AN ARCTIC TRIAL

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 93, 17 October 1934, Page 16

AN ARCTIC TRIAL

ESKIMO MURDER

THE BREAKING OF SPRING i

(From "The Post's" Representative,) VANCOUVER, September 20';

Ou Adelaide Peninsula, in the Arctic Gulf, Ahigiak and Anaruak were boys together, and, as they grew up, hunted the seal and the caribou, and shared the same snow hut, -with their wives and children and other members of tho band. They all slept ou the long sleeping bench of ice, in their sealskin sleeping bags, covered with deerskins. During tho long winter night of 1931, Anaruak cast his wife from his side, and Hitkogaluk, wife of Ahigiak, took her place, and remained there for six months, for tho whole of tho Arctic night, despite Anaruak's brutality and her husband's pleas that she return. At the first sign of tho spring breakup, the band was astir. Ahigiak picked up his gun, and, as Anaruak emerged from the igloo, fired. Anaruak clutched his breast and turned. Ahigiak fired again. Anaruak fell dead in the snow. The band hastily gathered their belongings and, harnessing their dogs, departed, fearful lest the spirit of Anaruak should follow them. Two years later, a Mounted Polico patrol found Anaruak's bones, scattered by wolverines, and came up with the band at their new camp, twenty sleeps distant. The whole community was moved to Fort Hearne, on Coronation Gulf, to await the arrival of the Magistrate from Edmonton, 1500 miles to the south. "When Ahigiak saw a huge aeroplane drop from the skies, he remembered they had neglected to cut off the feet of Anaruak, whose spirit had lured the "devil bird" from afar to punish them. ADVENTUROUS WOMAN. An adventurous Englishwoman, Mibs Evelyn Tufts, wandering about the world, secured a passage with the Court and officials, piloted oy Canada's most famous airman, Walter Gilbert, F.K.G.S., discoverer of the Magnetic Pole. Miss Tufts gives a graphic account of tho first trial at Tort Hcarue since tho post was founded, a, century before, by the Gentlemen Adventurers. A silent, bewildered group of Eskimos crowded into the small frame building occupied by the North-west Mounted Police. The jury comprised a French prospector, a fur trader, a wireless operator, and three employees of the Hudson's Bay Company. She records the look of amazement on the face of Ahigiak, a sturdy specimen, as his white counsel's p-ea of "not guilty" is interpreted to him. "I killed him," he told the Court. "Myself, I killed him, twice—once here" —pointing to his back —"and once here"—pointing to his head. "He had my wife. He would not let her come back. I killed him. Then she came back." His wife, a coquettish damsel, with Ahigiak's infant on her back, stood up. "Yes, he speak good," she said, smiling. Tho jury found Ahigiak guilty of manslaughter. Ahigiak nodded. "That is right, T killed him." He sat, silent and unmoved, while the Judge sentenced him to five years at the nearest gaol at Aklavik, 800 miles to tho north-west, where the mighty Mackenzie empties into the Arctic Ocean. As the Court and its ofheials made their way to the shore of tho Polar Sea, the' Eskimos followed, carrying their baggage. As it was being loaded into the aeroplane, it was discovered that one of these voluntary porters was none other than tho prisoner, looking as cheerful as any of them. Miss Tufts summoned the interpreter. "Ask Ahigiak," she said, "how he feels about having to go to Aklavik." There was a conference and much gesticulation. "He says he will go," reported tho interpreter, Wingnek. "He likes to live with the police."