It's only barely relevant but I think it's interesting so here's a passage from a paper I read recently that dealt with Catholic Missionaries and the Christianizing of the Inuit.
Such testimonies are not preserved in the Codex Historicus. However, a striking example of cultural continuity, related in the Codex entry of September 8-14, 1944, is the death of old Alakkannuaq, a famous shaman. Alakkannuaq was baptized on February 2, 1937 and learned syllabics in order to read the Catholic prayer books. Yet, he committed suicide with the help of two of his sons in accordance with traditional Inuit customs and beliefs. Father Henry wrote a brief account, which we have translated from the French original:
In the month of June 1944 on the west coast of Committee Bay at a place called K'ikeltanayok, Ovide Allakatnuar, aged 70, suffered a stroke, thus losing the power of speech and part of the use of his limbs. However, his mental capacities stayed intact. At the time Allakatnuar lived in a tent with his wife Nuyakittok and their adopted son Sebastien Aaluk, and his neighbours were the sons of Allakatnuar Niptayok and Kayaitok and their families. Because the camp had to break up and move inland for the caribou hunt, and because the old Allakatnuar had become invalid and an obstacle to break up, Niptayok and Kayaitok decided to make an end to the life of their father, believing that by doing so they would respond to the wishes of their old father. The two sons, aged 50 and 40, prepared a gallows equipped with a rope with a noose outside the tent. Then they brought the sick man there. In a sitting position, he put his head through the noose and let himself fall to strangle himself. The same day, Ovide Allakatnuar was buried at the same place, at K'ikeltanayok.
Public opinion doesn't seem to condemn the co-operation of Niptayok and Kayaitok in the suicide of their father. According to the declarations of Nuyakittok and Aaluk, it was Kayaitok who would have wanted to put an end to the life of his father who had become an impediment, whereas according to the declarations of Niptayok and his brother Kayaitok, they had only helped their father to commit suicide because the latter wished to commit that crime. According to the Eskimo mentality resisting the last wishes of one's parents would call down misfortune over oneself.
When Father Henry learned about Alakkannuaq's death, he exclaimed somewhat desperately: "But what kind of Christians are we raising?" His socius, Father Van de Velde, answered him that he should realize that Alakkannuaq had lived ninety per cent of his life the pagan way and that one could not expect that all of that was simply phased out by baptism. In a conversation with the first author in the summer of 2001, the socius of Father Henry went yet a step further when he emphasized that from an Inuit point of view, Alakkannuaq had sacrificed himself. He wanted to end his days so that the younger generation could move inland to hunt caribou and survive. "His deed was in fact an altruistic one. Therefore, we should not judge too harshly." And pointing his finger to heaven, he added: "You will be surprised whom you will see up there!"
The paper is The birth of a Catholic Inuit community. The transition to Christianity in Pelly Bay, Nunavut, 1935-1950. The authors are Cornelius H.W. Remie and Jarich Oosten.