REINDEER PROGRESS IN ALASKA

T

BY LILLIAN E. ZEH

HE herding and breeding of domesticated reindeer, introduced as an experiment a number of years ago, with animals imported from Siberia by the Government, has now become the most prominent feature of the industrial education of the Eskimo, and the main activity of many native villages of arctic Alaska. The progress in civilization that has been made by lifting up the natives, formerly living as savages and eking out a precarious existence by hunting, with no other domestic animal than the dog, to the estate of civilized, self-supporting herdsmen, as accomplished through the reindeer industry, is a remarkable educational achievement.

The Alaska Reindeer Service has now reached its most successful stage, as it marks the beginning of the period of full utilization of all the reindeer owned by the Government for the benefit of the native population. At the present time there is hardly a surplus Government reindeer north of the Kuskokwim River. This has been made possible by the establishment of new reindeer stations, by the employment of more natives as chief herders, by accepting the largest practical number of apprentices, and by transferring reindeer to both chief herders and apprentices in lieu of salary supplies, the chief aim and fundamental policy of the Government being to turn the reindeer over to the natives as rapidly as the latter learn the industry and appreciate its value. The total number of reindeer in Alaska at the last census was nearly 23,000, and of this number over 11,000 are owned by the natives. One of the most striking and gratifying features is the large income which the natives derive from the sale of reindeer products, their share for the past fiscal year having been $18,000 and over. This amount does not include the value of the reindeer skins used for clothing nor that of the meat consumed as food. These material benefits and the very considerable income thus derived demonstrate the fact that the reindeer industry has become one of the most prominent factors in the economic life of the Eskimo.

The total number of Alaskan reindeer is distributed in herds among twenty-eight stations, eighteen of these being owned by the Government and ten by church missions. The Lapps own over three thousand. The natives are very anxious to get deer, and look upon them as a safe investment for their earnings, usually taking deer for services in preference to cash when an opportunity is offered. The Government does not sell deer; this is done by natives and missions alone. The various missions are each furnished, by the Government, a herd of one hundred deer on loan for a period of five years. At the end of this time the original number must be returned. The mission keeps the increase of fawns, which amounts to several hundred, derived from the Government loan. The Moravian Mission of Bethel has one of the largest herds, nearly three thousand. Other missions having over one thousand deer, all in Arctic Alaska north of the Yukon, are located at Golovin, Kotzebue, Shishmerof, and Cape Wales. At Barrow, the most northern point on the American Continent, there is a herd of three hundred. The total population here is about four hundred men, women, and children. One native, "Takpuk," is considered the richest man of that region, as he owns a herd of one hundred and thirty-seven reindeer.

The missions support and educate a number of young apprentice herders. The native herders also take on apprentices and award them six deer a year in payment for their services. The Laplanders take a loan of deer for five years from the Government and give their services as instructors for that period. At the end of five years the Lapp returns the one hundred deer and becomes an independent herder himself with the large increase of reindeer he has obtained from the herd. The Lapp herders are not interested in the extension of the reindeer among the natives. Some of the largest owners of deer are Lapps, at least a half dozen of these men having accumulated herds of from five to eight hundred.

In introducing the reindeer as a means to promote the Eskimos industrial life and to provide a permanent livelihood for them, it has been found necessary by the Government to put the young natives through a course of training. Those who get their deer directly from the Government serve an apprenticeship of five years. There are several hundred of these at present. They are bound by a written contract the strict terms of which they cannot violate without danger of losing their annual allotment of reindeer and suffering discharge from the service. This caring for, training, and breeding the deer is an education in itself, and the best which the Government could give to the young natives. With careful training the Eskimo boys make

excellent herders. They readily learn how to take care of reindeer, to throw the lasso, to harness and drive the deer, and to watch the fawns. Siberian herders were at first imported to teach them, but of late years the more intelligent and efficient Laplanders, who have learned by centuries of experience the breeding of reindeer, have been secured. The Eskimo boys excel the Lapps in some respects; they can lasso better, and many become experts in making harnesses and sleds. The minding of the herd requires constant vigilance, especially in the spring during the fawning season. Then the herders have to keep watch with their rifles by turns, day and night, in order to protect the herd from

the ravages of the Arctic wolf and the dogs. In the ear of each Government deer a little aluminum button is fastened securely, and all private owners and herders have a mark which must be registered with a local superintendent of a reindeer station and also at Washington. Besides being taught the art of "deermanship" the apprentices are instructed in keeping accounts, in the methods of marketing reindeer, and in other practical matters connected with the industry. No apprentice can become a herder unless he is proficient in elementary reading, arithmetic, and writing. At the end of his apprenticeship the young Eskimo native is allotted a number of deer by the Government, and with the increase obtained during the interval of his five years' service, each apprentice will have, on an average, a herd of fifty reindeer. As this herd will double itself every three years, the graduate apprentice will have a herd which will assure him a selfsupporting income quite large enough to satisfy the economic wants of himself and family in the future. He is thus established in business by the Government and is given free pasturage thereafter. A reindeer produces one fawn in the spring each year for ten years.

Among the useful and profitable products of the reindeer are the skins for clothing. Of these pelts most varied use is made. From them are fashioned the tight-fitting trousers and that wonderful outer garment, the "parka," universally worn in winter by both male and female natives and by many whites. The "parka" extends to the knees and has a close-fitting hood which keeps the head and shoulders comfortably warm even in the severest weather. These reindeer garments are remarkable for their excellent quality of resisting moisture and cold. A close examination of the hair of reindeer furnishes an explanation of its peculiar value. The hair is not merely a hollow tubular structure with a cavity extending throughout its entire length, but it is divided, or partitioned off, into exceedingly numerous cells like watertight compartments. These are filled with air, and their walls are so elastic and at the same time have such strong resisting power that they are not broken up, either during the process of manufacture or by swelling when wet. The cells expand in water, and thus it happens that a person clad completely in garments made of reindeer hair does not sink when in water, because he is buoyed up by the air contained in the hundreds of thousands of air cells.

As the mineral industry continues to grow in Alaska, the natives. and graduate apprentices can earn high wages as teamsters, hauling supplies and furnishing fresh reindeer meat to mining camps in the interior at points remote from railway and steamboat transportation. Well-trained sled deer have been used to carry the mail 650 miles,