Uloqsaq (also Uluksuk, and Uluksuk, alias Avingak ( – September 24, 1929) was a

Copper Inuit Copper Inuit, also known as Kitlinermiut and Inuinnait, are a Canadian Inuit group who live north of the tree line, in what is now the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut and in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Ter ...

hunter of the

Coppermine River The Coppermine River is a river in the North Slave and Kitikmeot regions of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut in Canada. It is long. It rises in Lac de Gras, a small lake near Great Slave Lake, and flows generally north to Coronation Gulf, a ...

region.

Early life

Although it is not known exactly where and when Uloqsaq was born, it is thought he was born around 1887, as he was about 30 during his murder trial in 1917.

The murders

In late 1913, Jean-Baptiste Rouvière and Guillaume Le Roux, two Missionary Oblates, were on a

mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

to convert the

in the

region to

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

while heading towards

Coronation Gulf Coronation Gulf lies between Victoria Island and mainland Nunavut in Canada. To the northwest it connects with Dolphin and Union Strait and thence the Beaufort Sea and Arctic Ocean; to the northeast it connects with Dease Strait and thence Queen M ...

. They were doing this, they claimed, because they had heard rumours that

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

missionaries were attempting to perform the same in that region, and wanted to convert the Inuit in the area to their denomination first. The priests enlisted the assistance of Uloqsaq as well as Sinnisiak, another hunter, and paid them in traps. However, Le Roux, who had a short temper, quickly got angry with the two Inuit men, who soon decided that Le Roux's anger meant that the priests wanted to kill them. Sinnisiak urged Uloqsaq to help him kill the two men, and the priests were shot, stabbed and axed to death. For

ritual A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, b ...

istic reasons, the two Inuit ate a portion of the two priests'

liver The liver is a major Organ (anatomy), organ only found in vertebrates which performs many essential biological functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the Protein biosynthesis, synthesis of proteins and biochemicals necessary for ...

s. Some Inuit later told the investigating policemen a different story. One man, an Inuit elder named Koeha, told the story quite differently. He claimed that at an Inuit camp, a man had stolen a

rifle A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with ...

from one of the priests and gotten into a fight with Le Roux. Although the Inuit who had stolen the weapon wanted to kill Le Roux, the priests managed to escape. Sinnisiak and Uloqsaq began to follow the priests, and caught up with them at

Bloody Falls Bloody Falls (or Bloody Fall, or Kogluktok, meaning "it flows rapidly" or "spurts like a cut artery" in Inuktitut) is a waterfall on the Coppermine River, in the Kugluk/Bloody Falls Territorial Park of Nunavut, Canada. It was the site of the Blood ...

, where Sinnisiak stabbed and shot the two men. Although Uloqsaq assisted on Sinnisiak's urging, he said that he did not want to kill the priest and did so only because he had been told to by Sinnisiak.

Investigation and trial

Royal North-West Mounted Police The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian para-military police force, established in 1873, to maintain order in the new Canadian North-West Territories (NWT) following the 1870 transfer of Rupert’s Land and North-Western Territor ...

investigation began after word reached Fort Norman that Inuit had been seen wearing the priests' clothing, and the two men surrendered themselves without incident in May 1916. Part of Uloqsaq's police statement read, "I wanted to speak; Ilogoak e Rouxref name=nunatsiaq/> put his hand over my mouth... Ilogoak pointed the gun at us. I was afraid and I was crying... Sinnisiak said to me 'We ought to kill these white men before they kill us.'" Partly due to a previous incident with similar circumstances following which no action was taken, the authorities wished to make an example out of the two Inuit men, and Sinnisiak was tried in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

for the murder of Rouvière, largely because it was thought that Sinnisiak had been the 'ringleader'. He was found not guilty because the jury thought that the Inuit man had cause to kill the priest. Following the not guilty verdict, the two Inuit men were taken to

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

in late August, where they were found guilty of the murder of Le Roux. This was the first time Inuit had been found guilty of murder in a Canadian court. The law at that time had a

mandatory sentence Mandatory sentencing requires that offenders serve a predefined term for certain crimes, commonly serious and violent offenses. Judges are bound by law; these sentences are produced through the legislature, not the judicial system. They are inst ...

death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

for the crime of

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

, yet the jury and the judge did not wish for the pair to die for their crimes owing to the provocative nature of the priests' actions before their deaths. To avoid the death penalty, the judge sentenced the pair to

death by hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging in ...

, with the execution date set as October 15. The sentence was immediately commuted to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

at a

Fort Resolution Fort Resolution (''Denı́nu Kų́ę́'' (pronounced "deh-nih-noo-kwenh") "moose island place") is a hamlet in the South Slave Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. The community is situated at the mouth of the Slave River, on the shores o ...

police station. In 1919, the pair assisted police in establishing a new police contingent at

Tree River The Tree River (Kogluktualuk) is a river in Nunavut, Canada. It flows into Coronation Gulf, an arm of the Arctic Ocean. Glacial landforms, such as a kame delta, are represented in the area of the Tree River. This area was the ancestral home of ...

, and in 1922 were released.

Later life

By the late 1920s, Uloqsaq has established himself in Bernard Harbour, and was found unable to hunt due to spinal

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

by the Anglican archdeacon Archibald Lang Fleming in 1928. The tuberculosis, which was most likely contracted during his time in prison, was part of an

epidemic An epidemic (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics ...

of the same sweeping Inuit populations in Canada at the time. Uloqsaq was taken to a hospital, but as the hospital was unable to provide for his long-term needs, he was taken home to the

region, where he died in September 1929.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uloqsaq 1880s births 1929 deaths Year of birth uncertain Canadian people convicted of murder Inuit spiritual healers People convicted of murder by Canada Canadian prisoners sentenced to death Prisoners sentenced to death by Canada 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in the Northwest Territories Canadian animists Religious figures of the indigenous peoples of North America Canadian cannibals