Speaker 1: The Quest for the North Pole is a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Mental Floss. As you pass through
Speaker 1: the main entrance of the American Museum of Natural History
Speaker 1: in New York City, you meet a statue of Theodore
Speaker 1: Roosevelt and enter a hall crowded with tourists and dinosaur skeletons.
Speaker 1: You walk past a herd of taxi, der meat, elephants,
Speaker 1: Native American artifacts, and the New Gallery of Gems and
Speaker 1: Minerals before reaching a small room dominated by a giant meteorite.
Speaker 1: It weighs about thirty four tons, but it's just a
Speaker 1: fragment of the colossal rock that crashed into Northwest Greenland
Speaker 1: as much as ten thousand years ago. Scientists estimate it's
Speaker 1: about four point five billion years old, roughly the same
Speaker 1: age as the Sun. It's about iron and so heavy
Speaker 1: that the apparatus supporting it had to be drilled right
Speaker 1: into the Manhattan bedrock. Two other pieces of the meteorite
Speaker 1: are in the same room. Before White explorers arrived in Greenland,
Speaker 1: bringing with them metal tools, these meteorites were the only
Speaker 1: sources of metal for the in white people. How did
Speaker 1: these massive, heavy meteorites make their way from the Arctic
Speaker 1: to a museum in New York City. From Mental Floss
Speaker 1: and I Heart Radio, you're listening to the Quest for
Speaker 1: the North Pole. I'm your host, Cat Long, science editor
Speaker 1: at Mental Floss, and this bonus episode is Minic and
Speaker 1: the Meteorites. John Ross was the first White explorer to
Speaker 1: learn about the meteorites. On his eighteen eighteen expedition to
Speaker 1: the Northwest Passage, he met INU White, who described black
Speaker 1: mountains some distance away, where they chipped off pieces of
Speaker 1: iron for their knives. Though he was intrigued by this information,
Speaker 1: Ross didn't have time to see them himself, and they
Speaker 1: would remain an Arctic mystery until Robert Peary searched for
Speaker 1: them in the eighteen nineties. By then, Peery had already
Speaker 1: completed two expeditions to northern Greenland with the idea of
Speaker 1: traversing its ice sheet. On his third trip, in his
Speaker 1: goal shifted to conquering the North Pole. The expedition was
Speaker 1: memorable for a few reasons. His pregnant wife Josephine, held
Speaker 1: down the operations of their base camp and gave birth
Speaker 1: to their daughter, Marie on a guito. There. Peery and
Speaker 1: Matthew Henson made a death defying dash over the Greenland
Speaker 1: ice sheet, looking four route to the north pole, and
Speaker 1: Peery would be shown the valuable meteorites that the inuite
Speaker 1: had described to John Ross seventy five years earlier. After
Speaker 1: months of preparation, Peary and a small crew launched the
Speaker 1: reconnaissance of the northern ice sheet in March, but a
Speaker 1: little over a month after setting off, Pierry had to
Speaker 1: admit failure. The weather was just too terrible and it
Speaker 1: took weeks for everyone to recover. In May, Peery asked
Speaker 1: the inuite assisting his expedition to lead him to the
Speaker 1: Black Mountains. With his guide Telekotia. They drove dog sleds
Speaker 1: over the treacherous spring Eyes to the edge of Melville Bay.
Speaker 1: Telekotias spied a pile of stones poking through the snow
Speaker 1: that he said were used to chip pieces from the mountains.
Speaker 1: As Peery wrote in his book, northward over the great ice.
Speaker 1: He then indicated a spot four or five ft distant
Speaker 1: as the cation of the long sought object. Talakotia began
Speaker 1: sawing away blocks of snow and three ft beneath the surface.
Speaker 1: The brown mass rudely awakened from its winter sleep, found
Speaker 1: for the first time in its cycles of existence the
Speaker 1: eyes of a white man gazing upon it, Peery wrote.
Speaker 1: Talakotia said that the boulder was thought of as a
Speaker 1: female figure in a sitting position. They called it the Woman.
Speaker 1: Peerie estimated it at roughly four ft long, three ft wide,
Speaker 1: and two ft deep at its maximum points, and weighing
Speaker 1: about six thousand pounds. Perry continued, I scratched a rough
Speaker 1: pe on the surface of the metal as an indisputable
Speaker 1: proof of my having found the meteorite, in case I
Speaker 1: should not be able later on to reach it with
Speaker 1: my ship. Because that was his plan. It wasn't enough
Speaker 1: for Perry to find the legendary meteorites. He wanted to
Speaker 1: excavate them and take them home as personal trophies. I
Speaker 1: asked Ken Harper, author of the book Minic the New
Speaker 1: York Eskimo, how the Inuite might have felt about that
Speaker 1: the meteorites had been the only source of iron for
Speaker 1: the Inohuite for a very long time. But it's also
Speaker 1: true that by the time period took them, the Inuit
Speaker 1: were no longer you know, chipping off iron to use
Speaker 1: as as tools from from the meteorites. They would get
Speaker 1: metal objects and knives and other metal trade goods from
Speaker 1: the whalers and then from Peery. You know, people were
Speaker 1: dependent on Pery. So if this is his mission in
Speaker 1: certain years is to get these meteorites and get them
Speaker 1: aboard ship and use Innuit labor to help to do that,
Speaker 1: and pay in trade goods and the food stuffs for
Speaker 1: that Innuit labor, then the innuity are going to help them.
Speaker 1: But that still doesn't mean he should have taken They
Speaker 1: weren't his right. He wasn't given permission. It was not
Speaker 1: within Peri's character to ask Nuwit if he could do something.
Speaker 1: He was there to do things, and in his view,
Speaker 1: they were there to do his beating, so he didn't
Speaker 1: ask for permission. He gave himself permission. The following spring,
Speaker 1: Perry returned with his ship and crew to abscond with
Speaker 1: the woman and another smaller meteorite that the Inuit called
Speaker 1: the dog. An oval mass a little over two ft
Speaker 1: long and weighing about nine pounds, the dog was rolled
Speaker 1: onto a sledge made of spruce poles and dragged towards
Speaker 1: the beach. The crew floated it towards the ship on
Speaker 1: a cake of ice. The woman had to be transported
Speaker 1: on iron rollers over a roadway paved with beach pebbles,
Speaker 1: then ferried to the ship on ice. But before the
Speaker 1: woman could be fully secured, the ice beneath it broke
Speaker 1: and the meteorite began to sink, pulling the ship down
Speaker 1: with it. By slowly hoisting the massive rock up on chains,
Speaker 1: the men were able to swing it over the side
Speaker 1: of the ship and into the hold. There was still
Speaker 1: one more prize, the biggest meteorite of all, which the
Speaker 1: Innuite dubbed the tent, a boulder so big and heavy
Speaker 1: that Perry would need a stronger ship and all of
Speaker 1: his experience as a civil engineer to extract it. He
Speaker 1: settled for transporting the two smaller ones to New York
Speaker 1: in the summer. He returned for the iron monster the
Speaker 1: following year. Perry's crew and every able bodied man from
Speaker 1: the nearby village began digging the meteorite out of the
Speaker 1: frozen ground with picks and hydraulic lifts, while Peery supervised
Speaker 1: as it rose slowly inch by inch. It grew upon
Speaker 1: us as Niagara grows upon the observer, and there was
Speaker 1: not one of us unimpressed by the enormousness of this
Speaker 1: lump of metal, Terry wrote, the struggle to move the
Speaker 1: huge meteorite proved to be a lesson in physics. Never
Speaker 1: have I had the terrific majesty of the force of
Speaker 1: gravity and the meaning of the terms momentum and inertia
Speaker 1: so powerfully brought home to me, he recalled. After pausing
Speaker 1: work during the winter, the crew built a sturdy bridge
Speaker 1: from the shoreline to the ship. They mounted a railroad
Speaker 1: like track, and then secured a rolling car to it.
Speaker 1: The meteorite was lifted by Jack's into the car and
Speaker 1: covered with the American flag, while Peery's four year old
Speaker 1: daughter dashed a little bottle of wine over it and
Speaker 1: named it Aguito. Perry wrote. Then the meteorite was slowly
Speaker 1: pulled over the bridge and lowered into the hold for
Speaker 1: its voyage to New York. In his book, Peery includes
Speaker 1: several letters from eminent geologists asserting the scientific value of
Speaker 1: the meteorites, as well as reports on their chemical composition
Speaker 1: and physical appearance. But for all the attention Perry paid
Speaker 1: to his precious rocks, he neglected to mention that he
Speaker 1: also brought to New York, some of his in white
Speaker 1: helpers and their families, including an eight year old boy
Speaker 1: named Minic. Let's take a break here, We'll be right back.
Speaker 1: Perry Ship the Hope arrived at the Brooklyn Navy Yard
Speaker 1: in late septemb Twenty thousand people, each paying a quarter,
Speaker 1: came to see the giant meteorite and the six inuite,
Speaker 1: still wearing their fur clothing in the late summer heat.
Speaker 1: In addition to Minic and his father Shook, there were Nootka,
Speaker 1: his wife Attagona, their twelve year old daughter Avia, and
Speaker 1: a young man named Wikasakak. Pierri had brought the inuite
Speaker 1: to New York at the request of anthropologist Franz Boas,
Speaker 1: then the museum's assistant curator for ethnology. Boaz pioneered the
Speaker 1: theory of cultural relativism, a framework that argues that the
Speaker 1: values of one culture should not be evaluated based on
Speaker 1: the values of another. That went against the prevailing belief
Speaker 1: that human cultures existed on a spectrum from primitive to advanced,
Speaker 1: and implicitly that white Western cultures were the most advanced
Speaker 1: in the world. Here's Ken Harper France. Boast is viewed
Speaker 1: as the father of modern anthropology. Are very much remembered
Speaker 1: today as an anti racism activist and did a lot
Speaker 1: of good work. But the Inuit and the other people
Speaker 1: are studied by most of these scientists were subjects. They
Speaker 1: were subjects for study. The New York Times reported that
Speaker 1: the Inuite would go to the Museum of Natural History,
Speaker 1: where they will arrange the exhibit of their implements that
Speaker 1: Perry had collected. They planned to return home on Perry's
Speaker 1: next expedition. The museum held an informal reception for the Inuite,
Speaker 1: who were by then living in the basement. Matthew Henson
Speaker 1: acted as interpreter. When the throngs of visitors were told
Speaker 1: the Inuite were not actually on exhibition, they had to
Speaker 1: content themselves with a glimpse through a grating above the basement,
Speaker 1: and many lay prone peering through the spaces and the
Speaker 1: hopes of catching a glimpse. The Times wrote, between giggling
Speaker 1: at their unfamiliar clothing and mimics quote unspellable and unpronounceable name.
Speaker 1: The Times reporter mentioned that some of the six were
Speaker 1: not well. The climate didn't agree with them, The paper said,
Speaker 1: less than a month later, all six were rushed to
Speaker 1: Bellevue Hospital at Taganhaw was so weak with pneumonia that
Speaker 1: she had to be carried on a stretcher, while the
Speaker 1: others appeared to have the flu. Franz Boas explained to
Speaker 1: a reporter from the New York Sun that the inuite
Speaker 1: had no immunity to urban diseases. When they come into
Speaker 1: this climate, they are the prey of every germ that exists,
Speaker 1: he said. Minics seemed to have a milder case, but
Speaker 1: the five adults and the young girl never fully recovered,
Speaker 1: despite moving out of the museum's basement and into the
Speaker 1: Bronx home belonging to the museum's building Superintendent William Wallace.
Speaker 1: In February, Menick's father, Heihuk died at Bellevue. Three others
Speaker 1: died that spring, only with Kasakak returned home on Perio's
Speaker 1: ship in July eight. Now an orphan, Menick continued to
Speaker 1: live with the Wallace family. He missed his father dearly,
Speaker 1: but his loss was alleviated somewhat by the funeral service
Speaker 1: Wallace had arranged. The staff of the museum thought it
Speaker 1: was important to bury casual and have a funeral for
Speaker 1: the benefit of impressing young Munich. So they held this
Speaker 1: ceremony on the grounds of the American Museum of Natural History,
Speaker 1: where they conducted against the New York version of a
Speaker 1: traditional Inothuid burial. As he grew up, Minick learned English,
Speaker 1: rode his bicycle, and befriended the Wallace's son, Willie, who
Speaker 1: was about his own age. He excelled in high school
Speaker 1: and competed in an ice skating competition. Nine years went
Speaker 1: by before Minnick learned of the deep betrayal that would
Speaker 1: shatter his trust. The William Wallace and the museum had
Speaker 1: held an elaborate ceremony for Hishook back in Franz Boas
Speaker 1: never actually intended to bury him. Instead, he had planned
Speaker 1: to add Hishook's body to the museum's collection all along.
Speaker 1: At the funeral service, the museum staff had wrapped a
Speaker 1: log in cloth and placed a mask at its head
Speaker 1: to mimic his Shook's body. The ceremony was held at dusk,
Speaker 1: and they kept Minnick well back from the casket. Wallace
Speaker 1: later told a newspaper reporter the boy never suspected, so
Speaker 1: where was his father's body? The museum had retrieved it
Speaker 1: and brought it to Wallace's farm west of Albany, New York. Yeah,
Speaker 1: little building that straddled the stream that went through the property,
Speaker 1: and that was a de fleshing plant. Museum specimens were
Speaker 1: sent there, and unfortunately Minick's father, Fratial, was sent there
Speaker 1: and his body was de fleshed in this little building. Basically,
Speaker 1: they ran water continually over the body to strip the
Speaker 1: flesh from the bones, and then the bones were sent
Speaker 1: back to the American Museum of Natural History. The three
Speaker 1: other Inuits bones also ended up at the museum. The
Speaker 1: newspaper reports had mentioned the museum's plans. Minick remained unaware
Speaker 1: of what had happened until seven, when he somehow learned
Speaker 1: his father was at the museum. He demanded that the
Speaker 1: museum returned his father's remains so he could bury them
Speaker 1: properly in Greenland. But Wallace, who might have been able
Speaker 1: to help him convince museum officials, had been fired a
Speaker 1: few years earlier for taking bribes. As for Robert Peery,
Speaker 1: he had washed his hands of the inuite the moment
Speaker 1: they arrived at the museum. He refused to take men
Speaker 1: at home. Then Menick took his sad story to the media.
Speaker 1: The bad publicity convinced the Periarctic Club that something had
Speaker 1: to be done. Peery was at just that time on
Speaker 1: his quest to reach the North Pole, and the public
Speaker 1: relations nightmare that might greet him when he returned would
Speaker 1: cost them all. Herbert Bridgeman, one of the founders of
Speaker 1: the Periarctic Club, arranged for Menick to return to Greenland
Speaker 1: on Pery's regularly scheduled supply ship in nine His father's
Speaker 1: remains stayed at the museum. He arrived back with just
Speaker 1: the clothes on his back, and he was like a
Speaker 1: fish out of water. He had lost his son doing skills.
Speaker 1: He had lost his language. He spoke only English. Manick
Speaker 1: was eighteen or nineteen years old, the age when his
Speaker 1: peers would already be starting families and providing for them
Speaker 1: by hunting. He relearned his native language, and for a
Speaker 1: while he worked as a guide and interpreter for Perry's
Speaker 1: former assistant, Donald McMillan on an expedition north of Ellesmere Island.
Speaker 1: But unfortunately for Munich, he was still neither fish nor foul.
Speaker 1: When he had been in New York, he longed for
Speaker 1: the Arctic the Arctic that he viewed as his home,
Speaker 1: but which he did not understand. When he was back
Speaker 1: in the Arctic, he longed for New York. Menck never
Speaker 1: felt quite at home in Greenland following his return in
Speaker 1: nineteen o nine. Several years later, restless and without prospects,
Speaker 1: he decided to go back to the US and look
Speaker 1: for employment. But by then the world had changed. World
Speaker 1: War One was ripping Europe apart. Pierre's triumph at the
Speaker 1: Pole and his bitter feud with his rival Frederick Cooke
Speaker 1: seemed like a story from the distant past. Polar adventurers
Speaker 1: turned towards Antarctica to claim their fame, a fact clearly
Speaker 1: illustrated by Sir Ernest Shackleton's heroic rescue of his entire
Speaker 1: crew from shipwreck. In nineteen six, Menck began working as
Speaker 1: a lumberjack at a logging camp in northern New Hampshire.
Speaker 1: There he befriended another worker named Afton Hall, and when
Speaker 1: blogging season ended in spring, Menick stayed with Hall and
Speaker 1: his parents at their farm. As Ken Harper writes, Menick
Speaker 1: seemed to have finally found a home where he felt
Speaker 1: loved and cared for a community where he felt like
Speaker 1: he belonged, but it was not to last. Menick died
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighteen in the influence of pandemic, but instead
Speaker 1: of being buried in an unmarked mass grave, the fate
Speaker 1: of many of the flu's victims, the Halls laid Menic
Speaker 1: to rest in the local cemetery, where you can still
Speaker 1: visit his grave. While the three Cape York meteorites remain
Speaker 1: at the American Museum of Natural History, the bones of
Speaker 1: Menic's father and his companions are no longer there. As
Speaker 1: museums began to reckon with their unethical collection practices of
Speaker 1: the past, officials repatriated the remains of the four Inhuite.
Speaker 1: They were finally buried in their home village, which is
Speaker 1: all Menic had wanted. The Quest for the North Pole
Speaker 1: is hosted by Me cat Law. This episode was researched
Speaker 1: and written by Me, with fact checking by Austin Thompson.
Speaker 1: The executive producers are Aaron McCarthy and Tyler Clang. The
Speaker 1: supervising producer is Dylan Fagan. The show is edited by
Speaker 1: Dylan Fagan. For transcripts, a glossary, and to learn more
Speaker 1: about this episode, visit Mental flaws dot com slash podcast,
Speaker 1: The Quest for the North Pole is a production of
Speaker 1: I heart Radio and Mental Flaws. For more podcasts from
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