The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-11-30
''BLOND ESKIMOS''
Arctic Lands Hold People in
Primeval State.
Live in Victoria Land-Un.
touched by Civilization.

Seattle. Nov. sO-"Sure they're
blond Eskimos.' They are aborigines
living up in the white Arctic on Vic
toria land in their primeval state abso-
lutely untouched by the outside world 8
civilization. They are completely out
of contact with everything and, conse-
Quently, have none of our improve
ments and also none of our evils
w. j. Bower. known along the Arc
tic coast as Levi" Bower, one of the
very few men who have gone from
the outside into the far northern al
most tabled land of the blond Eski-
mos" thus described them when he
was here recently.
And I don't think it was Stefansson
who first found them" Bower assert,
ed. Vilhjalmur Stefansson, returned
Canadian Arctic explorer, who has
been credited with discovering the
strange tribe, agrees with Bower that
he did not find them first. He does,
however, claim that he made the first
study of the tribe and brought back
to the outside world the first report
of its existence.
Found First in 1908.
According to Stefansson and Bower.
a Captain klinkerberg. master Of the
whaling schooner Olga, in 1905 push
ed northwest to Victoria Land, where
he found the blond tribe. On his re-
tnrn to the whaling base at Herschel
Island, an Arctic ocean point, he told
of his findings. Stefansson, then at
Herschel, heard Klinkenbergs story,
and Immediately went to Victoria.
where he made study of the natives.
Bower claimed the blond Eskimos'
are really blond. Stefansson does not
go so far, but says they have light
gray, almost blue eyes and few have
light hair and eyebrows. Bower
pointed out that the blond" natives
have round full eyes while the other
Eskimos of the far north have the
slant eyes of Asiatics.
1T looks as If the blond Eskimos'
come from early Greenlanders, or
Scandinavian stock of some kind
Bower said. IT know they are not
half white and hat Eskimo because
the half breed Eskimos have black
eyes and black hair. These white ones
have light eyes and light skin and hair
The old men of the tribe have the
same white features as the young.
Use Bows and Arrows.
Bows and arrows are used by them,
they know nothing about tobacco and
liquor. They make their fires with a
sort Of flint. They dress in skins,
spear their reindeer and club their
fish. They won't eat outsiders food
and they speak a language similar to
that of the Eskimo.
Iney are nOSpltdDle, friendly ana
square, too square. / think. If you
give them anything they are not salts
fled until they give you something in
return. I gave one woman an empty
baking powder tin and she Immediate
1y brought me a big skin.
I'VE left a gun with them. Instead
of using it to kill meat, the men SEEM
ed to think it was plaything for when
I left they We're shooting their bullets
away ut targets and wildly into the
air. When they ran out of ammuni-
ton they probably turned the gun
around and got some real use out of
It as a club"
Bower said he thought there were
over $50 blond Eskimos'' on Victoria
Land. 1t is not very probable that they
will ever be molested much by the out
side world for Victoria Land is far
off the usual run of traders and whal-
ers go into the Arctic no longer.
Bower has served on whaling YES
sells in many parts of the north, and
until his recent return to the states,
had not been out of the Arctic for five
years On Stefanssons last trip he was
steward on the schooner Polar Bear
which Stefansson used for a time
Stefansson took Bower into the
UbIopdn ESlxirpo country