Northwest History. Alaska. Science. United States.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1936
• Subjects: Alaska; Territorial Officials; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th Century; Indian; Lanes; Pacific; Barrow; eskimo*; Point Barrow; walrus*
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/101925

Alaska Denies AID to Eskimos [ALASKA DENIES AID TO ESKIMOS Mission Doctor Charges Assistance Refused Natives Ravaged by Mumps. BARROW, Alaska, Feb. 9. (AP)—Dr Henry W. Greist of the Presbyterian mission hospital here declared today that territorial authorities at Juneau refused aid to Eskimos ravaged by mumps at Point Barrow. The Juneau office of Indian affairs, Dr. Greist said, rejected a re- [ quest from Frank Daugherty, school i superintendent at Barrow, for fuel land food for quarantined families I there and along the coast. "With temperatures below zero out- jside, the sole heat in many igloos is1 i merely that generated by bodies of the inmates who eat frozen, half rot- ,ten walrus meat uncooked while the | children cry for bread," Dr. Greist "The wireless from Juneau told the natives to go out and kill whale or sea) and burn blubber," the doctor declared. "There was to be no coal at government expense." ---Must Root, Hog or Die.--- Dr. Greist charged that bureau of education doctors "have always consistently held that white man's food is too good for the eskimo and the native^ like the pig, must root, hog or. He blamed the distance the Eskimos live from "tourist lanes" for the attitude he said territorial authorities took toward them. "It was the same way in the influenza epidemic last summer." Dr. Greist asserted. "Juneau finally allowed us $120 to be used with great care—this sum to be divided among 50 families." The doctor said the situation belonged to the government, rather than to the mission, but that officials were unconcerned about the Eskimos because they have no votes.