37. Amundsen’s 1904 meeting with a bearded Inut.

There is a possibility that casual relationships existed between one or more of the Franklin men and Inuit women. Dorothy Harley Eber with her testimony collected over a century and a half after the 1848 retreat, has come up with a description of a Franklin crewman that I have called ‘The Hunter’ (Roobol 2019). The testimony was from Nicholas Qayutinaq given by Mark Tootiak collected over a century and a half after the 1848 retreat.  Eber (2008, p. 80) wrote:

        ‘This group of Inuit was at a sealing camp in the month when the young seals are already born, hunting around the Etuk Islands off the Adelaide Peninsula, when they saw something black , a small group of people…………The Inuit found out they were friendly and someone put up a small igloo for them.  They gave them what they could, a little of what they could, because they didn’t have much. One of the men was a big man and very friendly.  He was hairy, they touched his skin and he had hair on his chest, a big man and friendly.  After a few days they treated him specially – they gave him a woman. The Inuit were getting along well with the strangers and they might have stayed longer but they left – they themselves were so poor they could not take any strangers with them.’ 

     Roald Amundsen in 1904 (Amundsen,1908) was wintering with his expedition in his ship Gjoa while making the first sea traverse of the North-West Passage. The harbour is now named Gjoa Haven on King William Island. There he had a curious meeting.

          The story begins with the May 1859 visit by Captain (later Admiral, Sir) Leopold McClintock to the east coast of King William Island. There he met a tribe of around thirty to forty Inuit. From them he purchased many Franklin relics including some of the officer’s silver spoons and forks with family crests.  They reported a ship ashore that they had salvaged for many yours. This proved to be the ‘Utjulik’ ship identified in 2014 as HMS Erebus. Some of the cutlery had crewmen’s initials scratched on them, suggesting they had been issued to the crew for the 1848 retreat. They must have been returned to Erebus when the ship was remanned and were later found aboard by the Inuit. The Inuit were friendly and repeatedly tapped McClintock on the breast and repeated the words ‘Kammik toomee’ (We are friends).

           In 1904 Roald Amundsen and six companions wintered in a small harbour he named ‘Gjoa Haven’.  In March Amundsen and four companions set out for the North Magnetic Pole. In much the same place as McClintock had met the Inuit tribe, Amundsen met another group of thirty four Inuit of the Nechilli tribe who were all friendly and used the same greeting as recorded by McClintock some forty five years earlier. At their first encounter an old man called Kagoptinner (‘grey haired’) arrived on a small sledge. He was the oldest and best medicine man in the tribe. The party travelled to the Inuit settlement and met the rest of the tribe.

           Amundsen’s attention was drawn to an unusual Inut with a luxuriant  black beard and raven black hair (Amundsen, 1908, p.164 -171):

       ‘I had already noticed one man among the rest out on the ice. He was not like his companions, full of laughter and nonsense, but rather serious. There was also something haughty in his air, almost commanding, yet he could hardly be a chief of any kind, as the others treated him quite as an equal. A fine fellow he was, with raven black hair, and unlike his fellow tribesmen, had a luxuriant growth of beard: he was broad shouldered and somewhat inclined to corpulency. His belongings – clothes, tackle, dogs, etc., were choice in quality and appearance. When I came out of my hut, he stood at a little distance from the others and regarded me with a look that seemed to intimate that he had something special to tell me. I accordingly went straight up to him, and he bade me go with him to his hut. It looked exceptionally neat outside. Like a courteous host he made me enter first. This, as I am now inclined to think, was an accident, but at the moment it increased my sympathy for the man, as was only right and proper. His name was Atikleura. He was a son of old Kagoptinner, the medicine man we had met on the ice, in his own turn-out. He showed himself later to be far superior to all his countrymen in every respect. I followed his suggestion, and went inside his igloo. A passage led into the hut proper; this was so low, that I had to stoop down. It had two extensions, like quite small huts, and what they served for was not difficult to guess by the odour; there was nothing to see, as the dogs were the scavengers. A hole so small that one had almost to creep through it led into the dwelling room. When I stood upright inside, I was speechless with astonishment. It was quite an apartment for festive occasions; it had been constructed the day before, and was therefore still gleaming white. From floor to roof the room measured fully twice a man’s height. The blocks in the wall were regular and of equal size, and the inside diameter was not less than fifteen feet.  It was evident that Atikleura knew how to build beautifully. The sleeping shelf was so high, one had to swing oneself up onto it, and it was covered with the most delicate reindeer skins. Everything gave the impression of the most perfect order.’ 

Paragraph omitted here.

    ‘As soon as I came in, Atikleura fetched a skin sack, out of which he took a very finely made reindeer skin garment which he presented to me. In my eagerness I wanted to strike while the iron was hot, and hinted that I should greatly value a suit of underclothing as well. Evidently very pleased at my request he now brought out some old worn underclothing, put them on in place of those he was wearing and handed me the latter with every indication that I should  change there and then.’

Eight lines omitted.

      ‘After this I was regaled with water, frozen raw reindeer meat, and salmon, served with small squares of seal blubber. I did not relish the meat, but the frozen salmon was quite delicious in flavour.  For dessert I had frozen reindeer marrow, which did not taste badly. Atikleura also provided for our dogs, and dealt out huge lumps of blubber to them. This unwonted fare vanished like dew in the sunshine.

       After this feast of welcome was over I put on my fine new outer clothing and went out. Outside in front of the hut lay a very fine polar bear skin; thick-haired and shining white, a really splendid specimen. I stood gazing at it in admiration, but then went hastily over to our own hut to bring some return gifts for my friends. Luckily I had brought with me some sewing needles, spear points, etc.,  on which the Eskimo set special value and I think that Atikleura and Nalungia (his wife) had hardly ever been so happy in their lives, as when I brought them my gifts –  two spear-points for him, and six sewing needles for her.’

Eight lines omitted.

    ‘On my return to our own hut, Atikleura stood there with his bear skin. He handed it to me beaming with joy. As a modest young man, I represented to him that I could not possibly accept such great generosity. But Atikleura would not hear of it, and resolutely carried the skin into my hut and laid it there.’  

      So who were Kagoptinner and his son Atikleura? The father was the best medicine man of the tribe and the son evidently highly accomplished and a great hunter. Beards are not an Inuit feature, especially a luxuriant one. Here we are seeing the effects of a mixed race with Inuit and European genes. The source of the European genes might have been some whaling ship crewman, but considering the remote location on King William Island, far away from the whaling grounds, the possibility of an encounter with a Franklin seaman must be considered.

       The encounter with the party of hunters in the above testimony probably occurred in late 1850 or later. So if a son was born in 1850 he would be around fifty four years old in 1904. This might be Kagoptinner. If his son was around twenty years old in 1904 he would have been born around 1884.  Unfortunately Amundsen did not think of this possibility and no questions were asked about  meeting with ‘kabloonas’. It is not impossible that Amundsen met up with the son and grandson of a Franklin crew man as indicated by the luxuriant black beard and the unusual characteristics of Atikleura.   

      In the companion volume novel ‘Trapped’ (Roobol, 2019b), the last two of the hunters and crew men survive as Inuit with wives and children around the 1850s. Was this a reasonable conclusion?  Captain David Woodman’s careful research has placed these last two Franklin survivors on the Melville Peninsula.  Perhaps they later returned to Lake Amitsoq on King William Island for the summer fishing.