INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 13 



to take fish from the rivers and from the sea for his family use, and 

 with proper training can be made an eqiialh' successful fisherman 

 for the market. 



The experience of the past twelve years has proved that he can 

 also become skillful in raising reindeer for food. With the gradual 

 disappearance of the caribou and moose in sections of Alaska, and 

 the difficulty and expense of bringing beef and mutton from the States 

 to the inland mining camps, it is of great importance that the Eskimo 

 be trained to raise reindeer with which to supply the immigrant miner 

 with fresh meat. 



When in the winter of 1897-98 400 sailors engaged in whaling were 

 imprisoned in the ice off Point Barrow and in danger of perishing with 

 scurvy and starvation, they were saved by the reindeer herd driven 

 by Eskimos from Bering Strait to Point Barrow and slaughtered for 

 food. 



Already 65 Eskimos (nearly all of whom have served a five years' 

 apprenticeship learning the business) own 2,779 deer. Reindeer 

 multiply rapidly. From the 1,280 Siberian reindeer imported 

 between 1892 and 190.3 and from their natural increase 10,267 fawns 

 have been born in Alaska. 



The Eskimo has always been skillful in driving dogs, and now, 

 under instruction, he is proving equally skillful in driving reindeer, 

 and upon various occasions, when the opportunity has offered, has 

 invariably demonstrated his ability to successfully transport with 

 reindeer mails, freight, and passengers between mining camps. 

 Under contract with the Post-Office Department the United States 

 mail has been carried by reindeer teams on the four postal routes 

 between St. Michael and Kotzebue, Eaton and Nome, Teller and 

 Deering, and Kotzebue and Point Barrow (this latter being the most 

 northern mail route in the world). With the increase of reindeer and 

 trained native teamsters such service will become universal in north- 

 ern and central Alaska. 



When the native has thus become useful to the white man by sup- 

 plying the markets with fish and fresh meat, and when he has become 

 herdsman and teamster with reindeer, he has not only assisted the 

 white man in solving the problem of turning to the use of civilization 

 the vast territory of Alaska, but he has also solved his own problem. 

 If useful to the white man as a self-respecting and industrious citizen, 

 he has become a permanent stay and prop to civilization, and his 

 future is provided for. 



The conclusion resulting from tliis is that the native must be taught 

 in school how to speak EngUsh, and be trained in industrial schools 

 in the simple arts of agriculture and of reindeer herding and teaming 

 with a view to provide cheap food and cheap transportation for the 

 use of the immigrant. 



