Building Leadership Capacity with Rural Alaskan Youth

A camp held in the village of St. Paul on St. Paul Island of the Pribilof Islands. This camp was offered to 10 youth, ages 8-18. St. Paul Island is a 40 square mile island with a small subsistence reindeer herd of less than 300 reindeer. The purpose of this camp was to introduce youth to reindeer ecology, proper harvesting and meat processing techniques, and permitting requirements to establish a commercial reindeer meat enterprise. The student were also given instruction and an experience in field data collection.

The participants were given instruction on local land use and were given instruction on  what permits were required for harvesting of reindeer . Participants were given instructions and demonstrations with hands on experience on the equipment needed to have a successful hunt. Most, if not all, of the youth had previously participated in a hunter safety course earlier in the year. After safety and permits had been covered the youth ventured out on to the tundra. They learned about minimizing their footprint in certain sensitive areas of the island, what vegetation reindeer eat, and how to identify scat and tracks of reindeer and other animals. Unfortunately, no reindeer were found (it was a very foggy day, typical of St. Paul weather), but there were fur seal and fox sightings.

A reindeer had been harvested prior to the camp which was used and to provide experiential learning.  The participants were able to skin, debone, and process the carcass into retail cuts. They gained knowledge in differences of meat characteristics and quality of the different muscle groups, how to grind meat in to burger, and how to cook the meat. Additionally, they were able to dissect the skull which led to discussions about adaptations of reindeer; teeth, antlers, and animal diseases and herd health. As with many dissection projects, some participants were hesitant to get their hands dirty, but by the end there wasn’t a clean knife left on the table.

For the second event youth and chaperones were flown to Fairbanks from the interior Alaska villages of Ruby and Steven’s Village and were transported to the Steven’s Village Bison Farm in Delta Junction, Alaska for a 4 day overnight camp. Participants first toured the Reindeer Research Program facility located at the UAF Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station in Fairbanks. They were able to interact with a 70 head herd of reindeer and were exposed to animal nutrition, animal husbandry, pasture management, and facility design. Participants fed and handled and socialized with the herd of reindeer. Over the next three days participants were taken on a tour of of a slaughter facility and retail outlet; Delta Meat and Sausage where they watched facility staff slaughter and process a reindeer from hoof to sausage.  The youth participated in a hands on demonstration of the techniques of hide processing and brain tanning. During the camp a number guest lectures were given by Alaska Farm to School Program staff on reindeer economics. To promote responsibility and leadership the youth were responsible for helping farm staff with daily chores which included feeding and watering reindeer and bison, picking lichen and bottle feeding a bison calf.

The final 4-H sponsored Reindeer Youth Camp was conducted July of 2018. Ten youth participants from interior Alaska villages congregated at the UAF Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station (AFES) to utilize the Reindeer Research Program (RRP) reindeer herd. The two 2017 camps taught participants different aspects of the reindeer industry, but both locations lacked a facility where participants could gain hands-on reindeer handling experience. To keep with the rural component of the camp, youth and chaperones were flown in from Tanana, Ruby, Venetie and Shageluk. The villages of Tanana and Ruby are actively trying to acquire reindeer so this camp was particularly beneficial to those participants.

Camp days were broken down in to themes. Participants learned about reindeer from the ground up. The first day was a basic introductory day with airport pick-ups, a short lecture on reindeer in Alaska (history, adaptations, etc), followed by a tour of the RRP facility. The second day was Reindeer Nutrition. Camp participants listened to a lecture on nutrition/feed and compared what fenced herds eat to free range herds. The youth then weighed out the feed and fed the reindeer. The afternoon was full of activities which included stacking hay in the barn, harvesting willows and fireweed on the farm, followed by lichen picking on a local hill approximately 20 miles from the farm. The youth were able to see the differences in vegetation and the amount of work it took to harvest the different types of reindeer feed.

Day 3 consisted of a lot of hands-on reindeer time, perhaps the most fun of all the days. The morning lecture covered proper herding and handling techniques in order to prepare the youth for the rest of the day’s activities. Youth were able to take turns walking Roger, the halter trained reindeer, around the farm. They practiced herding the reindeer out of the pastures and in to the corral. When the reindeer were in the corral, the youth took turns “pushing” one reindeer in to the squeeze chute, using the squeeze chute, ear tagging, weighing, and writing down data.

The final day was reindeer processing. A lecture on meat quality and value added products prepared the youth for the tasty portion of the camp. We were fortunate to fly in an elder from Beaver, Alaska who showed the youth how to tan reindeer hides. The youth not only learned the process of hide tanning, they also learned all the tools and techniques in Gwich’in, the Alaska native language of the area. Paul Williams Jr. was a remarkable guest speaker. After lunch participants cut up a reindeer carcass, continued hide tanning and the camp concluded with a reindeer steak barbecue.

Two youth from Ruby had participated in the 2017 Reindeer youth camp and were eager to return this year. All other participants were new and had minimal contact with reindeer prior to the camp. These camps have been a great introduction to the reindeer industry for Alaskan youth. The benefit of having a university herd where youth can get hands on herding and handling experience was significant. The connection to the reindeer was greatly improved when the youth were able to feel, smell, see, and taste the reindeer. Multiple participants asked about Reindeer Camp for next summer.