Kalicho

Inuit interpreter and translator

• Born: c. mid-1500’s
• Birthplace: Arctic region (now Baffin, Nunavut, Canada)
• Died: Late 1577
• Place of death: Bristol, England

Kalicho was an Inuit abducted by explorer Martin Frobisher’s crew during the explorer’s second voyage to the New World. Kalicho, an Inuit woman, and her child, were brought to England and exhibited as curiosities from the land Queen Elizabeth I designated meta incognita or the unknown shore.

Early Life

Kalicho (kah-LEE-koh) probably belonged to one of the Baffin Inuit tribes, nomadic hunters and fishermen who moved throughout the region adjusting to the season and the animals they hunted. They lived traditionally in extended families of five or six members, which would band together in groups of six to ten families for hunting.

During the winter, the Baffin Inuit lived in coastal encampments, spearing seal and whale. They traveled by dog sled, often over great distances, and lived in igloos and homes of sod, stone, and whalebone. They moved inland during the summer in smaller groups, where they hunted caribou and caught fish in stone weirs. They lived in skin tents, traveled on foot, and subsisted on an all-meat diet.

Nothing is known of Kalicho’s life prior to his abduction by British explorer Martin Frobisher’s crew. His tribe had spent the summer on the outer islands at the northeast entrance to what came to be called Frobisher’s Bay. A woman and child, who were captured later, came from a tribe on the southern shore, more than 62 miles (100 kilometers) away. The woman had a tattooed face blue streaks down her cheeks and around her eyes and would have carried her baby in her hood or under her coat in the traditional manner. It is unlikely that she and Kalicho had met prior to their captivity, but Frobisher’s crew expected them to live as husband and wife.

Life’s Work

Frobisher was one of the first English explorers to locate and navigate the Northwest Passage . The Inuit that Frobisher encountered on his first and subsequent voyages were familiar with explorers and their ships. The Inuit called them qadlunaat, which originally denoted the Norse explorers they had encountered during the previous three hundred years. The Inuit greeted Frobisher’s crew and seemed to welcome the opportunity to trade with them. They traded fish, seal and bearskin coats, and received bells, mirrors, and other trinkets.

The language barrier proved to be a problem between the two groups, which might have led to the disappearance of five of Frobisher’s men and their only landing boat. The men went ashore with an Inuit they believed to have been hired to be their guide but were never seen again.

Without a landing boat, Frobisher was unable to search for his missing crewmen. After several days, a group of Inuit came out to the ship, presumably to trade. The first to reach the ship was plucked from the ocean, kayak and all, and held as hostage against the return of the five missing men. When this failed, again because of the language barriers, Frobisher was forced to abandon his men and return to England, bringing with him the Inuit and his kayak as proof of the success of his mission. This Inuit’s name is unknown, and he died shortly after they reached home.

During the second voyage in 1577, Frobisher and his men were more wary of the indigenous peoples they encountered, but still expected to rescue, or at least obtain word of, their missing crewmen. Frobisher decided to obtain an Inuit to use as an interpreter. The Englishmen pretended to discuss trade with two Inuit who had approached, then attempted to capture them. The Inuit escaped and fled to their boat, and Frobisher was wounded by an iron-bladed Inuit arrow in the struggle. The sailors ultimately succeeded in capturing one as an interpreter, an Inuit man named Kalicho.

They then sailed to the southwest, exploring the southern shore of Frobisher’s Bay. Items of English clothing were found in an abandoned Inuit settlement, and despite being more than 125 miles (200 kilometers) from the place the men were last seen, the sailors believed they had found traces of their missing crewmen. They decided the men were being held captive and made plans to attack a nearby Inuit camp.

During the battle, the Englishmen found two Inuit women hiding among the rocks. Suspecting the older woman might be a witch, they left her behind and took the younger woman and her infant son hostage. The woman was known as Ignoth, a variation on the Baffin Island Eskimo word for “woman.” Likewise, the infant Nutiok was called by the Inuit word for “child.”

In later encounters with the Inuit, Kalicho acted as a translator for Frobisher, though he had been in captivity for a period of just weeks and could not have gained a full command of the English language in that time.

A group of Inuit attempted to rescue the hostages, presumably told of their plight by Kalicho during his translating sessions. The English responded by wounding the Inuit in order to show the power of their weapons. Hostility between the two groups prevented any further trading. At the end of August, Frobisher and his crew left the New World and sailed for home, carrying the three hostages with them.

Despite the severity of the situation, the hostages were not mistreated. The group was provided with a cabin and expected to live as a family. The English were surprised by the behavior of their Inuit captives because they had believed them to be savages. According to an account by George Best, Frobisher’s second in command, the Inuit people were very eager to communicate with their captors and taught the seaman the names of things in their native language. They loved music and would keep time with their heads, hands, and feet, and they eventually grew attached to each other. According to Best, the woman acted as wife to Kalicho by caring for him or preparing his food, but the relationship was never consummated. Records indicate the Inuit killed and ate dogs (believed to have been stolen) while aboard the ship. Traditionally, Inuit ate dog only when nothing else was available; Kalicho and Ignoth may have found the English food unsuitable.

The trio arrived in Bristol, England, in the fall of 1577. The mayor of Bristol held a celebration in honor of the event. Kalicho demonstrated the use of his kayak and used his bird spear to hunt ducks on the Avon River. The Inuit were no longer considered hostages, and according to Best, they achieved a level of respect and admiration with their hosts.

During the first month, Kalicho fell ill but refused to have his blood let by a surgeon. His hosts, some of them Frobisher’s people, supported his decision. The surgeon attributed Kalicho’s death to their kindness in providing too much food and preventing medical care. The actual cause of death may have been pneumonia, aggravated by two broken ribs that had not healed properly and may have occurred during his initial capture. There was no burial ceremony because the English did not want to confuse Ignoth with the strange rituals; they feared that she would believe Kalicho had been sacrificed. They also had her watch him being buried, so she would know that he was not being used for food.

Ignoth died the following week. She had a skin rash, which may have been measles. Her child was sent to London in care of a nurse, where he died shortly thereafter, despite receiving medical care. Kalicho and Ignoth were buried at St. Stephen’s Church in Bristol. Nutiok was buried in St. Olave’s Church, in London, as was the unnamed Inuit from Frobisher’s first voyage.

Significance

Frobisher’s disregard for the Inuit was typical of the period. For the most part, the indigenous peoples encountered by the early explorers were considered subhuman, without a society, religion, or even emotions. Kalicho and the other two hostages were brought to England to be displayed, like animals or like a mummy looted from an Egyptian tomb. Most such “visitors” died within weeks or months of their arrival because they lacked immunity to the diseases prevalent in crowded English seaports.

Bibliography

McDermott, James. Martin Frobisher: Elizabethan Privateer. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001. A detailed biography of the explorer who brought Kalicho, Ignoth, and Nutiok to England and the circumstances of the expedition.

McGhee, Robert. The Arctic Voyages of Martin Frobisher: An Elizabethan Adventure. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001. A detailed account of Martin Frobisher’s Arctic voyages. Includes maps, photographs, and replicas of historical documents.

Mason, Peter. Infelicities: Representations of the Exotic. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. A study of the text, paintings, drawings, photographs, and other displays that Europeans brought from the New World and the means they used to display the so-called exotic discoveries.

Ruby, Robert. The Unknown Shore: The Lost History of England’s Arctic Colony. New York: H. Holt, 2001. A history of England’s attempts to explore and colonize the Canadian Arctic, or meta incognita (unknown shore).