Qaanaaq District

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Qaanaap Communia
Qaanaaq District
location
Symbols
coat of arms
coat of arms
Basic data
Country Greenland
Commune Avannaata Communia
Seat Qaanaaq
surface 245,500 km²
Residents 751 (January 1, 2019)
density 0 inhabitants per km²

Qaanaaq has been a district in northern Greenland since 2009 .

location

The district of Qaanaaq is the northernmost district of Greenland. In the south it borders on the Upernavik district . To the north you get to Pearyland , the northernmost area of ​​Greenland, which, like the areas to the south-east, belongs to the non-community Northeast Greenland National Park .

history

First contacts

The area was first visited in 1616 by the English navigator William Baffin . He left the Upernavik district just north of Kullorsuaq and crossed Melville Bay before coming back to land at Cape Dudley Digges on Paakitsup Sermersua .

In 1818 John Ross drove for the first time on the coastline between Kullorsuaq and Cape York and mapped the area. He also named the bay after the Admiralty Chief Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville . His nephew James Clark Ross reported for the first time about people in the high Arctic region - the Inughuit . According to an Inuit legend, a woman named Nauja foresaw the arrival of a large boat, and when one day a large European ship did indeed appear on the horizon, the Greenlanders thought the whites were heavenly spirits. According to Ross' reports, the Greenlanders were in awe of the ship and fled as soon as you got too close to them. To gain their trust, Ross had a flag set up with a hand holding heather beneath the sun and moon . He also put some presents next to it. The Greenlanders were still frightened and only a Greenlandic expedition member named Sakæus could finally gain the trust of the Inughuit on his own. Nevertheless, the residents were extremely reserved towards the Europeans for decades. Even if they often boarded the ships, they did not dare to touch anything, to accept free food and they stayed as far away from the ships as possible at night.

Whaling season

English whalers began operating in Melville Bay in the 19th century. The ships were only able to sail in the area in summer and so there were frequent ship accidents because the pack ice crushed the whaling ships. Between 1819 and 1822 alone, 32 ships were destroyed. In the second half of the 19th century the hunting areas in the bay were exhausted and Scottish whalers only used the district as a transit area to the Canadian Jones Sound and Lancaster Sound . At times they traded with the Inughuit resident in the district, so that they were referred to by them as supernallit , "who bring the spring with them". At the beginning of the 20th century, whaling in the arctic waters ended and the last ship was active in 1911.

In 1849/50 the North Star wintered in the North Star Bugt near Uummannaq, which was named after it . From 1853 to 1855, Elisha Kent Kane had contact with the Inughuit during his expedition. It was of great importance that Kane had Hans Hendrik from West Greenland on board, who stayed there and was able to greatly expand the trust between Inughuit and Europeans through his mediation.

In the 1860s, a group of Canadian Inuit, led by Qillarsuaq, reached the district, which represented a significant advance in the way of life, if not the survival of the local population, and increased the population.

After many Europeans and Americans had already traded with the Inughuit, but this had little influence on their way of life, Robert Edwin Peary caused a kind of revolution in the 1890s by buying all primitive hunting tools and the like from the population and instead using rifles and other modern equipment endowed what the Inughuit made at once for advanced Inuit people, who thus even for 170 years under Danish colonization Kitaamiut outdated. In doing so, the Inughuit also became dependent on the West, because they gave up their entire way of life, which had ensured their survival for centuries.

In 1892, the polar explorer Eivind Astrup wanted to travel the route from Cape York to Cape Seddon by dog ​​sledding in order to improve Ross's map, since the Melville Bay was still largely unexplored , but had to go to the island of Qapiarfissalik (Thom Ø) give up after two thirds of the way. Only Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen succeeded in crossing the entire coastal strip during the literary expedition in 1903. It was not until 1916 that the area was again the target of a scientific expedition during the second Thule expedition and was completely mapped by Lauge Koch .

From colonial times

The Inughuit were still pagan and uncultivated in the early 20th century, despite their advanced hunting tools. Only in 1905 began to consider the establishment of a mission station, which in 1909 resulted in the establishment of the Thule station in Uummannaq , which was headed by Gustav Olsen . In 1910 Peter Freuchen also set up a trading post. After a few years, some Inughuit were baptized and the children could read and write. In 1934 Jens Olsen and 41-year-old Nukagpiánguaĸ from Siorapaluk baptized the last pagan of Greenland.

The district was traditionally divided into four residential groups by the Inughuit, within which they wandered nomadically.

The district was no man's land for a long time . It was not until 1937 that it came under Danish rule, like the rest of Greenland, and a colonial district was created that consisted of a single municipality.

In 1942, the Americans built the Bluie West-6 military base near Thule, and many other military facilities followed. In 1951, Thule Air Base was established there. In 1953, the population was forcibly relocated for military reasons, creating the present-day city of Qaanaaq . The incident represents one of the greatest scandals in Greenlandic history.

It was not until 1963 that the colonial district of Qaanaaq was decolonized, 13 years after West Greenland.

In 1968, a US military plane carrying nuclear weapons crashed , which radioactively contaminated the area.

During the administrative reform in 2009, the Qaanaaq community was incorporated into the Qaasuitsup Kommunia and became a district. The Qaanaaq district has been part of the Avannaata Kommunia since 2018 .

places

In addition to the city of Qaanaaq , the following villages are located in the Qaanaaq district:

In addition, the following abandoned settlements are in what is now the district area:

coat of arms

Blazon: In blue there is a silver narwhal with the tip of the tail in the base of the shield and with the tusk in the upper right corner and above this in the middle of the upper edge of the shield there is a silver four-pointed star .

literature

Coordinates: 77 ° 18 ′  N , 79 ° 6 ′  W