Give Me Winter, Give Me Dogs: Knud Rasmussen and the Fifth Thule Expedition

Give Me Winter, Give Me Dogs: Knud Rasmussen and the Fifth Thule Expedition

by Kenn Harper

Iqaluit, Nunavut: Inhabit Media Inc., 2024

Reviewed by Dave Woodman

One set of matched covers dominates the space on many bookshelves of Arctic expedition accounts. The seven-volume Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition, detailing the expedition conducted by the Danish Greenlander Knud Rasmussen and his companions between 1921 and 23, is densely packed with specialized scientific detail. During my early research concerning Inuit recollections of the Franklin expedition, these hefty tomes, amounting to over five thousand pages, seemed peripheral to my purpose. Rasmussen’s collected traditions dealing with Franklin were readily available in secondary sources, so I took the easier alternative of reading his more accessible overview Across Arctic America. I always thought I would return to the primary volumes when I had time.

Thanks to my friend Kenn Harper, I feel less pressure to make such a time investment. After decades of patient study, Kenn was inspired by the approaching centennial of the Fifth Thule expedition to produce his new book Give Me Winter, Give Me Dogs. He does such a masterful job of retelling the story of Rasmussen’s expedition that only the most obsessed readers need to revisit the original report.  

Kenn Harper is perhaps the most appropriate person to publish a popular summary of this large corpus of research, which he calls “a virtual encyclopedia of knowledge on Inuit culture.” A long-time resident of the Arctic, called by the Inuit Ilisaijikutaaq (“tall teacher”), Harper embodies many of the same characteristics as his hero Rasmussen. Both men’s long experience among the Inuit engendered great respect and sympathy for their hardships and the difficulties of coping in a rapidly changing social environment. Harper is fluent in English, Danish and Inuktitut and, in many favourable ways, resembles Rasmussen, who was told, “You have the face of a white man, but our tongue.” 

Harper is also a well-established author. He is well known to readers of Arctic history through his excellent books Give Me My Father's Body and In Those Days. For ten years, he wrote "Taissumani," a regular column on Arctic history in Nunatsiaq News, which he has recently revived.

Harper’s book treats the Thule expedition in two sections. The first revolves around Danish Island, the self-named camp established near modern Naujaat (Repulse Bay). From here, he and his associates conducted forays into the field individually and collectively to pursue their research goals. The primary impetus of the expedition was to validate Steensby’s contention that the coastal Inuit were descendants of earlier inland populations. Their work partially disproved this idea, although they failed to realize this. The modern consensus is that contemporary Inuit migrated east along the coast from Siberia to Greenland,  and the second section of the book relates Rasmussen’s trek, accompanied by the young hunter Qaavigarsuaq and his widowed cousin Arnarulunnguaq, along this coast in the opposite direction.

Harper lauds the purely scientific purpose of this Danish expedition:

“It was not to explore for new lands, to claim sovereignty over any lands and plant a flag, to search for mineral wealth and claim that, to convert the people through Christianity, to trade for furs — it was not any of those things … It was to meet new people that had been at that time largely untouched by missionaries, traders, and this expedition happened sort of at the 11th hour before a horde of outside influences arrives in the formerly isolated parts of the Arctic.”

Although Harper clearly recounts the Fifth Expedition's archaeological activities and scientific work, he does not dwell on the details. While lauding the efforts and accomplishments of his Danish scientific travelling companions, Kaj Birket-Smith (anthropology) and Therkel Mathiassen (archaeology), Rasmussen is most effusive in his praise of his Greenlandic companions, including Kalaaleq Jacob Olson (native west Greenlander) and his Inughuit (Greenland Inuit) assistants. He unequivocally stated that “the Eskimo is the hero of this book. His history, his present culture, his daily hardships, and his spiritual life constitute the theme and the narrative.” Harper agrees that these Inughuit were “the largely unsung heroes and aides who helped to make Rasmussen’s expedition a success,” repeatedly demonstrating their essential contributions. 

Rasmussen, modestly self-described as “folklorist," nevertheless provides the book's primary focus. Harper lauds Rasmussen’s effort to preserve and catalogue the beliefs, customs, and traditions of the Inuit he encountered. The difficulties of the era in which Rasmussen worked, when southern culture increasingly encroached on traditional Inuit life, are sympathetically retold by Harper with his valuable insight from having been immersed in both worlds. He tells of the murders committed by Alikammig and Tatamirana, their trial and execution, as the great tragedy in intercultural misunderstanding and incompatibility that it is now recognized to be. He also relates how Umiq brought his idiosyncratic version of Christianity to the Iglulimiut, integrating it with older traditions and practices. 

Rasmussen’s “salvage ethnography” is brought forth from the wonderful stories and magic songs of the Inuit with whom he interacted. Much of his work centered around interviews with powerful shamans who were valuable sources of traditional Inuit philosophy, practices and beliefs. Others, including Ivaluarjuk, Urulu and Igsivalitaq “the Outlaw” tell their gripping stories of lives lived in a culture now sadly displaced. Most of these individuals are brought to life by inclusion in the excellent section of photographs included in the end matter. However, these might have been more efficiently spread throughout the text and keyed to the individual stories. 

Although the Inuit recollections relayed to Rasmussen form the basis of the book, Harper expands the context by including stories of the lively and engaging characters of the era, many of whom deserve and some have benefitted from complete book-length treatment. These include the southern traders, George Comer, George Cleveland and Patsy Klengenburg. Other well-known characters make cameo appearances, such as Ada Blackjack and the explorers  Vihljarmar Stefansson and Rasmussen’s own companion Peter Freuchen. Their interactions within the context of the Thule Expedition are emphasized. The latter two are both prolific authors and subjects of books themselves. Stefansson emerges in this book as somewhat of a bête noire, while Rasmussen’s friend Peter Freuchen’s adventures add colour. The latter’s popular books would eventually eclipse Rasmussen himself among the general public. After reading Harper’s excellent overview, I am sure many readers will be inspired to follow up with these.

A section of helpful maps is useful, but again, they may have been more efficiently scattered throughout the book in accordance with the narrative of the various excursions from the base at Danish Island and the eventual crossing of the entire Arctic coast from Greenland to Siberia. Although no index is provided, Harper includes an excellent glossary and references for those inspired to further reading and research. 

In addition to popularizing a somewhat obscure expedition on its centenary, Harper believes that the book is relevant to modern Inuit as well, who “are now coming to realize their indebtedness to him [Rasmussen] as well for the documentation he made of their ancestor’s lives and beliefs.” These traditions and the many collected artifacts preserved worldwide form an essential and enduring legacy.