This collection, dating from February 1916 and contained in two file folders, holds copies of transcripts and reports of the recollections of people who traveled on the 1897-1898 overland relief expedition by Revenue Cutter Service (Coast Guard) officers to Point Barrow to rescue a group of ice-bound whaling vessels. The first file folder contains accounts by Thomas Soqwena, Ootena, Keok, Tautuk, and Stanley Kyuoruk, native Alaskans working for a missionary named Lopp, of their role in the expedition. The transcripts contain many details of difficulties of travel in the Arctic winter, travel that involved herding a group of reindeer north, dealing with frozen sleeping bags and treacherous ice and uncertainty of success. At one point, Soqwena says, "When others left, while we were with these people, a storm came, south wind. These people who were driving the deer had left by some mistake. These two boys were going to watch the deer. We ran out of grub. People we stopped with "had nothing but frozen fish." At another point, Tautuk says, "We had good parkies (sic), mukluks, and mittens that were warm, but we were cold, because after we had been sleeping during the night when we woke up the tent was frosted with snow, just like outdoors. When we made fire in our stove the frost would fall down on our things and they got wet." In addition to the natives' accounts, the transcript contains accounts of a man identified only as Mr. Brevig. Attached to the transcript is a note in the handwriting of Alfred M. Bailey, second director of the Denver Museum of Natural History (now the Denver Museum of Nature & Science), stating that he did not know the source of the transcript. Another note in Bailey's hand, written on the first page of the transcript, says: "Native notes on Lopp trip with reindeer to Pt. Barrow." The second file folder contains an undated copy of some extracts from the reports of Lieutenants Jarvis and Bertholf relative to the Over-Land Relief Expedition. Lt. David Jarvis was the commander of the mission, while Lt. E.P. Bertholf was second-in-command. The first page of the report, which appears to be a summary of a longer set of reports by the two men, is missing. Lt. Bertholf's account contains detailed descriptions of interactions with native peoples and of their cultures. Lt. Jarvis's account is more of a narrative of the trip, though it also contains details of interaction with the natives and explains how W. T. Lopp, a representative of the American Missionary Association at Cape Prince of Wales, came to accompany the group. Lopp "was indispensable," the report states. "His capability in handling natives and his knowledge of them and the reindeer was far above that of anyone in the country." Jarvis's account also has descriptions of northern natural phenomena, including the aurora borealis, and describes the reactions of the rescued victims of the wreck when the party reached Pt. Barrow: "we knew they were stunned and it was some time before they could realize that we were flesh and blood." A copy of the government report on the expedition is available in the Rare Books collection of the Alfred M. Bailey Library & Archives.
