The Incredible Eskimo: Life Among the Barren Land Eskimo

by Raymond De Coccola, Raymond

The Book is a story of survival and hope in the Central Canadian Arctic. Father Raymond's first hand accounts of survival and life with the Eskimo.

For twelve arduous but captivating years, Raymond de Coccola was, for all intents and purposes, a Barren Land Eskimo. Trained as an Oblate missionary, he ministered to the people of the Central Canadian Arctic while sharing their epic struggle to survive in this land of ice and snow. It is an unforgettable portrait of adventure, of murder, of sexual mores. It is Father Raymond's touching first-person revelation of birth and of death, of patience and of fatalism; and it is a staggering account of his people's tragedy and loss.

438 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1986

Reviews

[Eric_W · Rating 4 out of 5]

The New York Times deservedly called this book a classic. Father Raymond de Coooola, a missionary of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, spent 12 years from 1937-1949 among the Krangmalit Eskimos, whom he rightly calls "an extraordinary people." Originally published in 1954, Father Raymond had censored his original notes for his monsignor who censored them even more, and Oxford University Press knocked off an additional 43,000 words. Even butchered as it was it was acclaimed as "nothing less than a monument" by Peter' Freuchen, the Arctic expert. This edition (1986) returns to the original notes and manuscript. It contains all the harsh reality of the Eskimos’ lives: girls left to die outside in the freezing cold in winter, left in stone boxes to die in summer; men murdering husbands to obtain their wives (which seems somehow illogical after having killed off so many girl babies,) constant light and darkness, and scarce food. It is a voyage into the past to of our glacial ancestors; and a fascinating trip indeed.