Arctic Environmental Extractivism and the Inuit Polar Bear Skin Trade in Canada, 1920-1930

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Abstract

Extractivism as a conference theme presents an opportunity to examine how concerted commercial activities around a single natural resource shaped landscapes and social relations in Arctic environmental history. In the interwar years, commercial fur companies expanded their trade in Arctic fox pelts among Yup’ik, Iñupiat, and, in the eastern Arctic, Inuit. Traditionally, Inuit hunted foxes inconsistently. They devoted more energy to marine and land animals better supporting their dietary and material needs. However, during the “fox boom,” many Inuit reorganized their seasonal seal hunting to redirect time and energy to capture winter prime Arctic fox, typically using leghold traps provided by companies. In return for fox pelts, they purchased European food stuffs when needed, and boats, firearms, ammunition, and other technology which supported greater subsistence returns from seal, walrus, caribou, and migratory birds hunting. Commercial extractivism prioritized fox, but the trade had unanticipated impacts on Arctic ecologies, especially with the introduction of high-powered rifles. In the interwar years, Inuit using rifles increased the polar bear pelt trade. As this presentation suggests, rifles impacted bear populations not because they made the hunt easier and more effective. With rifles, Inuit could raise returns from seasonal seal and caribou hunting, the latter, especially, supporting larger sled dog teams critical in traditional Inuit bear hunting. The Inuit used dogs to distract and harass a polar bear being hunted. Larger teams provided faster transport to track bears longer distances. This paper, based on Hudson’s Bay Company archives, as well as Inuit ethnology and oral history, suggests that the interwar polar bear trade complicates our understandings of commercial extractivism. Commercializing one Arctic animal shaped human ecologies, increased returns in subsistence hunting, and broadened commercial extraction of other animals including the polar bear, an entity holding significant cultural and spiritual meaning among Inuit in Canada’s Arctic.

Authors

• George Colpitts, University of Calgary

• Andrew Goodwin, University of Calgary