An 89-year old Alaskan Inupiat woman was honoured the week of
22-27 April 2001 for her family's contribution to arctic science.
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IQALUIT, NUNAVUT - An 89-year-old Alaskan Inupiat woman was honoured
this week, 22-27 April 2001, for her family's contribution to arctic
science.
The Canadian Polar Commission and the U.S. Arctic Research Commission
presented the award to Ruth Ipalook at the Arctic Science Summit in
Iqaluit.
Ruth Ipalook, her parents and her sister were on board the ill-fated
"Karluk" expedition in the early 1900s. Ipalook was only three-years-old
when her family set out on the Canadian expedition in 1913. The
expedition quickly soured when the boat was crushed in ice, forcing crew
members to abandon ship and head to Wrangle Island.
Jim Llewllyn of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission says without the
Ipalook family, there would likely have been no survivors.
"They would provide food for the expedition off of the land and the sea,
and also sew the winter clothes," he says. "I think without them the
crew would not have been able to make it."
The commissions say without the help of northern native people, many of
the earlier polar expeditions would have failed.