Arizona republican., 1921-10-20

circumstances seemed to the tribe to warrant it. But now. many young children and aged people are seen about the igloos of the Eskimos known to have these customs.
 The change is attributed, in part at least, to the mounted police. It is one of the duties of a patrol to gather the people of a band together 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 back word of a murder to the outposts of civilization. Sometimes a white man is the victim. In any case, when the Canadian government hears of the tragedies, it dispatches a patrol of the mounted police with orders to investigate or to bring back the offender.
 A realistic film of such an expedi- | ton would have to preface nearly | other scene with "six months later" | In one case the patrol which crosses ! 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 Eskimo. | After travelling year and half | over ice and snow, through blizzards, ! with long stops when the weather made travel impossible, he caught 1 one Eskimo responsible for the trou- l ble. But there was another. He had | to carry and guard a prisoner over | a long trail. farther into the North. | So he left the native there. trusting 1 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 lardship-loneliness discomfort, monotony-wa that the two EslSi- mos were acquitted on the grounds that the murdered man had terror ized the people. That is a story typi- cal of the northern Canadian country.
 The Eskimos
 The native prisoners, however. do ! not always go free. There is a 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 Esldmos sometimes never hear a l word from outside the tribe foI 1 months. There are but 10000 peo- | pie to over a million square miles ir the Northwest territories.
 The situa ton is sometimes further complicated by the family ofs the ac- cused. Some cf the Eskimos live a hand to mouth existence and tho head of the family is the only pro- wider. To keep the family from 1 starving, an offender in this cas, may be paroled in a country that he knows for miles around like a book where it would be easy enough tc slip away and join another tribe un- der another name. The parole sys- tenn does work very well, however.
 Once the Eskimos understand the white mans laws about murder anC theft, they are responsive. They gC farther and adopt some of the white mans ways as well. Guns. for in stance, are rapidly being distributed to the Eskimo bands by traders. 4 constable of the mounted police re- gently reports that to his surpris, practically every native on tho mainland is the owner of a rifle, now Many bows and arrows were offered to us as curios. but we were unable to carry them.'
 Wide use of guns by the natives i! having results not altogether desir- able. In some districts, game whicf was plentiful when hunted with tn. bow is dwindling dangerously wheI pursued with the rifle. With gun. the natives do not have to work SC hard to get their food, but they can. not be persuaded to stop when they have killed enough for their needs.
 The invasion of civilization in tn, frozen north is slow. The Eskimo. are in less danger of being eXtermi- mated by a mode of life they canno healthily adopt than were the Tn. dians farther south. The Eskimos land is not so desirable to the whit, man. He comes to barter. to set that the value of human life is ap- preciated, to relieve suffering wher he can, and occasionally to study tn, people But he does not stay so tht Eskimo is safe.