From the Tundra to the Trenches

[First Voices, First Text # 4] Author and soldier, born in the Strutton Islands (Nunavut) in 1923 - died in Uniujaq (Nunavik) in 2005. Eddy or Edward Weetaltuk, also known as Eddy or Edward Vital came from the Strutton Islands in James Bay, now Nunavut. He was born in 1932 and lived with his eleven brothers and sisters in extreme poverty and experienced famine during their childhood. His parents were Arctic whale hunters. His grandfather, George Weetaltuk was a guide for Robert Flaherty, the famous American filmmaker who captured Inuit life in Nunavik, during the early 1920s and created the documentary Nanook of the North (1922). Eddy Weetaltuk and his brother David lived for a time at the Roman Catholic residential school, Sainte-ThÈrËse-de-l'Enfant-JÈsus in Fort George (now Chisasibi), QuÈbec. In the early 1950s, Eddy Weetaltuk left the North to work as a logger in Fort-Coulonge in western QuÈbec, hiding his Inuit identity by taking the name Eddy Vital. He enlisted in the Canadian army, becoming the first Canadian Inuit soldier, and fought overseas in the Korean War. Fifteen years later, in 1974, he returned to the North, settling in Kuujjuarapik, Nunavik to write his memoirs and assist local youth to overcome their drug and alcohol problems, something he was all too familiar with personally. Introduction by Isabelle St-Amand and an Appendix by Thibault Martin on " The Experience of Eddy Weetaltuk in the Context of Aboriginal Participation in Canadian Wars" 280p, illus {some col} Text as new some library marks on cover.