In our modern world, the fate of this handful of men may not seem important. Yet what is at stake is crucial: is not each of these Eskimos the custodian of human capital, of a fund of experience, knowledge, and traditions handed down through generations? Every time a so-called minority culture is eradicated, mankind's patrinony is undeniably impoverished, for like the greater civilizations, the more limited cultures also participate in the history of man and contribute to a fuller knowledge of his destiny.
~ Jean Malaurie, The Last Kings of Thule
He goes on to say that "the decline of this plurimillennial hunting society has derived more from an economic system and from the civil law that sustains it than from any so-called cultural shock...." [pp 415-417]
I came for the bracing Arctic cold, I stayed for the sympathetic & indignant portrait of a people being dispossessed and ruined.