In Those Days: Inuit Lives

Table of Contents

Introduction

A Note on Word Choice

Collected Writings

Almost Anonymous: The Life of Inuk Charles

Who Was Albert One‑Eye?

Mikak: Friend of the Moravians

John Sakeouse: Inuit Explorer

Tatannuaq: Inuit Peacemaker

Ohokto’s Story: Ross and the Nattilingmiut

Akkatook: An Inuit Boy in Scotland

Memiadluk and Uckaluk Visit England

William Ouligbuck: John Rae’s Interpreter

Erasmus Augustine Kallihirua: Inuit Theology Student

Uugaq: Inuit Traveller

Burial at Sea: The Death of Kudlago

Stories of Hannah and Joe

The Life of Hans Hendrik

Simon Gibbons: First Inuit Minister

Aleqasina: The Mistress of Robert Peary

Inuit at the World’s Fairs

Annie Atungaujaq: First Inuit Convert at Blacklead Island

Ruth Makpii Ipalook: We’re Going to Keep on Living

In Memory of John Shiwak, Inuit Sniper

The Heroism of Ada Blackjack

Orulo’s Story

Aua: Stories of a Shaman

In Search of Igsivalitaq, the Outlaw

Tatamigana and Alikomiak: The Only Inuit Hanged in Canada

Ataguttaaluk: The Queen of Igloolik

Inuutersuaq Ulloriaq: Inughuit Historian

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Ihave lived in the Arctic for almost fifty years. My career has been varied; I’ve been a teacher, businessman, consultant, and municipal affairs officer. I moved to the Arctic as a young adult, and worked for many years in small communities in Qikiqtaaluk (then Baffin) Region—one village had a population of only thirty‑four. I also lived for two years in Qaanaaq, a community of 500 in the remotest part of northern Greenland. Wherever I went, and whatever the job, I immersed myself in Inuktitut, the language of Inuit.

In those wonderful days before television became a staple of Northern life, I visited the elders of the communities. I listened to their stories, talked with them, and heard their perspectives on a way of life that was quickly passing.

I was also a voracious reader on all subjects Northern, and learned the standard histories of the Arctic from the usual sources. But I also sought out the lesser‑known books and articles that informed me about Northern people and their stories. In the process I became an avid book collector and writer.

The stories collected in this volume all originally appeared in a column that I write for Nunatsiaq News under the title Taissumani. This Inuktitut word means long ago. In colloquial English it might be glossed as in those days, which is the title of this series. The columns appear online as well as in the print edition of the paper. Because of this, it came as a bit of a surprise for me to learn that I have an international readership. I know this because of the comments that readers send me. I say it was a surprise because I initially thought of the columns as being stories for Northerners. No one was writing popular history for a Northern audience, be it native or non‑native. I had decided that I would write history that would appeal to, and inform, Northern people. Because of where I have lived and learned, and my knowledge of Inuktitut, these stories would usually (but not always) be about the Inuit North. The fact that readers elsewhere in the world show an interest in these stories is not only personally gratifying to me, but should be satisfying to Northerners as well—the world is interested in the Arctic.

I began writing the series in January of 2005. Originally the articles were datelined. I picked an event in the past that could be accurately dated and wrote a column about it on the anniversary of that date. But I eventually found that formula unduly restrictive. Since shaking off the shackles of the dateline, I have simply written about an event, person, or place that relates to Arctic history. Most deal with northern Canada, but some are set in Alaska, Greenland, or the European North. My definition of the Arctic is loose—it is meant to include, in most of the geographical scope of the articles, the areas where Inuit live, and so this includes the sub‑Arctic. Sometimes I stray a little even from those boundaries. I don’t like restrictions, and Nunatsiaq News has given me free rein to write about what I think will interest their readers.

This is the first volume in a series of texts emanating from the Taissumani articles. This volume presents Inuit biographies—the stories of real people whose lives can be documented from the historical record. For some, the record is extensive; for others it is scanty. But all led interesting lives, and a knowledge of those lives can enhance our understanding of Northern people and contribute to our evolving appreciation of their place in Canada’s history.

The stories are presented here substantially as they originally appeared in Taissumani, with the following cautions. Some stories that were presented in two or more parts in the original have been presented here as single stories. For some, the titles have been changed. There have been minimal changes and occasional corrections to the text. I have sometimes changed punctuation in direct quotations, if changing it to a more modern and expected style results in greater clarity.

The chapters have been organized generally in chronological order. They are meant to be read independently.

Qujannamik.

Kenn Harper

Iqaluit, Nunavut

A Note on Word Choice

Inuk is a singular noun. It means, in a general sense, a person. In a specific sense, it also means one person of the group we know as Inuit, the people referred to historically as Eskimos. The plural form is Inuit .

A convention, which I follow, is developing that Inuit is the adjectival form, whether the modified noun is singular or plural; thus, an Inuit house, Inuit customs, an Inuit man, Inuit hunters.

Some stories refer to Inuit in northwestern Greenland (the Thule District). They refer to themselves in the plural as Inughuit. The singular, Inughuaq, is seldom used, Inuk being used instead. The adjectival form is Inughuit.

The language spoken by Inuit in Canada is Inuktitut, although there are some regional variations to that designation. The dialect spoken in Labrador is called Inuktut. The language spoken by the Inughuit of northwestern Greenland is Inuktun.

The word Eskimo is not generally used today in Canada, although it is commonly used in Alaska. I use it if it is appropriate to do so in a historical context, and also in direct quotations. In these contexts, I also use the old (originally French) terms Esquimau (singular) and Esquimaux (plural).

I have generally used the historical spellings of Inuit names, sometimes because it is unclear what they are meant to be. The few exceptions are those where it is clear what an original misspelling was meant to convey, or where there is a large number of variant spellings.

Almost Anonymous

The Life of Inuk Charles

In the early 1700s, the Hudson’s Bay Company conducted a vigorous fur trade into the interior of Canada. These were wild times, and the Cree Indians and Inuit were frequently in a state of war, their traditional enmity for each other augmented by the desire to dominate in trade with the white men.

The James Bay Cree frequently conducted raids against the Inuit of the East Main, as the east coast of James Bay was called. On one of these raids, in 1736, a group of about fifty Indians killed five Inuit men and fifteen women, and took ten children captive.

We know the fate of only one of those unfortunate children. A Young Eskemoe Boy was taken to Albany, on the west side of James Bay, and kept in servitude there for a time. His parents may have been among those killed in the raid. Then the HBC bought him from his Indian captors, in return for one pound of Brazil tobacco, one gallon of brandy, and one‑and‑one‑half yards of blue broadcloth.

Sent from Albany to Moose Fort (present‑day Moose Factory), the young man, now in effect a slave of the HBC, was given the name Charles and put in the care of Captain Christopher Middleton.

Middleton had joined the HBC as a young man in 1721, as second mate of the vessel Hannah, and sailed with her to Hudson Bay. Eventually he was made captain of the Hannah. During his career, he made a total of sixteen voyages to Hudson Bay and visited all the company’s main posts. A keen navigator, he made observations on magnetism and experimented with methods of calculating longitude. The same year that Charles was placed in his care, Middleton earned a distinction, rare among seamen, by being elected a fellow of the Royal Society for his contributions to navigation.

In 1738, Middleton took Charles back to England. A letter from Moose Fort, addressed to the London Committee of the HBC, reported: Upon the request of Captain Middleton I have sent your slave home, the Escomay boy, he [Middleton] saying how serviceable he will be in informing them relating to the trade in the Straits relating to the whalebone.

This was a reference to trade in Hudson Strait, farther to the north, where Inuit traded annually with the company’s ships. The trade was for more than just whalebone (baleen), though; the Inuit also provided skins, narwhal tusks, and seal and whale oil. Apparently, it was hoped that Charles would help in expanding this trade.

For the next three years Middleton was responsible for the well‑being of Charles. The HBC periodically reimbursed him for the boy’s care. These were tough years for Captain Middleton. He had been befriended by Arthur Dobbs, a member of the Irish House of Commons, who had a long‑standing interest in finding the Northwest Passage. But there were suspicions that Dobbs was not in favour of the HBC’s trade monopoly and wanted to support competitive interests. Their friendship strained relations between Middleton and the London Committee. Nonetheless, Middleton continued to sail annually to Hudson Bay. Records are scant, but Charles probably travelled as interpreter with Middleton in 1739 aboard the ship Hudson’s Bay, which travelled to Churchill in August and remained there for two weeks. The following year, he probably travelled again with Middleton on the same ship, visiting Moose Factory and Albany, the scene of his former captivity. On these voyages, Charles would have seen more of Hudson Bay than he had ever seen before.

On March 5, 1741, Middleton received a commission in the Royal Navy, and resigned from the HBC. In June, he left England in command of the first British naval expedition to search for a Northwest Passage.

With Middleton no longer an HBC employee, someone else had to take responsibility for the company’s slave. On March 26, Charles was brought to a company sub‑committee and given to the secretary to be cared for. That spring he left again for Hudson Bay, this time aboard a ship commanded by George Spurrell. The committee’s instructions to Spurrell were to cause the Indian [Inuit] Ladd to tell them [the Inuit] they must Endeavour to get what Whalebone, Oil and Furs they can against the next year. Spurrell’s ship, the Seahorse, visited Churchill in July and York Factory in August. It returned to London on October 3.

The story of Charles ends abruptly. Later that month, the records of the HBC note simply that on October 21, Captain Spurrell was reimbursed £3 15s. 8d. for Physick and funeral Charges for Charles the Compys. [Company’s] Esquemay boy.

Where and how Charles died is unknown, although the reference to funeral charges would indicate that he died back in England, rather than on the voyage.

An almost anonymous Inuk, his brief and incomplete story has been pieced together from the scattered references found within the records of a secretive trading company intent on preserving and extending a monopoly. Consider what we don’t know about him. We don’t know his real name or place of birth, anything about his parents, whether or not he had siblings, his date or place of death, nor his final resting place. Indeed, it is a small miracle that we know anything about him at all.

Who Was Albert One‑Eye ?

The lives of Inuit who served on Arctic expeditions are poorly recorded. Often a name is noted, but the amount of detail that follows is maddeningly meagre. One such man was Albert One‑Eye, an Inuk born about 1824 on the east coast of James Bay, the so‑called East Main of the Hudson’s Bay Company.

One of the small mysteries that surrounds Albert’s short but eventful life is his very name. It was unusual, in those