Cannibalism in the Canadian Arctic

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 846, 14 December 1929, Page 22

Cannibalism in the Canadian Arctic

Royal Mounted Police on Long Patrol Trails that Lead Close to Pole Find Eskimo Maiden Eating Flesh of Native who Shot Himself When Starvation Overtook Him and His Family x' ~

SHE telephone rang. The scarlet-coated sergeant In the Regina office of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police picked up the receiver. Over the wire came the message from the warden of the Regina gaol that two prisoners had escaped. "They have stolen a car and are armed with a fully loaded revolver, also stolen,” the warden said. To which the police gave an acknowledgment and the network of the mounties l the mounted police) throughout Canada was set in motion. Every detachment in the Province of Saskatchewan was notified. These men might be caught before they had gone too far. The mounted police were on the lookout, and they have a habit of getting their man. A few hours later a constable of the force was driving his car along a road not far from Regina. He spotted a movement in the bush on the north side of the road. He stopped his car. He knew of the two escaped prisoners and that they carried a loaded revolver which they would not be afraid to use. However, there was a movement in the bush made by either a crawling animal or a man. The constable immediately ran across the road to where he had seen the suspicious movement. There he found the two escaped men hiding in the grass, their loaded revolver covering the constable. In his report the constable stated: •'1 placed them under arrest and took a fully loaded revolver from one of them.” Canada's mounted police are not afraid, writes James Montagnes. They get their man, even though they risk their lives in the attempt. Hardships of every nature are part of the daily routine of this scarletcoated force which has become famous the world over. Whether in civilisation or in. the distant parts of the Dominion, they do their duty no matter what physical risk or pains liavo to be endured. There is the interesting case of Constable Graham, also of the Regina Division. He had arrested his prisoner and was taking him to court. Somehow he fell, dislocating his shoulder. He continued to court, took the man in, prosecuted him, then took him and locked him up. All this under terrible pain caused by the fall. Not until his prisoner was safe behind the bars after his trial did Constable Graham summon a doctor. His shoulder was so badly dislocated that the doctor had to put him under an anaesthetic to reduce the pain. All the mounted police are not stationed in civilised parts. Many go on roving commissions. Others are stationed in the Arctic region. One constable is always to be found at the Canadian Legation in Washington. One day a message came to Ottawa, ■tating that an Indian at. Fort Hope, on the Albany River, in Northern Ontario—a remote fur trading post and lireranger station, radio-equipped—-had become insane. He was a big Indian and was causing considerable trouble. The manager of the trading post sent the message through the tire rangers' radio service to the Department of Indian Affairs, requesting assistance. The Indian did not belong in Fort Hope and no one was willing to take him to his tribe. Fort Hope was a good thousand miles from QJtawa. far beyond the railway, and it would take several weeks to get help to the post. The department phoned the commissioner of the mounted police.

It was a case where speed was necessary. The Royal Canadian Air Force was called on for assistance. A sergeant was detailed to fly with one of the fastest planes from Ottawa to Fort House. A few days after the message had left Fort Hope a roaring flying-boat taxied to the “wharf of the Hudson Bay Company post at Fort Hope. At first the Indian was afraid to go into the plane. It took considerable force to put a helmet and a pair of goggles on him, but at last it was accomplished and the constable and his charge took their places in the observer’s cockpit, while the pilot climbed into his. One week from the time of the original dispatch for aid the Indian was placed in the hospital at Kenora, Ontario.

The Arctic is a hard country. If fish and seals are plentiful, the natives and the white men eat. If not, they starve to death. Sometimes the Eskimos have a very hard time of it; in fact, sometimes they resort to cannibalism. Staff-Sergeant M. A. Joyce, stationed at Chesterfield Inlet, last year went on patrol to Baker Lake, which is an arm of the west shore of Hudson Bay, a few hundred miles south of the Arctic Circle. He arrived at the Hudson Bay Company post at Baker Lake, and there heard the story of a young 17-year-old girl who had eaten the flesh of other natives who had died of starvation. Sergeant Joyce went to the girl, and although he had a long trip he had no trouble in detaining her. He took her from Baker Lake to Chesterfield Inlet and there questioned her fully. It appeared that a native, Igjugarjuk, had been keeping this girl, Ikotak. Her husband and relatives refused to have anything to do with her. She was considered an outcast. The girl told Staff-Sergeant Joyce the story of her crime. It was a case of eat or starve. She had been travelling with an Eskimo, his wife and two children. Food was scarce, and they were weakened through starvation. On one occasion the man of the party stayed behind to hunt while the women went ahead. The Eskimo did not return. It was feared that something had happened to him, so the party turned back to look for the man. They found him dead on the ice, killed by a shot from his own rifle. None of the party knew how to handle®, gun. Fish just wouldn’t bite. They starved. The Eskimo’s wife and her two children died. Only the girl, Ikotak, was left. She, too was slowly starving to death in the tiny igloo which they had constructed. But she was still young and even in that far northern land the hope of life is dear, so she ate the flesh of the dead. A party of Eskimos found her and brought her to Baker Lake. Some time this girl will be tried. Baker Lake and Chesterfield Inlet are remote points, and the staff-sergeant did not think it feasible to send her

back to her people, who would probably have left her to die of starvation. She is now in one of the mission Houses at Chesterfield Inlet. Long patrols are made regularly by the constables in the Arctic regions. For months at a stretch they leave their detchment and go on a journey of exploration or visit Eskimo tribes. In both the western and the eastern parts of the Arctic these patrols are made. They are, in part, accomplished •to show the Dominion’s occupation of all the lands to the North Pole. Canada has claimed this land and keeps it occupied, having police posts within 600 miles of the North Pole, where even Eskimos do not live. Corporal Anstead set out on one of these patrols last year with two natives. They travelled SSO miles from March 22 to April 30. During that time they found corrections to be made on maps, discovered coal-bear-ing rocks, and investigated islands never stepped on before by white man. Theirs was no easy trip. With native sleds and dogs they started out, making splendid time over the frozen ground for some days. Then they struck a glacier which barred the way. One of the natives suggested going over the t\y> of it, a climb of seven miles up f) steep ice-coated and ice-strewn hill. The corporal looked at the glacier. He came to the conclusion they must fiAd another way around, for to do what the native suggested would take all the energy out of the men and dogs thus early in the trip. He investigated and found a passage between the hills and the towering glacier-ice cliffs, very narrow, but a way through. In fact, the passage was barely wide enough to squeeze through, while above hung tons of ice which might fall down at any time and crush them in this narrow alley. But they widened the passage enough to get the sleds through. Then they came to a gorge, the worst part of the trip. They had managed the narrow passage between the glacier and the cliff, they had chopped away boulders of ice, but this looked like an impasse. Here was a narrow gorge filled with large pieces of ice, which had fallen from above; in fact, some ice fell as they were working out a scheme to get through. They could see a better trail on the other side of the gorge. There was nothing to do but fight their way through. For five hours they worked to negotiate that 500 yards. The annals of the mounted police are full of long, arduous trails. Snowbound in igloo's, shortage of food, bad snowstorms and gales—these are only a few of the items that occur in the reports of these men who patrol the Arctic wastes. Sometimes they do not see a soul during the entire trip, at other times they meet families and whole villages out on the hunt, or they themselves are hunting for native lawbreakers.