Farley Mowat describes his journey in 1969 across Canada's frozen North. It seems like village after village is filled with disillusioned and unemployed Inuit people, or Eskimos as they were called at the time. The Inuit have been more or less forced by the Canadian government to give up their traditional way of life. They don't hunt anymore and they don't live in tents anymore. Their children are sent far away to go to school for a traditional education. Their environment is filling up with garbage--abandoned oil drums and plastic debris. Despite Mowat being an excellent writer, it is a pretty depressing picture. A few positive developments are revealed as well: the encouragement and success of traditional art for sale as well as grocery and goods cooperatives. This was a pick by one of my reading groups and I struggled to get through it. 4.
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