Umik (alternately Uming) was an

Inuk Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labr ...

angakkuq The Inuit angakkuq (plural: ''angakkuit'', Inuktitut syllabics ᐊᖓᑦᑯᖅ or ᐊᖓᒃᑯᖅ; Inuvialuktun: '; , pl. ''angakkut''; Iñupiaq: ''aŋatkuq'') is an intellectual and spiritual figure in Inuit culture who corresponds to a med ...

'' (shaman) who proclaimed himself a Christian evangelist and began to preach to the

Igloolik Igloolik ( Inuktitut syllabics: , ''Iglulik'', ) is an Inuit hamlet in Foxe Basin, Qikiqtaaluk Region in Nunavut, northern Canada. Because its location on Igloolik Island is close to Melville Peninsula, it is often mistakenly thought to be o ...

Inuit in the 1920s. Umik was one of several ''angakkuq'' who

syncretised Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thus ...

Christianity and Inuit traditions. Umik's practices included the use of flags, shaking hands (even those of dogs and children), and Sunday as a day of rest. However, his beliefs also included heterodox practices such as

polygamy Polygamy (from Late Greek , "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, it is called polygyny. When a woman is married to more tha ...

.Aparecida Vilaça, Robin Wright. ''Native Christians: Modes and Effects of Christianity Among Indigenous Peoples of the Americas''. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2009 , 978-0-7546-6355-3

References

Christian missionaries in Canada Inuit missionaries Inuit from the Northwest Territories Canadian Christian missionaries People from Igloolik 20th-century Canadian Christian clergy 20th-century Inuit people {{nunavut-stub