Explorer Robert Peary

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

Minik, the Lost Eskimo

Aired March 31 at 9:00 p.m. on CPTV

In October 1897, renowned Arctic explorer Robert Peary returned to New York from his latest Greenland expedition. He brought with him five polar Eskimos for study at the American Museum of Natural history. The embryonic science of anthropology regarded the Eskimos as a rare species, and their arrival in New York caused a sensation. Within months, however, four of the Eskimos had died, leaving a seven-year-old boy named Minik to fend for himself in a foreign land. Eventually adopted by a member of the museum’s staff, it was 16 years before he was able to return to his native Greenland. This program retraces Minik’s life journey to provide a thought-provoking study of the sacrifices made and the lives irrevocably changed for the sake of discovery. visit the website...