Template:Did you know nominations/St. Lawrence Island famine


 * The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as |this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Yoninah (talk) 18:09, 22 December 2018 (UTC)

St. Lawrence Island famine

 * ... that in Alaska during the 1878-80 St. Lawrence Island famine over 1000 people died of starvation? Source: "St. Lawrence Island famine and epidemic of 1878–80. The loss of at least 1,000 lives and all but two of the island's villages was a devastating event that is well documented in historical sources and archaeology, as well as multiple Yupik accounts.")
 * Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/St. Bonifatius, Kassel

Created by Thats Just Great (talk). Self-nominated at 06:04, 8 December 2018 (UTC).
 * ALT1 ... that the US Revenue Cutter Thomas Corwin (pictured) discovered the 1878-80 Alaskan St. Lawrence Island famine where over 1000 people died of starvation?
 * Symbol possible vote.svg Article new and good, but just a bit too short. The hooks also seem a bit plain (people died of starvation in a famine isn't interesting) and confusing (ALT1 needs rewording). If the article is made a bit longer, there are no other problems, and I'd like to propose another hook that's cited in the article:
 * ALT2 ... that after the St. Lawrence Island famine, where over 1000 people died of starvation, reindeer were artificially introduced to keep people fed? Kingsif (talk) 00:02, 16 December 2018 (UTC)


 * Symbol redirect vote 4.svg The article is almost 1600 characters long. Don't the rules say "1,500 characters of prose"? I have added some more info. The article is now 1919 characters (312 words) "readable prose size." ALT2 is fine with me.
 * ALT3 ... that the US Revenue Cutter Thomas Corwin (pictured) discovered that over 1000 people had starved to death during the 1878-80 Alaskan St. Lawrence Island famine? -- Thats Just Great (talk) 01:43, 16 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Symbol confirmed.svg The article is now 1885 character of prose long, which is enough. Either ALT2 or ALT3 is good, though the image adds nothing to ALT3, and I lean to ALT2 as being marginally more interesting just because of reindeer (especially being currently winter) and would suggest a special date limit to post this on Christmas. If you like the date idea, we can move it to the date section after the bot puts it on approved page. Kingsif (talk) 02:07, 16 December 2018 (UTC)
 * A Christmas post is fine with me - Thats Just Great (talk) 02:11, 16 December 2018 (UTC)
 * What do you think about using images of reindeer from the area at the time? Perhaps the article should also note that the introduction of reindeer began prior to the famine (the source says 1891, and commons has photo evidence from 1894) but, as the source says, this grew at the turn of the century and was explicitly to prevent starvation, as well as "civilise" the indigenous people there. Kingsif (talk) 02:19, 16 December 2018 (UTC)
 * The famine ended 1880. -- Thats Just Great (talk) 05:48, 16 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes, but I was under the assumption that buying reindeer from Russia might take a few years... and that you might have a source for that (I looked, it wasn't in the book, and I should have removed that comment but didn't) So you can disregard that comment, sorry. Kingsif (talk) 12:53, 16 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Rewording of ALT2 -- Thats Just Great (talk) 00:13, 17 December 2018 (UTC)


 * ALT4 ... that reindeer were artificially introduced to provide food after the Alaskan St. Lawrence Island famine, where over 1000 people died of starvation?
 * Symbol confirmed.svg ALT4 wording is better. Kingsif (talk) 00:13, 17 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Symbol question.svg Hi, I came by to promote this, but the article says they were introduced to bolster the economy and became a source of food. Yoninah (talk) 17:15, 22 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Updated article using the source material about preventing starvation. -- Thats Just Great (talk) 17:33, 22 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Thank you. So we'll go with:
 * ALT4a: ... that reindeer were introduced to prevent starvation following the St. Lawrence Island famine of 1878–1880, which killed more than 1,000 people?
 * Symbol voting keep.svg Restoring tick for ALT4a per Kingsif's review. Yoninah (talk) 18:07, 22 December 2018 (UTC)