Editing Reindeer (section)

=== Indigenous North Americans ===
{{missing information|section|US government intervention to introduce herding in the form of [[Alaska Reindeer Service]]; Canadian purchase from Alaska|date=March 2023}} 
Caribou are still hunted in Greenland and in North America. In the traditional lifestyles of some of Canada's [[Inuit]] peoples and northern [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]] peoples, [[Alaska Natives]], and the [[Kalaallit]] of Greenland, caribou is an important source of food, clothing, shelter and tools.

[[File:Early 20th Century Inuit parka (UBC).jpg|thumb|upright|An early 20th century Inuit [[parka]] made of caribou skin]]

The [[Caribou Inuit]] are inland-dwelling Inuit in present-day [[Nunavut]]'s [[Kivalliq Region]] (formerly the [[Keewatin Region, Northwest Territories]]), Canada. They subsisted on caribou year-round, eating dried caribou meat in the winter. The [[Ahiarmiut]] are Caribou Inuit that followed the Qamanirjuaq barren-ground caribou herd.<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=History & Culture – Qamanirjuwhat? |url=http://www.polarbearalley.com/Assets/pages10-11.pdf |magazine=Hudson Bay Post |date=October 2007 |volume=3 |pages=10–11 |access-date=12 February 2008 |issue=2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080216073833/http://www.polarbearalley.com/Assets/pages10-11.pdf |archive-date=16 February 2008 }}</ref>

There is an Inuit saying in the [[Kivalliq Region]]:<ref name="McCloskey2011" />

{{blockquote|The caribou feeds the wolf, but it is the wolf who keeps the caribou strong.|Kivalliq region}}

Elder Chief of Koyukuk and chair for the Western Arctic Caribou Herd Working Group Benedict Jones, or Kʼughtoʼoodenoolʼoʼ, represents the Middle [[Yukon River]], Alaska. His grandmother was a member of the Caribou Clan, who travelled with the caribou as a means to survive. In 1939, they were living their traditional lifestyle at one of their hunting camps in Koyukuk near the location of what is now the [[Koyukuk National Wildlife Refuge]]. His grandmother made a pair of new mukluks in one day. Kʼughtoʼoodenoolʼoʼ recounted a story told by an elder, who "worked on the steamboats during the [[gold rush]] days out on the Yukon." In late August, the caribou migrated from the Alaska Range up north to [[Huslia, Alaska|Huslia]], Koyukuk and the [[Tanana, Alaska|Tanana]] area. One year when the steamboat was unable to continue, they ran into a caribou herd estimated to number 1 million animals, migrating across the Yukon. "They tied up for seven days waiting for the caribou to cross. They ran out of wood for the steamboats, and had to go back down 40 miles to the wood pile to pick up some more wood. On the tenth day, they came back and they said there was still caribou going across the river night and day."<ref name="WACHWG2012">{{citation|title=Caribou Census Complete: 325,000 animals|date=August 2012 |url=http://westernarcticcaribou.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/CT2012_FINAL_0628_lowresolution.pdf |newspaper=Caribou Trails: News from the Western Arctic Caribou Herd Working Group|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120830105109/http://westernarcticcaribou.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/CT2012_FINAL_0628_lowresolution.pdf|location=Nome, Alaska|access-date=14 January 2014|archive-date=30 August 2012|institution=Western Arctic Caribou Herd Working Group|agency=Alaska Department of Fish and Game|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Gwichʼin]], an indigenous people of northwestern Canada and northeastern Alaska, have been dependent on the international migratory [[Porcupine caribou]] herd for millennia.<ref name="Chapinetal_2009">{{cite book |title=Principles of Ecosystem Stewardship: Resilience-Based Natural Resource |editor=F. Stuart Chapin III |editor2=Gary P. Kofinas |editor3=Carl Folke |year=2009 |doi=10.1007/978-0-387-73033-2 |publisher=Springer|isbn=978-0-387-73032-5 |s2cid=132900160 }}</ref>{{rp|142}} To them, caribou — ''vadzaih'' — is the cultural symbol and a keystone subsistence species of the Gwich'in, just as the [[American bison|American buffalo]] is to the Plains Native Americans.<ref name="Linguistics_2014">{{citation |title=Linguistic Team Studies Caribou Anatomy |first=Craig |last=Mishler |url=http://www.arcus.org/witness-the-arctic/2014/3/article/22797= |work=Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCOS) |year=2014 |access-date=11 January 2015 |quote="A fundamental question for the research is to elicit not only what the Gwich'in know about caribou anatomy, but how they see caribou and what they say and believe about caribou that defines themselves, their dietary and nutritional needs, and their subsistence way of life." |url-status=live |archive-date=10 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160210131053/https://www.arcus.org/witness-the-arctic/2014/3/article/22797=}}</ref> Innovative [[Language revitalization|language revitalisation]] projects are underway to document the language and to enhance the writing and translation skills of younger Gwich'in speakers. In one project, lead research associate and fluent speaker Gwich'in elder Kenneth Frank works with linguists who include young Gwich'in speakers affiliated with the [[Alaska Native Language Center]] at the [[University of Alaska Fairbanks|University of Alaska]] in [[Fairbanks, Alaska|Fairbanks]] to document traditional knowledge of caribou anatomy. The main goal of the research was to "elicit not only what the Gwich'in know about caribou anatomy, but how they see caribou and what they say and believe about caribou that defines themselves, their dietary and nutritional needs, and their subsistence way of life."<ref name="Linguistics_2014" /> Elders have identified at least 150 descriptive Gwich'in names for all of the bones, organs and tissues. Associated with the caribou's anatomy are not just descriptive Gwich'in names for all of the body parts, including bones, organs, and tissues, but also "an encyclopedia of stories, songs, games, toys, ceremonies, traditional tools, skin clothing, personal names and surnames, and a highly developed ethnic cuisine."<ref name="Linguistics_2014" /> In the 1980s, Gwich'in Traditional Management Practices were established to protect the Porcupine caribou, upon which the Gwich'in depend. They "codified traditional principles of caribou management into tribal law" which include "limits on the harvest of caribou and procedures to be followed in processing and transporting caribou meat" and limits on the number of caribou to be taken per hunting trip.<ref name="Caulfield_1983">{{citation |first=Richard |last=Caulfield |year=1983 |title=Gwich'in Traditional Management Practices |url=http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/ANWR/anwrgwichin1.html |series=Report to the Division of subsistence of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game |access-date=30 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020081541/http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/ANWR/anwrgwichin1.html |archive-date=20 October 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>