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 employment 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 researchers, 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. Ironically, data was also manipulated by the Fish and Game Department in the other direction to limit the Project's calf captures.

Particularly as the sport of muskox hunting might be compared to shooting dairy cows, it is true that INAR's members had difficulty seeing these wonderful animals as wall trophies. Rather, INAR saw muskoxen as an ecologically sustainable, culturally harmonious economic resource for the arctic's First Peoples, and believed that they should be allowed to live out their natural life spans for the enduring benefit of both human and animal.

Phase I The first stage of the Muskox Project, sponsored by Teal himself because no one believed it could be done, was to determine the animal's suitability for domestication through the establishment of a pilot-study herd in Huntington, Vermont. Although far outside muskoxen's natural range, this site was chosen because no arctic location had been made available. The first attempt in thousands of years to domesticate a new animal, this venture began with a decade- long program of research in taxonomy, physiology, genetics, disease and behavior (as well as the dispelling of a long-held myth of the muskox as one of the world's most dangerous and intrac- table animals). The potential of qiviut as the basis for a textile industry would be evaluated, and husbandry and veterinary practices pioneered.

Teal considered an animal as domestic (as opposed to "tame") if its breeding were under human control, and through selection certain characteristics were emphasized which differed from their occurrence in the wild ancestor; if it were maintained under a program of complete husbandry management; and if the animal and its products were utilized in an active economy.

The Vermont muskox calves were caught in the Thelon Game Sanctuary in the Northwest Territories without the use of weapons or immobilizing drugs. The conventional method of capture had been to shoot all the adults in the herd in order to capture calves. Drugs are too often lethal, as it's impossible to gauge an animal's weight and condition; most large animal captures result in high mortality. (The first expedition was documented in an RKO film called Musk-ox Round-up, which toured with a Bridgette Bardot movie.)

The muskoxen's defense strategy of standing and facing their predators, with calves hidden by the rear flanks of the adults (steadfast even against the low swoops of a small plane) made it necessary through a series of "grotesque bluffs" - men yelling and flapping their arms wildly, mock-charging, gently heaving clods of earth - to drive the herd into lakes. The animals would dis-band and swim., and calves could be captured by men leaping into the frigid waters from canoes and holding the calves until the adults swam by. This rather primitive and time-consuming method would evolve in later expeditions to the use of a helicopter. Its huge downdraft and noise generally had the effect of splitting the herd, though bulls sometimes reared at the helicopters' pontoons, trying to hook them with their horns. Calves were then tackled on foot or roped - no easy task on the tundra, with its rough hummocks over which muskoxen flew like hovercraft while men stumbled and fell, and which afforded few natural barriers against which to "corner" an angry calf.

Still, the time required from the sighting of a herd until a calf was tied, cooled, and wrapped in a blanket for the trip home to the base camp or ship was reduced to an average of twenty minutes, vastly reducing stress to all concerned. Using these methods, INAR caught well over 200 calves in the arctic without the use of weapons or drugs, and without mortality or serious injury to the muskoxen (although there were many badly battered captors), a record not approached before or since in the annals of large animal capture.

The first stage of the Muskox Project was an unqualified success. Effective capture techniques were developed, and Teal was able to demonstrate that muskoxen were fine candidates for domestication. They proved easy to tame permanently, adapted readily to simple management practices, and responded satisfactorily to standard veterinary treatments. In addition, qiviut samples evaluated by the Forte Cashmere Company in Boston (which to this day processes all of the qiviut into yarn) showed the fiber's superior qualities for textile purposes. Eight times warmer than sheep's wool and half the diameter of cashmere, qiviut is one of the world's finest natural fibers.

Perhaps the most wonderful discovery was that these shaggy creatures possessed great intelligence, curiosity, and an affectionate and playful nature - which would endear them not only to the Teal family, but to the hundreds of visitors to the Huntington farm who blithely ignored the bold "No Trespassing - Animals in Quarantine!" signs to see these wondrous Ice Age relics.

Among the most moving and perhaps symbolic incidents occurred when Teal was working in the field with the herd and a strange dog entered the pasture. Reacting instinctively to a traditional enemy, the muskoxen thundered towards Teal and quickly formed their defensive circle - with Teal protected in its center. Having demonstrated their suitability for domestication, perhaps this was an indication that muskoxen, in turn, had accepted the idea of this new alliance with humans.

As there was no long-term intention to farm muskoxen in New England, no attempt was made to establish a large herd, and it never exceeded 13 animals. Yet two noteworthy records remain from Vermont: the largest bull on record, Bully Boy, who weighed 1200 pounds; and Ungnanguak, or Little Girl, the first calf captured and the longest-lived muskox, who died in 1977 at the age of 23. Phase II The second phase of the Muskox Project began in 1964 with the capture of 33 calves on Nunivak Island in the Bering Sea. Here, the wild muskox population was descended from 31 animals which had been translocated from Greenland in 1930 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in order to replenish the animals virtually wiped out in Alaska nearly a century before. The Greenland muskoxen had been held in captivity for five years at the Fairbanks Biological Survey Experiment Station, and their wool gathered and knitted, prior to their transport to Nunivak. There, they formed the nucleus from which all Alaskan muskox populations are now descended.

In collaboration with the University of Alaska, and with generous funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Fairbanks farm was established with the following objectives: "to determine the feasibility of farming muskoxen on a commercial scale; to provide qiviut in sufficient amounts to permit the training of Eskimos in techniques of designing and promoting qiviut textiles and to allow market testing of qiviut products; and to provide stock for muskox herds in the Eskimo villages of the Alaska coastal tundra." As the feasibility of muskox domestication had already been established in Vermont, the social goals of the Project now became the primary focus.

It was during this period that the Muskox Project encountered the most fierce opposition from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the powerful sports-hunting lobby whose interests the agency represented at that time. While Teal did not feel that domestication was inherently incompatible with sports-hunting, he often stated his personal belief that it was unjust to the poor and un- employed " to slaughter for immediate and paltry gain an animal whose qiviut could have provided income and employment to many over its 20 year life span." Trophy hunters, on the other hand, made it clear that they regarded the domestication of the muskox as totally incompatible with sports-hunting. It is true that the image of the muskox as the pastoral focus of a "gentle agriculture" was not consistent with the image presented by the shaggy creature's massive horned head - an imposing trophy belying the cowardly way in which it was obtained.

It is a testament to the unexpected political volatility of the issue at the time, and the fierce and bitter battle between members of the Muskox Project and agents of the Fish and Game Department that ensued for many years thereafter, that when the Russians invaded Prague, a headline in the Anchorage Times was instead, "Teal Still Opposes Muskox Hunt!"

During the first decade of the Alaskan Project, Teal and INAR also received requests from their respective governments to establish farms in Quebec, Norway and Greenland. In addition to expeditions to capture calves, years of challenging logistical planning for arctic farms in roadless regions of permafrost ensued (buildings, hurricane fences, wind turbines, etc.), as did as the training of local knitters and organization of marketing cooperatives. Quebec In response to interest voiced by Premier Jean Lesage and a petition from the Inuit of Povungituk, INAR established a muskox farm in Quebec in 1967. Thirteen calves were captured on Northern Ellesmere Island and brought to Old Fort Chimo. The herd thrived and grew, and by the early 1970s the training of Inuit knitters and the production and marketing of qiviut products had begun.

Just as the industry was becoming successful, the obsessively francophile Government of Quebec demanded that INAR leave, siting such bizarre reasons as its requirement that those involved with the farm speak French only, although the farm manager spoke several languages fluently, including French. 42 of 67 muskoxen were liberated; no further selective breeding, taming of calves, or collection of qiviut occurred, as there was no one left on the farm qualified to do so. A thriving new textile industry was brought to an abrupt end, and the remaining animals were eventually freed.

It was later revealed that representatives of the Government of Quebec had deliberately lied (there is no more diplomatic description) to both 1NAR and the Government of the Northwest Territories, where permits had been obtained for the captures, in order to have Teal capture the muskoxen and establish the farm. Despite promises made to Teal concerning their intention to pursue muskox domestication for the benefit of Quebec's Inuit, the officials involved publicly indicated that they had intended to use INAR only to establish a population of wild muskoxen (The Mont-real Star: May 1977), ostensibly for hunting purposes, even though there is no evidence that muskoxen had ever lived in Quebec.

Norway Unfortunately, the situation was similar in northern Norway. In 1969, at the request of the Norwegian Government, Teal and other 1NAR volunteers embarked on a challenging and dramatic expedition by ice-breaker to Eastern Greenland, and returned with 25 calves. As usual, many more were captured and released in order to obtain the correct ratio of males to females. A farm was established in Bardu, Norway, in collaboration with local municipal authorities. As soon as the farm was established successfully, these same authorities revealed that their in- tent was to use the muskoxen as a tourist attraction only, rather than to alleviate local unemployment through the development of a textile industry. The Norwegian funds that had been committed to the development of the farm were used instead to build and furnish an elaborate tourist facility, and INAR therefore withdrew its support.

Once again, those who took over had no experience in muskox husbandry, and the health of the herd deteriorated rapidly. Unable either to handle or care for the animals, the Norwegians were eventually forced to close the farm. Tragically, some of the remaining animals were taken to form a research herd for the University of Tromso, becoming the subjects of sadistic, lethal experiments by a Norwegian biologist named Blix, well known to Muskox Project members from his sojourn at the University of Alaska several years earlier. The remainder were freed to form the nucleus of a wild herd. Greenland The Inuit of Greenland had also expressed a strong interest in establishing muskox farms. Theirs is an environment ideally suited to fulfilling the goals of the Project, for not only do they have large herds of wild muskoxen from which to obtain animals, they also possess a tradition of sheep husbandry dating back to Viking times. The Greenlanders have long suffered severe unemployment.

In the early and mid 1970s, two young Greenland Inuit men were chosen to be sent to the Fair- banks farm to train in muskox farm management. One in particular, Henrik Frederiksen, believed strongly in the promise that the Muskox Project held for his and other Greenland communities. He hoped to establish a domestic herd on his family's farm in Narsarsuaq, which had once been the Viking farm of Eric the Red.

While in Fairbanks, Henrik fell in love with a woman named Wendy Elsner who was knowl- edgeable in techniques of wool processing, knitting and weaving. After working at the Muskox Farm together, the young idealists returned to East Greenland, where they hoped to establish the first domestic muskox herd and qiviut industry. (Teal and his family were to enjoy a wonderful visit to this magnificent place as guests of the extended Frederiksen family; great hope and excitement was in the air.)

Sadly, politics were to intervene once again. For over a decade, the Home Rule Government repeatedly denied permission to establish the farm. One can only speculate that the idea of Inuit self-determination and cultural independence offered by the Muskox Project was a philosophy in direct contradiction to the goals of the Danish Government. Prior to the 1960s, Denmark had pursued a policy toward Greenland that was blatantly colonial. Beginning in the sixties, it specifically pursued a policy of centralization and the assimilation of the Greenlanders into Danish culture. The Inuit were referred to as "Northern Danes;" they were expected to speak Danish, and to be educated in the same way and with the same objectives as other Danes. By 1980, this policy of cultural destruction, dependence and paternalism led to an awful statistic; Greenlanders had the highest suicide rate in the world.

Later, in 1989, a determined Elsner finally decided to prove to the Greenland Government that qiviut collection could form the basis of a viable home industry, and she headed out with camping gear to collect wool shed by wild muskox herds in Sonderstrom, West Greenland. For three years, she set out in the spring with local youths to collect an average of 150 pounds of high-quality qiviut.

The establishment of the farms in Quebec and Norway, and the attempt to establish one in Greenland, had required an enormous expenditure of time, energy, and personal resources on Teal's part, along with the participation of many committed volunteers. The blatant deception practiced by the officials involved, the racism it often represented, and the subsequent failure of the farms to achieve INAR's goals of alleviating unemployment in their respective regions, were obviously a great disappointment. However, it should be of some consolation that the muskoxen caught by Teal and INAR that were released in Quebec - where muskoxen had never lived - have dispersed and grown into a huge wild population, enriching their adoptive habitat and providing an abundant resource for domestic muskoxen in the future.

Fairbanks By 1975, the Fairbanks, Alaska phase of the Project had seen improvements in management and veterinary techniques, and the creation of a large herd of tame and selectively bred muskoxen for dispersal to villages. The many Inuit and Yupik who had been trained in the design and knitting of qiviut garments had been assisted by Teal and INAR in founding Oomingmak, a cooperative established in 1969 to oversee textile design, production and marketing. While Oomingmak's members are all native Alaskans, its volunteer Board of Directors includes non-native specialists such as an attorney, accountant, and a member of the Teal family.

Success was also realized in the enthusiastic acceptance of qiviut products by the public. Diana Vreeland, an influential fashion leader who was then editor of Vogue, met with Teal in New York and would later gush that qiviut was "the ultimate in luxury!," Prominent designers expressed great interest in obtaining qiviut. The Muskox Farm and Oomingmak would now face the challenge of keeping up with the demand for this remarkable new textile.

While many of the Muskox Project's goals in Fairbanks were attained to a certain degree, its association with the University of Alaska at that time proved unfortunate. Project members believed that the attitudes and actions of certain university administrators cost the Muskox Project important grants. Tens of thousands of dollars in essential funds, grants intended for the farm and Oomingmak, were diverted by these administrators to other university uses, slowing down the attainment of the Project's objectives and affecting grant renewals. Dr. Paul Wilkinson (1981) described the emergence of a phenomenon in the 1970s whereby the academic and ad- ministrative policies of universities became incompatible with those of the social-action programs they may have sponsored. This was certainly the case here, as it became apparent that there was no commitment whatsoever to the social goals of the Muskox Project; rather, it was regarded as a financial "golden goose."

In 1975, the level of trust had deteriorated to such a degree that under cloak of darkness in the middle of a 40-below-zero winter's night, Teal and a band of cohorts miraculously spirited the majority of the 100 member muskox herd out of Fairbanks, in total secrecy. It was flown by Hercules to the native village of Unalakleet, which had established a farm jointly with INAR and Oomingmak. Here, it was hoped that the next phase of the Muskox Project could flourish independently.

The Unalakleet farm, at a spectacular location along the Iditarod Race route, thrived between 1975 and 1984, growing to 125 animals and supplying nearly 200 knitters throughout coastal Alaska. Eventually, however, the farm ran out of pasture. Despite the vast tundra grazing land surrounding it, it was unable to get permission to expand, due directly to intervention by the Fish and Game Department. The bulk of the herd's supplemental diet of hay and pellets had to be flown in, a cost far too high to sustain.

During the Unalakleet years, continuous efforts by agents of the Alaska Fish and Game De- partment to discredit and eradicate the Muskox Project - quite literally - culminated in their decree that the farm be razed and all of the animals destroyed, using a minor outbreak of com- mon orf (contagious ecthyma) as the reason for such drastic measures. In addition, these agents spread word through all the villages warning the knitters that they would contract a serious skin disease if they handled the qiviut. In order to save the farm and its reputation, it was necessary to call in officials from the United States Public Health Service's Center for Disease Control in Georgia and consult with leading orf specialists throughout the U.S. and Canada. After visiting the muskox farm, these officials dismissed the decree as ridiculous and the orf as minor, posing no serious threat either to the animals or their handlers, and none whatsoever to the knitters, who handle the yarn only after it has been scoured, carded and spun. The animals and industry were saved, but Teal still faced the difficult and costly task of re-establishing the farm elsewhere, a third time.

This is just one example of the many battles the Muskox Project was forced to wage against this state agency, and an indication of the level of integrity at which its agents operated. The energy and funds diverted from the project's goals over the years were immense. During this period, the Fish and Game Department also embarked on a program of transplanting wild muskoxen into new areas of Alaska. Refusing offers of assistance and expertise from Muskox Project members, the agency used methods that resulted in catastrophic calf mortality, further fueling mutual resentment.

While the muskoxen were at Unalakleet, the fifth of the arctic farms he had founded with 14 expeditions in 28 years, John Teal returned to the original farm in Huntington, Vermont. Ex- hausted, discouraged, and deeply in debt due to his determination to realize a vision of a "gentle agriculture" throughout the far North, he died of cancer at the age of 61. Had he not encountered so many unexpected political obstacles to his arctic dream, Teal had hoped to move on to the domestication of other animals, such as the eland and the tapir, in their respective environments. Also lost with his death were a powerful, humorous and persuasive voice for change ( he was once praised by reporter Lowell Thomas as "the greatest stand-up speaker of our time"), an ardent activist for Civil Rights and against war, and a gifted writer. From his copious notes, journals and photographs, Teal had hoped to write a book on human ecology, The Gift of Dominion.

Phase III Project members and associates kept the dream alive. For the next farm, a site was chosen far inland to the north of Anchorage. Here, the road system interconnected most of Alaska's population, land was available and hay was grown locally; supplies were less exorbitant and veterinarians were close at hand. In the winter of 1984 the remaining 84 members of the muskox herd were moved from Unalakleet to a farm near Anchorage, and eventually to their present location in Palmer, on a beautiful farm in the fertile Matanuska Valley.

The decrease in herd size was due to the age of the original muskoxen, who by now had reached their natural life span of 20 years, and also to the general stress of ever-changing environments and farm managers during this transitional period. As intelligent and affectionate animals, muskoxen are particularly sensitive to continuity and the bonds formed with loving and attentive handlers.

Happily, their permanent home at the Palmer Farm, which in 1994 was directed by one of Teal's sons, Lansing, has a wonderful staff and many loyal volunteers to answer those needs. With new genetic material introduced through additions to the herd from Greenland, the muskoxen re- covered and are once again thriving.

Conclusion In the decades since the Muskox Project began in Vermont, profound changes have occurred in the social and economic climates of Alaska's tundra and coastal villages. The advent of such enormous economic factors as the payment of land claims and the pipeline, as well as other jobs related to oil and mineral exploration, brought cash and high rates of employment unimaginable before.

And yet these jobs have been transitory. It is a testament to the success of the qiviut textile industry and the small, secure economic niche it has filled, that it remains a constant and growing factor in the lives of approximately 250 knitters and their families, providing steady employment and cash income. By 1994, over one and a half million dollars had been earned by Alaska's qiviut knitters.

In light of widening opportunities for advanced education and training, it has startled researchers to discover that the majority of young people wish to remain in, or return to, their own villages, providing they have some means of earning a living. This is a need that muskox farming and qiviut production have the potential to address in a significant way.

Oomingmak is a cottage industry which has proven itself to be culturally compatible with the lives of villagers, who have handed down this new textile 'tradition' through four generations of knitters. These women and men have continued to design and create beautiful garments which honor the past by incorporating ancient motifs derived from such sources as harpoons, baskets and parka trims.

Through its first 40 years the Muskox Project, much like the resilient animal itself, survived many seemingly insurmountable obstacles (most of them "two legged," as Teal would often say), as well as a chronic shortage of funds. Teal refused to accept government money, pointing out that virtually every large animal project that had involved government funds had failed. In addition, government-sponsored programs were justly regarded with suspicion by those they purported to serve. Throughout the arctic, the Muskox Project has had to deal with government policies marked by callous indifference to the economic plight and cultural integrity of indigenous peoples.

After so many years of selfless hard work on the part of INAR's associates, their descendants and countless volunteers at both the Muskox Farm and Oomingmak, and after years of faithful financial support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Green Hills Trust and numerous private do- nors, it is heartening to know that many of these obstacles have been ameliorated through sheer stubborn perseverance.

The passage of time has brought with it a changing political climate, new blood, and a measure of peace. Old Alaskan adversaries have become allies, and wide recognition of the relevance and truth of the Project's basic premises has brought popular support. This gentle agriculture has finally emerged as an accepted feature of the arctic landscape, a "successful partnership between industrious communities, a magnificent animal, and a simple vision."

"In this age of wonders no one will say that a thing or idea is worthless because it is new. To say it is impossible because it is difficult, is again not in consonance with the spirit of the age. Things undreamt of are daily seen, the impossible is ever becoming possible. We are constantly being astonished these days at the amazing discoveries in the field of violence. But I maintain that far more undreamt of and seemingly impossible discoveries will be made in the field of nonviolence." (Mahatma Gandhi: 1978)

Sources: John Teal (various articles, letters, notes, personal communication) Paul F. Wilkinson & Nuna Teal: The Muskox Domestication Project: An Overview, First Inter- national Muskox Symposium, University of Alaska, December 1984 Lansing Teal, Friends of the Muskox newsletter, 1995 Mahatma Gandhi, quoted by E. Easwaran 1978 Gandhi the Man, Nilgiri Press, Petaluma CA Note 2010: * Descended entirely from the farm herd captured by Teal, the muskox herds dispersed throughout northern Quebec now number over 2,000 animals. * The qiviut industry based upon wool gathered from domestic animals has recently encountered serious competition from companies (such as Qiviuk) that harvest their wool from the hides of slaughtered Canadian muskoxen and have the knitting done cheaply in South America.