Evening star., 1918-11-06
SAYS STHATb[OND !.
ESKIMO IS REALITY
W. J. Bower, an Old Arctic
WhaIer, Tells Of Strange
People in Victoria
LIVE IN PRIMEvAt STATE
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
SEATTLE. November 6.-"Sure
they're blond Eskimos.' They are
aborigines living dD in the white
Arctic on Victoria Land in their
primeval state absolutely untouched
by the outside worlds civilization.
They are completely out OF contact
with everything. and. consequently,
have none of our, improvements and
also none of our evils
w. j. Bower, known along the
Arctic coast as Levi" Bower. one of
the very few men who have gone
from the outside into the far northern
almost tabled land of the "blond
Eskimos.'' thus described them when
he was here recently.
And I don't think it was Stefansson
who first found them." Bower asserted.
Vilhjalmur Stefansson, returned Cana
dian Arctic explorer, who has been
credited with discovering the strange
not find them first. He does, however.
claim that he made the first study of
! the tribe and brought back to the out
side world the first report of its ex-
| istence.
Stefansson Makes Study of Tribe.
| According to Stefansson and Bower,
a Capt. Klinkerberg. master of the
whaling schooner Olga, i'll 1905. pushed
northwest to Victoria Land, where he
found the blond tribe. On his return
| to the whaling base at Herschel
Island, an Arctic ocean point, he told
! of his findings. Stefansson, then at
Herschel, heard Klinkenberg's story
and Immediately went to Victoria,
where he made study of the natives:
| e1 n the sh1nn6 E,SlStmnS''
are really blond. Stefansson does not
go that far, but says they have light
gray, blue eyes and a few have light
| hair and eyebrows. Bower pointed
out that the blond natives have
round full eyes while the other Eski-
mos of the far north have the slant
| eyes of Asiatics.
Greenlanders or Scandinavians.
"It looks as if the blond Eskimos'
come from early Greenlanders or
Scandinavian stock of some kind"
Bower said. II know they are not
half white and half Eskimos because
the halfbreed 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.
Bows and arrows are used by
them; they know nothing about to-
bacco and liquor; they make their fires
with a sort of flint; they dress in
skins; they spear their. reindeer and
club their. fish; they won't eat out
sider's food and they speak language
similar to that of the Eskimos.
"They are hospitable, friendly and
square; too square, 1 think. If you
give them anything, they are not
satisfied until they give you something
in return. 1 gave one woman an
empty baking powder tin and she i'm
Regarded Gun as Plaything.
1--WE left gun with them. Instead
of using it to kill meat, the men
seemed to think it was a plaything.
for when I left they were shooting
their bullets away at targets and
wildly into the air. When they ran
out of ammunition they probably
turned the gun around and got some
real use out Of it as a club"
Bower said he thought there were
more than $50 "blond Eskimos'' on
Victoria Land. It is not very probable
that they will ever be molested much
by the outsideworld for Victoria Land
is far OF the usual run of traders and
whalers 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
blond Eskimo country.