Strange Country Ep. 159: Minik Wallace

Strange Country

You know how things are terrible? Well this should give you comfort--things have always been terrible. Settle in, dear dash hounds, as Beth and Kelly share the tale of Minik Wallace. Minik was brought to America's shores in 1897 as a boy along with five other Greenlanders to be put on display like a museum piece. And when you think of people as objects, it turns out as bad as you expect.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources:

“Caught in the Middle: The Tragic Life of Minik Wallace.” Bowdoin News Archive, 29 Oct. 2018, community.bowdoin.edu/news/2018/10/caught-in-the-middle-the-tragic-life-of-minik-wallace/.

Claiborne, William. “THE SKELETON IN THE MUSEUM'S CLOSET.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 5 Apr. 1992, www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/04/05/the-skeleton-in-the-museums-closet/d1ef741a-84cc-45c2-94ca-779c3e085962/.

Fagan, Kevin. “Ishi's Kin To Give Him Proper Burial / Indians to Bury Brain in Secret Location in State.” SFGate, San Francisco Chronicle, 6 Aug. 2012, www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Ishi-s-Kin-To-Give-Him-Proper-Burial-Indians-to-2744424.php.

Harper, Kenn. Minik: the New York Eskimo. Steerforth Press, 2017.

Henderson, Bruce. “Who Discovered the North Pole?” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 Apr. 2009, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-discovered-the-north-pole-116633746/.

James, David A. “The True Story of an Inuit Boy Who Ended up in a New York Museum.” Anchorage Daily News, Anchorage Daily News, 3 Feb. 2018, www.adn.com/arts/books/2018/02/03/the-true-story-of-an-inuit-boy-who-ended-up-in-a-new-york-museum/.

Jiménez, Jessíca. “UC Berkeley Looks Back on Dark History, Abuse of Ishi 106 Years Later.” The Daily Californian, 2 Sept. 2017, www.dailycal.org/2017/09/01/uc-berkeley-looks-back-on-dark-history-abuse-of-yahi-man-106-years-later/.

McGreevy, Nora. “The Racist Statue of Theodore Roosevelt Will No Longer Loom Over the American Museum of Natural History.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 23 June 2020, www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/statue-theodore-roosevelt-removed-reexamination-racist-acts-180975154/.

Meier, Allison C. “Minik and the Meteor.” Narratively, 18 June 2019, narratively.com/minik-and-the-meteor/.

“Minik.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 31 Mar. 2008, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/minik/.

Pogrebin, Robin. “Roosevelt Statue to Be Removed From Museum of Natural History.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 21 June 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/arts/design/roosevelt-statue-to-be-removed-from-museum-of-natural-history.html.

Smith, Dinitia. “An Eskimo Boy And Injustice In Old New York; A Campaigning Writer Indicts An Explorer and a Museum.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 15 Mar. 2000, www.nytimes.com/2000/03/15/books/eskimo-boy-injustice-old-new-york-campaigning-writer-indicts-explorer-museum.html.