Minik, a popular name

In 1986, I wrote and self-published my book Give Me My Father’s Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo.

It told the story of six Inughuit, Inuit from the far north of Greenland, who were taken by the American explorer Robert Peary to the United States in 1897 to be exhibited in a museum.

Four of the six died in New York. One returned to Greenland the following year.

But one, Minik, was kept in New York for the next 12 years and educated there. My book told his story.

The book was published again in English by American publisher Steerforth Press in 2000. It was published in Danish in 1986 and again in 2000. Many bilingual Greenlanders read the Danish edition. It was also published in Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) in 2001, bringing it to an even wider Greenlandic audience.

The story forms part of the heritage of the Inughuit, who are sometimes referred to as the Polar Inuit. In 2017, the book was published again in English in an expanded paperback edition with a new title, simply: Minik, the New York Eskimo.

Minik very quickly took a prominent place in Greenlandic popular culture.

In 2014, the students of Greenland’s National School of Theatre wrote and produced a play titled Minik and it was performed in Greenland and Europe.

In 2016, the production, which featured only four actors, was presented for the first time in North America at the Alianait Arts Festival in Iqaluit.

Susanne Andreasen, tour manager and director, said, “[The play] is about having your identity stolen, having the responsibility for your own life taken away from you. It’s about not knowing who you are and where you come from.”

She said that “being alone, being scared, we have all the spectrum of feelings in the play.”

The cover of the 2017 edition of Minik, the New York Eskimo, published by Steerforth Press.

In 2011, Atlantic Music Studio in Greenland produced a CD for the local Amarok Theatre. It too was titled simply Minik. The cover art featured the iconic picture of Minik with his bicycle.

Described as experimental pop, the CD depicted the life of Minik in 11 songs.

Greenland keeps detailed records of personal names. The name Minik was rarely used prior to the publication of Give Me My Father’s Body in 1986.

One hunter in Thule, Minik Daorana, bore the name, as did Greenlandic geologist Minik Rosing. But there were almost no other people named Minik in the 1950s, ’60s, or ’70s.

That changed starting in the mid-1980s. In the book, Kalaallit aqqi (Greenlandic Personal Names), the Greenlandic scholar Nuka Møller documents that by 2015, there were 152 people in Greenland and 72 in Denmark who bore the name Minik. Many Inuit names can be used for boys or girls, and four of those with the name Minik were girls.

One person bearing the name is Prince Vincent Frederik Minik Alexander, son of King Frederik X and Queen Mary and third in line to the throne of Denmark.

Shortly after the birth, his father, then the crown prince, joked that he might name the boy Elvis as he was born on Elvis Presley’s birthday.

However, Elvis didn’t make the cut — the boy was given the name Minik because of his father’s love of Greenland, where he had travelled extensively.

The origin of the name Minik is uncertain. Nuka Møller, citing the writings of Samuel Kleinschmidt in 1871, claims it means “a fatty viscous glue-like substance used to paste the seams of a skin boat.”

He explained: “A significant portion of Greenlandic names have their origin in daily life, some of them dealing with the household and its tools, as well as hunting life and its equipment.”

The Danish newspaper Berlingske claimed the name means “earwax.”

One reason for the name’s popularity, aside from its connection to an important story of the Inughuit, is that it is short and easy to pronounce.

The name Minik is not used only a personal name. The Royal Arctic Line, a Greenland shipping company, took delivery of a new freight-hauling ship in September of 2016. Its name? Minik Arctica.

Today, the name Minik is firmly entrenched in Greenlandic popular culture.

Taissumani is an occasional column that recalls events of historical interest. Kenn Harper is a historian and writer who lived in the Arctic for more than 50 years. He is the author of “Minik: The New York Eskimo” and “Thou Shalt Do No Murder,” among other books. Feedback? Send your comments and questions to kennharper@hotmail.com.