1913 - Exploration, Colonization

Exploration, Colonization

Manitoba-born explorer Villhjalmur Stefansson, 33, begins a 5-year expedition that will take him on a continuous journey north of the Arctic Circle, exploring the western part of Canada's Arctic region and the far northern part of Alaska. He took part in ethnological studies of Mackenzie Delta natives and the so-called "Copper Eskimos" of Coronation Gulf from 1908 to 1912, working under the auspices of the Canadian government and the American Museum of Natural History with Rudolph M. Anderson of the University of Iowa and finding blond Eskimos whose existence was unknown. Living for long periods of time on an "Eskimo diet" of raw meat and blubber, Stefansson will discover several islands.