DOMESTICATED REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 17 



Cape Prince of Wales, on the 19th of August, 1893, by two hoodlum 

 Eskimos, the mission station was closed for the year. Under the cir- 

 cumstances, Mr. W. T. Lopp, who had accepted the position of super- 

 intendent at the reindeer station, felt called upon to offer his services 

 to the American Missionary Association of the Congregational Church, 

 and return to Cape Prince of Wales in the summer of 1894, if it was 

 thought desirable. In order to secure some intelligent Norwegian or 

 Swede, accustomed to the methods employed in the care of reindeer in 

 Lapland, on December 15, 1893, I sent a notice to the Scandinavian 

 papers of the United States, that we wished to secure the services of 

 men acquainted with the management of reindeer. The Scandinavian 

 papers entered very heartily into the project and gave their space 

 without compensation. About 250 replies were received. From among 

 this number, largely upon the recommendation of Prof. Rasmus B. 

 Anderson, Mr. William A. Kjelmann, of Madison, Wis., was selected 

 as the next superintendent of the reindeer station. Mr. Kjelmann is a 

 Norwegian, 32 years of age, of robust health and excellent habits. He 

 has a good business education, writes an elegant Norwegian, and 

 speaks the English language fluently. He can also write English 

 fairly well. He was born in Taloik, in Finmarken; and as soon as he 

 was old enough was set at work herding reindeer, at which he con- 

 tinued until he was 22 years of age. He was then taken up by a mer- 

 cantile firm, and for six years had experience in buying and selling 

 reindeer and reindeer products between Alten and Kautetein and 

 Karasjok, in Lapland. For the past three years he has been a resi- 

 dent of Madison, Wis., where he has a family. 



The 250 replies were from Scandinavians in the United States who 

 in their boyhood had been brought up on the edge of Lapland and had 

 served an apprenticeship in the herding of reindeer. With great 

 unanimity they wrote that there are no full-blooded Lapps in the 

 United States and that it was essential to the success of the movement 

 that a few families of Lapps should be secured to do the herding and 

 also to give instruction to the Eskimo young men. They also, with 

 great unanimity, expressed the opinion that the trained dogs of Lap- 

 land were necessary for herding. They further took the position that 

 the Lapps have methods for the care of reindeer superior to the 

 customs of the Siberians. Upon the selection of Mr. Kjelmann as 

 superintendent of the station, I sent him at once to Lapland for the 

 necessary Lapps and their dogs. The reindeer fund of Congress for 

 1894 being exhausted, it became necessary to again appeal to private 

 individuals for $1,000, to defray the expenses of sending Mr. Kjelmann 

 to Lapland, and to pay the transportation of the Lapps and their fam- 

 ilies to the United States. 



HERD. 



During the summer of 1892 171 reindeer were purchased in Siberia 

 and landed at the station. At the time of landing at Port Clarence 

 S. Ex. 70 2 



