People of the Deer

Last updated
People of the Deer
Mowat-People-of-the-Deer.jpg
First Edition cover
Author Farley Mowat
IllustratorSamuel Bryant
Country Canada
Language English
GenreTravel, sociology
PublishedFeb. 26, 1952 (rev. 1975) (Little, Brown)
Pages344
ISBN 978-0-316-58642-9
OCLC 419715
917.940049
LC Class 52-5023
Followed byThe Desperate People 

People of the Deer (published in 1952, revised in 1975) is Canadian author Farley Mowat's first book, and brought him literary recognition. The book is based upon a series of travels the author undertook in the Canadian barren lands, of the Keewatin Region, Northwest Territories (now the Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, west of Hudson Bay. The most important of these expeditions was in the winter of 1947–48. During his travels Mowat studied the lives of the Ihalmiut, a small population of Inuit, whose existence depended heavily on the large population of caribou in the region. Besides descriptions of nature and life in the Arctic, Mowat's book tells the sad story of how a once prosperous and widely dispersed people slowly dwindled to the brink of extinction due to unscrupulous economic interest and lack of understanding.

Contents

Reception

The factuality of this book was debated in the House of Commons of Canada in 1953. [1] Mowat was derided as a liar by Jean Lesage (then Minister of Northern Affairs and National Resources) and the existence of the Ihalmiut was questioned. [2] [3] Mowat's account of the famine, epidemics and forced relocation of the Ihalmiut continued to be denied for decades by churches, industry and government. However, the version of the story told in People of the Deer and several subsequent works, has since been vindicated. [4]

As Suzanne Methot states in a review of Mowat's Walking on the Land: "Fact: the Ihalmiut existed, and they were relocated to useless expanses of land no fewer than three times, shunted about by a government intent on building a colonial vision from sea to sea to sea." According to Methot the vilification of Mowat, who was dubbed "Hardly Nowit" and pictured in Saturday Night magazine with a Pinocchio nose, continued into the 1990s. She describes the story told by Mowat as one "of horrifying neglect and outright stupidity on the part of the federal government." [4] Of the controversy surrounding Mowat's epic, Margaret Atwood is quoted as saying:

People of the Deer was to the support for increased autonomy among northern peoples as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was to the environmental movement: a wake-up call, the spark that struck the tinder that ignited the fire from which many subsequent generations of writers and activists have lit their torches, often ignorant of where that spark came from in the first place. [5]

According to Tim Querengesser in an article about the conflicting attitudes toward Mowat, People of the Deer and his later books, fueled increasing interest in the North. Some Northerners, such as Jim Bell, editor of the Nunatsiaq News in Iqaluit, agree that Mowat got some facts wrong, but believe that his ends justified his means: “There are people alive today who would likely be dead or not even be born if Farley Mowat had not written about the famines in the Keewatin region in the 1950s...That is a legacy that can never be taken away from him.” [6]

Second edition

In the foreword to the 1974 edition of People of the Deer, Mowat addresses the concerns about factuality. He states that, when the first book was published, “it was impossible for me to obtain documentary corroboration for much of the story.” According to Mowat, the “Old Empire” of the North—the missions, the RCMP and the government—held the proof. “I was therefore forced to be somewhat circumspect.” The story without omissions, changed names or distortions of time and space, as presented in The Desperate People—the 1959 follow-up to People of the Deer—“is the correct one.” [6]

Reviews

The New York Times Book Review published a dismissive review on February 24, 1952. [7] The Beaver was quite hostile in its first review, and the Hudson's Bay Company threatened to sue Mowat for allegedly criticizing its trading policies that were detrimental to peoples of the Keewatin Region. [8] The second review, by A. E. Porsild, was equally hostile and questioned the existence of the Ihalmiut. [9] Nonetheless, People of the Deer was generally well received, excerpted in the Atlantic Monthly , and "showered with glowing international reviews." [6]

Awards

The book was awarded the Anisfield-Wolfe Book Award by the Anisfield-Wolfe Foundation in 1953.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farley Mowat</span> Canadian writer and environmentalist (1921–2014)

Farley McGill Mowat, was a Canadian writer and environmentalist. His works were translated into 52 languages, and he sold more than 17 million books. He achieved fame with the publication of his books on the Canadian north, such as People of the Deer (1952) and Never Cry Wolf (1963). The latter, an account of his experiences with wolves in the Arctic, was made into a film of the same name released in 1983. For his body of work as a writer he won the annual Vicky Metcalf Award for Children's Literature in 1970.

<i>Never Cry Wolf</i>

Never Cry Wolf is a fictional account of the author's subjective experience observing wolves in subarctic Canada by Farley Mowat, first published in 1963 by McClelland and Stewart. It was adapted into a film of the same name in 1983. It has been credited for dramatically changing the public image of the wolf to a more positive one.

New Journalism is a style of news writing and journalism, developed in the 1960s and 1970s, that uses literary techniques unconventional at the time. It is characterized by a subjective perspective, a literary style reminiscent of long-form non-fiction. Using extensive imagery, reporters interpolate subjective language within facts whilst immersing themselves in the stories as they reported and wrote them. In traditional journalism, however, the journalist is "invisible"; facts are reported objectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Redhill</span> Canadian poet, playwright and novelist

Michael Redhill is an American-born Canadian poet, playwright and novelist. He also writes under the pseudonym Inger Ash Wolfe.

<i>One Dead Indian</i> 2001 non-fiction book

One Dead Indian: The Premier, the Police, and the Ipperwash Crisis is a book by Canadian investigative journalist Peter Edwards about the 1995 Ipperwash Crisis and the shooting death of aboriginal land claims protester Dudley George by the Ontario Provincial Police on September 7, 1995. It was first published by Stoddart in 2001 and reprinted several times and published as an ebook.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whale Cove, Nunavut</span> Place in Nunavut, Canada

Whale Cove, is a hamlet located 74 km (46 mi) south southwest of Rankin Inlet, 145 km (90 mi) northeast of Arviat, in the Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, Canada, on the western shore of Hudson Bay.

The Law of Life is a term coined by author Farley Mowat in his 1952 book People of the Deer, and popularized by Daniel Quinn, to denote a universal system of various natural principles, any of which tend to best foster life—in other words, any of which best guides behavior that tends toward the reproductive success and survival of some particular gene pool. The idea posits that, in general, the most fit organisms instinctively behave according to some natural rule. Since every organism has some instinctive "law" it can follow to be the most reproductively successful, this very notion is a sort of law itself, true of all living beings: thus, the Law of Life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ennadai Lake</span> Lake in Nunavut, Canada

Ennadai Lake is a lake in the Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is 84 km (52 mi) long, and 4.8 to 22.5 km wide. It is drained to the north by the Kazan River. A 615 km (382 mi) section of the Kazan River from the outlet of Ennadai Lake to Baker Lake, was designated as a part of the Canadian Heritage Rivers System in 1990.

<i>The Snow Walker</i> 2003 Canadian film

The Snow Walker is a 2003 Canadian survival drama film written and directed by Charles Martin Smith and starring Barry Pepper and Annabella Piugattuk. Based on the short story Walk Well, My Brother by Farley Mowat, the film is about a Canadian bush pilot whose life is changed through an encounter with a young Inuk woman and their challenge to survive the harsh conditions of the Northwest Territories following an aircraft crash. The film won six Leo Awards, including Best Lead Performance by a Male, and was nominated for nine Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture, Best Performance by an Actor, Best Performance by an Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

<i>Never Cry Wolf</i> (film) 1983 film directed by Carroll Ballard

Never Cry Wolf is a 1983 American drama film directed by Carroll Ballard. The film is an adaptation of Farley Mowat's 1963 autobiography of the same name and stars Charles Martin Smith as a government biologist sent into the wilderness to study the caribou population, whose decline is believed to be caused by wolves, even though no one has seen a wolf kill a caribou. The film also features Brian Dennehy and Zachary Ittimangnaq. It was the first Disney film to be released under the new Walt Disney Pictures label. The film was released on October 7, 1983, for a limited distribution, and in the regular theaters on January 27, 1984.

Thomas Edward Lee (1914–1982) was an archaeologist for the National Museum of Canada in the 1950s and discovered Sheguiandah on Manitoulin Island. Public interest in the find contributed to passage in Ontario of a bill to protect archeological sites. While working with Laval University's Centre for Northern Studies, Lee discovered the Cartier Site on the Ungava Peninsula in Quebec.

The Ahiarmiut ᐃᓴᓪᒥᐅᑦ [ihalmiˈut] or Ihalmiut or are a group of inland Inuit who lived along the banks of the Kazan River, Ennadai Lake, and Little Dubawnt Lake, as well as north of Thlewiaza River, in northern Canada's Keewatin Region of the Northwest Territories, now the Kivalliq Region of present-day Nunavut.

Kikkik was an Inuit woman who in 1958 was charged with, but acquitted of, murder, child neglect and causing the death of one of her children. Her story was told by Farley Mowat.

Nueltin Lake straddles the Manitoba-Nunavut border in Canada. The lake, which has an area of 2,279 km2 (880 sq mi), is predominantly in Nunavut's Kivalliq Region, and on the Manitoba side there is the Nueltin Lake Airport which serves the fishing lodge. The lake is split into two parts by a set of narrows. It is drained by the Thlewiaza River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caribou Inuit</span> Ethnic group living in northern regions of Canada

Caribou Inuit, barren-ground caribou hunters, are Inuit who live west of Hudson Bay in Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, between 61° and 65° N and 90° and 102° W in Northern Canada. They were originally named "Caribou Eskimo" by the Danish Fifth Thule Expedition of 1921–1924 led by Knud Rasmussen. Caribou Inuit are the southernmost subgroup of the Central Inuit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angikuni Lake</span> Lake in Nunavut, Canada

Angikuni Lake is a lake in Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is one of several lakes located along the Kazan River; Ennadai Lake is to the south and Yathkyed Lake is to the north.

<i>Lost in the Barrens</i>

Lost in the Barrens is a children's novel by Farley Mowat, first published in 1956. Later editions used the title Two Against the North.

Finding Farley is a 2009 documentary directed by Leanne Allison as she and her husband Karsten Heuer travel across Canada in the literary footsteps of the Canadian writer Farley Mowat.

<i>Dust Tracks on a Road</i>

Dust Tracks on a Road is the 1942 autobiography of black American writer and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston.

Kai Cheng Thom is a Canadian writer and former social worker. Thom, a non-binary trans woman, has published four books, including the novel Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir (2016), the poetry collection a place called No Homeland (2017), a children's book, From the Stars in The Sky to the Fish in the Sea (2017), and I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World (2019), a book of essays centered on transformative justice.

References

  1. "Hansard". Hansard. 96 (31): 1243. Jan 19, 1953.
  2. "INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF AUTHORS: FARLEY MOWAT". As It Happens . CBC.ca. December 30, 2010. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
  3. Mowat, Farley (2010). Eastern Passage. pp. 71–72. ISBN   978-0-7710-6491-3.
  4. 1 2 Methot, S. (August 2000). Book Review: Walking on the Land. Quill and Quire. Retrieved on: 2012-12-27.
  5. Greg Quill ( May 11, 2012). Farley Mowat’s legacy: Our supreme storyteller. Toronto Star. Retrieved on: 2012-12-27.
  6. 1 2 3 Querengesser, T. (September 2009). Farley Mowat: Liar or Saint? Archived 2013-02-20 at the Wayback Machine Up Here. Retrieved on: 2012-12-27.
  7. Mowat, Farley (2010). Eastern Passage. p. 60. ISBN   978-0-7710-6491-3.
  8. Young, Scott. "Storm Out of the Arctic: Farley Mowat's "People of the Deer" Despite Wide Public Acclaim Has Earned Disapproval from Critic of One Northern Magazine." Saturday Night, Oct. 18, 1952, pg. 16.
  9. Eastern Passage, pp. 66–67