MURDOCH. ] TRIBAL PHENOMENA. 43 
“Inuit” of other dialects, and meaning “people,” or “human beings.” 
Under this name they include white men and Indians as well as Eskimo, 
as is the case in Greenland and the Mackenzie River district, and prob- 
ably also everywhere else, though many writers have supposed it to be 
applied by them only to their own race. 
They have however special names for the former two races. The 
people of any village are known as “the inhabitants of such and such 
a place;” for instance, Nuwii/nmiun, ‘the inhabitants of the point;” 
Utkiavwitmiun, ‘the inhabitants of Utkiavwin;” Kuimiun (in Green- 
landic “* Kungmiut”), ‘“‘the people who live on the river.” The people 
about Norton Sound speak of the northern Eskimo, especially those of 
Point Barrow and Cape Smyth, as “ Kainmi/‘dlit,” which is not a name 
derived from a location, but a sort of nickname, the meaning of which 
ras not ascertained. The Point Barrow natives do not call themselves 
by this name, but apply it to those people whose winter village is at 
Demarcation Point (or Herschel Island, see above, p. 26). This word 
appears in the corrupted form “ Kokmullit,” as the name of the village 
at Nuwtk on Petrofi’s map. Petroff derived his information regarding 
the northern coast at second-hand from people who had obtained their 
knowledge of names, etc., from the natives of Norton Sound. 
The people of the two villages under consideration frequently go back- 
ward and forward, sometimes removing permanently from one village to 
the other, while strangers from distant villages sometimes winter here, 
so that it was not until the end of the second year, when we were inti- 
mately acquainted with everybody at Utkiavwin, that we could form 
anything like a correct estimate of the population of this village.! 
This we found to be about 140 souls. As well as we could judge, there 
were about 150 or 160 at Nuwiik. These figures show a great decrease 
in numbers since the end of 1853, when Dr. Simpson? reckoned the pop- 
ulation of Nuwtk at 309. During the 2 years from September, 1881, to 
August, 1883, there were fifteen deaths that we heard of in the village 
of Utkiavywin alone, and only two children born in that period survived. 
With this ratio between the number of births and deaths, even in a 
period of comparative plenty, it is difficult to see how the race can es- 
cape speedy extinction, unless by accessions from without, which in their 
isolated situation they are not likely to receive.* 
SOCIAL SURROUNDINGS. 
CONTACT WITH UNCIVILIZED PEOPLE. 
Other Eskimo.—The nearest neighbors of these people, as has been 
stated above, are the Eskimo living at Demareation Point (or Herschel 
1See ‘‘Approximate Census, etc.,’’ Report of Point Barrow Exp., p. 49. 
20Op. cit., p. 237. 
3Petroff’s estimate (Report, etc., p. 4) of the number of natives on this part of the Arctic coast is” 
much too large. He gives the population of *Ootiwakh” (Utkiavwii) as 225. Refuge Inlet (where 
there is merely a summer camp of Utkiavwitimiun), 40, and ‘‘Kokmullit,’’ 200. The supposed settle- 
ment of 50 inhabitants at the Colville River is also a mere summer camp, not existing in the winter. 
