Minik Wallace
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Minik Wallace (ca. 1890 – October 29, 1918) was an Inuit who was brought to the United States of America from Greenland along with five other Inuit in 1897 by explorer Robert Peary.
Contents |
[edit] Early years
Minik spent his childhood in Northern Greenland among his people, the Inughuit, the northernmost band of Inuit, or Arctic Eskimos. He became acquainted with Robert Peary when the explorer employed members of Minik's band on his many Arctic expeditions.
[edit] The move to the US
Minik was brought with his father, Qisuk, and four other members of his Northern Greenland band to the American Museum of Natural History in New York by Robert Peary in 1897. Although not quite brought against their will, these six Inuit were only vaguely informed as to the purpose and meaning of their trip; some wanted to see strange places, others simply did not want to be parted from their relatives. Peary promised them all that they would be able to return. Yet on their arrival, it became clear that they, along with a meteorite that Peary thought of scientific value, were to be objects of study and exhibit, human zoo animals more or less, and that there were no plans for their care, let alone for their return.
[edit] Minik's father--death and aftermath
The adult Inuit soon all became ill with tuberculosis, to which they had little or no resistance, and three adults and one child died. (Another young adult, the sixth member of the group, survived and was sent back to Greenland). One of the first to die was Minik's father, Qisuk, and the boy was inconsolable with grief. Minik pleaded for his father's body to receive proper burial, with traditional rites that only he (Minik) could administer. Yet already there were plans to preserve Qisuk's body for study – study which would be impossible were the body to be buried. The Museum's curatorial staff decided to stage a fake burial for Qisuk. They filled a coffin with stones, placed a stuffed "body" on top of them, and covered the "body" with a cloth. They completed the ruse by performing a burial by lantern-light, with Minik attending.
Qisuk's body was sent to the estate of William Wallace, superintendent of buildings of the Museum, who operated a workshop for processing the skeletons of biological specimens. There, the body was de-fleshed, mounted on an armature, and returned to the Museum for display as the skeleton of a Polar Eskimo. Wallace, who had adopted Minik after the death of Qisuk and the rest of the adult Inuit, revealed to Minik neither the fate of Qisuk's body, nor Wallace's own complicity in the deception. However, several years after Qisuk's death, the New York papers published a story which revealed that Minik's father's bones were on display in the Museum. Minik learned of the deception through remarks made to him by schoolmates after the story circulated widely through their small town.
After learning the location of Qisuk's bones in about 1906, both Minik and William Wallace requested several times that the body be returned to Minik, as he wished to give his father a traditional burial. However, Museum director Hermon Carey Bumpus repeatedly avoided and evaded any and all questions regarding the Museum's Inuit exhibits. [1] In fact, Bumpus refused even to admit that the Museum was in possession of Qisuk's bones. His denials were made more adamant by the long-standing animosity between himself and Wallace; though financial irregularities and accusations of impropriety had led to Wallace's resignation as chief curator in 1901, Wallace had persisted in asking the Museum to aid him in Minik's support. Bumpus had refused those requests as well, and he was not anxious to draw any more attention to the circumstances under which the Inuit had originally been brought to America, nor to how they had been treated once they arrived.
Minik was ultimately unsuccessful in his efforts to reclaim his father's bones.
[edit] Return to Greenland
After eventually giving up on attempts to change the Museum's mind, Minik placed his trust in a campaign to get Peary to at least return him to his home. Peary and his camp eventually made the arrangements for Minik to be returned to Greenland. Although they represented themselves as having sent him back "laden with gifts", Canadian author Kenn Harper, while doing research for a book on Minik's life, found clear evidence that on the contrary, Minik was returned to Greenland with little more than the clothes on his back.
Minik had forgotten his language and much of his culture, and his life in Greenland was fraught with new difficulties. His people took him back, and taught him the skills he needed to know; he even became a fine hunter. He also acted as a guide and translator for visitors, playing a key role in the otherwise misguided Crocker Land Expedition of 1913. This latest acquaintance with American visitors proved another turning point; Minik resolved to return to the United States, and did so in 1916.
[edit] Return to the USA and death
On his return to the US, Minik worked at a series of miscellaneous jobs; eventually he found work in a lumber camp in North Stratford, New Hampshire. His employer, Afton Hall, took him under his wing and invited him to live with his family. Minik, along with many of Hall's family and workers, succumbed to the terrible influenza outbreak of 1918, dying despite the best medical attentions on 29 October 1918. Minik is buried in the Indian Stream cemetery in Pittsburg, New Hampshire.
[edit] His father's new burial
In the 1980s, Kenn Harper wrote a book telling Minik's story, "Give Me My Father's Body." Convinced that the remains of Qisuk and the three other adult Inuit who died with him should be returned to Greenland, Harper once again tackled the resistance of the Museum of Natural History (which was reluctant to re-examine the case) and the red tape of two governments. In 1993, he succeeded, and stood before a new grave in Qaanaaq in northern Greenland and witnessed the ceremony denied to Minik nearly a century earlier. Along with Qisuk, the bodies of the three other Inuit from Minik's and Qisuk's group were repatriated as well.
[edit] Bibliography
- Kenn Harper - Give Me My Father's Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo
- Axel Engstfeld - Minik The Lost Eskimo (PBS: The American Experience series, 2008) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/minik/
[edit] References
- ^ Harper
