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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 27, 1958)
10 MAIL TRIBUNE, MedforJ, Oregon, WcJiiMJiy, Aatist 27, 1 93t Pretty Northwest Indian Girl Wants Chance To Be Homesteader in Alaska BY A. ROBERT SMITH I Mail Tribune Washington Correspondent Washington A beautiful Pacific Northwest Indian girl stepped into my office in the National Press Building the other day, homesick to read - x pers and to talk about possibly going XI ilt0 Alaska to t - Vt,, ufw, 9 ' helo tame the wilderness and ' swell the pop ulation a bit. She got, in fact, down right starry-eyed as she ram bled on about driving up the Alaska highway to homestead in the new 49th state. "My friends all laugh at me when I talk about homestead lng in Alaska," she said, "but I'm sure I could do it. And it would be lots of fnun and ex citement." Being of a practical turn of mind, I asked how she ex pected to get there. Being just as practical, she explained U 'if A. Robt Smith that not too long ago she got a good sized bundle of cash from Uncle Sam and had bought a new auto with it. She is one-eighth Nez Perce Indian, a native of Idaho, and was eligible for payment when the government flooded out the Indian fishery at Celilo Falls on the Columbia river with The Dalles dam reser voir. Uncle Sam's tax collec tors were trying to get their hands on some of this Indian money $25 million roughly but the young lady said with her check was a slip which' instructed her not to report it on her income taxes. Where did she get the idea she could homestead in Alas ka? She had called Sen. Frank Church (D-Ida.), a great boost er of Alaska, who told her she could get 40 acres but she would have to improve it, work it, build a house, put her roots down. That's when her friends starred laughing. "But I love to fish," said she. "And I can hunt. I'll bet I can shoot a gun straighter than most men. And I know State Highway Commission Opens Bids on 19 Projects Salem-(UPD-Bids on 19 proj ect totaling $6,200,000 were . opened by the State Highway Commission here Tuesday. The projects and apparent low bidders by counties in cluded: Baker: Cartwright Construc tion Company, Durkee, $20, 700 for a rock production pro ject on the Dooley Mountain section of the Baker-Unity highway. Clackamas: Inland Con struction Company, Milwau kie, $59,085 for construction of Shipley Bridge on Market Road No. 12. Curry: Peter Kiewit Sons' Company, Vancouver, $406, 580 for grading and paving on the Hunter Creek-Buena Vista wayside section of the Coast highway. Curry: Tom Lillebo, Reeds port, $171,363 for construct ing Hunter Creek bridge on the Oregon Coast highway. Elkton Job Douglas: M. J. Brassfield and J. M. Purcell Construction Company, Salem, $536,279 for grading and paving the Elk-ton-Smith Bridge section of the Elkton-Sutherlin highway. Douglas: Thornton and Bell, Roseurgb, $125,863 for a struc ture, grading and paving on the O'Shea Creek section of the Tiller-Trail highway. Lane: Inland Construction Company, Milwaukie, $96,558 for McKenzie River overflow bridges on the Harrisburg-Eu-gene road. Linn: Roy L. Houck and Sons, Salem, $739,796 for grading on Belts road-Lane county line section of the Pa cific highway. Linn: James F. Turner, Cor vallis, $40,334 for the Willow, McDowell and Oak Creek bridges. Linn: James F. Turner, $51, 267 for the Bates Park bridge over the South Santiam river on McDowell creek county road. To Pave Highway Multnomah: Rodgers Con struction Company, Portland, $1,699,492 for paving the Sun-dial-Multnomah Falls section of the Columbia River highway. Union: Itschner Construc tion Company. Molalla. $172,- 238 for stone base and oiling on the Ukiah-Hilgard highway. Washington: Warren North west, Inc., Portland, $290,489 for grading and paving the North Plains interchange sec tion of the Sunset highway. Washington and Yamhill: Fred H. Slate- and E. C. Hall, Portland, $497,258 for grading and paving the Middleton- Yamhill county line section of Pacific Highway west. WHAT'LL IT BE TONIGHT? New York -UP&- Something fishy is going on in the Bronx. Monday night the sanitation department was called out to haul away a 300-pound shark left on a street by persons un known. Tuesday night the cleanup boys were called out again, this time to haul away an eight-foot porpoise found hanging from a lamppost 30 feet above the sidewalk. how to trap. I've skinned ani mals and I know what to do with the pelts. "I have a friend who had two .girls friends who went to Alaska, but they came back because they couldn't find jobs. But I'd get along allright because I know how to do a lot of things to keep going even if I didn't find a job. We had good fishing grounds in the Northwest, and I'm sure they have them in Alaska, too." This girl didn't look rough and ready, but she sounded convincingly capable. She was willing to try to carve a home 'out of the unsettled vastness of the northern frontier. "My friends say there wouldn't even be electric lights out where I could homestead. But I told them, "There's nothing wrong with an oil lamp. We used them a lot back in Lewiston when I was growing up, and we got along fine. Why do some peo ple think they can't do with out the best of everything?" A British correspondent who visited Alaska" recently, writes in the current issue of the New Republic magazine that the idea that this is the last frontier is "purely roman tic." Like Siberia, interior Australia and central Africa, Alaska is "not waiting for the courage of men with a future to make out of nothing but their manhood. That indeed has been tried and has made only a small impression on these places. What is needed is the financial initiative, the splendid and reliable checks of the large corporations and governments, the skill of the graduates of mining schools and men who can build roads. Their work must be half com plete before this country can fill the gaps with a large pop ulation." These observations didn't discourage my Indian visitor one bit. "The trouble is he doesn't see what a beautiful place Alaska is in which to work and live," she commented. "I love the outdoors and I'd be willing to work hard." Loading her down with newspapers, I told her that whatever else Alaska may need, she has the spirit that has helped make the North west great and will make Alaska a great new state. Daily's U-Drive Medford Airport Men who like Action like KESSLER 260 'fiS $00 -r M Qt I a Smooth as Silk MSSLER One whiskey that tastes good-right from the start! .JUUUS KESSltt COMFMIY.UWRfflCtSURS, INDIANA. BlfflDEO WHISKEY. 86 PSOOf. 72V4 GRAIN NEUTRAL SPIRITS.- Home Appliance Co. 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