Stefansson and the Canadian Arctic

299 Pages·1999·19.4 MB·English

by  Richard J. Diubaldo

Stefansson and the Canadian Arctic
Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879-1962) was Canada's greatest modern Arctic
explorer, theorist, writer, and pioneer ethnologist. For the first quarter of the
twentieth century his ideas captured the imagination of Canadians and gave
them a sense of Canada's northern destiny. However by the mid-1920s he had
become persona non grata in Canada, although he remained an acknowledged
Arctic expert elsewhere in the world. Even today Stefansson's character is the
subject of debate. His admirers consider him a prophet and visionary; his critics
consider him a charlatan, a manipulator, and, in some instances, a liar. In this
award-winning book Richard Diubaldo explores the controversy surroundings
Stefansson and his achievements and the reasons Canada rejected one of its
biggest supporters.
Stefansson's contributions to Arctic exploration are immense. He discov-
ered some of the world's last major land masses in the Arctic and his hydro-
graphic soundings outlined, for the first time, the continental shelf from Alaska
to Prince Patrick Island and revealed the submarine mountains and valleys
beneath the Beaufort Sea. While in the Arctic he lived with the Inuit, learning
their habits and language, and kept a detailed record of early Inuit society.
However some of Stefansson's deeds, and the motives behind them, gar-
nered less acclaim. In one instance Stefansson was accused of abandoning ship
just before the ship was crushed in the ice, a heinous act for the leader of an
expedition. On another occasion, following a disastrous expedition to Wrangel
Island during which great numbers of the party died, Stefansson was accused
of deliberately misleading members of the expedition and lying about the perils
that faced them. The affair caused Canada to become embroiled with the
United States and the Soviet Union, and many argued that Stefansson was more
concerned with personal fame and financial gain than people's lives.
Was Stefansson a prophet or a profiteer, a victim or a villain? Stefansson
and the Canadian Arctic reveals the truth about this fascinating personality.
RICHARD J. DIUBALDO is professor of history and director of the Centre for
Continuing Education, Concordia University.
Winner of the John Lyman Award and a CHA Regional History Certificate of
Merit
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Richard J. Diubaldo
STEFANSSON
AND THE
CANADIAN
ARCTIC
McGill-Queen's University Press
Montreal & Kingston • London • Ithaca
© McGill-Queen's University Press 1978
ISBN 0-7735-1815-0
Legal deposit third quarter 1978
Bibliotheque Nationale du Quebec
Reprinted in paperback 1998
This book was first published with the help of a grant
from the Social Science Federation of Canada,
using funds provided by the Canada Council
McGill-Queen's University Press acknowledges the financial support of
the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry
Development Program for its activities.
We also acknowledge the support of the Canada Council
for the Arts for our publishing program.
Design by Julia Harris
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Diubaldo, Richard, 1940-
Stefansson and the Canadian arctic
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7735-1815-0
1. Stefansson, Vilhjalmur, 1879-1962. 2. Arctic regions - Discovery and
exploration - Canadian. 3. Canadian Arctic Expedition (1913-1918).
4. Canada, Northern - Discovery and exploration. 5. Explorers - Canada -
Biography. I. Title.
G635.S7D58 1998 910'.92 C98-901148-8
To my Mother and Father
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION TO THE 1998 REPRINT ix
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi
PREFACE xiii
1 Introduction 1
2 Arctic Initiation 15
3 The Gold Mines of Victoria Land 33
4 The Building of the Canadian Arctic
Expedition 57
5 Breakdown 75
6 The Politics of the Canadian Arctic
Expedition 101
7 The Arctic Empire of Vilhjalmur
Stefansson 127
8 The Misadventure of Wrangel Island 161
9 Exit Stefansson 187
10 Conclusion 209
APPENDIX: Recommendations of the Reindeer and Musk-Ox
Commission 217
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 220
NOTES 221
BIBLIOGRAPHY 255
INDEX 271
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INTRODUCTION TO
THE 1998 REPRINT
Vilhjalmur Stefansson was the most important figure to explore this coun-
try's Arctic regions in this century. He was only nominally Canadian (he
was born here but his parents moved to the United States when he was an
infant), but because he led the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913-1918,
spent the better part of twelve years in the Arctic, and discovered more new
land there than any other Canadian, he is a central figure in the history of
this country's north. Stefansson is a perfect subject for a biography, for his
was an extremely strong personality and his life had many contradictions.
On the one hand he was a member of a small band of Arctic pioneers who
had the wisdom to adopt Inuit technology and survival techniques, and as
a result was able to live in the region in relative comfort and safety. In the
purely physical aspects of exploration he was triumphantly successful. On
the other hand he was a tireless promoter, both of the Arctic and of his
own interests, and some of his schemes went badly (and in one case fatally)
wrong, to the serious detriment of his reputation. As a result of this, and
also of his own shortcomings in dealing with people, those who knew him
were divided into two camps: those who admired him intensely, and those
who loathed him with equal intensity.
Stefansson's personality was an unusually magnetic one, and like a
magnet, it both repelled and attracted. Of the several books that have been
written about him, all but this one are almost uniformly laudatory, perhaps
because writers find the "man of action" a compelling subject. D. M. LeBour-
dais, who was a personal friend of the explorer, published Stefansson:
Ambassador of the North in 1963, a year after its subject's death; his book
is unashamedly hagiographic. The approach E. P. Hanson took in Stefans-
son: Prophet of the North (1941) is made clear in the title. William R. Hunt,
in his Stef (1986), tried hard to be detached from his subject but ultimately
failed. He dealt with the controversial episodes in Stefansson's life, trying
hard to present a balanced view, but the great man's magnetism proved too