Child-life among the Smith Sound Eskimos 



]W K 1) .M r X I) OTIS II () V K Y 



CHILDREN are always welcome 

 iU'rivals in the families inakiii,<;' 

 up iliL' little tribe of Eskimos 

 dwelling along the bleak shore of nortli- 

 west Greenland between Melville Bay 

 and Kane Basin. Childless couples, of 

 which there are a few in the tribe, arc 

 objects of ]Mty because they are looking 

 forward with dread to old age, when 

 the man will l)e still; in the joints and 

 not agile enough to hunt the seal, wal- 

 rus, and polar bear, and the woman will 

 be too slow and feeble to attend to the 

 traps, to catch the little auks, and to 

 prepare the skins needed for clothing. 

 Large families are not found in the 

 tribe, but many that we knew com- 

 prised four children, while several had 

 five little ones in the igloo. Nor are 

 the Eskimo children unmindful of the 

 care that watched over their babyhood 

 and youth, and they cheerfully support 

 their aged parents. 



The first Eskimo family with which 

 I became acquainted was the one that 

 formed the entire native population of 

 Ip-soo-i-sook at the head of Parker 

 Snow Bay during the winter of 1915- 

 19 IG, when the auxiliary schooner 

 "George B. Cluett," the first of the 

 Crocker Land Expedition relief ships, 

 wintered there on her way home after 

 her unsuccessful attempt to reach Etah. 

 The family consisted of Pood-lahq and 

 his wife Ee-net-lee-ahq, and their three 

 children, Ky-u-ti-kah, a boy of seven 

 years, Ky-u-tahq, a boy of five, and 

 ]\Ier-k'oo, a little girl of about three. 

 Tood-lahq's brother, Al-la-ko-tee-ahq, an 

 irrepressible lad of eighteen, filled ujt 

 the quota of the igloo. Pood-lahq had 

 been a famous liunter in his prime, but 

 snow blindness had injured his eyes so 

 that he could scarcely see, and he had 

 great difficulty in obtaining seals and 

 other game for food. fuel, and clotliiiig. 



Illustrations from photographs liy Don 



l^]c-n('t-lcc-ali(|, however, was t'uci'gctic 

 and faitliful in her efforts to su})port 

 tlic raniily and spent day after day 

 trani|iiiig the hills in attendance u])on 

 llic fox ti'aps and hare snares. They 

 jdiniMl liiii'nionicnisly in caring for the 

 children, and theirs was a model fam- 

 ily for devotion to one another and to 

 the coiiiMKin needs. I never heard one 

 of the children cry, exce]>t when it was 

 hurt through some misha|). 



Like all the Eskimo children whom 

 I saw,Ky-u-ti-kah,Ky-n-tah(|.and iler- 

 k"oo were i-oiind-clieeked, licidtliy little 

 animals, quiet in their demeanor and 

 unselfish in their treatment of one an- 

 other, although undemonstrative in the 

 display of affection. Of course they 

 were fond of candy, as soon as they 

 learned what the pretty things were 

 that wo held out to them. Yet they 

 would never offer to eat a piece until 

 after permission had been signified, and 

 if one of the boys happened to be alone 

 on board ship, he would take his candy 

 home to share it with his brother and 

 sister. One day ]\ler-k"oo had nearly 

 succeeded in removing the w'axed paper 

 from her stick of peanut brittle, when 

 one of our men held out his hand and 

 asked for it. Without a whimper she 

 passed it over to him, but it was inter- 

 esting to see the look of relief and joy 

 that spread over her face when she got 

 the coveted morsel back and was free to 

 eat it. 



The children are taught indepen- 

 dence very early in life. When this 

 family was moving from Tp-soo-i-sook 

 in the spring of 1!)H), I made Ee-net- 

 lee-ahq some triffing gifts, which she 

 was not content to accept until after she 

 had brought out and given me a little 

 soapstone dish — "^'from ]\Ier-k"oo."" 



There are no baby carriages or even 

 bahv sledges in the Far North, and 



ahl B. :MacMillan. copyriglitcd 1918 



