Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/254

safely say that during the past fifty years the Iglulik Eskimos have diminished greatly in numbers. The European whaling period was undoubtedly a very fateful one for them; the absolutely unscrupulous exploitation of these people by the Europeans, rum and other strong liquors, infectious diseases, especially syphilis, have undoubtedly involved a heavy decline; in addition there were the difficulties connected with the transition from their own methods of hunting to European technique at a time when supplies of food were most irregular and uncertain.

The establishment of regularly visited trading posts in their territory has now made their struggle for existence somewhat easier; besides the trading posts (now all belonging to Hudson's Bay Company) at Chesterfield Inlet, Repulse Bay, Southampton Island and Ponds Inlet, there are now police stations (R. C. M. P.) at Chesterfield Inlet and Ponds Inlet, and a missionary post (Catholic) at Chesterfield. On the other hand these circumstances have involved that the Eskimos are accustoming themselves to European food and clothing, which are by no means suitable in these regions, whilst the acquisition of better weapons means that the game is being reduced at a rapid rate, especially caribou, the animal that is of such vital importance to them. Finally, competing trading posts often have had an unfortunate influence upon their morals, of which I saw and heard of instances at Ponds Inlet. The two firms employed every means — often discreditable — to secure the trade of the Eskimos: built the unhealthy, stinking wooden houses for them, gave them weekly rations of flour, sugar and tea, employed lies and deceit; the result is that they are becoming a flock of lazy, indolent, unreliable people who are always hanging round the trading posts, living upon their rations and with hardly any inclination to go hunting. Furthermore, a control over the class of people who are sent to these regions would also be to the good in order that the diseases of the whaling period, from which many Eskimos are still suffering, may not be spread still more. By the establishment of the police stations, however, the Canadian Government has shown its readiness to protect this tribe.

There is another encroachment upon the territory of the Iglulik Eskimos, however, and this is from the west. A large number of Netsilik Eskimos have, during the past few years, made their way down to Repulse Bay, attracted by the trading posts, and have settled down there, at Lyon Inlet and Wager Bay. On the other hand the Aivilik Eskimos have, since the extinction of the Sadlermiut, occupied Southampton Island, which has now become one of their principal domains.