Minik Wallace

Minik Wallace (also called Minik or Mene) ( – October 29, 1918) was an Inughuaq (Inuk) brought as a child in 1897 from Greenland to New York City with his father and others by the explorer Robert Peary. The six Inuit were studied by staff of the American Museum of Natural History, which had custody. The adults and one child died soon of tuberculosis (TB), and one young man was returned to Greenland. After deceiving Minik with a staged burial, the museum put the skeleton of his father on exhibit. Minik was adopted by William Wallace, the museum's building superintendent, and did not return to Greenland until after 1910. He returned to the United States a few years later, where he remained and worked until dying of influenza in the 1918 pandemic.

Early years Minik, son of the renowned hunter Qisuk (ca. 1858–1898) and his wife Mannik, spent his early childhood in northern Greenland among his people, the Inughuit, the northernmost band of Greenlandic Inuit. His mother died from an epidemic shortly before 1897. His father met Robert Peary when the explorer employed men of their band during several Arctic expeditions.

Move to the United States In 1896, ethnologist Franz Boas requested from Robert Peary to invite an Inuk person from Northern Greenland to the American Museum of Natural History, where Boas was curator at that time. Boas had previously worked with other indigenous people from North America, interviewing them, and hoped to disprove cultural evolution theories. In September 1897, Robert Peary brought instead six Inuit back to the museum. Aside from widower Qisuk and his son Minik, the arrivals included the shaman Atangana (ca. 1840–1898) with her husband, renowned hunter Nuktaq (ca. 1848–1898), their adoptive daughter Aviaq (ca. 1885–1898) and the young adult Uisaakassak, the fiancé of Aviaq. Although Peary had invited the adults on the trip, it is unlikely they were clearly informed as to its purpose. Some agreed to travel to see new places; others did not want to be parted from relatives. Peary had promised that they would be able to return to Greenland. Soon after their arrival, the group became the objects of study, together with the Cape York meteorite which Peary had brought. Franz Boas and the museum staff, at most expecting a single person for interviews to be conducted during the winter, had not made plans for the care of the group, nor for their return. As a result, room was made in the museum's basement to house them. Similar to ethnological expositions at the time, 20,000 people paid entrance to see the Inuit group there, who politely shook many visitor's hands. Taken to the Bellevue Hospital Center, four of them died, starting with Minik's father Qisuk on February 17, 1898. Minik pleaded for a proper burial for his father, with the traditional rites which only the Inuk could provide. The curatorial staff wanted to preserve Qisuk's body for study, research that would be impossible if his remains were buried. They staged a fake burial for Minik's benefit: filling a coffin with stones for weight, and placing a stuffed "body" covered with a cloth on top. They performed the burial by lantern light, with Minik attending. reporting on his cultural change from a bewildered “savage”.

By that time, Minik had forgotten Inuktun, his first language, and much of Inuit culture and skills; his life in Greenland was difficult. The elderly angakkuq Soqqaq took him in and the Inuit taught him the adult skills he needed. Minik became a fine hunter, but also brought with him knowledge of life in America. His stories were found to be wildly embellished, as Minik stylized himself as a former urban gangster. He was briefly and unhappily married. In Qaanaaq, he witnessed the Inuit funeral ceremony for the remains of Qisuk and the three men that had been taken to New York.

In popular culture The Brooklyn-based history band Piñataland recorded "If Ice Were Warm" on their 2008 album Songs for the Forgotten Future, Vol. 2. They wrote it from Minik's view. The historical podcast The Memory Palace dedicated an episode to Minik Wallace entitled "400 Words for 79th Street".