INTKODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. G7 



families Avitli them at the statiou. At this writing we have only niue 

 of the above thirteen, four of them having left ns. Two of these were 

 discharged, as they were utterly unlit for herding. They took no inter- 

 est whatever in it and had no desire for it, and had not come to the sta- 

 tiou for the purpose of being herder-':, but had come only to stop there 

 for a. year, and having received a good living and been supplied with 

 good warm clothes and earned a couple of animals, then to sell these and 

 get back to their homes, warm, well fed, and with a little fortune, say 

 $20 to $70 in personal j^^operty, which they then would sell to other 

 Eski;i OS, and in this numner live another year without Avork. From 

 their standpoint, this may be regarded as a successful euterprise. The 

 two thus discharged were Oo kwood let and Soo wa wha sie. I presume 

 there are a couple of other apprentices who have come here with the 

 same purpose in view, but they do not talk the way the others did. 

 These ought probably to be sent away, but this has not hitherto been 

 done for reasons that will appear when I come to discuss the qualitica- 

 tions of the herdei's individually. 



It was tliought best to have the apprentices remain with the herd; 

 that is to say, they ought to remain m camj) where the herd is pastur- 

 ing, be it near or far fioni the station. They ought not to have the sta- 

 tion as their headipiarters and go out once or twice a week to look after 

 their watch, in which case they would look upon their work as herders 

 as a secondary matter, while it ought to be uppermost in their thoughts. 

 Then they would never become habituated to living in camps and mov- 

 ing, a matter whicli is absolutely necessary for every reindeer herder. 



Nomadic and camp life both summer and winter must become such 

 a habit that it can not be abandoned without sorrow, before anyone can 

 be said to be entirely familiar with, and thoroughly trained in, herding 

 reindeer. Any person who desires to become the owner of reindeer 

 must first become a nomad. In order to begin to harden and accustom 

 our apprentices to this sort of life, they were sent into camp with the 

 herd immediately after I took charge of the station and since that 

 time they have been kept in tents continually, even during the pretty 

 severe weather in winter. They would take turns at coming to the 

 station every Saturday, but would be sent out again the following Mon- 

 day witli the necessary provisions. 



My instructions were that the apprentices find herders should be 

 divided into two groups, of which e;'.ch group should be kept near the 

 herd lor tour months at a time. In this a little change has been made, 

 as four months Avould be a rather long season for the first time. Nor 

 would this divide e(pially the seasons of the year. 1 therefore let the 

 apprentices stay out four weeks at a time and the herders three 

 months. At this writing, we have advanced so far that a few of the 

 apprentices have begun to take an interest in the herd and in camp life. 

 They like better to be out with the reindeer than to stay at the station. 

 Others, on the other hand, can not be made to understand that in order 



