Northwest History. Alaska. Epidemics & Contagious Diseases.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1918
• Subjects: Eskimos; Alaska; influenza; Nome; Seward peninsula; Fort Davis; Council City; Candle; post office; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Arctic; Pacific; eskimo*; Seward Peninsula
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/90691

Many Eskimos Die In Alaska: Influenza Takes Whole Families -- Superstition Makes Task Of Authorities Difficult. MANY ESKIMOS DIE IN ALASKA Influenza Takes Whole Families—Superstition Makes Task of Authorities Difficult. NOME, Alaska, Nov. 15.—-Like the sweep of more, dreaded forms of scourge, Spanish influenza has cut a fearful swath of death on Seward peninsula, and now, believed, at the turning point in this section, is spreading its tentacles still further northwards towards the arctic and down the coast. Of an estimated Eskimos population in this vincinity of 250 but 75 natives are left, the dead totaling 175 and others are dying daily. Nineteen white persons in Nome have succumbed, but conditions among the white are imporving. At Fort Davis 75 out of 85 soldiers stationed there have had the influenza. Among the natives whole families have been wiped out, first made helpless by the disease, then, without attention, have frozen to death. Superstitous of the dead the Eskimos have fled from cabin to cabin, making the task of the authorities combating the epidemic more difficult. To care for the Eskimo orphaned an orphanage has been opened in Nome with 30 babies and children as inmates. Two hundred miles to the north of Nome, Candle has reported 10 mild cases of influenza, but in Council City, about 60 miles north, a rigid quarantine is in effect. Not even the mails are permitted to leave the postoffice.