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Glossary

Aivilik/Aivilingmiut: Inuit group traditionally living in northwestern Hudson Bay near Qatiktalik (Cape Fullerton), Southampton Island and the contemporary communities of Naujaat (Repulse Bay) and Igluligaarjuk (Chesterfield Inlet)
Angakkuq: Inuktitut word for shaman; surname Inuit gave to Captain George Comer
Boas, Franz (1858-1942): German-born anthropologist who was the dominant figure of cultural anthropology in the United States. He was particularly interested in the Baffin Island Inuit and later in the First Nations of the Pacific Northwest coast. He worked closely with Captain James Mutch (Scotland) and Captain George Comer (US), who amassed a great amount of valuable ethnographic data for the American Museum of Natural History when they were among the Inuit during their Arctic expeditions.
Bowhead whale: also called the Greenland right whale, this baleen whale spends its entire life in Arctic and sub-Arctic waters. It is dark in colour. It has a bowed lower jaw, a very narrow upper jaw and a massive skull; it uses to break thick ice in order to breathe. Its baleen reaches more than three meters in length while its subcutaneous layer of blubber is an average of half a meter thick. The bowhead whale was at the center of Arctic whale-hunting activities, and its population was largely decimated. As with other right whale species, it was an easy prey because it moves slowly and floats on the surface for a long time after it is killed.
Cholera: enteric contagious infection produced by the comma bacillus and manifesting itself through abundant vomiting and diarrhea, which produce dehydration that can be fatal if not treated
Diphtheria: infectious disease causing severe inflammation of the throat caused by the formation of false laryngeal membranes; it is contagious through physical contact or the air and results in asphyxia by airway obstruction, motor control degeneration and loss of sensation.
Baleen/whalebone: keratinaceous plates lining the upper jaws of baleen whales; their stiff hairs filter water and catch solids for whales to eat. Baleen was highly prized because it was used in the manufacture of riding crops, umbrella frames and corsets. It was later replaced by plastic, among other materials.
Franklin, Sir John (1786-1847): a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer, Franklin prepared several maps of the Canadian Arctic during his quest for the Northwest Passage. In 1845, he again set sail for the Arctic, this time in command of the ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, but they were caught in the ice near King William Island. After three years of no news of Sir Franklin and his men, the British Navy finally started trying to rescue the lost Franklin expedition, even promising a reward for those who found it. Despite numerous voyages dedicated to that mission until the end of the 19th century by both British and American crews, Franklin and his crew were never found. Remains and clues the sailors in distress left behind and Inuit testimony indicate that Franklin's men possibly died from starvation, hypothermia, scurvy or other causes.
Frobisher, Sir Martin (1535-1594): English explorer who sought the Northwest Passage, a direct sea trade route to Cathay (India and China); his three voyages (1576-1578) ended at Resolution Island and the bay that now bears his name. During his first expedition, he collected and brought back to England a black rock he thought might contain gold. It was that belief that motivated Frobisher's subsequent expeditions, the main objective of which was to collect this precious stone. After the third voyage, the conclusion was reached that nothing could be extracted from the worthless stones, and so Frobisher's Arctic expeditions ended.
Schooner: a ship with lug sails (i.e., fore and aft along the axis of the ship) with at least two masts, the front one of which was shorter than or the same height as the masts behind it
Whale blubber: a thick layer of vascularized fat under cetaceans' skins acting as an energy reserve and insulator, blubber was the main product of the whale-hunting industry. Oil was extracted into try pots and then stored in barrels. Whale oil's commercial value was significant because it was used as lamp fuel, for candle wax, as a wool, leather and jute lubricant and in the production of soaps and cosmetics.
Hall, Charles Francis (1821-1871): US Arctic explorer. He made his first trip (1860-1863) aboard the whaler George Henry under the command of Captain Sidney O. Budington. On Baffin Island, the Inuit informed him of the presence of artefacts that explorer Martin Frobisher left behind nearly 300 years before, and Hall went to Frobisher Bay with his guides Joe Ebierbing and Tookoolito to see for himself. Based on some Inuit reports, Hall suspected that members of Sir John Franklin's lost expedition were still alive. That is what motivated his second expedition (1864-1869) to King William Island, where he discovered the apparent traces of the 1845 shipwreck. However, Hall could not interpret the oral Inuit tradition with regard to the fate of the crew and any possible survivors. His third and last expedition (1871), aboard the Polaris, was meant to conquer the North Pole in company with Captains Budington and Tyson. The voyage went wrong, namely due to tensions in the crew. Hall suddenly fell ill, and after a short remission period, during which he accused his rivals of having poisoned him, he became ill again and died.
Iglulingmiut: Inuit group traditionally living in the Igloolik area; today the term indicates residents of the community of Iglulik.
Illu (singular)/Illuit (plural): Inuktitut word for igloo or lodging in the form of a dome constructed with snow blocks; today this term may be used to indicate a house in general.
Caribou Inuit: Inuit group living mainly on the lands west of Hudson Bay in what is now in the Kivalliq area of Nunavut
Irngutaq (singular)/irngutait (plural): Inuktitut word for grandson or granddaughter
Kamiik (pair)/kamit (plural): traditional Inuit boots the women make out of sealskin
Low, Albert Peter (1861-1942): surveyor and explorer for the Geological Survey of Canada, to whom we owe numerous geological surveys and detailed mapping of the Labrador Peninsula, northern Quebec and Hudson Bay; in 1903-1904, he led an important Canadian expedition in the eastern Arctic aboard the Neptune in the company of scientists and members of the Northwest Mounted Police. It was Canada's first real initiative intended to assert its sovereignty in the Arctic.
Maktaaq: Inuktitut word for whale skin; some lexicons make a distinction between maktaaq (narwhal or beluga skin) and maktak (bowhead whale skin). The word also means traditional Inuit dishes of whale skin and blubber, usually eaten raw.
Nakungajuq: Inuktitut word for "cross-eyes"; surname Inuit gave to Captain John Murray
Natsiaviniq: A stage of a ringed seals life after it has left the seal den and its mother. It literally means "it was recently a baby seal".
Netsilingmiut: Inuit group living in the territory near the contemporary communities of Uqsuqtuuq (Gjoa Haven) and Kugaaruk (Pelly Bay)
Panik (singular)/panit (plural): Inuktitut word for daughter
Peck, Edmund James (1850-1924): Anglican missionary, specifically recognized for his work adapting to Inuktitut the syllabics that James Evans developed among the Cree. He was first assigned in 1876 in northern Quebec (Petite Rivière à la Baleine and then Fort George) and set about learning Inuktitut. He taught Christianity to the Inuit based on a New Testament in the Labrador dialect produced by Moravian missionaries. In 1894, following an agreement with Crawford Noble, Scottish merchant from Peterhead and the owner of the Umanajuaq (Blacklead Island) whaling station, he went to Cumberland Sound with Joseph C. Parker and established a mission with the help of James Mutch, Noble's agent. He left in 1895 and returned in 1897 with Bibles printed in syllabics to set up a real mission. He taught the southern Baffin Island Inuit until 1905, the year in which he took over the supervision of Arctic missions from his base in Ottawa. He was responsible for the first English-Inuktitut dictionary, published after his death in 1925.
Polynya: area free of ice throughout the year in the Arctic or Antarctic pack ice that may be formed by the upflow of warmer water currents or winds that move newly formed ice to leave an ice-free area; these areas of open water are rich in plankton and attract marine mammals.
Qajaq (singular)/qajait (plural): kayak, or boat for one occupant used by Inuit for hunting at sea
Qallunaaq (singular)/qallunaat (plural): Inuktitut word for white person or person from the South
Qammaq (singular)/qammait (plural): Inuktitut word for a lodging made of peat, rocks and skins
Qamutiik (singular)/qamutit (plural): Inuktitut word for an Inuit sled
Qulliq (singular)/qullit (plural): Inuktitut word for traditional Inuit oil lamp, which was made of stone sculpted in the form of a crescent, filled with seal oil, with moss or cotton grass as a wick
Right whale: the Balaenidae family, commonly called "right whales," is subdivided into two genera: Balaena, in which the only species is the bowhead whale, and Eubalaena, which includes three species: North Atlantic (or Biscay) right whale, North Pacific right whale and southern right whale. The right whale gets its name from whalers because it was the correct or appropriate whale for them due to its blubber and long baleen. Furthermore, the carcasses of these whales float for a long time, making exploitation easier. Populations of these whales suffered a major decline from that fact to the point of near-extinction.
Robert Kinnes & Sons Ltd.: division of the Scottish company Tay Whale Fishing based in Dundee, founded by the merchant of the same name in 1883 to cover trading activities; Robert Kinnes' fleet and the Tay company were important and included the sailing vessel Ernest Williams and the steamer Active. With the decline of the whaling industry, the company continued its trading activities in the Arctic and operated a mica mine in Kimmirut (then Lake Harbour). The Scottish company still exists, but its Arctic activities ceased about the time of World War I.
Rock-nosing: coastal whale hunting technique used specifically along the Baffin Island coast on the fall return route shortly before the ice started to form: whaling ships moored in places out of the weather, and the men left early each morning in whaling boats to find and intercept whales heading out to sea. This hunt could be very dangerous for the crews because sometimes they could not return to the ship in the evening due to the bad fall weather. When the men made a kill, the whaling ship often came to help them secure the carcass and then return to the coast.
Sallirmiut: Inuit group living on and around Southampton Island in Hudson Bay; today the term refers to inhabitants of Salliq (Coral Harbour).
Scurvy: a disease resulting from a vitamin C deficiency, it first presents itself with fatigue and then bruises and edema on the trunk, arms and legs. If not treated, victims suffer from exhaustion and partial paralysis, develop nosebleeds and bleeding gums, their teeth fall out and they may die. Sailors were especially affected by this disease due to long periods at sea and the impossibility of keeping perishable goods aboard such as meat and fruit, sources of vitamin C. Whaling ships overcame this vitamin deficiency when they started to overwinter and then had access to fresh meat due to their interactions with the Inuit.
Sedna: Westernized name of an important figure in Inuit mythology, the ocean goddess; according to Inuit groups, she was known as Sanna, Nuliajuk, Uinigumasuittuq or Takannaaluk Arnaaluk, among her many names.
Syllabics: written system in which each syllable is represented by one character; Anglican Reverend Edmund J. Peck adapted syllabics to Inuktitut in the second half of the 19th century in order to introduce the Bible to the Inuit in the eastern Arctic.
Talirpingmiut: Inuit group traditionally living in the western part of Cumberland Sound near Lake Nettilling
Shipworm: worm-like mollusc measuring about 20 centimetres long that uses its shell to bore into submerged wood to hollow out a burrow and feed itself (hence the name "shipworm"); sailors worried that these borers would damage the hulls of their ships during sea voyages.
Rupert's Land: territory including all of the Hudson Bay drainage basin over which King Charles II of England granted the Hudson's Bay Company a monopoly in 1670; its name came from Prince Rupert, first governor of the company. In 1870, three years after confederation, the Canadian government acquired this immense territory and ended the company's monopoly. Rupert's Land covered that which is now northern Quebec, northern Ontario, southern Nunavut, all of Manitoba, a large part of Saskatchewan, southern Alberta and part of the US states of Minnesota, Montana, North and South Dakota.
Thomas Luce & Co.: American company based in New Bedford, Massachusetts that financed 36 whale-hunting expeditions between 1886 and 1903 in the Atlantic Ocean and Hudson Bay; its founder, of the same name, operated a cooperage company before becoming more interested in whale hunting. One of the ships in this company's fleet was the famous schooner Era, commanded by Captain George Comer. Starting in 1899, the company also operated a whaling and trading station at Wager Bay, Hudson Bay but only for a few years. The company's activities decreased and eventually stopped in 1905-1906 with the sale of the Era to the F.N. Monfo trading company.
Tuberculosis: infectious, contagious disease produced by Koch's bacillus that frequently attacks the lungs but that may also affect, in its derivative forms, the bones and joints, central nervous, lymphatic, blood, gastric and even skin systems. Pulmonary tuberculosis is manifested by a chronic bloody cough, fatigue, fever and night sweats and significant weight loss. Tuberculosis is transmitted in the air by the coughing and sneezing of victims. It used to be treated in sanatoriums with fresh air and sunshine before antibiotics and vaccines were invented to fight it.
Typhus: infection caused by Rickettsiae microorganisms endemic in rodents (rats, mice, etc.). It is transmitted to humans by ticks, fleas and lice. Infections are manifested first by fever, nausea, headache and muscular pain and then worsen into vomiting, bleeding gums, nosebleeds, reddish-purplish spots on the skin and stupor. Before the invention and generalized use of the vaccine in 1943, typhus could produce devastating epidemics.
Umiaq (singular)/umiat (plural): Inuktitut word for a long boat made of driftwood and walrus or seal skin for transporting about 20 people during seasonal moves between camps and later used for whale hunting
Warmow, Matthias: Moravian missionary who worked in Greenland and the first missionary to visit Cumberland Sound (in 1857); he accompanied the Scottish captain William Penny, his wife Margaret and their son and spent the winter at Kekerten. To his great disappointment, the Moravian Church decided not to start a permanent mission there, and his evangelizing efforts on Baffin Island remained unfulfilled until the arrival of the Anglican Reverend Peck some 40 years later.
Whale: marine mammal, order Cetacea, which contains two sub-orders: toothed whales (Odonteceti) (dolphin, porpoise, sperm whale and beaked whale families) and baleen whales (Mysticeti) (grey whale, pygmy right whale, rorqual and right whale families)