1925-08-15 — Page 9

SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 1928.

THE CHINA MAIL.

FRESH HILLED

PENGEER FOR,

Beginning of a Great Industry Which Is Destined To Produce Delicious Food for Our Tables-- Ten Million Reindeer in a Few Years- A New Civilization Created By a Domestic Animal.

[BY RENE BACHL).

How would you like a reindeer who already are shipping large quan- steak?

"You are joking."

"Not at all. Hore it is on the bill of fare. Its dolicious; I know becauau I ate one here the other day. Tastes Just like veniron. In fact, it is venison. Shall we have it with green peas and eon: French fried?"

One hears such orders given nowa

days, occasionally, iz Arat-class

restaurants and hotels. In San Fran- cisco and other west const cities reindery mat

is commonly served. chops, stenks, must, any cut in any way folks want it.

The industry has only made a begin- nink

Twenty years from now the Alaskan reindeer herds will be a very important source of meat supply for the whole United Status, The Temale ainmais are never killed; they are too valuable for breeding. Of males thore is always a superfluity, inasmuch an the rebleer in a polygamous beast, with normal harem of twenty-five or so. It is the bucks that are slaughtered and sent to market. The reindeer in a big animal. Dressed, an averago carcasI weighs about one hundred and fifty pounds.

Rapid Breeders.

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The normal incranes of a herd is about twenty-five per cent, per annum, Now, the spring fawning having taken place, there are nearly half a million reindeer in Alaska, more than two- thirds of them being owned by the native Eskimos,

The distribution of the Eskimo hords in benevolently controlled by the Federal Government, which is now on the point of adopting and carrying into effect a new plan whoroby the natives,

tities of reindeer meat to markot, shall be enabled to conduct the business on a co-operative basis.

Uncle Sam acts as guardian of the Eskimos, through the Alaskan division of the Bureau of Education, and in each native village there is a government selinol teacher who is incidentally a sort of official advisor. The tonchors, in their advisory capacity, are to help to establish a co-operative reindeer meat industry.

There are now large herda in the neighbourhood of nearly all the Bakimo settlements in western Alaska from the Arctic Ocean south to the Pacific

the interior near Mount McKinley National Park, along the Alaskan Railroad, on Kodiak Island off the Gulf of Alaska, on the Alaskan Peninsula, and on. islands of the Even the two little Aleutian chain. islanda called the Pribylofs, where the far seals brood, in Dering Sen, have over four hundred reindeer,

clothing. The meat is in demand by whites as well as natives throughout the Territory. Whereby the quantity available for export is correspondingly lessened. But it will become steadily and rapidly greater, with incrosss of the herds.

Four years from now there will be at

losst a million reindeer in Alaska. Eight years hence there will be more than two millions. When there are ten millions, one-fifth of that number con be shipped out of the Territory annually without reducing the stock.

The commercial value of the Alaskan Consumption By Natives,

herds to-day is over $9,000,000-that is This wide distribution of the animals to say, $1,200,000 more than the United has been accomplished by wise and

States originally paid for the acquisi- clever government management. tion of that Arctic province. An admir- remaine now to reorganize the reindeer able restment the reindeer has proved industry in ruch a way as to make

Yet at the start the introduction of possible a more efficient handling of the the animal into Alaska was an enter Increasing hards and "a 'more profitable į Pimps were starving to death, Ruth-

marketing of the surplus mest.

Much of the meat is necessarily re- quired for consumption by the Eskimos themselves, For food and clothing,

about 200,000 reindeer have been slaughtered by the nativer sines the first ones were brought to Alaska, in 1892.

purely of benevolence. The

less hunting by white men had nearly exterminated the walruses, the whales, and other food animals in that region. Villages that had numbered thousands of

Inhabitants

were reduced to

hundreds. At Point Barrow, the northernmost point of Alaska, the death Reindeer skin, with its long hair, is a rate exceeded the birth rate fifteen.to most satisfactory material for winter | one.. A town of two thousand an

اليوم

|

Schismareff Inlot was whittled down to three families.

Dealing With The Chukchis, Congress appropriated money to buy and distribute food. But that could do only temporary good. Somebody sug- gested the idea of importing reindeer from Siberia, and in 1893 one hundred and seventy-two of the animals were brought over by the revenue cutter Bear. They were purchased from Chukchi "daer men" for about ton dollars apiece, in barter goods.

On the other side of Bering Strait, in a region whose soil and climate much resembles the north-west coast of Alaska, dwell the Chukchis, peacefully. disposed nomads, whose subsistence is furnished by herds of reindeer. To them,

economically speaking, the reindeer represents the horse, the cow, the sheep and the goat, all put together, It is food, clothing, house, forniture, tools and transportation. The skin serves for clothes and bedding. tent The sinows are dried and pounded into cover, harness, repo and Baking-lines. thread of great strength, which is woven into fish neta, The bones are soaked in soal oil and burned for: Inel.. Of the borna various implements are made, as well as sleds and weapons of the chase. The female animal yields

only a cupful of milk at a milking, but the fluid is so rich that it needs to be diluted with a quart of water to render it potable. A reindeer will draw a aled swiftly one hundred and fifty miles a day over know and les.

The Chukchia had

care of the herds and instruct the Esidmos in the art. Later, a number of Lapps were imported from Lapland for that purpose, and a system wa developed, under which Fskimo youths served three year apprentices, each

Under the system here describeda each Eskimo owner of reindeer has ́hluss: mark on the cars of all the animals that belong to him. It is a registered mark, and nobody else is lawfullya "ontitled to use it. The Government gives it to him as a token of title. But he may, if he chooses, dispose of his mark to another owner.

b

How Congress Was Persuaded.

· Nothing that is radically now escaper, ridicule. Thus, when the plan to intro, deto raindoor into Alaska was originally proposed, it was derisively received Most people thought it'a joke, and mangs newspapers poked editorial fon at it On the whole, it is surprising that Cont green was persuaded to give the money. to carry it out.

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But there was one grim fact that' The stared Congress in the face. Eskimos were unquestionably starving. their unfortunato condition being: largely due to the salmon cannerie which had máde many 'rivors barren of fish. To feed them, zanual approv priations would be necessary for period to which there seemed to be me. imit. Advocates of the project urged that reindeer would afford, at smallis expense;

permanent settlement of the problem. Thus the enterprise was SBE- on foot.

The Alaskan Eskimo nowadays instead of spending his days fishing or watching a hole, in the ice for a seal to

ness of borter with made a busi» Į one, at the end of his tarm, receiving pop up, la a dear man, owning or cone?

Eskimos and white | in Heu of pay ten reindeer, with which people across the strait, exchanging to start a herd of his own. reindeer skine for soal oil, tobacco, powder and shot and flour. Then there was no trouble in negotiating with them for the animals desired, though they at first insisted upon whisky, which the commander of the Bear refused to supply, Sixteen reindeer, hoisted with running tackle aboard the ship, made up the first consignment..

Eskimo Apprentices,

In 1892 and the two following years a total of 1,280 reindeer wern fetched to Alaska. In 1911 there were 88,829 in the Territory. A few axpert Chukchi deer men were brought over to take

It is by this wise method that the reindeer industry in Alaska has been developed, with much attention paid to the distribution of the animals a widely as possible., There are in the Teritory 400,000 square miles admir- ably adapted for rearing and herding them, an area equal to that of the New England and Middle States combined In the summer time they feed mostly .trees; in winter their main source of on the young shoots of willow and birch subsistence in reindeer more" and other lichens, which they dig up with their hoofs from under the snow..

cerned in the management of a herd., The food question no longer troubles, him. He lives in a comfortable moderak house in a village that has paved streets, lighted with electricity. The local co-operative store keeps in stock whatever he requires to supply needs. He even has the radio.

Thanks, all of this, to the reindeer, which has uplifted the Eskimo of Alaska from a condition of " savagery and desperate want to decent level of civilization and complet economic: security. It has transformedīs them from wild hunters into an indus- trial people, with plenty to eat, good? clothes to wear, and swift vahidles t which to ride.

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175 PAIRS

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