SUPPLEMENT FOR ALASKA POPULATION AGRICULTURE MANUFACTURES MINES AND @ARRIES (565) 94564°~13~37 ". OH.APTER 1. • NUMBER OF INHABITANTS AND COMPOSITION AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE POPULATION. INTRODUCTION. ])ate of enumeration.-At the Thirteenth Census the color or race, nativity, parentage, sex, age, marital da1~e of enumeration in Alaska generally was Decem­ condition, state of birth of the native population, ber 31, 1909, or a time as near that date as conditions country of birth and year of immigration of the foreign­ permitted. A midwinter date was determined upon, born population, males of voting and militia ages, after careful consideration of the conditions under citizenship, school attendance, illiteracy, inability to which the :field work must be done, as being on the speak English, and number of. dwellings and families. whole more favorable for census taking in Alaska than Statistics relating to sex and age for Indians of full April 15, 1910, the date of the general enumeration blood and of mixed blood, by stocks and tribes, are also in the United States. The great extent of Alaska's given in a separate table. All topics covered by the territory, however, and the varying conditions pre­ Thirteenth Census are included except occupations vaiiling in different sections at any given season of and ownership of homes. In the general table (Table the year, as well as the inaccessibility of certain 31) on page 592 statistics relating to number and regions, and the wide dispersion of a small population characteristics of population are given in detail for over a large area, made strict adhere:q.ce to any one the four judicial districts, and in Table 32 detail is date impracticable, if an accurate count of the popu­ given for the 11 largest towns in Alaska. lation was to be achieved. In some localities, there­ Earlier censuses.-The census of 1910 was the fore, where the field work could not advisedly be fourth enumeration of the population of Alaska by undertaken on or immediately following December 31, the United States Government. Although the terri­ tho enumeration was begun prior to that date, while tory was purchased from Russia in 1867, no enumera­ in others it was defened until late in the winter, or tion was made of its population at the census of 1870. until early spring. The specific conditions which were The Superintendent of the Tenth Census-that of taken into account in determining upon the date of 1880-designated special agents to canvass the terri­ enumeration in the several localities are indicated in tory, and make such an enumeration as might be pos- some detail in the section giving an account of the . sible. At that census the population of all accessible field work in 1910. At the census of 1900 enumerators settlements was enumerated, and .this partial count went into some portions of the territory as early as was supplemented by estimates-based mainly upon July, 1899, and the work of enumeration continued records, or upon the personal knowledge of missionary till October, 1900, a period of 15 months being required priests-for those regions which could not be visited for its completion. by the special agents. The returns were tabulated Topics covered for 1910.-The accompanying tables · for six census districts. At the census of 1890 the present statistics for the tenitory as a whole relating territory was divided into seven census districts and to number of inhabitants, increase of population, the area actually canvassed by agents of the Census EtISTOJUOAL 1'IOTE.-Aloska derives Its name from an English corruption of the United States in 1824 and one with Great Britain in 1825, by which tho boundaries native word Al-ay-ek-sa, probably meaning "The great land" or "Mainland.'' of the Russian possessions in America were permanently fixed. 'I'he region now Jruown as Alaska was first explored by the Russian officers Bering In March, 1867, Alaska was purchased by the United States for tbe sum of andl Chlrlkov In 1741. Russian traders and trappers soon entered the country and $7,200,000 in gold, aud in October of tho same year tbe formal transfer was made at through their activity other nations became Interested In this region. Spanish Sltlta. From 1867 to 1877 Alaska was governed by tbe War Department, although ex11ed!tlons In 1774 and 1775 visited the southeastern shore, and In 1778 the English the customs were from the beginning collected by tbe Treasury Department, and ex11lorer, Capt. James Cook, made extensive surveys of the coast for the British with tho latter the control rested from 1877 Wltil the passage of the act of 1884. This Government. aot extended over Aloska the laws of tho state of Oregon so far as they wore appll· 'I'he first settlement was made by the Russians at Three Saints on Kodiak Island cable, created a judicial district and a land district, put in force the mining laws !n 1784, and in 1804 the Russlan~American Company founded Sitka, making It the of the United States, and gave the country an adminis.trative system. sea·~ of government in the following year. The influx of settlers after the discovery of gold in the Klondilrn in 1896 rendered tu 1799 the trade and regulation of the Russian possessions in America were given more adequate laws necessary, ln 1899 and 1900 Congress made provisions for a ovE1r to the Russian-American Company for a term of 20 years, which was after­ code of civil and criminal law, and in 1903 passed a homestead act. In the mean· wards twice renewed for. similar periods. time a serious boundary dispute had arisen between the United States and Canada In 1821 Russia attempted by ukase to exclude foreign navigators from Bering regarding the interpretation o! the treaty of 1825. This Wru! settled in 1903 by an Seni and the Pacific coast of her possessions, which caused Ii. controversy with the agreement whereby the seacoast of Cauada extended no farther north than 54° 40'. United States and Great Britain. The,question was settled by a. treaty with the By an act of May 7, 1906, Alaska was authorized to elect a delegate to Congress. (567) 568 SUPPLEMENT FOR ALASKA. Office was more extensive than the area canvassed in the work practically completed. Twenty-one of the 1880. The returns for 1890 were published as a 26 subdistricts into which -this general district was separate report of 282 pages on the population and divided embraced each a town or village with its im­ resources of Alaska.· In his letter of transmittal for mediate vicinity. The 21 enumerating agents ap­ this report, tho Superintendent of the Census com­ pointed to these subdistricts had little or no traveling • mon ts briefly as follows upon the difficulties encoi.m­ to do. Five subdivisions covered the remaining area, terecl by the census enumerators in Alaska: and the five agents assigned to these. sections were This remote portion of our territory presents difficulties in the traveling constantly, for the most part in gasoline way of enumeration scarcely conceivable in the old!'lr portion of the launches. Every mining, logging, or :fishing camp was country. On an estimated area gre11ter than that of all the.states reached, and all :fishermen on the halibut boats were north of Tennessee and e11st of the Mississippi there is a popul11tion enumerated either at their headquarters or at the less than in most single countie9 of the populous east. Let one imagine that 1111 railroads and wagon roads, all vehicles and horses, fishing grounds. were here wm1ting; let him imagine tlmt enumerators could only The enumeration of tho Indian population in this reach this eastern section by a coasting vessel or pierce its interior section of Alaska was all practically do11e by teachers, by the Ohio River; let him imagine this section pushed north till and largely during the Christmas holidays. As tills its upper portion was in almost perpetual frost and its one navigable season is the great feasting time for the Indians, they l'iver was open bnt a few weeks in a year, and he can begin to measure the obst11cles met in mount11inous Alaska. were very nearly all of them at home. The few that A part of the people arc migratory, and the same band is Hable were in calnp were enumerated by the traveling special to be reported from two pfaees, or a spot correctly reported as agents. As the older Indians commonly do not know populated is liable to be round desolate when visited later. their ages by years, an approximately correct state­ in 1900 two special agents, well equipped for the ment of age could be made only by resort to some such service by previous residence in the territory and by expedient as is described in' the following account taken personal knowledge of the places and people within from an enumerator's report: their respective districts, were appointed to super­ I resorted to the following devices to fix the age and birth month. vise the enumeration. In this year, owing to the Every native I have found remembers some gre11t event in his child greatly increased facilities for communication, con­ life and can tell me how big he was at the time-" as large aa that"­ sequent in part upon the' opening up of the lately indicating some child of known age. These dates I have fixed na follows: (1) A groat war between the Sitka Indfans mid the Russians dis.covered gold-fields, conditions were more favorable, at Sitka (1855); (2) a war between the Sitka Indians and the Wran­ and the census was more nearly complete and accurate gell Indiana at Sitka (1851); (3) the opening of the --mines than either of t4e two preceding enumerations.