Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1885-11-11


warming person on cold night.
Characteristic of all savages. especially
those low in the scale, they have quite
of such small stature. They are fond of
personal ornamentation, dirt being the
principal article used, and they are
quite lavish in their display of it. Aside
from purposes of navigation, they evil
IDENTIFY have no use for water. Their
principal food is seal and reindeer, the
walrus being practically unknown in the
strait except as rare wanderer to these
regions. Reindeer are quite plentiful
inland, q journey of day or two away,
and the principal time for hunting them
is in the fall, when their skins are in the
best condition for making the winter
clothing of the Esquimaux. The word
''ooming-mung," meaning musk oxen,
is in their vocabulary, although, strange
ly enough, the animal il unknown in
their country. 1t may indicate that it
once existed In their land, but more
probably they know of it through visits
| from members of far distant tribes who
have spoken of it. Such visits, though
rare, are undertaken now and then by
adventurous Innuits. All of the Esqui-
maux live on the northern shores of the
great strait, although evidences of their
| former existence have also been found
on the southern side. On Southampton
Island, in Hudson's Bay, are found the
| Sedluk Innuits, of whom almost little or
nothing is Known except that they are
very destitute and degraded branch of
the family. On the mainland of the
northern shores of the great bay are the
three tribes among whom l spent much
OF my time.
These three tribes had been widely
scattered over various estuaries of the
bay in times past, but for ten or fifteen
years American whalers had fshed on
the northern whaling grounds of this in
land sea, and the inducements they
offered the natives had collected them
near their principal grounds, and espe-
cially near their winter harbors, for the
American method of whaling in North
Hudson's Bay is to enter as early as
possible after the ice breaks up in one
year, capture whales one summer, con-
sisting Of about month or six weeks,
then going into winter harbor. Cutting
out of the ice early next spring, they
leave the place as late as they can with
safety the second year. The induce
ments found by these savages in the
presence of the whaling ships is in the
employment given to the best young
men, who are far superior whalers TO the
white men, and in their chances to dis
pose of their reindeer-skin clothing to
the crew for their winter use. The seal
and walrus meat, and especially that of
the reindeer they can readily exchange
for occasional meals of very weak tea or
coffee, well sweetened with refuse mo-
lasses, into which has been thrown
homeopathic handful of bread-crumbs
"to give it body" rs | heard whale
mans cook remark, and / must confess
it looked as if it was all soul before
that. In case of famine and dire dis
tress the whalemen form a reserve, on
which the natives can fall back until the
game that has temporarily fled for
unknown causes may return again.
Their principal diet is the flesh
of the walrus, large numbers
of which they kill every month in
the year. With the capture of fair
sized walrus the natives secure from
half to three quarters of ton of meat,
not an ounce of which is ever wasted, so
far-reaching is the Esquimau economy.
In fact, one of the three tribes mentioned
is the I-williks, signifying walrus. eaters,
from i-wick, the Innut for walrus
Adjoining them to the west is another
of the three tribes and one of the rare
instances of which | have spoken as
being an Innuit people not living on the
seashore. They live inland from the
shores of the Chesterfield Inlet, their
principal subsistence being reindeer,
and as this is undoubtedly the most
palatable meat in the Arctic as far as
subsistence is concerned they are to be
envied, although in not catching seal or
walrus they have no oil with which to
cook it, and nearly all of the flesh is de-
voured in q raw state. Raw meat in
the Arctic, it should be remembered,
means that 1t has been frozen solid, and
freezing is undoubtedly method of
cooking. Frozen reindeer meat tastes
very much like canned corned beef as
now prepared, without the salt of that
article. The Esquimaux of Chesterfield
Inlet, or rather the inland country away
from it, are called the Kinnepetoos, the
word in Innuit signifying the trimming
on the tops of the reindeer boots, this
tribe making more conspiuous dis
play of these than the natives along
their frontiers. The Iwilliks were the
people directly among whom we lived.
Their country was about two or three
hundred miles further northward, the
Repulse Bay of the charts, having been
named Iwillik by an exploring expedi-
ton, many years ago, on account of
their inability to navigate its waters,
and as the whalers had not been able to
do any better in later times, the Iwilliks
had to abandon their country, to be
near the white men, in order to trade
for such things as they wanted, includ-
ing arms and ammunition, boats, cut.
lery and miscellaneous articles.
They were profuse in extending to me
their hospitality, and performed many
little acts of kindness that rapidly re-
moved the repugnance of the first con-
tact and the prospect of having TO live
with such creatures. No compensation
was demanded in advance, nor was any
rate agreed upon before commencing
work, that being left entirely with the
person hiring them, according to their
usual custom. They were paid from
our stores of trading material-as the
value of money is absolutely unknown
by them. Although | thought that no
extra indulgence or favors had been
shown them in the compensation given,
they evidently thought so, and after cir
cumstances showed plainly that they
had been paid many times the amount
they could have expected, judging from
the usual allowances paid them by 9TH
ers. Abusiness man would have thought
1t waste of material after these facts
leaked out, but think it did much
to cement warm friendship with the
tribo that did so much for my expedi-