Ilatsiak - 71 - The Rowboat

By the fall of that year, many things had changed. David was being openly called ‘Ilatsiak’ by people. It seemed to be a joke, something to do with a man who’d lived years ago who’d miraculously learned to understand the language of the white people who came on ships. At that time several ships had become locked in a small bay on the east side of Boothia. As the ships remained there a number of winters, many Inuit became accustomed to visiting the sailors and getting favours of one sort and another from them. A few people learned words spoken by the sailors, but only Ilatsiak was able to speak full sentences. He became well known among the people and was often sought out when visiting the ships.
Given David’s origins, it seemed natural that David would acquire the name of this old man, especially given he had died some years before David began living with Agayuq’s family. Taking on the name of a person who’d passed away was commonplace especially if some sort of relationship was apparent.
This was made more clear to David as he, his son Tulugak and Agayuq walked along the broken rocks of the beach, each leading a dog on a line. They’d come to the west side of King William Island to hunt bears, something they rarely did. This year the aging Agayuq had woken up one morning with the dream of killing a bear. He’d killed one when he was young, but not since and something deep inside him told him that a bear was his if he wanted to hunt one. So gathering the boys together, they set off from the fishing camp by the lake when they’d spent the late summer. Finally they’d reached the shore and stared out at the ice they seem to never melt in this area.
“No wonder the ships got stuck here.” Agayuq said. “This sea never melts...”
David said nothing and headed off walking along the beach towards the south. His dog seemed to have sensed something, although as far as he could see, there seemed to be just more of the light brown fractured rock they’d been walking on for the past few days. The only change was that almost nothing grew in the area and here and there heavy pans of dirty ice lay shoved up on the beach, melting. The other dogs had caught the scent now and they too pulled at their traces, eager to be off towards whatever it was.
Coming to a wide bay leading westward, the dogs all pulled south. Whatever it was, they indicated it was inland along the old trail that led over to the south coast. Agayuq was not eager to go that way hoping to find his bear roaming the shoreline. He could see the ice was jammed close to the shore further west and was sure that would be where his bear was waiting. After a brief discussion t was decided that Tulugak would take his dog up the trail, while David and his father continued around the bay to the west.
It was a difficult time to hunt bears as they left no tracks either on the ice or the shore. Still hungry bears often searched the floes just offshore for seals hunting the small fish which frequented the shallow water. So as they walked along, both men stared out to sea, watching for any movement which might be a bear. They failed to notice Tulugak when he ran up the highest hill and waved his arms trying to catch their attention far below.
As the afternoon stretched on, David began to tire and suggested they walk up the small hill behind the point of and they were on. They could scour the ice floes in the bay and wait for Tulugak to catch up with them. Agayuq was getting tired as well, in fact David was amazed at his stamina, better than he’d seen it in years. This bear was giving him new strength, it seemed! They walked up the hill and as they neared the crest, Tulugak came bounding over it, obviously excited about something.
Catching his breath, the story spilled out in bits and pieces. There was a boat up the trail. A boat miles from the water. It was heading towards the bay. He’d seen a bear... He’d tried to signal them...