REPORT OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION 



APPENDIX No. VIII 



SUBMISSION OF THE REVEREND W. G. WALTON, MISSIONARY, 

 CHURCH OF ENGLAND, STATIONED AT FORT GEORGE ON 

 JAMES' BAY, UNGAVA. 



May 24, 1920. 



Sir, — In accordance with your wish, I beg to set before you a few facts 

 indicating why I think that the east coast of Hudson and James bays is a suitable 

 place for testing an experiment in the raising of domesticated reindeer. The 

 grounds on which I base my plea are threefold: (1) The needs of the Indians 

 and Esquimaux of that territory, and the humanitarian call of these people to 

 their fellow citizens of Canada to meet these needs: (2) The relief that reindeer 

 will offer in the face of starvation and crime resulting from desparate food 

 shortage: (3) The advantages which the locality offers for the successful 

 raising of reindeer in unlimited numbers. 



I. The Need of the People 



The necessities which arise among people who depend entirely upon the 

 chase are at times such that no skill or diligence can provide against them. 

 With the best hunters, even w^hen game is ordinarily plentiful, there is great 

 divergence in the quantity of the "take." There arise, however, conditions from 

 time to time when all efTort fails. Food animals or birds may for a season change 

 their feeding range. Disease may sweep through them and to a large extent 

 wipe them out of existence. Late severe frosts may destroy the eggs of game 

 birds and thus spoil the hatch. Many vicissitudes arise that are appreciated by 

 sportsmen and militate against the taking of food and the capturing of fur, and 

 these are the sole means of support upon which my people subsist. I have 

 lived amongst these people for twenty-seven years and know their circum- 

 stances and spirit thoroughly, and I know that there come times when hunger 

 and starvation is under present conditions unavoidable. That starvation does 

 occur let me give some specific instances. 



In the winter of 1892-3, 150 Indians starved to death south of Fort Chime. 

 This is corroborated by the late Mr. A. P. Low, of the Dominion Geological 

 Survey of Ottawa, who visited that post. In the same winter eight Indians 

 started inland from Cape Jones on a hunting expedition to seek the fur that 

 could not be found on the coast. Only one of the party survived, and it was 

 currently believed that he only subsisted by eating the bodies of those who fell 

 by the wayside. 



In January, 1893, I met at East Main river an Indian youth who had 

 escaped starvation only through feeding upon the bodies of other members of 

 his family. Although he never acknowledged this to me, he confessed to a 

 missionary at Rupert House who told me of it. When I first entered the Mission 

 in 1892, stories of cannabalism were commonly current, but of this I had no 

 other evidence of their truth than the stories of the people and the traders 

 whose veracity under the circumstances I had no reason to doubt. 



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