The San Francisco call., 1899-10-08
REINDEER
EXPERIMENT
A SUCCESS
Observations of DR.. Sheldon
Jackson and Party in
Alaska.
Educational Agent Defends Himself
in Connection With the Recent
School Scandals.
BY HILL HOFFMAN.

JUNEAU, Alaska, Sept. 26.-Rev. DR..
Sheldon Jackson, educational agent for
Alaska, arrived here on the revenue cut
ter Perry from Sitka, in company with
Governor Brady, United States Marshal
Shoup, United States District Attorney
Robert A. Friedrich of California and
other Alaska officers. DR.. Jackson has
just returned from the reindeer expedition
to Siberia in the revenue cutters Bear and
| Thistle. He said this evening:
I'VE did not increase our. own herds this
year by purchase. We bought reindeer
to replace those borrowed last year and
which were so successfully used in going
to the rescue in the winter of 1S9l-SS OF the
whalers imprisoned in the ice off Point
Barrow. This is also the same occasion
on which Mr.. John D. Spreckels, proprie-
tor of the San Francisco Call, gave such
a handsome sum of money in fitting out
ship to go to the rescue of the whalers
We bought over 700 in one place and over
800 in another, making over 1000 in all,
which we returned deer for deer. Some OF
them cost $25 each. If there is a failure of
a reindeer expedition or purchase we are
always certain to hear of 1t, but If there
is a significant success very little is said
about it. cite the great work OF the
! rescue of the Point Barrow whalers,
where hundreds of these animals travelled
day after day for weeks and found their
own food by the way. Reindeer as tat as
butter have furnished juicy steaks at
! Cape Nome The Swedish Evangelical
Mission last winter used its herd in pack
ing merchandise. outfits, etc, around by
| the shore from st. Michael to Cape Nome
and cleared over $1,000, l believe.
"The people-or a large part of them-are
slleptical of the reindeer in the Arctic
| and lower latitudes of this country be-
cause they don't know the facts. After a
! while will come the awakening. They
laugh at me now; it will then be my turn
to laugh, if 1 want to. But am pleased
now-pleased with the reindeer expert
! ment so called for it is a success.
THE United States Government has had
men all over Alaska since 1S92-for nearly
reindeer moss. 1t is found almost every
where in the interior of Alaska and in
| some places on the coast. Why, saw
some growing in the military yard at
caribou is nothing but a wild reindeer.
| He lives on the same vegetable matter
that the reindeer does Every body knows ",
! that great herds of caribou roam the in
! terror of Alaska, and they manage to live
and grow fat in winter, don't they?'
Dr. Jackson says he had nothing to do
with the Pyramid Harbor failure. He
bought the reindeer in the old country
and turned them over to the Government,
which put an army officer In charge of
them Delays at Seattle and Haines Mis-
| sion exhausted the food supply, he found,
when sent out by the Government to see
what the trouble was. He knew thaJ
| from the heaQ Oh the hldnend river IleIe
was moss and proved it, he says, by get
ting a number Of the poor beasts through
to the Yukon fat and in fine condition.
When the subject of the hot report OF
the last United States Grand Jury on the
Educational Agent of Alaska which
caused so much of stir all over the
country last June, was brought up. DR.
| Jackson never batted an eye, lie expect
| ed it. Said he:
II have not been able to get hold of g
| copy of the Grand Jury's report All
t. FoIt ,tc 7 how
read in newspapers and what friends have
told me since l returned. have done
more in one day-every day-for the cause
Of education in Alaska than all the mem
bers of the Grand Jury have ever done
The Government annual appropriation Of
$50 900 has been expended judiciously ac-
cording to our best judgment. 1t is divid
ed between the towns in proportion tC
| their size am charged with negleCtine
the education of white children in the in
| terest of the natives"