4 comments about Confessions of an Igloo Dweller: Memories of the Old Arctic.

1. This is one of the finest first-person, historical narratives I've read for many years. Mr. Houston provides a unique, non-judgemental series of observations and first-hand stories about the Inuit and his own experiences living among them and working with them and, most importantly, learning from them. He is very honest in relating his own foibles and potentially life-threatening mistakes. His style is very easy to read and personal and I could not put this book down after starting it. Mr. Houston lived a highly privileged and unique life among a pre-literate but very evolved group during a crucial turning point for their culture. This is a rare and wonderful narrative.



2. First this is a book about art. If you have ever wondered how those most beautiful Eskimo sculptures and prints have found their way to your local gallery; this book tells you how.

   Mr. Houston was the first artist to recognize and search out the Inuit artforms and to deliver them to the art markets "outside". In every detail, name by name, you can read about the Inuit art culture from the very first stone figures and bone scluptures, to the latest prints.

   Second this is a book about Arctic. Adventure on a epic scale. Mr. Houstons' honeymoon was one of the very few trips from east to west across Baffin Island by sled. Mr and Mrs. Houston spent years in the Arctic living in the Inuit way; both their sons spoke Inuktitut in preference to English and preferred raw seal meat to... well that was all there was to eat.

   Sadly there are in this book no prints of the Inuit art, nor photos of the artists, nor any example of the art described in the text. For all the journeys by sled, boat, plane, and on foot there are no suitable maps. For a book about a culture that is so completely linked to geography, there are no maps for the reader to follow nor plates for the art lover to love.

   The most astonsihing event of the book occurs on page 9. A very young Mr. Houston steps off of a plane in the Hudson's Bay Arctic, looks around, and flatly refuses to live any place else; He stays for 15 years.

   You can add Mr. Houston to the list with Barry Lopez, William Vollmann , Farley Mowat, and John McPhee; thoes writers that get the Arctic Expericence




3. Really enjoyable. This man's interraelationship with a disappearing culture and the hurdles he faced in the Arctic wilderness are tangible and detailed. Mostly this book is about a youth (his own) - lost but still remembered. I read Joseph Conrad's Youth at the same time and the themes were quite similar.



4. This book was a delight to read. Mr. Houston's admiration for the Inuit culture is evident on every page. Many of the passages and stories are thought provoking and educational. I especially enjoyed his descriptions of bewilderment turned to enlightenment by such unassuming teachers.

No comments about Medicine Man to the Inuit: A Young Doctors Adventures Among the Eskimos.

1 comments about Sacred Feathers: The Reverend Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby) and the Mississauga Indians (Kahkewaquonaby & the Mississauga Indians).

1. This is the story of the Reverend Peter Jones,(1802-1856) (Kahkewaquonaby), a Methodist missionary and a Chief of the Mississauga.

   Doanld B Smith, a History Professor at the University of Calgary, writes an important story of the conflict between the First Peoples and the Europeans in the first years of settlement of south-Central Ontario. We see this interesting man in the context of the British settlement in Canada at a time when the new nation to the south (the USA)were forcibly moving the Cherokees and other eastern tribes to west of the Mississippi. That this did not happen in Upper Canada is to an important extent due to the leadership of this one man who could interpret the Europeans and Native Peoples to each other.

No comments about Tecumseh, a chronicle of the last great leader of his people (Chronicles of Canada).

No comments about Hunters of the Great North (Armchair Traveller Series).

No comments about Artists and Craftspeople (American Indian Lives).

No comments about The Frontier World of Edgar Dewdney.

No comments about Worlds of art, education mourn loss.(passed)(Bob Boyer, a world-renowned artist died of heart attack)(Obituary): An article from: Wind Speaker.

No comments about Behind the Man: John Laurie, Ruth Gorman, and the Indian Vote in Canada (Legacies Shared).