Inuit celebrity. One of six Arctic Eskimos brought to Manhattan by explorer Robert Peary in 1897, Minik's subsequent treatment stirred international outrage in the early 1900's. Born in northwestern Greenland c.1890, he was six years old when Peary persuaded his widowed father, Quisuk, and four other Inuits to participate in a year-long study by anthropologists at the Museum of Natural History in New York. Although promised return passage and a wealth of material rewards for their cooperation, Peary effectively abandoned the group at the museum, where they soon contracted turberculosis and other urban diseases. Quisuk was among the four Inuits who died, and after a mock burial was staged on the museum grounds to humor the orphaned Minik, his father's body was treated as a biological specimen and the skeleton mounted for exhibition. The boy was then adopted by museum official William Wallace, and for several years enjoyed a happy and privileged childhood at Wallace's estate. In 1906, however, he learned from schoolmates that Quisuk's skeleton was on display, and of his adoptive father's key role in his deception. Devastated, the teenager began a widely publicized crusade to recover his father's remains, but despite the support of public opinion and the repentant Wallace, he was unsuccessful. He later returned to Greenland, where he was welcomed by the Inuit, who re-taught him the language and culture he had forgotten. An exceptional hunter, his unique bi-lingual skills led to his employment as a guide and translator, most notably for the 1913 Crocker Land Expedition. He eventually grew homesick for his adoptive country, however, and reflecting on his culturally torn life, wrote: "...it leaves me between two extremes...I could get nowhere." In 1916 he returned to an America too preoccupied with World War I to renew its interest in his father's bones, and he worked at various jobs until ultimately finding employment in a New Hampshire lumber camp, and a home with his employer, Afton Hall. He died there at age 28, a victim of the 1918 Flu Epidemic which also claimed the lives of several members of the Hall family. In 1993 his father's remains and those of the other Inuits who died during the museum study were returned to Greenland and buried in the Inuit tradition.