Arctic justice : on trial for murder, Pond Inlet, 1923 / Shelagh D. Grant.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Grant, Shelagh D. (Shelagh Dawn), 1938-2020.

Series:

McGill-Queen's native and northern series ; 33.

McGill-Queen's native and northern series ; 33

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Janes, Robert S., -1920--Relations with Inuit.

Janes, Robert S.

Murder--Nunavut--Baffin Island.

Murder.

Trials (Murder)--Nunavut--Pond Inlet.

Trials (Murder).

Criminal justice, Administration of--Nunavut--Pond Inlet--History.

Criminal justice, Administration of.

Pond Inlet (Nunavut)--Ethnic relations.

Pond Inlet (Nunavut).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xx, 342 pages : illustrations, maps)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal, QC : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Despite the fact that Nuqallaq was following Inuit customary law in carrying out a collectively sanctioned act to defend the community from the dangerously crazed trader Robert Janes, Canadian authorities made the unprecedented decision to put him and two accomplices on trial for murder. Grant shows how this decision was motivated by Canada's international political concerns for establishing sovereignty over the Arctic and how the outcome of the trial - Nuqallaq's sentence to ten years of hard labour in Stony Mountain Penitentiary and subsequent death from tuberculosis - was determined more by fear than evidence. In what amounts to a social history of North Baffin Island in the twentieth century, Grant offers telling portraits of the people involved, including the victim, Robert Janes of Newfoundland; Captain J.E. Bernier of the CGS Arctic, explorer and friend to the Inuit; English trader and entrepreneur Henry Toke Munn; the investigating RCMP officer Staff-Sargeant A. H.; Judge L. A. Rivet, and others. Most importantly we meet the remarkable Nuqallaq, his wife Ataguttiaq, and the Inuit of North Baffin Island. Arctic Justice will appeal to anyone interested in the Arctic and its indigenous peoples, contact history, anthropology, legal history, and RCMP history.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Maps

Photographs and Illustrations

Preface

Prologue

North Baffin Prior to 1905

Sovereignty and Justice, 1874–1920

Traders and Gold-Seekers, 1912-1919

Sakirmiaviniq

Police Investigations

Awaiting Judgment

Trial by Jury

To Prison and Return

Aftermath

Arctic Justice Revisited

Epilogue

Appendices

Notes on Research and Inuit Oral History

Inuit Names for People and Places

Inuit Glossary

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [317]-328) and index.

ISBN:

1-282-86029-1

9786612860294

0-7735-7003-9

OCLC:

929120464