A Harsh Environment: Inuit in New England, 1850-1885 - Free Audiobook

**Canadian Historical Association 2008 Presentations

NiCHE has archived 22 audio presentations from this event**

These presentations are a selection of talks given at the University of British Columbia that relate to Environmental History and Canada. The overall theme of the 2008 Congress was: Thinking Beyond Borders. Global Ideas: Global Values.

Citation:

Routledge, Karen. "A Harsh Environment: Inuit in New England, 1850-1885." Canadian Historical Association. 2 June 2008.

**Bio:

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Karen Routledge is a PhD student in History at Rutgers University. She studies encounters between Inuit and Americans in each other's homelands in the nineteenth century.

**Abstract:

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This presentation considers Inuit from South Baffin Island who travelled to the United States in the mid-nineteenth century. It focuses on the experiences of one couple, Taqulittuq and Ipiirvik. I argue that the definition of a harsh environment is relative: to Inuit, life in the United States could be as strange, as lonely, as confusing, and as dangerous as American encounters with the arctic world.