The Eskimo Invasion Read Free Page A

parkas.
     
     
Dr. West opened his hands. Desperately he smiled. He thought Hans Suxbey

had reported to Parliament every fifth year about these Eskimos,

barely enough details of their "cultural progress" as observed from his

helicopter to support another appropriation for his Guards. Theoretically,

for nineteen years no whitemen had talked with these people.
     
     
They were returning his smile! With the hoods of their summer parkas

turned back, their shaggy black hair gleaming, their wide-cheeked faces

smiled so youthfully that Dr. West kept turning his head, expecting to

discover a more weathered face, a leader. A young man hurried forward

and extended his hand, smooth as a child's. Beginning with a whiteman's

handshake, elaborating it into a ceremony, the young Eskimo raised his

clasped hands as high as his forehead and then down to knee level and

peeked up through his unkempt locks at Dr. West. Shyly they both smiled.
     
     
"This person," Dr. West began speaking about himself in halting Eskimo,

"has come with open hands as a friend."
     
     
"Eh! One of us? All men speak the same?" The Eskimos crowded around him,

all shaking his hand, laughing as if with relief. "That old Peterluk lied."
     
     
Dr. West realized this one with the smallest hand was a girl. Her lustrous

black hair was tied back in a bun. As if casting aside conventional female

shyness, she smiled up at him. He laughed with pleasure. They all laughed

as if they had been friends forever.
     
     
"This person's name is Edwardluk," the young leader laughed, shaking his

hand again.
     
     
It was reassuring that this Eskimo was willing to expose his name to

a stranger, Dr. West thought, laughing inwardly at the Director of the

Cultural Sanctuary. Hans Suxbey would be outraged by such an un-Eskimo

name as Edwardluk. Ever since the nineteenth-century invasion by the

whalers and missionaries, for over a hundred years Eskimos had been

donning the most powerful Biblical names and adding Eskimo endings.

But Edwardluk ?
     
     
With the ultimate in hospitality, Edwardluk was murmuring:

"You must live with us forever."
     
     
Dr. West picked up his camera and rifle and reached for his sleeping bag,

but Edwardluk insisted on carrying it. As if showing off the power of his

manhood, Edwardluk shouted at the girl to carry the big pack. Dr. West

watched her bend, squat and heft the ninety pounds of supplies weighing

nearly as much as she, but she staggered stolidly across the ice toward

the sled. Edwardluk shouted encouragement after her with such pride of

ownership that Dr. West thought she must be his wife.
     
     
"Ha! We go!" Edwardluk insisted that Dr. West sit on the sled and ran

alongside shouting: "This person -- has killed -- a poor little seal --

unworthy of a hunter." Edwardluk grinned with so much pride that Dr. West

suspected it was a large and fat seal, and he began looking forward to

sinking his teeth into seal meat again.
     
     
Ten years ago, his summer with the wandering Alaskan Eskimos had been the

happiest of his life, and now he felt excitement like a child returning

to a summer cottage. Shouting, laughing, romping, these Eskimos seemed

to radiate happiness as they manhandled the sled across ice ridges. Now

trotting beside them, Dr. West warmed to the exercise, feeling better

all the time.
     
     
As they approached the camp, an amazing number of children swarmed out

on the ice to meet them, laughing and skylarking and running alongside

Dr. West, looking up at him as if he were a giant. Ahead of him in the

camp he saw that many of the dark spots were not tents. They were piles

of beach stones and driftwood, elevated caches to separate the meat from

the dogs, but there were surprisingly few dogs. Beside the largest tent,

an Eskimo hurriedly was tying dogs to another sled.
     
     
Dr. West noticed no kayaks or umiaks, and he suspected boatbuilding was one

part of traditional Eskimo culture Hans Suxbey had