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WALLACE HOTEL PHONE MAIN 12
Good Management
Can Increase Herds
Of Reindeer
Br J. SIDNEY ROOD
General Reindeer Supervisor
Chester Sevick, together with
his three Government herders and
their families, have about 1,000
reindeer on a hillside twenty
miles east of Selawik. The fe
males are having their fawns;
about forty fawns had been born
when I visited on May 1. The
stock was tame as cattle, and
quietly grazed the white reindeer
moss. There are two main herders'
: camps, and the stock is pastured
! between them for convenience of
herders and protection against j
wolves. Herders work on 8-hour I
i shifts, night and day. Sled rein
j deer are tied to nigger heads on
j the outskirts of the herd. Chester
took me around the herd with two
sled reindeer. He sat in front of me
on the hickory sled. He drove
these animals like a pair of horses
at about nine miles per hour, tap
ping and guiding them with the
reins.
I
York Wilson and Henry Weber
worked as herders in our Escholtz
herd for two years. Last fall we
loaned them 1016 reinder. They
are to repay this number to the
Government at the end of five
years; the increase is their private
property. We allowed them to
butcher 100 riender this year, but
they butchered 89 which they
sold for over $3,000 at retail
prices. They have paid all their
old debts, and are on the road to
modest success in a private busi
ness of value to the public.
Features of their management
are very similar to those at Ches
ter Sevick’s herd. When Frank
Whaley and I landed along side
the tame reinder, one herder was
on duty, and two others came rac
ing with sled deer from their
camps among nearby spruce trees.
The Golovin herd, only ninety
miles from Nome consists of ap
proximately 1,000 reindeer which
are tended constantly by Sigfried
Agonkuk and three herders. Unit
Manager Johnson has had this
herd moved firm a point nearj
the White Mountains to fawning
ground at Rocky Point. More than
350 fawns are expected by the end
of this month. This herd will be
used as seed stock for distribution
to any bona fide Native herdsman
who may wish to commence a pri
vate reinder business in the
future.
Robert Claric and his three Gov
ernment herders had about 1200
reindeer on selected fawning
grounds thirty miles northeast of
Elephant Point when I examined
the herd three weeks ago. Herding
is constant. The animals are tame,
fat, healthy. There should be over
400 fawns by June 1. Sled rein
deer are used for transportation.
I could give details concerning;
I
similar management which has
been developed since 1940 in sev
eral small herds, such as Thomas
Brower’s, Barrow, Wainwright,
Kivalina, Noatak, and Roland
Waska’s. The Nelson Island Rein
deer Asociation has loaned its ani
mals to private herders. Mickie
Thomas and Alfred Karmun have
started their own reinder business
with 350 animals. The Ommik
family at Point Hope live with a
herd of 450 reindeer. We moved
the St. Michael herd to Stuart Is- ]
land, and 700 reindeer now there i
are being given improved atten
tion by selected Natives. The Ega
vik herd, which numbered about
250 reindeer before fawning com
menced, is being tended by four
herders, and will soon be moved
to summer pasutre. Herders under
Fred Topkok have managed to
keep approximately 700 reindeer
safe from wolves near Teller this
winter.
The great decrease of rein
deer which all of us have observed
since wolves atacked is a drama
tic episode of less significance
than the new herd management
which, commencing in 1940, is
spreading. Reindeer have been re
duced from a peak of 600,000 in
1932 to about 65,000 today; and
present day figures include aDoui
45,000 which graze Nunivak, St.
Lawrence, and other islands
where wolves have not existed.
And yet, despite this tragic reduc
tion, reindeer herds can be re
built under herder-owners work
ing for their private profit. Our
task is to sift out from the great
mass of our people, those few men
who are able and willing to start
private reindeer enterprises on
good management principles, to
aid them get breeding stock, and
to encourage them in their efforts.
Reindeer associations every
where have failed dismally to
manage herds. We will continue
our persistent efforts to get these
associations to transfer their stock
to private owners in order to save
the reinder resource in every pos
sible localiy and to build reindeer
herds where none now exist. We
visualize reindeer herds of 2,000
to 3,000 animals, each in constant
custody of a crew of 4 to 6 skilled
herdsmen with their families, the
sam6 located where demand for
reindeer products will pay the cost
of good management. We need an
enterprise similar to Lapland’s.
Success, first of all, depends upon
the vision, courage, and bold en
terprise of ambitious leaders.
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