Reindeer in Alaska 



!3* 



^Pt3arrowA 



Scale of miles 



1 * 1 * *°° 



Outline Map Showing Government Reindeer Stations in Alaska 



On his return to the United States, 

 during the winter of 1891, Dr Sheldon 

 Jackson, in his annual report to Con- 

 gress, asked for an appropriation to 

 provide the money for importing a few 

 deer. Congress was not convinced of 

 the wisdom of such action, but several 

 private persons were so interested that 

 they placed $2,000 at Dr Jackson's dis- 

 posal to begin the experiment; the first 

 deer were brought over that year. It 

 was not long, however, before the gov- 

 ernment realized the importance of the 



* Congressional appropriations for the intro- 

 duction into Alaska of domestic reindeer from 

 Siberia are as follows : 



1S94 



1S95 

 1S96 

 1897 

 189S 

 1S99 



f fa, 000 



7,500 



7,500 



12,000 



12,500 



12,500 



1900 $ 25,000 



1901 25,000 



1902 25,000 



1903 25,000 



Total.. fi5S,ooo 



Congress entrusts the general charge of the 

 work to the Bureau of Education, of which 

 Dr William T. Harris is the distinguished 



movement, and in 1894 appropriated 

 the sum of $6,000 to continue the work. 

 Later the appropriation was increased, 

 and during the last several years has 

 amounted to $25,000 annually.* 



The Siberians were at first unwilling 

 to part with an}' of their reindeer. They 

 were superstitious and above all afraid 

 of competition and loss of trade across 

 the strait. Capt. M. A. Healy, who 

 was commissioned to purchase the deer 

 in 1 89 1, was obliged to sail from village 

 to village for 1,500 miles along the Si- 

 head ; the formulation of plans and their exe- 

 cution is entrusted to Dr Sheldon Jackson, 

 general agent of education in Alaska. Dr 

 Harris, in his annual reports to Congress, has 

 vigorously urged the importance of the work, 

 and to him credit is due for a large share of 

 its success. Capt. M. A. Healy and the many 

 officers of the revenue cutter service, whose 

 vessels have year after year carried the agents 

 of the bureau back and forth and brought the 

 reindeer from Siberia without charge, have 

 also contributed to the success of the reindeer 

 enterprise. 



