Did you know that in 1578, Martin Frobisher held the first recorded Thanksgiving in Canada? There are many stories celebrating European explorers, like Christopher Columbus and Frobisher, who travelled west across the Atlantic to discover America. But there were also thousands of Indigenous Americans who travelled in the opposite direction and discovered Europe.
In 1576, Martin Frobisher, an English privateer who was previously a pirate, was searching for a north west passage to the Pacific. He kidnapped an Inuk man from Baffin Island. During the struggle, the man bit his tongue in half. He was brought to England and shown off as a novelty. He died two weeks later. This was one of the earliest Indigenous Americans in Britain.
In 1577, Frobisher returned to Inuit territory. Arriving at what is now Nunavut, he tried to kidnap more men. The men fled and shot Frobisher in the ass with an arrow. But another crew member tackled one of the men, breaking his ribs in the process.
Then Frobisher’s men got into a battle with the other inhabitants. Three Inuit killed themselves by jumping off the rocks into the ocean because they didn’t want to be taken prisoner. They thought the English were cannibals. Frobisher’s men captured a woman and her baby who had been injured by an arrow.
They sailed back to England, arriving in October 1577, and became a spectacle. The man was called Kalicho, and the woman and her baby were Arnaq and Nutaaq. Kalicho became a celebrity, paddling up and down the river in his canoe and hunting ducks with his dart.
Less than a month later, Kalicho died. His autopsy showed broken ribs and a brain injury likely caused by his rough capture. Arnaq had contracted measles and died three days after Kalicho was buried.
Nutaaq was 14 or 15 months old and still nursing when Arnaq died. He was made a spectacle for curious Londoners, even though he also had the measles. Only 8 days after arriving in London, Nutaaq died.
Instead of celebrating men like Columbus and Frobisher, let’s think about the Indigenous people who were already here for thousands of years when they arrived.
You can read about them in Caroline Dodds Pennock’s book, On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe.
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