90 years ago: Fatal fanaticism in the Canadian Arctic

This kind of story has become more familiar in recent years, but, to quote the last part of Ecclesiastes 1:9, "...there is no new thing under the sun." As reported by Canadian Press and published in the Edmonton Bulletin, October 2, 1929 (capitals, bold in original):

ESKIMO GETS RELIGION AND SLAYS THREE

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Insane Native Then Pushed Through Hole in Ice by Tribesmen


OTTAWA, Oct. 2--Believed by the authorities to have been a victim of a recurrence of the wave of religious mania which swept over this lonely land about ten years ago, a young Eskimo inhabitant of the interior of the southern portion of Baffin Land became demented and shot and killed his two parents and a young woman relation. He shot at but missed, his brother. The Eskimo tribe of which he was formerly a law-abiding member, kept him in close confinement through a long winter but in the spring after he had twice escaped their vigilance, pushed him through a hole and drowned him beneath the ice of the sub-Arctic.

The story, almost unbelievable in its complications, forms a part of a routine report of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers at Lake Harbor, Baffin Land, and will be incorporated in the annual report of the R.C.M.P., now being prepared at headquarters here.

Sergeant J.P.C. White in charge of the detachment at Lake Harbor reported that last winter, accompanied by Constable P. Dersch, he made a long patrol through a section of southern Baffin Island where white men were unknown before the great war. He learned the story from the tribe in which the tragedy occurred.

Heard Voice From Heaven

The report stated that Mako Gliak, a young man, became obsessed with the idea that he was a purifier of his race. He told his relatives he had heard a voice from Heaven telling him to kill all his people. He promptly proceeded to put this mission into operation.

The names of those he murdered were not ascertained by the police, although they were told Mako's parents and a young woman related to him were shot before the rest of the tribe overpowered him.

As Mako was obviously under a devilish spell, the Eskimos did not know what to do with him. The nearest post, Lake Harbor, was 500 miles away...