Ethnology of the Ungava District, Hudson Bay Territory: Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1889-1890, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1894, pages 159-350Turner, Lucien M. (Lucien McShan)
History
Ethnology of the Ungava District, Hudson Bay Territory: Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1889-1890, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1894, pages 159-350
Turner, Lucien M. (Lucien McShan)
Indians of North America -- Québec (Province) -- Ungava Peninsula -- Folklore; Indians of North America -- Québec (Province) -- Ungava Peninsula -- Social life and customs; Inuit -- Québec (Province) -- Ungava Peninsula -- Folklore; Inuit -- Québec (Province) -- Ungava Peninsula -- Social life and c
Although the missionaries have devoted considerable energy to the work
of converting these people, and though many of them profess
Christianity, these professions prove on examination to be merely
nominal. As soon as the converts are beyond the teacher’s influence,
they return to the shaman for guidance.
In the spring of 1883 a party of these people visited Fort Chimo.
A great number of the Koksoak people were ill, some 30 miles above the
station. The visitors had among them a shaman renowned throughout the
land. He, with the connivance of two or three of the people with whom he
stopped, began some of the most astonishing intrigues to dispel the evil
spirit afflicting the people. Several men were parted from their wives,
and these were compelled to dwell with other men who were at the bottom
of the conspiracy. Other couples had to flee from that place to prevent
being divorced, at least temporarily. After a time the visitors
descended to Fort Chimo, and while the bartering was going on the shaman
announced his conversion to Christianity, and vowed never again to
return to practicing shamanism. On the return of the harried fugitives
they passed the camp of the Koksoak river people, where they had a few
days before been the guests, and stole their supplies of reindeer meat
and other valuable property, even attempting to purloin a kaiak; and
they had proceeded many miles thence before they were overtaken and
compelled to relinquish the stolen property. They were seen some months
after by some Tahagmyut, to whom they stated their fear of returning
among the Koksoak people. A more plausible scamp does not dwell in those
regions than this shaman, whose name is Sápa. His power over the spirit
controlling the reindeer is widely believed in and invoked by the other
shamans, who feel incapable of turning the heads of the deer and thus
compelling them to wander in the desired direction.
Among these people only have I heard of a son who took his mother as a
wife, and when the sentiment of the community compelled him to discard
her he took two other women, who were so persecuted by the mother that
they believed themselves to be wholly under her influence. She even
caused them to believe they were ill, and when they actually did become
so they both died.
In former years the Innuit extended entirely around the shore of Hudson
bay. Now there is a very wide gap, extending from the vicinity of Fort
George, on the eastern coast, to the vicinity of Fort Churchill, on the
western coast. At the present time the Innuit occupy the areas
designated in these remarks. That they formerly extended along the
Atlantic coast far to the south of their present limit is attested by an
abundance of facts.
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