Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 March 1896 — Reindeer Benefit Alaska. [ARTICLE]

Reindeer Benefit Alaska.

Among the guests at the Arlington is C. O. Oret, now of Juneau, Alaska, but formerly of Indianapolis. In talking of Alaskan affairs, he said: “The people of that territory are waiting very anxiously, and many of them impatiently, for the disputed boundary line question to be settled. They do not intend to submit to Canadian rule if they can help it, nor do they favor Great Britain having any part of the gold fields. They are also interested in the measure to purchase a large number of reindeer, and make the natives self-supporting by raising those animals, although the section that will be immediately benefited is far north of Juneau. The Alaskan Esquimaux are much more intelligent than those of the Atlantic coast, and are industrious as a class. They learn readily, and will make good citizens, if proper efforts are made to civilize them. They are peaceable, and regard white men as their friends, which makes the question of dealing with them very different from that of dealing with the Alaskan Indians. If the reindeer are furnished in sufficient numbers, those people will be self-sup-porting.”—Washington Star.