INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 



Department of the Interior, 

 Bureau of Education, Alaska Division, 



Washington, D. C, December 31, 1895. 



Sir : When in the year 1890 I visited arctic Alaska for the purpose 

 of establishing schools, I found the Eskimo population slowly dying off 

 with starvation. For ages they and their fathers had secured a com- 

 fortable living from the products of the sea, principally the whale, the 

 walrus, and the seal. The supplies of the sea had been supplemented 

 by the fish and aquatic birds of their rivers and the caribou or wild 

 reindeer that roamed in large herds over the inland tundra. 



The supply of these in years past was abundant and furnished ample 

 food for all the people. But fifty years ago American whalers, having 

 largely exhausted the supply in other waters, found their way into the 

 North Pacific Ocean. Then commenced for that section the slaughter 

 and destruction of whales that went steadily forward at the rate of 

 hundreds and thousands annually, until they were killed off or driven 

 out of the Pacific Ocean. They were then followed into Bering Sea, 

 and the slaughter went on. The whales took refuge among the ice 

 fields of the Arctic Ocean, and thither the whalers followed. In this 

 relentless hunt the remnant have been driven still farther into the inac- 

 cessible regions around the North Pole, and are no longer within reach 

 of the natives. 



As the great herds of buffalo that once roamed the Western prairies 

 have been exterminated for their pelts, so the whales have been sacri- 

 ficed for the fat that incased their bodies and the bone that hung in 

 their mouths. With the destruction of the whale one large source of 

 food supi)ly for the natives has been cut off. 



Another large supply was derived from the walrus, which once 

 swarmed in great numbers in those northern seas. But commerce 

 wanted more ivory, and the whalers turned their attention to the wal- 

 rus, destroying thousands annually for the sake of their tusks. Where 

 a few years ago they were so numerous that their bellowings were heard 

 above the roar of the waves and grinding and crashing of the icefields, 

 last year I cruised for weeks seeing but few. The walrus, as a source 

 of food supply, is already very scarce. 



The sea lions, once so common in Bering Sea, are now becoming so 

 few in number that it is with difficulty that the natives procure a suf- 

 ficient number of skins to cover their boats, and the flesh of the walrus, 



on account of its rarity, has become a luxury. 



9 



