Just Another Resource? Inuit Interactions with Whalers in the Mid-19th Century

This is the story of an encounter between Inuit and American whalers at the mouth of Frobisher Bay in the years 1860-1862. While outside cultures impacted the residents of this area Inuit were not solely passive recipients of change but were active participants in the interactions. In the title I pose a question: which resources are being exploited and who is doing the exploitation. The data for this talk come from the lengthy journals of American Charles Francis Hall, possibly the one person (after Lady Franklin) most desperate to discover the fate of the lost Franklin expedition.