On Famine and Population Decline

An obvious theme in St. Lawrence Island history is the love of space and place. But the obstacles to maintaining a large population dependent on naturally occurring resources on the island are considerable and loom large.

Except for one year (1920) in which no competent census was taken, the St. Lawrence Island population steadily increased from 1,903 to the present (see fig. 2). These increases have implications for the relation between the native population and the per capita availability of naturally occurring species in the future.

If the population of St. Lawrence was 1,500 in 1878 (one estimate is 2,500), it is likely that prodigious quantities of meat were harvested to feed the people and the working dogs—much more than the amount that is harvested to feed the current island population of slightly over 1,000. Assuming that every five people had a team of eight dogs and that each of those dogs required three pounds of meat daily (on average—more in the winter months and less during the summer), the St. Lawrence Island Eskimos harvested over 1,300 tons of meat annually for the dogs alone in the 1870s. If we are very conservative and assume only four working dogs per five people, those dogs would require 650 tons of meat annually. Continued population growth, or the reinstitution of dog traction, or both, could presage disaster. A protracted famine in the 1870s meant that dogs and persons died, and as dogs died, the St. Lawrence Island Eskimos were less able to cope.