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Social and individual patterns established over the span of many generations of the Land Eskimos of the Mackenzie Delta became severely disrupted by the encounter with white North American civilization. For the male Eskimo, whose self-esteem depended on success as a provider in a whaling, hunting, or trapping economy, the new "welfare economy" proved to be devastating. The dwindling of food supplies (disappearance of the caribou herds) and the establishment of white Canadian outposts in the Mackenzie Delta caused the migration and centralization of the Eskimos from the vast territories to the few white dominated centers. There they are devoid of productive functions and depend almost exclusively on government funds. Under the new circumstances most of the traditional patterns of control of destructive impulses became irrelevant. Of great importance is the precarious balance that existed between males and females. For generations, women controlled their resentment of the dominant males because of their total dependency on them as food providers. With the new economic order, the females are overtly disparaging of the Eskimo males and slavishly admire the white males, by whom they are ruthlessly exploited. The males, functionless and rejected, abuse alcohol in a frenzied manner and commit suicide in almost epidemic proportions (eight times the Swedish rate).