The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-10-03
Frederick Haskin's Letter
= = - - -, s,.,.no,depce of August
The Ney Parliament Building.
of The Argus,
Especial Correspondence

: sether and explain to them the
white mans laws and the penalties
! for breaking them, This has been
urgent business since traders and
! explorers have pushed farther and
| farther into the arctic regions of
! Canada. Occasionally they bring
hack word of q murder to the out
posts Of civilization. Sometimes a
white man is the victim. In any
case. when the Canadian govern
ment hears of these tragedies, it
dispatches a patrol of the mounted
police with orders to investigate or
to bring back the offender.
y A realistic film of such an expedi-
ton would have to pre-
face nearly every other
scene with six months later"
In one case the patrol which cross
es Canada every two years brought
word of a murder in the far north
A member of the mounted police
was sent out to get the guilty Eski-
mo. After travelling a year and a
half over ice and snow, through
billiards., with long stops when the
weather made travel impossible, he
caught one Eskimo responsible for
the trouble. But there was another.
He had no way to carry and guard
a prisoner over long trail, farther
into the north. So he left the ma
tive there, trusting to the Eskimo
band to hold him until the return.
He got the other man, picked up
the first captive and got back to
headquarters after being gone four
years.
The result of all that persistence
and hardship-loneliness, discom-
fort, monotony-Ras that the two
Eskimos were acquitted on the
grounds that the murdered man had
terrorized the people. That is a
story typical of the northern Can
adam country
The native prisoners, however, do
not always go free. There is
strong sentiment that an Eskimo
who breaks the white mans laws
should be put in Jail as an example
to the others. This example method
is slow work, considering that the
Eskimo sometimes never hear d
word from outside the tribe for
months. There are about 10000
people to over a million square
miles in the northwest territories.
The situation is sometimes
further complicated by the family
mos live a hand to mouth existence
only provider. To keep the family
from starving, an offender. in this
case may be paFoled in a country
that he knows for miles around like
a book, where it would be easy
enough TO slip away and join an
other tribe under another name
The parole system does work very
well, however.
Once the Eskimos understand the
white mans laws about murder and
theft, they are responsive. They
go farther and adopt some of the
white mans ways as well. Guns,
for instance, are rapidly being dis
tributed to the Eskimo bands by
traders. A constable of the mount
ed police recently reports that to
his surprise Practically every ma
tive on the mainland is the owner
of & rife, now. Many bows and
arrows were offered TO US as cur
los, but We were unable to carry
them"
Wide use of guns by the natives
is having results not altogether de-
sirable. In some districts, game
which was plentiful when hunted
with the bow is dwindling danger
ously when pursued with the rifle
With guns the natives do not have
to work so hard to get their food,
but they cannot be persuaded to
stop when they have killed enough
for their needs.
The invasion of civilization in the
frozen north is slow. The EskimOs
are in less danger of being extermi-
mated by a mode Of life they cannot
heakhily adopt than were the In
dams farther south The Eskimos'
land is not so desirable to the white
man He comes to barter, to see
that the value of human life is ap-
to relieve suffering when
he can, and occasionally to study
the people. But he does not stay,
so the Eskimo is safe.