Arctic peoples have depended on caribou for food, clothing, and shelter. European prehistoric cave paintings represent both tundra and forest forms, the latter either the
Finnish forest reindeer or the narrow-nosed reindeer, an eastern Siberia forest form. Reindeer have been domesticated at least two and probably three times, in each case from wild Eurasian tundra reindeer after the
Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). the Tuvans, Todzhans, Tofa (Tofalars in the Irkutsk Region), the Soyots (the Republic of Buryatia), and the Dukha (also known as Tsaatan, the Khubsugul) in the Province of Mongolia. The
Sámi (
Sápmi) have also depended on reindeer herding and fishing for centuries. In
Sápmi, reindeer are used to pull a
pulk, a Nordic sled. Furthermore,
Lapin Poron liha, fresh reindeer meat completely produced and packed in
Finnish Lapland, is protected in Europe with
PDO classification. Reindeer antlers are powdered and sold as an
aphrodisiac, or as a nutritional or medicinal supplement, to Asian markets. The blood of the caribou was supposedly mixed with alcohol as drink by hunters and loggers in colonial Quebec to counter the cold. This drink is now enjoyed without the blood as a wine and whiskey drink known as
Caribou.
Indigenous North Americans Caribou are still hunted in Greenland and in North America. In the traditional lifestyles of some of Canada's
Inuit peoples and northern
First Nations peoples,
Alaska Natives, and the
Kalaallit of Greenland, caribou is an important source of food, clothing, shelter and tools. made of caribou skin The
Caribou Inuit are inland-dwelling Inuit in present-day
Nunavut's
Kivalliq Region (formerly the
Keewatin Region), Canada. They subsisted on caribou year-round, eating dried caribou meat in the winter. The
Ahiarmiut are Caribou Inuit that followed the Qamanirjuaq barren-ground caribou herd. There is an Inuit saying in the
Kivalliq Region: The
Gwichʼin, an indigenous people of northwestern Canada and northeastern Alaska, have been dependent on the international migratory
Porcupine caribou herd for millennia. To them, caribou —
vadzaih — is the cultural symbol and a keystone subsistence species of the Gwich'in, just as the
American buffalo is to the Plains Native Americans. Innovative
language revitalisation projects are underway to document the language and to enhance the writing and translation skills of younger Gwich'in speakers. In one project, lead research associate and fluent speaker Gwich'in elder Kenneth Frank works with linguists who include young Gwich'in speakers affiliated with the
Alaska Native Language Center at the
University of Alaska in
Fairbanks to document traditional knowledge of caribou anatomy. The main goal of the research was to "elicit not only what the Gwich'in know about caribou anatomy, but how they see caribou and what they say and believe about caribou that defines themselves, their dietary and nutritional needs, and their subsistence way of life."
Indigenous Eurasians Reindeer herding has been vital for the subsistence of several Eurasian nomadic indigenous peoples living in the circumpolar Arctic zone such as the
Sámi,
Nenets, and
Komi. Reindeer are used to provide renewable sources and reliable transportation. In Mongolia, the
Dukha are known as the reindeer people. They are credited as one of the world's earliest domesticators. The Dukha diet consists mainly of reindeer dairy products. Reindeer husbandry is common in northern
Fennoscandia (northern
Norway,
Sweden and
Finland) and the
Russian North. In some human groups such as the Eveny, wild reindeer and domestic reindeer are treated as different kinds of beings.
Husbandry , Russia, late 19th-century
photochrom , Norway, 19th century The reindeer is the only successfully semi-domesticated deer on a large scale in the world. Reindeer in northern
Fennoscandia (northern
Norway,
Sweden and
Finland) as well in the
Kola Peninsula and
Yakutia in Russia, are mostly semi-domesticated reindeer, ear-marked by their owners. Some reindeer in the area are truly domesticated, mostly used as draught animals (nowadays commonly for tourist entertainment and races, traditionally important for the nomadic Sámi). Domestic reindeer have also been used for milk, e.g., in Norway. There are only two genetically pure populations of wild reindeer in Northern Europe: wild mountain reindeer (
R. t. tarandus) that live in central Norway, with a population in 2007 of between 6,000 and 8,400 animals; and wild Finnish forest reindeer (
R. t. fennicus) that live in central and eastern Finland and in Russian
Karelia, with a population of about 4,350, plus 1,500 in
Arkhangelsk Oblast and 2,500 in
Komi. East of Arkhangelsk, both wild Siberian tundra reindeer (
R. t. sibiricus) (some herds are very large) and domestic reindeer (
R. t. domesticus) occur with almost no interbreeding by wild reindeer into domestic clades and none the other way (Kharzinova et al. 2018; Rozhkov et al. 2020 Reindeer have been
herded for centuries by several Arctic and sub-Arctic peoples, including the
Sámi, the
Nenets and the
Yakuts. They are raised for their meat, hides and antlers and, to a lesser extent, for milk and transportation. Reindeer are not considered fully domesticated, as they generally roam free on pasture grounds. In traditional nomadic herding, reindeer herders migrate with their herds between coastal and inland areas according to an annual migration route and herds are keenly tended. However, reindeer were not bred in captivity, though they were tamed for milking as well as for use as draught animals or
beasts of burden. Millais (1915), The use of reindeer for transportation is common among the nomadic peoples of the
Russian North (but not anymore in Scandinavia). Although a sled drawn by 20 reindeer will cover no more than a day (compared to on foot, by a dog sled loaded with cargo and by a dog sled without cargo), it has the advantage that the reindeer will discover their own food, while a pack of 5–7 sled dogs requires of fresh fish a day. The use of reindeer as semi-domesticated livestock in Alaska was introduced in the late 19th century by the
United States Revenue Cutter Service, with assistance from
Sheldon Jackson, as a means of providing a livelihood for
Alaska Natives. Reindeer were imported first from Siberia and later also from Norway. A regular mail run in
Wales, Alaska, used a sleigh drawn by reindeer. In Alaska, reindeer herders use
satellite telemetry to track their herds, using online maps and databases to chart the herd's progress.
Domestic reindeer are mostly found in northern
Fennoscandia and the
Russian North, with a herd of approximately 150–170 reindeer living around the
Cairngorms region in
Scotland. The last remaining wild tundra reindeer in Europe are found in portions of southern Norway. The International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry (ICR), a circumpolar organisation, was established in 2005 by the Norwegian government. ICR represents over 20 indigenous reindeer peoples and about 100,000 reindeer herders in nine different national states. In Finland, there are about 6,000 reindeer herders, most of whom keep small herds of less than 50 reindeer to raise additional income. With 185,000 reindeer (), the industry produces of reindeer meat and generates 35 million euros annually. 70% of the meat is sold to slaughterhouses. Reindeer herders are eligible for national and EU
agricultural subsidies, which constituted 15% of their income. Reindeer herding is of central importance for the local economies of small communities in sparsely populated rural Sápmi. Currently, many reindeer herders are heavily dependent on
diesel fuel to provide for
electric generators and
snowmobile transportation, although solar
photovoltaic systems can be used to reduce diesel dependency. File:Carta Marina - milking reindeer.jpg|Milking File:Carta Marina - reindeer crossing a frozen lake.jpg|Crossing frozen water File:Carta Marina - reindeer-drawn waggon with bowman.jpg|Drawing a wagon File:Carta Marina - reindeer-drawn sled.jpg|Drawing a one-man sled File:Carta Marina - reindeer-mounted warriors.jpg|Reindeer-mounted cavalry
History Reindeer hunting by humans has a very long history. Both
Aristotle and
Theophrastus have short accounts – probably based on the same source – of an ox-sized deer species, named
tarandos, living in the land of the
Bodines in
Scythia, which was able to change the colour of its fur to obtain camouflage. The latter is probably a misunderstanding of the seasonal change in reindeer fur colour. The descriptions have been interpreted as being of reindeer living in the southern
Ural Mountains in c. 350 BC. A deer-like animal described by
Julius Caesar in his
Commentarii de Bello Gallico (chapter 6.26) from the
Hercynian Forest in the year 53 BC is most certainly to be interpreted as a reindeer: According to
Olaus Magnus's
Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus – printed in
Rome in the year 1555 –
Gustav I of Sweden sent 10 reindeer to
Albert, Duke of Prussia, in the year 1533. It may be these animals that
Conrad Gessner had seen or heard of. During
World War II, the
Soviet Army used reindeer as
pack animals to transport food, ammunition and post from
Murmansk to the
Karelian front and bring wounded soldiers, pilots and equipment back to the base. About 6,000 reindeer and more than 1,000 reindeer herders were part of the operation. Most herders were
Nenets, who were mobilised from the
Nenets Autonomous Okrug, but reindeer herders from the Murmansk,
Arkhangelsk and
Komi regions also participated. In the
FIS Alpine Ski World Cup event held in Levi, Finland each year, the winner of the women's slalom event is awarded a reindeer. The prize is largely symbolic, as all the reindeer awarded continue living in on a farm in Finland.
Santa Claus Around the world, public interest in reindeer peaks during the Christmas season. According to Western
folklore,
Santa Claus's sleigh is pulled by
flying reindeer. These reindeer were first named in the 1823 poem "
A Visit from St. Nicholas", though the story originates earlier.
Mythology and art Among the Inuit, there is a story of the origin of the caribou: Inuit artists from the Barrenlands incorporate depictions of caribou—and items made from caribou antlers and skin—in carvings, drawings, prints and sculpture. Contemporary Canadian artist
Brian Jungen, of
Dane-zaa First Nations ancestry, commissioned an installation entitled "The ghosts on top of my head" (2010–11) in
Banff, Alberta, which depicts the antlers of caribou, elk and moose.
Tomson Highway,
CM is a
Canadian and
Cree playwright,
novelist, and
children's author, who was born in a remote area north of
Brochet,
Manitoba. The Canadian 25-cent coin or "
quarter" features a depiction of a caribou on one face. The caribou is the official provincial animal of
Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, and appears on the
coat of arms of Nunavut. A caribou statue was erected at the centre of the
Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial, marking the spot in France where hundreds of soldiers from Newfoundland were killed and wounded in
World War I. There is a replica in
Bowring Park in St. John's, Newfoundland's capital city. Two municipalities in Finland have reindeer motifs in their coats-of-arms:
Kuusamo has a running reindeer; and
Inari has a fish with reindeer antlers. File:Kuusamo.vaakuna.svg|
Coat of arms of
Kuusamo|alt=
Coat of arms of
Kuusamo features a male File:Inari.vaakuna.svg|Coat of arms of
Inari|alt=Coat of arms of
Inari, a fish with antlers == See also ==