Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 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 a lost
tribe of Eskimos-a community which
has been without intercourse with
other representatives of the human
species for centuries, and whose men,
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 grit terra firma 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
period it is natural 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 a 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 fifty-eight
individuals, about equally divided be-
tween the sexes Its members speak
dialect peculiar to themselves and
quite unlike that employed by any
other Esquimaux. A strait about
thirty miles broad separates South
ampton island from the western shore
of Hudson bay, where there is a colony
of Esquimaux, and once in very
long while the strait freezes over.
This happened. 1t is said seventy
five years ago, and then a few hunters
came over from the island to the
mainland, where they were much sur
prised to encounter other human be-
ings like themselves, having doubtless
imagined that they were the only peo-
pie in existence.
This is now a 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
fnrial lyatflau hn
people of the lost tribe are obliged to
make such receptacles out OF slabs of
limestone glued together in Tectangu-
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
neighhorhood, will pay any price TO
get II 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 of
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 md" has Just been
made by Mr.. George II. Pepper. who
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-
posts representing what may be
termed fossil snake dances-in other
words memorial of ceremonials of this
description which were conducted per-
haps thousand years ago by the an
eesiors Of the modern MoM Indians
WHY SKATER COMES EAST.
The rSnava1 Hos a tel, ,hh,.t, ,