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182 ARCTIC PROFILES

Eenoolooapik (Ca. 1820-1847)

From Alexander M'Donald's A Narrative of Some Passages in the History of Eenoolooapik, a Young Esquimau.

7/27/2019 Rowley on Eenoolooapik

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ARCTIC PROFILES

In 1840, life for the Cumberland Sound Inuit was much thesame as it had been for many ears. Although they knewof thewhale rs, the British Nav y, and the Hudsons Bay Com pan y,these Inuit had felt but ittle influence from such strangers.Within 20 years, however, their wayof life waschangedprofoundly, and although he probably didnot realize it,Eenoolooapik was the harbingerof that change.Eenoolooapik was born around 820 at Qimisu k, on the westcoast of Cumberland Sou nd. While still youn g, he travelledwith his family on an unusual voyage by um iak, skirting thecoastline of Cumberland Sound until they reached Cape Enderbyon Davis Strait. The boy closely observed the outline of thecoast as they rowed slowly past. At Cape Enderby, they met agroup of whalers and decided to cont inue heir voyage to CapeSearle, a location frequentedby the wh alers, where they ettled.Contact with these strangers fired E enoolooa piks curiosityabout their land, and a desire grew in him to visit their home-land. Twice he m ade plans todepart, but each time he pleas ofhis mother kept him at home.At about this sameime, unpredictable catches in DavisStrait

and worsening iceondition s had the fishery onc erne d. At leastone widely publicized rticle appeared in Britainuggesting hatonly diversification into trade and the establish men t of perma-nent w haling stations could save the fishery. In 1833, WilliamPenny, mateon he Traveller, wassent to investigate Inuitreports of a large bay full f whales to the south of Exete r Bay.Pennys trip failed, but he tried again in1839 to locate the bay,known to the Inuit as Te nudiackbe ek.Penny might have metEenoolooapik p reviously, but it w as probably 1839 when hediscovered that Eenoolooapik was a native of Tenudiackbeekand could map its entire coastline.Here, the desires of both Penny and Eenoolooapik merged.Pennywanted to take he Inuk to Britainbecausehe feltEenoolooapiks information could convince the Navy to spon-soran expedition to Tenudiackbeek, and perhaps keep thefishery alive. Een oolo oap ik, for his part, still harboured a desireto visit the land of these stran gers, and so, after Penny gavepresents to Eenoolooapiks family, the Inuk boarded ship anddeparted for Scotland, even amid continuedentreaties from hismother.Who was more surprisedy their encounter, Eenoolooapik orthe natives of Aberd een? Eenoolooapik must have been ov er-whelmed by all he xper ienc ed, but other than hisexpression ofwonder and delight at what he saw, he gave every evid ence ofbeing in complete control. The skills so necessary to life in theArctic were turned o the taskof blending into Scottish society.His powers ofobservation, mem ory, and mimicry wereo greatthat, w hile the Scots were delighted by his kayaking and birdhunting dem onst ration s, they were especially impressed by hisability to mimic correct manners and o act the gentleman on alloccasions.Unfortunately, aswithmany ndigenouspeople emovedfrom their native clime and ubjected to thatof Britain,Eenoolooapik soon became sick and pent much of his time inAberdeen deathly ill with pneum onia. The newspapers regu-larly reported on his condition, and when he was fully recov-ered, he w as shown theown . H e lmost certainly witnessedhewedding of his friend Penny; com ing from culture where littleritual surroundedmarriage, Eenoolooapik must have beentruckby thiselaborate ceremon y, Even more trange were the elegantballs he attended in honour of Queen Victorias marriage toAlbert; one canonly magineEenoolooapiksastonishment

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when he learned that all this extravagantntertainment- fullorchestra , military ban d, spee che s, nd much toasting- as inhonour of the chief of the Britons, who was not even present.Such balls, his theatre attendance, his visit to a new departm entstore where he was given a china tea cup and sauce r for hisma mm a, and his sense of humour were com mon features inthe local papers.Fo rPenny, his part n he experime nt wasnot uchanimmediate success. Despite an excellent mapEenoolooapikprepared of Ten udia ckbe ek, the Navy was unwilling o back anexpedition. Without government support, Penny was forced tocatch whales first, and only then, if time permitted , to explore.As well, Pennys plans to educa te Eenoolooapik in boat build-ing and other skills came to naught because of the Inuk s poorhealth.Although Eenoolooapik had made manyriends in Aberd een,he eventually grewhome sick, sailing for the Arctic on April 1 ,1840. On August 2 the Bon Accord, along with three otherships, nteredTenudiackbeek, nd hreeweeks aterEenoolooapik rejoined his mother and siblings who had trav-

elled overland from Cape Searle to meet him . His biographer,Alexander Do nald , notes that he did not seemt all unhappywhen he left the whaler.Back hom e, he resumed a normal life and does not app ear tohave tried to impress people unduly with his tales or posses-sions. He married Amitak shortly after leaving Penny, and by1844, when Penny once again returned o Cumberland Sound,Eenoolooapik had a son called Angalook. Three years later, inthe summer of 1847, Eenoolooapik died of consum ption, andafter his d eath his name- ccording to custom- as given oa newborn nephew.Certainly Eenoolooapiks family were great travellers, evenmore so than the average Inuit family. Both Eenoo looapik andhis brother, Totoca tapik, were well known as great voyagersand intelligent men. A sister, Kur -king , migrated to Igloolik,and another sister, Tooko olito or H annah, travelled to Englandin 1853 and later accompaniedCharlesFrancisHall to theUnitedStates, Hudson Bay,KingWilliam sland, ndGreenland.Every yea r after Eenoolooapiks return, whalers visited Cum-berland S ound. In 1851-1852 Sidney Buddington led the firstintentional wintering by a whaling crew, and two years laterPenny conducted the irst wintering with ship. Pen nys end eav-our was so successful that wintering ove r and the maintenanceof permanent whaling stations became common practices untilthe end of commercial whaling in the eastern Arctic. Severalstations were established both in an d around Cumberlandound.This constant presenceof the whalers and heir requirem ents forboth whaling crews andor hunters led to a profound change inthe local Inuits lives.

FURTHER READINGSDONALD, ALEXANDER. 1841. ANarrative of Some Passages n theHistory of Eenoolooapik, a Young Esquimaux. Edinburgh: Fraser&Com-ROSS, W. GILLIES. 1985. Arct ic Whalers, Icy Seas. Toronto: Irwin hb lis h-PanY.ing.

Susan RowleyDepartment of AnthropologyNational Museum of Natural HistorySmithsonian InstitutionWashington, D.C. 20560U.S.A.