Saneville Historical Society Presents

V o l ume 2, Nu mbe r 1 T h u r s d a y , A p r i l 2 7,

WALKER
WHAT YOU WILL FIND INSIDE THIS GUIDE: Exploration of the Arctic Franklins Naval Career Franklins 1st Expedition Franklins 2nd Expedition Franklins Last Journey The Search for Franklin The Search Begins Greenland The Eskimo Dog The Inuit Impotrant People Knud Rasmussen
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IN THE

WASTES

Exploration of the Arctic Regions

The Greeks of the 4th century BC were aware of the Arctic Regions, parts of which had by then been settled by Inuit and Native Americans. Early in the 9th century AD, Irish monks established a colony in Iceland. Vikings, or Norsemen, from Scandinavia reached there later in the century. About 982 the Norse explorer Eric the Red sighted and named Greenland. During the next four centuries, Norsemen probably visited the Canadian Arctic. Subsequent Arctic exploration was largely motivated by the European need for sea routes to the Orient the Northeast Passage along northern Asia and the Northwest Passage through the Arctic islands of North America. In 1553 the English navigator Sir Hugh Willoughby initiated the search for the Northeast Passage. His companion, Richard Chancellor, reached the site of modern Arkhangelsk (English Archangel), on the White Sea, thus opening a new route to commerce. The search for the Northwest Passage began when the English explorer Sir Martin Frobisher reached the Canadian Arctic in 1576; in 1587 John Davis sailed through part of what became known as Davis Strait, between Greenland and Baffin Island. In 1610 Henry Hudson sighted the bay that was later named for him; it was explored in 1612-13 by Sir Thomas Button from Wales. William Baffin, an Englishman, explored what came to be called Baffin Bay in 1616, reaching latitude 7745 North, a record maintained for 200 years. Russian exploration of the coast of the Siberian Arctic was promoted by Czar Peter the Great in the early 18th century. He employed the Danish navigator Vitus Jonassen Bering, who in 1728 discovered the strait that bears his name and that separates Siberia and Alaska. As part of a renewed effort to find the Northwest Passage, the British government in 1818 organized the first of several Arctic explorations under Sir William Edward Parry, who in 1819 reached Melville Island in the Canadian Arctic. In 1845 Sir John Franklin led a British expedition toward the Bering Strait from Lancaster Sound, an arm of Baffin Bay. His two ships were trapped by ice during 1846, and he died the following year. The crews abandoned the ships, and all perished. The tragedy led to many search parties, beginning in 1848. Adolf Erik Nordenskjld of Sweden, aboard the Vega, in 1878-79 became the first to complete the Northeast Passage. The first official U.S. Arctic expedition, in 1881-82, was part of the first International Polar Year. Under the command of Lieutenant Adolphus W. Greely, it was based at Lady Franklin Bay, on Ellesmere Island, and made observations on magnetic and meteorological

Items of interest: Early Exploration Franklins Career Facts about Greenland The Inuit Dog More about the Inuit A Famous Danish-Inuit Explorer and Ethnologist

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phenomena. In 1884, when relief vessels finally arrived, 17 members of the expedition had perished from cold and starvation. The Greenland ice cap was crossed for the first time in 1888 by the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen. In September 1893, Nansen attempted to cross the North Pole in the ship Fram, which entered the pack ice near the New Siberian Islands. The vessel attained latitude 8614 north, short of the North Pole, in August 1896. Between 1886 and 1909 the American explorer Robert Edwin Peary headed several expeditions to the Arctic by way of Baffin Bay. He reached Cape Morris Jesup (on Greenland), the northernmost land point in the Arctic, in 1900 and on April 21, 1906, during an attempt to reach the North Pole, attained latitude 876 N. On April 6, 1909, he finally reached the North Pole by dogsled over pack ice from Grant Land in northern Ellesmere Island. Some con-

Canadian Arctic Expedition, during which new land was discovered in the Arctic Archipelago. In May 1926 the U.S. explorer Richard E. Byrd, along with the aviator Floyd Bennett, reached the North Pole by airplane. A few days later Amundsen, Lincoln Ellsworth, and Umberto Nobile completed a flight of more than 70 hours in the dirigible Norge, from Spitsbergen (Svalbard), Norway, across the North Pole to Alaska, some 5460 km (about 3390 mi); and in 1928 the Australian explorer Sir George Wilkins flew from Point Barrow, Alaska, to Spitsbergen.

Inuit woman from Greenland

troversy continues to surround his claim to have reached the Pole. The first voyage by ship through the Northwest Passage was accomplished in 1903-6 by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. In 1906 the Canadian-born American anthropologist Vilhjalmur Stefansson lived with the Inuit near the Mackenzie River delta. Between 1908 and 1912 Stefansson and Rudolph Anderson traveled in the Coronation Gulf-Victoria Island area, also to study the Inuit. From 1913 to 1918 Stefansson commanded the

That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die.
H.P. Lovecraft, "The Nameless City" (1921); also, "The Call of Cthulhu" (1926)

FRANKLIN'S NAVAL CAREER

John Franklin began his naval career at an early age. Born in 1786, he went to sea had an easygoing, almost dull, but amiable personality, somewhat at odds with the harsh disciplinary measures employed in the service the naval practice of flogging to maintain discipline caused him personal distress. At the same time he was ambitious. In hopes of advancing his naval career, he had volunteered as second-in-command of a Polar expedition in 1818. The reason the expedition was even attempted was an erroneous assumption about climactic conditions at the Pole. In 1818 some in the British Admiralty were convinced that the area in the vicinity of the North Pole was free of ice. The permanent Polar ice pack encountered by ships venturing north of Greenland was, it was believed, just a barrier to the open water surrounding the Pole. Captain David Buchan was in charge of the expedition. The Spitsbergen Islands, north of Norway, served as the starting point for Buchan's two ships, which sailed in the spring of 1818. Ice and storms nearly destroyed the wooden ships and the expedition was back in England in October.

John Franklin

at twelve, then entered the Navy at fifteen. He participated in the battles of Copenhagen and Trafalgar, and was wounded in the battle of New Orleans. Franklin

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FRANKLIN'S FIRST OVERLAND EXPEDITION (1819-1821)

John Franklin became an Arctic hero in 1821, simply by surviving a journey in the Canadian Arctic, which killed eleven men. While Franklin had displayed a great deal of courage in leading the expedition, his inexperience and bad judgment had contributed to the difficulties the party encountered. Franklin's account of the expedition included stories of murder, cannibalism, and starvation all the elements of adventure and heroic struggle the British public looked for. The problems Franklin's own leadership had caused were overlooked - and the lessons which could have been learned from the party were lost. (One of the command problems stemmed from the Naval practice of having enlisted men do nearly all the heavy hauling while officers would stand by and give orders.) of the problems which visited the expedition. Publicly, The Admiralty's public commitment to be first in matters of Arctic exploration contrasted with the underlying reality. While the Admiralty argued that England should be first, there was an unwillingness to make a serious commitment to discovery. Trying to save money, the Navy provided only for minimal equipment and supplies. Franklin, for his part, was too inexperienced to realize that the equipment and supply allowances were inadequate for the task assigned. He nevertheless set off in May 1819, determined to accomplish his assignment. His ultimate goal was to reach the mouth of the Coppermine River and explore along the Arctic coast north of the Arctic Circle. Starting from York Factory, on the Manitoba side of Hudson Bay, he traveled west to Lake Athabasca, in Saskatchewan, reaching the lake in March 1820. In July 1820 Franklin and fifteen men headed north to Fort Providence on Great Slave Lake. In August 1820 the party was 250 miles north of Fort Providence and set up winter quarters. The winter months were used to shuttle supplies. In June 1821, the party once more headed north along the Coppermine River. The journey proved a difficult one and even where game could be found, the party of twenty was simply too large for the hunters to feed. Franklin, intent on his goal of discovering the North West Passage, failed to comprehend the very real danger the party was in. In August, though short of supplies, Franklin hesitated before ordering the party to turn back. The party's food supply began to give out as they traveled south - they were forced to eat old shoes. It was decided to split up. On October 4, one group, under George Back, one of the mapmakers, left in hopes of finding the group of Indians who had earlier supplied the party with food. On October 6, Robert Hood, one of the expedition's mapmakers, was too weak too continue. Dr. Richardson and another member, John Hepburn, stayed with Hood, while Franklin and the others went on. Four members of Franklin's group found the journey too difficult and tried to return to Richardson's encampment. The only one to make it to Richardson's camp was Michel Teroahaut, an Iroquois. Michel seemed to have saved the party when he brought in some fresh meat - except that the meat had a peculiar taste. Richardson became convinced that the meat was that of one of the three men who had disappeared. Michel seemed to become more hostile in the days that followed. One Sunday, when Richardson and Hepburn were away from camp in search of food, Michel was left alone in camp with Hood. A shot was heard and Hood was found dead, a bullet in his head. Michel claimed it had been a suicide, but Richardson was certain Hood had been murdered. With Hood dead, Richardson, Hepburn, and Michel broke camp on October 23, in hopes of finding either Franklin or the other group. While the three headed out together, Richardson was convinced that Michel would now try to kill them. Richardson waited for his chance. They stopped to rest that after-

Never is it to be thought that man is either oldest or last of the Masters of Earth; nay, nor that the great'r part of life and substance walks alone.
H.P. Lovecraft and August Derleth, The Lurker at the Threshold

Survival in the Canadian wilderness requires different skills than those gained on board a ship. Yet, because Franklin had served in the 1818 Polar voyage, he was considered experienced enough to be given a command of his own in 1819. His orders were to explore and map the lands above the Arctic Circle in what is now the Canadian Northwest Territories above Saskatchewan and Alberta. The attitude of the British Admiralty was a source of some

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noon and Michel went out in search of food. When he returned Richardson shot him. Richardson and Hepburn reached Franklin at Fort Enterprise, on October 29. Franklin was almost

dead, as were three companions. On November 1, one, in fact died. The survivors were close to rescue however. George Back had managed to find the Indians and on November 7, 1821 the

Indians reached Franklin.

FRANKLIN'S SECOND OVERLAND EXPEDITION (1825-1827)

Following his return to England in October 1822, Franklin wrote an account of the journey. He earned fame as "the man who ate his shoes," plus six hundred pounds in royalties from his account of the expedition. Despite the hardships Franklin had not lost interest in the Arctic. In 1825 he was given command of another expedition. So keen was his interest in the North, that he was willing to leave even while his wife was dying of tuberculosis. The voyage sailed on February 16, 1825 and his wife died six days later. Fortunately for his party, not all the lessons of the first expedition had been lost on him. This time Franklin made sure there was plenty of food. The birchbark canoes, which had proved too flimsy during the first expedition, were replaced by mahogany and ash boats - light enough to carry, but strong enough to withstand the rough sea conditions encountered in the Arctic. Franklin's second expedition, like the first, originated at Great Slave Lake. Instead of following the Coppermine River however, Franklin's expedition went northwest, down the Mackenzie. So fast was this journey by river, that he reached the Mackenzie's mouth on the Beaufort Sea on August 16, 1825. The party then turned around, traveling along the Mackenzie and wintered on Great Bear Lake. In June 1826 Franklin once more traveled the Mackenzie to its mouth. The expedition split into two groups. One group, under Franklin, explored along the northern coast of Alaska; the other group, under Dr. John Richardson, was to explore east to the Coppermine River. Franklin had hoped to rendezvous with a British ship off the coast of Alaska. By mid-August he was only half-way to his goal, but signs of approaching winter convinced him to begin the return journey. He reached Great Bear Lake in September, having put some 2,048 miles behind him. The party had had to endure storms and rough seas, but had otherwise fared well. This time there were no fatalities.

I Am The Ancient And my sorrow is great. The cold wind of the far Stars is the breath I draw, And my veins are as ice. I am humbled; I am reduced. But the keys of old Shall yet find doors of yielding, And my fury shall find release on the cold ice and the burning sands alike, and my voice shall again be heard among the stars, and the spaces between them

FRANKLIN'S LAST EXPEDITION (1845-1847)

Franklin's work from his second expedition would later earn him a knighthood. Ironically, the very success of the expedition may have contributed to the decline of Franklin's career as an Arctic explorer. While it added greatly to the general geographical knowledge about Arctic lands, the report of an otherwise uneventful trip made poor reading. After a number of voyages, the Admiralty seemed no closer to capturing either of the ultimate prizes - the Pole or the North West Passage. With public interest in the Arctic on the wane the Admiralty found its interest falling off as well. When Franklin returned from his second expedition the Navy had nothing to offer him, let alone an Arctic command. When he was finally offered something in 1830, it was only command of a Mediterranean frigate. When that assignment ended in 1833, Franklin's career seemed to be taking him further away from the Arctic than ever. In 1836 he accepted a post as governor of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), a penal colony off the coast of Australia. He lasted six years, then tangled with the colonial bureaucracy which governed the island. It was a contest Franklin could not win. Franklin crossed the colonial secretary, Captain John Montagu, by reinstating a surgeon who Montagu had tried to have dismissed. When Franklin suspended Montagu, Montagu not only got the local press to attack Franklin, but also traveled to England to argue his case before the government. Despite Franklin's reputation, Montagu was persuasive enough to win over Lord Stanley, the Secretary of State for the Colonies. Lord Stanley not only offered Montagu another position but also issued an official criticism of Franklin. London decided Franklin had to be re-

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placed. Adding insult to injury, Franklin first learned of the decision from press reports rather than from the Colonial Office itself. He returned to England in January 1844 with the feeling that he had been wronged and with a determination to restore his honor. Few in England outside the Colonial Office cared what went on in far-off Tasmania. Nevertheless Franklin published a pamphlet defending his actions. Few read it and the pamphlet's publication brought him no satisfaction. Franklin however had returned at an opportune time. There was renewed interest in exploration. It was the Antarctic, rather than the Arctic, which was the reason. In 1839 James Clark Ross had taken two ships, the Erebus and Terror, to the Antarctic. He had returned

in 1843. The expedition was considered a scientific success - Ross was the first to see the coast of Antarctica. Success brought both renewed public interest in exploration and renewed confidence on the part of the Admiralty. Unfortunately, confidence grew into overconfidence. Still looking for a public relations coup, the Admiralty was convinced the North West Passage could now be found quickly - and with very little effort. Plans for another expedition moved swiftly from idea to proposal to preparation. A proposal was ready by December 1844. The expedition was to sail the following spring. Franklin, in the meantime, had been doing some political maneuvering. Command of the expedition which would discover the Passage would be the crowning achievement

of a career. More importantly for Franklin, it was the opportunity to restore his reputation. Tragically, Franklin's political tactics were successful and he was offered the command. Part of the tragedy can be explained by the Navy's somewhat ambiguous goals - and by its unrealistic assessment of the dangers. If it had been serious about exploration, the North West Passage would not have been the goal and Franklin would not have been chosen as the leader. He was nearly sixty years old and overweight. But discovery of the Passage was almost secondary to the public relations bonanza the Admiralty would reap from the discovery itself. If public relations was the goal, then Franklin was the obvious choice. Who better to make the discovery than the popular hero of Arctic exploration. So long as success was virtually assured, Franklin was the favorite. And success seemed likely. Nearly all expeditions had returned safely. Even though Franklin's first expedition provided evidence of the dangers, Franklin himself had somehow managed to overcome the odds.

Kadath in the cold waste knows them, and what man knows Kadath?
H.P. Lovecraft and August Derleth, The Lurker at the Threshold

The Search for Franklin

The Erebus and Terror sailed on May 19, 1845, carrying 134 men. When the ships reached Greenland, five men were invalided home. The ships sailed north through Baffin Bay, the stretch of water separating Baffin Island and Greenland. A whaling ship reported having seen the Erebus and Terror tethered to an iceberg on June 25, 1845. It was the last reported sighting of the expedition. It had been hoped that word of the expedition might come as early as 1846 - possibly by way of Alaska. The most optimistic expected the ships to navigate the North West Passage and make their report from the Bering Strait, the waters separating Alaska and Russia. No word came in 1846, nor was anything heard in 1847. The Admiralty remained unconcerned. It was not unusual for Arctic expeditions to remain in the Arctic for several years. In fact, John Ross, leading an expedition in 1829, had been forced to spend four winters in the Arctic. He had miraculously returned, with the loss of only three men.

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The Search Begins

dence of the fate of Franklin's expedition come to light. John Rae, an Arctic explorer working for the Hudson's Bay Company, wintered on the Boothia Peninsula, north of Hudson Bay. In April 1854 he heard a story from an Eskimo about a party of white men who had starved to death some years earlier. The man who told the story even had a cap band which he said had been found near the place where the deaths occurred. Rae did not press the Eskimo to take him to the place, but did offer a reward for any artifacts found where the deaths supposedly had occurred. In the fall, Eskimos began bringing him artifacts that were clearly from Franklin's expedition. Rae's evidence was sufficient to allow him to collect the now-reduced 10,000-pound reward offered by Parliament. John Franklin's wife, Lady Jane Franklin, through all the disappointments, kept pressuring Parliament and the Navy to continue the search. She purchased the Fox, a small steam boat for 2,000 pounds and hired Leopold M'Clintock to command, in one last effort to find out what had happened to her husband. In contrast to the129 in Franklin's party, there were only 25 men aboard the Fox. Jane Franklin wanted M'Clintock to search the area around King William Island, the one area not covered by previous searches. It was not until late June 1857 that M'Clintock was ready to leave, too late in the year to avoid being caught in the winter ice. In April 1858 the ice which had trapped him began to bread up. However, it would not be until July that any route so far north would be sufficiently clear to allow him to reach

The example of Ross' expedition served to reassure many in the Admiralty that Franklin would eventually return. Ross himself began to have misgivings early in 1847. It was crucial, he argued, that the expedition be found that summer. Ross' advice was ignored for nearly a year. Finally, in early 1848, officials began to express their concern publicly. In March 1848, the Admiralty offered a 20,000-pound reward for Franklin's rescue. The search was to take place both by sea and by land - an overland expedition from the mouth of the Mackenzie River was to explore east along the Arctic coast. James Clark Ross, with two large ships, left in May 1848 in hopes of following Franklin's route through the waters northwest of Baffin Bay. Some suspected that Ross was not as interested in looking for Franklin, as in looking for the Passage. The 1848 expeditions found neither the Passage nor any evidence of Franklin. Nothing was heard of the expeditions themselves until November 1849, when they returned. They reported finding nothing. The death toll associated with Franklin's expedition was beginning to add up. While Ross had found no evidence of Franklin's

crew, he had to report that six of his own men had died during the search attempt. The year 1850 would see six more expeditions sent out. In August, the graves of three men who had died in 1846 were found on Beechey Island. The men had been part of the Franklin party. It was now known that Franklin had made it through Lancaster Sound and Barrow Strait, but he left no message telling where he was going. One of the vessels which had sailed in 1850 was the Investigator, under the command of Robert McClure. Rather than sail to Baffin Bay, McClure was to begin his search from the west, going through the Bering Strait and exploring the coast of Alaska. In October 1850 McClure discovered the North West Passage, the elusive prize everyone was searching for. It would not be until October 1853 however, that news of his discovery would reach London. Shortly after receiving the news, the Admiralty officially announced that it would remove the names of Franklin's crew from its books. The Navy was officially declaring the men dead and now intended to abandon the search. Only in 1854 did real evi-

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King William Island. While ice seemed to block whatever route M'Clintock chose, in September he was able to find a place to anchor on the north of the Boothia Peninsula, not far from his intended destination. In February 1859 M'Clintock, traveling south along the Boothia coast, encountered some Eskimos. One wore a naval button and M'Clintock offered a reward for any relics they would bring him. The Eskimos brought in a number of relics and told of a group of white men who had starved on an island some years before. Eskimos also remembered two ships, one of which had sunk. It was in May 1859, while exploring the coast of King William Island, that M'Clintock found a human skeleton. From the shreds of clothing it was clear that the skeleton was that of a seaman. M'Clintock had ordered Lieutenant William Hobson to explore the north coast of King William Island. While M'Clintock was exploring to the south, Hobson had found a cairn containing a single sheet of paper with two messages.

On May 28, 1847, the expedition was doing well, according to the first note. Franklin however, had died within a month of the first note, in June 1847, according to the second message. The message did not say how Franklin had died. The second note, which was dated April 27, 1848, provided other gloomier details. Twenty-four were dead and the survivors had decided to head south, toward the Great Fish River. The note indicated that the Erebus and Terror had gotten frozen in the ice in September 1846, but had been unable to break free. The members of Franklin's expedition had not been up to an overland journey. M'Clintock found more evidence as he searched King William Island. Franklin's retreating party had abandoned a 650 pound sledge with a 700-pound river boat on top. The party had also left behind those too weak to travel. Inside the boat M'Clintock found two skeletons, the remains of those left behind. Those who continued however were not strong enough to survive the journey south and died

along the way. Having discovered what evidence existed of the expedition's fate, M'Clintock sailed for home, reaching England in September 1859. The search for the expedition was over. By the time M'Clintock began exploring King William Island, much of the evidence about the expedition had disappeared. What he did find however, was at least sufficient to tell where the expedition had gone and how most had died. The Franklin expedition, living almost exclusively on salted meat, was forced to remain in the Arctic longer than was safe. Once that point in time was reached, the crew began dying off. Ross, in 1829, had survived four winters in the Arctic, but he adopted an Eskimo diet and had relied on Eskimo hunters to supply his expedition with meat. Ironically, Ross' expedition had survived in the very region of the Arctic that would later kill the Franklin partythe land around the Boothia Peninsula and King William Island.

Scurvy
From the evidence which was found, it is believed that disease, particularly scurvy, was what doomed most members of the expedition. The classic method of preserving meat with salt destroyed much of the vitamin C contained in the meat and the daily ration of lemon juice was insufficient to combat scurvy in the Arctic. Fresh meat, which could have been obtained by hunting game, or even bought from the Eskimos who lived in the area, would have supplied the necessary vitamin. Unfortunately, the expedition looked down on native methods of survival as well as the foods that enabled the Eskimos to survive. The lack of vitamin C was what led to scurvy; it was the length of time Arctic crews had to endure the disease that made it fatal. It was not until the second year of many Arctic voyages that the worst symptoms of scurvy would appear. Many expeditions had escaped by returning before scurvy appeared.

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Greenland
Greenland consists of an interior ice-covered plateau surrounded by a mountainous, generally ice-free, rim. The interior ice cap is thickest near the center of the island, where the maximum depth is estimated at about 2440 m (about 8000 ft). Underneath the ice cover are the ancient rocks of the Greenland Shield, which is geologically related to the Canadian Shield. The greatest heights of land are along the eastern coast, where the extreme elevation is Mount Gunnbjrn (3700 m/12,139 ft). Drainage is afforded mainly by the so-called ice fjords, in which glaciers from the ice caps pass through valleys to the sea, where they form thousands of icebergs each year. The climate is extremely cold, but during the short summer in the south the mean temperature is 8.9 C (48 F). The mammals of Greenland are more American than European, and include the musk-ox, wolf, lemming, and reindeer. The varieties of seal and whale, and most of the species of fish and seabirds, are also American rather than European. Circumpolar animals, such as the polar bear, arctic fox, polar hare, and stoat, are also found.

Land and Resources

Greenland, also Kalaallit Nunaat (Danish Grnland), island, internally selfgoverning part of Denmark, situated between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans. Greenland lies mostly north of the Arctic Circle and is separated from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, on the west, primarily by Davis Strait and Baffin Bay, and from Iceland, on the east, by the Strait of Denmark. The largest island in the world, Greenland has a maximum extent, from its northernmost point on Cape Morris Jesup to Cape Farewell in the extreme south, of about 2655 km (about 1650 mi). The maximum distance from east to west is about 1290 km (about 800 mi). The entire coast, which is deeply indented with fjords, is roughly estimated at 5800 km (3600 mi). The total area of Greenland is approximately 2,175,600 sq km (approximately 840,004 sq mi), of which some 1,834,000 sq km (about 708,110 sq mi) is ice cap.

Population
Greenlanders are a people of mixed ancestry, primarily Inuit (Eskimo) and European, especially DanishNorwegian. Nearly all the population was located on the narrow southwestern coastal fringe. The capital known as Nuuk, or Godthb (population, estimate, 2233), on the southwestern coast, is the largest and oldest Danish settlement on the island, having been founded 1721. Sisimiut (Holsteinsborg; population, 4800), on the western coast just north of the Arctic Circle, is the second largest town. Other settlements include Qaqortoq (Julianehb), Paamiut (Frederikshb), and Narsaq, on the southern coast; Thule, on the northwestern coast; and Ammassalik, on the eastern coast.

Economy
Fishing, sealing, and fur trapping are the principal economic activities. The fish catch is primarily cod, shrimp, and salmon; fish processing is the major manufacturing industry. Agriculture is only possible on about one percent of Greenland's total area. Cattle, sheep, and goats are raised in small numbers in some portions of the southwestern coast, and hardy vegetables are grown. Greenland was formerly the world's main source of natural cryolite, a mineral used in the manufacture of aluminum.

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History
Greenland was first explored by Eric the Red, a Norwegian settler in Iceland and father of Leif Ericson, toward the end of the 10th century, and Icelandic settlements were subsequently established there under his leadership. By the early 15th century, however, these settlements had vanished, and all contact with Greenland was lost. In the course of the search for the Northwest Passage, Greenland was sighted again. The English navigator John Davis visited the island in 1585, and his explorative work, together with that of the English explorers Henry Hudson and William Baffin, afforded knowledge of the west coast of Greenland.

Danish Authority Established

The foundation of Danish rule was laid by a mission at Godthb in 1721 by a Norwegian missionary, Hans Egede. In the 19th century Greenland was explored and mapped by numerous explorers and navigators. From 1930 to 1931, British and German expeditions made weather observations on the inland ice north of the Arctic Circle. In 1933 an American expedition sponsored by the University of Michigan and Pan-American Airways engaged in meteorological research more than 545 km (more than 340 mi) north of the Arctic Circle. The United States relinquished its claim to land in northern Greenland, based on the explorations of the American explorer Robert Edwin Peary, when it purchased the Virgin Islands from Denmark in 1917. In May 1921, Denmark declared the entire island of Greenland to be Danish territory, causing a dispute with Norway over hunting and fishing rights.

The Eskimo Dog

team, can average about 40 km (25 mi) a day on long trips; the American explorer Donald B. MacMillan once drove a team a distance of 160 km (100 mi) in 18 hr.
Some dogs resting after a long day, note sled in background.

Eskimo Dog, any of several mixed breeds of working and hunting dogs of northern North America, particularly Labrador and Greenland, related to the Malamute, the Samoyed, and the Siberian husky. They are valuable in hunting seals, musk-oxen, and polar bears, for pulling sledges with heavy loads in winter, and for carrying packs in summer. Teams of Eskimo dogs, pulling loads half the total weight of the

The Eskimo dog typically has a massive, rugged body with a double coat, the outer coat consisting of long heavy hair, the undercoat of wool. The undercoat is so dense and heatretaining that the dog can sleep outdoors in temperatures ranging from -51 to 56 C (-60 to -70 F). The dog may be white, black, black and white, or varieties of gray, tan, and buff; it is usually either white with a black head or white with markings of silvergray. It has a wedgeshaped head, a flat skull,

strong jaws, small and deepset eyes, a short neck, a deep and wide chest, and large paws with thick pads. The male dog is from 50 to 63 cm (20 to 25 in) high at the shoulder; weight varies from 23 to 38 kg (50 to 85 lb). The female is somewhat smaller. When raised in a home or kennel, the Eskimo dog is gentle and makes a good pet.

"Give me snow, give me dogs; you can keep the rest" -Polar explorer Knud Rasmussen

Greenland Huskies in sledteam

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The Inuit
Inuit, also called Eskimo, people of Arctic Mongoloid stock inhabiting small enclaves in the coastal areas of Greenland, Arctic North America (including Canada and Alaska), and extreme northeastern Siberia. Their name for themselves is Inuit (in Siberian and some Alaskan speech, Yuit), meaning the people. The name Eskimo comes from the descriptive term for eaters of raw flesh, inaccurately applied to them by an Algonquian people.

Physical Characteristics and Regional Groupings

The Inuit vary within about 5 cm (about 2 in) of an average height of 163 cm (5 ft 4 in), and they display metabolic, circulatory, and other adaptations to the Arctic climate. Inhabiting an area spanning almost 5150 km (almost 3200 mi), Inuit have a wider geographical range than any other aboriginal people and are the most sparsely distributed people on earth. They fall generally into the following geographical divisions, moving from east to west: (1) Greenland Inuit, living on the eastern and western coasts of southern Greenland, who have adopted many European ways and are known as Greenlanders or Kalaallitt (Kaltdlit); (2) Labrador Inuit, occupying the coast from a point opposite Newfoundland to Hudson Bay, with a few settlements on southern Baffin Island; (3) Central Inuit, including those of far northern Greenland and, in Canada, Baffin Island and western Hudson Bay; (4) Banks Island Inuit, on Banks Island, Victoria Island, and other large islands off the central Arctic coast; (5) Western Arctic Inuit or Inuvialuit, along the western Arctic coast of Canada; (6) Alaskan Inuit; (7) Alaskan Yuit; and (8) Siberian Yuit.
An Inuit poem by Uvavnuk an Igloolik Inuit, first written down by Knud Rasmussen early this century: The Great Sea has set me in motion Set me adrift And I move as a weed in the river. The arch of sky And mightiness of storms Encompasses me, And I am left Trembling with joy.* * The special beauty of the original verse has been recreated over the years in a number of translations. This one is by Tegoodlejak in Houston, James. Canadian Eskimo Art. Ottawa: Information Canada, 1970.

History
From archaeological, linguistic, and physiological evidence, most scholars conclude that the Inuit migrated across the Bering Strait to Arctic North America. A later arrival to the New World than most Native Americans, the Inuit share many cultural traits with Siberian Arctic peoples and with their own closest relatives, the Aleuts. The oldest archaeological sites identifiable as Inuit, in southwest Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, date from about 2000 BC and are somewhat distinct from later Inuit sites. By about 1800 BC the highly developed Old Whaling or Bering Sea culture and related cultures had emerged in Siberia and in the Bering Strait region. In eastern Canada the Old Dorset culture flourished from about 1000 to 800 BC until about AD 1000-1300. The Dorset people were overrun by the Thule Inuit, who by AD 1000 to 1200 had reached Greenland. There, Inuit culture was influenced by medieval Norse colonists and, after 1700, by Danish settlers.

Language and Literature

The languages of the Inuit peoples constitute a subfamily of the Eskimo-Aleut language family. A major linguistic division occurs in Alaska, according to whether the speakers call themselves Inuit (singular, Inuk) or Yuit (singular, Yuk). The eastern branch of the subfamilygenerally called Inupiaq in Alaska but also Inuktitut in Canada and Kalaallisut (Kaldtlisut) in Greenlandstretches from eastern Alaska across Canada and through northern into southern Greenland. It forms a dialect chainthat is, it consists of many dialects, each understandable to speakers of neighboring dialects, although not to speakers of geographically distant dialects. The western branch, called Yupik, includes three distinct languages: Central Alaskan Yupik and Pacific Gulf Yupik in Alaska and Sibe-

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rian Yupik in Alaska and Canada, each with several dialects. The Inupiaq dialects have more than 40,000 speakers in Greenland and more than 20,000 in Alaska and Canada. Yupik languages are spoken by about 17,000 people, including some 1000 in the former Soviet Union. These various languages are used for the first year of school in some parts of Siberia, for religious instruction and education in schools under Inuit control in Alaska, and in schools and communications media in Canada and Greenland.

The Inupiaq and Yupik languages have an immense number of suffixes that are added to a smaller number of root words; these suffixes function similarly to verb endings, case endings, prepositional phrases, and even whole clauses in the English language. A root word can thus give rise to many derivative words, often many syllables long and highly specialized in meaning, and sometimes complex enough to serve as an entire sentence. Because these languages are

among the most complex and difficult in the world, few explorers or traders learned them; instead, they relied on a jargon composed of Danish, Spanish, Hawaiian, and Inupiaq and Yupik words. The Inupiaq and Yupik languages themselves have a rich oral literature, and a number of Greenland authors have written in Greenland Inupiaq. The first book in Inupiaq was published in 1742.

Social Organization
The manners and customs of the Inuit, like their language, are remarkably uniform despite the widespread diffusion of the people. The familyincluding the nuclear family, nearby relatives, and relations by marriage is the most significant social unit. In traditional culture, marriages, although sometimes arranged, are generally open to individual choice. Monogamy is the usual pattern, but both polygyny and polyandry also occur. Marriage, a virtual necessity for physical survival, is based on strict division of labor. Husband and wife retain their own tools, household goods, and other personal possessions; men build houses, hunt, and fish, and women cook, dress animal skins, and make clothing. Food sources such as game and fish are considered community property. The underlying social law is the obligation to help one's kin. Community ridicule is the most common means of social control; in extreme cases, after lengthy deliberation, an offender may be socially ostracized or put to death. With the absence of any communal legal structure, harming someone from another group jeopardizes one's own kinship group (which is held responsible for the offense) and raises the possibility of a blood feud. Provocative displays of emotion are strongly disapproved. Some groups control conflict by means of wrestling matches or song duels, in which the angry parties extemporize insulting songs; the loser might be driven from the community. Alliances between nonrelatives are formed and maintained through gift giving and the showing of respect. The highest such form of gift giving occurs when a head of household offers the opportunity of a temporary sexual liaison with the most valued adult woman of his household. The woman maintains the power to refuse the liaison, in which case respect will be symbolized through the presentation of a different gift.

Alliances between nonrelatives are formed and maintained through gift giving and the showing of respect. The highest such form of gift giving occurs when a head of household offers the opportunity of a temporary sexual liaison with the most valued adult woman of his household.

Two dog-teams in the interior of Greenland

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Provision of Food
The traditional Inuit diet consists mainly of fish, seals, whales, and related sea mammals, the flesh of which is eaten cooked, dried, or frozen. The seal is their staple winter food and most valuable resource. It provides them with dog food, clothing, and materials for making boats, tents, and harpoon lines, as well as fuel for both light and heat. In the interior of Alaska and Canada, caribou are hunted in the summer. To a lesser extent the polar bear, fox, hare, and Arctic birds, chiefly sea birds, also furnish important supplies. Large game such as whale, walrus, and caribou require bigger hunting expeditions than are possible for one kinship group. Many families follow a seasonal hunting and fishing cycle that takes them from one end to the other of their customary territory; trade with other groups often occurs along the way.

Housing, Transportation, and Clothing

in a dome shape. Such snow houses, rare in Greenland and unknown in Alaska, were once permanent winter houses of the Inuit of central and eastern Canada. The principal traditional means of conveyance are the kayak, the umiak, and the dogsled. The light, seaworthy kayak is a canoelike hunting boat made of a wood frame completely covered with sealskin except for a round center opening, where the single occupant sits. In Greenland and Alaska the skin around the hole can be laced tightly around the occupant, making the kayak virtually watertight. The umiak, a larger, open boat about 9 m (about 30 ft) long and 2.4 m (8 ft) wide, and made of a wooden frame covered with walrus skins, is used for whaling expeditions and, sometimes, to transport families and goods. The sled, drawn by a team of native dogs admirably adapted for the purpose, is common among all Inuit except those in southern Greenland. When iron was obtained through trade, iron runners largely supplanted ivory and whalebone runners. In the last half-century motorboats and snowmobiles have become important modes of travel. Traditional Inuit dress for both men and women consists of watertight boots, double-layer trousers, and the parka, a tight-fitting double-layer pullover jacket with a hood, all made of skins and furs. An enlarged hood forms a convenient cradle for nursing infants.

A drwaing of a typical iglu or igloo

Igloos (Inuit iglu, house) are of two kinds: walrus or sealskin tents for summer and huts or houses for winter. Winter houses are usually made of stone, with a driftwood or whalebone frame, chinked and covered with moss or sod. The entrance is a long, narrow passage just high enough to admit a person crawling on hands and knees. During long journeys some Canadian Inuit build winter houses of snow blocks piled

Canadian Inuit build winter houses of snow blocks piled in a dome shape. Such snow houses, rare in Greenland and unknown in Alaska, were once permanent winter houses of the Inuit of central and eastern Canada.

Religious Beliefs
Traditional Inuit beliefs are a form of animism, according to which all objects and living beings have a spirit. All phenomena occur through the agency of some spirit. Intrinsically neither good nor bad, spirits can affect people's lives and, although not influenced by prayers, can be controlled by magical charms and talismans. The person best equipped to control spirits is the shaman, but anyone with the appropriate charms or amulets can exercise such control. Shamans are usually consulted to heal illnesses and resolve serious problems. Communal and individual taboos are observed to avoid offending animal spirits, and animals killed for food must be handled with prescribed rituals.

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Inuit rituals and myths reflect preoccupation with survival in a hostile environment. Vague beliefs of an afterlife or reincarnation exist, but these receive little emphasis. Most communal rites center on preparation for the hunt, and myths tend to deal with the relations that exist between humans, animals, and the environment. In arctic Canada, Greenland, Labrador, and southern Alaska, large numbers of Inuit have converted to Christianity.

Arts and Crafts

From prehistoric times Inuit tools have been noted for their careful construction and the artistry of their carved ornamentation. Ivory from walruses and whales, the most accessible material for carving, is fashioned into figurines representing animals and people, and into decorated knobs, handles, and other tool parts. Driftwood and whalebone are carved into ceremonial masks, some small enough to be worn on women's fingers during a ritual dance. After contact with European, Canadian, and United States traders began in the 18th century, the Inuit also made, as trade items, scrimshaw-carved tusks and ivory and whalebone objects such as canes and cribbage boards. Inuit performing arts center on ceremonial songs and dances. Some magical songs are personal property and can be sold or traded. The principal musical instrument is the shallow, tambourinelike shaman's drum. Ivory carving, especially of arctic animals such as the walrus, is a tradition among the Inuit that dates to prehistoric times. Even today, the carvings are an important part of the Inuit culture and economy. Many Inuit earn their living by selling the carefullycrafted figurines.

Inuit performing arts center on ceremonial songs and dances. Some magical songs are personal property and can be sold or traded.

I M P O R TA N T P E O P L E A N D P I O N E E R S
The beginning of the 20th century marked a new archaeological and anthropological interest in the North. The IcelandicCanadian explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson headed the Canadian Arctic Expedition in 1913, and spent a number of years learning to live with the Inuit. He is best-known for his enthusiasm for the North as expressed in his book The Friendly Arctic, and was also the co-author of a number of novels for young readers based on his experiences. The distinguished anthropologist, Diamond Jenness, also a member of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, was later the first to recognize the Dorset as a separate culture which he named for Cape Dorset where some of the artifacts had been excavated by the Inuit. He was also responsible for some of the earliest writing on Inuit art. No one, however, did more to record the culture of the Inuit than Knud Rasmussen, the Inuktitut-speaking (he was part Inuit) ethnologist from Greenland who made a scientific study of the Inuit across the whole of Arctic North America, with the Fifth Thule Expedition of 1921-24. The expedition's report is 10 volumes long and contains many stories, poems, legends and drawings of the Inuit. Rasmussen gives much credit for the success of the expedition to his Inuit assistants from Greenland.

Saneville Historical Society Presents

Rasmussen, Knud Johan Victor (1879-)

Danish explorer, ethnologist, and writer, born in Jacobsharn, Greenland, of Inuit (Eskimo) descent, and educated at the University of Copenhagen. He spent 30 years exploring the Arctic regions and making ethnological studies of the Inuit. In 1910 he established the Thule station at Cape York, Greenland, to serve as a base for expeditions. When he traveled over the ice sheet of Viscount Melville Sound in 1912, he became the first man to cross the Northwest Passage by dogsled. Rasmussen maintained that the Inuit derived from the same stock as the Native North American, originally migrating from Asia. His writings include Greenland by the Polar Sea (1919; trans. 1921) and Across Arctic America (1927; trans. 1927).

Saneville Historical Society C/o Morten Kjeldseth Pettersen Schweigaardsgate 60b 0656 Oslo Email: saneville_historical@yahoo.no

Bildetekst som beskriver bilde

Walker in the Wastes

Walker in the Wastes A horror campaign By Saneville Historical Society Carpe Occultem

Sources and credits

Franklin Information by Lord Franklin Productions Http://www.lordfranklin.com Created in Microsoft Publisher Microsoft Corporation. Converted to Adobe Portable Document Format by Adobe Acrobat. Pictures collected from the web

Saneville Historical Society Presents: Walker in the Wastes a horror campaign

1994 John H. Crowe,III & Pagan Publishing, with additions by Morten Kj. Pettersen Resource guide 2000 by Morten Kjeldseth Pettersen & Saneville Historical Society