432 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



the report that the natives among whom they work improve con- 

 tinually as they become more civilized. Still there are exceptions 

 even among missionaries. Some of them find the native the more 

 agreeable the less sophisticated he is.* 



Certainly the only practicable method of treating Eskimos who 

 meet a white man for the first time is to deal with them as equals. 

 Failure to do so was, for instance, clearly the reason why the two 

 Roman Catholic priests were killed by the Eskimos of Coronation 

 Gulf. One of the two Eskimos said to have done the actual killing 

 I:ad, with his family, traveled about with me the summer before, 

 and I found not the slightest trouble in getting along with him. 

 But these missionaries had come from the Mackenzie River In- 

 dians who for about a century have been used to being treated as 

 social inferiors by the Hudson's Bay men and others and with whom 

 the method now works well. I have been compelled to realize 

 myself in dealing with the Mackenzie River Indians that the way 

 to have the least trouble with them, at any rate, is never to allow 

 them to feel that they are your equals. I must say also that of 

 late years I am beginning to find that the north Alaska and Macken- 

 zie River Eskimo is in this respect coming to be like the Indian or 

 the southern negro, and some of my difficulties the last few years 

 have been through my unwillingness to adopt the superior attitude 

 which they have learned to expect. 



Captain Gonzales had been cautioned that these natives were 

 different from the ones he was used to dealing with at Herschel 

 Island and must be treated about as white men v/ould be under the 

 same circumstances. But evidently the Captain did not agree with 

 this, for Emiu told me that soon after they started the Captain 

 had sat down on one of the sleds to ride awhile. When the Eski- 

 mos saw him do this they sat on the sleds also. This made the sleds 

 rather heavy and slowed up progress, for there is considerable 

 difference between one man riding and three. The Captain accord- 

 ingly told them to get off, that he was the only one who was going 

 to ride. But he spoke only the trade jargon which, while it serves 

 for dealing with Eskimos who have once learned it as the Greenland 

 or Alaska Eskimos have, is of no use with these people, who do not 

 understand a word. 



Gonzales then asked Emiu and Pikalu to translate to the local 

 Eskimos that they were not to ride. This they did not dare to do 

 for fear the others would take offense. So they tried to induce 



* See "Ten Thousand Miles by Dog Sled," by Archdeacon Hudson Stuck, 

 pp. 24-25. 



