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
These Indians are often employed to assist in the capture of the white
whale, which ascends the lower portions of the larger streams of that
district. They are the only Indians whom I have seen eating the flesh
and blubber of these whales. The Naskopies will not touch it, declaring
it to be too fat. The fins and tail are portions highly prized while
they are helping render out the blubber of these whales at Fort Chimo.
A point of great dissimilarity between the Naskopies and the Little
Whale river Indians is that the birch-bark canoe of the latter is much
more turned up at each end, producing a craft well adapted to the swift
currents of the rivers. The occupants are skillful boatmen, and will
fearlessly face wind and wave that would appall the heart of the
Naskopie. Sails are sometimes erected in a single canoe. At times two
canoes are lashed together and a sail spread from a single mast. This
double boat is very convenient for the traveler. These people are
strongly addicted to the practice of polygamy; and while they are
Christians externally, they are so only as long as they are within the
reach of the missionary.
Among those who had come to dwell in the Ungava district were several
who had, because of the opportunity, taken two wives. The missionary,
E. J. Peck, suddenly appeared among them as he was on his way to London.
On learning of the conduct of the people he gave them a sound rating and
besought them to relinquish the practice. They assented, and sent the
second wives away until the missionary was out of the country, and then
they took them back.
Girls are often taken as wives before they attain puberty, and for this
reason they seldom have large families. Two, three, or four children
form the usual number for each family. They are satisfied if the first
child is a male; and to the mother who delivers only female children a
term of contempt is often applied. The women appear to be well treated,
and occasional laxity of morals is not noticed among them so long as it
is not notorious.
Their beliefs and traditions were not learned by me, on account of the
presence of these people at Fort Chimo when other labors occupied my
entire time.
Their purchases are made with furs of the same kinds as those procured
in the Ungava district. The black bear is procured in great numbers by
these Indians. They preserve the under lip, dressed and ornamented with
beads and strips of cloth, as a trophy of their prowess.
The harpoon used in striking the white whale of their rivers is an
implement doubtless peculiar to those people, and much resembles that of
the Innuit.
(3) The third division of Indians includes those dwelling for the most
part in the Ungava district. The total number of these Indians is about
350. They apply the term Ne né not--true, ideal men--to themselves,
although known by the epithet Naskopie, which was applied to them by the
Mountaineers of the southeastern portion of the region.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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