Page 291 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

STATE ROLL-CALL FOR NEW LAWS
269
Alaska:
The sale of game must be absolutely prohibited, forever.
The slaughter of big game Ijy Indians, miners and prospectors should now be limited, and strictly regulated by law, on rational lines.
The slaughter of walrus for ivory and hides, both in the Alaskan and Russian waters of Bering Sea, should be totally prohibited for ten years.
The game-warden service should be quadrupled in number of wardens, and in general effectiveness.
The game-warden service should be supplied with two sea-going vessels, inde- pendent for patrol work.
The bag limit on hoofed game is 50% too large.
To accomplish these ends. Congress should annually appropriate .$50,000 for the protectionofwildlifeinAlaska. Thepresentamount,$15,000,isveryinadequate, and the great wild-life interests at stake amply justify the larger amount.
It is now time for Alaska to make substantial advances in the pro- tection of her wild life. It is no longer right nor just for Indians, miners and prospectors to be permitted by law to kill all the big game they please, whenever they please. The indolent and often extortionate Indians of Alaska,—who now demand "big money" for every service they perform,—are not so valuable as citizens that they should be per- mitted to feed riotously upon moose, and cow moose at thai, until that species is exterminated. Miners and prospectors are valuable citizens, but that is no reason why they should forever be allowed to live upon wild game, any more than that hungry prospectors in our Rocky Moun- tains should be allowed to kill cattle.
Alaska and its resources do not belong to the very few people from '
the States ' who have gone there to make their fortunes and get out again as quickly as possible. The quicker the public mind north of Wrangel is disabused of that idea, the better. Its game belongs to the people of this nation of ninety-odd millions, and it is a safe prediction that the ninety millions will not continue to be willing that the miners, prospectors and Indians shall continue to live on moose meat and caribou tongues in order to save bacon and beef.
Mr. Frank E. Kleinschmidt said to me that at Sand Point, Alaska, he saw eighty-two caribou tongues brought in by an Indian, and sold at fifty cents each, while (according to all accounts) most of the bodies of the slaughtered animals became a loss.
Governor Clark has recommended in his annual report for 1911 that the protection now enjoyed by the giant brown bear (Ursus middendorffi) on Kadiak Island be removed, for the benefit of settlers and their stock! It goes without saying that no one proposes that predatory wild animals shall be permitted to retard the development of any wild country that is required by civilized man. All we ask in this matter is that, as in the case of the once-proposed slaughter of sea-lions on the Pacific Coast, the necessity of the proposed slaughter shall be fully and adequately proven beforethekillingbegins! Itisfairtoinsistthatthesea-lionepisodeshall not be repeated on Kadiak Island.