Reindeer Husbandry

Reindeer, domesticated thousands of years ago by the indigenous peoples of Scandinavia and Siberia, served the Arctic tribes for centuries as a universal resource, much as the bison served the American Indians of the Great Plains. The tribes relied on the deer for milk and meat, for clothing and housing, for tools, for transportation, and as decoys to entice wild reindeer. In the 17th and 18th centuries, reindeer husbandry became the foundation of livelihood and the primary source of income for many of the northernmost peoples. Reindeer herding allowed the inhabitants of the Arctic regions of Russia, Finland, Norway, and Sweden to practice sustainable development in environmentally sensitive areas.

By the mid-20th century, however, it began to look as though herding as a full-time occupation might die out. The encroachment of civilization made the native herders an endangered species. Unless the destruction of pasture land could be controlled and the development of processing infrastructure hastened, reindeer husbandry was doomed. Since herding's demise was considered to have strong negative implications for both the native peoples and the land they traditionally occupied, central and local governments increased their involvement in its protection.

National objectives of cultural heritage preservation and ecosystem management inspired government programs for the development of modern processing facilities, transportation, and markets; a legal framework securing the rights of herders; formal vocational training courses; and mandated interaction on land-use matters (especially logging) between the herding cooperatives and the government agencies responsible for forest and park management. Although, despite this assistance, reindeer herding has continued to decline in some areas, in other places it appears to be holding its own.

Unlike reindeer, North American caribou (now classified with reindeer as a single species) have never been domesticated. Toward the end of the 19th century, the depletion of game in the Alaskan territory by U.S. hunters, trappers, and whalers was perceived by missionaries to be causing hardship to the Eskimos. The Rev. Sheldon Jackson, general agent for education in Alaska, presented a plan to Congress for the importation of domesticated reindeer from Siberia, as a means of providing a native domestic industry and a renewable food source for the Eskimos. Over the next decade (until the Russian government forbade it), 1,280 reindeer were imported. Under the tutelage of Lapp (Saami) herders, reindeer herds were established, and attendant schools taught English and instituted apprenticeship herding programs. For the next 40 years, reindeer sleds were used to carry supplies, passengers, and mail along the Yukon. (They were cheaper to operate than dog teams---reindeer graze, while dogs must be fed.) Incidentally, the introduction of reindeer (a mobile food source and emergency means of transport) also played a large part in the rescue of stranded miners and icebound whalers at the end of the 19th century. Today, although it has declined in most parts of Alaska, reindeer herding continues to be a central part of the economy of the Seward Peninsula.

In 1929 the Canadian government became similarly concerned that loss of northern caribou herds would result in widespread starvation of the Inuit of the Northwest Territories. Hoping to avoid a crisis, the government purchased a herd of 3,000 reindeer and hired the 62-year-old native Laplander and veteran herdsman Andy Bahr and a small team of Lapp herders and Inuit guides to bring the deer from Buckland, Alaska, to the Mackenzie Delta, a trip of 1,500 miles (2,414 km) across largely unmapped hostile territory. Projected to take approximately 18 months, the trip actually took almost six years. Many of the reindeer did not survive the trip, but enough endured to found the Delta herd that continues to prosper today.