Forsinard Farmers Market 1980.

" ENDANGERED SPECIES."
August 20th 1980

I have just finished reading the report of the address given by Professor Wilbur F. Smith the 23rd of Harvard University, U.S.A., on his recent archaeological cum anthropological expedition to the North of Scotland, an off-shore province of the European Community. The Professor actually has a claim to some Scottish Ancestry though going back quite some generations to the first clearances, and had a particular family interest in finding out whether any of his branch of Homo Sapiens still existed. Having been brought up with inherited folklore that the country from which his ancestors came had once been densely populated, he was somewhat surprised and indeed shocked to find little trace of former life, though many small piles of stones and ancient but un-natural marks upon the earth surface gave clues to former occupation. These were photographed - a lot of "photographed" - measured and recorded by his team of young Harvard undergraduates, and will be the subject of his next address.
However, the report I have been reading was of another aspect of his work in the North, and was triggered off on the 8th of August of that year when he and his team were nearing Forsinard. They had stopped by the roadside to take in the green oasis among the heather hills, an oasis created by Messrs Baird & Co, the land improvers, when they became aware of a muted but persistent hum slightly further along the road, not unlike a gathering of Homo Sapiens. The Professor was rather overcome at the thought of actually stumbling upon a "Lost Tribe", and went on ahead of his group leaving them to tidy up the Coke cans and other evidence of the picnic they had enjoyed while looking over the Baird's beautiful green pastures.
Crossing the railway line which he was amazed to find in that spot, he found himself a few hundred metres, or somewhat more yards, further along among a multitude of Homo Sapiens. Here was what he had been searching for up and down the Highlands, and his lecture deals with his work after this discovery. He did find humans rather like himself, and when he tried a few words of "American" he was delighted to find understanding dawn on many faces, though he had to speak slowly at first and even repeat a word or two. Nevertheless, communication had been established, and he found it very helpful. Quite soon he found that while some humans there had come from the South, and indeed two from the good old U.S.A., there was also a quite distinct group which was indeed his "Lost Tribe" . These people had apparently no name as a group, so he called them "Crofterii Sutherlandii ". Apparently they swarm each year about the first Friday of August and before the opening of the grouse season scatters them again among the heather, possibly through an inherited fear of being shot by huntsmen from Italy, Germany or France, all parts of the new E.E.C.. There have been incidents of this nature on occasion which may explain the extreme timidity of the tribe.
The Professor found that one of the reasons for the swarming is that the tribesmen take with them their annual production of lambs from the ewes or sheep with whom they share the hills, which they use for barter to try to gain for themselves some of the goods produced by civilised man in the Lowlands, and even in England. The tribesmen are basically a simple people and usually give too many lambs in exchange for the bolts of cloth, boots, cars and T.V. sets offered before their eyes by the traders from South of Helmsdale. They usually are not happy at the trade offered, but are resigned to their fate as a forgotten tribe, and often say it should be better next year. One old tribesman who appeared to be a leader of some kind, or even a chief, said he had been saying that for 80 years without much good, but he keeps hoping.

Firewater.
They also barter some lambs for firewater, and the Professor said it seemed to have the same effect on these people as on the American Indian, reckoning that it has something to do with primitive peoples all over the world who are not immunised to the effects as a more civilised people are in, say, Harvard. The firewater affects some to the extent they say they might as well give their lambs away as they are not worth keeping for all that the traders allow on them .

Questioning some of them, usually without an interpreter though one was needed at times for one or two of the worst firewater victims, Professor Smith the 23rd found that a benevolent Government at Westminster in England are actually aware of the tribes existence and channels assistance to them as part of the programme to help the Third World, sometimes sending an observer North for a few hours in mid-summer to see how things are going, avoiding the winter which is too harsh for civilised man to live very long unless he has a centrally heated office. This aid takes many forms. One very important one is a payment for doing nothing. If the tribesman does anything then the money is refused and, though the tribesman is perhaps uneducated he is rarely unintelligent. Therefore he does nothing in order to enjoy the Government help. Sometimes he can keep a few sheep and still get the money when he needs more firewater. As he can live on a diet of oatmeal he requires little else to keep him happy and smiling, which is how the occasional tourist likes to see him.
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The next Government Aid the Professor discovered is called the Hill Ewe Subsidy. There are other names for it but that is how the tribesmen describe it, and everyone seemed to understand that term. This is for keeping breeding female sheep called "Yows", and is not given for producing lambs. Another indication of some degree of intelligence among the "Forgotten Tribe" is that they have worked this out for themselves, so many keep "Yows" and do not worry too much about lambs. Some cannot count too well but within limits that is no drawback to getting the money.
Professor Smith thought they could have worked harder and had more lambs but one tribesman explained to him that if they did then the Government took the "Subsidy" back again as "Income Tax ", so there was no point. When the Professor tried to explain that they had the same system in the U.S.A. the tribesmen did not believe him, and laughed. He also said that tribesmen with only a few "Yows" were always afraid that the subsidy would be taken away from them as they were "Uneconomic units", They had heard that in Germany during a war a man called Hitler had put people like them into ovens but he thought that would not happen here as the people were vanishing anyway, which made the Professor very sad indeed as he thought they were, though a bit backward, very nice people who, with a bit of help, could make green and pleasant land in their own areas, like Messrs Baird had shown them how to do at Forsinard.

Different Language.
The Professor asked if they kept cattle as he had not seen any, and then he noted that the tribesmen looked at each other and said nothing. Then one of the tribesmen spoke in a language the Professor did not understand though he thought the words were not nice ones. As some of the tribesmen looked a bit ugly at this the Professor decided that a spot of lunch was called for, and broke off for a rethink knowing that something was troubling them.



Lunch Over.
After lunch he approached another group and showed them some pictures of cows which they recognised at once, saying they used to keep them and some that they had them still. The Professor asked if they got "Hill Ewe Subsidy" for them too, and was told that they got a different one called "Hill Cow Subsidy", though that too had different names. They had learned to live with that one as it had been given them for many years, but now they had a new one as an extra which they did not understand at all. This was called a "Suckler Cow Premium", and was not worth worrying about really as it was so small. This one was like the first one where the tribesmen got it for doing nothing.

Tribesmen.
Some tribesmen ventured down from their homelands to a place called Dounreay where they got money for "working" which helped them to make their land better and to get milk to eat with their oatmeal, but now they will get nothing because the Big White Chief says more than half their money must come from their land. The E.E.C. is also very clever because there was a new "Sheep Meat Regime" which would have given more money for the lambs to the tribesmen, making more of them eligible for the Suckler Cow Premium. This Treaty has also been broken so more tribesmen will now not get Suckler Cow Premium because their lambs did not do well. Some tribesmen were angry because they thought promises were broken just to keep lamb prices down for the civilised people in England and to keep them from getting Suckler Cow. Professor Smith thought the tribe should send a delegation to the United Nations to plead their case, but the old tribesman said he had seen it all before and it would not help much though the delegation would likely get a good time and plenty firewater for nothing so they would go home happy, perhaps with another treaty to look at and show to their friends.

Conclusion of Lecture.
Concluding his lecture, Professor Smith the 23rd said he could not see very much hope for the "Forgotten Tribe", though they would likely be kept on their reservation by the Government so that people such as his team from Harvard could study a primitive people in their natural habitat unspoiled by civilisation. He said there was much that civilisation could learn from such study and that the Government would help through a Development Board and a Tourist Board to put up hotels and Chalets and Bed and Breakfasts to accommodate teams such as his own for a study tour. He himself means to return in a few years to do a study in depth of some of the tribal customs and to see whether there are any indications of an increase in population from the low numbers to which the tribe has presently shrunk. The average age of the tribe is quite high, and there are very few births and marriages, which is a sign similar to the Tierra del Fuega Indian tribe of South America before their extinction. However, with medical aid and enough monetary aid to allow the people to eat reasonably he was optimistic that no further decline was to be envisaged from the present very low figure.

Tremendous Interest.
The report of the lecture concluded that the Professor's lecture had raised tremendous interest within the U.S.A., and that there are plans to mount at least two fully equipped expeditions to visit the tribe next summer and study them further while one smaller expedition intends to overwinter in Sutherlandshire, living as a small family unit to see whether they can exist on the native diet and regime while studying their winter customs.