48 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



One route, the main one perhaps, to the Akilinnik [Thelon] river and the 

 Eskimos, of the interior, has its starting point in Bathurst inlet. Mr. Stefansson, 

 influenced perhaps by Hanbury's account, has stated that the Copper Eskimos 

 begin their overland route from Ogden bay. Hanbury certainly found Eskiinos 

 in that neighbourhood who were on their way to the Akilirnik, and others 

 whom he had actually met on that river in 1899. No doubt the more eastern 

 people do take this route, the Asiagmiut for example, and perhaps some 

 of the Kanghiryuarmiut and Ekaluktomiut as well; but the natives of the 

 east end of Coronation gulf usually start from Bathurst inlet. Sometimes 

 they leave in winter and make the journey by sled, carrying seal-blubber for 

 fuel and living on caribou and musk-oxen; sometimes in summer, packing their 

 goods and provisions on their backs. One old man, the shaman Ilatsiak, had 

 visited the Akilinnik no less than three times, crossing in early winter and 

 returning the following spring. He lived on caribou, he said, and instead of 

 seal-blubber used caribou fat for fuel and light. Their supplies, however, 

 frequently ran out, and then they would sit crouched up on their skins, shivering 

 with the cold. The inland natives, he said, frequently endure the same hard- 

 ships. 



Victoria island natives sometimes follow the same route, for a Kilusiktok 

 Eskimo informed me that many Ekaluktomiut had come to his country on 

 their way to the Akilinnik. A more easterly route, used perhaps by the Asiak 

 natives, follows the course of the Ellice river.^ No Indians are ever encountered 

 between the coast and the Akilinnik, and usually no Eskimos either, though 

 sometimes the northern people meet the Backs river natives, since the Backs or 

 Saningaiyok river is only six days' journey from the sea at Bathurst inlet. Ilat- 

 siak said that it has five tributaries, and that finally it enters the country of 

 Ukkusiksalik, somewhere east of Kilusiktok, but more distant probably than 

 Netsihk. 



The Copper Eskimos secured guns and ammunition and knives from the 

 Akilinnik people in exchange for the skins of caribou, musk-oxen and foxes. 

 Ilatsiak had bought from them a saw, an axe, powder for his rifle, two big snow- 

 knives and a few things of lesser importance. At the same time the Copper 

 natives obtain wood from which to make their sleds and weapons. Sometimes 

 they stayed with the Akilinnik people for a year or two, and went down to 

 Chesterfield inlet with them to meet and trade with white men; occasionally 

 too, an Akilinnik native would return with them to Bathurst inlet. These 

 inland natives, however, being ignorant of the method of seal-hunting on the 

 ice in winter, could never remain for any long period with their northern neigh- 

 bours, but were compelled to hasten south again in quest of caribou and musk- 

 oxen. 



An Akilinnik native visited the expedition at Bernard harbour about 

 Christmas, 1915. He told us that his people have a regular formula to describe 

 the natives of Bathurst inlet; translated it ran: "They are good people to meet, 

 they are pleasant companions. They always have plenty of seal-meat. They 

 are a friendly people. Whenever they go seahng they always secure plenty 

 of seals." 



South of the Akilinnik the Coronation gulf natives know of a people called 

 Aligattalingmiun, who live on a large river close to the country of the white 

 men. In the land of these Eskimos they say there is one very large river with 

 five smaller rivers leading to it (tributaries?), and the white men live on the one 

 farthest away. Ilatsiak had seen some of these Aligattalingmiun, who were 

 living on a tributary of the Akilinnik at a place called Kanralasiorvik, where 

 many caribou crossed the river in the fall during their annual migration south- 



'Cf. the Report of the Bathurst Inlet Patrol. 



