THE REINDEER INDUSTRY 
IN ALASKA 
In a Region Not Favorable to the Introduction of Cattle and Sheep, a Great 
Domestic Animal Industry is Being Built with Reindeer, Furnishing 
Food, Clothing and Labor to the People of the Far North 
G. J. Lomen, LL.B. 
Nome, Alaska 
1892, auspiciously marked the 
beginning of the reindeer in- 
dustry in Alaska. On that day, and 
for ten years thereafter, domestic 
reindeer to the total number of 1280 
were imported by the Government, all 
of them from Siberia. Those imported 
from Norway were not breeders. The 
former were primarily imported for 
the relief and industrial education of 
the natives, the Eskimos; the latter 
were intended for the relief of starving 
miners at Circle City. 
These imported reindeer have in- 
creased and multiplied most satisfac- 
torily. From the small beginning 
above mentioned, they now number 
at least 200,000, notwithstanding the 
fact that about 100,000 have been 
killed for food and skins. At the 
present ratio of increase Alaska should 
have 10,000,000 reindeer in less than 
twenty years. 
The ownership of the domestic 
reindeer of Alaska is held in the 
following proportions: About one thou- 
sand Eskimos own seventy percent; 
Lomen & Company (Inc.), ten percent; 
the Government, four percent; Mis- 
sions, Lapps and others, sixteen per- 
cent. The ownership is designated by 
various earmarks. The general super- 
vision of the industry, so far as the 
natives are concerned, lies with the 
Bureau of Education. 
O's national holiday, July 4th, 
THE REINDEER’S CHARACTERISTICS AND 
HABITS 
A brief review of the present status 
of the industry and a description of the 
species, the habits and characteristics 
of the animal will, it is hoped, be of 
interest to the readers of The Journal 
of Heredity. 
Until recently the reindeer industry 
has attracted but little attention, and 
little is known of the animal except in 
the far North; and yet the reindeer 
is the most widely distributed mammal 
in the world. Its habitat is circum- 
polar, embracing the tundras or bar- 
rens of the far North, and to a large 
extent the wooded districts farther 
south—a territory far exceeding in size 
all of Europe. Fossil remains show 
that the reindeer were once indigenous 
to latitudes farther south than at 
present. 
The reindeer is the only member of 
the deer family that has been domesti- 
cated. This domestication, however, 
is limited in degree as compared with 
that of our other domestic animals. 
The reindeer remain in a semi-wild 
state, except those that are especially 
and more thoroughly tamed and 
trained for sled, draft or lead deer. To 
catch the animal it is generally neces- 
sary to use the lasso. Corrals and 
shutes are also used for this purpose, 
especially in the ‘‘marking season.” 
The caribou, the wild reindeer of 
North America, was never domesti- 
cated. An effort to domesticate them 
will, no doubt, be made in the near 
future; at least an effort will be made 
to cross them with domestic reindeer. 
LITTLE CARE NECESSARY 
Unlike other domestic animals the 
reindeer does not depend on man for 
food or shelter. In winter the reindeer 
feeds almost exclusively on mosses, 
especially the reindeer moss, Cladonia 
rangiferina, the nutritive qualities of 
