Eskimo Theories of Mental Illness in the Hudson Bay Region

Abstract

* An abbreviated version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Anthropology and Sociology Chapter of the Canadian Political Science Association, Vancouver, B.C., June, 1965. * Data for the paper were gathered during the late winter and spring of 1963 while the author was engaged in a study of new forms of Eskimo social organization, under contract with the Northern Co-ordination and Research Centre, Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources, Ottawa. Later in 1963 and early in 1964 several visits were made to Verdun Protestant Hospital: since that time we have interviewed medical and welfare officials who have had experience with Eskimo mental illness and have had access to official case histories of Eskimo patients. We gratefully acknowledge the help of Mr. V.F. Valentine, Director of the Northern Co-ordination and Research Centre, and his staff and of the following key informants in the field: Mr. J.D. Furneaux, D.N.A. Area Administrator, Povungnituk, Nurses Helen Williams, John McGurl, and Miss J. Nuttley, at Povungnituk, Port Harrison, and Great Whale River respectively: Messrs. Eliasie Sadlualu, N. Killupa, J. Sivua, and T. Tukai, of Povungnituk and Port Harrison; and at Ottawa, Mr. J.F. Neville, chief of the Welfare Division, D.N.A., and Miss Betty Marwood, welfare officer, Arctic District Office. Special mention should be made of the help given by Mr. Raymond Gagne, Eskimo language specialist with the DNANR Welfare Division and his assistant, Mr. Elijah Erkloo, in transforming my crude Eskimo language renditions into the new standard orthography.