Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1909-10-21
Naval Commander
SternIy Refutes
Claims Made by
the Doctor.
TESTIMONY OF THE EsKIMos
Long and Carefully Prepared State.
ment Given to the Public Amounts
to Direct Questioning of Dr.. Cooks
veracity-Is Signed by All the
Principals of the Roosevelt Party.

Veracity-Is Signed by All the
Principals of the Roosevelt Party.
New York, Oct. 12-The following
statement of Commander Robert r.
Peary, which he submitted, together
with the accompanying. map, to the
,Peary Arctic club in support of his
contention that DR.. Cook did not reach
the north pole, is now made public for
the first time. The statement and
map have been copyrighted by the
PssEy Arctic club. ~
Commander Peary's Introduction.
Some of my reasons for saying that
DR.. Cook did not go to the north pole
will be understood by those who read
the following statements of the two
Eskimo boys who went with him. and
who told me and others of my party
where he did go. Several Eskimos
who started with DR.. Cook from An
oratok in February, $685. were at
Etah when arrived there in August,
1908. They told me that DR.. Cook had
with him, after they left, two Eskimo
boys, or young men, two sledges and
some twenty dogs. The boys were
Itook-a-shoo and Ah-pe-lah. / had
known them from their childhood.
One was about eighteen and the other
about nineteen years of age.
s. ~ ~
On my return from Cape Sheridan
and at the very first settlement
touched (Nerke, near Cape Chalon) in
August, 1909, and Zine days before
reaching Etah, the Eskimos told me,
been; that he had wintered in Jones
Sound, and that he had told the white
men at Etah that he had been long
May north, but that the boys who were
with him, I-took-a-shoo and A-pe-lah,
said that this was not so. The Eski-
mos laughed at DR.. Cooks story. On
reaching Etah, talked with the Els.
kinos there and with the two. boys
and asked them to describe Dr. Cooks
Journey to members of my party and
myself This they did in the manner
stated below.
{Signed) R. E. PEARY.
Signed Statement of Peary, Bartlett,
Mcmillan, Borup and Henson, in Re-
gard to Testimony of Cooks Two
Eskimo Boys. ~
The two Eskimo boys, I-took-a-shoo
and Ah-pe-lah, who accompanied DR..
Cook while he was away from Anora-
tok in 1908 and 1908, were questioned
separately and independently, and
were corroborated by Panikpah, the.
father Of one of them .(I-took-a-shoo),
who was personally familiar with the
first third and the last third of their
journey, and who said that the route
forfthe remaining third as shown by
them, was as described to him by his
son after his return with DR.. Cook.
The narrative of these Eskimos is
as follows:
They, with DR.. Cook, Francke and
nine other Eskimos, left .Anoratok,
crossed Smiths Sound to Cape Sabine,
Slept in Commander Peary's old house
il3 Payer Harbor, then went through
Rice strait to Buchanan bay. After
few marches Francke and three Eskl-
mos returned to Anoratok.
DIR. Cook, with the others, then pro-:
ceeded up Flagler bay, a branch OF
Buchanan bay, and crossed Files
mere Land through the valley pass at
the head OF Flagler bay, indicated by
Commander Peary in 1898, and utilized
by. Syerdrup in 1899, to the head OF
Sverdrup's "Bay Fiord" on the west
side of Ellesmere Land.
Their route then lay out through
this ford, thence north through sver-
drup's "Heuerka Sound" and Nansen
strait.
On their way they killed musk oxen
and bear, and made caches, arriving
eventually at a point on the west side
of Nahsen strait (shore OF Axel Hell
berg Land of Sverdrup), south OF
Cape Thomas Hubbard.
cache was formed here and the
-four Eskimos did not go beyond this
point. Two others, KoolootingWah and
Inughito, went on one more march
with DR.. Cook and the two boys,
helped to build the snow igloo, then
returned without sleeping
These two Eskimos brought back