Stephen Angulalik (ca. 1898–1980) was an internationally known
Ahiarmiut
The Ahiarmiut ᐃᓴᓪᒥᐅᑦ or Ihalmiut ("People from Beyond") or ("the Out-of-the-Way Dwellers") are a group of inland Inuit who lived along the banks of the Kazan River, Ennadai Lake, and Little Dubawnt Lake (renamed ''Kamilikuak''), a ...
Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, ...
from
northern Canada
Northern Canada, colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories and ...
notable as a
Kitikmeot fur trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mo ...
r and
trading post
A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded.
Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...
operator at Kuugjuaq (
Perry River),
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...
. His stories and photos were carried by journals and periodicals worldwide.
Early life
Angulalik was born less than to the west in the vicinity of
Ellice River
Kuunajuk formerly Ellice River, for Edward Ellice, Jr., is a waterway in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, Canada. It rises close to the Back River between Lake Beechey and Pelly Lake, and flows northward into the Queen Maud Gulf. Its mouth open ...
on the
Queen Maud Gulf
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the moth ...
. His parents, Oakoak (father) and Okalitaaknahik (mother), were
Caribou Inuit
Caribou Inuit ( iu, Kivallirmiut/ᑭᕙᓪᓕᕐᒥᐅᑦ), barren-ground caribou hunters, are Inuit who live west of Hudson Bay in Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, between 61° and 65° N and 90° and 102° W in Northern Canada. They were originally na ...
.
In 1923, Angulalik lived on the
Kent Peninsula
Kiillinnguyaq, formerly the Kent Peninsula, is a large Arctic peninsula, almost totally surrounded by water, in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut. Were it not for a isthmus at the southeast corner it would be a long island parallel to the coast. F ...
near a
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trade, fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake b ...
(HBC) post. The post had opened three years earlier and was run by Hugh Clarke; it was the most remote HBC post of the Canadian Arctic. Angulalik learned the fur trading business from Clarke. In 1926, Clarke and George Porter opened a Canalaska trading post for owner Captain
Christian Theodore Pedersen in Perry River, probably because of Ahiarmiut relocation to that area, the Kent Peninsula caribou becoming scarce. In addition to the trading post, Clarke built a home for Angulalik, ensuring Ahiarmiut loyalty to the Canalaska post, rather than an HBC post
a few miles away (run by Angus Gavin between April 1937 and July 1941).
Career
In 1928, when new laws forced the closure of both posts, Angulalik continued as an independent trader, supplied by Canalaska. When Pedersen sold his company to the HBC, the sale included a provision for the HBC in
Cambridge Bay
Cambridge Bay ( Inuinnaqtun: ''Iqaluktuuttiaq'' Inuktitut: ᐃᖃᓗᒃᑑᑦᑎᐊᖅ; 2021 population 1,760; population centre 1,403) is a hamlet located on Victoria Island in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, Canada. It is the largest settl ...
to continue supplying trade goods to Angulalik. In 1929, Angulalik sailed to
Herschel Island
Herschel Island (french: Île d'Herschel; Inuit languages: ''Qikiqtaruk'') is an island in the Beaufort Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean), which lies off the coast of Yukon in Canada, of which it is administratively a part. It is Yukon's only o ...
and purchased a
schooner
A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoo ...
, the "Tudlik", from Canalaska, using the "Tudlik" during his career to transport goods from Cambridge Bay or Herschel Island to his trading post.
Angulalik's trade partners included distant
Copper Inuit
Copper Inuit, also known as Kitlinermiut and Inuinnait, are a Canadian Inuit group who live north of the tree line, in what is now the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut and in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Ter ...
bands such as the ''Hanningajurmiut'' of
Garry Lake
Garry Lake (variant: Garry Lakes; Inuktitut: , meaning "sideways", or "crooked") is a lake in sub-Arctic Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, Canada. As a portion of the Back River waterway, Garry Lake originates directly east of Lake Pelly and drains to th ...
(''Hanningajuq'', meaning "sideways" or "crooked"). The ''Hanningajurmiut'' were called the ''Ualininmiut'' ("people from area of which the sun follows east to west") by their Caribou Inuit neighbors of the north, the ''Utkusiksalinmiut''. He also traded with the ''Illuilirmiut'' of ''Illuiliq'' from
Adelaide Peninsula
Adelaide Peninsula (''Iluilik''), ancestral home to the ''Illuilirmiut'' Inuit, is a large peninsula in Nunavut, Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. As these Inuit were located between Angulalik's Perry River post and the
Gjoa Haven
Gjoa Haven (; Inuktitut: Uqsuqtuuq, syllabics: ᐅᖅᓱᖅᑑᖅ , meaning "lots of fat", referring to the abundance of sea mammals in the nearby waters; or �ʒɔa evən is an Inuit hamlet in Nunavut, above the Arctic Circle, located in the ...
HBC post, Angulalik set up an outpost closer to them at Sherman Inlet to secure their business. It was run by Angulalik's adopted son, George Oakoak, from 1948 to 1955.
Angulalik's trading ventures were successful despite the fact that he was unable to speak or write English. He either got help from other people or copied the words from the boxes that he received. This, according to at least one source, led to him ordering such things as "5 cases of This Side Up".
A crisis event occurred in Angulalik's life
New Year's Eve
In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, also known as Old Year's Day or Saint Sylvester's Day in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the December 31, last day of the year, on 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly ...
1956, when he stabbed the man Otoetok, in self-defense. While Otoetok’s wounds were minor, leaving them untended resulted in his painful death on January 4, 1957, leading Angulalik to sell his Perry River trading operations to the HBC the same year. Judge
John Sissons
John "Jack" Howard Sissons (July 14, 1892 – November 11, 1969) was a Canadian barrister, author, judge and federal politician.
Early life
Sissons was born in Orillia, Ontario and, at the age of four, contracted polio, which injured his le ...
presided over the murder trial in Cambridge Bay and Angulalik was acquitted.
He returned to the Perry River post and worked with the new young manager,
Red Pedersen
Asger Rye "Red" Pedersen (sometimes Asgar Rye Pederson, born 1935, Denmark) is a former territorial-level Canadian politician. In 1953, he got a job in the Canadian Arctic with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) at Cambridge Bay, Nunavut (then th ...
, who became a lifelong friend. Angulalik stayed there until post closure in 1967.
Personal life
There were no taboos against
polygamy
Crimes
Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is marri ...
amongst the Ahiarmiut. By October 1937, Angulalik had two wives and the three of them were pictured in ''
Life Magazine
''Life'' was an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 until 2000. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, ''Life'' was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest ma ...
''. Angulalik's first wife was named Kuptana; she died in 1939. His second wife was Koloahok; she died in 1938. No longer a polygamist, Angulalik was baptised "Stephen" in 1938, according to
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...
Sergeant
Henry Larsen. In 1941, Angulalik married Mabel Ekvana, about age 16, with whom he raised 11 children.
In 1967, Angulalik and Ekvana moved to Cambridge Bay, sent their children to the local school, and spent most of the year in a settled existence, but every summer, they returned to Perry River. Unlike other adults, Angulalik could neither read or write
Inuktitut
Inuktitut (; , syllabics ; from , "person" + , "like", "in the manner of"), also Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the tree line, including parts of the provinces o ...
.
He enjoyed photography, however, owning cameras and photographic equipment. His photos are part of a collection at the heritage center in
Yellowknife
Yellowknife (; Dogrib: ) is the capital, largest community, and only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the ...
.
See also
*
Notable Aboriginal people of Canada
Awards
*1935,
King George V Silver Jubilee Medal
The King George V Silver Jubilee Medal is a commemorative medal, instituted to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the accession of King George V.
Issue
This medal was awarded as a personal souvenir by King George V to commemorate his Silver J ...
*1953,
Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal
References
Further reading
*Keith, D., ''Stephen Angulalik: Kitikmeot Fur Trader''. 2004. Kitikmeot Heritage Societ
(Full text plus photos)*McGrath, Robin. ''A Northern Biography, Stephen Angulalik, (1895–1980)''. S.l: s.n, 1981.
External links
*Maps
PhotoStephen Angulalik, Kitikmeot Fur Traderin
Inuinnaqtun
Inuinnaqtun (; natively meaning ''like the real human beings/peoples''), is an indigenous Inuit language. It is spoken in the central Canadian Arctic. It is related very closely to Inuktitut, and some scholars, such as Richard Condon, believe t ...
, English and French
Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre – Images of Anagulalik and familyAngulalikat
Library and Archives Canada
Library and Archives Canada (LAC; french: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the federal institution, tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is t ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Angulalik, Stephen
Inuit from the Northwest Territories
People from Cambridge Bay
People acquitted of murder
1890s births
1980 deaths