WHITE ESKIMOS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1560, 2 October 1912, Page 7

WHITE ESKIMOS.

.'.; DANGERS OF CIVILISATION. J!y Telegraph—Press Association-CoDyrlEht : , Ottawa, September 30. Professor Steffansson, who discovered ffhite Eskimos living on Victoria Land, is urging the Canadian Government to prevent civilisation reaching the Eskimos. Hβ asks for the, prohibition of missionaries and traders, otherwise he is convinced the Eskimos will become extinct. , ' .LOST TRIBES. / HVE YEARS IN THE ARCTIC. Professor James' Mavor, of the Univer rity of Toronto,' in- August received very interesting letters 'from Mr. Stefanssou, one of. the leaders of tlm Anglo-American Expedition to the ArctUi Seas, who claims to have discovered a. long-lost European tribe in Far Northern Canada. The expedition set out in 100 a. The first letter, received by Professoi Mavor is dated from Sbinglo Point, April 2Si 1906, tbe last from the Mouth of the Dease Rjver, January, 21, 1911. Mr. Stefanss'on.. is a,- graduate of the State University of lowa, and was a student in th« Harvard Graduate School. of Arts and 'Sciences. .Ho seems to be a native-bora' American of. Scandinavian ancestry, huh whether Dane, Swede, Norwegian, Finn, ■Br Icelander is not apparent. In .h. 'Jotter dnteil Irom Jiaughm Bay, Etefhhsson writes:— .' •

."We-have in'four years travelled W eled more.miles than any other travellers "in the Arctic who have tried to livo-on the We have discovered a .dcii'stf.population (as Eskimos-so) , in districts'labelled "uninhabited" in thr>. 'Aborigines of Canada' map issued bythu Government. We have- found a thousand people, anil through them know of another thousand (in .Victoria Land), who never, saw a white man, a rifle, or a sulphur match. We have lived with a group of these people five months, and know their speech, habits'," and conditions Appoint,of some interest in our discovery of some people in South-Western Victoria •Land who are strikingly non-Eskimo in type—in fact, look more like North-Euro-peans ■.. .Theirdspeech nnd culture is Eskimo,-'- though I found one or - two words that might reasonably be thought -to -be .from -old Norsel; I realise that ~thi3.vfindis;likoly.,(o.lay.us;open tp.lho' charge of sensationalism. I am .'awars that.sorne authorities consider ■ the adjnixtufoof white blood not the only exiPlanation of, the existence of small isolated fair groups amongst dark people. I am inclined at present to favour, though without insistence, the view that thero I' evidence of an admixture of a largo amoiint of white blood. ■.'-The most European-looking group (of Ivrhich I saw only 17 out of 40), the Han-..eragmiut-opposite Cape Bixley, is not isplatad 'in the . sense that there are fair boards and eyebrows in many other ■groups; arid there is hardly a man west I of the Coppermine Mouth who is quito as, dark in skin, eyebrows, and beard a'v -arb the Mackenzie Eskimos, or the Alaskans. ... Samples of hair or beard I have not been ab's to secure for wellknown superstitious reasons. I was told by the Haneragmuit that the groups north of them were more fair still; that some in these have ■ blue eyes ("eyes like yours." tney;; ; said to me). I have never seen Hue ! i eyes, though , I. have seensome' not of the. typical Esvkimotype. T hav* seen, at Her.=chel Island over forty Eskimos, while bu.lt'bloods, and not one with fair hair or Hue eyes. Tho Mongol eye in vnt mueii in evidence, but I have eeen other, dark groups further west who lack it also. "I havo heard stories which lead me tn Velieve that ono or more survivors of Franklin's expedition lived for fome years amongst the Eskimos in Victoria Land; but be that so. it will explain nothing bo far a 9 the South-West Victoria Wid physical type is concerned. If you date the origin of the fair type less than a century backhand assume that the type springs from the niarriaw of whito men with Eskimo women, then a .thousand whites married among the Eskimo would be'an insufficient number to produce the condition found. .It. seems to" me that if ndntixture of white blood is the explanation of the orifrin of the fair tvne in Western and South-Western" Victoria Land, then the only liistorical event that can explain it. is the disapnenrancp from Greenland between 1412 nnd the 17th (?) century (Fans Ksodc.'s. Voyages) of tho Icelandic (Scandinavian) dolony of 3000 people." " '