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Author: Kroeber, A. L., Franz Boas and Robert E. Peary Title: The Eskimo of Smith Sound Year: 1900 Publisher: New York: Published by order of the Trustees, American Museum of Natural History. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History ; v. 12, article 21. Pages: 62 Source: American Museum of Natural History
Description: "In October 1897, the renowned Arctic explorer Robert Peary returned to New York from his latest Greenland expedition. At the request of anthropologist Franz Boas, he brought with him five [six] polar Eskimos for study at the American Museum of Natural History.
"The embryonic science of anthropology regarded the Eskimos as a rare species, and their arrival in New York caused a sensation. Within months, however, four of the Eskimos had fallen sick and died, leaving a seven-year-old boy named Minik to fend for himself in a foreign land. Eventually adopted by a member of the Museum's staff, it was sixteen years before he was able to return to his native Greenland" (from the episode summary, "Minik, the Lost Eskimo," American Experience).
This is the research report produced as a consequence of this tragic episode in arctic exploration and the early history of anthropology. From the introduction: "The following pages consist in the main of the results of investigations carried on in the winter of 1897-98, under the direction of Dr. F. Boas, among six Eskimo from Smith Sound, brought to New York by Liut. R. E. Peary ... to this description have been added references made to the tribe by various Arctic explorers, especially Lieut. Peary. The material thus obtained has been illustrated whenever possible by comparisons with that from other Eskimo tribes" (88). This history is also the subject of a best selling book by Ken Harper, "Give Me My Father's Body: the Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo" (2000).
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