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54TH CONGRESS, SENATE. § DocUMENT
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IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.
REPORT
INTRODUCTION OF DOWESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA,
WITH
MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS,
BY
SHELDON JACKSON,
GENERAL AGENT OF EDUCATION IN ALASKA,
ie ee 8
FEBRUARY 10, 1896.—Laid on the table and ordered to be printed.
y
WASHINGTON: a DEC 16
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. |
1896. aS
CONTENTS.
Page.
Action of the Senate of the United States........ 2.2... ..-22222--- 2+ eee ene 5
Letter of the Secretary of the Interior to the President of the Senate....___.. i
Report of Dr. Sheldon Jackson, United States general agent of education in
Alaska, to the Commissioner of Education, on the introduction of domestic
EOC ci las aOL ROD 7-1 toe oa ance wins Dei-\7 3S: eres ieee oie eee eee 102
Lassoing ....--..----- 2-22 een ee eee ene ne re ene nee cree eens 110
Loading on shipboard....-...----.------ +----------+ +--+ 222222 reer reece 14
Mien 2222 ee Awe soe Momisclepee os ce ete ce aioe ae eerie 62
Slimming 2-2 <2 205 cee eee cis eee age eee eee sera eens Scie weenie 58
MPA ORIN Co oe clan abe en os aes signee Sees eee een na njee rs =e Smee ee 74
Roman Catholic mission, Koserefski-.-......-..-....--------------+--+-+--+----- 40
Roman Catholic mission pupils, Koserefski-. ....--...------------------------- 38
Siberians, reindeer men, Peter and Kimok..-..-..----.------------------------ 34
Siberians, reindeer men, St. Lawrence Bay..-.---..---------------+ +--+ ---+---- 12
Thlinget house, interior carving.....-.-------------+++--2+ eee eee eee ee etree 16
Vice-president and Sitka school children......---..----------------- Frontispiece.
4 ;
ACTION OF THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,
February 5, 1896.
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Interior be directed to transmit
to the Senate the report of Dr. Sheldon Jackson upon ‘‘ The introduc-
tion of domestic reindeer into the District of Alaska for 1895.”
Wm. R. Cox, Secretary.
5
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
Washington, February 7, 1896.
Str: I am in reeeipt of Senate resolution of the 5th instant—
That the Secretary of the Interior be directed to transmit to the Senate the report
of Dr. Sheldon Jackson upon ‘‘The introduction of domestic reindeer into the
District of Alaska for 1895.”
In response thereto I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of
the report indicated in the foregoing resolution.
Very respectfully,
HOKE SMITH, Secretary.
The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE.
7
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. ©
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
BUREAU OF EDUCATION, ALASKA DIVISION,
Washington, D. C., December 31, 1895.
Str: When in the year 1890 I visited arctic Alaska for the purpose
of establishing schools, I found the Eskimo population slowly dying off
with starvation. For ages they and their fathers had secured a com-
fortable living from the products of the sea, principally the whale, the
walrus, and the seal. The supplies of the sea had been supplemented
by the fish and aquatic birds of their rivers and the caribou or wild
reindeer that roamed in large herds over the inland tundra.
The supply of these in years past was abundant and furnished ample
food for all the people. But fifty years ago American whalers, having
largely exhausted the supply in other waters, found their way into the
North Pacific Ocean. Then commenced for that section the slaughter
and destruction of whales that went steadily forward at the rate of
hundreds and thousands annually, until they were killed off or driven
out of the Pacific Ocean. They were then followed into Bering Sea,
and the slaughter went on. The whales took refuge among the ice
fields of the Arctic Ocean, and thither the whalers followed. In this
relentless hunt the remnant have been driven still farther into the inac-
cessible regions around the North Pole, and are no longer within reach
of the natives.
As the great herds of buffalo that once roamed the Western prairies
have been exterminated for their pelts, so the whales have been sacri-
ficed for the fat that incased their bodies and the bone that hung in
their mouths. With the destruction of the whale one large source of
food supply for the natives has been cut off.
Another large supply was derived from the walrus, which once
Swarmed in great numbers in those northern seas. But commerce
wanted more ivory, and the whalers turned their attention to the wal-
rus, destroying thousands annually for the sake of their tusks. Where
a few years ago they were so numerous that their bellowings were heard
above the roar of the waves and grinding and crashing of the ice fields,
last year I cruised for weeks seeing but few. The walrus, as a source
of food supply, is already very scarce.
The sea lions, once so common in Bering Sea, are now becoming so
few in number that it is with difficulty that the natives procure a suf-
ficient number of skins to cover their boats, and the flesh of the walrus,
on account of its rarity, has become a luxury.
+)
10 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
In the past the natives, with tireless industry, caught and cured, for
use in their long winters, great quantities of fish, but American can-
neries have already come to some of their streams, and will soon be
found on all of them, both carrying the food out of the country and, by
their wasteful methods, destroying the future supply. Five million
cans of salmon annually shipped away from Alaska—and the business
still in its infancey—means starvation to the native races in the near
future.
With the advent of improved breech-loading firearms the wild rein-
deer are both being killed off and frightened away to the remote and
more inaccessible regions of the interior, and another source of food
supply is diminishing. Thus the support of the people is largely gone,
and the process of slow starvation and extermination has commenced
along the whole arctic coast of Alaska.
To establish schools among a starving people would be of little serv-
ice; hence education, civilization, and humanity alike called for relief.
The sea could not be restocked with whale as a stream can be restocked
with fish. To feed the population at Government expense would pau-
perize and in the end as certainly destroy them. Some other method
had to be devised. This was suggested by the wild nomad tribes on
the Siberian side of Bering Straits. They had an unfailing food sup-
ply in their large herds of domestic reindeer. Why not introduce the
domestic reindeer on the American side and thus provide a new and
adequate food supply?
To do this will give the Eskimo as permanent a food supply as the
cattle of the Western. plains and sheep of New Mexico and Arizona do
the inhabitants of those sections. It will do more than preserve life—it
will preserve the self-respect of the people and advance them in the
scale of civilization. It will change them from hunters to herders. It
will also utilize the hundreds of thousands of square miles of moss-
covered tundra of arctic and subarctic Alaska and make those now
useless and barren wastes conducive to the wealth and prosperity of
the United States.
A moderate computation, based upon the statistics of Lapland, where
similar climatic and other conditions exist, shows northern and central
Alaska capable of supporting over 9,000,000 head of reindeer.
To reclaim and make valuable vast areas of land otherwise worthless;
to introduce large, permanent, and wealth-producing industries where
none previously existed; to take a barbarian people on the verge of
starvation and lift them up to a comfortable self-support and civiliza-
tion is certainly a work of national importance.
Returning to Washington on November 12, 1890, I addressed to the
Commissioner of Education a preliminary report of the season’s work,
emphasizing the destitute condition of the Alaskan Eskimo and ree-
ommending the introduction of the domestic reindeer of Siberia.
On the 5th of December following, this report was transmitted by you
to the Secretary of the Interior for his information, and on the 15th
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 11
transmitted 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. McComas, of Maryland,
introduced into the House of Representatives a joint resoiution
(H. Res. No. 258) providing that the act of Congress approved March
2,1887, “An act to establish agricultural experiment stations in con-
nection with the colleges established in the several States,” should be
extended by the Secretary of the Interior over Alaska, with the expec-
tation 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.
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 26th of February, moved an amendment to the bill (H. R. No.13462)
making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for
the year ending June 30, 1892, appropriating $15,000 for the introduc-
tion of domestic reindeer into Alaska, which was carried. The appro-
priation failed to receive the concurrence of the conference committee of
the House of Representatives.
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, I issued, with the approval of the Commissioner of Education,
an appeal in the Mail and Express of New York City, the Boston Tran-
seript, the Philadelphia Ledger, the Chicago Inter-Ocean, and the
Washington Star, as well as in a number of the religious newspapers of
the country, for contributions to this object. The response was prompt
and generous; $2,146 were received.
As the season had arrived for the usual visit of inspection and super-
vision of the schools in Alaska, in addition to my regular work for the
schools I was authorized to commence the work of introducing domestic
reindeer into Alaska. The natives of Siberia who own the reindeer,
knowing nothing of the use of money, an assortment of goods for the
purpose of barter for the reindeer was procured from the funds so gen-
erously contributed by benevolent people.
The honorable Secretary of the Treasury issued instructions to Cap-
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 Russian Government instructions
to their officers on the Siberian coast also to render what assistance
they could, and on May 25, 1891, I again took passage on the revenue
cutter Bear, Captain Healy in command, for the coast of Siberia.
The proposition to introduce domestic reindeer into Alaska had ex-
AZ INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
cited widespread and generalinterest. 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; further, that
the nature of the reindeer was such that he would not bear ship trans-
portation, 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 men, was asserted so strongly and positively that it was
thought best the first season to make haste slowly, and instead of pur-
chasing a large number of reindeer to possibly 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, I again carefully reviewed the ground and secured
all possible additional information with regard to the reindeer, and,
while delaying the actual establishment of a herd until another season,
refuted the correctness of the objections that the natives will not sell
and the deer will not bear transportation by actually buying and trans-
- porting them.
The work was so new and untried that many things could only be
found out by actual experience.
First. The wild deer men of Siberia are a very superstitious people,
and need to be approached with great wisdom and tact. If a man
should sell us deer and the following winter an epidemic break out in
his herd, or some calamity befall his family, the Shamans would make
him believe that his misfortune was all due to the sale of the deer.
Second. The Siberian deer men 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. Now, 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. Another difficulty arises from the fact that they can not
understand what we want with the reindeer. They have no knowledge
of such a motive 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 imme-
morial 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 littie
English. And upon this class we have been dependent in the past.
Csi90UMo Josulyy tteyg Aq perdnooo ore pue ‘e
AHS TOOUMS sulMrery, [eLysnpuy uvrtezAqsoig oy JO sayenpeas oy
‘VUSVTIY ‘VULIS ‘SSDVLLOD T3G0N
Aq 10J pred pue Inq ataa sasvqy0o aset,L)
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 13
However, notwithstanding all these difficulties and delays, Captain
Healy, with the Bear, coasted from 1,200 to 1,500 miles, calling at the
various villages and holding conferences with the leading reindeer
owners on the Siberian coast. Arrangements were made for the pur-
chase of animals the following season. Then, to answer the question
whether reindeer could be purchased and transported alive, I bought
16 head, kept them on shipboard for some three weeks, passing through
a gale so severe that the ship had to “lie to,” and finally landed them
in good condition at Amaknak Island, in the harbor of Unalaska.
Upon my return to Washington City in the fall of 1891 the question
was again urged upon the attention of Congress, and on the 17th of
December, 1891, Hon. H. M. Teller introduced a bill (S. 1109) appro-
priating $15,000, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of
the Interior, for the purpose of introducing and maintaining in the Ter-
ritory 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. 8. B. Alexander, of North Carolina, reported the
bill to the House of Representatives with the approval of the Com-
mittee on Agriculture. The bill was placed on the calendar, but failed
to pass the House.
On the 2d of May, 1892, I started for my third summer’s work on the
coast of Siberia and Arctic Alaska in the United States revenue cutter
Bear, Capt. M. A. Healy, commanding, and, upon the 29th of June fol-
lowing, selected in the northeast corner of Port Clarence (the nearest
good harbor to Bering Straits on the American side) a suitable location
for the establishment of an industrial school, the principal industry of
which is the management and propagation of domestic reindeer. The
institution is named the Teller Reindeer Station.
During the summer of 1892 I made five visits to Siberia, purchasing
and transporting to Port Clarence 171 head of reindeer. I also super-
intended the erection of a large building for the officers and residence
of the superintendent of the station, Mr. Miner W. Bruce, of Nebraska.
Returning to Washington in the early winter,.agitation was at once
commenced before Congress, resulting in an appropriation by the Fifty-
second Congress, second session (March 3, 1893), of ‘$6,000, to be
expended under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, for the
purpose of introducing and maintaining in the Territory of Alaska
reindeer for domestic purposes.” The management of this fund was
wisely laid upon the Commissioner of Education and was made a part
of the school system of Alaska.
14 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
During the spring of 1893, 79 fawns were born to the herd at the
Teller Reindeer Station, and during the summer 127 deer were pur-
chased in Siberia and added to the Alaska herd.
At the expiration of his year’s service Mr. Bruce resigned, and Mr.
W.T. Lopp, of Indiana, was appointed superintendent.
During April, May, and June, 1894, 186 fawns were born to the herd,
of which 41 were lost by being frozen or deserted by their mothers.
During the summer I purchased in Siberia 120 head, which were added
to the herd.
Siberian herders were employed at the beginning of the enterprise,
not because they were considered the best, but because they were near
by and were the only ones that could be had at the time. It was real-
ized from the first that if the Alaskan Eskimo were to be taught tue
breeding and care of the reindeer, it was important that they should
have the benefit of the most intelligent instructors and of the best
methods that were in use. By universal consent it is admitted that
the Lapps of northern Europe, because of their superior intelligence
(nearly all of them being able to read and write and some of them
being acquainted with several languages), are much superior to the
Samoyedes deer men of northern Europe and Asia and the barbarous
deer men of northeastern Siberia, Intelligence applied to the raising
of reindeer, just as to any other industry, produces the best results.
Therefore, when in 1893 it was ascertained that the herd at Port
Clarence had safely passed its first winter (thus assuring its perma-
nence), I at once set about securing herders from Lapland. There being
no public funds available to meet the expense of sending an agent to
Norway in order to secure skilled Lapp herders, I had recourse again
to the private benefactions of friends of the enterprise, and $1,000 was
contributed.
Mr. William A. Kjellmann, of Madison, Wis., was selected as superin-
tendent of the Teller Reindeer Station and sent to Lapland for herders.
He sailed from New York City February 21, and landed upon his return
May 12, 1894, having with him seven men, their wives and children,
making sixteen souls in all. This was the first colony of Lapps ever
brought to the United States. They reached the Teller Reindeer Sta-
tion safely on July 29, having traveled over 12,500 miles. Upon reach-
ing the station Mr. Kjellmann took charge, relieving Mr, W. T. Lopp,
who desired to return to the mission work at Cape Prince of Wales.
In 1894 the Fifty-third Congress, second session, increased the rein-
deer appropriation to $7,500, and the same amount was appropriated
in the spring of 1895, at the third session of the same Congress.
1895.
The accompanying report of Mr. William A. Kjellmann (Appendix B)
upon the conduct of the Teller Reindeer Station and reindeer herd is
so full and satisfactory that I will not even attempt to summarize it,
but rather urge its careful reading.
LOADING REINDEER ON SHIPBOARD
Published by courtesy of ‘‘Our Animal Friends.”’
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 5
Owing to the serious illness of his wife, and her need of the services
of a physician, that could not be had at the station, Mr. Kjellmann
resigned on the 20th of July and returned to the States. The same
day Mr. Jens C. Widstead, of Wisconsin, the assistant superintendent,
was made superintendent, and Mr. Thorvaald Kjellmann, of Norway,
was appointed his assistant.
Having spent five consecutive seasons in arctic and subarctic Alaska
and Siberia establishing and supervising schools and the introduction
of reindeer, I felt the need of giving a season to the work in southeast
Alaska. To accomplish this Mr. William Hamilton, my assistant, made
the arctic cruise this season. The itinerary for 1895 is therefore written
by him and is incorporated in an appendix (Appendix A).
The experience of the past year has demonstrated the wisdom of
procuring Lapps for herders. Their greater intelligence, skill, and
gentleness in handling the deer, and the introduction of their improved
methods of treatment, have greatly promoted the welfare of the herd.
In 1894, 41 fawns out of the 186 born were lost under the supervision
of the Siberian herders. This spring under the care of the Lapps but
22 fawns were lost of 298 born at the three stations, and 7 of these were
from the 75 born at Cape Prince of Wales, where no Lapp was present,
thus reducing the percentage of loss among the calves the past spring
from 22 per cent in the previous year to about 6 per cent for the pres-
ent year. This great saving is due to the greater skill of the Lapps,
and would alone pay the extra expense of procuring them as herders.
It has also been found that there is a hearty agreement in the work
between the Lapps and the Eskimo.
Last fall a commencement was made in the distribution from the
central herd at the Teller Station. In August, 1894, 119 head of deer
were given to Mr. W. T. Lopp, in charge of the mission of the American
Missionary Association at Cape Prince of Wales. This spring the
herd was increased by the birth of 75 fawns (Appendix C).
Instructions were left in fall of 1895 to furnish similar herds to the
Swedish Evangelical mission at the head of Norton Sound and to the
Episcopalians and Roman Catholics on the Yukon River.
The Eskimo have been so little accustomed to assistance from the
whites that they have been somewhat skeptical concerning their being
permitted to ultimately own the reindeer. As evidence of good faith,
in February last a herd of 115 head was entrusted to three or four of
the most experienced native apprentices, with an agreement that they
were to own the natural increase. This spring during fawning season
a Lapp was sent to their assistance, and they lost only 2 fawns out of
the 79 born.
The experience of the past four years has demonstrated the fact that
the present system of procuring reindeer is too slow, and will take
many years to accomplish the purpose of the Government. To expe-
dite matters I would respectfully suggest the propriety of placing, with
16 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
the consent of the Russian Government, a purchasing station some-
where on the Siberian coast, to remain through the year (Appendix F).
If successful such a station ought to gather together 2,000 or 3,000
head and have them ready for transportation during the summer.
Another plan, and a more feasible one, will be to contract with respon-
sible parties for the purchasing and delivering of so many head of rein-
deer annually at certain designated points in Alaska. This latter plan
will relieve the office of much anxiety.
THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE.
There are in northern and central Alaska, at a moderate estimate,
400,000 square miles of territory that are unadapted to agriculture or the
grazing of cattle, and that region is without an adequate food supply
for the Eskimo inhabitants or the white miners and others who are now
penetrating it in search of gold or trade. -But that whole region is
supplied with a long, fibrous white moss (Cladonia rangiferina), the
natural food of the reindeer. This is capable of becoming food and
clothing for men only by its transformation into reindeer meat and furs.
The best results in the raising of reindeer, and the most complete
statistics, are found in Norway and Sweden. Taking those countries
as a basis, we find that the northern provinces known as Lapland con-
tain an area of 14,000 square miles, in which are 322,568 head of rein-
deer. This gives an average of 23 reindeer to the square mile.
Applying this ratio to the 400,060 square miles of arctic and sub-
arctic Alaska (and there is no known reason in the general character
of the country why we should not), we have as a result that Alaska
is capable of sustaining 9,200,000 head of reindeer, which, at the valu-
ation of $9 each (the price in Sweden), will be worth $83,000,000.
In Lapland there is an average of 32 head of reindeer to each person
among the reindeer Lapps. Applying the same average to Alaska,
the 9,200,000 head of reindeer will support a population of 287,500,
living like the Lapps of Lapland.
EFFECT UPON ALASKA.
The stocking of Alaska with reindeer means—
First. The opening up of the vast and almost inaccessible region of
northern and central Alaska to white settlers and civilization.
The original purpose in 1890 to introduce reindeer into Alaska was
inspired by a desire to provide a new and more permanent food supply
for the half-famishing Eskimo.
Since then the discovery of large and valuable gold deposits upon
the streams of arctic and subarctic Alaska has made the introduction of
reindeer a necessity for the white man as well as the Eskimo. Previous
to the discovery of gold there was nothing to attract the white settler to
that desolate region, but with the knowledge of valuable gold deposits
thousands will there make their homes, and towns and villages are
already springing into existence.
INTERIOR CARVINGS AND CEREMONIAL GARMENTS.
THLINGET HOUSE.
(Copyright. )
Photograph by Winter & Pond, Juneau, Alaska.
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 17
But that vast region, with its perpetual frozen subsoil, is without
agricultural resources. Groceries, breadstuffs, etc., must be procured
from the outside. Steamers upon the Yukon can bring food to the
mouths of the gold-bearing streams, but the mines are often many miles
up these unnavigable streams. Already great difficulty is experienced
in secuging sufficrent food by dog-train transportation and the packing
of the natives. The miners need reindeer transportation.
Again, the development of the mines and the growth of settlements
upon streams hundreds of miles apart necessitates some method of
speedy travel. A dog team on a long journey will make on an average
from 15 to 25 miles a day, and in some sections can not make the trip
at all, because they can not carry with them a sufficient supply ot food
for the dogs, and can procure none in the country through which they
travel. To facilitate and render possible frequent and speedy com-
munication between these isolated settlements and growing centers of
American civilization, where the ordinary roads of the States have no
existence and can not be maintained except at an enormous expense,
reindeer teams that require no beaten roads, and that at the close of a
day’s work can be turned loose to forage for themselves, are essential.
The introduction of reindeer into Alaska makes possible the develop-
ment of the mines and the’support of a million miners.
Second. The opening up of a vast commercial industry. Lapland,
with 400,000 reindeer, supplies the grocery stores of northern Hurope
with smoked reindeer hams, 10 cents per pound; smoked tongues, at
10’cents each; dried hides, at $1.25 to $1.75 each; tanned hides, $2 to $3
each, and 23,000 carcasses to the butcher shops, in addition to what is
miisuined < the Lapps themselves.
Fresh reindeer meat is considered a great delicacy. Russia exports
it frozen, in carloads, to Germany. The Norwegian Preserving Com-
pany use large quantities of it for canning.
The tanned skins (soft and with a beautiful yellow color) have a ready
sale for military pantaloons, gloves, bookbinding, covering of chairs and
sofas, bed pillows, ete.
The hair is in great demand for the filling of life- -Saving apparatus
(buoys, etc.), as it possesses a wonderful degree of buoyancy. The
best existing glue‘is made of reindeer horns.
On the same basis Alaska, with its capacity for 9,200,000 head of rein-
deer, can supply the markets of America with 500,000 carcasses of veni-
son annually, together with tons of delicious hams and tongues, and the
finest of leather.
Surely the creation of an industry worth from $83,000,000 to $100,-
000,000, where none now exists, is worth the attention of the American
people.
Lhird. The perpetuation, multiplication, and civilization of the Eski-
mos of that region. The Eskimos are a hardy and docile race. Their
children learn readily in the schools, and there is no reason why they
Woe, 1b 2
18 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
should not be made an important factor in the development of that land.
The density of population in any section being largely dependent upon
the quantity of the food supply, the increase of food supply will natu-
rally increase the number of hardy Eskimo.
For the breeding of the reindeer and the instruction of the native
people in this industry, it is desirable that there should be a migration
to that country of skilled herders and their families. The inviting of
this class of European settlers will not crowd out the native Eskimos, -
but will greatly assist them in their efforts to adjust themselves to the
raising of reindeer. Lapp families, with their greater intelligence, skill,
and gentleness in handling reindeer, and their improved methods of
treatment, wisely distributed among the Eskimos, will be an object lesson
to stimulate.encourage, and instruct them.
To awaken an interest in Lapland and open the way for securing
a larger number of Lapp herders, | would suggest the publication for
distribution in Lapland of a small pamphlet in the Norwegian language
upon the advantages of raising reindeer in Alaska.
I am in receipt of many applications for the reindeer report that can
not be supplied, because of the limited edition now published. It is
important that the rising public sentiment favorable to the introduction
of domestic reindeer into Alaska should be fostered and quickened by
the wide dissemination of the information contained in these annual
reports. Judging from past experience, an edition of 100,000 copies
would be quickly applied for and taken.
REINDEER FUND, 1894-95.
Received from Congress. ..-.-..----- ---- 1----- -- 02 wooo ne een = ene wen oo $7, 500. 00
Disbursements :
Supplies and general expenses of station, Port Clarence. ... $3, 811. 83
Trade goods used in purchasing deer...-.-...--.----------- 1, 767. 26
Extra coal used by the Bear in transporting deer.----.-.-. 1, 081. 50
Maps used in report. .....- ---..----------- ---------------: 150. 00
Salaries of employees at station. ..........-.--.----------- 683. 80
AN) 21 eRe te dee ERE eR Se Goi oS an ocink URS CIOS MaDe Sua Aaa oSeT 7, 494. 39
Balances cacc ses a eee ee ee eee see Se ee eee ee eel 5. 61
I desire to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. John P. Haines,
president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals, for illustrations of driving and loading reindeer, and to Messrs.
William Hamilton, Tappan Adney, John M. Justice, Francis Barnum,
Winter & Pond, and to the Woman’s American Baptist Home Missionary
Society for photographs.
Thanking you for your deep interest and hearty cooperation in the
work, I remain, with great respect,
Your obedient servant,
SHELDON JACKSON,
United States General Agent of Education in Alaska.
Hon. W. T. Harris, LL. D.,
Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C.
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NATIVE THLINGET FAMILY, JUNEAU, ALASKA.
APPENDLX A.
SE -TPINERARY FOR 1895.
By WILLIAM HAMILTON, Assistant Agent of Education.
BUREAU OF EDUCATION, ALASKA DIVISION,
Washington, D. C., December 31, 1895.
DEAR Sire: In accordance with your instructions I left Washington
on April 15, arriving at Tacoma six days later. Here I took passage
for Sitka on the Pacific Coast Steamship Company’s vessel City of
Topeka. The low rates to Alaska during the present season, the alleged
rapid development of the gold mines in the Yukon region, and the
unusually hard times on the Pacific Coast are greatly encouraging
immigration to Alaska. The City of Topeka was crowded from stem
to stern with all sorts and conditions of men; every berth was occu.
pied, and at night the tables in the dining saloon were covered with
long rows of slumbering humanity.
Soon after crossing the line between British Columbia and Alaska
the steamer touched at Metlakahtla, the home of Mr. Duncan’s colony
of Christianized Timpseans. There are about 100 neat frame houses
in the village, a large church and schoolhouse, the boys and the girls’
boarding home, Mr. Duncan’s residence and office, the cannery, saw-
mill, and the store. The church is complete with belfry, spire, vesti-
bule, gallery, and pulpit carved by hand, all native handiwork. The
salmon cannery ships about 8,000 cases each year, and the sawmill
supplies all the lumber needed. Sidewalks in excellent condition, 10
feet wide, extend along the principal street of the village. A con-
Spicuous object is a platform built on a huge cedar stump, where the
native band plays on steamer days. As the steamer arrived late in the
evening and left at 4 o’clock the next morning, I regret that I did not
see the school in session.
The next place of interest at which the steamer stopped was Fort
Wrangell. Inthe days when the Cassiar gold mines at the head of the
Stikine River were in their glory, and when the barracks were occupied
by United States troops, a tide of motley life swept through the long
street which extends along the water front from the fort to the chief’s
house. In 1877 the Government withdrew its troops from all posts in
Alaska, the mining regions of the Stikine have been abandoned, and
the only indication of the industry of civilization is the frequent puffs
of steam issuing from the large sawmill.
21
22 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
Mr. William A. Kelly, the local superintendent of schools for the
Sitka district, lives in this village, and the public school for native
children, held in the building which once was the hospital of the bar-
racks, is in a very satisfactory condition under the care of Miss A. R.
Kelsey.
On April 28 we found ourselves at the town of Juneau, which nestles
at the base of a towering mountain. It is the largest town in the Terri-
tory and has a population of about 2,000, which number is largely
increased when the miners from the neighboring regions winter there
and also in the spring when newcomers tarry to purchase outfits and
supplies beforé going into the interior. Juneau is the commercial
metropolis of Alaska, and there is considerable rivalry between it and
Sitka, the historic capital of the Territory; it has a court-house, jail,
hotels, and lodging houses, two Government schools—one for white and
the other for native children—a Presbyterian mission home and two
churches (white and native), Russo-Greek church, also a Roman Catholic
church, school, and hospital, opera house, bank, two weekly newspapers,
fire brigade, and electric light and telephone plants.
Since my last visit to Juneau, in 1892, a new schoolhouse for natives
has been built and the schoolhouse for white children has been thor-
oughly renovated, and both buildings compare very favorably with
schoolhouses in places with the same population as Juneau anywhere
in the United States. Mr. E. Keller has charge of the school for white
children and Miss 8. A. Saxman of the native school.
On the opposite side of Gastineau Channel, 2 miles from Juneau, is
the town of Douglas, where is located the well-known Treadwell gold
mine. Over $800,000 have been spent upon this plant since 1881. Its
stamping mill, where the gold-bearing quartz is pulverized, contains 240
stamps, and is the largest mill of its kind in the world. The gold is
shipped to the mint at San Francisco in the form of bricks worth sev-
eral thousand dollars each. During the year ending May 31, 1894,
240,000 tons of ore were treated, yielding $768,000, or $3.20 per ton.
In the village are two public schools. The one for white children is
taught by Mr. L. A. Jones and the school for native children is under
the care of Miss F. J. Work. The majority of the children in the school
for natives are inmates of the home maintained here by the Kansas
Yearly Meeting of Friends.
From Douglas the vessel steamed up Lynn Canal to Dyea at the
head of the Chilkoot Inlet. This was the first time that the Topeka
had ever been to the head of the inlet, and she felt her way along very
cautiously. After careful sounding we anchored at about 6.30 p. m.
Around us were magnificent snow-capped mountains, and just opposite
a noisy waterfall leaped headlong down the face of the cliff. The pilot
said that he would use it as a landmark for anchorage in the future.
Men who enter the mining regions of the Yukon from the headwaters
of the river take the trail which leaves tidewater at the head of this
(qysitkdopy) “puog xz 103urA\, Aq ydeisoj0yd
“IOOHOS OENd ‘vUsvIYy ‘AvANnoe
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 23
inlet. We had on board 14 horses, which were to be used in carrying
supplies over the mountain pass. These animals were now brought
up from below. As the water shoals very rapidly toward the head of
the bay, the Topeka had anchored a couple of miles from shore, and the
horses had a long distance to swim. By this time it was dark and the
struggles of the animals churned the chilly waters into displays of
phosphorescent light.
On May 3 we touched at Killisnoo. A public school was maintained
here for a number of years. In February, 1893, the schoolhouse was
destroyed by fire, and the Bureau of Education has not been able to
rebuild it, owing to heavy reductions in the Congressional appropriation
for education in Alaska. Most of the children in the village attend
the school of the Russo-Greek Church.
The Alaskan Oil and Guano Company, which is engaged in packing
herring and manufacturing oil and fertilizer, has its works at this place.
The annual product of their factory is 1,000 barrels of salted herring,
about 400,000 gallons of herring oil, and 1,000 tons of fertilizer (com-
posed of the refuse of the fish dried and pulverized, for which a market
is found in California and in the Sandwich Islands, where it enriches
the soil of the sugar plantations). In making the barrels Alaskan
timber is used exclusively.
On May 1 the Topeka threaded its way into the beautiful island-
studded harbor of Sitka, the seat of government of the Territory.
Shielded on the one side by a majestic range of snow-capped mountains,
and on the other protected from the swell of the Pacific by numerous
thickly wooded islands, the town lies clustered along the curving sweep
of the beach. As we face the town, a prominent feature in the fore-
ground is the hill upon which Baranof Castle stood before the flames
destroyed it in 1894. Extending along the beach to theright of Castle
Hill is the section of the town inhabited by the white people. Above
the dark roofs appear the green dome and Byzantine spire of the Greek
Church. On the extreme right, near Indian River, is the group of
buildings of the Presbyterian Industrial School. To the left of Castle
Hill is the native village, consisting of neat frame houses, some of them
with pretentious bay windows.
In 1890 Sitka had a population of 1,188, composed of 289 whites, 859
natives, and 31 Chinese. It has two public schools, a school and
orphanage maintained by the Russian Government, and the large and
successful Presbyterian Industrial School, with its boarding houses,
hospitals, blacksmith shop, carpenter shop, shoemaking shop, paint
shop, bakery, and steam laundry.
The few hours in Sitka were busily spent in inspecting the public
schools (Miss Patton and Mrs. Knapp, teachers) and in visiting the
schoolroom and industrial shops at the Presbyterian mission.
On May 1 I took passage on the mail steamer Dora for Unalaska,
1,250 miles west of Sitka, on one of the Aleutian Islands of the same
24 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
name. This mail route is in operation from the 1st of April until the
3lst of October of each year. During the winter months Sitka is the
limit of mail communication. Threading her way westward among
the green islets the trim little Dora soon left the smooth, landlocked
waters and encountered the unchecked sweep of the Pacific Ocean.
From Sitka westward the character of the scenery changes. The
narrow water-lanes hemmed in by the thickly wooded islands of the
Alexander Archipelago give place to the untrammeled ocean beating
against the bases of the barren cliffs and mountain ranges of “ conti-
nental Alaska.”
The morning of May 3 found us in Yakutat Bay. Here, near the
base of Mount St. Elias, is a mission station of the Swedish Evangeli-
cal Church, with the Rev. and Mrs. Albin Johnson, Rev. K. J. Hen-
drickson, and Miss Selma Peterson as teachers. Mrs. Johnson came
from Jankaping, Sweden, makiog a journey of 9,000 miles to join Mr. |
Johnson. Landing through the surf, we picked our way along the
beach to the mission buildings. In the winter of 1892-93 one of the
large and substantial boarding houses was burned. The undaunted
missionaries commenced rebuilding it, and at the time of our visit it
was nearly completed. The other building is a model of neatness, and
there is an air of unassuming sincerity and thoroughness about the
whole place.
In 1880 gold was discovered in the black sand of the beaches sur-
rounding Yakutat Bay, and from that time until 1888, when a tidal wave
washed most of the sand away, numerous mining camps dotted its
shores. The black sand is accumulating once more, and prospectors
have also returned. It is said that good coal has been found about 2
miles inland, but as Yakutat Bay is only a slight indentation of the
coast into which the unbroken force of the North Pacific sweeps, load-
ing ships with cecal in that bay would be an undertaking of great dif-
ficulty.
The Yakutats are the northernmost branch of the Thlinget race, which
inhabits southeast Alaska. Like the rest of the Thlingets, and also the
Aleuts, they are expert basket weavers; in some of the houses we saw
magnificent robes made of down from the breast of the eagle.
During the afternoon the clouds lifted, revealing the St. Elias Alps,
and during the remaining hours of daylight we skirted the 60-mile
front of the Malaspina glacier, with the sea dashing against its 1ce
cliffs. The unbroken sweep of mountain scenery from the St. Elias
range to the Aleutian chain is unsurpassed in gloomy grandeur. At
the little trading post of Kayak we took on board a man who had just
spent seven months as keeper of a fox ranch on one of the neighboring
islands. For that length of time he had not seen a human face, his sole
company being the foxes.
On evening of May 4 we entered the land-locked harbor of Nuchek,
or Port Etches, at the entrance of Prince William Sound. At Snug
(aysttddop) “puog W azsquray Aq ydeisojoyg
VASV TV "NVANNE ‘STldNd GNV SY3SHOVSL NOISSI|) NVINSLASSANd
y .
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 25
Corner Bay in this sound Captain Cook repaired his ships in 1778, and
here in 1783 Baranoff built the ships in which he made his first expe-
dition to Sitka. A more sheltered harbor could hardly be imagined.
In 1892 the Victoria sealing fleet rendezvoused at Nuchek to meet their
supply vessel, the Coquitlam. The revenue-cutter Corwin, Capt. C. L.
Hooper commanding, surprised them in the act of transferring the car-
goes of seal skins, and the Coquitlam was seized and taken to Sitka for
a violation of the United States revenue laws in transferring cargo
without authority. At Nuchek there is a salmon cannery and trading
post. Here the Russo-Greek Church maintains a school with an enroll-
ment of 37, Mr. Andrew P. Kashevaroff, teacher.
The next morning we steamed up the sound to the little settlement
of Taklitat. At the very head of the sound the two branches of the
Chugak Alps meet and their snowy sides are perfectly mirrored in
the glassy waters. In this out-of-the-way nook the Alaska Commer-
cial Company has a trading post. The trader and almost the entire
population of the village were suffering from la grippe. The mail
steamer carries a supply of medicines, and an exceedingly formidable
quantity of “grip mixture” was left with the trader.
Our next port was St. Paul (Kadiak), on the northeast shore of
Kadiak Island. The harbor of St. Paul is encircled by undulating
hills and the village nestles among gentle slopes of grass and moss.
The climate of this region is mild; cattle are raised and smail gardens
are numerous. In 1874 a delegation from the Scandinavian residents
of Wisconsin matie an expedition to this region to determine whether
it would be advantageous for their people to seek homes on this island.
From their report the following sentences are taken:
Potatoes grow and do well, although the natives have not the slightest idea of
how they should be cultivated, which goes to show that they would thrive excel-
lently if properly cared for. To judge from the soil and climate, there is no reason
why everything that succeeds in Scotland should not succeed at Kadiak. Pasture
land is so excellent on the island, and the hay harvest so abundant, that our coun-
trymen would here, just as in Iceland, make sheep breeding and cattle raising their
chief method of livelihood. The quality of the grass is such that the milk, the beef,
and mutton must be excellent; and we had also an opportunity to try these at Kadiak.
On Kadiak Island the dense dark forests dwindle in scattered groves,
and from this point westward even these disappear. The sides of the
Aleutian Mountains are entirely void of trees. In the summer months,
after the snow has disappeared, the shrubs, the grasses, and mosses
which cover them are kept intensely green by the almost perpetual fogs
and showers. The dugout disappears with the forests, and its place is
taken by the bidarka, a narrow canoe of sea lion or walrus hide tightly
stretched over frames of driftwood. It has two, sometimes three circu-
lar hatcelres, just large enough to admit a man’s body. The hatches are
usually furnished with an apron which is fastened around the waist so
that the bidarka becomes perfectly water-tight. These ‘*Cossacks of
the seas,” as Liitke called them, buoyantly ride the roughest waters.
26 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
Captain Billings wrote of them, “If perfect symmetry, smoothness, and
proportion constitute beauty, they are beautiful beyond anything that
I ever beheld.”
At Kadiak in 1784 the Russian Gregory Shelikoff formed a settle-
ment and commenced the subjugation of the people. The first school
in Alaska was organized at this place, and here the first church building
was erected. For a long time it was the Russian capital of Alaska.
Kadiak is the headquarters of the Alaska Commercial Company for the
district comprising Cook’s Inlet and Prince William Sound, and furs to
the value of $300,000 are shipped yearly. Here the Bureau of Educa-
tion has an excellent public school, Mr. C, C. Solter teacher. I attended
sessions of the school, and have no hesitation in saying that the children
are just as far advanced as children of the saine age in any village
school in the country. LIhad a satisfactory interview with the members
of the local school committee, who here, as elsewhere in the Territory,
aid the Bureau of Education with suggestions, and several improve-
ments to the school property were authorized. The priest of the Russo-
Greek Church, under whose spiritual care are most of the children, was
present.
Near Kadiak Island is Wood Island, Here the Baptist Woman’s
Home Mission Society has begun a noble work for the rescuing of the
waifs and destitute children of that region by maintaining a home.
The condition of some of‘the poorer native children was thus described
by Mr. W. E. Roscoe, in charge of the home, formerly teacher at
Kadiak :
In every settlement through this part of the country may be found poor, defense-
less children clothed only in rags, with no one to provide suitable food or clothing,
and living entirely upon such charity as may be found among a heathen people.
There are many destitute children, made so by the drunkenness and the vagabond
character of their parents. In the Aleut settlement of Afognak, the natives have
sold the bedding from their huts to obtain the vile stuff. The winter is upon them,
and until recently they have been so demoralized with liquor that they had not laid
in the usual winter’s supply of dried fish—their main subsistence. Now, the future
of this race is that they will perish from off the face of the globe unless they are
Christianized, and that soon. It is a fact that the children do not generally show
this terrible craving for strong drink. The pupils of my school are ashamed of their
parents’ drinking. It is only right and just that our Government take orphan chil-
dren and inebriates’ children and put them in a good industrial school under religious
teachers, who, in addition to moral and intellectual training, will teach them the
cultivation of the soil, the rearing of cattle, sheep, hogs, and poultry, the elements
of some of the mechanical arts, and the girls the arts of sewing and of cooking.
In the hospital on Wood Island were seven men who had been saved
from the wreck of the schooner White, which was driven ashore at the
south end of Kadiak Island in a severe storm on April 13. Eleven of
the crew had perished in the icy waters and several of the survivors
had been so terribly frostbitten that they would be maimed for life.
Kadiak Island is separated from the mainland by the wide Shelikoff
Strait. According to the native legend this was once a narrow chan-
Mrs. Coe. Miss L. Goodchild. Rev. C. P. Coe.
BAPTIST TEACHERS, WOOD ISLAND.
BAPTIST MISSION PUPILS, WOOD ISLAND, ALASKA.
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. BT
nel. A huge otter attempted to swim tnrough and was caught fast; in
his struggles he widened the strait and pushed the island out to its
present position.
On the afternoon of May 8 we lay-to off the village of Karluk. There
is no harbor here; vessels anchor in the open roadstead and landings
are made in boats. ‘The breeze had freshened, a high sea was running,
and it was too rough for us to land. A Government school was main-
tained here for a few years, but a reduction of the Congressional appro-
priation for education in Alaska rendered necessary a curtailing of
expenses and the school was closed in 1892. A teacher has been
appointed who will reopen it in the fall of 1895,
The Karluk River, 16 miles long and about 6 feet deep, is one of the
most remarkable salmon streams in the world. Beside its shallow
waters are located several large canneries where, according to the
census report of 1890, about 300,000 cases of salmon were packed.
The employees number over 2,000, and in the summer months the
Chinese, Italians, Greeks, Portuguese, and Americans constitute one
of the most heterogeneous communities under the American flag. The
United States commissioner at Unalaska, 700 miles away, is the nearest
representative of the authority of the United States. On May 9, as
the gale had increased, the captain very considerately ran into a small
bay near Cape Providence and remained there until the gale had spent
its force.
Unga was reached at 4 a.m.on the 11th. Here [had an opportunity
of going ashore and meeting the teacher, Mr. McKinney, and of inspect-
ing the school buildings. Near the village of Unga is the mining
property of the Apollo Consolidated Mining Company. By skillful
management and wise expenditure of money the mine is being operated
with large profit. Two thousand five hundred feet of tunnels have
been completed; waterworks, steam compressor, offices, and dwelling
houses have been built. The forty-stamp mill is producing monthly
$30,000 worth of gold.
Just south of the Shumagin Islands, upon which Unga is located, are
immense cod banks whose value is just beginning to be appreciated.
They were first reported by Professor Davidson in 1867. Since that
time the United States Fish Commission steamer Albatross has done a
great deal of sounding and mapping of the banks.. The value of the
Shumagin catch of-cod in 1890 was $500,000. As the fur seal decrease
it is asserted that the cod-fishing industry will greatly increase, as it is
said that one seal will in a season consume cod equal in value to the
price of a raw seal skin.
At 9 a.m. we were under way, and at 10.30 came to anchor at Sand
Point. Under the wharf and forming its foundation is the wreck of the
John Hancock. She was built at the Charlestown Navy-Yard in 1842,
and was in Commodore Perry’s Japan expedition in 1853-54. Shortly
afterwards she was condemned and sold into the merchant service.
28 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
Her machinery was taken out and she was converted into a three-
masted schooner. While in the merchant service as a lumber vessel
she was abandoned at sea off the coast of Oregon. Being recovered
and brought into port, she was bought by Messrs. Lynde & Hough, of
San Francisco, who used her in their codfish trade. On March 7, 1893,
a heavy southwester dashed her upon the rocks at Sand Point, her final
resting place. Sand Point consists of a few houses belonging to Messrs.
Lynde & Hough, a hotel, and United States custom-house. Going
ashore | made the acquaintance of Mr. J. H. Bugbee, the agent, and
with him selected a sieht for a schoolhouse.
On the morning of May 12, feeling our way along, the fog horn sound-
ing, we turned north in the mists of Bering Sea through Unimak Pass,
in the Aleutian chain, whose seventy islands stretch for a thousand
miles like gigantic stepping stones toward Siberia. Attou, the west-
ernmost limit of the land possessions of the United States, is beyond
the one hundred and eightieth meridian and within the Eastern Hem-
isphere. Soon the fog lifted and we steamed through waters as smooth
as a mill pond. Bold headlands, towering pinnacles of rock, mountain
slopes carpeted with mosses whose intense green was heightened by
great patches of snow here and there; volcanoes draped with cloud
and plumed with smoke delighted the eye as we glided along. In a few
hours we swept past Priest’s Rock, an outlying pinnacle which bears a
resemblance to a priest of the Greek Church in his robes, and entered
Unalaska Bay. Twelve miles up the bay is the village of Unalaska or
Iliuliuk (the curving beach), the commercial center of western Alaska.
It is the port of entry for Bering Sea. A deputy collector of customs,
deputy marshal, and a United States commissioner reside here. At
Unalaska are the headquarters of the Alaska Commercial Company
for the western and arctic regions of the Territory. At the neighboring
village of Dutch Harbor are the offices of the North American Commer-
cial Company, also controlling trading posts scattered over thousands
of miles of territory. During the summer months Unalaska is the ren-
dezvous for all the shipping in that part of the world. The ships of
the arctic whaling fleet call here for coal, water, supplies, and mail,
and to leave news of the movements of the arctic ice and the catch of
whales, and receive tidings of the great world to the south. Since 1891
it has been the headquarters of the United States and British fleets
engaged in the Bering Sea patrol.
In the vast territory tributary to Unalaska are numerous waifs, many
of them the children of white men. Here at Unalaska the Methodist
Woman’s Home Mission Society in 1889 entered upon the noble work
of taking these poor children out of their squalor and mental darkness,
and by surrounding them with the influences of a Christian home to
lift them into a higher civilization. From a beginning with two orphan
waits from the island of Attou, 1,000 miles west of Unalaska, the home
family had increased in June, 1895, to about thirty, and the transfor-
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 29
mation that careful, conscientious training had wrought in the children
was marvelous. While waiting to join the United States revenue-cut-
ter Bear in its arctic cruise I became intimately acquainted with the
work being done in the home under the supervision of Me. and Mrs.
Tuck, and I have no hesitation in saying that a neater, more intelligent,
well-behaved set of children it would be hard to find anywhere in the
country. In the schoolroom, which I visited repeatedly, I found that
good progress had been made in the acquisition of the English language.
Those children who had been in the home for three years or more not
only read, wrote, and spoke, but also seemed to do their thinking in
finglish. From its commencement in 1889 until the past summer the
home has been maintained in a small one and one-half story rented
cottage. During the summer a commodious boarding house was erected.
The Aleutian Islands are so remote, so little is generally known of
them, to the visitor they have such an air of primeval solitude that one
finds it difficult to realize that they have been the theater of stirring
events and have a history extending back one hundred and fifty years.
No notice of this region would be complete without at least a glance at
this history. I quote the following résumé from Dr. Sheldon Jackson’s
report for 1890:
The discovery of these islands by Europeans is due to the unbounded ambition of
Peter the Great, »f Russia, who, having founded a Russian Empire in Europe and
Asia, would also found one in America. The western coast of America had been
explored as far as Cape Mendocino, California, but from California north it was
a vast, unknown region—‘‘the great northern mystery, with its Anian strait and
silver mountains and divers other fabulous tales.” Tosolvethese mysteries, to deter-
mine whether Asia had land communication with America, to learn what lands and
people were beyond his possessions on the eastern coast of Siberia, Peter the Great,
in 1724, ordered two expeditions of exploration and placed them both under the com-
mand of Vitus Bering, a Dane in the Russian service, The expedition set out over-
land through Siberia on January 28, 1725, under Lieutenant Chirikoff. Three days
later the Emperor died, but the expeditions were energetically pushed by his widow
and daughter. The first expedition, from 1725 to 1730, explored Bering Strait, and
settled the question of separation between Asia and America.
The second expedition was fitted out by the Empress Catherine, and consisted of
two vessels, the St. Paul, commanded by Bering himself, and the S¢. Peter, in charge
of Alexei [lich Chirikoff, second in command. The expedition was accompanied by
several scientists and sajled from Avatcha Bay, Kamtschatka, on June 4, 1741. This
ill-fated expedition discovered the mainland of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands.
But the remnant that brought back the news of the discovery of northwestern
America also brought with them the beautiful furs of the sea otter, and wide-awake
merchants were not slow to see their opportunity. As the adventurous hunt for
the little sable had led the hardy Cossack and extended Russian dominion from the
Ural Mountains across Asia to Kamtschatka and Bering Sea, so now the hunt for the
sea otter was to extend Russian settlement 2,000 miles along the coast of America,
A few months after the return of Bering’s expedition in the spring of 1743, Emilian
Bassof formed a partnership with a wealthy Moscow merchant, built a small vessel
named the Kapiton, and commenced the fur trade of the newly discovered islands.
On his second trip in 1745 he collected 1,600 sea otters, 2,000 fur seals, and 2,000 blue
Arctic foxes. This was the commencement on the part of the merchants of Siberia of
a mad race after the furs of Alaska—a race so mad that they could not wait the
30 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
securing of proper materials for the building of safe vessels and the procuring of
trained seamen. Boats were hastily constructed of planks fastened together with
rawhide or seal-skin thongs. Inthese unseaworthy boats, without charts or compass,
they boldly ventured to sea, and the half of them found a watery grave. Those who
did return in safety with a fair cargo received from 2,000 to 3,000 rubles each as
their share of the profit.
On the 26th of September, 1745, for the first time the discharge of firearms was cieemi
on the Aleutian Islands. A native was shot on the island of Agoto by a party of Rus-
sians under Chuprof. Then commenced a reign of lust, robbery, and bloodshed, which
lasted for fifty years. One Feodor Solovief is reported to have alone killed 3,000
Aleuts. Veniaminof, who was the leading Greek priest and first bishop of Alaska,
declares that during that dreadful period Aleuts were used as targets for Russian
practice in firing. In 1764 Captain Solovief formed a settlement. His stay on the
island was marked by such bloody atrocities that the few who survived were com-
pletely subjugated. His name has come througk a hundred years of local tradition
as the synonym of cruelty. Among other things it is said that he experimented upon
the penetrative power of his bullets by binding twelve Alents in a row and then
firing through them at short range. The bullet stopped at the ninth man In 1770,
when the American colonists were preparing themselves for the struggle for inde-
pendence, the struggle of the Aleuts wasending. They had given their lives in vain,
The few who were left could no longer maintain the unequal conflict and were
reduced to practical slavery.
During the first week of June the fleet of vessels which was to patrol
Bering Sea rendezvoused at Unalaska. Officers and sailors gave life
to the hitherto deserted street, dainty revenue cutters and a trimly
built British gunboat rode at anchor in the harbor; saucy little
steam launches and natty, white boats darted about; bugle calls floated
out over the tranquil waters, now and then jets of flame and columns
of smoke would shoot from the side of some vessel at target practice
and a spurt of dust on the mountain side show where the shot had
struck. All was life and action, where there had been silence and stag-
nation. There were calls upon the officers of the various ships, photo-
graphie excursions, climbing of mountains whose ravines stili held the
winter snows, balls, and even a wedding at high noon in which the con-
tracting parties were Miss Short, who had been the public-school
teacher at Unalaska during the past year, and Mr. Hastings, one of
the agents of the Alaska Commercial Company.
On the 10th of June the United States revenue cutter Bear
steamed into the harbor. On this famous vessel I was to spend the
summer among the ships of the Arctic whaling fleet, to cruise in
uncharted seas whose waters are disturbed only by the skin canoes of
the natives and by huge ice floes, to visit the school teachers and mis-
sionaries exiled on the shores of the frozen ocean, and see the under-
ground dwellers in the Land of the Midnight Sun and the long Arctic
night.
The annual cruise of the Bear is unique in its multifarious duties and
its practical usefulness. In northern Bering Sea and in the Arctic
Ocean, and along vast stretches of coast unknown to civilization, the
flag of the Bear is the only evidence of the authority of the United
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO.ALASKA. 31
States ever seen. Leaving San Francisco in spring, during the early
part of the cruise she patrols the North Pacific, enforcing the regula-
tions with regard to sealing, also preventing smuggling and exercising
a salutary influence generally along the southern shore of the mainland
of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. Later in the season when the ice
retreats before the summer heat, she turns northward into Bering Sea
and the Arctic Ocean. In these waters, in addition to performing the
ordinary duties of a revenue cutter, protecting the interests of the cus-
toms and preventing smuggling, she furnishes relief to the ships of the
arctic whaling fleet and all other vessels in times of peril and disaster.
During the past fifteen years she has rescued and taken from the bleak
and sterile coast of western and arctic Alaska more than a thousand
shipwrecked mariners and destitute miners. She collects all possible
geographical, ethnological, and scientific information; she affords pro-
tection when needed to thousands of half-civilized natives, whalers,
traders, teachers, and missionaries, and to anyone in distress; to her
captain, as the sole representative of the authority of the United States,
are referred troubles between whaling captains and their crews, and his
advice is sought on all subjects; her surgeon furnishes the only med-
ical attendance which white men and natives along thousands of miles
of coast ever receive; most of the mission houses and school buildings
in the Arctic were erected with the aid of her carpenter; during the
past five years her usefulness has been still further increased by coop-
erating with the Bureau of Education in procuring and transporting
reindeer from Siberia into Alaska. Since 1884 her commanding officer
has been Capt. Michael A. Healy, and the ability, zeal, and faithfulness
with which he has discharged his multifarious duties has rendered his
name famous throughout the land.
During the entire cruise I was fortunate in having as my shipmates
in the captain’s cabin Dr. Benjamin Sharp, secretary of the Academy
of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and his friend, Mr. John M.
Justice, also of Philadelphia.
Leaving the wharf at Dutch Harbor, Unalaska, on June 24, the bear
headed for the seal islands, St. Paul and St. George, lying 250 miles to
the north.
In 1786, when the supply of furs upon the Aleutian Islands began to
decrease, efforts were made to discover the summer retreat of the seal.
For years it had been noticed that they went north in the spring and
returned in the fall with their young, but so well had nature hidden
these islands that the Russian Gerassim Gavrilovich Pribilof cruised
around them for three weeks in his vessel St. George without discover-
ing them. At last the fog lifted and their green shores and rocks
covered with seai were sighted. Soon the islands became the “bank”
which supplied Baranof with funds to carry on his government in
Alaska. If he needed supplies for his colonies, all he had to do was to
kill seal and pay in seal skins. In order that the seal might not be
32 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
exterminated, in 1805 the Russian Government ‘prohibited their kill-
ing fora period of five years, and the rookeries regained their numbers.
For a few years after the transfer of Alaska to the United States indis-
criminate slaughter of the seals was carried on by seven different firms,
In 1869 the islands were declared a Government reservation, and a
company of soldiers stationed on them. In 1870 the seal fisheries
were leased for twenty years to the Alaska Commercial Company, of
San Francisco, at an annual rental of $55,000 and a tax of $2.624 on
each skin In 1890, at the expiration of their lease, the Alaska Com-
mercial Company had paid into the Treasury of the United States
$5,956 565.67, Since 1890 the lease of these fisheries has been held by
the North American Commercial Company, also of San Francisco, at an
annual rental of $100,000 and a tax of $9.62 on each seal. Pelagie
sealing and rookery raiding have so diminished the numbers of the seals
that 20,000 skins is now the average number killed by the company each
season.
On June 25 we sighted the fog-wreathed cliffs of St. George, but a
heavy sea was running, the fog became thicker as we approached the
island, and it was not considered safe to attempt to make a landing.
The same evening we were in the vicinity of St. Paul, but by this time
the fog had become even more dense, and the visit to these famous
islands had to be deferred until our return in the fall. Accordingly, the
Bear shaped her course for St. Lawrence Island, the largest body of
land in Bering Sea.
In the bright, clear sunshine of June 26, over seas as smooth as
glass, we glided past barren St. Matthew’s Island, a famous home of
bears, with its massive Cape Upright and towering Pinnacle Rock. On
June 28 the anchor was dropped off the north side of the village on
St. Lawrence Island.
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 65
The antlers which have been shed have been collected, and await
the arrival of the apparatus for making glue. The herd has constantly
been in excellent condition, and at this writing the new antlers are from
12 to 20 inches long, the best possible evidence of thrift.
It may be stated here that, taking all the circumstances into con-
sideration, the wintering of the herd and ‘par ticularly the increase have
been entirely successful.
HERDERS AND APPRENTICES.
As you doubtless observed during your visit here last fall, our Lapp
herders did not receive the warmest welcome from the people who are
supposed to have influence among the Eskimos. It may be stated
that the importation of Lapps was the most sensible measure that
could have been adopted in connection with the reindeer enterprise
in Alaska, for in this, as in all other things, a good beginning must be
made if the end is to be good. The necessity of importing Lapps and
the improvements thereby secured will be plain to you and to any-
one who will take the trouble to read this report. The dissatisfaction
was expressed and shown distinctly on every occasion. It was soon
learned that the dissatisfaction and the variety of stories concerning
the Lapps had spread among the Eskimos. This fact was plain, from
many expressions made by the apprentices. It became necessary to
make it clear, both to the apprentices and to the other Eskimos, that the
Lapps were an intelligent and skilled people, both as regards taking
care of reindeer and as to other things.
There was some anxiety on account of these strange relations which
had sprung up without any cause whatever, and I was uncertain as to
what it might lead to in the long run. Good relations between the
herders and the apprentices was of paramount importance in securing
a good result, and such a good understanding had to be brought about
even if one of the sides had to make some sacrifice. When the Lapps
had become informed in regard to the cause of this strange relation and
its want of respect for them as if they were incapable and useless,
it was made clear to them that the onJy way to gain the respect
of the Eskimos was to demonstrate their superiority in fact, and they
lost no opportunity of showing these people how superior they were
in every respect. I am glad to be able to report that the relations
very rapidly improved, particularly between the Lapps and apprentices,
and the feelings between them have grown better day by day. The
apprentices, at least most of them, have long since discovered their
inferiority and seen how much they have to learn from these people.
We have now reached a point where no apprentice undertakes to do
anything before he has consulted one of the Lapps, so far as the lan-
guages make it possible.
The relations between the Lapps and outsiders are also pleasant, for
the Lapps have often given valuable assistance and pointed out how
SS. Woe:
66 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
this thing or that ought to be done. They have undertaken to treat
the natives as grown people treat children, and nobody will this year
succeed in filling the heads of the Eskimos with stories about the
Lapps, and the only outsiders among the Eskimos who still believe
themselves to be superior to all others, not only to the Lapps, are the
people from Cape Prince of Wales who occasionally have to come here
with theiv seal skins and other things to exchange them for ammunition
aud provisions. They show by their conduct that they regard them.
selves as superior, but the only thing in which they are regarded as
being superior and in which they actually excel all others is begging.
They have studied completely the various kinds of beggars’ tricks,
aud practice them both orally and in writing. The Lapps have ocea-
sionally been deceived by the lamentations and tricks of these people,
but their dishonesty has usually been detected, and when the dishon-
esty has been discovered, then neither the Lapps nor the rest of us
understand a word they say, this being the best way of getting rid of
them. Usually they have received something to eat, and their lhypoe-
risy has been used as the source of amusement.
1 am very happy to say that the Lapps have hitherto conducted them-
Selves most excellently, and have submitted with alacrity to the rules and
regulations made for them, rules and regulations which they have never
had to submit to heretofore. The only thing with which they have
expressed any dissatisfaction is that they have not received as much
reindeer meat as they would like.
The Lapps have certainly done everything that they possibly could,
not only in taking care of but also in instructing the apprentices.
So far as the language has permitted, they have always been willing to
explain why this thing or that had to be done in this way or that way,
and why things should be done at a certain time. This applied both
to herding, to milking, to driving, to training, to the making of sleds,
harnesses, saddles, skees, cheese, tanning and the preparation of skins,
and to the proper use of reindeer hair, antlers, etc. When we arrived
at the station it was assumed, both by the Eskimos and by the white
men at the station, that reimdeer skins could not be tanned or pre-
pared so as to be made waterproof, and that people would always have
to depend upon the seal for their waterproof boots. The opposite has
now been demonstrated so many times by the Lapps, they having shown
how completely dry their feet were after standing in water above their
knees for hours at a time, that the Eskimos now see that the seal can
be spared from this use, since there are a sufficient number of reindeer
skins to take their place.
When you left us Jast fall we had the following apprentices at the
station: Moses (an Indian), Martin Jacobson, Tatpan (Herbert), Akweet
koon, Seco wa wha sie, Antisarlook (Charlie), Kum muk, Sekeog look,
Oo kwood let, To oo tuk, Ohlook, Alektoona, Wok sock (Eskimos).
Of these thirteen apprentices three were married and had their
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 67
families with them at the station. At this writing we have only nine
of the above thirteen, four of them having left us. Two of these were
discharged, as they were utterly unfit for herding. They took no inter-
est whatever in it and had no desire for it, and had not come to the sta-
tion for the purpose of being herders, but had come only to stop there
for a year, and having received a good living and been supplied with
good warm clothes and earned a couple of animals, then to sell these and
get back to their homes, warm, well fed, and with a little fortune, say
$20 to $70 in personal property, which they then would sell to other
Eski:.os, and in this manner live another year without work. From
their standpoint, this may be regarded as a successful enterprise. The
two thus discharged were Oo kwood let and Soo wa wha sie. J presume
there are a couple ot other apprentices who have come here with the
Same purpose in view, but they do not talk the way the others did.
These ought probably to be sent away, but this has not hitherto been
done for reasons that will appear when [ come to discuss the qualifica-
tions of the herders individually.
It was thought best to have the apprentices remain with the herd;
that is to say, they ought to remain mn camp where the herd is pastur-
ing, be it near or far from the station. They ought not to have the sta-
tion as their headquarters and go out once or twice a week to look after
their watch, in which case they would look upon their work as herders
as a secondary matter, while it ought to be uppermost in their thoughts.
Then they would never become habituated to living in camps and mov-
ing, a matter which is absolutely necessary for every reindeer herder.
Nomadic and camp life both summer and winter must become such
a habit that it can not be abandoned without sorrow, before anyone can
be said to be entirely familiar with, and thoroughly trained in, herding
reindeer. Any person who desires to become the owner of reindeer
must first become a nomad. In order to begin to harden and accustom
our apprentices to this sort of life, they were sent into camp with the
herd immediately after I took charge of the station and since that
time they have been kept in tents continually, even during the pretty
severe weather in winter. They would take turns at coming to the
station every Saturday, but would be sent out again the following Mon-
day with the necessary provisions.
My instructions were that the apprentices and herders should be
divided into two groups, of which each group should be kept near the
herd for four months at a time. In this a little change has been made,
as four months would be a rather long season for the first time. Nor
would this divide equally the seasons of the year. I therefore let the
apprentices stay out four weeks at a time and the herders three
months. At this writing, we have advanced so far that a few of the
apprentices have begun to take an interest in the herd and in camp life.
They like better to be out with the reindeer than to stay at the station.
Others, on the other hand, can not be made to understand that in order
68 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
to become good herders they must first become nomads and take an
interest in handling, watching, and being among the animals all the
time. They also appear not to understand that when an order is given
to them to remain in camp for a certain length of time, the intention
is that they must not run away from the herd every other day to see
what is being done at the station. It has been necessary to administer
many a disagreeable reprimand on account of the violation of this
order. On the other hand, it must be stated that it has been very diffi-
cult for the apprentices to obey our rules, since they were so accustomed
to look upon the station as their headquarters.
To keep them in camp various means have been resorted to, but with-
out any other result than that they would return to the station and
have to be sent back again. We, of course, refused to give them food
when they came fromthe camp. My last resort was to set them to doing
hard work when they came to the station, and as they have a dread for
this sort of punishment they usually dropped the work quickly and ran
back to the camp. Sometimes they run away to some Eskimo village
instead of going to the herd. They may stop for a day or two in the
village and spend a day with the herd, and then come back to the sta-
tion with an artega, ‘‘a coat,” a boot, mitten, or sock torn, as an excuse
for leaving the herd.
On reading this you may probably say, “Send them off,’ and this I
have thought of doing, but as their time has so nearly expired, and as
they have been kept thus far and by my predecessors, it seemed to me
that they might be tolerated a few months longer. It is unfortunately
a fact that the apprentices here mentioned are chiefly such as have
come from some mission station and there have obtained their taste for
warm rooms.
I do not say this with a view of finding the least fault with the mis-
sion stations or with the work of the missionaries among the Eskimos.
On the contrary, the missionaries surely, here as elsewhere among
heathens, do all in their power to civilize these people and to win them
away from dirt and ignorance. And it is not the fault of the mission-
aries that the Eskimo boys ignorantly make up their own minds about
matters, especially before they have been at a station long enough to
be able to form a higher estimate of life. The apprentices who are
taken directly from the Eskimo population, and from the Eskimo hut, are
far better, for they understand that they are better off both for the pres-
ent and for the future if they take hold earnestly and do their best to
become good reindeer herders. Although this is a matter which I shall
discuss more fully later on, I take the liberty of calling your attention to
it here in connection with the employment of new apprentices.
Hitherto it has appeared that the married men—that is, those who
have families here—are the most reliable, and they seem to have some
idea of the responsibility in regard to what they do, and at the same
time they are the cheapest for the station, inasmuch as the additional
food required by the wives and children is compensated for by their
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC RE{NDEER INTO ALASKA. 69
requiring less clothing. The women look after and mend the clothes,
not only of their husbands and children, but also of the other appren-
tices, and prepare their food.
I shall now mention in detail and make a few remarks on the qualifi-
cations of each apprentice separately, and I shall present them in the
same orderas that given in the above list:
Moses. He is the boy that came from St. James mission, on Yukon
tiver, in 1893, and who was not accepted as an apprentice by the then
superintendent, Miner W. Bruce. Mr. Bruce very properly refused to
accept him on account of the boy’s peculiar character, but he was
accepted by the superintendent, W. T. Lopp, which probably was a
mistake. It was thought best last fall to let the boy go at once, and so
Capt. M. A. Healy was asked to be kind enough to take the boy to St.
Michael, the boy stating that he could get home from that place at any
time, but Captain Healy declined taking him, although the boy had
spent the winter at the station and proved himself a great annoyance
to everybody. He could not be sent away in the dead of the winter,
as he was far away from his home and could not get to it in the winter
season, nor could he be turned out among the Eskimo, who do not feel
friendly toward the Indian. A letter was sent to Mr. W. T. Lopp, the
present manager of the mission station and of the herd at Cape Prince
of Wales, asking whether he would take Moses and keep him with his
herd, as it was supposed Mr. W. T. Lopp was fond of the boy and
had favored him above others at this station a year ago, but Mr. Lopp
refused to receive the boy, and it only remains to be said that he will
be discharged and sent home the first opportunity, and the reasons for
the discharge have been stated in a letter alre eady written to the St.
James mission, being as follows:
He is too expensive for the station, too smart for the people, too dudish for the
other apprentices, too rough for the children, and too lazy to become a herder.
Martin Jacobson came to the station in January, 1894, from the
Swedish mission station in Unalakalit, and is much easier to get
along with than Moses, but he takes no interest whatever in his work
with the reindeer. He is pretty clumsy in all that he attempts to do
and thinks himself too smart to obey orders and to begin work as a
herder, but I think he has a sound judgment and that he has a liking
for work in the school.
Tatpan (Herbert) came the same time as Martin Jacobson and his
home is in Golovin Bay or Unalaklik. According to a letter he
brought with him he was sent here on the recommendation of Capt.
M.A. Healy and has now left the station, being at this time one of
Antisarlook’s herders, while his two reindeer are still in our herd and
will be sent with the herd that goes to Golovin Bay, where Tatpan will
continue as herder. His qualifications for becoming a herder were
fairly good and it may be presumed that some time in the future he
will be able to take charge of his own herd.
70 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA,
Akweet koon came here at the same time with the last two, and
belongs to Golovin Bay. He is well qualified for his work, but has to
be watched constantly. He is industrious when he is observed, and
he seems to like to drive and train the animals, which is a good indica-
tion. But if it had not been decided to send a herd to his home, both
he and Martin would have been discharged before this, and better-
qualified persons secured in their places.
Soo wa wha sie presumably came in the autumn of 1893 from Nome.
His qualifications seem to fit him better to become a great doctor in this
region rather than a herder. The Eskimos say that he was born to be a
doctor, as they know from certain marks on him. This is probably the
reason why he did not take much interest in the life of a herder, and so
he was discharged and sent home after he had been found guilty of a
few small thefts.
Antisarlook (Charlie), from Point Rodney. I do not know at what
time he came to the station. On my arrival at the station he was quite
ill and puny, avid hence I could not set him at any hard work. He was
soon to take a herd of his own, and he needed all the strength he could
gather before taking charge of his own herd. He had good qualifica-
tions as a herder, and a fuller report of him will be given in connection
with his own herd.
Kum muk. I do not know how long he has been at the station,
but he probably was appointed an apprentice at the time when Mr.
W. T. Lopp assumed charge. He had been sent here from the mission
station in Cape Prince of Wales, and would have gone back to the same
station together with the other apprentices last fall, when Mr. Lopp
appointed him to remain here through the winter in order that he might
have an opportunity to see how the Lapps take care of the reindeer.
He is married and has two children. He is reliable and gives entire
satisfaction in every respect. He is as well qualified as anyone found
among the Eskimos. With the reindeer he has already acquired, he
will be sent back to the mission station to continue his life as a herder
there, his two-year term as an apprentice having expired.
Sekeog look, from Synok. In 1893-94, he worked as an apprentice
by the month, but this system of keeping apprentices was not in cor-
respondence with the purpose of the school for herders here, and, desir-
ing the change himself, he was, last fall, accepted as an apprentice on
the usual terms; that is to say, he was to receive reindeer as his com-
pensation. Heis about 26 years of age, and is oneof the few boys who
are found to be reliable and satisfactory. He has excellent qualifications
for becoming a herder, but takes very little interest in driving, taming,
ete. The chief thing is to bea rehable and competent herder, and this
he will certainly become. He 1s industrious, willing, always obedient,
and executes every order promptly.
Oo kwood let, from Port Clarence. When we arrived he was a boy
scarcely 14 years old and in poor health. On the 11th of October, hay-
ete
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. isk
ing earned his two reindeer, he was sent home. His object in coming
to the station was the same as that of Soo wa wha sie—to wit, to get
a good living for a while. Considering that he was so young, this
might be expected.
Taoo tuk, from Poleyrook, apparently was received here in the autumn
of 1893. Judging from the number of reindeer which he is said to own
in the herd, I take him to be a brother of Oo kwood let; and for this I
have good reasons, for they resemble each other very much in looks,
while in all other respects they are very different. He was not married
when I arrived at the station, but in the course of the winter he mar-
ried Nab sok ka. The matrimonial knot was tied by Rev. T. L. Brevig.
Ta oo tuk is an excellent huntsman, but doubtful timber for herdsman.
Then there are a number of little things concerning him which I have
not mentioned in this report. I have not yet decided what to do with
him. His apprenticeship expires next autumn, and it will then be
determined what it will be best for him to do in the future.
Ahlook, from Point Hope, was left here by you as an apprentice the
20th of August, 1894, to take the two years’ course in herding. He has
proved himself a worthy young man, and has already exhibited great
jnterest in the care of the reindeer, and he is reliable in the perform-
ance of his duties as a herder. His choice was a happy one, and there
ean be no doubt as to the propriety of permitting him to take charge
of a small herd, particularly if there could be somebody with him to
look after business matters, or, in other words, to see to it that every-
thing was done in the right season. Ahlook seems to take no note of
the time, particularly when he is with the herd. He hardly remembers
when it is time to eat, a thing never forgotten by any of the other boys
at the station. Of all the apprentices he and Sekeog look are the very
best and most reliable herders, and if he has to chase around the herd
some foggy night until daybreak he does not look upon this as much
trouble, providing he succeeds in having all his reindeer safe in the
morning when the time comes to change the watch.
E lek too na, who was brought here by yourself on the same day with
Ahlook, is also from Point Hope, but his selection can not be said to
have been a happy one, and he has been kept on the to-be-sent-home
list all winter. He has made some improvement lately, and just now
his name has been taken off the list.
Wok Sock, from Goweerook, was received as an apprentice last fall
after I arrived. He is married and has three children. His qualifica-
tions for the work of a herder are good, and if he continues doing as
well as he has begun he will certainly become an excellent, intelligent
herder, in whose hands a herd in the future will surely thrive and
make progress. He is reliable, always active, never evasive, never
runs away from any order given him, but he does everything exactly
as he is told, and seems never to be entirely satisfied himself with
his work. He is the only one who reports and asks for new work when
72 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
his task is done. He has a great deal of common sense. He and Kum
Muk have at times kept the watch without any herders, and everything
has been satisfactory, even during the season when the fawns are
dropped.
This description of the qualifications of the apprentices will be of
some use to them when they find out that their conduct and their indus-
try is mentioned outside of the station, but to what extent it will be
useful to me is somewhat doubtful. I am obliged to tell the naked
truth, and that is sometimes hard to hear, both for the Eskimos and for
others. The following ration list will exhibit to you how our people
have been treated. The list here given has been followed throughout
the year, excepting as to the potatoes, which froze and became useless.
Ration list for herders and apprentices at Teller Reindeer Station, Port Clarence, 1894-95,
[Four weeks’ ration. ]
ioe Genie eile | |
| | a | |
| ee | S |
| =e : eS . a |
ee Poel epee ie ee: s
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ReMARKS.—They are furnished all the fish they want. The navy bread is given when they come
from camp on Sundays to go to church and bring no food with them. If no rice is to be had they are
given rolled cats instead.
For Eskimo apprentices and their wives and children at Teller Reindeer Station, Port
Clarence.
[One week’s ration. Two children get one ration.]
WOLOUM Ss ces Sasyermiae Seen slate See) re Se NR | re ee SR ee eae pounds... 6
Navy bread. 2:52 S43 Soe aes ee Bee, SO a eer ye Rr a ee pieces.. 40
Oars 28s fat ca eiaes ace saeise oo sian See eae oe Lee eens eee ree mate package.. 4
IMOIASSES a2 Sect ak oe SS es ee Ls en ee eens wer ee ee eke quart... 4
BLE A oer Ser geese He SANE eaer ea ee nie Ef, eae gan Aan ee mE a ae Sine pounds.. 3
RUC Berane sae eres ice tate a eee Ie eee TAS ae Ste ee Saunt meee dosee ene
OTe are tee as SP ee ry te re Mee ts ae SAEs St Ente a die bcp be WO Oe dove
Cornémeallen 5 sSesenseeeee ee eh eee eine © ahs Se vee Sey a ee dose
MatChes\ sa o-b ae eitee eye Dees oe ote ee Oe ita, ar S/o ote ears Sot ha boxes== — 2
Meaition porke: = 200: Seen aie Spe Sele sein Sate oh inte hea he Fo ee ee pounds... 4
REMARKS.—They are given all the fish and seal oil they want. Beans given one
week and rice the next week. Seal meat is not weighed, as they get all they want
during the season. Tobacco is earned by those who work overtime, after January
1, 1895. One-sixth pound of tobacco given a week until January 1, 1895.
It was thought best to give a certain ration on a fixed time, so as not
to have the disagreeable disappointment of finding that the supply of
provisions had given out in the middle of the winter. With this in
view, a quantity of the various kinds of provisions was calculated and
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. (3
a list made out accordingly. - It was found in going through the sup-
plies that some things were not sufficient to last through the year,
consequently such things, as you will notice, were distributed only every
other week. On alternate weeks another kind of provisions was given
out instead. In this way, and by using all the fish the people could
eat, and by bringing some provisions from Golovin Bay, our limited
supply proved sufficient. [ think it must be admitted that the rations’
actually given out satisfied the people.
Both the herders and the apprentices have veen well and warmly
clad, so that they could be out of doors at any time and in all kinds of
weather without suffering. The kind and quality of clothing you will
find under the account of each individual and also the cost of the
same. I find in your instructions that all the apprentices were to
receive the same amount, so that no one might get more than his share,
but I have not been able to live up to this, since one man sometimes
absolutely needs what is not required by another. Hence I find it
much better to let each one have what clothing he actually needs with-
out giving the same article to others who did not need it, but no great
difference on the average will be found in the treatment of the different
individuals.
THE HERDERS’ DOGS.
As heretofore stated, we brought with us from Lapland 10 trained
dogs, 5 pairs. Only 9 of these reached the United States and only 8 of
them San Francisco. On the other hand, the number was filled on our
arrival at Port Clarence, 2 pups having been born on the way. One of
these pups was given to Captain Holland, so that we had 9 when we landed
at the station. It was difficult to tell who was the most pleased, the
Lapps or the dogs, at once more setting foot on solid earth and at seeing
reindeer. But if the running and barking are to be taken as evidence,
the dogs appeared to have had the greatest pieasure. The fact that
the dogs were happy was also noticed by the herd when it, after being
imprisoned for months, was set at liberty and ran by the side of their
enemies. The reindeer here never before having been watched with
dogs were quite unmanageable in the beginning, as they also looked upon
these dogs as their foes, against whom it was necessary to defend them-
selves. For this reason the dogs had all they could do to save their
skins, and there was many a race between a reindeer and a dog, the
dog in front and the reindeer trying to get pear enough to use its ant-
lers on his enemy, but these races always ended by the reindeer becom-
ing weary of the pursuit. The deer thought it had put the enemy out
of harm’s way, but no sooner had it turned before the dog again was
at its heels, and now the race was inverted, the deer being chased by
the dog.
This experiment was repeated again and again hundreds of times
until the dog became too weary to do any more work, but there was
always a new lot of dogs to send out and take the place of the exhausted
74 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
ones, so that the reindeer finally had to yield and submit patiently to
the barks of the dogs. At first the herd could not be driven in any
given direction with the dog. All the dogs could do was to keep the
herd together. The apprentices seemed well pleased with these dogs
and apparently liked them much better than they liked the Lapps.
Being asked how they liked the Lapps after having been with them on
‘watch the first night, they answered that they liked the dogs very
well, as they now did the running in place of themselves. Now the
apprentices are unwilling to get the herd without a dog, as the dogs
have perfect contre! of the herd, a result gained after two months’
barking. The herd can now be driven in any direction desired, straight
or in a circle.
It has given us much trouble to keep the blood of these dogs pure
from mixture, as there is an endless number of dogs and races of dogs
in this region. So far we have had complete success. The only mix-
ture that has taken place is with a Scotch collie she dog brought by
you. The offspring of these two breeds of dogs promise well. There
are now two of these bastards being trained with the herd, and they
appear to be very peaceable and careful with the animals. Only one of
the collies brought here is kept at the station. The others, together
with the half-breed collie and Eskimo dogs, were intended to be killed;
but when Mr. W. T. Lopp wanted them they were all sent to him—that
is, to Cape Prince of Wales. The females of these were sent back to
the station in the course of the winter to be paired with the Lapp dogs,
and in due time they were returned to Mr. W. 'T. Lopp, who now has a
sufficient number of dogs of the right kind with his herd. One pair
of the Lapp pups were sent to Antisarlook’s herd and one pair are now
being trained to go with the first herd to be sent away. In addition to
this, we still have a few pups that will be given to the apprentices, and
we will continue in this manner until everybody is supplied. But it
is doubtful whether the apprentices and the other station will be able
to keep these dogs from becoming wolves by getting mixed with the
Eskimo dogs, for the ability to do herding is lost by this kind of mix-
ture. The offspring become carniverous and not herding dogs. This
is to be proven by the half-breed collies and Eskimo dogs that were
here, but there will always be an opportunity of getting full-blooded
dogs from this station as long as we have full-blooded stock.
SLED DOGS.
We could find no use for these on our arrival here, and consequently
decided to sell them, but partly on account of the assurance of the
people here who were acquainted with the character of our winters,
it was presumed that we might find these dogs useful in the course of
the winter, and so we kept four of them. until the time came when they
might be needed: Meanwhile, as the winter passed and no oceasion
was found on which the reindeer could not be used, the sled dogs,
» SPUSLLYT [BUTT ANG ,, JO ASe7.moo oyy Aq paysyqng “eupy ueddey, Aq
“YSSONISYH HLIM ONITSAVY |
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te a ee
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. (és
together with some other things, were given to Antisarlook as a start-
ing outfit in life. In the course of the winter and spring we found no
use for the dogs. All our work could be done by the aid of the rein-
deer. In May and the first half of June, when we had the best roads
for hauling lumber and fuel, dogs could not be used on account of the
icy crust of snow, which was too sharp for the dogs’ feet, cutting them
to the quick, so that they could not walk, much less haul loads.
The only time when dogs can be made useful at the station is in the
summer, and the only use they can be put to is to haul rafts of lumber
along the shore. For this purpose we have now procured six dogs,
These will be sold in the autumn, as we have no use for the dogs during
the winter. Dogs bring.a higher price in the fall than in the spring, so
that we get the work done during the summer for nothing.
No progress has been made in regard to harnesses; that is to say,
we have used the same kind as are used in Lapland, which is an
improvement of more than 500 per cent on Siberian harnesses hereto-
fore used by this station. This harness is perfectly satisfactory for
common use. Until we get new and hitherto unknown ways of train-
ing reindeer, any change in the harness is not necessary, nor have
we had much time to think of this matter. When you emphasized
improvement of the harnesses in your instructions you doubtless were
not acquainted with the appearance and excellence of the harnesses
now in use at the station, but had in your mind the Siberian harnesses.
it would be of but little use to describe the Lappish harnesses; they
must be seen and used in order to be appreciated. I may state briefly
that they are very much like the shoulder harness used on horses. Of
course allowance is made for the restlessness of the reindeer, which
keeps jumping up and to the side much more than a horse. In the
case of the horse harness the principal weight is put upon the brace
and lower part of the shoulder, while in this harness the principal
weight rests on the upper part of the shoulder and on the neck, where
the reindeer have their strength, like oxen, and while training and
partly while driving we have employed tugs like those used in driving
horses. The only change made in the manner of driving is that two
animals are placed side by side drawing the same sled. The country
and the absence of trees here permit this kind of driving. In Lapland
this is not possible, but the reindeer has been hitched in the American
and not in the Siberian fashion.
According to the Siberian fashion of hitching the reindeer to the sled,
one animal is placed about 1 foot in front of the other, and the harness
is worn in such a manner that the animal draws with only one shoul-
der, which makes it run with its side instead of its head in front. We
hitch the deer by means of two equally long tugs fastened to a whipple-
tree at the front of the sled. Then there is a strap 18 inches long
fastened to the halters of both the animals. This keeps the animals
side by side and makes them draw with both shoulders and the neck,
76 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
and makes them run with the head and not with the side in front. Our
harnesses have also been examined, discussed, and tried by the other
white people in Alaska, and all agree in regard to their excellence. I
do not know whether our pattern of harnesses has been used at Cape
Prince of Wales, but two sets of harnesses have been made for our
apprentices and sent up there. It is probable that the Siberian har-
nesses improved by Mr. W. T. Lopp are used there, as everybody is
inclined to like his own patent best. Antisarlook used the harnesses
made at this station, and he received two sets on his departure. He
says: “‘Itis plenty good; Siberian not good.”
David Johnson, instructor at the mission school in Unalaklik, who
last winter made a missionary journey along the coast up to Cape
Prince of Wales, on which journey he also paid us a visit, has tested
various harnesses used in training and driving oxen, and on the 19th
of April, 1895, he wrote me as follows:
Since I came home I have been busy training the bulls. I had Laplanders’ har-
nesses made for them. I drive them with double lines, but single traces. Tried the
yoke and the old Laplander harness, but found the one that is in use now worked best.
As Mr. David Johnson is well acquainted with all the ways of driv-
ing in America, both with oxen and with horses, and is familiar witli
all the different kinds of harnesses, and doubtless has tested all, he
finds that the Lapland reindeer harnesses are the best also for oxen—a
matter in which I entirely agree with him. I think it would therefore
be a good thing if some American farmers, in localities where oxen are
extensively used, would try this kind of harness, and I have no doubt
that it would produce a great revolution and improvement in the man-
ner of driving oxenin America. Of this I have not the slightest doubt.
The Lapland harness is certainly better than the yoke or any other
kind of harness, both for animals and for driver. It is not claimed
that we know more about driving than people do in America, but it
should be remembered that the people who have reached this result
with harnesses are a nation who for hundreds of years have had to
depend upon draft animals resembling oxen, and as a consequence they
have made many improvements. The harnesses were tested for years
before they were finally adopted, and the result has been the adoption
of the harnesses now in use.
Looking at the matter from this standpoint, it is fair to presume that
an improvement would come from such a nation if it is to come at all.
In America all the attention has been concentrated on improving the
harnesses of horses, and the results have been highly satisfactory, while
it is doubtless true that the harness of oxen, particularly in later years,
has not received the attention to which it is entitled. The harness of
oxen ought to be considered so long as this animal has to do the main
work in clearing the land. From the work list, which I send you, you
will be able to see how both the herders and the apprentices have been
employed during the year. In order that the various kinds of work
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 177
and instruction might be somewhat equitably divided, it was thought
best to keep an account, made up every month, and followed through
the week. At the end of the week it would be added up so as to show
how many animals each man had lassoed and milked; how many miles
each one had driven.
From the list it will appear that some of the Lapps have been kept at
the station more than others. The reason for this was that these were
best qualified for various kinds of work—that is, for making harness
as well as for making sleds and for preparing materials for building,
for tanning and preparing skins, for driving and training animals, ete.
For training animals, Mikkel Josefsen Nakkila and Johan Speinsen
Tornensis are the most competent, not only in Port Clarence, Alaska,
but also in Kontokeino, Lapland. Hundreds of reindeer have been
left with them by the other Lapps to be trained, the owners being less
skilled in this branch of reindeer industry. In Lapland it is customary
to give the one who trains the reindeer the free use of it forone year—
no small consideration, as they there have an opportunity of carrying
passengers and transporting goods at so much per mile—a very profit-
able business. I*rom this if may be seen how important it is considered
to have the sled deer well trained, in order to get the best results from
the capacity of the animal to do work.
The Lapps who have been kept with the herd most of the time have
several strong points in herding, in being careful and attentive to its
wants, and among them I must mention Per Aslaksen Rist. He is
regarded as the most reliable and careful man for herding reindeer.
Such also was his reputation in Lapland, where he was intrusted with
local offices, being a member of the board of supervisors and member
of the court of consent. He is also the best of our herders and a man
who in Lapland always owned his own and still owns a herd of 1,150
reindeer. It seems that his statements and views in regard to the
moving of the herd, in regard to the quality of the pastures, and in
regard to matters in general are law to the other herders and to the
apprentices. They never contradicted him in such things, but quietly
recognized his superiority in this field. To this must be added his
great talent for managing a number of subordinates, a quality which
he has acquired by many years practice in Lapland.
As I have heretofore informed you, this man did not come simply for
the purpose of adding a few dollars to those which he already owns,
but also for the purpose of making observations in regard to the
Alaskan reindeer enterprise and to get acquainted with the climate and
other conditions. If it should become necessary for some of the Lap-
landers to emigrate from Lapland, it will doubtless rest with him to
decide whether or not the emigrants are to go to Alaska.
The other Laplanders, to wit, Aslak Larsen Somby, Samuel Kemi,
and Mathis Hira, are also excellent herders. Aslak Larsen Somby and
Mathis Hira are also thoroughly schooled in fishing, so that both the
78 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
apprentices and the other Eskimos have the opportunity of learning
many new and better ways and methods of catching fish.
In addition to the people named in the list of workmen, the writer
has also taken part in making sleds, harness, and in building. TI also
built an ice boat which drifted out of the harbor on the ice last Novem-
ber. It has been reported that the boat was found by the Eskimos a
few days later and was stripped of the sails and iron without sending
any information in regard to the discovery. Everything was stolen
and a settlement will be made with the thieves as soon as they are
caught. I have also made a boat 20 feet long used in fishing, and T. L.
Kjellman is at present engaged in building a small boat.
My spare time has been devoted to tanning hides and skins and toa
thousand and one different things, so that my time has been too short,
even during these long summer days.
It has been said that the Eskimos lose their respect for laboring
white men. My view of this matter is different. In the first place,
the Eskimos would be apt to continue the work in their own awkward
manner and never really acquire any of the easier methods of civili-
zation, unless they see goed work done. The result of this is that
they never will become able to support themselves in any other man-
ner than they do now. That is to say, they will make no progress
excepting in reading, an acquisition which they do not value very
highly when their stomachs are empty and require more fish. In
the next place, I believe that respect is more easily maintained even
if the superintendent works from morning to night. The fact that
he labors and constantly keeps himself employed, doing something
or other, gives a valuable example to those about him. The industry
of the superintendent makes the Eskimos understand that a living is
the reward of labor, and that it is not birth or color of the skin which
makes a man, but his work and his conduct. We have secured all
the respect that can fairly be demanded of uneivilized men, and no
order has ever been directly neglected, though there may have been
some indirect evasions, but I think the most of them have learned by
this time that it is useless to try to disobey an order directly or indi-
rectly. The Eskimos have also been convinced that it is best to be
obedient and do what is asked of them, and they have often thought
that 10 more is required of them than they can easily perform. With
a few exceptions, their conduct has been entirely satisfactory, and mat-
ters are progressing without any serious jars.
The result of catching seals has not amounted to much, and I doubt
whether a continuance of it will pay. On the 12th of October six of
our apprentices were sent out to Point Spencer, where the catching of
seals had then beguu. They were well equipped with good rifles and
ammunition, with other implements, and with provisions for two weeks
and equipments superior to those possessed by any chief for the same
purpose. On the 26th of the same month they returned with 5 seals,
ae
TOP wera Aq ydeasojoyg
VINSdIS “LASNNS OlLouy
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 79
which was the result of two weeks’ work by those men well equipped.
For the killing of these 5 seals they had used 175 cartridges. When
we add to this the provisions and the ammunition for a shotgun, these
5 seals become pretty dear. - From the list of purchases it will be seen
that the 5 seals could have been bought for about $4.
On the 31st of the same month I equipped and sent out a new com-
pany consisting of five others of our apprentices, but these had to
return by land on the 2d of November on account of unfavorable con-
ditions of the ice. The whole bay was filled with ice so that they could
not get to Point Spencer. After the ice had become sufficiently solid
expeditions would be made now and then to the edge of the ice about
10 or 12 miles from the land, and the result of all these expeditions was
the capture of 2 seals. In the middle of February, when the winter
sealing takes place near Polayrook, between Cape Prince of Wales and
our station, I sent out an expedition consisting of three of our best
sealers. This expedition was gone five weeks, during which time they
got just one seal, and this one they had eaten before they came home.
On their return they informed me that 150 cartridges which they had
used in killing this one seal had not been used for this purpose, but
had been given to the father and brother of the apprentices. Once
more, later, I tried to send a man out, but he had no better luck than
the others, and after an absence of two weeks he returned without any
seal. In June our apprentices shot 4 seals near the station.
The fishing did not amount to very much last fall, for we arrived here
too late. The salmon fishing had already ended, nor did we bring any
suitable fishing tackle, and none such was to be found at the station.
Still we made a few salmon seines and with them we caught enough for
our daily use. The Eskimo apprentices had no way of securing fish
and had to get their daily wants supplied from fish caught by the Lapps.
Later in the fall a selection from all the different nationalities were
sent up to the lakes, and they brought back some tomcod and some
herring, and of the herring enough was salted to supply the wants of
the Lapps during the winter.
In the course of the winter three different kinds of seines were
made which will be used for catching fish this summer, and I think
that a winter supply of fish will be secured. This will involve a great
saving, since meat and fish are very expensive. One of these seines has
lately beenused. The ice drifted from one side to the other, leaving an
open body of water. The ice may be said to have been gone since the
27th of June. With this seine we have caught a considerable amount
of tomeod, not only enough to keep our Eskimos constantly employed
in dressing and drying them, but also enough to give the other Eskimo
families, who have their tents here on the seashore, all they want; and
so the latter also have been busy hanging up fish to dry for their winter
supply.
As this work of catching fish is done in the evening after working
80 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA,
hours, and as it does not take more than an hour at a time, we are
going to continue it until we have caught all we need for our winter
supply. It is not much trouble to run down to the beach and haul
from 30 to 40 barrels of tomeod ashore, but for the Eskimos with their
primitive implements it would require a whole summev’s patient toil to
secure this amount of fish. When we take into consideration that the
existence of these people during the winter depends upon the amount
of fish they can save in the summer, it is no wonder that they are very
grateful when they receive 30 to 40 barrels of fish at a time as a pres-
ent. In my recommendations I shall have something more to say about
the fishing near the station.
Of visits to other herds, I have made only one, partly because it was
not found necessary this year and partly for other reasons which I
will mention later on.
As heretofore stated, I sent, in accordance with your instructions, a
herd to Cape Prince of Wales last fall. I have not visited this herd
since and know but little about it. The reason why I did not make a
visit there is partly that the herd was managed by a man familiar with
the care of reindeer—a white man—and also that the distance is so
short, only 60 miles, and the intercourse between these two places
so lively during the winter—that is to say, for Alaska—that every
change and everything done at this station and with our herd is at
once found out at Cape Prince of Wales, and in this way any improve-
ments made here can be adopted there. That herd was given to the
mission station unconditionally, permitting the manager there to do
as he pleased with the herd, his only obligation being the making of
an annual report to the Bureau of Education. I did not find this
unreasonable, but it determined my action in regard to visiting that
herd. In your instructions you probably intended to omit this herd so
far as visiting on my part was concerned.
Antisarlook’s herd was sent with a Laplander as chief manager
during the moving of the herd, but it was not regarded as necessary
or even desirable to have Laplanders continue to manage the herd.
The object was to find out what the Eskimos could do when they were
left entirely to themselves to manage and plan as they pleased. The
purpose was to see what they would do when both the responsibility
and the work and the profit were left to them without any interference.
The Lapp and two other apprentices returned to the station as soon
as the herd and the camp had been established. There was no risk in
leaving everything to the judgment of the Eskimos, as the distance
between Antisarlook’s herd and ours was only 30 miles and the means
of communication, the dog sleds, were in constant use, so that in case
anything should go wrong we could reach that herd in half a day and
assume its management, but this did not become necessary.
3etween the 6th of February and the 15th of March, Antisarlook’s
herders had no help whatever from the station; not a word of advice
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 81
in regard to the herd, and yet they had done everything to my com-
plete satisfaction. The only thing that they had not attended to,
but which they doubtless had understood, was that they kept the herd
in a place that was insufficiently protected. The result was that the
herd had twice been scattered during storms, but both times the rein-
deer had been found and brought together again. It was my object
to find a good sheltered place for Charley’s herd before the time came
for the dropping of the fawns. After wandering about for two days, I
found such a place about 20 miles farther east. We then moved the
herd and the camp to this place, and one of our apprentices was taken
with us from the station and placed in the camp, together with the
other people. Having attended to this matter, I continued my journey
eastward along the coast to Golovin Bay, partly to get acquainted
with the nature of the country and find out where there were good
pastures, and the condition of the snow, and to see whether the herds
which were in the future to be sent to Golovin Bay and to Yukon
might be driven that way, and partly for the purpose of bringing from
Golovin Bay some additions to our winter supply. I*rom Antisarlook’s
herd, I continued with five reindeer and three sleds. I went only a
short distance each day, as the weather was stormy and much snow
was drifting. Besides the reindeer were not trained, if being the first
time that they were in harness. Asis usually the case with untrained
animals, many turns were made along the road here and there, but this
gave us all a better opportunity to find out the things that we were
looking for with regard to the pastures, ete.
On the 20th of March we arrived at Golovin Bay and were well re-
ceived by Mr. John A. Dexter and his wife. Their kindness, together
with that of Mr. and Mrs. Hultberg, the last named the teacher at the
mission school there, made our stay at this place a genuine rest. We
had our daily bustle with boxes, barrels, bags, fish, and unmanageable
reindeer, so we had a refreshing vacation. On the 31st of March we
returned to the station, after having once more visited Antisarlook’s
herd.
In reference to the reindeer question we learned on this journey that
three places between Port Clarence and Golovin Bay are suited for win-
tering with reindeer. Of these Charley will have one; the second is
west of Sitah, and the third near Chamo. These three winter quarters
are sufficient for this distance, as there will not be pasture for more than
three herds. On the other hand, there is summer pasture for thousands
of reindeer. Furthermore, we found that the herds, which in the future
are to be driven southward, should not be driven around along the coast,
but directly across the land to Golovin Bay, as the country is not well
suited for a rapid journey with a herd.
On my return home a Lapp family, to wit, Aslak L. Somby, were
equipped and sent to take charge of Antisarlook’s herd while the fawns
were dropped. The Lapp family returned to this station on the 20th of
S. Doc, 111——6
82 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
May, the calving time being over, and reported that eighty fawns had
been born, of which only one died, it having fallen over a precipice.
There is one of the herders, Tatpan, who has been at this station
one year, and who doubtless does his duty as best he can, but the other
watch is said to be very poor, and, as a consequence of this, we have to
send three reindeer belonging to Antisarlook’s herd to pasture a few
miles from our station. These three animals have been looked after a
couple of times a week until our herd gets to where it can be incorpo-
rated with it. On account of the ice we are unable at present to get
any information from Antisarlook; but as soon as boats can ply I shall
get information in regard to the facts. In case anything should go
wrong a Lapp will at once be dispatched to take charge.
From the following copy from the sick list you wiil be able to judge
of the condition of the members at the station:
> 7 > >a n:
Name. Sickness or its cause. | Reported teported
sick. : well.
Wack TOG 34. 6 seen eee eee MORO: won wane aivas aesee tees ees ses | Oct. 30,1894 | Nov. 20, 1894
WWW eps 288 sada she Becenem eee (GEC ee ee ee oe ee eee Pee LdO) css see Noy. 3, 1894
le keorlonkereeece apse eo | \Chatitis oOtee ter eee eee ere one Nov. 7,1894| Jan. 5, 1895
WNWASGIENCWIONEEI) : a6 coh e- ceca Lung disease: cough: -~.<.--.---05--~- Nov. 19, 1894 | Still sick.
Frederik larsenicte tee eee eee Brozen teeiv ss cses-e- eas! eee soe Feb. 12, 1895 | Mar. 25; 1895
Wate Warselhs snc fee nae Cubttinteh with knife: 9s src= secs = Apr. 3,1895| May 14,1895
Wred erik sMuarselewsson = ae 2) OUI = a ES eo ee eee Apr. 5,1895| Apr. 23, 1895
d Da eee tae ee aes a ne oe Oe Blinded by sun and snow........----- | May 3,1895| May 12,1895
TOG bORIKS oeke See eee ee eee RIGS) ne ete ae ee ASE Seriya eae June 10, 1895 | June 23, 1895
Prom this list it will appear that since the 30th of October someone
has been sick all the time or unfitted for work on account of some illness.
It appears, however, that there has not been much sickness when we
take into consideration the total number of people. I have myself been
well all the time, and I have not had a single day’s indisposition.
There has been one death arid two births at the station. One Eskimo
child and one Lapp child were born. The Eskimo child is living, while
the child of the Lapp died soon after it was born and was buried in a
cemetery dedicated by Rey. T. L. Brevig. In this cemetery a white
man had previously been buried.
This, perhaps, is the proper place to mention that all the medicines at
the station are in the charge of Rey. T. L. Brevig, the only person who
possesses any knowledge of such things. In the course of the year
medicines have been given to those who needed them, with indifferent
results, and we are now out of the most necessary medicines. On
this point you will doubtless be informed by Rev. Brevig’s report in
connection with his requisition for next year. The want of skilled
medical help has been severely felt.
The school has been entirely in charge of Rey. T. L. Brevig, and he
will make the necessary report. The library of the station has also
been committed to his care, and he will inform you in regard to the
books now here and also in regard to new books that may be needed.
The buildings fuund at the station on our arrival have changed
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 83
appearances, having been built higher and some additions have also
been made. A room was constructed last fall back of the main build-
ing for a storehouse. In this all bartering with the Eskimos and the
distribution of supplies take place. We have also added a private
room for the superintendent and another for Rev. Brevig, and also a
kitchen. The east end of the main building was arranged as a dwell-
ing for the minister and his family. The middle part of the building
has been used as a schoolroom and the east end is used by the superin-
tendent, as was the case with my predecessor.
The snow drifted around about the house aided materially in shut-
ting in the heat, as the house was literally buried in snow up to the
rafters, so that tunnels thirty feet long had to be made, through whieh
we went in and out. We made similar tunnels ten to fifteen feet long
to each window by the aid of barrels, out of which we took the bottom’
and top. These barrels were placed in the upper end of these light
tunnels, and through these holes, fifteen to twenty feet long, we obtained
a small amount of light. Seen from a distance, the barrels look like
large Krupp cannon sticking out of the snow banks, and civilized
people would doubtless have taken the station for a fortification of
snow supplied with very heavy cannon. Thus, in a sense, we lived
under ground, a mode of life which seems to be preferred even by white
men after they have spent a few years in Alaska. Wherever you go,
you find men talking about building their houses under ground; that
is to say, they bury themselves alive.
In the course of the year we have put up the following new buildings:
1. A house for the herders and apprentices built of lumber and
thatched with straw. It is 24 feet long, 16 feet wide, and 10 feet high,
has five windows and two doors. Has a wooden partition which
divides the building into two rooms, one used by the Lapps, the other
' by the Eskimos. Then there is a loft where a part of the people sleep.
This is the third house of this kind at the station.
2, A temporary carpenter shop built of lumber, thatched with walrus
skins. It is 16 feet long, 14 feet wide, and 6 feet high. It has two
windows and a door. In this building most of the sleds have been
made. Here the boats have been built, and here also the hides and
skins have been tanned.
3. A schoolhouse 33 feet long, 22 feet wide, and 10 feet high. It has
six windows and a door; built of lumber, but has not as yet been
thatched for want of walrus skins.
Then a blacksmith shop has been fitted up in the subterranean dwell-
ing built by Miner W. Bruce.
This is all that we have been able to do and it is our intention to
have new buildings fitted up until the lumber drifting in here has been
exhausted, and the following is our future plan of building: (1) A
large convenient house for the apprentices; (2) some important changes
in the main buildings; (3) a larger workshop; (4) a larger storehouse ;
84 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA
(5) a smokehouse for smoking meat and fish; (6) a bathhouse accord-
ing to the northern Russian pattern; (7) a cold storehouse underground
for the preservation of game caught in the summer, and for seal meat
and seal oil; (8) quarters for Eskimos that come here, so that they do
not have to lodge with our apprentices, as they have had to do the
past year. It is impossible to keep them out without constant watch-
ing; (9) a house for boats and implements, where such things can be
kept during the winter. The boats particularly are very much dam-
aged by standing out in the snow all winter long.
How soon the houses here mentioned will be finished I am unable to
say, but we will keep on working at them until the cold weather sets
in, unless we should receive instructions to the contrary from you.
The furniture belonging to the station consists of some stools, which
are in the same splendid condition as when Lassumed charge. The tools
and. other implements are in fine condition, thanks to our blacksmith
and the blacksmith shop. Of the rifles and other weapons sent, one
shotgun is unfit for use, and it was so utterly dilapidated on my arrival
that it can not be put in order outside of a gunsmith shop, consequently
I will send it to the United States next fall. You doubtless perceived
last fall when you were here there was only one rifle in a condition
fit to be used. My father at once began repairing, and in the course of
the winter he has put all the weapons and hundreds of other imple-
ments in good order.
I seize this opportunity of mentioning some little things and events
which have occurred at the station and in its vicinity. Some of these
things will be mentioned in the log book, but I think it worth while to
repeat them here.
The four Eskimo police appointed at’ this station last year I dis-
charged upon my arrival and no new police have since been appointed.
When I first heard of this system of police, I formed a favorable impres-
sion of it, but after thinking the matter over more carefully my mind
yas changed and the result was that I discharged the police. Weneed
no police for our personal protection. How far the station and school
ought to have a police officer is a question which I will not at this time
discuss, but under all the circumstances such a police should consist of
civilized men who are supposed to have some idea of right and wrong,
and not barbarians utterly without any idea of these things. Further-
more, one policeman instead of four would be sufficient. One of the
four policemen who last year received pay from the station shot his
neighbor last winter because he had stolen five reindeer skins from him.
This murder occurred only a few yards from the station. The four
policemen had a compensation of 20 sacks of flour for the year. The
value of these | made use of in distributing things as Christmas pres-
ents among our Eskimo neighbors. I made up packages containing a
few pounds of flour, a few pounds of beans, and bread for each family
in the neighborhood, and on Christmas Eve I sent for a man from each
family to come and get the bundles, They went home with happy faces
\ \
‘ososue ‘Wf Aq ydeasojoyd
(SLIVULG ONINSG) ‘vINAdIS ‘AdvVO LSsvy 4O JNVTITIA
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 85
and full of gratitude. We thought best not to play Santa Claus and
earry the presents to the houses with the reindeer. From the account
you will see that no more was used for these Christinas presents than
heretofore has been paid to the police, and I think the station was more
benefited by the results of this distribution, since we gained the good
will, not of four policemen, but of the whole community.
Mrs. T. L. Brevig and Mrs. Kjellmann made, under the circumstances,
a very nice Christmas tree, which was visited both by the children and
grown people. Some presents were given to the children, while all
received bread and butter and some taffy.
Through you I take the liberty of requesting the friends of missions
who send presents to Alaska to send useful things, as, for instance,
small tools, of which these people are very poorly supplied. A box of
toy tools will do more good, make the Eskimos more happy, and con-
tribute more to civilizing them than one thousand picture cards, no
matter how beautiful or costly they may be. Lorr:
JAPE PRINCE OF WALES, ALASKA, June 6, 1895.
DEAR Srr: In accordance with the conditions expressed in your
letter of July 27, 1894, giving to this mission a herd of domestic rein-
deer, I hereby submit our annual report.
We have experienced no serious difficulties in their management, and
with the recent increase of fawns the herd now numbers 174.
Our herders have consisted of five Eskimo boys, ranging in ages from
14 to 19, and one Siberian, all of whom were with us last year at the
Teller Reindeer Station at Port Clarence. Until April they lived in a
log house about 7 miles northeast of the cape, and since then they have
lived in a tent. The winter has been unusually severe, and on some
occasions when blizzards were raging the herd or parts of it have been
lost. But when the weather cleared up they have always been able to
find the deer. Regular watches were kept by our herders until January,
when some of the Eskimo herders from the Teller Reindeer Station
explained to our boys how they and the Laplanders stood no regular
watches and did not herd the deer at night. From that date to the
time of calving, our herders stood no night watches, much to their own
satisfaction and comfort, and no loss to the herd. It is our opinion,
however, that a night watch should be kept over a herd, unless the
ground is covered with snow and there is no danger from dogs and
wolves.
Our six sled deer have been kept busy packing and hauling supplies
and wood. New deer have been broken, but most of them are too
young to be very useful before one or two years. In March, Moses, the
Yukon Indian boy, came up from the Teller Reindeer Station to visit
our boys, and while here broke a 4-year-old steer according to the Lap-
lander method. The Lapp harness has many advantages over the Sibe-
rian harness, but it has the same objectionable feature of a single trace
rubbing through the hair and skin of the hind legs. Both, however,
are admirable for breaking deer to tne sled. A slight modification of
the harness used on horses seems to be best adapted for use on the
treeless plains in this section. We have used Hskimo and Siberian sleds
only, as the snow is hard here most of the winter.
91
92 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
We have lost 9 deer during the year, 3 females and 6 males. One
(a bull) was killed in fighting, 2 ran away, 5 (3 of which were sled deer)
were killed by dogs, and 1, which our collie dogs ran away, a coast
native shot. At first the deer became frightened at the colhe dogs, but
they have now become accustomed to them. In the case referred to,
our dogs followed one about 30 miles up the coast and ran it down
between the coast and large inlet lake, which is about 8 miles wide.
Thin ice on the lake made it impossible for the deer to return by swim-
ming. The dogs deserting it, a simple-minded native found it a few
hours later, shot it, and sent us word.
As only four 2-year-old bulls were allotted to our herd when we left the
Telier Reindeer Station, and one of these becoming crippled and another
killed by fighting, we were afraid many of our cows would have no
salves. But we have been very agreeably surprised. We now have 69
fawns, having lost only 6 by cold and accident. During the calving
season in April and May we kept the herd in a sheltered place at the
mouth of Sooh ung-wok River, about 25 miles from here.
Last August and September we kept a cow tethered near our house
and milked her daily for our own use.
Very respectfully, WD Horr
Dr. SHELDON JACKSON,
United States General Agent of Education in Alaska.
P. S.—Since the date of the above report we have lost 2 cows and 1
fawn, which leaves 171 deer in our herd. One of the cows died from
internal injuries received in calving, and the other was probably crip-
pled by our Siberian, so that it had to be killed. The fawn died from
intestinal troubles.
-94
1893
p]
. T. LopP, SUPERINTENDENT OF TELLER REINDEER STATION
Ww
APPENDIX D.
~LETTERS OF J. C. WIDSTEAD TO DR. SHELDON JACKSON.
TELLER REINDEER STATION,
August 28, 1895.
Sir: Mr. Hamilton has by this time made you familiar with the
change that has taken place at our station,
The schoolhouse is completed, or nearly so, and I think you would,
could you see it, find it very cozy. We imtended to put in six windows,
but as we had not so many, and none came with the supplies this year,
only four had to do.
We have also, with the lumber that came, put up an addition to the
station 48 by 17 feet westward and 40 by 24 feet northward, with room
for an assistant, one separate room for natives trading, three rooms for
herders with family, and one 16 by 16 feet for the boys; besides, we
have in the same building boxes for fish, seal meat, and seal oil, with
a hallway leading all through the building to keep outsiders out.,
Upstairs we intend to partition off separate rooms for fur and clothing
if lumber holds out.
We have thought it best to have all the boys in one room, and get an
old woman to cook for them. By this we ean save, I think, some on
the provisions, and control them much better than formerly, when any
one in the house could sit down and eat with them, as is their custom;
she could also wash and serub for them.
Back of the Eskimo’s room will be the store, with one little partition
door to the herder’s house, and one to the Eskimo’s room for trading.
This will keep the two separate, besides save time and much trouble.
As it now is in the old store, traders outside the counter can lean over
and take anything on the shelves when not watched.
The Lapps are all very well and pleased, except Mathis Eira, who
has been a constant worry to Mr. Kjellmann and myself since his coming
here. He 1s dirty, insulting, lazy, absolutely refuses to do my bidding,
scolds me in the presence of the boys and other Lapps, and hangs
around the station for days at a time. Ther he seems to take a spell
and does his duty again. But lazy he is, and will be. Now, what can
be done with him? He is the most expensive herder at the station,
and does the least. I mention these things that they can be acted upon
during the winter. The other Lapps are very good fellows—as trust-
worthy and true as Socrates in respect to duty.
»
93
94 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
IT intend to send the herd into the lakes as soon as the Bear comes
down from Point Barrow. It is more safe there from Eskimos and
dogs, and there is better food for them.
Things at the station are otherwise in their usual track. A little is
done, but much more could have been had I had someone to help me.
Trusting in the care of the Infinite, and with good hope for the
experiment, I await, with pleasant expectations, your order for next
summer.
Respectfully, yours,
J. C. WIDSTEAD.
Dr. SHELDON JACKSON,
United States General Agent of Hducation in Alaska,
TELLER REINDEER STATION,
August 29, 1895.
DEAR Sir: The Bear is ready to leave us for another winter, and I
inclose, in haste, these few lines as additional to the brief letter of yes-
terday. .
First. As it becomes more and more difficult to get fuel for the winter,
allow me to mention the necessity of having a steam or naphtha launch.
I think the subject came up last year during your stay in Alaska. We
find that such a launch would be of great service to us, not only in the
bringing of wood, but for our extensive fishing trips (as necessary to
the station all the year round as fuel is to us in winter), bringing news
and food to the herd by the lakes in spring and fall, visiting distant
herds, ete. If this can be had, much time and labor will be saved. A
second-hand or even old launch would do as well as a new one, and this
could be purchased for comparatively little.
Second. That, for the best result at the station, itis necessary to have
active men, men of intelligence as well as labor. As we can not depend
on the native for anything before he is shown how to doit, and unless
he is constantly watched, the idea suggests itself that we must have
willing and active men.
Very truly, yours,
J. C. WIDSTEAD.
Dr. SHELDON JACKSON,
United States General Agent of Education in Alaska.
EPR ND EX, ol.
ESTABLISHMENT OF A PURCHASING STATION IN SIBERIA.
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
BUREAU OF EDUCATION, ALASKA DIVISION,
Washington, D. C., January 10, 1895.
Sir: With reference to the establishment of a temporary purchasing
Station for reindeer on the Siberian side, it is objected, first, that it
would be dangerous to place a large supply of barter goods in the care
of afew men among a barbarous people so far removed from any pro-
tection that the barter goods would tempt the cupidity of the natives,
who would have no hesitation in killing the nen in charge in order to
obtain possession of the supplies.
In reply permit me to say that while this objection has seeming force,
yet experience has disproved it. In 1865-1867, in the attempt to extend
the Western Union telegraph lines across Siberia, Lieut. C. L. Macrae,
George Kennan, and Richard J. Bush, with small parties of white
men, were stationed at various points in that portion of Siberia, the
two extreme stations being 2,000 miles apart. They traveled between
the stations freely, sometimes only one white man in company with the
natives, without molestation. Upon one occasion when they were all
absent their quarters were entered and robbed.
In 1878-79 the explorer A. HE. Nordenskjéld, on the steamer Vega,
wintered on that coast. During the winter individuals of his party
made long trips alone with the natives in safety.
Again, in 1885, a whaler, the Bark of Napoleon, was wrecked off the
coast of Siberia. Four of the crew reached land in safety, but three of
them died from exposure during the following spring. One survivor,
J. B. Vincent, lived two years in safety with the natives, and when he
was rescued Congress voted $1,000 for the purchase of presents to be
distributed among the natives of that section for their good care of
these whalers.
Last winter a small whaling schooner, with avery small crew, win-
tered on Plover Bay ou that coast. The natives could easily have killed
them all and taken their provisions, but no attempt was made to molest
them.
The same class of people reside on the Alaska coast, and when it was
proposed to establish schools we were informed by everyone that had
any information from that region that it would not be safe to leave the
teachers exposed in the Eskimo villages, So much was said on this
95
96 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
point that you remember we refused to allow any women to go to those
stations, and the men were informed that they took their lives in their
hands in volunteering to go; and yet we established three schools,
placing one man at Point Barrow, one at Point Hope, and two men at
Cape Prince of Wales, where they were unmolested. The killing of
Mr. Thornton, at Cape Princeof Wales three years afterwards (as was
proved by the fact that the murderers were at once shot by the natives
themselves), was not the act of the people, but of a couple of hoodlums.
The same thing might have occurred in any of our large cities.
Last winter three whalers spent the winter with $1,000 worth o bar-
ter goods on St. Lawrence Island, and this year we have placed a
man and wife alone on that island with $500 or $600 worth of provi-
sions. At Cape Prince of Wales two years ago Mr. Lopp was there
entirely alone with a large supply of provisions.
The whole history of the coast has proved the safety of white men
located there who behave themselves.
The second objection is to the effect that the Siberian reindeer men
will become jealous of the transporting of so many deer to the Ameri-
ean side, thinking that it will deprive them of the monopoly of the trade
in skins that they have had in the past. This, too, is very plausible,
but not substantiated by facts. The same objection was persistently
urged against the possibility of purchasing any reindeer, and yet we
have been able to purchase some every season, and have already secured
on the American side a number that in a term of years will make the
Alaska people independent of the Siberian trade. If the Siberian
natives are shrewd enough to object to large numbers of reindeer being
taken to Alaska for fear of losing their trade, they should have refused
to sell from the beginning.
It may be inexpedient, because of the disinclination of certain parties
upon whom, to a certain extent, we are depending for assistance, to
establish a trading post on the Siberian side at present; but whenever
it becomes urgently necessary to secure the reindeer in larger numbers
and hasten the work it will be found necessary to adopt that measure,
or at least to give it a trial, as other efforts have so far failed.
Very respectiully,
SHELDON JACKSON.
Hon. W. T. Harris, LL. D.,
Commissioner of Education.
APPENDIX F.
DAYBOOK AND JOURNAL AT TELLER REINDEER STATION
PORT CLARENCE, ALASKA.
[Kept by W. T. Lopp from July 1 to August 10, 1894, and by Rev. T. L. Brevig from August 10, 1894,
to June 30, 1895. ]
July 1, 1894.—Southwest wind. Captains Porter, Hagerty, and Rob-
inson came over from the anchorage in a whaleboat to see the herd.
Rev. Edson conducted divine service in our schoolroom.
July 2, 1894.—North wind. Mr. Willocks, of Pittsburg, Pa., visited
the station. Captains Mason, Williams, and Townsend, of the whaling
fleet, repair the lighter launch and anchor it.
July 3, 1894.—South wind. The United States revenue-cutter Bear
arrived at the anchorage about 5 a.m. and steamed over to the station.
Forty-eight deer were landed; also a quantity of cedar lumber and
spruce posts; Captain Healy’s steam launch towed them ashore on the
Pacific Steamship Whaling Company’s launch. Dr. Jackson remained
on shore over night.
July 4, 1894.—The Bear dressed ship and saluted in honor of the day.
Dr. Jackson took inventory of stock on hand at the station. At8p.m.
the Bear weighed anchor and steamed for the watering place on the
south side of the bay.
July 5, 1894.—South wind. Let Charlie and Mary go to Point Spen-
cer to see their brother. Our gill nets catch plenty of nice salmon.
Begin to pack up preparatory to leaving for Cape Prince of Wales.
July 6, 1894.—The Bear leaves the watering place and steams over
tothe anchorage. Charlie and Mary returned from Point Spencer; they
report walrus very plentiful.
July 7, 1894.—South wind. Good catch of salmon.
July 8, 1894.—South wind. A whaleboat from the fleet sails to
Nook. The usual Sunday service.
July 9, 1894.—South wind. Heavy surf and rain. One fawn born.
Start with the Siberians for the anchorage; about one-third the distance
we met the Bear’s steam launch with Dr Jackson and Captains Weeks
and Sherman on board; Lieutenant Dodge in command. We were
towed into the station again, where a settlement was made with the
Siberians; it was decided to pay Dantin and Nootadlgot $75 worth of
goods, as had been promised them, but Anker was allowed wages for
only seven months, from which was deducted the rations he had received
97
S. Doc. 111——7
98 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
since his discharge in February, being dissatisfied a little more was
added. Captain Weeks was in search of two deserters that had left
on July 4; at his request we sent two of our native police to Nook to
hunt for them and put them in irons and return them to the ship. Dis-
charged Sungoo, who has been here in the capacity of a worker and
handy man. We returned to the fleet in tow of the launch.
July 10, 1894.—The Bear left the anchorage about 1 p. m. for South
Head to land Dantin and Anker. The schooner Rosario anchored here
to fish and then went to Nook. We returned from the fleet in one hour
and fifteen minutes. The deserters could not be found at Nook.
July 11, 1894.—South wind and rain. The steam whalers leave the
anchorage; the Rosario goes out. Mr, Grubin and some of the herders,
with the Bear’s seine net, lent by Captain Healy, went to Nook to try
their luck with salmon. A male deer dies from internal injuries.
July 12, 1894.—Calm; rain. I hear from some Noometes that the
deserters are there, and I send two of the police after them. While
they are gone the two men arrive in another canoe. We gave them
dinner and supper in Charlie’s house, and when the police returned
we persuaded the men to go to the steamer Jeanie and give themselves
up. ‘Try the seine here and catch nothing.
July 13, 1894.—North wind and rain. The whaleboat returns from
Nook with about 900 salmon. The Jeanie and Peters went out. Make
flume for closet.
July 14, 1894.—North wind. Charlie cuts a window in east end of
herders’ house. Two canoes return from Point Spencer. Our police
received 5 bags of flour for taking the deserters over. Send the seine
again to Nook to try for salmon and catch 6.
July 15, 1894.—South wind and rain. Sunday services as usual.
July 16, 1894.—South wind and rain. Canoes come from Point
Spencer. Send whaleboat to Grantley Harbor to fish.
July 17, 1894.—Southwest wind with rain. Milk a quart of milk
from 5 deer.'
July 18, 1894.—South wind, with rain. Milk another quart of milk.
July 19, 1894.—Southeast wind, with rain. Whaleboat returns with
about 300 pounds of salmon trout. Send the scow up the lagoon for
wood. ,
July 20,1894.—South wind, withrain. The little creeks become rivers;
surf is very high; herders thoroughly drenched. |
July 21, 1894.—South wind, with rain. Mr. Lopp was sick.
July 22, 1894.—South wind, with rain. Small Sunday school con-
ducted by Mrs. Lopp. Moses is sick.
July 23, 1894.—South wind, with rain. Let Charlie’s brother and two
of our herders go to Nook with our seine, to try for salmon.
I1By the Siberian method the deer are thrown down to milk. They are fright-
ened and withhold it. With the advent of the Lapps, modern methods were
adopted.—EDITOR,
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 99
July 24, 1894.—South wind with rain. The Bear arrives from Cape
Serdze, Siberia, with 38 deer—11 males and 27 females.
July 25, 1894.—South wind and heavy surf. Two deer ran away
when turned loose after landing; the boat capsized in the surf. The
last load was landed at the mouth of the lagoon to escape the surf.
Our whaleboat lands 60 bags of flour, 5 boxes bread, beans, and
molasses. Mrs. Healy and Mr. Liebes come ashore. Kill a female deer
that had a leg broken in landing.
July 26, 1894.—Northwest wind. On invitation from Dr. Jackson,
I accompanied him up the lakes in the Bear’s steam launch, which
Captain Healy placed at our disposal; we returned about 5.30, and
after taking dinner with Captain Healy, came ashore. A male and
female deer which were crippled on ship or in landing, had to be killed.
Mr. Grubin and the herders milked two quarts of milk from six deer,
two bottles of which were sent to Captain Healy and officers on the
Bear.
July 27, 1894.—South wind. Went aboard the Bear in the forenoon;
she weighs anchor and leaves for the Arctic.
July 28, 1894.—Northwest wind. We go in small boat up the lagoon
to a river and give our babes an outing. .
July 29, 1894.—South wind. The 2 deer which ran off afew days
ago returned. While holding our Sunday service a ship was announced
as anchoring at Point Spencer.
July 30, 1894.—South wind. The brig Meyer came over from Point
Spencer in the afternoon and anchored off shore. Mr. Wm. A. Kjell-
mann, the new superintendent, wife and daughter, Rev. T. L. Brevig
and wife, and Mr. and Mrs. V. C. Gamble, who are to teach at St.
Lawrence Island, came on shore in the evening and inspected the
station and herd. .
July 31, 1894.—The Meyer beat up closer to shore and employed
natives to help discharge the vessel. The Lapps and their baggage
‘were sent on shore. An Eskimo remarked when he first saw the
Lapps: “Well, well! these are the people we have seen on our playing
cards for all these years.” We saw the Lapps milk deer; after lasso-
ing, they make a halter-like noose with which one holds the deer while
another milks.
August 1, 1894.—Calm, with south wind. Mr. and Mrs. Lopp move
into the herders’ house and the Kjellmanns into the west end. The
Brevigs move into the east end of the frame house. The work of
discharging the vessel progresses very slowly. During the night the
station dogs broke into the dugout and killed the old goat of the
Kjellmanns, and during the day they killed one of the kids.
August 2, 1894.—Calm, with rain. The Cape Prince of Wales sup-
plies were landed and put under the canoes.
August 3, 1894.—Calm, but rainy. Two Lapps go back into the hills
to get acquainted with the locality. The flour and bread is landed
from the vessel.
100 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
August 4, 1894.—South wind. Nothing landed in themorning. The
dugout is repaired; the Lapps move it. One Lapp returns late in the
evening and reports his companion sick and left about 7 miles from the
station. Mr. Kjellmann, with two Lapps and six Eskimos, started out
to find him; they missed him, but the other Lapps had also gone out,
finding him a little northwest from where the others crossed the hills.
August 5, 1894.—Clear and calm. Lumber landed. Norwegian serv-
ice for the Lapps and service for the Eskimos in the afternoon. Mr.
and Mrs. Gamble remained at the station over night.
August 6, 1894.—Northeast wind. The Meyer had discharged her
cargo for Port Clarence and Cape Prince of Wales, and commenced to
take in a supply of water before leaving. The Gambles remained at
the station all day and night. The Lapps drove the deer into a pen to
milk them, and obtain about 6 quarts of milk.
August 7, 1894.—South wind and clear. One Lapp and two Eskimos
herding; the rest are employed binding nets and laying up wood for
winter. Mr. Lopp is ready to go, but the heavy surf keeps him. The
Gambles remain at the station.
August 8, 1894.—Calm, fine day. The whaler Fearless was sighted
near land through the fog, and when the fog lifted she anchored near
the Meyer. Brevig and Gamble boarded the Fearless and took dinner
with Captain Simonson. In the afternoon Captain Holland and Cap-
tain Simonson of the Fearless came ashore and visited station and herd.
The Gambles went on board the Meyer in the evening. The herd was
driven into the pen and 83 female deer, 4 sled deer, 5 steers, and 8 bucks
were selected and marked as the Cape Prince of Wales herd, the mark
being a round hole in the right ear. Two deer were marked in a dif-
ferent manner for each of the herders.
August 9, 1894.—South wind. The Meyer and Fearless are still at
anchor; the heavy surf still delays Lopp. The eastend of the house is
under repair. About 18 of the Cape Prince of Wales herd came back
and were met with 8 from this herd, 4 miles east of the station. Our
deer had their calves in the cape herd and could not be separated.
August 10, 1894.—South wind, with heavy surf. The Meyer and
Fearless left for the Arctic at 4 p.m. The Gambles were landed here
and will stay till the Bear comes and takes them to St. Lawrence Island.
The Lapps, with Grubin and four herders, left at 6 p.m. The other
herders left yesterday in a whaleboat. The Gambles occupy Mr. Gru-
bin’s bedroom, and Brevigs move into their bedroom, partitioned off
from the sitting room. One deer runs away from our herd and joins
the cape herd.
August 11, 1894.—Calm, clear, and a beautiful day. The east end of
the herders’ room was fixed up as a kitchen and storeroom for Brevig,
and the west end as a private storeroom for Kjellmann. The herders
not with the herd are making gill nets and tents. Traded some salmon.
August 12, 1894.—Calm, clear, fine day. Service in Norwegian for
v
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 101
Lapps and in English for Eskimos. At 8 p.m. a breeze set in from the
west, with fog.
August 13, 1894.—Calm, clear, fine day. Early in the morning a
steamer was sighted; she anchored close up to shore at 8 a.m. It was
the Albion from San Francisco with Bruce and Gibson on board with
their Port Clarence troupe of Eskimos as passengers. Captain Lund-
quist said they had landed a cargo at St. Michaels and from here they
were going north to Kotzebue Sound to establish a trader’s station.
Bruce was speaking about getting another troupe with him down on
the side-show line next winter. The Albion left at 2.50 p.m. We sent
mail with Captain Lundquist. |
August 14, 1894.—Calm and clear; easterly wind. Continued repairs
of “lean-to.” Four Lapps were sent out to build a corral for the deer.
The twine gill nets catch sufficient salmon for the station’s use.
August 15, 1894.—Calm and clear, with a light northerly breeze in
the evening, +78° at2 p.m. Gamble and Brevig took an outing to
Grantley Harbor in a canoe. They returned at 7 p. m. with snipes.
The Lapps finish the corral. Kjellmann and 4 Eskimos work on the
lean-to to transform it into a store; 6 quarts of milk.
August 16, 1894.—Clear and calm; very warm; Brevig’s birthday;
north wind very strong. Our skin dingey drifted off to-day. Gamble
and Charlie had forgotten to fasten it last night.
August 17, 1894.—The steamer Albion called in on her return from
Kotzebue Sound and landed some women and took one or two others on
board. She also watered; leftatlla.m. Nobody called at the station;
4 quarts milk.
August 18, 1894.—West wind, clear. Four natives lay up wood for win-
ter; 5 quarts milk. Cape Prince of Wales canoe go to Grantley Harbor.
August 19, 1894.—Sunday. Calm and clear, with the usual service
and Sunday school. Three children were baptized, two Eskimos and
one Laplander.
August 20, 1894.—Northwest wind. The Bear came in about 11 last
night. Dr. Jackson and a lieutenant came on shore for the Bear’s mail.
Mr. Grubin and natives returned at the same time. Dr. Jackson was
on shore all day settling Laplander business.
August 21, 1894.—Dr. Jackson on shore all day attending to business.
Mr. and Mrs. Gamble were taken on board the Bear to-night, as Cap-
tain Healy consented to land them on St. Lawrence Island.
August 22, 1894.—Strong wind changing to west and abating during
the day. Early in the morning W.T. Lopp’s goods were taken on
board to be landed at Cape Prince of Wales. The Bear sailed at 9.30
a.m. Captain Healy intimated that he might call again. Three Lapps
and 5 Eskimos went to get logs for a house up the lagoon. Four
Eskimos were sent to the herd and 5 will remain at the station. Six
quarts of milk were brought in to-night. The first snow of the season
appeared on the mountain tops and high hills.
102 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
August 23, 1894.—Southwest wind strong in the forenoon, abating
toward night. Clear and fine. Mr. Grubin took two more men up to
the lagoon wood party. Continued house fixing.
August 24, 1894.—Strong southwest wind; clear in the morning;
cloudy the rest of the day; wind changing to south. The store or
trade room is now ready and the partition in the old storeroom is taken
down to be ‘used as a schoolroom until the schoolhouse is ready. A
fawn was killed that was in someway maimed so it could not walk. *
August 25, 1894.—Cloudy, with occasional showers, the rain becom-
ing general toward night. The wind veered from south to southeast,
becoming strong and causing a high surf. The woodcutters returned _
late last night with only a little wood, stating that the water was too
low to float logs of any size. Six quarts of milk. The village seems.
deserted; the people are out fishing or hunting.
August 26, 1894.—The clouds drizzled through roof and walls, expos-
ing our supplies to a wetting. Wind northeast, sobering down toward
evening, exposing a patch of clear sky. The usual services. The music
and singing seem to please the people.
August 27, 1894.—Cloudy, with rain spurts. Wind light from south
in forenoon, calm in afternoon. The superintendent with a gang of
herders left for the lagoon to get logs and wood. Soon after, Thorwald
‘Kjellmann left for the second lake to fish, taking with him Charlie and
Mary Wocksock, Per, and Mikkey, who were to be landed near Nook
and travel overland to explore the country in reference to winter feeding
grounds. The two Point Hope boys and Moses were left to help around
the station. Mr. Grubin and the teacher continued the repairs on the
house.
August 28, 1894.—The same wet, foggy, drizzling weather; calm.
Continued repairs around the house.
August 2!), 1894.—Calm, with a light breeze from the north in the
evening. Kjellmann returned with 60 logs, and has another raft started.
Several natives went up the lakes to fish.
August.30, 1894.—Light north wind, with light clouds. The Lapps
received provisions for a menth. A Cape Prince of Wales canoe arrived
with letters from Mr. Lopp, to be forwarded with the Bear if it anchored
here again. The deer are milked daily, and some cheese is being made.
August 31, 1894.—Clear, calm; a beautiful day. The roof of the
lean-to was fixed; a coat of tar put on warm, and cement was put on
and seemed well adapted to keep the rain and flour from affiliating. Mr.
Grubin brought another raft of logs from -the lagoon. No report from
the deer.
September 1, 1894.—Calm and cloudy, with light south wind; rain
toward evening. The raft of logs was landed. A door was put in the
west end of the building, Kjellmann’s kitchen. The center room of
the building was fixed up for aschoolroom. Only three tents remaining
on the beach. No report from the deer.
uOTIIMIBY wey A Aq ydesrsojoyd
‘VUSVIV OL ONiddIHS OL AYOLVYVdad ‘VINSSIS ‘YSSOGNISY DNITESOH
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 103
September 2, 1894.—Light south wind, cloudy and foggy. The usual
Sunday exercises. A seal was killed just outside the station by a Sing-
amut. Some reindeer milk was brought in in the morning, and orders
were given to discontinue the milking for a week.
September 3, 1894.—Calm and overcast. School commenced with 7
pupils during the day session, and 8 of the herders attended during the -
evening. The logs for the herders’ house, west of the other houses, were
put in place.
September 4, 1894.—A elear,; very nice day; light north breeze. Mr.
Grubin left about noon for the lagoon with a crew to get wood and logs.
Work was commenced on the new house, 16 by 30. The fishing party
returned from the lakes with considerable fish that they had caught
and bartered for; also some birch wood for sled handles, ete. Per
Rist had explored the country around and found plenty of grass and
moss, and pronounced it good for winter pasturage.
September 5, 1894.—A_ bright, fine day, with two heavy eHow eneh in
‘the evening. About 7 p.m. the smoke of a steamer was discovered
in the cape region, and when last seen was nearing the sandpit.
Public opinion agreed it was the Bear. A canoe arrived from the
Diomedes in the evening. The day school was attended ye 20 children.
Continued work on the herders’ house.
September 6, 1894.—The bear was moored outside the station this
morning, and Dr. Jackson came ashore at 7 a.m. to get Kjellmann and
some Lapps to come on board and land the deer. Johan and Mikkel
went on board and landed the deer by throwing them overboard and
letting them swim on shore. Thirty-two deer were landed.
September 7, 1894.—Calm, cloudy, showers. The Mesdames Brevig
and Kjellmann were invited on board the Bear for dinner. Dr. Jack-
son was on shore all day settling accounts with Kjellmann. No school,
as the teacher’s roof leaked so badly that he had to fix it. In the
afternoon the officers of the Bear were on shore hunting, and most of
them visited the station. The ladies returned home from the Bear at
10 p. m. and. reported a ‘‘splendid time.”
September 8, 1894.—A fine, warm day, with occasional showers in the
afternoon. At 9.30 the steam launch took the station’s ladies on board
to join a pleasure party going up the lakes; they returned at 7 p. m.,
reporting a ‘good time.” Dr. Jackson came on shore and had a talk
with the herders before leaving. The first lieutenant of the Bear was
on shore just before she sailed and took an inventory of all the ammu-
nition, Government and private, at the station. The Bear sailed at
10 p. m.
September 9, 1894.—A fine, clear morning, with rising west wind and
turning boli, The usual Sunday service.
September 10, 1894.—The wind increased in ee all night, and
has been blowin a Storm from southwest with rain all day. ie
September 11,1894.—North to northeast wind, increasing instrength;
104 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
bright and cold; growing colder. A crew of Lapps and Eskimos was
sent to gather moss for a winter supply. A Cape Prince of Wales
canoe arrived from Kings Island with a letter from Mr. Grubin to Mr.
Lopp.
September 12, 1894.—Light north wind; bright. The frame of the
dingey blown away in August was brought back by some natives from
the other side of the bay. The Lapps and Eskimos went out to gather
grass for fillings in Lapp and natives’ boots; returned with a good
supply.
September 13, 1894.—A clear, fine day. A thin crust of ice had
formed on the pools, and frost covered the ground. Kjellmann took
two native herders with him for more grass. The moss party returned,
reporting much mast put up. Kjellmann and another native brought
in 14 deer that he had found, 7 or 8 miles north from the station, alone
and unguarded. A canoe from the big Diomedes came in to trade.
September 14, 1894.—Mr. Kjellmann took the 14 deer back to the
Eskimo herd in the morning and found they were not missed by the
herders. The Eskimos were busy boiling deer meat, and Martin said
he had killed a female deer that was sick, but no report had been made
to the superintendent. Martin was ordered in to the station to explain
matters or pay for the deer and leave. A canoe left for Cape Prince of
Wales and letters were sent to Lopp. A clear, nice day; calm.
September 15, 1894.—Clear, bright, and calm. The dingey was fixed
to be serviceable.
September 16, 1894.—Clear, bright. Martin was exonerated froin kill-
ing the deer. Per Rist had killed her, as she was dying, six ribs having
been broken. Frederick Larsen was appointed messenger. He is to
leave for the herd about noon and return in the evening with report
from the herd. Six deer were reported missing and Antesilook hunting
for them. The usual Sunday exercises.
September 17, 1894.—Strong north wind, calm and clear. The dog
sniffing was the cause of the discovery. A bull was reported dying
from wounds received in fighting another bull, the horns passing
through the vitals. Oowoodlet got permission to visit his mother and
friends; 18 children attended the day school, and 12 the evening school.
September 18, 1594.—Clear and nice. Seven Eskimo herders were
sent up the lagoon for logs and wood. The roof was laid on the
herders’ house. Brevig put on double windows and painted the sash
and frames. The ever-curious Eskimos painted their artegas, noses)
faces, etc., without the use of a brush by pressing them against the
newly painted windows. Considerable fish was traded. No report
from the deer.
September 19, 1894.—Overcast, with strong south wind; showers.
One deer reported sick. Three deer were reported seen near the lake
east from the station. Kjellmann went and found them; one was sick
and was known to be there. The lumber crew returned, reporting a
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 105
raft ready, but impossible to move because of high winds and surf.
The herders seem to enjoy their evening school.
September 20, 1894.—Strong south to southeast wind. The ‘wood
gang” took the scow and brought some wood. Rafters were put
in the herders’ house for the floor, and window frames fitted in.
The sick deer was still unable to move. The two stray deer were
returned to the herd. Carl Brevig celebrated his first anniversary by
inviting the white population at the station to dinner. Interest in the
day school seems to be decreasing, but evening school is well attended.
September 21, 1894.—A stormy and rainy day; wind south; the surf
going over the bank into the mouth of the creek.
September 22, 1894.—The wind and rain storm continues. A female
deer was found dead near the herd; liver disease.
September 23, 1894.—The storm continues; the wind blew with
unusual force about 5 a.m. Wind south to east-southeast, abating
toward dark. The usual Sunday service and school. About 3 p.m.
Frederick had the mishap to wound both hands by the discharge of his
gun escaping by the breach instead of the muzzle. The muzzle was
stopped with a plug of wood and a spike so securely wedged in that the
firing of the gun could not expel them. His hands were badly torn
and blistered by powder. A dressing of arnica and laudanum was put
on. Some Cape Prince of Wales people said they had found a dead deer
near the inlet into Grantley Harbor; also killed a sick deer that had
swollen legs. The meat was already consumed.
September 24, 1894.—A nice day, with light northeast wind. At 10
a.m. Brevig ae five natives started for Cape Prince of Wales in the
whaleboat.
September 25, 1894.—Strong southeast wind and heavy rain ail day.
A workshop for the natives was commenced.
September 26, 1894.—Southeast wind. A deer that had been miss-
ing came back sick; another sick deer has strayed.
September 27, 1894.—A nice, clear day; wind from the north. The
sick deer was found lying down in some bushes; it is now kept sepa-
rate from the herd.
September 28, 1894.—Northeast wind, gloomy. No report from the
deer.
September 29, 1894.—North wind, bright and clear. Three sick deer
were killed, that the meat could be used for the herders. There are yet
two sick deen in the herd.
September 30, 1894.—Northwest wind; a pleasant, clear day. Herd
all well.
October 1, 1894.—Strong northwest wind, with alittle rain and snow.
Wocksock moved into the east end of the new house. Brevig and
natives arrived about 10 p. m., having made the trip in mine hours.
The boat was sailed to the cape Saturday night. Storm and strong
south wind kept them for two days near Kinnowyok, and Wednesday
106 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
morning Poloynuk was made, and from there Moses and Brevig walked,
climbing the highest mountains and arriving at Cape Prince of Wales
at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Sunday he married Netoxite and Kin-
nowyok, the first native couple married according to civilized custom
in northwest Alaska. On the return trip the boat was caught ina
sae and Brevig’s shotgun was lost overboard.
October 2, 1894.—A fair day, with north wind. A fishing party was
“sent up to the lakes. All well at the herd. .
October 3, 1894.—Snow and sleet. Wind northeast, southeast, south
southwest, eleariie up with a west wind in the evening. No report
from the herd: 45
October 4, 1894.—Northeast wind, with snow and sleet. Two more
deer sick and all efforts to find the missing bull have been in vain. The
fishing party returned with a good supply of tomeod, herring, and other
fish. The evening school is well attended.
October 5, 1894.—Cloudy, with snow and sleet all day; wind north-
east to porte northwest. A woman at Nook committed suicide by
shooting herself; she had been demented for some time.
October 6, 1894.—Strong northwest wind, cold and blustering, blow-
ing a gale during the night. Kjellmann and Brevig visited the herd
and counted the deer, and from various counts by both it was agreed
that the flock contained 440 deer. They were in good condition. It
was decided to move to a place about 5 miles up Grantley Harbor, asit .
was thought the prevailing disease was caused by some herb consumed
with the moss.
October 7, 1894. oo. cold, blustering day; east wind, with snow flur-
ries. The site Sunday exercises, with but few Lapps present.
October 8, 1894.—South wind; rain, snow, and sleet. Kjellmann and
herders brought a float of wood.
October 9, 1894.—Northwest wind, cold and blustering. The herd was
moved 5 miles east on the banks of a river entering Grantley Harbor.
October 10,.1894.—North wind; fair day, with ice forming on the
ponds and lagoon. Many applications for medicines for colds, sores,
and sore eyes. No report from herd.
October 11, 1894.—Clear, with a zephyr from the northwest. The
snow disappeared around the house and on the beach. A woman came
for treatment; by accident she was shot in the fleshy part of the leg
with arevolver. The wound was ulcerating and the ball in the wound.
J did not havethe instruments or knowledge to extract the bullet, but
the wound was cleaned and dressed. Many patients come for medi-
eines. The dressing doctor seems to have lost patronage lately.
October 12, 1894.—Gentle northeast wind. One more deer sick. A
sealing party, consisting of Kummuk, Sekeoglook, Oowkitkoon, Elec-
toona, Ahlook, Taootuk, and Soovawhassie, were sent to Point Spencer
this morning, Wocksock, Martin, and Charley remaining at the station.
Ookwoodlet came back yesterday and desired to leave the station. He
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 107
was paid for his two deer and left. Johan and Mikkel were out in the
whaleboat to hunt for material for sleds, ete. Sugar dropped into the
mouths of little children seems to be a very strong drawing card for
them to come to school. The Lapps reported having seen tracks of
two wolves near the herd.
_ October 13, 1894.—North breeze; cold, clear, and nice. Kjellmann
brought home a raft of logs for “firewood. Considerable fever, sore”
_ throat, and headache prevail at the station.
October 14, 1894.—North wind, dark and gloomy. The usuai Sunday
services. The Sunday school was called, but the audience forgot to
appear.
October 15, 1894.—Calm, clear ; thermometer,+20°allday. Per Rist,
in going out to the herd with his week’s supply on his back, tried to
cross the ice on one of the lakes back of the station and fell in.’ His
artega buoyed him up until he reached solid ice.
October. 16, 1894.—Strong east wind, +19° to +239. Oowkitkoon
and Martin were sent out to gather moss. No report from deer.
* October 17, 1894.—Light east wind, +23° to +42°, clear and mild.
An iceboat is under construction. oe:
October 18, 1894.—Light east wind, clear and fine, +25° to +38°,
The smithy was completed to-day and tried inthe evening. The natives
had gathered during the day to see the wonder. They smelt the forge,
and put their noses as near the furnace as the extremity would allow.
~ When they saw the iron become red, and the iron was put on the anvil
and the sparks began to fly, they sought the outside, helter-skelter, and °
now only two of the bravest here have the courage to peep into the shop.
No report from the deer.
October 19, 1894.—Zephyr from the north, clear and nice, +26° to
—35°, No report from the deer. The moss gatherers returned in the
afternoon. :
October 20, 1894.—Calm, cloudy, mild; occasional snow flurries. One
female deer died yesterday and one to-day from the prevailing disease.
+27° to +39°.
October 21, 1894.—Sunday; the usual service and school. Clear,
calm, mild, +25° to +40°. All but one of the last litter of collie pups
have been traded to the natives.
October 22, 1894.—Clear, calm, mild, +21° to +36°. Wocksock and
Martin piled up wood along the beach.
October 23, 1894.—The sun rose, ascended, culminated, descended,
and set. The thermometer began its diurnal course at +10°, ascended
to +30°, and descended to +12°. After evening school the native boy
element came into the schoolhouse with their faces painted and crawling
on all fours. The masquerade ended in a plaintive cry for “cow cow”
(food).
October 24, 1894.—Calm and clear, +13° to +27°. A load of wood
was brought home. Twenty-six Eskimo children attended school to-day.
108 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
October 25, 1894.—Southeast to southwest wind, cloudy and gloomy.
The sealing party was visited and five seals brought back as the out-
come of two weeks’ hunt. Mathis and Peter arrived with two deer to
take provisions out to the camp. Thermometer, +10° to +22°,
October 26, 1894.—Light northeast wind, clear and bright. The seal-
ing party arrived home. Jenny Kjellmann was sick from swollen tonsils
and sore throat. Thermometer, +10° to +29°. No report from deer.
October 27, 1894.—Southeast wind; cloudy,with snow flurries. Fred-
erick returned to-day, but failed to report. He had been very much
frightened yesterday by hearing several shots fired at a distance.
October 28, 1894.—West breeze; cloudy, with snow flurries. The
usual serviceand Sunday school. Toward evening Thorwald Kjellmann
and I visited the village and entered several houses, and found them
much better than we had expected; they were warm and had floors,
one bed, and bunks for beds. Thermometer, +8° to +16°.
October 29, 1894.—Calm, clear, and cold, 0° to +2°. The sealing
party was hindered from going to Point Spencer by floating ice from
Grantley Harbor in the bay.
October 30, 1894.—Partly overcast; calm, with snow flurries; ther-
mometer, —2° to +12°. The Eskimo herders, and especially Moses
and Martin, are showing themselves more and more lazy. All is well
at the herd. Only small open spaces on the bay.
October 31, 1894.—Strong northeast wind during the night and fore-
noon, abating to +8° to +20°. The bay being clear from ice, Mathis,
Moses, Oowkitkoon, and Charley went sealing. Tatpan and Wocksock
are sick. The Lapps hauled two loads of wood with two deer and sleds,
one man driving both. About 3 p.m. it commenced to snow, and 1 inch
fell before it cleared. No evening school.
November 1, 1894.—Calm and clear, +14° to +20°. The sealing
party returned walking, having left their boat. They could not reach
Point Spencer on account of ice.
November 2, 1894.—Strong east wind, 0° to +8°. The day opened
with a catch-as-catch-can.fight between Mary and Nah yuk. Charley
tried to mediate peace and was sent sprawling to bed by his “better
half,” and her opponent sent sprawling to the floor headforemost. All
is well with the herd. Wocksock is worse and the Lapps have tried
bloodletting, and in the evening a woman from the town tried her
bewitching ceremonies on him. He was worse from lying naked on the
floor, exposed to adraft. I took my medicines home. The bay is cov-
ered with ice.
November 3, 1894.—Light east wind, +8° to +28°; clear. The ice
boat was rigged up to-day. Electoona and Taootuk came in with a deer
and sled each. Samuel drove an untamed deer. Two parties from the
lakes reported the ice safe on the river.
November 4, 1894.—Light wind from the east, clear and nice. The
usual Sunday service, with a very scant attendance by Lapps and
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 109
Norwegians. The Sunday school was well attended. Thermometer,
0° to + 8°.
November 5, 1894.—Clear and calm; thermometer, —2° to +22.
November 6, 1894.—East wind, —2° to +4°. Samuel, Electoona, and
Taootuk went to the herd, and Charley Kuminuk, Moses, Martin, Johann,
and Mikkel went out for wood and logs for a stable. The ice boat was
used for the first time to-day and went nicely. The ice was rather rough.
No deer report.
November 7, 1894.—Overcast, with light northeast breeze, +10° to
+30°. Sekeoglook was brought in to-night from the herd, having cut
his leg in erecting a tent; the bone was touched; I dressed it. Three
deer are reported sick. :
November 8, 1894,—Cloudy and milder, + 10° to +22°. Two deer are
now kept at the station to haul wood. Sekeoglook’s leg is doing nicely.
A strong north wind all night; it took the mast from the ice boat.
November 9, 1894.—A full-fledged snowstorm, with north wind; snow-
ing all night and day. Only two herders attended the evening school;
7 at the station. Thermometer, +10°.
November 10, 1894.—A gale (with capital G) from the north awoke
the silent echoes of the night and the new-born snow from its innocent
sleep about 1 a. m., forcing the fleecy crystals to seek shelter behind hills,
in ravines, behind logs, and inanimate objects bigger than themselves.
Millions and millions had found an asylum in the trade room, where
they had jumped into boxes and barrels and scaled the shelves; some
had been satisfied with the bare floor, some had clustered under the
ceiling and stovepipe upstairs, some had crawled into deerskins, and
some had even tucked themselves snugly into the Lapp boots. Ther-
mometer, +10° all day. No report from the deer.
November 11, 1894.—North wind very strong; storm abating during
the day; cloudy. Service and Sunday school; +9° all day. No report
from the deer. ;
November 12, 1894.—Light northwest wind; cloudy, with snow flur-
ries. The skee was used for the first time; it was used by the Eski-
mos, and they managed to land on their backs, without any ceremony,
in the snow. No deer report. Thermometer, +11° to +16°.
November 13, 1894.—South-southwest to west-northwest wind; blow-
ing hard from southwest at noon, and piling the ice up high on the
beach; +9° to +21°.
November 14, 1894.—Northwest to southwest wind; cloudy, with a
little snow. Thermometer, +20° to +31°.
November 15, 1894.—Northeast to east-southeast wind, strong in the
afternoon. Samuel and Per Rist came on late last night with the car-
cass of a male deer that had broken its head in trying to break loose
from its fastenings. Five deer are now under tramimeg for the sled
Frederick and Martin are hauling wood every day with three deéer.
Thermometer, +18° to +2°,
110 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
November 16, 1894.—A gale from northeast since midnight; snow
drifting bad. Zero aliday. Frederick and Martin brought moss and
two extra deer.
November 17, 1894.—Strong northeast wind all night and day.
Cloudy and cold, —12° to —2°. Soovawhasie was, paid for’ his two
deer in the evening, as he wants to quit herding.
November 18, 1894.—The usual service and Sunday school. The
forenoon service was well attended by natives and most of the Lapps.
The Sunday school was attended by but a few. Soovawhasie left for
home this morning. Light east wind; thermometer, —8° to —4°,
November 19, 1894.—Light southeast wind in the morning and strong
north wind in the evening; clear; —8° at 8 a.m.,+22° at noon, and —29°
at 6 p.m. Charley shot another seal. Considerable fish was traded
from the lake people.
November 20, 1894.—Clear, cold in the forenoon; in the afternoon a
strong north wind, with a chilling mist; —12 to+20°.
November, 21, 1894.—A gale from north during the night and blow-
ing a storm all day; cloudy and snow flurries. About 9 p. m. fire
caught in the wood behind Kjellmann’s bedroom stove and ignited the
wall behind it. The fire was discovered before any damage was done.
Frederick, Mikkel, and Johann went out after moss this morning early
and will be gone three days. Thermometer,—2° to+12°.
November 22, 1894.—Medium strong north wind, clear, —4 to4+2°.
November 25, 1894.—Light northeast wind, cloudy,—12° to—2°. The
moss men returned in the evening, and Moses and Per from the herd.
The water gave out in the creek some days ago, and ice is the staple
article now.
November 24, 1894.—Strong southeast wind all night, becoming a
gale in the morning; +18° to +22°, My stovepipe blew down about
11 p.m., and soon after the cask supporting the station school bell
blew over into the ditch. The snow in the ditch saved the bell from
being broken; some of the ‘castings are broken. The wind lulled at
noon, but now it is blowing harder than ever.
November 25, 1894.—The storm continued all night; about midnight
the house shivered and shook on its foundations. Cleared at 1p. m.
and changed to southwest, veering to southeast again with very strong
wind. Thermometer, +24° to +28°, The usual Sunday service and
school.
November 26, 1894.—Strong southeast wind all night and morning,
+22° to —26°. The bell was rigged up again. None of the boys at
the evening school; 6 at the station. Wood hauled with deer.
November 27, 1894.— Winds blowing from all directions except north-
west; zero all day; clear.
November 28, 1894.—Strong east wind; cloudy, with snow flurries
The ice broke up in the bay in the afternoon and fear was entertained
for Kummuk and Wocksock, who left yesterday for the sandpit with a
TOU, wey A, Aq Ydeasojoyg
‘VINAEIG ‘YSSGNISY DNIOSSV7]
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 111
dog sled with only nine biscuits between them. The dogs ate two dog
harnesses and a seal skin last night. Zero all day.
November 29, 1894.—Strong northeast wind. The bay clear of ice.
The ice boat anchored outside had disappeared. Kummuk and Wock-
sock returned in the evening, having traveled all round the bay. No
school, but nearly the whole day was spent in visiting sick people in
the village. Time commences to drag heavily. Thermometer, +18° to
+26°.
November 30, 1894.—Calm and cloudy, with snow in the evening. A
sled arrived from Golovin Bay with letters for Kjellmann and Lopp.
Thermometer, + 10° to +15°.
December 1, 1894.—Light east wind, cloudy and snowing, +14° to
+22°,
December 2, 1894.—North wind, colder, +12° to +2°,. The usual
Sunday service and school. About noon the strong wind broke the ice,
and some women out fishing were carried along out toward the sea.
Mr. Kjellmann with a crew in the lifeboat rescued them.
December 3, 1894.—Northwest ‘‘sailor’s breeze,” with damp, pene-
trating wind. Evening school poorly attended; +4° to +109.
December 4, 1894.—Northwest wind, cold and blustering, —6° to
—10°. The moss party returned.
December 5, 1894.—Strong northwest wind, cloudy, —8° to —12°
Mrs. Kjellmann sick.
December 6, 1894.—Clear, calm, cold, —9° to —18°. Mars. Kjellmann
better. Karl Brevig sick with fever.
December 7, 1894.—Cold, calm, clear, —18° to —22°,
December 8, 1894.—Calm, clear, cold, —16° to —23°, Mr, Kjellmann
put up another stovepipe.
December 9, 1894.—Clear, calm, cold, —14° to —20°, Theusual Sun-
day service and school. The leading shaman had a confab with the
spirits to-night. He had four fires burning in a square and reposed
himself in the middle, groaning and sighing. Four new doctors were
with him guarding the fires; Charley was one of them. Thorwald
Kjellmann went out there to see the show, and the guards vanished,
and he, thinking it was a sick man left there to die, spoke to him, but
received no answer. The Lapps were cautioned by Mary not to look
toward the fire.
December 10, 1894.—Calm and bright, —14° to +20°. Charley and
Mary inspected Thorwald Kjellmann’s feet and asked if they were not
stiff or swollen, because he had spoken to the shaman.
December 11, 1894.—At 1 a. m. three sieds arrived from Cape
Prince of Wales with letters from Mr. Lopp. No pupils from the vil-
lage, as a dance was in progress ail day; —14° to —22°, The Lapps
returned.
December 12, 1894.—Light northwest breeze, clear, —14° to —20°.
December 13, 1894.—Clear, calm, hazy, —14° to —18°. Soovawhasie
112 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
arrived early this morning with dog team to take his goods home. The
Lapps have been hauling wood to-day.
December 14, 1894.—Light northwest wind in the morning and clear;
at noon a gale, and snow flying; —14° to —25°, The cape sleds left
early this morning, and Kjellmann with the Lapps and herders at the
station left for the timber beach to stay till Saturday to pile up wood
and logs, but returned at night on account of the storm; some were
frostbitten.
December 5, 1894,—Clear, with light east wind; —20° all day.
December 16, 1894.—Strong east wind in the morning and blowing a
gale toward evening, the thermometer suddenly rising at 4 p. m. from
—14° to +2°. No Sunday service, but Sunday school.
December 17, 1894.—Strong west wind, clear, —8° to —14°.
December 18, 1894.—Clear and calm, —14°to +189. Kjellmann went
out to the herd to return to-morrow. Sekeoglook is now walking about.
December 19, 1894.—Stormy, with northeast wind during the night,
veering to south and snowing in the morning; — 14° to +30° in the even-
ing, and the snow turned to sleet. Kjellmann returned about noon and
in the evening the Lapps came in.
December 20, 1894.—Light southwest wind, clear, + 18° to +4 22°,
Two sleds returned with moss and small willow bushes for Christmas.
December 21, 1894.—The sun rose at 11.40 a. m. and set at 2.50 p. m.
Light northeast wind, clear, +18° to —2°. Three-deer were killed
to-day for meat, the herders getting one and the Lapps the other two.
At 2.30 Mrs. Johan Tornensis was delivered of a big boy, but through
some bungling of the Lapp woman attending her, the child died soon
after its birth. The mother is doing well.
December 22, 1894.—Light northeast wind, cloudy, —6° to +109.
Considerable wood was hauled with deer to-day.
December 23, 1894.—Wind southwest, northeast, and southeast,
growing stronger; after dark a little snow; +18° to +22°. Sunday
school, but no service.
December 24, 1894.—Light northeast and south wind; clear, nice day;
+26° to +30°. The station has been crowded with natives all day per-
sisting in seeing everything. At5 p.m. the doors were opened and
the room was soon filled with children and adults. Several songs were
rendered, and after a short talk on Christmas, the goody-goodies were
distributed. During the day every house in town had received Christmas
cheer in the form of ‘‘cow-cow” (food).
December 25, 1894.—Calm and cloudy. Service in the forenoon. In
the evening the Eskimo herders were gathered and some games were
played, songs sung, and coffee and tea served. At8 p.m. a gale blew
up from south to southwest, with rain and sleet; +30° all day.
December 26, 1894.—The gale continued all night; in the morning
it veered around to northeast and blew in gusts. Yesterday Electoona
was caught gambling with Nan u gok, a low character that loafs around
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 113
the station considerably. He was turned out and forbidden to enter
that house anymore. The Brevigs visited the Kjellmanns in the even-
ing. Thermometer, +10° to +21°.
December 27, 1894.—Wind continued all night; cloudy, and some
sleet in the evening from the southeast; +20° to 28°,
December 28, 1894.—Strong northeast wind, cloudy, mild, snowing
in the evening; +24° to +309.
December 30, 1894.—Calm and clear, very fine day. Sunday school.
The sun set at 3.04 p. m. Sekeoglook had his hand scalded by
hot tea.
December 31, 1894.—Clear, calm, fine day. Sun rose at 11.30 a.m.
and set at 3.09 p.m. The Nook people received a present of flour and
biscuit to-day. Late last night Mrs. Kjellmann found a pair of mittens
that Thorwald Kjellmann lost last fall, by being stolen from him, in
the possession of Isah genna. He said he had gotten them from his
brother Charley. Moses left toward evening for Charley’s brother’s
place to get dogs to go to Cape Prince of Wales to the dance. Ther-
mometer, +2° to +4°.
January 1, 1895.—Calm, clear, bright; —2°to +10°. Service for the
Lapps. Intheafternoon | had five patients, Mrs. Wocksock, Sekeoglook,
a boy from Nook covered with sores from the waist down, and a woman
from town with a rebellious tooth, which was extracted. Thorwald
Kjellmann celebrated his sixty-eighth birthday to-day.
January 2,1895.—Bright and calm; —4° to+2°. School commenced
after Christmas, and 29 showed up bright and early to get the biscuit.
Two sleds arrived from the lakes for the dance.
January 3, 1895.—Light northeast wind, clear and bright; sunset
3.31 p. m.; —6° to + 4°.
January 4, 1895.—Calm, foggy; +9° to +16°. Sleds are arriving all
day, and more are expected. When all have arrived they will leave in
a body.
January 5, 1895.—Clear, bright, calm; —5° to +8°. Three sleds ar-
_ rived toward evening, making the number complete. They will leave
early to-morrow. Mrs. Kjellmann and Brevig had a trip behind rein-
deer to-day, and enjoyed it.
January 6, 1895.—Mild, calm, foggy. The“ carnivalites” left at early
dawn, 9.30 a.m. Johann Tornensis’s body was buried to-day and a
burial place dedicated on the east side of the little creek east of the
Station house. Little before dark Kjellmann and wife, Mikkel, and
myself went out for a drive with the deer and steered for Nook,
where I saw a patient that, from descriptions of his ailment, I had
been treating for bleeding from the lungs, and found him suffering
from acute rheumatism and swelled joints. Arrived at the station at
7p.m. Thermometer, —2° to +8°.
January 7, 1895.—Calm and clear; —11° to —2°. In the afternoon
Kjellmann, Nakkila, and Wocksock left for the upper lakes to get birch
8, Doc, 111——38
114 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
poles for harnesses, and will be absent four days. Frederick was
taken sick toward evening.
January 8, 1895.—Calm and foggy; —9 to +2°.
January 9, 1895.—Breeze from north-northeast, clear, snow flying;
—3° to 0°.
January 10, 1895.—Light north wind, calm after dark; —15° to —3°;
overcast in forenoon, clear in afternoon.
January 11, 1895.—Strong northwest wind; partly overcast; —17° to
—22°, growing colder.
January 12, 1895.—Strong northwest wind, stormy; —23° to —20°.
Kjellmann and party are yet absent, and anxiety is shown, especially by
Mrs. Nakkila. The wind is against them, and they may have sought
shelter in an Eskimo house.
January 13, 1895.—North wind and overcast in the forenoon, clear
and calm in the afternoon. Jenny Kjellmann froze her nose playing
around the house; —24° to —30°. Sunday service. Kjellmann and
party returned shortly after dark with only one frozen nose to Jack
Frost’s credit. The first day out they had traveled about 70 miles.
On the return the deer got tired and unwilling, and but small progress
was made. The skees are becoming a favorite among the herders, and
all want a pair.
January 14, 1895.—Light northeast-east to southeast wind; —33° to
31°. As yet we have not seen a genuine Minnesota cold or blizzard,
but live in shaking expectation of seeing one before next May.
January 15, 1895.—Light southeast wind, cloudy. Thermometer sta-
tionary at —14°.
January 16, 1895.—Calm, cloudy, with two hours sunshine about
noon. Thermometer, —6° to 0°.
January 17, 1895—Calm, clear; —9° a. m., 0° 2 p. m., —19° 5 p. m.
About 7 p. m. a native arrived from Golovin Bay with letters and bar-
ter goods, traveling for Mr. J. Dexter. That he was from the vicinity
of Swedes was betrayed by the snuffbox, which he handled with Swed-
ish gracefulness.
January 18, 1895.—Light southeast wind; —19° to —16°. Two sleds
arrived from the cape toward evening. Letters were sent to Mr. Lopp
by the trader.
January 19, 1895.—Strong northeast wind during the night, light
southeast during the day; —19° to —14°. Mrs. Kjellmann was taken
very sick during the night. Charley, the herders, and several sleds
returned to-night from the cape, all complaining of being cold.
January 20, 1895.—The usual Sunday service and school. Strong
southeast wind all night, light wind during the day; mild overcast,
with some snow falling; +10° to +149.
January 21, 1895.—Southeast gale; cloudy, with snow and sleet; 4+ 22°
to +28°. A sewing school for Eskimo girls was begun to-day with 11
in attendance. Hvening school is attended by 4 herders,
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 115
January 22, 1895.—Calm, overcast; +14° to +26°. Aslak made him-
self a bed. Natives are trading biscuit for grouse still on the wing.
January 23, 1895.—Overcast and clear; 0° to —4°. Thesleds with the
supplies departed for the lakes to-day. The Lapps are hauling wood.
January 24, 1895.—Calm and clear in forenoon; north wind in even-
ing; —4° to —3°,
January 25, 1895.—North-northeast wind medium, becoming stronger;
—2° to —6°. Mail and presents to the herders arrived from Mr. Lopp.
January 26, 1895.—A gale from north-northeast, snow drifting bad;
+16° to —15°,
January 27, 1895.—The storm continued all night and day; —16° to
—22°. The usual Sunday service and Sunday school.
January 28, 1895.—Storming and drifting still from north-northeast;
—4° all day. Charley should have picked out his herd to-day; storm
prevented it.
January 29, 1895.—Storming still; no herd separated. Kjellmann has
made two wooden shovels. Per’s deer that he was breaking broke
loose from him and started for the herd. Thermometer, —4° to 0°.
January 30, 1895.—Storming still from north-northeast; clear, but
snow flying; 0° all day. All herders and Lapps but Solon, Per,
and Ahlook were sent to the herd to help Charley separate his herd
to-day.
January 31, 1595.—Clear, snow flying, strong north-northeast wind.
Kjellmann left for the herd early this morning and Charley’s deer were
Separated and taken behind the bluff across the bay; 115 deer (15 his
private property) were taken, 90 females, 3 sled deer; the rest were bulls
and geldings. The south side of the house was now so completely
blocked up that a tunnel had to be dug through the bank to get an
entrance to the schoolhouse.
February 1, 1895.—A_ howling north-northeast wind all night and
day. Charley received his equipment and made preparations to leave
for his future home to-morrow. Kutchuk, Dexter’s trader, arrived
to-day from the cape with letters from Mr. Lopp. Thermometer, —4°
to —10°.
February 2, 1895.—Still storming from north-northeast; clear, but
snow flying; doors and windows on the south side of the house entirely
blocked up by snow. Charley and family left about noon. Aslak,
Moses, and Ahlook will help him with the deer. Thermometer, —4° to
+12°,
February 3, 1895.—Clear, bright, calm; —3°to +2°. The usual serv-
ice and school. ‘Tunnels were dug for doors and windows.
February 4, 1895.—North wind putty. Partly overcast. Sun rose
9.45, set 4.45. Thermometer, +5° to —10°..
February 5, 1895.—North wind, very hard storm during the night,
continuing in puffs all day, some snow; —4° to —8°,
February 6, 1895.—Strong west wind, overcast with a little snow;
116 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIG REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
—18° to —14°. The herders have long been very negligent in bringing
wood for the schoolhouse, and long ago refused to make the fire and
sweep the room.
February 7, 1895.—North-northwest wind; a genuine, full-fledged bliz-
zard; the wind blowing a gale; snow flying so thick that you could not
see 20 feet, and mercury —22° all day. No pupils and no school.
February 8, 1895.—North wind strong, but abating; —24° to —20°.
Yesterday the herd split and only 20 deer remained around the tents,
the rest had gone across Grantley Harbor and were found and brought
back by natives from Nook. The watch had divided, two in each party,
at 3 p. n., seeking in all directions but the right one; 8 pupils at even-
ing school.
February 9, 1895.—Clear, bright, and calm; —26° to —20°. Stone
was brought down from the hills for a fireplace in Charley’s vacant
house.
February 10, 1895.—North-northeast gale, the strongest wind since
we came here; all doors and windows on the lee side blocked, the only
egress being by the store door. Per came in through the storm and
reported the herd gathered and not storming much where it is. Ther-
mometer, —16° all day.
February 11, 1895.—Blizzard all day; —2° to —12°. Frederick was
brought in from camp frost-bitten, having frozen his lip in some manner.
Samuel is now alone with the deer.
February 12, 1895.—Calm, mild, snowing; +16° to +24°. Hauling
and cutting wood and shoveling snow is now the daily routine. Per
has lost his dog and is afraid it is caught in a trap, as it is his constant
companion,
February 13, 1895.—Clear, calm, mild; +20° to +14°. The fireplace
is ready in Charley’s house. Mrs. Kjellmann hurt her ankle in sliding
down the snowdrift; it is swollen.
February 14, 1895.—Strong north wind, clear; —10° to —4°. No
valentines in circulation.
February 15, 1895.—Strong north wind. Aslak and Moses returned
in the night; they had left one of their deer on the other side of the
bay without making it fast. Moses wanted to tie it, but Aslak let it
loose. They were sent back again to hunt for the ‘‘needle in the hay-
stack” this morning. Another deer they had let loose near the station,
and Aslak was told to find the deer or pay for them. Thermometer, 0°
to —2°.
February 16, 1895.—Strong north wind, clear; —2° to —8°. Aslak and
Moses returned in the night, minus the deer; no trace of it was found.
February 17, 1895.—Strong north wind, clear. The usual service and
Sunday school; —6° stationary. Mrs. Kjellmann’s foot is better.
February 18, 1895.—A furious gale from north, snow flying, clear;
—18° to —14°; slight shock of earthquake was felt at 5 p.m.; the wind
took a rest about 6 p. m.
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 117
February 19, 1895.—Medium north-northeast wind, clear; —16° to
—14°. Mrs. Kjellmann’s foot bad.
February 20, 1895.—The wind running all around the flag pole, and
sometimes a calm. The Lapps were sent after moss to-day; —20° to
— 6°,
February 21, 1895.—Southeast wind, light, clear, and nice; +20° to
+249,
February 22, 1895.—Strong north-northeast wind, overcast. The
flag was hoisted in honor of the Father of Our Country. About 8.30
Mr. George Johnson, from Unalakleet, with two interpreters, arrived,
having made the trip from Charley’s place since 8 a.m. They are on
a missionary trip through this part of Alaska and will remain here
some days. Aslak has found one of the missing deer. Thermometer,
+12° to +3°.
February 23, 1895.—Strong north-northeast wind; snow drifting;
—8° to 0°. Moss party returned.
February 24, 1895.—Storm from north-northeast, snowing and drifting.
Johnson preached with the assistance of the interpreters. In the
afternoon Taootuk was married to Nah zoo kah and tea was served to all
the Eskimo herders. A sled arrived with letters from Mr. Lopp;—18°
to —19°. Charley’s brother and brother-in-law arrived about dark.
February 25, 1895.—Strong north-northeast wind. The Lapps hauled
wood, and Ivanhoft, Johnuson’s interpreter, went with them on the trip.
Thermometer, —20° to —16°.
February 26, 1895.— Light north wind, clear; —20° to —22°, John-
son left at 10.30 for Cape Prince of Wales, and Charley’s brother and
brother-in-law for Charley’s place. Aslak, Martin, and Oowkitkoon |
went out in search of the missing deer. “Taootuk, Wocksock, and Kum-
muk went up the coast to Kinnowgok, seal hunting.
February 27, 1895.—Clear, cold, calm; —24° to —15°. Aslak and
others returned late last night, having tracked the deer to the top of
the mountain toward Charley’s place.
February 28, 1895.—Light north wind, overcast. A beautiful aurora
borealis in the evening; —21° to 6°.
March 1, 1895.—Strong east wind in the night, becoming light dur-
ing the day; clear in the forenoon, overcast in the afternoon. Wassock
from Nook, was taken violently sick in the morning and was taken
home. Johann, Moses, and Sekeoglook came down from the herd.
March 3, 1895.—Light south wind, changing to north. A light fall
of snow. The usual Sunday service and school. Thermometer, +10°
to +250,
March 4, 1895.—Cloudy, with wind from northeast, east, southeast,
and south. Kjellmann has finished his tent and camping outfit. Moses,
Tatpan, Ahlook, and Johann went out tothe herd. ‘The village seems
deserted; only two children from the village to-day. Thermometer, + 25°
all day.
118 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
March 5, 1895.—Rain during the night, in the forenoon sleet and
snow; +25° to +33°. Ahlook returned, having lost the tent and slept
on the mountains.
March 6, 1695.—East wind, veering to south and southwest; snow
flying all day; cloudy; 4+10° to +25°.
March 7, 1895.—Southwest wind, cloudy and snowing; +25° all day.
Ahlook left for the tent to-day.
March 8, 1895.—A clear, beautiful day, calm. A native reported hay-
ing seen the lost deer. Thermometer, +10° to +26°.
March 9, 1895.—Calm; 412° to +22° to —2°at8p.m. At9p.m.
the windy corner opened up and soon a gale was blowing from north-
northeast. Kummuk returned during the night with two seals. Taoo-
tuk had shot three. Mr. Johnson returned about noon, having camped
on the snow at the head of the lagoon. Also some traders came from
the cape, and Tatpan, Martin and Oowkitkoon.
March 10, 1895.—North wind; —10° to —15°. Johnson preached in
the village in the forenoon, and in the evening Norwegian services.
March 11, 1895.—Strong northeast wind, with snow flying. Ther-
mometer, 0° to +18°. Kjellmann, Martin, and Mikkel left for Golovin
Bay with deer to-day. Service in the evening.
March 12, 1895.~Wind shifting about, settling into a northeast gale
during the night. Two services during the day. About noon the Cape
Prince of Wales sleds and Lopp’s herder left, with Moses in tow.
Thermometer, +12° to +20°.
March 13, 1895.—Strong northeast wind, cloudy. Johnson did not
leave on account of drifting snow; +10° to +18°.
March 14, 1895.—Light northeast wind, overcast; zero to +12°.
March 15, 1895.—Medium strong north wind, overcast. Johnson and
company left at8 a.m. Thermometer, +5° to +12°.
March 16, 1895.—Wind changing from northeast to southeast; north-
northeast, settling at east, cloudy; +2° to +22°. The herd reported —
all well.
March 17, 1895.—Clear at times, wind continually changing; —10°
to —15°. Sunday school in the afternoon.
March 18, 1895.—Clear, with north-northeast wind; —2° to —12°.
Frederick was sent up to the herd, as his hip is now healed.
March 19, 1895.—North-northeast wind, clear; —3° to +4°. Charley
arrived at 2.50 with letters from Johnson and KjelJmann. They left
his place the 15th for Golovin Bay. One deer reported sick of a hurt
foot. Mathis asked permission to kill it, but Per was ordered to go and
look at it, and if it could be saved to try his best.
March 20, 1895.—Strong north-northeast wind, clear. The deer, a
two-year-old gelding, was brought in, killed, and was dressed here and
the meat put in the storehouse. The right front hip-joint was dis-
located and matter had commenced to form around the joint. Ther-
mometer, —11° to +2°.
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 119
March 21, 1895.—The windy corner wide open the entire twenty-four
hours; —12° to —4°. Taootuk and Wocksock returned to-night from
sealing, minus any seal. Mrs. Kjellmann had a sick headache all day.
March 22, 1895.—Strong north-northeast wind, clear; --21° to 10°.
March 23, 1895.—Medium strong northeast wind, clear, cold; —229°
to —14°.
March 24, 1895.—Clear, light east wind; —19° to —8°. The usual
Sunday school. °
March 25, 1895.—Light southeast wind, clear and nice in forenoon,
changing to northeast, and a storm was on the programme; —18° to —6°.
March 26, 1895.—Clear, with north-northeast wind during the night;
calm in the forenoon; strong north to north-northeast wind in the
evening; —10° to —2°.
March 27, 1895.—North wind, light, clear; —11° to —6°.
March 28, 1895.—Light north wind, clear; —17° to —10°. Per thinks
the cows will come in from April 15 and on. Very strong north-north-
east wind; some snow flying, clear. The deer which Aslak lost was
reported killed bya native and consumed. Thermometer, —22° to —12°.
March 30, 1895.—Very strong northwest to north-northeast wind,
overcast with snow flurries; —22° to —8°. Geetaugee was around
hunting for four deerskins that had been stolen from him while he was
out seal hunting. He suspects Nanugok (the thug) of stealing them.
Geetaugee wants to enter a complaint against him when the revenue
cutter comes.
March 51, 1895.—Overcast morning and evening, clear the middle of
theday. Serviceand Sunday school. At5d p.m. Kjelimann and Mikkel
arrived with deer. They had left Charley’s place at 8 a. m. and crossed
the mountains. Martin is expected with a dog sled some time to-night.
They left Golovin Bay on Monday noon. Thermometer, —12° to 0°.
April 1, 1895.—Overcast and calm. The man who shot the stray deer
proved to be from Nook. He acknowledged the deed and on being told
that he would either have to be put in irons or pay for the deer, prom-
ised to pay in fox skins before the Bear came. Two men had helped
him eat it, and their names were taken and told to help pay for the
meat. He threatened to commit suicide rather than be put in irons.
Thermometer, —12° to zero.
April 2, 1895.—Northwest wind; partly overcast. The “ Deerslayer”
& Co. were in and each agreed to pay one white fox skin. A sled
arrived from Golovin Bay bringing some letters from the States sent
from Unalaska by way of St. Michaels. Thermometer, +12° to +4°.
April 3, 1895.—Calm, clear. A woman from the lakes came in with
a two-months-old baby for treatment; it was covered with sores from
poor care and filth. One of the best sled deer broke a foot to-day, get-
ting entangled in the preceding sled, and had to be killed. Thermome-
ter, —12° to +4°.
April 4, 1895.—Clear, calm; —12° to +4°. Martin was very sick with
120 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
rheumatic pains in the hip joint. Frederick was on the sick list from
a boil on the knee caused by a neglected frost sore.
April 5, 1895.—Calm, clear; —4° to +10°. About 10 a.m. Aslak,
Somby, wife and daughter, left for Charley’s place to take care of his
herd until June. Taooluk and wife left for down the coast to buy crabs.
Two sleds arrived from the cape and one from the lakes.
April 6, 1895.—Variable winds, light, clear, and nice; zero to —14°.
Nanugok came down from the cape last night, and had, according to
hearsay, threatened to kill Geetaugee this morning. Nanugok was up
at the station nearly all day and denied having taken the skins. He
said he was going to leave in the morning, as the people were talking too
much. After supper he went down to the village and was shot through
the breast by Geetaugee and buried in a snow bank north-northeast
from the village. There was no excitement in the village. The ladies
at the station were somewhat excited over the affair; also the Lap-
landers.
April 7, 1895.—Sunday. Light southeast wind, clear and nice; —2°
to +18°. Services with communion. Sunday school in the afternoon.
Per, Sekeogiook, and Wocksock went up to the herd to-night to make
preparations for moving the herd.
April 8, 1895.—Strong southeast wind, foggy in the morning, clear-
ing up; —6° to —14°. Mathis, Samuel, Kummuk, and Ahlook left for
the herd to-day with five weeks’ provisions, as the herd is going up to
the Goweerook River. Elektoona will take the provision sled back.
Martin and Frederick are getting better.
April 9, 1895.—Clear, calm, bright. Several cape and iake sleds
arrived. Moses came back from the cape with letters; —2° to +20°.
April 10, 1895.—Overcast, mild, and calm. Thorwald Kjellmann and
Moses brought wood, as Johann’s eyes were very bad.
April 11, 1895.—Overeast, calm. Johann’s eyes are still bad. Three
deer had broken loose from the fastening and shaped their course to
the mountains. Koketuk, from the cape, arrived to-day. Thermome-
ter, +8° to +28°.
April 12, 1895.—Strong north-northeast wind; storming. Service in
the forenoon. Kummuk senior and his brother-in-law brought tidings
from the stray deer, and with Moses were sent out to track them.
Johann and Frederick took the rest of the deer and finally caught
them near the last camping place. Moses turned back on the way.
Thermometer, +4° to —10°.
April 13, 1895.—Strong north wind; snowstorm. Kotetuk left in
the morning, and in the evening Netoxite, Mr. Lopp’s herder, arrived
to bring Brevig’s family up ona visit. Zero all day.
April 14, 1895.—Easter Sunday; service and Sunday school. North
wind, clear, with a little snow going south; --4° to +4°. Brevigs
visited Kjellmanns and Kjellmanns visited the Brevigs.
April 15, 1895.—North wind; clear; —4° to +15°. Elektoona arrived
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 121
from the herd and reported all well with the herd; the herders all with
sore eyes. Several sleds arrived from the cape and lakes, all wanting
lead.
April 16, 1895.—North-northeast wind; snow on the move; —10° to
—2°, Taootuk arrived during the night with news from Charley’s
herd. Brevigs left for the cape at 7 a. m.
April 17, 1895.—Calm, clear; +10° to +6°.
April 18, 1895.—Clear, calm in the forenoon; east wind in the after-
noon; +8° to +10°.
April 19, 1895.—Calm, clear, bright; +8 to +15°, .
April 20, 1895.—Calm, clear; +12° to +16°. Some Nook people
complained that they had nothing to eat and were given some dry tom-
cod and oil.
April 21, 1895.—Calm and clear; light east wind, with snow in the
evening. Oowkitkoon and Sekeoglook came down from the herd with-
- out any permission.
April, 22, 1895.—Cloudy and calm; a little snow; +8° to 415°.
Frank Komeroff, J. A. Dexter’s Russian trader, arrived to-day with
two dog sleds of barter goods.
April 23, 1895.—Storm from south, with snow and fog; +10° to
+25°. Komeroff is doing a brisk trade.
April 24, 1895.—Strong south-southwest wind, with some snow;
+20° to —28°.
April 25, 1895.—South-southwest wind in the morning and north
wind in the afternoon, with some snow; +18° to +30°. Komeroff’s
Eskimo man is sick in bed.
April 26, 1895.—Clear and bright, calm; +20° to +28°.
April 27, 1895.—Brevigs returned at 11.30 p. n., having made the
trip from the cape in seventeen hours. Cloudy and snowing, with a
light northeast wind. Martin cut himself with his own knife. By
falling down the knife penetrated the throat, cutting into the flesh
quite deep. Thermometer, +25°.
April 28, 1895.—Clear and nice in the morning, with increasing wind
from north-northeast, becoming very strong toward night. The usual
Sunday service and school. Thermometer, +20° to +10°.
April 29, 1895.—Clear, with drifting snow and very strong north-
northeast wind, abating toward night; +4° to +12°.
April 30, 1895.—Clear and bright, with a light north-northeast wind.
Komeroff and party left for Golovin Bay, and a sled also left for the
cape in the morning. Thermometer, +8° to +200°.
May 1, 1895.—Clear and bright, with a light northwest wind. Elek-
toona is sick with diarrhea. Thermometer, +12° to 4+28°.
May 2, 1895.—Clear, calm day; —12° to —30°. Mathis Hira arrived
from the herd, having been one day and two nights on the way. He
reported 65 fawns, of which one was stillborn and one was killed
because it had a twin brother, and the mother would only care for one.
122 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
The third was killed in the herd by being kicked by another deer. The
deer are thriving, and the pasturage is splendid. The herd are in a
protected place where the winds can not blow. Two eape sleds and-
Charley arrived toward evening.
May 3, 1895.—Clear and bright, with a light south-southeast wind
changing to east-northeast; +12° to +32°. Elektoona quite sick.
May 4, 1895. Clear and bright; south-southeast wind; -+10° to
+31°. Charley left at 9 a. m.
May 5, 1895.—Clear and bright, thawing in the sun; +15° to +35°;
calm during the day; strong north-northeast wind after sunset. The
usual Sunday school and service.
May 6, 1895.—Partly overcast, a strong wind during the night from
the north; +15° to +35°; thawing a little. A sled arrived from
Unalokleet. Mathis Hira left for the herd with provisions.
May 7, 1895.—Overeast, with occasional glimpses of the sun. The
wind changing from northwest to north-northeast, southeast, back to
northeast; +25° to +443°. Signs of thawing. Taootuk returned
from seal hunting in the night with his wife, but minus all signs of
seal. Elektoona went up to the herd with two weeks’ provisions for
the herd. Taootuk and Martin also went up to stay with the herd.
Wocksock and Kummuk came home. Several sleds were on the move
toward the sandpit with all their possessions.
May 8, 1895.—Clear and bright, with a light thaw; +20° to —36°,
South wind, changing to northeast. The natives all seem to be on the
move from Nook and the lakes. Kjellmann and the Lapps have been
hauling timber for the schoolhouse.
May 9, 1895.—Clear and bright, with a chilly northeast wind; thaw-
ing a little in the sun in protected places; +22° to +30°. The Lapps
received their provisions with joy.
May 10, 1895.—Clear and bright, with a light north-northeast wind.
Mrs. Brevig celebrated her birthday by having a severe headache all
day. The Nook ‘‘deer-slayer” brought tidings that he had seen two
deer and a young fawn on the other side of the mountains south of the
bay heading this way, and he, with Mikkel and Johann, were sent out
with four deer to see if they could catch them and ascertain to which
herd they belonged. Thermometr, + 22° to +299,
May 11, 1895.—Overcast, with thick fog in the mountains; +18° to
—31°. The Lapps and companion returned at 9.30 p. m., having fol-
lowed the track of the deer all day, but never caught sight of them.
A native reported that he had seen them pass northwest under the
hills near the station one hour before the party returned.
May 12, 1895.—Clear and bright; thawing in the early afternoon;
sharp, cutting north wind in the evening. The sighted deer were fol-
lowed all day by the Lapps. Moses could not keep up and came home
in the afternoon. The usual Sunday exercises. The herd was reported
moved 10 miles nearer the station; 100 fawns, 4 dead. ‘thermometer,
+20° to +355°. Letters arrived from Mr. Lopp.
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 123
May 13, 1895.—Clear, north wind. The stray deer were around the
last camping place before Charley’s herd left, and the deer had been
tethered near by so that they should not scatter; but they had only
circled around them, without coming near them, and turned northwest
again, passing behind the hills. Thermometer, +25° to +26°.
May 14, 1895.—Clear and calm in the forenoon, with rising northeast
wind in the evening; +14° to +33°. The deer have turned back again
to the camping place and will be watched there until the herd returns.
May 15, 1895.—Clear and calm, +18° to +36°. The new schoolhouse
was begun. Mikkel was out after the stray deer, without seeing them.
May 16, 1895.—Clear, with a very light northeast wind, growing
stronger toward evening; +18° +55°.. The deer were sighted behind
the hills, but were very wild and could not be approached within
half a mile.
May 17, 1895.—Partly overcast, with north-northeast wind during
the night. Frederick, Kummuk, and Moses took a cook stove out
to the proposed winter quarter for the herd, to be used for a herder’s
house. The natives have with one or two exceptions moved out of
their huts, and are quartered on the beach or have moved to the sand-
pit. School closed to-day. Oowkitkoon came with letters from the
herd; all well. Thermometer, +19° to +319.
May 18. 1895.—Overeast, with a chilly northeast wind; +18° to +.30°.
Trading sleds arrived from Cape Prince of Wales with letters from Mr.
Lopp. Mrs. Kjellmann was sick from a headache.
May 19, 1895.—Overeast in the afternoon; mild and thawing; +23°
to +40°. The usual Sunday service and school. The stray deer are
yet behind the hills. Oowkitkoon started for the herd to-night.
May 20, 1895.—Cloudy and overcast, with south wind. Aslak Somby
came back from Charley’s about noon, and reported 77 fawns born, of
which 2 were dead. He had been on the way since the 16th, having
lost his way in the fog on the mountains. A fine, drizzling rain nearly
all day; +42° all day; no frost in the morning.
May 21, 1895.—Clear, with a light southeast wind; +30° to +38°.,
May 22, 1895.—Cloudy and raining part of the day; wind changing
from southeast to north-northeast; —45°. Aslak and Frederick have
been out looking for the stray deer, which are now moving toward the
herd. Kjellmann made a few bricks to-day.
May 23, 1895.—Clear and bright until 6 p. m., when it clouded over
and began to rain; strong north-northeast wind all day; +42°,
May 24, 1895.—Wind south and north; clear and mild; +51° at
noon, thawing; colder at sunset, 10 p. mn.
May 25, 1895.—Clear and calm, a very fine day; +50° at noon.
Samuel and Taootuk came in from the herd and reported 132 calves
born, 122 from old deer and 11 from young fawns. The herd is now
near the foot of Grantley Harbor.
May 26, 1895.—Clear and calm in the forenoon; cloudy, with rising
wind in the afternoon; northeast wind; +41° at noon, with a light
124 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
frost last night. The usual Sunday service and school. Aslak saw the
stray deer near the first camping place in the fall.
May 27, 1895.—Clear, with a light northwest wind, veering to north-
east; light frost last night; +30°to +42°. Johann, Frederick, Mikkel,
and Wocksock went for logs again to-night. Kummuk returned
to-night. The herd is now near the last camping place. Martin came
in with Kummuk. A yearling cow brings forth a stillborn fawn.
Light frost in the night.
May 28, 1895.—Strong northeast wind, clear and bright; +45°.,
Samuel, wife and child, and Martin went to the deer camp to-night.
May 29, 1895.—Clear, with a light north wind; —52°. Frederick,
Mikkel, Johann and Aslak, Moses, and Kummuk went after logs late
last night and are to make another trip again to-night.
May 30, 1895.—Clear, with a light north wind. The log cavalcade
came home about 2 a.m. and left againat4d a.m. Light frost; +52° at
moon.
May 31, 1895.—Clear, calm; light frost in the night; +54° at noon.
The log party returned to-night; they have brought some very nice
jogs. Salting seal blubber and drying the skins have been the order of
the day for the Eskimo herders for two days.
June 1, 1895.—Overcast, with strong north-northeast wind. Early
in the morning we got letters from Mr. Lopp. Per and Ah‘ook arrived
from the herd. Per reported 131 fawns living and 15 dead, of which 9
were from the yearling cows.
June 2, 1895.—Clear and bright, with a strong north-northeast wind
all night and day. Sunday services, but no Sunday school, as most of
the herders were out. The toothache is making the station a much-
felt call.
June 3, 1895.—Clear, with a light west wind; heavy frost last night.
Per and Aslak went out to the herd; Frederick and Wocksock picked
moss.
June 4, 1895.—Clear and bright, with a breath of wind from west. In
the afternoon a cold, chilly fog came in from the northwest. A little
cleaning up around the house was indulged in.
June 5, 1895.—Clear, bright, and calm. Toward night it clouded up
from the south, with a little wind. Aslak came home with 7 deer, to be
used in hauling logs.
June 6, 1895.—Overcast and calm, with a few drops of rain. Wock-
sock, Kummuk, Frederick, Aslak, and Thorwald Kjellmann went after
logs. In the evening Jenny Kjellmann celebrated her sixth birthday
by inviting her neighbors to supper.
June 7, 1895.—Cloudy, with showers all night and day; calm, and at
times foggy. The log party returned at9 a.m. Brevig and Thorwald
Kjellmann went out for logs in the evening.
June 8, 1895.—Calm and foggy, rain and cloudy. The Alaska sum-
mer is here in all its abundance of rain and fog. Brevig and Kjellmann
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 125
returned at 7 a. m. with a log 36 feet long and 14 inches in diameter at
the smallest end. Frederick, Aslak, Kummuk, and Wocksock went
hunting at 4 p. m., followed by A. A. Kjellmann at 6 p. m.
June 9, 1895.—Calm and foggy. The sun showed his benign counte-
nance once for six minutes and the rest of the day we basked in fog.
The usual Sunday service and school. A boy from Kinnowgok reported
two Russian men-of-war lying in the straits waiting for the ice to clear
to come in here and take all the deer back to Siberia. Mathis reported
one fawn born. |
June 10, 1895.—Calm and foggy. Taootuk, Elektoona, and Ahlak
went to the herd. Kjellmann went to Point Jackson to get some mate-
rial for his boat. Mathis and Ahlak went to the old corral to plant tur-
nips and rutabaga seed.
June 11, 1895.—Light west wind; overcast. Taootuk caine home late
last night very sick. Ahlook and Mathis came home to-day.
June 12, 1895.—Light west wind; cloudy, with thick fog on the hills.
At 8.30 p.m. it snowed some. Thorwald Kjellmann has commenced a
boat for his own use. Taootuk is a little better.
June 13, 1895.—Cloudy in the forenoon, with light west wind; clear-
ing up at noon, with northerly wind; a light frost in the evening. .
June 14, 1895.—Clear until 4 p. m., when it clouded over, with a light
east wind. Frederick and Aslak were sent out looking for the two stray
deer. Moses painted the little Bear (whaleboat).
June 15, 1895.—Overcast until 6 p.m., when a strong north-northeast
wind commenced to blow. The flag halyard was put in order, and
Moses smeared some paint on the roof of the house. Aslak and Fred-
erick have not returned yet.
June 16, 1895.—Clear and calm, a beautiful day; a strong northeast
wind all night. The usual service and Sunday school. The net was
set in an open space near shore in hopes that there was fish in the
ocean.
June 17, 1895,—Cloudy and overcast, with a light west wind, turning
to south in the evening; fog at times.
Temperature.
1s fmol Bae ay
Wind.
gale afternoon.
ee: ee — _ Remarks.
Course. Force.
Calmiees-cenees a= Clear, nice day.
ETON G2 =o == ese Overcast.
(Gentle ase saee Clear, nice.
eee if0) Soe Soo oes. Do.
ABPRYVIE 2 hene ce Do.
(Chika © SoheeSSese ce Cloudy, with snow flurries.
Rieter d0t c2t=2-.-+.| Clear:
erature OG% ttm at oss Do.
ee COtesse ewessse Do.
eee GOP ea scuienss Do.
Medium). ==. 2-5: Cloudy, gloomy day.
eh bees eee a aos Clear.
eae do ........-.--| Cloudy, snow flurries.
Very light.....-:. 0.
Calin its 22% eee Clear and cold.
abe GOmewtee a2 -45 | eartly, overcast.
ironete- 2+ S-csses Cloudy, snowing in afternoon.
Galm¥so2j-n8 Ss vac Clear, very fine day.
DULOUS Reese sees aa Clear.
Raghte. 325 Ssscca. Do.
Very light: --..... Do.
Galata 22228 clone ac Do.
Benen Oia. sacoees Do.
Die hibises cone ose Overcast.
NULONP}: se .--=--c0 -| Cloudy.
ee do .......-----| A full-fledged snowstorm.
Galek2 i 3. 5-528c0% Snowstorm.
Stroneiicsesss25-< Cloudy.
Ap V +) 5 thee ee reer Cloudy, snow flurries.
ees do ....-....-.-| Cloudy, some snow.
faith CO ees: =e 0.
Strones 225 22.-02.- | Clear.
Galeeestn.2s=s528 Clear, snow drifting.
Strom eee. 2. 2seees Cloudy.
Dighbe ists secs: Clear.
Light forenoon; Do.
strongafternoon.
SEONG eon - soe bene Clear, with cold mist in evening.
Strong gale inthe | Cloudy, snow flurries.
night.
Me diUaNS = s-5 nen Clear.
Digohibiecet=. ccisae Cloudy.
Gale ere Ra ceace see Snowing.
Sats) Dy Speeeerrc Very strong....-.. Clear morning, becoming cloudy.
Bienes eeenaane SELON Peete selenite Cloudy.
Continually changing Clear.
LON eo wsccen= Cloudy, snow flurries.
aes dor suo. -e~ 2-8 Clears
Gales soe ee nite Cloudy.
Tents tose Cloudy, some snow.
SHON GR So2c epee. | Partly overcast.
Raw mist.
Cold, blustering day
Cloudy.
Clear, cold.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Clear, hazy.
Light forenoon; | Clear, snow flying in afternoon.
127
128 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
METEOROLOGY AT TELLER REINDEER s TATION—Continued.
Temperature. Wind.
Date. - Remarks.
A.M.| P.M. Course. Force.
1894. ie 2
Dee. 15)| -—=200 1) 20s) eet e eee eee Might. 2o tees ase Clear. 7.
UD | i Dl BY ce occ eeeetae eee Gale.) Sore seen Snowing and drifting in afternoon.
ER of SB) UA Wass cuties comes Medium: esse —e Clear.
18) | —=140 |, S18} See see eee Calm esore- 5 - a Do.
19) |, —14) O05 AN Heise se eee ee | Very strong .....- Stormy, snowing in the evening.
20) +22 | SS Wises ae WALANG s.eossene eros | A nice day, with a little snowin the
| | evening.
21 Ie aaa 4 eae etre tele Calm mo sao 5 ee | Clear and pleasant; sun rose 11.40
a.m., set 2.50 p. m,
22 | — 6 LON SEE sae. Saesecsee atts sates es _ Cloudy.
DB Ne sete Besses- IW: NI SO Hee en eee do eas eereoes Cloudy, with some snow.
24 26!) soe SON UNE See eee oe | Vieryaliohte sess Clear and pleasant.
25 30 OL | ae Wee tee eee eee | Gale in evening. - - Cloudy, with rain and sleet inevening
26 10 4 Oe eee Imi eustsie sees | Cloudy, with snow flying.
27 20 280) NG) Sos eee cee eee Very strong -.---- Cloudy, with sleet.
28 24 SLUR) OSS cee science Peet do ..........-.| Cloudy, snow in evening.
PALA bare 8 =. pl ee ED aie eB a Calm: --.cts- sce tie paey and raw, clearing up after
dark.
30 10 1 Seer eep cece moa en ae MO lereosce te oe Clear, nice, and pleasant.
31 2 tb [ESSBAgSaccSncpsaSs5ss| sees) ssasccesso5¢ Clear, very nice.
1895.
Jans ely |p == 2 TOG 2 eee aes a aia eee do Clear, bright, and sunny.
YN) el Cs ae ae Ae eg do Do.
7 a0 : Np) Hite Seen ase se cee case Do
9 | MGS cect ces eelieteees| Jal (Ses Fo
==) : Be snore heaamare metsal Matsa ap Clear.
—2 [oem wie wet iee a = t im ie o oggy
Well Ns | Be cee eee ste een do Clear.
il So) Dt See eee See eee er CaS eres: | Foggy
) i) oe 8 0) NIN Bisset seecieee Medinimisss."assee Clear
LO Dl ON ee ee a ae eae tae PO Secesec cee Clear afternoon, overcast foreroon,.
Dh ST, NN ee a ae DOKONS creas aces Partly overcast.
OD 8 1 AED IN Wipe ee ew en ite ae as ... Stormy.
3%), 2245] 30 UN We eee ee ees lcaeen Oye Ss ogsasnce Clearing after dark.
a es Pe a Ope DS) Dee eae Hight: se 2.scsse 1 Clear.
LOH 5) S15 a IS Ee ee eee ee OD eae see cee Cloudy.
TS ean DIE Fee he eee ate Calnigessaee See: | Cloudy, withsnow flurries; two hours
sunshine.
AT tO LO ts Sele eee | Sere (Ove eee | Clear.
UST eS ier ON See omeienoe 2 eae Dightaeecetse seen Do.
oS Te eras sya eect SO eS ea eermciee Ai | ee a Oe aires n ees Cloudy.
20 10 1 BRS CASE ee a atte SHON Tse fe sae | Cloudy, some snow.
21 22 2B SMa ceestan se So oecee se Gale reeds Seion | Snow and sleet.
22 14 264 | senee cms sere pees Calms een ce Overcast, clearing toward dark.
23 0 2 Ree ae pe ote are epee trier dowas-osaescee Clear.
24 | AON an AN Seamer eae | Calm forenoon; Do.
strongafternoon.
P|) en Gg NONE see Sec Strongeccos- psec ae Do.
26 10 1D NINH Sooo. rae Galore 3s 25 2 Snow falling and flying.
21h iG 22)| INNB seen sseen os Very strong .-.-.- Blizzard.
28 4 AL aNUN ee ccd hee eee oe Ae Oyen cee Stormy and drifting.
29 4 0) NON IB) Saree See eles cee dovieee soe Do.
300) 0 (2250), se PINON seen eee erie OO asotenscecs Do.
Beh.» dll == Aol SOW NENG poet oe oe eee lcmene doin aes 5-532 Snow drifting.
2 | Are og INNER A So a ore ee donee kaa Do.
3 | 5 | Galimiesse eee cea Clear and bright.
AS) Bag Simonei-s-s hace. Partly overcast.
Ou) ed tel Ou Na ee ee ie oes CGS son ceca Do.
SE es ey) Marge PS AS ae Fee ey oe ED Om eoen sen eae Stormy and overcast.
{|| == oP) CCIE Raa aanaeer eee Blizzard.
Bi, a MULONS fo o2. sete m a Snow flying some.
Ot 05) Gala as2e este ce ae Clear and bright.
LOT 16 Galetet. 2:2 tescese South side of house entirely block-
aded.
1G Very strong .-..-.-- Snow flying.
12s oe Calmienass aac Overcast.
13 | 20 Clear, very nice day.
La} — 10 Clear.
15 0 Snow flying.
LG} 2 Clear, with a little snow flying.
a6 Very strong ...... Clear.
18°} —=18 Gale e2 Ss Cloudy. A shock of earthquake at
| 5 p.m
19} = —=16 Calne eeee ena er Clear.
20 | —20 Ibi tol Woe Sactcoeate Do
21 | PAU Res AES SS Ope eee Rail ens Oe ss oneasoss Do. | ;
22 | 12 SURG 546 5 Seaaoe Clondy, with snow flying.
234 —181]) SOR ENDS. 22 esc seees Verete DGreeeeeee sn. =5 Snow flying.
INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 129
METEOROLOGY AT TELLER REINDEER STATION—Continued.
a
Temperature. Wind.
Date. | | Remarks.
; M.| P.M. | Course. Force.
| |
1895. 9 Oe
Habee2d) 18 | 197)
25) —20| —16 |
DGc 20) |e :
Peer yl oes we Glin a be Baas Do.
28 | 215 — iG WN eae teins ise = Grate eS asec Overcast.
Mar. 1/| —14 AN Di Ssete: scope eeese sy brOn Py setecrenoe . === Do.
2 22 | + 33) H.-....--...------|.--.. GIO maaan sons cne Clear forenoon.
3 | 10 FBS | eect ah 70 Ope eee Ove tess oes
4 25 | DGS INeSe ees pene = Medium 2-2 | Clear part of the day, some snow.
5 25 | SP iy ISS ORC S Sem Beene sat eres Oa ae Stace ci. a in the night, snow and sleet to-
ay.
6 10 | De Hit Hie SIN tec 2. S252 Jicrwrse GO be wate mania Cloudy.
7 Doe eo | SSW. Geemarc e- os nc |S acne doneiececce Cloudy, some snow.
8 | 10 | BG Weems eee pacientes Calmeccase-- 522s Clear, very pleasant.
9 12 | DT ONUN Hinetsetiecias sere Very strong ---..- Clear and nice.
TONG 10) la. Nek eee teres sores lee ae dO eases ose Stormy.
11 0 | 1S: NESE eee ae tae se SUIRO ES Rr 5S aise A little snow.
12 10 1Bil NSE) eemeetee nae cee Galerestance sens | Snow flying.
13 | 12 DOM ING Hie cee Secrest oct | SUEON ge = eee -- == | Overcast.
14 | 5 12) | N.- on o2 ese ae eMedmuimi <== o- | Overcast, snow drifting.
15 | 0 | yA ASD SS oe eee icteert Aetior hls ha tererm reine eae _ Partly overcast.
16 | 21 22 | eles eee N., | At.times strong ..) Cloudy.
| d °
17 | —10 | —15 | Changing........- _ At times calm.... Partly overcast.
bay Nes apl)’ Sap TONNES ie sos. 22d | Medium .......-.- | Strong.
Oo a0 2 NIN Eh ss pseccs oosec|oaon G0\, 22 228es0555 Clear
20) —11 7) || IRON Di ce seersseeoe Strong: 2 -cee- se. Do.
Pile ha NON ee eer tarot me Very strong -.-..-.. Do.
22 | —21 LOR NINH octet ta aterersici Strong -= as ai Do.
230) = == 220) —— 14 NIN Bp oe cre stein ne ore Very strong ....--. Do.
PAS e109) ee On Briere satiate ete moras a Very light..-..... Do.
25 See Bi | AS Bray INGE fase ol arcteietcis = Light forenoon; | Stormy toward night.
strong evening. ’
2G eel Oy tts PONE IM Ura etetaleiaiete(etal ater NULON Ze ess) Clear:
27 | —11.| — 6 | NNE-.........-.: Medinms..-2- 22. - Do.
QS eter LOP) INE semen seiieen aos = | Light. ..... ee ae Do.
2 | ea PIS Dr Soecoeecoc Very strong .-...- Clear, snow flying.
AN ep SSAC VCR IN eB Oe scene epee Go ess: Ao oes Overcast, snow flurries.
31 | —12 0 Clear in the middle of the day.
Apr. 1} -——12 0 Overcast morning and evening.
PA) ea | eT Partly overcast.
ayy) SST 4 Clear.
4| —12 | 4 Do.
5} —4 Do.
6 0) Very fine.
7; —2 ; does eeeeen=- ; Clear, cloudy in evening.
8 | —16 | esteem sain statelare SURO S stele eee tate | Foggy, clearing and nice.
9) —2; | Clear and bright.
10 | 6 _ Snow falling and overcast.
11 8 | Overcast.
12 | 4 | | Stormy, some snow.
13 | 0 | Snow dancing.
14); —4 | Snow going south.
15°} — 4} Clear.
16 | —10 Snow flying.
17 10 Clear.
18 8 | Do.
19 8 | Do.
20 | 12 Do.
21° 8 PAIR! DAO Soe e ae Des ae Very light. <-....\. ; Calm forenoon.
22 8 119). | lo oe eacosSoE eno se IMO Ibi) Goh aeqeenise | A little snow.
23 10 25/58 Strong Snowstorm.
24 20 | 28 ad Storm, snow, and fog.
25 | 18 30 Some snow.
26 18 30 Clear.
Cloudy, with some snov.
| Clear in morning.
Snow flying.
| Clear and bright.
May 1| 12 28
2) 12 30 Clear.
3 10 31 Do.
4 |" 1s aap Do.
5 | 15 35 | N Do.
6 | L5H sera Partly overcast.
tha 20 33 Overcast.
|< mB0| SUNG ENIC de enc. .. Ripkdeesineh oes | Clear.
9 | 20 | BO), Nees ee ticicter sec = a EO eds caer esis Do.
S. Doc. 111
130 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA.
METEOROLOGY AT TELLER REINDEER STATION—Continued.
Temperature. Wind.
Date. Remarks.
A.M.| P.M. Course. Force.
1895. ° °
May 10 22 29) NINE. ccscecnsencs| DiPRG. cceccseecee-| Clear.
11 18 BH [eo ecaSabencdec jacase Calbmysae eee eac eee Overcast, fog in mountains.
12 20 Boi! IN ose aus tocea anes ee Strong =329<4.0--25 Clear, some snow flying.
13 25 BG: Nees Sees ee ee Light, rising--.-.. Clear.
14 14 33: NBitee se senses ceee ISG See a2 see Calm forenoon, clear.
15 18 5F| eae ooeeeasmce Calin 2 orsee sss seee Clear.
16 18 BD creel eee ence ai= taf ee Coes 2 sesce es Do.
17 19 331 PINION OPS SHE case ae Medinm): ro 25 Overcast part of theday.
18 18 SOL) ONONUMs coerce eae ee GO 2ee est eee Overcast. .
19 23 SO sae aa ents eee Calm. 22 cisctzens Do.
20 42 20H iS yee Belo aa Roe aenoe Lia pees ab eoonbe Clondy.
21 34 40 | SE., NNE i Rain part of the day.
22 45 45 | SE Cloudy.
23 45 45 Do.
77, a eee 51 Clear.
Af) | Gases 50 Do.
26) oer 41 Cloudy night.
27 30 42 Clear.
45 Do.
52 Do.
52 Do.
SO Ae seis DE cmeaisiewteweiate'ce:s oe or Calise ee ates Do.
APPENDIX H.
ACTION OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION.
The National Education Association (representing the 400,000 public
school teachers of the United States), in session at Denver, Colo., July
9 to 12, 1895, passed the following resolution:
Resolved, That we heartily approve the efforts to educate Alaskans, and especially
in the care and use of reindeer as an industry and as a means of saving them from
starvation and affording them food, raiment, shelter, and transportation; and that
we believe Congress should extend to Alaska aid in settling the questions of pro-
ductive industry by experiment stations, as it now aids in the other Territories and
and in the several States by its appropriations for agricultural stations.
ACTION OF THE LAKE MOHONK CONFERENCE.
At the thirteenth annual meeting of the Lake Mohonk Conference,
October 9 to 11, 1895, the following action was taken:
We note with satisfaction that the experiment of introducing reindeer into Alaska
has proved a marked success. But the supply of reindeer is as yet totally inadequate
for the needs of the natives. The sum hitherto appropriated has been but $7,500 a
year, sufficient only to purchase 150 reindeer and pay the expenses of the herders.
We therefore earnestly second the request of Commissioner Harris that the appro-
priation be increased and that Congress set aside for this coming year for the pur-
chase and maintenance of reindeer the sum of $20,000.
Resolved, That we specially commend the work of the field matrons as productive
of the best good of the Indian communities, through the instruction and elevation
of the Indian women, and in that respect particularly necessary. We urge sub-
stantial additions to the appropriation for their support and that their number may
be largely increased.
ACTION OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.
The following resolution was adopted at the conference of the Board
of Indian Commissioners and the friends of the Indians in session at
Washington, D. C., January 15, 1896:
Resolved, That this conference most earnestly urges upon Congress larger appro-
priations for education in Alaska and for the more rapid iniroduction of domestic
reindeer in that region.
131
aye
o" -* a i"
Nes 6 te it RM Cy I mm
i
1 see Pee a = bes
= treme ty cece vn, ne nape
RW a ee eet
+ tte ee CAR fo i ene att
+
Ne) eX.
Alaska, and Board of Indian Commissioners, 151; and Lake Mohonk Conference, 131;
and National Education Association, 151; buildings, 83,84; commercial com-
pany seal fisheries, 32; commercial company, Unalaska, ao effect upon, in
stocking with reindeer, 16-18; fishing, 27, 29; gold mining, 22, 24, 27; names
of Lapps engaged as potidesn herders, 47; negotiations with Lapps, 45-48;
number of reindeer in, 55-57; oil and guano company at Killisnoo, 23; sili
on introduction of reindeer into, by Dr. Sheldon Jackson, 9-18; schools, 22, 23,
26, 32, 33, 37-39; teachers, 22-26, 29, 30, 32, 33, 81, 82; transportation of Lapp
herders to, 49-54.
Aleutian Islands, 29, 30; seal fisheries, 31, 32.
Alexander, Hon. S. B., and introduction of reindeer into Alaska, 13.
Amaknak Island, landing of reindeer at, 13.
Antisarlook (Charley), superintendent of Eskimo Reindeer Station, 80-82.
Apprentices and herders, 65-75. =
Apprentices, recommendations in selection of, by Superintendent Kjellmann, 86.
Appropriation by Fifty-second Congress for reindeer, 13; Fifty-third Congress, 14.
Baptist Woman’s Home Mission Society, Kadiak, 26.
Bear, arrival at Port Clarence, 34,35; cruise of, in Arctic Ocean, 30,31; voyage along
Siberian coast, 13.
Benefactions, private, for reindeer, 11, 2; for securing Lapp herders, 14.
Birth of fawns, 61.
Births and death at reindeer station, $2.
Breaking in deer, 60.
Brevig, Rev. T. L., teacher, 82.
Brevig, Mrs. T. L., teacher, and Christmas iree, 85.
Bruce, Miner W., superintendent of Teller Reindeer Station, 13.
Buildings, new, at reindeer station, 83, 84.
Calving, reindeer, 61, 62.
Cape Nome, Bakimno Reindeer Station (Charley, or Antisarlook, superintendent.) (See
Reindeer Stations, Eskimo.)
Cape Prince of Wales, Congregational Reindeer Station, W. T. Lopp, superintendent.
(See Reindeer stations, Cape Prince of Wales.)
Cape Prince of Wales, school at, 37, 38, 39.
Christmas tree at Teller Reindeer Station, 85.
Codfishing, Shumagin Islands, 27.
Death and births at reindeer station, 82.
Dexter, John A., teacher, 81.
Disbursements, 18.
Distribution of reindeer, 15.
Dogs, method of protecting reindeer from, 64, 65; herders’ dogs, 73, 74; sled dogs,
74, 7
Douglas, public schools of, 22.
Duncan’s colony at Metlakahtla, 21
£4 Rene INDEX.
Durborow, Hon. A. C., and introduction of reindeer into Alaska, 13.
Episcopal Church omewie and Foreign Missionary Society, schoolhouse at Poin
Barrow, 40.
Eskimo, apprentices to Lapp herders, 65-73; police, 84; reindeer intrusted to, 15;
reindeer station, 80, 81; schools for (see Schools); sickness of herders, 82.
Extermination of products of the sea, 9, 10.
Fawns, birth of, 61.
Fining a reindeer thief, 57.
Fishing, 27, 79.
Food, reindeer as, 64; food supply, extermination of, 9, 10.
Fort Wrangell, 21.
Fuel, recommendations for, by Superintendent Kjellmann, 89, 90.
Fund, reindeer, 1894-95, 18.
Gambell, Mr. and Mrs., teachers, 32, 33.
Gold at Yakutat Bay, 24; gold mine, Treadwell, 22; mining at Unga, 27.
Hamilton, William, itinerary for 1895, 21-41.
Harnessing reindeer, 75, 76.
Healey, Captain, and voyage of Bear along Siberian coast, 13.
Hendrickson, Rey. K. J., teacher, 24.
Herders, 77, 78, 80-82; and apprentices, 65-73; dogs, 73, 74; Lapps, 14,93; names of
Lapps engaged, 47; rations, 72; sickness of, 82; Siberian, 14; transportation of
Lapps to Alaska, 49-54.
Hultberg, Mr. and Mrs., teachers, 81.
Importation of Lapps, 14, 47, 49-54, 93.
Indian Commissioners, Board of, and Alaska, 131.
Industrial School, Sitka, 23.
Introduction of domestic reindeer into Alaska, report of Dr. Sheldon Jackson to
Commissioner of Education, 9-18.
Jackson, Dr. Sheldon, letters to, from J. C. Widstead, 93-94; report on reindeer, to
Commissioner of Education, 9-18,
Johnson, Rey., and Mrs. Albin, teachers, 24.
Jones, L. A., teacher, 22.
Juneau, schoolhouse at, 22
Kadiak, Baptist Woman’s Home Mission Society, 26; first school organized at, 26.
Kadiak Island, quality of soil, 25.
Karluk, school to be reopened, 27.
Kashevaroff, A. P., teacher, 25.
Keller, E., teacher, 22.
Kelly, William A., superintendent schools for Sitka district, 22.
Kelsey, Miss A. R., teacher, 22.
Killisnoo, public school at, 23.
Kjellmann, Mrs., and Christmas tree, 85.
Kjellmann, William A., superintendent of Teller Reindeer Station, recommendations
for station, 85-90; report on reindeer herd, 42-90; sent to Lapland, 14.
Knapp, Mrs., teacher, 23.
Lake Mohonk Conference, and Alaska, 131.
Lapps, herders, 77, 78, 80-82, 93; intelligence of, 14, 15, 18; names of, engaged for
Alaska, 47; negotiations with, 45-48; sickness of, 82; transportation to Alaska,
49-54.
Letter of transmittal, 7.
Lopp, W. T., and Rev. T. L. Brevig, daybook and journal kept by, Teller Reindeer
Station, 92-126; herd of reindeer given to, at Cape Prince of Wales, 15; report,
91-92; superintendent of Teller Station, 14.
McComas, Hon. Louis E., of Maryland, and introduction of reindeer into Alaska, 11.
Methodist Woman’s Home Mission Society, Unalaska, 28.
INDEX. 135
Metlakahtla, 21.
Milking reindeer, 63.
Mission station, Yakutat Bay, 24.
National Education Association, and Alaska, 131.
Nuchek, school at, 25.
Patton, Miss, teacher, 23.
Physician, recommended by Superintendent Kjellmann, 88.
Peterson, Miss Selma, teacher, 24.
Point Hope, school at, 40.
Police, Eskimo, 84.
Population of Sitka, 23.
Port‘Clarence, arrival of Bear at, 34, 35; transporting reindeer to, 13.
Possibilities of the future, 16.
Presbyterian industrial school, Sitka, 23.
Purchasing station on Siberian coast, recommended, he 955°96:
Rations of herders and apprentices, 72.
Recommendations, etc., by Superintendent Kjellmann, for reindeer station, 85-90,
Reindeer, as food, 64; pecan in deer, 60; calving, 61, 62; effect upon Alaska in
stocking with, 16, 17, 18; distr ar nan of, 15; fawns, birth of, 61; fund for
1894-95, 18; harnessing, %, 76; herders, names of Lapps engaged, 47; negotia-
tions with Lapps, 45-48; herd given to W. T. Lopp, at Cape Prince of Wales,
15; herd, report on, by William A. Kjellmann, 42-90; introduction of, and Lake
Mohonk Conference, 131; National Educational Association, 131; Board of
Indian Commissioners, 131; introduction of, into Alaska, and Hon. A. C. Dur-
borrow, 13; and Hon. 8. B. Alexander, 13; intrusted to Eskimo, 15; landing of,
at Amaknak Island, Unalaska, 13; meat of, 17; method of protecting from dogs,
64, 65; milking, 63; number of, in Alaska, 55-57; private contributions for pur-
chase of, 11,12; purchase of, 12-14; report on, at Cape Prince of Wales, by W.
T. Lopp, 91-96; skins, value of, 17; statistics, 55; superstitions of natives of
Siberia in regard to selling, 12; theft of, 57-59; training to haul sleds, 60, 61;
transporting to Port Clarence, 13. ;
Reindeer Stations. Cape Nome (Eskimo), 80-82. Cape Prince of Wales, report on, by
W. T. Lopp, 91-96. Port Clarence, 13; annual report by William J. Kjellmann,
superintendent, 42-90; births and deaths, 82; Christmas tree at, 85; daybook
and journal kept by W. T. Lopp and Rev. T. L. Brevig, 97-126; meteorology,
127-130; new buildings, 83, 84; rations of herders and apprentices at, 72.
Roscoe, W. E., teacher, 26.
Russo-Greek Church, school at Nuchek, 25; school of, at Killisnoo, 23.
St. Lawrence Island, school at, 32.
Salter, C. C., teacher, 26.
Sand Point, school site selected, 28.
Saxman, Miss S. A., teacher, 22
Schools, Cape Prince of Wales, 37-39; Douglas, 22; Juneau, 22; Kadiak, 26; Killis-
noo, 23; Point Hope, 40; St. Lawrence Island, 32, 33; Sitka district, 22.
School site selected at Sand Point, 28.
School to be reopened at Karluk, 27.
Seal fisheries, Aleutian Islands, 31, 32.
Senate, United States, action of, 5.
Short, Miss, teacher, 30.
Shumagin Islands, immense cod banks, 27
Siberian coast, purchasing station recommended on, 16; voyage of Bear along, 13.
Siberian herders, 14.
Siberians, superstitions in regard to selling reindeer, 12.
Siberia, purchase of reindeer in, 12; purchasing station, 95, 96.
Sickness, 82.
136 INDEX.
Sitka district, William A. Kelly, superintendent of schools, 22.
Sitka, population of, 23; schools of, 23.
Skees, use of, by Eskimo, 85.
Sleds, training reindeer to haul, 60, 61.
Sled dogs, 74, 75.
Statistics of reindeer herd, 55.
Swedish Evangelical Church, mission station, Yakutat Bay, 24.
Teachers, Brevig, Rev. T. L.,82; Dexter, Jno. A., 81; Gambell, Mr. and Mrs., 32, 33;
Hendrickson, Rev. K.J., 24; Hultberg, Mr. and Mrs.,81; Johnson, Rev. and Mrs.
Albin, 24; Jones, L. A., 22; Kashevaroff, A. P., 25; Keller, E., 22; Kelly, Wm.
A., 22; Kelsey, Miss A. R., 22; Knapp, Mrs., 23; Patton, Miss, 23; Peterson,
Miss Selma, 24; Roscoe, W. E., 26; Salter, C. C., 26; Saxman, Miss S$. A., 22;
Short, Miss, 30, Tuck, Mr. and Mrs., 29; Work, F. J., 22.
Teller, Hon. Henry M., and introduction of reindeer into Alaska, 11, 13.
Teller Reindeer Station. (See Reindeer stations, Port Clarence. )
Theft of reindeer, 57-59.
Treadwell gold mine, 22.
Tuck, Mr. and Mrs., teachers, 29.
Unalaska, Methodist Woman’s Home Mission Society, 28; shipping at, 28.
Unga, schookat, 27.
Widstead, Jens C., letters to Dr. Sheldon Jackson, 93-94; superintendent of Teller
Reindeer Station, 15.
Work, F. J., teacher, 22.
Yakutat Bay, mission station, 24.