William Thomas Lopp (June 21, 1864 – April 10, 1939), known better professionally as W. T. Lopp, and to his family as Tom Lopp, was a member of the

Overland Relief Expedition The Overland Relief Expedition, also called the Alaska Relief Expedition or Point Barrow-Overland Relief Expedition, was an expedition in the winter of 1897–1898 by officers of the United States Revenue Cutter Service to save the lives of 265 whal ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

, then a

U.S. territory In the United States, a territory is any extent of region under the sovereign jurisdiction of the federal government of the United States, including all waters (around islands or continental tracts). The United States asserts sovereign rights for ...

. He was a missionary and advocate of turning native hunters into self-sufficient reindeer herders. Lopp Lagoon, an long bay near where Lopp lived in Alaska, is named after him. William Thomas Lopp was born June 21, 1864, to Jacob C. and Lucinda Trotter Lopp at Valley City, Indiana. He earned a B.A. at Indiana's

Hanover College Hanover College is a private college in Hanover, Indiana, affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). Founded in 1827 by Reverend John Finley Crowe, it is Indiana's oldest private college. The Hanover athletic teams participate in the H ...

in 1888.William Thomas Lopp
Private Academic Library Network of Indiana collection

Alaska

In 1890, Lopp moved to

Cape Prince of Wales Cape Prince of Wales (Russian: Мыс Принца Уэльского) () is the westernmost mainland point of the Americas. It was named in 1778 by Captain James Cook of the British Royal Navy, presumably for the Prince of Wales at the time, Geo ...

to teach at a mission school. After marrying Ellen Louise Kittredge in 1892, he and his wife continued to teach and learn Eskimo languages and Eskimo lifestyles. Seeing that Eskimo food sources were endangered by the encroachments of the burgeoning American and Canadian fishing industry, Lopp promoted

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 sub ...

herding among the native Alaskans as an alternative means of subsistence. In 1892 reindeer were brought over from

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...

and a "reindeer station" was established, with Lopp as superintendent.W.T. Lopp papers at the University of Oregon
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Seattle, Washington

Lopp moved his family to

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...

, USA in 1902, but continued involvement in Alaskan native education and reindeer herding for 34 more years, holding a variety of government and private industry positions. During his career Lopp established sixty-six schools, five hospitals and sanitation systems, and increased prosperity in the coastal villages of northern Alaska. Lopp died on April 10, 1939, survived by his wife Ellen and their seven surviving children.

Appointments

*1904–1909 Superintendent of government schools (Native) and reindeer, northern district, of Alaska. *1910–1923 Chief of the Alaska division of the U.S. Bureau of Education. *1923–1925 Superintendent of education of Natives of Alaska. *1925–? Reindeer expert for

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

Books about Lopp

*''In a Far Country: The True Story of a Mission, a Marriage, a Murder, and the Remarkable Reindeer Rescue of 1898''. by John Taliaferro. PublicAffairs (November 30, 2006) *''Ice Window: Letters from a Bering Strait Village 1898-1902''. by Kathleen Lopp-Smith.

University of Alaska Press The University Press of Colorado is a nonprofit publisher supported partly by Adams State College, Adams State University, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Metropolitan State University of Denver, the University of Colorado at Boulde ...

(February 1, 2002)

Books by Lopp

*''White Sox: the story of the reindeer in Alaska''. by William Thomas Lopp; H Boylston Dummer. Publisher: Yonkers-on-Hudson, N.Y. : World Book, 1924. *''Schools conducted by the United States government''. by Douglas MacArthur; William Thomas Lopp; United States. Navy Dept.; United States. Indian School Service. Publisher: .l. : s.n. 1913.

References

External links

Photographs of Lopp and his family in 1902 and 1918
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lopp, William Thomas 1864 births 1939 deaths Hanover College alumni People from Harrison County, Indiana