Man wants cash for mystery skull

JOHN THOMPSON

The Pangnirtung man who recently discovered a mysterious skull says he plans to sell it to the highest bidder.

Andrew Dialla discovered the odd-looking skull while walking with his five-year-old daughter about a month and a half ago. It looks like a baby caribou skull, except elders have said caribou don’t have horns at that young an age.

Dialla’s speculated the skull could date to before the last ice age, when the Arctic was far warmer, and inhabited by different animals.

His claims caught the interest of researchers such as Richard Harington, a distinguished paleontologist with the Canadian Museum of Nature.

Harington has warned the skull could simply belong to a malformed caribou.

The world may never know, if Dialla’s claims aren’t validated by an expert.

“Whoever wants to study it has to buy it,” he wrote in an email.

His plan could be breaking the law.

Under Nunavut’s archeological site regulations, any fossils — including the ancient bones of animals —cannot be sold.

As well, any fossils found on Inuit owned land belong to the regional Inuit organization, in this case, the Qikiqtani Inuit Association.

But Dialla said he found the skull on the shoreline, within reach of the waves.

He says he needs the money to launch a wrongful dismissal suit against his former employer, the Government of Nunavut’s bureau of statistics.

Dialla lost his job the day he found the skull, he wrote in a press release, for allegedly making threatening comments to his manager.

Dialla alleges his former manager made life difficult for him over the last months.

He also believes the skull is a gift from the gods.

In a press release titled, “mystery skull a gift from Sedna,” Dialla writes that the spirits of his ancestors gave him the skull to help him through present hardships.

Dialla fasted and pleaded with the land and sea for guidance, he wrote. Then he found the skull.