Gifted Inuit Cartographer



In 1895, an Inuit named Wetalltok sketched the above map of the unknown Belcher Islands on the back of an old missionary lithograph. Explorers doubted such a large land mass could exist so close to the centuries-old post at Great Whale River yet remain unknown. But an expedition of 1912-16 showed  Wetalltok’s map to be strikingly accurate.

(Robert J. Flaherty, “The Belcher Islands of Hudson Bay: Their Discovery and
Exploration,” Geographical Review 5:6 [June 1918]


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Thanks Bruce!

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