Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1900-01-25
LOST TRIBE
OF Eskimos Reported to Have Been
Found.

New York Herald.-The strangest
anthropological find" recorded in the
last decade of the nineteenth century
Will soon be announced by the Ameri-
can Museum of Natural History. 1t is
nothing less than the discovery, on a
lonely island in Hudson bay, of lost
tribe of ESkimos-a community which
has been without intercourse with
other representatives of the human
species for centuries, and whose mem
bers never saw a white man until a
few months ago. They are still in
the stone age, knowing no metals;
they grow no plants, and their houses
are built of the skulls of whales.
The home of this strange tribe is
on Southampton island a piece of
water girt terra frma nearly as big
as the state of Maine, situated at the
north end of Hudson bay. Apparently
the people have dwelt there ever since
pre-Columbian times, and today they
live and subsist in exactly the same
way as they did then.
Having been isolated for so long a
period it is Aatural they should ex-
hibit many peculiarities. A superb
collection of utensils, weapons Of the
chase and other objects, made through
the agency of DR.. Franz Boas, has
been brought to New York in a whal-
ing vessel and deposited in the
Museum of Natural History.
The houses of skulls, more proper
ly described as huts, are built by
putting together the great jaws Of
whales, which are covered over
with skins. In the middle of this
primitive dwelling is an elevated
place on which stands the inevitable
stone lamp, employed for lighting,
heating, cooking, melting snow, dry
ing clothes and in certain arts. 1t Is
nothing more than an open dish Of
whale oil or seal oil, with a wick of
dry moss soaked in fat.
The whale is the chief means of sub
sistence Of whalebone in variety Of
surprising ways, making even their
cups and buckets of it by bending it
into rounded shapes and sewing on
the bottoms. Many of their imple-
ments are of whalebone, and from
the same stuff they manufacture to-
boggan like sleds.
They make sledges with walrus
tusks for runners and deer antlers
for cross pieces. 1t would be hard to
find more daring hunters than are
they, the seal, the walrus and the
wary caribou contributing to their
game bags.
The tribe comprises only ffty-eight
individuals, about equally divided be-
tween the sexes. Its members speak
a dialect peculiar to themselves and
quite unlike Eat employed by any
other EslHi Any, y S,rAit about
thirty miles hrold separates South
ampton island from the western shor.
of Hudson bay. where there is colony
of EsqumauX, and once in a very
long while the strait freezes over.
This happened, it is said, seventy
five years ago, and then a few hunters
came over from the island to the
mainland, whore they were much sur
ings like themselves, having doubtless
imagined that they were the only peo-
pie in existence.
This is now tradition with the ma
tives on. the mainland, who say that
the strangers brought two sledges
with them, but went away again and
never returned. Neither before nor
since has any news come from the lost
tribe until recently
On Southampton island there is no
soapstone, which, among the Esqui-
mauX elsewhere, is the favorite ma
terial for pots and kettles Hence the
people of the lost tribe are obliged to
make such receptacles out of slabs OF
limestone glued together in rectangu-
lar shapes with a mixture OF grease
and deer blood. In the same way they
manufacture their lamps, and this fact
Is another evidence of the prolonged
isolation of the community described
inasmuch as EsquimauX. when they
can obtain no soapstone in their own
neighborhood, will pay any price to
get it from some other more fortunate
tribe.
Sometimes they will make trips last
ing several years in quest Of this ma
terial which is rare, and not often
discovered in pieces large enough for
lamps or pots.
The story of this shut-off tribe oil
Esquimaux parallels the tradition Of
the famous lost colony of Norsmen
which, as recorded in the sagas and In
Morse folklore, was cut off in Green.
land six hundred years ago.
To match this notable discovery in
the frozen north. another very strange
chronological find" has Just beer
made by Mr.. George H. Pepper, whc
like Dr. Boas, is connected with the
American Museum of Natural History
! This Is nothing less than the turning
up in Northern New Mexico Of de
posits representing what may be
! termed fossil snake dances in other
words memorial Of ceremonials OF thi:
description which were conducted per.
| hapS thousand years ago by the an