Alaska and Norway are on separate continents but have many things in common. Both regions are on the same latitude and have large territories above the Arctic circle; relatively large native populations; abundant natural resources – and the need to manage these resources while preserving the Arctic environment and cultural heritage.
These issues form the backdrop for the Helge Ingstad Memorial Symposium on Arctic Change, co-hosted by the Royal Norwegian Embassy and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, September 8-9 this year.
The symposium is dedicated to the memory of Helge Ingstad (1899-2001), who during 9 months between the Fall of 1949 and summer 1950 lived with the Inupiaq Nunamiut Eskimos of Anaktuvuk Pass in Alaska. A lawyer by training, Ingstad left his practice at an early age. “I never missed it at all. When I was sitting there, by the Arctic Ocean with my canoe, my rifle, my sled and my dog team, and the never-ending wilderness, I felt like a millionaire. The pleasure of freedom filled me completely.” Ingstad spent years exploring Arctic regions as Governor of Svalbard, as a trapper in Canada, and as a researcher on the northern tip of Newfoundland. Together with his archeologist wife Anne Stine, Ingstad discovered the ancient Viking settlement L’Anse aux Meadows built around AD 1000. Their findings proved that Leif Eirikson and his Viking crew had arrived in North America almost 500 years before Colombus, and thereby changed North American – and world – history.
On the occasion of Helge Ingstad’s 100th birthday in December, 2001, Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said: “Your experiences as a researcher and trapper has enabled you to understand the Indigenous Peoples’ ways of thinking and ways of life. Your contribution towards preserving and shed light on the culture and history of the Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic is unique. You have always been a role model to the youth.” Ingstad was awarded five honorary doctorates from universities in Canada, the United States, and Norway, Commander of the Royal Order of St. Olav, and distinguished with the Royal Geographical Society Patron’s Medal.
In Canada, a small river just to the east of Great Slave Lake, is named Ingstad Creek. Years later, the native elders of Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska, gave him a mountain. Ingstad wrote: “We were sitting in the tent, talking a little bit about my departure. Paneak said, ‘We will give you the mountain which stands at the beginning of the Giant’s Valley. It shall bear your name and we will remember you’ Then he added, in a manner of fact way ‘Our people remember such things for many generations.’” On April 19, 2006, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names unanimously approved the official naming of the 4793 foot (1461 meter) high Ingstad Mountain in the Brooks Range, South East of Anaktuvuk Pass (see picture above). On September 10, the mountain the Nunamiut so genereously named after Ingstad is celebrated in a naming ceremony in Anaktuvuk Pass, which the adventurer’s daughter, Benedicte Ingstad, and his grandson, Eirik Ingstad Sandberg will attend.