Finnmark , Norway ( CNN ) -- Millions of people know Clement Clarke Moore 's poem `` The Night Before Christmas , '' written in New York in 1822 and believed to describe Santa 's mode of transportation , a reindeer-driven sleigh , for the first time . But Santa 's reindeer have a story and a history all of their own , one tied to the oldest indigenous culture in Northern Europe and accelerated by an American entrepreneur whose principal intention was not delighting children around the world , but creating an appetite for what he hoped would become a mealtime staple as ubiquitous as beef . For thousands of years here in the snowy Arctic of northern Norway , reindeer have been a symbol and a way of life for the Sami , Northern Europe 's oldest surviving indigenous people , spanning parts of Norway , Finland , Sweden and the Kola Peninsula of Russia , in an area that is known as Sapmi . ( They are also called Laplanders . ) About 10 percent of Samis still herd , with the bulk of the reindeer population found in Kautokeino and Karasjok , Norway , where even today the reindeer are herded up into the mountains for the long winter and brought down again in spring . The Sami are some of the most tenacious people on earth -- the cowboys and cowgirls of the tundra , deeply in tune with nature and able to deftly move and guide huge herds of animals during brutal winters over vast expanses . To many , there are no better herders in the world . Reindeer first came to Alaska , via Siberia , through the work of an Alaskan missionary named Sheldon Jackson . In the mid-1800s , many Inuit were starving due to the commercial overfishing of whales , the core of the Inuit diet , for whale oil . Consumed with the idea finding an alternative food source for this culture , Jackson turned to the idea of reindeer herding and husbandry . Thanks to Jackson 's lobbying , the U.S. government agreed , appropriating funds to support seeding the plan by knowledge transfer of expert herders to the Inuit , starting with a short-lived attempt with Siberians , and later , the Sami . And so in 1898 , more than 100 Sami reindeer herders and their families , and nearly 600 reindeer , made the passage from the north of Norway to the United States , ending up in Alaska to introduce reindeer herding , Sami style , to America . While reindeer are at the heart of traditional Sami culture , the idea of a jolly , gift-giving Santa Claus flying around with his herd has no part in their history or tradition . The two ideas collided in popular culture via a businessman in Alaska named Carl Lomen . When the reindeer came to Alaska and began to flourish , Lomen , a native of Minnesota , saw the commercial , mass-market possibilities of reindeer meat and fur for the United States and sought to promote it aggressively . Lomen was as much a clever marketer as a businessman , and in 1926 he conceived , along with Macy 's department store , a promotional Christmas parade led by Santa , his reindeer , a sleigh and several Sami herders in their vibrant traditional dress . Eventually , similar parades were held in cities around the country , and a meme was born . Lomen is said to have further accelerated his marketing efforts by planting fake children 's letters in local newspapers , the fictitious children asking for Santa and his reindeer to visit their towns . In the 1920s , the Lomen Reindeer Co. owned more than a quarter-million reindeer , and Lomen became known as `` the reindeer king . '' But reindeer meat never took off in America for many reasons , most notably pressure from the cattle lobby and changes in laws about who could own reindeer in the U.S. -- the right eventually going in 1937 to indigenous American cultures , excluding even the Sami . ( The law was reversed 60 years later . ) Lomen 's company was forced out of the reindeer business as a result , but his marketing efforts unleashed a worldwide obsession with Santa and created a common narrative now known around the world , and even elaborated on : Rudolph , the most famous reindeer of all , was not based in mythology or literature stemming from an indigenous culture , but was instead concocted as a character in a coloring book distributed in 1939 by the now-defunct Montgomery Ward department stores . As a Sami descendant , I became curious about the origin of Santa and his gang of reindeer last year on the Arctic tundra , where I experienced firsthand how difficult it can be to rig up even one reindeer . Forget flying . As beautiful and majestic as the reindeer are , they can be skittish , and the idea of rigging eight together and making forward progress seemed ambitious , even in a children 's poem . For a sled , only one reindeer is the Sami tradition , but sometimes more are used when pulling supplies . I 've queried many herders about the feasibility of eight reindeer -- it is possible in the right hands , but not common . And these days in Sapmi , the snowmobile has replaced the reindeer for transportation purposes , anyway -- something Santa may want to consider . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Laura Galloway .
Reindeer are a way of life for the Sami people of Northern Europe , says Laura Galloway . An Alaskan missionary helped bring reindeer to North America in the 1800s , she says . Galloway : The Sami have been living on this land since at least 8000 BC His marketing campaign helped create the indelible image of Santa and reindeer , she says .