TANANA LEADER
Vol l
Published Every Thursday at Tanana, Alaska.
SAM J. CALLAHAN, EDITOR
Ceo. M. Arbucklc, Manager
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nuiQitiaiiiB nukoo uii r\ i; | j 11V/ u 11 u 111
LEGAL STATUS OF THE INDIAN
The newspaper clipping relating the story of the Sioux
Indians who competed with and beat the whites in a North
Dakota county election, published in this paper last week,
must have furnished funny reading to people familiar with
affairs in this part of the world. Here the Indians have
had no semblance of tribal government for many years.
One of the last Indians in this part of Alaska to be tried
by the law of his own people died several years ago, Moses
of Rampart, who had lived for more than thirty years under
sentence of banishment from his kind, and who, it is wor
thy of note, made no effort to evade the sentence after the
white regime had been inaugurated. When Indians go to
law at all, here, they do it in the white man’s court; they
marry according to the white man’s law, and their children
sometimes go to school with the white man’s. White men
marry Indian women, and the relation is sanctified by law.
In the ordinary affairs of life no marked antipathy between
the Indians and the races who have thrust themselves upon
them can be discerned. In addition to the laws and tradi
tions of the United States, the Treaty of Cession made spe
cial provision that Alaska Indians, situated exactly as these
now are, should be admitted to and guaranteed all the priv
ileges of citizenship.
Yet to hint at the possibility of Alaska Indians ever
attaining the status at present occupied by the Sioux, who
were engaged in savage warfare long after their Alaskan
brethren were living with the whites in peace and amity,
would excite ridicule. Former Governor Brady, of mis
sionary origin, in an official report, recommended that they
be trained with a view to make them “hewers of wood arid
drawers of water” for whites. It is strange that no official
has ever appeared to think of them except in relation to
some form of white man’s graft. A single exception may
possibly exist in Hon. James Wickersham, who, while judge
of the district court in 1903, when an Indian made applica
tion for naturalization, ruled that under the law and the
Treaty of Cession he was already a citizen and the court
could neither add to nor take from his rights.
Alaska has reached a point in material, political and
social development where the legal status of its native pop
ulation has become an important question. When it is
solved it is hoped that the Indians will no longer be looked
upon as fit only to furnish wives and concubines to white
men, fields of exploitation to missionaries, and ground for
extraordinary emanations from the department of justice.
As the end of the open season approaches the move
ment to the Innoko valley—especially to the Iditarod—
gains impetus. It is not possible under present conditions
to arrive lat an intelligent understanding of the situation
in that region, or in the Kuskokwim, beyond it; but the
apprehension seems to be well founded that there will be a
shortage of provisions, at least on the Innoko side of the
divide. To those who are determined to join the procession
jt would be well not to lose sight of the commissary wagon.
One the most damaging accusations yet made against
a greedy corporation is that of our local ranchman who
claims that a shipping concern milked his four cows in
transit. Two of the “cows” in question are bulls.
\
ANOMALOUS ECONOMICS
Take a territorial map, trace
the meanderings of the Porcu
pine river to the international
boundary line, in imagination
stand upon the dot marked
“Rampart House’’ and say, “In
this point I hold the key to the
trade of the vast territory back,
front and to either side of me.”
The proposition seems so pre
posterous that the mind arbitra
rily negatives it.
Yet Rampart House was once
not only worthy of consideration,
Reigiember
The Grand Hotel
WHILE STOPPING IN TANANA
UP-TO-DATE ROOMS AND BUNKS, ALSO GOOD FOG HOUSES.
FINE WINES, LIQUORS AND CIGARS,
Pool And Billiard Tables In Connection.
Charley Chanpst Prop.
JACK O’HARA JACK HUNNEWELL
The Northern
SULLIVAN CITY
Again at the Old Stand in Our Brand-New Building.
We Garry Only the Best Wines, Liqnors and Cigars -
but was the actual center of such
commercial activity as the inte
rior theh possessed. It was Sipon
the extension of navigation that
trade, following lines of least re
sistance, shifted to its natural
channel. When the time had
come, however, the change was
abrupt and complete.
Thenceforward, up to the time
of the Klondike rush, so far as
present knowledge goes affairs
shaped themselves logically.
Trading posts along the great
waterway were supplied by
steamboats and people were .sup
plied by the posts.
Development following the
.Klondike strike dictated a rail
road to connect the upper Yukon
with the ocean; and, after the
first great scramble for the Can
adian-side gold, evolution pro
ceeded without marked outrage
to economic law: nature asserted
itself in tolerable serenity.
Then, when politicians of the
United States and Canada had
had time to fix tariff regulations
to the greatest possible detri
ment to people on either side of
the line, great goldfields were
discovered on the Tauana and a
period of economic anarchy en-,
sued and has continued ever1
since. The tremendous cost of,
the machinery and provisions
necessary for early-day work in
the Tauana was largely artificial,
so to speak—customs duties were
paid on goods from Dawson upon
which duties had before been
paid from the United States into
the Canadian territory, and an
abnormal freight rate aided in
piling up a cost that only an j
unusually rich Held could pay.;
Again, so far as the Tananaj
country is concerned, adjustment
was measurably prompt and in
dustry assumed an attitude of
sanity. But this is only true of
Fairbanks and its immediate en
vironment. In other parts of
the country economic chaos has
become more chaotic according
as new opportunities have come
to light. Thus for two years we
have witnessed the remarkable
spectacle of steamboats freight
ing goods up the Yukon river
to Tanana, transshipping them
and after 275 miles of hazardous
and costly navigation landing
them at Fairbanks, where they
are feverishly loaded onto non
descript craft and hurried back
by Tanana on a twelve-hundred
mile cruise to the Innoko placers.
What logic—or lack of logic -
dictates that the base of supplies
for the upper Koyukulc river
should bs maintained on the up
per Tanana? What freak of cir
cumstance could induce the buy
ing of an outfit at Fairbanks to
be consumed midway between
Hot Springs and Rampart? or
on the headwaters of the Hosi
ana? or to be transported to the
Kuskokwim via Russion Mission?
Answer to these and kindred
questions are hidden somewhere
in the intricacy of human intel
lect. In their remote ramifica
tions they may extend back to
the Fall and the pronouncement
that doomed man to labor—and
limited his powers so that he
can never shirk the fulfillment
of the sentence. Certain it is
that only the unnavigability of
the Porcupine renders Rampart
House an impracticable base for
interior commerce under present
day methods.
\\\
THE UMPIRE
An umpire of tlic minor league lay dying in the hay,
Above him bent a bosom friend to hear what he might say;
And as he took his comrade's hand, he said: ‘’’Twill soon be o’er;
I’ll never call a ball or strike or foul tip any more!
But take a message for me, pal, back to the old gang there,
And tell them, honestly, I always tried to treat them square.
Then break the news to all the friends and relatives of mine—
You’ll find tl^ern all at Bingen—fair Bingen dawn the line.
“Tell my folks and my companions I have umped my final game,
I have made my last decision and I die unknown to fame;
And say I died just like my father taught me how to die
When he was umping and some grouch would shosh him in the eye!
And when he died of what he left they let me take my choice;
Of all his goods and chattels I took nothing but his voice;
And all the years I’ve used it, it has boomed out strong and fine,
Just like the pater’s used to boom at Bingen down the line.
“I’ll never hear the rooters roast where I am going at,
Each time I call a third strike on some idol at the bat;
They’ll heave no bottles at me when the home boys lose the day—”
His friend bent closer, for the voice was faint and far away,
The dying ump, by force of will, then gave a final shout:
“Eadiesandgentsthebatt’riesare—but there his wind gave out,
The butt of fandom’s jeers lay dead. The soft moon rose to shine,
Just as it shone on Bingen—fair Bingen down the line.
—C. P. McDonald, in Globe-Democrat.
--
NOT MISERLY
The following beautiful sentiment is from the pen of that gifted
editor and present United States senator from Tennessee, Bob 'l'ay
loi:
“I would rather fill my purse with money and keep its gates
ajar to my happy girls while yet they linger under my roof than to
clutch it with a miser’s hand until all the harpstrings of youth are
broken and all its music forever fled. I would rather spend my
last nickel for a bag of striped marbles to gladden the hearts of my
bare footed boys than to deny them their childish pleasures, and
leave them a bag of gold to quarrel over when I am dead. I abhor
the pitiless hawk that circles in the air only to swoop down and
strangle the song of the linnet or bury its talons in the heart of the
dove. I despise the soulless man whose greed for gold impels him
to strangle the laughter and song of his own family.”
A—■>, - Y
THE YELLOW LEAF
When old age has seamed your cheek, and your joints begin to
creak, and your teeth are made of asphalt, or cement; when your
poor old back is galled, and your dome of thought is bald, and you
can not climb a stairway worth a cent, theu you like to sit and tell
of the time when all was well, when the world and you were young
and all serene; and j'ou make it very plain that for speed and brawn
and brafu, such a wondrous chap as you was never seen! Oh!
these spindling modern lads never will be like their dads, who were
Samsons and Goliaths in their*youth: so in sentimental strain you
recall the past again, and bring teardrops from the starry eyes of
Truth. When beneath the sun or moon you are prone to sit and
croon of the triumphs of your boyhood, you may know, that you’re
waxing old and sere, and your tales of yesteryear were related by
your grandsires long ago !—Walt Mason,
YOU HAVE
until Sept. 20 to obtain
a high - grade Watch,
Souvenir Jewelry or your eyes exam
ined by Lynn Smith. Don’t fail to get
your watch put in order before winter,
either. Everything guaranteed.
Job Printing at The Leader office.
CAMP GIBBON NO. 35, Arctic Brother
hood, meets every Monday night
in A. B. Hall, corner Second st.
and Campbell ave. at 9 o’clock.
Visiting Arctics cordially invited to at
tend the meetings of the Camp.
Phil, Gallaher, Arctic Chief,
r. Russell Walle, Arctic Rec.
RAMPART
BREVITIES
Rampart, Sept. 13—Mr. and Mrs. George Wood will leave on the
first up liver boat for the Outside to spend the winter.
Mrs. M. P. Fleischman, wife of Rampart’s postmaster, will depart
for the Outside in a few days to remain during the winter.
Mr. Ellsworth, the water manager for the government, and M. K.
Koontz start for the Outside this week.
Chiistiau Dubach, of St. Joseph, Mo., who intends to operate a
steamshovel on Hunter creek, paid Rampart a visit of several days’
duration recently getting extensions of leases on giound of that creek,
having found that the present leases were altogether too limited to make
operating successful. The steamsLove! is now a^ Dawson, and will be
shipped to Rampart in the spring.
M. E. Koontz, who has been working on Hoosier creek this sum
mer, was very successful for the first six weeks of the season, after
which he ran into ground which had been drifted out by the old pro
cess, and made expt uses only. On the upper end of No. 15 and the
ower end of No. 16-a, Hoosier creek, Mr. Koontz encountered good
pay, and was doing well until a scarcity of water compelled him to
clo-e down. lie will resume work in the spring.
Clemens & Campbell, on Nos. 3 and 4-a, Hunter creek, had a very
successful summer.
The Davis Hydraulic Co., of Nos. iy, 20 and 21, Hunter creek,
while still operating, have very little water. They have had a very
successful summer.
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