Uummannaq (Dundas)

Uummannaq (the seal heart shaped)
	Dundas Thule mánaĸ
	Uummannaq (around 1910)
Commune	Avannaata Communia
District	Qaanaaq
Geographical location	76 ° 33 '45 " N , 68 ° 46' 59" W Coordinates: 76 ° 33 '45 " N , 68 ° 46' 59" W.
Residents	0 ; (since 1996)
founding	1910
Time zone	UTC − 3
particularities	evacuated for military reasons

Uummannaq [ ˈuːˌmːanːɑq ] (according to the old spelling Ũmánaĸ ; Inuktun Uummannaq [ uːmːanːɑ (q) ]; Danish Thule , English Dundas ) is a deserted Greenlandic settlement in the Qaanaaq district in the Avannaata Kommunia .

location

Uummannaq is located on a small headland, at the end of which the striking Table Mountain of the same name rises. To the south lies the North Star Bugt ( English North Star Bay ). The large Uummannap Kangerlua (Wolstenholme Fjord) runs north . The next inhabited settlement today is Qaanaaq, 101 km to the north .

history

The past and the first contact with the whites

Uummannaq has long been the center of the Inughuit in northern Greenland. The place was within the Akunnarmiut residential group . The British polar explorer John Ross first reached north-west Greenland in 1818. He was the first white man to make contact with the Inughuit. In the following decades, European whalers regularly reached the area and maintained a friendly relationship with the locals, which was also characterized by respect and fear for the Europeans. At this point in time, Europeans and Inughuit were genetically mixed for the first time. The latter knew of the problems that their centuries of isolation brought with them inbreeding.

In 1848 the North Star had to hibernate in Uummannaq because the ice had trapped her. The bay in which the ship was anchored was named after him. As a result of the intensive contact with the Europeans, numerous Inughuit died from diseases that were previously unknown to them.

Establishing Uummannaq as a trading post

The station around 1910

Even towards the end of the 19th century, North Greenland was still no man's land . In 1909, Knud Rasmussen set up a mission station in Kangerluarsuk , where Gustav Olsen , among others, did missionary work. According to other sources, this mission station, which Knud Rasmussen called Nordstjernen , was also in North Star Bay.

He eventually also planned to set up a trading post in the area. However, the Danish state refused to provide funding. Thanks to various donors, Knud Rasmussen was finally able to set off again for the far north. He was accompanied by his friend Peter Freuchen . A storm finally forced them to anchor in the bay at Uummannaq and without having planned, they were finally forced to build their station here, which Knud Rasmussen Thule baptized. Freuchen headed the station in the following years and soon there was a hospital, a school and a church financed by trade, which slowly brought the Inughuit closer to the standard of living of the Kitaamiut . The station also financed Knud Rasmussen's Thule expeditions , which he carried out from 1912 to 1933. Knud Rasmussen died in 1933 of meat poisoning that he contracted while filming his film Palo's Bridal Trip .

The USA and the Thule sagas

In 1937 Den Kongelige Grønlandske Handel bought the trading post from Knud Rasmussen's widow Dagmar, making the place a Danish colony. In 1942, during World War II , the United States established its Bluie West-6 weather station near Uummannaq.

In 1951 142 people lived in Uummannaq. In the same year, the Danish state approved the US in the course of the Cold War to set up an air force base ( Thule Air Base ) at their weather station, from which long-range missiles should be able to be sent towards the Soviet Union . The military area was cordoned off for the Inuit families living here and finally the Danish state planned to relocate the 29 families because of the reduced hunting opportunities. However, they did not have the desire to leave their home settlement, which had been inhabited for centuries. On May 25, 1953, residents were informed of their pending relocation and all families had to leave Uummannaq within four days. Most decided on Qaanaaq 101 kilometers north as their new place of residence, which they reached on the frozen sea with packed dog sleds. The place name Thule was transferred to Qaanaaq as a Danish name. A total of thirteen families moved to Qaanaaq, seven to Qeqertarsuaq , five to Qeqertat , two to Kangerluarsuk and for two of them the destination is not known.

The forced relocation was followed by a decade-long dispute over the right of return and reparation known as Thulesagen ( Danish saga "(legal) case, matter, matter"), led by Ûssarĸak K'ujaukitsoĸ , which was only settled after the end of the Cold War, as the Østre Landsret obliged Denmark to pay a total of 1.765 million kroner (approx. 237,000 euros) to the Inughuit in 1999. In 2002 the peninsula with Table Mountain was returned to the Qaanaaq community .

The old trading post, which was decommissioned in 1946, was finally dismantled into its individual parts in 1986 and rebuilt in Qaanaaq. Since then, the building has served as the local community's local museum .

Sons and daughters of the place

Inuutersuaq Ulloriaq (1906–1986), writer, storyteller, expedition member and local politician
Ûssarĸak K'ujaukitsoĸ (1948–2018), politician (Siumut)

Population development

Despite the eviction in 1953, the statistics still count 33 residents in 1977. The last time there were inhabitants in the statistics was for 1995.

Individual evidence

↑ Map with all official place names confirmed by Oqaasileriffik , provided by Asiaq
^ ^A ^b Jean Malaurie : Myth of the North Pole: 200 years of expedition history . National Geographic Germany , Hamburg 2003, ISBN 978-3-936559-20-0 , pp. 60–68 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
^ ^A ^b ^c Jens Christian Madsen: Udsteder og bopladser i Grønland 1901-2000 . Atuagkat, 2009, ISBN 978-87-90133-76-4 , pp. 204 ff .
^ ^A ^b Jean Malaurie : Myth of the North Pole: 200 years of expedition history . National Geographic Germany , Hamburg 2003, ISBN 978-3-936559-20-0 , pp. 254–261 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
↑ ^a ^b ^c Thule in Den Store Danske
↑ Qaanaaq at qaasuitsup-kp.cowi.webhouse.dk
↑ ^a ^b ^c Thule Air Base in Den Store Danske
↑ ^a ^b Thulesagen in Den Store Danske
↑ Uummannaq (Dundas) at geocities.com (archived)
↑ The term Thulesagen is also used in relation to the crash of a B-52 near Thule Air Base in 1968 , in which the area was radioactively contaminated, as a result of which numerous people who helped with the recovery later became ill and died.
↑ Avanersuup Katersugaasivia - The Thule Museum at geocities.com (archived)
↑ Population of Uummannaq (Dundas) 1977–2019 at bank.stat.gl

[1] Map with all official place names confirmed by Oqaasileriffik , provided by Asiaq

[jm-60-2] A ^b Jean Malaurie : Myth of the North Pole: 200 years of expedition history . National Geographic Germany , Hamburg 2003, ISBN 978-3-936559-20-0 , pp. 60–68 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).

[jcm-3] A ^b ^c Jens Christian Madsen: Udsteder og bopladser i Grønland 1901-2000 . Atuagkat, 2009, ISBN 978-87-90133-76-4 , pp. 204 ff .

[jm254-4] A ^b Jean Malaurie : Myth of the North Pole: 200 years of expedition history . National Geographic Germany , Hamburg 2003, ISBN 978-3-936559-20-0 , pp. 254–261 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

[dsd-t-5] Thule in Den Store Danske

[6] Qaanaaq at qaasuitsup-kp.cowi.webhouse.dk

[dsd-tab-7] Thule Air Base in Den Store Danske

[dsd-ts-8] Thulesagen in Den Store Danske

[9] Uummannaq (Dundas) at geocities.com (archived)

[10] The term Thulesagen is also used in relation to the crash of a B-52 near Thule Air Base in 1968 , in which the area was radioactively contaminated, as a result of which numerous people who helped with the recovery later became ill and died.

[11] Avanersuup Katersugaasivia - The Thule Museum at geocities.com (archived)

[12] Population of Uummannaq (Dundas) 1977–2019 at bank.stat.gl