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
The people who apply this name to themselves do not number more than a
score and a half. There are but four families, and among these are some
who belong to other localities, but now dwell with the Koksoagmyut. They
consider themselves a part of the people dwelling as far to the north as
the western end of Akpatok island, and to the east as far as George’s
river. The Eskimo dwelling between those points have similar habits, and
range indiscriminately over the hunting grounds of that locality, seldom
going farther southward than the confluence of the Larch river or the
North river with the Koksoak.
Among these few natives now inhabiting the Koksoak valley we find the
men to be above the stature usually ascribed to the Eskimo. All but one
of the adult males are above 5 feet 8 inches. The smallest man is little
more than 5½ feet tall. All are well proportioned and present an
exceptionally good physique. The females are also well proportioned,
and, in fact, appear to compare well with females of civilized countries
as far as their stature is concerned. The lower extremities of both
sexes really are shorter than the general appearance would indicate, and
thus the body is somewhat longer. The great individual variation in the
proportional length of the legs is doubtless the result of the way
infants are carried in the hood on the backs of the mothers. In this
constrained position the limbs were obliged to conform to the shape of
the body on which the child, in a manner, grew. While the limbs are not
decidedly curved, yet they are not so nearly under the body as those of
the whites. In walking, the inner edges of the feet often touch each
other, and, in a manner, tend to cause the boots to slip outward on the
feet.
The head, hands, and feet appear fairly proportioned; although, as a
rule, they have small hands and feet. The females have proportionally
smaller feet than hands. The head may seem larger than it really is,
on account of the flattened features of the face.
The average nose is large and flat, and the prominence of this organ is
often diminished by the wide cheeks and overhanging forehead. In most
cases the chin projects less than the nose. The average face is round
and flat, but there are exceptions, as I have seen one or two persons
whose faces were a regular oval, and with the exception of the flat
front, seen from a side view, were as well formed as one will meet among
other people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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