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Inulluapik
also known to qallunaat as Eenoolooapik and Bobbie
Inulluapik was born around 1820 at Qimmiqsut (Nimigen Island) in Cumberland Sound. When he was a boy, his family moved in an umiaq out of the Sound and eventually to Qikiqtagujjuk (Durban Island) in order to trade with Scottish whalers, who did not yet know where Cumberland Sound was. In 1839, Inulluapik drew a detailed map of it for Captain William Penny and agreed to accompany him back to Scotland.
Inulluapik said emotional goodbyes to his family and sailed for Aberdeen, where he attracted much attention. Soon after his arrival, he attended a fancy dinner party. His hosts had purposefully scheduled the dinner before Inulluapik had a chance to learn British manners, hoping to be entertained by his eating habits. Inulluapik surprised them by observing the other guests and so exactly copying their gestures that no one would have known he had not been eating at British tables his entire life.
While in Scotland, Inulluapik learned the Roman alphabet and he was given a gun and taught how to shoot it. He was very curious about everything, but he always remained polite and composed no matter how strange some things must have seemed to him. He liked the countryside and its trees, but he was surprised that people could live so far away from the life-giving resources of the sea. When he saw a pony and a cow, he assumed they were a type of caribou and asked if he could hunt them. Upon being told that qallunaat did not hunt these animals, he reasonably concluded that they must be qallunaat dogs.
Inulluapik's trip to Scotland was not an easy one. He developed a serious cough almost immediately upon arrival most likely from tuberculosis and he was bedridden for months at a time. When asked if he would ever return to Scotland, he said no, there was too much cough for him there.
On April 1, 1840, Inulluapik boarded William Penny's ship for the trip back to Davis Strait. He brought clothing, cooking utensils, guns and ammunition for people back home, as well as a china saucer and teacup for his mother, Nugunik. On the way back, he met Greenland Inuit for the first time. He then navigated Captain Penny into Cumberland Sound, or Tinujjiarvik, as he called it. His mother had heard of the ship's arrival and was already on her way to meet him. The first stories Inulluapik shared with his relatives at Qimmiqsut were not about Scotland but rather about Greenland Inuit and how they talked. He was also eager to demonstrate the use of a gun. Within days, Inulluapik found a wife, Amitak, and went off caribou hunting. They had a son, Angaluk.
Thanks to Inulluapik's map and directions, Cumberland Sound would become one of the most profitable whaling bases of the 19th century. Inulluapik often worked for whaling captains, but he never went abroad again. Still, the tuberculosis he had almost certainly contracted in Scotland remained in his body, and he died of it the summer of 1847. He was less than 30 years old.
NOTES :
Alexander M'Donald, A Narrative of some passages in the history of Eenoolooapik, a young Esquimaux, 21.
Alexander M'Donald, A Narrative of some passages in the history of Eenoolooapik, a young Esquimaux 41.