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 — John Shaqi
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
They procure the furs of marten, mink, fur beaver, muskrats, lynxes,
wolverines, wolves, and foxes. A considerable number of black bears are
also obtained by these Indians. By the barter of these furs they procure
the articles made necessary by the advent of the white people among
them. They are quiet and peaceable. Many of them profess a regard for
the teachings of the Roman missionaries, who have visited them more or
less frequently for over a hundred and fifty years. I was unable to
obtain the term by which they distinguish themselves from their
neighbors. That they are later comers in the region than the Innuit is
attested by the bloody warfare formerly carried on between them, of
which many proofs yet exist. The Mountaineers applied to the more
northern Indians the term of reproach, “Naskopie.” This word denotes the
contempt the Mountaineers felt for the Naskopies when the latter failed
to fulfill their promise to assist in driving the Innuit from the
country.
It was impossible to obtain a satisfactory estimate of the numbers of
the Mountaineers. My stay in their vicinity was too short to learn as
much about them as was desired.
(2) The Indians dwelling to the southwest of the Ungava district differ
rather more than the Mountaineers, in their speech, from the Indians of
the Ungava district. They average, for both sexes, slightly taller than
the Naskopies. The men are spare, and have small limbs and extremities.
The cheek bones are also more prominent, although this is partly due to
the thin visage. The women are disposed to be stout, and in the older
women there is a decided tendency to corpulence. The complexion, too, is
considerably darker. The men wear long hair, usually cut so as to fall
just upon the shoulders. The hair of the women is quite heavy, and is
worn either in braids or done up in folds upon the side of the head.
In their personal habits they are much more tidy than their eastern
relations. Their dress differs but little from that of their neighbors.
The women dress in cloth made of material procured from the traders, and
some of these appear respectable enough when so dressed. They have been
so long in contact with the white people at Moose Factory, some of whom
had brought their wives from home with them, that the women have
imitated the dress of the latter. Certain of these women are skillful in
working fancy articles. The men occupy their time in hunting and
fishing. The reindeer have in recent years become so scarce in the
vicinity of Fort George that many of the Indians have left that locality
and journeyed to the eastward, dwelling in proximity to the Naskopies,
or even with them.
Both sexes are mild and sedate, although the women are exceedingly
garrulous when well acquainted.
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