REPORT OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION 



years, if the apprentice has been satisfactory and successful in the care of rein- 

 deer and is twenty-one years of age. he is on the recommendation of the local 

 superintendent, certified as a trained herder. Provision is also made for the 

 extension of the apprenticeship if he has failed to qualify in four years, but he 

 is granted no extra deer during the period of the extension. Upon the termin- 

 ation of his apprenticeship, the apprentice becomes a herder and assumes charge 

 of his herd, subject to the supervision of the school authorities; the herder 

 whose herd numbers at least 50 reindeer shall train apprentices and distribute 

 to them reindeer until he shall have trained and rewarded three apprentices; 

 his first during the period when his herd numbers at least 50 and not more than 

 150; the second wdien his herd numbers at least 151 and not more than 250; 

 and the third apprentice when his herd numbers at least 251 and not more than 

 300 reindeer. 



No native herder is permitted to sell, exchange, give, kill (except in cases 

 of mercy) or in any way dispose of any female reindeer except to the Government 

 of the United States or, with the written approval of the District Superintendent 

 of Schools, to another native inhabitant of Alaska. 



The term "native of Alaska" as used in the rules and regulations signifies 

 a descendant of any of the aboriginal inhabitants of Alaska. 



Realizing that the establishment of an export trade in reindeer products 

 was essential to the success of the enterprise, the bureau encouraged the ship- 

 ment of reindeer meat and hides from Alaska to the States. The last steamer 

 to leave Nome before the closing of navigation by ice brought to Seattle in 

 October, 1914, twenty-five carcasses of reindeer, which were placed on sale at 

 Seattle, retailing at from 20 to 35 cents per pound. The Chief of the Alaska Divi- 

 sion also brought from Nome three carcasses to be distributed among the five 

 continental railw^ay lines running out of Seattle, in order that reindeer meat 

 might be given a trial on dining cars, with a view to securing for the natives 

 contracts for the delivery of reindeer meat each season. 



During the winter of 1914-15, the Bureau's Superintendent, who is stationed 

 at Nome, with the approval of the Commissioner of Education, distributed 

 among the Eskimo herders in northwestern Alaska a proposal from a cold- 

 storage company operating between Seattle and Nome, to market in Seattle for 

 Eskimos on a commission basis, the reindeer meat consigned to said company. 

 This action will probably result in the shipment of a considerable quantity of 

 reindeer meat from Nome during each summer. The responsibility of accepting 

 or rejecting the proposal of the cold-storage company rested with the native 

 owners of reindeer, the superintendents acting in an advisory capacity and 

 assisting in making the necessary arrangements. 



Soon after the inception of the reindeer enterprise, certain Lapps were 

 brought from Lapland to Alaska and employed by the Bureau as instructors of 

 the Eskimos in the care and management of the reindeer, each Lapp receiving 

 a certain number of reindeer in payment for his services. During the summer 

 of 1914, a company, organized at Nome, purchased about 1,200 reindeer from 

 one of these Lapps. This company intended to purchase other herds owned 

 by Lapps, and to engage in the exportation of reindeer meat and hides. 



In 1914, the reindeer industr\' extended from the mainland to the outlying 

 islands. During August, 1914, upon the request of the Department of the 

 Interior, the revenue cutter Manning conveyed a herd of forty reindeer from 

 LIgashik, on the Alaska peninsula, to Atka, a remote island in the Aleutian 

 chain, where it was a valuable factor in alleviating the deplorable conditions 



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