'Eskimo'

ElizabethK · Newbie

'Eskimo'

Mike B. · MIP Old Timer

Welcome Elizabeth! I'm not sure if it's in the literature. It's not in the Big Book. I've heard it many times on speaker CD's. I have one his name is Adam. He uses the story in his share.

Tanin · MIP Old Timer

http://mrsponsorpants.typepad.com/mr_sponsorpants/2008/11/what-do-people-in-aa-mean-when-they-say-so-and-so-was-my-eskimo.html

http://www.treatment4addiction.com/blog/eskimos-our-12-step-angels/

Pythonpappy · MIP Old Timer

Welcome Elizabeth, ... glad to have you here ... tell us more about you ...

Love ya and God Bless,
Pappy

ElizabethK · Newbie

Thank you all for the information and the welcome.

My name is Liz and my sobriety date is 10/27/1992. I got sober at the Rafters in Saugus, California. I now live in Mohave Valley, AZ now and continue to practice the program that I love so much.

I love the fact that I did a lot of traveling in my younger years and went to AA meetings in many places and met so many good people. Many of them are still a big part of my life. Where else but in AA could I find so many

virtual strangers who were willing to give so much!

-- Edited by ElizabethK on Sunday 3rd of May 2015 02:20:47 PM

Jerry F · MIP Old Timer

Aloha Elizabeth ...nice post and I only know one Eskimo in recovery in Hawaii and I am sure that is not the one they told you about. LOL I got into recovery in Central Valley, in Fresno myself and why wouldn't Saugus have a group? I've heard (only) about rafters and believe actually got close flying down there one afternoon with my instructor. Wasn't very large from the air. My VA counselor once told me he wanted me to go to others meetings outside of our local areas so that I could listen to other recovering membership. He told me that we had 439 meetings a month in the Central Valley area so that I wouldn't have a problem. My thought was "Damn we have a ton of drunks in this valley". Hope you find your Eskimo. Let us know. (((hugs))) smile

StPeteDean · MIP Old Timer

e ... BB Working With Others, p.101 View WORKING WITH OTHERS chapter
His only chance for sobriety would be some place like the Greenland Ice Cap, and even there an Eskimo might turn up with a bottle of scotch and ruin everything!

2.
... Eskimo to the growing pains of thousands ... 12&12 Tradition Eight, p.169 View TRADITION EIGHT essay
Sacks of letters on every conceivable A.A. problem ranging from a lonely-heart Eskimo to the growing pains of thousands of groups must be answered by people who know.

StPeteDean · MIP Old Timer

This was my introduction to the spiritual Eskimo figure. Bob Earle tapes were given to me at about 2 months into my sobriety.

Eskimos
One of my favorite recovery speakers is Bob Earle from New Mexico and one of my favorite Bob Earle stories is the Eskimo story. Earle tells this story when he talks about how he came to find AA and how we might come to find God.

It goes like this:

There are two guys sitting together in a bar in the remote Alaskan wilderness. One of the men is very religious and the other man is an atheist.
Eventually the conversation turns to God and the atheist says to the devout man, Look, its not like I dont have actual reasons for not believing in GodI even experimented with the whole God-prayer thing. Just last month, I was far out on the tundra and I got trapped in a big blizzard. I could not see a thing and I was so lost. And so I tried God. I got on my knees and I prayed, God, if there is a God, Im going to die out here, please help me get back to camp.
So in the bar, the religious man looks at the atheist and says, Well for heavens sake, you must believe; here you are! Youre alive!
But the atheist rolls his eyes at the religious man and sighs and says, No man, all that happened was that some Eskimos came along and showed me the way back to camp.

If we are in recovery we have certainly met some Eskimos. The tricky part is after we are in recovery for a bit, and we are trying to change our lives, we are not always sure when we are meeting another Eskimo.

BoozeWar · Veteran Member

I don't know much about the eskimo term, except they now consider the word racist, and want to be called something else about their heritage...I heard people in Nunavut and other places have great disrespect for the word eskimo...but I have no clue, just something I heard.

BoozeWar.

ElizabethK · Newbie

I didn't mean to offend anyone. I am unable to delete this topic. The instructions tell me I can't delete the post since there are replies to my topic.
Sorry.

Pythonpappy · MIP Old Timer

Liz, ... don't worry about it ... you said noth'n derogatory about Eskimos ... in fact, it seemed to me you were suggesting they had some higher spiritual understanding than the average person ...

Love ya and God Bless,
Pappy

Tanin · MIP Old Timer

Seems the use of the term is the thing that is considered derogatory...

Es·ki·mo

(sk-m)

n. pl. Eskimo or Es·ki·mos

1. A member of any of a group of peoples inhabiting the Arctic coastal regions of North America and parts of Greenland and northeast Siberia. See Usage Note at Native American.

2. Any of the languages of the Eskimo peoples.

[French Esquimaux, possibly from Spanish esquimao, esquimal, from Montagnais ayashkimew,Micmac.]

Eski·moan adj.

Usage Note: Eskimo has long been criticized as an offensive term, and many Americans either avoid it or feel uncomfortable using it. In Canada, where Eskimo is especially frowned on, the only acceptable term is Inuit, and Americans have generally come to prefer this name too, knowing it to be a term of ethnic pride. But it is not always understood that Inuit cannot substitute for Eskimo in all cases, being restricted in proper usage to the Inuit-speaking peoples of Arctic Canada and parts of Greenland. In southwest Alaska and Arctic Siberia, where Inuit is not spoken, the comparable term is Yupik, which has not gained as wide a currency in English as Inuit. While use of these more specific terms is generally preferable when speaking of the appropriate linguistic group, none of them can be used of the Eskimoan peoples as a whole; the only inclusive term remains Eskimo. · The claim that Eskimo is offensive is often supported by citing a popular etymology tracing its origin to an Abenaki word meaning "eaters of raw meat." Though modern linguists speculate that the term may actually derive from a Montagnais word referring to the manner of lacing a snowshoe, the matter remains undecided, and meanwhile many English speakers have learned to perceive Eskimo as a derogatory term invented by outsiders in scornful reference to their neighbors' eating habits. See Usage Note at Inuit.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Eskimo

Pythonpappy · MIP Old Timer

Okay ... ... ... That's a whole lot more than I cared to know ... Personally?, I always thought the term Eskimo was a reference to those inhabiting the northern most regions of North America, noth'n more ... I don't see the term as derogatory unless someone uses it in such a manner ... which I never have, nor have I eve heard it used in this fashion ...

Boy, people can be soooo sensitive ... AND, I don't cotton to today's 'politically correct' BS either ... can't we all just love each other and leave those who wear their ethnicity on their sleeves alone ??? ....

Tanin · MIP Old Timer

Pythonpappy wrote:
Okay ... ... ... That's a whole lot more than I cared to know ...

You certainly convince me, pappy.

Pythonpappy · MIP Old Timer

LOL ...