IDNO

P.86290.PAT

Description

Sunset over a conical stone cairn in memory of Knud Rasmussen. Two expedition members with their packs are in the background.

Place

N America; Arctic; Greenland; Qaanaaq [Thule]

Cultural Affliation

Inuit; Inughuit [historically Polar Kalaallit; Polar Eskimo]

Named Person

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Paterson, Thomas Thompson

Date

5 - 13 August 1937

Collection Name

Paterson Collection

Source

Paterson, Erik T.

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Related Image: Same image mounted in James Wordie’s 1937 album with the number and caption:
“August 5 -13.”
“479 - 481. From the top of Thule Umanak.”
See Related Documents File. [Jocelyne Dudding 7/3/2008]

Bibliographical Reference: J. M. Wordie; H. Carmichael; E. G. Dymond; T. C. Lethbridge, ‘An Expedition to North West Greenland and the Canadian Arctic in 1937’ in The Geographical Journal, Vol. 92, No. 5. (Nov., 1938), pp. 385-418.
Text on p. 395 and p. 397 includes:
“We returned to Thule on August 12 and re-embarked our four men. ... These Eskimo are known generally either as the Cape York Eskimo, or as the Polar Eskimo, the name preferred by Rasmussen, and are descendants of the natives discovered in 1818 by Sir John Ross, who in his picturesque way called them the Arctic Highlanders. In the next seventy years the tribe was seldom visited, except that Scottish whalers generally did a little bartering each year as they passed Cape York, while occasional hunters with their families assisted some of the polar expeditions of the latter half of the nineteenth century, such as those of Kane, Hall, and Nares. By the end of the century however the Polar Eskimo became well known and famous as sledgers, as the outcome of Peary's many expeditions based on Smith Sound. Peary first employed them in 1891 to hunt walrus for his dog food, and finally came to depend on them almost entirely as his dog drivers as well, and the polar journey of 1909 succeeded largely by reason of their great ability as sledgers combined with their loyalty and trust in Peary. For all they did for him Peary made full payment, giving them rifles and iron goods and, to his best men, boats. In this way by 1909 the Polar Eskimo passed from a primitive bow-and-arrow stage, self-supporting and without contact even with other Eskimo, to a modern hunting and trapping type dependent on the rifle and therefore on trading.
A new economic life began, but fortunately Knud Rasmussen was at hand to direct and control the change, and to supply a further chapter in their history. Rasmussen's first meeting with these people was in 1903; he thus overlapped Peary, and in 1907 he was in Ellesmere Land with two of their hunters, who went with him for a 1250-mile sledge journey at a few hours' notice. Finally, in 1910, he founded an Arctic station at North Star Bay - the Thule station as a base for exploration and for trade. In this way the Polar Eskimo, who are the only pure-bred Eskimo in West Greenland, were controlled by Rasmussen till his death in 1933, and in the best sense preserved, and the critical period which would have followed Peary's gift of rifles passed. Rasmussen has himself described them and their folk-lore in his writings and books, and recently a more dramatic picture has come from his friend and helper, Peter Freuchen, who has written about this Golden Age of the Polar Eskimo in ‘Arctic Adventure’. After Rasmussen's death the fate of these people was once more in the balance, but after some delay and negotiation the Cape York district has now been finally taken over by the Greenland Administration”. [JD 8/3/2007]

P.86084.PAT to P.86583.PAT were found wrapped in the card now numbered C446/1/.

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Jocelyne Dudding 7/2/2007]