The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1938-05-19
lXl o% NJ ed
by Captain
G. Elliott Nightingale
Copyright, WNU
Il GREENHORN IN THE
ARCTIC

<AASSA -
LOW a hot-headed, quick-tem-
l 1 pered young white man paved
the way for four ruthless and bloody
murders in the arctic wastes, and
how the eventual capture and con-
viction of the murderers called for
several years of man hunting
through the Arctic, and the expendi-
ture of almost 100000, makes one
of the best police stories of this new
century.
The average Eskimo minds his
own business pretty well. Of course
he is bit of a savage and bar
barian, and stepped in weird super
stitions, but unless he runs afoul of
some witless or INSCRIPTIONS white,
he usually keeps out of serious trou-
BILE.
At any rate, in 1918, a young
American named Radford, and a
Canadian named Street were at
Baker lake, near Chesterfield inlet,
Hudson bay. They wanted to push
northward into the Arctic circle,
and had hired certain Eskirnos to
act as guides. When the time came
to start, however, one of the Eski-
mos, the best guide Of the two, fatty
refused to 60. He announced that
he had changed his mind about 60
ing, and that was all there was to
it. Instantly, young Radford was
beside himself with rage and disap-
pointment and, grabbing a heavy
dog-whip he laid into the Eskimo
with all his might and main, and
he kept it up until the Eskimo cried
for mercy. At this, Radford, by
now just about insane with anger,
grabbed the Eskimo by his parka
hood and dragged him to the edge of
a hole in the ice. Pointing to the
hole Radford told the Eskimo that
unless he acted as guide he, Rad
ford, would drown him in that hole.
Street, the Canadian, did everything
he could to get his partner, Rad
ford, to stop his foolishness. But
Radford was mad clear through,
and his anger boiled for hours after
wards. That is, it boiled until that
night when, as the two white lads
slept in their hastily pitched camp,
relatives of the beaten Eskimo crept
silently down upon them and muir
dered them both in cold blood. They
slashed and cut and stabbed, and
did very thorough job of it. AL
most year later the news of the
double murder drifted down to the
lower Hudson bay country, and an
inspector and four Men of the
Mounted were soon heading north
on manhunt among the Eskimos.
That was late in 1918.
During the three years that fol-
lowed the Inspector and his four
men crossed and re-crossed and ex-
plored almost half a million square
miles of the subarctic Wristbands
looking for the tribe of Eskimos to
which the murderers belonged.
(And, as they Travelled hither and
yon, they also made a very compre-
hensive survey of areas and re-
gions never before visited by white
men, Then came the first bit of
news concerning the tribe they
sought. 1t was to the effect that
members of that same tribe had
murdered two more white men, two
Roman Catholic priests, Fathers Lee
roux and Rouvier, whom they'd met
en- route to the Coppermine country.
The informer, an Eskimo, had seen
the priests guns and vestments and
outfits in the possession of the tribe,
and they had told him all about the
killings of the white shamans.
More years passed as the Men Of
the Mounted combed the vast re-
gion between Hudson bay and the
lower Mackenzie country, and then,
at last they caught up with the muir
derers of Radford and Street. While
these murderers were being tried,
the Men of the Mounted set out
once more to get the Eskimos who
had murdered the priests, Messrs.
Sinnisiak and Uluksak, who were
eventually captured in the Copper
mine country. On trial, the Eski-
mos admitted the killings, but they
kept repeating, too, that they killed
in sef-defense. The Eskimos re-
sponsible for the Baker lake muir
ders declared that after Radford
had beaten one of their tribesmen
to within an inch of his life, they
were afraid that he would do the
same to others of the tribe. They
had done no wrong, they asserted
(Which was true), so why should
Radford try to kill the guide? Rad
ford, they declared, was a white
man without mind, he was crazy,
and therefore should die, to protect
others. The murderers of the priests
put up the same argument, assert
ing that they had fought in self
defense when the priests had at
tackled them. The charge that the
priests had attacked was never
proved, and it is highly probable
that it was pure fabrication. The
fact of the matter was that the
Eskimos were frightened and
scared for their own safety after
Radford's despicable attack on an
Eskimo who had every right to
change his mind regarding who he
would work for. At any rate, be-
fore these cases were closed, the
Men of the Mounted had spent sew
eral years on the chase, and the
Dominion government had spent al
most 100000, all of this waste of
time and money caused by the stu
pidity OF greenhorn among the
Eskimos.