Northwest History. Alaska. Eskimos.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1936
• Subjects: Kotzebue; Alaska; John Backland; Seattle; United States; Lewis B. Schwellenbach; Point Barrow; C. S. Holmes; caribou; reindeer; ducks and fish; the Arctic; the Coast Guard cutter Northland; Barter island district; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Arctic; Bering Sea; Pacific; The Schooner; Barrow; Barter Island; eskimo*
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/90965

Backland Hits Famine Report. Backland Hits Famine Report KOTZEBUE, Alaska, Wednesday, Aug. 26.—UP)—Capt. John Backland, Seattle trader, said today he had wirelessed United States Senator Lewis B. Schwellenbach suggesting an investigation of "the starving Eskimo story in the Point Barrow area." He arrived from Barrow over the week-end in his sailing schooner, the C. S. Holmes, and reported the Arctic district "teeming with caribou, reindeer, ducks and fish." Captain Backland, who inherited the schooner and Bering Sea and Arctic trade of his father, the late Capt. John Backland, Sr., said he informed Senator Schwellenbach that "so-called relief hurts everyone in the Arctic, as the natives will refuse to hunt. It hurts the country to get Eskimos used to white man's grub and kills their self-reliance." The Coast Guard cutter Northland recently was dispatched to Barrow and landed emergency supplies which were transported eastward by motorboat for distribution among the reputedly destitute natives of the Barter Island district.