Northwest History. Alaska. Eskimos.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1926
• Subjects: hardship; education; Eskimo; Seattle; college diploma; Uncle Sam; St. Lawrence island; starvation; reindeer; Dr. Sheldon Jackson; Siberia; Laplanders; Congress; Alaska; New Mexico; Jonathon H. Wagner; the United States bureau of education; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Lawrence Island; Pacific; caribou; eskimo*; St Lawrence Island; walrus*
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/90779

Hardship Part Of Education: Eskimo College Boys Must Spend Four Years With Reindeer Herds. HARDSHIP PART OF EDUCATION Eskimo College Boys Must Spend Four Years With Reindeer Herds. (Correspondence of the Associated Press.) SEATTLE -- Getting a college diploma in animal husbandry is different in Eskimoland than it is in the states where there comfortable class rooms, fraternity houses and social luxuries. Eskimo college boys working for the degree of bachelor of herders must spend four years in the open learning how to manage a herd of reindeer before they can be graduated. But when they have triumphed over open air and class room hardships they gt with their certificates a legacy of 50 reindeer with Uncle Sam's compliments. Education of the natives as herdsmen was started in 1900. The previous year every person in three villages on St. Lawrence island died of starvation due to scarcity of walrus, seals and other animals. The government, seeking a new source of food supply, turned to reindeer. Went Miles After Deer. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, general superintendent of the bureau of education in Alaska, succeeded in buying 16 deer in Siberia after traveling 1500 miles in that country. He found the Siberian Eskimo superstitious about selling. Later he was able to buy 167 more, and at intervals for 10 years animals were purchased and brought to Alaska. Laplanders were imported to instruct the Alaskan Eskimo in the care of reindeer. Congress appropirated needed funds for the educational work, providing $12,500 for this year. Reindeer have multiplied and have proven a valuable food source. At present the government is confronted with diseases threatening the herds and to cope with the situation is experimenting with cross breeding the reindeer with caribou, a larger animal that resists disease better. The work is directed fromt he United States bureau of education for Alaska with headquarters here. Jonathon H. Wagner, formerly of New Mexico, is in charge.