New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1909-07-07
ODD ARCTIC PEOPLE,
Stefansson Hears of Persons
Who Are Not Eskimos.


THEIR HAIR is NOT BLACK
Hint That Mystery Of Sir John Frank
Inns Missing Men or Of Vanished
lceIandic Colony May Be soIved-IlI
Effects Of Civilization Were Found
on All Sides.
A letter from v. Stefansson, the arc
tic explorer, received the other day by
friend who lives in Pleasantville,
N. Y, hints at possible unraveling
either of the mystery which for more
than sixty years has enveloped the
fate of Sir John Franklin's two ships
companies or Of the greater mystery
concerning colonies of Icelanders who
long ago migrated to Greenland and
then disappeared.
Stefansson's letter, dated Barrow,
Alaska, Feb. 49," and postmarked
Nome, Alaska, April 81 in transit.
says:
Here l am, farther west than you
probably expected me to go in winter.
This is whaling station, the most
northerly one in America, the most
easterly one Of those whose egress is
by the Pacific ocean. There is here
also the most northerly postoftice I'M
der American control, and it has two
outgoing reindeer mails in winter, Nov
1 and Feb. Is, as well as ship mail
In July or August: am here to write
letters and reports to the museum
my winter camp is, as planned, on
the lower Colville river. left it about
the time the sun went away and have
since wandered as far west as Vain
wright inlet, about hundred miles
southwest Of Point Barrow and 300
from our winter camp, stopping at
every Eskimo settlement, an unpleas-
ant thing in many cases, for the hab-
its and. diseases Of civilization are ev-
erywhere evident, unhealthy people
crowded into unventilated and uncom-
Portable houses, complete contrast to
what it was twenty years ago here,
am told, and to what it still is to the
eastward, where every house, no mat
ter how crowded, is always warm and
we'll ventilated.
"At Point Barrow and west Of there
80 per cent Of the people have aban-
doned the warm, semi-excavated house
with its door in the floor, the advan-
tages Of which are we'll known to you,
for flimsy overground structures imi-
tating white mems houses. The walls
of these are SO thin that even were
they air tight, as they often are (very
nearly, enough cold comes in by con-
duction through the boards to form
hoarfrost here and there and ice in
stead Of a door and ventilating chin
ney always open, these houses have
no ventilator, the door is hastily closed
whenever opened, and every crack is
filed with rag, tallow or chewing
gum. ......
"A doctor who has been at Barrow
seven years, since 1896 Che has had
vacations) tells me that the death rate
from tuberculosis has more than
doubled In ten years, the period Of the
change (under missionary and other
influences) from the 'insanitary, filthy
native houses to the tidy, modern
damp cockleshells that are numbering
the people.
'"This has been a depression. It
would take many pages of print to
show up thoroughly the effects Of civ
ilization at Point Barrow and west
of it.
Gin three or four days shall start
east for Colville and spend "a month
or two there at least. Many Of the
people there had never seen white
man when we arrived, but they have
associated for many years with Es-
kimos who are Christians, etc., and
their influence has been marked.
They are therefore from my point Of
view sophisticated.
''On October last we divided our par
ty In two sections. DR.. Anderson, with
an Eskimo family, went into the noun
tains south of Barter island, about
seventy-6v miles southeast from Flax
man island and 125 from my camp
My party consisted of a man, wife,
baby and one man besides. Dr. An
derson was to try to make living on
mountain sheep, river fish and ptarmi-
gan. Our hope was deer, caribou, Of
which we got fifteen, not nearly
enough though more than any Eskimo
hunter Of the Colville country
GAS heretofore, the plan is to spend
next winter a good way to the east
ward, 500 or 600 miles as one travels
it east Of the Colville pear the mouth
of the Coppermine river or on Victoria
, Land. Some Eskimos who saw some
! Of these people last year tell me that
in party of twenty they saw one
| middle aged man and one woman Of
| about eighteen who had hair as light
as mine is and several whose hair was
not black. Now, you know pure
| b1oo1o1 Ecyinon ic oS b1ooly bo ;rod ord