Minik, the Lost Eskimo

Summary: While we celebrate the adventurers who expanded our horizons, their discoveries often came at a price. Such was that in October, 1897, when renowned Arctic explorer Robert Peary returned to New York from his latest Greenland expedition. At an unusual request, he brought with him five polar Eskimos for study at the American Museum of Natural History where they were housed in an overheated basement, and treated as specimens and spectacles. Within months, four of the Eskimos died, leaving Minik, a 7 year-old boy, alone in a foreign land. It would be sixteen years before he was able to return to his native Greenland. Minik, the Lost Eskimo, from the PBS American Experience series, retraces Minik's life journey to provide an overlooked chapter in the history of American exploration. It is a thought-provoking look at the nascent science of anthropology in America at the turn of the 20th century.