Introduction-E

melts around the edge first; therefore the lake usually has ice in the center with water
surrounding the ice. It may be comparable to that of a moat around a castle. I asked
Pauloosie if wolves are bad swimmers and he suggested that they were. He said that
someone once had a wolf pup as a pet. When submerged in water, that pup would get
very cold, although [dog] puppies at the same age are able to swim. I was able to get
further information from my brother as described in the next paragraph.
Qaumauq was disliked by shamans as they could not beat him physically. One day,
he was caribou hunting at a time when there were hardly any caribou. He saw caribou
through his telescope and started to approach them. Once he approached them, they
turned into wolves and started chasing him. He was running for a long time. When he
would get too hot, he would swim in the lakes he passed. The wolves would gather
around the lake to wait for him so he started running towards the camp where there
were people. He knew that if he did not do that, the wolves would attack and kill him.
Qaumauq ran towards the sea ice and then leapt onto the sea ice. The tide was high so
there was a lot of water on the shore. It has been said that Qaumauq leapt so high that
he jumped over someone’s hanging clothes. It is not known what happened to the
wolves. This is how the shamans tried to get rid of him.
Elisapee told us that Qaumauq had tried to take the infamous Robert Janes
(Sakimiaq) 2 to Igluligaarjuk so that he might catch a boat to Southern Canada. They
were in the Ikpiarjuk area to stock up when Nuqallaq, also known as Qiugaarjuk, killed
Janes upon the instructions of others. It had been said that Janes had been killing dogs
and was threatening to kill the people once he killed the dogs, and so he was killed.
When I asked Appitaq about this point, he said that it had not been Qaumauq but
another man that had tried to bring him to Igluligaarjuk. The man, Ululijarnaat, was
working for Janes. While they were in the Ikpiarjuk area, Ululijarnaat, Aattitaaq, and
Nuqallaq, after much discussion, killed Janes.
Elisapee also told us that Qaumauq was the original founder of Mittimatalik. In
1922, Mittimatalik established a permanent Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)
detachment. It was before 1922 that Qaumauq had said that Mittimatalik should be a
place where people should settle. Appitaq said that Qaumauq met the ship with the
qallunaat. Qaumauq wanted to protect them from the Inuit as the qallunaat were scared
of the Inuit after three men had murdered Janes. The qallunaat wanted to settle at Mount
Herodier or Janes Creek. However, Qaumauq recommended that they settle in
Mittimatalik as it was more sheltered and perhaps he thought that it would have more
room for expansion if it became more populated. It became the site where the Hudson’s
Bay Company (HBC) settled. Apparently the qallunaat wanted to slaughter the Inuit
after the Janes murder but Captain Bernier, known to Inuit as Kapitaikallak, prevented
that from happening. This information might not be in any logs or records but that is
what the Inuit say. It was shortly after the Janes murder that Mittimatalik became the
148 Introduction to the Oral Traditions