POPULATION. The natives of Alaska consisted of several different peoples. The bulk of north ern Alaska and its coasts were originally o••u pied by people of Eskimo stock. These were in contact with the Athahascan Indians, who occupied the mountains eastward, the valley of the Yukon, and the south coast region as far west as Cook's Inlet, beyond which the Aleutian Islands were possessed by an entirely separate people, the Aleuts. The coast and islands from Yakutat Bay southward to Puget Sound were held by the advanced and skillful tribes•of the Thlinkeet race. The numbers of all these, when first encountered by the Russians, can only be surmised. The first careful census was that of 1880, which gave 31,240 as. the total native pop ulation of unmixed blood. The census of 1900 reported 29.536. More than half of these are Eskimos. The natives of Alaska have shown a greater willingness to adopt a civilized manner of life than most of the other native American tribes. Whole communities have taken up the vocations of white men. The native shows a willingness to work, which is quite unusual among people of his race. The United States has not forced the reservation system upon him, and he has always been self-supporting. However, his present status, in many instances, is most pitiable. Fishing companies, in disregard of the rights or interests of the natives, have depleted many of the streams of their supply of fish, thus destroying the Indian's principal source of a live lihood. The destruction of fur-bea•ing animals does him injury. The denial of citizen ship, which he is eager to assiune, prevents him from locating mining claims, acting as pilot. and enjoying other privileges which are granted as a matter of course to his intruding white neighbor. Other influences toward his decrease and deg radation are the ease with which he may obtain or make intoxicating liquor, despite prohibitory laws, and the spread of syphilitic diseases. For an ethnological description of the natives, see articles ALEUTIAN SLAN DS, and EsKtmo.
The white population for many years after the departure of the Russians consisted only of fur traders and similar wanderers. In ISSO only 430 white persons and 1756 half-breeds were to be counted in all Alaska. The subsequent dis covery of gold caused an influx of population, and the census of 1900 reported a white popu lation of 30,507, only one-tenth of which was female. The increase was mainly in the valley
of the Yukon and an the Norton Sound Coast, and later accessions to the Nome district prob ably added 25,000 to this during 1901 and 1902. The largest town is Nome (q.v.), near ('ape Noine. on the northern shore of Norton Sound, which in 1902 had a population of about 40,000. Anvik and many other settlements and inGing camps are near it. where a large part of the population spend the brief summer at work, gathering in Nome for the winter. Eagle City is at the point where the Yukon crosses the Canadian boundary, and has a customs and mili tary garrison ( Fort Egbert). Circle City, near the Arctic Circle, is the river-port for the gold diggings in Birch Creek and in the central Tanana Valley, and has a fluctuating population of from 500 to 1500. There is a military post (Fort Liscombl at the mouth of 'the Tanana. Sunrise City, at the extreme head of Cook's Inlet. is the supplying point for a group of placer diggings on the Kenai Peninsula, and contains from 1000 to 2000 people. Settlement; are found on Radial: Island (St. Paul's or Kodiak) and on Thig,a. Valdez. at the bead of Valdez Bay, an inlet from Prince William Sound, is of permanent inim•tan•e as the port of entry for the Copper River Valley. to which a wagon road leads eastward, since it has been made the military and surveying headquarters of the Gov ernment, which has erected a garrison there, and the village several hundred people. Sitka is one of the oldest settlements on the northwest emst, and was the Russian head quarters. (See Sirri:A.) It is now the judicial and official centre of the territory: but owing to its distance from important mines, fisheries, etc., had a populat/nn in 1900 of only 1396. Larger and more active is the gold mining town of Juneau. at the entrance of Taku Inlet, -Ala is the centre of a fairly permanent population of about 3000. At the head of Taku Inlet is Skag way, the seaport of the White Pass Railway, with a population of about 1500. Fort Wran gel, a settlement formerly of importance, but now in decline, and scattered fishing villages, ocenpied chiefly by Indians, complete the list of towns. Seventy - eight settlements altogether were reported in the census of 1900.