ALASKA'S REINDEER INDUSTRY 



Peninsula Could Provide Grazing for Millions of Animals, in Region Where Cattl^ 



and Sheep Will Not Thrive — Meat Excellent and Brings High Price — Herd 



of 40,000 Now Exists, as Result of Importations by Government, 



Levi Chubbuck, 

 Agriculturist, Office of Farm Management, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



IN 1851, sixteen years before Alaska 

 was purchased from Russia by the 

 United States, Professor S. F. Baird, 

 in a paper printed in the Agricultural 

 Report of the United States Patent 

 Office, advocated the importation of the 

 domesticated European reindeer to 

 Alaska for the benefit of the natives, 

 whose means of subsistence by hunting 

 and fishing, were being greatly dimin- 

 ished by the white men. Professor 

 Baird expressed the opinion that the 

 American caribou, native in Alaska, was 

 as capable of domestication as the 

 European species, but to avoid loss of 

 time and save the people from the 

 vicissitudes that were rapidly sweeping 

 them off, he suggested the establish- 

 ment of herds of the imported animals. 

 Such a step, he said, would be of vast 

 benefit to the Indians of the North, 

 and might in the end lead them to 

 become a pastoral people. 



Twenty years after the purchase, 

 which was in 1867. Charles H. Town- 

 send took up the matter and advised 

 that the government import reindeer, 

 teach the natives how to care for and use 

 che animals, and give them a start with 

 herds. 



Forty years after Professor Baird 

 suggested the idea, the first move was 

 made to act on the suggestion, when, 

 in 1891, the late Dr. Sheldon Jackson, 

 general agent in Alaska of the Bureau 

 of Education, took hold of the proposi- 

 tion. Aided by donations from private 

 sources, he purchased a small herd of 

 European reindeer which arrived in 

 Alaska in 1892. Successive importa- 

 tions brought the total to 1,280 head, 

 which number has increased to about 

 40,000 at the present time. 



W. T. Grenfell, the well-known mis- 

 sionary in Labrador, has succeeded in 

 getting reindeer from Lapland intro- 

 duced in Labrador and northern New- 

 foundland, and W J. Carroll, of New- 

 foundland, says: "It is to be hoped 

 that the introduction of reindeer will 

 be the first step towards the domestica- 

 tion of our own caribou." 



THE reindeer's WILD RELATIVES. 



David E. Lantz, in Biilletin No. 36, ot 

 the Biological Survey, U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture, speaks of several species 

 and local races of caribou or reindeer 

 that inhabit the northern part of North 

 America, which he divides into two 

 groups according to habitat. The more 

 northern group, which ranges beyond 

 the forests, is represented by the bar- 

 ren-ground caribou (Rangifer arcticus). 

 The second group is found in the 

 forested area south of the other, and is 

 represented by the woodland caribou 

 {Rangifer caribou). They differ but 

 little, Mr. Lantz says, from the old- 

 world reindeer {Rangifer tarandus) in 

 habits and general appearance, although 

 no attempts to domesticate the Ameri- 

 can reindeer seem to have been made. 



While, so far as the writer knows, no 

 systematic effort has been made to test 

 the matter, it is alleged that there have 

 been instances of cross breeding be- 

 tween the domesticated reindeer and the 

 native animals. This would not natur- 

 ally take place except when both species 

 were in captivity; but if such cross- 

 breeding is a fact, it indicates that the 

 blood of the wild caribou might be used 

 to good advantage, should there be need 

 of building up the reindeer herds. There 

 is evidently already need of work along 



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