One morning in late July, the village of Port Heiden awoke to a grim scene in the enclosure of the Meshik Reindeer Farm: A bear had gotten inside the fence and killed several of the newly settled deer.
"I'm not sure who exactly discovered it, but it was pretty devastating for the community. It was very sad," said Adrianne Christensen, the director of business development for the Native Village of Port Heiden.
The attack came as a surprise.
Christensen says this was the first predator activity around the reindeer pen, which is built in the middle of town. "We felt as if they were pretty safe, because there was a lot of activity and people watching them," says Christensen, "but this happened in the early morning hours, and it was unexpected."
Of the 29 reindeer that survived the trip from Stebbins/St. Michael's to Port Heiden in early July, 14 now remain. The village originally planned to raise around 60 deer to re-establish the practice of reindeer herding in the area.
Despite the incident, Christensen says the village is still excited for the future of the reindeer farm. They've installed electric fencing to protect against predators, and will be keeping a closer watch during dark hours.
The village is also searching for more reindeer to rebuild the herd, as well as financial resources to support it. Its sleek, modern website invites users to sponsor a deer, becoming a reindeer "friend/cousin," "auntie/uncle," "grandpa/grandma," or "mother/father."
Christensen says the 14 remaining deer are becoming more habituated by the day. Resident Dmitri Christensen has taken over the daily care of the animals, which are now tame enough to be moved in and out of the pen daily to graze.
"They absolutely adore him. They follow him around," says Adrianne Christensen. "The ones we have left are very, very spoiled and happy deer."
The reindeer project is just one piece of the village's larger goal: to bring food security to the people of Port Heiden.
"Every community on the Alaska Peninsula used to be self-sustaining … and now we're not," says Christensen. "And we're hoping to change that. We're hoping that in the case of an emergency, we can still eat."
Over the next year, in addition to reindeer herding, the village plans to raise chickens for both meat and eggs, grow a community garden, and release rehabilitated moose calves into the surrounding lands.
Last Thursday, yet another husbandry experiment commenced when three pigs arrived in Port Heiden. A post to the village's Facebook page cheerfully invited residents to stop by and visit the animals and to bring them treats of fruit or vegetable scraps. Like most of the village's food initiatives, it appears the pigs will be both a learning experience and a collective responsibility.
"We're going to try our hand at keeping pigs," says Christensen. "We're all in charge of taking care of all the animals."
This story first appeared in The Bristol Bay Times/Dutch Harbor Fisherman and is republished here with permission.