We were unable to discover among these people the slightest trace of
tribal organization or of division into gentes, and in this our
observations agree with those of all who have studied the Eskimos
elsewhere. They call themselves as a race “In´uĭn,” a term
corresponding to the “Inuit” of other dialects, and meaning “people”,
or “human beings”. Under this name they include white men and Indians
as well as Eskimo, as is the case in Greenland and the Mackenzie River
district, and probably also everywhere else, though many writers have
supposed it to be applied by them only to their own race.
They have however special names for the former two races. The people
of any village are known as “the inhabitants of such and such a
place;” for instance, Nuwŭ´ñmiun, “the inhabitants of the point;”
Utkiavwĭñmiun, “the inhabitants of Utkiávwĭñ;” Kuñmiun (in Greenlandic
“Kungmiut”), “the people who live on the river.” The people about
Norton Sound speak of the northern Eskimo, especially those of Point
Barrow and Cape Smyth, as “Kûñmû´dlĭñ,” which is not a name derived
from a location, but a sort of nickname, the meaning of which was not
ascertained. The Point Barrow natives do not call themselves by this
name, but apply it to those people whose winter village is at
Demarcation Point (or Herschel Island, see above, p. 26). This word
appears in the corrupted form “Kokmullit,” as the name of the village
at Nuwŭk on Petroff’s map. Petroff derived his information regarding
the northern coast at second-hand from people who had obtained their
knowledge of names, etc., from the natives of Norton Sound.
The people of the two villages under consideration frequently go
backward and forward, sometimes removing permanently from one village
to the other, while strangers from distant villages sometimes winter
here, so that it was not until the end of the second year, when we
were intimately acquainted with everybody at Utkiavwĭñ, that we could
form anything like a correct estimate of the population of this
village.[N35] This we found to be about 140 souls. As well as we could
judge, there were about 150 or 160 at Nuwŭk. These figures show a
great decrease in numbers since the end of 1853, when Dr. Simpson[N36]
reckoned the population of Nuwŭk at 309. During the 2 years from
September, 1881, to August, 1883, there were fifteen deaths that we
heard of in the village of Utkiavwĭñ alone, and only two children born
in that period survived. With this ratio between the number of births
and deaths, even in a period of comparative plenty, it is difficult to
see how the race can escape speedy extinction, unless by accessions
from without, which in their isolated situation they are not likely to
receive.[N37]
[Footnote N35: See “Approximate Census, etc.,” Report of Point
Barrow Exp., p. 49.]
[Footnote N36: Op. cit., p. 237.]
[Footnote N37: Petroff’s estimate (Report, etc., p. 4) of the
number of natives on this part of the Arctic coast is much too
large. He gives the population of “Ootiwakh” (Utkiavwĭñ) as 225.
Refuge Inlet (where there is merely a summer camp of
Utkiavwĭñmiun), 40, and “Kokmullit,” 200. The supposed settlement
of 50 inhabitants at the Colville River is also a mere summer
camp, not existing in the winter.]