Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 109, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1914 — PLENTY OF REINDEER IN ALASKA [ARTICLE]

PLENTY OF REINDEER IN ALASKA

Officials of the Alaska division, bureau of education, yesterday gave emphatic denial to a recently published statement that the reindeer in Alaska are “deteriorating and diminishing.” They declare that, on the contrary, the Alaskan reindeer are constantly increasing in number and improving in quality. The recently completed tabulation of the returns contained in the annual reports of the superintendents of the herds shows that there were, June 30, 1913, 47,266 reindeer in the 62 Alaskdn herds, or a net increase of 23 per cent during the fiscal year. This is considered a fair rate of increase, especially since nearly 5,000 reindeer were killed for food and skins during the year. Qnly 3,853 of the reindeer are owned by government; 5,047 are owned by missions, 8,834 by Lapps, and the . remaining .3Q,532 are owned by 797 Eskimos and Indians, whose Income from the reindeer Industry during the fiscal year was 366,966. The reindeer belonging to these natives have an estimated.value of 3*63.300 The government is planning to go out of the reipdeer business as fast as ft can train natives for individual ownership, the policy being to entourage Independence and initiative among the native population. D's*ribution of reindeer is in charge of the United States school teacheis, and ft is pxpecttd that the government will dispose of all its reindeer within the next four years.

W. T. Lapps, chief of the Alaska division, said: “Pasturage is good in most parts of western and northern Alaska, but a few reindeer herds are kept in the windswept regions along the northwest coast, where the winter moss frequently becomes cbated with ice from alternate freezing and thawing. This prevents the herd from securing proper food, and results In undersized deer. Mosquitoes arC also a cause of stuntred growth. Herds at some > distance from the coast need to be kept well up on the mountain slopes to avoid the mosqhito pests. “The greatest immediate menace to the welfare of the reindeer lies in the tundra fires, started in the region of the mining camps. There is plenty of grass and foliage for the deer in summer, but in winter it is the tundra moss that furnishes forage, and to destroy it is to deal a body blow to one of Alaska’s promising industries." '