this would seem to contradict what you're saying
Louie Kamookak, a historian in Gjoa Haven, the community closest to the discovery, has spent more than 30 years interviewing elders to collect the stories passed down about the Franklin expedition.
He sat down with Parks Canada in 2008 before the current search began and provided them with information as to where the ships would likely be found.
"It's proving the Inuit oral history is very strong," he said.
The two ships of the Franklin expedition — HMS Erebus and HMS Terror — and their crews disappeared during an ill-fated search for the Northwest Passage in 1846.
Inuit oral tradition said the two ships appeared on the northwest side of King William Island, said Kamookak. One was crushed in ice and the other drifted further south.
"For us Inuit it means that oral history is very strong in knowledge, not only for searching for Franklin's ships but also for environment and other issues," Kamookak said.
Archeologist Dr. Doug Stenton, director of heritage for the Government of Nunavut, was aboard the vessel that made the discovery on Sunday. He says the team may not have found the ship 11 metres underwater without Inuit knowledge.
"It's very satisfying to see that testimony of Inuit who shared their knowledge of what happened to the wreck has been validated quite clearly," he said.
http://www.cbc.ca/ne...ookak-1.2761362I think I remember seeing something (also probably on CBC) about the Inuit considering telling the truth to be a life-&-death thing. When lives are at stake, say involving where food or thin ice is, you just don't lie or embellish your story.
(btw what's a nunavut anyway?)
re: canada's claim on the northwest passage maybe this helps
It’s not clear whether Harper is really talking about sovereignty in the strict sense of the term when discussing Franklin’s significance to Canada. “We use the word sovereignty loose and fast,” says Robert Huebert, an associate political science professor at the University of Calgary. “Everybody does. Really what they’re saying is this is significant for Canadian nationalism.” He compared it to the way Americans have embraced the bloody Battle of the Alamo in 1836 as part of their national story even though Texas was not yet a member of the union. For Canada, then, Franklin has become a symbol of courage and the spirit of exploration in a particularly harsh land. It hardly matters that he was British. “It’s significant for our national story and the way the North was explored,” Huebert says.
The effort—and the discovery—couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. Though largely overshadowed by the Franklin hunt, two Canadian icebreakers spent the summer further north, scouring the Arctic seabed as part of an effort to lay claim to the region and its valuable resources. Ottawa has already made a preliminary submission to a United Nations commission to extend Canada’s reach as far as the North Pole—a position that is being challenged by Russia, among others. Now, amid the sudden deterioration of relations between Russia and the West over the Ukraine crisis, all that territorial jockeying has taken on increased significance. “The bottom line is the Ukraine crisis has sharpened our realization of what the Russians are doing with regards to militarizing the Arctic,” says Huebert. “It’s a new geopolitical reality.”
http://www.macleans....ery-was-solved/I had a similar thought to this after seeing this archaeologist on the 5th estate not too long ago:
"As far as I'm concerned, a greater and much older archeological mystery is the presence of the ancient Norse from Greenland in Nunavut many, many, many centuries before the Franklin ship disappearance.
"For my money, of special interest is the groundbreaking work of Dr. Patricia Sutherland on the Norse sites near Kimmirut, but the government in power has chosen to discredit her — fire her, indeed — and ensure that that research doesn't go ahead.
Edited by amor de cosmos, 26 September 2014 - 02:29 PM.