Reindeer Station is an uninhabited locality in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is located in the Caribou Hills, along the Mackenzie River's eastern channel. The community was established in 1932 to house a herd of 3,442 reindeer purchased by the Government of Canada. The venture was intended to replace the traditional livelihood of the local Indigenous peoples, but few chose to become reindeer herders, so the government eventually sold the animals and Reindeer Station was abandoned in 1969. Most of its residential buildings were relocated to the larger centres of Tuktoyaktuk and Inuvik.
Modern buildings at Reindeer Station
Reindeer Station viewed from the air, 2013
The Inuvialuit or Western Canadian Inuit are Inuit who live in the western Canadian Arctic region. They, like all other Inuit, are descendants of the Thule who migrated eastward from Alaska. Their homeland – the Inuvialuit Settlement Region – covers the Arctic Ocean coastline area from the Alaskan border, east through the Beaufort Sea and beyond the Amundsen Gulf which includes some of the western Canadian Arctic Islands, as well as the inland community of Aklavik and part of Yukon. The land was demarked in 1984 by the Inuvialuit Final Agreement.
Eileen Jacobson, Inuvialuit guide
Traditional Inuvialuit whaling camp near Tuktoyaktuk