The Experimental Eskimos
It was in the 1950s that Canada started to look at the arctic regions and think about what they could get from that huge, icy and inhospitable region. Therefore, the government thought about the possibly cheapest way to achieve some control over this province: take three children, selected through an IQ test, and give them an education in order to create a Canadian-friendly political élite with the final objective of increasing the surface managed by the government. This is only the opening of the documentary “The experimental Eskimos”, born after the discovery of government documents that revealed how the experiment worked.
One of the most curious aspects about these events is how such a radical and quick transition from a rural society to a metropolitan context can affect a man’s life. In the 1960s, Eskimos’ life was still pretty traditional. Though living in a part of Canada, they barely spoke English and the highest expectations for a grown up man were proper of a rural society: being a good hunter and own a kayak. Eskimos life was felt as incomplete, so the boys’ parents did not fight with the government project, probably thinking that it was a good opportunity for their children.
Zebedee Nungak, Eric Tagoona and Peter Ittinuar, the three children, were then taken to Ottawa. The initial impact is how it can be expected from someone who lived in an underdeveloped society and observes a big city for the first time: the little Eskimos were fascinated by seeing so many people, cars, innovations, astonished by how everything was tidy and squared, and surprised from the smallest things, such as being called “dear boy”, Eric remembers.
However, this amazed status didn’t last long. The children were placed in neighbor families, but couldn’t rely on their real family to confess their new discoveries, experiences, feelings. Soon they faced one of the worst metropolitan aspects: discrimination. The boys can still remember when the teacher introduced them to their new classmates: everyone was staring at them and they suddenly felt like they were in the wrong place. Not even their new families respected the boys’ origins, as Peter can perfectly remember: they were all having dinner while he began to talk about how his people hunt in their territory and the father said “Everything Eskimos can do, white men can do better”.
Though passing through some dysfunctions in their lives, the children got eventually integrated in the society and left behind their roots. For instance, Eric took only a year to forget Inuktitut, his old language. But another question can be asked. Did they really forget where they came from?
It’s not simple to answer, since they may have forgotten their culture, but not where that culture comes from. The Eskimos children, who in the meantime became young men, began to think that they could use what Canada taught them to help their people. And so they did.
In 1971 Québec announced a hydroelectric plan advertised as “the project of the century”. The government ignored Inuit rights destroying land and rivers. Zebedee fought for that cause and managed to negotiate a 225 million dollar compensation, a revolutionary achievement in the field of Inuit rights.
After a long struggle and a series of processes, Eric, with the help of other natives, contributed to the creation of Nunavut and helped Inuit be a part of Canadian constitution.
Peter has been the first Inuit representing his people as a member of the Canadian Parliament, being part of the New Democratic Party and the Liberals.
Thus, every cloud has a silver lining. The Canadian Government experiment was inhuman, but turned out to be a blessing for the natives. A political elite was created, but the bureaucrats of Ottawa did not think about one of the best traits of western culture: the awareness of innate human rights and how knowledge can stimulate people like Zebedee, Eric and Peter to fight for them. Therefore the answer is no, they did not forgot where they come from.