4fJ THE POINT BAKKOW ESKIMO. 



Point Barrow people have but slight acquaintance with them, as they 

 see them only a short time each summer. Captain Smith, however, in- 

 forms me that in the summer of 1885 one boat load of them came back 

 with the Point Barrow traders to Point Barrow, where he saw them on 

 board of Ids ship. There was a man at Utkiavwin who was called " the 

 Kunmu'dlin." He came there when a child, probably, by adoption, and 

 was in no way distinguishable from the other people. 



Father Petitot appears to iuclndc these people in the " Ta/)e(v-meut " 

 (livisi f liis "Tcliiglit" Eskimo, whom he loosely describes as in- 

 habiting tlic coast from Ilerschcl Island to Liverpool Bay, including 

 tiic delta of the Mackenzie,' without locating tlu'ir i)crnianent \nllages. 

 In another place, however, he excludes the " Ta/'e(w/nicut " from the 

 "Tcldglit," saying, "Dans I'ouest, les Tchiylit communiquaient avec 

 Icurs plus proches voisins les Ta/jeo^-meut," ^ while in a third place ^ he 

 gives the country of the "Tchiglit" as extending from the Coppermine 

 Uiver tci the Oolville, and on his maj) in the same volume, the "Tareor- 

 iiieiit " :iie liiid down in the Markenzie delta oidy. According to his 

 own account, however, he had no personal knowledge of any Eskimo 

 west of the Mackenzie delta. These people undoubtedly have a local 

 name derived from that of their winter village, but it is yet to be learned. 



It is ])ossiblc that they do consider themselves the same people with 

 tlie l';skiiii() of the Mackenzie delta, and call themselves by the general 

 name of •• Ta/d'o/.nieut " (= Taxaiomiun iu the Point Barrow dialect), 

 "those who live by the sea." That they do not call themselves "Kun- 

 nui'dlln " or •• Kainuali-enyuin '' or " Kangmaligmeut " is to my mind 

 (piitc certain. The word '• Kunnu'i'dlin," as already stated, is used 

 at Nortou Sound to designate the people of Point Barrow (I was 

 called a " Kiunnu'dlin " by sotne Eskimo at St. Michaels because I 

 sjioke the Point Barrow dialect), who do not recognize the name as be- 

 longing to themselves, but have transferred it to the people uuder con- 

 sideration. Now, " Kuiimii'dlTn " is a word formed after the analogy of 

 many Eskimo words from a noun kiiiimTj and the aftix lifi or dllii (iu 

 (Ireenlandic lik), "one who has a ." The radical noun, the mean- 

 ing of which I (^an not ascertain, would become in the ^lackenzie dialect 

 kpiignrdfik (using Petitot's orthography), which with -lik iu the plural 

 woidd make k/iagmalit. (According to Petitot's "Grammake" the 

 plural of -lik iu the Mackenzie dialect is -lit, and not -gdlit, as iu Green 

 landic). This is the name given by Petitot on his map to the people of 

 the A nderson River,^ while he calls the Anderson River itself K/^agmalik.' 

 The father, however, had but little i)ersonal knowledge of the natives 

 of tlic Anderson, having made l)ut two, ai)pareutly brief, visits to thetr 

 village iu 1805, when he first made the acquaintance of the Eskimo. 

 He afterwards became fairly intimate with the Eskimo of the Mackenzie 



1 Monographie, p. xl. 

 ^Ibid, p. xvi. 



3 Bull, do la Sooi6t6 de G(Sographio, 0« s^r.. vol. 10, p. 250. 



* See also Monographie. etc., p. xi, where the uame is spelled Kpumalit 



2 VocabiUaire, etc., p. 76. 



