Minik: The New York Eskimo: An Arctic Explorer, A Museum, And The Betrayal Of The Inuit People
by KENN HARPER /
2017 / English / PDF
56.1 MB Download
A true story from the great age of Arctic exploration of an Inuit
boy's struggle for dignity against Robert Peary and the American
Museum of Natural History in turn-of-the-century New York
City.
A true story from the great age of Arctic exploration of an Inuit
boy's struggle for dignity against Robert Peary and the American
Museum of Natural History in turn-of-the-century New York
City.
Sailing aboard a ship called
Sailing aboard a ship calledHope
Hope in 1897, celebrated Arctic
explorer Robert Peary entered New York Harbor with peculiar
"cargo": Six Polar Inuit intended to serve as live "specimens" at
the American Museum of Natural History. Four died within a year.
One managed to gain passage back to Greenland. Only the sixth, a
boy of six or seven with a precociously solemn smile, remained. His
name was Minik.
in 1897, celebrated Arctic
explorer Robert Peary entered New York Harbor with peculiar
"cargo": Six Polar Inuit intended to serve as live "specimens" at
the American Museum of Natural History. Four died within a year.
One managed to gain passage back to Greenland. Only the sixth, a
boy of six or seven with a precociously solemn smile, remained. His
name was Minik.
Although Harper's unflinching narrative provides a much needed
corrective to history's understanding of Peary, who was known among
the Polar Inuit as "the great tormenter", it is primarily a story
about a boy, Minik Wallace, known to the American public as "The
New York Eskimo." Orphaned when his father died of pneumonia, Minik
never surrendered the hope of going "home," never stopped fighting
for the dignity of his father's memory, and never gave up his
belief that people would come to his aid if only he could get them
to understand.
Although Harper's unflinching narrative provides a much needed
corrective to history's understanding of Peary, who was known among
the Polar Inuit as "the great tormenter", it is primarily a story
about a boy, Minik Wallace, known to the American public as "The
New York Eskimo." Orphaned when his father died of pneumonia, Minik
never surrendered the hope of going "home," never stopped fighting
for the dignity of his father's memory, and never gave up his
belief that people would come to his aid if only he could get them
to understand.
