclier,Mr.K.E van Ness
told 11s to answer these letteisthat
were sent to W. H.Johnson. He had
sent them to our teacher so we can
answer them. Our school-houses are
made of hunlrer and are kept warm
by stoves l'he Eskimo children play
with their sleds after school is out.
There are about six or seven hours in
one school-day and there are five
schooldays in a week.In school we
study Geography .Physiology .Arith
metic,Grammar, spelling. History,
Writing and Drawing.
uur scnooi is inn very mg,mwever
there are sixteen pupils in my room.
1 am in the fifth grade. and I am an
Eskimo girl. Some of the school-chil
dren are Iy.ipps, some are Eskimo
children.Some of Jthe school girls
take music lessons tiom Miss I'.\a
Rock an Eskimo young woman.
I take too my self.The Eskimos have
sleds made of hardwood and some
times birch wood. The sleds are drawn
by dogs. Some people have a lot of
dogs but not all. Some teams can go
very fast.Sometimes there would :>e
more than twenty dogs in 01 e team.
A good sized team can travel thirty
miles in one day or even than that.
In winter the mail is earried by
dog teams here in Alaska And in that
way we get oar leilereor send them
any wkereswe want to. And in sum
mer, it is carried by schooners. But
l do not know how it is carried
at your place Do i t you?Of course
you ought to know.
Here,in vvi .ter when the ice is fro
zen.it isabout five feet thick. Then
we have lots of fine skating on the
ice and coast down on the snow drifts
too, in winter. The snow drifts are
alx>ut fifteen feet deep in winter I
think. Some Eskimos, mostly all of
them are christains.they have a
church but it is not a very big one,
however two hundred people could
go in it. So me young people sing in
the choir on Si id ays. Sometimes
some Eskimos preach the gospel
and some times our teacher does. Mr.
Anderson is our preacher. I have
one sister which is six years old and
I have two brothers one is nineteen
years old and the other one is just
eight month old f am fo irteen years
old. Have you any brothers or sisters?
a*.id what are their names?
if von li ive how old are they? My
oiliest brother’s name is Sam.and my
sister’s name is Kxcelia and my
i iby brothers name is Jonathan Kd
0 ird. 1 think I shall close writing for
this time. Please answer my letter
1 will answer you and shall try to
\> i ite more the next tine. And ans
wer to a new friend of yours.
'(ary Soosuk Unalakleet, Alaska
alu>vc letter 1 >y a 5th. Grade is pub
lished as written. See last month’s .\.i..for
particulars.
One of the reindeer boys living at
Uualakleet was told that some 20 of
his deer had strayed to the mountains
nis enthusiastic concern regarding
the $500.00 loss was, “Oh that’s all
right, plenty trouble any way.”
Do you want to
come bark from the
fair looking like
this* NO! Then get
a move on.