Northwest History. Alaska. Eskimos.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1936
• Subjects: Eskimos; dog meat; deer drive; emergency rations; government red tape; Point Barrow; Dr. Henry W. Greist; Frank Daugherty; Presbyterian medical missionary; Barter island; starvation; dog team; Washington; Alaskan coast; Nome; W. K. Scammell; the United States; William Zimmerman; Indian bureau office; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Alaska; Indian; Pacific; Zimmerman; Barrow; Barter Island; eskimo*
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/90952

Hungry Eskimos Dine On Dog Meat: Missionary Reports Condition Of Natives Critical./Deer Drive Is Halted./Emergency Rations Are Being Sent To Tribes But Government Red Tape Delays Delivery. HUNGRY ESKIMOS DINE ON DOG MEAT. Missionary Reports Condition of Natives Critical DEER DRIVE IS HALTED Emergency Rations Are Being Sent to Tribe But Government Red Tape Delays Delivery. Barrow, Alaska, Aug. 8. -- (/P) -- Hungry Eskimos east of here, are beginning to eat their sled dogs, Dr. Henry W. Greist, Presbyterian medical missionary, said here today. He said that Frank Daugherty Barrow reindeer supervisor, had again been refused requested authority from his superios to drive 3,000 reindeer to the Barter island district where the government's native wards are reported near starvation. Daugherty, Greist said, made a similar request last May when the plight of the Eskimos to the eastward first was discovered. Doctor Greist told of one native family killing, one by one, their dog team, for food. "They ate them skin and all, except the hair and bones," he said. Start Famine Fight. Washington, Aug. 8. -- (/P) -- Two government agencies took swift steps today to flight a famine which threatened more than 400 Eskimos living in isolated vilalges along the northern Alaskan coast. Emergency rations were on the way to Barrow, Alaska aboard the coast guard cutter Northland, now cruising between Nome and Point Barrow. Commander W. K. Scammell reported by radio to Washington that his vessel probably could not reach port earlier than August 15. Funds were made available by the Indian affairs bureau to its Barrow office for the purchase of supplies from trading ships in northern waters. Weeks to Elapse. Food shipments also have been ordered from the Untied States, but William Zimmerman, acting commissioner of the Indian affairs bureau, said they could not be delivered in less than four weeks. From Barrow, the northernmost city with an Indian bureau office, supplies will be rushed by dog teams to the scattered Eskimo camps, many of which lie far to the east of any white settlement. An unexpected shortage of seals and whales, which normally provide the main portion of the natives' food supply, was responsible for the famine, Zimmerman said.