[MR] Edward Dodding and the the Inuit Kalicho's Autopsy

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

One of Wikipedia's featured stories to day is a short bio of Edward
Dogging, Elizabethan physician. He is most famous for performing a
post-mortem on Kalicho, one of the first Inuits brought to England:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Dodding .

Kalicho was one of three Unuits who were kidnapped in 1577 during Martin
Frobisher's second expedition to find a northwest passage. Frobisher
brought the three as curiosities to be shown to Queen Elizabeth. Kalicho
resisted capture and was severely beaten, resulting in injuries which might
have caused his death shortly after reaching England. Dodding was the
attending physician at Kalicho's death, and jumped at the chance to perform
an autopsy.

The despicable seizure of the Inuits was not uncommon practice among early
explorers. Native peoples were not seen as real humans, and had no rights
in the eyes of Europeans. Squanto of Plymouth Colony fame had been
kidnapped by English traders and sold into slavery in Spain. Don Luis was a
Virginia Native American boy who was kidnapped by Spanish explorers be
educated and trained as a Jesuit. In 1570 he was brought back to Virginia
as an interpreter for the Ajacan mission, but escaped and led the massacre
of the missionaries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajacán_Mission .

Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge