The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1912-11-08
MORE ON BLONDE EskIMos
DR.. Andersons Corroborstes in Every
Way the Story of Steffansson.

Way the Story of Steffansson.
Corroborating in every essential de-
tail the story of the discovery of the
blonde Eskimo tribes recently an
nounced by Vilhjalmer Steffansson.
Dr. Rudolph Martin Anderson of For
est City, To-, his partner in Arctic ex-
ploration, arrived at San Francisco
November on the whaler Belvedere.
after four and half years in the Far
North. He was accompanied by Pro
fessor E. Dekoyen LeHingwell of Pas
adena. Cal, who has spent three and
half years making observations in
the vicinity Of the Plaxen islands end
surveying and mapping about $50
miles of the coast line.
1T was over on the Cape BeXley
territory, on the mainland and on
Prince Albert sound. across and TO
the south of the Dolphin and Union
straits. that Steffansson first got in
touch with the blonde aborigines,"
said DR.. Anderson. I'm the spring of
1910. we lost most of our dogs while
at Cape Parry. LangtOn bay and
Franklin bay, where we had winter
ed Steffansson and 4 parted company,
he leaving with two Eskimos for the
East while | pushed on to the Mack
enzie delta for supplies. We met
again at Langton bay in the autumn
of 1910 and he told me of the queer
tribe he had discovered
In December we started out and
were thirty-one days crossing 800
miles of the worst strip of land we
ever encountered We explored the
littleknown Horton river and made
records and compass calculations.
This is one of the largest rivers
flowing into the Arctic. We were
going through the barren grounds
and putting in supply of caribou
for our dash for Coronation bay in
the spring. From Dease river to Dis
NAL lake and to the Copper Mine riv-
er and Coronation bay was our course
| the last seventy-fve miles over the
| ice before we found these strange
! people.
First we came on a deserted snow
village and finally an inhabited viii
! lage with population of forty Many
Of the men had light mustaches and
boards and light hair covered their
heads. The eyebrows of these men
| were light and their eyes were light
Some of the women-not all-had
| fair skin and rosy cheeks; but their
hair was dark, oily and tangled
There were none of the fat-nosed Es-
kimos of the true Monaghan type
among this people Their features
bore the characteristics of the eau
casian race. They do not know
where they came from and no one
else knows
They have no records. no history,
no legends, and their language, a Pc
culiar tribal dialect was extremely
hard to understand. As to their orr
gin there can be only a guess. They
may be survivors of the expedition of
Sir John Franklin, lost to the east of
their present locality in 1910 or
Whereabouts, or they may be descend
ants of the inhabitants of an early
lcelandic colony. Among these peo-
! pie there is no hope. no thought
worth registering, no ideals, no par
tcular purpose in life For six
months of the year they simply exist.
living in snow houses and eating seal
meat. In the summer they move to
/ the mainland and subsist on caribou
meat. They have no religion and no
marriage ceremony, although there is
fidelity as tribal characteristic.
Through other Eskimos they do some
trading. but precious little
"Stehansson had seen about $50
more of these people in his summer
trip. He mound conditions about the
same as | have observed. The peo-
| pie We discovered are extremely
primitive. having no modern simple
ments of any kind and no modern
weapons They hunt with a crude
bow and arrow and spear fish
through holes in the ice They cook
their food. In kindling a fire they
strike two crystalized stones to-
gether"