''The Way of the Eskimo'' is a

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

1911 American silent drama film that portrayed the Inuit or "Eskimo" culture of northeastern Canada along the coast of

Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

. Directed by

William V. Mong William V. Mong (June 25, 1875 – December 10, 1940) was an American film actor, screenwriter and director. He appeared in almost 200 films between 1910 and 1939. His directing (1911–1918) and screenwriting (1911–1922) were mostly for ...

and produced by

Selig Polyscope Company The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company that was founded in 1896 by William Selig in Chicago. The company produced hundreds of early, widely distributed commercial moving pictures, including the first films starring Tom ...

, this "

photoplay ''Photoplay'' was one of the first American film (another name for ''photoplay'') fan magazines. It was founded in 1911 in Chicago, the same year that J. Stuart Blackton founded '' Motion Picture Story,'' a magazine also directed at fans. For mo ...

" was based on a love story written by Columbia Eneutseak, a young

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

woman who was born in the United States in 1893, in the "Esquimaux Village" exhibition at the

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordi ...

in Chicago. She, fellow Inuit performer Zacharias Zad, and William Mong costarred in the film with a supporting cast that included members of Columbia's immediate family and other Inuit players. While this production was promoted in 1911 as being filmed on location in northern Canada, it was actually shot that year at the snow-covered port town of

Escanaba, Michigan Escanaba ( ), commonly shortened to Esky, is a port city in Delta County in the U.S. state of Michigan, located on Little Bay de Noc in the state's Upper Peninsula. The population was 12,616 at the 2010 census, making it the third-largest city i ...

, along a frozen stretch of shoreline of

Little Bay de Noc Little Bay de Noc is a bay in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The bay opens into Lake Michigan's Green Bay. The bay, consisting of approximately 30,000 acres (120 km²), is enclosed by Delta County. The cities of Escana ...

, which connects to

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

.Harper, Kenn (2014)
"Nancy Columbia: Inuit star of stage, screen and camera"
''Above & Beyond'' (''A&B''), posted online July 3, 2014. Carleton Place, Ontario, Canada; a publication of

Canadian North Bradley Air Services, operating as Canadian North, is a wholly Inuit-owned airline headquartered in Kanata, Ontario, Canada. It operates scheduled passenger services to communities in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and the Nunavik region o ...

, a wholly Inuit-owned airline company headquartered in

Kanata, Ontario Kanata (, ) is a suburb of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located about west of the city's downtown core. As of 2021, Kanata had an urban population of 137,118. Before it was amalgamated into Ottawa in 2001, it was one of the fastest-growing ...

. Retrieved May 20, 2020. No copies of the motion picture are listed among the holdings of major film repositories in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, or in the European Union.European Film Gateway
a centralized on-line access and referral point to the holdings of film archives throughout the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. Retrieved April 23, 2020."The Way of the Eskimo"
(1911), ''Progressive Silent Film List'', Silent Era Company, Washington State. Retrieved May 20, 2020. It is therefore currently classified as lost.

Plot

This film is described in 1911 trade publications as a story of adventure and romance set in the Eskimos' "land of eternal ice". The motion picture, according to reviews and plot descriptions in those publications, opened with scenes of daily activity among a small village of natives led by old Chief Opetek. The tribe later conducts its annual ceremony of bidding farewell or '' adieu'' to the sun as the vast territory enters the dark season of winter. Zak, a young man from another distant tribe, is visiting Opetek to participate in the event and to see the chief's beautiful daughter Ananak, whom he intends to marry. After the sun ceremony, Zak departs on his

dog sled A dog sled or dog sleigh is a sled pulled by one or more sled dogs used to travel over ice and through snow. Numerous types of sleds are used, depending on their function. They can be used for dog sled racing. Traditionally in Greenland and the e ...

to return to his own people. On his journey home over the ice, he soon finds a "half-frozen" white man, a

trapper Animal trapping, or simply trapping or gin, is the use of a device to remotely catch an animal. Animals may be trapped for a variety of purposes, including food, the fur trade, hunting, pest control, and wildlife management. History Neolithic ...

. Zak takes the unconscious stranger back to Opetek's family, and the man awakens under the care of Ananak and her mother Tikatak. Zak now prepares to depart for his home once again, and in keeping with their social customs, he and Ananak say good-bye by smelling the sleeves of one another's sealskin jackets and then rubbing noses. The recovering white trapper observes the couple's interaction, and after Zak leaves he talks to Ananak and ridicules the Eskimo way of showing affection, telling her that men and women in his culture display their affections in much different ways. Ananak over the dark months of winter finds herself increasingly attracted to the hunter. With the change in seasons and the approach of warmer, brighter days, and while her parents are away, Ananak elopes with the white man, who soon deserts her. Zak, now traveling by

kayak A kayak is a small, narrow watercraft which is typically propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic word ''qajaq'' (). The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each se ...

, manages to track her down and save her from drowning herself to end her shame. He then takes Ananak back home, where they marry after the tribe's medicine man uses sacred oils to cleanse her of the trapper's "evil spirits". The couple then depart for Zak's village, where together they can begin a new life.

Cast

* Columbia Eneutseak as Ananak ("Eskimo Maiden") * Zacharias Zad as Zak (Ananak's

suitor Courtship is the period wherein some couples get to know each other prior to a possible marriage. Courtship traditionally may begin after a betrothal and may conclude with the celebration of marriage. A courtship may be an informal and private m ...

) * William V. Mong as Joe Turner (1st trapper) * J. C. Smith as John Hurd (2nd trapper) * Chief Opetek as chief of the tribe (Ananak's father) * stherEneutseak mithas Tikatak (Ananak's mother) * Norman Smith as Inuit boy (uncredited) * Florence Smith as little Inuit girl (uncredited) * Oscar Smith as Inuit baby (uncredited)

Production

The film's original storyline was written by its costar 18-year-old Columbia Eneutseak, who was born at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.Becker, Paula (2009)
"Miss Columbia is declared Queen of the Carnival at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle on August 19, 1909"
January 3, 2009. Retrieved May 20, 2020."American-Born Eskimo Girl Plays Leading Part in Selig Film"
''

The Moving Picture World The ''Moving Picture World'' was an influential early trade journal for the American film industry, from 1907 to 1927. An industry powerhouse at its height, ''Moving Picture World'' frequently reiterated its independence from the film studios. I ...

'', August 5, 1911, p. 291. Internet Archive. Retrieved May 21, 2020. Her mother, Esther, was among a group of Inuit men, women, and children from the

Davis Inlet Davis Inlet was a Naskapi community in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, formerly inhabited by the Mushuau Innu First Nation. It was named for its adjacent fjord, itself named for English explorer, John Davis, who in 1587 cha ...

area of Labrador who were brought to Chicago to build and inhabit an Eskimo Village or "human ethnic exhibit" during the exposition's six-month run. Much later, in 1910, after traveling for years and demonstrating various aspects of Eskimo culture at other expositions and special events, Columbia's family and some of their fellow Inuit performers met Seilig director William Mong. He invited the

troupe Troupe may refer to: General *Comedy troupe, a group of comedians *Dance troupe, a group of dancers **Fire troupe, a group of fire dancers *Troupe system, a method of playing role-playing games *Theatrical troupe, a group of theatrical performers ...

to work in films, initially casting them as extras portraying

Seminole The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, an ...

and

Plains Indians Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nation band governments who have historically lived on the Interior Plains (the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies) of N ...

in three one-reel dramas. Then, acting on Columbia's proposed screen story, Mong produced ''The Way of the Eskimo'', which

trade publication A trade magazine, also called a trade journal or trade paper (colloquially or disparagingly a trade rag), is a magazine or newspaper whose target audience is people who work in a particular tradesman, trade or industry. The collective te ...

s described at the time of its release in July 1911 as "the first of a series of pictures made by Selig in the far north last winter". In reality, however, the Eskimo one-reeler was not filmed in either the

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...

or along the northern coast of Labrador; it was shot much farther south in the United States, in

, located about 300 miles due north of Selig's corporate headquarters in Chicago. Situated next to the

linked to

, Escanaba with its heavy winter snows and ice-bound shoreline was a more convenient, visually credible alternative to filming in far-off Labrador. Today, nearly a dozen photographs documenting that 1911 filming are preserved by the Delta County Historical Society in Escanaba. While shooting the film in Escanaba "in early 1911", Mong maximized location costs by also shooting a second

one-reeler A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

there, '' Lost in the Arctic''."Lost in the Arctic"
(1911), ''Progressive Silent Film List'', Silent Era Company. Retrieved May 24, 2020. That production included the same principal cast as this film as well as additional Inuit performers. In its July 1911 issue, the Chicago-based trade journal ''Motography'' continues to promote ''The Way of the Eskimo'' being filmed in Labrador. "The land of the Eskimo", announces the publication, "has been invaded by Selig camera men, and now real Eskimo dramas, played by real Eskimos in native ice wastes, can be seen", adding "'The Way of the Eskimo,' released July 17, is one of them." Yet, despite such media hype, Selig's decision to shoot the films in Michigan rather than in the remote regions of Labrador is not surprising. The costs in both time and money to send even a small company of cast and crew all the way to northeastern Canada were probably deemed far too high, especially for the purposes of producing just two one-reelers. To enhance the "Arctic" realism of filming in Michigan, Monk staged a hunting expedition and killing of a nonindigenous

polar bear The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear specie ...

in Escabana, an event documented among the photographs held today by the noted historical society. Selig in 1911 maintained a growing

menagerie A menagerie is a collection of captive animals, frequently exotic, kept for display; or the place where such a collection is kept, a precursor to the modern Zoo, zoological garden. The term was first used in 17th-century France, in reference to ...

of wild and domesticated animals for use in its productions, including three live bears and "10 eskimo dogs".Dengler, Eugene (1911)
"Wonders of the 'Diamond S' Plant"
''Motography'', July 1911, p. 12. Internet Archive. Retrieved June 1, 2020. Most likely, the company shipped to Escanaba one of those bears from its large studio "plant" in Chicago or possibly from the company's newer, rapidly expanding "Pacific Coast" facilities in

Edendale, Los Angeles Edendale is a historical name for a district in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, in what is known today as Echo Park, Los Angeles, Echo Park, Los Feliz, Los Angeles, Los Feliz and Silver Lake, Los Angeles, S ...

. A live walrus was apparently shipped as well to Escanaba for the same purposes. In its July 1911 issue, the Chicago-based trade journal ''Motography'' states, "A valuable polar bear is slain in one of these far north plays and an Eskimo is seen killing the wary walrus by his primitive methods."''Motography''
July 1911, p. 14. Internet Archive. Retrieved May 18, 2020. The telling word regarding the bear in that report is "valuable", a strong implication that the animal was from Selig's menagerie, one its more expensive purchased specimens. While it is possible that some footage of the bear roaming on the ice or its killing was also used in ''The Way of the Eskimo'', it is more likely the footage was used entirely in ''Lost in the Arctic''. Selig advertisements and trade reviews for the latter production refer specifically to the "harpooning" and "thrilling" death of the polar bear, and one of the characters in that film is identified as "The Bear Hunter".Image of Selig promotional flyer for ''Lost in the Arctic'', image "File:Release flier for LOST IN THE ARCTIC, 1911.jpg", Wikipedia Commons. Retrieved May 29, 2020.

Reception

In trade publications in 1911, the film received generally positive reviews. ''The Moving Picture World'' in its July 29 review states, "This picture is unusual enough and good enough to make a good feature picture.""The Way of the Eskimo' (Selig)"
''The Moving Picture World'', July 29, 1911, p. 210. Internet Archive. Retrieved May 19, 2020. The journal then remarks, "It is markedly educational and it tells a very interesting story. The story in this setting, primitive and simple, has much beauty...It is very commendable. A week later, in its August 5 issue, ''The Moving Picture World'' highlights the film again with a photograph of Columbia posing with her siblings and her mother, noting that audiences should find the film of "peculiar interest" since "the leading part has been taken by a young Eskimo girl of American birth".

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

-based trade magazine ''

The Billboard The Billboard () is a massive granite monolith in the Sarnoff Mountains of the Ford Ranges of Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica, standing just west of Mount Rea between Arthur Glacier and Boyd Glacier. It was discovered in November 1934 by a Secon ...

'' judged the "Eskimo love story" to be an "oddity" but "a very well acted little play"."The Way of the Eskimo (Selig)"
''The Billboard'' (Cincinnati, Ohio), July 29, 1911, p. 16. Internet Archive. Retrieved May 18, 2020.

"Lost" film status

No copies of this one-reel Selig production are preserved in

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

, the

UCLA Film Archives The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, in the collection of moving images at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, the

George Eastman Museum The George Eastman Museum, also referred to as ''George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film'', the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in ...

, the

Library and Archives Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; french: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the federal institution, tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is th ...

(LAC), or in other film repositories in the United States, Canada, or Europe. The film is therefore classified or "presumed" to be a lost production. Unfortunately, the images featured on this page are among the few that survive in available 1911 trade publications, although the noted photographs preserved at the Delta County Historical Society in Escanaba do provide some visual documentation of Mong's location work there.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Way Of The Eskimo Eskimos 1911 films 1911 drama films 1911 lost films Silent American drama films American silent feature films American black-and-white films Films shot in Michigan Lost American films Lost drama films Ethnofiction films Films about Inuit in Canada 1910s American films