Arizona weekly citizen. [volume] (Tucson, Ariz) 1880-1901, 1896-02-29
RENDER IN ALASKA.

RENDER IN ALASKA.
TIE Secretary OF thu Interior has ap-
! proved and forwarded to Congress the
- commendation of inc Commissioner OF
| T. lucgtion that the sum of forty-nve
thousand dollars should De approprlat-
ID The present year for the purchase OF
reindeer, the same to be furnished by
! the lowest bidder and delivered at suit
! able points on the Alaska coast. Fifteen
| hundred to two Thousand reindeer
would, it ls thought, be secured 10y this
sum. Added to nine hundred or more
deer already in the herd kept at Port
! Clarence, near Boring Strait, there will
be stock OF twenty-five hundred or
more. The uatura. Increase OF q herd
OF reindeer, judging from the experience
of the last four years in Alaska, amounts
to upward of fifty Per cent. Increase Of
the entire herd. With three thousand
reindeer the annual increase would be
! at least fifteen hundred, and the Bureau
of Education could distribute in the
first year sufficient number to each
Missionary station and white settlement
10 provide herds from one TO two humid
red each. These under the care OF Lap
land herdsmen sod with additions from
the central herd on following years
would soon grow to be large herds.
Through the efforts of the Missionary
schools and the Government: schools the
natives would learn to breed and train
the reindeer and the alive population
would thus be r, Used from the savage
state of mere hunters and fishermen to
the higher condition of the nomsds or
herdsDen. Whereas now intercom-
municatlon between the villages in Alas
"a is very precarious in the winter time
due to the fact that the dogs who draw
The sledges have to creep along from
village to village in order to procure
their necessary food, on the other hand
the reindeer can procure his food i'm
nedistely from the moss under the
snow at any point where be is turned
loose. The dogs travel at the rate Of
hirty-6ve miles day. 1t would be
possible to have communication with all
the settlements scattered throughout
Alaska, once in two weeks during the
winter season. Once large herds of
reindeer are established in Alaska q
plentiful supply of .he best food will be-
come everywhere available. The danger
o miners and other settlers who run the
case of mishspe to their annual stores
would be removed as well as the danger
70 those natives who have been deprived
% their food by the destruction of the
Talrus and whale. This is no reason
ahy large population OF hardy people
should not 1--we and find profitable In
dnstries in Alaska. The one food sup
ely tnat amounts to anything is the
long, white fibrous moss Caledonia
Rangifero) which exists in such sbun-
lance that ten million OF reindeer can
subsist upon it within the Territory Of
Alaska, judging by the experience OF
nose countries like Lspland and Fin
land where similar conditions exist.
The main argument used by the Com |
missioner of Educstlon for this appro-
pristlon of the part Of Congress is not
chiefly the one based on the Christian !
sentiment of the people, an appeal TO
prevent starvation, although ell Nile
sionaries and other authorities report |
numerous of cases of death by starva-
ton. The object of the introduction Of
reindeer is not to afford temporary re-
lief by furnishing food to the natives,
but rather the transformation of peo-
pie from the savage employments OF
nuutiog and fishing into higher grade
Of civilization, that of herdsmen and |
10 the condition of herds
men and teams.ers these people at once
come into profitable business relations
With the rest of the world. They fur
nish deer skins and meat for commerce
and they furnish the rapid trsnsports-
ton needed to make safe and prosperous
the settlements IN that territory.