DOMESTICATED REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 135 



Teixek Reindeer Station, 

 Port Clarence, Alaska, September 2, 1S93. 

 Dear Sir: I have been so rushed with the work this summer thai I have not given 



the deer, their management, distribution, etc., as much thought as I had expected' 

 I herded, however, one night with Jack, one of the shepherd dogs you left us. 

 There are about 345 in the herd now, and I suppose next year we will have about 500 

 with the increase. I think it would be a good plan to give or loan Charley and 

 three or lour more herders about 20 deer each, so that they could put them together 

 and have a herd of about 75 or 100 deer. They could keep them south or north of 

 here, and at the end of two or three years could pay back to the station here the 

 number of deer which tbey had received. I think it important to do something 

 like this next year. One real example of a man like Charley at the head of a herd 

 of deer would do much towards educating the people up to the advantages of 

 becoming deermen. I hope you will consider this matter. 



I have often thought that if you were removed from office by this administration, 

 the success of the reindeer scheme might be imperiled, and I hope, if such a thing 

 should happen, you could have the management of the station turned over to Capt. 

 Healy. He is very much interested in the deer and people, has spent a great deal of 

 time and labor trying to further the scheme, and, I suppose, has had such an exten- 

 sive experience that he could give the station a thorough overhauling every year. 



Capt. Wagner traded 5 gallons of liquor on the other side this year for deer. 



Tliose who herded here last year and have two deer in the herd have offered to 

 sell them to Charley (who is now a herder) for four deerskins each. 



If they have trouble in finding a man for the cape, and you can get a good man for 

 the station here, Mrs. Lopp and I will go back to the cape. But, of course, since 

 we are settled here, we would prefer to stay here another year. I sincerely hope a 

 good conscientious minister can be found to come up to the cape next year. 



Probably I have not made clear to you our proposed plan of distribution. 



I think while natives are learning to herd they should be clothed and fed and paid 

 a small salary, from $1 to $4 per month, according to age, efficiency, etc. ; and at tin- 

 end of one year, in some cases two, loan four or rive of your best herders 20 or 30 

 deers each. Let them put them together and keep them on a new range of pasture 

 10 or 20 miles from here, the superintendent of this station giving them general direc- 

 tion as to the management, slaughtering, etc. At the end of two or three years 

 their herd will have increased so much that they can pay back to the Government 

 what they have borrowed, and will have become so thoroughly acquainted with the 

 1m st methods of breeding, managing, restrictions in slaughtering, etc., that they can be 

 trusted to assume the whole management of their herd. By this method fifteen or 

 twenty herders could be trained here every year and could be sent out with two or 

 three new herds of deer, which the Government would loan them until they could 

 pay them back, on condition, of com - se, that the Government superintend and regu- 

 late the management of the herd as long as they have deer in it. 



Of course the original policy may be the best, but at this writing it occurs to me 

 that it is easier for the Government to control what it owns than what Eskimos own. 

 I write you this so that you can consider it and it will not be new to you next year. 

 Very truly, yours, 



W. T. Lopp. 



Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D. D., 



General Agent for Education in Alaska. 



