You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen. Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen. But do you know. . . about reindeer herding in Alaska?

While many people associate reindeer with the seasonal appearance of Santa Claus, on Alaska’s Seward Peninsula reindeer are a year round occupation. A majority of the state’s approximately 30,000 reindeer live in western Alaska herds. These animals are part of a viable industry that is a good fit for rural Alaska – the animals are well-adapted to life in a severe climate. Besides providing herding jobs, sales of meat, antlers, and hides provide a much-needed infusion of cash to local economies.

Reindeer herding has a rich history in Alaska. At the end of the 19th century, Sheldon Jackson, a Presbyterian minister and Commissioner of Education for the Territory of Alaska, received reports of starvation amongst Native people. Concerned by the apparent lack of resources, Jackson sought to introduce reindeer herding as a means of survival during food shortages and as a means for Natives to enter the cash driven economy of Western civilization.

Over the course of several years, Jackson imported several hundred reindeer from Russia. When disgruntled Siberian “herder trainers” packed their bags and returned home, several Scandinavian families relocated to Alaska to teach Natives about reindeer herding. Jackson set up a five-year apprenticeship program that provided schooling, herding experience, room and board, and upon graduation, a herd of fifty animals. By the time of the 1898 Nome Gold Rush, reindeer herds were well established on the Seward Peninsula and their potential was utilized fully. Not only in demand for their meat, they were prized as freighting animals as well. Unlike dogs, reindeer could graze on the tundra, relieving the miner of the necessity of hauling food for his freighting animals.

Reindeer herding peaked in the 1930’s, when there were close to 640,000 animals in western Alaska. Unfortunately, problems caused by predation, expansion of wild caribou herds, and declining interest in maintaining the herds caused the numbers to drop precipitously. By the 1950’s, only 50,000 reindeer remained in western Alaska.

Though the boom of reindeer herding is long past, today’s herders work closely with the Reindeer Research Station of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks on issues of range management, husbandry, predation and production. One of the largest issues problems facing herders is the presence of the Western Arctic Caribou Herd. This herd grew to half a million animals in the 1990’s and greatly expanded its range. Many herders lost reindeer as they followed their migrating non-domesticated cousins.

Researchers and herders alike are still hopeful however, and continue to look for ways to improve herd health, increase productivity, and provide the best tasting product. Reindeer sausage, at least, is ubiquitous in Alaska’s lodges, restaurants, and B&B’s. Let us hope that it remains so.