People of the Deer (Death of a People)

Book Description

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.

Customer Reviews:

Concept is correct.......2005-08-20

The concept is correct anyway. These people were led to their demise by three factors: the church, commercialization (HBC), and the Canadian government. Mowat claims he spent two years living among these people. This is doubted by some. I've traveled in some of the areas that this book takes place. Not everyone has great things to say about this author. One person I talked to called him a historical novelist. He has other nicknames.

But while it is questionable that all the events described in this book and its' successor (The Desperate People) actually took place, at least he got the main theme correct.

The worst book EVER..........2004-06-07

What ever you do, do not waste your precious life reading this book...

Yes! A life-afirming wonderous book!.......2001-08-04

This book is magic. You will never think about a small band of Indians as statistics again. This book does volumes to make people of our society really feel what goes on in traditional societies. To feel jealous of their solidarity. To feel unloved by our own. It's great! READ IT.

Remarkable first book from promising author!.......2000-04-04

First published in 1947 and available in a wide variety of editions since then, Farley Mowat's first and most distant book is still remarkably readable in the world of the 21st century. It concerns one of the stranger human sagas of the last century, that of the discovery and destruction of a remote Inuit society, the Ihalmiut, in Canada's north. The setting of the book is far enough away in time for us to marvel at how little things have changed since. The contemptuous attitude of European man for the aborigine seems hardly to have altered over the years. We are still hard put to understand the needs of the first peoples and how to answer them.

Farley Mowat has combined a fine sensitivity for the natural environment with a sharp eye for the details of man's place within it. It must be exceedingly rare in the history of anthropology that such an inexperienced investigator has taken such pains to get to the source of his information. Mowat lived among the Ihalmiut for over a year to write the book. During that time he witnessed the rapid deterioration of the small group which remained, and tried to examine the causes of their decline. With very deft prose for such a young writer, he points out the difference between the intentions and the actions of the European discoverers of The People (as they refer to themselves) and the consequences of such disparity. The Ihalmiut were exploited in much the same way as any other tribal band found wandering by the early explorers. However, as Mowat points out, this was an exceptional group which had survived the extreme rigours of a barren land (known to us simply as The Barrens) for so many generations, only to be felled by contact with the very race which might have provided them with so much assistance.

The Ihalmiut are long gone from their homeland but their story serves to remind us of our often difficult relationship with the land and the people on it. Perhaps, as a race of city-dwellers, we need to consider our place in the natural environment more than ever. Mowat's work is a just accounting of where we stand in relationship to nature. Nor does he suggest that we should all go and live in the tundra. Yet People of the Deer is a source of considerable inspiration for those now ready to reflect on the unbalancing effect of contemporary values.

People Of The Deer.......2000-02-03

A truly insightful story of the inland eskimo people of the Canadian Arctic. It details not only their day to day survival in a harsh land, but also tells of their myths, legends, and history. It also tells of the whiteman's interference with their culture and how that affect may ultimately lead to their extinction. The book sincerely takes the reader into the lives of the People of the Deer.

Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen: Ambition and Tragedy in the Antarctic

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The Race to the South Pole
The Last Place on Earth "Lite"

Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen: Ambition and Tragedy in the Antarctic
David Thomson
Manufacturer: Four Walls Eight Windows
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 156025422X

Book Description

Between the middle of January and the end of March 1912 five men died in the attempt to return from the South Pole to their base on the edge of Antarctica. Their leader, the last to die and the man whose diary described their agonies was Robert Falcon Scott. The expedition had been beaten to the Pole by a band of racing Norwegians, led by Roald Amundsen. The bodies of the last three to die were found seven months later and, ever since, Scott's men have been British heroes. It is that legend, as much as their ordeal that is the subject of this book. Scott's men and the supporting characters, Amundsen and Shackleton, his rivals; Clement Markham, his discoverer; his wife Kathleen—give a fascinating picture of English society before the First World War. The story of the drama becomes also an illustration of human and social character. And, to the extent that Scott is legendary in England, the book tells something about the English and their attitude to duty. "When Thomson writes a book, it is time for celebration."—Booklist " "Thomson is an expert: an expert storyteller, critic, thinker, investigator and observer of the all-too-human landscape."—Steven Bach

Customer Reviews:

The Race to the South Pole.......2006-01-09

David Thomson's "Scott, Shackleton, and Amundsen" is sub-titled "Ambition and Tragedy in the Antarctic", which nicely captures the thrust of the book. At the heart of the narrative is the race by a handful of competing explorers ambitious for the glory of being first to the South Pole.

First off is Shackleton's 1907-1908 expedition, which walked to a remarkable 88 degrees South latitude, literally within a few days march of the Pole. Shackleton made the hard decision to turn back because he correctly realized how desperately narrow his team's margin of survival had become. From Shackleton's attempt should have come hard lessons in just how strenuous and tenuous life would be in the extreme conditions of Antarctica.

Scott and Amundsen launched expeditions in 1911-1912. Amundsen, a Norwegian with considerable experience in the Arctic, learned from previous expeditions and traveled by the proven means of skis and dog sleds. His team made a remarkably fast and ultimately uneventful run, achieving the South Pole first.

Scott's expedition experimented with primitive motor vehicles and ponies, both badly unsuited to the conditions, and ended up dragging a sledge over the ice and snow. Scott's team persisted through a variety of challenges all the way to the South Pole and the crushing discovery that they had missed being first by a month. The struggle back from the Pole ends in tragedy, as insufficient supplies and cold weather sap the team into extinction just eleven miles from a vital depot of supplies. Ironically, Scott was at the time more famous than either of his competitors, thanks to the heroic cast given his failure by his journal, which was recovered and published by a rescue team. In retrospect, as Thomson brings out, Scott must take the responsibility for the tragedy, for failing to learn from the experiences of others, and very likely for letting pride and ambition overrun common sense.

Thomson's book is well-researched and highly readable, sown with the kind of excellent biographical detail that brings to life the men who participated in the expeditions. This book is highly recommended to those interested in polar exploration.

The Last Place on Earth "Lite".......2004-09-10

This is a pretty good review of the short era of Antarctic exploration. It's not nearly as detailed (or long) as Huntford's tome, "The Last Place on Earth," and so comparisons between the three explorers are a little more "watered down." Even so, Thomson is a tad more sympathetic of Scott without becoming a cheerleader; in fact, Thomson basically reaches similar conclusions about Scott's failings as an expeditionary commander, but manages to point out these failings without vilifying Scott (something that Huntford has been accused of doing). "Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen" also gives more detail about the men under Scott (the original title of the book was "Scott's Men") than is found in most other books about Scott et al., and I found this refreshing. If you're looking for a good review of the Antarctic saga that can be read in a few nights, then this is the book to read.

Governing the Frozen Commons : The Antarctic Regime and Environmental Protection

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Governing the Frozen Commons : The Antarctic Regime and Environmental Protection
Christopher C. Joyner
Manufacturer: University of South Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1570032394

Arctic Politics: Conflict and Cooperation in the Circumpolar North (Arctic Visions)

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Arctic Politics: Conflict and Cooperation in the Circumpolar North (Arctic Visions)
Oran R. Young
Manufacturer: Dartmouth College Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 0874516056

Book Description

Thoughtful essays establishing the Arctic as a distinctive region of international political, socioeconomic, and environmental importance.

Before the Heroes Came: Antarctica in the 1890s

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An Important Prelude
A must for all Antarctica buffs!

Before the Heroes Came: Antarctica in the 1890s
T. H. Baughman
Manufacturer: Bison Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0803261632

Book Description

Although the Antarctic ice pack and some offshore islands had been sighted and even landed upon briefly as early as the 1820s, it was not until an eccentric Anglo-Norwegian explorer, Carsten F. Borchgrevink, went ashore in 1895 that a human being set foot on the Antarctic continent. Borchgrevink, snubbed by the British establishment, had stolen a march on several planned competing expeditions from Germany and Scandinavia.

Borchgrevink returned to Antarctica in 1899 with a party that was the first to winter over on the continent. Regrettably, bad weather and unscalable mountains limited their forays inland. Borchgrevink's survival was proof that with adequate supplies, the Antarctic winter was survivable, and that with a better geographic position, the enormous unknown of the continent could be investigated.

Borchgrevink galvanized the British geographical authorities who had come to consider polar exploration their exclusive province. Led by Sir Clements Markham of the Royal Geographic Society, the British keenly felt his blow to their national pride delivered by an explorer they regarded as an arrogant upstart. The RGS pushed forward with its plans, and a tragic competition to be the first to reach the South Pole was set in motion between the British and the Scandinavians.

This work is an account of the first tentative human gropings in Antarctica, concentrating on the coalescing of official and popular attitudes that later resulted in the polar races of Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen, which dominate the story of the "Heroic Era" of Antarctic exploration, from 1901 to 1922.

Customer Reviews:

An Important Prelude.......2001-11-04

T. H. Baughman's Before the Heroes Came (Antartica in the 1890's) is an important look at the era before the Heroic Age of Scott, Amundsen, and Shackleton. This very slim volume shows the build-up of interest in the Antartic and the politican and scientific forces coming together to propel both the noble and the foolish onto the triumph and tragedy that was the Antarctic after the turn of the century. This book is essential for those with a passion for this frozen land but will leave those looking for another arctic adventure story a little cold. The writing can be a little dry at times and the procession of scientists and sailors whirl by a little too quickly. But for those who want to fully understand man's need to explore the Antarctic, this book will prove essential.

A must for all Antarctica buffs!.......1998-05-15

This is a great book, trust me. The Kirkus review is right in giving Baughman praise for his work. Baughman's reasearch is exact and through. The writing style is informative, but is done in a enjoyable narrative that makes the book easy to read. Having studied under Dr. Baughman ( I already got my degree so this ain't puffery) and taken an Antarctic history class from him, I can honestly say that this book is a useful tome for all interested in exploration and students of history alike.

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As dense as the ice shield...
Heorism - required
Hard to read but you still can't seem to get enough.

The Ice
Stephen J. Pyne
Manufacturer: Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 075381773X

Book Description

Stephen Pyne's overwhelming fascination with Antarctica is the compelling force behind this major book on this stark and largely unknown continent. It combines a geophysical examination of the ice with an inspirational survey of how one of the most alien landscapes of our planet has shaped and affected man's life on earth throughout the centuries. The sheer immensity of the ice sheet is staggering. Its weight is sufficient to deform the globe. Interleaved with each scientific examination are historical surveys dealing with man's assimilation of Antarctica. Pyne reveals how Cook's voyages to Antarctica not only affected the history of science, but inspired such works as MOBY DICK and THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER.

Customer Reviews:

As dense as the ice shield..........2003-08-25

Like the previous reviewer, I too quailed at the start of this book. Immediately I was plunged to half page paragraphs and dense terms, swimming between excessive description and dense science. But, I'm a geologist. I've been to Antarctica. I knew I could do it...

I suspect that this book will remain unsurpassed for being an all encompassing tome on Antarctica for decades, possibly even centuries ... maybe even until we emerege from this interglacial period and the Western Ice sheet melts, thus giving up the secrets to climate control and Antarctica. I can't imagine much has been left out at all - Pyne is unbelievably, incredibly thorough. Every facet of the ice, and every facet he could think to associate with ice has been methodically slotted into this book. And if he ran out of talking about anything to do with the ice, he'd talk about Antarctica.

But this book is very, very, very, VERY heavy going. I set myself a goal of 25 pages/night - but it still took 2 months to read... Sometimes, I just had to take a break. And as I ploughed ever onwards, I constantly wondered, 'how would someone be able to read this if they hadn't actually been to Antactica???' And other times, I even qualified that with a "would anyone really understand this if they weren't a geologist or in a similar field?' I mean, Pyne can be descriptive, but at other times, adjectives seem to be insufficient, so he swoops into heavy scientific jargon.

I also missed having some diagrams. A few 'colour' photos even... (Ok, colour is a bit misleading - its all white, blue and grey down there...). Antarctica is so stark and sparse, that sometimes, it is just better to look at a photograph of the deep glacier blue of ice (well, actually, WHY ice is blue was something Pyne overlooked in this book, now I think of it! Rainbows and bubbles people...), or a vast plain of continental ice, or the weird solar and weather patterns that can pervade above the ice...

If you can't make it down to Antarctica, but want to become an authority on it, then you can go no further than this book. If wading through the heaviest and densest book written in a long time is something you will need to build up to, the maybe start with something like, Antarctica: The Blue Continent, and see if you want to progress from there - at least then you will have some pictures in mind of what to expect when Pyne melts into deep prose...

Heorism - required.......2003-07-04

The planning to buy this book was detailed and meticulous. Consultations had to be held with interested parties (my sons) and the wait for it to arrive was lengthy - at least ten days.
It was with a sense of mounting excitement that we eagerly surveyed the flat white cover of the package, I could sense our goal. I knew it wasn't going to be easy traversing 428 pages of a book titled "The Ice" but I had completed intensive practical training for this expedition. I was a veteran of Huntsford's "Schackleton", Huxley's "Scott of the Antarctic", Fuchs & Hillary's "The Crossing of Antarctica", the list was long but rewarding. Here was my biggest challenge to date.
The warnings were stark right from the start, the prologue uses half a page to list 72 ways to name ice. I stumbled and nearly gave up. Willpower, only willpower kept me going. I was becoming word blind. Reaching my first goal, the middle, I could only contemplate with horror the trials still awaiting me. "Great God, this is an awful book", I thought as I turned the next page. I wondered if I had the stamina to make it, others before me must have faltered. My son looked at me, "I'm just going out, I may be some time". I could only admire his courage, at having come so far. I ploughed on, yet another reference to Admiral Byrd appeared on the horizon. Until now I had been unaware of his supreme importance as an American and Antarctic explorer. Similarly I had been foolishly unaware of the fact that "...there is nothing in the Heroic age to compare with Ellsworth's all-or-nothing transcontinental flight, even Schackleton turned back..." The fact that Ellsworth achieved precisely nothing is of no importance, he was an American.
Things were looking bleak, stamina was draining fast. A crevasse nearly finished me as I learned that TMW Turner (English) had painted sunsets. I began to lose hope, I was hallucinating, could he really mean JMW Turner who painted ships too, and trains ? It was my darkest hour, all hope was gone. I closed the book.
This is a book for the fanatical written by someone who equates flowery, overblown prose with literature, it is so bad it is almost a parody. If you want to read about the modern Antarctic, read Sara Wheeler's polar classic "Terra Incognita". The best place for Pyne's tome is on an iceberg, drifting slowly out of sight towards the equator.

Hard to read but you still can't seem to get enough........1998-08-31

Stephen Pyne is a difficult writer, but the depth and meticulous nature of his intelligence pulls you back to him even though you tell yourself to lighten up and read a good mystery. Three cheers to university presses (U of Iowa and U of Washington) for putting and keeping this book in print. The Ice touches on everything about Antarctica: the history, the landscape, the literature, the geology, the biology. The book is all-encompassing--as is The Ice that is its focus and deep passion. It's worth the effort, and your vocabulary will never be the same afterwards. You can read a mystery later.

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Antarctica: ... to a lonely land I know
Ken Pawson
Manufacturer: Whippoorwill Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0968167519

Book Description

Antarctica: "...to a lonely land I know." recounts a young man's experience during the Golden Age of Antarctic exploration immediately following the end of WWII. Ken Pawson details life in the remote bases where he and his colleagues conducted surveys, explorations and gathered scientific data. Their means of transport were teams of Inuit Sled Dogs.

Book Description

Bill Green goes to the lakes of Antarctica to do scientific field research, but finds in his own memories and in the beauty and brutality of a lonely, dangerous land, something of the awe and wonder that are the inspirations for scientific inquiry.

Customer Reviews:

The terrible beauty of the void.......2003-02-10

I live just a few miles from Oxford, Ohio and Miami University, where Dr. Green does his work when he's not away from civilization, and have sailed or swam many times at Acton Lake, which he uses in an early chapter to introduce the science of limnology, or the study of lakes.

This is a complex and ambitious book, and the result is thoroughly engrossing. It is an introduction to lake science, an adventure tale, and an account of how a scientist plans and executes his work, but these are just at the surface. It is also a personal exploration of the author's own memories and motives. Ultimately, it is a book about what moves mankind to keep learning and exploring, presented using the author as his own example.

Wondering about the powerful emotional draw that Antarctica exerts on him, the author is reminded of his boyhood, when Great Lakes winter storms would transform his town's landscape with a featureless cover of snow, allowing him to explore what became, in his imagination, an unexplored land. He describes the beauty that can be found, if one will allow himself, in the terrifying nothingness of the universe, whether it be seen in the vast coldness of space or the inhuman bleakness of an ice-covered continent. Some of his colleagues found Antactica intolerable, probably for the same reasons. He writes...

"The ice seemed a reminder of the universe at large, of the universe as accident, as matter blown and strewn and expanding, 'heartless' as Melville had described it, all moon-filled and dry, hung with poisoned worlds, incinerating stars, vacuums of frozen light. Loneliness, the warm sun as memory, as myth, the blankness of white landscape, in which we see no trace of ourselves, no artifact of our genius and cunning...". Reading this, I was taken back to my own boyhood to find my love of exploration awakened as I stood studying the cold and vastly distant stars from by back yard, and felt the fearful thrill of being sucked upward into the eternal void...

Science, poetry and personal experience in a unique weave.......1998-08-30

As a classicist and poet, I am shy - if not wary - of "hard science". I stumbled upon this book by accident, browsing the non-fiction shelves in the public library. It is unique! I have ordered it - and I'm not even quite finished with it - I am reluctant to finish this first reading, although it is five-star enjoyment. Water Ice and Stone is a "braided river" (read it and you'll see why the phrase is in quotation marks) of a) Green's personal passion for his field and his subject that took him to the Antarctic lakes again and again; b) scientific explanations of that field that are accessible and fascinating without being either patronizing or unscholarly; c)the personal reminiscences and experiences that led to his choice of profession and to the Anarctic; d) the daily observations, colleagues and acts of living while he was there; and e) the beauty and wonder and astonishment and inspiration that this world we live in has to offer any of us who will take the time to look, to understand, to see. The book is science and it is poetry; it is wonder and it is analysis; it is a marvel. My highest acolade for books in fields that I did NOT take up is: it makes me almost wish I had become a.... Water, Ice and Stone left me an almost-geochemist.

Innocents on the Ice: A Memoir of Antarctic Exploration, 1957

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A historically important book
When military authority goes wrong ...
What actually happened at Ellsworth Station IGY?
An interesting read on several levels

Innocents on the Ice: A Memoir of Antarctic Exploration, 1957
John C. Behrendt
Manufacturer: University Press of Colorado
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0870814931

Book Description

Innocents on the Ice is based on the author's experience and writings as part of a U.S. Navysupported scientific expedition to establish Ellsworth Station on the Filchner Ice Shelf. This expedition, undertaken from November 1956 to early 1958, coincided with the International Geophysical Year (19571958) which initiated the "scientific age" in Antarctica.

Behrendt describes the stress of experiencing the dark Antarctic winter of 1957, during which intense personal conflicts arose at the most isolated of the seven U.S. Antarctic stations. The tension was unrelieved by contact with the outside world, since there was no mail for the 9 civilians and 30 Navy men living beneath the snow and only occasional radio contact was made with families for a year.

The author also describes his explorations with four others of the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf system during the following summers of 19571958. Along the hazardous 1300-mile oversnow traverse in two Sno-Cats, the field party measured ice thickness and snow accumulation as part of an international effort to determine the balance of the Antarctic ice sheet, and they also made the first geological observations of the spectacular Dufek Massif in the then unexplored Pensacola Mountains.

Finally, Behrendt draws upon his 40 years of continual participation in Antarctic research to explain the changes in scientific activities and environmental awareness in Antarctica today.

Customer Reviews:

A historically important book.......2006-11-06

Behrendt's account of his winterover and subsequent traverse is a very interesting read, and most importantly, a very relevant contribution to the history of Antarctic science. It shows the clash between the old generation of explorers rooted in the "Heroic Age" with the younger generation of scientists, ultimately marking the beginning of the "Scientific Age" in Antarctic exploration.

When military authority goes wrong ..........2000-10-26

The book is reasonably well-written although in a strange style: a mixture throughout of diary entries from 1957 and current commentaries. The narrative about the science and logistics is interesting enough, but the real heart of the book is the battle between the scientists and Captain Finn Ronne of the U.S. Navy. Captain Ronne, who wrote his own version of the IGY expedition at Ellsworth Station, appears to have been a completely arbitrary martinet, a self-serving dictator and political string-puller, and a bad-tempered paranoid and coward. He repeatedly put the expedition in danger by his refusal to provide equipment. He censored much of the communication in and out. He insisted that the scientists share dishwashing and other duties even when they were barely able to complete their scientific assignments. He evidently believed that the Navy support team of 30 or so men had more important things to do than assist the scientists, even though the sole purpose of the whole expedition was scientific. The sad tale of how he killed two emperor penguins 'in the most brutal way imaginable' is enough to turn one's stomach.

There are parallels, as Behrendt notes, with Captain Queeg of the Caine Mutiny. Unfortunately in the nonfictional world of the Navy, Ronne's outrageous behavior, although known to his superiors, apparently went unpunished.

The characterization of other individuals in the book is rather thin. But I would strongly recommend the book.

What actually happened at Ellsworth Station IGY?.......1999-06-11

The title is very appropriate for Behrendt's diary of events at Ellsworth Station on the Weddell Sea margin of the Filchner Ice Shelf and their long geophysical traverse as far south as the Dufek Massif during IGY (1956-1958). The diary, that of a graduate student geophysicist and neophyte Antarctican, is made much more interesting by the running commentary from one of Antarctica's most accomplished, still active, scientists. The underlying plot describes a group of young scientists trying to cope with a system designed for the Navy and the harsh realities of exploring an unknown part of Antarctica. Many of the stories are amusing and almost unbelievable; they show the stress of wintering over and working in harsh conditions. I am amazed at how much was accomplished by Behrendt and other pioneers in the IGY program who worked with the relatively primitive equipment of the time. We need to hear more of their stories!

An interesting read on several levels.......1999-03-14

Behrendt's book is an interesting and rewarding read on several levels. At the core of the book are the extremely complete field notes of a 20-something scientist-adventurer on an exploratory journey into an unmapped part of Antarctica during the 1957 International Geophysical Year. Interspersed with this narrative are the reflections of the same man from a vantage point 40 years in the future. Part history, part science, part an examination of expedition psychology, this book will be of interest to a wide audience.

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