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Article Excerpt
ABSTRACT. In the late 18th century, a number of Labrador Inuit were at different times taken to England. Their lives, journeys, and likenesses were unusually well documented through writings and portraiture. Presented here are the histories of Mikak and her son Tutauk, brought to England by Francis Lucas in 1767, and of Attuiock, Ickongoque, Ickeuna, Tooklavinia, and Caubvick, who traveled to England in 1772 with Captain George Cartwright. These individuals, especially Mikak, played a part in Britain's expansion along the northeastern seaboard of Canada. Although the story is relatively well known to students of northern history, this retelling details source material and also clarifies discrepancies found in earlier publications. The portraits, which include two previously unknown depictions of Labrador Inuit, are particularly striking for their ethnographic content.
Key words: Labrador Inuit, voyages to England, portraits, Mikak, Tutauk, Karpik, Attuiock, Ickongoque, Ickeuna, Tooklavinia, Caubvick, Nooziliack, George Cartwright, Moravians
RESUME. Vers la fin du XVIII(e) siecle, des Inuits du Labrador ont ete amenes en Angleterre a differents moments. Grace a de nombreux ecrits et portraits, la vie, le voyage et la ressemblance de ces Inuits ont ete inhabituellement bien consignes. Cette communication relate l'histoire de Mikak et de son fils Tutauk, qui ont ete amenes en Angleterre par Francis Lucas en 1767, ainsi que les histoires de Attuiock, Ickongoque, Ickeuna, Tooklavinia et Caubvick qui ont accompagne le commandant George Cartwright en Angleterre en 1772. Ces personnes, et surtout Mikak, ont joue un role dans l'expansion de la Grande-Bretagne le long de la cote nord-est du Canada. Bien que leur histoire soit relativement bien connue des etudiants de l'histoire du Nord, ce recit fait etat des sources originales et jette de la lumiere sur les divergences trouvees dans des publications anterieures. Le contenu ethnographique des portraits, qui comprennent deux representations auparavant inconnues d'Inuits du Labrador, est particulierement frappant.
Mots cles: Inuit du Labrador, voyages en Angleterre, portraits, Mikak, Tutauk, Karpik, Attuiock, Ickongoque, Ickeuna, Tooklavinia, Caubvick, Nooziliack, George Cartwright, Moraviens
Traduit pour la revue Arctic par Nicole Giguere.
INTRODUCTION
When Moravian Brother Christen Drachardt spoke for the first time with the many Inuit gathered at Chateau Bay, Labrador, he told them that he was a teacher, there to tell them of God the Creator. Two aged Inuit men stepped forward and declared that they too were Angekoks, and indicated that they knew of a Creator named Silla (Moravian Mission, 1962a: fo. 11).
Differing worldviews met that day in August 1765, well symbolized by male and female deities, and realized on the one hand in the missionary's denial of a viable Inuit belief system, and on the other, in the Inuit view that Europeans were difficult but necessary visitors. A mutual interest in trading set the stage for relatively peaceful British expansion in Labrador and became the fulcrum for irreversible changes in Inuit settlement, subsistence, religion, culture, and health.
The Moravian missionaries had arrived in Chateau Bay with Commodore Hugh Palliser, Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador. Palliser was horrified by the treatment of Inuit at the hands of Europeans. He wrote of the "murthers, robberies and other disorders committed on the Indian inhabitants on the coast of Labrador" and described the source of the problem as "a Banditti Lawless People resorting thither from the Plantations, particularly those from New England and the winter inhabitants from Newfoundland" (CO 194/27, f. 178). Violent clashes between Inuit (who did not possess firearms at that time, and who are referred to as "Indians," "esquimau," or "esquimaude" in various early sources) and European fishers and whalers were frequent along the coast between the Strait of Belle Isle and Groswater Bay. By 1765, a pattern of attacks and counter-attacks between the two groups had been ongoing for at least 50 years. Many records of this conflict exist in French archival documents (RAPQ, 1922-23) up to 1763 and then in the earliest British accounts (CO 194/27). However, Inuit resilience and Christian blind faith, with the added fillip of future trade possibilities, allowed a shift in relations between the Inuit, the British, and the Moravians.
Palliser's plans for Labrador during his three-year term of office included increasing British merchant presence, decreasing that of illegal New England whalers and privateers, and improving relations with the Inuit (CO 194/27, fos. 198, 211-224). To facilitate these interrelated issues, he commissioned a small blockhouse at Chateau Bay in 1766. It was named York Fort and manned by a garrison of about 20 soldiers (CO 194/27, fo. 262, 194/31, fo. 1). He further enlisted the help of the Moravians, members of a protestant church based in northern Europe and England that eventually had long-standing missions all over the world, in inducing the Inuit away from southern fishing stations. Between 1765 and 1769, Palliser encouraged the Moravians in their application to the British government for land grants north of Groswater Bay, and the first Moravian mission station was established in Nain in 1770. The Moravians' early success among the Inuit was greatly facilitated by the fact that two of the missionaries, Jens Haven and Christen Drachardt, could communicate in Inuktitut from their years at the Greenland mission. The British planned ultimately to end Inuit presence south of Groswater Bay. Although Inuit baleen, whale bone, and seal and whale oil were valuable commodities on the European market, the costs of acquiring them (in time lost to protection, pilfered tools and shallops, and even loss of life) outweighed the benefits. For a few years immediately after the 1763 Treaty of Paris, however, Inuit presence in the south was still substantial. Hundreds of Inuit stationed themselves between Cape Charles and Chateau Bay to trade with merchants and with French fishing crews on Newfoundland's Great Northern Peninsula, and conflicts formed a constant part of these proceedings (CO 194/30:173; PA, 1790-96; Moravian Mission, 1962a; Lysaght, 1971; Rollman, 2002).
The stories of the Inuit women Mikak and Caubvik, of the man Attuiock, and of the other Labrador Inuit who journeyed to England in the late 18th century have been told before, and many readers will be familiar with these accounts (Cartwright, 1792; Jannasch, 1958; Savours, 1963; Lysaght, 1971; Pearson, 1978). In particular, Mikak's life has been the subject of a detailed and evocative two-part history prepared by J. Garth Taylor (1983, 1984), which is in part based on the original German Moravian documents translated by Helga Taylor. The Moravian source materials used in the present paper for the history of Mikak are chiefly the 18th century English translations of the annual Nain Diary (ND), which was written in German and then translated for the English brethren. The English translations are known to be summaries of the voluminous original writings; they are less detailed and can even contain errors (Rollman, 1984). Until the German sources become available in fully translated form, however, the English Moravian papers remain the source material for the majority of researchers. In compiling Mikak's history, I have wherever possible checked multiple sources, including the English version of the Nain Diary, in order to confirm the details of her life.
The Labrador Inuit described here were neither the first nor the last Inuit to journey across the Atlantic. The transport of Inuit to Europe by the earliest Breton, Basque, and Dutch whalers was part of a long, disturbing tradition of bringing indigenous people from all parts of the expanding European world to courts and fairs as human curiosities (cf. Feest, 1989). The well-known 1566 broadsheets from Nuremburg, Augsburg, and Frankfurt tell of the early capture by French/Breton sailors in Terra Nova of a 20-year-old woman and her seven-year-old daughter and bear an engraving of the two (Sturtevant, 1980; Quinn, 1981). A decade later, in 1576, Martin Frobisher brought to London an Inuit man from Baffin Island, who died within two weeks of arrival, was painted in life and in death, and was buried in St. Olave's churchyard (Cheshire et al., 1980). The following year, Frobisher brought another party of three Inuit to England. Like the Labrador Inuit described below, this group was considered a potentially valuable source of information on northern geography and resources, if only they could be taught English. The remarkable resemblance these Inuit bore to northern Asiatic peoples, suggesting proximity to a place of fabled riches, was not lost on members of the Company of Cathay. These three were also documented, painted, and variously studied until their deaths, which again followed quickly upon arrival (Hulton and Quinn, 1964; Cheshire et al., 1980; Sturtevant and Quinn, 1989; Watts and Savours, 1999). Yet another painting in Bergen depicts a family of four Greenlanders tragically abducted by a trader in 1654 (Issenman, 1997:29). These are to date the earliest pictorial accounts we have of Inuit in Europe. The items listed in the 1642 inventory of the Danish Museum Wormianum, which include Inuit bird, seal, and gut skin clothing, as well as a kayak and paddle (Bahnson, 2005), hint at yet other Inuit who were fated to meet Europeans. As an interesting aside, in at least three different and unusual cases, Inuit made the journey across the North Atlantic unassisted by Europeans. In 1682 and 1684, "Finnmen" who were thought to have originated in the Davis Strait region were recorded in the Orkneys. Each came in a boat of "fish skins ... so contrived that he can never sink ... his shirt he has is so fastnd to the Boat that no water can come into his Boat to do him damage" (Wallace, 1688, quoted in Savours, 1963:337). In the early 18th century, an Inuit voyager was found in Scottish waters and brought to Aberdeen, where his kayak is still on display at Marischal College (MC, 2002).
The histories of the Labrador Inuit presented here merit re-telling if only for the purpose of record maintenance: the separate stories overlap in time and space and even share characters, but points of intersection have led to confusion and error in later writings. My main purpose, however, is to present a rare body of unusually detailed information about specific individuals whose experiences, while not representative of all Labrador Inuit, nevertheless tell us a great deal about colonial impacts upon Inuit society and culture, Inuit cultural resilience, cross-cultural relations, and Inuit as active economic players during Labrador's early colonial period. The fact that written documentation can be combined with the added medium of portraiture enhances the historiographic capability of this body of material. The portraits have significant scholarly appeal as ethnohistorical records, and they possess an abiding general appeal as aesthetic works. A small sample of oral accounts relating to these Inuit is also considered. Oral traditions in Labrador form a rich and pervasive aspect of society and have long served to preserve community, family, and individual histories. In the case of Mikak, oral accounts have introduced new details that differ from documented information but nevertheless serve to keep alive an important historical narrative. Finally, the documented histories of these Inuit are retold in order to ensure that, through their repetition, they become a better-known part of northern heritage.
THE LIFE OF MIKAK (CA. 1740-1795)
Mikak's story unfolds at a time of tremendous colonial impacts along the eastern seaboard that were felt by all indigenous peoples in northeastern North America. When Mikak (variant spellings include Mykok, Mecock, and others) was very young, both shores of the Strait of Belle Isle were seasonally populated by large numbers of French fishing crews and, to a lesser extent, by winter sealing crews (RAPQ, 1922-23; Whiteley, 1969). European shore stations for drying summer cod and for autumn and spring sealing occupied most of the good coves and harbours as far north as Chateau Bay (Fig. 1). After 1763, when the Labrador stations passed to the British, expansion came swiftly, and by the 1780s, British merchant stations dotted the entire south-central coast and operated all year long (Stopp, 2008). As already noted, Britain's plan for moving Inuit off the coast was chiefly effected through an arrangement with the Moravian Church, which subsequently established mission-cum-trade stations north of Hamilton Inlet that succeeded in bringing an end to significant Inuit presence in the southern region (Whiteley, 1969; CO 194/27).
Mikak stepped onto history's stage at this time, when Britain wished to transplant Inuit away from the southernmost coast of Labrador, when tensions between the two peoples had reached a flash point, and, fortuitously, when the new governor considered it of utmost importance to protect the indigenous inhabitants under his jurisdiction from growing depredations (CO 194/27:78; CO 194/30:173; Whiteley, 1969, 1977). Mikak was a woman in her early twenties when she first encountered the Moravian missionaries who figured so largely in her life a few years later. In 1765, she was one of a group of Inuit who hosted the Brethren when they were forced by bad weather to stay in the tent of Segullia, where they also witnessed his shamanic dance (Moravian Mission, 1962a). Segullia, whom the Moravians described as a noted "sorcerer," was the brother of Tuglavina, who later became Mikak's partner for a time. In 1765, Mikak had a partner whose identity is unknown and a young son named Tutauk.
Two years later, in 1767, Palliser was able to report a profitable fishery (the quantity of cod, salmon, and train oil taken in at Chateau Bay was nearly three times greater than in the Strait of Belle Isle), but conflicts between Inuit and Europeans along the coast continued (CO 194/27, fos. 251, 340). One of the prominent merchants trading at Chateau Bay was Captain Nicholas Darby, who had at least four posts between Forteau and St. Lewis Inlet. Darby had retreated to Forteau after a fight with Inuit at Cape Charles in August 1767, abandoning a large salmon-fishing station at the St. Charles River (that had swivel guns installed on an overlooking hill as defence against the Inuit), and a sealing outpost at Cape Charles. Several Inuit were killed in this fight, as well as three of Darby's men, and three Inuit women and six children were captured (Cartwright, 1792; Lysaght, 1971; Taylor, 1983).
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
These figures (three women and six children) are from Palliser's records (CO 194/28:25), but other details of this skirmish vary according to source. For instance, Cartwright (1792, 30 March 1770) recorded only that three "servants of Cape Charles" were killed, referring to Darby's men. Their killing is confirmed by the 1770 confession made to Haven and Drachardt by Segluinak and Ikkiunak, two Inuit men who also admitted to having stolen two boats at that time (Moravian Mission, 1962b, 16 July 1770; Privy Council, 1927:1364). Haven (Rollman, n.d.a) simply recorded "many of them [Inuit] having been shot in an affray which happened between them and the English." Another Moravian record states that three Europeans were killed, two boats stolen, and 20 Inuit killed (Anonymous, 1833:74-75). More recent sources have followed the latter source in quoting 20 Inuit killed, and nine women and children captured (Jan-nasch, 1958:84; Anick, 1976:63; Whiteley, 2000). Taylor (1983:6) states that the skirmish resulted in the deaths of 20 Inuit on one day and four others on the following day, and that nine women and children were captured. Relevant here, however, is that it was this 1767 incident that resulted in the capture of Mikak and her son Tutauk. Along with other captured women and children, they were taken to York Fort, where they remained for the winter.
During Mikak's lengthy stay at York Fort, she began to learn English, while Captain Francis Lucas, who was second-in-command, learned something of Inuktitut. In the autumn of 1768, Lucas brought the Inuit to St. John's. There, Palliser directed Lucas to bring some...
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