The Reindeer Herders of the Mackenzie Delta

Download or read book The Reindeer Herders of the Mackenzie Delta written by Gerald Thomas Conaty and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published in conjunction with the world-renowned Glenbow Museum. In the early 1900s, the Inuit of the western Arctic faced desperate times. Dependent on caribou meat and fur for thousands of years, the Native people found that the herds no longer behaved in a predictable way. With the change in climate, hunters were forced to travel several miles east in search of caribou. The Alaskan Reindeer Experiment and the Canadian Reindeer Project sought to mitigate the damage by importing and herding reindeer from Siberia. With the reindeer came Saami, Northern European and Siberian reindeer herders brought to teach the Inuit their successful techniques for survival. By the 1940s, the Pulk family were the only Saami remaining. Here, Lloyd Binder, the grandson of Mikkel Pulk, one of the first chief herders, tells his life story, as well as those of his father, Otto Binder, and mother, Ellen Pulk Binder, as he recounts the history, development and challenges of reindeer herders in Canada throughout the past century. THE GLENBOW MUSEUM is a world-class multidisciplinary institution that includes a permanent art collection, western Canada's largest museum, Canada's largest non-government archives and an unparalleled western Canada reference library. Located in Calgary, it is world-renowned for its innovative programming and exhibitions.