44 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



CHAPTER IV 

 TRADE AND INTERCOURSE^ 



All the groups of the Copper Eskimos maintain a constant intercourse 

 with one another, but naturally the extent of their relations varies inversely 

 with the distance between them. Mr. Stefansson believes that prior to 1830 

 there was a continuous chain of habitations along the coast from Langton bay 

 to Coronation gulf. It is true that ruins of wood and sod houses have been 

 found at various places between Cape Lyon and Cape Krusenstem, all dating 

 back probably at least a hundred years, but the fewness and rude character of 

 these remains seem to indicate the presence of occasional travelling parties of 

 western natives or temporary settlements that lasted but one or two winters, 

 rather than any permanent habitations.^ Moreover, while seals are plentiful 

 along the coast, caribou seem to be rather scarce, so that there would be httle 

 inducement for natives acquainted with the more bountiful districts east and 

 west of them to fix their homes in this region. It is worth pointing out in this 

 connection that Richsrdson and Kendall saw no dwellings in 1826, but only 

 a few store-houses built of drift-wood at Young point, where the Eskimos had 

 cached their things for the summer while they themselves wandered inland. 



The Copper Eskimos have no traditions that would point to their having 

 lived farther west than now. They know, however, that their ancestors up 

 to two generations ago used to meet the western natives in the vicinity of Wise 

 point. These western natives, who came from the country of Avvak (Cape 

 Bathurst), traded mainly for stone lamps and implements of copper, giving in 

 exchange iron knives; it was only rarely that they purchased stone pots, since 

 they had pots of clay that they themselves made. How far back these relations 

 date is uncertain. Higilak, an AkuUiakattak woman of about 45 years of age, 

 said that long ago a party of Copper Eskimos travelling west came upon a 

 large settlement of Eskimos on a point near the mouth of a great river that had 

 high cliffs along one bank; before that time they had not known there were 

 people to the west of them. The Copper Eskimos married some of the strangers' 

 women and afterwards frequently went west again to meet them. Once they 

 found them living with Indians, but this was in a different place. 



Awallook, an Eskimo who was living on the Richardson river, told Simpson 

 that he had heard there were Eskimos far west who wore labrets, but that he 

 had never seen any himself'. We met an old woman of the same name at the 

 wegt end of Coronation gulf in the winter of 1914-15. When she was a little 

 girl, she said, strange people came from the westward to Dolphin and Union 

 strait, but they never reached Coronation gulf; they were not white men, but 

 Eskimos hke themselves. She had heard that her own people had come to the 

 Rae river district long ago from the west. Another elderly man named Anerak, 

 who belonged to the same group, said that the Copper Eskimos used to meet 

 and trade with the western natives near some high cliffs on the sea-shore (one 

 of the promontories near Wise point). Occasionally some of the western natives 

 would return with them, while a few of the Copper Eskimos would sometimes 

 go west. He himself many years ago made a journey to this place, hoping 

 to meet these people, but became frightened when he found the place deserted 

 and turned back home. 



'For this chapter aee especially Stefansson, Anthrop. Papers, A.M.N.H., Vol. XIV, pt. I, pp. 17-19 

 25, 133 et seq., and G.S.C., Museum Bulletin No. 6. 



2But see Appendix, where the opinion expressed here is modified in the light of more recent information. 

 'Simpson, Discoveries, p. 347. 



