When the Whalers Were Up North: Inuit Memories from the Eastern Arctic (McGill-Queen's Native and Northern Series)

The author tells a story drawn from oral memories, a story which will soon disappear with the last Inuit generation to have seen the whalers. Illuminated by a remarkable collection of drawings, photographs, and illustrations, many in full colour, tales are told of when the whalers first appeared on the north-east coast of Baffin Island, how they set up land stations in the whale-rich waters of Cumberland Sound, and how they eventually pushed on into Hudson Bay. During this time the Inuit not only fed and clothed the whalers, they hunted with them, adding to the whalers' wealth. Our understanding of change in Inuit life is often linked to the fur traders, who arrived in the North fifty years after the arrival of the whalers. In truth it is the Inuit's close contact with the foreign world of the whalers which marked the beginning of a change in previously undisturbed Inuit culture and traditions. CONTENTS 10 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 12 INTRODUCTION 14 PROLOGUE: THE ARRIVAL OF THE WHALERS 24 1 IN CUMBERLAND SOUND 28 2 IN HUDSON BAY AND THE STRAIT 42 3 SHAMANS AND WHALERS 56 4 THE CASE OF THE MISSING WHALES 64 5 SPICER'S HARBOUR 82 6 THE SIIKATSI AND THE WRECK OF THE Polar Star 90 7 DEATH OF THE LAST TUNIIT 98 8 THE Active 106 9 WINTERING 116 10 PERSONALITIES OF THE BAY 128 11 THE LAST VESSEL AT MARBLE ISLAND 150 12 THE WRECK OF THE Seduisante 156 13 THE Active's LAST VOYAGE, 1912–13 162 14 THE LAST WHALES 170 15 FINAL CURTAIN 182 A NOTE ON THE TEXT 190 A NOTE ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS 193 INFORMANTS AND INTERPRETERS 194 NOTES 196 BIBLIOGRAPHY 202 INDEX 204 A 204 B 204 C 204 D 205 E 205 F 205 G 205 H 205 I 205 J 205 K 205 L 206 M 206 N 206 O 206 P 206 Q 207 R 207 S 207 T 207 U 208 V 208 W 208 During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, whaling vessels from Britain and America plied their trade in great numbers in the waters off the Eastern Arctic of North America. The heyday of whaling has, until now, been documented solely from the perspective of the whalers, never from the viewpoint of the Inuit, whose lives were touched - and sometimes destroyed - by their presence. Here, finally, is a rich view from from the perspective of the Inuit, who welcomed the whalers and served on their crews Documents Stories Called From Oral Memories Of Remaining Eskimo Members And Their Descendants, Acquainted With Whalers Who First Appeared In Baffin Island, Cumberland Sound And Hudson Bay. Illustrated With Drawings, Photographs And Artwork. Dorothy Harley Eber. One Map On Lining Papers. Includes Bibliographical References. Oral histories of the 100 years of British and American whaling off the east coast of Canada and in Hudson Bay, as experienced by the native people who fed, clothed, and hunted with the whalers. Illustrated with modern drawings (some in color), and photographs from the period