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Iqaluit police re-enact historic dogteam run

RCMP wouldn't have survived North without the Inuit: constable

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Bunked down in a kamotik pulled by a dog-sled team, an Iqaluit RCMP officer got a first-hand feel this week for how Inuit expertise enabled police to survive when they first arrived in the eastern Arctic.

Under a bright blue morning sky, Const. Mark Tindall and his guide Joshua Kango kicked off a long-defunct mail run from Iqaluit to Kimmirut, a route that police and Inuit guides used to run regularly before snowmobiles became the popular method of travel, and airplane delivery took over.

Rather than zipping between the communities in a few hours as skidoo racers did the week before, Tindall and Kango expect to travel the trail over 10 days, during which Tindall will get the chance to learn traditional skills, such as building an igloo and driving the dog team.

Besides using a global-positioning device to help them in their travels, Tindall and Kango will stick to fairly similar conditions that existed 50 years ago, such as having to speak mainly in Inuktitut, and bits of English.

The trip comes as the first in a series of events to celebrate the fifth anniversary of "V" Division, the RCMP detachment devoted to policing in Nunavut.

Tindall, who acts as a history and culture liaison on the anniversary organizing committee, said re-creating the mail run will highlight the important role that Inuit had in helping the RCMP establish a presence in the North.

"I couldn't do it [the dog-sled run] on my own," Tindall said in a phone interview before the trip began on April 5. "And neither could the [police] guys who were up here in the past.

"They wouldn't have been functional at all [without Inuit guides].

They might have been able to stay in a cabin and survive, they had the food. But they couldn't have done their job."

More than 50 years ago, the RCMP's work demanded a lot of travel over remote areas by land. Thanks to Inuit "special constables," officers from the South were able to search for missing people, investigate crimes, and plant the Canadian flag in different areas as part of their sovereignty patrols.

As times and technology changed, RCMP became less dependent on Inuit guides, and began focusing their work on policing the growing settlements. Tindall said police investigations by dog-sled on the land were phased out by the availability of helicopters.

This change in relations between police and Inuit gives an event like the re-enacted mail run several meanings, Tindall said.

In part, Tindall said the mail run simply marks a positive event that brings police and Inuit together, at a time when officers report relations between the two sides to be strained.

Tindall said the trip is also a chance to start balancing the history books. He's been slowly working on a book about the RCMP in the eastern Arctic, and said his research shows most other books highlight the southern officers' achievements, but mentions little about their Inuit guides.

Tindall said his trip to Kimmirut and back will remind historians like himself of the importance of recording Inuit stories about police work, as well as the tales of southern officers.

"We're trying to acknowledge the past contributions," Tindall said. "It's always important to not forget your history and where you came from."

Tindall expects he and Kango will be returning to Iqaluit between April 12 to 14, depending on the weather.

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