ESKIMO BABIES

Hokitika Guardian, 21 March 1927, Page 1

ESKIMO BABIES

REFUGE IN ARCTIC. VANCOUVER, February 11. What is regarded as the most notable achievement in the care of an indigenous race is the establishment of an Infants’ Refuge, under the supervision of the IToy a 1 Canadian -Mounted Police, at Coronation Gulf, ior file purpose of checking infanticide by Eskimo mothers. With the depletion of fur-bearing animals in the Arctic, and recurrent periods of famine, the burden of rearing infants lias become more than Eskimo mothers could bear. They would not do away with their children if they could see another course open to them. It is intended that tlie infants will he put in charge of Eskimo women at the Mounted Police post at the Gulf until they are old enough to return to their parents. The Eskimos now number 6000. Widely scattered over the northern areas of Canada, only once a year can supplies ho shipped into certain central points, from which distribution is made hy dog-teams. Tn the Mackenzie Delta, where they have reasonably close touch with civilisation, the Eskimos arc living in satisfactory condition, but elsewhere they are passing

through a serious shortage of food. j ho deflection of the path of migration of the great caribou herds lias deprived the natives in the Coronation Gulf country of a food supply as well as clothing. They have not yet located the haunts of the herds, and the police are encouraging them to turn their attention to securing a lug catch of fish, which can be dried for consumption by human beings and dogs during the long winter. Fish nets have been procured, as welt as materials for making fresh ones and the police are instructing the natives in their use, and proper methods of storage. In Ungavo, many of the natives are living in a territory now practically deserted by fur-bearing animals, on which they too depend for food and clothing, and n new means of livelihood must be found for them.

The majority of the Eskimos, except those in the vicinity of the bigger posts, are still ignorant of any conception of law. They follow the dominant primordial instinct;, and kill any alleged or suspected offender. To counteract this, simply-worded posters, in Eskimo dialects, have been circulated by the police, explaining the rudiments of the law, with a view to assisting in the gradual education of the natives to adapt themselves to standards utterly foreign to their past modes of living.