SOME OF MY HUNTERS
I have a sincere interest in and affection for these children of the North, and have tried to help and instruct them to cope more effectively with their inhospitable surroundings and to avoid weakening their confidence in themselves and their content with their lot in life. How to care for themselves, how to treat simple diseases, wounds, and other accidents, are some of the fundamentals which I have attempted to instil in their minds. In exchange for dogs, skins, or other supplies necessary for my work, or as rewards for service rendered, I have always given them the very best articles and material which could be bought.
Gustav Olsen, a Danish missionary at North Star Bay, Northern Greenland, in his report to the State Department of Denmark in 1910 made the following statement in regard to the improved conditions of the Eskimos:
The Eskimos here, both his companions and others, have a large number of articles of utility of various kinds, which they have obtained from Peary, so that they, in regard to arms, tools, etc., are better provided than their countrymen in the southern part of the country.
The Eskimos have always been quick to grasp the objects of my expeditions and in the later ones eager to concentrate all their energy upon the task of achieving these ends. As they have come into contact with my parties they have adapted themselves easily and readily to the use of various tools. To be able to depend on the natives to do the work of a white man with the tools of a white man means much to an explorer anxious to avoid taking north a party which would be so large as to be unwieldy.
An arctic traveler in winter-time is often obliged to sleep in an Eskimo igloo, an experience which is not soon forgotten. These igloos are made of stones and earth, and are all built on the same general plan, though an Eskimo can easily tell by the workmanship just who made each one.
Some of the igloos are generations old. Usually existing igloos are used, occasionally new ones are built. Sometimes this is done because an Eskimo, usually a good hunter, wishes to get away from his fellows in order not to help support less energetic ones, and so builds his igloo in a previously unoccupied locality; sometimes because an unusual number of families selects the neighborhood of an expedition’s headquarters for a winter’s residence. When this happens, the work is usually done leisurely in September, while the family is still occupying the summer tent. Then when really cold weather sets in the family moves into the new house and strikes its tent.
A month is ample time to erect a winter home for an Eskimo family. A hole is first dug in the ground to form the floor of the house. Around this walls of stones, filled in with bits of moss, are built. The roof is composed of long flat stones placed across the top of the walls and covered with earth, the whole structure finally being banked with snow. The roof is of the cantilever style, the stones being weighted and counter-weighted at the outer edges. When finished, the house is ten or twelve feet long, eight or ten feet wide, and usually six feet high. A small window space is inserted in front, and covered with the thin intestinal membrane of the seal. A hole in the floor leading into a tunnel anywhere from ten to twenty-five feet long forms the entrance.
A raised platform at one end of an igloo serves as a bed for the entire family. Sometimes the earth’s surface forms the platform, and the floor space in front of it is made by digging out the earth for a depth of a foot and a half. Sometimes long, flat stones, supported by stones, are used; but more often than not one finds a platform of lumber in those built since the advent of lumber in this land. Sledge-loads of grass are brought in and placed on the platform, and with sealskins and the skin of the deer or bear they have a good mattress. For covering, deerskins are used.