Eskimos blame whites for caribou deaths

Press, 24 October 1984, Page 39

Eskimos blame whites for caribou deaths

NZPA-Reuter Ottawa The mass drowning of 10,000 caribou swept away in a swollen Quebec River has provoked an angry confrontation between white man and Eskimo over how to manage the environment in Canada’s vast northern wilderness. Eskimos blame the disaster on Quebec’s power authority for allowing too much water through a local dam, but provincial officials say torrential rain caused the caribou catastrophe. The migrating caribou or North American .reindeer, which are a main source of food for the 5500 Eskimos in northern Quebec, died earlier this month after being swept away in rapids and carried over waterfalls. The banks of the River Caniapiscau were lined with rotting carcases which had to be lifted by helicopter to higher ground where scavenging animals, such as foxes and wolves, will feast on them over the winter. The Eskimos, plan to seek compensation and funding for a riverside fence from the Hydro-Quebec power company because, as a spokesman for them said, "We are not waiting for

another 10,000 caribou to be sacrificed to the hydro god.” But Quebec Government biologists dispute the Eskimos’ claim that the power authority was to blame for the disaster. They say that torrential rains had swelled all the rivers in the area, especially the Caniapiscau. Even 10,000 caribou deaths would not endanger the survival of the herd, which totals about 360,000 and was the world’s largest, they said. The herd could survive a loss of 35,000 and still be termed healthy. Jacques Perrault, a spokesman for the James Bay project, the largest hydro-electric complex in North America, said, “We are more or less saying it was an act of God.” The flow of water through the river and dam system was lower than normal at the time of the drownings, he said. Eskimos have called for a public inquiry into the tragedy. Mark Gordon, a spokesman for the Makivik corporation which represents Quebec Eskimos, argued, “Once they get us back in the back' room, it will be 10 to 20 years before we get anything done." But although Quebec’s Environment Department is

planning a probe into the drownings, Premier Rene Levesque has already ruled out a public inquiry. Mr Gordon, talking by telephone from the remote little Quebec town of Kuulquaq, said, “For us, the environment is not just the beauty of the land. We are talking about our ... food. “It is our economic base. The institutions of the white man have no respect or guilt about what they are doing to these wildlife resources. “If we should destroy 10,000 head of cattle down south, that would have the same impact.’” Mr Gordon, whose people live in an area the size of France, said that caribou was one of the main sources of food for the Inuit (Eskimos). “Seventy-five per cent of their food is off the land or from the ocean.” After the caribou drownings, he said, the Eskimos were besieged by “twolegged - scavengers” — businessmen from the south offering to buy the carcases for dog food and fertiliser and the antlers for jewellery and decorations. Mr Gordon argued it would be best to leave the bodies out on high ground where they were dumped

after being airlifted off the riverbank in a $U5450,000 scheme organised by the Quebec authorities to prevent a serious pollution threat. “It would have the best economic impact on the region if they were left there’ for foxes, wolves and wolverines to scavenge. Local trappers could then get these animals,” he said. “This disaster would never have happened if Hydro-Quebec had listened to our villagers who offered six or seven years ago to build a riverside fence to divert the caribou.” But Marcel Laperle, director of ecological services for the James Bay Energy Corporation, said, “A tragedy on such a scale was totally unexpected. Most years, only a few hundred caribou are lost.” He and Mr Gordon did at least agree on one possible course — trying to organise caribou hunting on a more commercial basis in future. This could mean caribou meat being used not just as food for the Eskimos but also as a product for export outside the region. “We are ready to sit down again with the Inuit. We want to continue the dialogue,” Mr Laperle said.