The First 40 Years: History of the Muskox Farms from 1954 To1994 by Nuna Teal, Phd

The First 40 Years: History of the Muskox Farms from 1954 to1994 by Nuna Teal, PhD "For all his suspicions of having achieved divinity, man is a creature of this earth, completely trapped by his dependence upon the interplay of all forms of life. For his agriculture to endure to his benefit, it must strive for harmony with its natural surroundings: No dairy cattle or pigs in the arctic, no plows on the tundra, no biocides to protect exotic crops. It must be a gentle agriculture, one of variety and one that is not too efficient." (Teal: 1972) With the capture of seven muskox calves in the Canadian Barrens by Vermont's Institute of Northern Agricultural Research for the purpose of domestication, the early 1950s saw the quiet stirrings of an ecological awareness that would burst forth upon the popular consciousness almost a decade later, when the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring would alert us to our irresponsibility and arrogance with regard to the natural world, and to the often devastating environmental consequences of 'western' industrial and agricultural practices. John Teal, founder and director of INAR and what would become known as the Muskox Project, was also concerned about the cultural consequences of such attitudes and behavior. While the animals were necessarily the focal point in the beginning, the domestication of the muskox was primarily a sociological venture. "The present situation of the native peoples of the arctic...is that they are in a stage of limbo, sus- pended between the economic practices and culture of their traditional way of life and the recently introduced western economies and lifestyles," said Teal. He believed that the solution to this dilemma, and to the poverty so prevalent among peoples of the Far North, would involve a compromise between these various factors chosen by the native people themselves, and not imposed on them. In seeking such a solution, Teal was also guided by a belief that the domesticated animals and plants of each of the earth's major biogeographical zones should be selected from among the indigenous species of those areas. In preceding millennia, a handful of traditional domesticates have been dragged by humans to every corner of the globe, far beyond their natural boundaries. Over- grazing, the destruction of natural ground cover with the plow, the creation of dust bowls, the driving out of native species, and an "exhausted and desiccated earth" have been the consequences of our stubborn persistence in forcing exotic species and practices upon strange and often fragile environments. This ecological philosophy, combined with concern for the peoples of the arctic's tundra and coastal villages, gave rise to the project to domesticate the muskox, an animal indigenous to these same regions. The greatest renewable resources of the tundra/coastal areas are grass and sedges. Teal saw in the muskox an animal able " to convert northern grasses into ready em- ployment and cash income" through the utilization of qiviut, the underwool it sheds each spring. A dependable supply of this gossamer fleece, finer than cashmere and one of the world's warmest textile fibers, would provide the potential basis for a knitting industry that would benefit both threatened cultures and a threatened species. This resource would be introduced to people with thousands of years of tradition and skill expressed in fine handcrafts, but little experience in animal husbandry. It was hoped that a compromise would prove culturally compatible, for "just as a domesticated animal must be in harmony with its physical environment, so must a domestication project be in harmony with its cultural and economic environment." The social goals for this project were both realistic and modest. The qiviut textile industry was seen as providing a supplemental income on a year-round basis, one particularly necessary for the late winter crisis period. It was intended not to replace but to increase the resource base for tundra/ coastal villages, enabling villagers to fulfill their often expressed wish to move into the 21st century in terms of their own culture, "a wish combining skills and modem outlook with love of place." Knitters could still follow their traditional ways much as they had with other arts and handcrafts - working at home, while at summer fish camp or on hunting and food-gathering expeditions, and yet be guaranteed a reliable income from the items they produced. John Teal was originally inspired by the observations of his Dartmouth professor and mentor, the Norwegian explorer Vilhjamur Stefansson, who had journeyed throughout the arctic and lived among the Inuit in the early 1900s. He had written that muskoxen might one day make an acre of tundra as productive as cattle had made mid-western pasture land. Although “Wild John” was kicked out of Dartmouth for cutting classes, he went on to graduate from Harvard, where he studied anthropology and became a star fullback on the football team - training that would pre- pare him well for future encounters with angry muskoxen. After receiving his Master’s Degree at Yale in international relations, he later went north to study arctic ecology and economy at McGill University before spending the majority of his professional life in the endeavor to make Stefans- son’s observation a reality. Teal’s studies were interrupted by WWII. Following officer’s training at West Point, he flew 28 missions as a B-17 Captain and Command Pilot in the 8th Air Force, receiving a Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters. Returning from Europe with fresh confi- dence in an idea widely deemed impossible, Teal would receive a fellowship to spend several years living among the nomadic Reindeer Sami of northern Scandinavia, and assist in the establishment of the reindeer industry in North America before pursuing his dream to domesticate the muskox. Muskox: Population Distribution The term `muskox' (ovibos moschatus) is a misnomer, for the animal has no musk glands and is not an ox, but a relative of the goat/antelope family. Its nearest relative is the shaggy goat-like takin of the central Asian mountains. Perhaps its name derived from the wishful thinking of arctic explorers in need of financial backing, ostensibly seeking a new source of musk for perfume. More appropriate is the name bestowed upon the animal by the Inuit, who call it "Oom- ingmak," which means "bearded one." The Inuit of northwest Greenland believed that humans were descended from the Oomingmak. Indeed, muskoxen are among the oldest mammals on earth, contemporaries of the woolly mammoth and sabre tooth tiger. Fossil remains reveal that they were circumpolar in distribution prior to the last Ice Age, roaming throughout Eurasia and North America as they grazed the cold grasslands below the ebb and flow of glaciers. While muskoxen were subject to the natural population fluctuations affecting arctic species, their demise in different regions of the world was due primarily to human predators, who naturally took advantage of an easily obtainable source of high-quality meat. Although the muskox herd's defense strategy of standing its ground to face enemies was highly effective against wolves, its original predators, it proved disastrous against armed men, as whole herds could be felled by a shower of arrows and spears from within a few yards. Consequently, muskoxen were exter- minated in Eurasia during prehistoric times; only their bones, and their images in the paintings and sculpture of Paleolithic caves, remained. Muskoxen survived in North America, where hunting pressures occurred later and with less severity. In hunts occurring in waves that spanned 1500 years, muskoxen were followed by Inuit hunters across northern Alaska, up through the arctic islands, and across the northern tip of Greenland until they were stopped by the glaciers below Scoresby Sound. As had probably happened in Eurasia, hunters would kill all the muskoxen they could find, then move on to new ranges to repeat the process, "often with both humans and muskoxen dying out." As the years passed, those animals spared by the hunts moved back into their old ranges, and the cycle was repeated. With the advent of the gun, these resilient beasts were again brought to the verge of extinction - not only by the Inuit, but also by whalers, exploration expeditions, and market hunters. During the 1850s, the last wild muskoxen in Alaska were killed by Inuit hunters hired to provide meat to the whaling ships plying the Bering and Beaufort Seas. There is no record of any white man having seen them alive there. Another factor in their near decimation at the end of the 19th century was the disappearance of the bison in the American West, and the continuing demand for carriage robes. This led to the slaughter in Canada of more than 10,000 muskoxen a year until Canada had the foresight to limit and finally halt the killings beginning in 1917. By 1930, there were only about 500 animals left on the Canadian mainland, and perhaps fewer than 10,000 left in northern Canada and Greenland (where hunting was allowed for years later, until the Danish government also introduced protec- tive measures). When the muskox finally came under the protection of the law and began its slow revival, the total worldwide population was less than 14,000 animals. Yet in the 1960s and 70s, although muskoxen were still far fewer in number than other animals protected by their designation as endangered species, recovering muskox populations in this country were once again threatened - by Alaska's powerful sports-hunting interests. On the basis of data hotly disputed by INAR's field re- searchers, claims of "overgrazing" (to which Teal referred as "the customary rationalization of trophy hunters") led to efforts not only to cull the Alaskan herds, but to discredit and destroy the Muskox Project, seen as their ardent protector.

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