REPORT OF DR. W. T. HARRIS, UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER 

 OF EDUCATION, ON REINDEER. 



[From Annual Report, 1S99, Pages 1 U) lix, and aiiiuial statement, pages 14-18.] 



The reindeer industry. — Still more important, however, is the rein- 

 deer indastry, which is slowly gaining a foothold in the northwest and 

 extreme north. The abundance of reindeer food in all parts of Alaska 

 where the mo.ss has not given place to forest timber growths and to 

 grasses makes it extremely desirable to have at all the missionary sta- 

 tions and Government schools large herds of reindeer, so that the 

 native apprentices may learn the methods of herding and training to 

 harness. 



Something like 2,000 deer were reported in the fall of 181)8 as the 

 survival and increase from about GOO imported from Siberia. The 

 annual increase of the herd is so rapid that if we once possess 5,000 

 of these animals the annual increase could easily be made to furnish 

 the needed herds for the remaining stations in northwestern Alaska. 



On account of the substitution of forest trees and grass for moss in 

 southeastern Alaska, where the temperature is milder, there is no pos- 

 sibility of reindeer raising in that section. But on the highlands of 

 the Upper Yukon, as well as the Aleutian Islands and all other parts 

 of Alaska, except the river-bottom lands (where trees take the place of 

 moss), the reindeer can find plenty of food and will ultimately be of 

 great use to all the inhabitants of that region, both natives and immi- 

 grants from the States. 



The annual increase of a herd with us has been from 40 to 60 per 

 cent, and a herd of 5,000 ought to furnish 2,000 fawns each spring. 



At each mission station there is constantly going on a process of 

 selecting the trustworthy natives — those ambitious to learn the civili- 

 zation of the white man, those ambitious to hold and increase prop- 

 erty. Reindeer intrusted to the ordinary individual .savage would dis- 

 appear within twelve months after the gift. The policy has therefore 

 been adopted of lending small herds to missionary societies, the Gov- 

 ernment reserving the right, after a term of not less than three years, 

 to call upon the mission station for the same number of deer that com- 

 posed the herd loaned. These small herds loaned to the missionary 

 stations as a Government aid are in the nature of an outfit of indus- 

 trial apparatus. 



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