The tragic story of this famous meteorite
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- Опубликовано: 18 янв 2024
- And the boy who fought the museum that took everything from him.
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In 1897, American explorer Robert Peary returned from his latest Arctic expedition to Greenland with an enormous iron meteorite, which he had taken from a small tribe of Greenlandic Inuit, the Inughuit. Also on board his ship were six Inughuit. Peary had convinced them to come with him to New York to be studied by the American Museum of Natural History in exchange for guns and tools. But soon after getting back to New York, Peary left on a promotional speaking tour. The six Inughuit never saw him again.
Within a few months of exposure to the warmer climate, four of the Inughuit - Qisuk, Nuktaq, Atangana, and Aviaq - had died of respiratory disease. And another, Uisaakasak, asked to return to Greenland on one of Peary’s ships. The only Inuk left was 9-year-old Minik, Qisuk’s son. The museum officials told Minik they buried his father’s body, but that was a lie. They had actually stored Qisuk’s remains inside the museum to study.
Minik grew up in New York and went by the name Mene Wallace. In 1907, he learned the truth about his father and publicly pleaded with the museum to return Qisuk’s remains to him so he could give him a proper burial, but the museum refused. Minik eventually returned to Greenland on one of Peary’s ships in 1909 and needed to relearn Inughuit customs and his native language, Inuktun.
The American Museum of Natural History kept the remains of the four Inughuit who died in its care until 1993. Today, there is no mention inside the museum of Minik or the other five Inughuit brought to New York in 1897. The giant meteorite Peary took, however, remains a signature exhibit.
Further reading:
“Minik the New York Eskimo” - Kenn Harper’s updated follow-up to his original book about Minik, “Give Me My Father’s Body”
steerforth.com/product/minik-...
“Inuit Voices: Inuit Writing in English” - this book features writing from Minik
archive.org/details/northernv...
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We use a few different terms in this video to describe indigenous people - including Inuit, Inughuit, and Inuk. If you’re curious to learn more about how to describe Inuit, take a look at this “Style Guide for Reporting on Indigenous People” from Journalists for Human Rights:
jhr.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/JHR2017-Style-Book-Indigenous-People.pdf
Thanks for watching. -Coleman
E
...and a few different microphones
The tragic story of this famous meteorite. 19.1.24. how they parcelling off the meteor...?
who's the Rasist who wrote and spoke on this video??
Can you make a video about the skulls of Algerian resistance fighters that france stores in the basement of a museum!
It really can't be understated how infuriating it is that all of this was done just so a rock could sit in a room for people to gawk at.
The arrogance of humans when we even know the history we fail to do even a small gesture to acknowledge
Yep the rock that served better purposes as iron tools for indigenous people
@@brightBoss I think the indigenous people, in this case, got the better part of deal : modern guns and tools for a rock. I mean that rock was insignificant compared to the trade they got for it
He could've bought a chunk of it for people to look at it in a museum, but nooo...
It shows how humans are selfish and only do things for their own benefit.
OMG, I just took my daughter to see it the past weekend, and the weekend before. We heard two different guides telling us all about how heavy it was, how difficult it was to transport it to the museum, and all about the rainbow color columns to support it at the office downstairs. Nothing about the tragedy was ever mentioned...
Thank you so much for bringing this history to light.
It was open game to steal from native people, Glad to see that native peoples of the world are demanding their cultural items back!!
Keep in mind that those guides likely are not told about the true history of that artefact.
I got the black stone too when I touch it I can feel now who try to destroy the world and take faking to save it
The true history of existence is so vastly different from fact that you would assume that this is a different dimension if you knew the truth. Almost everything you know is a lie. Even aspects you would give your life to protect. I am the Hebrew repeater. I never forget. I will never forget. I am not constrained by spacetime and Einsteins fullish notion of locality.
Beware taking your children to museums.
After Disney World it's where most children go missing 😮
I remember going to the museum as a child and falling in love with the meteorite
Never in my wildest dreams did I think this was stolen from a people along with the bodies of innocent humans who lost their lives for absolutely nothing
It’s true there is 0 mention of of the people who were kidnapped
And I’ve been going to the museum since I was 5 years old and now I’m 30
It’s sad really really sad
Idk why, but This comment should deserve some feedback 😢
There are many things that scientists did over the decades that they don't want us to know. They kidnapped native people from Australia and caged them in zoos! And I'm sure that they did other reprehensible things that have not come to light. It was not just a couple people who were doing these things. And they did not do it without the approval or knowledge of the scientific establishment either.
Yes and this is how erasure is a major aspect of colonialism, and how to shape peoples psychology to leave out important information. Why it is important to tell these stories and for museums to do the work to decolonize or repatriate items back to their ancestral owners, or to at the very least create a positive relationship with
everything not local from museum in france/england/usa are like this. Stolen , pillaged, fruits of rapes or worse
It was not stolen, their own people helped him move it. He gave them tools and guns for it that were a lot better then what they had. The kids family died of disease which was common at the time. We didn't have penicillin until 40 years from then.
This needs to be a movie.
After the return of the meteorite.
Exactly my first thought while watching
The meteor should stay right where it is with a redesigned display telling the whole story. You can't fix the past by "sending everything back" . Doing that is selfish and only makes you feel warm and fuzzy for the moment but you loose the opportunity to educate the future.
Yeah they should just keep it at this point and just compensate the Inuit people they took it from. They needed it for the iron, but there's better ways of getting them iron/steel and tools today. Just leave a note on the museum description saying it was unethical and don't do this again.
Also for anyone who wants to see the opposite happening check out the Chinese Art Heist by Kento Bento.
@@thecrowfliescrooked that should be a decision for the people who lost part of their culture and heritage. You don't need trophies to educate people either way. It's not for us to decide that it's better for other people/cultures for us to keep our trophies so we can educate our own people. We need to do better at educating people without needing to steal physical items.
Honestly, I love visiting museums, but museums need to do a better job of being transparent and showing integrity. Items that were taken improperly need to be returned, or if applicable, compensation needs to be paid to the people these items were stolen from.
that's basically 100% of the items in museums.
Are you usually not honest?
If Western museums start doing so half of them would be empty
@@seangt Not modern art museums, aviation museums, national heritage museums, etc. So, much less than 100%
@@echewta Honestly, I lie all the time. You?
The timing of this video can't be better. We in Nunavut just went through a historical moment where the Canadian government returned the land back to the Inuits. Things are improving bit by bit
Still not enough. Greenlanders are now suffering from climate change and lack of seaice. Another thing that white people created.
can i come stay pls? uk is in a mess!
@@benayers8622we don't want more immigrants
Especially British
@@benayers8622Are you really ready for the arctic? 😅
But still refuse to stop the serial killers preying on First Nations women.
I really appreciate these kinds of critical videos that force us to reckon with the history and actions of the past that have shaped the ways we live today. It's a stark reminder not to fall blindly for imperialist lies, and how even something as seemingly innocuous as a chunk of rock has had real human costs.
I find it funny when white ppl deflect stories like this today when we haven't even told 56% of the horrible stories of what they did.
Remember: history is written by the Victor. Guess who that is?
The English still will not return Greece's Elgin marbles.
And, so armed with better understanding, to step in front of despicable acts being committed in real time, today. The indigenous tribes in South America are living with similar encroachments, land stealing, murder, harassment, lies, and everything else the resource hunters can do. We might be able to get it stopped.
Of course not, and set back where they were the weather and acid rain will continue to destroy them anyway so what would the point be? Most of those carved panels were smashed and damaged, heads broken off, corners broken, and the region is earthquake prone big time too.
@@HobbyOrganist i have news for you my friend, countries outside the UK and US do in fact also have museums.
The museum needs to acknowledge this story on their gallery, engage with the Inughuit and if they want the meteorite back, give it back.
Exactly ❤
Good journalism that addresses human rights violations.
What human rights violations?
And human trafficking!!!!
@@R0YB0Tare you a bot? Typical.
Just watch this video.
thats why vox is my favorite media
They voulenteered to go. They werent taken. 😅 The museum adopted the ophan boy. So they did keep their promise.
No humans right violation...
"Then an American explorer hungry for fame and fortune..."
This is our world's equivalent of "then the Fire Nation attacked"
That's Imeprial Japan, brush up your history plz.
Yep
It can be both. @@user-kw6vh2ls3f
Man. I seen this meteorite dozens of times and appreciate this hidden insight to its nature. Shame on who ever was in charge that would not grant this man his father’s remains.
I got the black stone too when I touch it I can feel who try to destroy the world and faking to save it
this Peary guy seems like a true villain
He was. He lied about reaching North Pole and climbing Mount Denali.
true soab.
As terrible as he is he's probably not as bad as other people during that time. He was a spoiled rich kid after all.
Wait till you hear stories of how the British looted almost ever country in the plant😅
Every European “explorer” was pure evil. Would lie to natives use them then betray them in the worst way possible.
I know there's probably no correlation but "Minik" means "small, tiny" in Turkish and is a term of endearment. Which breaks my heart even more. Poor Minik.
There are a couple more words and meanings that correlate between the two languages. ‘Ana’, your word for mother or matron could be closely related to our ‘anaana’, and ‘aanaa’ means grandmother. I grew up with Turkish immigrant kids in Denmark, so we sort of established that at some point. I’ve never dived into a thorough research of the linguistics, though.
Wow, that's so interesting because the word "anneanne" (which is a modernized form of "ana" x2) means maternal grandmother in Turkish too! I've read on Wikipedia that "Minik" corresponds to some kind of oil in Greenlandic Inuit, so I didn’t want to get too ambitious :)
kayak also in qazaq meaning kaiyk қайық very similar
It's a story many of us here in Greenland already know about, but I'm really glad that it is told in such an informal way. Thank you!
Side note: Your pronunciation is good!
Greenland is not the only nation where that kind of unethical thing was being done after scientists during the late 1800's saw chromosomes being replicated in cells. Scientists some of whom regard Galileo as their hero while believing that he was an atheist which he is not.
It's heartbreaking that Minik didn't even express anger when talking about the museum, he just said "give my fathers body back, so I can give him a burial" and they denied it.
In the 1900's Coney Island had held an exhibition of Filipinos to be displayed while in the Bronx Zoo a Congolese family; this is as egregious if not worse.
I just googled your story, My stomach turned learning that all walks of life, except for the caucasian race was caged and marked upon as entertainment. Every single minority was put in a cage called human zoos. It is the most appalling thing I’ve ever witnessed on the Internet, most unreal and truly unforgivable.
minik deserved so much more in life
dude reincarnated named 'Mikki'.
He could have stayed in Greenland and been a fisherman.
It's his dad's fault for forcing him over.
Now everyone knows why the Sentinelese natives are so agressive towards strangers. Cause depraved things like this always happen. They are smart.
Agreed, it makes me sad that their island will probably be flooded underwater within the next 50 years by people they've never met doing things they've never seen.
Pieces like these is why I follow this channel, an incredibly meaningful piece that was worth every minute of my time
sure, this what journalism differ from reporting, they don't report but make us experience story.
I have been to the Museum of Natural History countless times and have always visited the meteorite display. I've marveled at the sheer size of that specimen, but never really gave a thought about how it was acquired. This story is yet another example of how many of the artifacts in museums around the world were literally stolen from the rightful owners of them. I stopped going to museums years ago when I began to understand how my financial support was helping to underwrite the theft of new acquisitions. This video is helping to educate people about the traffic in stolen items and its impact on the rightful owners.
With every 'acquisition', there's a story.
this film should be shown on a screen just next to the meteorite in the museum!!
People hate on British Museum but almost all the museum have a very bad past.
wel back than u don't get a collection of rare items by being friendly
We have a toilet museum that's pretty dank
*western museum
@@randangbaladovery important distinction. Non western Museums can’t steal what rightfully belongs to them.
The British museum was the most successful museum during the time in which museum's had the least ethics. It was the Victorian and Edwardian periods when a lot of these abhorrent actions were taken, and that is when the British were world superpower. Doesn't mean they were the only ones to commit these actions, just that the committed the majority of them.
When you go to any museum and you see an item there that does not belong to that country, you know it very likely has a dark history. I wish museums were more open about the history of how they came to possess such items.
Agreed 100 %.
The truly heartbreaking part is this tribe welcomed Peary and his men with kindness and hospitality. The same way the Taino tribes welcomed Columbus. And this history is now banned in parts of this country.
I got black stone when I found it and touch it I can feel now who try to destroy the world and faking to save it watch out
We need more documentaries like this to learn about history. Your work is high quality and great, thank you Vox!❤ And RIP Minik and the other Inuit tribe members who tragically and unfairly lost their lives 💔
I got you I got black stone magic but everybody against us
Tragic is an understatement, this is horrifying.
thank you, vox. more people need to know these stories. and museums have to do so much better.
What an amazing video. It felt like watching a movie, just much more condensed.
I had no idea about any of this stuff, and find it kind of shocking that so many photos and drawings exist. It makes you wonder how many noteworthy stories have happened throughout time that you'll never know about....
You don't know because you weren't the victims.
People always ignores colonised people tales & but believe only from your own kind only.
99% of such stories don't get to people, because they don't such people seriously. Which is the truth.
Inughuit is north canadian alaskan Inuit, its in their language that says Inughuit, in Greenland we call ourselves Kalaallit, Inuit. The correct word for Saviksue is Savissivik, Minik was studying to become a dentist, and went to the museum to research, found his family. Send him to spiral down, he became criminal, as a mobster group, wanted dead or alive in America, he and his friend were blind passengers to a ship to Greenland. His life was sad, he forgot the mother language, he forgot to hunt....
Thank you for these stories Vox. It's why I love your channel.
The meteor is one thing, but it's more tragic that he led them away from their homeland to be experimented on. Imagine the life they could have lived if they never left.
This is very infuriating. A reputable institute that will not and still does not say sorry. The museum should do " Their ' do diligence of how the item was acquired. I know back in the day, but seeing how this story was researched the Museums should right the wrongs the know are wrong and not have to have it told by others. Though not a crime then and a crime now does not mean it can be ignored. So Thank you to this RUclips Vox storyteller truth teller
Well... It's really NOT a reputable institute.
Yeah I concur… it puts the status of reputable in question. And that’s the only one we know about!
As a 50 year old American I find more daily to be so embarrassed about. It is no wonder parts of the world don’t look upon Us as anything other than Raiders and thieves. Thank you for this history lesson and humbling. At the very least these people should be completely compensated as much as possible anyway.
Much of Europe and other more 'civilized' cultures have done the same over the centuries. (Especially the English who were probably the worst in that regard)
They WERE compensated with items in trade, the people there in 1897 are LONG dead, and today there's guns, swords, knives and a lot of readily available everywhere.
The English "found" the Parthenon and decided to tear all the carved panels off it to take home where they still are
@@metamon2704
@@HobbyOrganist i guess I should have been more specific about compensation. I was thinking more about the history of what happened to alot of them and who was responsible. Public humiliation goes along ways. Almost as much as public praise for stealing from the people who didnt know any better .
@@metamon2704 Sure, makes it totally legitimate.
That’s a heartbreaking story! Thank u for uploading
Love this. Keep exposing museums that stole their exhibits.
Amazing reporting. Amazing story. Stories like this NEED to be publicized.
That is literally horrible!! the end of the video had me crying😢
That's an odd way to use literally.
weak emotions and no to low IQs use it, but don't know its literal meaning, Hi Dave. @@BariumCobaltNitrog3n
I treat it like the stripes on a wasp, fair warning not to continue.
I have been going to AMNH since I was in second grade, over twenty years ago now, and even volunteered on-and-off, and later worked there for eight years, and I have never heard this before. I always appreciate these in depth videos that shine a light on often overlooked and explained-away injustices.
Thank you for sharing this heartbreaking story so their stories and the wrongdoings are not forgotten.
Amazing reporting. Such a sad story. Thank you for this content.
the actions of the museum and the explorer in this instance are sickening.
Thank You Vox. We need more of these. We too need to relearn our history.
Thank you for making this
Poor Minik, even at the time people knew how horribly he and his kin had been treated.
This is so sad. The museum should at least issue a public apology to those six people.
Apology? No apology can undo the evil that has been done! It’s not accepted. Get rid of these evil museums!
They are all dead, they don't care about apologies...
Apologies for what. They voulenteered to join them on a trip back to us and they they got sick.
What do you want the museum to say?
@@OhFishingMyFirstLove Exactly !
Very well done and I’m glad you have expose and talked about this issue. A tragedy indeed.
Wow what a devastatingly horrific story... but thank you Vox for this upload. 😢😢😢
I’m reading the 1986 book mentioned in the video. It is heartbreaking.
What a sad story. What that explorer did was despicable, truly sickening.
The museum was supposed to take care of them, the museum failed
Well, they did voulenteer. Also, within days they all got sick. Hardly the museums fault. Definatley not Pearys fault.
Thank you Vox for this eye opener story ..
Such videos are what we long for
00:01 The tragedy of the iron meteorite and its impact
01:42 Discovery of iron meteorite crucial for inhabiting the remote region
03:16 Peri's exploration of the Arctic and his exchange with the Inuit
04:47 Peri extracted a large meteorite from Greenland without permission.
06:20 Pi's promises of compensation and care were not fulfilled
07:55 Manck's tragic story and the fate of the meteorite
09:27 Mck's struggle to reclaim his father's remains
11:04 The American Museum of Natural History finally returned the remains of inquit to Greenland after mounting pressure.
🤦
@@benayers8622 🫡
This is so good!!
Wow your video is very educational and so interesting it had me captivated from start to finish I had to subscribe and look forward to more interesting content.Thankyou for sharing much appreciated 😊🙏
Thanks for this
this information I didn't know anything about. thank you. fascinating.
This story is one of the saddest ones I've watched on RUclips. Amazing that the meteorite or at least part of the revenue that the museum makes from it isn't given to the people who inhabit the area where Peary took it from. Shame on the museum.
Wow! Thank u so much for that information. So very sad.
This was incredibly well done
From now on, I will always think about how some artifacts were acquired when I visit a museum. Absolutely one of the dimensions of the artifacts that shouldn't be ignored.
But you still will visit.
You still will pay them and they still will keep taking others objects.
You feed them.
@@user-xn6dw6tt5x You’re assuming that I will go see something knowing that it’s there, exhibited. We’re all going to consume things not realizing that it’s acquired or created in an unethical way. Bottom line is that it’s would be more meaningful to the consumer if the consumer is aware, and that is a critical responsibility of the members producing what is being exhibited or shared to the public.
@@yak481
Excuses..... you want change but are not willing to change.
This was so well made, and so eye opening. All museums seem to be complicit in shady procurements.
I TRULY TRULY ADORE how every other english word is used to get around murder stealing theft... crimes.. in such factual essays
thank you for sharing this
Keep up the awesome content Vox!
Thanks, a good use of RUclips by the public and inspired individuals to provide knowledge.
Love this type of content
It is really sad having history misrepresented like this...
I sincerely hope they'll do more research for their next video.
when the ends justify it means, especially when you hide the means from the receiving ends. There will be heaps more of this kind of stories even happening now, we just never heard of them until it becomes a history.
Based on the thumbnail I though the meteorite landed on the person’s head 💀
This is truly heartbreaking. Despite their remains being returned, Minik wasn't there to witness that and he passed, broken. Imagine being a friend with or know someone who justified the "scientific purpose" with regards to people stealing from another group of people "to prove a point".
This video will be a much better reminder of them than a plaque in the museum.
Every time I hear Robert Peary, I remember him going to the North Pole with Matthew Henson, the first African-American to travel to the North Pole.
I totally see a movie of this story where Stephen Root plays a ruthless member of the museum who refuses to give the corpse back to Minick
The untold sides of history are what the world needs the most with how things are currently going.
Thank you for this amazing video, Vox. May Minik and his family rest in peace.
Thanks again
This video is so important :( thank you Vox team for such a compelling piece of journalism
Nuktaq is one of the characters names in the legend of Korra
That was potent.
Thankyou
♥️🌏⭐💚
Great presentation
My great-grandfather was a backer for this expedition with Peary and he explained, to my grandfather, how the tribe was ecstatic to get rid of this heap of iron that took many moons to carve out the utilities and the necessary functioning hunting tools. There was an exchange of metal so the tribe could continue to make the tools they needed at a rate of five times the norm. Nobody was attached to the meteorite. The new alloys brought in for trade, for iron work, gave the tribes an edge. Mass production of hunting tools now permitted more food to be hunted and for more family members to share.
This should be pinned.
bump
I love Vox Missing Chapters. They're incredible.
Great reporting
Thank you. It’s hard to remove the rust of time to do whatever justice we can. But it helps when we can see it clearly.
That museum was my church. I knew they stole the meteorite, but never knew how greasy the whole affair was.
@@brandonstockton7852no it didn't watch again. He only asked one dude for the location.
@@brandonstockton7852even if it had been traded for, those trades back then were never eye to eye. In all those trades, the indigenous people always ended up with a couple of trinkets while something much more valuable was taken from them. Yes, a couple of good guns and a supply of ammo might have seemed a good deal in the short term, but once the ammo runs out, those guns become worthless. While that huge meteorite would still be a source of metal for them today and we're 100 years later now.
I'm going to leave these observations here as a museum worker, that also works in collections with repatriation programs .. and visited the locations in the upload.
Musuems, while heading to returning these stolen people, generally won't acknowledge this on signage due to: not putting photos of deceased individuals (for religious reasons) OR ... The legal ramifications of starting to acknowledge past practices which means that they'll have to return most of their stuff
Human remains and artifacts are more likely to be returned over natural resources because of the 'significance' assessment, and museum ethics indicates flora/fauna is classed different from human impact (hurting people by affect/human remains).
Ultimately they decide on if things can be returned to a museum of the same level (care, conservation) and if not, it's kept as a 'long term loan' and the individuals of that community have 24/⁷ access .. but that doesn't extend to remains, remains need to be returned and only returned if their community can be identified and given back exactly that community needs.
I'm white, I have no cultural ties to country but is next generation want everything we can give to fix what even our parents generation have done to harm. It's just hard that we have legal hurdles because it's deceased people, but if we want change hard enough, we'll walk so the next generation to run.
Well told story, thank you Vox
great video 👍🙏
I've gone to this museum my whole life and I was always interested in this meteor. I guess I should not be surprised that it was stolen. There are also lots of weird dioramas and realistic sculptures of indigenous people. The vibes are kind of off.
I'm sure you can do a video like this on every single item at any Natural History museum
The asteroid part sure, the human tragedy is what sets this apart - it involved abducting people, dissecting them and then refusing to release their remains for 100 years.
I saw that meteorite many times, but never knew about the dark history
surrounding it.
I hope we are in more enlightened times,
but sometimes I wonder.
Cheers,
Rik Spector
Thank you Vox for sharing these missing chapters, since they will never teach this in school
Thank you for making this video. It is important to highlight the exploitation done in the name of science. Science should be done ethically.
This story is an excellent example of how we, as a community of diverse cultural backgrounds are growing in our awareness of how insensitively things were done in the past. We NEED these stories to be told far and wide so we can learn from our mistakes and not repeat morally criminal behaviors in the way we live now and in the future. This is an excellent teaching story and should be used in schools to show how values of the past differ from values of the present. Also, the re-shaping of our collective responsibilities will make it easier to apply pressure to reluctant institutions who resist the repatriation of stolen artifacts…. I’m looking at you, The British Museum! Now is the time to use 21st century 3-d scanning and printing to replicate the originals. Then artists and craftspeople can be employed to paint and duplicate the exact appearance of the originals, which can then be retuned. EVERYONE ought to be able to support such programs where cultural thefts have occurred in the name of “science”. All of this is part of our global human evolution…learning how to respect and value ALL forms of cultural diversity.
This inspires me to make videos like this
This has to be a (loooooong) video series of all stolen artifacts in famous museums
Wow, thank you Vox for educating us on this. This was extremely heavy but necessary for more people to know.
Great video
I didn't even realize when the video ended cuz I was completely Inuit !
What is good journalism looks like