New Book Available:
Arctic Justice
On Trial for Murder, Pond Inlet, 1923
By Shelagh D. Grant
To order this book see the McGill-Queen's University Press website:
http://www.mqup.mcgill.ca/book_list.php?series=27&thumbnails=no&records=
20
A compelling account of Inuit-White contact in the High Arctic.
Arctic Justice is the story of the execution of a white fur trader by an
Inuk. Shelagh Grant shows that this event was crucial in establishing
law enforcement in the High Arctic and documents its tragic consequences
for Inuit in the subsequent decades. This compelling and generously
illustrated account combines archival history with Inuit oral history to
shed light on the conflicting values and perceptions of two disparate
cultures.
Despite the fact that Nuqallaq was following Inuit customary law in
carrying out a collectively sanctioned act to defend the community from
the dangerously crazed trader Robert Janes, Canadian authorities made
the unprecedented decision to put him and two accomplices on trial for
murder. Grant shows how this decision was motivated by Canada's
international political concerns for establishing sovereignty over the
Arctic and how the outcome of the trial- Nuqallaq's sentence to ten
years of hard labour in Stony Mountain Penitentiary and subsequent death
from tuberculosis- was determined more by fear than evidence.
In what amounts to a social history of North Baffin Island in the
twentieth century, Grant offers telling portraits of the people
involved, including the victim, Robert Janes of Newfoundland; Captain
J.E. Bernier of the CGS Arctic, explorer and friend to the Inuit;
English trader and entrepreneur Henry Toke Munn; the investigating RCMP
officer Staff-Sergeant A. H. Joy; Judge L. A. Rivet, and others. Most
importantly we meet the remarkable Nuqallaq, his wife, Ataguttiaq, and
the Inuit of North Baffin Island. Arctic Justice will appeal to anyone
interested in the Arctic and its indigenous peoples, contact history,
anthropology, legal history, and RCMP history.
"This is a fascinating story and a valuable contribution to the history
of Northern Canada. Most significantly, because Grant has talked to the
Inuit, this is the first time that the story of the relations between
Inuit and newcomers has been told from the Inuit perspective."
William Morrison, history, University of Northern British Columbia and
the author of True North: The Yukon and Northwest Territories
"Grant provides a riveting illustration of how Inuit traditionally
handled dangerous people in their society. She gives an excellent and
dramatic account of the trial, the circumstances behind it, and the
tragic aftermath."
Dorothy Harley Eber, author of When the Whalers Were Up North and Images
of Justice
Shelagh Grant is an adjunct professor of history and Canadian studies at
Trent University and the author of Sovereignty or Security: Government
Policy in the Canadian North, 1936-1950.
For more information and ordering information for the book, Arctic
Justice, see the McGill-Queens' Native and Northern Series web page at:
http://www.mqup.mcgill.ca/book_list.php?series=27&thumbnails=no&records=
20