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

here during the fall. In Cumberland Sound I learned that this changing of the habitations takes place almost regularly and that sometimes the settlement is moved to Aqbirsiarbing (Cape True) if the bay is frozen over beyond Operdniving. In traveling to Aqbirsiarbing the tide holes of Ikerassaqdjuaq (Lupton Channel) are avoided by using the pass of Chappell Inlet. Here and in Tornait the natives go sealing on the ice or walrusing at the edge of the floe, which in most cases is not very far off.

      About the latter half of March part of the Eskimo begin to travel up Frobisher Bay. In the middle of April, 1862, Hall found a settlement on Qeqertuqdjuaq (Gabriel Island), from which island the floe edge was visited and young seals were caught in the narrow channels between the numerous islands. Towards the end of the month a portion of the natives went farther to the northwest in pursuit of the basking seals (I, p. 470), intending to reach the head of the bay in July. Hall found summer habitations at Ukadliq (I, p. 468); on Field Bay (p. 296); and on Frobisher Bay at Agdlinartung (p. 308), Opera Glass Point (p. 341), Waddell Bay (p. 341), and Nuvuktualung, on the southern point of Beecher Peninsula (p. 348).

      A very important hunting ground of the inhabitants of Tiniqdjuarbiusirn (Frobisher Bay), of which I received some detailed accounts, is Lake Amaqdjuaq. In the foregoing remarks on the Akuliaq tribe I described the course which leads from Hudson Strait to the lake. Another route is followed in traveling from the head of Frobisher Bay to Lake Amaqdjuaq, a distance of about fifty miles. Probably the men leave Sylvia Grinnell River and ascend to Lake Amartung, from which lake a brook runs westward to Lake Amaqdjuaq (Baffin-Land, p. 68). The women take a different route and arrive at Aqbeniling after a tramp of six days, near a small bay called Metja. Here the summer huts are erected and birds and deer are killed in abundance.

      The facility in reaching the lake from Hudson Strait and Frobisher Bay is a very important consideration, as the Akuliarmiut and the Nugumiut meet here, and thus an immediate intercourse between the tribes is opened. The inhabitants of Hudson Strait leave Tuniqten in spring, arrive at the head of Frobisher Bay in the fall, and after the formation of the ice reach the Nugumiut settlements by means of sledges. When Hall wintered in Field Bay a traveling party of Sikosuilarmiut which had accomplished the distance from King Cape in one year arrived there (I, p. 267).

      Another route, which is practicable only for boats, connects Qaumauang with Nugumiut. It leads along the shore of Hudson Strait. The traveler sails through the dangerous passage between Tudjaqdjuaq (Resolution Island) and the mainland and crosses Frobisher Bay either at its entrance or in the shelter of the group of islands farther up the bay.

In their intercourse with the Nugumiut, the inhabitants of Cumberland Sound generally follow the long coast between Ukadliq and Naujateling, passing through the numerous sounds formed by long, narrow islands. I can describe this region from personal observations.

      The Oqomiut

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      The Eskimo of Davis Strait call the tribes of Cumberland Sound and Saumia by the name of Oqomiut. The whole of the land from Prince Regent Inlet to the plateau of Nugumiut is divided by the Eskimo into three parts, Aggo, Akudnirn, and Oqo—i.e., the weather side, the center, and the lee side—and accordingly the tribes are called the Aggomiut, Akudnirmiut, and Oqomiut.

      Unquestionably the whole of Cumberland Sound and the coast of Davis Strait from Cape Mercy to Exeter Sound belong to the Oqo of the Northern Eskimo. Farther north, the inhabitants of Padli extend their migrations from Qarmaqdjuin to Qivitung. These people occupy an intermediate position between the Akudnirmiut and the Oqomiut, having easy communication with both, and consequently it is doubtful to which they belong, so that the determination of the boundary between Oqo and Akudnirn remains arbitrary. In regard to their customs and from the position of the land, however, they may be more properly joined to the Akudnirmiut, of whom they would form a subdivision.

      The names Oqo, Akudnirn, and Aggo must not be understood as respectively meaning a region strictly limited: they denote rather directions and the intervals between the localities situated in these directions. In asking for the position of Oqo one would be directed southeast, as this is considered the lee side; in the same way, if asking for Aggo, one would be directed to the shore of Prince Regent Inlet, the farthest land in the northwest, the weather side. In Cumberland Sound the natives of Iglulik are considered Aggomiut, while in Pond Bay they are known as a separate tribe. In the southern parts the whole of the northern region is comprised in the name Aggo; in the north Oqo means the whole of the southeastern regions.

Formerly, the Oqomiut were divided into four subtribes: the Talirpingmiut, on the west shore of Cumberland Sound; the Qinguamiut, at the head of it; the Kingnaitmiut, on the east shore; and the Saumingmiut, on the southeastern slope of the highland of Saumia. The names are derived from the districts which they inhabit, respectively. As the head of every fjord is called “qingua” (its head), the upper part of the large Cumberland Sound is also so named. The Qingua region may be limited by Imigen on the western shore and Ussualung on the eastern shore, though the name is applied to a region farther north; indeed, the name covers the whole district at the head of the sound. In looking from the head to the entrance of the sound the coasts are called according to their position: the southwestern Talirpia, i.e., its right one, and the northeastern Saumia, i.e., its left one; between Saumia and Qingua the highland Kingnait, i.e., the higher land as compared to the opposite shore, is situated.

      Although at the present time this division is hardly justifiable, the names of these four tribes are often mentioned on the shore of Davis Strait. Their old settlements are still inhabited, but their separate tribal identity is gone, a fact which is due as well to the diminution in their numbers as to the influence of the whalers visiting them.

      In my opinion a great difference between these tribes never existed. Undoubtedly they were groups of families confined to a certain district and connected by a common life. Such a community could more easily develop as long as the number of individuals was a large one. When the whalers first wintered in Cumberland Sound the population may have amounted to about 1,500. In 1840, when Penny discovered the sound, he met 40 Eskimo in Anarnitung (Eenoolooapik, p. 91). The greater number of the inhabitants were at the head of the fjords fishing for salmon, others were whaling in Issortuqdjuaq, and some were inland on a deer hunting expedition. The whole number at that time probably amounted to 200. A few years later the Kingnaitmiut of Qeqerten were able to man eighteen whaleboats. Assuming five oarsmen and one harpooner to each boat, the steersman being furnished by the whalers, and for each man one wife and two children, we have in all about 400 individuals. The inhabitants of Nettilling Fjord may have numbered as many, and 100 are said to have lived in Imigen. Penny found in Ugjuktung about 30 individuals who belonged to the Saumingmiut and had come thither from Davis Strait. Accordingly I estimate the whole tribe at 150 individuals. On the southwestern coast of the sound between Nuvujen and Naujateling a large number of natives were reported. They lived in three settlements and numbered about 600. These estimates are not absolutely reliable, as they are compiled largely from hearsay and conjecture. Many of the natives being away in the summer, at the time when these estimates were made, accuracy in their preparation was impossible. From inquiries which were made among American whalers who had visited this sound since 1851, the population of Qeqerten must have been larger than that of any of the settlements contiguous to the sound. The estimation is the more difficult as a few settlements were sometimes deserted; for instance, Ukiadliving, in Saumia, and Qarmaqdjuin (Exeter Bay). Probably eight settlements, with a population of 200 inhabitants each—i.e., 1,600 in the sound—would be about the true number in 1840. At first I was inclined to believe in the existence of a larger number, but from later reports I should consider this number too large rather than too small. Since that time the population has diminished at a terrible rate. In 1857 Warmow, a Moravian missionary who accompanied Penny, estimated it at 300. If this was correct, the rapid diminution must have occurred during the first years after the rediscovery of the sound. In December, 1883, the Talirpingmiut numbered 86 individuals, the Qinguamiut 60, the Kingnaitmiut 82, the Saumingmiut 17; total, 245. These were distributed in eight settlements. Beginning with the most southern settlement, the Talirpingmiut lived in Umanaqtuaq, Idjorituaqtuin, Nuvujen,