Recent books on Inuit oral history ALUNIK, Ishmael, Eddie D. KOLAUSOK and David MORRISON, 2003 Across Time and Tundra. The Inuvialuit of the Western Arctic, Vancouver, Raincoast, Seattle, University of Washington Press, Gatineau, Canadian Museum of Civilization, 230 pages. BENNETT, John and Susan ROWLEY (compilers and editors), 2004 Uqalurait. An Oral History of Nunavut, Montreal, McGill-Queen’s University Press. 473 pages. BROWER, Harry, Sr., 2004 The Whales, They Give Themselves. Conversations with Harry Brower, Sr., edited by Karen Brewster, Fairbanks, University of Alaska Press, Oral Biography Series, 4, 232 pages. OKPIK, Abraham, 2005 We Call It Survival. The Life Story of Abraham Okpik, edited by Louis McComber, Iqaluit, Nunavut Arctic College, Life Stories of Northern Leaders Series, 1, 384 pages. PANEAK, Simon, 2004 In a Hungry Country. Essays by Simon Paneak, edited by John Martin Campbell with contributions by Grant Spearman, Robert L. Rausch and Stephen C. Porter, Fairbanks, University of Alaska Press, 125 pages. PINSON, Elizabeth Bernhardt, 2004 Alaska’s Daughter. An Eskimo Memoir of the Early Twentieth Century, Logan, Utah State University Press, 212 pages.

The past three years have seen the welcome arrival of new books that present an Inuit perspective on their history. With a few exceptions, the data collected for these publications is mainly through oral history. I have chosen to review together the books listed above since being about the Inuit of Alaska and Canada, many of their stories and characters are intertwined. These publications can be divided into two main genres: history books with a major emphasis on oral traditions (Alunik et al. 2003; Bennett and Rowley 2004; Paneak 2004), and autobiographies (Brower 2004; Okpik 2005; Pinson 2004). This review will start with the books that present the history and culture of a specific people, followed by the autobiographies of individuals who share their life stories and give their own perspective on the societies in which they lived. The book is fascinating because of the wide range of subjects and vast territory covered, and is quite an accomplishment given all the sources that were consulted. Short paragraphs contextualize and link different quotations, yet some of the latter are difficult to understand. For example, the stories about taboos linked to the women menstruating (p. 372), and the long and repeated description of the Tivajut ceremony (pp. 403-408), which includes spouse exchange, lack minimal explanations or references. Furthermore, some of the quotations included in the sections on seasonal rounds of Part Two seem out of place. Hence, the stories on amulets and shamanistic séances to heal people (p. 381) would have been better integrated in the sections on medicine or shamanism in the first part of the book. Likewise, the quotation on social order (p. 394) would have better fitted in the section on leadership or justice in Part One. Well illustrated with archival photos, figures, and maps, the book unfortunately has a few typos, misspellings, and missing words. The bibliography also includes errors. However, despite these minor flaws, Uqalurait should be on the shelves of everyone studying the Inuit. In his three chapters, Morrison introduces the reader to the distinctive environment of the Inuvialuit, their original regional groups, the first contacts with explorers in the late 18th century, and the whaling period (1890-1910) during which American whalers decimated the bowhead whales and introduced new material goods to the local population. This period of first contacts also brought diseases that cut the Inuvialuit population to less than a tenth of its original size (down to 150 people in 1910) (p. 88). If it had not been for the incoming Inupiat from Alaska, especially the Nunataarmiut, the population might have never recovered (p. 91). This said, Siglitun, the original language of the Inuvialuit did survive, which raises interesting questions about the number of speakers necessary to preserve languages. As Morrison (p. 19) explains, the Mackenzie Delta provided driftwood and belugas to the village of Kitigaaryiut, which had a winter population of several hundred people, swelling to two or three times that number in summer. After describing the sod houses that were used by the Inuvialuit, Morrison briefly mentions the dome-shaped tent-like structure called qaluurvik and indicates that it was apparently adopted from Alaska during the late 19th century (p. 21), but does not include references. Given that the frame was made of willows which are abundant in the Delta, their existence might predate the arrival of Alaskans. Although Morrison’s chapters are illustrated with excellent reproductions of archival photographs, the identification of people depicted in them is uneven as are the credits for a few photographers. This is rather surprising since the book was evidently a collaborative effort with the Inuvialuit, and some …