Miss Columbia was part of a family from Labrador that performed in Seattle at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition's "Eskimo Village" in 1909. Columbia's mother, Esther Eneutseak, was brought from Labrador to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where her daughter, Columbia Smith (1893-1959), was born. Eneutseak recruited other Inuit from Labrador to perform in later expositions, including the 1900 World's Fair in Paris. At the AYPE, Columbia was named "Queen of the Pay Streak," and the most beautiful woman at the exposition. After the fair Columbia moved with her parents, John and Esther Smith, and siblings to Los Angeles. Columbia married Raymond Melling, a motion picture operator, and in 1927 their daughter Esther Sue (Melling) Elliott was born. Later Columbia went on to write and star in the first Hollywood film with a credited Inuit cast.

The term Eskimo refers to the Indigenous people groups of far northern North America, but is widely viewed as offensive or inappropriate today. The term was imposed by non-Indigenous colonizers.

Caption on image: Miss Columbia from Labrador - Seattle, A.Y.P.E. '09. Copyright A. P. for Goetze.

Caption information source: Inuit Entertainers in the United States from the Chicago World's Fair through the Birth of Hollywood, by Jim Zwick, 2006.
Caption information source: The Seattle Daily Times, September 15, 1909, p. 4