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CONTRACT SCHOOLS.

TABLE 4.-Amount contributed by the churches to supplement the work of the Government. Amount apportioned by the Government to the contract schools for 1891–92.

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*Three-day pupils are considered as equivalent to one boarding pupil.

D. PERSONNEL, SALARIES, ETC.

General agent of education for Alaska, Dr. Sheldon Jackson, Alaska, $1,200.

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In the new rules and regulations approved by the Secretary of the Interior April9, 1890, this Board created in 1887 was discontinued, experience having proved that it did not work well, and a system of local school committees was inaugurated.

TEACHERS AND EMPLOYÉS IN CONTRACT SCHOOLS.

Anvik (Episcopal).-Rev. John W. Chapman, Vermont.
Point Pope (Episcopal).-John B. Briggs, M. D., Delaware.

Kosoriffsky (Roman Catholic).-Rev. Paschal Tosi, Mr. B. Cunningham, Mr. John Negro, Sister Mary Stephen, Sister Mary Joseph, Sister Mary Paulina. Cape Vancouver (Roman Catholic).-Rev. Joseph Treca, Rev. Paul Muset, Mr. John Rosati.

Nulato (Roman Catholic).-Rev. Robaut, Rev Ragaru.

Bethel (Moravian).-Rev. John H. Kilbuck, Rev. Ernst L. Weber, Mrs. John H. Kilbuck, Mrs. E. L. Weber, Miss Lydia Lebus.

Carmel (Moravian).—Rev. Frank E. Wolff, Mrs. F. E. Wolff, Miss Mary Huber, Miss Emma Huber, Rev. J. A. Schoechert.

Cape Prince of Wales (Congregational).-Mr. H. R. Thornton, of Virginia; Mr. W. T. Lopp, of Indiana.

Point Barrow (Presbyterian).-Mr. Leander M. Stevenson, of Ohio.

Sitka (Presbyterian).-Mr. William A. Kelly, principal, Rev. A. E. Austin, chaplain, Mrs. A. E. Austin, Miss Anna R. Kelsey, Miss Mate Brady, Mr. J. A. Shields, Miss Carrie E. Delph, Miss Ida M. Rogers, Miss Kate A. Rankin, Mrs. A. T. Simson, Mr. A. T. Simson, Mrs. M. C. Devore, Mrs. Josie Overend, Mr. Ernest Struven, Mrs. Tillie Paul (native), Mr. William Wells (native), Mr. Edward Marsden (native), William F. Arnold, M. D.

Metlakahla.-Mr. William Duncan, teacher, with several native assistants.

TEACHERS IN PRIVATE AND CHURCH SCHOOLS.

Unalaklik (Swedish Evangelical).-Rev. Axel E Karlson, Aug. Anderson. Yakutat (Swedish Evangelical).-Rev. Alb. Johnson, Rev. K. J. Henrickson. Hoonah (Presbyterian).-Rev. John W. McFarland, Mrs. M. D. McFarland, Miss Dora Davis (native).

Juneau (Presbyterian).-Rev. Eugene S. Willard, Mrs. E. S. Willard, Miss Elizabeth Matthews, Miss Margaret Dunbar, Rev. S. H. King, Mrs. S. H. King. Jackson (Presbyterian).—Mrs. A. R. McFarland, Miss C. A. Baker, Rev. J. Loomis Gould, Mrs. J. L. Gould.

Juneau (Roman Catholic).-Rev. John Althoff, Sister Mary Zeno, Sister Mary Peter, Sister Mary Bousecouer.

Douglas (Friends).-Mr. S. R. Moon, Mrs. S. R. Moon, Mr. E. W. Weesner, Mrs. E. W. Weesner.

North American Commercial Company.-Simeon Milevedoff, St. Paul Island; A. L. Noyes, M. D., St. George Island.

E.-SCHOOL BUILDINGS.

During the year a comfortable frame schoolhouse and teacher's residence combined, 31 by 55 feet in size, were erected at Kadiak, Karluk, and Afognak, at a cost of $2,700 each; at Douglas a substantial frame schoolhouse, 20 by 30 feet in size, at a cost of $1,200, and at Chilkat a log schoolhouse, 20 by 30 feet in size, for $350.

EDUCATION IN THE EAST.

Of the Alaskan children at Eastern schools, Miss Frances Willard graduated in June, 1899, at a young ladies' seminary at Elizabeth, N. J. She will return to Alaska this summer, and be appointed assistant teacher in the industrial school at Sitka.

Mr. Frederic Moore, of the Hoochinoo tribe, whom I brought East in the fall of 1886, and placed in the school at Mount Hermon, Mass., will also return to Alaska this season as Government teacher of the school at Hoonah.

In the fall of 1887, at the expense of Mrs. Elliott F. Shepard, of New York, I brought to Eastern schools Frederic Harris, Henry Phillips, Minnie Shotter, Flora Campbell, and Florence Wells, native children, and Olga Hilton (Russian) from the industrial school at Sitka, and Blanche C. Lewis, native, from Fort Wrangel.

The two boys were placed in the Indian training schools at Carlisle, Pa., and the five girls at the young ladies' seminary, Northfield, Mass.

Frederic Harris, after making good progress in his studies and in learning the

tinsmith business, was taken sick from peritonitis, and died in the school hospital on the 10th of June, 1890.

Henry Phillips, having learned the printer's trade, has now gone into the machine shop, where he is making good progress.

Florence Wells, Blanche Lewis, and Olga Hilton are still at Northfield. Flora Campbell has been changed from the school at Northfield to one at Orange, N. J., where she is receiving drill as a kindergarten teacher.

Minnie Shotter having developed a weakness in her eyes, will return home to Douglas, Alaska, where she will teach instrumental music.

This coming fall, David Skuviuk and George Nocochluke, Eskimo boys from the Kuskoquim Valley, will be taken East by Mrs. Bachman, and placed in the Indian training school at Carlisle, Pa..

- George and William Fredericks, of the Yukon Valley, will be sent by the Episcopalians to the Episcopal Institute at Burlington, Vt., Edward Marsden of the Presbyterian training school at Sitka, to Marietta College, Ohio, and Shawan Sheshdaak of Fort Wrangel, to the Educational Home at Philadelphia.

Through the liberality of Mr. Rudolph Neumann of the Alaska Commercial Company, I have arranged to send to the California normal school for teachers at San Jose, Miss Mattie Salamatoff, orphan daughter of a former Russo-Greek priest at Belkoffsky.

When Alaska secures much needed laws to increase regular attendance of the native children at school, then there will be room and a call for many native teachers.

SCHOOLS ESTABLISHED IN ARCTIC ALASKA.

In the extension of the school system over all Alaska a commencement has been made within the Arctic Circle. Contract schools have been established at Point Barrow, Point Hope, and Cape Prince of Wales, the three principal villages on the Arctic coast of Alaska.

This commencement involves much that is new and unusual in school work. The location of the schools is in a region so remote and inaccessible that they are outside the world's commerce. In August, when the ice will permit, a few whalers sail by, and a United States revenue marine steamer makes an annual call, bringing the yearly mail and supplies. With the departure of the steamer the settlement is cut off for another eleven months from the world. There are years, however, when the northernmost school, Point Barrow, can not be reached at all during the season, and the teacher will be two years without a mail or a fresh supply of provisions. And there is always the liability that a succession of severe seasons will isolate him for several years.

Under the shadow of this possibility it is a relief to know that at this station, where the greatest danger is, the Government has a refuge station for shipwrecked whalers, with provisions in store sufficient to last 20 men 5 years. If this supply should be exhausted before relief came, the teacher would be compelled to adopt the diet of the country, to wit, whale blubber and seal meat.

The food, clothing, and supplies for the teachers and the supplies for the schools must needs be taken annually on a Government vessel or a chartered schooner from San Franciso, between 3,000 and 4,000 distant.

In an area as large as all of the New England and Middle States combined, the three schools recently established occupy only the strategic places, separated hundreds of miles from each other. They are the central points from which future schools may be established.

The location of these schools in a region where the winter term is one long night presents new problems. The constant need of lamps in the schoolroom is a matter of course. But a greater difficulty is experienced in the confusion of time which arises from the absence of the sun to mark the alternate periods of day and night.

Without a marked difference in the light between noon and midnight, all knowledge of time among a barbarous people becomes lost. They know no difference between 9 o'clock a. m. and 9 o'clock p. m. Consequently, when the school bell rings out into the Arctic darkness at 9 o'clock a. m. some of the pupils have just gone to bed, and are in their first sound sleep. Roused up and brought to the schoolroom, they fall asleep in their seats. Many of the pupils have come to school without their breakfasts; with sleepy bodies and empty stomachs they are not in the best condition to make progress in their studies. Then, bearing in mind the fact that these children are wholly undisciplined and unaccustomed to restraint, the greatness of the task before the teacher begins to be appreciated.

The schools are for the Arctic Eskimo, with their strange tongue and unwrit ten language. Consequently at the opening of school the teacher could not understand what the pupils said or the pupils understand the instruction of the teacher. In two or three schools the teachers were unable to secure interpreters.

The schools being located among an uncivilized and barbarous people, living in earth huts and disregarding all the laws of health, it became necessary, not only to erect the schoolhouse, but also the teacher's residence, and, as far as possible, make both cold-proof with double walls, floor, and roof.

The materials for these houses had to be taken from San Francisco on a chartered vessel, landed through the breakers on a coast without a harbor, and carried on the shoulders of men and women to the site of the buildings.

Again, the schools were located among a people who were not only uncivilized, but also were reported by the whalers to be savages. At one of the stations whalers have for years been afraid to drop anchor lest they should be attacked and murdered by the natives. At that station two young men are in charge of the school. They are the only white men in that region and thousands of miles from troops or even a policeman. Further, the schools are located among a famishing population where the teachers have to do not only with the intellectual training, but also with the physical well-being, the general uplifting of the whole population out of barbarism into civilization. This involves questions of personal cleanliness, health, diet, improved habitations, drainage, and above all at present an increased food supply. The people are on the verge of starvation, and the schools must provide and instruct them in new industries which will furnish a better support.

As the schools will necessarily be much of the time out of the reach of control and supervision, the coöperation of well-known and responsible missionary organizations was sought, with the result that the American Missionary Associ ation of the Congregational Church took charge of the school at Cape Prince of Wales, on Bering Straits, the Episcopal Missionary Society the one at Point Hope, and the Presbyterian Home Missionary Society the one at Point Barrow. The money for the establishment of the school at Point Barrow and the erection of the buildings was contributed by Mrs. Elliott F. Shepard, of New York; that for Cape Prince of Wales by the Congregational Church of Southport, Conn.

Cape Prince of Wales is the most western school in America, and Point Barrow the most northern. Point Barrow is farther north than the celebrated North Cape of Europe. These schools are assisted by the United States Bureau of Education. While negotiations were in progress with the missionary societies, an appeal was published in a number of the newspapers of the United States for volunteer teachers for the schools to be established at Point Barrow and Cape Prince of Wales. The call set forth the facts that the schools were beyond the pale of civilization, where communication with the outside world could be had but once a year; that they were among a barbarous and perhaps savage people, where the risks were so great that ladies would not be allowed to go, and where the lives of the men would not be guarantied. Notwithstanding the hazardous and trying nature of the work, there were 21 applicants for the schools, some 12 of whom were ladies.

Prof. L. M. Stevenson, of Versailles, Ohio, was selected for Point Barrow; Dr. John B. Driggs, of Delaware, for Point Hope; and Mr. H. R. Thornton of Hampden Sidney, Va., and Mr. W. T. Lopp, of Valley City, Ind., for Cape Prince of Wales.

A vessel, the Oscar and Hattie, was chartered at San Francisco to take up the materials for the buildings and supplies for the teachers and schools. The teachers found passage as far as Port Clarence, Bering Sea, on the steamer Jennie, tender to the whaling fleet, and from Port Clarence to destination on the whalers.

I was kindly furnished transportation on the U. S. R. M. S. Bear. At noon on the Fourth of July the Bear dropped anchor in the open roadstead off the village Kingegan, Bering Straits. That afternoon, on the shores separating the Arctic Ocean from Bering Sea, and in front of the snow-capped mountains of Asia, plainly visible for miles, we celebrated our Fourth of July by laying the foundations of the first public-school building in Arctic Alaska. Upon the completion of the school building the Bear weighed anchor, sailed through Bering Straits into the Arctic Ocean, and 200 miles to the northward dropped anchor under the light of the midnight sun at Point Hope.

Here again all hands that could be spared were sent ashore to work at the

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