domination of the Buckland
herd.
G. J. Lomen, of Nome Alaska,
an attorney of the court, acting
as president of the Lomen and
Company Corporation conduct
ed the purchase of most of these
reindeer. He, as an attorney
knew that he was breaking the
spirit of the law, if not the in
tricacies of the details of the
contract. His act was seemingly
a deliberate attempt to find a
loophole in both law and con
tract through which to effect
his purpose.
The Government, on the ad^
vice of the Solicitor of the In
terior Department and of the
Assistant of the Attorney Gen
eral, began preparations for a
suit. A notice was sent to both
the Missions as vendor and the
Lomen Corporation as vendee
that unless the sales were void
ed action would be commenced.
The suit was delayed for vari
cus reasons, one would seem to
be that Mr. Lomen became
United States Attorney for the
Division, and would hardly be
expected to bring a suit that
involved himself. The suit was
finally begun in 1921 and was
thrown out on demurrer. In
1922 Mr. Lomen became Judge
of the Division, and a letter is
said to have been written by the
Department of Justice a month
later, or thereabouts, to stop
proceedings in the suit.
The natives for want of legal
advice or the means to procure
counsel, and also for lack of
knowledge of the proper pro
ceedings to place the matter
before the court and appeal for
a change of venue from Judge
Lomen’s Court, were helpless.
In 1913 the appropriation for
distributing, caring for herds,
and other expenses of the Rein
deer Service was cut from $12,
000 to $5,000, which was hardly
salary and expense for one man
to inspect 65 herds, and move
labor, covering a distance ^ of
1500 miles from Barrow on the
north to Iliamna at the south,
and in a land of climatic and
topographic obstacles where
transportation was almost un
obtainable.
In 1925 the natives began to
protest that reindeer were driv
en from their ranges. It was an
old story of the stock range.
Thousands of their deer began
to appear in corporation herds.
The reindeer of those who own
ed deer in corporation herds
did not increase from year to
year. Their protests sent to the
Government were disregarded
and discredited. They were told
to get along with their neigh
bors.
In 1929, in September, the
Lomen Reindeer Corporation is
sued a set of Range Rules for
conduct of reindeer business. In
it they stated that they would
take the native deer of the na
tives who owned reindeer in
their herds at $3.00 per head
for herd bill. The costs per head
of the native deer kept in their
herds against the wishes of the
owners had been for years from
$1.25 to $1.95 per head for all
adult deer. These deer had been
kept on lands that had been the
hereditary lands of the Eskimo,
and they were denied the right
to herd their own deer, also in
some cases were even charged
$1.50 for the butchering of their
own deer, when they wanted
food.
A law was passed by Congress
in 1928, providing for leasing
the grazing lands for reindeer.
The natives were provided to
have the preference. In 1929 the
Lomen Corporation applied for
about 3,500,000 acres of the Se
ward Peninsula out of the ap
proximately 8,000,000 acres of
the area into which they had
driven wedges by the purchase
of Mission herds and jumping
the ranges through the Lapp
herders. They even applied for
the Kotzebue Peninsula which
had been held and used by the
Kotzebue herd since 1901. They
applied for wedges that spilt
the native herds and left long
lines of exposed frontiers. They
procured official influence in the
shape of advice from Govern
ment officers to advise the na
tives to sell to the corporation
at $3.00 per head, when the na
tives had paid the corporation
ever $4.50 on an average fer
every three year old animal they
owned in the Corporation herds.
Protests Filed With The
Government
Protests against the condi
tions were filed with the Gov
ernment, showing the history of
the matter and the conditions,
and asking the releasing of the
reindeer of the natives and that
the native be assigned land at
his home on which to graze his
deer. Also statements of butch
ering accounts and cost ac
counts of the years that the
deer had been held from the
owners was asked.
Investigation Ordered
In May 1930 an investigation
was ordered by the Secretary of
the Interior, and a special re
presentative, Mr. E. W. Sawyer,
was sent to investigate and re
port his findings. He visited the
Seward Peninsula, returned to
Washington and reported.
Reindeer Committee Appointed
A Committee of three men
was appointed to hear the re
port. The report of the Special
representative of the Secretary
was placed before them, but was
not made a part of the hearings.
The principle matter placed
before the Committee was the
PROPOSED Plan of the Lomen
Reindeer Corporation to mix
the Lomen and the native herds
instead of freeing the native
herds and giving the owners
the right to handle their pro
perty on their own lands, and to