Mixed Families

Shown in this picture is what is believed to be a mixed family

The back of this photo reads "Half Breed Children from Nome"

During the time of fur trading in Alaska, laws existed that made it a misdemeanor for any white person to trap unless he or she were kin to a Native.  This law was originally intended to prevent Native furs from being carried outside of the country.

As we can see from the two photographs on this page, it wasn't uncommon for white men to marry into an indigenous family.  While from these photographs we can't merely speculate as to what their intentions were, we believe that it may be tied to the fur trade.  The motives of the man shown can't be said, but we can say he was probably put into work in the Nome area by the fur trade.  A number of the photographs in the Joseph M. Treca, S.J. collection appear to possibly have mixed children as well, which is noted on the back of the lower photograph shown.  

Whether the laws in the fur trade itself dictated the advancement of mixed families in Nome or not, it certainly contributed to bringing whites in closer proximity to the Native King Islanders.  This in it of itself could facilitate what we have seen in these two photographs.