R-USN 



-2- 



12/19/30 



the United State?.' r.iarkets every year. Reindeer raisin^;- is gettin{; to 

 "be a big 'business, 



Tl:at is why these cxpei^irnents in crossin,^- reindeer with caribou 

 are so important. One of the reasons why the Biolojical Survey picked 

 out an island for its experiments was to prevent the caribou b-alls from 

 wanderii:ig off, Rei.ideor herds also move about fran place to place in 

 serj-ch of food, " "^- they are not such gypsies as the caribou, 



Tlie long, and sometimes uncertain, migrations of the wild caribou 

 at times baffle even native hunters. Sane yep.rs, the caribou fail to 

 show up along their usual travel routes, and the natives waitin^: for them 

 are faced with famine. In addition, the caribou have practically dis- 

 appeared from large areas of Northern Canada, So even now a big herd of 

 reindeer is beiaj slowly driven across countri' from western Alaska on c. 

 two-year trek to the MacKenzie Valley of Canada. The herd is about half 

 way now. Those reindeer were bought from one of the big commercial rein- 

 deer raisers of Alaa^:.., by the Canadian Government which plans to use the 

 imported animals in building up a livestock industry among its Eskimos 

 and Ind.-i.cas, in somewliat the some way we have done in Alaska, 



Maybe you are \/ondering, as I did, about the experiments in cross- 

 ing caribou and reindeer. Suppose, in breeding up the reindeer-caribou 

 of Alaska, that the caribou wanderlust is also bred in then? 



It may be t':ij.t the caribou on iJunivak Island, with no way to get 

 off the sland, ^7ill ultimately lose their travel urge. Dr. Bell says 

 tliat wi..d caribou soriiotimes join the dxicsticated herds of reindeer on 



the rrx-^c, and st.-^y v.'ith them. But he a'.' nits that this/ one of the things 

 they are watchin.; in the breeding work. Another th?.ng is the effect on 

 the qualitj' of the meat. As a basis for comparing reindeer meat with the 

 meat fran the nev/ anir.:als to be developed, the reindeer meat has alroady 

 been thoroughly analyzed and subjected to various, cooking tests. 



Other qucstio:-s to which our scientists arc. seeking the answer 

 include the best mixture of caribou and reindeer, Will one-quarter 

 reindeer blood, or ono-eighth reindeer blood, be better, everything con- 

 sidered? Then there arc questions of whether to fatten before shipping 

 or slaughter. And if so, how? And hov; long? 



Wlien I see a picture of Santa Claus dashirig over house-tops in 

 his reindoer-drawn sloigh, I think of the reindeer industry of Alaska. 

 When I think 01 how in less than ko years it has growii fran a few hundred 

 to many hundreas of thousands of animals, and that these Ivave ch-rjiged 

 the very character of life of the natives and others in our northern 

 Territory, it is then t'.-jxt the Santa Claus picture begir.s to change. 



