Encounters - Page 3

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Encounters

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Indian girls, Pass Reservation, Manitoba.
Date:	1915
Image:	309 x 400 (19 K)

Robert Pier, Ojibway, hunting on Mattagami Lake with his wife, daughters and daughters-in-law, Quebec.
Date:	1915
Image:	500 x 331 (50 K)

Economically these territories were managed in a very wise and interesting manner. The game was kept account of very closely, so that the proprietors knew about how abundant each kind of animal was, and hence could regulate the killing so as not to deplete the stock. Beaver were made the object of the most careful "farming", the numbers of occupants, old and young of each "cabin" being kept count of. In certain districts, moose, or caribou, were protected during one year, in another district, the next year. The killing of game was regulated by each family according to its own rules.

- F.G. Speck, Family Hunting Territories and Social Life of Various Algonkian Bands of the Ottawa Valley, GSC Memoir 70, No. 8, Anthropological Series, 1915

Chipewyan encampment on Taltson River at mouth of Pierrot Creek, Northern Alberta.
Date:	1914
Image:	500 x 386 (11.4 K)

Coronation Gulf, Eskimo man, Copper Eskimo on Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-1916.
Date:	1913
Image:	313 x 400 (27 K)

For the first year or two at least a marriage is considered a kind of trial in which the young couple discover whether they can adapt themselves to each other and live together harmoniously or not. The girl may leave her husband at any time and return to her parents, taking with her all her possessions; but in that case, the bride-price, if any has been paid, must be restored to her former husband… It often happens that a girl is divorced, or divorces herself, two or three times within a year. On the other hand, instances of genuine affection are not all uncommon, even before a child is born to cement the union. Avranna and Milukkattak might often be seen stretched out on the bed-skins in their hut, pressing noses and caressing each other, wholly oblivious of the presence of other natives around them. Milukkattak would go out hunting with him, and sealing too at times, so that they might not be separated for a single hour. In February, 1916, Avranna accompanied me on a visit to the Bathurst Inlet natives. Milukkattak wanted to come too, but as her time of delivery was near it was thought advisable for her to remain behind. She entreated me to look after her husband, not allow any eastern woman to seduce his affections but to bring him safely back again. We were absent only a few weeks, but Avranna was worried about his wife all the time; he was certainly the happiest man in all the country when he joined her again and saw the little baby face peering over her shoulder.

- Diamond Jenness,
Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-1918

Kaptane scraping skin, Copper Eskimo on Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-1916.
Date:	1913
Image:	353 x 400 (30 K)

Eskimo woman, Copper Eskimo on Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-1916.
Date:	1913
Image:	500 x 385 (24 K)

Coronation Gulf, Eskimo man, Copper Eskimo on Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-1916.
Date:	1913
Image:	500 x 369 (15 K)

Tree River natives, coming down river, October 16th, 1915.
Date:	1915 10 16
Image:	500 x 291 (16.2 K)

Eskimo cache at Cape Wallaston, Bathurst Inlet, Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-1916.
Date:	1913
Image:	500 x 364 (32.2 K)

Eskimo grave at King Point, Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1914.
Date:	1914
Image:	500 x 338 (30.9 K)

Eskimo woman shaping sealskin for slippers, Northwest Territories, Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1916.
Date:	1916
Image:	303 x 400 (19.6 K)

Atigeriak and Aga Kogluktuarluk, Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1915.
Date:	1915
Image:	500 x 332 (39.4 K)

Marriage involves no subjection on the part of the woman. She has her own sphere of activity, and within that she is as supreme as her husband is in his. All important matters, such as the migrating to another settlement, are discussed between them before any decision is taken. Both within and without the house she behaves as the equal of the men. Her voice is heard in the dance-house when any deliberations are in progress, even in the hunting field when caribou are sighted and a drive is to be organized. Some of the women are shamans, and so obtain a considerable influence in the communities to which they belong.

- Diamond Jenness,
Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-1918

Eskimo children show little respect for their elders in the manner to which we are accustomed. They address them as equals, and join in any conversation that may be taking place, not hesitating to interrupt or even correct their parents. Often they have nicknames for their elders which they will use to their very faces; thus Kanneyuk would sometimes call her mother "the woman with the wide mouth". Yet they do show a certain amount of deference, and a child will generally do what it is told, however unwilling. If it disobeys, and elder is sure to chide it and lecture it on the duty of children; the shame of public disapproval is sufficient in most cases to produce submission.

- Diamond Jenness, Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-1918

Group of Copper Eskimos, Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1915.
Date:	1915
Image:	500 x 332 (27.3 K)

Copper Eskimo drilling bone with bow drill, Coppermine River, Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1916.
Date:	1916
Image:	228 x 400 (22.7 K)

The Copper Eskimo used the three-piece drilling set, found among other Eskimo tribes. The bow was of bone, generally the rib of a musk-ox or caribou; a hole was drilled in each end for the attachment of the sealskin cord. The stem or spindle was nearly always of wood, though bone was used occasionally and ivory when it was procurable. To prevent the wood from splitting, a bead of bone, antler or musk-ox horn was added to it, either as a cap or by splicing. All the drills I saw had points of iron, which had long been current in very small quantities; copper perhaps was used earlier, and stone, although the natives seem to have no recollection of the stone drill points.

- Diamond Jenness,
Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-1918

Manigurin, Kakoktak and Ikey, Algaq., Canadian Arctic Expedition, May 1916.
Date:	1916
Image:	500 x 295 (27.6 K)

Copper Eskimo Group, Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1916.
Date:	1916
Image:	500 x 324 (27.5 K)

In order to guard against the occurrence of snow-blindness, the Eskimos wear a very ingenious contrivance, in the form of wooden goggles. These are neatly carved so as to fit over the nose, and close in to the sockets of the eyes. Instead of coloured glass, which the Eskimos have no means of getting, these goggles are made with horizontal slits, just wide enough to allow the wearer to see through. Thus the excess of light is excluded, while the sight is not entirely obstructed.

- J.W. Tyrrell,
Across the Sub-Arctics of Canada: A Journey of 3,200 Miles by Canoe and Snow-Shoe Through the Barren-Lands, 1897

Oluksak and his three wives, mouth of Coppermine river.
Date:	1916
Image:	500 x 291 (31.8 K)

Roxy and wife (hoods up), Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1916.
Date:	1916
Image:	270 x 400 (24.5 K)

Copper Eskimo building snow village, Canadian Arctic Expedition, March 1915.
Date:	1915 03
Image:	500 x 328 (23.5 K)

Manigurin and baby, Itayuk, Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1916.
Date:	1916
Image:	266 x 400 (14.6 K)

While occupied with building the snow houses the Inuit suddenly abandoned their work and began with all haste to build a small, separate snow house. It was very quickly finished and soon after she had entered the house Netsilik Joe's wife gave birth to a son; she had walked twenty miles that day hauling a sledge.

- Heinrich Klutschak,
Overland to Starvation Cove: With the Inuit in Search of Franklin, 1878-1880

2006-04-24

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