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National Geographic : 1968 Jul
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Dream town that nickel built, multimillion-dollar Thompson rose in the past decade from the spruce-and-muskeg wilderness of northern Manitoba. International Nickel Company of Canada, Ltd., founded the Burntwood River town for employees of its nearby nickel- Where do Eskimos fit into this pulsing arm of the developing North? "You might say we're enticing Eskimos down from the Arctic islands by offering them refrigerators," Pat said. "We're trying to build a complete staff of competent Eskimo and Indian railroaders. We think it makes good sense to employ in the North people who belong to the North." On a second train I met Eskimo Charlie Allen (page 20) from Inuvik, who was one of half a dozen locomotive engineers among some 30 Eskimos already working for Great Slave. The voice of his brother Joseph, brake man on the train, kept coming in over a walkie talkie and punctuating our conversation. "Slow ahead, Charlie. Two cars. One car. Ten feet. Three feet. That'll do." 26 "Joe's just married a nurse from Ottawa," Charlie told me as he released the air-brake lever. "I guess he's left the Eskimo way of life for good. Me too, probably." Too many single Eskimos have quit on the job, Pat told me. Either the northern Alberta climate was too hot for them, the southern hospitality too cold, or the wages too easily spent. The emphasis in recruiting has shifted to Eskimos with families. "We worried at first about homesick wives," Pat confided. "But we needn't have. The wife of one of our Eskimo shop mechanics flew her kids back to the Arctic in a panic of nos talgia; then she turned around and came back on the next plane. Seems the youngsters were missing their hot baths in the tub and their
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