86 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



of a visiting family will often connect himself in this way with the group that 

 he is visiting; he ceases to be a stranger, and therefore a potential enemy, in 

 his new community. A Kanghiryuak family, for example, arranged such an 

 exchange with a visiting Puivlik family in the summer of 1915. Often, how- 

 ever, the same bond is found uniting two families that live more or less perma- 

 nently in the same district. An exchange is then most likely to occur when they 

 come together again after being separated for a few months^ Thus the Noahog- 

 nik Eskimo Aksiatak who spent the summer of 1914 on the south side of Dolphin 

 and Union strait exchanged wives for a night with the Puivlik native Haviuyak 

 as soon as the two groups came together again in the fall. The exchange took 

 place in the most casual and informal manner, without the slightest attempt 

 at concealment. It was repeated a week later, although on the second occasion, 

 instead of the women temporarily changing huts, it was the men who moved 

 over. Similar instances occurred frequently later; in fact they were so usual 

 that they passed almost unnoticed in the communities. 



Occasionally there is some definite advantage to be derived from an exchange 

 of wives. Thus a few weeks after the above-mentioned incident Haviuyak's 

 wife accompanied Aksiatak to an AkuUiakattak settlement on south-west 

 Victoria island, because she wanted to visit her sister there; Aksiatak's own 

 wife, of course, remained behind to keep house for Haviuyak. In many cases, 

 however, lust seemed to be the only motive. The shaman Uloksak was one 

 of the most influential men among the western Copper Eskimos; moreover he 

 had three wives. In December, 1915, he sent two of them over to Avranna's 

 hut one evening, and the latter had to send back his own wife Milukkattak in 

 exchange, although she was then with child. The same thing happened again 

 a month later. Milukkattak, in speaking about it afterwards, said that neither 

 she nor her husband wanted to have any dealings with Uloksak and his family, 

 but they were afraid of the shaman and did not dare to refuse. 



The inhabitants of a settlement are all, or nearly all, nuatkattait, connected, 

 that is, either by blood or by marriage.^ Since no one person has any recognized 

 authority over the rest, it is this bond of relationship that keeps the people 

 united and maintains peace and harmony in the community. The vicissitudes 

 of life, too, in these regions tend to prevent any discord, for there are many 

 occasions, both in summer and in winter, when sickness or ill-luck in hunting 

 will make a family dependent for a time on its neighbours. The nuatkattait owe 

 special duties to one another. They must provide for each other in sickness, 

 take care of the aged and infirm, the widows and the orphans, and support each 

 other in the blood-feud'. This gives the community its solidarity. It has a 

 corporate unity, and is called by a tribal name, the suffix niiut added to the name 

 of the region it inhabits, or to a prominent place in that region, such as a lake or 

 river. Thus the Puivlirmiut is the group or tribe that inhabits the country of 

 Puivlik, and the Kogluktomiut similarly the group that frequents the Kog- 

 luktok or Coppermine river.* 



Strangers who come and attach themselves to the group try to connect 

 themselves by marriage, or by establishing definite ties with individual mem- 

 bers. Even temporary visitors do the same. When Kaksavik, the Pallik 

 Eskimo from Hudson Bay, paid a three day's visit to the Dolphin and Union 

 strait Eskimos, their foremost man Ikpakhuak made him his "dancing-asso- 

 ciate", numikattia. In this way a permanent ■ tie was established between the 



'Dr. D. Neumann (The Eskimo, Nome, Alaska, March, 191'J) says that in Alaska interchange of 

 wives and adoption of children were not unusual at all reunions. Mr. Stefansson makes the same obser- 

 vation concerning the Mackenzie river natives (Anthrop. Papers, A.M.N.H., Vol. XIV, pt. 1, p. 164). 



^Another word that is sometimes heard, taukattait, appears to be synonymous with nuatkattait. 



'Aksiatak sprained his ankle in the early spring of 1915, and Ikpakhuak was ill for a week or more 

 during the following winter. In both cases the invalids and their families were supported by the rest 

 of the community. 



"An individual of the tribe is designated by the addition of the suffix — tak, as Puivlir miutak, "a native 

 of Puivlik". 



