THE LIFE OF THE COPPER ESKIMOS 



By D. Jenness 

 Victoria Memorial Museum, Ottawa, Canada. 



INTRODUCTION 



When the Canadian Arctic Expedition left Esquimalt, British Columbia, 

 on June 17, 1913, there were two anthropologists on its staff, M. Henri Beuchat, 

 the famous French savant, and myself. Our instructions called for three years 

 research work in the vicinity of Coronation gulf, M. Beuchat devoting his 

 attention more specifically to the language, manners, customs and religious 

 beliefs of the Eskimos of that region — the Copper Eskimos — while I was to 

 study their physical anthropology, technology, and archaeology. The first year 

 was a year of disaster. Our largest vessel, the Karluk, was crushed in the ice, 

 and several members of our staff, including M. Beuchat, perished either on the 

 ice or on Wrangell island. At the same time the remainder of the expedition 

 found itself doomed to spend its first winter on the north coast of Alaska. From 

 November, 1913, to February, 1914, I lived with the Eskimos near Barrow, 

 gathering folk-lore and compiling a grammar and vocabulary of the language. 

 In March I travelled eastward, and joined the southern party of the expedition 

 at Collinson point, about 100 miles west of the Alaska-Canada boundary. There 

 I continued my linguistic studies for a short time, then at the end of May moved 

 down to Barter island, and spent the next few weeks in excavating some of the 

 ancient ruins on this old trading-site of the Alaskan and Mackenzie river Eskimos. 

 The large collection of archseological specimens now stored in the Victoria 

 Memorial Museum at Ottawa represents but a portion of the ethnological 

 results that were obtained during our first year in the Arctic, when we were 

 still over a thousand miles from our original objective. Indeed it was not until 

 August, 1914, that the southern party of th^ expedition was able to establish 

 a base at Bernard harbour, on the south side of Dolphin and Union strait, 

 within the territory of the Copper Eskimos. There, with less than two years at 

 my disposal, I had to carry out M. Beuchat's work as well as my own, and attempt 

 as far as possible to cover the whole wide field of anthropological research. 



The autumn of 1914 was spent in routine duties around our station at 

 Bernard harbour. We had to unload the vessels, build a house and store-room, 

 set up the meteorological instruments, and collect the driftwood scattered 

 along the coast for fuel during the coming winter. Our only assistant at this 

 period was a young Mackenzie river native named Palaiyak, most of whose time 

 was taken up in hunting. Twice we were visited by small bands of local natives 

 who lingered in our vicinity for two or three days, then disappeared again inland. 

 At the beginning of November, as soon as it was possible to travel along the 

 coast by sled, one of the topographers, Mr. J. R. Cox, accompanied me on a 

 short trip west to Cape Bexley in order to discover whether any of the Eskimos 

 had come down to the coast in that direction. Our journey was fruitless, how- 

 ever, for we found no traces of the natives anywhere. 



On November 19, two families of the natives suddenly appeared at our 

 station, and a few days later I joined them at their camp three or four miles 

 east. One of them guided me at the end of the month to the Eskimos on the 



