These primitive Eskimo inhabit the great archipelago which stretches polewards from the northern shores of the Canadian continent, from Greenland on the east to Alaska and the Aleutian islands on the extreme west. There is, too, a settlement of Eskimo beyond Behring Strait. Some ethnographers hold them to be of purely American origin with no affinities in Asia, however Mongolian they may be in appearance. Dr. Rink believes in an Alaskan origin for the Eskimo, as opposed to an Asian, but another authority, Dr. Boas, thinks the solution of this racial problem might be obtained by means of an archæological research on the coast of the Behring Sea.
The original Eskimo stock is now probably extinct. In language and physique, many of the present day tribes exhibit traits of racial admixture with the Red Indians. This has occurred in such junction areas as Labrador and Alaska, and has given rise to the probably quite fallacious idea of an Indian origin for the Arctic race. This error could not be made in [[61]]Eskimo lands proper. Those who have lived for long years with both Indian and Eskimo, and are intimately acquainted with the language, legends, and characteristics of both peoples, hold strongly to the opinion that they are entirely distinct. Personally, the writer would incline to the belief that the Innooeet are of Mongolian stock. He has heard on good authority of a pure Eskimo sailor being addressed by a Chinaman in Chinese, under the impression that he was speaking to a fellow-countryman. It is conjectured that in the remote past some Mongols may have reached the sea coast in the extreme east, and have crossed by boat from island to island, and so to the Arctics of North America. Increasing there in numbers, they presently dispossessed the aboriginals—the “Tooneet”—and drove them to the “back of the Arctic beyond.” But of this more when we come to Eskimo legends.
Undoubtedly the Eskimo are linked, if not by blood certainly by custom, to the Arctic peoples of Siberia, to the Lapps and Finns of northern Europe. In historic times they mixed with the Danes and Norsemen. They are not numerically very strong. Forty thousand may possibly total the nation, and of those 12,000 are in Greenland, and rather more in Alaska, leaving some 13,000 souls scattered along the shores of Baffin Land, Melville Peninsula, Boothia, Victoria Island, Banks Island and the rest of the bleak, fragmented continent. It is in Baffin Land, in Boothia, and Victoria that the pure Eskimo race is found. [[62]]Elsewhere the type is extremely mixed. It is to be deplored, too, that where the people have been in contact with vicious and unscrupulous whites, traders, sailors, and the rest, the introduction not only of alien blood but of the diseases of “civilisation” have here and there threatened extinction to whole tribes.
The “Central” tribes of Eskimo (i.e., those tribes exclusive of the Greenlanders, the Alaskans, and all the Labradorians save those on the northern shore of Hudson’s Strait) number about thirty-two. They have been carefully classified, enumerated, and geographically located, by the ethnologist, Dr. Boas. Three communities are found along the northern shore of Hudson’s Strait (the southern shore of Baffin Land), the Sikkoswelangmeoot at King Cape, the Akuliangmeoot at North Bluff, and the Quamanangmeoot in the Middle Savage Islands. All along the coast of Davis’ Strait are scattered another nine tribes, the chief of which are the Nuvungmeoot, in the neighbourhood of Frobisher Bay, and the Oqomiut (divided into four territorial groups) all about Cumberland Sound. The Lake Netselings Eskimo are a branch of these, called the Talikpingmeoot. In the extreme north of Baffin Land the Tunungmeoot are found at Eclipse Sound, and the Tununirusirmeoot about Admiralty Inlet.
There is constant intercourse and intermarriage among these scattered groups (none of which is numerically large), wherever the tracts of land in between them are not wholly impassable. Other groups [[63]]are more or less isolated by long stretches of territory, unnegotiable by any means of Eskimo travel. These folk are not only migratory in their habits, but great travellers for the sake of travelling, as well. They often engage on journeys which occupy months or even years, although there is a strong tendency among the old people to return to their native spot before the end, and so territorial distinctions are maintained.
Even before the advent of Europeans and the trade they brought with them, there was a certain amount of barter going on among the Arctic folk themselves, occasioning not a little movement. More driftwood being found in some localities than in others (chiefly at a place called Tudjadjuak), the tribes came from everywhere to barter for it with those on the spot. Again, the soapstone or “potstone,” of which their lamps and cooking utensils were made, is found in a few places only, such as at Kautag, Kikkerton and Quarmaqdjuin; so that the natives came long distances to dig or trade for that, too. Pyrites for striking fire was also a valuable if local production, and flint for arrow head making. On the whole the relationships of the various tribes were very friendly, and open hospitality was everywhere observed throughout all the regions where communication was fairly open and established. Some feuds or tribal reserves obtained where the peoples were strange to each other, and hence arose some extraordinary customs as to greetings, which looked very much like [[64]]challenges to single combat by the chosen representatives of either group.
There seems to be some evidence that the present day Eskimo were not the original inhabitants of these regions at all. There are definite traces still remaining of an earlier folk called the Tooneet. Eskimo tradition speaks repeatedly of these Tooneet as having been conquered by the ancestors of the present race and pushed farther and farther north, until they were lost sight of altogether. Some of their words have been preserved by the Medicine Men (Angakooeet, the conjurors), and the remains of their dwellings and graves were to be seen up to a few years ago, the latter still containing skeletons and weapons.
An Iglovegak or Eskimo Dwelling.
The house is built entirely of snow and takes about a day to build and finish, the window seen in front is a slab of fresh water ice.