News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-05-22
THE POLAR REGIONS.

-Euery Other Saturday.
THE POLAR REGIONS.
THE NEIGHBORHOODO OF POINT BAR
ROW As DESCRIBED BY LIT. RAYS
PARTY.
Primitive lot of indians-Their Ways and
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
The Ooglaamiemeuns are the tribe of
natives in the immediate vicinity of
where Lit. Rays Signal Service station
was at Ooglaamie. The tribe consists of
$50 souls. A few miles distant is another
tribe, called the Noowookmeuns, num-
bering 140 people, but the relations ex-
isting between the two are not so har-
monious as one would be led TO believe
was due to neighbors where acquaint-
ances are so few. There have not been
any open outbreaks Between tho tribes.
and they often mingled together near
the station, but each eyed the other sus-
piciously, and the members of the two
tribes were observed to breathe more
freely when they were surrounded only
by their own people Neither tribe
holds allegiance to any chief or ruler.
No congresses or legislatures have as
yet broken in upon the rude mode of
living. They are anarchists in the full
sense of the word. Each man is his
own chief and, strange as it may seem,
Lieutenant Raw pronounces them the
best governed and happlest people in
the world. There appears to be no clash
ing of interests among them, and no
bully has ever yet come to the front and
bulldozed the tribe by asserting that
might made right. Fighting and quar-
relling are unknown. Ray says he never
saw child punished in any form, and
yet he reports the children as well be.
haved, modest and honest. As high as
twenty-five children have visited the
station at one time, and their deport-
ment would be such that he could not
help but notice the striking contrast be-
tween them and the children who had
all the advantages of civilization How
ever small the child might be it never
intruded itself into univited places. No
matter how many tools, articles of cloth
ing or provisions were scattered around,
the Lieutenant never saw them touch a
thing, much less to try to appropriate
or steal them. If anything was given a
child it showed its appreciation thereat,
sometimes in words but more often in
smiles, and by informing its playfellows
that ne or she had been shown especial
favors by the great white Captain. The
only blow Ray ever saw struck in these
tribes was by husband, who boxed his
wife's ears for supposed infdelity.
HABITS AND CUSTOMS.
Thieving is seldom known among the
men or women of the tribes, and when |
{ does occur there is no punishment for
he crime. The thief makes no secret of |
lis act, and vii deliberately expose the
Lrticle taken to the whole tribe in a few
minutes after appropriating IL to his own
se. The petty thief viii take hatchet
rom its owner, and in half an hour loan
t to him to dos work, and the owner is
n honor bound to return it to the scamp
who stole it. A case in point is as follows:
0ne of the tribe stole tent from another
one. He ''pitched" the tent few min
ltes later, and in half an hour had as his |
guest for dinner the original owner. The |
owner knew the tent, and yet came with
N its folds and partook of the hospitality
Of the thief. Possession appears to be
nine points of law with them. A police
court would soon become bankrupt
there. Neither tribe appears to have
any marriage ceremony. If the man is
willing and the woman also, there is no
legal impediment and the twain are as
one. There is but little funeral cere-
mony. When a male dies his body is
sewed up in canvas or a deer skin,
placed on sledge and moved out on the
tundra, where it remains. The deceased's
effects are all broken up over the body.
If woman dies the only change in form
of burial is in simply breaking bowl
over the body. Having no implements
to penetrate the hard frozen ground and
there being scarcity of lumber where
with to build caches, the above manner
of disposing of their dead seems to be
the only practicable way. Many persons
have accused these tribes of having no
feeling for their dead, not stopping to
consider the difficulties surrounding
them and the almost impossibility of Civ
ing them decent sepulture Ray says the
memory of the deceased is ever cherished
with the kindliest feelings, and when
they speak of the departed it is with a
reverence and charity not surpassed by
the white race.
NATIVE SUPERSTITION.
The OogIaalniemeuns and Noowook-
meuns are full of superstitious ideas, and
have god of fire, one of water and one
of almost everything else, even god of
the north wind, and so on for the eight
principal points of the compass. These
gods they often supplicate for assistance,
and should the prayer be heard ii is all
right, but should the prayer be unan-
swered in their simplicity they merely
consider the god angry or too busy to
attend to their present wants. At one
time one of these pow-wows (or prayer
was in progress. the object be-
ing to have the god of the east wind
drive away the ice pack that they might
hunt for seal, when Lieutenant Ray
called one of the old men of the tribe to
him and, marking the outlines of the
Asiatic coast upon the sand, told the Innu
(for such they call themselves) that
across the great water was larger body
of land and many, many more people
than the Ooglaamiemeuns had; that
these people also wanted seal, and the
god of the west wind was providing for
them, as they had undoubtedly prayed
harder to have their wants supplied.
The Innu was satisfied when informed
by Ray that he had been there and seen
this large body of people. The Innu
departed to where his people were in
such sober manner that it showed he
was deeply impressed with the Lieuten-
ants words. Soon the tribe were seen
to go to a higher elevation and there the
pow-wow commenced with redoubled
fury. The ceremony was kept up until
late in the day and that evening an east
wind prevailed and broke up the pack.