Knud Johan Victor RasmussenDied 21 Dec 1933 at age 54 (born 7 Jun 1879).Danish-Eskimo explorer and ethnologist, who was an expert on the folklore and history of the Greenland Eskimos. In 1912, his first expedition covered 500 miles by dogsled (using more than fifty dogs) across Greenland's ice cap. On this, and seven more expeditions up to 1920, he studied and mapped the geography of northern Greenland, carried out scientific investigations of the ice cap. By spending a few weeks with various tribes, he studied the Eskimo cultures. Rasmussen investigated the theory that the Inuit and the North American Indians were both descended from migratory tribes from Asia, for his own travels showed that using only traditional Inuit technology it was possible to cover the entire distance using only one dog team.« |
