Smith, Kathleen Lopp

William T. "Tom" Lopp (1864-1939) and Harrison R. Thornton arrived in Wales, Alaska, in 1890 to open a U.S. government school. Ellen L. Kittredge (1868-1947) arrived in Wales in 1892 as an assistant teacher, and soon thereafter married Lopp. The Lopps' life among the Inupiaq Eskimos of Wales (1892-1902) is documented through Ellen Lopp's letters, published in the book Ice Window (Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2001) by granddaughter Kathleen Lopp Smith. The Lopps' time in Wales coincided with government introduction of an Eskimo reindeer industry in northwestern Alaska. The program was initiated at Teller in 1892 and soon extended to Wales. In 1898 Tom Lopp and the Eskimo herders of Wales drove a herd of reindeer from Wales to Point Barrow for the relief of icebound whalers reported to be starving. Over the next decade, every village from Wales to Barrow was supplied with a herd. Lopp was instrumental in establishing the "endless chain" system of reindeer distribution, whereby each Native reindeer owner was required to train other Natives and provide them with deer as they became qualified to care for them. In 1902 the Lopp family moved to Seattle, Washington. Tom remained involved in Alaska Native education and the reindeer program through the U.S. Bureau of Education and divided his time between Seattle, Washington, D. C., and Alaska. In the mid 1920s, he visited Baffin Land as consultant to the Hudson's Bay Company as it explored the possibility of introducing a reindeer program in northeastern Canada.