Title: Minik : the New York Eskimo /
Authors: Harper, Kenn; Spacey, Kevin
Year: 2017
Subjects: Wallace, Minik,; Polar Eskimos New York (State) New York Biography.; Polar Eskimos Biography.; Ethnology Moral and ethical aspects.; Arctic regions Discovery and exploration.
Abstract: "Sailing aboard a ship called Hope, celebrated explorer 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 seven or eight with a precociously solemn smile, remained. His name was Minik. This significantly revised and updated edition of Kenn Harper's landmark book is published on the 120th anniversary of Minik's arrival in New York. Although it provides a much needed corrective to history's understanding of Peary, who was known among the the Polar Inuit as "the great tormenter," it is, at heart, the story of a boy, Minik Wallace, known to the American public as "The New York Eskimo." Orphaned when his father died of pneumonia, Minik 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"--Back cover.
Contents: Arrival in America -- Peary's people -- The iron mountain -- An Inuit orphan in New York -- Minik, the American -- The Wallace affair -- Scam -- "Destined to a life of tears" -- Give me my father's body -- In the interest of science -- "The very pitiful case of Minik" -- "A hopeless condition of exile" -- The polar plan -- Runaway -- "An iron-clad agreement" -- Return to Greenland -- An Inuk again -- The Thule station -- Uisaakassak: the big liar -- Wanted: dead or alive -- The Crocker land expedition -- On thin ice -- Back on Broadway -- The north country -- "They have come home" -- Epilogue.