SENATE 
 
 •• -Tte 
 
 52d Congress, ) 
 
 2d Session. \ 
 
 SENATE. 
 
 / • • • 
 
 f ( Mis. Doc. 
 
 \ 3$ ‘ No. 22. 
 
 
 < -N 
 
 'V PA ■ , , 
 
 *■ v “I . . 
 
 r. r 
 
 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 REPORT 
 
 ON 
 
 DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 WITH 
 
 MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 
 BY 
 
 P 
 
 SHELDON JACKSON, 
 
 GENERAL AGENT OF EDUCATION IN ALASKA. 
 
 18 9 3 . 
 
 January 10 ; 1893.—Referred to the Committee on Appropriations and 
 
 ordered to be printed. 
 
 
 / 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
 
 18 9 3. 
 
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 
 
 Department oe the Interior, 
 
 Bureau of Education, 
 
 Washington , January 9, 1893. 
 
 Sir: In compliance with a resolution of the Senate passed January 
 6, 1893, directing’ that the Commissioner of Education transmit to the 
 Senate a copy of the latest report of Dr. Sheldon Jackson on the in¬ 
 troduction of domesticated reindeer into Alaska, I have the honor to 
 transmit said report herewith. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 W. T. Harris, 
 
 Commissioner. 
 
 The President of the Senate. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2019 with funding from 
 Alaska Library Network 
 
 https://archive.org/details/reportonintroducOOunse 
 
m. 
 
 U. S. Revenue Cutter “ Bear 
 [Photo, by Dr. S. 
 
 ” Communicating with Siberian Deermen. 
 J. Call. From The Californian.] 
 
 Herd of Domesticated Reindeer, and Temporary Village of Siberian Deermen. 
 
 [Photo, by Dr. S. J. Call. From The Californian.] 
 
 [Frontispiece 
 
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 Department of the Interior, 
 
 Bureau of Education, Alaska Division, 
 
 Washington , I). ( 7 ., January 2 , 1893. 
 
 Sir: So many inquiries have been made since my return from Alaska 
 concerning’ the present progress of the plan to introduce domesticated 
 reindeer into Alaska, that it seems expedient to make a special report 
 on that branch of the work of the office without waiting for the regu¬ 
 lar annual report on education in Alaska. 
 
 I have the honor therefore to submit the following report of progress 
 on the introduction of domesticated reindeer into Alaska: 
 
 In the summer of 1890, in accordance with your instructions, I vis¬ 
 ited Northern Alaska and established schools for the Arctic Eskimo at 
 Cape Prince of Wales, Point Hope, and Point Barrow. Through the 
 courtesy of the Secretary of the Treasury and of Capt. L. Gr. Shepard, 
 chief of the Revenue Marine Division of the Treasury Department,.! 
 was permitted to accompany the U. S. Revenue Marine Steamer Bear , 
 Oapt. M. A. Healy, commanding, on her annual cruise in Bering Sea 
 and the Arctic Ocean. 
 
 In addition to conveying me to the points designated, Captain Healy 
 was under instructions from the Secretary of the Treasury to visit the 
 coast of Siberia, and distribute presents to the Koraks around Cape 
 Navarin in return for shelter and food furnished shipwrecked American 
 whalers. He was also under commission from Superintendent Porter, 
 of the Census Office to take a census of the native population along 
 the arctic coast of Alaska and the islands of Bering Sea, which popu¬ 
 lation could not be reached by the usual enumerators. 
 
 •The trip to Siberia enabled me to make a cruise of 700 miles along that 
 little-known coast, and study somewhat the character of the native 
 population under conditions corresponding with those under which life 
 must be maintained in Alaska. I found them to be a hardy, active, 
 and well-fed people, owning tens of thousands of head of domestic rein¬ 
 deer. 
 
 The taking of the census of arctic Alaska furnished me even more 
 extensive facilities for studying the condition of the Eskimo of Alaska. 
 I found them like their neighbors on the Siberian side to be a hardy 
 and active people, but because they had never been instructed to depend 
 upon the raising of reindeer as a support, unlike the Siberians, they 
 were on the verge of starvation. The whale and walrus that formerly 
 had constituted the principal portion of their food have been destroyed 
 or driven off by the whalers; and the wild reindeer that once abounded 
 in their country, have been killed off by the introduction of breech-load¬ 
 ing firearms. 
 
 The thorough canvas of the native population for enumeration, neces¬ 
 sitating a landing wherever even one or two tents were seen on the 
 
 5 
 
6 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 beacli, furnished unusual opportunities for observing the educational 
 needs of that people and learning the great difficulties under which 
 schools will have to be carried on. 
 
 Upon my return to Washington I had the honor on November 12 to 
 address you a preliminary report of the season’s work, emphasizing the 
 destitute condition of the Alaskan Eskimo. 
 
 On the 5th of December this report was transmitted by you to the 
 Secretary of the Interior for his information and on the 15th transmit¬ 
 ted to the Senate by Hon. George Chandler, Acting Secretary of the 
 Interior. On the following day it was referred by the Senate to the 
 Committee on Education and Labor. 
 
 On the 19th of December, Hon. Louis E. MeComas, of Maryland, in¬ 
 troduced into the House of Representatives a joint resolution (H. R. 
 No. 258), providing that the act of Congress, approved March 2,1887, 
 “An act to establish agricultural experiment stations in connection 
 with the colleges established in the several States under the provi¬ 
 sions of an act approved July 2, 1802, and of the acts supplementary 
 thereto” and an act approved August 30, 1890, entitled “An act to 
 apply a portion of the proceeds of the public lands to the more complete 
 endowment and support of the colleges for the benefit of agriculture 
 and the mechanic arts, established under the provisions of an act of 
 Congress approved July 2, 1862,” should be extended by the Secretary 
 of the Interior over Alaska, with the expectation that the purchase, 
 improvement, and management of domestic reindeer should be made a 
 part of the industrial education of the proposed college. 
 
 The resolution was referred to the Committee on Education, and on 
 the 9th of January, 1891, reported back to the House of Representa¬ 
 tives for passage. (See Appendix A.) 
 
 It was, however, so near the close of the short term of Congress that 
 the resolution was not reached. 
 
 When it became apparent that it would not be reached in the usual 
 way, the Hon. Henry M. Teller, on the 26tli of February moved an 
 amendment to the bill (H. R. No. 13162) making appropriations for sun¬ 
 dry civil expenses of the Government for the year ending June 30, 
 1892, appropriating $15,000 for the introduction of domestic reindeer 
 into Alaska, which was carried. The appropriation failed to receive 
 the concurrence of the conference committee of the House of Repre¬ 
 sentatives. 
 
 Upon the failure of the Fifty-first Congress to take action, and depre¬ 
 cating the delay of twelve months before another attempt could be 
 made, with your approval, I made an appeal in the Mail and Express 
 of New York City, the Boston Transcript, the Philadelphia Ledger, the 
 Chicago Interocean, and Washington Star, as well as in a number of 
 the leading religious newspapers of the country, for contributions to 
 this object. The response Avas prompt and generous; $2,146 were 
 received. (Appendix B.) 
 
 As the season had arrived for the usual visit of inspection and 
 supervision of the schools in Alaska you were kind enough to direct 
 that in addition to my regular work for the schools, I should continue 
 in charge of the work of transplanting domesticated reindeer from 
 Siberia to Alaska. As the natives of Siberia, who own the reindeer, 
 know nothing of the use of money, an assortment of goods for the pur¬ 
 pose of barter for the reindeer was procured from the funds so gener¬ 
 ously contributed by benevolent people in answer to the appeal through 
 the newspapers. 
 
 The honorable Secretary of the Treasury issued 
 
 instructions to Cap- 
 
INTRODUCTION OP DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 7 
 
 tain Healy to furnish me every possible facility for the purchase and 
 transportation of reindeer from Siberia to Alaska. The honorable 
 Secretary of State secured from the Kussian Government instructions 
 to their officers on the Siberian coast, also, to render what assistance 
 they could, and on May 25th, 1892, I again took passage on the revenue 
 cutter Bear, Captain Healy in command, for the cost of Siberia. 
 
 The proposition to introduce domesticated reindeer into Alaska had 
 excited widespread and general interest. In the public discussions 
 which arose with regard to the scheme a sentiment was found in some 
 circles that it was impracticable; that on account of the superstitions 
 of the natives they would be unwilling to sell their stock alive; fur¬ 
 ther, that the nature of the reindeer was such that he would not bear 
 ship transportation, and also that even if they could be purchased and 
 safely transported the native dogs on the Alaskan coast would destroy 
 or the natives kill them for food. This feeling, which was held by 
 many intelligent white men (Appendix C), was asserted so strongly 
 and positively that it was thought best the first season to make haste 
 slowly, and instead of purchasing a large number of reindeer to pos¬ 
 sibly die on shipboard, or perhaps to be destroyed by the Alaskan dogs 
 (thus at the very outset prejudicing the scheme), it was deemed wiser 
 and safer to buy only a few. 
 
 Therefore, in the time available from other educational duties during 
 the season of 1891, it seemed important that I should again carefully 
 review the ground and secure all possible additional information with 
 regard to the reindeer, and, while delaying the actual establishment of 
 a herd until another season, that I should determine the correctness of 
 the objections that the natives would not sell and the deer would not 
 bear transportation by actually purchasing and transporting them. 
 
 The work was so new and untried that many things could only be 
 found out by actual experience. 
 
 First. The wild deermen of Siberia are a very superstitious people, 
 and need to be approached with great wisdom and tact. 
 
 Upon one occasion, when Capt. Healy purchased a few reindeer for 
 food, the following ceremonies were observed: When getting ready to 
 lasso the deer the owner’s family seated themselves in a circle on the 
 ground, where probably some rites connected with their superstitions 
 were observed. Upon attempting to approach the circle, I was motioned 
 away. After a short time the men went out and lassoed a selected 
 animal, which was led to one side of the herd. The man that was lead¬ 
 ing him stationed himself directly in front of the animal and held him 
 firmly by the two horns. Another with a butcher knife stood at the 
 side of the deer. An old man, probably the owner, went off to the east¬ 
 ward, and placing his back to the setting sun seemed engaged in prayer, 
 upon the conclusion of which he turned around and faced the deer. 
 This was the signal for knifing the animal. With apparently no effort, 
 the knife was pushed to the heart and withdrawn. The animal seemed 
 to suffer no pain, and in a few seconds sank to his knees and rolled 
 over on his side. While this was taking place the old man before men¬ 
 tioned stood erect and motionless, with his hand over his eyes. When 
 the deer was dead he approached, and taking a handful of hair and 
 blood from the wound, impressively threw it to the eastward. This 
 was repeated a second time. Upon the killing of the second animal, 
 the wife of the owner cast the hair and blood to the eastward. 
 
 Since then I have often observed the man who was selling a deer 
 pluck some hair from the deer and put it in his pocket or throw it to 
 the winds for good luck. 
 
8 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 If a man should sell us deer, and tlie following winter an epidemic 
 break out in his herd, or some calamity befall his family, the Shamans 
 would make him believe that his bad luck was all due to the sale of 
 the deer. 
 
 Second. The Siberian deermen are a nonprogressive people. They 
 have lived for ages outside of the activities and progress of the world. 
 As the fathers did, so continue to do their children. 
 
 ISTow they have never before been asked to sell their deer; it is a new 
 thing to them, and they do not know what to make of it. They were 
 suspicious of our designs. And in reference to this state of mind I 
 have found that being on a Government vessel has been of great assist¬ 
 ance. It impresses the natives with confidence that they will be 
 treated honorably and justly. This moral effect was so great that we 
 secured results that otherwise could not have been obtained so easily. 
 
 Then, Capt. Healy, commander of the Bear , is well known for 
 thousands of miles on both sides of the coast, and the natives have 
 
 confidence in him. With 
 a stranger in command I 
 am confident that but 
 little would have been ac¬ 
 compli shed in the sum¬ 
 mer of 1891. 
 
 Purchasing reindeer in 
 Siberia is very different 
 from going to Texas and 
 buying a herd of cattle. 
 In Texas such a sale 
 could be consummated in 
 a few minutes or hours. 
 But in Siberia it takes 
 both time and patience. 
 
 Upon the anchoring of 
 the ship in the vicinity of 
 of a settlement the na¬ 
 tives flock aboard, bring¬ 
 ing skins and furs to ex¬ 
 change for Hour, cotton 
 cloth, powder, lead, etc. 
 
 Once aboard they ex¬ 
 pect to be fed by the cap¬ 
 tain, and bucket after 
 bucket of hard bread is 
 distributed among them. 
 They know perfectly well 
 that we are after rein¬ 
 deer, but nothing is said 
 about it. They have to 
 be feasted first. They 
 are never in a hurry and 
 therefore do not see why 
 
 llan-en-ka. We SllOllld be. 
 
 [The first Siberian to sell a reindeer for the Alaska herd. 1891. Published by permission A n lifflo emoll 
 
 of the Californian.] ct IILIiIvT', ollldill 
 
 presents are judiciously 
 given to the wife or child of a leading man, and when everyone is in 
 good humor a few of the leaders are taken into the pilot-house and the 
 
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 9 
 
 main subject is opened. After much discussion and talking all around 
 the subject one man is ready to sell twenty and another perhaps only 
 turn. After all is arranged the leading men send their servants off 
 after the deer, which may be in the vicinity or four or five days 7 journey 
 away* Sometimes these delays consume a week or more at a place. 
 
 Another difficulty arises from the fact that they can not understand 
 what we want of the reindeer. They have no knowledge of such a mo¬ 
 tive as doing good to others without pay. 
 
 As a rule the men with the largest herds, who can best afford to sell, 
 are inland and difficult to reach. 
 
 Then business selfishness comes in. The introduction of the reindeer 
 on the American side may to some extent injuriously affect their trade 
 in deer skins. From time immemorial they have been accustomed to 
 take their skins to Alaska and exchange them for oil. To establish 
 herds in Alaska will, they fear, ruin this business. 
 
 Another difficulty experienced was the impossibility of securing a 
 competent interpreter. 
 
 A few of the natives of the Siberian coast have spent one or more 
 seasons on a whaler and thus picked up a very little English. And 
 upon this class we have been dependent in the past. 
 
 It is very desirable that a native young man should be secured and 
 trained as an interpreter who could be employed regularly, year after 
 year. 
 
 However, notwithstanding all these difficulties and delays, Oapt. 
 Healy with the Bear coasted from 1,200 to 1,500 miles, calling at the 
 various villages and holding conferences with the leading reindeer own¬ 
 ers on the Siberian coast. Arrangements were made for the purchase 
 of animals the following season. Then, to answer the question whether 
 reindeer could be purchased and transported alive, sixteen were pur¬ 
 chased, kept on shipboard for some three weeks, passing through a 
 gale so severe that the ship had to u lie to,” and finally landed in good 
 condition at Amaknak Island, in the harbor of Unalaska, having had 
 a sea voyage of over 1,000 miles. 
 
 Thus the results of investigations for 1891 were: 
 
 First. The cultivation of the good will of the Siberians. 
 
 Second. The actual purchase of sixteen head of reindeer. 
 
 Third. That reindeer can be transported with the same facility as 
 other domestic cattle; they being safely loaded, kex>t on shipboard for 
 three weeks, and landed in good condition a thousand miles away. 
 
 Upon my return to Washington in the fall of 1891 the question was 
 again urged upon the attention of Congress, and on the 17th of Decem¬ 
 ber, 1891, Hon. H. M. Teller introduced a bill (S. 1109) appropriating 
 $15,000, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of the 
 Interior, for the purpose of introducing and maintaining in the Terri¬ 
 tory of Alaska reindeer for domestic purposes. This bill was referred 
 to the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, Hon. Algernon S. Pad- 
 dock, chairman. The committee took favorable action and the bill was 
 passed by the Senate on May 23, 1892. On the following day it was 
 reported to the House of Representatives and referred to the Commit¬ 
 tee on Appropriations. A similar bill (H. R. 7764) was introduced into 
 the House of Representatives by Hon. A. C. Durborow and referred to 
 the Committee on Agriculture. 
 
 On April 15, Hon. S. B. Alexander, of North Carolina, reported the 
 bill to the House of Representatives with the approval of the Commit¬ 
 tee of Agriculture (Appendix D). The bill was placed on the calendar. 
 
10 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.. 
 
 On the 2d day of May, 1892, I started for my third summer’s work 
 on the coast of Siberia and Arctic Alaska in the U. S. S. Bear , Capt. 
 M. A. Healy commanding. 
 
 In accordance with your instructions, all the time that could be 
 spared from the schools was given to the establishment of the experi¬ 
 mental reindeer station. 
 
 Upon reaching Unalaska, May 22, I was much encouraged to learn 
 that the reindeer left last fall on Amaknak and Unalaska Islands had 
 wintered,successfully and were in good condition with an increase of 
 two. 
 
 We reached Gape Navarin, Siberia, on the 6th of June, and proceed¬ 
 ing north called at various points on the coast. Our progress was 
 greatly hindered by heavy fields of ice. The good ship had two an¬ 
 chors ground up and one of the blades of the propeller broken off by 
 the ice. Upon several occasions, we were so surrounded that the pro¬ 
 peller was stopped and the ship moored to the ice. A less stanch 
 Vessel would have been unable to stand the strain. However, during 
 the season, five trips were made to Siberia, and 175 reindeer purchased, 
 brought over, and landed at the head of Point Clarence, which being 
 the nearest good harbor to Asia on the American side, and a central 
 point for the distribution of deer, I had selected, June 29, as the loca¬ 
 tion of the first reindeer station. 
 
 The first installment of deer, numbering fifty-three, was landed at the 
 new station at 6 o’clock on the morning of the 4th of July. 
 
 Mr. Miner W. Bruce, of Nebraska, was appointed superintendent of 
 the station and herd, with Mr. Bruce Gibson, of California, as his as¬ 
 sistant. (Appendix H.) 
 
 Upon the establishment of the experimental reindeer herd at Port 
 Clarence, it became important to gain information concerning the sur¬ 
 rounding country. 
 
 To secure full and reliable information with reference to pasturage 
 in the vicinity of Bering Straits I had the previous season employed 
 Mr. W. T. Lapp, teacher at Cape Prince of Wales, to make two trips 
 northward along the coast in midwinter (1891-’92), when the moss might 
 be expected to be covered with ice and snow (see Appendix E), and 
 in the fall of 1892 sent Mr. Bruce Gibson, assistant superintendent of 
 the reindeer station, with a party of natives, to the northward ot‘ Port 
 Clarence (see Appendix F), and a few weeks later Mr. Miner W. Bruce, 
 superintendent of the station. (See Appendix G.) 
 
 These several reconnoissances proved both the abundance of moss 
 and its accessibility for winter pasturage to the new station. 
 
 A comfortable house, 20 by 60 feet, was erected as a residence for the 
 superintendent and his assistant, and also for the storing of the annual 
 supply of provisions and barter goods. 
 
 Close to the main house two comfortable dugouts were built for the 
 use of the herders. Four Siberians, well acquainted with the manage¬ 
 ment of reindeer, were brought over and placed in charge of the herd. 
 With the Siberians were placed a few young men from the Alaskan 
 Eskimo, who are expected to learn the management and care of the 
 herd. The present expectation is to increase the number of Alaskan 
 boys, who shall become apprentices to the herders, and when they have 
 sufficiently learned the business and proved their capability to take care 
 of reindeer, a small herd will be given each one as his start in life. As 
 from year to year the number of such young men is increased and a 
 number of the natives become herders, the herds will naturally become 
 more and more distributed throughout the country, until, eventually, 
 
Hoisting in a Reindeer on Board the Bear 
 
 [From a photo, by Assistant Engineer A. L. Broadbent, U. S. R. M. Published by permission of The Californian.] 
 

Young Eskimo Woman. 
 
 House at Reindeer Station, Port Clarence, Alaska 
 
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 11 
 
 that whole northern region shall be covered with them, as the similar 
 regions of Siberia and Lapland are now covered. (Appendix J.i 
 
 With the accomplishment of this result several important objects 
 will be attained. 
 
 PERMANENT FOOD SUPPLY. 
 
 In the first place, the population, which is now upon the verge of 
 starvation, will be furnished with a permanent, regular, and abundant 
 supply of food. As has already been stated the native supply of food 
 in that region has been destroyed by the industries of the white men. 
 (Appendix K.) The whale and the walrus that once teemed in their 
 waters and furnished over half their food supply, have been killed or 
 driven off by the persistent hunting of the whalers. The wild reindeer 
 (carribou) and fur-bearing animals of the land, which also furnished 
 them food and clothing, are largely being destroyed by the deadly 
 breecli-loading firearm. It will be impossible to restock their waters 
 with whale and walrus in the same way that we restock rivers with a 
 fresh supply of fish. But what we can not do in the way of giving 
 them their former food, we can, through the introduction of the domes¬ 
 tic reindeer, provide a new food supply. 
 
 Siberian deermen brought to Alaska with the first herd. 
 
 [From a photo, by Dr. S, J Call. Published by permission of the Californian ! 
 
 Upon our return southward from the Arctic Ocean in the fall of 1891, 
 Capt. Healy providentially called at the village on King Island, 
 where we found the population starving. The appeal for food was so 
 pressing that the captain detailed a lieutenant to make a thorough ex¬ 
 amination of the village, and invited me to accompany him. In a few 
 houses we found that the families in their great distress had killed 
 their sled-dogs to keep themselves from starving. In the larger num¬ 
 ber of families they were making a broth of seaweed, their only food 
 supply. In all human probability, if the ship had not learned their 
 condition, the following summer not a man, woman, or child would have 
 been left alive to tell the story. A few years ago the same thing hap¬ 
 pened to three large villages on the Island of St. Lawrence, and when, the 
 tollowing season, the revenue cutter called at the village, the' putrefy¬ 
 ing corpses of the population were found everywhere—on the bed plat- 
 
12 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 forms, on the floors, in the door ways, and along the paths, wherever 
 deatli overtook them. 
 
 At King Island, having ascertained the condition of things, a purse 
 was made up from the officers and a few others on board the ship, and 
 the captain steamed some two hundred miles to the nearest trading 
 post, and purchased all the provisions that could be obtained, which 
 were taken back to the starving village. This supply sustained the 
 population alive until seal and walrus came some months later around 
 the village. The movement of the seal and walrus, since their numbers 
 have become greatly diminished, is so uncertain that, while a village 
 may have plenty to eat one season they will be on the verge of starva¬ 
 tion another. 
 
 In the winter of 1890-’91 there was a sufficiency of food at Point 
 Hope. In the winter of 1891-’92 the same population had to leave 
 their village and make their way, in some instances hundreds of miles, 
 to other villages to keep from starving. In 1891 oue of the teachers on 
 the Kuskowin River wrote me that the inhabitants of that valley had 
 had but little opportunity during the summer of 1890 to provide a suf¬ 
 ficient food supply of fish, that consequently starvation faced them all 
 winter, and that it was Avith great difficulty that they survived until 
 the fish returned the following season. A teacher on the Yukon River 
 reported this past summer that some ot the natives to the north of him 
 had starved to death. This same scarcity of food exists across the en¬ 
 tire northern portion of North America, so that now, under the auspices 
 of the Church of England, subscriptions have been opened in London 
 for a famine fund out of which to send relief to the starving Eskimo of 
 Arctic British America. This condition of things will go on, increas¬ 
 ing in severity from year to year, until the food supply of the seas and 
 of the land is entirely gone, and then there is nothing left but the exter¬ 
 mination of the native population. The general introduction of the 
 domestic reindeer alone will change this entire condition of things, and 
 furnish as reliable supply of food to that people, as the herds of cattle 
 in Texas and Wyoming do to their owners, or the herds of sheep in 
 New Mexico and Arizona. The reindeer is the animal which God’s 
 providence seems to have provided for those northern regions, being 
 food, clothing, house, furniture, implements, and transportation to the 
 people. Its milk and flesh furnish food. Its marrow, tongue, and hams 
 are considered choice delicacies. Its blood, mixed with the contents of 
 its stomach, forms a favorite native dish. Its intestines are cleaned, 
 filled with tallow, and eaten as sausage. Its skin is made into clothes, 
 bedding, tent covers, reindeer harness, ropes, cords, and fish lines. 
 The hard skin of the fore legs make an excellent covering for snow- 
 shoes. Its sinews are made into a strong and lasting thread. Its 
 bones are soaked in seal oil and burned for fuel. Its horns are made 
 into various kinds of household implements, into weapons for hunting, 
 fishing, or Avar, and in the manufacture of sleds. Then the living an¬ 
 imal is trained lor riding and dragging of sleds. The general introduffi 
 tion of such an animal into that region avi’11 arrest the present starva¬ 
 tion and restock that vast country with a permanent food supply. It 
 Avill revive hope in the hearts of a sturdy race that is now rapidly pass¬ 
 ing away. Surely, the country that sends shiploads of grain to starv¬ 
 ing Russians, that has never turned a deaf ear to the call of distress in 
 any section of the globe, will not begrudge a few thousand dollars for 
 the purchase and introduction of this Siberian reindeer, and the rescue 
 of thousands of people from starvation. 
 
A Sad Story. 
 
9 
 
 * 
 
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 13 
 
 REPEOPLING THE COUNTRY. 
 
 In the second place the introduction of domestic reindeer into Alaska 
 will not only thus arrest the present starvation, but will assist in 
 increasing the population. With a more generous food supply this 
 population will commence to increase in numbers. Occupying a region 
 whose climatic conditions are so rigorous that but few white men will 
 ever be willing to make their permanent home in it, it is important, if 
 we would save it from being an unpeopled waste and howling wilder¬ 
 ness, that we build up the people who through generations have be¬ 
 come acclimated and who are as fervently attached to their bleak and 
 storm-swept plains as the people of temperate and torrid zones to their 
 dands of comfort and abundance. 
 
 They are a race worth saving. I find that public opinion, gained 
 perhaps by a more familiar knowledge of the Eskimo of Greenland 
 and Labrador, conceives of the Alaska Eskimos as of the same small 
 type. But this is not true. 
 
 In the extreme north, at Point Barrow, and along the coast of Bering 
 Sea they are of medium size. At Point Barrow the average height of 
 the males is five feet three inches and average weight 153 pounds 5 of 
 the women, four feet eleven inches and weight 135. On the Nushagak 
 Biver the average weight of the men is from 150 to 167 pounds. From 
 Cape Prince of Wales to Icy Cape and on the great inland rivers 
 emptying into the Arctic Ocean, they are a large race, many of them 
 being six feet and over in height. At Kotzebue Sound I have met a 
 number of men and women six feet tall. Physically they are very 
 strong, with great powers of endurance. When on a journey, if food 
 is scarce, they will travel thirty to forty miles without breaking their 
 fast. Lieutenant Cantwell, in his explorations of the Kowak Biver, 
 makes record that upon one occasion when he wanted a heavy stone 
 for an anchor a woman went out and alone loaded into her birch-bark 
 canoe and brought him a stone that would weigh 800 pounds. It took 
 two strong men to lift it out of the canoe. 
 
 Another explorer speaks of a woman carrying oft on her shoulder a 
 box of lead weighing 280 pounds. This summer, in erecting the school 
 buildings in the Arctic, there being no drays or horses in that country, 
 all the timbers, lumber, hardware, etc., had to be carried from the beach 
 to the site of the house on the shoulders of the people. They pride 
 themselves on their ability to outjump or outrun any of our race who 
 have competed with them. They can lift a heavier weight, throw a 
 heavy weight farther, and endure more than we. They are a strong, 
 vigorous race, fitted for peopling and subduing' the frozen regions of 
 their home. 
 
 Arctic and subarctic Alaska cover an empire in extent equal to nearly 
 all Europe. With the covering of those vast plains with herds of 
 domesticated reindeer it will be possible to support in comparative 
 comfort a population of 100,000 people where now 20,000 people have a 
 precarious support. To bring this about is worthy the fostering care 
 of the General Government. 
 
 CIVILIZATION OF THE ESKIMOS. 
 
 Thirdly, the introduction of domestic reindeer is the commencement 
 of the elevation of this race from barbarism to civilization. A change 
 from the condition of hunters to that of herders is a long step upwards 
 in the scale of civilization, teaching them to provide for the future by 
 new methods. 
 
14 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 Probably no greater returns can be found in this country from 
 the expenditure of the same amount of money than in lifting up this 
 native race out of barbarism by the introduction of reindeer and educa¬ 
 tion. 
 
 ARCTIC TRANSPORTATION. 
 
 Fourthly, the introduction of the domestic reindeer will solve the , 
 question of arctic transportation. (Appendix L.) The present trans- t 
 portation of that region is by dog sleds. One load of supplies for the , 
 trader or traveler requires a second load of food for the two teams of 
 dogs, and they make but short distances per day. This difficulty of 
 transportation has been one great drawback to the development of the 
 country. It has interfered with the plans of the fur trader; it bas in-* 
 terfered with Government exploration. Only three years ago when the 
 U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey sent two parties to determine the 
 international boundary between Alaska and British America the small 
 steamer that was conveying the supplies up the Yukon Biver was 
 wrecked, and it was with the utmost difficulty that the surveying par¬ 
 ties were kept from starvation' because of the difficulty of sending suffi¬ 
 cient food 2,000 miles along that great valley by dog sleds. If reindeer 
 had been introduced into the country there would have been no such 
 difficulty in furnishing food. Bills have been before Congress for sev¬ 
 eral years proposing to establish a military post in the Yukon Yalley. 
 
 If such a post is established it is not at all improbable that a combina¬ 
 tion of circumstances may arise some winter by which the forces that 
 shall be stationed there will be reduced to starvation unless reindeer 
 transportation shall have become so systematized that food can readily 
 be sent in from other regions. The same is true with reference to 
 the Government officials whom it may be found necessary to station in 
 that region. 
 
 The same is true of the forty or more missionaries and their families 
 that are now scattered through that vast region; also, of the teachers 
 and their families whom the Government has sent into that country. 
 
 These are now separated from all communication with the outside 
 world, receiving their mail but once a year. With reindeer transporta¬ 
 tion they could have a monthly mail. 
 
 During the jjast three years the whalers have been extending their 
 voyages east of Point Barrow to the mouth of the Mackenzie Biver, 
 and wintering at Herschel Island. To the owners of this property it 
 would be worth tens of thousands of dollars if they could hear from 
 their vessels in the winter before new supplies and additional vessels 
 are sent out in the spring. But this can not now be done. Last winter 
 letters were sent out from the field, overland, by Indian runners that as¬ 
 cended the Mackenzie, crossed over to the Porcupine, and descended the 
 Porcupine and Yukon rivers down to St. Michael, on the coast. It was 
 ten months before those letters reach ed their d estin ation. It was a great 
 satisfaction to the owners to hear of the welfare of their ships and 
 crews, but the news was too late for business purposes. Millions of 
 dollars’ worth of property and thousands of lives are involved in the 
 whaling business. With the introduction of domestic reindeer into 
 that region it will be both feasible and perfectly practicable to establish 
 a reindeer express during the winter from the Arctic coast down to the 
 North Pacific coast of Alaska. 
 
 The southern coast of Alaska on the Pacific Ocean never freezes, and 
 is accessible all the year around to vessels from San Francisco or Puget 
 Sound. 
 
ipn’C- 
 
 Reindeer 
 
 in Harness. 
 
 
 Reindeer under Saddle 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 15 
 
 A reindeer express across Alaska, from the Arctic to the Pacific 
 Ocean, would have a corresponding commercial value to that section as 
 the telegraph between New York and London to theirs. It would en¬ 
 able the owners of the whaling fleet to avail themselves of the latest 
 commercial news and keep a more perfect control over their business. 
 
 COMMERCIAL VALUE. 
 
 In the sixth place, the introduction of domesticated reindeer will 
 add a new industry to that country, which will go to swell the aggre¬ 
 gate'of national wealth. Lapland sends to market about 22,000 head of 
 reindeer a year, the surplus of her herds. 
 
 Through Norway and Sweden smoked reindeer meat and smoked 
 reindeer tongues are everywhere found for sale in their markets, the 
 hams being worth 10 cents a pound and the tongues 10 cents a piece. 
 There are wealthy merchants in Stockholm whose specialty and entire 
 trade is in these Lapland products. The reindeer skins are marketed 
 all over Europe, being worth in their raw condition from $1.50 to $1.75 
 apiece. The tanned skins (soft, with a beautiful yellow color) find a 
 ready sale in Sweden, at from $2 to $2.75 each. Reindeer skins are 
 used for gloves, military riding trousers, and the binding of books. 
 Reindeer hair is in great demand for the filling of life-saving appa¬ 
 ratuses, buoys, etc., and from the reindeer horns is made the best ex¬ 
 isting glue. One great article, smoked reindeer tongues, and tanned 
 skins are among the principal products of the great annual fair at 
 Nischnij Novgorod, Russia. In Lapland there are about 400,000 head 
 of reindeer, sustaining in comfort some 26,000 people. There is no 
 reason, considering the greater area of the country and the abundance 
 of reindeer moss, why arctic and subarctic Alaska should not sustain 
 a population of 100,000 people with 2,000,000 head of reindeer. In Lap- 
 land the reindeer return a tax of $1 a head to the Government, so that 
 they yield an annual revenue to the Government of $400,000. 
 
 With the destruction of the buffalo the material for cheap carriage 
 and sleigh robes for common use is gone. Bear and wolf skins are too 
 expensive; but with the introduction of the reindeer their skins would 
 to a certain extent take the place of the extinct buffalo. 
 
 The commercial importance of introducing domesticated reindeer in 
 Alaska was so manifest that shrewd business men on the Pacific coast 
 at once appreciated the great possibilities involved, and hastened, 
 through their chandlers of commerce and boards of trade, to take action 
 urging their several delegations in Congress to do what they could to 
 secure an appropriation of money for these purposes. (Appendix N.) 
 
 Under favorable circumstances a swift reindeer can traverse 150 miles 
 in a day. A speed of 100 miles per day is easily made. As a beast of 
 burden they can draw a load of 300 pounds. 
 
 The progress of exploration, settlement, development, government, 
 civilization, education, humanity and religion, are all largely dependent 
 in that region on reindeer transportation. 
 
 If there is any measure of public policy better established than 
 another or more frequently acted upon, it has been the earnest and 
 unceasing efforts of Congress to encourage and aid in every way the 
 improvement of stock, and the markets of the world have been searched 
 for improved breeds. The same wise and liberal policy will make ample 
 provision for the introduction of the reindeer, which of all animals is the 
 most serviceable and indispensable to man in high northern latitudes. 
 
 If it is sound public policy to sink artesian wells or create large water 
 
16 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 reservoirs for reclaiming large areas of valuable laud otherwise worth¬ 
 less; if it is the part of national wisdom to introduce large, permanent, 
 and wealth-producing industries where none previously existed, then it 
 is the part of national wisdom to cover that vast empire with herds of 
 domestic reindeer, the only industry that can live and thrive in that 
 region, and take a barbarian people on the verge of starvation, lift 
 them up to a comfortable support and civilization, and turn them from 
 consumers into producers of national wealth. 
 
 It will be noticed that the sum asked from Congress is only $15,000. 
 
 I hope that this will not be misunderstood and taken as a measure of 
 the importance of the movement, for if the proposed results could not 
 be obtained with any less sum an appropriation of hundreds of thou¬ 
 sands of dollars would be both wise and economical. 
 
 But so small a sum is accepted on the ground of proceeding with , 
 extreme caution. It is the commencement of a great movement that 
 will, if successful, extenjl its beneficial influences as long as the world 
 stands. Therefore we move slowly and carefully at first in order to 
 secure that success. Commencing in a small way, the first outlay of 
 money is not large. 
 
 In 1891 the sixteen reindeer purchased average $10.25 each. This 
 last season the general average was brought down to $5 each. 
 
 Superstitious ceremony connected with killing or selling reindeer in Siberia. 
 
 So far the purchase of the reindeer has been defrayed from the money 
 contributed by benevolent individuals. 
 
 REVENUE MARINE SERVICE. 
 
 These gratifying results, however, could not have been attained with¬ 
 out the hearty and active cooperation of the Revenue-Marine Service. 
 
 If this office had been required to charter a vessel for the transport¬ 
 ing of the reindeer nothing could have been done with the small sum 
 at our disposal. 
 
 But the Secretary of the Treasury directed that the revenue cutter 
 Bear , in addition to her regular duties of patrolling the Seal Islands and 
 the coasts of Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean, following the whaling 
 fleet and inspecting the Refuge Station at Point Barrow, should also 
 give what time was possible to transporting the reindeer. 
 
 To the captain, officers, and crew of the Bear is due much praise for 
 the hard work done by them. 
 
 Special thanks are due Capt. M. A. Healy for his earnestness and 
 efficiency in doing his part of the work; also to Lieut. D. H. Jarvis, 
 Surgeon S. J. Call, and Assistant Engineer Falkenstein, who were in 
 charge of much of the shore work of loading and unloading the deer. 
 
&3SK—^ 
 
 Ypresbytti 
 
 -’repared for U.S.Bureau of Education 
 By the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey 
 
 To accompany Reindjer.r Report by Sheldon Jackson , D D. 
 U. S • General Agent of Education. 
 
 ne sM>** ia * 
 
 Nu lx), to 
 
 f Ho man. Caxhnliaj 
 
 y Anvik 
 (JZpiscopalj+l 
 
 tsereiski 
 trruzn Catholic) 
 
 '■ouver 
 
 ■Catholic] 
 
 j I Nicnivak / 
 
 [ucrtehahtL 
 or avian*) 
 
 [Statute Mdts- 
 
 lapust) 
 
 FribOof 
 
 
\ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 17 
 
 I have the honor of inclosing an excellent map, prepared through the 
 courtesy of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, also several illustra¬ 
 tions kindly loaned by The Californian, Scribner’s, and Harper’s. 
 
 Also a few other photographs taken by Surg. Call and Assistant 
 Engineer Broadbent, of the Bear. 
 
 The map and illustrations will greatly add to the interest of the 
 report. 
 
 Hoping that Congress will provide the funds necessary for a further 
 prosecution of the work, I remain, with great respect, 
 
 Yours, truly, 
 
 SHELDON JACKSON, 
 General Agent of Education in Alaslca . 
 
 Hon. W. T. Harris, 
 
 Commissioner of Education, 
 
 S. Mis. 22- 
 
 i 
 
18 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 
 Appendix A. 
 
 [House Report No. 3414, Fifty-first Congress, second session.] 
 
 Mr. McComas, from the Committee on Education, submitted the following re¬ 
 port (to accompany H. Res. 258): 
 
 The Committee on Education reports favorably House joint resolution 258, with 
 sundry amendments recommended by the committee. 
 
 Congress has passsd several acts encouraging the establishment^ agricultural 
 schools and experiment stations in the different States and Territories. 
 
 These several acts re juire the assent of the legislatures of the several States 
 and Territories before their provisions become available; but as Alaska has no 
 legislature, it is the only Territory which is unable to avail itself of the benefits 
 and provisions of these acts. 
 
 This bill proposes to extend to Alaska the benefits and provisions of the agri¬ 
 cultural acts through the Secretary of the Interior, in like manner to the other 
 Territories. The acts are recited in the preamble to the joint resolution. 
 
 There has been very wide divergence of views with regard to the agricultural 
 and horticultural capabilities of Alaska, or whether it has any agricultural capa¬ 
 bilities at all. 
 
 This bill would secure the establishment of an experimental station in south¬ 
 ern Alaska, which has a temperate climate, and test the question of what can 
 and what can not be raised to advantage. 
 
 This would be of very great service, both to the natives, who, through the Gov¬ 
 ernment schools, are coming into-our civilization, and to the white settlers who 
 may locate in that vast region, which embraces about 580,000 square miles. 
 
 There are hundreds of thousands of square miles of area within the Arctic re¬ 
 gions of Alaska that, there is no question, can never be adapted to ordinary ag¬ 
 ricultural pursuits, nor utilized for purposes of raising cattle, horses, or sheep; 
 but this large area is especially adapted for the support of reindeer. 
 
 This bill will enable the Secretary of the Interior, through the Government 
 industrial schools, to make the stock-raising of reindeer the great industrial 
 feature of that region. 
 
 This will utilize hundreds of thousands of square miles of territory, will build 
 up a large and profitable industry, and above all, will provide a comfortable sup¬ 
 port for the native population of that region. 
 
 This is the more important at the present time, because the American whalers 
 have practically destroyed and driven out the whale and the walrus from the 
 waters adjacent to the coast of Alaska. 
 
 The destruction of the whale and walrus has taken away three-fourths of the 
 ordinary food supply of the Eskimo population, and that population to-day on 
 the Arctic coast of Alaska is on the verge of starvation. The large canneries will 
 soon take away the fish supply. 
 
 The introduction of tame reindeer from Siberia into Alaska thus has a two¬ 
 fold importance: 
 
 (1) As the establishment of a profitable industry. 
 
 (2) Asa relief of a starving people, a relief that will become more and more 
 valuable as the years roll round, a relief that once established perpetuates it¬ 
 self. 
 
 This project is wiser than to pauperize the people of Alaska. 
 
 The revenue from that country warrants this attempt to make these people 
 self-sustaining. 
 
 The lease of the Seal Islands by the United States Treasury Department to the 
 North American Commercial Company, on the basis of 100,000 skins, ought to 
 yield a revenue of about $1,000,000 annually. Under the old lease the revenue- 
 was $317,500 annually. 
 
 The extending to Alaska of the benefits of the agricultural bill approved Aug¬ 
 ust 30, 1890, would give for the year ending June— 
 
 1890 
 
 1891 
 
 1892 
 
 $15, 000 
 16, 000 
 17,000 
 
 48,000 
 
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 19 
 
 From the act establishing’ agricultural experiment stations approved July 2, 
 1862, the sum of $15,000. 
 
 The joint resolution would therefore carry for the year ending June 30, 1892, 
 $93,000, and for the following year, $3.‘f,000. 
 
 The committee report therefore this joint resolution with the following amend¬ 
 ments and recommend that it pass. 
 
 . In line 4, page 2, after the word “ to,” insert “give any assent required by 
 either of said acts, and to.” 
 
 In line 4, page 2, after the word “ benefits,” insert “ and provisions.” 
 
 In line 6, page 2, after “ Territory,” insert “of Alaska.” 
 
 In line 7, page 2, after the word “ acts,” add “ in like manner as for any other 
 Territory.” 
 
 Appendix B. 
 
 LIST OF CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE REINDEER FUND , 1891. 
 
 1891. 
 
 May 15. Miss H. S. Benson, Philadelphia_$200. 00 
 
 John N. Brown, Providence, R. I_ 200.00* 
 
 Jane N. Grew, Boston_ 30. 00 
 
 Mary P. Gardner, New York_ __ 10. 50 
 
 Sarah B. Reynolds, Kingston, N. Y__ 10. 00 
 
 Mrs. H. B. Otis, Roxbury, Mass_ 10. 00 
 
 M. A. & S. H. Foster, Portsmouth N. II_ 10.00 
 
 June 10. Boston Transcript from various persons_ 289. 00 
 
 E. G. Read, Somerville, N. J_____1_ 10.00 
 
 Elt'e V. V. Knox, New York_ 10. 00 
 
 Mrs. N. Williamson. Brunswick, N. J__ 10.00 
 
 E. E. B., 140 Lanvale street, Baltimore, Md_ 1.00 
 
 Helen B. French, Beloit, Wis_ 10. 00 
 
 Mary Ellen Smith, Philadelphia, Pa_ 10. 00 
 
 Judge E. R. Hoar, Concord, Mass_ 10. 00 
 
 C. H. Barstow, Crow Agency, Mont_ 15.00 
 
 M. E. D., per Boston Transcript___ 1.00 
 
 A. F. Allyn, Chelsea, Mass_____ 1.00 
 
 R. P. Wainwright, Asheville, N. C__ _ 10.00 
 
 M. A. Haven and Annie W. Davis, Portsmouth, N. H_ 10.00 
 
 Mary Hemingway, Boston, Mass__ 100. 00 
 
 The Mail and Express_ r ___ 500. 00 
 
 Mrs. William Thaw_ . _ 50. 00 
 
 Five children in one family, one reindeer each_ 50. 00 
 
 Mrs. F. L. Achey_ 20. 00 
 
 M. E. P_ 50. 00 
 
 The young ladies of Rye Seminary, Rye, N. Y_ 50. 00 
 
 Mary L. Parsons__ 20. 00 
 
 Y. P. S. C. E., Reformed Church, Mount Vernon_ 13. 65 
 
 Three ladies of East Orange, N. J_ 12. 00 
 
 G. K. Harroun___ 10. 00 
 
 H. G. Ludlow_ 10. 00 
 
 Mrs. H. G. Ludlow_ 10. 00 
 
 Mrs. R. C. Crane-- 10. 00 
 
 Mrs. Edwin G. Benedict_ 10. 00 
 
 Mrs. M. C. Cobb__--,_ 10. 00 
 
 E. M. Chadwick_:- 10.00 
 
 Augusta Moore_ 10.00 
 
 Rev. Wm. T. Doubleday__ 10. 00 
 
 E. M. Eames---- 10.00 
 
 Chas. H. Wells...-_ 10. (9 
 
 A. R. Slingushard_ 10.00 
 
 James M. Ham_’- 10.00 
 
 Mrs. James M. Ham_ 10. 00 
 
 Mrs. Robert I. Brown- --- 10. 00 
 
 William Rust_ 10. 00 
 
 Mrs. Levi S. Gates ____—. 10.00 
 
20 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 List of contributions to the Reindeer fund, 1891 —Continued. 
 
 1891. 
 
 June 10. Bethlehem Chapel Mission School_1- $10.00 
 
 Mrs, Richard L. Allen--- 10.00 
 
 Miss M. I. Allen._ 10.00 
 
 E. Holman..__ 10.00 
 
 C. and family, East Orange, N. J —-..---— 10. 00 
 
 J. Van Sant wood_ 5.00 
 
 James F. E. Little_ 5.00 
 
 Frederick W. Stoneback--- 5. 00 
 
 J. FI. Charles_ 5.00 
 
 V. Thompson_ 5.00 
 
 W. T. Bliss_ 5. 00' 
 
 Howard Wilson_ 5. 00 
 
 G. H. Fleming_*---- 5.00 
 
 W. S. Quigley_ 5.00 
 
 J. Lantz_ 5.00 
 
 From friends__ 2. 60 
 
 Mrs. L. E. Hastings_ 1.20 
 
 A. E. Barnes___ 1.00 
 
 Amelia J. Burt_ 1. 00 
 
 W. A. Deering_ 5.00 
 
 L. F. Golding_ 5.00 
 
 J. A. Hennessy_ 5.00 
 
 R. H. Stoddard_ 5.00 
 
 William R. Worrall_ 5. 00 
 
 H. W. Dourmett_ 5. 05 
 
 Betty Deming (a child)_ 10. 00 
 
 John Deming (a child)___ 10. 00 
 
 Anonymous___ 10. 00 
 
 Little Lights Society__^_ 5.00 
 
 Mrs. Edmund T. Lukens_ 5.00 
 
 W. S_ 5.00 
 
 Cuttenden Hull, A_ 10.00 
 
 Mrs. Clinton B. Fisk_ 10. 00 
 
 W. U. A_ 20.00 
 
 Thomas Harrington___ 10. 00 
 
 E_ 10.00 
 
 June 18. Mrs. Debbie H. Parker, Charlottesville, Ind_ 5.00 
 
 Gen. E. E. Whittlesey, Washington, D. C __ 10. 00 
 
 1892. 
 
 Feb. 1. Miss Mary Burroughs, Philadelphia, Pa_ 5.00 
 
 11. A. D. Simpson, Christiansburg, Va_ 10.00 
 
 Total___ 2,146.00 
 
 New York. 
 
 Appendix C. 
 
 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 By George Kennan. 
 
 \ 
 
 [Published by George P. Putnam’s Sons. 1870. Page 116.] 
 
 •Among the many superstitions of the Wandering Koraks and Chookchees one 
 of the most noticeable is their reluctance to paid with a living reindeer. You 
 may purchase as many dead deer as you choose, up to 500, for about 70 cents 
 apiece; but a living deer they will not give to you for love nor money. You 
 may offer them what they consider a fortune in "tobacco, copper kettles, beads, 
 and scarlet cloth for a single live reindeer, but they will persistently refuse to 
 sell him. Yet, if you will allow them to kill the very same'animal, you can have 
 
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA, 21 
 
 his carcass for one small string- of common g-lass beads. It is useless to argue 
 with them about this absurd superstition. You can get no reason for it or ex¬ 
 planation of it, except that to sell a live reindeer would be ‘'atkin” (bad). As 
 it was very necessary in the construction of our proposed telegraph line to have 
 trained reindeer of our own we offered every conceivable inducement to the Ko- 
 raks to part with one single deer ; but all our efforts were in vain. They could 
 sell us 100 dead deer for 100 pounds of tobacco, but 500 pounds would nor, tempt 
 them to part with a single animal as long as the breath of life was in his body. 
 During the two years and a half which we spent in Siberia no one of our parties, 
 so far as I know, ever succeeded in buying from the Koraks or Chookchees a 
 single living reindeer. 
 
 Appendix D. 
 
 DOMESTICATED BE IN DEER IN ALASKA. 
 
 v [House Report No. 1093, Fifty-seQond Congress, first session.] 
 
 Mr. Alexander, from the Committee on Agriculture, submitted the following 
 report: 
 
 The Committee on Agriculture, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 7764) to 
 secure the introduction of domesticated reindeer into Alaska, report the same 
 with a favorable recommendation. This bill does not properly come within the 
 jurisdiction of the Committee on Agriculture, but should have been considered 
 by the Committee on Appropriations. At the suggestion of the chairman of 
 the Committee on Appropriations the Committee on Agriculture, having heard 
 the testimony of the missionaries from Alaska, the Commissioner of Education, 
 and others in regard to the merits of the bill, have considered it and recommend 
 its passage. 
 
 The testimony showed that there are no reindeer in Alaska; that Alaska could 
 support many times enough reindeer to furnish the inhabitants with food and 
 clothing, and that the reindeer skins are indispensable for clothing; that the 
 whale and walrus, the principal supply of food, have been destroyed to such an 
 extent as to cause much suffering for food; that dogs are used for transporta¬ 
 tion, and in many places the supply of food is becoming so scarce that the na¬ 
 tives are compelled to eat their dogs, thus depriving them of the means of haul¬ 
 ing their supplies; that for the development of the country the domesticated 
 reindeer is absolutely indispensable; that the domesticated reindeer can make a 
 speed of 19 miles an hour, and that a fair average rate of speed is 12 miles per 
 hour; and this means of transportation is necessary to develop the gold fields of 
 the interior, which can only be worked from two to two and one-half months a 
 year ; that the reindeer would'be distributed at the Government schools, the na¬ 
 tive youths taught to herd and raise them, the increase to be given to worthy 
 students and native teachers for services rendered ; that this will induce the na¬ 
 tives to become herders, be self-supporting, and not a charge upon the Govern¬ 
 ment; that the natives have no vessels that can transport the live reindeer from 
 Siberia to Alaska; that the vessels from San Francisco to Alaska leave the 1st 
 of May to the 1st of June, none later than the last date mentioned, and that if 
 anything be done this year it is absolutely nece. sary to get the appropriation in 
 time to send the goods for the purchase of the reindeer by the revenue cutter 
 that leaves San Francisco the 1st of June. 
 
 The description given by the missionaries and others of the country, the hab¬ 
 its of the natives, etc’., was int resting. The distress caused by the continued 
 failure of the food supply shows plainly that the natives will not be able to sus¬ 
 tain themselves, and will become a charge upon the Government. For these 
 and other reasons the Committee on Agriculture urge the passage of this bill. 
 
22 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 Appendix E. 
 
 MR. W. T. LOPP\ S' BE CO N N O IS SANCE ALONG TIIE COAST NOBTH 
 
 OF BE BING STRAITS. 
 
 Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, 
 
 January 20,1892. 
 
 Dear Sir: According- to your instructions, I have made two expeditions up 
 the coast north of here, and submit you the following report: 
 
 In November employed Eskimo, dogs, and sled, and explored west shore of 
 Louge Inlet or Lake, just north of Cape Prince of Wales, up to ; its head, where 
 Grouse River empties into it. The mountains (see chart inclosed) were sloping 
 and rolling, not sharp and rocky, and covered with moss. Portions of these 
 hills were covered with 3 to 5inches of snow, but all the exposed portions were 
 free from any snow. This inlet is about 30 miles long and has two outlets to the 
 sea. Along the hanks of Grouse River are acres of bushes (3 to6feet.), hundreds 
 of ptarmigan, and nice-sized fish in the river. 
 
 On December 27 started with boy,'dogs, and sled for Ke-gik-tok. Had fine 
 weather—short days—visited about 300 people. Some settlements had plenty 
 of oil, seal meat, and fish, and others had little or none. All were very anxious 
 to have deer introduced. Most of them seem to doubt that ownership would 
 ever pass into their hands. They complain that they have to pay exorbitant 
 prices to Cape Prince of Wales chiefs for deer skins. They reported moss very 
 plentiful. At that time there was so little snow that it would be unneces¬ 
 sary to graze deer on the mountain side. I could see that the smooth ex¬ 
 panse of country from coast to mountain was covered with only 3 or 4 inches of 
 soft snow, no crusts or ice. (Unlike last winter, there have been no thaws this 
 winter, consequently no ice crust on snow.). These coast people live on seal 
 meat, oil, fish, ptarmigan, and squirrel. They are not a trading people, have 
 had little or no intercourse with ships ; are honest, industrious, and healthy. 
 
 Found a very prosperous settlementat Ke-gik-tok of eighty people. Asked me 
 to bring the school up there, etc. 
 
 I think several hundred deer could be grazed along the hills from Cape Prince 
 of Wales to Ke-gik-tok. I am satisfied from what I have seen and heard that 
 there are hundreds of acres of good grazing land extending* from the coast back 
 to rivers flowing into lakes back of Port Clarence and those flowing into Kotze¬ 
 bue Sound. Settlements are so distributed along the coast from Cape Prince of 
 Wales to Kotzebue Sound that deer-men along the mountains could easily he 
 supplied with seal oil and meat. And if inclosures are ever necessary there are 
 plenty of bushes in small rivers to make them. 1 think these coast people are 
 better situated and adapted for herding than any other Alaskan people. 
 
 They are all superstitious and are great cowards after dark. Perhaps it will 
 be necessary to have them stand watch at night in pairs until they become ac¬ 
 customed to the darkness. (One Eskimo never goes any place after dark if he 
 can help it. He see ghosts; but is all right with a companion.) 
 
 Hoping and trusting that we may sometime have occasion to make use of 
 knowledge obtained on these two little expeditions, I am, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 W. T. Lopp. 
 
 Dr. Sheldon Jackson, 
 
 Washington, I). C. 
 
 Appendix F. 
 
 BECONNOISSANCE NORTH OF PORT CLARENCE BY BRUCE 
 
 GIBSON. 
 
 Reindeer Station, Port Clarence, Alaska, 
 
 August 2, 1892. 
 
 Sir : I respectfully submit herewith report of expedition made by Mr. Gibson 
 into interior, north of station, for the purpose of ascertaining probable condition 
 of grazing for reindeer during winter months—copied from his notes, as follows: 
 
 I started oh expedition July 27, leaving station at 12 o’clock, noon ; taking 
 with me as guide Charley, as expert on pasturage, Chief Herder Pungen, and 
 
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 23 
 
 five natives to pack tent and supplies. Traveled in a northwesterly direction) 
 and for about! miles found good feed and several small lakes. I then changed 
 my course to north for about three-quart.rs of a mile and found scarcely any 
 feed, it being very rocky and bairen ; I then went west again for 7 miles and 
 camped at a river about .‘10 feet wide. The first quarter of a mile of this last 
 course was very rocky, boulders from 4 to 6 feet through being plentiful; the 
 remainder of the distance being good feeding-grounds. 
 
 “ The next day started north and traveled in that direction for about 9 miles 
 and found good pasturage on east side most of the way, and wild flowers and 
 berries grew in places; the west side of river is barren and very perpendicular 
 in several places. I then traveled to west and for a short distance on a small 
 river found some feed, but after traveling for 1 mile I retraced my steps and 
 went to northeast for about 3 miles; when men began to complain of being tired 
 and I ordered a halt for the night on a small stream running toward the east. 
 To northeast I saw good indications of feed. 
 
 ‘‘The next morning I got an early start, taking with me the guide and herder 
 and leaving the others behind to try and find a place to camp that night, hav¬ 
 ing to go without fire the previous night and this morning. I crossed the small 
 river and traveled north; for the first 2 miles there was but a small quantity■ 
 of feed, having passed over some very rocky ground. The next 34 miles there 
 is good pasturage, being plenty of grass and considerable moss. I crossed two 
 small streams in this course. Traveled east to get around some large hills ; at 
 about one-half mile came to a large mound of slaty rock—mound about 30 feet 
 high and 150 feet across. For 1 mile east found good pasture; crossed a small 
 stream running southeast. Changed to north and fori mile found good grazing 
 ground ; halted at a large cluster of rock for lunch and shelter from rain ; found 
 a white surface on one of the rocks, and I made the following inscription : 
 
 “ ‘ B. Gibson, July 29,1892, 12 m.,from Reindeer Station.’ Resumed march to 
 north and for 2 miles found good pasturage; crossed a small stream running to 
 south. About 1 mile south is a lake. Changed course to east for 3 miles, 
 crossed one stream, and found good feed in abundance. The land was of a rocky 
 nature. Started to return to camp and traveled southwest for 7 miles to where 
 .1 gave orders for camp to be located, but found they had gone farther east. I 
 crossed over good feeding ground of a boggy nature, similar to that surrounding 
 station. The herder said it was the best seen since starting on expedition ; it 
 was mostly lowland and some low rock hills. I found the camp 2 miles east of 
 where I expected it to be. 
 
 “The fourth day I started east and traveled for 4 miles over low hills, the 
 surface being of a broken nature and containing abundance of feed; coming to 
 high hills, changed course to southeast for 2| miles, finding fair pasturage and 
 ground slightly rocky. Sent packers on to river to find suitable camping grounds 
 for night. I traveled 5 miles to northeast, finding good pasturage of a boggy 
 nature ; crossed one small stream. Changed to southeast 1 mile and south 1 mile, 
 finding good pasturage on low hills: changed to southwest over low, hilly, and 
 rocky land in some places slightly boggy; the feed on this last course was 
 abundant and of a good quality. 
 
 “ Fifth day. —It stormed hard last night and blew the tent down about 3 o'clock. 
 
 I broke camp about 7 o'clock and started for the station, taking a southwest 
 course. After traveling for about 5 miles I crossed a small stream running very 
 rapidly toward the northeast. The land was low hills and furnished abundance 
 of feed. I traveled 2 miles farther in same direction and crossed a large stream 
 with swift current and running northeast; the feed and land the same as passed 
 earlier in the day. Continuing in same direction, but a little more to west for 
 4 miles I traveled over low hills ; good pasturage and plenty of moss. I crossed 
 large hill to north of station ; found it barren and very high and rocky. It is 
 about 1 mile from bottom of hill to open land, and from there on to station is 
 good grazing land. I arrived at station at 4:15 in the afternoon. It had stormed 
 hard from the time I left until my return, raining and blowing hard. 
 
 “ In closing, I will say the herder told me the ground passed over was very 
 good and equaled and in places excelled the pasturage in Siberia; he further 
 stated that the pasturage surrounding station was sufficient for a year, provid¬ 
 ing that in the winter there was not over 1 foot of snow nor over 1£ inches of 
 icy crust on top. If the ice comes first and the snow later, it is impossible for 
 the deer to dig out the feed. 
 
 “ I noticed in my travels that the feed was on low hills and lowlands, the high 
 hills being barren. 
 
 “The guide, Charley, said that for a long distance into the interior the low- 
 
24 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 lands were the same as passed over, thus showing- that, should it be necessary 
 to go to the interior this winter, there will surely be plenty of feed for the rein¬ 
 deer.” 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Miner W. Bruce, 
 
 ! Teacher. 
 
 Rev. Sheldon Jackson, 
 
 General Agent of Education in Alaska. 
 
 Appendix G. 
 
 EECONNOISSANCE EAST OF POET GLARE NOE, BY MINEE W. 
 
 BEUGE. 
 
 Reindeer Station, Port Clarence. Alaska, 
 
 August 19 , 1892. 
 
 Sir: In your letter of instructions for the government of this station, dated 
 July 4, ultimo, you suggest, among other things, that two expeditions be sent 
 out for the purpose of ascertaining the prospects for winter grazing for the rein¬ 
 deer, should the country in this immediate vicinity become covered with ice or 
 deep snow, thus preventing the deer from pawing through it for food. 
 
 One route designated by you was to the north for the station, in the direction 
 of Kotzebue Sound; and in accordance with your instructions Mr. Gibson, on 
 the 27th ultimo, made a trip in that direction, lasting four days and a half, the 
 result of which I communicated to you officially on the 2d day of the present 
 month. 
 
 On the 3d instant I started on a trip to the northeast, with an oomeak and 
 seven natives, expecting, if my health permitted, to be gone ten days or two 
 weeks. 
 
 Our route lay through Grantiey Harbor into Imnrock Lake, and having a fair 
 wind, we made a splendid day’s sail, taking us about half way through the lake, 
 and camping the first night on the west side. 
 
 I wish especially to call your attention to the route from Grantiey Harbor into 
 Imnrock Lake, as it affords, in the event of severe storms, unusual shelter for¬ 
 th e deer. 
 
 A narrow passage, probably 6 miles in length, connects these two beautiful 
 bodies of water, and as it winds its zigzag course along the line of bluffs on each 
 side, which commence immediately on leaving Grantiey Harbor, is unbroken un¬ 
 til Imnrock Lake is reached. The passage seems to be of nearly an uniform 
 width, and will not exceed, at its widest part, one quarter of a mile. The bluffs 
 on both sides are about 200 feet high, and there appears to be water sufficient to 
 float an ocean vessel. 
 
 At several places along the route I left the oomeak, and with the Siberian 
 herder went to the top of the bluff and found the country to the north a gently 
 undulating table-land, and with my glasses I could see that for several miles this 
 character of country did not seem to change. 
 
 On the south side the same aspect of country appeared, but 4 or 5 miles to the 
 south the country became more broken, and took in what appeared to be low 
 mountains. 
 
 The whole surface of the country on both sides was covered with a luxuriant 
 growth of low bushes, occasional patches of grass, having the appearance of blue 
 joint, and what was certainly red-top grass and mosses. 
 
 Even on this table-land the surface of the country was very uneven, being in 
 places hummocky, and the little spots between seemed to be marshy and often 
 lilled with water. 
 
 The Siberian herder seemed much pleased with the character of the feed, and 
 frequently pointed out the different kinds of grasses or shrubbery that the deer 
 were fond of, and always designated the moss as choice winter grazing. 
 
 From the natives in my party I learned that the snow in this passage does not 
 reach a depth of over one foot, and usually less; also, that when one side of the 
 passage is covered with snow, the other is lightly covered. If this be true, it 
 would appear that the deer, if it becomes necessary to move them from the sta¬ 
 tion, can find good grazing either one. side or the other of the passage; and in 
 s evere storms a refuge may be had behind the high walls of the bluff's. 
 
 # 
 
 - tm»tth i i ^ . . . 
 
INTRODUCTION OP DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 25 
 
 On the morning following our first day’s sail 1 took the herder to the top of 
 the hill just back of our camp. It is probably four or five hundred feet high 
 and runs out to a point into Imnrock Lake. Prom its top a splendid view of the 
 country in every direction is had. The general contour, as far as I could see, 
 whs the same as that observed from the bluffs along the narrow passage. My 
 position commanded a view to the northwest, north, and northeast, and for a 
 distance of 25 miles at least the same character of country prevailed. As far as 
 the eye could reach not a mountain was visible and not a speck of snow was seen. 
 
 To the west there were several miles of what appeared to be a marsh, or a very 
 lo w land, covered with little patches of water back from the lake. These gradu¬ 
 ally disappeared in the north, where the land became higher and of the same 
 general character I found farther to the south. 
 
 From my position I could see the faint outline of the north end of the lake, 
 probably 12 or 15 miles away, and I thought I could discern the winding course 
 of a river coursing through the table-lands to the north, and if so, it was prob¬ 
 ably the Agee-ee-puk River. 
 
 On the sides and top of the hill from which I was making my observations there 
 was a thick growth of the same kind of grasses and shrubbery found the day 
 before. I was surprised to find along the route to the top of the hill patches of 
 low willow and elder bushes, from the branches of which twittered and flitted 
 small birds, and every few paces we advanced aroused ptarmigan in large num¬ 
 bers. 
 
 There was nothing in the appearance of the country, so far as I could see, that 
 would suggest anything like what one would expect to find bordering on the 
 Arctic circle. On the contrary, the vegetation, much of it, was such as is found 
 in temperate climates, and the birds and insects of the same variety that abound 
 in country where the'mercury never ranges lower than zero. 
 
 From my position on the top of the hill I could see what appeared to be a 
 break in the range of mountains on the south side of the lake, and as the wind 
 was blowing from the north, thus preventing farther advance in the present 
 state of the weather, I concluded to sail to the other side and investigate the 
 country in that direction. 
 
 The distance across was about 4 miles, but the wind died out when about half 
 way across, and we were compelled to paddle the rest of the way, a very slow 
 process of travel in an oomeak. 
 
 On reaching shore we went into camp, and after dinner I started with the 
 natives for the mountains. My puropse was to simply get an idea of the coun¬ 
 try between the shore of the lake and the foot of the mountains that day, and 
 take all of the next for determining the extent of the pass. 
 
 All the afternoon we traversed the lowlands towards the mountains and found 
 the same general growth of vegetation as that found before. It could not well 
 be of thicker growth or to all appearances more nutritious. If any thing there 
 was more moss, and perhaps the low bushes hung fuller with blueberries than 
 any found before. There were several small mountain streams leading across to 
 the lake, and if they were supplied from melting snow it was far up or hidden 
 between narrow gorges, as none were seen from where we traveled. 
 
 It was after 6 o’clock when we returned to camp, and before retiring the na¬ 
 tives understood that on the morrow we were going to try to find a passage 
 into the interior. 
 
 Accordingly, by 7 o’clock we were ready to begin our tramp. We took with 
 us an ax, spade, field glass, and two hard-tack apiece. Our course lay across the 
 lowlands towards what appeared to be a break in the mountains, and it was at 
 least 7 mile s from camp across to the entrance. Part of the distance lay over 
 comparatively smooth land, and a considerable portion over hummocky ground. 
 There did not appear to be any difference in the thickness of the vegetation or 
 the variety in these two different surfaces^, but the rough ground was the most 
 tedious I have ever attempted to travel over. The little ridges or hummocks 
 are too wide to step over, and too shaky to stand upon, so that our trip over this 
 section was a series of ujjs and downs, mostly the latter. 
 
 At our stops for rest I had holes dug with the spade and was surprised to find 
 a black, sandy soil, from 1 foot to 3 feet deep, in nearly every instance. Some- 
 times we could not dig more than a few inches on account of encountering stone 
 or slabs of rock:, but this was not the rule. I thought I discovered the secret of 
 such a heavy and luxuriant vegetation here, from the rich class of the soil and 
 the abundance of water. 
 
 In our way towards the break we passed through two groves of elder and wil¬ 
 low trees that were dense, of from 2 to 4 inches in diameter near the butt and 
 
26 INTRODUCTION OP DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 from 10 to 15 feet high. It was evident that a little grubbing and thinning out 
 would have improved the size of these trees materially. 
 
 Our journey up the side of the mountain near what appeared to be a pass was 
 a tedious one, for the nature of the ground was more or less hummocky. I find 
 that this class of land is as liable to occur on high or table land as upon low and 
 marshy ground. 
 
 It became apparent as we ascended the mountain that the break or pass which 
 appeared to extend through the range was a false one, and when near the top it 
 appeared to be a sort of blow-out which came to an abrupt perpendicular at the 
 end of a sudden break ahead. Prom the top of the mountain we had ascended, 
 although not the highest by considerable, we could see that the country to the 
 south was a succession of mountains of perhaps 2,000 or 3,000 feet high, and that 
 there was no pass into the interior unless following the course of some river. 
 
 Accordingly, we commenced our descent about 2 o’clock, and varied our course 
 somewhat. It took us farther to the east along the base of the mountains and 
 then straight to camp. 
 
 On our way back we passed over a section of country that was a complete bed 
 of moss. We could rake it up in armfuls, and in a few minutes, during a spelL of 
 rest, we gathered sufficient to feed, as our Siberian herder declared, our whole 
 herd of about 150 head of deer for one day. 
 
 If his estimate was correct, I feel assured that in this particular section a half- 
 dozen men with hand rakes and pitchforks could, in one week, gather enough to 
 feed our herd the coming winter. 
 
 At different times during the day, as had occurred during the day before, the 
 Siberian herder gave me to understand that a trip in search of winter grazing 
 was a useless expenditure of time ; that what might appear to be good feeding- 
 ground now, when winter set in might be covered with a thick crust of ice or 
 deep snow; that nothing could be told from the lay of the land whether feed 
 could be gotten at by the deer or not; that a locality which was all that could 
 be desired this winter would be totally inaccessible next; that it was the prac¬ 
 tice on the Siberian side to select what appeared to be a good section for winter 
 grazing, and if it became covered with thick ice or deep snow, to move the deer 
 to some locality where feed could be had. 
 
 This was the same information Mr. Gibson had gathered from our chief Si¬ 
 berian herder, whom he had with him, and I partly resolved, if the wind was 
 not favorable for moving north the following morning, to retrace my steps and 
 return to the station. 
 
 I had left rather against my judgment, for my work of late had told on me 
 and I needed rest. On my return to camp that evening I was completely worn 
 out, and during the night experienced a slight chill. 
 
 The morning broke rainy, and I was feeling miserably. The judgment of the 
 Siberian that it was a useless trip was a strong argument in my present condi¬ 
 tion, and when, an hour later, a strong north wind settled the matter of prog¬ 
 ress towards the north against us, at least for that day, but was a fair wind for 
 the station, I ordered everything packed, and, after about fourteen hours’ sail, 
 reached the station. 
 
 As we must in a considerable measure depend upon the judgment of the four 
 Siberian herders, who have spent all their lives in the rearing and care of rein¬ 
 deer, it seems to me that in the present state of affairs at the station, with so 
 much to do and so little time before cold weather will set in, when the presence 
 of myself and Mr. Gibson is required, further exploration in search of winter 
 feed ought to be abandoned, or at least postponed until later in the fall. 
 
 From this view of the matter, I would respectfully ask a modification of your 
 instructions upon this point. 
 
 I have the honor to be, very respectfully, 
 
 Miner W. Bruce, 
 
 * Teacher. 
 
 Rev. Sheldon Jackson, 
 
 General Agent of Education in Alaska, Washington, 1). Q. 
 
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 27 
 
 Appendix IT. 
 
 INSTBUCTIONS FOB GUIDANCE OF BEINDEEB STATION. 
 
 On Board U. S. Revenue Marine Steamer Bear, 
 
 At anchor off Port Clarence , July 4, 1892. 
 
 Sir: During- the months of August and September, 1891,1 purchased in Siberia 
 and landed (September 21) at Unalaska sixteen domestic reindeer. Having no 
 herder to take charge of them, I turned them loose on the small island of Arnak- 
 nak, where they successfully wintered. 
 
 The landing this morning at this station from the U. S. Revenue Marine 
 steamer Bear (Capt. Michael A. Healey, commander) of a band of fifty-three 
 domesticated reindeer from South Head, Siberia, together with four herders, 
 marks the establishment of the first herd of the kind in Alaska. 
 
 This is an event of far more than ordinary importance. If successful, it will 
 create throughout northern and central Alaska a new food supply in place of 
 the whale, the walrus, and the fur-bearing animals that are yearly becoming 
 scarcer and more difficult to obtain. 
 
 Furnished a better and surer food supply, the native population, now decreas¬ 
 ing in numbers, may reasonably be expected to increase. 
 
 Changing them from mere hunters to herdsmen, it will be the first upward step 
 in their civilization. 
 
 With the increase in civilization of the natives and the general introduction 
 of domestic reindeer, the vast, bleak, frigid, and now comparatively useless 
 plains of Arctic Alaska will be reclaimed and become a source of wealth and 
 prosperity to the land. 
 
 The realization of this desirable condition of things is largely in your hands. 
 The friends of the movement and the National Government, which has been 
 asked to extend it, will be encouraged to go forward or led to withdraw from 
 further effort as the herd now intrusted to your care prospers or comes to 
 naught. 
 
 With so much at stake, you will make the care and welfare of the herd your 
 first and most constant care. Everything else is of secondary importance. 
 
 WINTER GRAZING. 
 
 The most trying season will be next winter, when the food that now abounds 
 everywhere will be largely covered up with snow and ice. In Siberia I am in¬ 
 formed that the winter grazing is sometimes from 100 to 150 miles away from 
 the summer grounds, the herd being driven back and forth spring and fall. 
 
 It is essential, then, that you take early steps to find a good location for win¬ 
 ter. To this end I would advise that as soon as your house is inclosed you take 
 Charley and the most experienced of the Siberian herders and make a thorough 
 exploration of the surrounding country. I would make one trip through Grantly 
 Harbor, Yoks-hook River, Imrock Lake, to the headwaters of Agee-ee-puk and 
 C'ov-vee-arak rivers; also, on the trail from Grantly Harbor towards Unala 
 Kleet and St. Michael. I would also advise a trip into and through the moun¬ 
 tains north of the station. Charley will be a good guide, and perhaps the Sibe¬ 
 rian will know by the lay and general appearance of the land the most suitable 
 place to winter. 
 
 I feel great solicitude with regard to this. A mistake may result in the loss 
 of our herd by starvation. The natives around Port Clarence affirm that, while 
 there is not much snow on the plains between the hills and the sea, yet it is cov¬ 
 ered with a hard, icy crust which the deer can not break through for food. 
 They further say that, years ago, when the wild reindeer frequented the coast, 
 they were only found in summer—that in winter they migrated towards Norton 
 Sound. 
 
 It may prove* that the winter grazing grounds that shall be selected may be 
 too far away; that it will become necessary to close up for the winter the present 
 house and establish temporary headquarters in the vicinity of the deer. If this 
 necessity arises, I would suggest that you build a log house (if in a timber coun¬ 
 try) or a dugout for winter use. 
 
 PROTECTION FROM DOGS. 
 
 Another danger to the herd arises from the attacks of strange dogs. You 
 will, therefore, require one of the herders on watch to be armed, and instruct 
 
28 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 him to shoot down any dog attacking the herd and report the same to you for 
 settlement. When a dog is thus killed you will send for the owner, explain to 
 him the necessity for the step, express your regret at his loss, and then make 
 suitable payment for the dog. 
 
 When any visiting natives come into your neighborhood have them notified 
 at once that they must keep their dogs tied up. Deal firmly, justly, kindly, and 
 patiently with the natives, and thus secure their good will. 
 
 Once a month you will count the herd, and if any are missing or have been 
 killed note it down, with cause (if known), and report same with all the circum¬ 
 stances to the Bureau of Education. 
 
 If any exigency arises by which it becomes necessary to kill a deer for food, 
 you will first use any surplus among' the geldings, and after that from among 
 the bulls. None are to be killed, however, except incases of extreme necessity. 
 
 HERDERS. 
 
 « 
 
 The herders consist of two classes : 
 
 1. Experienced men from Siberia. 
 
 2. Native Alaskans who may wish to learn the management and care of rein¬ 
 deer. 
 
 The Siberians, being away from their friends and among a strange, selfish, 
 and at times jealous and suspicious people, need your special care and protection. 
 Take pains to make them feel that you hav e a fatherly interest in them. I hope 
 their treatment will be such that they will choose to remain with us perma¬ 
 nently. 
 
 The second class should be picked young men (one or two from a settlement), 
 who ai e expected to take a two-years training in the care of the herd and thus 
 become fitted to take charge of future herds in the neighborhood of their own 
 homes. At the close of their two-years course, if they have been faithful to their 
 duties and mastered the business, it is proposed to uive them the deer as their 
 start in life. This class will need constant watching. Anyone persistently re¬ 
 fusing to obey necessary rules, shirking his duties on watch, or otherwise 
 showing a want of interest in this work, or anyone that proves too dull to learn 
 is to be dismissed from the service and sent away from the station. 
 
 The second class are to be subdivided into classes corresponding with the num¬ 
 ber in the first class. 
 
 For instance, if you should have twelve in the second class, and, as now, four 
 in the first class, you will place three of the second class under the tuition and 
 oversight of each of the four of the first class; and whenever he goes on watch 
 they shall accompany him and be subject to his direction. It will then, as a 
 gen ral rule, be necessary for only one of the Siberians to be with the herd at a 
 time. In case of sickness of one of the Siberians his pupils will be assigned duty 
 with the others until the sick one recovers and returns to duty. 
 
 After conference with the Siberians you will be able to systematize the hours 
 of watch. In this I would defer largely to the method pursued in Siberia. 
 
 When the seasons of watch are determined upon you will see that each watch 
 promptly relieves the preceding one at the proper time. 
 
 The herders of both classes are to be housed, clothed, fed, and cared for at the 
 expense of the station. 
 
 SHELTER. 
 
 At the home station, when off duty, have the herders construct comfortable 
 dugouts for their own use. If you can spare the large dugout already com¬ 
 menced that can be turned oven* to the herders. 
 
 If it becomes necessary to have the herd a large distance off, buy some wal¬ 
 rus hides for a covering, and let the herders make a small tent that can be 
 moved from place to place. 
 
 You will make an inspection of the dugouts every Saturday, and require them 
 to be kept as cleanly as possible. Allow no slops or offal to be thrown upon the 
 ground near the door. 
 
 SUPPLIES. 
 
 You will furnish them with the necessary'- iron teakettles and pots for cook¬ 
 ing. They are expected to procure driftwood for fuel. You will also furnish 
 them a sufficiency of reindeer skins foe bedding. These supplies are Govern¬ 
 ment property, and are to be carried upon the inventory list. 
 
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 29 
 
 CLOTHING. 
 
 You will supply them with comfortable native fur clothing, according- to the 
 season. 
 
 If the supplies I leave with you for this year are not sufficient, you will employ 
 some of the native women to make more. As the reindeer clothing can be pur¬ 
 chased ready made in Siberia cheaper than made in Alaska, you wilL make out at 
 each season a list of garments needed and respectfully request the commanding 
 otfi5br of the revenue cutter to have them purchased for you. For this you will 
 furnish him sufficient barter from the reindeer trade goods. 
 
 Once a month you will inventory all bedding, clothing, cooking utensils, and 
 other Government property used by the herders. 
 
 Twice a month, if the weather is suitable, all bedding should be hung out to 
 air and sun upon a line erected for the purpose. 
 
 Herders of the second class need special watching that they do not give or sell 
 their clothes, bedding, or other Government property to their friends. 
 
 FOOD. 
 
 Flour, corn meal, pilot bread, beans, and tea will be sent, from San Francisco. 
 It is best, however, as far as possible, to preserve their native diet. You will 
 therefore purchase supplies of oil, dried and fresh fish, etc. 
 
 As soon as you can determine it fix upon a regular ration, which you can is¬ 
 sue daily or at regular intervals as experience shall show to be best. 
 
 Outsiders or friends are not to be allowed to gather in and eat with the herders. 
 Nor shall the herders be allowed to give them food. If any food is to be given 
 away it must be done by the superintendent or his assistant, and an account 
 kept of the same, giving date, approximate amount, and number of recipients. 
 You will encourage the herders when off: duty to trap for rabbits and foxes both 
 for fur and food. 
 
 When any garment, bedding, skin, or other property (except food) is issued 
 to a herder or his wife, charge it against him in a book kept for the purpose. 
 This will be a check against wastefulness, prevent any one receiving more or 
 less than his share, and enable us to keep an account of the expense of training 
 each individual. 
 
 WIVES. 
 
 If any of the herders shall be married and have their wives with them, you 
 can issue a ration and clothing also to the wife, requiring from her in return 
 some sewing or cooking for the herders. If there are several women you can 
 apportion the work among them. 
 
 SCHOOL. 
 
 ' / y- , 
 
 If circumstances permit, you will gather the herders that are off duty, and 
 such others as may wish to attend, into the schoolroom for two or three hours 
 daily (except Saturday and Sunday) and drill them in elementary reading, arith¬ 
 metic, and writing. Special emphasis will be given, both in and out of school, 
 to the use of the English language. 
 
 FUEL. 
 
 As far as possible you will procure and use driftwood for fuel at the station. 
 The coal is to be reserved for keeping a fire through the night and for seasons 
 when you may be unable to secure driftwood. 
 
 MORALS. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to write that you will allow no liquor, gambling, pro¬ 
 fanity, or immorality at the station or among the herders. 
 
 You will allow no barter or unnecessary work at the station on Sunday. 
 
 You or your assistant must always be at the station. Both of you must not 
 be absent at the same time. If the station is temporarily removed to the winter 
 grazing grounds then that for the time being becomes headquarters. 
 
30 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 REPORTS. 
 
 1. You will keep a log book or brief daily journal of events at the station, ex¬ 
 tending from July 1 of each year io the following June 30. This book is to be 
 mailed to the Bureau of Education. 
 
 2. You will keep in a book furnished you an itemized statement of all barter 
 for supplies for the station, giving date of transaction, name and quantity of 
 article purchased, and articles and quantities of each given in exchange. ^A 
 copy of this statement will be annually forwarded to the United States Bureau 
 of Education. 
 
 3. On the last day of March, June, September, and December of each year you 
 will make out an inventory of all stores and public property in your possession, 
 including bedding and cooking utensils in use by the herders. This does not 
 include the clothing issued to and in use by the herders. 
 
 A copy of these reports will be forwarded by the annual mail to the United 
 States Bureau of Education. 
 
 4. On the last day of June each year you will make out and mail to the United 
 States Bureau of Education an annual report of operations at the station. In 
 this report you will embody any recommendations that your experience may 
 suggest for the benefit of the station. 
 
 5. On the 1st of August each year you will make a requisition for supplies for 
 the following year. 
 
 As the work is new and untried, much must necessarily be left to your discre¬ 
 tion and good judgment. 
 
 Wishing you great success, I remain 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Sheldon Jackson, 
 
 General Agent. 
 
 Mr. Miner W. Bruce, 
 
 a Superintendent of 'Reindeer Station , Port Clarence , Alaska. 
 
 Appendix J. 
 
 DOMESTIC REINDEER IN LAPLAND. 
 
 [From Du Chaillu’s Land of the Midnight Sun, vol 2, pp. 167 and 168.] 
 
 The Fjeld Lapp’s time is engaged in adding to his herd, to which he and his 
 family devote all their energies, for their welfare depends on the growth of the 
 animals. It is difficult to ascertain exactly the increase or decrease of reindeer 
 according to the districts, for the people often change, and there has been of 
 late years in the North a large immigration of Norwegian Lapps to the terri¬ 
 tory of Sweden, especially to Keresuando* but, taken as a whole, the population 
 and the reindeer are increasing. There is a greater number in Norway than in 
 Sweden, owing to the number of stationary bonder (farmer) and sea Lapps which 
 far outnumber the nomads. 
 
 According to the late census there are in Sweden (1870) 6,702 Laplanders', 
 with 220,800 reindeer; in Norway (1865) 17,178 Laplanders, with 101,768 reindeer ; 
 in Finland (1865) 615 Laplanders, with 40,200reindeer ; in Russia (1859) 2,207 Lap¬ 
 landers, with 4,200 reindeer. 
 
 With those that belong to farmers and others I think we may safely say that 
 the reindeer number about 400,000. The Samo'ides have the largest and finest 
 breeds which are not numbered among those of the Lapps. In Kautokeino there 
 are Lapps who own 2,000 reindeer; in Sorsele, in Sweden, one is said to own 
 5,000, and others 1,000 and 2,000. Some of the forest Lapps have 1,000. In Lulea 
 Lappmark there are herds of over 2,000; in Finmarken, of 5,000; and some 
 Lapps have owned as many as 10,000. A herd of 2,000 to 2,500 is said to give 
 about 200 to 250 calves yearly. 
 
 Every owner has his own mark branded upon the ears of all his reindeers, and 
 no other person has a right to have the same, as this is the lawful proof of own¬ 
 ership ; otherwise, when several herds are mingled on the mountains, the sep¬ 
 aration would be impossible. According to custom no one can make a new mark 
 but must buy that of an extinct herd ; if these are scarce the price paid to the 
 families that own them is often high ; the name of the purchaser and each mark 
 have to be recorded in court, like those of any other owner and property. The 
 tax paid is according to the pasture land occupied. 
 
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 31 
 
 Appendix K. 
 
 U. S. Revenue Steamer Bear, 
 
 San Francisco , Gal., December 6, 1890. 
 
 Dear Sir : Under orders from the Secretary of the Treasury, I have been ten 
 years on the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean station of the U. S. Revenue Marine 
 Service. 
 
 My duties have brought me very closely in contact with and greatly interested 
 me in the native population. 
 
 On account of this interest, I have watched with pleasure the coming among 
 them of the missionaries of the several churches and the teachers of the Govern¬ 
 ment schools. 
 
 I have also seen with apprehension the gradual exhaustion of the native food 
 supply. 
 
 From time immemorial they have lived principally on the whale, seal, walrus, 
 salmon, and wild reindeer. But in the persistent hunt of white men for the 
 whale and walrus, the latter has largely disappeared, and the former been 
 driven beyond the reach of the natives. The white men are also erecting can¬ 
 neries on their best fishing streams, and the usual supply offish is being cut off; 
 and with the advent of improved firearms the wild reindeer are migrating 
 farther and farther away. 
 
 With the disappearance of the whale, walrus, salmon, and reindeer, a very 
 large portion of their food supply is taken away, and starvation and gradual ex¬ 
 tinction appear in the near future. 
 
 On my recent cruise I was accompanied by Dr. Sheldon Jackson, United States 
 General Agent of Education, and together we have made the question of a future 
 food supply the subject of special thought and investigation. 
 
 We have consulted with a few of the leading teachers, missionaries, traders, 
 and whaling captains whom we have met, and they, without a single exception, 
 agree with us that the most practical relief is the introduction of domesticated 
 leindeer into that portion of Northern and Arctic Alaska adapted to them. 
 
 In Lapiand there are 400,000 domesticated reindeer, sustaining a population of 
 27,000. In Siberia, but a few miles from Alaska, with climate and country of 
 similar conditions, are tens of thousands of tame reindeer supporting thousands 
 of people, and it will be a very easy and comparatively cheap matter to introduce 
 the tame reindeer of Siberia into Alaska and teach the natives the care and 
 management of them. 
 
 This it is proposed to do in connection with the industrial schools established 
 among the natives by the Bureau of Education. As in connection with the in¬ 
 dustrial schools in Dakota, Indian Territory, and elsewhere, the Indian boy is 
 taught the raising of stock, so in the industrial schools of Alaska it is proposed 
 to teach the Eskimo young men the raising of tame reindeer. 
 
 A few thousand dollars expended now in the establishment of this new indus¬ 
 try will save hundreds of thousands hereafter. For if the time comes when the 
 Government will be compelled to feed these Eskimo it will costover $1,000,000. 
 
 InNorlhern Alaska there are about 400,000 square miles that are adapted to 
 the reindeer and are unlit for anything else. 
 
 This region has a present population of about 20,000, all of whom will be ulti¬ 
 mately benefited by the new industry. 
 
 With an assured support, such as will come from herds of tame reindeer, 
 there is no reason why the present population shall not be increased in numbers 
 and advanced to the position of civilized, wealth-producing American citizens. 
 
 Asking for your favorable consideration and earnest advocacy of this matter, 
 I remain, yery respectfully, 
 
 M. A. Heady, 
 
 Captain, U. IS. lievenue Marine. 
 
 Hon. W. F. Harris, LE.D., 
 
 U. S. Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C. 
 
 DESTITUTION AMONG THE ALASKA ESKIMO. 
 
 TAn interview with Capt. M. A. Healy, U. S. Revenue Marine Service, in San Francisco Chron 
 L icle, December 12, 1890.] 
 
 For several seasons past the Eskimo of Northwestern Alaska have experienced 
 great hardships in obtaining a supply of deer meat lot their winter stores. It 
 is to be feared that when the Bear makes her annual visit to the Arctic next 
 
32 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 summer many of the villages will be found to have lost their residents from 
 starvation. The latest advices from the Arctic report a failure not only in the 
 autumn deer hunt, but in the entire catch of whales, walrus, and seals. 
 
 Naturally of a timid disposition the deer hhve learned that the natives with 
 breech-loading arms are far more formidable foes than when bows, arrows, and 
 spears were employed in the chase. Again, the Eskimo spare neitheryoung nor 
 old when a herd is found, and little suckling fawns, as well as does carrying 
 young, fall victims to their guns. 
 
 Formerly on the lower Yukon around St. Michael, on Norton Sound, and in 
 the country known as the Kotzebue Sound district, numbers of deer made yearly 
 visits. Now it is rare to find that the natives living at these points have seen 
 or tasted deer meat. 
 
 The Alaskan deer of the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions have been confounded 
 with the reindeer of other localities, but while certainly belonging to the rangifer 
 family, they are the true barren-ground caribou, differing from the upland cari¬ 
 bou and domesticated reindeer of Lapland and Siberia in being smaller in body 
 and horns. From July to September the instincts of the deer induce them to 
 come from the interior to the saacoast to obtain rest and freedom from the tor¬ 
 tures inflicted by the hordes of mosquitoes that infest the inland swamps, and 
 also to get saline matter from the herbage and moss growing in proximity to 
 the ocean. In September they commence their inland migration, and from 
 July until the middle of October they are ruthlessly pursued by the natives. 
 Some rest is afforded to the animals during the dark days that prevail in the 
 Arctic zone from November until January, but as soon after the early part of 
 February as the weather permits the food-seekers again take the field. The 
 does have their young during April, and by a provision of nature the horns of 
 the female only attain size during the time she is suckling the fawn and until it 
 reaches such an age th'at it can feed—about two months. 
 
 When it is considered that a deer weighing on an average 125 pounds is con¬ 
 sumed at a single sitting by five or six natives it may be readily perceived that 
 the average returns of a successful hunting party must be large to feed a village. 
 
 During, the past season in the Arctic the attention of Capt. Healy of the United 
 States revenue steamer Bear, has been directed to a very pointed manner to the 
 attainment of some method whereby the supply of deer for food and clothing 
 purposes may be increased in Northwestern Alaska. This year, taking advan¬ 
 tage of the presence on the Hear of Dr. Sheldon Jackson, United States Commis¬ 
 sioner of Education for Alaska, the captain, in conjunction with Commissioner 
 Jackson, intends to present to the Secretary of the Interior data upon the subject. 
 
 Within a radius of 100 miles inland from the shores of the ocean on the Siberian 
 coast, from Cape Navarin to Plover Bay, there are a people known as deer men. 
 They belong to the Chukchee tribe of Siberians, and are essentially a nomadic 
 race, wandering from East Cape, on the northern coast, to Cape Navarin, south¬ 
 ward. Accompanied by their herds of tame reindeer, aggregating in many in¬ 
 stances thousands, they roam in search of fo:>d. These reindeer, while resembling 
 the Alaskan species in the main, differ in the texture of their skins, the pelts being- 
 spotted brown and white, with a smooth surface. These deer men subsist mainly 
 on the products of their herds, bartering the skins with the coast natives for 
 tobacco, seal oil, walrus hides for their boot soles, and other minor commodi¬ 
 ties. such as powder, shot, lead, and flour. At Cape Navarin and East Cape, 
 Siberia, they sometimes meet the whaling ships and sell them deer meat and 
 skins for tobacco, etc. 
 
 Capt. Healy’s ideas are to propose to the Goverement that he be empowered 
 to purchase a number of these deer of both sexes and transport them on the Bear 
 to some point on the Alaskan coast where moss and feed are plentiful. These 
 deer are to form the nucleus of a herd, and from the yearly increase they can be 
 distributed over other portions of the Northwest Territory. As the Alaskan 
 Eskimo are not skilled in herding the deer, Capt. Healy intends, if permission 
 be granted by the Government, to endeaver to enlist the services of some expe¬ 
 rienced Siberian natives to instruct them. 
 
 Unless some measures be adopted, as suggested by Capt. Healy, it is sure that 
 a decade will witness the extermination of the people of our Arctic province on 
 its northwest shores. The results of the active and unscrupulous chase of their 
 pelagic food supplies by the whalemen have already become evident; walrus 
 are almost invisible on the ice floes within reach of the native hunters, while 
 the flurried and galled whale makes its passage to the unknown regions of the 
 Arctic Ocean at a speed which defies the natives to capture it. 
 
 The proposition of Capt. Healy will be communicated to the Washington au¬ 
 thorities at an early date. 
 
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 9 o 
 O O 
 
 DESTRUCTION OF THE WHALES. 
 
 [From Bancroft’s History of Alaska, pp. 668 and 669.] 
 
 Of whaling enterprise in the neighborhood of the Alaskan coast mention has 
 already been made; but a few statements that will serve to explain the enormous 
 decrease that has occurred in the catch within the last three decades may riot be 
 out of place. 
 
 Of the 600 or 700 American whalers that were fitted out for the season of 1857, 
 at least one-half, including most of the larger vessels, were engaged in the north 
 Pacific. The presence of so vast as fleet tended of course to exhaust the whaling- 
 grounds or to drive the fish into other waters, for there are no permanent whal¬ 
 ing-grounds on any portions of the globe except those encircled by ice for about 
 ten months in the year. In the seas of Greenland, not many years ago, whales 
 were rarely to be seen; in 1870 they were fairly plentiful. The sea of Okhotsk 
 and the waters in the neighborhood of the Aleutian Islands were a few decades 
 ago favorite lr n ing grounds but are now almost depleted, while in 1870 the 
 coast of New Siberia was swarming with whales. Schools of sperm whale are 
 occasonally seen between the Alaska peninsula and Prince William Sound, and 
 the humpback sometimes makes its appearance as far north as Baranof Island. 
 Between Bristol Bay and Bering Strait a fair catch is sometimes taken, but most 
 of the vessels forming what is termed the north Pacific whaling fleet now pass 
 into the Arctic Ocean in quest of their prey. Probably not more than 8 or 10 of 
 them are employed on the whaling-grounds of the Alaskan coast. 
 
 In 1881 the whaling fleet of the north Pacific mustered only thirty and in the 
 following year forty craft, of which four were steamers. The catch for 1881 was 
 one of the most profitable that has occurred since the date of the transfer, being 
 valued at $1,139,000, or an average of about $57,000 for each vessel, some of them 
 returning with cargoes worth $75,000 and few with cargoes worth less than $30,- 
 000. In 1883 the catch was inconsiderable, several of the whalers returning 
 “ clean,” and few making a profit for their owners. 
 
 The threatened destruction of these fisheries is a matter that seems to deserve 
 some attention. In 1850, as will be remembered, it was estimated that 300 
 whaling vessels visited Alaskan waters and the Okhotsk and Bering seas. Two 
 ye ars later the value of the catch of the north Pacific fleet was more than $14,- 
 000.000. 
 
 After 1852 it gradually decreaseed until in 1862 it was less than $800,000; for 
 1867 the amount was about $3,200,000 ; in 1881 it had again fallen to $1,139,000, 
 and for the season of 1883 there was a still further reduction. 
 
 San Francisco, December 18,1890. 
 
 Dear Sir : Referring to your desire to obtain information relative to the in¬ 
 troduction of reindeer into the northwest portion of the Territory of Alaska, I 
 would say that in my opinion the project is entirely feasible. My experiencain 
 Alaska permits me to state on authority that the next decade will witness the 
 extinction of the American reindeer, or rather caribou. In 1881, when I first 
 visited the district of Norton and Kotzebue Sounds and the lower Yukon, deer 
 were plentiful. This past winter (1889) not a single animal had been seen within 
 a radius of 200 miles. Similar conditions are coexisting from Port Clarence to 
 Point Barrow, and where in former years the hunters had to travel but 50 miles 
 to reach the deer haunts, to-day they traverse twice that distance. These con¬ 
 tingencies arise from three causes: 
 
 1. The indiscriminate slaughter of young and old animals. 
 
 2. The use at the present day of improved weapons of the chase, in lieu of the 
 primitive bows, arrows, and spears. 
 
 3. The conditions of wind prevailing at the seasons when the deer go to 
 and from the coast. It must distinctly be understood that upon a supply of these 
 animals our Alaskan Eskimo depend for clothing as well as their stores of meat, 
 
 should their pelagic sources of provinder fall. . 
 
 The proposition to introduce deer from the Siberian herds can be effected at a 
 
 cost of but a few thousand dollars. . _ . . 
 
 The location for the first experimental station should be on Chons Peninsula 
 or the vicinity of Kotzebue Sound. This location has climatic similarities with 
 Siberia. The food (moss) supply is abundant and herding easy. 
 
 S. Mis. 22-3 
 
34 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 As the results of this initial experiment become manifest, additional locations 
 for herds can be established. Within two seasons the Chukchee herdsmen will 
 be able to instruct the Eskimo in the style of herding-. 
 
 I have made inquiries upon the subject and now give you the result. Ten 
 years ag-o the Russian steamer Alexander went to the Kamchatka Peninsula, and 
 officers of the Alaska Commercial Company bought seven male and seven female 
 deer, transporting them to Bering Island (one of the islands leased by the com¬ 
 pany from Russia). Capts. Blair and Greenberg, and Superintendent Lubegoil 
 inform me that the herd now numbers 180. From this you can judge the rate 
 of propagation. 
 
 The revenue steamer Bear can be utilized for transportation, and I know no 
 man more capable of conducting the experiment than Capt. Healy. 
 
 I hope that the small sum required will be voted by Congress, as unless some¬ 
 thing is done for these people their annihilation is only a question of a brief 
 period. 
 
 The whalers have so frightened the big fish that the natives are unable to 
 pursue them in their rapid passage, while the extermination of the walrus is al¬ 
 most a fact. 
 
 These remarks I present as requested. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Henry D Woolfe. 
 
 Dr. Sheldon Jackson, 
 
 Washington. 1). C. 
 
 WILD REINDEER IN ALASKA. 
 
 [Charles H. Townsend in the Report of the Cruise of the U. S. Revenue Marine Steamer Corwin, 
 
 1885, Capt. M. A. Healy, commanding, pp. 87 and 88.] 
 
 Reindeer are found more or less regularly throughout Alaska. They were 
 found by Mr. McLenegan on the Noatak, as well as by our party on the Kowak. 
 Traders in the service of the Alaska Commercial Company told me of their com¬ 
 mon distribution over the Yukon, Kuskokvim, and Aleutian divisions of the 
 country. They have even been shot on Ounimak Island, at the end of the penin¬ 
 sula ; but reindeer are restless animals, irregular in their migrations and habits. 
 Sometimes they desert whole sections of the country for months together, and 
 they appear to have withdrawn from many regions where firearms have been 
 introduced. Notwithstanding the fact that large herds of reindeers are kept in 
 a state of domestication by the Chukchees at East Cape and other well-known 
 places on the Asiatic side of Bering Straits, with whom the natives of the Alas¬ 
 kan side communicate regularly, there appears to be no domestication of the 
 species whatever in Alaska, nor indeed in any part of North America. 
 
 In time, when the general use of firearms by the natives of upper Alaska shall 
 have reduced the numbers of this wary animal, the introduction of the tame va¬ 
 riety, which is a substantial support to the people just across the straits, among 
 our own thriftless, alcohol-bewitched Eskimos, would be a philanthropic move¬ 
 ment, contributing more toward their amelioration than any system of schools 
 or kindred charities. The native boats could never accomplish the importation, 
 which would, however, present no difficulty to ordinary seagoing vessels. The 
 taming of the American reindeer is impracticable, for domestication with this 
 animal at least is the result of subjection through many generations. Something 
 tending to render a wild people pastoral or agricultural ought to be the first step 
 toward their advancement. In our management of these people, “purchased 
 from the Russians,” we have an opportunity to atone, in a measure, for a century 
 of dishonorable treatment of the Indian. 
 
 REINDEER. 
 
 [From Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 7, pp. 24 and 25.] 
 
 The reindeer (Tarandus ranqifer), the only domesticated species of deer, has a 
 range somewhat similar to the elk, extending over the entire boreal region of 
 both hemispheres, from Greenland and Spitzbergen in the north to New Bruns- 
 
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 35 
 
 wick in the south. There are several well-marked varieties, differing greatly 
 in size and in form of the antlers, the largest forms occurring farthest north, 
 while by many writers the American reindeer, which has never been domesti¬ 
 cated, is regarded as a distinct species. The antlers, which are long and branch¬ 
 ing. and considerably paimated, are present in both sexes, although in the fe¬ 
 male they are slender and less branched than in the males. In the latter they 
 appear at a much earlier age than in any other species of deer, and Darwin con¬ 
 jectures that in this circumstance a key to their exceptional appearance in the 
 female may be found. The reindeer has long been domesticated in Scandinavia, 
 and is of indispensable importance to the Lapland race, to whom it serves at 
 once as a substitute for the horse, cow, sheep, and goat. As a beast of burden 
 it is capable of drawing a weight of 300 pounds, while its fleetness and endurance 
 are still more remarkable. Harnessed to a sledge it will travel without diffi¬ 
 culty 100 miles a day over the frozen snow, its broad and deeply cleft hoofs be¬ 
 ing admirably adapted for traveling over such a surface. 
 
 During summer the Lapland reindeer feeds chiefly on the young shoots of the 
 willow and birch; and as this season migration to the coast seems necessary to 
 the well-being of the species, the Laplander, with his family and herds, sojourns 
 for several months in the neighborhood of the sea. In winter its food consists 
 chiefly of the reindeer moss and other lichens, which it makes use of its hoofs in 
 seeking for beneath the snow. The wild reindeer grows to a much greater size 
 than the tame breed, but in Northern Europe the former are being gradually 
 reduced through the natives entrapping and domesticating them. The tame 
 breed found in Northern Asia is much larger than the Lapland form and is there 
 used to ride on. There are two distinct varieties of the American reindeer, the 
 barren-ground caribou and the woodland caribou. The former, which is larger 
 and more widely distributed of the two, frequents in summer the shores of the 
 Arctic Sea, retiring to the woods in autumn to feed on the tree and other lichens. 
 The latter occupies a very limited tract of woodland country, and, unlike the 
 barren-ground form, migrates southward in spring. The American reindeer 
 travel in great herds, and, being both unsuspicious and curious, they fall ready 
 victims to the bow and arrow or the cunning snare of the Indian, to whom their 
 carcasses form the chief source of food, clothing, tents, and tools. 
 
 Appendix L. 
 
 Capt. M. A. Healy, in January, 1892, writing to Senator Charles N. Felton, 
 says: 
 
 “ The three great problems of existence of both natives and whites in the Ter¬ 
 ritory of Alaska are food, clothing, and transportation. They are to be solved 
 in a rigorous climate and rough and almost impenetrable country, and one in 
 which nothing as yet is produced from the ground. The food supply must either 
 be found in the flesh of the wild animals and birds of the country or brought 
 from without. With the white population the food might be said to be brought 
 wholly from without. The enormous expense this entails has kept this popula¬ 
 tion down to the narrowest limit of employes of firms or companies capable of 
 maintaining stations there and confined these stations to a few scattered well- 
 known points along the immense stretch of seacoast or on some of the principal 
 rivers as the Yukon. 
 
 “food supply. 
 
 “The native population of the northwest part of the country depend for food 
 upon whale, walrus, seal, fish, and what few wild animals, such as deer and 
 ca dbou, they can kill. The whale and walrus have been so persistently pursued 
 by white men that they have rapidly diminished and are now so scarce and shy 
 that their capture by the natives is attended with great difficulty and uncer¬ 
 tainty. This scarcity of their principal supply of food is greatly felt by the na- 
 tivestalong the whole northwest coast and to such an extent that in the short 
 space of winter whole villages have been wiped out. 
 
 “I have seen almost the entire population of St. Lawrence Island lying strewn 
 about their huts dead from starvation. And this winter of 1891-’92 the same fate 
 may be that of Kings Island. Upon my visit there in September last, the seal 
 and walrus catch having failed them, the natives were reduced to the direst ex¬ 
 tremities. Their larders were exhausted and their only means of subsistence 
 
36 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 their dogs and the kelp and carrion cast up by the tide. What supplies could 
 be spared from the vessel and what bought at St. Michaels station were given 
 the people, with the hope that it would tide them over until more successful 
 hunting. But this hope is not without misgiving that upon my return in the 
 spring I shall find many of them whom I count as friends cold in death. The 
 interior natives are dependent wholly upon caribou and deer and what fish come 
 into their streams during the short summer. Caribou and deer are rapidly di¬ 
 minishing there, as they have in other countries, and the fishing streams are 
 being taken up by white men, so that the lines of existence are on all sides being 
 drawn tighter and tighter about these poor native Alaskans. 
 
 REINDEER-SKIN CLOTHING. 
 
 “ Clothing of reindeer skin has been found the best and only kind to withstand 
 the intense and continued cold of the country. These skins are now bartered at 
 a high price from the natives of the Siberian coast, and are passed along the Si¬ 
 berian side from village to village, increasing in value the farther they go from 
 the Bering Straits. The experience of white men and natives has been the same, 
 and even in our summer visits to the country we on the vessel use reindeer 
 clothing to keep from suffering. 
 
 “ The methods of transportation now in use in Alaska are by dog trains and 
 boats. By boat it is impossible to travel nine months in the year, and during 
 the three months of summer when the streams are open they can be used only 
 down stream. By dog trains transportation is limited, slow, and uncertain, and 
 the greater part of the load is taken up with food for the animals. These dogs 
 have been so closely bred that they are now degenerated in size, strength, and 
 sagacity. I have for yeai s been requested by natives to bring them a larger breed 
 to improve their dogs, and the Hudson Bay Company has imported the English 
 mastiff for use in trains where the native dog is too slight. 
 
 “Among the whites the greatest difficulty experienced by miners, mission¬ 
 aries, explorers, and residents has been the want of a rapid and assured means 
 of transportation. The history of every expedition that has penetrated into the 
 country any distance from the coast has been one of suffering and oftentimes 
 hunger from the difficulty of travel and packing. Horses, cattle, asses, and 
 other beasts of burden, excepting tame reindeer, are out of the question because 
 they can not live in the country, and it is impossible to provide food for them 
 when snow covers the ground the larger part of the year. On account of this 
 difficulty the country, except along the seacoast and a few of the navigable rivers, 
 is as little known to-day as when it was first bought. And those great mineral 
 deposits which Alaska is said to contain remain as yet undiscovered. 
 
 “what the reindeer might do. 
 
 “To my mind the only satisfactory solution of all three of these problems, 
 important as they are, is the introduction of tame reindeer into the country. 
 In proper numbers they will transform the native population from a fishing to 
 a pastoral people, and prove to them a never-failing supply of food. The hides 
 of the animals already furnish almost the only clothing used, but at a greatly 
 exaggerated cost. And to the white explorers, miners, missionaries, and set¬ 
 tlers the reindeer will prove a means of transportation and packing that will 
 enable them to learn and develop the resources of a vast country. 
 
 “Thenatives of Siberia have for centuries herded and reared the tame rein¬ 
 deer, and thus been safe against periodical periods of starvation when the whale 
 and walrus fail them. They are a strong, swift, and hardy animal, tractable, 
 and easily broken to harness and packing, and especially adapted, or, in fact, 
 made for the country and climate. In travel they are self-sustaining. The sup¬ 
 ply of moss upon which they feed covers the whole of northern Alaska, and in¬ 
 stinct leads them to secure it in winter as well as summer by burrowing through 
 the deepest snows. It is not necessary for us to speak of the value of such pack 
 animals to the prospector. To the explorer they are equally valuable, and when 
 supplies fail are equally valuable as food. 
 
 “ If I may revert back to the days of the Western Union Telegraph expedi¬ 
 tion to that part of the country, where reindeer could be procured for drafting 
 as well as for food, the thousand and one obstacles that at first seemed insur¬ 
 mountable were, through the medium of these animals, easily overcome. 
 
 “ The natives of Alaska quite see the advantage of such "an animal in their 
 
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 37 
 
 midst, have expressed to me their eager wishes for them, and along- the Yukon, 
 the most thickly settled part of the country, the white people £re enthusiastic 
 over their introduction, for in them they see a solution of many of the difficul¬ 
 ties of existence there. 
 
 “Horses and cattle have been tried in this section, but, on account of the un¬ 
 acclimated nature of the animals and the impossibility of feeding them in win¬ 
 ter, with no success. 
 
 “THE SIBERIANS WILL SELL. 
 
 “Some writers and others have claimed that the Siberian natives will not sell 
 reindeer to white men, but Dr. Jackson and I have disproved this by buying 
 during the past summer, at different points on the Siberian coast, sixteen of the 
 animals, and securing promises to sell us as many as we could take care of the 
 coming summer, should they be wanted. The sixteen we purchased, the first 
 ones to be introduced into the Territory, we placed atUnalaskafor propagation. 
 
 “I believe this is the most important question that bears upon the Territory 
 of Alaska to-day, and a small sum donated by Congress for the purpose will in 
 the end develop the country, its character and resources, and prove a great 
 benefit to the commerce and wealth of the United States in general and the 
 Pacific coast in particular. 
 
 “I am referring not to the Alaska of the tourist—that narrow strip of island 
 from the southernmost boundary to Sitka—but to that immense territory of 
 500,000 square mile-! of the north and w r est of which the world has no knowledge 
 and no conception , and to which the Alaska of the tourist bears as much relation 
 as the State of Florida does to the whole United States.” 
 
 APPLICATION FOR A TEAM OF REINDEER. 
 
 Forty Mile Creek, August 13,1892. 
 
 Dear Sir: Capt. Peterson informs me that you would bring some reindeer, 
 bought by the Government to distribute in Alaska. If you did get any and send 
 me a pair, or, better, two cows and one bull, I will surely reward your trouble. 
 I am doing freighting here in the winter with dogs, and reindeer would be far 
 ahead of them. You could leave them in somebody’s ca e in St. Michael for the 
 winter, and have them sent up here in the spring. I will pay for all the expenses. 
 If you did not get any this year for the Government, and you have a chance to 
 buy some for me, I wish you would do it, and I will pay for them whatever, it is. 
 
 Respectfully, 
 
 Fritz Kloke, 
 
 Forty Mile Creek , Alaska. 
 
 Appendix M. 
 
 COMMERCIAL VALUE OF REINDEER. 
 
 [N. Width, importer and commission merchant of Scandinavian products, 63 Broadway, 
 
 room 29. Cable address, “ Puncheon, New York.”] 
 
 607 Penn Mutual Building, 
 Philadelphia, Pa., April 16, 1892. 
 
 Dr. Sheldon Jackson, 
 
 Bureau of Education, Washington: 
 
 I received your favor of the 14th and a pamphlet, which I have read with great 
 interest. If reindeer can be imported in Alaska from Siberia and if there exists 
 abundance of reindeer moss in Alaska, the facilities for realizing the plan are 
 rather great. 
 
 Besides the advantages mentioned in the pamphlet, there exists one to which 
 I want to call your attention—the great commercial importance. 
 
 To Sweden and Norway it is not only the Laplanders who live on reindeer; 
 smoked reindeer meat and smoked tongues are sold everywhere in the said 
 countries and the hides are in great demand, tanned to a soft skin (used for 
 gloves, military riding trousers, etc.). 
 
38 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 
 
 There are merchants in Stockholm the only trade of whom is in Lapland prod¬ 
 ucts, and the skins, dried with the hairs on, are exported by the thousands to 
 Germany and England. I sold myself, 1878, about 5,000 such skins to a firm in 
 Leipzig, Germany. The Norwegian Preserving Company use large quantities 
 of reindeer meat for canning, and fresh it is considered a delicacy. Russia ex¬ 
 ports fresh reindeer meat, frozen, in carloads to Germany. 
 
 The price of smoked hams is in Sweden about 10 to 9 cents a pound; of smoked 
 tongues, 8 to 10 cents apiece (or a pair, I can not exactly remember which): of 
 dried hides, with hair on, $1.25 to $1.75 apiece, and more if they are not worm- 
 bitten. The Swedish reindeer have mostly a kind of insect which lays its eggs 
 in their skins; this causes holes which are seen in the skin when tanned, and 
 diminish their value. The hairs are in great demand for the filling of life-saving 
 apparatus (buoys, etc.), while they possess buoyancy in a wondrous degree. 
 The best existing glue is made of reindeer horns. If I were sure of getting a 
 trade in these articles and had the money, I would not consider it a moment, but 
 go to Alaska at the first opportunity and make a fortune in ten years. 
 
 The number of reindeer killed for the trade (besides what the Laplanders use 
 for themselves) is yearly 12,000 to 15,000 in Norway, probably 6,000 to 7,000, be¬ 
 sides Sweden imports large quantities of meat and skins from Finland. 
 
 In 1881.1 visited the fair in Nischni-Novgorod, Russia, and became there ac¬ 
 quainted with a merchant from Nuhangel, who had brought to the fair 5,000 pair 
 smoked tongues and 6,000 tanned skins (the tanned skins have a value of $2 to $3 
 apiece). A Swedish dragoon regiment wear trousers exclusively made of tanned 
 reindeer skins (no other material permitted). 
 
 I think these facts might be of some interest. Capt. Healy says in his letter : 
 “If the Government will be compelled to feed the Eskimo it will costover 
 $1,000,000.” If the Government realize the plan of domesticating reindeer, it 
 would probably bring a good yearly income to the United States. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 N. Width. 
 
 I should be very much pleased to learn later on how far the project succeeds 
 and what steps the Government will take; if I move to Puget Sound next fall I 
 shall probably make a trip to Alaska. 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa., December 31,1892. 
 
 Dear Sir : Your favor of the 29th received, and in answer beg' to say, that I 
 wrote to a friend in Norway about a book or pamhplet, as desired; I think, 
 however, it would be easier to get such book from England, as probably some 
 English tourist or other has written about the Laplanders, who always have been 
 an object of great interest to tourists traveling in Norway. 
 
 The acclimatization of reindeer in Alaska would most certainly considerably 
 increase the revenues from this province, as soon as some thousand deer could 
 be yearly slaughtered and the hides and meat brought into the market. I be¬ 
 lieve I have written to you hereabout on a previous occasion; the tanned skins 
 (soft and with a beautiful yellow color) would no doubt find a ready sale; in 
 Sweden they are paid with seven to ten kr. ($2 to $2.75) and used for military 
 pantaloons, gloves, bed-pillows, etc., and the hair, owing to its great buoyant 
 quality, is much used for life-saving material. Russia sends frozen reindeer 
 meat by carloads to Germany. 
 
 If I had capital, and if the climate in Alaska were not too severe, I would 
 like very much to start such trade, in which I have some experience. 
 
 There is also another animal which would suit admirably for Alaska—the so- 
 called “ Thibetian ox,” “ yak,” also “ gruntingox ” (probably while grunting as 
 a hog). The animal has feet as a goat, well fitted for climbing rocks and stones; 
 the cow gives an excellent milk which gives an excellent butter (the reindeer 
 has not this merit); is used in Thibet also very much for transporting purposes. 
 This ox, which is to the natives in Thibet what the reindeer is to Laplanders, 
 is admirably qualified to sustain cold, seems even to love the cold, and to thrive 
 best in cold and rough weather; it loves to throw itself in frozen lakes and 
 rivers, to lie in snow and shady places, is always lying in the open air, has to 
 seek its food for Jitself, only the herders have to take care to bring it down in 
 the winter in the lower regions where the snow melts and the food is accessible. 
 
 In Thibet these animals are completely left to themselves; if taken some care 
 
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 39 
 
 of they might multiply quicker and be much improved. They are seen in the 
 zoological gardens in Europe, probably also in this country ; might be shipped 
 from Bombay or Calcutta, I presume. This animal might become by and by as 
 abundant in Alaska as formerly were the buffalo on the Western prairies, and 
 make Alaska a visiting place for sportsmen. 
 
 With my compliments for the new year, I remain, dear sir, yours, respectfully, 
 
 N. Width. 
 
 Rev. Sheldon Jackson, 
 
 Washington, /). G. 
 
 P. S.—As a proof of what man can do with a good will and good sense, even 
 in the cold, inhospitable region, I wish to mention that in a place in Sweden, 
 under 67° north latitude, where rich iron ores have been found and bought by 
 an English company, a Swedish colonel and engineer in 1890 planted a grand 
 park and garden, where all kinds of vegetables are growing, even rhubarb, as¬ 
 paragus, cauliflower, raspberries, straw berries, currants, large pine and birch 
 trees. The park has an area of 2,800 to 3,000 square feet. 
 
 Appendix N. 
 
 The Chamber of Commerce of San Francisco, 
 
 San Francisco, January SO, 1891. 
 
 Resolved, That our delegation in Congress be requested to urge the passage 
 of the joint resolution introduced December 19, 1890 (H. Res. 258), extending to 
 Alaska the benefit of laws encouraging instruction in agriculture and the me¬ 
 chanic arts. 
 
 Adopted unanimously by the Chamber of Commerce of San Francisco this 
 20th day of January, A. D. 1891, 
 
 Attest: 
 
 [seal.] Thos. J. Haynes, 
 
 Secretary. 
 
 O 
 
 
V- * \ 
 
 :v: .< • - .