People of the Deer (Death of a People) - Softcover

Mowat, Farley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786714786 ISBN 13: 9780786714780

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 2004

Synopsis

The classic first book from one of the world's best-loved storytellers, Farley Mowat's unforgettable account of a people driven nearly to extinction by the trespasses of Western culture
In 1886, the Ihalmiut people of northern Canada numbered 7,000 souls; by 1946, when twenty-five-year-old Farley Mowat began a two-year stay in the Arctic, their population had dwindled to only forty. Living among them, he observed for the first time a sight that would inspire the rest of his life: the millennia-old migration of the Arctic's caribou in their teeming multitudes. With the Ihalmiut, Mowat also endured bleak winters, suffered agonizing shortages of food, and witnessed the continual, devastating intrusions of interlopers bent on exploitation. Here, in the first book to exhibit the prodigious literary talent that would produce some of the most memorable books of the next half-century, Mowat chronicles his harrowing experiences.

People of the Deer is the lyrical portrait of a beautiful and endangered society, and a mournful reproach to those who would manipulate and destroy indigenous cultures anywhere in the world. Most of all, it is a tribute to the last People of the Deer, the Ihalmiut, whose calamitous encounter with modern civilization resulted in their tragic decline.

About this title

From the Publisher:

"A beautifully written book...Mowat's challenge cannot be ignored."
-Saturday Night

From the Inside Flap:

THEY WERE IN HARMONY WITH THE LAND BUT THEY WERE ON THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION
Sixty years ago, the Ihalmiut numbered 7,000. When Farely Mowat visited them, their population had dwindled to forty. For two years, Mowat shared their hard life--the bleak winters, the shortages of food, the fervent struggle to withstand the intrusion of white men--and came to understand them. Here, Farely Mowat indicts those who have abused the Ihalmiut. But, foremost, he pays tribute to the last of the People of the Deer--the proud, valiant Eskimos, desperately trying to survive.

About this edition

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0786714786
• ISBN 13: 9780786714780
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 287