The epic journey of Canada's last (and only) reindeer
(To save caribou, Indigenous people confront difficult choices.)
Now, decades on, a group of Inuvialuit stakeholders is taking the project further into uncharted territory. The herd, which has been cared for with the help of the Inuvialuit but family owned, was formally purchased in 2021 by the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. Under the watchful eyes of Esagok and his colleagues, the herd has more than doubled, to nearly 6,000 reindeer, making possible an ambitious plan to build a sustainable path to self-reliance for Inuvialuit people living on their ancestral lands.
In March 1898, a shipment of reindeer makes its way north from Seattle, Washington, toward Alaska. Three decades later, as Alaska's reindeer population swelled, the Canadian government purchased its own herd and had it sent to the Northwest Territories.
Photograph by PICTURE ART COLLECTION/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
'The ultimate goal is to have reindeer abundantly available for Inuvialuit—that's goal number one,' said Brian Wade, director of the Inuvialuit Community Economic Development Organization. 'There's the food security component to this herd, but there's also job creation and the economic component to it.'
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