September 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the 5th Thule expedition. This expedition went over Greenland's ice sheet and traveled over 18.000 kilometer on dog sled all the way to Alaska!
The Thule expeditions were a total of 7 polar expeditions, taking place between 1912 and 1933. They are known as the 'Thule' expeditions because most of them started from a base in Thule, Greenland. They were all planned and most of them lead by the Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen. While all of the expeditions played a big part in mapping the Arctic, the 5th expedition is by far considered the most important.
Knud Rasmussen
Knud Rasmussen was a Danish polar scientist who was born in 1879 in Greenland. While he lived and studied in Denmark in his youth, he was still closely attached to Greenland. After finishing his schooling, he continuously went back and forth between Denmark and Greenland, where he in periods lived in the Thule district. From there he started his expeditions that ranged all over the arctic with the goal of studying the arctic peoples' lives and cultures. Because he had grown up in Greenland, he spoke the language fluently and was used to living in the arctic conditions, for example by being a skilled dog sled driver. This all meant that the local people trusted him far more than they would have otherwise, and resulted in him being able to make a thorough scientific study of arctic cultures. As he was also a writer, he published many books about his findings both facts and myths.
During the 7th Thule expedition, he became ill and never recovered and he died back home in Denmark in 1933.
The Thule Expeditions
The first Thule expedition started in 1912, where Rasmussen and a man named Peter Freuchen crossed the ice in an attempt to find news about a different expedition that had disappeared, but without luck. The second expedition from 1916-18 went to Northern Greenland, where he and those he traveled with made cartographic, geological and ethnographic investigations. The expedition faced a lot of trouble on the way back, and two of the participants died. The 3rd expedition was led by another and was mainly a support for an expedition that was otherwise unrelated to the Thule expeditions. In 1919 Rasmussen went to the South Eastern Greenland on the 4th expedition, where he collected legends and traditions from the people living there. Both the 6th (1931) and 7th (1932-33) expeditions went to south East Greenland as well. The last expedition had to be cut short, however, due to Rasmussen becoming seriously ill and needing medical attention.
The 5th expedition
The 5th expedition was by far the largest, spanning the years from 1921-24. It consisted of both Danes and local Inuits from the Thule area. The expedition started out horribly, when two of the original 14 members died before even leaving Greenland. Next, the ship with supplies got stuck in the ice, damaging a lot of goods before people were able to arrive to save the supplies. After this, however, it all went much smoother. During the first year, the expedition worked from a base in the Hudson bay, from where they split the work and went on smaller expeditions to map the surrounding area in regards to both biology, culture and archeology. In the autumn of 1922, about a year after the expedition began, a ship arrived to collect the Danish scientists and the data that had been found thus far.
Knud Rasmussen, however, continued, together with Arnarulunnguaq og Qâvigarssuaq, two of the local inuits from Thule. Qâvigarssuaq was a young man of 22, and his main job on the trip was to read the snow and ice. This was an insanely important job, as they had to find their way in a completely white landscape, and they had to avoid getting caught in cracks in the ice. Beside this, they also had to hunt for food, which again is difficult with all the ice. Arnarulunnguaq, meanwhile, was the only woman who completed the expedition. She had been recruited together with her husband, but he was one of the unfortunate ones who died before the expedition had even started. Still, she chose to continue until the end. She was a great sled driver and huntress, as well as being the one to do the important mening of clothes in an environment where keeping the cold out is completely necessary. She also cooked and assisted with a bit of everything else. Being a woman, she was able to collect information and talk with the women of the tribes they visited in a different way than Rasmussen was, which was very essential for the collection of knowledge about the cultures they visited.
Together the three traveled about 18.000 km, spending between a few days and six months with each Inuit group they met on their way. They travelled all the way through the North-West-passage to Canada and Alaska. They then tried to get into Eastern Siberia, but had to return since they weren't able to get a valid visa.
After the expedition, they went to Seattle by ship, then Washington on land where they met the American President at the time. When returning to Denmark, Arnarulunnguaq was the first ever woman from Greenland to get a medal of merit from the Danish king.
Importance of the expedition
The trip created contact with inuit groups that had never met a 'white man' before. Therefore, their original religion, habits and mythology was intact and alive, and they were mapped and written down before external influence influenced them. The expedition resulted in many books, thousands of photographs and a movie. A lot of information about living in extreme conditions, patterns of migration and the origin of Greenlanders were discovered thanks to this expedition.
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