The Absurd Little Mouse: When Eskimos* Became Indians

The AbsurdLittle Mouse: When Eskimos* Became Indians RICHARD J. DIUBALDOI On 5 April 1939, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Eskimos were Indians,2 a rather astonishing pronouncement since everyone knows that Eskimos are not Indians but Eskimos. Or are they? Diamond Jenness, one of Canada's most respected anthropologists, described the decision in the following erudite fashion: Parturiunt monies; nascetur ridiculous mus ("The mountains are in labour. From their womb will issue an absurd little mouse" - Horace).3 Despite Jenness' obvious scorn, the judgement represented a landmark decision in Eskimo relations with the federal government.4 Until 1939, however, there appears to have existed only a limited moral obligation toward the Eskimo on the part of Ottawa; certainly it was not a legal one. This condition becomes clear when one examines the central government's denial of any formal responsibility for the well-being of the Eskimos living within provincial - as opposed to territorial - boundaries, particularly in Quebec. Nevertheless, it was this anomalous situation which brought about a confrontation between the Government of Quebec and the Government of Canada in the 1930s. The way in which the matter came to a head and the legal grounds which led to the Supreme Court's decision are the subjects of this short study. * * * The immediate cause of the disagreement was the refusal of Quebec to reimburse the federal government for relief measures provided the Eskimos living within Quebec, mainly along the shores of Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait. The problem, however, went deeper: the federal *Although the term "Inuit" is more acceptable today, I have used the word "Eskimo" because it was the expression universally accepted during the period which this article covers. 34 government simply did not wish to involve itself in Eskimo affairs. Fro.m the late decades of the nineteenth century into the first quarter of this century, contact between whites and Eskimo increased considerably, and with that greater contact there was a departure from the traditional way of life of hunting and fishing. The Eskimo began to engage in the whaling industry and, later, fur trapping, thereby becoming dependent on southerners for supplies and wages. In the process many of them began to lose their traditional skills of hunting and fishing, and their ability to survive in a harsh, unrelenting northern environment. As long as either the whale or fur economy continued to be productive, things looked after themselves. Should economic dislocation occur, however, the Eskimo faced the prospect of being left to his own resources for the simple reason that no agency, be it private in the case of the fur companies or public as in the case of the government, accepted a legal responsibility for their wellbeing. This is precisely what happened to the Eskimo of Quebec in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Aside from a general survey of Eskimo activities undertaken by the North West Mounted Police, which began its high northern duties after 1903, little was done federally or provincially by way of exercising actual responsibility. In 1922 the Department of the Interior recognized a duty to check the high mortality rate among Eskimo infants by appropriating $1,500 "to be expended in the purchase of wearing apparel, flour, needles, thread and similar articles, which will be distributed by the R.C.M.P. to Eskimo parents with children under five years of age, as an inducement to retain and bring up their children.''5 Despite this measure, unlike the case of the Indians, no one government department assumed consistent responsibility for the Eskimo: Prior to the year 1924 the Indians located in the North West Territories were governed and came under the Department of Indian Affairs by virtue of the Indian Act. The Eskimos, however, were not looked upon as Indians, and though aborigines residing in the North West Territories, they were apparently Revue d'etudes canadiennes Vol. 16, No. 2 (Ete 1981 Summer) considered wards of the Dominion Government but not the responsibility of any one department. The case of the Eskimo, though not authoritatively so, was assumed by the commissioner of the North West Territories.6 The confusion continued, primarily because the North West Territories Act of 1905...