Peary and the Inughuit at Cape Sheridan: A Preliminary Study

Bowdoin College, Brunswick ME

Investigators

Abstract

Drs. Susan Kaplan and Genevieve LeMoine, along with a student and a local guide, will map and photo-document two historic Inughuit (Inuit from Northwest Greenland) winter campsites at Floeberg Beach, Cape Sheridan, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut. They will also survey the surrounding area on foot to identify prehistoric sites in the area and relocate known historic sites. Inughuit families brought from Greenland by Robert E. Peary in 1905-06 and 1908-09 to assist him in his efforts to reach the North Pole created the campsites at Floeberg Beach. While Peary and his American and Canadian men lived aboard his ship, the SS Roosevelt, which was frozen into the ice just offshore, the Inughuit built homes on shore using shipping crates and snow. During each expedition, approximately 50 Inughuit men, women and children lived in this temporary village at Floeberg Beach for about ten months, after which they returned to their homes in Greenland. Written descriptions and photographs of these settlements are sketchy at best and we know little of the living conditions of these displaced families (many of which were headed by women while their husbands spent months on the trail with Peary). Previous archaeological work by Parks Canada archaeologists in the 1970s and early 1980s has confirmed that the sites exist, but no more ? their visits were limited to brief superficial surveys. The primary goal of this project is to document the sites in detail, through mapping and photography and possibly limited test excavation. We will collect information that will shed light on the nature of the lives of the Inughuit families who lived there, and evaluate the condition of the sites to determine whether more extensive research is warranted. This project offers a unique opportunity to examine an intensive contact situation unaffected by earlier or later occupations. Although a preliminary investigation, it has significant potential to raise awareness of, and interest in, Inughuit roles in the work of Peary and other explorers, as well as the impact of intense contact and displacement on indigenous peoples.