ESKIMO’S HEROISM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21668, 11 June 1932, Page 15

ESKIMO’S HEROISM

BOY SAVES MOTHER’S LIFE THREE DAYS WITHOUT FOOD. ' A dramatic talc of a 12-year-oVJ Eskimo boy’s heroism in saving the life of his sick mother was told in Ottawa recently. At Chesterfield Inlet, in the Hudson Bay territory, lived an Eskimo called Eladenac, with his wife and two sons, aged twelve and three. The names of these boys are not revealed. Eladenac died early in the winter and soon afterwards his widow, Kudluk, took' sick. The family was destitute, but the 12-year-old son set himself in the role of provider. He made daily excursions into the forests, to return with plenty of game and fish. One day he got two deer, but by this time he had only two dogs for his sledge, and these dogs could not pull the deer through the woods. So the boy patched up some old harness to fit his own shoulders and took his place beside the dogs, to help them pull the precious moat back to nis homo. When he got back from that trip lie found his mother had become? worse. It was* imperative that she should be where the nearest doctor maintained headquarters. The boy bundled Kudluk and his younger brother into the sledge, harnessed himself again beside his two dogs, and started the long haul. It took weeks of back-breaking toil, with little to eat on the way. Yet the boy struggled on with his heavy load. With three days to go, the little family ran out of food and for three days the lad strained at the harness without having eaten. Finally he reached Wagner Inlet, exhausted and famished. Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who described the lad’s feat as one of the greatest examples of Northland heroism they have ever encountered, reported that the mother, Kudluk, is recovering from her illness under the physician’s care.