2008 Alaska Park Science Symposium
October 14, 2008
The Reindeer Bridge of Beringia: A Sharing of Arctic Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Faith Fjeld1
1The Saami Baiki Office in Alaska, Saami Baiki Foundation, 4454 Condor Court #1, Fairbanks, AK, 99709, USA, Phone 907-457-1013
During the 19th century whalers and fur traders from Russia and the United States depleted the
subsistence resources of western Alaska. In an effort to remedy this ecological disaster, a few hundred
reindeer were shipped to Alaska from Chukotka in the late 1890s under the auspices of the U.S. government
Reindeer Project. The reindeer were accompanied by a small group of Chukchi reindeer men. Soon Saami
reindeer herding families were brought over from Lapland to teach the Inupiaq and Yup’ik peoples how to
work with the Chukchi reindeer. Many of the early reindeer stations were located on lands that today are
either part of, or are adjacent to, Bering Land Bridge National Preserve and Western Arctic National Parklands,
and in the early 1900s, and long before they became Park Service headquarters, Nome and Kotzebue were
major centers for the herding activities.
The Saami herders shared ancient herding techniques with the Inupiaq and Yup’ik Peoples. The
traditional ecological knowledge that accompanies the domestication of reindeer has allowed the arctic
peoples of Eurasia from Lapland to Chukotka to survive for thousands of years. The coming of reindeer to
western Alaska not only remedied an ecological disaster, but also provided a boost to its economy. Within
a decade reindeer could be found from Barrow in the north to Lake Iliamna in the south, a thriving reindeer
empire had spread along the Kuskokwim River and the surrounding mountains, reindeer were flourishing
on St. Lawrence Island, and large herds roamed the Seward Peninsula, and near the villages around Norton
Sound and in the Kotzebue Basin. By 1920 there were 600,000 reindeer in Alaska. Reindeer meat fed the
participants in the gold rush as well as the people in the villages where there had been famine, and reindeer
were used to transport U.S. mail as well as equipment for the miners. A growing market for reindeer meat
from Alaska was also being developed in the U.S. and Canada.
The Saami taught their apprentice herders the specialized vocabulary for the weather and snow
conditions that affect the survival of the reindeer, the ways to harness and train reindeer for use as
transportation, and the optimum conditions for the sustainable harvesting of reindeer for food, clothing and
bedding. The Saami also taught the technology of using skiis and the lasso. These are all elements of
reindeer TEK that fostered the success of the Reindeer Project.
My slide presentation will illustrate this traditional ecological knowledge. I will use archival images
and historical anecdotes collected from elders in Nome, on the Seward Peninsula, and in Kotzebue, and I
will consult with herders of today in Alaska and Lapland who are descendants of the Reindeer Project. It is
my hope that this presentation will create a better understanding of the place of traditional ecological
knowledge in reindeer herding in Alaska. I am grateful for the research that has been made possible by our
Shared Beringian Heritage grant, and I look forward to presenting at Beringia Days 2008.
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