He would not advise you to teach them [Eskimos] Esperanto,
as we have no way of knowing whether it will ultimately be chosen as the auxiliary
language of the world. He thinks the most direct and quickest way of
communicating with them in a common tongue should be chosen; in other words,
either you should learn their language or they yours, whichever will yield the
quickest results.
As they are a relatively uncivilized people, unused to the
modern cosmopolitan forms of life, and consequently not au courant with the
thoughts which to us have become mere commonplace, he would advise you to
approach them through love, friendliness, and association, until you are in a
position to enter into their confidence, and gradually teach them, in a simple
way, the great truths of our Faith.
To confirm them in the Faith should be your main objective,
always bearing in mind that faith and belief are different from learning and a
full grasp of the implications of such a vast Cause as ours.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter
dated 12 December, 1942, written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual
believer; ‘High Endeavours: Messages to Alaska’)
