96 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



It is clear, therefore, that the maintenance of order in a Copper Eskimo 

 community rests purely and simply on a basis of force. No man will commit a 

 crime, save in the heat of passion, unless he believes that he can make good his 

 escape until the affair blows over, or else that his kinsmen will support him 

 against any attempt at revenge. Detection is certain; there is so little privacy 

 in their lives that all the possessions and actions of a man are known to everyone 

 around. Until recently, when firearms and steel knives and other articles of 

 civilization were introduced, there was little inducement to steal, for practically 

 all their possessions could be made or acquired without much labour. Murder, 

 however, with its corollary, the blood-feud, has always been frequent, and 

 nothing but external influence can prevent it. The natives came into conflict 

 with civilized law for the first time in 1916, when a patrol of the Royal Northwest 

 Mounted Police arrested and deported the murderers of the two French mission- 

 aries.^ They learned then that the murder of a white man would inevitably lead 

 io their paying the penalty at some time or another; but life will never be secured 

 or progress possible to these natives unless swift and exemplary punishment is 

 meted out for assassination within their own groups. 



' Report of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, Ottawa, 1916. 



