Minik the New York Eskimo

Inuktitut, the Eskimo language of the eastern Canadia Arctic

1897 Robert Peary, Arctic explorer, took 6 Eskimos from Greenland back to NYC as living museum specimens. In 2000 Ken Harper authored "Give Me My Father's Body," the story of Minik, one of the 6 Eskimos, who died in 1918 in a New Hampshire lumber camp at age 28.

Kenn Harper has lived in the Arctic for over thirty years in Inuit communities in the Baffin Region and in Qaanaaq, Greenland. He has worked as a teacher, development officer, historian, linguist, and businessman. He speaks Inuktitut, the Eskimo language of the eastern Canadia Arctic and has written extensively on northern history and the Inuktitut language. He presently lives in Iqaluit, capital of the new Arctic territory of Nunavut, and was recently elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

"Give Me My Father's Body" by Kenn Harper which tells the story of Minik, the "New York Eskimo," a young boy from northwestern Greenland, brought to New York by explorer Robert Peary in 1897.

Harper's book is a harrowing biography of Minik's devastating experiences, including being presented to the American Museum of Natural History as one of sixm Eskimo "specimens," being stared at by the paying public, and other horrors of his twelve years as the only Eskimo in New York City. See Review