REINDEER PROGRESS IN ALASKA 



153 



The total number of Alaskan reindeer is distributed in herds among 

 twenty-eight stations, eighteen of these being owned by the Government 

 and ten by church missions. The Lapps own over three thousand. The 

 natives are very anxious to get deer and look upon them as a safe 

 investment for their earnings, and usually take deer in preference to 

 cash for services, when an opportunity is offered. The Government does 

 not sell deer; this is done by natives and missions alone. The various 

 missions are furnished a herd of one hundred deer on loan for a period 

 of five years by the Government. At the end of this time, the original 

 number must be returned. The mission keeps the increase of fawns, 

 which amount to several hundred, derived from the Government loan! 

 The Moravian mission of Bethel has one of the largest herds, nearly 

 three thousand. Other missions having over one thousand deer, all 

 in arctic Alaska, north of the Yukon, are located at Colovin, Kotzebue, 

 Shishmerof, and cape Wales. At point Barrow, latitude 71°25', the 

 most northern point on the American continent, there is a herd of 

 300. The total population here is about 400, men, women and children. 

 One native, "Takpuk," is considered the richest man of that region as 

 he owns a herd of 137 reindeer. The missions support and educate a 

 number of young apprentice herders. 



The native herders also take on apprentices and award them six 

 deer a year in payment for their services. The Laplanders take a loan 

 of deer for five years from the Government and give their services as 

 instructors for that period. At the end of five years, the Lapp returns 

 the 100 deer and becomes an independent herder himself with the 

 large increase of reindeer he has obtained from the herd. The Lapp 

 herders are not interested in the extension of the reindeer among the 

 natives. Some of the largest owners of deer are Lapps, some half 

 dozen of these men having accumulated herds of from five to nearly 

 eight hundred. 



In mtroducing the reindeer as a means to promote the industrial 

 life and to provide a permanent livelihood for the Eskimo, it has been 

 found necessary by the Government to put the young natives through a 

 course of training. Those who get their deer directly from the Gov- 

 ernment serve an apprenticeship of five years. There are several hun- 

 dred of these at present. They are bound by a written contract, the 

 strict terms of which they cannot violate without peril of losing their 

 annual allotment of reindeer and suffering discharge from the service. 

 This caring for, training, and breeding the deer is an education in it- 

 self, and the best which the Government could give to the young natives. 

 With careful training the Eskimo boys make excellent herders. They 

 readily learn how to take care of the reindeer, to throw the lasso, to 

 harness and drive the deer, and to watch the fawns. Siberian herders 



