To celebrate Leif Erikson Day 2022, we’re marking several anniversaries — all pertaining to Scandinavians who formed significant relationships with indigenous people as they explored Arctic North America.
It’s been 1000 years, give or take a few, since Gudrid the Far-Traveler journeyed from Viking Greenland to Vinland (Newfoundland). She mixed with the local native people and gave birth to the first European baby born in North America before returning home.
100 years ago, the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen received the 1922 Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work with refugees from World War I and other conflicts of the time. Nans
en had gained international stature from his explorations in the Arctic. When he crossed the Greenland ice cap in 1888, his team included two Sámi members, and they got to know Inuit groups on Greenland’s east and west coasts.
2022 also marks the centennial of Knud Rasmussen’s 5th Thule Expedition. From 1922 to 1924, Rasmussen, with several Inuit team members, crossed the width of Canada’s North, gathering ethnographic information about all the Inuit communities along the way. Since Rasmussen was perfectly at home with the Inuit, he documented stories and cultural practices that were soon to change drastically as the area was
colonized.
We’re looking forward to sharing these stories about Norse explorers and the indigenous people they lived and worked with.
Download the poster —
Leif Erikson Day 2022 poster edited
