Native Americans: 22 Books on History, Mythology, Culture & Linguistic Studies. James Mooney

to their huts and the more they become dependent on the seal. While in summer shrubs of various kinds are available for cooking purposes, in winter blubber affords the only fuel for cooking and for heating their huts.

      At last the smaller bays are sufficiently frozen to permit a new way of pursuing the game. The hunters visit the edge of the newly formed floe in order to shoot the seals, which are secured by the harpoon.

      The process of freezing goes on quickly and the floating pieces of ice begin to consolidate. Only a few holes are now found, in places where icebergs, moved by the tides or the strong currents, prevent the sea from freezing. During a short time these openings form the favorite hunting ground of the natives. Though the walrus and the ground seal migrate to the edge of the floe as soon as the ice begins to form, the common seal (Pagomys fœtidus) remains, and this is always the principal food of the natives. In the autumn the fjords and the narrow channels between the islands are its favorite haunt; later in the season it resorts to the sea, frequently appearing at the surface through breathing holes, which it scratches in the ice. As winter comes on it is hunted by the Eskimo at these holes.

      The foregoing observations will serve as a preliminary to the description of the distribution of the tribes of Northeastern America. The object of this section is to treat of the immediate relations between the country and its inhabitants, and a detailed account of their habits will be found in subsequent pages.

      According to Dr. H. Rink, the Inuit race may be divided into five groups: the Greenlanders; the central tribes of Smith Sound, Baffin Land, the west shore of Hudson Bay, the Back River region, and Boothia; the Labradorians, on the shores of that peninsula; the Mackenzie tribes of the central parts of the north shore of America; and the tribes of Alaska. I am somewhat in doubt whether the central tribes and those of Labrador differ enough to justify a separate classification, as the natives of both shores of Hudson Strait seem to be closely related. A decisive answer on the division of these tribes may be postponed until the publication of Lucien M. Turner’s excellent observations and collections, which were made at Fort Chimo.

      Baffin Land

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The Sikosuilarmiut

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      I shall begin with the enumeration of the tribes in the southwestern part of Baffin Land. This country is inhabited by the Sikosuilarmiut, i.e., the inhabitants of the shore without an ice floe. They are settled in two places: Nurata, east of King Cape, and Sikosuilaq, within the peninsula (or island?) which projects east of King Cape. The large fjords Sarbaq and Sarbausirn, which belong to their territory, are known to me only by a description which I received in Cumberland Sound. In summer they visit the upper parts of this long fjord to hunt deer on the plains which reach to the shore of Fox Basin. Probably they do not extend their migrations very far to the north or northeast; otherwise, they would reach Lakes Amaqdjuaq and Nettilling, the region about the latter being the hunting ground of the natives of Cumberland Sound.

      I know of only a single meeting between the Eskimo visiting Lake Nettilling and others who are supposed to have come from Hudson Strait. It occurred in 1883 south of the lake.

      The Akuliarmiut

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      This tribe is settled on the northern shore of Hudson Strait. Their winter resort lies west of Qeqertuqdjuaq (Parry’s North Bluff). In summer they travel through White Bear Sound or Lesseps Bay to Lake Amaqdjuaq, which they reach after crossing a neck of land about ten miles in width. The exact direction of the road cannot be ascertained, as the position of their starting point, which is called Tuniqten, is doubtful. Crossing a short portage they ascend to Lake Amitoq, whence on a second portage they pass the watershed between Lake Amaqdjuaq and Hudson Strait. From the small Lake Mingong a brook runs into Sioreling and thence into Lake Amaqdjuaq (Baffin-Land, p. 67). On the southern shore of the large lake they erect their summer tents. Farther east, in North Bay, there is another winter residence of the same tribe. Unfortunately, I cannot specify the place of this settlement, which is called Quaiirnang.

      The Qaumauangmiut

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      East of the Akuliarmiut live the Eskimo so frequently met near Middle Savage Islands. Their principal residence is near Lake Qaumauang, from which they take their name Qaumauangmiut. My investigations concerning these tribes were much embarrassed by the want of trustworthy charts. If charts are tolerably well delineated, the Eskimo understand the meaning of every point and island and can give detailed accounts of the situation of the settlements and the migrations of the inhabitants.

Between Sikosuilaq and Akuliaq but a moderate amount of intercourse is kept up, as the settlements are separated by a wide and uninhabited stretch of land. Notwithstanding this many members of one tribe are found to have settled among the other. An American whaling station which was established in Akuliaq a few years ago may have had some influence upon the distribution and the life of these tribes. The greater importance of Akuliaq, however, cannot be ascribed to the presence of the whalers alone, as a few harbors near Sikosuilaq are also frequently visited by them. The whalers report that there are about fifty inhabitants in Sikosuilaq, about two hundred in Akuliaq, and farther east fifty more. Thus the population of the north shore of Hudson Strait probably amounts to three hundred in all.

      The Qaumauangmiut are probably closely related to the Nugumiut of Frobisher Bay.

      The Nugumiut

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      I can give a somewhat more detailed description of this tribe, among the families of which Hall passed the winters of 1860-’61 and 1861-’62 (Hall I). Unfortunately, he does not give any coherent account of their life, only meager information being furnished in the record of his journeys. Besides, generalizations cannot be made from his two years’ experience. My own observations in Cumberland Sound may serve as a complement to those of Hall. As he gives only a few native names of places, it is sometimes difficult to ascertain the exact position of the localities to which he alludes.

      According to Hall and my own inquiries four places are inhabited by this tribe almost every winter: Tornait (Jones Cape of Hall), about thirty-five miles above Bear Sound, in Frobisher Bay; Operdniving and Tuarpukdjuaq, in Countess of Warwick Sound; Nugumiut, in (Cyrus W.) Field Bay; and Ukadliq, in (Cornell) Grinnell Bay. As these bays open into Davis Strait the formation of the ice is retarded and its extent diminished, and consequently some peculiarities in the arrangement of the life of the Eskimo are observed here. The only occupation of the Nugumiut and the inhabitants of Ukadliq is sealing with the harpoon on the floe of the inner parts of the bay. Near Ukadliq the tide holes east and west of Allen Island abound with seals. In winter, when the seals take to the open ice, the village of this group of families is established near Roger’s Island, where the floe of the bay forms the hunting ground of the natives.

During the autumn the Nugumiut stay in Field Bay. The women are then busy preparing the deerskins; for, on account of the requirements of their religion, the walrus hunt cannot be begun until the deerskins which were taken in summer have been worked up for use. As soon as this is done they travel across Bayard Taylor Pass (so called by Hall) to Frobisher Bay, and in the latter half of December or in the beginning of January settle on Operdniving or on Tuarpukdjuaq in company with the