Angulalik:
Kitikmeot Fur Trader
The Teacher and Instructor's Guide
Kitikmeot Heritage Society
Adult Learners 3 - The Fur Trade
Outcomes:
The students will increase their understanding of Stephen Angulalik and how his contributions helped to develop the fur trade between the Kitikmeot Inuit and the outside world. The students will also be introduced to the history of the fur trade with emphasis on the decline of the fur trade in the 1970’s and how this affected Inuit.
Background:
Stephen Angulalik was a remarkable person. His skills and knowledge as a hunter and leader were legendary among his people, the Inuit. Angulalik was the owner of a successful fur trade post at Perry River (Kuukyuak), and his influence and reputation were known far and wide. Images and stories of Angulalik were published in magazines and periodicals around the world.
Angulalik’s success as a fur trader came in part, by being in the right place at the right time. Prior to the beginning of sustained contact with non-Inuit, the Inuit of the Kitikmeot region had already been part of Inuit trade networks stretching west to Alaska, south to Churchill, east to Hudson’s Bay and perhaps beyond. In the early 20th century, as commercial whaling was becoming uneconomical in the western Arctic, former whalers took an avid interest in the fur trade. It was the efforts of their trading that resulted in the first sustained contact between Kitikmeot Inuit and the outside world.
When the “Stop the Seal Hunt” campaign began in the 1970’s, the traditional economy of the Inuit was greatly affected, even though the campaign was directed towards the methods of Canada’s Atlantic Coast, not Inuit seal hunters.
Residing in New Brunswick at the time, Brian Davies of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) led an aggressive campaign with support from Greenpeace, the United Kingdom (UK) government and the famous French actress Bridget Bardot. Unfortunately, when the UK eventually banned the import of baby seal skins, it was difficult for the Inuit to educate foreigners on the difference between their hunting methods versus those of the Atlantic Coast, and their trade economy declined as a result. This did not only impact the sale of the seal but of all fur bearing animals including fox and wolverine, making Stephen Angulalik one of the last independent fur traders to prosper from the fur trade.
