Arctic Justice

by Grant, Shelagh D.

• ISBN13: 9780773523371
• ISBN10: 0773523375
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-12-01
• Publisher: McGill Queens Univ Pr

Summary

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-Sargeant A. H.; 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.

Author Biography

Shelagh Grant is an adjunct professor of history and Canadian studies at Trent University.

Table of Contents

Maps
Photographs and Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgments
Prologue	p. 3
North Baffin to 1905	p. 7
Sovereignty and Justice, 1874-1920	p. 24
Gold Seekers and Fur Traders, 1912-1919	p. 51
Sakirmiaviniq	p. 72
Police Investigations	p. 95
Awaiting Judgment	p. 130
Trial by Jury	p. 152
To Prison and Return	p. 187
Aftermath	p. 207
Arctic Justice Revisited	p. 239
Epilogue	p. 249
Notes on Research and Inuit Oral History	p. 259
Inuit Names for People and Places	p. 265
App. 3: Glossary	p. 276
Notes	p. 279
Bibliography	p. 317
Index	p. 329
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