376 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN mSTITUTION, 1942 



enmities that had been engendered persisted, and occasioned more 

 than one massacre in the first half of the nineteenth century. Peace 

 has now prevailed for 100 years, missionary and tradings posts are 

 scattered over the whole area, water and air transport are opening 

 it up as a tourist playground, and the mineral wealth in its rocks 

 is being exploited more and more with each passing year. Yet the 

 Indians have failed to make any appreciable progress. Hunting (in- 

 cluding trapping) and fishing still remain almost their sole means of 

 subsistence, and the returns from these occupations are decreasing 

 rather than increasing. It is true that the murderous blood feud has 

 long been suppressed, that infanticide and the abandonment of the aged 

 and infirm have ceased, and that there are now very few deaths from 

 outright starvation. Nevertheless their standard of living is so low 

 that the majority are permanently undernourished. This makes them 

 ready victims of every sickness, particularly of tuberculosis, and, com- 

 bined with the hardships of a hunting life, produces a very high 

 mortality. 



Now it is quite probable that these northern Indians have always 

 been undernourished to some extent, and that it was partly under- 

 nourislnnent that made them less virile than other Indians, as their 

 early history seems to indicate. It would explain also why, generally 

 speaking, they have shown no resourcefulness in meeting the changed 

 economic conditions of the last 100 years, or any desire to adapt them- 

 selves to their new environment. They are good canoemen and 

 packers, tasks that they have performed for centuries; but in all 

 occupations connected with industry and comjmerce they have shown 

 themselves hitherto inefficient and unreliable. Their numbers are de- 

 clining; both their economic condition and their morale are at a low 

 ebb. Their regeneration is an exceedingly difficult task, hinging very 

 largely on the economic resources of the territory (which are still 

 imperfectly known), and on the development of these resources by 

 the white man. The Indians are themselves one of the resources, for 

 they are a fixture in the territory; they cannot, like white men 

 who enter it, pull up their stakes and return south if the living becomes 

 unprofitable. The chief problem therefore is to restore their morale, 

 and to raise their standard of living by providing remunerative em- 

 ployment for which they will show some aptitude. And this will tax 

 the wisdom of the most far-sighted government. 



The Arctic coast of Canada was a realm, of its own, and its inhabi- 

 tants, the Eskimo, differed from all the other aborigines of America in 

 language, appearance, mxode of life, and — w^hat is less often stressed, 

 though it has tremendous influence on a people's survival — in 

 temperament. 



There is no need to describe Eskimo life — how it rested solely on 

 fishing and hunting, particularly the hunting of sea mammals, and 



