He was on the verge of quitting and yet he wouldn't tell me or the storekeeper what was bothering him. As soon as I learned what had happened, I called in the local leader and told him under no circumstances were we going to refuse beer rations to any worker at the site, Eskimo or White. He didn't get angry, though. Just accepted the situation and went away. Quite well really.
Life is hard up here, especially in winter.
The Eskimos often know more about the weather than we do - what to expect, how to take care of themselves in a snow storm, that kind of thing. You have to respect them for that. We have reall y bad storms up here with lots of wind. Once, several years ago, a local superintendent got lost in one of those storms. Would have frozen to death if the Eskimos hadn't found him.