Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-12-26
MYTHICAL STEEDS OF SANTA
And What They Are Doing for the De
velopment of Alaska.

Santa Claus steeds imported a few
years ago from Siberia by the govern
ment, have propagated vast herds
They saved the natives from starva-
ton and are now furnishing clothing,
food and motive power to the Eskimos
They may solve the problem of the
high cost of meats.
Is Santa still using reindeer in spite
of the automobile and flying machine?
Judging by the latest photographs of
that gentleman, Donder and Bitten
are still in harness and as active as
when they started in business several
centuries ago. Nor is there any chance
of these animals so dear to the heart
of childhood dying out. The govern
ment experiment in raising them,
which was begun a few years ago, has
proved success.
The reason that the government
started the propagation of Siberian
reindeer in Alaska was the fact that
back in 1890 DR.. Sheldon Jackson, who
was the general agent of education in
Alaska, discovered that the natives of
this vast territory were losing their
sources Of food supply. Here was a
land. an empire in itself, rich in ev-
erything, yet the people who lived
there would soon be without food or
clothing.
The whales We're each year going
farther north. the walrus, which had
formerly existed in great herds, were
becoming extinct, and the seals were
being SO rapidly extinguished that an
Eskimo would have to travel at least
fifteen miles to secure one. Even the
wild caribou had. been frightened
away by modern hunters. Here were
thousands of natives with their food
and clothing disappearing before the
advance of civilization, So DR.. Jackson
resolved to remedy the matter by i'm
porting reindeer from Siberia. The Es-
kimo had been accustomed to exchange
seal skins, his whale oil and his wal
rus tusks for these animals, but as
there were thousands of deer in Sibe-
ria, just a few miles over Behring
strait where exactly the same climatic
conditions existed as i'm Alaska, there
was right at hand, so it seemed, a solu-
ton of the problem.
DIR. Jackson saw at once that the
thing to do was to import reindeer
across the strait and go at once into
the business of raising them. They
would serve purpose of the animals
which had disappeared and be, in adj
dition, vast Improvement, for they do
not have to be chased and can be kept
around the house like cattle.
After many labors DIR. Jackson sue
ceeded in getting means to bring into
Alaska from Siberia deer of the
Chukches breed, later securing those
of the Tunguse stock, the latter be-
in this great barren north, with it's
400,0 600 square miles of tundra, on
which no other animal could live, the
experiment was begun in 1891. Every
where beneath the vast expanse Of
snow was mass of long, fibrous white
moss, which is the food most enjoyed
by reindeer. There was room enough
for 100000 Of these animals. They
would give the natives meat, milk and
clothing, and also be to him what
horse is to man. His food was to be
had by digging with his strong hoofs
beneath the snow. What an ideal crea-
ture for the white continent with it's
disheartened natives
Along with the deer were brought
some Siberians to teach the raising of
the animal, and a few years later, Lap
landers, sixty three in number, were
added to the colony. These Laps were
brought the 10000 miles from home at
the expense of Uncle Sam and remain
ed during the time of their contract.