The Washington times., 1936-09-05

because the Edwin e. Hiu
white man has made him so.
The white man brought the
rifle and the harpoon into the
Arctic and educated the native
to kill off the game for the furs.
In exchange the white man gave
him tobacco, liquor, gumdrops and
gee-gaws. 1t came to pass that
Mr.. Eskimo could not have his
cake and eat it.
Nature was not able to provide
enough seal, fox and muskrat to
clothe the backs Of several million
women Of the civilized temperate
zones, and, at the same time, have
enough left to feed the natives Of
the uncivilized North. AS q re-
suit, facing starvation had become,
UP until recent years, O chronic
state Of the Eskimo.
Our own Government, as far
back as 1892, recognized this sit
uation and began importing rein.
deer into Alaska from Siberia.
The original importation of 1890
head has multiplied until today
there are 100000 reindeer in
Alaska, 100000 of which are
owned by the $4,000 EskimoS.
Canada borrowed a leaf from this
page and has 1890 head in cor
rails on the Mackenzie River
where they will be kept for a year.
Their number then should have
doubled and they will be divided
into smaller herds and distributed
among the EskimoS Of Canada's
Far North.
MAKE AMENDS
It required five years to deliver
the $500 reindeer to the Canadian
Government over a distance of
1000 miles directly across the
Arctic Circle. Canada expects the
reindeer will be the means Of con-
verting the EskirnoS from their
Semi-Starved status to that Of
well-fed thrifty people.
To the credit Of the white man,
he is leaving no stone unturned to
make amends for whatever injury
his wants and his invasion have
caused the Eskimo. He gets along
with the happy-go-lucky hunter of
the frozen wastes and apparently
has STAYED off the danger of the
Eskimo becoming lost race. At
that, there remains always the
fear Of virulent epidemic Of in
fluenza, a disease which the white
man brought along.
In worldly goods the Eskimo is
the poorest Of the poor except for
his clothing. He may wear a small
fortune in furs, but, if he didn't he
would freeze to death. A rifle,
tent, and a whaleboat make UP his
store Of treasure. Exceptions exist
among the natives Of Alaska and
Canada, where some have gone in
for radios, motor-driven boats, and
sewing machines.
AS a moral person, the Eskimo is
we'll spoken of. He has one wife
and the families are usually small,
limited to about three children
The male is the provider and the
female Is the guardian and dis
penSer. Much of the manual labor
falls upon Madam Eskimo, and
one of her tasks is that of chewing
the hardness out of her spouse's
boots, said hardness coming from
the contact Of the skins with the
snow and ice.
! Speaking Of chewing, the Eng
!. fish explorer, Howard Mummery,
& wrote:
"EskimOs have the largest
and finest teeth of any race,
3 civilized or savage"
This is true, reported DR.. Leu
man M. Waugh on his expedition
of relief and research in 1929 ex-
cept where Eskimo mothers started
giving their children molasses for
dessert, instead of whale oil.
: whenever the Eskimo" said
: DR.. Waugh, attempts to become
a civilized man, abandoning his
rowing existence and his savage
,, diet of raw flesh for fOOdStuffS
, that are rich in sugar and starch,
then his teeth decay with alarm
ing rapidity."
, FEAR TOOTHACHE
In Labrador, DR.. Waugh ex.
tracted the tooth Of a chieftain
while the tribe stood about in
horror. When the ceremony was
over, even the victim had to admit
that ut did not hurt a Bit"
The next day every man in the
tribe was beseeching the doctor
, to extract all their teeth. Not
!; that anything was wrong with
. their molars, quite the contrary.
But they wanted them all out be-
cause each of them feared that
some time or other he would have
!, a toothache. And above all, they
! feared that when that time should
l come, there would not be a single
dentist in Labrador.
Patients did not come so easily
to DR.. Waugh. Usually it was a
matter of his bribing with ribbons,
tobacco or chewing gum those vol
unteers of whose teeth and Jaws
he wished to obtain X-rayS and
plaster casts.
Copyright 1885, by King Features