Ilatsiak - 51 - Worrisome News

Kunana slowly rose from his sled as it came up the slight rise to the tent and halted. Then with a rolling, graceful gait he walked ahead and settled his five dogs. They were tired and took no coaxing. They curled up and fell asleep. Agayuq stood at the entrance to his skin tent and waited before saying anything. Finally he took a step and smiled.
“So, you have arrived.”
“Yes, yes, finally I arrive. There is so little snow as yet, hardly enough to sled on. I have been many days coming with such poor dogs as these.” Kunana lied. He had five of the best dogs Agayuq had seen in years. “I have been to the place of the ships. There is trouble happening there. Think carefully before you visit them.”
Agayuq had been hearing other ship stories almost from the moment David had left to go south with Qayaq several months ago. Now more and more stories were being told by people who had actually visited the ships or seen the sailors moving along the west coast during the past summer. When David had first come to them, the ships were far away to the north and no one went to see them, but recently there had been new stories of how the ice had opened and allowed them to come further south during the past summer. Some Inuit had gone hunting geese and caribou at the crossing place on the southwest coast the previous August and seen the white people, some had even even hunted with them, but he had not gone. “It’s not good there. I heard four men died of sickness. I have heard others say there was fighting as well back at the ships. I won’t be going to see them then.”
Kunana was a young man of about 20. Still unmarried, he was well known as an excellent hunter and voracious wanderer, always on the lookout for adventure. He looked again at Agayuq as they sat on the skins at the back of the tent and poked around in the cooking pot’s greasy soup for the remaining seal ribs. Retrieving one, he would give it a good looking over and then begin pulling the meat off with his teeth. “One of the ships will sink this winter,” he began again. “It is already breaking up in the ice.It is nearly on its side and only dead men are in it.”
“Dead men?” questioned Agayuq.
“They put the dead ones there. Maybe they are afraid of being dead on our land. I don’t know why they do that.”
“Are their many dead ones?”
“Yes, more and more. They get sick and die. They did not catch many caribou at the crossing this year. It was even worse than last year when so few came to the island. The cold, wet weather kept all the caribou on the mainland this year. Now they are hungry people and getting sicker.”
“Yes, I have caught no caribou since the spring. I will go to Boothia when there is enough snow to make houses. I will hunt for winter skins over there.” replied Agayuq.
“Yes, many people are saying that. Kikitarjuk is not a good place this year.”
“What will the white people do for food?” asked Agayuq.
“Some have already gone. They were seen at Tikinuq. People say they will go to the Fish River to live this winter, but I don’t think so. There is little food there in the winter, as you know. I think more will die.”
“Aliktuq and his family say they will go to the ship before it sinks and recover some of the wood from it. If all the whitemen are gone and if it’s still there in the spring, I will go too. The wood would make a better sled that I could use to visit the whalers the Netsilikmiut speak about at Repulse Bay.
“Ah, yes, that would be an interesting trip. To hunt whales, that would be very good!”