Point Barrow 



Arctic Ocean 



100 km 



J&&^ 



-\ 



\ 



20 



Cutter Bear in July, 1982 on the north shore of Port 

 Clarence at a place which Jackson had named the Teller 

 Reindeer Station after Henry M. Teller. A U.S. senator, 

 Teller had helped steer appropriations for the project 

 through Congress. Chukchi herders were brought from 

 Siberia to teach Eskimos the techniques of close herding 

 and the proper methods of caring for the animals. 



At the opening of the station, Miner W. Bruce, a 

 former journalist from Nebraska, was appointed superin- 

 tendent. He and one assistant had charge of four Chuk- 

 chi herders, an equal number of Eskimo apprentices, and 

 approximately 175 deer. The two men were also ex- 

 pected to double as schoolteachers. Bruce's job was a 

 formidable one since he had no training for either posi- 

 tion and his inability to speak either the Eskimo or 

 Chukchi language made communication with those he 

 was supposed to teach extremely difficult and uncertain. 



Bruce's first annual report to Jackson seems to indi- 

 cate that the initial year went smoothly enough and all 

 concerned learned a great deal about the care and main- 

 tenance of reindeer. Apparently, however, the superin- 

 tendent, who had been recommended for the job by 

 Healy, did not get along well with him. Therefore, Healy 

 made the accusation that Bruce, through the captain of a 

 chartered ship sent to the coast of Siberia to obtain deer, 

 had traded five gallons of whiskey for some animals in 

 July, 1893 at the beginning of the second season. Al- 

 though these charges were denied, Healy was successful 

 in persuading Jackson to fire both Bruce and his assistant. 



Rev. Sheldon Jackson 



Bruce had made matters worse for himself by taking 

 11 Port Clarence Eskimos and a collection of sleds, dogs, 

 kayaks, and other artifacts to Chicago for exhibition at 

 the World's Columbian Exposition in the summer of 

 1893. Healy wrote to Sheldon Jackson on July 30, 1893: 



Had I been in Port Clarence when [Bruce] left 

 there I never would have allowed him to take those na- 

 tives away, and I hope someone will be thoughtful 

 enough to make him file a bond for their keep while 

 away and to return them to their homes. To have the 

 reindeer project become the father of a Dime Museum is 

 to me a cause of mortification. 



When the world's fair closed, Bruce took his collec- 

 tion and Eskimo entourage to New York City, where 

 they performed for two weeks at Madison Square Gar- 

 den, and to Washington, D.C. , where they appeared 

 before the House of Representatives, had tea at the 

 White House with Mrs. Grover Cleveland, and were 

 the object of considerable interest at the Smithsonian 

 Institution. 



The Field Columbian Museum, subsequently re- 

 named Field Museum of Natural History, had been 

 established in 1893 to house the natural history collec- 



