United State Department of the Interior Alaska Reindeer Service records of herders, apprentices, and owners

The Alaska Reindeer Service was established by an act of Congress in 1893, as part of the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education, in response to reports of starving Native Alaskan communities in western Alaska, due to dwindling marine mammal and carabou populations. The service provide vocationial training in reindeer husbandry and hearding to the indiginous communities of the northern and western areas of the then U.S. territory of Alaska. The Alaska Reindeer Service employed Siberian and Sami (indiginous groups from Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia's Kola Peninsula) reindeer herders to instruct indiginous Alaskan communities how to herd reindeer. Reindeer were imported reindeer from Siberia, and distributed amongst Inupiat and Yupiit communities in Alaska. Interested individuals from these communities would be trained via an apprenticeship system to care for and utilize the reindeer. Upon the successful completion of a four year apprenticeship, the individual would be given their own heard of reindeer. The individual was required to take on apprentices in turn, and distribute reindeer to these apprentices at the completion of their apprenticeships. By the late 1930s, the reindeer population in Alaska had grown to over 600,000 animals. However, by the 1950s, the population had declined to around 50,000 animals, due to mismanagement of the service. The Reindeer Act of 1937 allowed indiginous Alaskans to own their own reindeer.