From its inception in 1885, the Alaska School Service was charged
with the assimilation of Alaskan Native children into mainstream
American values and ways of life. Working in the missions and schools
along the Yukon River were George E. Boulter and Alice Green, his
future wife. Boulter, a Londoner originally drawn to the Klondike, had
begun teaching in 1905 and by 1910 had been promoted to superintendent
of schools for the Upper Yukon District. In 1907, Green left a
comfortable family life in New Orleans to answer the “call to
serve” in the Episcopal mission boarding schools for Native
children at Anvik and Nenana, where she occupied the position of
government teacher. As school superintendent, Boulter wrote frequently
to his superiors in Seattle and Washington, DC, to discuss numerous
administrative matters and to report on problems and conditions
overall.

From 1906 to 1918, Green kept a personal journal—hitherto in
private possession—in which she reflected on her professional
duties and her domestic life in Alaska. Collected in The Teacher
and the Superintendent are Boulter’s letters and
Green’s diary. Together, their vivid, first-hand impressions
bespeak the earnest but paternalistic beliefs of those who lived and
worked in immensely isolated regions, seeking to bring Christianity and
“civilized” values to the Native children in their care.
Beyond shedding private light on the missionary spirit, however,
Boulter and Green have also left us an invaluable account of the daily
conflicts that occurred between church and government and of the many
injustices suffered by the Native population in the face of the
misguided efforts of both institutions.