We find no material errors in the findings of the Tribunal and therefore adopt them as our own. We also find the following facts. The Petitioner operates a unique organization. As a cooperative, the individual knitters who produce the products are the owners of Oomingmak. They select a board to govern the Cooperative and a small staff is hired to take care of necessary administrative tasks.
All services performed are for the benefit of the knitters.
The Cooperative was set up with the goal of providing a cash income for villagers without disturbing their village lifestyle. Before the Cooperative split off from the Musk Ox Project, a larger goal was that each village would have its own herd of musk-oxen from which to obtain the wool, and village knitters then would knit garments, which are the finished product. Handwork is not new to the Eskimos but it has mostly been for their own use, seldom for sale. Knitting is something that can be picked up whenever there is time to work on it, and it fits into the Eskimo workday. In the arctic the day is half a year long and the night is the other half, so work depends more on the season and the movements of animals than it does on the hour.