Taissumani, March 25

In this stone-cut drawing, Tulluahiu, with each of his two wives, shows off the wooden leg made by ship’s carpenter Chimham Thomas.

KENN HARPER

A few years ago I wrote an article entitled “A Wooden Leg for Tulluahiu.”

In that article I told about Sir John Ross’s ship’s carpenter manufacturing a wooden leg for an unfortunate Nattilik man, whose name Ross recorded as Tulluahiu, and the subsequent finding of that leg by Hudson’s Bay Co. trader Lorenzo Learmonth.

But recently I’ve found some new information that indicates that it wasn’t Learmonth who found the artefact, but rather a Nattilik Inuk man who lived near Spence Bay.

Here is Tulluahiu’s story, and its bizarre aftermath.

John Ross first encountered the Nattilingmiut on the ice off Boothia Peninsula on January 9, 1830. One of the men he met on that occasion, Tulluahiu, a man about 40 years of age, was pulled on a sled by his relatives.

He had lost a leg in a hunting accident. A polar bear had ripped it from his body just below the knee, and he had very nearly lost his life.

But this didn’t prevent him from playing a part in the first encounter. By the time Ross’s party had reached the group of Inuit on the ice,

Tulluahiu was standing, supported by two other men, a long knife concealed behind his back. He held it there until it was apparent that these white men were no threat.

Two days later, Tulluahiu visited Ross’s ship again, drawn on a sled by his friend Tiagashu. The temperature was -35 degrees Fahrenheit.

Ross took some interest in the unfortunate amputee, and his name appears many times in the explorer’s narrative of his expedition.

Ross felt compassion for the man and asked the ship’s doctor to examine the stump that remained of his severed leg. The doctor found the wound to be well healed and the stump to be sound because the injury was an old one. The knee, he thought, was in good shape.

Ross then sent for the carpenter, Chimham Thomas, who measured the man up for a wooden leg.

Three days later Tulluahiu came to the ship again, as one might do today for the preliminary fitting of a prosthetic device. The carpenter had to determine whether the length was correct, and then put the finishing touches on his workmanship.

The next day, Tulluahiu returned. The leg was complete and the carpenter fastened it to the man, who strutted about the deck of the ship, elated at his newfound freedom.

John Ross was proud of his carpenter’s efforts, for they had made Tulluahiu “fully serviceable once more to himself and his community.” The carpenter had proudly inscribed the word “Victory,” the name of Ross’s ship, on the leg.

It would take some time for Tulluahiu to become totally at ease with his new appendage. The camp where he was staying was two miles away, so when it was time to leave the ship, he removed the leg and packed it on the sled.

Some time later, Ross learned, Tulluahiu was able to accompany other hunters on a seal hunt. But the carpenter, Thomas, wasn’t yet satisfied with his results. He manufactured a better foot for the leg, more suitable for walking on snow, and fitted his patient with it on his next visit.

On Jan. 24, Tulluahiu proudly walked the whole distance from his camp to the ship, being by now the “master of his implement.”

Some time later, Tulluahiu paid Ross another visit. He had damaged the trunk part of his wooden leg, but it was easily repaired with bands of copper. The carpenter died of scurvy before the expedition left the Arctic in 1833, but before his death, he made several spare legs which were presented to the ever-grateful Tulluahiu for future use.

Over a hundred years later, in March of 1950, Lorenzo Learmonth, a long-time employee of the HBC and an amateur archaeologist, took out a permit under the Ordinance Respecting the Protection and Care of Archaeological Sites.

But it wasn’t Learmonth who excavated the grave of Tulluahiu. Rather it was one of his Inuit assistants, and so I want to set the record straight and give that man the credit, rather than Learmonth.

The man’s name was Eequala. He found the wooden leg, or at least part of it. The HBC staff journal, Moccasin Telegraph, gave Eequala credit for the find, and remarked that “the wooden leg is today in a remarkable state of preservation.” At some point it had been repaired with copper tubing from the “Victory.”

The journal also noted another interesting fact not mentioned by John Ross. According to the local Inuit, Tulluahiu was in the habit of using a musk ox skull on the bottom of the peg for deep snow walking, the skull acting much like a snow shoe. It’s hard to imagine that this was easy to manoeuvre.

Although Learmonth claimed to have sent all the grave goods that were exhumed to the Royal Ontario Museum, the wooden leg was sent to a historical exhibit in the HBC Winnipeg retail store.

Taissumani recounts a specific event of historic interest. Kenn Harper is a historian, writer and linguist who lives in Iqaluit. Feedback? Send your comments and questions to kennharper@hotmail.com.