Northwest History. Alaska. Eskimos.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1938
• Subjects: Eskimo; Seattle; St. Valentine's day; Siberia; Alaska; U. S. C. G.; cutter Northland; Bering sea patrol; island village; Commander F. A. Zeusler; native marriages; the Untied States; summer cruise; Uncle Sam; Alaska law; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Bering Sea; Pacific; eskimo*
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/91089

Eskimos' Love Conquers Law: U. S. Skipper Heals Breach Caused By Literal-Minded Schoolmarm. ESKIMOS' LOVE CONQUERS LAW U. S. Skipper Caused by Literal-Minded Schoolmarm. SEATTLE, Feb. 13. (/P) -- A tale for St. Valentine's day is the Eskimo love story, complete with happy ending, reported from the remote island settlements lying between Alaska and Siberia. Unromantic white man's law for a time threatened to outlaw cupid in the land of 40 below, but love, as usual, found a way. The U. S. C. G. cutter Northland, here after her annual Bering sea patrol, brought back word of the northern drama. When the Northland dropped anchor at the island village Commander F. A. Zeusler found the natives hopping mad. Eskimo swains and sweethearts may be cold outside, but hot blood surges beneath those fox-fur parkas. Causes of the trouble were the Alaska law which specifies that native marriages must be registered with a United States commissioner and a prim white schoolteacher with a literal mind. There is no resident commissioner ont he islands, and hundreds of miles of open sea and ice floes lie between the villages and officials on the mainland. Commander Zeusler is ex offiio United States commissioner, but he visits for only a few days each year on the Northland's summer cruise. The schoolteacher had virtually disrupted romance ont he isalnds by insisting that couples wishing to wed wait until Commander-Commissioner Zeusler arrived to register their marriages and comply with the law's letter. But the impetuous and impatient innuits declared hotly that love could not be arranged to conincide with the ship's schedule. The tribal elders volubly supported the plea of their love-thwarted younger generation for year 'round marriages. Commander Zeusler ruled in favor of island romance by decreeing that marriages could first be registered with the tribal council, subject to confirmation when the commissionre arrived. Commander Zeusler cited the success of Eskimo marriages as an argument for continuing their nuptial customs with as little interference as possible. In all his years as Uncle Sam's contact man in the far north he has heard of only two Eskimo divorces. In both cases the husband had been out to the larger cities, had seen too many movies and had "picked up too many white man's ideas," Commander Zeusler said.