Esther Eneutseak (1877–1961) was an Inuk performer and actor. Originally from Nain,

Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

, she performed at "Inuit villages" at

world's fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

s and

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...

es, and in films with her daughter,

Columbia Eneutseak Columbia Eneutseak (January 16, 1893 – August 16, 1959), also billed as Nancy Columbia and Nancy Eneutseak, was an American performer in silent films, known for writing and starring in ''The Way of the Eskimo'' (1911). Early life Nancy Hele ...

. Her self-chosen surname means "good person".

World's Columbian Exposition (1892–1896)

In 1892, Eneutseak and her parents, Helena and Abile, were part of a group of 60

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

from Labrador who had been recruited to appear in an ethnological exposition at the Chicago World's Fair. Three months before the fair officially opened, Eneutseak, who was 15-years old and pregnant, gave birth to a daughter in Chicago. The child was named Nancy Helena Columbia Palmer after her grandmothers, the official name of the fair (the Columbian Exposition), and for socialite

Bertha Palmer Bertha Matilde Palmer (; May 22, 1849 – May 5, 1918) was an American businesswoman, socialite, and philanthropist. Early life Born as Bertha Matilde Honoré in Louisville, Kentucky, her father was businessman Henry Hamilton Honoré. Known wit ...

, whom fair organizers had asked to be the child's godmother. A dispute over living conditions led to most of the Inuit leaving the exposition before it officially opened and establishing their own "Eskimo Village" outside of the fairgrounds, adjacent to ''

Buffalo Bill's Wild West William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846January 10, 1917), known as "Buffalo Bill", was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. He was born in Le Claire, Iowa Territory (now the U.S. state of Iowa), but he lived for several years in ...

'' show. Instead of returning to Labrador after the fair closed in October 1893, the family started a touring show, appearing at expositions,

state fair A state fair is an annual competitive and recreational gathering of a U.S. state's population, usually held in late summer or early fall. It is a larger version of a county fair, often including only exhibits or competitors that have won in th ...

s, and alongside the

Barnum & Bailey Circus The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (also known as the Ringling Bros. Circus, Ringling Bros., the Barnum & Bailey Circus, Barnum & Bailey, or simply Ringling) is an American traveling circus company billed as The Greatest Show on Ear ...

. After several years on the carnival circuit, Eneutseak's parents chose to return to Labrador in 1896, taking Columbia with them. By that time, Eneutseak had married Charles Bein and chose to stay with him in New York. Little is known of her life in New York; she did find some work as a seamstress at the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

Reunion and touring (1899–1910)

After three years apart, Eneutseak returned to Labrador in 1899 along with promoter Ralph Taber to recruit Inuit to tour Europe. The assembled a group of 30 people, mostly relatives, including her parents and her daughter, departed for England on the steamship '' Erik'' in October. The troupe performed as "The Eskimo Encampment" at the

Olympia Exhibition Centre Olympia London, sometimes referred to as the Olympia Exhibition Centre, is an exhibition centre, event space and conference centre in West Kensington, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, London, England. A range of internationa ...

in London over the winter season. In the spring they moved on to Madrid, and then Barcelona, although Eneutseak appears to have returned to America with her husband in April. She reunited with the group the next year when they arrived in New York for the 1901

Pan-American Exposition The Pan-American Exposition was a World's Fair held in Buffalo, New York, United States, from May 1 through November 2, 1901. The fair occupied of land on the western edge of what is now Delaware Park, extending from Delaware Avenue to Elmwood A ...

in Buffalo. By the time the company arrived at their next engagement at the

South Carolina Inter-State and West Indian Exposition The South Carolina Inter-State and West Indian Exposition, commonly called the Charleston Exposition or the West Indian Exposition, was a multi-county fair and regional trade exposition held in Charleston, South Carolina from December 1, 1901 t ...

, promotion responsibilities had been taken over by John Casper Smith, and by 1903 he had become Eneutseak's husband. In 1905 her father died in

Coney Island Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...

, and over time the group dwindled as members, including her mother, returned to Labrador. The remaining company, consisting of Eneutseak, her husband, her children, and two other men who may have also been relatives, continued to tour. They appeared at the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (where Columbia was elected "Queen of the Carnival"), and again in Denver, before establishing a permanent Eskimo Village attraction in

Ocean Park, California The western border of Santa Monica, California, is the 3-mile (4.8 km) stretch of Santa Monica Bay. On its other sides, the city is bordered by various districts of Los Angeles: the northwestern border is Pacific Palisades, the eastern border ...

, in 1910.

Film career

While the group was in Buffalo in 1901, Eneutseak and the other performers became the subjects of the first motion pictures ever made of Inuit people.

Edison Studios Edison Studios was an American film production organization, owned by companies controlled by inventor and entrepreneur, Thomas Edison. The studio made close to 1,200 films, as part of the Edison Manufacturing Company (1894–1911) and then Thom ...

produced three short films of the troupe performing at their faux-village at the exposition: "Esquimaux Village", "Esquimaux Game of Snap-the-Whip" and "Esquimaux Leap-Frog". The rival

Biograph Company The Biograph Company, also known as the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1916. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition ...

appears to have also recorded the Inuit performers, but no footage has survived. By the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, the popularity of ethnic exhibitions was declining, while at the same time film was quickly emerging as a new mass media format. The family began to supply Hollywood studios with sleds, dog teams, furs, and costumes from their Ocean Park attraction for the popular

Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ra ...

films, and even appeared as extras. Columbia Eneutseak, who had grown up in the public eye and was by then an attractive, 18-year old young woman, was being cast in increasingly prominent roles, and in 1911 the

Selig Polyscope Company The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company that was founded in 1896 by William Selig in Chicago. The company produced hundreds of early, widely distributed commercial moving pictures, including the first films starring Tom ...

filmed ''

The Way of the Eskimo ''The Way of the Eskimo'' is a lost 1911 American silent drama film that portrayed the Inuit or "Eskimo" culture of northeastern Canada along the coast of Labrador. Directed by William V. Mong and produced by Selig Polyscope Company, this "phot ...

'' (now lost) based on a story she wrote. Columbia starred in the film and Esther Eneutseak played her mother, and the two would go on to appear in at least 19 films, either together or separately. They frequently played Inuit or

Plains Indian Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nation band governments who have historically lived on the Interior Plains (the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies) of N ...

s, and on at least one occasion Esther Eneutseak was cast as a Japanese woman alongside

Sessue Hayakawa , known professionally as , was a Japanese actor and a matinée idol. He was a popular star in Hollywood during the silent film era of the 1910s and early 1920s. Hayakawa was the first actor of Asian descent to achieve stardom as a leading man i ...

Later life

Eneutseak died in 1961.

References

External links

"Esquimaux Village" (Edison Films, 1901)
at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

"Esquimaux Game of Snap-the-whip" (Edison Films, 1901)
at the

"Esquimaux Leap-frog" (Edison Films, 1901)
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eneutseak, Esther 1877 births 1961 deaths 20th-century American actresses 20th-century indigenous people of the Americas 20th-century indigenous women of the Americas Actresses from Newfoundland and Labrador American silent film actresses Human zoo performers Inuit actresses Inuit from Newfoundland and Labrador People from Nain, Newfoundland and Labrador