INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 15 



the herding; and teaming; will always be Eskimos, Laplanders, and 

 Finlanders. 



Thus the Eskimo, trained as herder or teamster, will prove valuable 

 to the white man, and the white man in turn, as director and 

 employer, will be valuable to the native. 



Already the reindeer have given evidence of some of the ways in 

 which they will prove an important factor in the development of the 

 great north region. 



As the reindeer is the only draft animal in arctic regions that is able 

 to secure its own food while on a journey, the question of cheapness 

 and speed will bring it into universal use. 



They will carry passengers, mails, and freight between the mining 

 camps and the trunk railways that will yet penetrate Alaska. 



Now, the object of the reindeer enterprise is to accomplish this very 

 purpose — namely, to convert the nomadic tribes of fishers and hunters 

 in northwestern and central Alaska into raisers of reindeer; to change 

 their occupation from the precarious pursuits of hunting wdld animals 

 and of taking fish from the waters of inland rivers to that of herders 

 and teamsters; to elevate a people who in their wild, uncivilized state 

 are the prey of unscrupulous, transient immigrants into a self-sup- 

 porting race, not enemies but friendly allies and auxiliaries of the 

 white man. 



REINDEER APPRENTICES. 



To fit the natives to become the helpers of the white man in the 

 development of Alaska, the Government, through the Bureau of 

 Education, has established in a number of places the training of young 

 men in the raising, care, and management of reindeer as an industrial 

 branch of the public school system of central and northern Alaska. 



Bright young Eskimo men are selected and placed in these schools for 

 a period of five years under skillful Finn or Lapp instructors who driU 

 them in the business. The apprentice during his five years of framing 

 is supported and clothed either by the Government, the mission sta- 

 tion, or a herder, according as he is employed by one or the other of 

 these parties. In addition to food and clothing he is allowed the loan 

 of two female deer per year upon which he may place his mark and 

 consider the herd as his private property, subject to Government con- 

 trol with reference to slaughter and sale. After the close of the second 

 year of apprenticesMp these deer are retained in the general herd 

 under the care of an experienced Lapp or Finn and under the super- 

 vision of the mission station with which the herder is connected. This 

 general supervision extends for twenty 3'ears. This extended period 

 of tutelage is to create in the young Eskimos thrift and the reindeer 

 habit — to teach them to preserve and accumulate their herds, to keep 

 them in groups for self-protection, encouragement, and emulation, 



