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GUIDE TO GOOD READING

Fine Arctic story reveals
tragic plight of Eskimos

EN MEAT is available, a
be of the Ihalmiut tribe of
inland Eskimos can pack away
about 15 pounds a day, and suffer
no ill effects. But since the white
man came to the Barren Lands
at the turn of the century and
taught the Eskimos to forsake the
hunting of caribou with bow and
arrow for the hunting of arctic
fox with guns, the history of the
Thalmiut has become a story of
slow starvation.

The fascintating tale-of this
white man’s crime, which has. re-
duced the Ihalmiut from 2,000
member in 1900 to less than a
dozen survivors in 1952, is told
by a young Canadian author, Far-
ley Mowat, in People of the Deer
(available here at the People’s
Cooperative Bokstore, 337 West
Pender Street, $4.50).

“This month the Canadian gov-

ernment put the problem of the
Eskimo in the hands of a new

bureau. The Eskimo Research Un- .

direction of James
specialist in Arctic
affairs. But this. long overdue
move can do little to assist the
Thalmiut, who are doomed to van-
ish from the scene of history.

From earliest times, the diet
of the People of the Deer had been
meat—obtained in great quantities
four times a year when the cari-
bou, in their hundreds of thous-
moved across the Barren.

Between migrations the

it, under the
_G. Wright, a

ands,
Lands.

People lived on the meat they had ©

stored up, and used the hides for

making their tents. They thrived
on this all-meat diet, and were
healthy, hardy hunters.

The white men came, gave guns
to the People, encouraged them to
hunt for fox pelts, and paid them
with flour, sugar. lard, baking
powder and tea. They brought
with them another gift — tuber-
culosis.

When the price: of fox pelts
dropped, the white men vanished
leaving behind a race of hunters
who had lost their ancient skill
with bew and arrow, and now had
no ammunition for their useless
guns. From 1930 up to today has
~been an era of starvation for the
People. They became victims of
the Great Depression—a depres-
sion they have never heard of, but
which has never ended for them.

“Why ig it you white men should
come for a time, stay for a time.
and then suddenly vanish when
we are most in need of your help?”
a puzzled Ihalmiut asked Mowat.
“Why is it? Why can we not take
our fox pelts to the trader and
have shells for our guns in re-
turn, for this is what the trader
taught us to do. This mystery I
cannot understand.”

* * *

MOWAT LIVED with the Ihal-
miut for nearly two years, learn-
ed their language (or rather, a
simplified form which they taught

~,
—~—j|—

him) and has set down the history
of the tribe with love and under-
standing.- At the same time he
has harsh words for the govern-
ment and the traders who have
been responsible for the tragedy
of the Ihalmiut, and most of the
northern Eskimo and Indian tribes.

“Fhe question is,” he concludes,
“what can we do to restore the
food we have stolen from the
mouth of the Northern peoples?
And the answer is that we must
do everything needful. The cari-
bou provides a clear example of
what might be done. If it were
possible to overrule the selfish in-
terests of white men, it would be
relatively easy to make the Barren
plains again produce the food
which men must have if they are
to survive in that land. At the
moment, and by the tacit admis-
sion of the government, the deer
are close to the fatal level be-
yond which a furthen reduction in
numbers will doom them to ex-
tinction.
passed the point of no return.
They could still be preserved, and
I know this to be true because I
spent two years studying this prob-
lem in the field and as a scientist.

‘There are énough deer left so
that, if given full protection, the
species could stage a quick come-
back, and there is no good reason
why this resurgence should. not
take place. The true value of the
caribou lies not only in their con-
tribution to the wellbeing of the

Barrens Eskimos, but in the fact
that they are of equal importance
to the continued survival of about
10,000 high-forest Indians and to
the majority of the 8,000 surviv-

‘ing Eskimos across the whole Can-

adian arctic. . . .

“The Barrens will never grow
wheat or beef cattle. They will
grow one food crop. and one alone
—the deer. The Barrens can sup-
port a tremendous population of
deer, perhaps as high as five mil-
lion head. Once they were this
numerous, and in order to return
to this high level they need only
protection. Not from wolves, nor

But they have not yet

from the legitimate and normal —

appetites of the natives, but from
us. Directly, they need protection
from the white trappers and hunt-
ers, and indirectly they need pro-
tection from the trading com-
panies who make a good part of
their profits from the uncontrolled
sale of astronomical ‘amounts of
ammunition, and from the sale of
repeating rifles. If we were to
place an absolute prohibition on
the killing of deer by white men,
and if we were to restrict the sale
of ammunition and the types of
weapons sold to the natives, the
deer would do the rest. . . . This
plan sounds ridiculously simple,
and it is.,—BERT WHYTE

UE reg

~NEW! ;

NEW!

ROBESON ALBUM

available in January

GIFT CERTIFICATES -- $6.50

for Chistmas gifts
PEOPLE’S CO-OPERATIVE BOOKSTORE
337 West Pender Street, Vancouver 4, B.C.

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LP, STANDARD RECORDS

dy j

NEWS THAT will thrill ev-
ery music-lover the world over
is the announcement from New
York that a new volume of re-
cordings by Paul Robeson is
being produced by an indepen-
dent record company.

In a letter Robeson has. writ-
ten to thousands of people in
the United States and Canada,
he declares that for the past
several years “a vicious effort
has been made to destroy my
career.” The great artist-fight-
er and leader of the Negro
liberation movement in the Un-
ited States pointed out that
halls were being barred to him;
the major recording compan-
ies had refused to record his
voice or market any of--his
previous records. He was un-
able to leave the United States
to visit any other country.

All this. he said, “is an at-
tempt to gag artistic expres-
sion. to dictate whom the peo-
ple shall hear and what they

Robeson album

_ advantage of the Christmas sea-

January

shall hear. It is an attempt
to suppress not only me, but
every artist, Negro and white,
whose heart and talent are en-
listed in the fight for peace
and democracy.”

To “explode the silence,” he
had made a new album of re-
cordings which will sell at $6.50
each, either in long playing or
78 speed, The album will be
ready in January, but to take

son, gift certificates are being
offered here by the People’s
Cooperative Bookstore, 3837
West (Pender.

Included in the album ae

Wandering, poignant folk song
of U.S. labor. In Contempt,
fighting song for America to-
day. ‘Witness, rousing Negro
spiritual. My Curly Headed
Baby, beloved lullaby... Night,
lyrical (Russian classic, sung in
English and Russian. Hassidic
Chant, Jewish epic of protest.

‘LIBERTY OF ACTION’ UPHELD

London Philharmonic leader
hits back at witch - hunters

THOMAS RUSSELL, recently
witch-hunted from his position as
chairman and managing director
of the London Philharmonic Or-
chestra, has hit back at the witch-
hunters in refuting the two allega-
tions made against him in a state-
ment by the board of directors.

The ,directors asserted that “in
defiance of the wishes of the orch-
estra, Mr. Russell visited China
in circumstances which unjustifi-
ably and not for the first time as-
sociated the orchestra as a body
with his personal political views.”

“The question of, my visiting
China in defiance of the wishes of
the orchestra does not arise,” said
Russell. “Since no member of the
organisation has to seek permis-
sion in such a matter.

“When I informed the board of
directors that I had been invited
to China they ‘placed on record
their view as regards the chair-

man’s movements during this holi-
day, that he must be considered as
having the same liberty of action
as any other member of the or-

chestra.’

“Had I needed consent this.
would have been more than
adequate.”

‘As for associating the orchestra
with his views, ‘Russell said:

“My visits to Moscow and China
might be compared to those made
by Sir Adrian Boult or one of our
leading players to America, for
example.

“They would go as musicians,
and would not consider their visit
as a token of support for Eisen-
hower or the McCarran Commit-
tee. .

“And, in the same way, I went
to China as an individual to meet
musicians, artists and writers.

“T adhere to my view that my
dismissal was for political reasons
only.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 12, 1952 = PAGE 8

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