Scouting, Volume 47, Number 1, January 1959 Page: 3
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or four families. The larger ones will have a hundred
or more families, one or two teachers, a trader, and a
missionary.
It is often hard to tell which village or camp an Eskimo
calls home. He may have his best sod igloo in the place
where the family winters, near school, but he will have
another where the family picks berries or fishes for
salmon and another summer camp on the beach while he
is seal-fishing.
Sanitation in the native villages is sketchy or virtually
nonexistent. Water can't be piped from lakes or streams
because of freezing temperatures, and wells can't be
dug in the frozen ground. A barrel of melting ice or
snow is the only water supply for many homes. Clean
snow or ice from the lakes must be hauled by dog team
and several sledloads of snow are needed to make a single
tub of water.
Garbage and trash are thrown out on the ground or
dumped along the shore for the tide to carry away and
it doesn't do it. Back yards of Eskimo homes are
shambles of trash, broken-down dog sleds, and old oil
drums.
Prices are higher in Alaska than any I have ever
known. My first introduction to the high cost of living
in Alaska was in Juneau; prices were even higher at
Anchorage and Fairbanks. A glass of milk is 40 to 50
cents. Lettuce is a dollar a head and bananas 50 cents a
pound. Bread is 40 cents a loaf in Juneau, 45 cents at
Anchorage, and 50 cents at Fairbanks A typical restau-
rant breakfast—juice, one egg, bacon, toast, and coffee
—costs $2.29!
Bethel Troop 658 Scouts play a game while their
parents and Scoutmaster Robert McLean look on.
The troop meets in quonset hut community center.
Scouting, too, is a story of contrasts.
In 1955, the old Alaska Council was divided into two
councils. The Southeastern Alaska Council is the south-
eastern panhandle with headquarters at Juneau. It has
the distinction of having a higher percentage of city
boys in Scouting than any other council in the United
States—almost 99 per cent. Only twenty-four councils
have enrolled a higher percentage of all available boys
than Western Alaska Council, which sprawls over the
major portion of the new state with headquarters at
Anchorage—more than 52 per cent of all boys are
enrolled.
The Southeastern Alaska Council's one-man staff,
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 47, Number 1, January 1959, periodical, January 1959; New Brunswick, New Jersey. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth329273/m1/5/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.