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"So with the white man came easier
times, mental and bodily, ammunition (a good thing). Tea, rifles, biscuits, tobacco,
yards of material . . . boats, white ... real genuine Nordic blood, tuberculosis,
. . . and a lot of meddling in such incidental things as child-birth, marriage,
counting the people, . . . ."
Dr. Jon
A. Bildfell, Letter to Mother, 1933-1934 |
| Bildfell was critical of the white man’s
influence on the Inuit, an influence he called “benevolent exploitation.”
He was concerned about the growing Inuit dependence upon flour, tea, and biscuits;
their concentration upon trapping foxes to the neglect of sealing; the adoption
of European textiles at the expense of more superior furs; and the use of expensive
coal oil in the place of seal oil for light and heat. |
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St. Luke's Hospital, Pangnirtung
Dating to 1940-1942
Photographed by Dr. Jon A. Bildfell
Dr. Jon A. Bildfell and Mrs. Muriel Bildfell Collection
997.84.136.158 |
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Dr. Jon A. Bildfell (second from the left)
Dating to 1933-1934
Photographer unknown
Dr. Jon A. Bildfell and Mrs. Muriel Bildfell Collection
997.84.135.16 |
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