SUGGESTIONS ON THE PURCHASING OE DOMESTICATED 

 REINDEER IN SIBERIA. 



liy CoNKAl) .SlEM. 



The importtincc of the introduction of domesticated reindeer into 

 Alaska is appreciated by nobody more than by men who, like myself, 

 have spent j^ears of their life in this Territory. When Mr. Kelly 

 asked me to join him as assistant at the proposed purchasing station 

 in Siberia, I had just returned from Alaska, where for some years I 

 had })cen engaged as manager of a whaling station. 



Naturally I thought that where deer had been bought before deer 

 could be bought again. However, I relied for success on the favorable 

 local conditions, of which we might take advantage. This reliance on 

 favorable local conditions had not been misplaced, for on landing at 

 St. Lawrence Bay we found a certain local situation which in itself 

 had all the elements for success Avhich, })ut for other contingencies, 

 would have assured a prosperous issue of the enterprise. 



It must be almost twenty years ago when a young man at Indian 

 Point had to flee for his life from the village; he had had the misfor- 

 tune to kill in a drunken ))rawl a citizen of some standing and influ- 

 ence in that prosperous communit3^ In his hurried flight he took 

 with him his young orphan brother. He found refuge and settled 

 down in the village of Ak-ka-nun, on the north shore of Mechigme. 

 His name was Omitow — or Peter, as rechristened by Captain Healy — 

 and his brother's name is Reuben. Now Peter, though originally of 

 Chowchuan stock, had imbibed a good deal of the conunercial thrift of 

 his late home, and being very energetic he soon prospered in his new 

 surroundings. The extremely anarchical and communistic conditions 

 prevailing among the renegade population of these settlements made 

 the acquisition of wealth perilous and well-nigh impossible, but Peter 

 was above the average, resourceful and ambitious, and sought and 

 found a way out. In his many trading trips to the north coast, 

 toward Cape Serdze and Koschinchin, he learned that he could buy 

 reindeer cheaply from the deermen there. Experimentally at Hrst he 

 acquired a few, which his young brother herded for him close to his 

 home at Ak-ka-nun. Seeing that the deer got along all right on the 



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