In 1886, the Ihalmiut people of northern Canada numbered seven thousand; by 1946, when Farley Mowat began his two-year stay in the Arctic, the population had fallen to just forty. With them, he observed for the first time the phenomenon that would inspire him for the rest of his life: the millennia-old migration of the Arctic's caribou herds. He also endured bleak, interminable winters, suffered agonizing shortages of food, and witnessed the continual, devastating intrusions of outsiders bent on exploitation. Here, in this ...
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In 1886, the Ihalmiut people of northern Canada numbered seven thousand; by 1946, when Farley Mowat began his two-year stay in the Arctic, the population had fallen to just forty. With them, he observed for the first time the phenomenon that would inspire him for the rest of his life: the millennia-old migration of the Arctic's caribou herds. He also endured bleak, interminable winters, suffered agonizing shortages of food, and witnessed the continual, devastating intrusions of outsiders bent on exploitation. Here, in this classic and first book to demonstrate the mammoth literary talent that would produce some of the most memorable books of the next half-century, best-selling author Farley Mowat chronicles his harrowing experiences. People of the Deer is the lyrical ethnography of a beautiful and endangered society. It is a mournful reproach to those who would manipulate and destroy indigenous cultures throughout the world. Most of all, it is a tribute to the last People of the Deer, the diminished Ihalmiuts, whose calamitous encounter with our civilization resulted in their unnecessary demise.
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I enjoyed it very much. Very interesting from first page to last.
thoughtfulreader
May 21, 2008
powerful, moving, & important
An excellent and important book, ranking with his more famous Never Cry Wolf. Farley Mowat is a Canadian treasure, a superb author.
Raech
Aug 17, 2007
People of the Deer
This book is very sobering. It chronicles Farley Mowat's exploration into the Barrens of Northern Canada, where he studied caribou and lived with a group of isolated inland Eskimo, the Ihalmiut. Entirely dependent upon the caribou, they were almost wiped out by starvation in the 1940s. Attempts by the Canadian government and others to help them only intensified their demise. The first several chapters outlining Mowat's struggle to reach the remote area make rather dry reading. But once he is among the Ihalmiut and learns the rudiments of their language the book springs to life. It describes individuals, customs, legends and the history of a very peaceable and communal culture. The story of Mowat's daily life with them in a bleak and forbidding land is sprinkled with humor and full of vitality. This is an utterly fascinating account.